The Enduring and the Lost
22st of July 2006 A.D.
The phone rings once, twice, three times making you wonder if Gard is one of those people who doesn't take calls from unknown numbers easy.
Do telemarketers trouble occult specialists for the mob very often? you wonder biting back a laugh at the mental image that conjures. Finally the cool voice on the other end replies: "Yes?"
"Hello, this is Molly Carpenter, we met when dealing with a particular group... aggressive litterers." Gorfel and company had left all sorts of spent shell casings and blood all over the place not to mention the chaos at the restaurant. "One of them is back and she felt..." there is no way you can talk about this in code, short of asking her to come meet with you on faith alone you cannot keep the veil up. On the other hand what you actually have to say would make any judge think you are role-playing or crazy so at least they would not be able to use it against you officially. "One of them felt like you, red hair, grey eyes, rune studded jacket. She kidnapped a girl and is planning to consume the mantle of a retired death god."
From the other side of the line all you can hear is silence, not even the sound of her breathing. "Helo, are you still...?"
"Yes," the word is harsh and edged with a burst of static. "
Where did you see her,
when?"
"Three hours ago, pretty far out of town, but she's in Chicago now. I have... ways of tracking her."
Just because you want her help doesn't mean you want to reveal some of your most scary tricks to someone who works for Marcone. "Me and dad are going after her. "
"A warning for thee and for thine sire before all else," Gard replies her voice level again. "This would not be the first time Katrina crossed swords with the servants of the White God and while she had not met
that Sword she is no less dangerous for it. An even field is no guarantee of victory."
"That is why I'm gonna make it really uneven. I just want to know how best to do that, though if you would like to help..."
"I would, others would as well, but she has chosen her moment well, Katrina took well to the lesson of patience if nothing else."
"Well OK then I'm outside of Harry's and dad's on the way. We can meet up at the..."
***
Half an hour later Gard walks through the dubiously clean glass door of the Burger King across from Harry's place, heralded by the sound of screeching wheels, though one would not think she is flustered from the way she saunters in like she owns the place. The people one table over from yours certainly seem to think she does from the way they scurry away under her glare, to your dad's unspoken disapproval.
You had time to catch him up on what had happened this morning before Gard arrived and he had mostly agreed that you had made the best of a bad situation, but he had been a lot more worried about Capricorpus than you had and you could tell that as much as he wants to help he would prefer that you not be involved fighting someone like that. Hopefully Gard's help is going to calm his nerves a little even if she is a bitch.
"Miss Carpenter, Sir Knight," the woman introduces herself. "Even if nothing more comes out of this you have my thanks for finding Katrina. Monoc Securities lost track of her in '89 and we have not been able to find her since."
Part of you wants to ask what Monoc securities is, but something tells you it it bad form to be nosy right from the get go. Instead you offer helpfully. "She goes by Katrina Hoff now, no internet presence, but property records match a place in Boston."
Lost 1 Essence
It feels weird to manually find the screenshots Clippy tracked down, but you do not want to reveal her either.
"Þetta fer allt í hring." Though you do not understand the words she murmurs under her breath you hear the sorrow in the tone all too well. "Hoff was an estate in Småland, Sweden, the place she was born, the bastard daughter of an English priest back in the days when there barely was an England, a holy man they called him later and perhaps he was, but I had no reason to love him and Cwenhild as she was then had even less cause."
OK now that you can't not ask about... "What is she?" What are you? the question is implied.
"Now she is a traitor, a bloody handed coward, barely fit for Hella's realm. If you mean to ask what she was, she was the last of the Valkyrja the Choosers of the Slain." Gard shakes her head, as though trying to banish a particularly troublesome fly, but you doubt memories and regrets will be so easily cast off. "Perhaps her fate was always a dark one, made a herald of the Victory Bringer on the eve of his defeat. Now is matters little, my sister is as dead to me as if she had been burned to ash in Surt's flames and the ashes cast into the depths of the sea. All that is left to do is slay the murderer who wears her face."
Realizing you are sitting across from a minor Norse Goddess while sipping a Coke is not as weird as the phrase would imply. Maybe it's that you are the one who had brought up retired gods, maybe it's just that you know for a fact that your dad more powerful beings regularly, maybe you are just weird yourself. Wait a second... Gard is a Valkyrie who works for
Monoc Security. You might as well ask "Is
Odin still around?"
"We are none of us quite what we were but we remember still honor and valor. Even in this changed world, there will still be warriors true and so there must be those who choose."
Gain 2 Essence
So that is a yes on Odin, in some form at least. Looks like whatever you will be revealing here will get to the ears higher than just Marcone, but can you afford to keep anything back when a little girl's life is on the line?
What powers of yours do you reveal?
[] [Reveal] Write in
When do you ask about Katrina, Gard, Valkyrie s or Monoc Security?
[] [Ask] Write in
OOC: I thought about pushing through this, but as good as your roll was for getting in touch, and it was nonsense good, this is a really touchy subject not just for her but for all her sisters. How open she is with you will depend on what you are with her as much as on your next rolls.