Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

[DragonParadox]

Riddle of Steel ​

23st of January 2007 A.D.

"Harry listen, can you send me over the file for that warlock who showed up in Boston... no he's not back... no I don't need you to come over... just the file is fine, thanks..."

Lydia Rhys was still not entirely sure what her friend Molly was planning to do about Harry Dresden. It seemed pretty clear to her that he was more interested in Tiffany the Un-Fallen, that name was a mouthful but it felt like the most respectful way to talk about her, and that a more antique arrangement would be taken poorly. She was just excited to be inside a college and not just any college, Harvard. Her father had spoken about her going there before he had to... go away.

A cool presence passed over, like phantom snowflakes upon her brow, wordless sorrow. Words were a difficult thing to thread betwixt this realm and that distant hidden place. Would the Well bring her closer she wondered. If it was proving ground, a spirit quest tethered in place as though someone had managed to tether Elder Unicorn in place maybe...

Unexpected hopes, like unexpected fears just got in the way.

As she snapped out of her woolgathering the girl noticed Molly looking at her phone with a frown that was less bewilderment or the uncanny focus of revelation and more frustration.

"Well good news, I found Nora Long, she is in the building I thought we might do a seance at, Massachusets Hall..."

"Well that is a good thing though isn't it?" Olivia asked, a little wearily, her voice dropping.

"She found something weird," Lydia offered her sage advice. Like her Molly did not deal well with the unexpected and just like her she sometimes had to seek the counsel within her own mind.

"How can someone be a steel scion of faerie? Iron is poisonous to faeries!" The words burst out, then a pause, a tip of the head. "Oh that makes sense, the fey are stories. I guess there would be stories about technology as well, steel would be the transformative power of industry. That is actually weird in another way... remember that place we fought the Akuma? That used to be a big steel mill, emphasis on 'used to', spirits born of the first wild flames of industrialization should have faded if not perished. It's not like either of the courts would be supportive of a narrative so perilously close to feromancy the scion might be a lot older than she looks, pretending to be just another college kid for potentially creepy reasons."

"Or maybe we are just looking at more of the Well's influence, not all seeds sprout on their own after all and yet spring waters from the depths might yet bring them out." Lydia very carefully did not look at Olivia as she said this. The paralels were in some ways obvious and yet they were not flattering. Lydia had nothing against Olivia, but she hadn't earned the great power she'd been gifted, nor did she entirely seem to grasp just how much it would cost if she ever decided to part from Molly. The flayling fury of an ice storm was not meant to live in the veins of those that walked on two legs.

Olivia herself had been thinking of other matters though. "Wait didn't you look over all the students' names when you found Karl?"

Another search and confirmation, no Nora Long, one Nora Jackson registered. They had managed to find a fey scion of a heritage that should not exist this century on this continent with something to hide... all without moving from the spot where they had been huddled around the street corner.

Lydia was very glad Molly and was on their side.

How do you approach your second target?

[] Direct approach
-[] Write in stunt (Optional)

[] Stake out
-[] Write in plan (Optional)

[] Write in

OOC: Update would not work properly with the background rolls from Molly's PoV so I made it an interlude, hope you guys don't mind.

 

[DragonParadox]

Woman in Red ​

23st of January 2007 A.D.

Essence at 9/15 (Previous update changes)

Massachusetts Hall stands, a blacker shadow against the night sky, illuminated in strips of harsh yellow of street lights like a museum piece in some titan's collection. One could almost imagine the small steel plaque next to it enumerating its history with cold precision. It is hard to imagine living within its walls, much less sharing the space with some of the staff. The freshmen are on the fourth floor according to the internet so up you go veiled in secrecy, propriety, some part of you corrects, though quite what is proper about flying in the air to peer though people's windows you are not sure.

From down below you hear Olivia say bewildered: "Where's she go?" Then in a wry tone: "What d'you need me for again?"

"More hands, more eyes, more torches bright," Lydia says and you get the feeling she is quoting something, though it's hard to tell with the way the wind is snatching her words away. "Molly and I burn bright, but there is only so much kindling to our flames. The world is not as it once was in net of steel, in snare of thousand questing gazes."

Lost 2 Essence (ATP; Excelency) -> Now at 7/15

None of those gazes strike upon you though as the windows framed in white come into view, narrow panes of glass dark, dark lit. Whatever else may be said for Harvard it does not seem to do much about students' bed-making etiquette. It is hard to put names to rooms when all you have is the information you were able to uncover online, probably intentionally.

That's me Molly Carpenter, invading people's privacy for a good cause, you think unhappily. Really you could have taken more time at this, there's no ticking clock, no stirring evil, but the prize, the prize if worth a few pulled curtains surely? Who knows what an unscrupulous souls might do with the power of the Well. Even as the thought passes though your mind you are aware that my the measure of Plato you had already failed the test of the Ring of Gypes, but then you wonder has any who is already king or queen ever passed it. It feels that shepherds have an easier time with virtue. Two more windows you pass thus, then you spot her. Still in her street clothes, stylish red and black to match her inky hair she leans so close to the laptop's screen you wonder if she would even notice you floating there unveiled.

Spoiler: Nora Long

Essence churns again, as you read the shadows in her eyes, the weight upon her heart.

The blood was hot and sticky on her hands, like engine oil dripping from a faulty valve. She had not meant to swing that hard, she just wanted him to get out of her way. Instead the man had collapsed in a heap, a pipe-shaped indentation in his head. Maybe there were brains on your sleeve as well. Why hadn't he gotten out of the way when I told him to move? Mickey's stupid rules weren't worth his life. What had the dead man's name even been Jeb? Jon? James? She did not even know what name to ask forgiveness of his restless shade. Anger, disgust and self-loathing churn in your gut... in her gut as she looks down at the corpse splayed across the dead grass, the rest of his blood soaking into the dirt of the junkyard, sprayed across the pillar of mismatched scrap to her right. The man's name had been James Greene born in Pittsburgh Pennsylvanian. He was 39 years old.

Murder, plain and simple, for what it's worth Nora thinks of it like that as well, though it is hard to parse the motive out of this one. There was something in that scrapyard she desperately needed to reach, or someone. Whether she had or not, or if it had been worth the cost you do not know, it's over the horizon as far as sin-sight is concerned.

Does that mean he wasn't allied to Johann of Cleves though? One would hope so, but as Usum reminds you the measure of the sin is in the eye of the bearer. Nora would not be the first person to count a crime done with her own two hands more grave than any number of deaths facilitated by the work of an ally.

Lost 2 Essence -> Now at 5/15 (Excelency NWS)

How do you approach the scion of steel?

[] Formally as one might one of the fey without a court

[] As a member of the Order of the Cauldron once more, perhaps seeming less threatening

[] Write in

OOC: I thought about rolling through this, but I figured you guys would like a chance to do something with the information and maybe restore some of your essence before talking to Nora.

 

[DragonParadox]

Mistaken Identity ​

23st of January 2007 A.D.

Even though you have a name it's sadly quite a common one and and working back to try and find a date of birth from three years ago still pings hundreds of potential victims... none of which formally worked in or near a scrap heap. Maybe if you got access to the FBI data base it would be different, but working off public records even IRIS's vast computational power and arcane code is not enough to pick out the crime. Still the time it had taken them to look was more than enough for you to replenish yourself in poisoned waters.

Regained 2 Essence -> Now at 7/15

"Wish I could use a plastic cup as a nice cozy bath," Olivia jokes... to which Lydia proceeds to explain the metaphysics of precisely how Essence diffuses from impurity into blood and bone. Something tells you the older girl hadn't quite been looking for that much occult lore.

The three of you move quickly and stealthily though the hallways and up the sweeping stairs that had once felt the foot of generals and presidents-to-be. "...now a queen beside," the demon on your proverbial shoulder half whispers, encouragement that might almost be mistaken for teasing. You had come a long way since that dreadful moment in Arctis Tor. Is Harvard your next step.

Lydia is the one who knocks, quick but loud.

"Hi, do I know you?" Nora answers the door a few seconds later, adding: "Aren't you a little young?"

"To be a student yes, but we are not here for that," you start. "We represent a group of like-minded..."

A frown forms between her brows almost instantly. "Sorry ice-play's still not my kink." Catching herself with visibile effort she adds. "No offense meant to the Lady of the Winter Court, but my answer stands. Fare thee well!" So much for her not knowing the shape of the world.

Catching the edge of the door as she's closing it you take a step inside with a casualness none of the faerie folk would show. "We're not with the Winter Court. All of us are part of an alliance of human the magically talented called the Order of the Cauldron investigating the city and looking to see if anyone's willing to join."

Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 6/15

"Why?" The hard glare of suspicion had melted into something that could optimistically be called interest.

"The usual reasons," you offer, allowing your voice to grow just a little sour at the cold welcome. "Protection, the sharing of information about local threats, present and emerging."

In response Nora looks from you to Olivia and back again. "Are you looking to get into Harvard or just Boston in general?" She had guessed you were a harder read than her since you were doing most of the talking, but more than that she is worried. People can be worried abut all kinds of things of course, losing a treasures possession, getting the wrong kind of attention, of loneliness and failure, but this does not look like any of those, the lightning quick fear one sees when someone else is about to step in front of a train. Nora long really does not want you sticking around campus and unless you are much mistaken for what she sees as your own good.

Would a demonstration of power set her at ease... or make her clam up entirely?

[] Mention that you have helped Karl, ask her if she needs help with something

[] For now all you really want is to see what the dead have to say, see if you can get her to agree to a seance

[] Write in

OOC: Exalted social skills are carrying you quite a bit here, but it is clear there is a lot she is not telling you.

 

[DragonParadox]

On Steel Strings ​

23st of January 2007 A.D.

"Harvard for now, Boston in general if I decide to attend next semester. It's always a good idea to scope out a new place before making a home there, right? And if you can make some friends there beforehand, that's even better," you finish with a smile that hides a searching look. True it's costly, but it's sure to be faster than trying to coax answers out of her if she's willy enough to avoid Winter's grasp. Had Meave even been herself then, or is this another plot of the Knight of the Stone Heart?

What's Nora's relationship to the Well?

Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 5/15

For an answer the sound of static amplified a thousand fold scratches at your ears: She is studying it at the behest of her patron. The phantom smell of burning plastic assails your nostrils: Unwillingly. A numbness that is not cold dances at the ends of your fingers. She hasn't sent her report yet.

There was something unpleasantly familiar about that touch, but before you can put your finger on it Usum speaks his manner curt as only urgency ever compels him "I know who commands this one, Mikaboshi Master of the Wicked City, moves to claim your prize Majesty"

Regained 2 Essence -> Now at 7/15

Thankfully this isn't the first time you've had to gulp down surprise at some answer the Crown had shown you so the smile remains fixed upon your face as you ask wryly: "So I'm assuming the Winter Court were quite blunt in their offer, to judge from your reaction."

"You're not worried about..." Nora takes a deep breath. "Look I don't know what kind of self-defense club you are running, but it's dangerous to talk shit about the Powers, especially the darker ones. Harvard... Harvard isn't worth it, not in general, especially not for people like us. It's too high profile and to be honest it just takes too much time." She motions at her desk, crowded but without even one thing out of place. The crayons she's been using to underline things are ordered by hue. "To be a magician is to be of two worlds, this place requires you to be rooted in one if you want to succeed."

There is no doubt in your mind that she's lying her ass off or, recalling her panicked look earlier, that she's doing so in the hope of protecting the three strangers who just walked into her life. Despite that no one becomes an infernalist by accident, the woman in front of you has made a pact with one of the black Lords of Yomi of her own will and only God not knows how what hooks that one has in her.

What do you do?

[] Try to put a cyberdevil in her laptop, it almost certainly has some of the answers you are looking for (-1 Essence)

[] Excuse yourself and
-[] ...come back later to search the room, it's not like you need sleep
-[] Summon Maeve to ask what her interest in Nora Long was

[] Continue with the plan as if nothing had happened, you are curious how she's going to react to Lydia

[] Write in

OOC: Welp the good part is you did not lose essenc...

 

[DragonParadox]

To Spy a Glittering Eye ​

23st of January 2007 A.D.

Between one breath and the next another pair of eyes opens, not upon the unborn future, but the present manifest, dark spirits lurking. The laptop shifts from the innocuous blues and whites to Windows XP to sparking snarling greens: envy, disdain, distrust, of all the passions in a demon's heart the most expected, spite drives them and becomes them. Feigning to brush an unruly lock of hair out of your eyes you sweep the room and sly her purse on the table, open and from its depths the same radiance, her phone's a spy too. "I'm sorry, we shouldn't have burst in here like that..." you offer wryly then as though hitting upon sudden inspiration: "As an apology for worrying you, let me buy you dinner? In a place of your choosing? We can talk over food, you seem to have some very insightful advice to disperse".

Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 6/15

"Look I'm telling you to just go..." She stops and visibly collects herself. "Do you know about the chaos that happened last autumn? The fires? That was someone powerful doing a working with no concern for the Laws, a wizard of the left hand path. He's gone, it's not, it's not safe for you here, this is not a good place to do magic. There are other Ivy League Colleges, I'm sure you can get into one of them."

"Should we be having this conversation here?" you prod. "I'm not sure how thick the walls are, but there's staff in the building right? I don't think we want them hearing the word 'wizard', the might accuse you of being obsessed with Harry Potter again..."

"What?" Nora looks startled for a moment before the answer clicks in her head. "Right, if only that was the worst of it..." There is one must admit a chance that she just didn't care for the books, but even most people who didn't like the story would have heard about it by now. She's either not as young as she looks or like Lydia she's had an unusual upbringing. "It's too late for dinner but I could do with a coffee and a bagel." she says picking up her bag. Darn it.

"Sleep is for the weak," she adds. What should have been and was obviously intended as a joke rings darkly in your ear, though it is hard to discern why.

What's the point of getting her out of the room is she is just going to take a spy with her? Screw Mikaboshi and his paranoia... even and especially if he happened to be right this time, you are planning to subvert his agent, or try to at least.

How do you separate Nora from her phone?

[] Olivia can excuse herself then come back and steal the phone

[] Lydia does the seance while you are at the restaurant and hopefully finds a helpful ghost willing to go out and short the phone

[] Write in

OOC: So far so good, but now you are on the other side of the demons in phones dilemma. How do you deal with it?

 

[DragonParadox]

Spirits Factual and Literary​

23st of January 2007 A.D.

Plans whirl though your mind, using Olivia's gifts, using Lydia's authority every last one of them smashing into a wall. Veils are fragile things, easily torn by acts of violence, even your own and the things that dwell silicon hearts think at the speed of thought. There's not getting around it so you just stop... on the steps between the third floor and the second you cast your shadow into the world, now entirely yourself not hidden behind a blackened mirror. Lashing out like it resented having been bottled up, your presence rushes outwards violently; for a moment the lights flicker the colors of bale-fire, and the scent of unnameable spices lingers in the air. To the right ear there is a surge of static in which echos of godlike machines and the alien worlds they've made for themselves can almost be heard. "I can feel the cyber devil, and I want them to know that if they give away my presence I will eat them."

Lost 2 Essence -> Now at 4/15 (Reactivating BMI and Intimidation Excellency)

In answer two things are heard from about the same quarter, a soft crackle-pop from inside a purse and the sound of steps stopping dead. "Who... What are you?"

Just as you are about to answer the very understandable question Clippy speaks through your earphones: "Unrecognized Thaumic Signal received & recognized. One of the Numbered engaged broad-band communication protocols such that all demons of Yomi can hear. Message as follows: The novel homo-form is claimed by Mikabosi Lord of the City Without Rival followed by assurances that its destruction will not serve your aims. Silence can be as telling as speech. Period. Offer to mediate made in exchange for a guarantee of safety."

"Estimation of truthfulness?" you subvocalize.

Lydia sighs and turns to Nora, she might not know quite what game your playing but she has more than enough of a sense of the dramatic to know it's time for unveiling: "I know your name's not Annie, nor is it quite astorming, but there's a horseman abroad in the world and from the sounds of things you could really use the ride to get away from unwelcome company."

"Low," comes the almost toneless reply to your question even as the maybe-unwilling-infernalist looks at your friend with what you at first think is bewilderment, but then recognize as quiet amazement: "Did you just paraphrase Kevin Crossley-Holland at me? Not even the Beowulf translations? Storm?"

"It was one of my favorites growing up, definitely my favorite English book until I got into Poe," Lydia continues. Probably best not to ask what age she read Edgar Alan Poe at.

Clearing your throat you attempt to call back Nora's attention from unexpected childhood affinity: "My apologies for the incivility, but I don't want Mikaboshi to be aware of my involvement until I'm sure how to best screw him over. I'm Molly by the way. I run security for the Ordo, though if you've heard of me it's probably more for my hobbies than anything else."

"Oh... fuck." The expelative trails off like she does not have the breath to finish it. "Yes I know who you are, I was supossed to watch out for you! What do you want! The Proving Ground..." Her gaze snares on Olivia than moves back. "It wouldn't do much good to run would it?"

"Do you want to run?" You ask as though it were an academic question, fitting one supposes for an academic institution.

"I do not want to get broken like a mouse caught in steel gears. I have my reasons for what I'm doing and the comany I keep, little as I might love it. I'm sure you can make some guesses..."

"Mhm," you nod. "Most people who end up in the service of such as Mikaboshi don't do so out of an abundance of choice. I guessed that one too."

"I'd rather not talk about personal matters." As answers go it's an innocuous one, but the way she stressed personal over any of the other words, the split second hesitation uttering the word at all. A loved one is at stake, be it as blackmail or promised salvation some third party's wellbing is in the proverbial cards.

How do you respond?

[] Point out that you cannot let a Yama King do as they like, whether she wants to or not Nora is in the game now

[] Agree with the Wicked City demon's offer of parley, a trap you walk in with your eyes open may be a trap for the other side

[] Write in

OOC: Lydia rolled... not even with excellency she rolled 10 successes, hence 'happened upon a shared favorite book'.

 

[DragonParadox]

Of Wheels Stilled ​

23st of January 2007 A.D.

"What reasons does she have to serve Mokaboshi?" you ask, another mote of essence burning as the question flies.

Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 3/15

You see the graveyard again, but you are not the girl with blood on her hands, you are flying, like a bird through the air, if birds even fly through these skies. This isn't earth at all, it is some manner of spirit realm, towers of scrap rising hundreds, thousands of feet in the air, lost in the hazy air where the clouds are smoke, the stars above are embers. Beyond the twisting path, though arches bent from railroad tracks and hammered home with spikes of iron you see a man of metal gleaming, like Talos of old, his skin if brass, his hair is gold, his eyes are bright like gemstones in a dragon's hoard... and he is all in pieces. An old man, stands in solemn vigil, he was the one who'd taken out the three five piston heart, he was the one who at another time had repaired the the rusted knee joint for a new one, but now Joe Magarac's time had come and no power of wizardry could mend him, the task of five decades gone to dust.

But there were other darker powers that could reach what mortal wizardly could not. A life taken in desperation by blood of the iron man now taken to summon in despairing plea the lord of the Wicked City, the master of the Hungry Streets, the iron fist and flaming eye

In the distance a beast roars, mayhap an engine.

Restored 2 Essence ->Now at 5/15

Nora had been trying to save her father... grandfather? It's hard to tell, the root of her fairy line at least. What you snared from the vision's depths was a sense of who Joe Magarac had been, a piece of Pennsylvania Folklore breathed into being by an age now past and left abandoned at the place where lost things often are at the crossroad of all things.

The vision raises as many questions as it answered. How had Mokaboshi saved Joe, what had happened to the wizard, Mickey you would guess? Something tells you he hadn't taken the death of his subordinate well. If she had not killed to get to the center of the scrap heap who would her first sacrifice to the Yama King have been?

"Well I can hardly let the Yama Kings do as they like now can I?" you ask, just a touch of a hard edge to flippant tone. "They don't make good neighbors as even they would attest, about each other at least."

"You're insane..."

"Is that what you are saying about me," you ask, genuinely curious as much as just trying to keep her talking.

"He said you're some kind of relic of the August Personage of Jade, a snare in the guise of what once was to test the wise and undo the unweary..." She pauses, as though wondering if she should keep going then sighs and adds: "He said you would burn yourself out eventually, things that don't belong usually do."

"He?" press. "I'm guessing that's not the Lord of the Wicked City."

"No," the word is sharp. "We cannot keep talking about this in here. Come on, lets get that bagel and then you three can just go back to Chicago..." she brushes past, leaving you to wonder how much truth there is in the words of the servants of the Yama King and how on Earth you are going to turn someone whose reason for service is a loved one on life support in Hell.

What offer do you make?

[] You'll bargain for the soul of her progenitor

[] You'll reclaim the soul of her progenitor by force

[] Point out that service to the Yama Kings will destroy that part of her that cares about others to begin with

[] Ask what her mission is. maybe you could play the same sort of game you did with Eiko. If nothing else she is less bound than any Akuma

OOC: If you have any suggestion on where to get that bagel now's the time/

 

[DragonParadox]

Counsel Interrupted​

23st of January 2007 A.D.

Downtown Boston is cramped as it is bright, the lingering lights of Christmas mixing with the glare of neon signs and the bright white fire of street lights that drown out the sun. Not where you'd want to get a bagel, to tell the truth, but you follow along in the wake of your newest... foe, potential ally, victim to be saved? It's hard to say and harder still to judge what you should be saying. What you can promise honestly versus what your heart demands. Olivia gives you a worried look along the way, she hasn't seem you in this kind of mood before, Lydia has so she did not mentioned spirits as you left the historic Harvard behind for the bright towers of the modern world. The cold at least is going to help, assuming you can get Nora to take her coffee outside.

Spoiler: Downtown Boston

Wheels slip on the snow, horns honk like the call of strange flightless birds and still you cannot say for certain how this night is going to end. The demon in her purse hadn't reacted since it made the offer of parley, biding its time maybe. Finally you arrive at this colorful little cafe, an old crooked ring of pine branches still hanging forlornly outside in contrast to the heady aroma of coffee and yes bagels wafting from within. The noise of the street it its own kind of privacy so before the drinks even come in your ask: "So what's he having you do?"

"Field studies," she swallows dryly. "He's a scientist I guess you could say, though from an older tradition, test, measure, theorize. It's... well I called it a Proving Ground already so I might as well explain. You know how a lot of cultures have initiation rites, ones where you have to come into contact with the spirits in some way before you can be considered an adult, not a shaman, not a holy woman, an adult. Ages and ages ago those tests used to work a hell of a lot more than they do these days reinforcing the narrative of the peoples involved, bringing forth warriors and craftsmen, artists and tricksters. That is what fate is when you come right down to it, tying yourself willfully into the magic of the world, fate at its best that is. These days most people just get stumble through life and get tangled in its threads and the poor SoBs who do find one of the Old Ways, one of the old Proving Grounds... well they end up dead and hungering. turns out when an age, a way of life is killed, its remnants go to hell. But this Proving Ground, it has the potential to be a place where people can take on roles and purpose of and for the modern age..."

That feels eerily familiar, but you can't put your finger on it. What you can put it on by contrast is the issue with Nora's plan: "And you want to hand this over to Mikaboshi?" you ask, not even bothering to hide doubts as deep as the Marianas Trench. "Even for the best of reasons, with the best of intentions, there is a reason most of the lords of Yomi are called 'demon' and not the Hellboy kind, he is going to twist and hurt and remake you into as close to his own image as he can manage and when he's done, you aren't going to have those good intentions anymore." Before she can asnwer you lean in close. "Look, it's a long way to the Wicked City as the Ways go, we can help you if you'll let us?"

"What kind of help are we talking about..."

Danger! The feeling burns down your spine like cold fire, in your voice, in Usum's, you don't know, but you can hear Olivia screeming the same warning. Lydia hadn't sensed anything. Out of the corner of your eye with reflexes far more than human you see the bullet fly, sure to hit Nora right in the head.

Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 4/15 (Windborn Stride)

What do you do?

[] Throw yourself in front of the bullet (Guaranteed to work, will have to tank the damage with just your base form and armor)
-[] Write in stunt

[] Try to parry it (if you fail it is likely Nora will die)
-[] Write in stunt

[] Write in

OOC: Turns out going out for coffee and then asking about betraying one of the Yama Kings, not the best idea, especially a bad idea when it's the surveilance one. Windborn stride is there since without it there is no way you can react. Olivia can also react since she has Black Wind, but she cannot parry bullets so if you want to get fancy with her you guys are going to have to come up with a plan. Since I know you guys are going to ask, Molly does not have the time to turn and see the source of the shot, but she will next update.

 

[DragonParadox]

Speed of the Dark ​

23st of January 2007 A.D.

Under the pale light of the Crescent Moon, a dark sun shines briefly, as the shield in your hand unfolds to deflect a deadly projectile, the first syllables of the hymn by the dead gods chorus accompanying the brief screech of metal against metal. Within your other hand, Usum's weight manifests a comforting presence. A bullet that would have struck Nora clean between the eyes splatters like a drop of mercury on the face of the shield.

Lost 2 Essence and 1 Willpower -> Now at 3/15 Essence and 6/9 willpower

Somewhere people are screaming, mixing with the prayer, with the violence in alien harmony as you turn flinging the light table away with a brush of now stone clad limbs. "Get down!"

Even as you shout the command Olivia is already pushing the stunned Nora down, but as you finish the turn you see it, impossibility real At first sight it only registers as a darker shape against the sky, a sleek steel predator.... a motorcycle not on the crowded street but streaking along the brick wall just above the line of windows, just beyond the glare of the streetlights, silent as death. The rider garbed in billowing leather and flashes of gold leans almost flat against the body of the machine as it streaks east along the street. Ninety-seven meters per second, Usum provides coldly mechanical in precision. Treading the Thrashing Dragon's Tail. You can catch it you know, just as you know that to catch it you would have to fly above a busy street in the middle of downtown Boston.

Spoiler: Demon Motorcycle

Out of the corner of your eye you see Lydia only now starting to move —less than one point five seconds had elapsed— and Olivia moving with vicious speed to grab Nora's purse of all things from where it had fallen off the table along with shattered drinks, some distant part of you wonders why, but perched upon the precipice of the moment it does not matter. The assassin is loose, worse yet witnesses are going to start reacting, the woman clutching her daughter close, the middle aged man struggling to come to his feet... A few seconds might be dismissed as some kind of mass hallucination or hysteria, but you cannot stand here garbed in the armor of Lanka for much longer without being a worse breach of secrecy than fucking Akuma-Batman.
What do you do?

[] Trigger Anonymity Through Propriety and fly over to beat some answers out of him
-[] Write in stunt

[] You are low on Essence, this is a public place and he's running, let him run, drop the armor and get Nora out of here
-[] Write in stunt

[] Trigger Source Code Compliance Protocol and in a tongue of ages long before the keeper of his soul came to be command him to stand down or be destroyed
-[] Write in stunt

[] Write in

OOC: A bit short, but it is literally less than two seconds since any more than that and the preternaturally fast wall climbing Akuma would be out of sight. Incidentally if you are wondering why he was willing to pull this stunt in public, think about how the authorities would react if someone claimed to have seen a motorcycle that sticks to walls and moves at 350 mph. Sometimes speed and sheer incredulity can serve as stealth.

 

[DragonParadox]

The Bleeding Edge ​

23st of January 2007 A.D.

Night swallows secrets, and the secret of your presence is but one of them. The wind as your only partner, you rocket towards your opponent. A mask of steel and gold, of wires and hears raises to meet you eyes black as the empty hollows of a skull open in surprise, perhaps in horror as Usum flashes at an arc that would have cleaved any mortal man from the bike and sent the pieces flying. This is no mortal man, it is not even a vampire of the Jade Court, servant and tool of Mikaboshi and reforged to his design, the cloak like dragon's wings steel-spun, the body viscous liquid moving as he swerves. Blessed brass bites deep splattering metal oil and blood mixed into a nameless non-Newtonian fluid.

Lost 1 Essence - > Now at 2/15 (ATP)

Spoiler: Akuma

Not just fluid, you realize too late, there's a limb of sorts in there, a short lived thing of glittering wire growing from the wound, vile once-blood seeps though the gaps in armor that would have shed hammer blows like rain. Blood rushes to your head, essence roils in your gut, leaving you sick in mind body and soul all at once. Blood Atemi, the part of you that does not want to hurl every meal you've eaten in the last ten years somehow notes

Akuma takes 3 Wounds -> Now at 4/7 (-1 Dice)
You are Incapacitated for the Remainder of the Scene
Lost 1 Willpower -> Now at 5/9 (EIPP) -> Blood Atemi Undone

"Fuck you!" the words spill from your mouth, alongside the tainted chi you refuse to allow inside.

"Alas I have dispensed of the anatomy required for such congress Miss Carpenter," the demon-vampire says in, of all things the sort of perfect English accent Alexander Harrowmont could only dream of having as he dodges again with alien grace, the entire bike moving like a part of his flesh, enough to turn what should have been decapitation into a nasty cut on his neck. He's burning chi like kindling has to be...

Akuma takes 2 Wounds -> Now at 2/7 (-2 Dice)

You brace for another curse or blow, but the Akuma does not raise his hand against you but against the veil, striking the air with his right hand as a hammer strikes a gong, with his other hand he flings an all too familiar object into the traffic below. Grenade! You watch in horror, you watch close... and realize he hadn't pulled the pin. For whatever reason this Akuma, servant of hell though he be hadn't pulled the pin on the distraction grenade as he roared into the spirit world. You can ignore it and continue the chase. He's almost dead.

What do you do?

[] Continue the chaose into the Nevernever (Melee Excelency has expired)
-[] Write in stunt

[] This is too risky, pull back meet back with the others

[] Write in

OOC: Good thing Molly has Ego Infused Pattern Privacy or this would have been very nasty, she botched the opposed stamina roll against Blood Atemi which lead to the result that is crossed out above. I actually had her spend a willpower to make it not a botch which still would have left her with +1 DC to all her rolls and needing to make a DEX check to move every round until I remembered the Exalted cheating that is shaping defense and she did make that Willpower roll.