Hunger
For some, the day started early. Sera and Ian
and Jae-shin met up with Alex and Elijah at the chantry. Maybe the
apprentices showed up later, as the sun was starting to sink low in the
sky and that sense of liminal electricity hung foreboding in the air. Or
maybe they came by earlier to help where they could. To talk. To figure
out some semblance of a plan. The other three worked their rituals as
the hours passed. Sera was able to provide an advantage in the form of
time - speeding up each of them incrementally until the world around
them seemed to pass more slowly. Ian quietly took Elijah and Sera aside
in order to better shield them from physical threats. The other mages
prepared how they could.
And Lucy? What of the Dreamspeaker?
She wasn't there with the rest at the Chantry. Instead she left early
for the woods around the house. She packed her tools and she found a
place to work, and then she called out to the spirits of the dead; of
those who'd been murdered by the woman they meant to confront. Souls
trapped in the memory of what was done to them.
Now was the
time. If they were ever to gain some semblance of justice. Of closure.
They must take it for themselves. And so she focused on the threads of
fate and prophecy and justice, and she called out. Perhaps she danced,
or sang, or prayed. Whatever her methods, she called, and her voice
echoed across the landscape of the penumbra. It was an exhausting
ritual, and perhaps she feared that it might prove fruitless. She could
not compel the spirits to come. All she could do was hope that the
message found its way where it needed to go.
And then,
finally, they were there. Not just one, but two, three, five... eight.
All eight. Jeremy she recognized. The others were less known, but they
bore the faces of those who'd gone missing over the summer. And then,
one by one, they pushed their way through the gauntlet and materialized
on the other side. Their forms were weak and noncorporeal, but they were
there. And they were ready to fight.
Back at the Chantry, the
others left in their cars and drove quietly to their destination. Ian
drove with Jae-shin, while Sera took her van, leaving Dan to wait in the
driver's seat. Perhaps Alex and Elijah traveled together, or perhaps
they went with Sera or Jae-shin. Either way, they all got there. The
vehicles were parked a safe ways down the road. Close enough that they
could run to them if need be, but far enough that they'd be out of
sight. When the group finally arrived at the property, they'd find a
large red house in the middle of a wide grassy field, bordered by pine
forest and protected by a tall, wrought iron fence. Ian and Jae-shin
scaled the fence, helping Sera over the top, and if the others needed it
they'd offer a hand down to help them too.
On the outside,
the place looked deceptively calm, with no signs of violence or
destruction or any kind of recent activity. Once past the fence,
however... it was another story. Something felt different. 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.
Chunks 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. Sections of the house were charred. Even at a
distance the smell of burnt wood was noticeable.
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.
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.
Elijah
Elijah
was not an athletic creature. He knew this, wasn't embarrassed about
this, the fact that his physical activities tended to lend themselves to
more carnal ends was not exactly helping him at that juncture, save to
have the occasional thought stay present and consistent in his mind.
THere were things to do. There were things to do and people to see and
something that they needed to stop.
He should have told
Kalen what he was doing. He should have told Kalen a lot of things, but
telling Kalen his thought process wasn't exactly high on his To Do
list. Elijah took in the general feel of the place, a little cold now
that he wasn't shoved up against someone who was a little slice of
magical winter. He was too busy thinking of things he wanted to tell
Jenn, things he'd wished he'd told her. He could see all sorts of
things, except for what was in front of him. Funny how that works.
"Jesus,"
he muttered, looking at the house. He took a second to look at the
people he was with, "so... what are we doing? Are we having, like, a
metaphysical intervention? Do we read letters about why cannibalism is
bad?"
Oh yeah, he wasn't nervous at all.
Alexander
Alexander
had been early to the Chantry, but had been pretty quiet the whole time
he’d been there. He knew what was coming, to some degree what they
were expecting to happen. Maybe the plan itself needed to be firmed up,
but in the end it all came down to one thing: The pack and their
leader needed to be stopped. And that’s why he was here. Because of
that sense of duty that had put him in the line of fire before and, all
going well, would do again. There’s not much to be said.
He
spends his time doing what he can to help the others before preparing
his gear. The body armour is checked. The pistol taken apart, stripped,
cleaned and reassembled. They’re all familiar motions – he keeps his
gear well maintained – so perhaps it’s more out of something to occupy
his hands and his mind until they were ready to go. He rides with Sera
and Dan, leaving the blue bike tucked away in the Chantry’s garage.
They
arrive at the house and Alexander offers to boost up anyone who might
need a hand before climbing up and over the fence himself. Best hope
they don’t need to get away in a hurry, right? Elijah asks what they’re
going to do. Makes a joke about dropping off pamphlets. Tries to hide
his nerves.
“We do what needs to be done.” The tone is
almost normal, but there are tells in his body language for those who
know him. He’s nervous too. But he’s had more practice in similar, if
more mundane, situations, so is better at hiding it. He unholsters his
Glock, checks the clip and the round in the chamber – one of the clips
that Kalen had worked his particular brand of magic on earlier - then
clicks off the safety.
The others are watching the house, so
he looks around where they’re not watching. They don't know how many
people are inside, and it's best their little group doesn't get snuck
up on.
Lucy
What of Lucy the Dreamspeaker?
Her day started earlier, with a soak in the impossible heat of the
Node's hot spring to replenish what she could of her strength, her
power. One of these days she'll have to ask around if there isn't some
other place, some other Node where she can pray to her divine Avatar for
strength, some place that doesn't make her feel like she's melting from
the inside out. For today, though, Lucy did what needed to be done,
dressed, gathered her things, and began her journey on foot to the
cloaked area from her visions. It was no easy thing. She carried her
large-ish yet plain mirror she used to draw out Sally Starling, and her
lantern, and her bag full of other things over her shoulder.
The
ritual was long, and arduous, and tasking. Lucy prayed to the dusk
handmaiden, the being to whom she is merely a conduit, an oracle, a
device. She readied herself and she prepared herself. She lit her lamp
and lowered the Gauntlet through her mirror that her voice would carry
more easily. The air around her grew gelid, frosted, too cold for such a
pleasant autumn day. And in the end all she can do is hope that her
voice is heard. Lucy's duty is to guide the dead, not to command. She
eases their passage to the other side, doesn't compel them. She wonders
if these are things she should do, feels her cheek burn where Dusk
touched her so many years ago. Knows there is more to be done, but
later. Later.
It seems an eternity before they arrive. While
she waits, she lights her incense and bolsters her mind against
intrusion. Lucy doesn't recognize most of them, but she knows them.
Brian and Melissa and Kevin. Nathan, Denise. Kate and Sean. Jeremy.
She greets them as one would expect the guardian of the dead to greet them. Tired, weary, but straight and strong, chin lifted.
"I
promised you justice," she says, then turns away to look over the
land. The house is not easily in view, but she knows that it's there.
Lifting a long and graceful and too-pale arm she points. "It's there."
Looking at the gathered dead, she asks, "Will you take it with your own
hands? Will you find your peace? Come." She takes a step back.
"I'll help you all that I can."
And she, their Speaker,
guides, and she leads, leaving behind the larger mirror. She won't be
needing it for what needs to be done next.
As she nears she
feels others. Most she doesn't recognize, but two are very familiar.
One is cold, frozen, almost like her but not quite. The other is the
tumult. The others...strangers, but those two are enough. Lucy's chin
lifts, and she picks up speed, until she is running long-limbed and
long-gaited to the house.
Hunger
Lucy led her charge to the house, and when she
arrived at the edges of the property and sensed the presence of the
other mages, she began to run. The ghosts followed, their forms shifting
and fluid as smoke. As they moved through the trees, they disappeared
and reappeared, blending with the shadows. And then, when they arrived
at the fence, they stopped. Ian and Jae-shin looked back at them, and
the expression on Ian's face snapped with surprise. The Akashic nodded
to the spirits, and to Lucy, as though he understood already what it was
they'd come there to do. Jae-shin offered a hand to help Lucy over the
fence, should she need it.
Behind him, Sera gave a quiet curse when she saw the state of the property. It was obvious that something had gone down there recently. But what? And who was left standing at the end?
Alexander
wasn't able to sense any immediate spiritual activity nearby. At least,
not in the yard or the house up ahead. Sera had previously mentioned
that the building was Awakened, but now? There was nothing. It felt cold
and dormant to his senses. Jae-shin confirmed it.
"I don't sense any spiritual residue in the house."
Serafíne
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
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." He 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."
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
"Fuck."
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.)
Elijah
Under the sight of a normal grizzly bear, Elijah would have tried to play dead and hope that everything he saw on TV worked.
this, however, was not a normal bear. This was not a creature that wasn't really real
anymore. This wasn't like anything he had ever seen. Eyes widened,
stomach turned and he took his time to hold the handgun and familiarize
himself with the fact that he was going to go in and do something that
he'd only done in a friend's back yard (keep your hand steady, keep your
eyes focused. Breathe and be ready for recoil. Don't look away.) And
there comes a moment when people can be afraid, when fear can paralyze
you and make you think that it's all over.
But action was better than nothing. He cocked his head towards the house and made his way to the door.
"C'mon,
let's go," he wasn't fearless by any means. He was fool hearty, yes,
but at that moment his heart was pounding and his breathing was steady
and Elijah was very, very aware of how fallible his body was. About how
he had to act, and act quickly. Bears and nerves be damned, they had to move.
Alexander
Two
people inside – one of them hurt, scared. Most likely another victim,
although the pack hadn’t shown any hesitation on turning on one of their
own before. Either way, they need help.
Alexander turns to Ian, then to where Ian is looking, when he says Something’s out there. He sees the bear and get’s a feeling of something
riding it when Jae-shin gives his warning. He turns and starts to
bring his gun up, taking aim at the creature – whatever it had been
twisted and turned into – and...
Fuck. He holds the shot, looking to Sera when she curses but still holding the pistol in position. “Ah, fuck!”.
He decides. Sera seems to be happy to handle the bear and is outright
telling him to go. So the gun comes down and he runs, dashing off at
the same time as Elijah. And hoping like hell that the others staying
to take care of the bear are a good enough distraction for them to be
able to get past.
Lucy
On the outside of the
fence Lucy stops because she has to stop. She does not have the ability
to slide through solid objects like some Marvel heroine. But she stops
up short when she sees the people with Elijah and Alexander. One is
unknown, one vaguely familiar, but the third...
Lucy, eyes wide, opens her mouth and immediately snaps it shut. There is no time to ask Ian?
No time to wonder at him being here, at him having that otherworldy
resonance. She climbs nimbly over the fence, drops lightly on the other
side, and trots to catch up.
"Hey," she says, perhaps slowly
to their senses as she claps her hand on Elijah's shoulder. She gives
it a gentle if not reassuring squeeze before letting go, and she does
not interrupt.
There are bodies. Lucy looks to the spirits
gathered with her, gauging emotions, reactions. Is it one or more of
them? It doesn't matter. If the previous owners of those bones still
lurked nearby they would need to wait until later. Lucy is weary, does
not presently make a very good vessel for her Avatar's strength, does
not have time to try to draw them over to aid in taking their own
justice.
And then there is that bear. Lucy, with only a
simple boxcutter (and her antique silver scissors, but those she will
not use for violence) somewhere inside her bag, is no good against
bears. Unless one counts potential toothaches from trying to eat
nearly-frozen flesh, of course.
And anyway, their target, the
target of the ghosts with her, is within. And there is Elijah, making
for the door, and Alexander. Lucy spares only a glance for Ian, a
glance that holds the barest hint of wonder, the slightest curve at the
corner of her wide mouth. Then she's shaking her head and running after
the others.
"She's inside," she says for her charges. "She's near. Almost, you're almost there."
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. Sera
kept further back, preparing an effect to take down the creature from a
distance. And while this went on, the others took their chance.
Elijah
and Alexander ran for the front door, with Lucy just behind. She was
guiding the spirits that had come with them. Leading them on to... what?
Hopefully some kind of justice for the horrors that were wrought upon
them.
When the mages reached the door, the found it locked. It
would, of course, have been too easy if it hadn't. But the spirits?
Physical barriers meant little to them, and one by one they passed
through the walls into the house, leaving the living beings behind.
Elijah
[please don't miss the door. Dex+firearms? Called shot +2?]
Dice: 3 d10 TN8 (4, 5, 7) ( fail )
Alexander
[Bigger bang. Dex+Firearm. +2 diff]
Dice: 6 d10 TN8 (3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )
Elijah
He really isn't a martial creature.
He really, really
isn't a martial creature. And call it nerves or call it whatever, but
one should probably call it what it was and there was a nice bullet
sized notch in the door, but nothing else. He winced.
Alexander
Elijah’s
shot goes astray, leaving a hole in the body of the door. Alexander
takes aim and tries, shredding the lock and opening the way forward. He
steps forward, gun raised and watchful for threats. There’s no
question now that the woman behind all of this knows that they’re
there. So he does what he can to protect the other two.
Lucy
Elijah
pulls out a gun and Lucy quickly steps back, clapping her hands over
her ears. She's about to lower them when she sees - ah, no, the door
only has a fresh notch in it. Alexander takes aim and Lucy watches,
brow furrowed. His gun looks like it'll be louder than the other,
maybe. The ghosts have left, have gone in to find the one who
orchestrated their deaths, there isn't much that she can do on her own.
But she isn't about to stay outside with the terrifying bears. Perhaps
she can provide moral support?
She waits for the other two to
go through first, then makes her way after, pausing just inside the
door to step to the side and look around. The woman outside said "she"
was coming downstairs. And that there was someone with her, someone
wounded and scared. If nothing else, maybe Lucy could get the one hurt
out of harm's way.
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 +5?
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (9) ( success x 1 )
Hunger
[Fomori-bear +4]
Dice: 1 d10 TN3 (8) ( success x 1 )
Hunger
[Order:
Sera: 14
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 Ian, Sera and Jae-shin
thought that was 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.
---------------------
When Alex opened the door, the mages found themselves looking into a
dark foyer. All of the lights in the house were off, and no one was
there to greet them when they entered. If Victoria was there, she was
keeping quiet. Her resonance lingered though. That sense of devouring
hunger. It was so very, very strong.
Outside, there
were sounds of combat. Of a roaring, huffing beast. And then a sudden
surge of crackling, visceral energy followed by a bright flash.
Another
scream issued from somewhere on the floor below. It was louder now,
easier to distinguish. Up ahead, at the end of the hallway, there were
stairs leading both up and down.
Elijah
there was a feeling of devouring hunger. A
feeling that couldn't quite be sated that gnawed on his consciousness
and he was running on autopilot. IT wasn't a thought of heroism, but
rather, a memory of what he was supposed to be doing. A thought that he
knew he was here for a purpose and he had to move and time was not on
his side, so naturally, what Elijah did was steel himself and haul ass
down to where the sound of the screaming panic terror pain fuck that sound. He followed down the stairs.
He could make smart decisions later. He needed to make quick decisions now.
Alexander
That
feeling, so very strong but all around them. All around, so useless
for trying to narrow down where Victoria might be. There’s a fleeting
thought that it would be something good to know, but he’s focused.
Concentrated. He stalks down the hallway swiftly but warily, gun
outstretched. He reaches the stairs, sweeping the pistol up and then
down, ready to fire.
This was always as close as he’d gotten
to meditation before Kalen had spent time with him, that clearing of the
mind from conscious thought. Instinct steps in. And Alexander steps
down, towards the screaming.
Lucy
Lucy feels
that ravenous, gnawing hunger trying to worm its way into the pit of her
stomach. It makes her shiver in a way that cold never will again.
There is a thought, a single pondering moment where she wonders where to
start looking. She should bear witness to what she's brought with her,
after all. She should stand guard, cold and quiet sentinel of the
dead.
But a scream from below tears its way through her,
raking fingernails down her spine and causing her heart to jump. Then
she is jumping, dashing forward, hot (hah) on Elijah's heels. If she
can help she must. If it is not someone's time to die then she must do
what she can to ensure they aren't taken too soon.
Like Elijah, there is no thought, only action. Only a need to get. to. them.
[let's go percept+alert, though]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )
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: 1 d10 TN3 (5) ( success x 1 )
Serafíne
+5 init!
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (8) ( success x 1 )
Hunger
[Fomori-bear +4]
Dice: 1 d10 TN3 (2) ( fail )
Hunger
Order:
Sera: 13
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 )
--------------------
The house was dark, but some ambient moonlight shone in through the
windows. Enough that the mages could see where they were going - at least,
until they began to descend the staircase. The steps were made from
hardwood, and they creaked slightly beneath Elijah's weight. He was
joined by Lucy and Alexander, the latter with his gun drawn and held at
the ready.
As the three of them walked down those steps, the
light around them grew darker. Until the door ahead of them was only a
faint outline in the blackness. This door was heavier even than the
first: a solid metal panel with a sturdy deadbolt. The front door had
been locked. Would this one be as well?
Whoever chose to open the door, they would find it unlocked. Maybe that was a stroke of luck. Maybe it wasn't.
The
first thing that hit them was the smell. Blood. The air in the basement
was thick with it. Like they were walking into a slaughterhouse. But
the room ahead was pitch black, and the young man? He'd stopped
screaming. Now there was only this stark, ominous silence. And that
resonance, growing ever stronger. She was here. Victoria. The Devourer.
Jormungandr.
Waiting. For them? Likely.
Elijah
There was a smell.
His avatar wasn't
screaming at him, he didn't hear dozens of voices telling him what to
do. He didn't have anything except silence and a clear head. He reached
for his back pocket, taking out his cell phone with the cracked screen
and fiddling with it for a moment to get it to the flashlight function.
He didn't want to see what was down there. He didn't want to know, but
he had to know. he couldn't experience just the good, he needed to see
the worst in humanity. She was here, the devourer. The serpent which
devoured the world. Elijah inhaled slowly, remembering that calming
breath.
"Victoria?" he asks, and his voice is a forced calm, "this is... why? Why all of this."
It just came out. He didn't mean to ask, but he had to ask.
"This isn't okay."
Like anyone would listen to reason.
Alexander
Certain
things come with time. Experience is one of them. The experience of
blood. Fresh, dried, pooled, splattered. The iron-tinged smell of it
as you wash it away. The experience isn’t an unfamiliar one, although
perhaps its intensity is more than Alexander had been exposed to
before. Perhaps it was a blessing that, for the moment, they weren’t
able to see anything. The smell was a warning of what was to come.
Alexander’s
mind still flows clear, quiet. Focussed. Some of the Mages had found
out what happens when they sneak up on him. This? This is why.
Elijah
slows up, the sound of something being slipped out of a pocket.
Alexander moves away. The gun stays raised, his back brushing the wall –
its presence reassuring that nothing could come at him from behind. He
listens, trying to place the other occupants of the room. The man had
stopped screaming, but why? Because he couldn’t scream anymore?
Alexander stays quiet, all the better to stay unnoticed.
[Sneaksneaksneak - dex/sealth]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2, 5, 7) ( success x 1 )
Lucy
The
stairway gets darker and darker, and Lucy pauses, presses against the
side of the passage to allow Alexander to pass. They have guns and, she
assumes, a decided lack of night vision. She lets them get ahead of
her and it's only after she's assumped a place at the rear that she
recalls her lantern, hastily stashed into her bag before she climbed the
fence. She retrieves it now, which is easy. Finding her lighter takes
more time. She's well behind the other two, is just putting her
fingers around the cold metal case when the smell hits her. It turns
her stomach. Lucy is no stranger to the smell of death. The chill of
the grave has seeped through her skin to the marrow of her bones, and
she does not always locate the departed without discovering their
remains.
But this. This is just so wrong.
By
the time Lucy's found her lighter, Elijah's already calling out, the
light from his cell phone shining out. Lucy's light is no longer
needed, but perhaps she can use it for a different purpose. She opens
the door of her lantern, flicks her lighter to life and touches the
flame to the wick. Soon enough, light and shadow are dancing on the
walls around her and flickering over Alexander's back. As she drops the
lighter back into her bag, she thinks it might be best not to go in
empty handed. She finds the cold lump of her box cutter - it's too dark
to see but it's white with a swan carved and stained black in the
handle - shifts it to the pocket of her pants.
She does not
follow the others the rest of the way down the stairs. Instead she
prays, and she begs a boon of the dusk handmaiden.
Dusk handmaiden, I beg you to lend my voice strength...
[Hey
yo ghosts, what you want is down here: Call Spirit, Spirit 2, diff 5-1
(specialty focus) -1 (natural channel), extending once and praying
that's enough!]
Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (5, 7) ( success x 2 )
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 3B]
Hunger
Elijah flicked on the flashlight app in his
phone, pointing it forward into the room. The cool beam of white light
cast an eerie glow in the room, contrasted against stark shadows and
pools of murky, indistinct darkness. Jae-shin had said that there were
corpses down here, but if so, only one was actually visible. That one
was the body of a woman in her thirties, stretched out naked across a
long metal table in the center of the room. Her chest split open, with
only a gaping hole where the heart should have been. It looked as though
some kind of marks had been painted on her body. Elijah and Alexander
might recognize them as Enochian sigils, if Kalen had ever shown them
such things.
Elijah wanted to know why. It was likely that
whatever answer Victoria gave him would do nothing to make the scene
before them more palatable.
The rest of the room was currently
empty, apart from a set of strong metal cages that lay against the far
wall, a collection of edged weapons hanging on a rack to the left, and a
heavy door leading off to the right. The floor was dark and slick,
polished concrete with grates installed for drainage. There were
splattered red stains on the floor and on the walls.
And
standing behind that table with the dead woman were two people who were
very much alive. One: a young man with medium-dark skin and a soft,
faintly beating note of Radiant resonance, barely noticeable
amid the thick fog of Victoria's devouring hunger. He was sitting on his
knees with his hands behind his back, stock-still with the blade of a
small axe pressed against his throat. When Elijah's light came on, he
let out a couple of quick, rough, panicked breaths, but did not attempt
to speak or scream.
And the person holding that weapon? If any
of those present had seen the photo that Kalen had passed along, they'd
recognize Victoria's face. She looked different here. Her hair was
longer, and hung loose and messy around her face. Her skin looked
pallid, with dark shadows beneath her eyes. But that same piercing,
hungry look was still there in her eyes. In another reality, if they'd
met her under different circumstances, she would have seemed beautiful.
And she was beautiful. But in a sharp, cold, brutal fashion. Beautiful the way that a monster could be beautiful.
Her lips were red. There was blood on them.
Above
them on the stairs, Lucy lit her lantern, and a warmer, softer glow
joined that of Elijah's cell phone. She prayed, calling the spirits back
to her, and gradually they appeared at the top of the stairs, but there
they hesitated. As though afraid. As though trapped in memory. This
time they did not cry out though. This time they did not fall to pieces.
Jeremy was stronger here than he had been in the park. Stronger,
perhaps, for the presence of the others. But he was still afraid.
Elijah wanted to know why.
"Because I can," Victoria said. "Because I want to."
Alexander
stepped around the beam of Elijah's light, moving quietly into the
room, but Victoria's eyes tracked to him almost immediately.
"Come any closer, and I'll kill him."
Elijah
[Awarepathy?]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 3, 6, 6, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )
Hunger
[Victoria's Manip+Subterfuge]
Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2, 2, 5, 5, 9, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 4 ) Re-rolls: 2
Elijah
"This is destroying you," he tells her, insists and pleads as though he knows
this. As though his understanding what this did to her soul would
somehow make things different. he didn't understand. he didn't
understand how intoxicatng power was. he didn't understand what it felt
like to become powerful. To be stronger, faster. To have a never ending hunger ripping at his insides.
"If you don't stop now, there might not be any coming back from it. Right now, it... things are bad, but you can turn back from this. You can walk away, too."
he couldn't see anything, could read anything, perhaps because of her solid poker face or perhaps... perhaps.
"What do I need to do to make sure everyone walks out of this place alive?"
Alexander
Victoria
speaks and Alexander swings around, bringing the pistol to bear on the
woman. He heeds her warning, though, and stops moving across the room.
There
might have been thoughts. Thoughts of the people – the known people –
who had gone missing since June. Brian. Kate. Jeremy. Melissa.
Kevin. Nathan. Denise. Sean. He knew their names. He knew what had
happened to them now. Them, and the others who hadn’t been reported
missing. The others who might never be found. Dead, alone, forgotten.
Thoughts
of what had been done to them. Dragged here alive, hurting, in fear
for their lives. Tied to that table while Victoria painted them and
prepared them and... ripped their hearts out while they were still
alive? Would she have had enough humanity left to kill them first?
Thoughts
of what Victoria could go on to do. Starting a new pack. Killing more
people. Getting stronger and stronger until... She had already fed –
the blood on her lips.
Others had seen him unsure and
questioning, struggling to deal with what he is and what he should be.
Delilah had asked before whether his resonance was anything to do with
his personality. He’d said no but, at that time, he hadn’t been
floating on instinct. All those thoughts put to one side, his core
cold. Frozen. They knew what she was and what she had done.
The frozen heart of the comet is in his voice when he replies. “Ok.” He pulls the trigger.
Lucy
"Here," says Lucy, drawing the spirits of the dead to her like moths to, well to a flame. "She's here."
And
then they are here, too. Jeremy and the others. Lucy turns to look up
at them, chin lifted, green eyes colorless in the semi-darkness. She
holds her lantern aloft, and holds out her hand to them, beckoning.
"Come,"
she says, voice gentle. She could lie if she wanted to take such a
route to compel them. But Lucy is an honest girl, for all that she
could lie. She doesn't tell them that Victoria can't hurt them now,
that the worst is over. What she says, voice kept low just for them,
is,
"It's up to you now. My friends are downstairs, and they
can try to hurt her, and maybe they will hurt her. But the debt will
still be there. If she has any people left they can and will look for
them, and the cycle of violence will just keep going.
"But you can end it. I've found your justice, and it's there,"
she says, raising her lantern to shine down the stairs. "You can repay
her for everything she's taken from you. Your dog," she says, looking
to Jeremy. "Your lives. Your futures.
"You just have to go down those stairs. Do in death what you couldn't in life. Set yourselves free."
[manip (persuasive?)+leadership]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 2, 6, 9) ( success x 2 )
Lucy
[awareness!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (7, 7, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 5 )
Alexander
[Awareness]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 5, 6) ( success x 1 )
Elijah
[Per+awareness]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 5, 6, 8, 8, 8, 10, 10) ( success x 6 ) Re-rolls: 2
Lucy
[+7]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (1) ( fail )
Hunger
[Victoria Init +9]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (1) ( fail )
Alexander
+6
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (5) ( fail )
Hunger
[Paul Init +6]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (1) ( fail )
Hunger
[The Ghosts are all going to get the same init - they move as ONE +6]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (3) ( fail )
Hunger
[Ian Init +7]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (3) ( fail )
Hunger
[Jae-shin +6]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (6) ( success x 1 )
Hunger
[Mystery +7]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (6) ( success x 1 )
Hunger
[Elijah's Init is, uh, I think +5?]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (9) ( success x 1 )
Hunger
And the Order is!
Elijah - 14
Mystery NPC - 13
Jae-shin - 12
Alexander - 11
Victoria - 10
Ian - 10
Ghosts - 9
Lucy - 8
Paul - 7
Hunger
[Paul is going to sit there and try not to get his throat slit. Will default to evasion if an opportunity occurs]
Lucy
[countering victoria's Time effect, hoping for the best!]
Hunger
[Ghosts will close distance to Victoria this turn]
Hunger
[Ian:
1: Close distance to top of stairs
2: Close remaining distance to Victoria]
Hunger
[Victoria:
1: Dodge!
2: Disarm Alexander with throwing axe]
Alexander
[1: Shoot Victoria
2. Dodge Victoria]
Hunger
[Jae-shin does the same thing Ian does]
Hunger
[Mystery NPC breaks in through a window]
Elijah
(try countermagic for time?)
Elijah
[Countermagic?]
Dice: 1 d10 TN8 (1) ( success x 1 ) [WP]
Hunger
[Victoria's Dodge: Dex 5 + Ath 3]
Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 2, 4, 4, 5, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )
Alexander
[Bang! Dex+Firearms]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 4, 10, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )
Hunger
[Alex shoots! And the bullet sloooows and hits the floor in front of Victoria]
Alexander
[Dodge? Dex/Ath]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 7, 7, 8, 8) ( success x 4 )
Hunger
[Victoria throws her axe with intent to disarm. Dex+Ath +1 diff]
Dice: 8 d10 TN7 (1, 1, 4, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8) ( success x 3 )
Hunger
[aaand she misses]
Hunger
[(it's ok, she has another one)]
Lucy
[counter-Time!]
Dice: 2 d10 TN8 (10, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]
Hunger
[Victoria's Time effect fizzles!]
Hunger
[Paul jumps up and starts to run away from Victoria. His hands are still bound behind his back.]
Hunger
[Damage Tally:
Everyone: Full Health!
Order in case anyone needs a reminder:
Elijah - 14
Mystery NPC - 13
Jae-shin - 12
Alexander - 11
Victoria - 10
Ian - 10
Ghosts - 9
Lucy - 8
Paul - 7
Hunger
[Paul is going to try to cut the zip-tie off his hands with one of those weapons on rack by the wall]
Lucy
[Let the fighters do the fighting. Lucy gets her box cutter and stands guard on the stairs. (splitting if necessary)]
Hunger
[Ghosts attack Victoria]
Hunger
[Ian:
1: Katana Victoria
2: Ditto]
Hunger
[Victoria: Rip the Man-Body on Alexander]
Alexander
[1. Shoot Victoria.
2. Shoot Victoria]
Hunger
[Jae-shin: Counter that Forces Shield]
Hunger
[Mystery
NPC turns out to be a young Awakened woman of Korean descent. She does
NOT have that Ravenous resonance, but instead feels Spectral and Swift.
She is going to close distance to the stairs and hope that Lucy lets her
past.]
Elijah
[Let's try counter magic for that Rip the Man Body Effect]
Elijah
[arete?]
Dice: 1 d10 TN8 (7) ( success x 1 ) [WP]
Hunger
Zoe (to Lucy): "I'm here to help. Please."
Hunger
[Jae-shin's countermagic]
Dice: 2 d10 TN8 (4, 8) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
Hunger
[Victoria's shield is now at level 1]
Alexander
[Bang? Dex/Firearms]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )
Alexander
[Damage +1
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 4 )
Hunger
[Victoria takes 4A]
Alexander
[Bang the second]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 4, 4, 8, 8) ( success x 2 )
Alexander
[Damage the second]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 4, 6, 7) ( success x 2 )
Hunger
[Victoria is at 6A]
Hunger
[Victoria casts her effect. Life 3, vulgar, diff 7 -1 (focus/blood) -1 (practiced) -1 (resonance)]
Dice: 4 d10 TN4 (5, 5, 6, 10) ( success x 4 )
Hunger
[That is 4 -1 (from Elijah) so Alex takes 4L damage]
Hunger
[Ian Dex+Melee]
Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 3, 4, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 4 ) Re-rolls: 1
Hunger
[Damage 5+2]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (3, 7, 7, 7, 9, 9, 10) ( success x 6 )
Lucy
[awarepathy: I DON'T KNOW WHO YOU THINK YOU IS]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 5, 5, 6) ( success x 1 )
Hunger
[Zoe is so completely 1000% genuine. Like whoa.]
Lucy
Lucy gives a small nod and stands aside before sliding down the wall to sit on the stairs, too mentally exhausted for words.
Hunger
Would
things have been different if they'd come earlier? If they'd been the
ones to attack first instead of the Hermetics? All those remnants of
violence outside... and Jae-shin had said that there were bodies in the
basement (probably behind that door.) What exactly had happened here the
night before?
Whatever the events, Victoria had survived, but
even an Adept could be vulnerable when fighting alone against a large
group. And she was tired. Tired and weakened from her efforts the night
before. Alexander chose to call her bluff. It was a risk. Miss, and
Victoria might very well kill her hostage. And he did not miss,
but the bullet somehow refused to reach its target, its forward
momentum slowed by a kinetic barrier. Instead of cutting the boy's
throat, she chose to think pragmatically and hurled her
throwing axe across the room. It was a good throw, and likely would have
disarmed Alexander if he hadn't moved, but Alexander's instincts were
wired tight. He dodged swiftly out of the way, and the weapon lodged
itself in the wall behind him.
Meanwhile, Lucy and Elijah did
what they could to tear down the Adept's defenses, and Victoria's
hyper-swift movement slowed to a more normal speed. Upstairs, they were
re-joined by Ian and Jae-shin, with Sera limping after them. The two men
ran through the house and sped past Lucy down the stairs just as the
sound of a breaking window announced the presence of an as-yet unknown
party.
And what of those spirits? The ghosts of Victoria's
victims. They looked down at the room where each of them had been
sacrificed. This was the place, Lucy had said. This was the time for
them to gain justice. And so? They vanished. But only for a moment. When
they reappeared, they surrounded Victoria, watching her with cold,
spectral, accusing eyes. Victoria looked at them and snarled a curse in
some ancient tongue. Venomous and threatening. But they weren't the most
immediate threat, so she focused her Will on Alexander, whose gun
contained bullets that might easily rip her pattern to shreds.
She
chanted something under her breath - a litany of archaic, powerful
words. And she licked the blood on her lips. Then Alexander fired. Once.
Twice. And his bullets shattered bones and muscle and sent her blood
spraying onto the walls.
But he didn't kill her. Not quite.
And when she released her effect, it tore into his pattern and flayed
open a couple of searing wounds in his back and chest.
There
was an opportunity, and Ian took it. His katana swung in a high, brutal
arc and separated Victoria's head from her body. The sound it made when
it hit the floor was wet and heavy and hard. Her lifeless body followed a
moment after, seeping blood in a thick pool around Ian's feet. He was
breathing hard. His face and his sword were dripping with Victoria's
blood.
She was dead.
But no. Not gone. Where her
body fell, another spirit began to rise up, hissing and clawing her way
back to the mortal realm as though she could hold herself there by
force. That was when the ghosts did what they'd come there to do. Acting
as one, they flew forward and attacked, tearing into her Will and her
spirit one piece at a time. She fought back hard, and once or twice one
of the ghosts flickered as though it might break apart, but somehow
their spirits held on to reality. And gradually, Victoria's presence got
weaker and weaker. Until finally Jeremy reached his hand into her chest
and crushed her heart. And her light... went out.
"Paul?"
That
was the girl on the stairs. She moved past Lucy, giving her a nod of
thanks, and descended into the basement. When she saw Victoria's body
lying on the floor, she gave a hiccuping little gasp, but her attention
shifted almost immediately to the young man in the corner, who'd just
finished freeing himself from his ties. They looked at each other with
shock and relief, and the girl gave a sudden, hysterical sob. Then they
rushed to throw their arms around each other.
"I thought you were dead," the girl whispered over and over. "I thought you were dead..."
Elijah
[Stamina: don't puke]
Dice: 2 d10 TN8 (6, 8) ( success x 1 )
Elijah
He's never seen someone die before.
He's never seen someone die, never seen someone decapitated
never felt blood everywhere or been so close that he felt like he could
taste it and there were ghosts and there was that feeling in the air
and oh god oh god oh god this isn't happening. His knees felt
like they were going to give out and his stomach turned and Elijah was
certain that he was going to revisit his lunch only to be made aware
that he hasn't eaten today. Didn't want to eat today, wasn't going to want anything after this.
"We need to bury people," it's all he can think. All that comes to mind, all he can get out. He sounds exhausted and wired.
"We need to bury people and give them their last rites and.. and... yeah..."
He
breathed. Breathed deep and tried to keep his head together but he
couldn't stop looking at her body and how it didn't have a head and
there wasn't a fucking head. And how he wasn't sure if she was going to
laeve a wraith or if she was going to move on and he needed to know, he
needed to know what was going to happen and he needed to know if her
soul was clean and he didn't know and he didn't know if things would be okay-
But things weren't okay yet.
Serafíne
(Sera
will drop her active effects so as not to incur casting penalties.
Life 3: Healing Alexander. Difficulty: 7. -1 (taking
time). )
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (4, 4, 6) ( success x 1 )
Serafíne
Extending. Difficulty: 6 + 1 (extending). -1 (her last quint).
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (5, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )
Serafíne
For Paul the NPC
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (2, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )
Alexander
[WP, because we are so holding our shit together?]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 4, 6, 8) ( success x 2 )
Serafíne
And Extending for Paul, dif 7.
Dice: 3 d10 TN7 (1, 2, 9) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
Serafíne
Paradox.
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )
Serafíne
Soak.
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (3, 5, 9) ( success x 1 )
Lucy
There
is commotion downstairs. Every shot fired, every grunt, every scrape
of a sole on the concrete floor sets Lucy's pulse jumping. It kills her
that she can't join her friends, but it's better that she remain where
she is. She is a guardian, a sentinel. She is the watcher on the wall
(the handmaiden who guards the gateway into the Underworld). She is not
a fighter, but perhaps in the small space of the stairway she can at
least keep anyone else from going down to join the fray. She would give
her life protecting the others that way.
Ian and the others
come first, then while she desperately calls upon the power of her
Avatar to tear down Victoria's magic. Then the stranger. She says
she's there to help and Lucy believes her, stands aside and lets her go
and turns her face upward until-
silence falls not long after. Closing her eyes she presses her back to the wall and slides to sit on one of the steps.
She
should go, she knows that she should go. She should bear witness to
what she's brought to this place, to the justice she led the dead to.
She should check on her friends, see who might be injured, see who might
need a hug-
Her eyes snap open then. Despite the dull throb
of an exhausted headache, Lucy pushes herself up the wall and fairly
tumbles down the stairs. In the doorway she pauses, sees the blood, the
bodies. Her lips part but no sound comes out. Then she looks at
Elijah and her feet are shuffling forward before her gait steadies. One
of her hands wraps around his. The other comes to rest against the
side of his neck, thumb pressed against the bone of his jaw, her touch
cold, her skin leeching the warmth from his. Still, she pulls, tugging
him closer, close enough to put an arm around his shoulders and hold him
tight.
"I'm here," she whispers. "I'm here."
Alexander
It
all starts so quickly. Victoria is threatening them, threatening the
man with an axe to his throat. Don’t come close, she says, or he dies.
Wasn’t he dead anyway if they didn’t do anything? Dead, with Victoria
gaining who knows what from his death. It was a gamble, taking the
shot. It was a gamble that it would surprise her before she could do
anything to harm the guy. A gamble that she would go down before any of
them got hurt. A gamble that almost paid off.
If he was
asked to describe the details of the fight later, he’d be pressed to
remember. He remembers shooting, three time was it? And he remembers
the pain – oh, hell, the pain! – when Victoria tried to tear him apart.
And that final moment when Ian ended it, once again, by decapitating
her.
That ice that formed around his core, which made him so certain that what he was doing was the right thing to
do, start to fade away again. Doubts start to creep through the
cracks, but he pulls that shield closer, tighter, for a little while
longer. Long enough to see the spirits of the victims tear what
remained of Victoria apart. Long enough to see Zoe and Paul reunited.
Long enough. Just a little while longer.
He nods when Elijah
says people need to be buried. They do need an ending, the living as
well as the dead. He’d offer more, but there’s not much left to offer
right now. He carefully, deliberately, puts the safety back on his
pistol and holsters the weapon.
Serafíne
Seraf ne
is at the top of the stairs and she can taste the magic in the air,
feel it harsh in the back of her throat, feel the way the world wants to
snap back against the effect that Victoria works to blast Alexander,
feel the strange and strangely glorious mingling of resonance in
desperate countermagick to the Adept's effects. She does not rush into
the fray, the way Ian and Jae-Shin do. There's very little will left in
her body and she already sports the beginnings of a mild concussion,
the raccoon eyes, the stiff neck.
When it is over - and it is
over with surprising quickness - she does shuffle down the stairs, a
careful hand on the bannister, searching out Alexander, whose wounds she
can see, and Paul, whose injuries she felt from afar. She reaches
first for Alexander, both arms opening as she wants to pull him close
and she's smiling at him and there is a sheen to her eyes and her pupils
are too-large, even in the darkened basement and she is trying to urge
him to calm, to call to his spirit and his body to heal and heal itself,
to transcend his skin and transmute his injuries and remind his body of
what it means to be whole -
but he stiffens and she reads that resistance, the need to brace himself and there's a moment between
where she is already working through her focus and finding her skin
electric with and by and for magic, except, except, except, an abrupt
cessation, a change that feels strictured and artificial and she's exhausted
but she pulls herself back into her body and leaves it by other means.
This takes longer. She wants to tell him to be still but the world is
absolutely changed around her and she has given herself over to this
instense hallucination wear she sews all the wounds in his body closed
with this thread of living sinew she pulls from herself: mind and will
and body.
No one else sees anything, really. They just feel
her magic in the air, and see her, perhaps, moving her hands, reacting
to things that no one else can see.
--
The same
thing happens with Paul, though perhaps she does not even try to touch
him. She could taste his fear and his pain and his exhaustion. So.
--
Afterwards,
Sera climbs a few steps and sinks down to wait while they work out what
must be done. She cannot really keep her eyes open and kinda dozes and
cannot walk fast right now but is perfectly compliant, minutes or hours
later, when someone thinks to reach for her elbow and help her up and
tell her it is time to go.
Hunger
It was a
horrible skill to have: the ability to decapitate someone. If someone
had asked Ian as a child if he'd thought it was something he'd need to
learn, he'd probably have been horrified by the question. And up until
the other night he hadn't been involved in any of this. He hadn't seen
or spoken with the ghosts of the departed. He hadn't run into anyone
whose resonance itched with ravenous hunger. He'd heard the messages on
Ginger, so it hadn't exactly been a surprise when Elijah had called to
ask for help. And for whatever it was worth, he understood the threat
enough to know that this wasn't the kind of thing one said no to. Not
when he was capable of helping.
It shouldn't have been him,
though. Shouldn't have been him that killed her. But he was there, and
she was standing front of him, and even with two bullets in her she
could have killed any one them. She did try to kill Alexander, and given another few seconds she very might have succeeded.
He
should have let Alexander shoot her again. Later, he will think about
this. Later he will think about the fact that he didn't hesitate to
murder someone - not a monster, not a walking corpse, not a body
infested with a corrupted spirit. An actual fucking human being. He will
think about it, and he will wish he'd let the cop finish her off. But
right then? All he could do was stare at the body on the floor and the
blood dripping off of his sword, reliving the images of those ghosts
ripping her soul apart. There was a slight tremor in his hand. Jae-shin
noticed, and the Akashic put his hand on the blunt side of Ian's weapon
and pushed it gently down. As though to remind him that the fight was
over. Ian glanced at him and wiped some of the blood from his face.
"We should check that room."
Jae-shin nodded, and the two walked over to check the door that led into the other part of the basement.
And what of those ghosts? Did they disappear once they'd exacted their revenge?
Not
exactly. But they didn't stay in the basement. Instead they turned and
looked at Lucy, and each of them gave her a slow nod before flickering
out of sight. They stayed close though.
Sera worked her
healing will on Alex and Paul, and gradually their wounds mended. She
paid a price for her sacrifice, as was often the case with healers, but
given time, she too would heal. They had all survived the encounter.
That alone was something to be thankful for. Zoe looked at Sera with a
grateful expression and thanked her again for everything she'd done.
Zoe, who was supposed to have been in San Diego, but who had turned
around and flown back only a few days later. Because she couldn't let it
go. She couldn't walk away without seeing what happened. Even if it
killed her.
And now she was reunited with her friend. Her
brother. Her cabal-mate. Someone she'd thought long gone. The two of
them held each other while Sera healed his wounds, silent and so very
grateful to be together.
The others comforted each other the
best they could. But when Zoe and Paul saw the bodies in the meat locker
(saw the frozen faces of their brothers and sisters) their grief and
their tears returned. There were other bodies there as well. The woman
on the table in the other room. And more... likely the Hermetics who'd
attacked the day before. Some of them were cut into pieces. Some of the
pieces were missing.
Ian and Jae-shin helped with whatever
clean up needed to be done. Locating Alexander's bullets. Making sure
that none of them left behind any remnants of their presence there. It
took a long time to clean up Victoria's body and wash the blood down the
drains. Someone would have to dispose of her corpse, and Jae-shin, who
drove a flatbed truck and had likely burned more than a few bodies in
his life, volunteered to take her with him.
By the time they
left the house, the sun was rising. And the ghosts of Jeremy Tran and
the other victims were standing in the grass, watching the light grow
steadily brighter on the horizon. As the sun came up, their bodies
seemed to glow, and Jeremy hummed something soft and quiet. The same
song he'd been humming to himself on the night when Lucy and Elijah had
met him. Then, as the sun rose higher, they vanished.
It felt like an ending. Or a new beginning.
