Maddox searched around the main room in the hopes of finding some sort of item or anything really that he could use for some purpose... Yeah while it may sound stupid Maddox could only plan on what to do once he found something here that he could potentially use for his gain. So searching through the bed, underneath it through the drawers Maddox did not find anything yet which lead to the painting that was hung up on the wall. Unless it was some sort of cliche hiding spot trade Maddox highly doubted that his mother would hide anything behind a photo frame without doing anything so there was a possibility it was bobby-trapped.
So with the broom in his hand, Maddox pokes the painting to see if there was any immediate reaction before lifting it off its hook on the wall.
The painting just straight up falls to the floor with a thud and nothing happens which any regular person would have assumed that there was nothing behind the painting however Maddox saw Miasma formed along the wall in a solid black rectangle in the middle of the wall that fit the dimensions of the photo perfectly that it hid it's presence quite well even without the Miasma. Wanting to confirm something Maddox takes out his phone and takes a picture of the wall to see if it truly is invisible to the unsuspecting eye.
The results are true as he sees just a wall in the photo that he takes thus giving some insight on how to wield his miasma.
Still, that would have to wait for now as Maddox wanted to see what was behind the black section of the wall since his mother took the precautions to hide this section of the wall through miasma magic and a painting. Miasma being wielded by the infected was something difficult to accomplish as most of the infected are unable to produce enough miasma for a single spell which is why most go with body strengthening as stated in the research of the enemy section of the second pdf that Maddox received from Vanessa. It was helpful since it gave some insight into some of the findings of the Coalition that was deemed as common knowledge amongst employees which was great for Maddox as he had no resources himself to gather information yet.
Looking at the section of the wall Maddox tries to create the same effect on the top of one of the cleaning bottles he had brought into the room since some of the dust would not leave without some sort of liquid picking it up. Seeing what it was and creating its actual effect were two different things that lead to Maddox practicing for quite a while as he struggled to use the miasma in his body to create an illusion. The miasma in his body did form over the open bottle top but when viewed by the phone camera the view remained the same meaning that he was not able to create any sort of illusionary effect on the bottle.
So removing the miasma seemed to be a lot easier since all he had to do was absorb it which allowed Maddox to find the method to absorb the section of the wall that his mother had set up. Still, he would leave it till he could produce something of the same quality since he may want to continue using that spot that she made once he gets in there. Seeing as it was going to take a bit more time and wanting something more to experiment on Maddox goes on into the walk-in closet to search now since he had not yet looked in there.
Inside were a bunch of his parent's clothing with the majority of them being his mother's, no matter if you are a monster as female tendencies still show. Maddox decides to move his mother's clothing into some boxes and clear up a lot of room while his father's clothing he would keep for himself since a majority of it could be used once he grew into it in a few years.
Beyond the clothing, there was nothing else of interest inside the closet beside the clothing and other articles of clothing.
Moving his mother's clothing took a good while order to move but after it was done Maddox was able to have plenty of room to put anything else in there and since the guy who would give him a quote for the renovation of his home would arrive in two days Maddox needed to get things organized. He already had plans for what he wanted and if they could build what he needed then he would feel a whole lot safer and be able to do what he planned to in the future. Leaving that aside Maddox goes to the kitchen where he once again starts trying to copy his mother's technique on common appliances.
Around midnight Maddo figured out the key in which he needed to visualize what it was that he wanted to be there with the more complex items taking more miasma and the wider the range the more difficult it would be to sustain itself.
This led Maddox to once again reference the pdf files that he was given about the infected and how they replenished their miasma faster since it was still a mystery to him, but the file held no such information. So all Maddox could do was go out and try to find one such creature and find out how it was that they gained back miasma naturally. His regeneration speed was painfully slow to the point it was almost nonexistent so he wanted to figure out how to either increase his regeneration rate or how to gain more in an instant.
The best he could do, for now, was wait since going out after his arrival back home would make people suspicious since he knew that there was no way that both the coalition and his mother would just leave him alone to his own devices. That would just be stupid of them so Maddox had to be careful when going out and wanted to make sure that nothing about what he was doing was going to be found out. That was why the security camera had been scrubbed clean of all programs and software since Maddox did not trust that his mother may have hired someone to add some way for her to keep an eye on things. So for now the cameras were dead and until Maddox wrote some program for them they would not be usable at all.
Moving away from the camera situation Maddox wanted to experiment on this new way that he found to use his miasma since it did not particularly cause any harm to him since it was just projecting his miasma it only had a relatively low chance of causing him to turn which was good. What he wanted to know was how much he could use as well as if he could use it on himself and not just stationary objects. So with that Maddox decided to test in his living room to see if he could cover it in its entirety or not.
Placing his hands on the white carpet flooring Maddox envisions the carpet floor now being tile and as the image in his mind comes to be in his mind the miasma in his body stirs before leaving through his fingers and traveling across the floor. Soon the entire floor is covered in black with, once he pulls out his phone, the illusion of the once carpet floor now being a white tile floor. Seeing something and feeling something was entirely different as while the illusion of a tile floor was visible the feeling of carpet still was felt by Maddox's feet thus making his mind confused as it was seeing and feeling things not commonly associated with each other.
This uneasy sensation gave Maddox some ideas on what to try to do as well an almost unrealistic goal of creating a solid illusion with his miasma if that was even possible. Although unrealistic Maddox would never know if he could it until he tried to so that was the current goal for now with his illusion magic.
Keeping the miasma on the floor Maddox tries to cover the rest of the room in his miasma to create different items within the room that was not there as he tried creating the mental image that he had within his mind of what his home should look like. Soon the once-white carpet flooring was replaced with white tile flooring, a section of the wall now had a chimney that was not there before where a family picture was placed of Maddox and his sisters only in it, the couches were changed to something more comfortable as the rest of the room stayed the same with only the size of the windows changing to become slightly bigger.
Soon the entirety of the room was changed to how Maddox wanted to change it which looked quite nice in his opinion as he moved around with his camera in hand to view the room. He felt he had used a lot of miasmas to create this image which was nice since he had yet to experience any sort of attack from the essence in his body which meant that it would not attack him out of anywhere if he used to much of his miasma. Still, though Maddox wanted to test his limits he tried creating something different this time in this illusionary room.
Envisioning what Maddox wanted to add was something a bit more complex since he had never tried creating something of this nature before as all he had done till now was cover over objects.
Envisioning it Miasma is released from Maddox's hands once more but as he pulls out his phone Maddox is disappointed to see that he failed. He had tried creating a fake cat in the middle of the room that would walk around but when Maddox pulled out his phone all he had seen was a cat sitting on a fake coffee table that he placed in the middle of the room.
Essentially he had created a 3D virtual room that to anyone would seem normal no matter from the direction someone looked at it however that was just it it was just an image with nothing moving thus the cat that he created was not moving. So drawing back the miasma lead to Maddox trying to think about a moving illusion since he felt that should be feasible.
So releasing the miasma once more from his body Maddox placed an illusion not on the living room but instead on himself to see how he could change himself.
The miasma stayed on him since he placed it on his clothing and skin which lead to it being able to move since its object moved around it would naturally as well. Maddox was not particularly worried that the miasma on his skin would cause him to change since in all cases that he had seen people begin to change it was either through injection or natural means of the miasma. So him coming into physical contact with the miasma did not cause any reaction.
Changing his features was quite easy as Maddox was able to make himself look like anything he wished to with his body features changing in a variety of ways and he was even able to add some static appendages on his body such as some horns vampire teeth and other things to make him into some sort of alien creature.
It was useful since Maddox could now use multiple identities since normal people could not see his true body and the only people who might be able to would be the coalition members and infected. to what extent Maddox had no idea since he just discovered this use of his miasma and he was sure that he could use it in other ways as well but as for what he could do... that remained to be seen.
Somewhere in Los Angeles
Two coalition members were moving on a routine patrol disguised as police officers driving through the city they stop at the Smorgasburg market area near the corner of 7th street and S Alameda after getting a call to report there to help with an investigation. Getting out of their cars the two members enter the nearby parking structure which was swarming with other LA police officers as the entire place had been closed off to the public and the surrounding area closed down as this place was under investigation.
"What we find?" One of the coalition members asks a paramedic who was on the scene leaving the building
"... You are going to have to see it" Was his only reply as he moved back to his ambulance with a dead look in his eyes
Both the coalition members both look at each other before entering the parking structure and start moving up the floors coming to the third level where multiple police personnel and detectives are walking around the scene. Seeing what it was led to both the members to frown in distaste as the scene in front of them was all too common in their line of work.
The body of a young girl was leaning against a concrete pillar, she looked to only be sixteen while her head was slouched forward, on the pillar behind her were brain matter and blood splattered all over it as it looked as if the poor girl looked to have had the back of her head slammed into the pillar. Blood dripped down from the pillar and the girl was already dead but the two coalition members knew better as her brain being splattered around the scene was not the cause of death.
The girl had no clothing on and the two members were willing to bet that she had been raped to death before she was slammed against the pillar after she expired since a dead plaything was a useless plaything in the eyes of the infected.
Both the coalition members felt their blood boiling as they prayed silently for this young girl's unfortunate death and hoped she passed on to a better place.