Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

[DragonParadox]

Of Shadows Small and Great ​

30th of August 2006 A.D.

You find Leech in the middle of a pile of crumpled out papers and books opened haphazardly to reveal a plethora of colored notes, not all of them her own. In fact you recognize almost all of the textbooks, not out of any stinginess on the part of your parents, but because ever since first grade your sister had caught on that used books have clues as to the right answers to things and she's a good detective.

"Whatcha doin'?" you ask plonking yourself on the couch next to her.

"Time capsule," she replies with an eye-roll that is only about half-theater. "I swear there has to be a better way to ask us 'what do you think matters in the world' without also asking 'what do you think will stand up to being buried two feet deep in high humidity high-biomass alfisols for decades'."

"Uhm..." How do say this without getting her mad at you? Big sister brain engaged. "I don't know that any of the teachers at Saint Marry care that much about soil composition."

"Then why...? Urgh!" With that rather approximation of a growling badger your little sister slams books shut. "Like it isn't bad enough that we have to use 'information from school-approved materials' now you are telling me the basic premise of this stupid thing does not matter?"

"What can I say school is a silly place," you shrug. "Speaking of being silly at school..."

"Ah so she told you, thought she would." You recognize the determined look she gives you down to the crease between her eyebrows, mostly from having seen it in the mirror more times than you can count when you were getting ready to explain something to mom. Lucky for her you aren't mom...

That is how you find out that the girl Leech had been helping out has dyslexia and worse she had been afflicted with the curse of stupid parents. To their credit the girls had done everything reasonable, talked to the teachers, talked to the school nurse, Leech had asked mom about the bullying. But when that had not been enough... one thing lead to another lead to demonically assisted hacking.

"I'm proud of you for helping your friend. And for talking to mom first, even if it didn't help. Now, what I am not proud of is not using all resources available to you before risking a lot by yourself and with no backup. You have an awesome older sister after all." you say, before fishing out a new mobile phone, with its own cyber... spirit. Yeah, that's what you'll be going with. "Catch."

With the skill of years of softball practice she does, looking wide-eyed at the whirl of Matrix-like ones and zeroes that made up the preferred guise of the spirit that called themselves Wraith, a good fit for the voice formed seemingly out of a thousand carefully arranged hisses of static.

"Did... did you just buy me a phone?" your little sister manages.

And used up all my reserves yesterday trying to get the spirit to stick without managing a permanent binding. Maybe there is something about Samsung S200s that just does not work with denizens of the Wicked City. Still a year's binding should do her well enough. "Yep and a little something extra. They'll help you if you are in trouble, and no, they won't report to me. Think of them as a mix of a digital bodyguard, and Navi from Zelda."

Lost 400 $

She nods absently. "OK but like... what are they? I never got into the whole magic thing you know but computer spirits? Wicked cool."

"In more ways than you know, just don't use them as a moral compass."

"But I'm not going to have to talk about this to Father Thomas, right? I don't think he can take it."

"Dad said my magic was fine and they are part of my magic, bound by it at least." How much can you explain you wonder. Leech might be sharp as a tack, but she is eleven, you don't want to give her nightmares.

"Good enough for me," she nods happily.

That night your dreams are darker, getting back to her homework now with less study of soils, but doubt lingers in your mind. Should you have exposed your sister to entities which, however loyal are still born of man's darker nature, given to spite and cruelty for your own amusement? the thoughts follow you down the icy corridors of your dreams filled with the mocking voice of the fetch. You try to fight it, to summon your sword, to burn to to ash, but nothing works, you have no power, no crown upon your brow rests and when the thing drags you kicking, screaming, shivering into the depths of the fortress yous see Leech nailed to the tree.

The scarecrow leans close, its foul breath seemingly the only warmth in the world and it whispers: "You did this."

You wake up screaming.

For hours you just lay in bed too afraid to go back to bed until morning's light peeks through the blinds and Usum mentally prods you to face the day.

You are Exhausted: -1 die for all actions

Essence Restored to 12/12

How do you react to the nightmares?

[] Ignore then, they will go away eventually, you are just working through some stuff

[] Look into therapy, sure the evil fey would be hard to explain, but you are sure you can come up with a story that gets the point across without magic

[] There has got to be some kind of magical solution to control this, you just have to find it

OOC: You had to fail that roll eventually just by the law of averages, this is not the worst time it could have happened and at least you did not botch.

 

[DragonParadox]

By Morning's Light ​

31th of August 2006 A.D.

It was just a dream, you tell yourself as you brush your teeth mechanically. it was just a dream. No matter where you put the emphasis it's hard to shake off the lingering fear. Something you had not felt for... months, ever since you had taken a crown from the ethereal 'hands' of a demons. It's not that you do not feel fear anymore. You had felt a hefty amount of fear when those vampires had come after Harry's master or when the World War Two guns on that sub started firing at you or when that Rashka had dragged itself halfway into the world, but it had always been matched by anger, by the desire, the need to do something. Inside your own head was the one place where you could not do that. There's probably a moral about inner demons in there if your blurry sleep -starved brain could focus on anything beside getting your morning cup of coffee.

"Good morning sleepy-head." Mom is already up of course and baking cookies for some bake-sale thing. "Are you...?"

"'M fine," you had started to talk practically as soon as she did if not a little before.

From the way her eyes linger you can tell she's not convinced, but to her credit she does not press you before you got the wake-up juice in you. As much to distract her as because you really need to hear the weather today you turn on the radio as you do so.

Hurricane John lashed tourist resorts with heavy winds and rain on Wednesday as the storm marched up Mexico's Pacific coast. Forecasters predicted its center would brush close to land before nicking the tip of Baja California and heading out to sea.The hurricane, at Category 4 on Wednesday, could dump up to a foot of rain along parts of Mexico's southern coast, causing landslides or flooding, meteorologists warned. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 135 miles per hour and stronger gusts capable of ripping roofs off buildings and causing storm surges of up to 18 feet above normal...

Not the weather you had been looking for, but then the story shifts to comparisons to Katrina which had made landfall a year ago almost to the day. A guest comes on to talk about the reconstruction efforts, the effects of Global Warming and the prospect of more and worse storms in the future. Without even meaning to your mind goes back to Maria and her weather-working, Maria who is afraid to even use her gifts to their full scope because literal monsters might mind control her or eat her. You can just hear some hoary old wizard who sounds like a more sanctimonious Dumbledore telling you that magic would not solve all of the problems. But it would solve some of the problems wouldn't it, it could mitigate the damage? But that is not allowed because Heaven forbid we get in the way of Winter's ability to kidnap children or the Red Court's ability to enslave people for their blood.

Well you cannot do anything about that now, maybe someday... maybe that card from the Library of Congress is going to end up being used sooner rather than later.

"Have you done your school shopping? Do you need dad to pick up anything for you?" Mom breaks into your thoughts.

School... Not for the first time it occurs to you that you could just skip your GED, get out of senior year altogether. Given all your... advantages you could probably get it over with in a week or two. I'd lose contact with my friends... the same friends you barely talked to all summer, you think guiltily. They would probably be better off not being in your life to begin with. Admittedly that sounds like one of the excuses you made in grade school when 'friend of Molly Carpenter' was practically synonymous for cryptid, but it's not any less true for it.

What do you do?
6 AP Available

School
It's September... woohoo

[] Attend school you have friends at school and you would like the memories of senior year and graduation even if they won't be teaching you anything worthwhile (If neither School nor getting your GED is chosen Molly will systematically skip class)

[] Get your GED and get out, on the other hand you can think of better things to to with your time (Costs 2 AP, frees you from spending anymore actions on school)

Finances
You have less money than you did last month, but a lot more groundwork for sustainable finance

[] A Big Score, your Crown isn't really made for picking out random numbers in a mundane draw, but it is still your power so you can push it that one time to win a lottery... any lottery. You will have to find the balance between payout and anonymity and some place to park the money but that seems reasonably doable with some help from mom and dad, and unlike some of your other plans they are unlikely to object to this form of cheating at gambling

[] Masterworks for money, you can make gems, you can make gold, you can make fine watches, heck you can make a light airplane from scrap if you really put in the hours, though that would be overkill you think. Now cars maybe... yeah restoring cars could work. Or you could turn your lie to Izzy into truth and work with dad
-[] All that glitters, ye old dream of making gold from lead, now with radiation
-[] Small marvels, craft jewelry, watches, what have you
-[] The family trade, dad already works with wood, you can work with wood, getting paid by your parents isn't exactly the most glamorous thing, but it would probably go smoother with him handling all the marketing stuff so you can just use your hell tools to make stuff
-[] Resurrection from Rust, you could walk into a junkyard and drive out with a car given enough time, though you are not sure how the paperwork for that would work out

[] It's not cheating if you are just that good, illegal gambling is apparently one of those things John Marcone has a lock on. You have a buy-in now, all you have to do is not lose... and not draw too much attention to yourself

[] Starting up, you have an assistant and an idea, not to help actually set this thing in motion, not just the paperwork but actually getting (or making) some machines that look like they could make diamonds. Also includes making more diamonds.

Investigations
You turned over a lot of rocks over the last little while and something tells you that the worms you found there aren't going to sit nicely still while you get rich and trained up

[] Look into the Minor Talents of Chicago, so far you have been isolated from the supernatural scene of Chicago, now that you can get in touch with them without necessarily having your dad with you all the time the time has come to change that... though given how both Mouse and McCoy thought you were bad news at first maybe you should bring dad or Harry along to some of them just as an introduction
-[] Alphas, friends of Harry, close to you in age and they work to keep monsters off the street near the University, they sounds really cool
-[] Friends in Low places, she might work for Marcone but Grad was really cool and you are curious about her. Fortunately you remember the number dad dialed to get in touch with Marcone
-[] Spirit Speaker, Mortimer Lindquist isthe real deal, a real medium among the fakes and unlike Pauline he is good enough at it, or just good enough at marketing to make a job of it. His books are pretty cool as well

[] A friend in need. You promised Rosie that you would help and so you will, with problems material and ethereal
-[] Dreaming True, Rosie is doing great so far, but she still needs more training before she can get a proper hold of her powers (3/10 pogress)
-[] Talking to the family, you do not like Mrs Wilsom and the feeling is mutual, but as your experience at church yesterday showed you do not have to like someone to turn on the supernatural charm. Maybe you could work something out, or at least explain some of what her daughter is going through
-[] An Eye for Charity, there have to be some kind of charities willing to help young women in Rosie's situation, you and your electronic friends can surely find them and then you can have a talk with them to give her some options

[] Blackest Name: In the final ritual to help Arawn you invoked something old and hungry, something that seemed to resonate with the purpose of the ritual, its name writ in a long forgotten tongue. A question question asked of the universe under the eyes of your Crown would be a fair start to finding out, though something tells you it would be far from the end.

[] Seek Siriothrax's hoard: Two decades ago your father was called to slay a Dragon, a being of incarnate power new mortals have faced and lived, by faith and by skill the creature was slain and your mother saved, but its treasure and its body were never claimed. Your breath catches to think of that you might be able to do with either, if you can claim them.

Personal Training
You have been progressing in leaps and bounds in the study of the Qiao and you have been... exploding bottles less often in the study of alchemy. In both cases you are eager to learn more.

[] The Bridges of the Spirit, continue your training with Brother Divsimar in the perilous, powerful arts of his order (Can begin studying Dragon's Speed)

[] Trading in lore, you have started down the path of learning alchemy from Bob... and revealing some of the deepest secrets of Yomi Wan, both very good things as far as you are concerned. (15/25 and 9/20)

Arcane Allies
For better or for ill you are starting to get a reputation in Chicago, best make sure it is more the former than the latter, at least with the more reasonable and trustworthy powers. As for the people who are neither... well you certainly seem to have an impact on them

[] Restoring the Last Station: Restoration efforts have been going well and according to Adam some more of the people down in the tunnels have shown interest in their newfound wealth and comfort (2/8)

[] Cauldron Bubble, your new friends in the Ordo Lebetis could use more help, maybe not as... enthusiastic as the last time, but they are small fish in a very big and scary pond
-[] Offer insight, inducing but not limited to helping Maria out with her breaking the news to her fiancee, getting Olivia some training in her gift
-[] See what's up with Helen, there is something eating away at Helen you are sure of it, something dark and strange, dark and strange is your specialty
-[] Online presence, one of the few advantages of minor talents over more powerful magicians is that they are more up to date with technology and less likely to make it explode. See if you can convince the others to set up a strong online presence, maybe even recruiting

[] Father of Hosts: It's not often someone gets a business card from Odin, or maybe it is, you are no expert on Norse Gods turned private military contractors, go talk to him and see what he wants and what he has to offer

[] The Green and the White: Having some into the possession of the contacts of Ms Lara Romany nee Raith to behooves you to introduce yourself, just to avoid any misunderstandings... and also you are kind of curious about the least bad vampires around.

[] Contact the Librarians: They seemed OK when last you spoke, competent, but pragmatic, you could work with that, especially if it gives you access to the actual library

Family time
As much else as you have to do, it's nice to spend some time with your family and it is rarely boring hanging out.

[] Heart to Heart, talk to your mother about what you guesses and what dad told you about her history, better to try to get it all in the open than to constantly try to step around that landmine. There is a lot more magic in your future, that much is for sure.

[] So about those studies: Ask Daniel if he would like to come along when you learn from Bob, it would probably be more efficient than trying to hide books from mom

[] Just relax: It's almost enough to make you feel guilty given all the good you could be doing, but it's been a while since you have just hung out, gone to one of Leeth's softball games or watched anime with Matthew

OOC: I included progress for the various actions to make it clear what you already started.

 

[DragonParadox]

Sharper than Steel ​

1st of September 2006 A.D.

Getting back to school is like being hit by a freight train made of noise, the worries of the new kids and the and the grumblings of those familiar with this teenage purgatory, friends gathering together for protection against the avalanche of state mandated nonsense that would soon be inflicted upon their minds while 'friends' loudly proclaim what and who they had done on holiday to spark jealousy or at least attention. And for those without the wherewithal to tell the truth in the matter or the imagination to lie convincingly....

"Woah there, I'd tap that ass." Tyler Gordon, former member of the school band until he decided it would be too uncool for his social aspirations, current captain of the swim team and all around asshole says loudly as you pass, enough so to make Izzy tense up as she is coming to greet you.

Just ignore them.

"What Carpenter, are you crazy man? Your dick would probably get caught in one of her piercings. They'd have to pry it off with pliers," some other clown laughs.

"Nah see I like girls like her, they turn out like that 'cause their daddies didn't get them enough attention growing up and I've got all the attention they could...."

The pontificating cuts off abruptly as you turn on your heel to look right at him. Without missing a beat you cut in: "Really? Because I heard boys who pretend to know what girls think do it to impress their peers because they were the ones who lacked male companionship growing up."

Tyler just looks at you for a long moment like you had whacked him between the eyes then his face scrunches up... Is he crying?

"Shut up! Shut up Carpenter! You don't know me!"

His friends are laughing now, Izzy is in stitches, but you cannot bring yourself to join in. I didn't even invoke any of my powers and he's bawling. High School kids aren't vampires, government spooks or hardened criminals, you are rather abruptly reminded, it's like you'd brought a arsenal of knives to the verbal nerf bat fight.

"Earth to Molly, hellooo..." Izzy waves her hand in front of her face. "What are you thinking?"

"That I should be more careful with my words."

"What, around assholes?" your friend asks rolling her eyes.

Around mortals. For just that moment passing through familiar off white doors it feels like you are a hundred feet tall, it feels lonely. Taking a deep breath you ask her: "So how was your summer?"

"My summer? I'm not the one who took up Kung Fu Ms 'Fencing is a family tradition'. What are you preparing for the zombie apocalypse?"

Out of all the stuff you had been getting into martial arts lessons had seemed like the most innocuous to talk about, but it had not occurred to you how it might look like from the outside, especially since you had never made a secret of the fact that you have been able to fence since you were in middle school. You open your mouth to answer and then you realize just how little you can talk about what you did without revealing something.

Maybe you could be a little more honest. They do know you are into New Age-y stuff, the Order of the Cauldron would fit in with that right? You could talk about Lydia. Once you have even a toe in the door you could fall in, you worry. Do you have the right to talk to them about that just so you can feel a little better about sharing what you did this summer?

What do you do?

[] Deflect, tell them nothing out of the ordinary, nothing that could put them in danger

[] Dress up some of the truth in more mundane guise, talk about Lydia, the Order, taming lessons from Harry

[] Find a private place and just show Izzy and Alec your Crown, time to pull back the veil. A little knowledge is more dangerous than one at all

[] Write in

OOC: I know I promised you guys Crown questions but then that set of rolls happened and it lead naturally into the question Izzy asked with its implications.

 

[DragonParadox]

The Alchemy of Understanding ​

1st of September 2006 A.D.

For a moment, you hesitate - a desire to laugh it off, to lead them away from the truth with skill beyond their mortal ken swelling up to you. Then you remember your own advice to Maria. It seems it's time to prove you are not a hypocrite: "You are surprisingly much closer to the truth than you realize. OK, this will need to be show-and-tell. After classes, we'll have to find a quiet unoccupied classroom, and I'll totally shatter your mind. Hopefully, not literally."

It's a good thing that you have that meeting to look forward to. Ms Sanderson your new English teacher is obviously a firm believer in the 'babysitter with a clipboard' school of education so much so that you struggle not to quote one of the less known Edgar Alan Poe quotes at her: "If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered."Granted he had died a raving alcoholic, but that does not mean the man did not have some great insights into the human condition.

Actually that gives you an idea...

As Lakeview secrets go the first floor chem lab with the window that does not close properly is among the most pedestrian. 'Someone should fix that thing', you must have heard it as dozen times said between the staff in corridors and to be fair it had been fixed, but it never seemed to stick. The fact that no one had burned down the school or tried to cook drugs in there restores something of the faith in your peers, the worst that happens in there are kids breaking in after hours on a dare and a few locally sourced pranks of varying levels of quality and good taste.

So when you claim you have something to show your friends in there they are confused, but also kind of intrigued, Izzy more than Alec, but that's because Alec does not do 'intrigued', he liked to stay above the fray of cliques and backbiting that is the legacy of the High School experience.

Can't get excluded if you never asked to join is his philosophy, which would be a lot more sad if he was not so cheekily up front about it. Well you are about to invite them to a really exclusive club.

As you close the door and pull the blinds you speak softly like the narrator of a play as the curtain rises: "A famous poet once said believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see... so watch closely."

Light explodes outwards from you, a thousand embers burning green, a thousand eyes reflected and refracted in beakers and in vials as with a thought you rise from the floor to hover about a foot above the ground.

"So.... found out you crashed into earth in a pod?" Alec asks. "Your folks are the sort who would adopt an alien baby."

"Alec," Izzy elbows him. "Not cool."

"Nah, he's right mom and dad are totally the sort who would raise Superman, or Supergirl I guess, but I'm more like Thor."

"A petty godling fit only for goatherds, thou are mightier by far than he Empress of the Nights that are to Come." Usum scoffs, but by now you are used to his compliments

"If Thor had found his hammer by accident after being taken prisoner by evil fairies," you finish.

"Splattercon... something happened around then didn't it? When we could not get ahold of you at all for days, not even a text," Alec is quick to catch on.

"Those were real monsters weren't they?" Izzy 's tone makes it clear that she would really really rather you said 'no'.

Alas that you cannot. Instead you nod and offer with a smile: "The world is a lot more like Buffy than Marvel unfortunately..."

"Like vampires..." Alec starts to catch on, looking rather pale himself.

"Late season Buffy," you emphasize. "But this is not Sunnydale where half the people at the local bar are vampires. It's like... most people never really interact with the spooky side of things, there aren't that many vampires, at least not the Dracula kind out there, mostly because of Dracula the book. Turns out if you reveal their weaknesses to the world the pitchforks come out."

"Wait a second, there are vampires and fairies and God knows what else right? Are there wizards?" Alec asks and you can guess from the gleam in his eyes where this is going.

"Yes Harry Dresden is a wizard while being in the phonebook under wizard." Izzy had been the one to find that out, but she had not been subtle about it, at least not around Alec.

"How are they keeping this a secret..." he motions around at your anima.

"Mostly by not doing this," you admit. "Part of it is conspiracies, part of it is willful ignorance, but also even the worst things out there don't want a SWAT team called on them, they may be scary to ordinary people as individuals, but we are scary to them as a group."

To your relief neither of your friends challenges the implicit kinship of that 'we'. Instead it's Izzy who asks: "So if you are Thor where's Mjölnir."

Hissing with deadly green flame you draw the sword from your heart into silence so complete you can hear their breath catch.

Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 10/12

"That is way more metal than Thor," Izzy finally manages to get out. Usum does not speak then but you can hear his approval, as a viper might purr, curled up in the sun.

After that you get down to the details, as much of them as you can cram into the next hour and a half before they have to go home: what the major factions are in Chicago and across the world, how to recognize a vampire, a fomori, a ghoul or a ghost, why thresholds are important and how to issue non-invitations if they are not sure about something. You give them both Father Forthil's number as Harry's in case they need help when they cannot get ahold of you... and then you start talking about your summer.

"You know..." Izzy starts as you get to the part where you had made a submarine to dive under Lake Erie in search of evil fish people. "Maybe you should start taking that advice about not looking for trouble."

"Then trouble would just find me..." And if you two stick around it might just find you two. The words unspoken hang in the air like a cloud.

"So like always then," Alec asks lazily, tossing a paper ball into the trash. "Three points."

It's hard to miss the tenseness in his shoulders, or the way Izzy's hands are folded tight in her lap, but they are doing their best not to show it. They aren't going anywhere.

***​

As the Beige Wagon drives you home you go over the question and answer session at the school again and again in your mind, thinking of what else you could have told them, what other contingencies you could have put in place. You have some thoughts and some texts fly from Clippy, but the deeper you go the more you come up against questions even you do not know the answers to, loose threads of the last few months. Who had that sniper outside of Harry's been? Who had killed Green and who had beaten him up a few days before? What did Laura Raith want with Black Rider, with Katrina's old car? Who, or what had been worrying Helen?

You cannot find out everything about everyone, but with a bit of focus and the right question you can always find out something...

[] Write in Crown questions for this turn

OOC: Welp, things went pretty good with the revelation.

 

[DragonParadox]

Mote in God's Eye ​

1st of September 2006 A.D.

The SETI Website is very space-y. Technical term that one remember if Usum. It's filled with the pictures of very serious looking scientists and projects with big, inspiring looking names and ambitious timelines. If optimistic futurism had a MySpace this would be it. We're gonna meet the aliens and it will all be just like Star Trek... or if you actually read the text instead of looking at the pictures of pretty sky-scapes and radio telescopes rising out of the rocky deserts like steel mushrooms we might get an email flung into the cold void of space, possibility from a civilization that is already gone.

Where might I find what the organization behind this website seeks?

The sparks of eldritch fire that are your eyes unsleeping fly outwards faster than the speed of thought, faster than a lighting's flash, faster than space unfolding... Tearing itself apart, something dark ever-creeping whispers.

Thus you see them, one, two three, ten, a thousand, tens of thousands, coordinates in a base eight system you have never seen before and yet which feels oddly intuitive.

"No way," you gasp. "There is no way there are than many advanced..." Then you stop and laugh, very glad no one is here to hear this one. SETI is looking for aliens and all those are coordinates where alien life can be found... by you. You now know where a lot of alien life is, but you have no way of knowing how much of that is life that can be detected, or recognized if it is detected by Earth sensors.

I know where the aliens are but I have no way to prove it, just call me Jane Foster and put me in a spiny thing.

Usum does not get the joke, you make a mental note to also re-watch Contact and also figure out a way to get the information out there other than write a conspiracy blog.

Granted given enough time and materials you probably could build a spaceship and magic is no respecter of mere physical constants.

Later, way later, you you change the tab over to an electronic version of a book that set the whole world on fire a century and a half ago. How could it not have with the very catchy title On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life

"How did humans come to be?"

A stygian hellscape, boiling black water below poisoned skies, deeper than deep, in the dance of amino-acids folding and contorting a spark of the divine, probability bent

...On a wave-wreaked coast crumbling to too sharp edges grey green pond scum clings

...Trees taller than redwoods dripping green shadows

...A Creature not quite fish, not yet not-a-fish gasps for breath in the heady air

Faster and faster the images come.

...Something that looks like a sharp-nosed mouse with deep grey fur and a mouth full of small sharp teeth scrambles onto the forest floor

...Things running, things climbing, eyes always the eyes looking out into the world with a growing glimmer of curiosity, faces shifting into compassion, twisting into malice

...The rain beats down on the savanna, trickles like coiling like serpents through the black earth. Miracles in small things, patterns in the chaos, footprints in the dirt

WHAT WAS WILL BE

The proclamation seems to shove your wandering gaze back in on itself, the colors of your room are once more the only things you can see around you. Even though you had never lost sight of your room during the... nature documentary crossed with LSD, you are going to say, it takes you even longer to acclimate to it. Evolution happened, you knew that already unless God was into playing really elaborate pranks with the fossil record, but there was also an ethereal aspect, spiritual to the time and the place when the Fallen Angel met the Rising Ape. But that last bit... patterns, molds.

A memory jars loose Ages of gold, ages of silver, ages of bronze and a rain of jaguars...

You are at least pretty sure that one comes from your 'coronation' back when you'd been more concerned with getting off the torture tree. That is one google search away from the Aztec myth... one that had the world and humanity recreated again and again by a different god.

"Anyone out there care to share any insights, explanations?" you ask to the air and/or any angels who might be listening.

Nothing.

Not that you had been expecting an angel to materialize on your bed between the off-green sweatpants and the CD player with the tangled up headphones, but it sure would be nice.

Almost as an afterthought you move on to big the list of US universities Clippy had complied for you and ask: "Which of the organizations in this list are the most mired in the supernatural?"

This time the answer is just a blazing green line under one of the names: Brown University Wait a second, Providence Rhode Island? Isn't that...? It only takes a few more clicks to confirm, it is the university Lovecraft would have liked to attend, if he weren't sickly and scared of... almost everything really. It is easier to make a list of the things Lovecraft was not afraid of. Fun.

Lost 3 Essence -> Now at 8/12

What do you want to do next?

[] Starting up, you have an assistant and an idea, not to help actually set this thing in motion, not just the paperwork but actually getting (or making) some machines that look like they could make diamonds. Also includes making more diamonds.

[] A friend in need. You promised Rosie that you would help and so you will, with problems material and ethereal
-[] Dreaming True, Rosie is doing great so far, but she still needs more training before she can get a proper hold of her powers (3/10 progress)

-[] The Bridges of the Spirit, continue your training with Brother Divsimar in the perilous, powerful arts of his order (Can begin studying Dragon's Speed)

[] Trading in lore, you have started down the path of learning alchemy from Bob... and revealing some of the deepest secrets of Yomi Wan, both very good things as far as you are concerned. (15/25 and 9/20)

[] Restoring the Last Station: Restoration efforts have been going well and according to Adam some more of the people down in the tunnels have shown interest in their newfound wealth and comfort (2/8)

[] Write in

OOC: In the interests of not spending all your essence at once IC and not bombarding you with too much exposition at once out of character and overwhelming you guys I am going to be peppering this stuff in with your regular actions. This also gives you the chance to act on this stuff, take any quick reactions to what you find out without waiting for October. So if you wanted to phone Brown university and ask if they train wizards to see what reaction you get that is something you can now do.

 

[DragonParadox]

A Sharp Customer ​

2nd of September 2006 A.D.

"So just to be clear about this," you give the Thomas a questioning once over. "You want to buy the warehouse they found Greene in, the one the CPD at least think he was murdered in?"

"Yep," he flashes a smile, a smirk really with which he's probably quite used to getting hearts racing, not that you are affected... much. "None more reason for the owner to sell the place on the cheap for cash no questions." He proceeds to explain what the other reasons are.

Quite apart from its recent bloody history the place isn't much to look at, it is a one story four thousand feet box built in the sixties boasting four thousand feet of floor-space and a fifteen foot ceiling clearance accessed through three drive through doors two of which open onto the street and the third onto the dusty graffiti covered parking lot. It is also insulated in asbestos and has sprinklers that are not up to code. He's pretty sure the building inspectors just haven't been around recently, not that you are in the least surprised.

North Lawndale is one of the places Reverent Martin Luther King Jr used as an example of discriminatory and predatory housing practices. The city has been putting more money into trying to fix the place up but to your eyes the new park across the way looks like slapping a bandied on gangrene. It takes you a moment to realize just what you are feeling. Apathy and desolation are manifest in the very air, a desert of man's disdain for man. Just like back at Helen's place you know bone deep that you could do more than survive here, you could thrive and help others do so as well.

"What's the price?" you ask as you duck under the door into what could be charitably be called a bare bones interior. About half the lighting fixtures are still in place.

"Twenty Thousand Dollars cash, no strings...."

His voice sounds distant as you make your way to the back of the werehouse, to the place you had seen through the cameras which are no longer here. The steel table hadn't gone anywhere.

"Where did Detective Greene really die?" you ask of inward insight.

Blood splattering on kitschy garden gnomes, dying the feathers of pink flamingos crimson

Agony, Screams, Terror

Why won't they come?

Greene had been killed under a veil practically outside his backdoor, it could not have taken more than ten seconds, but they had been seconds in agony.

Wait... "Clippy pull up the report on the Greene murder again for me." Ignoring Thomas for the moment you confirm that the detective's car had been found hear here, where he was meant to meet with Harry. So whoever had killed him must have shoved him in his own car and driven the body here.

Granted you knew this thing was capable of glamor or shape-shifting to pretend it was Harry, but why kill him so close to home and then drag him all the way here instead of letting him drive himself? Sadism maybe. That sounds like a coop out in your own head. Regardless you do not think Detective Greene's widow the FBI agent is going to appreciate the visit.

"She would not desire to know what slew her paramour?" Usum asks surprised.

"Well yeah but..." But what, you suddenly ask yourself. She's not going to be Daedalus. Odds are she wants answers every bit as much as you do.

Thomas clears his throat. "So the warehouse? And what are we going to call the company. I'm going to need it for he filings?"

[] [Name] Write in

[] [Warehouse] Buy

[] [Warehouse] Don't buy

[] [Greene] Go to his house to use the Crown the murder scene

[] [Greene] Go to his house to use the Crown on the murder scene and talk to his wife

[] [Greene] Don't visit the murder scene yet

[] [Greene] Write in

OOC: Votes are individual not by plan since they do not have much to do with one another.

 

[DragonParadox]

Forge and Forgery ​

5th of September 2006 A.D.

The manila folder is oddly light in your hands, Chicago Synthetics LLC written in almost aggressively plain text on the front. An admittedly silly part of you wonders what would have happened if Thomas has written the whole thing in Comic Sands? The Secretary of State's Department of Business Services had probably seen stranger Articles of Organization. Illinois is according to Thomas a very business friendly state, not as much as Texas but then what state is? Of course low fees and light paperwork are as much of a lure for cranks as legitimate businesses so the people at Business Services had been polite, professional... and very skeptical of Chicago Synthetics' stated goal of experimental diamond creation using 'constructive harmonics'.

Thankfully you're good at producing scientific-sounding jargon. It is just a pity you could not be there to see him deliver it, but in the end it just made more sensenot to associate Molly Carpenter with the company at this point. As the only person able to make the whole thing work you are going to have to get involved eventually, but it would be best to do so under an alias, one that is not seventeen.

One of the few requirements for a CEO is that they be at least eighteen and while an underage employee would not be wholly out of the question it would raise eyebrows.Sso while Thomas handled the regulatory details you had gone looking around the neighborhood for a source of scrap. Thankfully you or rather the generically named 'Jane Smith' in a rented van did not have to go very far before finding the equally generically named American Scrap Metal Services. Really that 'Metal' in the middle saved them from an unfortunate anagram.

***​

8th of September 2006 A.D.

Night after night ferry the cheapest scrap you can buy into your new warehouse, mostly ferrous scrap and heavy duty plastic, but also, glass and most fittingly of all... brass.

Six steel cylinders almost as tall at the room folded in the middle like cybernetic accordions stand on either side of the room glaring down at the enteral walkway out of dark glass eyes, each of them connected with scaled steel tubes like the coils of of antediluvian serpents to a hexagonal 'smart pillar' in the middle of the room, which is to say it has just about enough processing power to fit one of Clippy's kin inside to run the screens on the attached consoles. Said screens are currently displaying what you can only describe as competitive snake crossed with PAC-MAN involving more gore than you had ever seen rendered in pixel art, though more importantly 'La Forge' as the intelligence had chosen to be called could display nonsense reports from the 'diamond forges'. However much you might like to claim that the name is only a play on his supposed purpose truth be told the consoles themselves would not look entirely out of place onboard the Enterprise D other than being made out of matte black steel.

"I draw the line at leather chairs though, that would be silly," you proclaim as more to yourself than to either the demonic presence coiled 'round your soul, or the one who had just discovered retro-gaming'. Pretend employees don't need comfy seats. Plains steel will do ... well OK and some plastic coverings, you are not a barbarian.

Of course just as you are talking, mostly, to yourself Thomas walks in to tell you than he had gotten the LLC Operating Agreement and the Certificate of Good Standing done and with that you are in the clear until next year when you have to file the... unsurprisingly named Annual Report

"So, what does all this do?" he motions at the flashing screens, the slowly compressing and depressing dummy forges, the lights you'd finally given in and installed on the third day because of how distracting it was to work in the dark

"Props," you shrug.

"Right..." Thomas does not sigh, he's too professional for that. "I think we might need security cameras sooner rather than later."

"Sure, sure," you say absently glancing at your phone. "Say is it raining already?"

"Starting to. Why do you need...?"

"I'm better at stuff in the rain, or when I'm wet really. What did you think all the motor oil was for?"

"I could not begin to fathom," he snarks back.

***​

Detective Greene's home... or you guess now his widow's home is a single story ranch style affair that seemed to have gone for lawn space over floor space. The gnomes, flamingos and the little pond are all there, but even though it is a little after five PM the windows are all dark and... is that a curtain moving? One of the windows at the front of the house is wide open, but there is no sound from inside, no sign that anyone is at home.

Essence at 8/12

What do you do?

[] Get in sight of the murder site, ask the question and get out

[] Knock on the door, see if anyone answers

[] Try to look inside

[] Write in

OOC:The plot thickens.

 

[DragonParadox]

Dark Rites ​

8th of September 2006 A.D.

You stare at the open window for a moment, its openness at variance with -you check-every other house on the street that you can see. "Clippy" you murmur "Take a look at the DMV records for the Greenes, and find out what they drive.".

With that you step out of the car, darkness sharpening all around you, each drop of rain a small silver needle in the fickle sunlight, each one a gift of seas ever flowing. Another precaution occurs to you. Patting Black Rider's door you add to him "If someone tries to get in drive off," a change of standing orders. Anyone minded to steal him here would be way more dangerous than a common thug you'd wager.

Without quite running you make it to the door and knock, once, twice. It's solid as they come, metal not wood, just painted to look like it, Muffling any sound from the other side Looks like I'm about to do something silly...Peering into the window you try not to make it too obvious, then as your eyes get used to the darkness you suddenly don't give a damn.

There's a woman collapsed on the couch, a bottle lying in shards at her feet, red wine slowly leeching into the carpet among a scattering of pills and is he not alone. Sitting brazenly on the coffee table is a dark haired teenager in a faded once-black t-shirt ladder slashed jeans and too large-biker boots, a look of ravenous rapture on her face. White Court, you recognize her at once, but not pari, not a devouter of desire but of despair.

The girl does not take her eyes off her victim, but as you look beyond her you realize she is not the only one here. Standing in the kitchen door is a gaunt man in a suit and tie that hangs off him like a scarecrow, the sallow skin and quickly thinning hair could place him at any age between thirty and fifty... or likely far far older. This too is a vampire, but one that is not feeding, a mentor come to show a newly initiated youngster the pleasures of the hunt.

"What are you doing there girly?" his voice, in contrast to his appearance is soft, almost sickeningly kind. "Best be off we won't be needing another one today. Go on then..."

The worst part of that encouragement is that that he is not faking it, not entirely. This then it the mercy of the killers of hope. So might a lion push off a young gazelle when he has plenty of meat for the feasting.

What do you do?

[] Leap in to kill the vampires, try to save their victim

[] Try to command the vampires to stop and open the door for you

[] Write in

OOC: Will post the rolls in a bit, but a lot of them were auto-successes between the -3 DC to perception and the -1 to all rolls from BSM. Also you won initiative on the only vampire who is aware of you, the girl is out of it.

 

[DragonParadox]

Lives at Stake ​

8th of September 2006 A.D.

The rain comes on heavier and yet you are set loose from the demands of earth for once not glowing like a second sun, floating across the window sill, with your feet coming to a stop twelve inches above the floor of the living room. In truth the living room seems to darken as you enter, floating across the window sill, with your feet coming to a stop twelve inches above the carpeted floor. "I should ask the same of you, old man, a qustion among many." You glance at the girl, the theoretical sympathy towards her circumstances fading by the second. And yet your tone is level at lest when you call out: "Stop that, child, before I make you."

Lost 1 Essence and 1 Willpower -> Now at 7/12 Essence and 7/12 Willpower

For all the good it does you might as well have been talking to the potted fern.

Before you can make good on the threat the shock on the elder's face changes to something imperious and cold. "I do not know what you seek here Gui Ren, but you are meddling with the righteous hegemon of this realm. Leave this place or no veil will hide you from the ire of the dark-dwellers or the glaring eye of the daylight world."

Fear roils behind his dark gaze like a storm at sea, but more than that he had seemingly decided you are an elder of the Jade Court interrupting the horrid ritual over some whim. .

Instead of answering you grab the girl's arm, wrenching her off the table, leaving her reeling whether by the violence of the act or the sound of the glass coffee table shattering she finally breaks eye contact with her victim. Alas for her she then makes eye contact with you and tries to pull power from the well of your soul.

"Had you not warded your mind she might well be convulsing at the touch of chi too harsh for her palette," Usum notes clinically, really not what you need right now.

Out of other ideas you you slap her hard enough to leave a mark and not just on her cheek. Her expression clears. "What... who are you? Are you a Raith? I... I don't feel... good."

Normally you would take the slurring words as an attempt to distract from the very real victim still on the couch a few feet from her, but then she stumbles into the wall, looking like she is about to be sick or worse.

"I don't know what game you are playing stranger, but if you lay hands on Sitha one more time..." The elder had reached inside his jacket as though to draw the gun, but the words gutter out at your glare, age-old malice strangled by the grip of nameless terror. Yet in the urgency of those words you understand with a visceral lurch. Someone would still have to die here. The fledgling, Sitha, had gone too far already, she had awakened her Hunger, but it had not gotten its filll. Deprived of any victim it would turn on itself, a parasite made pathogen that will then rip itself from the corpse to darken the dreams of men evermore.

"Sarah Greene's life is forfeit by her own folly and willingness to expose us all!" the elder practically shouts his poise scattered to the winds.

So you thought she would make a good meal for your kin if you were going to kill her anyway, you mentally finish the sentence, rather glad of Usum's comment or you might have been tempted to let her feed on you. After all you have a lot more life in you than the average person. But since that's not an option...

On the one hand you could ask for her fealty on the spot, that should still her Hunger, but that would reveal you have the power to a random pair of vampires you had found in the middle of a murder or... wouldn't an elder vampire also count as having more life than the average person.

"They would consider it... perverse mistress," Usum interjects. Were the situation less grave you would roll your eyes at the notion of vampire taboos.

What do you do?

[] Offer the girl a chance to serve you in exchange for taming her Hunger
-[] Write in stunt

[] Ask the elder vampire to feed the fledgling while you get help for Sarah Greene
-[] Write in stunt

[] Write in

OOC: Welcome to your first case of supernatural mistaken identity. It will not be the last.

 

[DragonParadox]

A Cure and a Quandary ​

8th of September 2006 A.D.

You speak, and you voice echoes, reverberating across the shadows of room: "You haven't yet killed anyone, Sitha, and so I shall grant you a choice. Listen carefully. The Hunger in your soul is awake, and not yet sated. Should you fail to do so, it'll consume you, and then I will have to put it down. You have two ways to stop this gruesome fate from passing. Bend the knee to me now, and your Hunger will abate, for none shall touch those that swear to follow me. Or feed on your elder - he shall survive it, this I guarantee. The woman, however, is not for you...."

"Why, she's done for already?" the girl asks, her Hunger giving feral edge to the words. "Be kinder to finish than leave her like that."

She is, you realize, repeating a mantra, something she had been taught, perhaps since childhood. It makes a cruel sort of sense when you think about it, the Skavis are human enough to need humane rationalization.

"She is in possession of too much incriminating information which incriminates one of the athumi of the Court, it is sealed within the machine-mind..."

"I know what a computer is," you snap. "She is dying, to delay is to seek to frustrate my will." Turning back to the girl you offer simply: "Choose."

"Can... can she do it zio?"

"The Elders of the Jade Court have many insights of abnegation, though I have never heard of them offering it to others, certainly not other- cilth."

Having hung around Lydia as much as you have you are pretty sure the 'zio' is something Italian, but the old man is speaking another tongue, filled with sharp-edged consonants and cut off exhalations. Etruscan, the formal tongue of the White Court, the mark of highest standing among them. How old is the old man to seem so ancient among those who value beauty and the illusion of youth so highly? Suddenly you feel a lot less confident in the fight you'd get into if things go poorly.

"So like..." Sitha sinks in a practiced courtesy. Looks as weird in pants as you'd expect it to, but it does the job, intent is all that matters

You frown at her, as though it costs some mental effort to tame her newly awoken hunger, but from the way the elder's pale cheek twitches in surprise you suspect the effort had been wasted, he had seen... something surprising in your manner.

At least it does not seem to be 'shoot now' surprising. Instead he nods slowly to himself before turning towards Sarah Greene: "I shall lend her the strength to endure."

The best idea you had was to call an ambulance which would come with all sorts of inconvenient questions so you cautiously agree, all too aware that you are holding Sitha hostage against his conduct. You watch as he lays his hands her temples chanting in that tongue which was old when Rome was new, as the veins on his hands start to glow brighter and brighter, quicksilver radiance until it spills all at once over mortal flesh racing through her veins to undo the harm which had been forced upon her. Thus is a demon of unending want forced into a moment's grudging charity

Elder Discipline Revealed: The Illness Unveiled

Mark that up another notch on the scary-vamp-o-meter Usum, you think glibness not quite enough to mask the very real concern. If he can make his demon heal random mortals you do not want to know how tough this guy is in a fight.

"She will sleep now, remembering little of what was done this night, little good though it might do her," the elder vampire notes clinically. "She knows too much and is too determined to make it known. So it is with mortal servants carelessly plucked."

"What do you mean?" You would like to think he is lying but you had given him no reason to believe you might be sympathetic to mortals for their own sake, having not denied his assumption that you are an elder of the Wan Kuei.

"Agent Greene is part of FBI Crimes Against Children and Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit." He stops, as though to see if you are confussed by the nomenclature. When you show no sign of it he adds. "She also used to be the eyes and ears of House Raith within the unit until her husband was killed in a rather messy attempt by parties unknown to frame the local wizard. Given that the attempt involved clear signs of sorcerous tampering to anyone who knew to look for it, including a shape-shifter appearing on camera she came to believe that her handlers among House Raith would have answers. When they refused to help her obtain revenge she came to suspect them. Given her previous position and a skill for unavailing conspiracies far above what Madrigal Raith assumed she possessed..."

Again he pauses, this time as though to assess reaction to a name that had just 'slipped out' in his frustration and you can believe that as much as the bridge seller in Brooklyn.

"She intended to deliver the information to a group within the FBI which knows enough to believe her, yet not enough to have learned discretion. While I too would prefer a less blunt solution than simply killing Agent Greene she has known too much for too long to simply cloud her memories and in any case I do not possess enough of an understanding of the machine-minds..."

"Just call it a computer zio," Sitha huffs, only seeming to hold herself back from rolling her eyes by supreme effort.

"From the Latin putare," he counters serenely. "I could call it a knowledge pruning machine if you prefer."

"Can you not simply compel her not to speak?" you interject before things can get any more surreal... and then you realize you had just suggested mind control and feel like shit.

"Given the strength of her conviction that would be... unreliable," the elder says, seeming to balance the word gingerly on his tongue.

But, you realize, I could wipe all of Sarah Greene's evidence against the Raiths off her devices and any off-site storage. Do I want to protect White Court human trafficking?

On the other hand it's not like you can think of another bloodless way out of this. You could probably convince these two to leave now, but you cannot exactly follow Agent Greene around town to play bodyguard 24/7 and it's not like she was an innocent if it's true that she worked with the White Court to cover up their crimes until she came to believe they killed her husband.

She's not the main victim though.

What do you do?

[] Offer to wipe off the evidence of Raith crimes off all of Agent Green's devices
-[] Sincerely
-[]... and keep a copy (Roll opposed Charisma+Subterfuge vs the Elder's Auspex ???)

[] Let the two vampires go, odds are they will try again, but maybe Agent Greene will get the evidence to Dedalus before she is killed
-[] Wash your hands of the matter
-[] Once they are gone return to speak to Agent Greene

[] Write in

OOC: And here we are, that was a lot of rolling.