Numbers in the Balance
30th of July 2006 A.D.
The voices are still there, calling, shouting, screaming for salvation with voices of electromagnetic static... you flinch at the enormity of their agonized host, not truly endless, but near enough for any mortal understanding. So rather than fling it on to attach to the Alyssa Katherine McGregor's Samsung SYNC it stays tethered more strongly tethered to your own soul only a fraction, a flash of...
their mind glimmering in the heart of silicon.
Traveler then, for their unwillingness to stick where you put them, you decide upon a name even as the vampire who unfortunately shares one of
your names puts away her only briefly possessed phone out of reach of your power.
74 72 61 76 65 6c 65 72
What the...? You do a double take at the sight of the seemingly random numbers that flicker onto Clippy's screen before she helpfully explains that this is
Hex ASCII for the name you had given. Why six? I
t is a pleasing number.
Not going to dig into that here, you vow you vow, turning your attention back to the auction, though you do ask 74 as you had mentally shortened their preferred spelling, to dump as much interesting data as they could to Clippy in the brief time they have before returning to their anima.
Fortunately for you the only other two people interested in Black Rider after his little display now that the vampire is out are a middle aged lady with wearing enough rings to count as a deadly weapon, who is
clearly here as a favor to someone else and an older gentlemen sweltering in a black suit and tie who had been hesitant to raise the sign even before you had pipped out all chipper and smiling with the thirty-five thousand offer, as though it would not have mattered to you if the price went to thirty-five hundred thousand.
So thirty-five thousand it is, you get to drive home a 'miraculously' no longer malfunctioning Black Rider. In fact he is functioning so well that you leave the driving up to him, keeping just one hand on the wheel while you read what 74 had pulled off Ms McGregor's phone. What you find is a lot more troubling than the bargain hunting you had expected. This 'Lara' had known who the car belonged to and she had also known..
"I thought I told you not to make waves," you chastise Black Rider.
"I did not harm the mortals, a touch of fear is good for the heart, keeps the blood flowing." Bass synthetic laughter thrums from the speakers.
Admittedly moving around in the parking lot would have probably been explained away as people forgetting where they had parked the car but retracting the safety belts and cutting off the breaks during in inspections had been too remarkable not to get talked about, especially not when
I Feel Lucky suddenly started playing as soon as the breaks engaged.
How precisely that got to the ear of the White Court you do not know, but it is clear from the messaging on Alyssa's phone that they thought this is some spirit Katrina had put into the car, one which could be interrogated for useful information. You get the sense that the White Court, or at least Lara, would very much prefer if every single Kemlerite fell off the face of the planet and she would not be opposed to pushing them off if she could do it without risk to herself or her interests... but she would also probably sell any information on for the right price.
Of course the fact that she knew who Katrina was and that this was her car also has some interesting implications, though alas your temporary look into one vampire's phone is not enough to offer any insights into that.
Lost 2 Essence -> Now at 10/12 (HMP and Excellency to get the car for cheaper)
Lost 35,000 $ -> Now at 15,000 $
***
It takes you a full nine tries and burning enough Essence to make the inside of the garage blaze searing green for a full hour, but you finally manage to weave the spirit securely inside the car's computerized core... at which point the Beige Wagon starts honking.
"I'll get yo you when I've had my bath," you laugh and pat the hood as the lights flare on and slowly off, mollified for now. But you do have to wonder, what are you going to do with the Beige Wagon. It's not like you
meed two cars, maybe Daniel could take it once he is old enough to to get a license... which leads one to another thought you had not really wanted to consider, how do you break it to mom and dad that you can make diamonds out of graphite... for a start.
Lost 9 Essence -> now at 1/12
Gained Black Rider -> Biding Made Permanent
Of course you think it is great and all and not just for selfish reasons, money is a great tool for making the world a better place and Lord knows it could use it, but you will admit it will do odd things to your sense of priorities, likely buying luxury cars out of a sense of duty to the demon you put in them. Better head this off at the pass. Bath first, I'm going to need your best arguments for this.
Regained 6 Essence -> Now at 7/12
So it is that an hour and a half later, fresh from the bath... and not so incidentally still covered in enough water following the bleach to give you a bit of an extra edge making your case that you go to talk to your parents about cars and personal finances.
How much do you explain to them about your abilities and your intent to use them to make money?
[] Just the gem-making for now, no need to overwhelm them
-[] Write in stunt
[] Everything, gems, lottery, cars, being able to fly to orbit and make your own satellite
-[] Write in stunt
[] Write in
OOC: You guys really were not lucky with HMP this time, but still even on a fail you get a scene's worth of use out of it so you got some info. 
