semiotics

"I dreamt that I had a guinea pig."

Sera's curled up in one of the bedrooms at the chantry. She looks like hell: both eyes blackened from the concussion reality gave her for daring to break its rules - again and again - in flagrant and dramatic fashion. That's okay. She's warm, and the ache is receding and anyway is little more than physical and Dan's bringing her her mug of Darjeeling and her dreams are still close enough to the surface that they seem almost physically present. She can taste magic in her mouth, in her skin, on her tongue. The acid hangover makes her feel just a bit more wretched and a bit more strange and a bit more alive and a bit dreamier than she would otherwise feel. The curtains are drawn or perhaps Dan's shape simply interrupts her view of him and he's laughing, she can feel laughter incipient in him. She knows it will be there before it starts.

And then it starts. "What the hell?" he says along with his laughter, beneath his breath, a bit of a guffaw but fundamentally indulgent rather than querying. He smells like coffee but he's bringing her tea and he looks at her and he aches a little but he knows that this will pass. He knows: that this is already passing. Her hair's a bit oily, sleep-tousled, and he reaches to smooth a few curls out of her face as he hands her tea. "You're not getting a guinea pig. They can't be housebroken. And you wouldn't be able to leave it in a cage."

She's just looking at him, pupils still a bit dilated, this steady - assured - manner she has that always seems both transparent and opaque. She cannot keep a secret, but there are a million mysteries beneath her skin. "I kept him in a closet, not a cage. It was so dark in there and I couldn't see a thing and then I lost him and I went looking for him in a sink full of dishes and then there was this pink nose coming up from the drain."

She is sitting up by then, leaning forward, fingers laced with around her mug. Dan sits on the edge of the bed, half-behind her, then scoots in further, right arm wrapped around her right shoulder, nose against the crown of her head as he breathes in her scent.

"Is this some kind of metaphor?"

"It was a mouse. A little white one. Not my guinea pig. He was white and that color that's like brown but not all the way - like liver or some gross word. And no it isn't a metaphor. Just some fucking acid come-down I got my ass kicked by reality dream."

"You okay?"

"Yeah."

"Good."

"Gonna to to London soon. After Halloween, though. I wanna dress up."

"You can always dress up."

"Yeah, but not like that."

"I'm not coming with you, am I."

"Nope."

"I kinda figured. You're right though."

"About what?"

"Liver. It's such a specific color of fur, I can't think how else to convey that tone. The word doesn't really seem to go with the thing-itself."

"The signifier and the signified."

"Oh fuck. Someone's been reading my old semiotics texts. How do you like de Saussure?"

"Miserable. I only cracked the spine 'cos it sounded French and I wondered if it was poetry."

"Heh. You're right. It is a gross word, liver."

"It's so bloody. It tastes like being torn open. But that's what he was. He was liver-colored. I hate to even say it it's so gross, but he wasn't gross. He was lovely. He made these squealing noises and he had that swirley fur, it wasn't all straight, like a million cowlicks and there was the mouse and then I kept looking for him in the dark, where he'd been, but I couldn't find him anywhere, no matter how much I looked.

"I liked the way he felt in my hands, though. I remember that from the dream.

"His fast-beating little heart."

Ravenous

Serafíne

[Mind Shield. Difficulty: 4. -1 (focus)]

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (4, 5, 5) ( success x 3 )

Serafíne

Extending. +1 for extension -1 for taking time.

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (1, 4, 5) ( success x 2 )

Serafíne

One more extension there is an adept out there.

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (5, 7, 10) ( success x 3 )

Hunger

[Ian is doing ALL the mind shielding. Diff 4 -1 (practiced)]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (4, 5) ( success x 2 )

Hunger

[Extending +1 -1 (slow)]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (2, 6) ( success x 1 )

Hunger

[Again]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (3, 7) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Hunger

[One more time]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (8, 9) ( success x 2 )

Hunger

[Ian spent all damn day on that but it was so worth it. His shield is at 7.]

Hunger

[As is Sera's]

Hunger

[Jae-shin Mind Shield]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (1, 8) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

Hunger

[again]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (9, 10) ( success x 2 )

Hunger

[again]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (2, 6) ( success x 1 )

Hunger

[I'll give him one more]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (1, 10) ( success x 1 )

Hunger

[Ian kinetic energy barrier (on himself) Forces 2 diff 5 -1 (specialty focus) -1 (going slow)]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (4, 5) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Serafíne

[Time 3 / Life 2. GO FAST. Thresholds: 4 successes for the first, each success thereafter gets another person. Going for: Ian. Elijah. Alexander. Tarrin. Jae-Shin. Goal: 9 successes. Difficulty 7 (vulgar without witnesses -1 (focus) -1 (taking time) -1 near a Node. ]

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (5, 6, 8) ( success x 3 )

Serafíne

Extending, +1

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (2, 3, 6) ( success x 1 )

Serafíne

Extending.

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (2, 2, 6) ( success x 1 )

Serafíne

Extending, come on Sera.

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (1, 5, 8) ( success x 2 )

Serafíne

Extending.

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (8, 8, 10) ( success x 4 ) [WP]

Hunger

[extending that forces roll for Ian, +1 -1 for the node]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (5, 7) ( success x 2 )

Hunger

[Ian, Elijah, Alexander, Tarrin and Jae-shin are all now twice as fast. :D]

Serafíne

Okay. Now: trying that again on Sera and Lucy, just in case. Target sux: 5. First roll, difficulty 7 -3 total (focus, node, time)

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (2, 2, 7) ( success x 1 )

Serafíne

Extending. +1

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (2, 7, 8) ( success x 2 )

Serafíne

Extending.

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (2, 6, 7) ( success x 2 )

Hunger

[Aaand boom, everyone is sped up.]

Serafíne

Paradox.

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (5, 7, 9, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 5 )

Serafíne

Soak!

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 8) ( success x 1 )

Hunger

[Sera takes 4B and we haven't even started yet noooo]

Hunger

[Ian is definitely giving her a Forces shield. Forces 2 / Life 2 diff 5 -2 (node)]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (4, 6) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Hunger

[again]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (2, 5) ( success x 1 )

Hunger

[eh, one more time]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (4, 5) ( success x 2 )

Hunger

[Oh right, Jae-shin does this Forces thing too]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (6, 9) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Hunger

[extending]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (5, 5) ( success x 2 )

Serafíne

Increase stamina: Life 3. Coincidental: Difficulty 6. +1 TOO MUCH MAGIC. -1 (focus - someone has to kiss her); -2 node.

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (5, 8, 8) ( success x 3 )

Hunger

[Oh crap I just realized Ian was going to cast that on both Sera and Elijah. Pretend I said he did that. (So Sera's shield is at 3, not 4.)]

Hunger

[One more! Resist Pain, yo. Life 2 / Mind 1 diff 5 +1 (all these effects) -1 (focus) -2 (node)]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (1, 5) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

Hunger

[Oh come on, extend +1 -1 (practiced)]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (5, 6) ( success x 2 )

Hunger

[I lied, one more - he will do this in the car on the way over. Bodies in Motion Life 1 / Forces 1 practiced]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (6, 8) ( success x 2 )

Hunger

[That should have been diff 4 but whatevs]

Serafíne

Time / Life / Prime scan while approaching the house. Difficulty 5 -1 (focus) -1 (practiced)

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (6, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )

Serafíne

Extending. +1 -1 (taking time)

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (6, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Hunger

[Life/Mind/Prime scan when they get there, since we're rolling we may as well get it all out of the way. +1 -1 (practiced) -1 (focus)]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (2, 8) ( success x 1 )

Hunger

[extending]

Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (4, 9) ( success x 2 )

Hunger

[Jae-shin will do Mind/Spirit]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (5, 10) ( success x 2 )

Hunger

[one more]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (5, 7) ( success x 2 )

Hunger

[Oh wait Ian needed 4 successes, let's drop Mind from that and just do Life/Prime]

Hunger

[There, ok, we are done rolling prep. For reals. *stamps*]

Hunger

It was an all-day affair, casting these rituals. Preparing themselves for... no one really knew. They might get to their destination and find the house completely empty, or they might find their enemy armed to the teeth and lying in wait for their arrival. The only clues they really had were Zoe's memories and Lucy's visions, and the knowledge that not long ago, a team of highly trained and skilled Hermetics had tried to take on Victoria - and lost.

That didn't bode well for any of them.

Still they came, because they had to. Because now there was no one else left to right the wrongs that had been committed, and to stop the Midgard Serpent (as Oliver had so dramatically named her) from devouring the city. Each of the mages were there for their own reasons - some more personal than others. But they were there, and they were as prepared as they were ever going to be.

It was evening by the time they left the Chantry. Ian rode in Jae-shin's truck. Perhaps Sera came with them, or perhaps she rode in her own vehicle. Her rituals had been taxing, and reality had not been kind in return. Having time sped up made the world seem to pass more slowly around them, and as they drove through Morrison, the landscape had a dark, dreamy quality to it. Jae-shin and Ian were quiet in the cab. They didn't talk, except to clarify the directions once or twice.When they arrived, Jae-shin parked his truck a short ways down the road from the property. Far enough that it wasn't visible, but close enough that they might be able to run to it if they needed to get out in a hurry.

Plans had already been discussed at the Chantry. They knew what they were there to do. So the mages left their respective vehicles and made their way quietly through the shadows toward the large red house. From a distance, it looked completely ordinary. Just another of many such houses in the mountainous Denver suburbs. All of the lights were off in the windows. Even the porch was dark. There was a wide expanse of grass around the home, which in turn was bordered by trees. The property was fenced in with a tall wrought iron fence. They'd have to either break in through the gate or climb it to get through. It didn't look as though anything unusual or noteworthy had occurred at the property recently. There were no bodies. No immediate signs of blood. No obvious destruction of land or property.

Maybe the group kept tight together, or maybe some of them hung back to work on more rituals. Either way, Ian, Sera and Jae-shin led the group at the front. When they reached the fence, Ian glanced around to make sure they were all on the same page. Then he began to scale over the fence. Jae-shin followed. Each of them had swords strapped to their back, and were dressed in black. It made them blend with the shadows when they moved.

Serafíne

They meet at the chantry. One by one maybe, or a few by a few and Sera is one of the first ones there. There's an old white conversion van in the driveway with Colorado plates that sometimes ferries band equipment and sometimes ferries fugitive mages and the mages who come for this, well. They find Sera curled up on a chaise bathing in the steam billowing from the hot springs.

She hasn't eaten today. That sort of deprivation has found its way into her ritual. It seems important to her, to be hungry, to feel that hunger if she intends to soften, dampen, diffuse, or even - or perhaps especially - satiate that hungry. She hasn't eaten today and she's on something. Not pot and not alcohol today - both would dull her senses, her reaction times far too much - but sometime early on, after she has woven her mind shield - she drops acid.

Not quite half-a-hit, but enough that she can start, you know, hearing the spaces between seconds, unhinging this minute from the next, cracking moments open between her teeth like walnuts, gathering that power to her chest, rubbing the seconds open until they start to bleed. Some stranger might think about quantum mechanics or some other delicious paradox of agreed reality, but her experience and impression of time has nothing whatsoever to do with scientific theory and her ritual, her practice is just as idiosyncratic. Instinctive, never structured, and when she has gathered enough power to herself, wrapped it around the stem of her spine, she calls them close, one by one, and kisses them to bestow the effect. On the forehead, on the eyelids, on the mouth, her eyes devouringly dark, her thumbs tender on their temples.

--

Dan goes with them. Sera won't let him come (and honestly, he doesn't want to let her go either but he knows that he would be vulnerable to everything in there. Better out here where he can do - what? what precisely?) to the house but he's there - you know? Getaway driver. The license plate of the van deliberately shrouded or perhaps even stolen in preparation for just this moment.

--

Sera's mind is swimming and her head is pounding but at least the bleeding has stopped. That's something, right? She is wearing well-worn jeans and her hiking boots and an old bar t-shirt beneath a black hoodie that she has zipped the fuck up and she doesn't have a sword strapped to her back.

Maybe she should have a sword strapped to her back.

She knows how to use them.

Not like this, not against people. At least: not against people who aren't completely shrouded in protective gear, with the expectation that the blade will slice through flesh-and-bone and make someone bleed.

So she doesn't have a sword strapped to her back but she does have a knife strapped to her thigh and she even has a nine millimeter in a goddamned shoulder holster or some ridiculous, absurd thing and she knows how to use that too. Against paper targets and beer cans and watermelons.

And, sometimes, Nephandi.

And she's hurting, but Ian climbs the fence and then Jae-Shin and then Sera starts up after them. She's not strong but she is rather slight and she is fucking athletic - she has to be to wear those heels all that time - so the one makes up for the other, right?

Right.

Serafíne

AWARENESS. -2 (ouch.)

Dice: 5 d10 TN5 (3, 3, 5, 5, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 5 ) Re-rolls: 2

Serafíne

Alertness. -2 (ouch).

Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (2, 3) ( fail )

Serafíne

Dex + Ath -2 (ouch).

Dice: 4 d10 TN7 (1, 2, 3, 3) ( fail )

Hunger

[Dex+Ath for Ian]

Dice: 7 d10 TN7 (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 9) ( success x 1 )

Hunger

[Jae-shin]

Dice: 7 d10 TN7 (2, 3, 4, 6, 6, 10, 10) ( success x 2 )

Hunger

[And now to help Sera, Str+Ath]

Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (3, 5, 6, 6, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )

Hunger

[ditto for Ian]

Dice: 5 d10 TN7 (2, 2, 2, 2, 2) ( fail )

Hunger

[Ok I guess he does not help. *L*]

Hunger

[Awaaareness Ian]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (5, 6, 6, 6, 8, 10) ( success x 5 )

Hunger

[Jae-shin]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (5, 5, 6, 9, 9) ( success x 3 )

Hunger

[Alertness Ian]

Dice: 6 d10 TN4 (1, 5, 7, 7, 7, 10) ( success x 5 )

Hunger

[Jae-shin]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 10) ( success x 4 )

Hunger

It was a difficult fence for climbing. That was likely intentional on the part of the owner. Even Ian had some trouble getting over it. One of his feet slipped while he was hoisting himself up, but he caught himself and managed to scale over the top. Jae-shin fared a little better. But they were in good physical condition, and Sera... was not. About halfway up the fence she fell and hit the ground hard. Luckily her fall was cushioned by the grass. When Ian and Jae-shin saw this, they paused at the top of the fence and leaned down to offer her their hands. Sera didn't weigh much, and all it really took was one hard pull from Jae-shin's muscular arm and she was up and over.

The two men stayed perched atop the fence until they'd made sure that everyone was able to get over. When they jumped down, they paused to regard their surroundings. Something felt different on this side of the fence. Like they'd just passed through some kind of barrier. And looking at the house would reveal... an entirely different picture from the one they'd viewed from the road.

Patches of grass were torn up in the yard. Dark patches marked the spots where the grass had been burnt to ash, while others looked more like stains (like blood.) It was difficult to tell exact details in the dark, and Sera wouldn't be able to see anything but the most obvious damage until she got close. Ian's keen eyes picked out those details though, and his lips thinned. It could have meant anything. Good or bad. They didn't know whose blood it was.

Sections of the house were charred. Even at a distance the smell of burnt wood was noticeable. The building radiated a cold, devouring hunger. It licked at the mages skin like a serpent's tongue. She was in there, somewhere. All of them could sense it. A living human pattern. Wounded and tired, but strong.

She wasn't the only one. There was a second, young and male and in much worse shape. This one, too, was somewhere in the house.

There were lingering traces of resonance everywhere. It was difficult to distinguish individual forces amid the chaos. There had been multiple mages here, and they'd fought. But most of them were gone now. Sera and Ian would be able to sense the working of the effect they'd passed through - that barrier. A false image. A hallucination. Meant to disguise the damage from passing observers. It was the devouring resonance which had built that effect.

Strangely, the house itself seemed not to be under the influence of any active Willworking. Zoe had believed the building to be Awakened, and through her senses Sera had felt it. Had felt the aching, hungry presence within the walls. Now it felt dormant. Jae-shin, with his active spirit senses, would confirm it.

"I don't sense any spiritual residue in the house." He kept his voice low, all but a whisper.

Hunger

Sera could sense one of the minds in the house, but not the other. The mind she sensed was that of the young man. He was frightened and exhausted and in a great deal of pain.

Serafíne

Sera hits the ground the first time because her arms are made of jello and the world is spinning beneath her and she's kind of hallucinating - just around the edges of her vision - in a way that opens up the secret world and must be closing everything else off because there is a beat or two or three where she doesn't seem to have acclimated to the change, without to within.

Behind the active vision, though, - well - when it finally becomes clear to hear how badly damaged the place is, Sera curses, quietly, beneath her breath. And she is more than a bit breathless right now, the wind taken out of her once more by touching down on this side of the thigh fence.

She glances at Jae-shin as he informs them that the house was not Awakened, or perhaps was no longer Awakened, and seams her mouth, and nods. Thoughtful.

Then: "There are two people inside. Both are injured, and tired. One's still strong though - it must be her? I cannot sense her mind. The other, though. A young man. He's scared to death, exhausted, and in pain."

Then she glances around the yard. Which she is seeing-not-seeing for the first time, and which she also remembers from Zoe's vision. "The worshipers attacked Zoe's coven out here. Maybe they didn't survive the attack.

"There were three cars, do you see them? Maybe the survivors are looking for another victim. For her rites. I think I can find them both inside."

Hunger

[Jae-shin Matter 1]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (8, 9) ( success x 2 )

Hunger

No cars were visible in the driveway. Either they were gone, or they'd been parked in the garage. Ian shook his head when Sera mentioned them. "I don't see any. I can sense the two in the house, too."

Ian glanced at Jae-shin. "Can you tell if there are any corpses nearby?"

Jae-shin closed his eyes and breathed in a couple of deep, measured breaths. Meditating quietly. Whatever he found, it made his expression darken. He looked at Ian. There was a beat of ominous silence.

"There are many. In the basement of the house. Some of them are in pieces."

"How many?"

"Eleven. Twelve."

"...Fuck." Ian's curse was low and whispered.

"There are cars in the garage," Jae-shin answered for Sera.

Ian looked as though he was about to say something, but then he went suddenly still, poised and alert like an animal, his eyes fixed forward on the trees behind the house.

"Something's out there."

Sera felt it too. Something large and warm-blooded. Not a person, but an animal. A bear. But she couldn't feel its mind. Something was obscuring it.

When it appeared, it happened very suddenly. People always talk about how bears can move more quickly than you'd think, but when you're actually confronted with it, it's all the more terrifying. The creature (it was a grizzly - and a big one) broke through the trees at a galloping run, making a beeline straight for their group. As it approached, it opened its mouth and roared.

It was not a normal bear. Normal bears did not have spikes of sharp bone sticking out from their hide. They did not have skin sagging from their face like a corpse. And when they roared, their jaws did not unhinge like a snake to reveal a second set of teeth. But all of these things happened. All of these things were there.

"It's possessed!" Jae-shin uttered a quick warning as he drew his sword. "Corrupted."

Wrong. Ravenous and hungry.

Ian pulled his sword. Ahead of them in the house, someone began to scream. The sound was muted and distant, but barely audible. That boy... something was happening to him.

Serafíne

"[b]Fuck[/b]."

Eloquent creature, Sera. She curses, not quite beneath her breath, flinches when she senses what is happening to the young man, and she does not have time to imagine him trapped in a room full of corpses but she's just on the verge of hallucinating right now and in pain and she cannot help but feel that there are terrible animate things just at the edge of her consciousness.

(There are terrible animate things at the edges of her consciousness.)

She turns, glances over her shoulder at Elijah and Alexander. "She's coming down the steps and there's a boy in the basement who is in danger. If you can get around the bear, then you need to go. Bullets will hurt her Alexander. She's not immune."

[Prime 2: attack on the bear. Vulgar without witnesses. Difficulty: 6 +1 (so many effects) -1 (focus) -1 (resonance - visceral.]

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (5, 6, 8) ( success x 4 ) [WP]

Serafíne

(Going for 6+ successes before she lets the effect go. Spending a quint.)

Hunger

It was a split-second decision. That was all the time they really had to make it. Ian and Jae-shin and Sera were at the front. Two of them had drawn swords. One of them was a Disciple. And Ian knew that some of their group were not equipped to deal with something like this. That if that bear got its jaws around Elijah or Lucy they would likely not survive.

Victoria had to know that they were there. She'd probably known all along.

"Come on!" Ian roared, running both toward the bear and away from the group. Meaning to intercept it. To grab its focus. Jae-shin moved with him as though they'd been fighting together for years. Completely in sync.

And the others? Maybe they'd have a chance to get to the house after all. Certainly they had to try.

Hunger

[Ian Init +7]

Dice: 1 d10 TN3 (5) ( success x 1 )

Hunger

[Jae-shin +6]

Dice: 1 d10 TN3 (1) ( fail )

Serafíne

Normally +6 is she just +4?

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (9) ( success x 1 )

Hunger

[Fomori-bear +4]

Dice: 1 d10 TN3 (8) ( success x 1 )

Hunger

[Order:

Sera: 13

Ian: 12 (+7)

Bear: 12 (+4)

Jae-shin: 7

Declare time, wee!]

Hunger

[Jae-shin:

1: Dodge whatever the fuck this bear is about to do

2: Hit the bear with the sword]

Hunger

[Bear: Claw Jae-shin]

Hunger

[Ian:

1: Katana the bear

2: Katana the bear]

Serafíne

Sera: [Extending effect.]

Serafíne

Extending Prime 2, effect - difficulty +1 (now six).

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 10) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

Hunger

[And boom. The bear is dead. Sera is a badass]

Hunger

The creature was a terrifying thing to behold, and bore down on the mages with wide open jaws and long, mangled fangs. Ian and Jae-shin were able to distract its focus while Sera finished working her effect, and then...

Sera unleashed a bolt of pure, blinding quintessence, and the effect ripped through the beast's pattern, splaying it wide open and searing its flesh. It gave one last, sickening gurgle, shuddered, and fell to the ground dead.

But of course, if the mages thought that was be the last of Victoria's defenses, they would be disappointed. And sure enough, even as Sera's attack found its mark, a second bear charged in from the trees to the West.

Serafíne

Sera is in pain. Her head is throbbing and her muscles are shaky and she feels as if the world has perhaps started spinning the wrong-way-round but fuck that's what helps her. That's what she digs in to to slice open the effect she is tearing out of the very goddamned sinews of her body and flinging it out of herself. She makes this noise when she does so. She doesn't know what it sounds like - how ragged and intense and ecstatic that cri-de-coeur is and she hardly has time to take in the staggering mess that is the ruined, once-living thing when -

"Shit."

- another comes rumbling out of the woods. Her hands are fists now and she's pressing them to her forehead, reaching again for that-which-is-inside her.

[Prime 2: Difficulty: 6 + 1 (effects) -1 focus, -1 resonance appropriate.]

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (5, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Serafíne

(Once again: charging with quint, holding off the effect for more successes. Target is 5+.)

Hunger

[Ian and Jae-shin use their action to close distance to the bear. It is init time once more!]

Hunger

[Ian +7]

Dice: 1 d10 TN3 (2) ( fail )

Hunger

[Jae-shin +6]

Dice: 6 d10 TN3 (1, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 5 )

Hunger

[*L* pretend that didn't happen]

Dice: 1 d10 TN3 (5) ( success x 1 )

Serafíne

+4 init!

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (8) ( success x 1 )

Hunger

[Fomori-bear +4]

Dice: 1 d10 TN3 (2) ( fail )

Hunger

Order:

Sera: 12

Jae-shin: 11

Ian: 9

Bear: 6

Hunger

[Bear Bites Jae-shin]

Hunger

[Ian

1: Katana the bear

2: Katana the bear]

Hunger

[Jae-shin

1: Dodge!

2: Katana the bear]

Hunger

[it's like deja vu]

Serafíne

Sera: extending! Difficulty +1

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (7, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )

Hunger

[The bear is dead]

Hunger

And just like before.

It was almost like a dance. Like it had been choreographed. The bear charged. Ian and Jae-shin moved to intercept.

And Sera? Fucking tore it apart. Not with a blade. Not with a gun, but with her own will, and her own essence. The others were hopefully inside the house by now, and for a half-second the two men looked around as though they expected another of those terrible beasts to come charging out of the woods. But none did.

Sera was hurt, and the weight of paradox hung over her head like a blade waiting to drop.

But she was okay, for the moment. They all were.

There was still an Adept in the house. And now? Oh, they had her attention. Sera could feel the threads of that devouring will working its way toward her.

[Victoria is going to remote-cast rip the man-body. She's targeting all three of them, and will need 5 successes minimum]

Dice: 4 d10 TN3 (2, 4, 5, 8) ( success x 3 )

Serafíne

There's no time to understand what happens. Sera is breathing so very hard, half-sobbing, because this sort of casting just tears something out of her and her senses are blown wide, wide open and she can feel that absolute devouring hunger from inside -

"She's coming down," Sera pants out to Ian and Jae-shinn, her voice raw, cracking. "She's casting - she's targeting all of us with life magicks. I'm gonna to try to unravel it but - "

you guys better move fast is the goddamned subtext.

[Countermagick! Difficulty 8.]

Dice: 3 d10 TN8 (2, 6, 6) ( success x 1 ) [WP]

Hunger

Sera told them to move, and that? Is exactly what Ian and Jae-shin did. They'd already sensed what was about to happen, and with a quick look back at Sera, they ran to the front door of the house.

[Victoria extends her effect.]

Dice: 4 d10 TN4 (2, 2, 10, 10) ( success x 2 )

Serafíne

Countermagick!

Dice: 2 d10 TN8 (1, 8) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

Hunger

[One more time!]

Dice: 4 d10 TN4 (2, 3, 4, 10) ( success x 2 )

Hunger

[Aaand the effect fizzles]

Serafíne

'Dox.

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 3, 5, 6, 6) ( success x 2 )

Serafíne

Soak!

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 3, 4, 10) ( success x 1 )

Hunger

[Sera takes 1B, is now at 5B]

The Cult of Jennifer [Unfinished]

Jennifer

Jennifer appeared to be calm, but to the careful observer one would notice she kept playing with her charm bracelet.

Serafíne

Thursday morning.

Serafíne and Dan, quite true to their word, spent the remainder of that late night at the chantry and Sera didn't really sleep. If Jennifer paid any attention to the locus of Sera's resonance in the house, it was wholly centered around the hotspring.

Morning though - and rather an early morning for the Cultist and her consor - has her up and showered and dressed and sitting on the kitchen counter watching Dan as he cooks eggs to order and russles up pancakes or maybe waffles to go with for Elijah and Jennifer and himself.

Sera doesn't eat. She's fasting. In a few hours she will start a series of rituals that will -

- well, that comes later.

But there she is, lean and perhaps even sharp, with her half-shaved head and an old band t-shirt and combat boots and a leather jacket and fishnets and there's Dan in his crimson-colored skinny jeans and artfully mis-matched button-down flannel with a little bow-tie, and his tattoos and his blond beard and his familiar manner with Sera and his easy grin that encompasses her somehow entirely.

And how the morning goes and how it grows and how it feels really depends on one's tolerance for the antics of tattooed hipsters and perhaps for how one feels about high-churched episcopals because Sera has a goddamned potty-mouth but yes, she and Dan (in their conversion van full of remnants of old shows and music equipment that hasn't made the transition fully here or there and whatever) take Jennifer and perhaps Elijah all the way from Morrison to a very, very poor, rather tough, heavily hispanic neighborhood off Federal where they pull up outside a traditional looking church surrounded by a weedy asphalt tarmac (basketball courts; children's playground) surrounded by a chainlink fence and take them inside, right through the high-church sanctuary which feels like a blast of illuminating light, soaked with this brilliant and far-seeing resonance, and looks like a Catholic church but isn't. Pan's one of those Episcopals who is as Catholic as he can be, except for the sexism and homophobia. But listen: Mary is everywhere, and the stations of the cross. All the symbolism, all the soaked-in ritual.

--

There is an audience with the church administrator who does not approve of Sera and then a brief audience with the tall priest, who considers Jennifer thoughtfully and not-unkindly though perhaps still somehow with frightful thoroughness, and then Jennifer and Elijah (if he has joined them) are encouraged to leave and Serafíne and Father Echeverría are alone for a time, and then Sera comes back and picks up Dan and Jennifer and perhaps Elijah from the waiting area and they all troop back out through the church and back to the van where Dan climbs into the driver's seat and looks at Sera who has taken shotgun and curled up her long legs beneath her body and who in turn turns around to glance at Jennifer, taking her in.

Sera isn't a careful observer but she is so aware, so very aware.

"Pan says you're okay." Sera tells Jennifer, quiet. "But you and I need to have a really solid talk. We can go to my place, or we can drive to a park and find someplace where we can be alone. Whichever you feel more comfortable with."

Jennifer

"umm.... It is up to you, but Umm... I think Elijah has some test today and I don't want him to be late on account of me. Would you mind dropping him by his class and then... " Jen closes her eyes and takes a deep breath " then i trust you to take me wherever you deem appropriate Sera."

Serafíne

Sera's dark eyes are steady on Jennifer and she's half-peaking around the headrest, resting her chin on the shoulder of the bucket seat.

"Yeah okay," quiet, with a darting glance Elijah. "You shouldn't trust me though, you know? I mean, I am fucking trustworthy but I'm also a fucking stranger. We'll go to my place."

Dan already has the van in gear. They're pulling away from the curb. In the end, they end up dropping Elijah off at the Uni and swinging around through the leafy, mixed residential neighborhood of Cap Hill. Dan pulls up in front of a three+ story blond-brick home with a wide porch and an old maple tree in the front yard and a spreading oak in the back and a unicycle on the porch. An impression inside of a kind of creative chaos, though one expects that Jennifer does not have much of an eye for the decor in just this moment.

Sera's housemates are out, so they can take over the kitchen. Much as she did in the chantry, Sera takes a seat on the counter, here. Jennifer can sit wherever she likes. Dan puts the kettle on for tea.

"I'm gonna be honest with you, Jennifer. Some of the shit you said - and some of the shit you didn't say - last night really creeps me out. That's why I took you to Pan, and that's why I brought you here. So I'm gonna ask you more questions about shit. Your family and your community and what the hell happened to your folks, and you shouldn't try to hide or conceal any of it from me, because I'm a Disciple. I can read your thoughts, as you're thinking them.

"And I'm concerned about you, and also what you mean to us, to Elijah and other people that I love, that I need to know more. Some of the shit I say about people that you love and people that you care about and people that you miss is going to be right painful, and I'm sorry, and it's okay if you cry and it's okay if you hate me just a little. And I need to be honest with you, and I need you to be honest with me. Deal?"

Jennifer

Jennifer nods at Sera. "That explains how I upset you without realizing it last night. I trust you because I trust Elijah and he seems to respect and trust you. My past is sorted and confused. I am confused. I will answer to the best of my ability, but as you learned last night there are things I'm realizing that I don't know many things, but I will try to put your mind at ease. Elijah is my only friend other than the two letting me live in their condo. If you are his friend and you are worried about my impact on him I will do my best to help convince you that I mean him, nor any of the other... Mages any harm."

Jennifer kept fiddling with her charm bracelet trying to comfort herself . This was feeling like all the conversations the FBI and the police kept trying to have with her. At least not she was in a more comfortable location. She hopped Elijah was not too distracted to do well on his test. His late night boredom seemed to have gotten them both into trouble.

Serafíne

"Listen," Sera says, with a glimpse all aslant at Dan, who is quietly fiddling with the kettle, opening the cabinets maybe, getting down the tea tin. "I don't think that you mean us any harm. It's just that belief has power. Belief is the source of our power, and you seem to have come to us - Awake - from a religious community that brooks no doubt and no contrary views, that isolated itself from the world."

Here Dan quietly interrupts, with a lashed glance at Jennifer. "Crusades have been fought for less."

And Sera smiles, this hooked frame of a smile, and settles on Jennifer this glance.

"Were other people you lived with Awake? Your parents, maybe. Your dad, or your mom?"

Jennifer

"Well, My mom was.... I'm not sure the term here because I've apparently learned different jargon for Mage topics in some areas, but my dad was awakened and my mom was ... in between I guess, from a sleeper and awakened. She fell for my dad and they had me. My dad was the spiritual leader of the group and my mom was.... like the government part. Other people were awakened around the camp and some were in between like my mom. I was still very protected though from all of them in that my father taught me everything himself. He would always say stuff like the daughter of the leaders had to learn to be a leader from them. It was odd, but I have been groomed since my dad first felt my purity to increase it as much as possible. He said I was a miracle and that there was a goddess living within me and that she would be born on my 21st birthday. It is my understanding that the goddess within is how I have magic powers. Elijah brought me to the house because of the library, I have read many occult books, but I now think they may have been edited in some way and I want to gain further knowledge of the truth of things. I feel like my dad was hiding something from me... but I do not know what and I hope to find the answer in your Library. I have tried the Metro Library, but it is not very helpful with Occult topics and the librarians look at you very oddly if you ask them about those books.

That was a little more information than you asked, but I thought I would answer some of your potential questions. I do not remember all of the thoughts I had that night, but that is a basic overview of life before the FBI came. Life after the FBI has been on the news and would be easy for you to research. Though you were around the hot springs so I doubt you did; however Dan. " Jen nods politely in the direction. " probably had the chance and could have filled you in this morning."

Serafíne

"You didn't have contact with anyone outside your community, did you?" This is Dan. The kettle is starting to rattle and he is listening for the noise it makes just before the boil. That's how one makes the best tea. "The group was closed-up and closed down. Isolated. Controlled from above. Like the FLDS, with magic to make it more fucking interesting. I haven't looked it up online, but I will if that's easier for you."

He glances at Sera, who gives him a rather grave look back.

"Your father. You remembered that sometimes he would grab your arm too hard. Did he - " a thoughtful pause. " - ever do more than that? Hurt you, or other people?"

Jennifer

"well, sometimes new people came in to learn from my dad. Sometimes he would go to other places and speak, but he would always come back home and say he had missed me and I was his most important work! Every once in a while I would get to go to the nearest town... like Estas Park for my Birthday or a special trip. I was always escorted though. The first time I had ever been out on my own was the day I met Elijah. After coming here the cops or lawyers were always with me until mom's trial was over, then I was no longer their problem. I think they also gave up on my dad coming back for me, but i know he will. At least for my 21st Birthday in a few months to do the ritual, but we did not tell them about that. They were not very good at asking the right questions.

As to the hand print..... dad got very mad at me because he had asked me to let it go and I wasn't. He said I was going to damage my purity if i did not follow directions and that the goddess might be born unpure and rule the world poorly. Mom would usually calm him down, but dad did have a temper and we would just lock ourselves in a room he had made for us until he calmed down. He had put a silence over the area so we couldn't hear anything and it was protected from majik. As for what he did with his disciples.... I have no idea. I did realize while I was out with Elijah a few weeks ago that the Halloween celebrations I was never allowed to partake in were human sacrifices. I do not know if these people were willing, but John burnt his hand on the stove that day and when Elijah asked me about Halloween I placed the smell. I lost it in the middle of the art district and he just held me until I could gather myself. That is when I first started doubting in my father and what he said. I know it seems silly, but when I doubted when I was young the consequence was not worth any of the risks involved with challenging something he had said. " Jennifer let all of these words tumble out of her mouth with the least emotion manageable. She was focused on facts. She kept her calming breaths flowing throughout her dialogue to keep calm and keep the emotions down. This was hard for her as Sera had though it might be - telling a stranger so much about herself, her past, but she felt she had to do this for her only friend.

A spark of light popped into her eyes. "Since I am telling you so much, if you find me worthy, could I know who the owners are, or at least have you deliver a thank you note to them?"

Serafíne

Prime 1: Watch the Weaving. Difficulty 4 -1 (focus)

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (2, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )

Serafíne

"Holy shit."

That's Dan, and the curse is both beneath and over the frame of his breath. His gaze draws a line from Jennifer to Sera and back again, and he has forgotten the kettle which will get itself to boiling soon. He'll have to empty it and restart, won't he?

Sera's heart is not quite beating, in those spare moments. That's what it feels like. This hollow space in her chest filled with possibility where some muscle should live. Squeezing.

"Human sacrifice is not okay, Jennifer. What they did to you - keeping you away from the world, wrapped up in this cult - was not okay. And I'm pretty fucking sure that what they are going to do to you when you turn 21 is equally not okay.

"The owner of the chantry is the sister of a young man who died - along with six others, his entire cabal - working to protect a girl a bit younger than you from people who wanted to use her to bring about - " the briefest pause. " - god knows what. Father Echeverría and I fought them. And we won. And she gave us the keys, and we buried her brother and all his mates in the field. But I can't tell you her name, because I don't want your father to take it from your mind. Okay?

"Do you know what your father intends when you turn 21?"

The Church of the Good Shepherd

Thursday morning - after the early morning mass, after the drop-off rush at the day care center, but certainly well before noon vespers - Serafíne comes sauntering in to the Church of the Good Shepherd, escorting both Elijah - in his vest and suspenders, with his pocket watch - and Jennifer, dressed all in white.

She stops at Rosa's desk, of course, and might even rest her ass on it and she gives Rosa this quicksilver smile that is nevertheless framed by a degree of tension she does not realize has entered her body. Has been there for hours, or perhaps days.

"The old man in?" Sera asks Rosa, and she knows she is because she can feel him in his office, but she lets Rosa check in with Pan anyway before sending them back.

Well, sending Sera back, because she tells Jennifer and Elijah that they should Wait here a moment and then she slips back on her own for a private word with the priest.

--

Alone, Sera confesses her concerns about Jennifer to him. What she read in the girl's mind, and what the girl admitted to her. Tells him that Jennifer understands magic - quintessence and avatars and nodes - but does not know what the traditions are. She is awake - he can feel her out there, her purifying resonance - and seemed to connect the word chorus with traditions, but she learned everything she knows from her mother and father, who seem to have been at the center of a cult. She never knew her father's name. He's on the lam, now, wanted by the FBI. Her mother is in prison. Her 'community' is dispersed, but she still believes that she will be sacrificed at age 21 to the goddess within. Which makes Sera say What the fuck about seven hundred times. At the least, Sera wants to know if the girl is - well - corrupted, despite the seed of her purifying essence. At best, well: what the fuck, Pan. What the fuck what the fuck?

A strange girl.

Poirot

What was it like for him to her them?

He could play like this was fine, like this wasn't jarring, he had to think about it. What was it like to hear the voices? What was it like when he was younger, when things seemed less scary, when there wasn't the potential for them to drag him to the wayside? "When I was little, I just thought they werenormal. I thought everybody could hear them. Sometimes it was good, sometimes it was bad... I mean... dead people just don't want to be stuck where they are anymore. They want to move on. Everyone wants to move on ion one way or another... it wasn't until I was a teenager that I figured out that maybe... maybe I should just keep that shit to myself, ya knw?"

He paused, catching her attention, catching the way she looked him in the eyes and then? Then he smiled, smething genuine, "it's a hit and miss things. You take the good and the bad, I guess."

Jennifer

"it always sounded like that from the books I read about it, It would have to be very unsettling if a ghost is bothering you at an inconvenient time... or any time really I guess." She kept looking into his eyes. Her purity of concern and interest was mirrored in his eyes back at her. She had known others that could talk to ghosts and demons at the camp... the ... what had Elijah called it... a commune camp? But her dad had told them not to discuss the real life applications with her very often and she was mostly just given books to pass the time. Now she was realizing that other kids did not grow up reading Occult books out of boredom.

Jen reached out her hand and lightly touched his a small smile also playing at her lips. "I will always help you if I can, whenever you need." The purity of the truth resonated around them. Then her smile widened "Even at 3:30 in the morning!"

Serafíne

Awaaaaareness.

Dice: 7 d10 TN5 (1, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 8) ( success x 5 )

Serafíne

They both have their arms full, Dan and Sera, and its the former who is kicking open the door from the garage into the kitchen and holding it open with her rather meager frame, shoulderblades pressed against the hewn wood, her head half-shaved, the other half all dark, dark roots and long golden curls, tumbling over leather jacket.

He's taller than she is. Much taller, but they look like they're tribe, you know. The easy way they move together. The attention he pays to her, the way she smiles for him, even sometimes when she doesn't feel like smiling at all. It's the tats - they both have them. Sera's most obvious on her hands and less dense (though still visible) on her forearms where she has pushed up the sleeves of her leather jacket. Dan's are scrawled, crawling almost. His forearms and hands and even his neck are covered in ink.

He doesn't feel like she does though. Her resonance is an intense entanglement of sensation - absolute instinct, animal instinct, the hungry, immediate, breath swallowing sort; and captivation, like a seizure of the heart; and something else entirely, something other. Something between - between doors and definitions. She's tilting her head back, aware of Dan as he slides by her, and the way she's watching him a stranger watching her would naturally assume that she is about to grab his ass.

You know, like that.

Except she's carrying a case of liquor and needs both arms to lug it inside.

--

And she feels them, this shifting awareness, attuned, so responsive to resonance that she often catches her breath when she feels it.

As she does now: searching out the owners of both. Finding the one she knows.

Sera straightens and lets the door slide closed behind her.

Her eyes are dark, and slide between the two. "Who's your friend, Elijah?"

Poirot

"Hey," he's awake. He shouldn't be as awake as he was but there was the lingering scent of coffee in the air and, as he had said before, sleep was for the weak (or the tired. Being tired wasn't weakness, it was just being tired- when he's tired he's prone to hyperbole). But there are people coming in, and Sera comes with a feeling, and Sera comes iwth a Dan because they are both coming together because... because they were a unit. A matched set.

Who was his friend, she asked?

"Oh, this is Jennifer," he says, "not Jenn-" of course not Jenn. They've both met Jenn. Jenn is smaller and less wide-eyed and smelled vaguely of chocolate and pot all the time, because one knows her vices well.

"Jennifer is new," he said, "and I figured I should show her some of the places she could meet other people like her."

A beat.

"It was completely my idea to meet at this time of night, though."

Jennifer

Awareness

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Jennifer

alterness - does she remember seing Sera at the coffee shoppe?

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 3, 8) ( success x 1 )

Jennifer

Jen helps by taking a bag from Sera and setting it on a counter. Then she holds out her hand. "Pleased to meet you." she is all maners and purity, Sera could feel the purity radiating from Jen. Did this feel familiar? "I'm sorry I cannot place you, but you seem kind of familiar to me."

She also turned and greeted Dan, "nice to meet you I'm Jennifer, some people also call me Jen, but Elijah already has a friend named Jenn and it was getting confusing for him I think." At this she glances over at Elijah and gives him a quick smile.

"Elijah said he did not know the owners and he knows you. We aren't intruding are we? I've never heard of a house before where people can come and go as they please and no one knows who owns it. Elijah apparently had too much coffee and wanted to show me the library here. I.... I have some occult knowledge and I'm wanting to verify some facts." She rushed out this last part with a glance at Elijah to be sure she could talk about such things with these new people. She wondered if they knew Delilah too. Jen's world was so small now. Now that her dad was MIA and her mom was in prison and all the followers disbanded or in jail as well. New friends were good, scary though. After she felt she had observed the proper etiquette she withdrew closer to Elijah, to the person she knew, the person she felt safer near. As she drew closer to Elijah she took a deep breath and calmed her anxieties she felt bubbling towards the surface. New experiences were good, experience was part of life, everything is connected, life is pure.

Serafíne

"Hi Jennifer."

Jennifer is all manners and purity. Sera is anything but. The first time she met a certain forty-something priest she asked him to make out in his confessional. Still, Sera holds out a hand and takes Jennifer's hand. Her own is warm, and calloused, and covered in tattoos. She has chipped black nail polish and - on her right hand - a bronze ring with egyptian hieroglyphs or something on its shield, and on her right something badass and spiked covering three fingers and their knuckles. Leather and spiked bracelets encircling either wrist, and on and on.

Her eyes are fixed on Jennifer's - this intensity there.

"I know who owns it. I know a helluva lot of shit."

In the interval, Dan has put down his own box on the counter and come back for Sera's, and he relieves her of her burden with the briefest glance - perhaps a little grin - for Elijah.

"How new are you?"

(Sera is - starting to - hum beneath her breath. It's an old song, the sort that feels familiar as the rocking movement of a cradle.)

(Mind 2: reading Jennifer's surface thoughts, Difficulty 5 -1 for focus.)

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (1, 3, 9) ( success x 1 )

Poirot

Sera knows who owns it.

"Really?" it just comes out. he shouldn't be excited about that, about knowing who actually owns this house because, quite literally, Elijah had no idea. And it was, at this juncture, that it seems to dawn on him that... perhaps he hadn't done the right thing. Again. He winced.

"... I probably should have asked someone if it was okay for me to bring her here."

Serafíne

This supple flash of Sera's dark eyes in Elijah's direction.

"Yeah," Sera tells him then. Quietly and full of compassion. "Probably."

It's just an interlude. Her attention is back on Jennifer.

Jennifer

At this last part Jen turns quickly to Elijah " I asked you if it was okay and you said yes!" Jen's eyes got bigger as she felt that Elijah had lied to her for the first time since their meeting several weeks before.

She turned back to Sera. "May I ask who owns this beautiful house and if I should leave now?" He eyes glance down the hall way wistfully as if she wont' get to see the library, but clearly she has enough Etiquette to do whatever Sera feels is best.

Serafíne

"You can ask. That doesn't mean I'm gonna tell you," Sera murmurs, her mouth curling raw, curling wry. Beneath or perhaps behind that box she's wearing cut-off denim shorts, tiny ones, fishnets held up by visible garters that hint at the lingerie beneath. A scalloped French lace bra beneath an unzipped black hoodie beneath an unzipped black leather jacket, scuffed and scarred and patched. Sera is a striking thing. She has her own specific gravity.

"C'mon. I'm gonna show you something, and make sure you know what this place is, and why it is sacred, and why it is secret, and why it has to remain so." A glance from Jennifer to Elijah and back again, and then Sera's in motion, leading them from the kitchen to the dining room. Down the steps - toward the hot spring where the node lies.

(Extending that effect. +1 difficulty.)

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (1, 4, 9) ( success x 1 )

Poirot

[WP- because water is not his friend]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 4, 6, 8) ( success x 2 )

Poirot

From the kitchen to the dining room, down the steps, he didn't say anything. Sera was going to show them why this palce was sacred, why it was a secret- why he couldn't just show anyone this place. He was a little tense, and it was strange because he knew that the node was a rejuvenating thing. He had a feeling that he knew where they were headed and, for his part, he was content to stay about as far away has he possibly could. It was like marching off to see some known wonderful horror. Like seeing a man-eating tiger.

He shook his head, and inhaled deep and remembered that it was just water. It was more than just water, and he would be fine.

Jennifer

Jennifer follows Sera in her black out fit that was striking in contrast to Jennifer's solid white full length coat she had been wearing to keep away the chill and had not yet removed when she met new people. Whatever the rolls were in this place Sera was clearly in a position over Elijah. This also meant that Jennifer was probably going to be tested by her. Maybe she could pass the test with flying colors and keep Elijah from getting into more trouble?

"Do you mean sacred beyond the node that replenishes quintessence and feeds the deity within? I felt that out back when we arrived."

Jennifer remembers what Elijah had said about him not swimming, but that she could swim if she liked. She had realized then that he did not like water, and if she had understood him correctly he had mentioned the hot-spring at the same time as the node so they had to be close if not the same thing. She linked her arm into his and leaned closer to whisper " I'll protect you from the water and wont let her toss you in okay?"

Serafíne

Sera slides the door open onto the patio, and the steam billowing from the node enshrouds them, stark and warm and damp against the climate controlled temperature within. Sera steps over the threshold and out of the way and then steps aside so that Jennifer and Elijah can follow.

"You know an awful lot about magick for someone so new," Sera says to Jennifer, perhaps warily. Perhaps challengingly. Perhaps just curiously. Also, strangely, quietly. "Who trained you? What's your Tradition?"

Serafíne

(And: extending that rite again. Mind 2 to read Jennifer's surface thoughts.)

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (1, 8, 8) ( success x 2 )

Poirot

This- this was actually something that Elijah was a little curious about. He slowed, but once they were out there he looked at... and you couldn't help but be calmed. be relaxed, if only because it was nice and it was warm and it was natural and real and this was real.

"Don't stress," he tells Jennifer with a grin, "I'm fine."

And he inhaled again, slow and deep, and he had to clarify something, "and I thought it was okay, but I wasn't thinking-" surprise "-and I probably should have checked with someone else who is higher up on the food chain before bringing someone here. I thought you would realy, really benefit from coming here, though."

Jennifer

*Tradition? what did she mean by that? is that the chorus thing dad mentioned once. He acted like he'd said something he shouldn't though and she is so casual... must be something else. answer what I can first, try to keep Elijah from getting himself into more trouble.... Who trained me?*

"My father trained me, and my mother, and random books that he left laying around and I read because I was bored."

*do I explain about the camp? about my family? about mom being in jail now? no... not yet I don't know them. It isn't lying to leave things out. Elijah said my history was kind of odd and to keep it to myself until I knew people better...Did dad set me up to be sacrificed for something other than the goddess within... where is he and why won't he come help me. I know he'll be back for the ritual to help birth the goddess within.... maybe he will show up before and I can ask him questions. FBI is still looking or him anyway... he has to stay hidden. FOCUS.*

" I am new to here, but not new to powers and being awakened. I have lived in the mountains around Denver my whole life and I always wanted to live in the 'big city' and now I am! Elijah has been helping me change my terminology into what is more common around here, but most of it is the same anyway. That is part of the reason I'm interested in reading the books in the library here, I'm not sure what new stuff I will learn, but I can use the terminology that you all use to explain myself and hopefully not sound quite as crazy as I seemed at first to Elijah. I had never met another... mage really until I met him. I had met people that were partially awakened and had some minor powers, but that was all and my father kept a close watch on all of my interactions with them. "

*I bet now it was to sensor what I learned... I probably could learn a lot from the library.... a lot of whatever he was keeping from me.... but most of my occult knowledge seems to still be correct.*

"Thank you for being such a selfless friend." She squeezed his arm with hers in a simi hug feeling.

*he really does just seem to want to help everyone. such a sweet lost kind heart. He is a good friend. will always be a good friend*

"We all make oversights once in a while, I'm not upset with you" Another arm - in - arm hug and she smiled reassuringly at him to prove she was no longer worried about the possible lie.

Serafíne

Sera's hair gets a bit curlier from the humidity around the node. She's pushing a tattooed hand through it, over the undercut, through the curls, paying this half-attention to the steam rising, billowing up from the surface of the water, still half-humming beneath her breath, and now it is starting to seem autonomic, both listening and listening as she is wont to do.

And Dan comes after, not long after, slides his tall, lean body in behind hers and wraps his arms around her shoulders from behind, leaning forward to rest his chin on the crown of her head. Familiar, see.

And Sera glances at Elijah and she's a bit solemn for a Sera but you know, cannibals will do that to a person, and then her dark eyes slip back to Jennifer, and honestly - honestly - there's no hiding the way her features change as she both listens and listens -

" - were your parents awake?"

--

Dan, then, over Sera's shoulder. "What were their names? Your parents? Where did you live before Denver?"

Jennifer

Jennifer is looking at Sera to answer her question and so notices the shift in her features. a look of concern crosses Jen's face. " are you okay Sera? did I say something I shouldn't have?"

*Jen replays the last few things she said aloud and is perplexed about Sera's expression, perhaps she stepped on something?*

*how can I explain without seeming crazy I don't know dad's name... it was always hidden. He was always dad or honey... and the one time i asked.... (mental image of a hand printed bruise on her arm)*

Jen's face clouds over for a second and a flicker of worry crosses her face. "look, I know this sounds odd, but I don't actually know my father's name. he was always "dad" to me and "honey, darling, or sir' to my mom. Her name was Angela though. Your name makes me think of her... both kind of meaning angel."

*images of 4 or 5 different mountain camps flip though her mind*

"I lived in the mountains around Denver, but we moved around... the last location was closest to Estas Park"

*will they remember the news... will they figure out I'm from the... what did Elijah call it... religious commune? (random news clips flip though her head and you can see a picture of a woman bring arrested, mugshot and jury trials. sometimes the name Angela White is printed at the bottom, a picture of a generic man's silhouette with a question mark inside it read Mr. White under it and WANTED at the top) stop thinking about the trials!*

Jennifer closed her eyes and took a deep breath and calmed herself, she even smiled a little as she said. "I know it is odd being my age and not knowing the name of your father, but that is the truth of it."

*does mom even know his name... she never slipped up, not once, maybe even she doesn't know it. Oh goddess within what is real from my past and what is fake. I want so badly now to see this library that I didn't know existed to search out truth and facts!*

Serafíne

Sera breathes out, once and hard.

Glances at Elijah, then back to Jen. "You guys can stay here tonight. There are bedrooms, you can have your pick of any that haven't been claimed. But Elijah, it's not a good idea to take Jennifer to the library yet. We need to have more of a chat.

"Jennifer, you're not in trouble, but I need to make that you're okay. I'm going to take you to see a priest tomorrow. Elijah, take care of your friend - there's food and booze in the kitchen - but don't leave. I'm serious. We need to take Jennifer to see Pan tomorrow."

With that, Sera glances up at Dan, over her shoulder, and he bends his brow forward to touch her own. This kind of communion, and then he opens the glass slides and they head back inside.

Perhaps to do some research. Angela White. The Religious Commune. On and on.

Uncertainty, addiction, choice.

Danny

(Awareness)

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 4, 5, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )

Danny

*Danny was absorbed and for once it wasn't music filling his head, no he was going through notes, reading cross references and then going through the library using key words to build his search on. Firstly cannibalism, the cause of, the cults of, the reasons for.

That was the first step of looking for information, when he'd done that he went through the books again using more key words encouraged by this first search. He'd started with using music to help him concentrate, he'd even brought a writing pad doing this old school and college like. Something he'd not done for a couple of years, but he knew how to conduct a search, and with the entire of the day devoted to this, he finally sat up and groaned softly then got up to walk about barefooted. Moving to the french windows with something pre rolled, the door open and lit up. The day was cooling down but it was still warm enough for him to be able to step out side and have quite little smoke.*

Kalen Holliday

[How awake are we?]

Dice: 7 d10 TN7 (1, 4, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )

Kalen Holliday

[And how distracted by Resonance are we?]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 10) ( success x 4 )

Kalen Holliday

Kalen comes wandering outside a few minutes later, drinking a cup of coffee. It has hazelnut syrup and cream and sugar and whipped cream because Kalen and coffee have this bizarrely variable relationship. He at least looks like he's gotten some sleep recently, though there are still shadows under his eyes.

"Hey," He says quietly.

Danny

Hey... *He took the smoke down into his lungs and held it there, then let it out slowly into the air.* Just taking a break, but I'm onto something. Okay... Cannibals, the history the whole lot, there's like fuckloads of em out there. I mean all historical references cite back thousands of years to as recent as rumours of brazillian tribes still practising it today. So it's big search.

Kalen Holliday

"Yes. Cannibalism is a pretty broad topic."

Danny

Right so... Loads of cultures all chomping on eachother, some as funeral rites, some as victors over conquered people, some as offerings to the gods of their land. Either way, it's all pretty dark. One commonly held assumption is that you can gain a person's strength by eating their flesh, though the details will differ as far as just precisely how this works. The heart is commonly mentioned as having a lot of significance, and some believe that it is the primary source of strength. While there is universal agreement that some Mesoamerican people practiced human sacrifice, there is a lack of scholarly consensus as to whether cannibalism was widespread in pre-Columbian America the Aztec economy would not support feeding them as slaves and the columns of prisoners were "marching meat". They did their whole blood alter thing, devouring hearts and other parts of the body to allow the dead guys spirit to kind of add some strength to the consumer. So that's the history, but if we follow some of those facts and use them to bring up another keyword search you come to other thoughts and practises.

*He sets the smokable down in an ashtray then comes back into the library takes a book that's very old, he's been handling it with extreme paranoia. then hands it to Kalen.* Read this... *he taps on the page lightly he's pointing at.*

Danny

I know it's about theoretically dead magic... Before you go telling me I'm in the wrong tree or something.

Kalen Holliday

Kalen takes the book gently and scans over the page. "You'd be amazed ow not dead magic can be...."

Danny

Yeah so... here's the theory, some dude stumbles across it by accident, or has been introduced to it. From the sketches I saw by Lucy, these dudes are not mexican, or hispanic. But if you read on, on the next page there's a footnote about curing the addiction. But addicts rarely want fixing.

Kalen Holliday

"That certainly sounds like some of what's been described. If they're working with Aztec rites, it might be worth looking into what objects of power the Aztec used for battle. Specifically, if they had them, the tools of good sorcery.

"And curing the addiction...well. If we can save them we should. But, addicts also need to want help, usually. This is likely no different."

Danny

Yeah exactly.. and so.. that's all I got, I don't know if it gives you anything more to go on, I can keep on looking if you want? *he shrugs again.*

Kalen Holliday

"We may not get much more. Not here, anyway. This is specialized. We might actually be better asking a normal professor of history or anthropology if they know about this specific ritual. It may be that there are records somewhere.

"I still have yet to hear back from the people I asked, so they may yet find us something. We should update Ginger. It is possible that Trent or Eleanor will have colleagues at the university they could ask, or that someone knows of someone who can help. But this...we should see if this is in line with what Sera and the others have seen."

Danny

Well there's that other line. *He takes the book and reads out.* The physical boons last for a full 24 hours, but there are unpleasant side effects. The first is that those who participate in the ritual gain entropic resonance from it, and can be susceptible to Quiet.

Kalen Holliday

"Yeah. Quiet is not good. But...our priority is stopping them. For whatever reason they became involved in this, and this is not at all the kind of magic that is easy to justify.

"I don't want to kill anyone we don't have to. But...I doubt this will be bloodless."

Danny

Why can't we track them through that whole entropic thing? Kind of like, looking for the ripples in the pond, you find the spot in the middle? *He looks at Kalen.*

Kalen Holliday

"We don't have to. We already know where they live."

Danny

Uh.... that was unexpected. *He blinked in surprise.* So, why was I rummaging in old books all day again?

Kalen Holliday

"Because knowing where they are is different from knowing what they are. Also, because I only just found out we know."

Danny

Oh well... that's a start . *He sounds suprised.* Okay, so, is there a guy in charge?

Kalen Holliday

"No. Welcome to Denver. Here we just hivemind. Or behave like a herd of cats, depending on the day."

Danny

*That got a stare and he blinked again not long after.* So we've all got to work together then.. I actually meant their guy in charge though.

Kalen Holliday

"Oh. Yes. They seem to, but we don't know much about that yet. It's one reason for the research."

Danny

Well, perhaps he's the reason for them doing this in the first place, in which case, maybe he's the one swaying the others to do it? He's not stupid, why go out and take your own body when you can get some other dude to do it? *he sets the book down again.* What do you think as a work in progress?

Kalen Holliday

"I think we don't have enough information. We don't know what the group taking bodies is doing. I've asked Serafine, and I'm waiting on a response, but until I have details, we can't evaluate our theories."

Danny

Right... *he nods and sighs softly.* Well, at least we got somewhere. I can keep digging if you want? What I want to know is where they got this supposedly dead ritual in the first place. Not without stumbling over a book somewhere... or a guy with a psychopathic thought process?

Danny

(brb)

Kalen Holliday

"This is the kind of thing we can't really know now. False assumptions are more dangerous than a lack of knowledge. You need to learn that until you have enough information, you need to be comfortable not knowing. It need not prevent you from acting, but knowing...it is good. But you won't always know what happened, sometimes even after everything is over."

Danny

*He frowned at those words, his lips forming a line.* I guess you're not going to tell me what happens at the end, is there a reason why?

Kalen Holliday

"I don't know what happens at the end."

Danny

UH huh... *He nods finally.* Right. Okay. Well tell me if you want more research done? I'll do what i can?

Kalen Holliday

"Star...I don't know. Maybe we'll find more information. Maybe we'll go in blind. But I don't know what's happening, not with any certainty. We could be dealing with a Mage. We could be dealing with a possession. For all we know the leader is the physical manifestation of an Aztec god. That last one isn't likely. But I don't know how this ends at all."

Danny

*His eyebrows shot up at that.* Some Aztec god? Like, for real? Shit.... *His shoulders relax from their surprised stance and he moves to set the book back neatly where he'd left it on the desk, then sat down.* Well. I've written it all down. *he nods to the pad.* That's all I could find.

Kalen Holliday

Kalen's hands settle on Danny's shoulders. "You did good. Okay. This is good. We know now this sounds like this ritual. Having the ritual would be best, to understand how to undo it, but if this is right we might be able to help some of the people trapped in this. I don't know to what end, you can't just let them go. But...we have options. Options are good. It is, at least theoretically, possible they were compelled."

Danny

*There the frown was again.* I've done that.... I didn't realise I was doing it at the time, that night at the gig... They were so vibrant, I could feel all of them so I decided to throw them a loop... and well, I just started singing Born this way by Gaga.... and.... I swear I didn't mean to.. I swear I didn't do it on purpose. *he pauses.* It was like they were just extentions, we were linked. Ripples from back to the front and side to side. They were just... all there, all of them. Mine. It was like I was being made a part of something bigger. The crowd though, they really did do everything I said. specially those at the front.

Kalen Holliday

Kalen sighs and starts to rub Danny's shoulders. "Look. It's okay. You didn't know what you were doing. Don't worry. You couldn't have known."

Danny

Yeah, but I need to remember not to push things. Right? *He leans back into Kalens hands and closes his eyes.* What about you? You ever wandered in someones mind unwittingly?

Kalen Holliday

"No. But...that is not something I can do." He sighs. "And yes. You should not compel people, under most circumstances. Awakening though...can be messy."

Danny

Yeah it was.... *He nodded.* I've avoided singing that, playing it... *he shakes his head.* I don't want it to happen again. I want people to like my music for what it is, or hate it just the same. What did you find? *He frowns an notices the shadows, then reaches up to stroke the shadow under Kalens eye.* You look like you didn't quite get the right amount of sleep.

Kalen Holliday

"Well. Your magic is part of you. It is arguably part of everything you do. That doesn't mean what you do is any less. Just that there are things you can manage other people can't. It isn't...so different really from any other difference in innate ability."

Kalen smiles. "I never do. Don't worry about it."

Danny

*He leaned his head back though looking up at Kalen.* So, what now? I mean, does this mean that I could help unspell them or whatever it is that happened? Un-Sith them?

Kalen Holliday

Kalen's phone chirps and he glances at it. And then frowns. And then sighs. "Fucking Tytalans. I might know who the head of this is after all." He sighs and starts typing another message to Ginger. "And I might know what some of this is about. Are you familiar with the concept of Jhor?"

Danny

Uh......... *There was a shake of his head.* Jhor?

Kalen Holliday

"Yeah. Okay. That'll be an explanation. Hold on. This puzzle just got a lot less full of holes and I need to let like five people know right fucking now." Tap-tap-tap-tappity-tap.

Danny

*Standing up and nodding, Danny merely began to put the books away that he'd gotten out over the course of the day. Letting Kalen do what he needed to do.*

Grace

[Awareness!]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Grace

The first thing they'll notice (if they don't already sense the presence of Grace, the way the universe warps around her) is a series of thumps and bumps from car doors slamming, and maybe from their vantage point outside, they'll even hear the rustle of her noisy entrance into the Chantry.

She's usually a lot more subtle than that. But usually, she's not carrying three large vampire piñatas and a plastic sack of (gummy) hearts. They get dumped on the couch in the living room, because someone is here. She didn't think he was going to be here just yet...

She slips off over toward the french doors, slides it open. "Hey. What's up?"

Kalen Holliday

After a moment Kalen stops typing. "Okay. Ginger is updated. Now we'll have a delightful new round of people disliking the Order, probably. But...things they need to know." Kalen sighs. "Jhor is...a certain kind of...energy. It's...sort of like a death Resonance that can linger on a Mage. And it leads to pretty disturbing kinds of Quiet. I only know a little, actually, about it."

"Oh. I think probably another Hermetic has brought a mess to Denver. You know how we are. Some of us are cool. Some of us can't be bothered to not fuck up the world."

Danny

*He slowly turned and looked at Kalen from where he was putting a book back.* So, this guy came in like Jessie James and is leaving death and destruction in his wake? Why? I thought we were supposed to help mankind?

Grace

Kalen says that Ginger is updated, and Grace's face goes to 'thinking mode' for a split second before her hand goes to her pocket to retrieve her phone.

"Ohh, shit," she says, reading the messages. "Who the hell even 'researches' cannibalistic rituals? Maybe I should have a talk with Adam, Mr. 'Technology is like sacrificing babies'," Grace says, then takes a deep breath. "No. No. That would be bad."

"Look. Okay, I have no room to talk, really. I mean, Virtual Adepts made another universe that started eating our own, remora-like. And while it wasn't their fault exactly, they did make the thing. And one of them probably had romantic zombie-survivalist notions, and look where that got us all, right? Sometimes people are just individually fucked up. I get that."

Kalen Holliday

"Yeah. And...honestly...it isn't as though other Mages don't turn out badly. But...right after Lucia Montanari and Lucy asking me if I was just another power-mad Hermetic? I almost wish I'd hidden it. Almost."

He sighs and glances back to Danny. "Awakening happens to people. They are, by virtue of being human, flawed. Not all of us do good. Which is how you get Nephandi. And a jost of other problematic things, including, most likely, this one."

Danny

*Grace says, who would research cannibalistic rituals and then glances uneasily at Kalen before clearing his throat.* I uh left something outside.. I'll uh... be outside. Smoking.

*Turning to Kalen when he spoke as well he listened.* Right, so this guy was sick and this just gave him a means to an end? So, uh... Yeah, I'm going to go wrap my head around this and smoke, you uh.. want some you know where I'll be.

*With that he vanished out through the door and when he was outside again he picked up the smokable he had left, relit it and began to smoke, enjoying the fragrance and the subsequent peace that came with it. Despite feeling more than a little worried, he'd not used his computer at all in the searches, he'd done it old fashioned and it was making him pace, as he looked back he could begin to understand why Kalen was so reserved.*

Grace

"Oh. Did I say something..." Grace says, and sighs. Any time someone just leaves abruptly like that, she thinks it's her own doing. Maybe Danny researches cannibalistic rituals?

In an attempt at stopping them perhaps?

"I said something wrong didn't I?"

Kalen Holliday

"Danny's been researching cannibalistic rituals, since...you know...cannibals. And we may even have a way to stop these people's addiction and therefore their feeding in a way other than killing them. I mean. They also are kind of murderers and all, so I don't know how we'll handle it. But...it means we have the option."

Serafíne

(Awareness and whatall.)

Dice: 7 d10 TN5 (3, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6, 10, 10) ( success x 8 ) Re-rolls: 2

Danny

*He was outside smoking.. staring out into the space around them around the house. Just taking that puff on it, then holding it in his lungs before he exhaled it gently.* Bloody Cannibals, that is some fucked up shit. *he muttered to himself quietly.*

Elijah

What does Elijah do in his spare time?

Does Elijah even have spare time?

The answer is no, no he does not have spare time. All he has is whatever it is that he is doing at this particular juncture and he manages to balance his work, his social life, and the abundance of homework from various teachers and his mentor only by staying up entirely too late and drinking entirely too much coffee and then sleeping in and then starting the cycle of staying up/going to sleep/doing entirely too much and repeating. Thus far, it seems to be working for him, and his draems have skewed towards the bizarre.

Overall, not an unwelcome thing.

So, this is where he enters the scene, pulls up on a beat up motor cycle and takes off his helmet and exhales long and deep and- "Jeezus, it's actually nice out tonight."

He says to no one in particular. Perhaps the sky. He's been conversing with it a lot recently.

Grace

Grace screws up her face (at the wall) and then slides the door open again. "Danny. I'm sorry. I didn't mean you. I meant, how does one start studying rituals like that only to start doing them? I mean, studying vampires so you can kill them is a whole lot different than studying vampires so you can become one, right?"

She seems to be studying the sky herself, but bites at her lip. No, maybe... Maybe he just wants to be alone?

"I'll uh. You go smoke. Right."

Grace

[For the newcomers, there is a pile of vampire pinatas and gummy hearts on the couch in the living room. Enjoy.]

Danny

*He turned when Grace spoke to him, then even blushed at her words.* No, seriously Grace. I know why you said it and trust me. All the while I had to damned well keep thinking to myself, this is just research. Trust me. I've got no intention of uh... eating anyone.

Did Kalen tell you what got found? I'll be back in in a minute, unless you want some? *he even held it out for her.*

Kalen Holliday

"He hasn't been at this long. This whole cannibals and danger thing...it's a bit new to him." He settles into a chair.

"I don't think he'll hold it against you. He's just unsettled by all this. I'm not sure how he made it into a Tradition with so little training, but I guess I joined the tradition with insane amounts of training. I got all the training. From all the people."

Serafíne

This is how she is. Attuned, see. Sometimes you think she's high and she's not just high or maybe not even high, simply aware of all the many layers of creation, and they way the strangest things bend them, like waves of light around the curve of -

well, fuck it. See, Sera doesn't give a damn about science. Doesn't understand it, doesn't know it, doesn't believe it it. Fuck cells and quantum mechanics: she doesn't need them. And so, for her, in the very small pocket of her reality, they do not exist.

Right now, what does exist is her forehead against the cool glass of the passenger's window, the rumble of the engine, the blur of the countryside. Dan in the driver's seat and oh, here they are. She smiles.

From the correct angle, it is more than a little bit sad.

--

Sera rocks up behind Elijah who is talking to the sky and she slips an arm through his own. She is a little bit aching and a little bit tired and why the hell would Elijah know that?

She's always warm. Tips her temple against the prominence of his shoulder and says, with a sideways smile, "C'mon, other folks are downstairs in the library."

Pays no attention to the pinatas and the gummy hearts except with - maybe - a kind of squeezing of her own. Makes a stop in the kitchen for a beer and a bottle of tequila, though, before starting down the stairs to the library. The bones of the house creaking not because she weighs so much, but because she's all stompy in her Doc's tonight. Plus there's Elijah.

She's dragging him along.

(Apologies, my posts from here on will be shorter since it is early to be for me tonight. :D)

Danny

(Danny is outside smoking. Just for clarify.)

Elijah

[Do I feel things? Per+aware]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 8) ( success x 3 )

Elijah

And he is dragged, dragged we say! Inward and outward to people- yes, to people. He didn't care where they people were, so long as there were, in fact, people. He liked people, he had his arm in Sera's and there's a smile on his face- something familiar, something warm. He doesn't know that she seems sad, doesn't know yet, but he's content to be in Sera's presence and content to feel that visceral enthralling Sera-ness nearby.

"Bonjour! Nous avons apporté tequila," well, less we. More Sera.

Serafíne

(Hey, I didn't mean to ignore Danny, just given the posts I assumed that he was outside the library (which is downstairs from the main living area / down an open-out slope I think) rather than outside the garage where they'd pull up. But if I'm wrong let's say that Sera with her massive awareness roll got an "I need time alone now will go back inside in five when this smoke is done," vibe from Danny and just gave him a chin up and wave/nod of invitation to follow them back inside and downstairs when he was up to it. Cool?)

Danny

Totally cool! Yeah, he's just having a quiet smoke. Then he'll be back in.

Serafíne

Awesome. :D

Danny

(Post around me for a bit.)

Serafíne

There's such a rigamarole to get into the library. Sometimes Sera is so wasted she cannot manage the handprint, or remember the point of it, or keeps setting her wineglass down on the expensive electronics. Today she does manage a handprint on the palm reader and whatever the fuck else the thing asks to usher her into the library.

"I have no idea what the fuck he just said," says Serafíne. "Except for tequila. Tequila. That part's true. Hey."

Kalen Holliday

Kalen smiles when Serafine appears, and it is perhaps a distracted smile but it is still real. "Tequila is the true part. Got you. How are you?"

And there, behind her, is Elijah. Elijah gets a wave.

Elijah

Elijah kind of lives with Kalen, who gets a wave and a smile and he goes about what he was actually going to do- which was setting out book upon book upon notebook upon notebook and pens and- jesus Elijah looks like he prepared for the office supply apocalypse. Half of his notes are in French.

"Nous avons apporté tequila, means we brought tequila. The tequila part should always be true, because tequila? Is amazing."

Serafíne

Sera looks fine. Refined somehow - thinner or sharper and bleeding through those edges the way she always does, but also somehow present, immediate, so very in-her-skin and she favors Kalen with a smile of her own, which is not full but also not at all distracted, edged perhaps but -

"They killed five young mages." Sera, of course, lived through it all. Carries it in her body, as one always does with death. Kalen knows part of that already, but the details she has not shared on Ginger. "One of them caught Zoe with a hook in her back. She only survived because one of her friends sacrificed himself for her, and she has that something that makes it hard to remember her. That ability to fade from notice.

"She landed safely though. On a coast, near an ocean. I got a text.

"Have you learned anything else?"

Somewhere in the middle of all that Sera finds a library table. Sprawls across it, as you do.

Grace

Danny lets her shut the door. Apparently it is one of those 'must be left alone' things. And thus...

"Fucking foot in fucking mouth," Grace mutters, once the door is shut, once he can't hear. This was supposed to be a fun day, she thinks, looking at the pile of tissue paper and candy on the couch.

Can't have any of those, no sir. Gotta have cannibals eating people. Or vampires doing the same. Or universes eating universes. Or whatever it is. Everything eats its own in this world, apparently.

Morose, she makes her way back down to the library again, to crack the door.

Danny

*When it was finished he stubbed out the end and pocketed it when he was sure it was out, then zipped it out of sight, out of mind and made his way back to the library that was still strewn with his research notes on a table and a few more books on the nasty stuff he'd been looking into. All about cannibalism.

It was in Sera's speech that he reappeared, nodding to those gathered before he went back to where he'd been working and sat down, picking up the pencil with his left hand and moving the pad to before him.* Huh?

Kalen Holliday

"Tequila sounds pretty amazing right now," Kalen says to Elijah before he turns his attention back to Serafine.

"What I posted to Ginger like five minutes ago, which is, admittedly, only so much." He runs a hand through his hair and then pulls out his phone, opens the picture of Victoria Drake, and holds the phone out to Serafine.

"Her name is Victoria Drake. Hermetic, or possibly was, because this is the kind of thing that tends to get you excommunicated or quietly killed. The Order is hunting her, and that may be what they planned. She's suspected to be in this area, was exhibiting signs of Jhor before she vanished, evidence she had some cannibalism happening.

"Danny found an account of a ritual that grants additional speed and strength for 24 hours following cannibalism. It notes the ritual can be addictive and also notes how the addiction can be broken. I don't know if that changes any plans, but there is a chance they can be stopped without killing them. They did murder people though, so...I really don't know. I'm not even sure it will be possible to help them, under the present circumstances."

Elijah

he has his papers out, and whatever homework he was doing seems to be put to the wayside in favor of actual work. He takes notes, writes things down with names and circles and he stops and-

"But... I think we should help them. If we can help these people, I feel like we should because... I don't..." he stops, "what these people have done is horrible. We know that. But killing someone, legitimately ending someone's life so they go on to the next one should be an absolute last resort."

It bothers him. It very clearly bothers him. But he continues taking notes and making diagrams.

Serafíne

Tequila sounds pretty amazing right now. Sera picks up her bottle and she didn't bother with shotglasses and salt and limes, so she just licks the edge of her tattooed hand to steal the salt from her skin and then tosses back a shot.

Holds out the bottle to Kalen, if he wants to take it. Inhales, see, and goes a little bit far away, and glances at the phone.

The picture.

Shakes her head, no, before verbalizing it.

"Zoe never saw her, just the young men who attacked them. She could feel someone inside and though she wasn't casting anything when Zoe and her friends were being attacked Zoe could feel her presence inside the house."

A brief, half-lashed glance toward Danny. "How can the addiction be broken?"

Grace

She steps in just before Danny does, and looks around a bit, listening to the conversation.

"Will they stop if the addiction is broken? I mean, someone here decided that killing and eating people was an okay thing to do to begin with, right? Who's to say they won't just do it again?"

Grace has been sighing all night it seems. She does so again, just in time to let Danny have enough space to enter the room. Well, enough space for Grace is about six feet, but you know. She just goes off to a corner without really looking at him.

"Hi Sera. Elijah. Should have said that first."

Danny

*And now he was happy.. He'd done a good job if he did say so himself, proved himself to be able to help in some small way. Now he felt even better with that smoke, so when he resumed his seat he slouched in it a little more.*

Well you've got me there... *he shrugs apologetically at Serafinea.* Like any addiction I guess, remove the supplier and cut them off cold. The worst part will be if they don't know they need help or do know and don't care.*He glances at Grace and smiles at her, then turns his attention back to the room.*

Kalen Holliday

"And what? We don't have a jail for them. They did decide to go eat people. Unless they were compelled, which is not unreasonable but we have no idea right now. There aren't a lot of really good solutions and the last person I tried to save we ended up killing anyway. Saving people who are actively trying to kill you is practically impossible."

He takes the tequila from Serafine, takes a drink of it, and hands it back. "I'm not saying we shouldn't. I'm saying in my experience it doesn't work. Just be ready for that.

"I'm going to contact the Order and see what they know about her and if anyone is in the area hunting her. If anyone knows anything, and it is her, that might help. Particularly if we go to her."

Danny

(It's nearly 3am here, I'm going to have to bail, Danny's passed on the information and now I think he's going to vegetate on a couch or something.)

Danny

(thnks for the scenes!)

Elijah

"Generally, you turn to less legitimate means when conventional means of making your situation better have failed. Addiction is a big deal- and imagine if you're used to feeling powerless or weak or hurt and suddenly you're not. And you might hate what you're doing, and you might want to stop at some point, but-" he stops himself. He really stops himself and takes a long breath.

"I don't know, I just don't think... killing people does not sit well with me."

Serafíne

"We don't know that, Grace. We can't. Uncertainty, right? I don't know how much room there is for that in your paradigm, but I'm not prepared to execute people because we don't know how much of their behavior is based on the corruption and influence of a much stronger mind, or how much is based on their own sickness.

"I'm not a wheel-turner. And unless it is necessary for self-defense I don't think we should kill them - execute them. Even if they made a choice, they can make a different one. A new one, and anyway there are so many other options. Psychic healing, memory removal. Jail.

"I stopped one of them before, without time to prepare. With enough time, I could probably - divert more of them from violence. You'd probably have to deal with her on your own, though, if I'm occupied with diverting her worshippers."

The briefest, loveliest little smile.

"Something to think about. Let me know what you find out, okay?"

--

Just then, Dan pops his head down the stairs, and beckons Sera to come deal with something on her phone. Which she does, passing a kiss across Kalen's brow and one on Elijah's temple, with a little ruffle of Grace's hair.

Serafíne

(I also need to sleep my darlings! ninini! thank you for the scene!)