Annie and Sasha were on a couple's retreat. That's what it sounded like, anyway. That, or they were going to couple's therapy because things had been quiet on the western front and, occasionally, the chantry door was locked instead of unlocked. Sometimes, there was an uneasy silence that came only when there was amagic afoot and someone had something very personal to say that they didn't want to be said in front of people who might actually know better. Triangles are nothing without their third, and where was Trinity without Leah?
Well, it would appear that Trinity was at couples' counseling.
Which is what made this awkward.
The door was unlocked, there were notes pinned to the fridge (Could someone check the mail this week? - Annie) The television was on and it sounded like the Stanley Cup was playing. Overall, it was a boring day.
Grace
Grace is sprawled out on a couch in the den, one leg hooked over an armrest, reading from her e-ink device. It's not easy to tell what that book is, but it's apparently enthralling. So much so, she's barely touched her mug of coffee since plopping down in her spot.
This couch has a stitched-up hole in the back where a chihuahua puppy was rescued from the inside. It's that kind of couch.
Jeans and a t-shirt are her uniform. Few people have seen her wear anything else. Today, she's wearing her favorite (and thus threadbare) giraffe-wearing-ties tee.
With Annie and Sasha gone, someone's got to just be here. It's not a duty or a requirement or an order. Grace was just around, doesn't have a day job, and thus...
Alex
[God, so long since I did this... Arete, Spirit 1, Diff 4, -1 for the node, WP and stuff.]
Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (7, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]
Alex
Alexander had been a little scarce recently. Not gone, not again. Just… other things had been occupying his time, taking him a little more distant from whatever end-of-the-world antics had been plaguing the local Awakened. He hadn’t been completely out of touch. There had been dinners with Kiara, coffee and Pho with Grace, the occasional trip out to the Chantry for dinner with Annie and Sasha. Recent changes had brought him a little closer to Sasha in some ways. Alex had moved off the beat and into an office, not so far away from her, as he worked through his probationary period as a squeaky new detective.
Around the back of the Chantry, sat at the patio table not so far from the node, sits Alex now. Cold, abandoned coffee sits in a cup, various text books lie open with various bookmarks and notes scribbled in them. (Sorry, lovers of books, he sees nothing wrong with writing in books!) A mirror, something cheap and easily disposable, is half-buried under a book that had been knocked when Alex had turned to watch… something elsewhere.
Michael
The last time Mike was in Denver, so much happened that recapping for the sake of expediency would reduce the events to: a Nephandus Adept pissed off the wrong person. Although Alex met the acarya's student, Ihsan, she did not introduce herself as such, nor did she stick around after stirring the embers of the poor Disparate's paranoia.
Sadness upon sadness, Alex and Mike didn't have the pleasure of making each others' acquaintance last year.
This year, this night, Michael parks a different rental car in a different parking lot and steps out, assuring himself that this must be the place before clapping the door shut and locking it with the fob. Up the driveway, pocketing the keys before letting himself in like he was invited.
Surprise, Grace!
Grace
[Perception/Awareness = Oh really? That resonance?]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 6, 7, 9) ( success x 3 )
Alex
[Per+Awareness]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 5, 6, 8) ( success x 2 )
Michael
[awareness! didn't give him a spec bc i'm lazy.]
Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 4, 7, 7, 9, 9, 10) ( success x 5 )
Odessa
My, now this one is unfamiliar, isn't it?
There is a quiet in the area, over the sound of the Stanley Cup there was the internal silence and quiet that comes from a stillness of the soul, followed by a brightness so bright that it seared its image in the mind's eye and left a feeling on one's skin of dying embers. Yes, it is the feeling of those embers contained that sticks on the mind.
The back door is flung open. There is a small woman in black holding a box. Wooden box. Pandora's box, perhaps?
"Aaaaaaaannie?"
A beat.
"Hallo?"
Odessa
That box feels and looks like a massive glitch in the universal code. Feel free to embellish a little.
Grace
Grace's eyes flit up off of her book when she senses Mike's presence. What? But, the stupid grin that plasters itself on her face soon after says that it's not an unwelcome surprise.
She leaps up as inelegant as a baby zebra. Mike. It's got to be him.
And indeed, there in the entryway he is.
"You little jerk," she says, eyes bright, happy smile. "You didn't tell me you were--"
Just then, the sound and presence of someone else interrupts. She raises a brow. Whispers an aside to Mike: "I don't know who that is."
"Annie's not here!" she yells down the way.
Alex
The weather was warm, not needing much in the way of clothing to guard against a chill. Asphalt, however, was much less forgiving. A leather jacket sat on the back of Alex’s chair, protection against random chance that might wish him to fall while riding. At the initial sense of someone else, someone unfamiliar, approaching, Alex’s attention returns from elsewhere. A few blinks and the almost mirrored surface to his eyes fades, his gaze and his hands moving to the jacket. Something fetched and checked before he steps back inside, towards the new presence.
Arm straight, hand masked by the doorframe to the room where Grace sits, there’s a question and a considering glance at the unfamiliar man. “Grace..?” She doesn’t seem threatened, though. More happier than he’d seen her in quite some time.
A slam as the door is opened, a call for Annie, and Alex turns to face the second new arrival. Pistol aimed at the floor but ready to raise, another question comes on the tail of Grace’s yell. “And you are?”
Michael
Mike, for reasons both mystical and practical, knew there was a likelihood Grace would be here today. He didn't warn her he was coming. She (and Alex, once he comes close enough) can feel his resonance, that feeling of a strong storm blowing over, the strength of his Arete making his presence feel like a force of nature. It would be unsettling even to Sleepers if he weren't disarmingly charming.
A handsome bastard in a suit and tie, with dark brown hair and a clean-shaven jaw, he barely has the door closed behind him before Grace has sprung to her feet and called him a jerk. He shoots her a grin, unabashed, like Yeah I am a jerk aren't I before the door blasts open and in comes a little woodland witch the Chakravat hasn't seen in God knows how long.
"I think I do," he whispers back.
Annie's not here.
And then here's a tall young man, pointing a pistol at the floor but comfortable enough with it in his grip that Mike, never having met the man before, takes a step forward like to block Grace and holds up both hands to show he isn't currently armed.
Never mind that raising his arms reveals a shoulder holster beneath his suit jacket.
"Odessa!" Mike calls, raising his voice--his voice, without Alice hijacking his voicebox--for the first time in Grace's recent recollection. His palms are still on display and empty. "That you?"
Odessa
The woman, who couldn't have been more than five feet tall and as vast as the ever-expanding cosmos, looked from the pistol to her box and then back to the pistol again. Her mouth quirked upward before falling again. Eyebrows stayed raised.
"Odessa," she replied, "Annie and I share a lineage." She awkwardly held the box for a moment, before extending it to Alexander.
"It's me!" she called back, "and-" she stops, "I think Mike is the only one of you that I know. Who are you all? Will you be here for long?"
Grace
"Oh for..." Grace slaps her forehead with her palm. "Alex, this is Mike. Mike, Alex. Please try not to gun the Chantry down."
She pats Mike on the back. Alex is okay, dude.
And now? To pay attention to Odessa. And that box. "Oh, I'm uh... Grace. And, uh, yeah. I plan on being here. Annie and Sasha are away this week, so I'm... helping."
"What's in the box?"
Alex
As potential Technocratic invasions of the Chantry went, this wasn’t high up the list of how Alex saw it going. Although Mike did appear to be armed, he seemed to be more interested in protecting Grace from him. An eyebrow raises at that, followed by a flash of some recognition at the name.
Mouth open, waiting for words to emerge for a moment, he considers: that he’s the only one waving a weapon around. A faint click as his mouth closes and his teeth knock together, another faint click as the pistol’s safety goes back on and the weapon is tucked into the back of his trousers. There’s no apology, but he does toss a glance at Grace: so shoot me. It’s not like he didn’t have reasons, after all.
Odessa offers the box, but it’s not taken. Examined, briefly, but not taken. He introduces himself, “Alexander,” to both of the unfamiliar individuals. Sorry, Grace, he still has that stick up his ass about certain things.
Michael
For his part, Mike leaves his pistol in the holster. He never had any intention of removing it. Now that the excitement is more or less over, he lowers his hands, buttons the top button on his jacket, straightens his tie, and tucks his hands into his trouser pockets.
Oh right. There's an object in there he meant to ask Odessa about. His brow flickers into an almost-frown, but he doesn't broach the subject just yet.
For Grace's sake as much as Odessa's, maybe Alex's too, Mike says, "I had business to attend to in Texas. I thought I would swing by on my way back to Los Angeles."
Because Denver is so on the way, Michael.
Odessa
What was in the box, you ask? She looked at the box again. Nobody had taken it from her as of yet, so the witch just stood all black clad and awkward holding onto it. She gingerly made her way into the thick of the place and, instead, found a nearby coffee table to set the box on top of. It was placed on the glass top with a deceptive thud. Heavier than a discussion about cancer, that box.
"I don't know exactly what's in the box," she said, "I've only had it for the last half century and have done a very good job of not opening it myself. The only secret given to me to keep by the Keeper of Secrets."
A beat.
"I was hoping Annie would babysit the box while I go run some errands. Woudl you three mind watching it while I'm out?" She says like she's asking them to watch her dog and not a box that feels like the fundamental upheaval of the universe.
Michael
[int + past lives for shits +/- giggles]
Dice: 5 d10 TN8 (3, 6, 7, 7, 9) ( success x 1 )
Grace
"Aww," Grace says, to Mike's explanation of how he got here. That stupid grin returns to light up her face. She bumps into his side slightly too -- far more physical contact with someone than is normal for her.
But then, Odessa explains. And a suddenly serious Grace asks: "Keeper of Secrets?"
"I've heard that name. Not a fun fucking thing."
Alex
The end of the world at least a few minutes away now, Alex steps back into the kitchen for a moment as Odessa moves to find a table. The bang of a cupboard and a further sound of a coffee jug being slid back into the filter preceed his reappearance with another mug of coffee. He doesn’t move to close the distance between himself and the newcomers, contenting himself to lean against the doorframe and watch.
“Why does a box need babysitting? Is it likely to crew the furniture if you leave it alone?”
Michael
Decorum, Grace. We practice it.
Yet it's obvious Mike wants to smile, himself. The laugh lines around his hazel eyes deepen a bit with the tensing of his jaw, the staving off of a proper reaction. He stands like a statue as the Virtual Adept bumps him, but in doing so he leans back against her for a second.
"The Keeper of Secrets does not abide stealing," he says. "Opening that box would be akin to breaking the bond of trust between the entity and the practitioner." Just a suggestion: "Perhaps it should go downstairs in the library, until Odessa is able to retrieve it."
Odessa
"Tell people who can rewrite the fabric of reality that they can not have something and can not touch it because they will be incapable of comprehending what they've just seen. Mages are petulant children with superpowers."
She nodded, "essentially, I need someone to watch the box because there are individuals who would like very, very much to open said box. People think twice about taking things from witches, but.... my home isn't as secure as it once was."
Grace
"I've heard that name in connection with a... rather cold case. A bunch of dead and missing apprentices in Colorado Springs. A bunch. Like somebody lured them there for that purpose," Grace says, dropping that tidbit into the conversation.
"I'm not at all eager to open that box. I am eager to know a little more about that entity."
Alex
The mug stops in its rise towards Alex’s mouth, eyes watching Odessa and Michael as they discuss what should be done with the box. “Who are these individuals who are interested in this box of yours? And what happened to make your home less secure? Is that something that would be likely to happen here too?”
“I don’t think it’s our decision to make, about whether it should be kept here. I think it should wait until Annie and Sasha get back. It’s their home, after all.”
Michael
"Well." There's a solution for that. Michael removes his cell - a flip phone. Don't say anything. "I'll give Sasha a call. Excuse me."
And so he does, the sound of the call dialing loud enough to be heard as he gives Grace's elbow a quick squeeze and steps back out the front door.
[i need to bounce, guys. i've hit the point where i need sleep more than caffeine. mike will be back tho <3]
Odessa
"Well... go ask them. If you have chiminage to offer, the Keeper of Secrets will honor your requests." Odessa continued on, "and my mountain has been purchased. Logging issues, land rights. Petty things. No amount of warding can slow the pace of change and bureaucracy- I haven't existed legally in this lifetime."
Odessa scoffed.
"Annie owns this place, so long as the bank doesn't foreclose on her house nothing should happen to her."
Grace
She smirks at Mike's elbow squeeze, but quickly returns again to the hyper-focus. "Chiminage? What does the Keeper of Secrets like?"
Gold? Blood? Quintessence? Human sacrifice?
"And, I think Alex was more thinking along the lines that the bad people who want to open that box might come here and... I don't know... Shoot down the Chantry?"
She smirks at Alex. It's just a joke.
Alex
Well… go ask them. Alex glances to the door that Mike had just passed through, presumably to stop his conversation with Sasha from getting in the way of the ongoing conversation, and back to Odessa. Grace picks up on his other point: that somebody with an interest in the box might, at best, be unconcerned about the disruption they cause to the people living here, or who still use the house as somewhere to meet. At worst… Well, the warehouse hadn’t been lost to them so long ago.
He makes a face, as if there was something unpleasant tasting in the mug, before lowering it. “Pretty much,” he says in reply to Grace. “I’m sorry, I don’t know you. Holding onto your box would probably be something best left to people you have some level of mutual trust with. You have no idea if we’re capable of keeping that thing safe, and we have no idea if you’re literally dropping the end of the world on us.”
Alex pushes up from the doorframe, shrugging. “Just try not to get this place turned into a crater. We’re running out of safe places to meet.” Alex steps back out to the kitchen, shortly followed by the sound of running water from the sink.
Odessa
"Secrets."
Obviously.
"No. They're not technocrats, they're just a cabal of selfish, impetuous children who are very accustomed to the mysteries of the universe being open to them," she laughed, "students don't like being told no, and they don't like listening to their elders."
She let her shoulders rise and fall, and with that she was already headed to the front door, "I will be right back- I understand that you're concerned, but it's here now."
She gave a little wave and kept walking, completely ignoring the fact that the mages in front of her basically told her that they weren't going to watch her box, "I'll be on the other side of the gauntlet if you need me, I'll be right back!"
Grace
Grace shrugs, walks over to the box and hefts it up. Heavier than it looks, really, and oddly vibrating, this box. "I'll take it down to the library. It is really the safest place."
She sighs. "I don't know whether to cheer her on, or hate her for making me babysit a box just when Mike gets here."
Alex
Enough of the conversation made it through the door over the sound of the water. A voice comes back through the open door, sounding similar in some ways to what Odessa had said. “…they’re just selfish impetuous children who don’t like being told no… Nope, can’t think of a single person here who sounds like that.” A sigh follows, after Grace says she’ll take it to the library, and Alex reappears at the door.
“Maybe we should just throw in it the fireplace. Release all of the evil in the world now and just save time.”
Grace
"Uh, no. Someone told me that Secret Keeper thing was not to be fucked with. I'm not going to," she says, making her way carefully to the stairs leading down to the library.
"I'm no expert on spirit-y business and I probably wouldn't be able to do a damn thing about it. If we do have Pandora's Box, let's not be Pandora, okay?"
Alex
Alex stays by the door, seriously thinking about simply walking away. But that wouldn’t be fair on Grace, to leave her alone with whatever the hell was in the box and the prospect of a cabal of Odessa-a-likes descending to reclaim it. He sighs, deeply, again. Then Alex follows Grace down into the library. “Can’t say I think much of her ability to keep a secret if she just dumps it on the first people she comes across who don’t move fast enough.
“So what happened with the apprentices? Was it a recent thing, their going missing? And what the hell is this keeper thing anyway?”
Grace
"I really wish I knew the answer to that question," she tells Alex. "All of those questions, really."
They walk, they descend, they get to the door.
"Hey, Alex, could you get that for me? Hands are full."
It does say something about the, ahem, secrecy of the situation that Grace hasn't yet found the answers to those questions. She is, usually, so good at that, after all.
Odessa
(Dex roll, please GRace! Diff 6. Dex+athletics)
Grace
[Dex + Ath + WP, because yeah, when you're carrying the end of the world, you should really try to be careful with it]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 4, 5) ( success x 1 ) [WP]
Grace
[lol, thank you WP]
Odessa
My, it really would appear that there was something in that box. The vibration increased, and for a second one could have heard the unspoken oooooooh of something finding a shiny opportunity to jump-
... and immediately be caught by Grace. The box seemed content to try and coincidentally wriggle out of her grasp, but she kept a hold well enough to keep anything terrible from happening. The lid did jostle a little, though.
Alex
“Well, let me know if I can do anything to help.” This said as Alex turns to slide past Grace, against the wall, to get the door. He pauses as she seems to almost drop the box, catching it again before it falls and hits the floor.
“Did that thing just move? If there’s something in there trying to get out, I’m pretty sure there’s some tape up in the garage that we can wrap it up with.” The door is opened and Alex steps into the library first, finding the light switch.
Grace
"That's really not a bad idea. This thing... is like a... animal or something. It did move," she says, relieved to have kept it up.
She walks into the library, carefully puts the box down on a table, and fixes it with a glare.
"What the Hell did you give us, Odessa?"
Odessa
[aaaaaand willpower diff 4 from everyone]
Alex
[WP]
Dice: 6 d10 TN4 (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 7) ( success x 4 )
Grace
[WP!]
Dice: 6 d10 TN4 (2, 3, 7, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 4 )
Odessa
There was a feeling that came to the air, one that was brief but purposeful enough that it made the two mages perk and pay attention. They were observant creatures, and aware as well. The box? Was pouting. It very clearly was pouting and pinged on their senses and they were unmoved by its whining.
But let's make it very clear, the box had consciousness enough to make such a gesture.
Alex
Just as he’s about to speak again, that feeling passes over them. Mouth still open, he looks from Grace to the box and back again.
“Maybe we should get that tape.”
Alex scans the shelves for something first, though. A book, something large and heavy. The contents really didn’t matter. Something suitable found, the book is placed on the lid to weigh it down.
“Or there’s still the setting the whole thing on fire option.”
Grace
When that pouting sensation comes across her, Grace really fixes it with a stare.
"How do we know it isn't made of fire?" she says. "It seems like the flighty type. But yeah, go find some tape, I'll make sure it doesn't actually chew the furniture."
She says that, but then pulls out her phone.
Grace
[Mike gets a text message soon after Grace goes for her phone. It reads: "Box is 'alive', please advise."]
Alex
“I guess… How about shoving it in the freezer, then? Good against fire and water, plus air tight. Why the hell couldn’t she take it with her, anyway? If it’s to keep it away from spirits, it seems like a really dumb idea to leave it near the node.”
Another sigh, something rapidly becoming a habit when strange Mages passed through town. With another glance at the box under its heavy book lid, he heads out to find tape. And possibly ropes. Or chains.
No comments:
Post a Comment