Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

[DragonParadox]

Weird Wizarding​

17th of February 2007 A.D.

Being a wizard was nothing like she'd been promised, Tina Trailman thought as she pushed aside a sweat-soaked lock of auburn hair out of her eyes. No owls no colored ties, no flying broomsticks and enough running and push-ups to count for boot camp, at least according to Terry who had been considering the army or the Marine Corps, a time honored way for boys from rural Appalachia to see the world. She had thought of going with him, things had changed since their pa's day, but it was not like they'd be put in the same unit. Then had come the old man in the night, 'the cunnin' man', Grandma Hattie had said and their Ma, god-fearing woman that she was hadn't said a word against it. Maybe there's been a reason or three why she hadn't said anything about them Harry Potter even when ol' Preacher Joe had called them 'devil's books' and 'occult'. Turns out there was a lot more 'occult' hidding up the Trailman family tree than any of them new and the fella who was teaching them magic was even named Harry, had messy dark hair and everything. Maybe she shouldn't have asked him if he played Quidditch though, felt like he was particularly hard on her since then.

But how was I suppos'd to know what's real, huh Terry, she argued with her mental ideal of her twin as she often did and he with her. They knew each other well enough that they could mostly guess what the other would say. Pixies and demons and five flavors of vampire. As she slowed down from the run the girl closed her eyes and reached inwards and upwards like she'd been taught to feel the beat of the world. It was one thing to be able to do magic in a quiet room when you'd been working up to it for the last hour and quite another to do magic fast. That's what they were here to be not just wizards, but wizard soldiers, Wardens they called 'em. The twins didn't have to come here, really at fifteen a lot of people starting with their teacher and ending with Grandma Hattie had told them in no uncertain terms that they should wait and learn more of the 'fundamentals'.

"How're you holding up there?" The by now familiar voice of Warden Ramirez still sent a tingle down her spine, the kind she wouldn't be talking about with her brother, on account of not wanting to be teased until she was ninety.

"Keeping grounded," she answered. And not gawking at all the city folks like I just fell from the moon head-first, the girl thought but didn't add. Chicago had been a revelation from just how many people and how different they were from each other. TV had nothing on this: Mexican folks and Chinese folks, Indian folks and folks from places she had to take out the map to figure out and that was before you got into the folks that weren't humans at all like the pixies and such. Who knew they liked Pizza?

Tina had managed to gather, mostly from overhearing talks between Warden Ramirez and Dresden, that it wasn't the usual sort of place to be training young wizards, too many distractions and temptations. Weird how alike wizards and Preacher Joe could be about some things even though he'd probably burn a cross in their yard or worse.

Then again like the pretty lady said there was a hair's difference between a prayer and a spell, magic was all about intent, about putting your true self into the magic instead of the 'you' the world saw about understanding yourself before 'you try to figure out Sir Issac Newton'. That had been a funny lesson with the 'Apple of Expectation'. Tina wondered if there was anyway she could learn how to make apples that floated like balloons. That'd be a really fun party trick to pull out when her cousins were bobbing for apples. Sure it would be showing them magic, but who'd believe a bunch of little kids?

Tomorrow though they'd be learning to...

[] Shoot magic guns, Terry was real' excited about that...

[] Get to meet some more 'interesting folks' Ghouls and Vampires supposedly down in the 'Undercity' Wasn't one city big enough?

[] Learn the basics of brewin' stuff, alchemy's the fancy name for it

[] Write in

OOC: The Trailman twins are the ones who die in the flash back in White Night. This is your choice for what part of their training Molly will involve herself in, though the other stuff may also happen depending on what Ramirez and Harry choose to do. Also 'the pretty lady' is indeed Lash who taught them with what she's best at, mind games. That report for the Senior Council is going to be really fun for Harry to write.

 

[DragonParadox]

Who the Train Trains ​

18th of February 2007 A.D.

The thing you notice about the would-be-Wardens isn't how young they are, contrary to what Harry's complaints might indicate, the youngest are around Lydia's age and Lydia's visited Hell with the intent to bust people out, it's just how sparsely they are strung up along the tunnel gawking at the lights powered from nowhere, or chatting to one another about the announcer's voice. They are all, or rather each, used to being alone, isolated in their own little bubble of weirdness. Little wonder wizards got a reputation for being hermits when magic itself starts isolating them so soon. To be a wizard of the White Council is to understand that you are mighty yes, but also that the world is fragile.

If the dark eyed girl over there wishes for a snowday it might lay down ice on the roads and get someone killed in an early morning skid, if the boy with the braces wishes to hit harder in baseball try-outs he might overshoot so hard that it injures someone in the stands, on and on... lead children of a world spun of snowflakes, they do not know how to deal with each other, with the chaotic energies born where spheres of influence overlap and Carlos doesn't know how to help them since he too was taught the regular way, just him and his master. So a score of kids just... stay apart, elbows metaphorically tucked in least 'something bad' happens, other than the pair of twins at the edge of the platform.

At least that's what they do until the train comes in. A few weeks of training can't have prepared them for Porter. Leaving aside the enormous steel chassis, and it is a rather large thing to leave aside, to more arcane senses he's a magical bonfire and one that's almost attuned to them. True, they do not desperately need help, these score of wizard talents had been found and are well on their way to mastering their magic, but they haven't found themselves or their purpose yet, they had pledged to fight in a war they only half understand.

Carlos whistles when he sees you in the door of the train, not that way... not mostly that way, it's more of an impressed sound. "You have been busy."

"Just you know..." you give an airy wave. "Keeping my hand in. Honest word builds character."

"What, the railroad? Are you going to start singing Old West work songs?" He looks past you, as though expecting to see the train filled with cowboys. Instead it's filled with Jade Dogs, some of them mortal, some of them not, one toddler in attendance come to see the wizard-folk. The only people most of these people had ever seen is Harry who looms large in every sense of the word.

"Most of the rails were here, we just repurposed them..."

"It... is... good... to... have purpose," Porter interjects, his voice coming as much from the metal body of the trail as over the speakers.

"Everyone, meet the elemental dragon of the Chicago under-city, everyone be polite to the elemental dragon of the Chicago under-city," he gets out with a wobble in the middle.

"Oh don't mind... me, it's already a.... wonder how quick you... wise-folk learn the ways of things... I shan't be expecting... children to... already know them."

That's torn it, he just called a bunch of people learning serious wizarding that they are children. The denials are loud and insistent.

"My pardons... all things born... mortal seem as... children to me... Could you perhaps... educate me on the... distinction?" Before you had thought Porter was teasing them, now you're sure of it.

To their credit the students don't just shout over each other, they work out among themselves who would be the best to try to explain the stages of human development to a living magical train, it's one of the girls, Tina's her name and she does a pretty good job of explaining the difference between knowledge and experience, between a teenager and a 'little kid'. 'We're all old enough to join the wizard army so I figure we should get the wizard vote' sticks in your head and Porter obviously finds her endearing since he offers to teach them all how to bargain with least elementals for information and help.

While that's going on the other twin, Terry you remember, is looking between you and Carlos and asks. "Scuse me ma'am but who are you and what are you doing with all..." he kind of motions around.

"Well first of all I am definitely not old enough to be called ma'am, that's my mom as for who I am..."

[] I'm a girl who got lucky

[] I'm a friend of the Council, odder than most maybe, definitely newer

[] Write in

OOC: I know you guys were waiting for the magic cookies, but then I realized that due to his new purpose Porter would have a minor positive intimacy with the kids and the interaction developed on the way to the Station.

 

[DragonParadox]

Facing Temptation ​

18th of February 2007 A.D.

"I'm a friend of the Council, if a new one, you'll get to shoot guns I supplied at some point."

The kid, he's probably still a junior even if he got his bulk in early looks at you with a sudden gleam in his eye at the mention of the word 'guns'. "What kind?"

"Magic ray guns." You wait a beat, to let the fact you're serious sink in and then add. "You see the reason DARPA hasn't rolled out direct energy weapons is funnily enough the energy cost. As all of you know magic has a thing or two to say on the subject of energy costs. Sure you get tired throwing a fireball, but you don't get 'produced a grease fire with nothing but my metabolism' tired." That gets a laugh not just from Terry, but some of the others who had been listening in, suddenly the very weird girl inside the talking train isn't so weird in how she relates to familiar problems, like working out how to do basic elemental evocations without knocking themselves out.

"So you're like a Spark?" A girl with hair so silvery-blonde it is either fey blood or a natural propensity for glamours who'd introduced herself as Mavis. "From Girl Genius? Knew those had to exist."

As it happens you don't know. The adventures of Agatha Heterodyne steampunk girl genius hadn't been on your radar before, but you do have to admit some of the stuff she's describing is... not inaccurate, though you maintain a higher standard of safety and general common sense. Neither Tiffany nor Harry are around to argue the point so you're sticking to that.

But really the conversation brings up another memory, Karl and his serums up in Boston. He is limited by the scope of his talent, but if any of the kids here were to pick up a 'scientific mindset on magic' they might obtain results their elders never could have considered. More than simply the development of technology leaps in theoretical sciences now open new ways to visualize the world and so new ways to leverage their magic.

Before you can pursue the thought much further Porter comes to a stop at the Station and the doors sweep open to the welcoming homey smell of cookies.

"I made you some..." before the word 'snacks' had even left your mouth you are greeted with the sounds of what could best be described as a stampede of trainees in the direction of the plastic tables you'd piled high with the best cookies you could make given six hours and prep work.

To his credit Carlos does try to slow them down, but it's not like he can bounce them out of the door with wards so it's on they charge not slowing until all sixteen flavors of cookies had been sampled and enjoyed. Maybe I did go a bit overboard there, you think momentarily. Nah it's cookies.

"You know," comes the practiced drawl of Isabela's voice. "If this had been a faerie's party you might owe them a maternity ward's worth of firstborns. You didn't wait to be invited to dine." The vampire is standing with one foot bent back against the wall wearing jean shorts a matching jacket and the kind of whimsically messy hair that makes you wonder if she had practiced where to place herself for best effect when Porter rolls into the station. An ice-cold come-hither ripples outwards from her drawing the attention of five of the boys and one of the girls... though truth be told it's hard to tell the difference between that and the normal 'cool girl' factor. "The Malvora would've just poisoned the cookies, but you know, that's the fucking Malvora for you."

"To whom do we have the honor of speaking?" Terry manages to collect himself to ask, looking very pleased with himself for remembering the proper way to do this.

"Isabela Syliga and just for that I'll give you a freebie, vampire, White Court." On the last words she lets the enchantment wane, leaving the people who had been snared to blink in confusion and just a hint of fear.

"And that is how we get you," she continues. "I'm using a revoltingly wide 'we' by the way for educational purposes, I do not consider Man-Bat the Baby Drinker to be any kin of mine, but that is beside the point. A vampire's power is not like a wizard's spell. There is no preparation, no centering of the mind or gathering of magic. I just breathe in..." Some of the boys still look at her chest because of course they do. "And become a little more myself. Part of me is a demon after all."

"So what we're not supposed to notice?" One of the aforementioned boys asks grumpily.

"You are supposed to be able to notice the difference between 'hot girl' and 'vampire'," Carlos interjects bluntly, having helped organize this little demonstration. "The same way you can tell the difference between the sun and someone shinning a flashlight in your face."

"But she's still pretty though," Terry can't quite deliver that without looking at his shoes.

"And that's the other point of course, you do not need magic to do everything..." The old Warden aphorism comes to your lips naturally enough "And neither does the other side."

"Why isn't she... on the other side I mean?" Mavis asks after a moment. "Why's she..." she turns around. "Why are you playing practice vampire?"

Truth be told you hadn't expected any of the trainees to be this blunt, though given that they are wizards and to be a wizard is to have more curiosity than sense, maybe you should have. She gives you a questioning look.

How much of Isabela's situation does she explain?

[] That she is a friend

[] That she's your vassal

[] That by her oath to you she never had to make her First Kill

[] Write in

OOC: Enjoy

 

[DragonParadox]

Of Mettle and Metal ​

18th of February 2007 A.D.

"She's my vassal." You answer, having not even considered a Twilight joke, not much at least. "That is the other thing you have to keep in mind about the world you all inhabit now. A great many of the powers great and small are made up by personal relationships like feudal oaths..."

"Or street gangs," an older bespectacled guy points out. "All about territory and keeping face. Seems kind of weird to be trying to police the whole world from Edinburgh. Wasn't so long ago that trying to run Ulster from London got in people's craw."

"You have to run it from somewhere and the Hidden Halls are among the greatest mystical fortresses in the world," you point out. "Knights need their castles after all." Other than the literal knights who can have a cool house in the suburbs and trust in Divine Providence. That is another kettle of fish though.

He thankfully seems satisfied with the answer, White Council politics is something you can only guess at, other than the list of traitors locked up in your head.

Carlos seems to share the sentiment and the wish to get things back on track. Granted this is not quite the training some of the Senior Council might have expected if he simply delivered a report that said engaged with ghouls in the Chicago Under-City, but between throwing darts and playing dice twister and limbo it quickly becomes clear all in good fun that a wizard not using magic will be outplayed by even the youngest and least experienced of the Jade Dogs. Vampiric reflexes, ghoulish perceptions to cheat a blindfold, the list goes on. So then the trainees are encouraged to experiment, see what works and what doesn't. For most its variations of firecracker noises and distracting gusts of wind, but some of them do come up with some interesting ideas like altering friction coefficients or playing with magnetism. There are a few close calls, like Terry trying to hex the tennis ball launcher to mess with his opponent and causing an electric fire from putting too much oomph behind it.

Even Augustus gets in on the fun, though in his case it's not against an opponent for reasons that are quite apparent when he leaps twenty feet in the air, rips an old steel girder coming down with his bare hands and throws one of the resulting pieces like a javelin. Even you had almost forgotten how good he and his peers had been at tearing through armor. For the kids it is a sobering reminder of how much damage a more experienced vampire than Isabela can do.

"Alright, now I want all of you to think of how you'd fight someone like that, alone and in pairs," Carols announces.

"We'd run away," some joker calls from the back, to which the vampire in question, not inexperienced in such training sessions spears the party in question with his gaze and smiles a slow unsettling smile. "I am faster master wizard."

"Fire," Terry calls out suddenly.

"There's one who should be talking to Harry," you laugh before adding more seriously. "You'd still have to hit him though."

"Not if I heat up the metal as he's grabbing it, keep some steel shavings on me, different kinds of steel for a connection. Wouldn't just work with big ol' hunks o' metal, you could make folks guns catch fire, knives, swords, the works."

"Good, that's what we're looking for," Carlos congratulates him. "Anyone else?"

Tina raises her hand.

"Yes?"

"I'd do what he's doing too, on account o' you saying its good and me having ears to hear it with."

Some of the others start snickering but you're quick to point out. "He never said you aren't allowed to give the same answer, that's an important lesson too, listen to how people say things and bend it to your advantage if you can. Plenty of things are going to try to do the same to you."

"So do you think we should show them what you can do?" Carlos asks, more than a little eager to test himself out you suspect.

[] Yes, do a demonstration duel
-[] Write in buffs and tactics

[] No, if Augustus going to town on some pieces of steel is enough to shake some of them you getting it on is probably too much for the audience

[] Write in

OOC: Enjoy.

 

[DragonParadox]

Gleam of Sword and Flash of Eye ​

18th of February 2007 A.D.

"OK lets do this."

Something tells you the smile you toss across the way isn't very comforting, armed and armored in brass and fire a cold wind behind you and water anointing your brow you advance against the warden though not so fast as to blur out of sight. That would rather defeat the point of the exposition for which everyone is pretty darn keen to judge from the hushed whispers on the wizard side and on the Jade Dog side of things.

Right hand still empty Carlos motions with his left wringing water from the air spinning it into a vortex, arcane entropy given shape to parry with. Clever, but something tells me he won't be able to stand up to... Mind-swing, mid thought, your hand jerks to a stop some of the flames along Usum's edge are drawn into the shield and then sent sputtering along its edge.

Lost 2 Essence and 1 Willpower -> Now at 17/18 and 8/9 (Steel Skin)

"Fuck, what is that? It's not fire!"

He's definitely not the only one with questions. "Did you just try to put out my sword?"

"Not just that I...Whoah!" Apparently he's used to delivering banter between his parries. Sword whistling under his guard and then up to tap him on the sternum right above the heart, definitely not used to that.

Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 16/18 (Melee Excellency)

"Maybe I shouldn't be giving my trade secrets away in the middle of the fight eh?" he asks with a chuckle, stepping back.

"Maybe you should keep more of a watch on where her sword's going!" Isabela calls from the sidelines, earning about an even amount of laughs and blank looks from the trainees.

To be fair looking at your opponents'... form is perfectly valid in a duel, though something tells you he'd be looking along the same lines regardless. Truth be told after all the restraint you've been practicing when it comes to Harry it's kind of nice to not have to worry about any of that.

"Again?" He calls, already back in his position.

Oh right... You put an extra burst of essence into speed and are there in the blink of an eye, more like in the blink of two dozen eyes to judge from all the gasps.

Lost 1 Essence -Now at 15/18 (WS)

The instant he starts moving you reach out in the direction of the shield, not with hand but mind. A wizard's magic is always connected to his surroundings and so it is with this. Warp the lines a little and...

"Fuck! Refractio!"

It all falls apart. Your smile only grows... though you do notice his new spell seems to be a variation on a veil that does not try to hide but instead blurs the edges of his form, taking advantage of the swirling Warden Cloak to trick the eye.

"I've always preferred something more solid to my protections," you quip as the armor of fallen Lanka wraps around you, warped songs of praise echoing from the mouths of lions, griffons and serpents of stone.

That's when you see it out of the corner of your eye, a dark glean in Tina Trailman's eye that isn't her, isn't any magic of hers. Nemesis! The inner warning screams at you at once, but no, that thing would not stand revealed to mundane sight, no matter how your senses may sing in the cold air. Something, someone else is looking through the kid to see how you fight, someone who hadn't been there before. Triggered by the armor, triggered by the sound of the armor... someone who at least got a report of how I fight.

What do you do?

[] Pretend you didn't notice explain to Carlos when you are done

[] Knock her out now, there is something in her head and it could have a kill switch

[] Write in

OOC: Turns out someone really wanted to see your exhibition fight without being seen. Also yes Carlos did have a chance to dispel one of your charms, not a very good chance since you have an equivalent Arete of 8 and he is 'just' a 5 but he is an entropy specialist.

 

[DragonParadox]

List of Ill Repute ​

18th of February 2007 A.D.

Snap... it is over with the speed of thought, faster than anyone but the vampires can follow Tina is struck by an invisible force hard enough to send her reeling into unconsciousness. There will be complaints, Usum notes clinically, but all you can hear is the sound of the girl breathing, still breathing. As long as she's alive you can fix this, you can get the bastards.

"Carlos, something was using her as a scrying focus, it's in her head!" you call out to an expression frozen in shock, but only for a moment. You're glad to see no disbelief there, no doubts, only resolve.

"Everyone, clear out..."

The shouting and the shoving starts, of course it does, they aren't trained Wardens yet, none of them louder than Terry: "What the Devil's going on?"

"Clear the zone around the patient, watch the perimeter!" he shouts again, instructions they must have been given before in practice, not in deadly earnest. Then in a lower tone. "What've you got? Where from?"

"I know when I'm being scryed, you can't actually surprise me when I'm like this," you mix truth with deception with a familiar hand, not that he seems to be paying enough attention to check you at the moment.

"I can look deeper into it," you add as the two of you make your way to Tina then, seeing the sudden, worry add: "Not actually touch her mind, just look at the connection..."

"Oh, sure, I was gonna do that too." He thinks you have the Sight. Not bad cover right now.

Who are all the beneficiaries of the spying that is happening here?

Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 15/18 (Crown Question)

A familiar list of names flows into your mind like some expected unwelcome medicine. Two of them are missing, you realize, maybe killed in the meantime, three added, new recruits. The same conspiracy, the same traitors you'd already found... and something else, something that doesn't have a name in the tongues of men anymore, a shadow eating the stars set above manicured hedges.

"Don't open your Sight! Any of you, if you have it, don't open your Sight!" you snap, probably not helping with the nerves, but if there's even a chance that thing is in her head. "Isabela you too."

"Do I look like I stick my eyes into bear traps," she tries to play it cool, but the mixed metaphors betray her. For all the implicit danger of growing up as a member of the White Court she's not used to emergencies happening in a flash, in a way she is less used to it than the kids who are following the instructions for all the good it will do them.

"What did you see?" Carlos' voice drops to a whisper, maybe enough that the wizard trainees can't hear him, but most of your people likely can.

Words... you barely have words for this thing, at least in English. You could explain it in that other Language, should you. Is it safe for him to know? How do you know Tina was the only one, the others could still be hooked into the spy's network.

What do you do?

[] Get everyone to Sanctuary, you would like to see even the Hollow One reach into your soul. The political fallout you'll deal with later.

[] Try to exorcise Tina, if this thing does grant ongoing control it should be vulnerable to that.

[] Get a hold of Ebeneezer.
-[] Can Harry, he should have some means of contact.
-[] Summon Maeve, you'll have to pay her something, but this is close enough to the things she has a grudge against it's unlikely to be too bad.

[] Write in

OOC: To be clear you do not know it's the Ashraaah actually doing the spying here, but just the chance that it might be is making Molly think in terms of 'stick them all inside my soul until we sort this out' and 'the Winter Lady makes a good messenger'.

 

[DragonParadox]

Down the Rabbit Hole ​

18th of February 2007 A.D.

"Sarah, get her on a bench, we have a pillow here somewhere..." you start, the words means to distract any watchers while you ask two more questions. Not to say the concern in those words is not genuine, nor the urge to look around for some assassins lurking in the shadows. That's all it takes, outwardly going with the flow until your eyes land naturally back on the girl just for a moment to ask: Who else has been compromised by this conspiracy?

Lost 2 Essence -> Now at 13/18 (Subterfuge Excellency and Crown Question)

Mavis Jones, the girl you'd been talking to before. De Lin, one of the kids trying to help Sarah with the unconscious Tina, Joshua Brown, one of the boys who was eyeing Isabela a little too much even after finding out she's a vampire, Warden Captain Anastasia Lucio, Carlos Ramirez...

What... What the fuck? Somehow you manage to keep the shock off your face, but the more you think about it the more it makes sense. It is easier to get into the heads of trainees than proper wizards, but it's also easier to get into the heads of young Wardens than the hoary old Senior Council Wizards.

You're getting a lot of names... a lot more names than there are trainees. Fuck you'll have to check the file back at the palace, but you think a lot of those names are Carlos' peers, the people who would be sent to take down the traitors. If the conspiracy has its hooks in so many why is it still a conspiracy... what are they hiding from?

Closing your eyes like you're trying to think, which you are you ask the closest expert on paranoia available: "Usum what do you make of all this?"

"Diverse methods of subversion, diverse mechanisms implanted, imperfect to a degree that makes open force unacceptable, an unacceptable risk... Consider the old sorcerer, the 'Hollow One' as you call him, he must have been cultivating the plot for decades if not centuries, slowly worming his way in. What odds are acceptable when what is risked is so valuable so unique? No such infiltration could be achieved again, not by the same means, not to the same scale."

It's looking for a sure bet... The only thing that's kept the Council from catastrophic loss so far is the conspirators being gun-shy or greedy. Your stomach lurches with the realization even as you maintain a still worried but not yet horrified look, an eight instead of the eleven on the Oh-Shit-o-Meter as it were. Now you're fighting nervous laughter. Good job Molly you feel like someone who can save the world...

"There is no one else in this place and with this knowledge Majesty Ever-Wise," Usum points out, his usual compliments tinged with something like sympathy.

You were going to ask Carlos to get ahold of Morgan and that instinct had been right, he's not on the list of the subverted... but Carlos himself is. Clearing up the kids is one thing, the opposition would think you are just being thorough, but the moment you get to Wardens they have to assume you know a lot more, at least enough to blow this whole conspiracy wide open if not the whole thing.

At least the secret, the knowing has restored some of the essence you've been burning. God knows you're going to need it.

Regained 2 Essence -> Now at 15/18

"So what's the plan...?" Carlos himself asks in a hurried whisper.

[] Get one of your other selves to try to break the enchantment, it is less through than an exorcism, but it's faster (Gift: Break the Bonds)

[] Get him to Sanctuary use an Exorcism on him, if the conspirators can sense their spells cutting off remotely they might just assume they can't see through your wards

[] Write in

OOC: Welp you guys asked the question that would finger every young Warden, so now you have an even bigger information bomb. On the other hand she is finally getting the full scale of this thing.

 

[DragonParadox]

Of Tangles Pulled Apart ​

18th of February 2007 A.D.

Essence for information, that's still a trade you'll take, especially after the surge you just got. What are their contingencies for being discovered?

Isfet Reigns.

The Crown reflects your own emotions magnified thousandfold: disdain and rage, but still it tries to make sense of all within its purview.

Disorder, injustice, the loss of control, chaos-all-consuming. Mortals, they are all mortals, at least the ones making these decisions are. Depends on who depends on what... depends on where... You get the vague sense that they are expecting to be found by other wizards, some kind of internal dissent they can use to their advantages. Finger their accusers, get wizard fighting wizard.

Mark that down as 'cause a wizard civil war Usum', you note rubbing your temple, before asking the next one, focusing on the next nervous kid... You're starting to see Harry's point here.

What are they doing right now?

Flashes pass before the mind's eye, most of them startlingly mundane: a seemingly ordinary middle-aged couple having lunch at a nice restaurant, an old man playing checkers in the park, a lady riffling through a foreign paper, some subtly disturbing: a silver haired man whistling as he walks among a collection of unlabeled wine bottles that you are morally certain don't have wine in them, another braiding poppets out of human hair, a woman looking over pages covered with reams and reams of complex numbers while a teen about of an age with the ones in front of you whimpers in the corner. Are those glass shards? And a few, just a few of those images are filled with rites of black magic, not the small stumbling things of warlocks just slipped from the narrow path they did not know of, but willing atrocity of the sort one can only commit with eyes open, gleeful.

Next kid: Where are they?

Snapshots again, faster this time since you can already recognize the faces, vague sense of locations, some of them in this world some of them in the other, names barely making sense, one of them Almost Nowhere. Just for the moment, too much to expect that they would be slow as well as evil. The two in the Hidden Halls would find it the easiest to inform the other five and make use of any subverted wizards they have access to, though maybe at first for political purposes.

Spoiler: Locations

54 Total conspirators, 7 Total Aware

Nevernever
13 in sundry other Nevernever realms 0 aware
1 No Name Always Aware, always knows, Almost? Outside.

Material World
7 in the Hidden Halls 2 Aware (One is Peabody)
9 in the in Central and South America 1 Aware
5 in Europe 1 Aware
12 in Africa 1 Aware
6 in Asia 1 Aware
1 in Australia 0 Aware

"Carlos can I look at your glove for a moment... " You're not sure what you had expected for Carlos' enchanting, for him to have fought maybe like he'd done against La Ilorna, but all you get is a meeting in an office, a wizard he calls 'sir', black eyes magnified behind thick glasses, a younger Carlos just... stops as he is given exacting instruction, hypnosis in the tone of a bored bureaucrat. Nothing about ongoing control, thank God.

There's a lot of calls to make, but before anything else you have to make a call to... yourself. Some of the trainees are whispering among themselves at the sight of a working phone though they soon have something a lot more remarkable to gasp over. Dancer in Glass Shadows just appears next to you with a smile, like she's about to make a crack about him not being able to handle two of you. Then she notices the air of fear in the room, the kid on the floor and catches the timber of your thoughts.

Lost 4 Essence -> Now at 11/18

"Compulsion?" She asks, more for the sake of breaking the silence.

"How are there two of you" The obvious questions start pouring in, there is no way to hide how alike the two of you are when she flashes her inner power like this. "Are you twins?"

Without answering she kneels and touches the girl's hair. "Be free." Three more times she picks trainees out of the crowd. "Be free, be free, be free..." Her power pours out in a soft green light in memory of one that knew no barrier. It severs all bonds save those laid by beings mightier than the Queens of Faerie. Then she stands in front of Carlos.

"Fuck me!" He curses softly, realizing what she means to do. "You sure?" His gaze oscillates between the two of you obviously wanting to ask the question the trainees are but all too aware that time is of the essence.

"Unfortunately yes," you answer as other-you just nods. After Digs taps him on the forehead like she had done the others Carlos frowns. "I don't feel any different, I don't remember anything..."

"All I can do is break chains, I cannot return that which was taken," she half-apologizes. "If one of your memories was changed it will stay that way. There is simply no remaining means of ongoing control, unless you pissed off one of the Mothers or an Angel somehow, but that's not..."

"Evil wizard," you explain, not sure how much you should be saying with all the trainees here. On the one hand the White Council is theirs too as they are its future, on the other hand they are still just trainees, not expected to handle anyone more dangerous than Isabela.

How much of what's going on do you explain to the Trainees and to Carlos?

[] Trainees: Nothing more, keep them in the dark

[] Trainees: The bare bones, there are lots of evil wizards infiltrating the White Council

[] Trainees: Write in

[] Carlos: The bare bones of the conspiracy

[] Carols: Admit that you knew something was the matter months earlier as was Harry and McCoy, but they did not know who to trust

[] Carlos: The whole story, Crown and all, you could use another good friend on the council and there is nothing like secrets to bind a friendship, so at least says Usum

[] Carols: Write in

OOC: Yes, it's the Molly that usually goes to school who broke a warlock's curse. She was closest but also it's a reminder that all the clones were built with some heavy duty abilities.

 

[DragonParadox]

Of Monsters and Gods ​

18th of February 2007 A.D.

"It's not just the one," you explain to the trainees. "The White Council has been infiltrated by several evil wizards..." Several sounds like less than a dozen without technically being a lie, no need to panic them. "These are people willing and able to break the Laws in subtle ways..."

"Don't you go crazy if you break the Laws?" Tina asks sitting up. "That's what everyone told us, like you want to break them more and more until you're not even 'you' anymore just like a serial killer or a...." She glances at one of the nearer vampires and changes the word she was about to use: "Monster."

Ho, boy I am not the one who should be having this conversation, you think, but before you can give it the ol' College try Carlos steps in.

"Depends on when you do it and how you do it. Someone falling off the cliff without even knowing there's a cliff is going to flail and scream all the way down, but if they know what they're doing, if they throw themselves off then they can be quiet."

"But... but... it's like that liver an' beans feller, what they' call him?" Terry scratches his head and offers. "Hans Lecter? A dozen of him can't make a team right, they'd be all up in each other's livers."

Some of the others look a little green at the comparison, some are nodding and a few are fighting back a case of the inappropriate giggles. You can relate.

You hate to take the comfort away from them but better that they find out now than in the field some day. "Not how that works, monsters don't have to be stupid." There are a lot of silent nods among the Jade Dogs.

"Isabela..."

"No need to tell me, not going home tonight don't wanna catch some kind of spook like that ass who screwed with my laptop, hang tight and make sure the future White Council enforcement wing doesn't get bored and start setting the pool room on fire."

"Hey...!"

"You have a pool room...?"

"I think they'll be OK," you say dragging Carlos to a Sarah's newly vacated office to lay out the truth in slightly more detail, not all the detail, not even close, but everything you shared with McCoy and everything he's shared with you as you work the phone.

Harry assures you he'll get right on calling his old teacher, though he's less enthusiastic on Morgan, more for your sake than his own you suspect. If anyone would be paranoid enough to realize how much you know it would be Donald Morgan. Little though you may know the man that much you're sure of. Tiff is coming of course, she sounds like she's been getting bored since the trip into Hell, but you are surprised that Olivia jumps at the chance to help the Council without a moment's hesitation. Then again maybe it's less 'the White Council' and more kids she can see herself in.

Regain 1 Essence -> Now at 12/18

Then you pull out Donnar's card... Given his reputation some of the Senior Council may not thank you for involving him, but that's OK since it means there will be a Senior Council to get upset.

"We have an Outsider problem..." you start recounting the same things you did to Carlos, the presence, its awareness of you and the previous suspicions of traitors in the Council. "You need to warn the Merlin and the Gatekeeper."

The old man waits through your whole account, not interrupting once then asks bluntly: "How do you know it's an Outsider problem? No, let me rephrase that, how do you know it's an Outsider problem significant enough to warn the Gatekeeper?"

[] Stonewall him, you are not going to reveal your sources (Charisma+Etiquette vs ???)

[] Try to feed him the same half-truth you did Carlos about being able to see when someone is spying on you and look back (Lie: Charisma+Subterfuge against ???)

[] Write in

OOC: Maeve would have been annoying in her own way, Odin is inquisitive, that is part of his nature. One thing to just say 'I'm good at divination' quite another to claim to have cracked a conspiracy that has eluded the Council for decades,

 

[DragonParadox]

On the Edge ​

18th of February 2007 A.D.

"How did I know to contact you in the hopes of getting the message out? How did you know to pick up the phone at the first ring? A dangerous thing the word 'how' its edges sharper than a razor and worst of all it cuts both ways. I shan't insult you with a lie nor even a half-truth, asking only do be judged on my record. What was my word to Winter and to Summer both?"

Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 11/18

Nine seconds, that's how long the pause on the other end is before he speaks again, his manner grave: "It was a storm out of season. Lo, it broke the dead wood and carried it out to sea. "Be wary though oh Queen of Brass for none fear the stormwind more than men who think that it might rip the roofs off their houses and leave them all bare to wandering eyes. I will pass on your warning and muster my own hird against the coming battletide."

Shit what does he...? No, later, you resolve, I can deal with it later. At least the Gatekeeper is getting that warning.

"I think Odin might know more than he lets on," you announce closing the call.

"The old busybody who hanged himself for knowledge knows too much?" Lash asks, voice dripping with sarcasm. "I never would have guessed."

"So just to be clear," Olivia interjects. "When you say Odin you mean actual..."

Harry and Tiffany nod at the same time, the former sympathetically the latter still entertained despite the seriousness of the situation.

The phone rings again and you half expected to hear a wizard's voice, maybe the Merlin's or perhaps even the unknown Gatekeeper's assuming he was someplace close to a phone, but the voice on the other end is a lot more surprising, for all you recognize it, Lily or as most people call her these days the Summer Lady.

"Molly, I need you to listen carefully I'm playing a bit fast and loose with the transitive nature of debt so I would rather not repeat myself."

"Noted." Some people might suffer from a bit of foreboding to hear faerie of her power and her authority say that, but seeing as you had aided and abetted her staying more Lily and less her mantle incarnate it is if anything encouraging.

Speaking quickly, as though concerned her ability to do so might be curtailed at any moment your friend says: "The Warden Donald Morgan attempted to send word through Yacuruna Akiwe, one of the tributary river spirits of the Amazon basin. I do not know what that message was since the spirit itself was ambushed and forced to renew itself as it attempted to span the Ways to Chicago, at least that is the only reasonable place they could have been going given where the ambush took place. The attackers were Red Court Vampires of some skill acting under one of their 'knights'. They even took the bodies of their fallen with them out of Summer's territory. They do not usually bother with the courtesy. I would suggest you either find the vampires, awaken the spirit early somehow or figure out where Morgan was meant to be if you want to get to the bottom of this. Whatever you choose though do it quickly. There is only one reason in a time of war why you would spend resources to kill messengers. An attack has been planned or it has already begun." She takes a deep breath. "Good luck."

"It was nice hearing from you Lily," you say by way of thanks.

"Goodbye Molly," from the smile in her voice it's clear she got it.

"Do either of you know where Donald Morgan is right now?" you ask, looking between Harry and Carlos.

The younger Warden lights up: "Tres Fronteras, not sure which country because... it's in the name isn't it? Could be Peru, Brazil or Colombia. The area isn't very heavily populated which makes it a good place for some of the Elders of the Red Court, the ones who either don't know how to deal with the modern world or don't want to bother. It is also a crossing of Ways that used to be controlled by the spirits of the land and the people who live on it, but has come under the control of the Red Court. Morgan and I think three or four other old guard Wardens were sent there last month in the hopes of either assassinating some of their heavies or if they could shake them off the land entirely. Because of the isolation and the fact that it's a border region the Reds struggle to use heavy government forces there, which was seen as an opening..." He trails off, giving Harry a funny look, something like 'Shouldn't you know this too?'

"Me and Morgan have a history, if he heard I was tracking his movements he'd probably think I was putting a hit on him or something." The words are said with just enough humor to hide the bitterness underneath, though it doesn't work on you.

"And so the hunters become the hunted," Lydia muses darkly. "We need to send someone there to make sure they are alright and to get Morgan back here to help with unwinding the conspiracy, but we can't afford to send too many, so become reactive."

Who do you send to the Amazon Basin to help Morgan?

[] Molly, you can probably blast though any trouble the fastest, not to mention use the Crown to track them down fast

[] Carlos, he knows the most about the situation on the ground

[] Lydia and her hounds, something tells you the Reds have pissed off a lot of ghosts

[] Write in

OOC: And so it begins.