Unraveling Tapestries IC: Interference Pattern

[stveje]

I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union.
— Aleister Crowley, Liber AL vel Legis


Eight of Swords

THE COVEN OF THE TWO STREETS

Jayden Mavel, Mysterium, Mastigos
Clover / The Witch of the Two Streets, Silver Ladder, Acanthus
Hayabusa, Mysterium, Thyrsus

IN LOCAL NEWS

Monkey Escaped From Lab Shot
A monkey escaped from a lab was shot dead last night after climbing into a man's apartment through an open window on the fifth floor. The lab is still investigating how the monkey got out, but a spokesperson said there was no danger of contamination from the animal. The man who shot it is in police custody, charged with possession of drugs after insisting the monkey spoke to him.

Owl City?
Bird enthusiasts all over the city have reported an increase in sightings of owls in recent years. The cause of this increase is unknown, but the city council has already proposed funding an Owl Festival to promote the city.

Hayabusa, you realize while reading this stray piece of news that Fireflies by Owl City is playing. I only mention it cause it's a funny coincidence. Anyway, tell me where you are when you read it.

Robbers shoot delivery boy, steal box of noodles
A young delivery boy for Will's was shot last night on his route to deliver a box of noodles. Only the box was believed stolen. Police are still looking for the robbers and say no motive has yet been established. The boy is reportedly still in critical condition.

This is the second time in a week that Will's has been victim of an attack. Just four days ago, a firebomb was thrown through the door of one of its restaurants. Fortunately no-one was hurt and the fire was quickly put out.

The owner of the popular chain of restaurants said he was shocked and horrified by the news and would ensure the safety of employees and customers alike. He asked the public to respect the privacy of the young boy and his family in this difficult time.

The Witch of the Two Streets, you are familiar with the owner of Will's - whose name to most is Will, and to the few is Whip-poor-Will - not just because that place makes the best seafood udon in the whole god-damned universe, or because he's the Concilium Herald and hence known to just about everyone with even a speck of Magic, but because he's a fellow théarch. He even visits the shrine on occasion to relax.

Where are you now?

The Red Rascal Changes Owner
Dr. Giovanni Carmine, owner of The Red Rascal casino, announced this morning that he is retiring to focus on his family. The new owners have yet to be announced, but betting has already begun.

Jayden, this is ... something. You know because the Mysterium has their eyes all over it, and you know that because you've played at the Red Rascal, and you know Carmine somewhat. Did you owe him anything? If so, you likely owe someone else now.

Thing is, Carmine wasn't the worst guy in his line of business, and everyone always assumed someone with bigger, sharper teeth would eventually eat him alive. Chances are that's what happened, and if it didn't happen earlier it's probably because Carmine just wasn't that tasty-looking. So why now? Maybe just how chance works, or maybe something happened to make him look suddenly snacktastic to someone.

The other thing is, a lot of casinos here are owned and run by the Seers, who just love making people slaves to the thrill of gambling while raking in all their wealth. Carmine's was one of the few that weren't, and you sort of suspect he was a Mysterium asset of some kind.

Where are you when you get these news?

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

UK to Leave the EU on Monday.
After extensions to the lengthy negotiations, the EU and the UK have agreed a deal for their parting, only days before the current deadline. According to the agreed-upon deal, ....

The Black Pharaoh's Skull
Egyptian archaeologists have uncovered a number of relics from a tomb, including the skull of a young girl made from black glass, believed to depict the pharaoh's youngest daughter. The remarkable relic is described as uncommonly elaborate and intact despite its fragile composition. It is now being moved to a secure, unnamed location for preservation. Further study of the tomb and its contents now await.

[Raz_Fox]

The Witch is visiting Manny in the hospital at the early hours of the morning. She can’t provoke his body to mend, but what she can do is hang some good fortune on him and leave some flowers. Poor kid.

He doesn’t particularly have a sob story, you know? It’s not like he’s trying to save up to pay for his little brother’s college tuition. He’s just a kid who wanted enough money to buy new clothes and the latest Nintendo games. And someone shoots him to send a message to his boss.

Not in her garden.

So now she’s leaving, heading past reception, her boots clicking on the tiles, echoing a little bit. Even in the city, a hospital’s a little empty at hours like these, isn’t it?

The next move is to find a seat and do a spread. Let the cards lead her to whoever did this. She might have to go farther than usual to beat the bounds tonight, but someone has trampled her flowers. There are always consequences.

[Casted Serendipity with one success, using Reach. It provides an omen of some sort for the next step in her current objective — in this case, finding the person responsible. It also means that on her next roll, she gets to pick the skill used; it just so happens that it’s relevant!]

[stveje]

The Witch is visiting Manny in the hospital at the early hours of the morning. She can’t provoke his body to mend, but what she can do is hang some good fortune on him and leave some flowers. Poor kid.

He doesn’t particularly have a sob story, you know? It’s not like he’s trying to save up to pay for his little brother’s college tuition. He’s just a kid who wanted enough money to buy new clothes and the latest Nintendo games. And someone shoots him to send a message to his boss.

Not in her garden.

So now she’s leaving, heading past reception, her boots clicking on the tiles, echoing a little bit. Even in the city, a hospital’s a little empty at hours like these, isn’t it?

The next move is to find a seat and do a spread. Let the cards lead her to whoever did this. She might have to go farther than usual to beat the bounds tonight, but someone has trampled her flowers. There are always consequences.

[Casted Serendipity with one success, using Reach. It provides an omen of some sort for the next step in her current objective — in this case, finding the person responsible. It also means that on her next roll, she gets to pick the skill used; it just so happens that it’s relevant!]

The flowers and good fortune will be appreciated, no doubt. You have a feeling he'll make it, even though his recovery will be slow.

You sit on a bench close to the hospital and spread out your cards, concentrating on the next step. You draw three cards:

Knight of Cups: a dreamer, easily bored and looking for stimulation, an amiable person full of ideas and opportunities. Your mind focuses on the Cup in the knight's hand, perhaps it has a secondary or deeper meaning in this case.

Two of Coins: juggling issues, excess struggle. Your mind focuses on the two balls the juggler is balancing in her hands.

Strength, or Fortitude: the girl and her beast, master and companion. Spiritual enlightenment combined with animal passions.

Just as you draw the last card, a breeze catches it and pulls it from your fingers. It lands in the gutter, facing up. Your mind focuses not so much on the card, although it is no doubt important too, but on the negative space - the gutter.

I'd suggest two approaches: try to puzzle more meaning from these clues on your own first (Wits+Investigation) or just head out and start asking around if any of it rings any bells to anyone (Wits+Streetwise). Whichever approach you choose, you may have a better skill in mind.

[Anarion]

She's out in the park at twilight, maybe 15 minutes walk away from the shrine. Most people are going home as the sun goes down, moving back into the tall buildings where they cram themselves into their space. The park's dangerous when it gets dark, dangerous people there, and police who are there to ensure that dangerous people spend a night in jail cell instead of under the stars. It's a nice clean park though, manicured trees in neat rows, clean cut grass, bet you they have someone mow it at least twice a week. Hayabusa isn't bothered by the twilight though. She's feeding a squirrel a nut, luring it out from a tree to come over to her with the promise of free food, bent just a few feet off the path. Her hair is loose and down her back and she's got on a hoodie and sweats for running tonight, nothing fancy, you'd never know she ran a shrine.

She's also scanning about. Technically, she'd heard the new on her smartphone 15 minutes ago while she'd been sweeping out the shrine's front steps before it grew too late, listening to music while she worked and stopping for a few minutes to check out the headlines and take a break. Her interest had been piqued, so she had decided to slip on her exercise clothes and jog over to the park where she could see what there was to see. There were excellent odds of an owl being here, nesting among the trees, maybe several. In fact, with a simple casting of Web of Life with a scale to cover an area around her the size of a small parking lot, she could tell you simply by wandering around the park when there were any owls nearby, which is why she had gone out for this evening jog. She's also watching, with her Thyrsus sight of life and spirit for any signs of something unusual, especially to see if there's something active in the spirit sort of Twilight [second dot spirit attainment, she can naturally and freely see into Twilight and interact with spirits as part of her active mage sight.] But for right this specific instance, she's feeding Mr. Squirrel and seeing what might come her way.

[stveje]

She's out in the park at twilight, maybe 15 minutes walk away from the shrine. Most people are going home as the sun goes down, moving back into the tall buildings where they cram themselves into their space. The park's dangerous when it gets dark, dangerous people there, and police who are there to ensure that dangerous people spend a night in jail cell instead of under the stars. It's a nice clean park though, manicured trees in neat rows, clean cut grass, bet you they have someone mow it at least twice a week. Hayabusa isn't bothered by the twilight though. She's feeding a squirrel a nut, luring it out from a tree to come over to her with the promise of free food, bent just a few feet off the path. Her hair is loose and down her back and she's got on a hoodie and sweats for running tonight, nothing fancy, you'd never know she ran a shrine.

She's also scanning about. Technically, she'd heard the new on her smartphone 15 minutes ago while she'd been sweeping out the shrine's front steps before it grew too late, listening to music while she worked and stopping for a few minutes to check out the headlines and take a break. Her interest had been piqued, so she had decided to slip on her exercise clothes and jog over to the park where she could see what there was to see. There were excellent odds of an owl being here, nesting among the trees, maybe several. In fact, with a simple casting of Web of Life with a scale to cover an area around her the size of a small parking lot, she could tell you simply by wandering around the park when there were any owls nearby, which is why she had gone out for this evening jog. She's also watching, with her Thyrsus sight of life and spirit for any signs of something unusual, especially to see if there's something active in the spirit sort of Twilight [second dot spirit attainment, she can naturally and freely see into Twilight and interact with spirits as part of her active mage sight.] But for right this specific instance, she's feeding Mr. Squirrel and seeing what might come her way.

There are owls in this park. Not exceedingly many, but some, certainly. They hide, as owls are wont to do, but you see them easily and there are enough of them that normal people would stand a better-than-usual chance of occasionally seeing one, too. One is watching the squirrel from a nearby tree, but with you so close it's not going to try anything.

But the owls are just owls. What's interesting here are the other owls ... the spirit owls. Little flustered, unanchored things of blue and green that scurry and flutter through the park anywhere you look, like bewildered people late for something they can't remember where is. Every time you look around, you see one or two fluttering through, hooing to themselves.

They seem very skittish, but you could try to lure one to you.

[Raz_Fox]

[1 Success on Wits+Persuasion, 2 if SL is incorporated.]

Burger King, 24/7. Everyone puts their guard down a little when they eat, especially when they eat disconnected from the rhythms of the city around them, the downbeat of the melody.

The Witch slides in with a dollar menu salad, opposite the college student. “Hope you don’t mind,” she says, brushing past her social proprieties. Here, then, is the Knight.

“Stocking up on calories for the all-nighter?” That’s so. A white smile, sharp. “If it was still open, there’s this cafe I know where you could get the perfect study environment, but that’s how time is, never quite where you need it.”

A pause, a casual glance. “Hey, this might be odd. But have I seen you at Will’s before? You know, the noodles place.”

[Anarion]

Hayabusa could just command one to come land with her, but that was never a good way to do these things, at least not starting out. Instead she tapped a hand on her bracelet and another on her necklace as she left the nut for the squirrel and stood up to look them over properly with a knowing eye. [Know Spirit, instant cast, sensory range. Let's cast at potency 4 with a couple tool yantras. 9, 6, 10, 8. 5. Plenty of successes. -What's the owl spirit's name? -Rank? -Influences? -Ban and Bane?]. Once she knew what to call one of the owl spirits, she simply did that, calling it by name and asking it to come and speak with her. If that didn't work, she'd offer it food, same as the squirrel, looking for whatever here in the park resonated with its influences to channel it a little essence.

[stveje]

[1 Success on Wits+Persuasion, 2 if SL is incorporated.]

Burger King, 24/7. Everyone puts their guard down a little when they eat, especially when they eat disconnected from the rhythms of the city around them, the downbeat of the melody.

The Witch slides in with a dollar menu salad, opposite the college student. “Hope you don’t mind,” she says, brushing past her social proprieties. Here, then, is the Knight.

“Stocking up on calories for the all-nighter?” That’s so. A white smile, sharp. “If it was still open, there’s this cafe I know where you could get the perfect study environment, but that’s how time is, never quite where you need it.”

A pause, a casual glance. “Hey, this might be odd. But have I seen you at Will’s before? You know, the noodles place.”

The guy laughs a bit, like it's weird that some woman just slipped into the opposite seat and started talking to him, but he gets what you're saying. Besides, he was looking for an excuse to be distracted from what was going on inside his head anyway. "Everyone knows Will's," he says and shrugs his shoulders. "You could have seen me there, sure. They make good noodles, but it's a bit too hot for me lately, you know? This place has less fire, if you get my meaning."

[Empathy 3] You can tell there's something gnawing at him. Guilt and conflicting emotions, about what to do. Like someone who carries a secret, and they know revealing it would betray someone they care about, but not telling it is wrong.

Hayabusa could just command one to come land with her, but that was never a good way to do these things, at least not starting out. Instead she tapped a hand on her bracelet and another on her necklace as she left the nut for the squirrel and stood up to look them over properly with a knowing eye. [Know Spirit, instant cast, sensory range. Let's cast at potency 4 with a couple tool yantras. 9, 6, 10, 8. 5. Plenty of successes. -What's the owl spirit's name? -Rank? -Influences? -Ban and Bane?]. Once she knew what to call one of the owl spirits, she simply did that, calling it by name and asking it to come and speak with her. If that didn't work, she'd offer it food, same as the squirrel, looking for whatever here in the park resonated with its influences to channel it a little essence.

This owl's name - the one you call - is Nyssi. It is a rank 1 spirit of Curiosity (one dot influence). Sunglasses are its bane (but it loves regular glasses ... also filled chocolates, not that you asked, but now you know). As a minor spirit of curiosity, its ban is to always try to see something new every night.

While curiosity might cause these things to drift about the city in search of fun new things to see, clearly something else has caused their current wild, fearful scattering. This isn't their natural behavior, exactly.

Calling one's attention is super easy. Getting it closer may need a little offering, due to its nervous fluttering, but it should be easy to find something - a piece of chocolate, maybe? A pair of glasses, or something new and funny to make its curious nature overcome its fear.

The owl stops and turns its head to look at you, and whatever offering you think of. Then it drifts towards you, dropping a few night-blue feathers.

[Thanqol]

The Red Rascal Changes Owner
Dr. Giovanni Carmine, owner of The Red Rascal casino, announced this morning that he is retiring to focus on his family. The new owners have yet to be announced, but betting has already begun.

Jayden, this is ... something. You know because the Mysterium has their eyes all over it, and you know that because you've played at the Red Rascal, and you know Carmine somewhat. Did you owe him anything? If so, you likely owe someone else now.

Thing is, Carmine wasn't the worst guy in his line of business, and everyone always assumed someone with bigger, sharper teeth would eventually eat him alive. Chances are that's what happened, and if it didn't happen earlier it's probably because Carmine just wasn't that tasty-looking. So why now? Maybe just how chance works, or maybe something happened to make him look suddenly snacktastic to someone.

The other thing is, a lot of casinos here are owned and run by the Seers, who just love making people slaves to the thrill of gambling while raking in all their wealth. Carmine's was one of the few that weren't, and you sort of suspect he was a Mysterium asset of some kind.

Where are you when you get these news?

People transmit information. It's fundamental to them. It's the same reason why there are so many news reports about computers being hacked - because they're designed by people and the inherent craving to share data burns through any abstract logic or mathematical reasoning that you should be silent or not care. Like their parents, humanity's digital children are enormous gossips and will tell anyone anything if asked correctly. Trying to keep a secret can burn people alive from the inside out.

She's never read the local paper before. Why should she? She knew what the paparazzi wanted to talk about: her, her, her. Clustering around her and yelling questions, writing longform think pieces criticizing her latest fashion choices, why should she ever bother to actually open one of the damn tabloids up if she was just going to read about herself? She hadn't even understood how to handle the big fold-out newspapers - how do you sit and read it? Do you rotate it like a jigsaw puzzle? Do you let it sprawl down into your lap? What if you wanted to read it in the bath? So inconvenient! But it didn't give a damn about what she thought about convenience and it gave surprisingly few damns about the current status of her sex life. It was just the product of the fundamental motive force of human minds to tell each other things and she was now merely engaging in that from a different direction.

(She'd been obsessed with newspapers for a week or so. Her room was wallpapered in them that made it look like she was planning some pretty intense painting, but no, she was reading every word.)

She owed Carmine money, sure. She could obviously have paid him in cash but he'd offered to put it on credit - and she'd seen the craving for power over her, the infliction of a personal relationship that would put him in proximity to celebrity. So she'd accepted! What was the point of a gambling addiction if it didn't get you into debt with a crime lord? Anyway - and here, based on the random input given to her by the Sun card she just flipped over, she consciously altered the variable in her mind that made her heart overflow with compassion and empathy with exactly the same amount of gravitas she'd apply to picking out a set of sunglasses for the day - wasn't spending more time with one's family a wonderful decision? What love and passion he must be feeling! Oh, she should take a packed lunch over to his house and congratulate him on his early retirement. That was clearly by far the best use of her time today! His wife looked lovely in the photograph too and she'd love to meet her!

(Where was she when she read this? Somewhere she had a moderate sympathetic connection to; i.e. slightly displaced from her centres of emotional gravity; a well-worn transit path perhaps. Somewhere where someone looking for her could find her but not a place she could reliably be found. It was surprising how little the details mattered compared to the emotional adjacency now that she was looking at things differently.)

[Enhance Skill: Empathy Mind+Gnosis+Expression
-2 to increase potency to 4, reach to make duration scene long
7 dice, 3 successes, I'm Empathy 5 for a while]

[stveje]

She owed Carmine money, sure. She could obviously have paid him in cash but he'd offered to put it on credit - and she'd seen the craving for power over her, the infliction of a personal relationship that would put him in proximity to celebrity. So she'd accepted! What was the point of a gambling addiction if it didn't get you into debt with a crime lord? Anyway - and here, based on the random input given to her by the Sun card she just flipped over, she consciously altered the variable in her mind that made her heart overflow with compassion and empathy with exactly the same amount of gravitas she'd apply to picking out a set of sunglasses for the day - wasn't spending more time with one's family a wonderful decision? What love and passion he must be feeling! Oh, she should take a packed lunch over to his house and congratulate him on his early retirement. That was clearly by far the best use of her time today! His wife looked lovely in the photograph too and she'd love to meet her!

Dr. Carmine may be a meek fish in the casino business, but he's managed to scrape together a fortune anyway. That much is clear as you make your way up through the skyscraper to the top-floor apartment where he lives.

It's his wife who welcomes you. Mrs. Carmine is a perfectly harmless upper-class creature. Ordinary is perhaps not the right word, but she is easily passed over. Yes, she's blessed with both elegance, good looks, and a brilliant mind, by all appearances, and this all serves her well in mortal business and society, but there's not a speck of enlightenment in her eyes.

Instead, it's their daughter who catches your eye the moment you step inside, and not just because she looks like something the Devil dragged home from a six-month tour of non-stop black metal and death-defying amounts of alcohol and drugs. Reddish-streaked hair; ragged black clothes; spikes, chains and bullet belt; deathly pale visage and eyes like pits of tar. A girl of maybe twenty, she's flung herself like a sack of tentacles on a luxurious couch at the other end of the room, one black-nailed hand dangling over the back and one big, black boot slung up on the beautiful pillows. Her unblinking, dead stare seems to travel an infinite distance to bore right into your skull.

Here is a Shark, alright. This is a girl who knows Death, who is very chummy with Death indeed. You can tell right away that she rules this home with an iron fist. Her parents love her, and if she's capable of anything even resembling love, she loves them too, but they would never, not in a million years tell her what to do.

Mrs. Carmine smiles and greets you, then seems to take a second look at you and her mind does a bit of elegant acrobatics before she cheerfully declares, "You must be one of Francesca's friends." There's no question. You're Francesca's friend, now. You could probably try to deny it, but you have a feeling it's really rather pointless.

Mrs. Carmine is already leaving the room with great efficiency, leaving you two alone. Francesca is still looking at you, waiting for you to come sit down. The hand draped over the back of the couch lifts slowly and subtly clenches into a fist like the Mysterium's iron grasp on knowledge. To any other eyes it could just be her working a bit of blood into her fingers, but to you it's very clearly deliberate, greeting you as an equal within the Order.

"I'm guessing I have you at a disadvantage," she says, her voice low and crackling like a lit cigarette but just as unflinchingly direct as her stare. She moves to be a little more comfortable, a little more upright. "I've only been back here a few weeks, and unlike you my name is not famous. You should call me Sassolino."

*

Wits+Composure as a reflexive perception, please, and if you wish to roll Empathy on her, it's vs. 4 successes (player wins ties).

[Thanqol]

Dr. Carmine may be a meek fish in the casino business, but he's managed to scrape together a fortune anyway. That much is clear as you make your way up through the skyscraper to the top-floor apartment where he lives.

It's his wife who welcomes you. Mrs. Carmine is a perfectly harmless upper-class creature. Ordinary is perhaps not the right word, but she is easily passed over. Yes, she's blessed with both elegance, good looks, and a brilliant mind, by all appearances, and this all serves her well in mortal business and society, but there's not a speck of enlightenment in her eyes.

Instead, it's their daughter who catches your eye the moment you step inside, and not just because she looks like something the Devil dragged home from a six-month tour of non-stop black metal and death-defying amounts of alcohol and drugs. Reddish-streaked hair; ragged black clothes; spikes, chains and bullet belt; deathly pale visage and eyes like pits of tar. A girl of maybe twenty, she's flung herself like a sack of tentacles on a luxurious couch at the other end of the room, one black-nailed hand dangling over the back and one big, black boot slung up on the beautiful pillows. Her unblinking, dead stare seems to travel an infinite distance to bore right into your skull.

Here is a Shark, alright. This is a girl who knows Death, who is very chummy with Death indeed. You can tell right away that she rules this home with an iron fist. Her parents love her, and if she's capable of anything even resembling love, she loves them too, but they would never, not in a million years tell her what to do.

Mrs. Carmine smiles and greets you, then seems to take a second look at you and her mind does a bit of elegant acrobatics before she cheerfully declares, "You must be one of Francesca's friends." There's no question. You're Francesca's friend, now. You could probably try to deny it, but you have a feeling it's really rather pointless.

Mrs. Carmine is already leaving the room with great efficiency, leaving you two alone. Francesca is still looking at you, waiting for you to come sit down. The hand draped over the back of the couch lifts slowly and subtly clenches into a fist like the Mysterium's iron grasp on knowledge. To any other eyes it could just be her working a bit of blood into her fingers, but to you it's very clearly deliberate, greeting you as an equal within the Order.

"I'm guessing I have you at a disadvantage," she says, her voice low and crackling like a lit cigarette but just as unflinchingly direct as her stare. She moves to be a little more comfortable, a little more upright. "I've only been back here a few weeks, and unlike you my name is not famous. You should call me Sassolino."

*

Wits+Composure as a reflexive perception, please, and if you wish to roll Empathy on her, it's vs. 4 successes (player wins ties).

'Six-month tour of non-stop black metal and death-defying amounts of alcohol and drugs' to many people sounded like some kind of radical spiritual experience. To her it had literally been her day job. She'd blitzed across Europe in a truck that looked like Optimus Prime's gothic teenage brother and howled the crashing hells of music to the rafters and had the tattoos and scars to prove it. Looking back on that whole experience it had been totally solipsistic and useless. Everything had gone according to her own routine, her own schedule, her own music. She'd come out of it richer in money and used her relationships as fuel.

So this girl? It was like looking at the person she used to be ten years ago.

For a moment she didn't know how to process that. What would happen if she immersed herself in the symbol of herself? No, she actively deleted the thought as punishment for its short-sightedness. She isn't me. She's not a prop, not a fan, not a conquest. She is a mind that perceives something important enough to make itself manifest and to drag everyone around it into its wake.

So she suborned herself and let herself be carried along in Sassolino's vision.

"So I should," she said. She didn't meet that stare with strength; she melted into it, staring into Sassolino's eyes with fascination rather than fury. "What else should I do, Sassolino?"

[Wits+Empathy: 7 dice: 4,10,10,5,3,5,9
10 agains: 10,8
10 again agains: 10,
10 again again agains: 5

6 successes.

Wits+Composure: 7,2,3,4,5 - nothin']

[Raz_Fox]

Fire’s tricky, isn’t it? All kinds of symbolism wrapped up into that. Hunger, revelation, tempering. Fire can make you hard, can show you the way, can spur you to action... or it can eat you alive.

“I wonder,” she says, almost to herself, almost, “what sparked the fire?” She tears open her sauce packet carefully, drips it bit by bit onto the greens. The lights hum. At an hour like this, with nothing else to distract you, they’re all you can hear, right?

She spears a leaf, and then just stops. “I saw Manny in the hospital,” she says. There’s no solid place to stand. “Stable, for now. If nothing else goes wrong.”

She looks up. Looks him dead in his eyes. Doesn’t say another word. Let him speak to kill the suffocating silence.

[Anarion]

This owl's name - the one you call - is Nyssi. It is a rank 1 spirit of Curiosity (one dot influence). Sunglasses are its bane (but it loves regular glasses ... also filled chocolates, not that you asked, but now you know). As a minor spirit of curiosity, its ban is to always try to see something new every night.

While curiosity might cause these things to drift about the city in search of fun new things to see, clearly something else has caused their current wild, fearful scattering. This isn't their natural behavior, exactly.

Calling one's attention is super easy. Getting it closer may need a little offering, due to its nervous fluttering, but it should be easy to find something - a piece of chocolate, maybe? A pair of glasses, or something new and funny to make its curious nature overcome its fear.

The owl stops and turns its head to look at you, and whatever offering you think of. Then it drifts towards you, dropping a few night-blue feathers.

A piece of chocolate was easy enough. She took out a little bag of trail mix, which had been Rebecca's preferred snack since long before she had awoken, and pulled out a couple of different colored M&Ms, which she held out in her palm for little Nyssi. "They ran a newspaper story about you and your brothers and sisters, little Nyssi. What has you all shaken up, hmm?" She asks, letting it gently nibble at the M&Ms. "Maybe I can help you out? We wouldn't want you all scattered about and urging regular people to go wandering about at night? Not too far at least."

[stveje]

So she suborned herself and let herself be carried along in Sassolino's vision.

"So I should," she said. She didn't meet that stare with strength; she melted into it, staring into Sassolino's eyes with fascination rather than fury. "What else should I do, Sassolino?"

[Wits+Empathy: 7 dice: 4,10,10,5,3,5,9
10 agains: 10,8
10 again agains: 10,
10 again again agains: 5

6 successes.

Wits+Composure: 7,2,3,4,5 - nothin']

Perhaps there's more to this room, this apartment, this building than meets the eye ... but you're busy looking at what's 'more' in this girl's eyes. After all, though your enlightenment took different paths, who better to understand someone like her? Perhaps that's why you're here, why you're really here.

They don't trust her. The Mysterium. She's from another Concilium, only recently arrived. Her stated reasons for coming back here - her family lives here - are perfectly logical, of course, but are they her real reasons? Only partially, you suspect, and so does the Mysterium. Perhaps they know other reasons to be suspicious, but they didn't tell you for a reason: to avoid biasing you. They'll likely want your opinion on her eventually.

She knows all this perfectly well. Expected it. Either she knows and accepts that she must prove herself innocent, or she knows their suspicions are true and she'll have to bide her time, lay low.

No, that's not it. Not exactly. She knows she can't hide it forever. All things must die eventually, even secrets.

Having her father sell his business and go into retirement was going to invite scrutiny. She had to know that. Again, no doubt her actions are coldly logical and not against the instructions of her superiors, but they were also not expected. "It was necessary for efficiency and expediency," she's likely told them, or something to that effect. It may even be true.

But selling to the Seers? "But who else?" she'll reply. The Seers run the casino business anyway, it was going to happen sooner or later, and anyway, her father's business had nothing of value to the Mysterium. Except her father, and he's safe (with her).

And her father deserves to follow his dreams, doesn't he? He was never cut out for the casino business. It's better this way. Better for him, better for her, better for them.

She loves her family, if love is the right word. She's cold, the kind of cold who'll stab you in the gut and stare into your eyes as you slowly, painfully die. She's good at it too - at killing - and she takes pride in her talents, her work.

But she's also loyal. Loyal to family above all ... correction, families. It's hard to be loyal when you're loyal to more than one. She struggles with that. Struggles very deeply.

She hopes ... hopes she can bring all her families together. It would be easier that way, wouldn't it? One big family. One loyalty. She's not blind to the fact that it's doomed, that she is doomed, but one has to have a hope.

It's a heresy, of course. The Mysterium would excommunicate her from their family (if they were merciful) for being a Seer, and the Seers would kill her on the spot - and her whole pylon - for the heresy of thinking Seers and Pentacle ought to be one. She's got her work cut out for her, truly, if she hopes for that to happen.

Tell me, do you try to hide from her that you've just read her like an open book? That you know her deepest, most shameful, most dangerous secret? Or do you let her know?

Fire’s tricky, isn’t it? All kinds of symbolism wrapped up into that. Hunger, revelation, tempering. Fire can make you hard, can show you the way, can spur you to action... or it can eat you alive.

“I wonder,” she says, almost to herself, almost, “what sparked the fire?” She tears open her sauce packet carefully, drips it bit by bit onto the greens. The lights hum. At an hour like this, with nothing else to distract you, they’re all you can hear, right?

She spears a leaf, and then just stops. “I saw Manny in the hospital,” she says. There’s no solid place to stand. “Stable, for now. If nothing else goes wrong.”

She looks up. Looks him dead in his eyes. Doesn’t say another word. Let him speak to kill the suffocating silence.

The boy slumps back in his seat. "You're with the police, aren't you? Look, I haven't done anything ... I just ..." He sighs. "I knew she was trouble. It's not my fault she was flirting with me. I tried to stay away from her, honest. I knew she was bad, and after she threw that firebomb in that restaurant ..."

He composes himself a bit. Still slumped back in the seat, but with a resigned look, he continues, "Her name is Mitzi Gotter, but I've heard them call her Curb. She's running in some kind of gang, that's what gangs do, right? Give each other silly names. I only saw her throw that firebomb. I knew it was her under that hood. I don't know if she shot that kid too, but someone in her gang probably did. I didn't tell anyone because ... I was afraid. She's sort of sweet, okay? I like her, but she's ... bad, too. I know she's bad. Please don't tell her I told on her."

You know the Gotters. They're a crime family with ties to the Seers. That's about all you know without some kind of roll, however.

A piece of chocolate was easy enough. She took out a little bag of trail mix, which had been Rebecca's preferred snack since long before she had awoken, and pulled out a couple of different colored M&Ms, which she held out in her palm for little Nyssi. "They ran a newspaper story about you and your brothers and sisters, little Nyssi. What has you all shaken up, hmm?" She asks, letting it gently nibble at the M&Ms. "Maybe I can help you out? We wouldn't want you all scattered about and urging regular people to go wandering about at night? Not too far at least."

The owl coos and happily nibbles the chocolate, then hops on your shoulder. "Hoo," it says and turns its head left and right, all the way around, then holds out a wing as if to point.

It leads you across the park - pointing its wings like a strange kind of semaphore - out through one of the gates and down some blocks to another park. This one looks less well-kept, and the gate is locked with a big chain. There's a large mansion inside the gate, boarded up and dark. The owl points at the mansion.

You can feel the Gauntlet here is very weak, closer to a remote wilderness than the middle of a big city (strength 2), but you might have to go inside to really see what's there.

What do you do?

[Anarion]

The owl coos and happily nibbles the chocolate, then hops on your shoulder. "Hoo," it says and turns its head left and right, all the way around, then holds out a wing as if to point.

It leads you across the park - pointing its wings like a strange kind of semaphore - out through one of the gates and down some blocks to another park. This one looks less well-kept, and the gate is locked with a big chain. There's a large mansion inside the gate, boarded up and dark. The owl points at the mansion.

You can feel the Gauntlet here is very weak, closer to a remote wilderness than the middle of a big city (strength 2), but you might have to go inside to really see what's there.

What do you do?

That looked terribly scary. Permit Hayabusa a moment then, lingering on the street here. She'll cast that life spell of hers again, for people rather than owls, and looking at the mansion to see whether this place is as abandoned as it looks. She'll also scan for spirits visible in Twilight with her active mage sight. There might be more going on, perhaps beyond the gauntlet and reaching over, but the first order of business was to see what this "abandoned" mansion looked like with some enhanced senses.

She's absolutely going to go in here, but she's got a few approaches she might take. Let me lay them out to save you time. If it really seems to be abandoned, she'll cast a spell to make herself invisible to spirits (shadow walk instant cast and and advanced duration) and start looking around. If she sees particular spirits, especially if they're stronger or appear to be actively manifesting, she'll cast a shield to protect herself from spirits and their Numina (Ephemeral shield instant cast, advanced duration) and go in openly to negotiate, bringing Rushing Heartbeat with her (and Nyssy if the owl is game for staying with her, though it's free to flap away whenever it chooses). If she gets actual people from a life scan, she's going to pull out her phone and call up her Mysterium contacts and ask them if they've got any info on somebody taking up residence in this mansion and what they're using it for before she goes barging in. Feel free to start her down whichever route comes up from her investigation, or throw up whatever walls get in the way.

[stveje]

That looked terribly scary. Permit Hayabusa a moment then, lingering on the street here. She'll cast that life spell of hers again, for people rather than owls, and looking at the mansion to see whether this place is as abandoned as it looks. She'll also scan for spirits visible in Twilight with her active mage sight. There might be more going on, perhaps beyond the gauntlet and reaching over, but the first order of business was to see what this "abandoned" mansion looked like with some enhanced senses.

She's absolutely going to go in here, but she's got a few approaches she might take. Let me lay them out to save you time. If it really seems to be abandoned, she'll cast a spell to make herself invisible to spirits (shadow walk instant cast and and advanced duration) and start looking around. If she sees particular spirits, especially if they're stronger or appear to be actively manifesting, she'll cast a shield to protect herself from spirits and their Numina (Ephemeral shield instant cast, advanced duration) and go in openly to negotiate, bringing Rushing Heartbeat with her (and Nyssy if the owl is game for staying with her, though it's free to flap away whenever it chooses). If she gets actual people from a life scan, she's going to pull out her phone and call up her Mysterium contacts and ask them if they've got any info on somebody taking up residence in this mansion and what they're using it for before she goes barging in. Feel free to start her down whichever route comes up from her investigation, or throw up whatever walls get in the way.

There's someone in there. You sense one person, huddled deep within the building, in what is probably a cellar. There's something not quite right about the person, however. You pick them apart from all the "background noise" - all the usual suspects: molds, insects, vermin - so it counts as a person, but ... roll Wits+Occult to see if you can make sense of the patterns of life you're sensing.

Your mage sight doesn't pierce walls, so you can't look for spirits within the building without some way of getting a visual in there, the most obvious being to peek through windows. Let me know if I've overlooked some way you could do it. There are spirits everywhere, if you were to look around outside, but the mansion itself practically lights up like a Halloween garden party. There are dancing skeleton spirits lurking behind bushes, vampire bats with fake teeth fluttering beneath the eaves, a warty green witch with a black hat flying on her broom around the chimney, and strange, ghostly visages behind the boarded-up windows. They likely feast on the mild fear people have of such a place, but they're all minor, largely harmless things.

The little owl on your shoulder shivers in its feathers and flies off into a tree on the other side of the street, where it hides.

Calling up your contacts, you learn that it is not one of the Mysterium's houses, at least. In fact, it takes you some time to even get your contacts to realize what place you're talking about, almost like it comes as a total surprise to them that there is a house there. Even after calling around, you learn very little. It was the property of a local architect who was murdered there. The case was never solved; apparently it languished until it simply disappeared under the pile of other cases. The grounds still belong to his family, but it's been abandoned for years, and no one's ever made any attempt to restore it. Another mage once took a brief interest in it, but he apparently dropped the idea when a more interesting obsession fell into his lap. Your contact could try to dig up his name for you, if you wanted, but she doesn't think he'd have learned much.

[Thanqol]

But selling to the Seers? "But who else?" she'll reply. The Seers run the casino business anyway, it was going to happen sooner or later, and anyway, her father's business had nothing of value to the Mysterium. Except her father, and he's safe (with her).

And her father deserves to follow his dreams, doesn't he? He was never cut out for the casino business. It's better this way. Better for him, better for her, better for them.

She loves her family, if love is the right word. She's cold, the kind of cold who'll stab you in the gut and stare into your eyes as you slowly, painfully die. She's good at it too - at killing - and she takes pride in her talents, her work.

But she's also loyal. Loyal to family above all ... correction, families. It's hard to be loyal when you're loyal to more than one. She struggles with that. Struggles very deeply.

She hopes ... hopes she can bring all her families together. It would be easier that way, wouldn't it? One big family. One loyalty. She's not blind to the fact that it's doomed, that she is doomed, but one has to have a hope.

It's a heresy, of course. The Mysterium would excommunicate her from their family (if they were merciful) for being a Seer, and the Seers would kill her on the spot - and her whole pylon - for the heresy of thinking Seers and Pentacle ought to be one. She's got her work cut out for her, truly, if she hopes for that to happen.

Tell me, do you try to hide from her that you've just read her like an open book? That you know her deepest, most shameful, most dangerous secret? Or do you let her know?

This was what she meant when she said that human minds were fundamentally incapable of keeping secrets. Sharing this knowledge could kill her! And still her mind had shrieked it at her, a total stranger! She hadn't even actively scanned for it - and so, she started laughing at the sheer self-serious comedy of it.

"If your plan involves keeping secrets from the Wise," she laughed. "You should perhaps get a new plan. I don't have anything against what you're trying to do, but at the very least do it in such a way that won't get you instantly discovered and killed, yeah?"

And it was true! She had no ideology when it came to this. That was a direct expression of will from Sassolino and she could see clearly that she was prepared to kill and die for it. It would be just as sharp and powerful and correct to denounce her as a traitor and express her own will in the destruction of the other, but honestly, what did that accomplish? There was a little utopia in this mind and what grounds did she have to declare that some other dream she didn't believe in was more correct?

[Anarion]

There's someone in there. You sense one person, huddled deep within the building, in what is probably a cellar. There's something not quite right about the person, however. You pick them apart from all the "background noise" - all the usual suspects: molds, insects, vermin - so it counts as a person, but ... roll Wits+Occult to see if you can make sense of the patterns of life you're sensing.

[7, 8, 6. 1 success]

The little owl on your shoulder shivers in its feathers and flies off into a tree on the other side of the street, where it hides.

Calling up your contacts, you learn that it is not one of the Mysterium's houses, at least. In fact, it takes you some time to even get your contacts to realize what place you're talking about, almost like it comes as a total surprise to them that there is a house there. Even after calling around, you learn very little. It was the property of a local architect who was murdered there. The case was never solved; apparently it languished until it simply disappeared under the pile of other cases. The grounds still belong to his family, but it's been abandoned for years, and no one's ever made any attempt to restore it. Another mage once took a brief interest in it, but he apparently dropped the idea when a more interesting obsession fell into his lap. Your contact could try to dig up his name for you, if you wanted, but she doesn't think he'd have learned much.

"Thank you for the directions, Nyssi" she says as it flies off, then gets on the phone. Hearing nothing about the place is concerning. Her contact is probably right that she won't get much, but it rarely hurt to be careful, so she asked her contact to look him up anyway and text her the name. She'd never been good at memorizing that sort of thing anyway. Then, she casts her spell, the invisibility one, and climbs her way over the gate, landing with a strong jump. She directs Rushing Heartbeat to stay nearby, but outside the gates, watching for any odd activity in Twilight. Hayabusa is going to make her way into the mansion, ignoring the spirits she'd normally expect to be here. Hopefully she can come up with a good game plan for what she should be looking for based on what she's figured out about the one person in the mansion.

[Raz_Fox]

The Witch of the Two Streets takes him by the hand. It’s gentle, but inescapable; one gets the feeling that he would have to gnaw his own arm off to escape that grasp before it was his time to go.

“Go visit Manny,” she commands him. Make things right. Apologize. Make yourself look at your mistake and confront it. Only then can you grow.

She releases him. Takes a huge bite of the salad. Drops the fork in the container, closes it, and carries it off. She’ll finish it off elsewhere.

***

Elsewhere, the Witch finishes off the salad in a phone booth, wipes at her lips daintily with a napkin, and then calls Mitzi Gotters. First try, even. And if she’s like most kids, she’s got her phone charging next to her on the bed.

[0 Successes on the spellcasting roll for Lucky Number, feel free to reroute the call anywhere, I’ll deliberately take a Dramatic Failure here.]

[stveje]

This was what she meant when she said that human minds were fundamentally incapable of keeping secrets. Sharing this knowledge could kill her! And still her mind had shrieked it at her, a total stranger! She hadn't even actively scanned for it - and so, she started laughing at the sheer self-serious comedy of it.

"If your plan involves keeping secrets from the Wise," she laughed. "You should perhaps get a new plan. I don't have anything against what you're trying to do, but at the very least do it in such a way that won't get you instantly discovered and killed, yeah?"

And it was true! She had no ideology when it came to this. That was a direct expression of will from Sassolino and she could see clearly that she was prepared to kill and die for it. It would be just as sharp and powerful and correct to denounce her as a traitor and express her own will in the destruction of the other, but honestly, what did that accomplish? There was a little utopia in this mind and what grounds did she have to declare that some other dream she didn't believe in was more correct?

It's a slightly tense smile she gives you, but mostly what it is, is an actual smile. Some people have great, big, beautiful smiles fit for Instagram, often wildly affected. Sassolino is not one of them, but she doesn't seem to mind that her teeth are a bit crooked. She smiles, and it's surprisingly natural.

"I confess the heart is something of a mystery to me. It likes to speak out of turn, of things the mind doesn't understand or thought it had tied down securely. And even if you try to silence it, just as you've buried the evidence, some schmuck falls over his own feet and lands face-first in it."

She gestures at the expensively stocked bar, as if to say help yourself to whatever you like. "I could echo your own advice: 'if your plan involves learning the secrets of the Wise, at least do it in such a way that it won't get you permanently silenced.' Knowledge is a dangerous thing to have, and we have so very much of it ..." She leans forward. "Yet never enough, is it?"

"You asked me what you should do. Since you're so good at sniffing out secrets, you should obviously help me do just that."

"Thank you for the directions, Nyss" she says as it flies off, then gets on the phone. Hearing nothing about the place is concerning. Her contact is probably right that she won't get much, but it rarely hurt to be careful, so she asked her contact to look him up anyway and text her the name. She'd never been good at memorizing that sort of thing anyway. Then, she casts her spell, the invisibility one, and climbs her way over the gate, landing with a strong jump. She directs Rushing Heartbeat to stay nearby, but outside the gates, watching for any odd activity in Twilight. Hayabusa is going to make her way into the mansion, ignoring the spirits she'd normally expect to be here. Hopefully she can come up with a good game plan for what she should be looking for based on what she's figured out about the one person in the mansion.

Your first guess is that it's a werewolf, but that still doesn't quite match what you're seeing, although it was a good guess. No, it's something else ... you've heard of people kidnapped by fay beings, dragged off to realms ruled by stories, who manage to escape back to the real world but are forever changed. Changelings, they're called, and you're looking at one in there.

And it's on the move. Maybe it sensed your presence, or maybe it's just moving around. So, what's the plan?

The Witch of the Two Streets takes him by the hand. It’s gentle, but inescapable; one gets the feeling that he would have to gnaw his own arm off to escape that grasp before it was his time to go.

“Go visit Manny,” she commands him. Make things right. Apologize. Make yourself look at your mistake and confront it. Only then can you grow.

She releases him. Takes a huge bite of the salad. Drops the fork in the container, closes it, and carries it off. She’ll finish it off elsewhere.

"Uhm ... will do," he says, wide-eyed, and watches you leave.

Elsewhere, the Witch finishes off the salad in a phone booth, wipes at her lips daintily with a napkin, and then calls Mitzi Gotters. First try, even. And if she’s like most kids, she’s got her phone charging next to her on the bed.

[0 Successes on the spellcasting roll for Lucky Number, feel free to reroute the call anywhere, I’ll deliberately take a Dramatic Failure here.]

Is it an actual, functioning phone booth? It must be, of course, but I honestly didn't know those things still existed anywhere.

Maybe they don't. Maybe what you stepped into is Something Else, and you're only starting to realize that ... wait, phone booths aren't a thing anymore, so what exactly did I just get into?

I'll let you tell me.

Either way, you take the phone and dial a number ... your finger touches the last button, starts to press ... the button depresses with an echo, as if there were two simultaneous clicks. It doesn't even ring, it just clicks and then a male voice on the other end says, "The Wizard."

The electrons in the wire must have barely had time to physically travel the distance between you and him in the time between you pressing the last number and him picking it up.

What is your first reaction?

[Anarion]

A changeling? That was something. Hayabusa had only heard rumors. They were Arcadian, but different from the Supernal somehow. Her first thought was that they would be a fascinating sort of study, perhaps a special mixture of life and spirit, incredible insights to be gleaned. Her second was that such a person was probably dangerous and had no desire to be found. Her third was that such a person was a likely source for pushing all the owls out and she probably needed to at least talk to them. Her fourth, belatedly, was that this was a person and she should try and treat them with respect and not dissect them or anything.

She shot a text to Clover. "Hey, found something, someone actually, that might be your particular specialty. If you've got time, come join me at [mansion address] but if not, I'll try and get a follow up with you, no rush. :sparkling heart: :sparkling heart:"
She figured with the Changeling on the move she wasn't going to wait for Clover anyway, so this was more of a way of letting her know that she'd want her to investigate but by the time she got here there wouldn't be any time pressure, either because the Changeling was gone or she'd convinced it to hang around.

She changes her mind slightly and sends Rushing Heart ahead of her to keep track of the Changeling. He can move quickly through Twilight and probably wont' be spotted, though she tells him to keep his distance, watch only. Then she herself starts making her way invisibly past the various spirits and through the mansion to the Changeling. Her plan is to approach it openly and talk, hopefully in a way that doesn't scare it off immediately or escalate, but she'll keep her eyes open and reevaluate when she gets closer.

[Raz_Fox]

Is it an actual, functioning phone booth? It must be, of course, but I honestly didn't know those things still existed anywhere.

Maybe they don't. Maybe what you stepped into is Something Else, and you're only starting to realize that ... wait, phone booths aren't a thing anymore, so what exactly did I just get into?

I'll let you tell me.

As much as I would love for this to be a mysterious, liminal place-- and heck, maybe it is-- the fact of it is that the city's infrastructure is patchwork and archaic in places. Can you imagine the public outrage if these old, dilapidated phone booths were taken away? You must hate women and other vulnerable people who walk the streets at night, Mister Politician, and be in the pocket of corporate interests who want everybody to have their own cell phone!

So they linger, rarely used, growing scratched and old and spray-painted. That's the truth of it. I could go out right now and take a picture of one standing tall and lonely by the edge of a road right now, near the bus stop. And the Witch does not need a cell phone, and Clover-- you know, the gardener up at the shrine-- doesn't make enough to handle a phone contract, so here we are, at the old phone booth just inside her garden's bounds.

Just inside. Right on the edge, really. Liminal. A way to reach out and talk to others outside the garden.

Either way, you take the phone and dial a number ... your finger touches the last button, starts to press ... the button depresses with an echo, as if there were two simultaneous clicks. It doesn't even ring, it just clicks and then a male voice on the other end says, "The Wizard."

The electrons in the wire must have barely had time to physically travel the distance between you and him in the time between you pressing the last number and him picking it up.

What is your first reaction?

Roll with it. What's meant to be is meant to be. And clearly, she's meant to be having this conversation with The Wizard.

"May I speak with Mitzi? If not, then speaking to her handler is fine." Never flinch. Never show any fear. Follow the thorns as they wind. "You know who this is."

[Thanqol]

It's a slightly tense smile she gives you, but mostly what it is, is an actual smile. Some people have great, big, beautiful smiles fit for Instagram, often wildly affected. Sassolino is not one of them, but she doesn't seem to mind that her teeth are a bit crooked. She smiles, and it's surprisingly natural.

"I confess the heart is something of a mystery to me. It likes to speak out of turn, of things the mind doesn't understand or thought it had tied down securely. And even if you try to silence it, just as you've buried the evidence, some schmuck falls over his own feet and lands face-first in it."

She gestures at the expensively stocked bar, as if to say help yourself to whatever you like. "I could echo your own advice: 'if your plan involves learning the secrets of the Wise, at least do it in such a way that it won't get you permanently silenced.' Knowledge is a dangerous thing to have, and we have so very much of it ..." She leans forward. "Yet never enough, is it?"

"You asked me what you should do. Since you're so good at sniffing out secrets, you should obviously help me do just that."

"See, this is exactly what I'm talking about," said the lady, laughing again. "You're not going to kill me. There'd be a formal investigation, and I am good friends with a time traveller. You'd be killing your dream to protect it. This is what I'm talking about! Think!"

She takes the offer towards the bar without hesitation. She runs her hand along the bottle labels with the experienced eye of someone who has been rich enough and drunk enough to try almost every label that she saw here. It's like she's searching for something, and she is - she's searching for a memory.

The actual liquid content of the bottles doesn't matter - has it ever mattered? It's all some form of contaminated water that poisons your brain and is usually consumed at a point where you're too distorted to feel it properly. But what each one represents is a connection. This one she drank at a dive bar in Budapest while her roadie was being booked by the police for shouldering a car off the road. This one she sipped from a fluted wine glass at an awards ceremony before eventually passing out from drunkness and exhaustion, culminating in the famous clip of her sleeping through her own victory. And this one... she found it, the kind of cheap beer that ends up in a bar like this only because rich people also sometimes have bad taste.

These liquors were her sympathetic library. Each one bound her through the connections of Space to a specific place. Some Space mages had collections of photographs, ticket stubs, kitschy souvenirs. Hers were drinks and this cabinet was a gateway to distant worlds.

"But sure, go ahead," she said, and while she was there she started mixing up a drink for Sassolino while she was at it. Her overclocked brain gave her a master bartender's intuition as to what her favourite drink was, so that's what she made. "What do you want to know?"

[stveje]

A changeling? That was something. Hayabusa had only heard rumors. They were Arcadian, but different from the Supernal somehow. Her first thought was that they would be a fascinating sort of study, perhaps a special mixture of life and spirit, incredible insights to be gleaned. Her second was that such a person was probably dangerous and had no desire to be found. Her third was that such a person was a likely source for pushing all the owls out and she probably needed to at least talk to them. Her fourth, belatedly, was that this was a person and she should try and treat them with respect and not dissect them or anything.

She shot a text to Clover. "Hey, found something, someone actually, that might be your particular specialty. If you've got time, come join me at [mansion address] but if not, I'll try and get a follow up with you, no rush. :sparkling heart: :sparkling heart:"
She figured with the Changeling on the move she wasn't going to wait for Clover anyway, so this was more of a way of letting her know that she'd want her to investigate but by the time she got here there wouldn't be any time pressure, either because the Changeling was gone or she'd convinced it to hang around.

She changes her mind slightly and sends Rushing Heart ahead of her to keep track of the Changeling. He can move quickly through Twilight and probably wont' be spotted, though she tells him to keep his distance, watch only. Then she herself starts making her way invisibly past the various spirits and through the mansion to the Changeling. Her plan is to approach it openly and talk, hopefully in a way that doesn't scare it off immediately or escalate, but she'll keep her eyes open and reevaluate when she gets closer.

Rushing Heart descends first into the darkness below the mansion. A young woman comes running out of one of the rooms, her face just barely visible in the faint light from the stairs. There's something very canine about her - your first impression of a werewolf wasn't entirely off - and it's clearly been a long time since she saw civilization. She stops dead in her tracks when she sees the stairs, eyes wide with terror, then she turns and disappears back through the door she came from.

You don't think she saw Rushing Heart, but she might have heard you come towards the stairs. You know the famous words by Nietzsche? "If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."

There is just such an abyss in the room where she is huddled, trying to hide. An old pit in the floor. Something lurks down there in the dark, and she has been staring very long and very deep into that pit, because it has its shadowy tendrils dug deep in her brain.

She is absolutely terrified. Someone's coming into the house, coming down the stairs, and she's trapped. The spirit in the pit is filling her mind with all sorts of horrors, all sorts of imagined monsters coming down those stairs for her.

The sad thing is, she probably thought this house would be perfect because it's abandoned, quiet, and safe. Somewhere to hide from the scary world outside. Something preyed on that fear and twisted it to its own purposes. Or maybe she brought it with her.

The lesser spirits outside aren't drawn to the house just because it's an abandoned and spooky old house. They're drawn here because a waking nightmare lives in the foundation. It can't see you, but it's wary that something seems to have entered the house. You can sense its influence in the walls and floor and the very air itself, growing stronger the deeper you go.

You can try to approach her or talk to her, but she's likely to do something desperate unless you can somehow calm her down enough.

As much as I would love for this to be a mysterious, liminal place-- and heck, maybe it is-- the fact of it is that the city's infrastructure is patchwork and archaic in places. Can you imagine the public outrage if these old, dilapidated phone booths were taken away? You must hate women and other vulnerable people who walk the streets at night, Mister Politician, and be in the pocket of corporate interests who want everybody to have their own cell phone!

So they linger, rarely used, growing scratched and old and spray-painted. That's the truth of it. I could go out right now and take a picture of one standing tall and lonely by the edge of a road right now, near the bus stop. And the Witch does not need a cell phone, and Clover-- you know, the gardener up at the shrine-- doesn't make enough to handle a phone contract, so here we are, at the old phone booth just inside her garden's bounds.

Just inside. Right on the edge, really. Liminal. A way to reach out and talk to others outside the garden.

Ah yes. I had forgotten. Very good.

Roll with it. What's meant to be is meant to be. And clearly, she's meant to be having this conversation with The Wizard.

"May I speak with Mitzi? If not, then speaking to her handler is fine." Never flinch. Never show any fear. Follow the thorns as they wind. "You know who this is."

"That I do, my dear Witch," the Wizard says. In the background, you can hear a woman snickering, maybe a joke at the Wizard's expense, but he continues in a perfectly conversational tone.

"A message just arrived for you. Your friend must have forgotten that you don't have a cell phone. Just one of life's little coincidences that you both should happen to use this number."

A female computer voice reads Hayabusa's message to you.

"Incidentally, your quarry is on her way there now," the Wizard says, and a small black car pulls up outside. "I've taken the liberty of arranging a ride for you. Do you want me to send a reply to the message, while I'm at it?"

"See, this is exactly what I'm talking about," said the lady, laughing again. "You're not going to kill me. There'd be a formal investigation, and I am good friends with a time traveller. You'd be killing your dream to protect it. This is what I'm talking about! Think!"

She takes the offer towards the bar without hesitation. She runs her hand along the bottle labels with the experienced eye of someone who has been rich enough and drunk enough to try almost every label that she saw here. It's like she's searching for something, and she is - she's searching for a memory.

The actual liquid content of the bottles doesn't matter - has it ever mattered? It's all some form of contaminated water that poisons your brain and is usually consumed at a point where you're too distorted to feel it properly. But what each one represents is a connection. This one she drank at a dive bar in Budapest while her roadie was being booked by the police for shouldering a car off the road. This one she sipped from a fluted wine glass at an awards ceremony before eventually passing out from drunkness and exhaustion, culminating in the famous clip of her sleeping through her own victory. And this one... she found it, the kind of cheap beer that ends up in a bar like this only because rich people also sometimes have bad taste.

These liquors were her sympathetic library. Each one bound her through the connections of Space to a specific place. Some Space mages had collections of photographs, ticket stubs, kitschy souvenirs. Hers were drinks and this cabinet was a gateway to distant worlds.

"But sure, go ahead," she said, and while she was there she started mixing up a drink for Sassolino while she was at it. Her overclocked brain gave her a master bartender's intuition as to what her favourite drink was, so that's what she made. "What do you want to know?"

"Kill you? I'm afraid you've completely misjudged me. We're on the same team, I assure you." She's putting on an act, but you catch the unspoken words: and you're not going to give away my secret - not yet - because then I'd have nothing to lose.

You go through the bottles, maybe looking over your shoulder at Sassolino. You stop at one ... no. Next one ... no. And you start to realize, she doesn't drink. You end up making her a glass of ice water.

"The Mysterium tasked me with something, but I need ... let's call it a key." Sassolino catches your eye as you hand her the glass. It's subtle, but she's confident you'll catch the meaning. I'm going to tell you only what you need to know, for now, so don't ask questions. Perfectly normal Mysterium business.

"I know someone is transporting it to the city, but that's all I know. I have a contact in the Mysterium who is looking into it, but he won't speak to me. He might speak to you. You just have to learn what he knows about the transport. Don't tell him it's for me ... we have a bit of a personal history, nothing to do with this. He's a jerk, that's all."

[Thanqol]

"Kill you? I'm afraid you've completely misjudged me. We're on the same team, I assure you." She's putting on an act, but you catch the unspoken words: and you're not going to give away my secret - not yet - because then I'd have nothing to lose.

You go through the bottles, maybe looking over your shoulder at Sassolino. You stop at one ... no. Next one ... no. And you start to realize, she doesn't drink. You end up making her a glass of ice water.

"The Mysterium tasked me with something, but I need ... let's call it a key." Sassolino catches your eye as you hand her the glass. It's subtle, but she's confident you'll catch the meaning. I'm going to tell you only what you need to know, for now, so don't ask questions. Perfectly normal Mysterium business.

"I know someone is transporting it to the city, but that's all I know. I have a contact in the Mysterium who is looking into it, but he won't speak to me. He might speak to you. You just have to learn what he knows about the transport. Don't tell him it's for me ... we have a bit of a personal history, nothing to do with this. He's a jerk, that's all."

"Okay," she said, and then just gave a totally blank, smiling stare as she sipped her beer.

This had a meaning in the Mysterium too: Knowledge carries a price. In every interaction with the arcane, you get exactly what you pay for. If Sassolino wants to play cagey and mysterious and offer no real knowledge or context in exchange for getting something she wants then that will come back to bite her in the end. It's not a legal opinion, it's a metaphysical observation.

And while the girl had no clear sense of self and identity at this point, the quest for knowledge wasn't an easily altered mental quirk - it was a spiritual craving. It came from a deeper, more pure place than could be influenced with her mere tricks. Wipe a man's mind and his soul will ache to discover who he truly used to be - anyone who'd watched a Bourne movie knew that much.

So if Sassilono wasn't going to give any information about what she was going to do, who she was meeting, what was involved, what if anything she was offering, what she was acquiring, and wanted to back it up with the implication that she shouldn't ask questions? She was going to play that right back by not giving any information on how she planned to conduct the mission or on what timetable or if she'd just blow the whole thing off and go drinking. You weren't dealing with one of your Seer friends who'd jump on your say-so alone, lady.

[Anarion]

Well, she wasn’t going anywhere, that was something. Best to just stay outside until she could deal with the problem. Rushing Heart could do a little watching for her though, peek in through Twilight and let Hayabusa know what she’s dealing with. This was a calculated risk, but he was hidden, so she trusted she could make that work. She spoke in high speech from the top of the stairs and held to her necklace as she cast.

[I’ll cast know spirit using Rushing Heart’s sympathetic range while he peeks through the walls. Instant cast, sensory range, and spell control reach. The base pool is 7 with high speech and a tool, but I’m going to cast at potency 5, so it’s 3 dice. 7, 7, 9. One success. 5 potency gives me 5 questions, but the spirit withstands that by its rank, so I’m going I’ll only get two or three questions. First one is highest priority, then going down the list.
-what is it’s bane?
-what is it’s ban?
-name?
-Numina?
-influences and their strength?]

[Raz_Fox]

“There’s no need.” Usually, this is where someone would say: thank you! The Witch of the Two Streets knows better than to ever thank someone you don’t know. It implies that you are in their debt, and that is a dangerous place to be in.

Still, she may very well accept the offered car, if that is what will bring her to the right place, in the right time. What do the cards say?

[3 on Serendipity, with the +1 Reach again. What’s the next step I need to take to find justice for Manny?]

[stveje]

"Okay," she said, and then just gave a totally blank, smiling stare as she sipped her beer.

Sassolino watches your face for some time, idly running a finger around the edge of her glass. Clearly she can tell there's a certain lack of ... real enthusiasm in your response. But she greeted you as an equal, not a subordinate, and so she understands that there are certain expectations. Doesn't mean she wasn't going to at least try. Never offer something if they're ready to do it for free, yeah?

"I think you and I would get along swimmingly. I really do," she says after a while, and you can tell she's being completely honest here. No sarcasm. "But I sense that I didn't convince you on first sight, did I? I'm walking a tightrope here, you understand, but I couldn't really expect you to do anything without the promise of knowledge.

"My father, as you may know, is more aware than most but not truly Awake. He also has certain knowledge, certain memories, that have been ... excised, I like that word. We don't know what these memories are, exactly, but I believe they belong to a past life and that they were destroyed in that life. I also believe that they can be regrown, regenerated, but it is not a simple matter of digging through his brain to find them. I have no doubt that the mysteries of the mind yield more easily to you, but I've tried, and I'm confident you would not find any more than I have.

"It needs a key, or a seed if you will. Restoring these memories may Awaken him fully, or it may not. But the memories are important in themselves. That is why the Mysterium has been keeping him close all these years, knowing there was something in there, but until recently they weren't sure of what significance.

"That's also why I had him sell the casino and retire, so he could focus on his memories and dreams. I have him writing stories, you see. It's doubtful that he'll be any more successful as a novelist than he was as a casino owner, but he's always had a fondness for spinning yarns, he just never took the time. So I took it for him, believing that exercising his imagination will help the process.

"There are details I can't tell you about the job I'm asking you, not at the moment. But I can offer you this promise: whatever I learn from my father's memories, using the key, you shall be the first to learn it with me. Let's call it a collaboration.

"Find my contact, ask him where they're taking the crystal skull and when it is expected to arrive. And remember to keep it between the two of us, for now. Deal?"

Well, she wasn’t going anywhere, that was something. Best to just stay outside until she could deal with the problem. Rushing Heart could do a little watching for her though, peek in through Twilight and let Hayabusa know what she’s dealing with. This was a calculated risk, but he was hidden, so she trusted she could make that work. She spoke in high speech from the top of the stairs and held to her necklace as she cast.

[I’ll cast know spirit using Rushing Heart’s sympathetic range while he peeks through the walls. Instant cast, sensory range, and spell control reach. The base pool is 7 with high speech and a tool, but I’m going to cast at potency 5, so it’s 3 dice. 7, 7, 9. One success. 5 potency gives me 5 questions, but the spirit withstands that by its rank, so I’m going I’ll only get two or three questions. First one is highest priority, then going down the list.
-what is it’s bane?
-what is it’s ban?
-name?
-Numina?
-influences and their strength?]

Rushing Heart cautiously tries to get a look at the spirit in the pit. Although it obscures itself in darkness, you do learn something.

Its bane is any physical representation of its true form, and it cannot abide sunlight: it bleeds Essence if exposed to sunlight, at a rate of 1/minute.

“There’s no need.” Usually, this is where someone would say: thank you! The Witch of the Two Streets knows better than to ever thank someone you don’t know. It implies that you are in their debt, and that is a dangerous place to be in.

Still, she may very well accept the offered car, if that is what will bring her to the right place, in the right time. What do the cards say?

[3 on Serendipity, with the +1 Reach again. What’s the next step I need to take to find justice for Manny?]

"Very well."

There's not much doubt that the car will take you where you need to be, when you need to be there. There's no mention of a price for this service, but no doubt they get something out of it.

[Anarion]

Rushing Heart cautiously tries to get a look at the spirit in the pit. Although it obscures itself in darkness, you do learn something.

Its bane is any physical representation of its true form, and it cannot abide sunlight: it bleeds Essence if exposed to sunlight, at a rate of 1/minute.

Useful, but difficult. Having the Changeling here, now meant she didn't want to lose the chance to speak with it, and all the ways to get at the spirit (and rank 3 spirits were not to be trifled with) required waiting until dawn or getting equipment from someone else, which would be tricky at best. She also doubted that a UV lamp would do the trick, spirits were far too literal for that sort of thing.

No, what she needed now was simply to get the spirit's claws off that Changeling long enough to talk some sense and hope that would do the trick. This was going to be hard. Still casting through Rushing Heart, she focuses on the Changeling rather than the spirit. Breaking resonance was difficult, and it was even harder to keep it broken. Hayabusa would have to take a risk to do that, but it seemed to only way to bring some sense to the Changeling. She focused on her necklace for all she was worth, feeling the pull of the abyss even as she envisioned the spirit's hold over the changeling dissolving in her mind's eye and chanted it in the pure language of the supernal from beyond the room's door. Keeping her invisibility made this even harder, but that was the only chance she had of actually getting the Changeling before this spirit of darkness tried to do something aggressive at losing its prey.

[I am removing any open or resonant condition on the Changeling that is allowing the spirit to affect it. This is a spirit three fraying task. The effect is lasting and not withstood but casting it at sensory range, instant cast, and with the invisibility spell still active takes 3 reach and I only get one for such a difficult spell. So, that will be two paradox dice. I'm using a dedicated tool, so it's a paradox chance die. Hayabusa chooses to try and contain the paradox. I rolled a 6 on the chance die, so the paradox does not occur nor is Hayabusa harmed. As to the spell pool, it is back to 7 dice: 8, 3, 10, 2, 5, 9, 2. 10. 8. This is an exceptional success! I'd request as an effect a condition that gives arcane beats when resolved, perhaps something related to the fact that this is affecting a Changeling. ST's choice on whether the condition is on the Changeling or Hayabusa.]

As soon as this is done and the resonance of fear is broken, Hayabusa will run to the door and shout to the Changeling: "Hey, I'm here to help. It's not safe here! I promise not to hurt you, but you've got to come with me and get out of here right away!" If it seems like the Changeling won't attack her, she'll even go so far as to go in and help it up. The dark spirit is going to notice this, even if it can't see Hayabusa or Rushing Heart yet.

[Thanqol]

Sassolino watches your face for some time, idly running a finger around the edge of her glass. Clearly she can tell there's a certain lack of ... real enthusiasm in your response. But she greeted you as an equal, not a subordinate, and so she understands that there are certain expectations. Doesn't mean she wasn't going to at least try. Never offer something if they're ready to do it for free, yeah?

"I think you and I would get along swimmingly. I really do," she says after a while, and you can tell she's being completely honest here. No sarcasm. "But I sense that I didn't convince you on first sight, did I? I'm walking a tightrope here, you understand, but I couldn't really expect you to do anything without the promise of knowledge.

"My father, as you may know, is more aware than most but not truly Awake. He also has certain knowledge, certain memories, that have been ... excised, I like that word. We don't know what these memories are, exactly, but I believe they belong to a past life and that they were destroyed in that life. I also believe that they can be regrown, regenerated, but it is not a simple matter of digging through his brain to find them. I have no doubt that the mysteries of the mind yield more easily to you, but I've tried, and I'm confident you would not find any more than I have.

"It needs a key, or a seed if you will. Restoring these memories may Awaken him fully, or it may not. But the memories are important in themselves. That is why the Mysterium has been keeping him close all these years, knowing there was something in there, but until recently they weren't sure of what significance.

"That's also why I had him sell the casino and retire, so he could focus on his memories and dreams. I have him writing stories, you see. It's doubtful that he'll be any more successful as a novelist than he was as a casino owner, but he's always had a fondness for spinning yarns, he just never took the time. So I took it for him, believing that exercising his imagination will help the process.

"There are details I can't tell you about the job I'm asking you, not at the moment. But I can offer you this promise: whatever I learn from my father's memories, using the key, you shall be the first to learn it with me. Let's call it a collaboration.

"Find my contact, ask him where they're taking the crystal skull and when it is expected to arrive. And remember to keep it between the two of us, for now. Deal?"

"Okay," repeated the girl pleasantly. Now she was interested. She was going to witness a mind cross the void of death! Would an identity be able to assert itself across literal lifetimes, or would it be just tapping into the efflorescent sea of knowledge? Would a connection to another lifetime do to him what it did to her, burning down her identity in the contradictions? She might be able to see what happened to her as an observer rather than a participant, and that was the most fascinating thing she could think to do.

Not even getting into what was meant by a crystal skull. Would there be a psychic alien ghost? We could only hope.

She finished her drink, dropped the can and crushed it with one quick and practiced stomp. That brought the nostalgic moment to a satisfying end. "On my way, then. One last question, you don't mind if I get my cabal involved?"