Vessel
Legacy Name: Vessel

There is nothing here but a book, leather-bound and crimson. A little stained. It looks like a scrapbook; the pages don't lie exactly flat. The stain doesn't look exactly innocent. Perhaps this is a place you don't want to be.

A creature slips in. Suddenly it's just a bit darker, just a bit harder to see, like a black fog rolled in with him, a fog that smells faintly of sulfur. A fox, gangly and tenebrous, glides at his side. Both wear skulls, one as an ornament, the other as a mask.

"Hello," the larger one purrs, moving to the solitary book and caressing it gently. "So nice to meet someone new. I am the Vessel. Skullhusker, say hello." His companion growls softly behind his bone mask and sits down.

"Would you like to see my collection?" he asks, splaying his claws over his book. He opens it to the middle and strokes one long claw along something that seems to be pasted in. You lean closer and see what is clearly a face, eyeless and tongueless, just skin, stripped away and placed in a macabre book.

You recoil and he tosses the book down, almost careless now. With a playful tilt to his head, he starts to slink about, staring at you.

"I can tell so much from a face. Even very slight expressions are clues to the thoughts behind the facade you present to the world around you. Right now, for instance, I can tell that you are repulsed by my collection, but that's only because you don't know how much you can find out from a face. How much you can take from one."

As he speaks, he drifts around you in circles constantly, forcing you to turn to keep him in your sight.

"Sometimes I like to look at the faces that still move. I will take them soon, though. I like to take. One look away, and what you have is mine."

At first you were watching him just because he was moving, but abruptly you realize you have to keep watching him or lose something valuable.

"You're quite good at this. You might just stare me down. Except... hm, have you seen my Skullhusker? I can't think where he would be. Oh," he says, shifting his gaze to focus behind you, "there he is."

You feel an impulse to look away, but instead, you step carefully to the side. Except that Skullhusker has moved, too. He twines about your legs, and you start to pitch forward, arms already moving to catch yourself. You stare ahead defiantly as best you can. Just before you land, you glance at the ground, and in that moment, your vision fills with Vessel's grin. His grin is everywhere. It's all you can see.

You blink and pick yourself up, and Vessel is standing before you, still grinning.

He sits back and raises his his hand-like paws. He spreads his claws once and you see a child's face. Again and it's the face of a monster. He spreads his claws another time and you see your own face.

At least, you thought it was your own face at first. Slowly you realize that it's actually a stranger's face. Certainly you don't recognize it.

"Now I can keep you with me at all times."

He is still grinning while he stares at you, even as he reaches for his book to add to his collection.

"Oh, and... I'd avoid mirrors for a while. The face I've left you with, it won't feel like yours for... some time. If you can call it a face, anyway."