A Muse and a Meeting
2nd of October 2006 A.D.
Death is the act and the reason....you resolve to call Lydia,before returning your attention to the grieving spirit. "I am sorry for your loss" you begin awkwardly, giving the spirit time to compose herself. "But to keep this evil from claiming more lives, I think it would be best to not....startle people into possibly running into the sights of their hunters by showing up unannounced at their door." You pause for a moment, then continue. "Can you get us a meeting with their guardians?"
Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 10/12
"They do not love me." Bùshì Tùzǐ answers darkly. "They name me thief and claim my sorrows are of my own making." She shivers head to toe as if with sudden chill, but some deeper emotion is behind it, is behind it equidistant of fear and lust, greed and loss. "Did you ever smoke?"
"Smoke?" you ask bemused, not sure where this is going, but quite sure she is not going to do as you ask until she has this off her chest one way or another.
"Or drink, pop pills, take a ride on the magic dragon, have a dance with the green fairy?" The spirit shakes her head and glances at dad. "Oh never mind you would never say with
him here, the God of the Book does not approve, but you understand the attraction at least in theory yes? Give up a bit of your health, a moment of your life so that you might live all the brighter. So it is with those like J who would lay with the seri, other men, jealous men, call them fools. Other spirits call us monsters because we scratch our lovers and cast their lifeblood on the sheets. Do they care that we explain the cost? Does it matter to them than pain is pleasure and the scars are a path to understanding? No, no a thousand times no, they will not understand, they do not believe in my my love of J was more than lust, more than merely using him and being used, for how can a man love the brandy glass, the cigarette, the absinthe?"
"I like her style," Usum purrs thoughtfully at the back of your mind as you do everything in your power not to dwell too deeply on the fact that you are discussing spiritual S&M in front of your martial arts teacher and
your dad.
"The others blame you for his death?" you ask gently. "That is why you wanted to surprise them and not speak to them?"
"I want to throw the lurking shadow's head at their feet!" the shape-shifter answers with such venom that it twists her pretty features into a mask of rage. "But sending investigators will do, better than groveling and asking for a meeting, better than being forced to swear vows not to 'steal' their chosen. I do
not steal. Mortals give themselves to me and I to them. I don't bring death... not like that... J didn't die because I weakened him, he died because of it... because of it."
With these last words she starts to sob quietly into the sheet she had wrapped herself in.Head bowed she is the mourner for the youth who has fallen into the spring-flooded river, she is the sweetheart weeping for the soldier who will never make if home from the war, the girl standing motionless by the empty sickbed.
Sorrow draws you in, that too you understand in a flash, creatures of the threshold, guardians of the dead yes, but also as caustic to touch for the living in the midst of such strong emotions as lye to bare skin.
Luckily I have a hazmat suit, you think, centering your mind upon a throne of brass, in the flame of the soul's purpose for in this moment your purpose is to reach out to Bùshì Tùzǐ and hug her. "Shh... it's OK, I don't blame you, no one blames you and if any other asshole spirits try to get you to bind yourself with vows and promises just because they are scared you are going to steal their shamans they have another thing coming."
Spent 1 Willpower -> Now at 7/9 (IPP)
Gained 2 Essence (Urge) -> Now at 12/12
"Th...thanks, hope I didn't get any tears or snot on you," she says into your shoulder before slowly detaching. "I'm gonna talk to the others, just be aware they're not going to
like that you got me as a messenger."
"That is alright, we'll deal with it," you assure her with one more pat on the back.
A twist in space and a racing cat later and she is gone.
***
Lydia shows up about two hours later heralded by the sound of screeching tires and an only slightly more quiet Midnight. She seems almost more shocked at the idea that a death spirit would be insulted that way than at the murders, though she has no more of an idea than you do at what the servants of Kakuri may be doing killing shamans, particularly since the deaths do not show any of the spacial or temporal patterns of a ritual. Granted you could simply be missing a lot of data points as Brother Divisimar pointed out, but the only way to solve that is to... ask.
Green Tortoise Tea does not seem in the least magical at first sight, nor at second and third, a line of neon-green over a cartoon tortoise that looks like it should be having a race with Bugs Bunny in one of those old timely cartoons its red wood and cream stone display windows flow into the touristy side of the neighborhood smoothly, right down to the pop song drifting out in place of anything more atmospheric, yet this you are told is where you are to meet at least two of the spirit protectors of some of the last shamans in Chicago
"Do you want me to come in with you?" Bùshì Tùzǐ, now dressed in a leopard print pantsuit, of all improbable things asks.
How do you make your entrance?
[] Make it very clear you are powerful and in charge, willing and able to deal with the servants of Kakauri, no matter who they are or how many of them
[] Let dad take the lead, being able to get sincerity across well is part of the job
[] Brother Divisimar has the most real world experience in dealing with shen, let him take the lead
[] Write in
OOC: You guys rolled 10 successes and I had to decide how the cynical shapeshifter would go about spilling her heart to you about the not-quite-socially-acceptable nature of her relationship with the shaman whose life she shortened by her company.
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