The Man in Magic Shoes
28th of August 2006 A.D.
Unfortunately dad isn't home, he's with a client doing some measuring on site and talking through their order and he won't be back before for a couple of hours.
That just leaves..."That's OK mom... yes really it's OK, Father Forthil will be there, if he's not adult enough I don't know who is. Mom you have been meaning to go to the salon today for ages, got all the jawas sorted and everything. No I won't stop calling them that, it's funny. Bye, love you mom."
You shake your head a little as you put down the phone, wondering if mom will ever come to the point of seeing you as t he adult. Probably not anytime soon.
"Saint Mary's please," you tell Black Rider as you consider your expression in a conjured brass mirror. A lot of things can be tools if you consider them just right.
Too many piercings to meet a librarian? you wonder. The Library of Congress sounds fancy. The pictures you see online are certainly fancy and was founded in 1800, about as old as any American institution gets, but that does that have to do with the FBI or project Daedalus? Absently you banish the mirror. If they want to know about the people who put an illegal tracker on your car then they probably have more important things to worry about than how proper you look. At least they darn well better have more important things on their mind.
Lost 1 Essence (TTC mirror) -> Now at 11/21
As Black Rider parks in front of the church, pulling the handbreak even as you get out you look around to see...
Wow looks like that secy librarian thing works both ways.
Howard Hyde could be any age between mid twenties and thirties, a neatly trimmed beard just starting to go a little wild around the edges, a strong jaw and a wide forehead currently lined with intrigue as he watches you come out of the car. He's dressed seemingly to ride the line between professional and cool with a dark silk shirt underneath a leather vest and leather trench-coat. You do like a man in a trench-coat, but there is something about his shoes... Something
glimmering.
The shadows twist in an unfamiliar way and suddenly you are looking at the silver stitch work of the stranger's shoes and realize it's script, Latin in fact:
Sit tibi non labuntur in glaciem aut sanguinem A subtle power, but a useful one. Something tells you all that lather is not there just to look cool, but it does not have any overt signs of spellwork that you can see.
Lost 1 Essence (All things betray) -> Now at 10/12
As you approach a polite smile on your lips, though not perhaps in your eyes, you hear the stranger's breath catch slightly in surprise... in spite of the fact that there is
traffic going on behind you, not that you are about to look a gift horse in the mouth. "Miss Carpenter," he reaches out his hand a little stiffly and while you would like to think that it's because of your stunning good looks, its' probably the twenty degrees drop in temperature from being around you.
At the surge of annoyance you feel a click two inches behind your temples and hear the faintest echo of an alien note resounding from within. Just like that the air around you warms, not all the way to the muggy August afternoon, but certainly a lot less obvious. The change, unlike being able to hear someone's breath at twenty peaces feels solid, permanent.
"Mister Hyde I assume?" you shake his hand firmly, but without turning it into a test that you are quite sure you would win. "Father Forthil said you had some questions for me about a meeting last month. I have to say I'm glad
someone is asking questions about him. He was being quite forceful in matters that do not respond well to force."
"Or respond too readily , on the rebound," he gives a dark laugh, then catches himself, perhaps startled at having made the joke.
For his part Father Forthil seems glad that you are getting along so well, though he quickly ushers the conversation into his office. Once there he lays out to you why a librarian wants to talk to you about spooks messing with spooky things. You know some of it from the Daedalus files. Jefferson himself had bequeathed upon the fledgling library along with his personal collection the task of cataloguing and making available to Congress all branches of human knowledge including the occult. The objections to 'irreligious texts' take on a different meaning in that context.
Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 9/12 (Empathy Excelency to keep your poker face)
Hyde himself explains that while the Library had initially been concerned with collecting all manner of arcane texts and understanding such as may be necessary for the work of Congress, it quickly became apparent that some branches of knowledge were too dangerous for human hands, quite the opposite to Jefferson's original idealistic charge.
"Sad though it might be the librarian must at times wield the torch," he sighs, though he is quick to add. "But we have been rightfully resistant I think to attempts by Congress and other branches of government to press us into an enforcement role. This means we have seen many such attempts by other institutions, which has in turn lead to something of an oversight role. Think of my task here as an audit into agent Wright's actions. Did he ask you to do anything that made you uncomfortable? Anything odd, suspicious or as you said too forceful. Rest assured that I am not acting in any sort of enforcement quality vis a vis you." He hesitates a moment and in a manner that sounds less like boilerplate reassurance finishes: "I am aware that the clandestine nature of magic might have seen you take action to protect yourself which are not wholly under the light of the law, particularly as those laws were not designed arcane powers in mind or the threats of the unseen world."
What do you recount of your experience with Wright and Daedalus?
[] Just the brief meeting with Wright
[] The fact that they tried to bug your car, probably illegally
[] Explain Katrina and your suspicion that someone associated with her might be manipulating the FBI
[] Write in
Do you have any questions for Wright?
[] What is the Library of Congress' relationship with
-[] ...the Catholic Church?
-[] ...the White Council?
[] When he says his organization destroys knowledge what does he mean?
[] Are they open to collaboration? You are already writing that book with Bob after all, offering them a copy would cost you nothing.
[] Write in
OOC: Hope the new charm and the frost reduction integration into the narrative worked out well.