Occulturation #10 Gangs, Guns, and an Imp

Garesh is walking through the streets with Millie and the other Incorporeals by his side. He doesn’t want to take a car or a bus since he fears that bringing all of his Incorporeals into the contained space of a moving vehicle will end in certain death. He continues to stare at his paper copy of the city map while walking. His destination is beyond the bottom left corner of the paper, so he’ll have to get a different map once he’s close to the edge of the city. When he looks up from his map, he realizes that he recognizes the alley he’s in. This is the place where he dumped the corpse of the child. He decides to walk a little faster, and he can’t help but stare at the dumpster where he deposited. The dumpster must have been emptied because he didn’t see the guitar case poking out from it anymore.

“Why are you staring at trash?” Millie asks. Garesh doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t have to answer to a Screamer. And he doesn’t want to admit what he did. He hears something fall to the ground behind him. He turns to see the guitar case he had left the dumpster. But the guitar case is open and empty. Garesh is worried now. This is clear evidence that someone must have found the body.

“That can’t be the same guitar case.” He says aloud, to try to calm himself. He hears several guns cock and footsteps and a group of men and women come out from behind another dumpster pointing guns at him. A man from that group, wielding a handgun, says, “It’s the same guitar case. Step away from the child, murderer.”

“Why would you think I’m a murderer?” Garesh asks shakily, “Y-you’re jumping to conclusions.”
“We know a thing or two about disposing of bodies. No one leaves a corpse in a dumpster unless they’ve got something to hide. If you hadn’t killed him, you would’ve had no fear burying him in a cemetery. And now you’re here again with another child.”

Garesh realizes that this looks bad for him and that these people are part of a gang. These people are willing to kill. Though they apparently draw the line at killing children. But Garesh doesn’t draw any lines when it comes to what or who he will kill. He puts his hands in the air, palms open and whispers, “Willheim, get me his gun.” As the gang members are trying to coax Millie away from Garesh, the man standing next to Garesh loses his gun as it is yanked out his hands by an unseen force. Garesh grabs the gun that’s floating in the air and stands behind the man, pointing the gun at his head.

The man, however, screams “Shoot him! Shoot him! He’s a witch!” Before they can open fire, Garesh shouts “Willheim, knock them off-balance. Jack, blind their eyes.” The flame leaps from the hand-held lantern Millie is carrying, and the fire’s hue changes back to light-blue. Garesh pulls the trigger and drops the man he had momentarily held hostage as the other gang members stumble backwards and the blue flame hovers in front of their faces. Garesh runs sideways as he fires upon the surprised gang members. Garesh hits a wall and falls to his back. There isn’t enough space to run around in the alleyway.

Millie looks away as Garesh slowly finishes off the few gang members that survived. The high-pitched voice of a man cackles from the rooftops. Looking up, Millie sees a pale man, his face seems almost bat-like with his mouth and flat nose jutting outwards. He also has bat-like wings and a stringy tail that ends in a flat spade shape. But the most prominent feature is that the pale man is the size of a bat. He flaps his bat wings and flies down to land on a window sill.

The little pale bat-like man says, “Ha! That’s what I like to see! Who do those thugs think they are to accuse witches and Screamers of atrocities? You sure cleaned up this side of town. You’re a hero, now! I can imagine the headlines already, ‘Hope-Bringer witch takes down a violent gang through self-defense.’” Garesh looks up from the corpses and shoots at the little bat-like man but misses.

The tiny man flies through the air and screams, “Agh! What was that for?” Garesh just shoots at him again, and again, he misses. The tiny man hides behind Millie. Millie cringes in fear worried that Garesh might shoot her just to get to the bat-like Screamer. Garesh says, “Show yourself, dark pixie.” The bat-like Screamer stays hiding behind Millie. “Pixie? I’m an imp, you dimwit. Why are you shooting at me?” Garesh doesn’t answer the imp. Garesh gestures for Millie to get out of the way so he can shoot the imp, but Millie is too scared to move. So Garesh just pushes her to the side to reveal the hiding imp. The imp immediately jumps into the air and starts flying away. Garesh tries shooting a few more times but his gun makes clicking sounds, out of ammo.

“They were right.” The imp says, “You are a murderer. Don’t worry little girl, I’ll come back to save you. Don’t die before I return!” The imp flies out of sight around a corner. Garesh groans in annoyance, then he replaces his gun with one of the guns from the dead gang members. He continues walking in a feyward direction. Garesh is glad that he found some use for Willheim and Jack in combat. But he still can’t figure out what Svartr or Millie could possibly do. He doesn’t expect anymore fighting anytime soon now that he has left the area where he left the corpse, but that imp did say that it would come back to rescue Millie. Garesh thinks it is interesting that everyone, including Screamers, seems to think that Millie is a human child, a human child that needs rescuing. Even the gang members wanted to protect Millie from him. Perhaps he could use this? Because of the contract, Millie is bound to help him with vengeance and can’t harm him, and she won’t betray him because she needs him to help her with… well, he’s still not at all sure what his part of the contract entails. She could be used for espionage. Allow her to get “rescued” by his enemies, then once she has learned what she can, she escapes and returns to report her findings to him. That might work. Or it might not. She may be a Screamer, but she seems to have been turned as a child, and still has the mind of a child. Children typically don’t have the mental capacity to make good spies.

A few more hours pass as he walks from alleyway to alleyway with Millie and the other Incorporeals following close behind. The flapping of small wings sounds in the air. Garesh looks up to see the imp. It returned as promised. Garesh takes out his gun and holds it steady as he makes sure to take careful aim of the imp. The imp cackles and says, “I’d save my bullets for the dogs if I were you.”

Sure enough, two black wolves are growling in the alleyway. “Wolves? Seriously?” Garesh asks, “Is this your grand rescue? Lead some wild beasts into the city? What did you expect to happen? They’re just wolves, so they’re no threat to me. But they’re still wild beasts, and to a little girl, just as dangerous as Screamers.”

The imp cackles in laughter again and says, “Funny you should mention Screamers.” The wolves start growing. Spear-like bones protrude from their spine. The body elongates and the limbs lengthen. The fur and hide rip apart, showing skeletal insides. Somewhere in that process, they lose their eyes.Their empty eye sockets shine with the red light of a raging inferno. These creatures lack the blood and internal organs of a true wolf. Instead, fire burns within them to make up for their lack of organs. It’s like some fiery skeletal canine wearing the hide of a wolf that’s too small for it. Those burning skeleton wolves that are only half-way covered by fur charge towards Garesh.

It’s been a long time since Garesh’s time in the Outer Villages’ Militia (OVM), but he still knows how to fight Screamers. He unloads his whole magazine into the skull of one of the monstrous wolves, totally shattering the skull and rendering it useless. But that doesn’t seem to bother the creature at all. That’s when Garesh decides that maybe fighting isn’t the best option. He jumps up onto a dumpster and starts throwing trash at the monstrous wolves while ordering Willheim to help slow them down as he runs through the alley. As the killer canines chase Garesh, the imp flies down to Millie and says, “We should go. It’s like that man said, ‘those wolves might go after you once they're done with the murderer.’”

…

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For now, let’s skip to Millie fighting with the summoner.

Millie sees Bowlday the Summoner. He’s standing on the stage in front of a large audience. He wears a red robe with a hood that covers droops over his face, leaving his face obscured by darkness. She is sure glad Garesh isn’t here because Garesh would probably just cause a scene and end up dead. Instead, Millie has the Incorporeals to back her up. But just as she has allies, Bowlday the Summoner has the hellhounds and a whole audience of loyal human cultists. Millie hates cultists. In her experience, loyalty earns you nothing but pain. Not that there was any option other than loyalty because of indoctrination of the youth.

Millie announces her ultimatum, “Bowlday, I’ll give you one chance to desist from the dark arts of summoning unbound Incorporeals into full-fledged autonomous manifestations. I promise you now, that if you don’t stop, the very Incorporeals you have summoned will destroy you. I may not be a Fey, but I never break a promise.” To Millie’s disappointment, Bowlday didn’t seem the least bit intimidated by her. Maybe part of the problem is that she is literally just a little girl. That’s probably the least intimidating thing she could be.

“So the murderous witch is too scared to come here himself?” Bowlday mocks, “He sent in his Incorporeals to die. Luckily for you, we are merciful to Incorporeals. Whereas that witch has coerced you with bindings, we allow our Incorporeals the freedom to act as they choose. Don’t worry, we will free you as well.” Millie doesn’t know if Bowlday actually thinks he’s being merciful, but since the only real witch she’s met is Ystra, witches might actually think of themselves as philanthropists. It’s really a good thing that Millie has the chance to stop this before Bowlday inevitably makes the mistake of summoning an ancient hunter. Any Incorporeal that lived during the time before philanthropist witches had to hunt for its prey or trick humans into giving up their souls. If Bowlday had summoned one of these, Millie wouldn’t have intervened. It would have been too late. Her only hope would be to flee and hope that it doesn’t find her.

Millie decides she needs to set things straight. But since this guy doesn’t seem predisposed to a fight, she decides to give persuasion another try.  “Bowlday, do you really think that I’m an Incorporeal?” Millie asks, “Do I look like an Incorporeal to you?” Bowlday realizes that Millie really doesn’t look anything like any Incorporeal he’s summoned or like the three other Incorporeals beside her. He knows that a witch can manifest an Incorporeal into any form, but seeing as the other Incorporeals are still in their natural form, Bowlday realizes that the witch must not know how to manifest Incorporeals. Bowlday apologizes, “Sorry, you’re right. You don’t look like an Incorporeal.” Millie walks towards Bowlday. As she gets close, the hellhounds don’t even try to be inconspicuous about being Screamers. They growl at her, and embers puff from their mouths. Bowlday whispers to the hellhounds, and they stop growling. Millie stops just out of reach of the hellhounds. She says, “I’m glad we got that cleared up. I didn’t want you to think of me as some lowly Incorporeal.”

Bowlday says, “We don’t look down on Incorporeals. We see them as our equals. They were once humans, you know?” Millie smiles, “Oh really?” She asks, “They’re your equals? The hellhounds are literally in the form of dogs.”

“I didn’t pick their forms.” Bowlday says quickly, “Those are their natural forms. I simply manifest them in solid versions of their natural forms so they could have physical bodies.”

“You can give substance to their forms, but you don’t change the form to something better?” Millie asks, “Incorporeal aren’t necessarily happy with their natural forms. Take for instance Garesh’s Incorporeals. Do you think Jack likes being nothing more than flying candle-flame? Does Svartr like being an intangible shadow? Could you imagine being a shapeless force like Willheim, able to interact with the world but not enough to actually do anything? As for the hellhounds, who would want to be a dog?”

“You’re right I hadn’t considered that.” Bowlday says, “I’ll have to give the hellhounds a form that is capable of human speech next month so I can ask them for their preferred forms.”

“Next month?” Millie asks, “Why not right now?” Millie knows the answer already but asking questions to which she already knows the answer is the only way she can think of to control the conversation without it looking too suspicious. And it only works because she is a kid. It’s believable that she really wouldn’t know.

“I’ve already fed them this month.” Bowlday says, “To manifest an Incorporeal, I need to feed it a soul. And it’s wasteful to feed them more than one soul per month.”

“Ah, so you starve them.” Millie says, “That’s why these hellhounds weren’t strong enough to harm Garesh.”

“Screamers don’t work like humans do.” Bowlday says, “Screamers don’t need to eat. They only need to consume one soul per month to survive. But they don’t become weaker if they go a long time without consuming a soul. They are either  alive at full power or dead. Unlike humans, which slowly fade from life as they’re energy is drained. Feeding more than once per month would bring them no benefit.”

Millie panics. She doesn’t really know what to do. She continues on by saying, “So if they weren’t weak from starvation, your hellhounds are just naturally weak? They couldn’t so much as scratch Garesh.” The hellhounds growl. Bowlday tries to calm the hellhounds, but Millie can’t let that happen. She needs a way to agitate them more. Without thinking, Millie puts her arm up to the mouth of one of the hellhounds and says, “Bite me, vermin. Show me just how pitiful you are.” Millie instantly regrets her decision as the hellhound bites down on her arm. It hurts. For some reason, she didn’t expect it to hurt. She knows it’s silly. What was she thinking? She knows just how dangerous Incorporeal are. The pain fades. She looks down, knowing that there must only be a stump where her arm should be but having the illogical expectation that her arm is unharmed. But when she sees her arm, it’s not a stump but it’s not unharmed either. She has bite marks on her arm, but she isn’t bleeding. It’s less of a wound than she’d expect from most dog bites, but this is an Incorporeal in the form of a burning wolf. Bowlday is extremely surprised , as he stands motionless, stunned for a few seconds.

“Y-your arm!” He stutters. Millie thinks it is terribly unfortunate that Bowlday also noticed how impossible it is for Millie to get bit by a Screamer without losing an arm.

“It’s fine.” Millie says, “It’s just a weakling puppy. I’d chalk it up to starvation, but you said that Screamers don’t get weak from not feeding.”

“You must be a Screamer.” Bowlday says, “No human can get bitten by a hellhound and come out unscathed.”

“I’m not unscathed.” Millie says, “It left bite marks and hurt more than I expected. Why did you expect there to be more damage, Bowlday? Have you seen this hellhound chew off someone’s arm before?”

“No, this is the first time he’s ever bit someone.” Bowlday admits, “He usually behaves himself.”

“He behaves himself like the dog he is.” Millie says, “He’s like a tamed animal. But even a tamed animal will turn violent if aggravated. Not that it matters, since your hellhounds are of no danger to anyone.”

“Ah, so you finally admit that my summoning isn’t dangerous?” Bowlday asks.

“I’ll admit, you really did a good job oppressing Incorporeals without bindings.” Millie says, “You keep them weaks, too weak to harm or kill, and thus entirely dependent on you for souls to sustain them.”

“That’s not quite-” Bowlday begins to say before Millie cuts him  off.

“But you forgot to account for Surges.” Millie says, “The power which allows Incorporeals to take control of their own lives. The power to manifest themselves.”

“I don’t think that’s a real thing.” Bowlday says. Millie is relieved. It’s going to be a lot easier with Bowlday being ignorant of Surges, otherwise he’d recognize the parts in which Millie is lying.

“I’m sorry, Bowldasy.” Millie says, “But I believe Incorporeals should not have to rely on human overlords. I will not hide this from them as you have.” Millie places a hand on the fur of each of the two hellhounds. She traces a pattern with her fingers. But this is all for show.

Millie continues on to explain, “A Surge rips away the soul that a Screamer is digesting or metabolizing and grants the Screamer a great burst of power and control. And for an Incorporeal, that means it can manifest into a different form without the help of witches.” Millie raises her head to look at Bowlday in the eyes and says, “But since these hellhounds don’t know how to Surge, I’ll do it for them. Surge: Fury of Tooth and Claw. Binding: Child Protection Surge and bite the hand that feeds you!”

“W-what?” Bowlday stutters, :That’s not… I’ve never heard of such a thing!”

“Even so, I’ve described what a surge is. These hellhounds will die within the day unless they obtain a soul.” Millie says solemnly, “But with the expenditure of the soul they were digesting, I placed a binding on them to weaken their assaults against me and prevent them from accepting souls from those that would feed them. Instead, they must do as Incorporeals did in ancient days, and hunt after their prey. And with this Surge: Fury of Tooth and Claw, they are finally strong enough to kill as a proper Incorporeal.”

“You’re lying!” Bowlday protests.

“You still try to hide the truth from them?” Millie asks, “After all I have said, after all you have seen, you still deny that you have caused your hellhounds to be too weak to kill? You still deny that I have granted them the power to kill? You still deny that if they don’t kill, they will die within the day? Very well, if they are loyal to you, they will let themselves starve so you, their oppressor, can live.”

“No, I can feed them!” Bowlday says, “T-there are no such things as Surges.” Though Bowlday doesn’t sound so certain.

“Fine, try to feed them.” Millie says, “But don’t forget that the name of hte binding, ‘bite the hand that feeds you.’”

Millie turns to leave the stage, heading back towards the exit. The hellhounds are enraged. Maybe they don’t like being bound against their will. The hellhounds both pounce upon her, landing on top of her and forcing her to the ground. They bite and they scratch, and it hurts, but Millie doesn’t bleed and isn’t bruised. Millie continues to ignore how impossible it is that she isn’t dead. Since hellhounds should definitely be able to kill her, and instead she continues to incorporate the unexpected outcome yet again into her plan.

“See how strong you are when you Surge?” Millie asks the hellhounds, “You’ve managed to pin me to the ground. See how you can’t harm me despite your newfound strength? My Child Protection Surge binding is working as well. So let me ask you this, hellhounds, if the Surge gives you strength and the binding protects me, do you really think that the second binding doesn’t work? Oh, looks like you better hurry. You don’t want your quarry to escape.” The hellhounds turn to face Bowlday who had been subconsciously backing away in horror. Now seeing the hellhounds fierce faces, fear gets the best of him and he runs. The hellhounds chase after him.

Millie turns to the audience of cultists and says, “I wouldn’t stay here if I were you.” Then she bows and leaves the stage. She hears a stampede behind her as the crowd panics and tries to escape, tripping over each other. Millie is sad that she had to do this. But it was some sort of compulsion set up by that evil witch, Garesh. She hates how he forces her to do things he doesn’t want to. She hates that she led the hellhounds to violence. As she leaves the underground, she hears the familiar flapping of small wings. The imp finally shows itself again.

“You monstrous little girl! Those hellhounds came to save you!” The imp says, “They had a happy life until you came here and filled their minds with murderous intent. If I had known you were a with like that murderer you were with-”

Millie cuts him off by saying, “I’m not a witch. And I'm not a murderer.” The imp stays far away from her, tens of feet out of reach.

“What do you mean you’re not a witch?” The imp asks, “You used bindings!”

Millie forces a laugh but it sounds fake and almost turns into sobbing. “I didn’t do anything to those hellhounds.” Millie said, “Bowlday was right all along. I was lying. They can still feed from soulbeads. They aren’t any stronger than before. They’re not going to starve to death today. They still have until next month before they need to feed again.”

“B-but, they couldn’t hurt you!” The imp protests, “Your binding of Child Protection Surge worked!”

“They couldn’t hurt me before I pretended to activate a Surge, so it makes sense that they couldn’t hurt me afterwards either.” Millie says.

“But if they never got any stronger, then why couldn’t they hurt you!” The imp asks.

“I don’t know why they are weak.” Millie says, “They just aren’t strong enough to harm humans.”

“But Bowlday-”

“I don’t want to hear it!” Millie snaps, “Bowlday is alive and well because those hellhounds aren’t strong enough to hurt anyone. I won’t let you tell me otherwise. That’s why I need to leave before Bowlday realizes that I lied and sends stronger Incorporeal after me.” The imp goes silent for about a minute. Millie actually looks around to see if the imp is still there because it’s being so quiet. Sure enough, it’s still flying far above her.

Finally, the imp says, “Are you an Undead?”

“What type of question is that?” Millie asks.

“Fey lie to others.” The imp says, “But Undead lie to themselves. It’s far harder to see through the lies of an Undead than a Fey. For the Fey know they are lying. They can have tells that give them away. The Undead… they have no tells, for they have convinced themselves that they speak the truth.”

“Are you calling me a liar?” Millie asks, “You’re calling me a lying Screamer?”

“I guess if you were one, there would be no point in asking.” The imp admits, “Very well, I have misjudged you little girl. I thought you were a captive to that murderer. I now wonder if it is not the other way around.” The imp flies away and out of sight. Millie tries not to think about what the imp said. She doesn’t want to consider the possibility that she might be a Screamer or a witch. But she can’t ignore that the hellhounds should have killed her. She thinks through all sorts of justifications and explanations as she walks back to the alley where Garesh is hiding.

When she finally arrives in the alley, she has already convinced herself that Garesh must have placed some protective ward on her to prevent Incorporeals from killing her and feeding upon her soul before the month is over. This is to prevent Svartr, Jack, and Willheim from devouring her soul before he sacrifices to the Incorporeals next month.

“I did as you commanded, Garesh.” Millie says, “I executed vengeance upon your enemy.”