It Started With a Stomach Ache

By Joey

It started with a stomach ache.

These are rarer for Haagenti than you might think. As much as he eats, he can stomach more. Of course, from time to time, it happens. But often enough to make you worry when he hasn't gone to Abaddon for a Snack. The big hint that something was going on was that he started throwing up. Now that hasn't happened... well, as far as most demons of Gluttony are concerned, it's never happened. And well, after a week in Shal-Mari, the putrid, black substance he had thrown up was definitly acting funny.

By funny, I mean it had extended upwards through Hell, through Earth, through the Marches, and through Heaven. Effectively, there was a huge hole in all three realms. After working up some gumption, a few demons tried investigating the hole. And they're still not back.

After zeroing in its location on Earth, a few demons checked it out. It was in a medium-sized abandoned apartment in downtown Chicago. It was in perfect condition, but its tenants were long gone. The found that while there was no visible effects, the Symphony was essentially gone within its confines, which was a room in the apartment that appeared to be owned by an adolescent girl. The demons investigating could use no songs, no resonances, no attunements...ceven their vessels disolved within the confines of the area.

A report came in from a few of Beleth's demons who had found its source in the Marches, which was a section just barely inside Beleth's domain. It seemed normal, but no human dreamscapes came even close to the area -- there were no nightmares there.

Gossip came of a black hole like the one in Shal-Mari coming in through the Eternal City, or Gabriel's Volcano, or the Savanna -- no one was quite sure. The Infernal Hierarchy is quite disturbed over this development -- it's just not good. And if this could happen here, where else could it happen? Angels have been antsy too -- perhaps more so, since they don't even know where this "hole" originated. If nothing else, this is an unpleasant development for the War...

The Real Story

Human desire can play a significant part in the course of the Symphony... even to the point of influencing celestials. But it takes quite a desire to revive a fallen Demon Princess...

Kim was an ordinary preteen girl, except that her life was a living hell. Between abusive peers and even more abusive parents, she longed for an escape from it all. Her desire to be completely removed -- not to die, not to run away, just a total state of non-existence... somehow, it was enough, and Mariel heard the call.

The black substance Haagenti vomited up in Shal Mari was the only thing left of Mariel -- the pure non-substance of Oblivion. Mariel is far from concious, but she is very powerful -- she literally is Oblivion. She -- or it, now -- has managed to create a rift throughout all three realms, although only in a localized area, but the rift is growing. It's a rift of nothingness, a long, out of place rest in the Symphony. In the Celestial realm, any Celestial caught in it will be removed, down to the individual Forces. The Symphony simply doesn't exist there, and can't hold Celestial Forces. On Earth, the Symphony is dead, no celestials can hear it, or manipulate it, even to the point of vessels.

However, that's not the only effect -- Kim got her wish. She's gone now, in Oblivion. Her friends and family are quickly starting to forget her. Records of her are dissapearing. The only person who managed to remember her is a long forgotten Remnant, a former servitor of Knowledge, who spends time on Kim's block. Kim had said hello to him every day, and his insistance on her existence is making him seem even more insane.

However, true Oblivion seems to be even beyong Mariel's power -- Kim's conciousness entering Oblivion awakened her own... and it's quickly taking over the rift...

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