The weather had been relatively mild that day. Mid-sixties and partly cloudy skies. A handful of hikers had found their way out to Red Rocks in order to enjoy the last few weeks of hospitable temperatures, but as the sun dipped low and day turned to evening, most of them took to their cars and headed home. The wild landscape was peaceful in their absence, and the sun's setting tinted the sky a beautiful shade of coppery red to match those sandstone rock formations for which the park was named. The trails were empty and quiet, apart from the wind and the dry rustling of the pines.
There was a meditative quality to all of it.
Alyssa SolomonAlyssa stops by Red Rocks from time to time, just to connect with the natural world. She's never been a rural girl by any stretch of the imagination; she was born within a seat of power and spent nearly all of her time in big cities. But just because she's a city gal doesn't mean that she doesn't recognize the value of the wild. The chaos of the natural world appeals to her in a way that contrasts with her sense of law and order, which brings her out here from time to time.
And that's why she's here now. She doesn't skimp on her look so much as tones it down; the pale foundation, the deep green eyeshadow and black lips, the green highlights to her black hair today...all of it is part and parcel to her. It just isn't as extravagant as usual. And her clothing is less overtly gothic, a little more casual. She's wearing a men's dress shirt and a tie, loosened at the neck so she's not stifling herself, with slacks and a pair of heavy-soled boots. A black leather jacket completes the look and hides her methods of self-defense. She's got a cigarette between her lips as she makes her way out to the park area. Dusk is the perfect time for her, the twilight time that appeals to her nightly nature. Her Acura Legend is in a nearby parking lot and she's gone on foot the rest of the way.
SerafíneAnd Serafíne is out here alone, for reasons that are wholly her own. Strangers who know her peripherally would never guess that she might show up her, would have no idea that she sometimes likes to hike, that she even has some climbing skills, and even exercises them, from time to time.
Tonight though, alone, in hiking boots instead of her usual heels or combat boots. Otherwise: cut-off denim shorts, the threads hanging down on her thighs. These thigh-high opaque black tights that are now dusty from the day's exertions, covered in handprints and smears of red and dun-colored dust. A little pack at her feet with water and, well, other supplies, her hoodie tied around her waist, though she knows she will need it soon as the sun deserts the sky.
Seated on a boulder as strangers desert the area and night starts to fall.
Both: catching her breath, see, from the physical effort, and also taking it away again, as she sparks up a joint.
SerafíneAwareness!
Dice: 7 d10 TN5 (1, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7) ( success x 6 )
Alyssa Solomon[[Awareness]]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 7, 7, 8) ( success x 3 )
FlightAs Alyssa hiked up the trail, she drew nearer the place where Serafíne rested. The two of them felt each other's presence on the breeze, visceral and winged, enthralling, liminal and blood-soaked. They were both creatures of extremes, difficult to miss in this calm, empty landscape. Perhaps it was appropriate that the sky and the sand and the rocks were all tinted that coppery red. It bore a memory of blood, and of life.
There was another sensation on the air, one that would not be familiar to Sera but which she felt even while it was distant. She noticed the resonance even before she noticed Alyssa's, though it approached more slowly. It felt like a ghost dancing on the breeze. Spectral and swift.
Alyssa felt it too as she neared the top of the hill where Sera sat. And maybe she'd remember that sensation from another place much different from this one. A mall in Cherry Creek where a gang of kids had tried to instigate a mass looting. It'd been weeks ago now, and the owner of that resonance had not been front and center in Alyssa's attention at the time, so perhaps she'd forgotten it. The again, perhaps not.
The shout came just as Alyssa crested the hill. It sounded hoarse and ragged from exhaustion.
"Help!"
The voice came from further down the trail, echoing across the rocks. It sounded female.
Alyssa SolomonThere's a moment when she first senses Sera that she pauses, almost imperceptibly. It's that moment like when you pick up a scent that perks your interest and your brain is processing where it came from. Alyssa and Sera don't know each other well, but the Hollower never forgets a Resonance. She prides herself on that. She didn't make a move to beeline to her; they would find each other soon enough.
But then there's that other Resonance, which causes her to frown. And then...the voice, just as she's getting over the hill. The call for help. "God dammit," she swears, giving a quick look around as she breaks into a run, heading in that direction. Her hand goes underneath her jacket, coming out with a gun. She's not planning on shooting anyone, but it never hurts to have it ready.
Sleeper tactics first, magic second. That's the way she works.
SerafíneCurled up like that on the boulder Sera is really rather small. Any height she claims is borrowed, and she has been fasting off and on for the past month or more, which has sharpened her features and done something to diminish her frame. The difference in her would not be noticeable to a near-stranger and perhaps even friends are more easily lost in her resonance than her actual appearance.
So, rather slight but undeniable, her resonance gut-wrenching and entrancing and bordering - something - on the verge, right? The joint held expertly in her right hand, the left splayed open on the boulder, and she tasted Alyssa winged and bloody resonance from very far away, and remembered, of course, choking and dying on her own blood - as she always must when she tastes it, see, in the back of her throat - remembered and slid through the memory, liquid and strange and strangely strong, so that the first visceral reaction to that sensation has long since passed from her features.
Hidden in shadow, with the sun leaving the sky.
And she's lifting a hand by way of greeting as Alyssa crests the hill. The left not the right, lifting it up from the stone and holding her joint carefully away from her long curls and inhaling when that shout comes out and -
"Do you fe- "
- see, she is starting to speak to Alyssa, but Alyssa takes out, pulling out a gun.
Sera breathes out, once, hard, a lungful of choking smoke that was held too long or drawn in too harshly.
Starts to slide down the boulder, heedless of scratching herself, or rather - welcoming the small collisions, the scrapes and scratches, biting her tongue as she goes, opening her mind and letting her senses bloom as she starts to follow.
Not running, alas.
No weapon on her person.
[Mind 1 / Life 1 / Prime 1 scan. Dif 5. -1 for focus. -1 for practiced.]
Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (5, 5, 10) ( success x 3 )
FlightSera doesn't sense any active effects in the area. Life she does sense, of course. All around her in the plants and the quiet, hidden wildlife. That's not what she's looking for though. Front and center in her awareness is Alyssa, and then further down the trail, around a bend and hidden from view, there is a young woman. Probably about 21. And she is... not in good condition. Something has wounded her. Her pattern is torn and bleeding in multiple places, and she is exhausted from running.
As for her mind... this much Sera cannot sense. Not without more effort, at least. There is a wall there, a rudimentary but effective block from prying eyes.
FlightAlyssa heard the shout and began to run toward the source. Sera followed at a slower pace, jumping down from the boulder where she'd been perched. Alyssa drew her gun while Sera worked her Will - each responding to the possibility of crisis in their own way. Alyssa was moving faster, so she found the girl first. Her trajectory took her past Sera and down the trail, leading around a curve in the rock face. As she came around the bend, she found herself confronted with the image of a wounded and exhausted young woman. She'd been wearing a mask the last time Alyssa had seen her, but she wasn't wearing one now. Her dark hair was loose and matted with blood. Dark copper stains were soaked into her clothes. There were knife wounds on her thigh and her upper arm, and probably other injuries that weren't immediately visible. One side of her face was swollen from where she'd been hit.
She'd been crying. She looked as though she was in shock or grief, or both. When she saw Alyssa, she didn't at first seem to recognize her (or perhaps she was simply past caring.) She just uttered this broken sob and sank down to her knees in the sand.
"Help me, please..."
Sera likely wasn't far behind Alyssa. This was the sight she'd find when she reached them.
Flight[Ammendment: Sera totally does sense the mind shield the girl put up. Sorry about that. So she does in fact sense one effect.]
Alyssa SolomonShe comes around the curve, her gun held pointed down but at the ready. Be prepared...that's the Boy Scout motto, she was told once. And while she wouldn't be getting her Wilderness Survival or Mammal Study merit badges, its still advice that holds. (She's good at Lifesaving, but not the same variety as Scouts do. She's not much of a swimmer.)
That Resonance comes into focus a bit and she makes the vague recollection, reinforced by the hair. A frown lights on the Hollow One's face; they were on opposite sides of the mall raid, but the point is that she's obviously hurt. Alyssa can be cold, but she's not heartless. She does a quick visual sweep before coming up to the woman and dropping to a crouch.
"Easy. You're gonna be okay." She shoots a look over her shoulder to Sera, meeting her gaze. Her look is one that suggests being on alert, before she looks back to the girl.
"I'm Alyssa. We've met. What happened, and who did this?"
For all that she comes off as snarky and aggressive at times, Alyssa cares about people and their well-being.
SerafíneThe effect pushes her senses outward in an ever widening ring, familiar and perhaps a bit intoxicating, the layered web of life, the rudimentary consciousness tied to each separate living thing - Alyssa, her heart beating beating beating as she runs - and then, the girl.
That's when Sera starts to move faster. Perhaps not running but -
So Sera arrives shortly after Alyssa, not precisely out of breath but breathing a bit more heavily, somewhat altered, eyes dark in the shadows of the trail, her face shadowed and hard to read. Only the sky has traces of brilliance left.
And there's no reason to overwhelm the girl, and no reason to crowd her, either.
For all that Sera's heart lurches for the stranger's state, she keeps her distance for the moment. Edges off the trail, glances up and around.
Looks back, and breathes out once. Thinking, and tasting her words, and framing them carefully.
"Whoever you're running from isn't close enough for me to sense, okay? The immediate danger's past. I can heal you and we can get you down from here."
FlightAlyssa dropped down beside the girl, who gave a little jolt despite her weakened and exhausted state. Her breathing was quick and ragged. Panicked. But she was so, so tired, and her body didn't seem to want to hold her up. Anyone looking closely would be able to see the way her muscles shook. Fresh tears painted trails in the smears of dust and blood on her face.
It took a while before she could recover her voice enough to speak. Alyssa asked her what happened, but the girl just sobbed and sank closer to the ground. As her spine bowed, they'd be able to see the edges of a deep wound in the back of her shoulder. (Sera had already sensed this. The tissue around the wound was torn and bruised, as though someone had tried to drag her by a hook.)
The immediate danger's past.
After a while the girl stopped crying. Her breathing slowed a little, but she didn't seem terribly lucid. Her eyes fixed on the ground, not meeting either Sera or Alyssa's.
"They're dead. They're all dead. Shane... Ruby..."
Her voice went high and broke, and she closed her eyes, swaying gently back and forth.
"I don't know who it was. There was... four, five, six? I don't know. We found this house. Shane wanted to break in, but it felt all wrong. Hungry, devouring. Fucking monsters. I tried to leave but..."
She scratched her fingers through her hair and screamed.
Serafíne"Shhh." This susserant sound, deliberately soft, which dovetails into a half-heard melody melting around Sera's tongue. It has the minor key of something haunting and the progression of a lullabye and the words are in Sera's throat and behind her eyes, and she's feeling them all even if the music itself is just half-formed, half-expressed, vector and vehicle and focus as the girl starts to scream.
That's all. Just shhhh and shhhh and the song and the resonance of Sera's magic. No longer hanging back. Not as the girl's panic grow and the scream starts to build in the back of her throat.
The creature sinks into a crouch, diamonds of her fishnets digging into her flesh, one hand just touch-down for balance, her eyes shining.
[Mind 3: Projecting a feeling of safety the girl; cushioning her from her panic and pain - though no removing it. Giving her space from it, wrapping her up in what feels like a globe of healing light. This space where she can be safe, between - preserving the mind before healing the body.]
Alyssa SolomonShe cares, but she's not the most patient of people. There's a moment where the girl is just sobbing, and Alyssa looks like she's about to try to shake her out of it. Then she notices the hook-wound on the back and even with everything terrible that she's seen, she blanches a little.
"Jesus Christ." She hasn't put the gun away and she's glad she hasn't, just in case. She's not sensing anything approaching either, but she knows better to rely on that as gospel. Masking Resonance isn't as hard as some might think.
The scream doesn't put her on edge more than anything else. "We've got to get you out of here." She steps back now, standing back up and taking a guard-like position. She looks to Sera now, giving a troubled frown. "Can you..." But Sera's already working something, her Resonance pinging against Alyssa's now. She keeps looks around the path and environs, standing as sentinel over the other two mages. But she's not ignoring the wounded woman either. She's not going to let this be a trap and if Sera draws close, Alyssa's going to make sure she doesn't get hurt.
"How did you get from the house to here? Is it nearby?" Of course, she's waiting to see if the girl stops screaming before asking the question.
SerafíneMind 3: Difficulty: 6 -1 for focus; -1 for resonance; -1 for quint. Threshold: 5 sux.
Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (5, 6, 10) ( success x 4 ) [WP]
SerafíneExtending: Difficulty 5 this time. No more quint and +1.
Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (1, 8, 9) ( success x 2 )
FlightAs she worked, Sera's Will bumped up against the girl's. The mental defenses were hastily done (an act of hurried desperation, no doubt,) and bypassing them wasn't difficult. Not for a Disciple. But Sera didn't beat her way in with force. She sang calmly, and the outward projection of her mind was golden and warm, seeping in past the cracks like sunlight. Whether the girl understood what was happening, she didn't struggle. Didn't put up any fight. Her scream died away as her breath left her lungs, and then she just rocked back and forth, mouth open, a small string of saliva hanging from her parched lips.
After a while, her muscles stopped shaking, and she began to breath more normally. Slow, deep breaths in and out. She wasn't okay. This girl wasn't going to be okay for a long time. But at least for the moment, she knew that she was safe. That whatever danger she'd run from, it had not followed her here.
She looked up when Alyssa asked her question.
"I ran. For a long time. I'm not sure how far. I'm not good with distances."
All the same, if she'd been on foot then it couldn't have been too far off.
"I think Shane killed one of them."
Alyssa Solomon"All right. That's good, it means they can be killed." Hey, sometimes that's in doubt. She nods a little bit, looking from the girl to Sera. "My car's not too far away, we can take her somewhere back to my apartment. It's as safe as anywhere might be. Maybe you can work on her injuries in the meantime, or when we get back."
She has dozens of questions, but they're all questions that can be answered later. Right now they need to get her out of this area. They won't be fully out of danger until then.
"What's your name?" she asks of the girl.
SerafíneSera's song continues, beneath her tongue and in her blood as much as it is in her throat. Wordless and full of feeling and assured beneath both of those, threaded with emotion, acknowledging fear, catching on it as much as it cushions the stranger from it.
When the girl finally stops screaming and seems to calm, Sera glances up at Alyssa, this hooded look that nevertheless feels steady beneath the evident emotion in her gaze.
Whatever she was going to ask, though, Alyssa answers without explicit inquiry (the way Alyssa spoke, Sera thought she meant to track down these people, and this place, alone) and so the question remains unspoken.
"I can do it here," she tells Alyssa. Sera doesn't think the girl could make it down the path without more aid than she herself is likely to be able to offer - or first aid, or more, of some sort. Sera's gaze drops back to the wounded young woman, and she meets the girl's eyes and holds out her hands, palms up. "Take my hands, okay? I'm going to heal you."
FlightFor the first time that night, there was some evidence of recognition in the way that the girl looked at Alyssa. "I remember you," she said quietly. But she didn't say anything else, and it didn't seem as though she had any inclinations to dredge up old conflicts. In the light of recent events, that evening seemed almost to exist in another lifetime.
Alyssa asked her name.
"Zoe."
The girl didn't offer any resistance to their plan, either at the mention of Alyssa'a apartment or at Sera's suggestion of healing. Perhaps Sera and Alyssa meant to do her harm, but if so... she was too tired and too broken to fight them. Zoe had run as far as she could on her own. This was the end of her flight.
She placed her hands in Sera's own. Wetness welled up in her eyes again, but the radiance of Sera's calm protection persisted, and she did not give herself back over to panic. This was only an echo of sorrow.
SerafíneSera's eyes brim, too. Hard to see in the darkness, except for the damp sheen of her gaze, the way the ambient light reflects off the surface. She cannot help it; her breath catches and she fits her own finger's between Zoe's, folding their hands together, shifting from that crouch downward, kneeling now, bare knees on the rocky path. The gravel digs, all sharp but she's leaning forward regardless, taking both Zoe's right and left hand in her own left, freeing the right to reach up and cup the back of Zoe's skull, cradling it as she bends forward, even closer.
Mouth soft against Zoe's left temple, where the pulse beats. Then the center of her brow, where her third eye is found. The the right temple. Her breath warm, her hair and skin wrapped up with the scent of marijuana, each kiss soft, intense, reverent - focused - as she begins to gather power.
Call it ritual.
Because it is.
(Life 3. Vulgar without witnesses: Difficulty 7. -1 for focus. -1 for quint.)
Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (2, 2, 10) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
SerafíneExtending. Spending her last quint. Difficulty 6.
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (4, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )
Alyssa Solomon"Zoe." Another of those little nods; acknowledgement. Sera wants to heal her here, and the way Alyssa's brow tightens suggests she doesn't necessarily like it. This area is still dangerous. But she gets it and she's fine acceding to the Cultist's judgment in the situation.
"I'm gonna be a few minutes while you guys do your thing. If anyone comes up, I'll be within sight." She puts the gun away, holstering it underneath her jacket, and pulls out a pen knife. She jabs it into her palm and drags upward, wincing and giving a little hiss as she does so. Years ago the reaction would have been much more pronounced, but when you need to bleed in order to work your magic you start to develop a callous to self-inflicted wounds. The blood wells up and becomes Alyssa's inkwell, which she uses to inscribe a path.
A path that will hopefully protect them.
She murmurs an incantation in Enochian, empowering her blood, and then squeezes her hand into a fist so the blood starts to leak out. The idea is to give them a trail, if they're tracking Resonance. A trail strong enough that it will overpower the one that they'll leave. Carefully she lets the blood drops fall and begins to walk off the path, heading away from where they are. That will buy them time to get away, if such time is needed, and with luck will keep them from picking up on the smaller Resonant trail of residual magic that Sera is leaving.
Once she's left a trail of a good thirty yards or so, she'll make her way back.
[[Prime 2: Dropping Quintessence on the ground, basically. WP for success, and Quint to lower difficulty.]]
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (2, 8) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
SerafíneParadox.
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 7) ( success x 1 )
SerafíneSoak!
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 5) ( fail )
FlightIt wasn't necessarily a foolproof plan, but it was something. Something to divert a pursuer's attention for a while. Alyssa worked on setting up her false trail while Sera healed Zoe's wounds. By the time they were finished the sun had gone down, leaving them blanketed in night's darkness.
Zoe was still a mess to look at, but her pattern was mended. Her breathing sounded easier, and she no longer held herself as though she was in pain. (Not physically, at least.) For her part, Sera did not completely escape reality's backlash. She felt the bruises of blossom within her, but the damage was nothing serious.
When Zoe was ready to stand, she let Sera or Alyssa (or both) help her to her feet. Wherever they chose to take her from there, she'd follow silently.
SerafíneWhen her ritual is finished, Sera helps Zoe stand, offers her an arm if she needs it - or just companionship, close by as they climb back down the trail both she and Alyssa took at greater speed, at least, after Alyssa returns from laying her false trail. This glimpse at Alyssa's profile as she returns not precisely searching but aware. Somewhere on the trail or down to the car, Sera might ask Alyssa what she did, and why, and how.
Alyssa's is the only car in the lot right not, and Sera accepts a ride if offered. Texts her consor that he needn't come pick her up. She's tired now, Sera, all that Work. She offers her own place as a refuge for Zoe, but then thinks that perhaps a hotel would work better. Something downtown, a highrise full of people.
She'll get someone to take care of the bill, so she assures them both.
--
She will tell Alyssa, quietly, as they drive, the story of her earlier encounter with the cannibal-boy. Tell her quietly and perhaps a bit achingly, but without dramatics or embellishment. Sigh as the dark countryside rolls by and Denver begins to create itself in their view.
Wipe away a few tears. Try not to think about Zoe, or her friends who didn't make it. That's harder than it seems.
Alyssa SolomonShe helps Zoe up if Sera needs it, but she's not someone to lean on. In this instance, at least, because she already has the gun back out to guard over the three of them as they get back to the car. Colorado's an open carry state, so she doesn't anticipate any problems being seen with it out.
She moves at whatever pace they need, not hurrying them but clearly wanting to get them out of the area as quickly as possible. Once they get back to the car--a 1989 Acura, specifically, with a faded red paint job--she lets Zoe into the back, then goes around to the trunk and gets out something to more securely wrap her hand than the rag she always keeps with her for occasions like this. It isn't long before they're heading out of Red Rocks, although she expresses her strong opposition to a hotel and would rather do her own apartment. She can ward her home, and if someone does track them down than somewhere public and full of people is just putting those people in danger, which she won't have. Plus she can do research there to figure out what attacked Zoe. And questioning is simpler when you're not worried about housekeeping or bellboys knocking on the door.
Along the way, Alyssa is quiet. There are time for questions when she's got them successfully warded. She explains to Sera what she did and why if/when asked. She isn't emotional--not yet. She'll unleash her emotions all over whatever did this later.
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