Autumn Frosts

[Autumn Frosts] (Please, both of you, can you both give me a willpower check. I forgot to ask at the end of the last scene. Standard diff.)

[Kaya Talayesva]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Autumn Frosts] The world of the magi is not known for the mundane. In truth, its barely been a week since the pull and tug of things beyond that led to the confrontation in Garfield Park. Nathan had walked away with a couple of souvenirs from the evening. They had all sensed how spirits had brought them there...involved them somehow.

And it was not done yet. Things were not over. Yet, today...the invitation to the insanity once more came in another method.

Both of their mailboxes held a letter...an invitation to come to the Westside First Baptist Church...like a brochure to gain more converts. Though few invitations had a glaring white rabbit icon at the bottom of the letter itself.

[Kaya Talayesva] Kaya got hers through her PO Box. She tossed out the junk mail as she usually did. Personal mail went into her satchel. But the invite.... she tilted her head and stared at it. It wasn't the idea of the church that got her attention. It was the rabbitt. Ever since the park, she has been looking over her shoulder and every other direction, to try and see if that rabbitt showed itself once more.

And now, here it is, on a damn invite.

Shaking her head, frowning a bit, she decided she would check it out. Something was intent on playing a game with the mages of the city, something she could see the others couldn't. So off to the Church she went.

[Nathan Spriggs] Sleep deprived and paranoid as Nathan was these days, his first thought wasn't throwing the invitation away. Usually, if something like this came, especially from a church, he'd have done so without a second thought. But the white rabbit caught his eye, he remembered Kaya mentioning something about one back in Grant Park. A little voice in his head told him to check it out, so he decided to go. But this time he'd be ready, not like last time. He wouldn't be so quick to act and nearly get killed either.

He took the invitation and off he went, dressed in a new trench coat as his last had been shredded, this one was a lighter brown than the last due to being new and not nearly as dirty looking. Underneath the coat, he wore armor this time, the kind he'd gotten recently, guns hidden and holstered under the coat as well. Three murders in less than a week, the wounds from Grant Park, and several nasty discoveries had made him extremely careful when it came to security and protection.

[Autumn Frosts] Enid herself would gain a similar invitation....with one slight difference...when her fingers touch the envelope...she feels something...a resonance of longing...emptiness...sadness, as if something was calling her there.
to Enid Geraint

[Enid Geraint] The invitation to church (call to Christ [convert, ye heathen child]) is found strangely, addressed to her new name amidst whatever else managed to make it to the mailbox for the extraordinarily arcane house. She rolls her eyes and wonders at getting spam already, then catches sight of the white rabbit in the corner.

Curiouser and curiouser, and her without a cup of tea (we're all mad here [and it's okay]).

Needless to say, the adventuresome lady with a need to learn more, a drive to grow, makes her way to the appointed church, clad simply in jeans and a long sleeved t-shirt with a zip up hooded sweatshirt, with a messenger bag slung from one shoulder to opposite hip and a bright blue notebook sporting the Cubs logo in hand.

She is, of course, on the lookout for anything strange - that was an assignment, after all.

[Per + Aware]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 2, 5, 6, 6 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Autumn Frosts] ...outside, there feels nothing overtly special. Strangely, young teenagers are the ones walking in rather then parishioners and families that were usually associated with such ministries. The church was strangely an old school house of red brick and early design, the former remnants of a clock face torn down and now replaced with a bronze Holy Cross. Now and then, the door would swing and the sounds of music could be heard within.

It didn't seem unusual at first, but slowly the gathering of youths and slightly older teenagers were thronging through the door like a miasma...kids with teased hair and dyed colors...kids who viewed Hot Topic probably as sacred as the church steps they were crossing. Kids, who for all intents and purposes, looked like the emo yuppies associated with an Avril Lavigne concert. Looking around, there was no one with a gun herding them inside...

[Kaya Talayesva] She watchedfor a moment, across the street of the old schoolhouse church. Then she shifted her focus, letting her other worldly sight overlay that of the human world.

Spirit Sight
Arete 3 Coincidental 3 + Spirit 3 - 1 foci - 1 memorized = 4
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 2, 7 (Failure at target 4)

[Nathan Spriggs] Nathan arrived at the location but didn't close in just yet, he stood outside to watch the people flock in, feeling the air and trying to make out anything strange. There was no doubt something off here, but he couldn't see anything obvious, so checking it out first-hand would probably be best. The invitation gave him a bad feeling about this, but curiosity overpowered that. Still, he thought it best to prod a little deeper before going into the lion's den. Closing his eyes, he concentrated around him, searching for something off in the surroundings, not physical but spiritually or some such equivalent. If there was nothing, he'd simply sneak through the crowd and head inside, though he really didn't want to mix in with this particular crowd.

[Perc + Aware]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 3, 4, 4, 10 (Failure at target 6)

[Kaya Talayesva] Roll again + 1 diff
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 3, 6, 8 (Success x 2 at target 5)

[Nathan Spriggs] Nathan's is quiet and hidden, like something you wouldn't notice unless you were actively looking. It's like a voice in your head giving you suggestions, though not quite.
to Enid Geraint

[Nathan Spriggs] [+1 diff perc + aware!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 1, 8, 8, 9 (Success x 1 at target 7)

[Enid Geraint] Amusingly, though her hair is its natural color and not teased or cut into some odd shape, Enid fits in with this demographic - at the older end of it, perhaps, or maybe just in the middle at her seventeen years of age. She watches for a bit [pinpoint mages shine, glow, and her eyes drift there subtly (resonance notes written down in that garish, local team emblazoned book) before she moves in with the crowd, still watching and listening.

She's serious and studious, and very, very curious. She's gone to youth group functions with friends before, and this appears to be something like that, as far as she can tell.

[Marianna Engmani] The letter in the mailbox had caught her a bit off guard, but it didn't really surprise Anna in the least, she had met a few strange folks in the last couple of days, and well, people being what they were, word traveled fast. But it sounded like fun, a mysterious invite to a church, the thought of it made her smile.

Of course, upon making it to Westside First Baptist Church there was a little hesitation in her footsteps, the letter had seemed the trappings of a fine tuned emo song, and it gave a her a bit of pause, there had to have been something, why had she gotten the brochure? She frowned, and tried to get a better feeling on what was going on, at least to check if the despair had come from the house of worship.

[Percept+Aware]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 1, 6, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Enid Geraint] She's young and bright, the girl who looks a bit too wholesome All-American [not enough emo in her emoting] for this crowd but is otherwise of the proper demographic - in her teens, youth group aged. There's also a coldly withering feeling about her, and the unmistakable glow of just a bit more quintessence (that which makes all things) about her.
to Marianna Engmani

[Autumn Frosts] ...the building itself seemed to give off nothing. The grounds seemed fine...the crowd held little in the way of magic beyond the few sparks here and there of resonance that stood outside the gathering of the would-be bastards of goth movement. The kids, one by one, went inside...every now and then as it swung, a rapturous calamity would spill out.

Inside, the pews were being slowly filled as the church was being overran with the legion of youths. There were no hoots or thronging at the stage...instead, they sat down and their eyes grew almost vacant...their lips slack...as if in awe. But it was not words being preached, nor imagery. It was music...song. A youth who looked no different then the throng stood on the dias, crooning through the microphone to a moving song...here...inside, they could feel something trying to move them as well...

...to Kaya's eyes though...there was something wrong indeed. She could see it...the realm of the spirit clung to this church like a second skin. The building was old, but not old enough to leave such a viable impression. She could hear the music even from outside...

[Kaya Talayesva] A shudder ran through the dreamspeaker, and usually that was hard to do. But so much spirit activity in such a short time. There was something very wrong here. Someone or something was trying to upset the balance between living and dead.

She glanced along the street til it was clear, then slowly made her way towards the church. Standing outside, hearing the music as clearly as anyone inside could, she touched the spirit layedover wall. Something was very very wrong. This should be decripit, decayed, and falling. But it was still.....

[Marianna Engmani] Anna has buzzing feeling about her, like the wild charge of an electric storm on a summer night, or a the haphazard frantic nature of a bee stuck in a jar. Anna currently isn't using any of her magics directly, nor does she have her spirit sight on, however, her echos, tend to make lights ebb as she gets too near.
to Enid Geraint

[Nathan Spriggs] Nathan grimaced at the crowd as he slowly approached them, not yet mixing in but starting the attempt to. He looked around to see if there were any recognizable faces amongst them, maybe one of the other magi of the city who'd been called the last time. Still, he kept walking slowly, pacing himself as he did. A moment later, he took out his old watch and looked at it, this time he wouldn't make the same mistakes. Halting just before fully integrating with the crowd, he backed up again, deciding to do it after all. His focus went into the watch, staring at the hands that signified the flow of time, searching for the subtle vibrations, feeling out around him. He was thinking about a game of dice, Russian roulette, chance, probability. He was searching the flow of Entropy for a sign of things to come, like he had at the park that time. Would someone be sacrificed tonight? Was there another death waiting him here?

[Entropy 1/Time 2, coincidental; base diff 5 (-1 unique foci, -1 rote)]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 6, 10 (Success x 2 at target 3)

[Marianna Engmani] In her mid-twenties, she couldn't help but feel a little awkward when she caught sight of a gaggle of kids. She kept thinking Chris Hanson was going to come out of nowhere and tell her to have a seat...She looked down at the paper in her hand and then back up. A slight frown on her face. There had to be some sense to all of this, either a mage, or a spirit or something had given her this invite. Maybe even a mix of the two, but she hadn't quite figured it all out.

Not yet anyways. Though there was something off about the clean cut ginger, at first she had just shook it off as nothing, but it just kept nagging. Something was wrong, something was up with that girl. But in light of events, she didn't want to just charge forward and say something...

[Enid Geraint] That . . . is something new. Lights flicker above the new [resonance note] arrival and it stops Enid from heading inside, turns her to look at the pretty young woman intently, curiously. There are a lot of things she doesn't know, granted, but she's never felt anything like that before, and so she stands in place to write down what it is, and to make a note to ask Ashley about it.

Then, she waits long enough for Marianna to come up even with her, and she gives the woman (who is no doubt older) a hint of smile before asking [boldly] quietly, "Is it you, doing that?" There's a nod up at the light, flickering above them. "And, it's creepy in there. Want to stay together?"

[Autumn Frosts] Its like codfish. The whole assembly resemble codfish as their lips hang parted. For those inside, the boy who is singing has a splendid voice...it resonates and fills the room. Yet, its odd. There's no stirring from the audience, no shrieks or gasps of fandom that usually accompanied such a splendid voice. It was almost holy reverence for the singer.

Nathan feels the second hand of his clock start to stop...once again marking that Death was coming...not long from now in fact. No visions had yet to show within the panel of his fob watch yet though...nothing discernible.

Kaya...who had yet to step inside...could only feel it. Now that her senses could see it...she could feel it. It was like something was leeching energy...feeding...growing...

[Kaya Talayesva] Yes, she as now convinced something needed to be done to stop this. Without a second thought, she headed inside and stopped a 1/3 of the way up the aisle. Her sight, her eyes, looking to everything, looking for the source, as her hand went into her bag to reachfor something.

[Nathan Spriggs] Nathan continued to concentrate, hoping to see something, willing it. This time he knew not all was as it seemed, he'd be less emotionally compromised and look at it objectively. If even then, he could do nothing to stop it, then that was fate, nothing to it.

[Entropy 1/Time 2, coincidental; base diff 5 (-1 unique foci, -1 rote) extending]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 5, 7 (Success x 2 at target 3)

[Marianna Engmani] Well, it seemed that Ginger wasn't afraid of anything. Anna could appreciate that, she grinned toothily at the girl, "Maybe?" the Dreamspeaker played dumb for now, looking up at the lights almost like she had never thought about what was up there before. "Damn metal plate..." she knocked on her head a couple of times, but didn't expect the girl to buy into it.

"You aren't kidding. It's like the Bonnaroo got smeared by the Children of the Corn." She shuddered, but nodded towards the girl. "Might be safer if we have one anothers' backs though, so, I'm all in." Anna chuckled, this was all too weird, here she was walking into the weirdest youth group she had ever seen with a Ginger kid she had never met, all to follow an invite from someone she didn't even know. Taking a better look inside just made her cringe worse.

"Sounds riveting. You sure you want to go in?"

[Enid Geraint] ".....no, but I have an assignment. We're not going in the part with the benches . . . pews. We're going to sneak around the back, see if there's anything interesting in the storage rooms or whatever. Oh, and I'm E . . . Morgan. Morgan Lake," she says, and offers a hand to shake. "I say we stick together, no splitting up. Sound good?"

[Marianna Engmani] "Sure Ginger."

Anna didn't need to get told twice, she was already heading off towards the back of the church, she wasn't going to go in there directly through the front doors if the kid had pleaded with her. "Assignment huh? What, you doing a school project on cults or something?" she waited around for Miss Lake for a moment before prattling on.

"Its called a Nave, by the way...the um....parts with the pews, I suppose that's neither here nor there since you're..what?" She tapped a finger on her lips as she looked at the redhead. "Going to commit burglary to a church " And she was going to help, or at least, she was interested in it, for now.

[Autumn Frosts] Nathan can see the images in the watch...brief flashes of an empty church. A vacant church....he can see the young man sitting on the steps to the dais, head bowed. Other images flash in the lens of the watch...images of the young teens there but closer to their faces...he can see tears rolling down the cheeks from unmoving features. The pews slowly fill...one by one...crying faces, unmoving faces. The young man no longer has his head bowed...

...the last image within the watch does not show death. It does not show the red sword. Instead, its a crimson rose in full bloom, its leaves thick and vibrant in color.

Kaya, stepping to the foyer, she can see a miasma...can see cool trails of darkness hanging in the air. There is no malignant spirit inside. Instead, she sees rows...and rows of skeletons...their heads bowed or laid to the side...jaws hanging parted...crimson tears rolling down the ivory bone where no tears should flow. The only living ones she could see...are the ones inside the foyer...and the boy. The boy who is singing.

The boy with teased dark hair and polished silver piercings crooned into the microphone, the song he begins to sing can be heard bleeding into the foyer...his voice...touching..moving...

~Many nights we pray
With no proof anyone could hear
And our hearts a hopeful song
We barely understood
Now we are not afraid
Although we know there's much to fear
We were moving mountains long
Before we know we could.....~

[Kaya Talayesva] Her eyes widened a bit. Were all these teens truly dead? She pulled out a dagger from her satchel and clenched tight on the hilt. She focued on the boy singing. It had to be something about the song. A lure maybe?

She made her way up the aisle, up to where the boy was singing. "What do you think you are doing?"

[Nathan Spriggs] [WP]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 4, 5, 6, 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Marianna Engmani] [WP]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Enid Geraint] "Not going to burgle anything. And I'm supposed to watch out for the Weird and Wacky, take note of when and where I find it." That doesn't sound like a normal high school (because she's about senior aged, and looks it) assignment. "I'm . . . homeschooled?" Is her lame excuse, thought of on the fly.

And then, amusingly, it's the apprentice leading the way. (Maybe.)

[WP]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 2, 3, 5, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Marianna Engmani] "Burglary means you're going to break in dimwit. Its larceny when you steal shit." Anna smirked as she said it "And I didn't necessarily say that being a burglar was a bad thing." Really now, way to encourage the children, telling them it was okay to commit breaking and entering crimes while heckling them in the name of good humor.

She grumbles a little as she looks at the Ginger. "So I hope you've broken into a place before." Now this was what would matter to Anna, whether or not the girl knew what she was doing, the way she saw it, it was a wash to her, where she didn't know what to do, and the girl...well, she was just some kid playing Harriet the Spy.

[Nathan Spriggs] Freaked out? Maybe... Running away? Nope. Nathan was steadfast in his decision to stick around, something about the vision, not the crying boys or the dais kid had made sense to him. Most people would have forgotten minor details from the night you nearly died at the hands of a possessed woman. But not him, he remembered Kaya's description of the spirit world around them then, something about a path of rose petals, was it like the rose he'd just seen? He had to find out, but first there were other matters to attend to. Would he go in the same way as the others and risk it or find an alternate route? Decisions, decisions.

[Enid Geraint] "Do I look like a hoodlum to you? I'm a fine, upstanding member of society, and have never broken into anything in my life." There's a moment's thought, then, as they look for doors to peek into, to see if there's someone in another room pulling the strings. "Well, except the track and pool, a couple times. And my dad's room, once."

[Autumn Frosts] ~There can be miracles
When you believe
Though hope is frail
It's hard to kill...~

The boy croons before he pauses...his words faltering as if seeing Kaya for the first time. Closer to him, Kaya sees something distinct. The back of his hand bore a blue diamond tattoo etched onto the skin. To her eyes, it pulsed...almost glowed as he had been singing.

For the others...for a moment, they had felt a tug...a want to sit down and just listen to his voice. It was beautiful...as Enid and Marianna moved away, both felt something odd...the corners of their eyes tearing up slightly, their ears resonating with the power of his voice...even Nathan could feel a tightness in his throat...

..meanwhile, the two discover that the 'back' is more a dressing area for the choir, potential converts, and a stairwell that led to an indoor bath behind the stage on a raised platform..likely meant for baptisms. The place was vacant and they could hear the song...as well as it suddenly stopping short.

"...um...I'm singing...that's what this event is for?"

He speaks, unsure..stepping back slightly from the woman...after all...she had a blade in her hand. That would make anyone intimidated...especially a young kid like this one.

[Nathan Spriggs]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 6, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 7)

[Kaya Talayesva] Kaya reached out with her empty hand and snatched the diamond covered hand. "Who the hell are you? Why do you have this mark?"

[Kaya Talayesva] WP
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 4, 5, 6, 6, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Nathan Spriggs] Nathan looked into the church, and there she was! Kaya, apparently talking to, or threatening, the kid who had been singing moments before. Maybe she'd noticed something off too, whatever it was she did see or knew about this, it was time to investigate. He silently cocked the Glock in his coat pocket just in case, and headed up the aisle to catch up to her. Here we go again, so much for no action...

[Enid Geraint] [Scans, coincidental, Corr, Forces, Life, Prime 1, Base diff 4, -1 slow cast]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 4 (Success x 2 at target 3) [WP]

[Enid Geraint] Quick perusal of the other rooms gives nothing of consequence (as far as Enid can tell, though she does take the time to focus, to work through the logic puzzle in her head, to see if there's anything beyond the obvious). And so, after that, her attention turns to the stage and she moves quietly (but not silently) onto it from the back. An eyebrow gets raised and she murmurs for Marianna's sake, "Kid's of the Weird and Wacky variety."

Which is . . . interesting. And maybe Marianna already knows, but that's neither here nor there. (And she doesn't just mean his fashion choices, though there's a wrinkle of distaste at that. [Why hello, I'm the Prep Ranger. Nice to meet you.])

"Dude, that's a bit intense," she says to Kaya, and offers the boy - around her own age, by appearances - a smile. "Sorry for the interruption. We're just . . . looking for someone." At 'we', she indicates Marianna and herself, clearly distancing them from strange, grabby women with knives.

[Marianna Engmani] "Too bad. Here I was hoping you were one of those 'devil in disguise' types." Anna wiped at her eye and seemed confused that she had misted up a bit back there. "Well I might be able to do something, if need be." She moved along with Enid and nodded with a smirk "Hipster boys. Pfffst." she limp wristed a hand and rolled her eyes. But then again, those were her -people- so to speak.

The new company made her leery, especially since it was some sort of knife wielding psycho. "I think...we're breaking up some 'personal time'. " Really there was something a bit, fucked up by all this. "I'll tell you when you're older Ginger." She sighs, and not giving much of a care towards being a church, Anna reaches into her pocket and flicks a cigarette into her mouth searching around for a lighter, and lighting up to calm her nerves.

[Rolling for Spirit Sight, -2 for spirit sight merit, -1 for rote]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 1, 3 (Failure at target 3)

[Autumn Frosts] The boy flinches when she grabs his hand..trying to pull away as fear crosses his features.

"Leave me alone! You're hurting me..."

She really wasn't...but as if the words were a cue...movement follows. Nathan can see them first, some of the teenagers rising up, a few are even crying as voices started to speak up in protest.

"She's hurting Autumn!" "Hey, this is a church!" "-who the hell is she?!" "Leave Autumn alone!" "She must be one of those haters!"

A small squabble of yells from the younger generation start to roll upwards...Michael tugging at his arm to get to let go. Enid can sense power roiling off the one called Autumn...briefly she can see the blue diamond tattoo across the back of his hand though it looks like nothing special. It didn't take an Einstein though to realize that the situation may be getting out of control as the small group of protesting teens were quickly becoming a mob of bodies on their feet and moving to the dais...

[Nathan Spriggs] Nathan moved quick, he sensed the people stirring and headed off to stop Kaya from making a mistake. He got in between the two quickly, noticing the knife at this range and trying to push Kaya's arm away slightly with his left hand. Meanwhile, his gaze went to the boy, if he'd set Kaya off, something was definitely wrong with him, but what? Especially with the way the others followed him like mindless servants. He was calm, collected, and oddly confident, showing a friendly smile at the boy seemingly named Autumn.

"Sorry about her, we don't mean any charm. Give me a second to talk some sense into her, and will you then give us a bit of your time to explain why we're here?" His voice was calm and friendly, the kind that made you think they were your friend, someone who definitely meant no harm.

[Manip + Subt, trust me I'm a doctor]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 2, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6) [WP] Re-rolls: 1

[Kaya Talayesva] Kaya tightened her grip on the boy's wrist. "I want to know who is behind this." She pulled him in close and pointed to the congregation with the dagger. "Tell me! What do you see! Do you see all these dead things? DO YOU!?" Her rage built up, her resonance grew as well, the bitter cold, the feel of death. Kaya could see much more than others here.

Then Nathan was there, and it actually startled her, bringing reality back to the moment. He made her let go of the boy, and her eyes turned dark. "He's marked, baby! Like the girl that hurt you! He has a mark on his hand! A glowing blue diamond! And all those kids!" She turned to the crowd..."They are all dead! Skeletons crying tears of blood!" She looked back to Nathan, and he saw desperation in her eyes. "Please, believe me, baby. I'm not going crazy, I swear." Or was she? She seemed to be the only one who ever saw any of this.

[Marianna Engmani] Well that didn't work as planned, so, the cigarette gets casually patted out on the bottom of Anna's lifted flipflop. The rest of it was put back in her pocket. This was shit was getting real, and by real, of course she meant it went ass-end crazy. She frowned, rolling her lip ring with her tongue as she tried to make sense of it all.

The boy was going to get knifed by the girl, who was either seeing something on the other-side or tripping balls, and it seemed, the man, oh...it was Nathan the tightass. "Hello Nate, is that your girlfriend?" Seemed only right to ask, even though things were a bit busy right about now.

[Enid Geraint] Dramatics, and Enid's eyebrows raise. The kid - Autumn - has a zombie army, apparently, and this (while disturbing) is eyed with clinical, analytical detachment. She gives Marianna a look that says 'keep the crazypants distracted' and beckons Autumn subtly once Kaya's let him go.

Tears of blood on skeleton teenagers? Pssh.

"Hey . . . Autumn. Are you making them do that?" The question is asked with a nod towards the congregation.

[Enid Geraint] [For good measure: Of course I'm safe and comforting, I'm just like you! [Manip + Sub])
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 8, 8, 9 (Success x 4 at target 6) [WP]

[Autumn Frosts] Autumn backs away, dislodging his hand from Kaya's grip while Nathan deals with her, rubbing at the wrist.

The crowd of 'zombies' are looking rather pissed...annoyed..

"She's crazy!" "Someone call the cops!!" "Better yet, let's just throw them out!"

It was about then that the emo boy stood onto the dais, holding up his arms.

"Guys guys...calm down...its...its just a misunderstanding."

He looks down at Nathan and company.

"Look..I'm...not gonna kick ya out cause well...this is a church. The pastor would get mad at me if I just tried to get rid of ya guys...but could ya...tone down the crazy? You're interrupting..."

Autumn looks at Enid, distracted a little...hand going to the side of his head as he's barely maintaining a cool composure.

"Make...them? Look...just..could everyone sit down?"

He's trying to be reasonable...his fingers rubbing at the side of his temple....as if the onset of a headache was coming on to him. The images of Death coming remind Nathan that it won't be long...it won't be long at all...he could hear it now...

Tick...tock...tick...tock....tick...tock...

[Nathan Spriggs] Nathan nodded at the boy, still keeping a friendly demeanor as his gaze goes from him to Kaya and her desperate look, to Enid and the lastly Anna. As the kid backs away, he whispers something to them, using the boy's move to chance to a position he wouldn't see him do it. Then he turned again to the boy. "Yeah, sorry about that. But really, please give us a minute to talk to you. Or at least give me and the girl the time." With that, he motioned his head towards Enid, she seemed to most decent one here at actually dealing with people.

[Nathan Spriggs] The whisper:

"Whatever gave him his power is coming to kill him in return soon. I can feel it coming."
to Enid Geraint, Kaya Talayesva, Marianna Engmani

[Nathan Spriggs] [Forgot. Manip + Subt again]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 7, 7, 7, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6) Re-rolls: 1

[Marianna Engmani] "Serves him right then, you shouldn't make pacts you don't know the terms of."
to Enid Geraint, Kaya Talayesva, Nathan Spriggs

[Kaya Talayesva] She looked between Nate and the boy. There was desperation and worry in her eyes. Her voice went soft but her knuckles on the hand that clenched the dagger were bone white. "I swear I'm not crazy. There is a spirit or something bound to him. Please Nathan, please believe me."

[Marianna Engmani] Anna pulled away from the whispering huddleup with a cool look on her face, she wasn't going to feel bad for the stupid, but then she wasn't great for people trying to look for pity. Autumn wouldn't have hers. And she wasn't liking this Kaya. "God, woman we believe you. Would you chill the fuck out?" She did, but the whining was more than she could bear.

"So what now?" She had a sigh of relief when the boy called off his dogs, and she wouldn't have complained in the least if he got away, all she wanted was to rummage through the church with Ginger, and things had started to escalate. So now she was trying to distract Nate and this woman, and well, hopefully the girl knew what to do.

[Enid Geraint] "I know we're interrupting your show," she says, and musters a smile (twice in a ten minute span, it's a record) for the kid - it's hard, restraining the urge to sneer (at him, or . . . well, someone), "and I'm really sorry. But I grew up atheist, and I had a few questions. You're singing about faith and belief, and you're not some musty, dusty old pastor, you know? So," here, she reaches out to touch gently, lightly, to squeeze the hand not tattooed (to appeal to a better self, somewhere in there), "will you tell me about it? I'd like to know more, to wrap my head around what . . . you know, what some people my age think before I make a decision."

[Autumn Frosts] "But Autumn..."

Autumn just shakes his head...meanwhile looking between Enid and Nathan who don't seem completely off their rocker.

"Look...I can answer that all after the show...but if you got a real quick question or something I can answer..fine. I need a drink of water anyway..."

He walks over to the podium...grabbing a bottle of water as he goes to drink...eyes closing for a moment. He rests his hand on the Bible, breathing in and out as if his patience were being tried...or his last nerve.

Tick...tock....tick...tock...

[Nathan Spriggs] Deciphering the secret to asking his question without sounding as nuts as Kaya was hard, but he made do. First though, he glanced at her with an expression to tell her he did believe her. Followed by another whisper to her and Anna since they might see it. Then he turned to the boy again, still calm and collected, he couldn't let his anxiety show.

"Have you... met anyone strange lately? Someone who promised you something or seemed to behave strangely? Asides from right now that is."

[Kaya Talayesva] Kaya nodded slowly and began to look around, her sight beyond that of the others, she was looking for anything that might stand out beyond what she has already seen.

[Marianna Engmani] "Alright, red flower. Got it." She gave Nathan a thumbs up and then throws up a subtler bird as she wanders around to look for the thing. Honestly she couldn't care less, but well, she had to keep the two busy, and well, she didn't want to hear Nate try to guilt her later for not worrying for a bad kid.

[Enid Geraint] "Are they . . . really? Like Faust and Beethoven's Last Night and Devil Went Down to Georgia?" Enid's nose wrinkles, and sure she's heard of heaven and hell and selling your soul to the devil, but there's still sheer disbelief when presented with the possibility of someone actually having done it. It simply doesn't make sense.

[I reject your reality and substitute my own.]
She's Hermetic, she'll make it happen.

"Got a headache? Is someone . . ." She doesn't know how to ask if someone's scrambling his brains magically without coming out and doing so, so she doesn't. But there's a sympathy there that the others don't share, based on very different thoughts on what's going on. Of course, the fact that she can't see the more Spiritual stuff going on is quite the hinderance.

[Nathan Spriggs] [Enigmas + Wits]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 9 (Failure at target 6)

[Autumn Frosts] The kid tries not to wince at Enid's question....not even trying to tackle explaining that. He sips his water...though Nathan does notice he almost chokes at his own. He puts the water bottle down...fingers moving to cradle the leather cover of the bible again...a rather thick tome with gold side trim...

"SIT DOWN!!!"

A few of the kids yell, fuming now as they're denied their music...but Nathan sees the boy look up, his eyes lacking luster, looking almost...haunted.

"...I..I won't give it up...never. ..but..I have to sing. I still have...one last song to play...to sing..."

He cradles the bible...moving over to a piano on the stage...usually intended for gospels and spirituals. He doesn't look to see if they try to stop him...to be honest, they would likely get mobbed and lynched if they tried by the tone and attitudes of the teenagers.

His fingers begin to press on the keys...beginning to play Mad World...

[Enid Geraint] [I wanna roll too! (Wits + Enigmas)]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 5, 8 (Failure at target 6)

[Marianna Engmani] [Squeeji roll Wits and Engimas!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Kaya Talayesva] Slowly Kaya went towards the boy, her eyes focusing on everything around him. She kept the dagger out od sight, but she knew there was something playing him, and it was growing closer.

[Nathan Spriggs] Cogs were going in Nathan's mind now, he noticed the way the boy choked and knew what it meant. The timing was just too right to be anything else. Now he knew, he had an idea of what was going on. He walked up to the boy, humming to the tune of the song, he loved this one. "Kaya, Anna, set up a barrier. Let nothing inhuman in around him." Maybe it'd hold the zombie crowd.

Then he turned back to the boy. "Whatever you talked to, whatever it promised you. We'll try to help you, but it was not your friend. If the crowd goes out of control, we'll try to hold it. But help us, tell us the whole story."

[Enid Geraint] "All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for the daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere . . ."

She's not a skilled singer, per se, but there's a certain quality to her when Enid decides she's going to perform; there's a sense that when she's older, she may well be able to own whatever room she walks into if she keeps progressing this way. Kaya is noted, and Enid frowns, but keeps singing - harmonizing with the boy as she moves to rest her hand over his on that Bible. Not a wrestling match, this; she's going easy, and she's smiling. The song isn't a particularly cheerful one, but whether she feels it or not, Enid's voice offers hope, and her eyes beg for trust.

It's gentle, the beginning to pull away the book he clings to - he might not even notice it at first.
And yes, this has put her squarely between Kaya and the kid. Better not to kill anyone if there's no need.

[Manip + Perf]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 3, 5, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6) [WP]

[Nathan Spriggs] [WP]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 6, 6, 7, 10 (Success x 1 at target 8)

[Marianna Engmani] Anna stops looking, and snaps her fingers, getting the grin of the mad and the wicked as it dawns on her, she gestures for Nathan to come over here, it wasn't an option, "I think I have it..." But of course, she didn't know how to use it without getting raped by a gang of Hot Topic rejects.

As for bringing up a barrier, Anna blinked, how the hell did he suggest she do that? She wasn't exactly carrying a ritual kit with her, and she didn't even know what it was Kaya did, other than try to cut bitches and cry about things that looked like an Giger painting. "Wait, you want me to make a barrier? Against what?"

[Marianna Engmani] [WP]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 5, 5, 6, 6, 8, 9 (Success x 2 at target 7)

[Enid Geraint] [WP]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 8, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 7)

[Kaya Talayesva] Kaya heard Nathan and nodded. She set herself just a few feet from the boy, but able to see the crowd and everything around the boy. She took a deep breathe, putting the dagger back in the satchel. She pulled out a pouch of herbs and took out a pinch, then slammed her hands together, and rubbing them slowly as she began speaking in some weird tongue (Hopi language)

((I'll roll WP first, then magic rote))

[Kaya Talayesva]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 3, 3, 6, 6, 6 (Failure at target 7)

[Autumn Frosts] The boy presses his fingers to the piano....eyes closing. His hand has left the Bible...letting Enid take it fully to her hands if she so wished. He has tuned them out...ignored them. Kaya could see the glow of the blue diamond, see how it was growing brighter as his voice and melancholic tone filled the room. The voice reverberated in the room, its emotion washing across them all...once again, they could feel tears forming at the corner of their eyes. Enid could feel it trying to tug her in as well.

Only one amongst them was taken by it though...Kaya could feel what this boy felt. He was a black hole...draining her...more...she could feel her will to fight it draining as well...her magic faltering before she could begin to will it into being...

...to Nathan beside her, he could see her eyes begin to glaze...to lose the spark...taking the slack-jawed expression like the teenagers in the crowd. Beyond their talking...beyond Enid's singing...the place felt more like a funeral parlor than a church...

~And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had....~

tick......tock......tick....

[Kaya Talayesva] And then, it was nothing. Her arms fell to her sides, and her eyes began to tear up. Slowly she moved over by the boy and sat at the piano bench with him. She began to sing with him, feeling as he did. No wish to fight anymore. She was basically as zombified as the boy now.

[Enid Geraint] Bible in hand (but eyes on that glowing tattoo, at least briefly), Enid flips it open to see why it's so much lighter than it should be. Books that size just aren't that light.

[Nathan Spriggs] Nathan knew now, he was sucking everyone into death with him, he wasn't going out alone. And the time seemed to be when the song ended. He moved quick, giving a good power slap to Kaya to see if that shook her back to reality before going to work on his own magic. He focused on a deck of cards he took out of his pocket, shuffling it back and forth, searching for a specific card at the top with every shuffle. Again he thought of probability, chance, coincidence, the flow of that universal force. He was altering it for his own purposes. He was trying to make the strain of the keys hitting the mechanism inside the piano too much, something would break, it'd stop working.

[Entropy 2, vulgar; trying to make the piano break down; base diff 6 (-2 Resonance, -1 foci)]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 6, 9 (Success x 3 at target 3) [WP]

[Nathan Spriggs] [WP]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 3, 4, 6 (Failure at target 9)

[Marianna Engmani] [WP]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 6, 8, 8, 8, 8, 10 (Success x 5 at target 8)

[Nathan Spriggs] [last die]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 8 (Failure at target 9)

[Enid Geraint] .....and then she's looking the kid over for the gun, touching too. Her touch withers, is cold, and her song changes to something lighter - and it becomes a mashup. Light and dark, hope and despair, and anything to stop that horrible sucking away of energy, of Will.

"I don't want you back for the weekend, not back for a day
'Cause baby I just want you back and I want you to stay . . ."

Whatever's coming, she wants to make sure the kid doesn't have a gun on him when it does.

[Enid Geraint] [Per + Alert]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 4, 6, 6, 8 (Success x 4 at target 6) [WP]

[Kaya Talayesva] Is still sitting by Autumn on the bench. Nathan's slap does nothing but make her move a bit, before she goes back to singing with Autumn once more.

[Enid Geraint]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 6 (Failure at target 7)

[Marianna Engmani] Somebody had to get this mopefest broken up, it was just getting ridiculous, and now, none of these people would ever live this down. A bunch of sentimental emokids. "Holy hell." Anna could make some crimson roses, hell, she would fill the whole church with red if it would get Autumn to shut the hell up. She grunted, and went to punch the boy in the temple. The music had to stop.

[Dex+Brawl + spent Wp]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 2, 6 (Success x 2 at target 6) [WP]

[Marianna Engmani] [Streeeeeeeeeeength rolllllllllllllllllllllll]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 1, 10 (Failure at target 6)

[Autumn Frosts] The music and voice cut short....the strings within the guitar...snap..three of them. Autumn is about to pause and continue singing acapella but the punch following silences even that. Despite her not really harming him, the punch sends him landing on the ground...off the bench.

Autumn stares confused, then that hurt that the others had felt slides back inside them...his eyes losing the vacant look...instead pain. And in his hand...he had slid out a pistol. A pistol that Enid had found before the trance had taken her as well. A trance that had yet to fully lift. Autumn scrambles back, one hand holding the pistol between the two...moving back and forth, panicked now.

"No...no! I wanted to finish my song! It was my last song! Why does everybody take something from me?! Why?"

Tears started to flow down his face...as he tried to stand, keeping the gun trained on them...

[Kaya Talayesva] She's still sitting at the piano where Autumn was once. Her eyes vacent and staring off.

[Nathan Spriggs] Nathan stared vacantly for a while, still not back to himself.

[Enid Geraint] Enid too, is blank. Lights are on (but no one's home).

[Marianna Engmani] Anna grinned at Autumn. "Sorry Freddy, but curtains closed." She looks at the gun, and sneers, scoffing at the gumption the boy had by pulling a gun out on her. "Are you fucking high? I mean if you finish this song, everyone is going to be a zombie...and probably die with you...do you want that?"

She doesn't go towards the boy, not wanting to encourage him but she was ticked. "I'm sorry, but that's awful, you carrying around that bible trying to kill all those kids, look at you! You got a gun pointing at me!" The dreamspeaker points to herself, almost looking shocked. "That's terrible, do you think you'd go to Heaven or something doing that? Christ."

[Autumn Frosts] "...its..its all a lie. Everything has always been taken from me...everything I ever wanted...everything I've had. And you wanted to take my last song...they...they weren't going to die. I just wanted...an audience...for people to be here...for my last song...that's all....I just..."

He pants some, backing away further...the trance is definitely starting to wear off...the kids are staring in shock, confused questions starting to rattle from dry lips...trying to speak..to formulate what's going on. Autumn then does a 180 of what likely they all thought was going on....the gun was no longer pointed at any of the 'victims'. Instead, he pressed the barrel under his chin, tears rolling down his face.

"....In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:

Ever drifting down the stream --
Lingering in the golden gleam --
Life what is it but a dream?"

[Enid Geraint] And look, there's a Hermetic, shakin' it off. Quicker than the kids in the pews, but maybe not as quick as the older (more experienced) mages around her.

She glares, disgusted.

"Are you serious?!" There's incredulous disgust there. "I can't even . . . this is a joke. You have no idea what it's like to be taken from. Damned emo kids. Give. me. the gun."

There's Authority there, for all that she's not much older than he, if she is at all. It is team captain!Enid speaking. This is future lawyer!Enid speaking.

[Char + Leadership]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 5, 6, 8, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Kaya Talayesva] Kaya slowly came to and now felt the sting of the slap she got moments before. She turned to see what was happenin and saw the gun to the boy's chin. Quickly she wrapped her fingers around the pouch about her neck, and went to cast a shield around the gun so it would deflect the bullet

Arete 3 Diff 5 + Forces 2 - 1 foci - 1 memorized.
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 5, 5, 10 (Success x 3 at target 5)

[Marianna Engmani] The gun turned away from her, Anna rubbed her fist with a scowl. Either way, if he was out of the system, her totem would be happy, these children would be safe, and the City would be happy, whether Autumn blew his brains out or just got taken out of the picture in one way or another.

Either way, she wouldn't let him finish his song.

[Autumn Frosts] Autumn balked a little at Enid's commanding tone. For a moment, his hand shook...his fingers loosened as if he were going to do it...but then the other part of him reared the head...the one that had planned on this...had decided on this regardless of consequences.

"..no..no...its...its too late...too late....you...you won't take this from me!!!"

He yells...his finger tightens around the trigger. Enid and Anna likely were only expecting the quick retort and a hole coming out the back of his skull. Likely he was expecting it as well. Instead, he got something worse. The barrier had indeed deflected the bullet from his chin...thus saving the pretty face from a nice sized bullet hole. Instead, the bullet had bounced back down through the barrel into the gun itself...

...the consequences of this action followed with a number of things. First, the hammer blew back...the bullet also connected with the new bullet in the chamber...creating a series of compressed explosion of metal and gunpowder. The backlash did two things further.

One...his hand that held the ruined fragments of the pistol was now vaporized...the second...shrapnel now lodged into his face, part of his jaw blown wide open...and fragments lying in his neck as the damage had exceeded what the shield could contain, being a combination of kinetic and explosive force.

...the worse part though...as the kid fell back...they could hear a strangled gurgle of pain...

[Marianna Engmani] "Fuck!" Anna cringed as the gun blew up against Autumn's face, she then looked towards the two other ladies, mouth agape. "Which one of you sickos did that?" She was utterly disgusted at whoever did it, whoever it was. That was just depraved, it would have been better off to let him kill himself if you asked her.

Of course, no one did.

[Kaya Talayesva] There was a scream from someone unexpected "NNOOOOOO!!" She dropped from bench to her knees, she wanted to prevent this but her head was so foggy still.

And slowly it began to build around her, the frigid cold air, the underlying feel of death. A breeze blowing around her where no breeze should be present.

Slowly she got up, an icon of death, as gaunt as a ghost, and once more, she called upon the Gauntlet.

Step sideways
Arete 3 Diff 5 + 3 - 1 -1 + WP
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 2, 2, 2 (Success x 1 at target 6) [WP]

[Nathan Spriggs] Nathan simply stared, he'd been the last to break out and thus hadn't had time to act. He just... stared. Closing his eyes for a moment, he made a choice but didn't act on it yet. He looked at the others, waiting for them to act, Enid with her commanding tone had made a mistake, whoever had done the shield had too, well it was obvious really. Now he was covered in blood and had a fucked up little kid in front of him screaming. And now Kaya was running away. Well hooray for a great success!

"WAIT! KAYA, YOU CAN STILL DO SOMETHING. CLOSE HIS WOUNDS!" He was trying to stop the woman from running away, hopefully she'd hear him before crossing over. He hoped as much, maybe there was still something to do.

[Enid Geraint] There's an explosion, and an exploding gun, hand and arm, and a Hermetic, close enough to have reached for the gun, finds herself spattered in blood, flesh and bone shards. Her ears are ringing, and suddenly the Hermetic - a kid herself - is shaking. That freckled face is pale under the blood, and she knows what has to be done if no one else can fix it. She looks at Anna pleadingly, Nathan and Kaya disregarded for now.

".....can you?"

[Nathan Spriggs] Nathan turned his head to Enid at her words. She had come to the same conclusion as him. "I'll do it if it comes to it..." His voice was solid and resolute, but still slightly bitter.

[Kaya Talayesva] She blinked slowly. "Nn... Nathan?" A sound from reality. She screwed up, she tried to save him. And she screwed up. She let another child die within such a short time. She stopped, a minute from crossing over, she stopped herself, and slowly moved over to the boy, lying at death's door. No doubt spirits would come soon to gather his soul. She bent down, and pulled the pouch of herbs from her satchel and began to sprinkle them on the wounds as she chanted in her native tongue.

[Autumn Frosts] The kid gurgles...blood choking up and bubbling through the neck wounds...jaw trying to work...lips parting. He can't even scream in pain...he was that far gone and it was obvious he was losing blood fast as well...the blue eyes turning to stare at Enid. His lips part...as if trying to say one last thing...

[Kaya Talayesva] Arete 3 Diff 5 + 2 - 1 - 1 + WP

Healing the boy
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 8, 9 (Success x 2 at target 5) [WP]

[Marianna Engmani] Anna checked her pockets, she wasn't above putting a boy out of his misery, but she didn't have a thing to do it with, she was solemn as she looked back at Enid, not sure what to do, it wasn't like she had the strength to snap his neck, "That poor bastard." she whispered sadly, coming close to him to hear his final words. "I'm so sorry Autumn, if its any consolation, I forgive you, and I...hope your god does too." she sighed, saying something under a breath, it sounded almost like a prayer in some foreign language.

[Enid Geraint] This is how it goes in horror movies - the zombie king lays dying and tries to say something, so of course the stupid, soft hearted girl goes closer to hear and ends up being strangled or having her brains eaten or something. Enid is not soft hearted, but she can still hear words her mother spoke ringing in her ears, and she can't not move to kneel next to the dying boy even as Kaya works her rite (but didn't she disappear just moments ago?).

"Yeah, tell me," she says, taking the still good hand, holding it, hoping whatever's being done over and around her works.

[Autumn Frosts] The boy coughs....the skin sealing up...but this only causes his eyes to bulge as the shrapnel grinds into muscle...pushed down...or in some cases, pushed out and dragging the metal with it...this was not a clean knife wound. This was the casualty of explosive force and serrated fragments of metal flying at high speed. A bullet would have been clean...nice. This..this was butchery. A claymore mine in the form of a Sig-Sauer. She does manage to stop the bleeding on the hand....but for the most part...he is dying. They wouldn't make a hospital in time regardless. Nathan can hear the clock stopping...

He parts his lips, blood flecked on his tongue...his lips...almost choking as the blue eyes gazed at her and in a strangled, blood choked sigh...she can barely hear...

~...I...got sun shine...on...a cloudy....~

He can't even finish the rest, his eyes bulging again, tears rolling down his face...his once beautiful face...spine arching as his body is struggling to decide between life and death...

[Nathan Spriggs] Nathan stepped in front of the boy, looking down, he was staring him in the eyes. Not flinching or paying attention to anyone else, there was just the boy now. His right hand dug into the coat and took out the Glock, he aimed it straight down at the boy's head, seeing the state he was in. "Don't look away." His words were meant as much for the other magi as for the boy, this was what he'd wanted, now he'd pay the consequences. But he did something he hadn't done since he was a kid growing up in his religious family, he was praying, an nearly inaudible mutter but still, he prayed for the boy's soul wherever the hell the dead went.

And then he squeezed the trigger, no hesitation or second thought. Just a firm squeeze to send him to the afterlife, to a better place hopefully but he wouldn't bet on it.

[Kaya Talayesva] She muttered softly. "No, I can't lose another child." She started to take out as much shrapnel as she could since she got the bleeding to stop.

But then Nathan shot him, and she fell back. Her eyes were as wide as they could be. "NO! I could have saved him! Dammit, baby! I can't lose another one because of me! Why did you......" She broke down this time, and just cried.

[Enid Geraint] ".....day
When it's cold outside
I got the month of May . . ."

Enid is choking (not crying, Enid does not cry, no, and let us never speak of sitting on the floor in the doorway of Ashley's study[sanctum] sobbing for her parents, for the family she thought she had. And she'd been about to take care of it when Nathan shot (pain shoots through her head, and her ears ring again[still], setting her off balance, disoriented. She's quiet for a long moment, and the part she hates the most?

She's relieved. Because if Nathan hadn't done it, she would have.

"I . . . I wanna go home . . ."

[Marianna Engmani] Well, it was done, and the only good that game of it was that it was over, and that the children were free. Anna looked at Nathan's actions with a steely look, but she said nothing to the blond. She didn't even look at Kaya, instead she looked over at Enid and gave her a hand.

"Comeon Ginger, I said I wouldn't ditch you. Let's get you home." she said softly ready to leave to his place, she needed to go home herself, curl up in her blankets, and talk to whatever would talk to her.

[Autumn Frosts] ..the kids are just in shock...before one of them cries...a young girl who had crushed on Autumn since she had seen him half a year ago...slowly, the boys start to rise...moving over...

Someone yells for an audience. Strangely, none of them tries to stop the four from leaving...it was as if they had only witnessed a suicide...not Nathan's final shot to put him out of his misery. And hadn't that been what was going to happen? The kid's death had came as the watch had said....likely only slightly changed by their own actions...fate. Entropy. Destiny. Or maybe just an example of how shitty the world could be.

...the last thing to be noticed by them all...is that his hand...the hand that had born the tattoo..the one that still remained on his arm...the tattoo was gone....no blue diamond. No marker of whatever bond he might have been under...and the question of whether the suicide was brought on by the kid himself...or his 'benefactor'?

[Nathan Spriggs] After the murder, Nathan didn't bother to clean up the blood on him, he simply walked over to the crying Kaya and kneeled down trying to help her up. Even if she resisted or punched him away, he'd still keep trying. All the while, he whispered something to her, ignoring Enid and Anna. They'd go their own way from here, there was still something for him to do.

[Enid Geraint] ".....okay." The address Enid gives is for an apartment off of the Mile, and it's doubtful that with her as covered in gore as she is they'll be hopping on any form of public transport. She's in no place to argue, however, and only says when she's sure they're alone, "En . . . Morgan Lake, apprentice to the Order of Hermes."

[Kaya Talayesva] She didn't resist. Slowly getting to her feet, she leaned on Nathan, her tears a waterfall on her cheeks. She listened to him and finally looked up to his eyes. Then she looked down. "I don't blame you. I failed. I tried to save him and I failed. I didn't know the gun would blow up. I just didn't want him to die." She could barely feel her legs, let alone get them moving. She felt so numb. "Please don't be mad at me. I tried." She held on to him tightly. "I can't lose you too."

[Marianna Engmani] Anna looked over the shaken girl and the blood covering her. It wasn't like they'd be able to take a cab looking like that, she took off her coat and handed it to Morgan. "Here." That should at least cover up the majority of the blood as they went. "I'm Anna, Dreamspeaker." She wasn't much for intros, but if she couldn't flag down a cab she'd probably make smalltalk if they had to walk the whole while.

[Nathan Spriggs] Nathan simply pulled her along as he left the church in silence. He was headed back home, how he'd get there on the other hand... But it didn't matter, not much did, he didn't feel grief, or sadness, or regret. He felt cold inside, almost indifferent, now he appreciated Wharil's position fully, he understood what he'd done for Dylan in a way. "Did you come in your car by any chance?" Small talk, to get his mind off of things, though it was an honest enough question.

[Kaya Talayesva] She nodded slowly. "Down the street." She pointed in the general direction.

[Nathan Spriggs] And off they were back home, to awkward conversations and figuring out where to go from there.

[Enid Geraint] "Thank you. I'll just call Ashley . . ." And so she does, and has a short conversation that includes saying she doesn't know if Anna will still be with her when this Ashley gets there, and that Anna's a Dreamspeaker (which gets an apologetic look). Needless to say, a cab stops for them eventually - two cute girls out at night can get picked up almost anywhere. And so Enid gives the address to the cabbie, and they go off towards the Mile, to the student apartments at one end of it.

[Enid Geraint] It's uncertain who makes it to Ashley's apartment first, but they all make it inside - Enid [Morgan] is huddled into Anna's coat still, and shivering, pale under the blood and (flesh, and bone fragments, and . . .) freckles. It's shock, of course, and low willpower; it's been a rough night. Regardless of who's there first, the youngest of the group doesn't speak until they're inside and the door is shut behind them. "Ashley, this is Anna, Anna, this is Ashley. Nathan and Kaya were there and there's gross stuff in my hair . . ."

The last is a near wail, for all that Enid had been holding it together remarkably well (on the surface) until they got here.

[Marianna Engmani] Anna had, as promised, taken Morgan home, it was a quiet trip home, and she had paid the cabbie and led her into the apartment, keeping a careful eye on the girl the whole while. She was surprisingly clean all things considered, but the redhead was a mess. Of course she was a bit surprised when she entered and there was another in the place.

A relief really, at least Ginger would be taken care of if she left. "Shhh...shh." she didn't want things to unravel, and go bad, but now wasn't exactly intros time...not like this.

[Ashley] The building that Enid [Morgan] leads them to is a brick walk-up near the Mile, inhabited mainly by graduate students. It has the look of an older building recently renovated; new life has been breathed into the paint and the carpet and the finish on the stairwell. Ashley's apartment is on the second floor.

The young woman who opens the door is in her late twenties, but she has the look of someone who is a bit younger: she's barely five feet tall and her facial features are oddly soft, young, a fact which she rues daily. She has short, thick brown hair, and a lot of it, given to hanging into her eyes until she grows frustrated enough to shake it out of them. She looks a bit on the lean side, sinewy, and this coupled with the dark hollows that have developed beneath her eyes in the past few months, her tendency to stare, gives off an unsettling, hungry look.

She takes one look at the gore-splattered girl and at the curly-haired woman that has brought her back and then stands wordlessly aside so they can come in. The apartment's interior has a warm, comfortable feeling, full of wood and leather and browns and reds. The walls are, quite literally, lined with bookshelves, all of which are full of books.

"Come on, get inside," she says, guiding the girl in the door by placing a hand on the small of her back. "Hi, Anna. What happened?" She appears unshaken by the wailing, pulling aside Anna's coat and dropping an arm around Morgan's shoulders regardless of the fact that she is about to get blood and gore all over the T-shirt she is wearing.

[Marianna Engmani] "Excellant question." Anna collected her coat as its stripped, replacing it quickly onto herself as she gave Ashely a quick once over. "Ginger here says she was out doing a 'home school assignment." she did the quotations with her fingers. "There had been...a bunch of kids at this church, and this boy singing, like...a siren, turning everyone into zombies. And things with sour, some kook of a...oh right, another Dreamspeaker..." she sounded disgusted to even say it, like it was offensive to herself to be associated with her. "And well, Nate." That was self explainitory. "Things went fubar, and well, the lady, Kaya...I think, she was gonna knife the boy, and we talked her down, and then things got elevated, he kept singing, and I punched the kid, and then he tried to shoot me, then himself...then the gun blew up, killing the boy it was...well, Ashley is it? It was a fucking hotmess."

The shaman had spoken everything in broken stream of consciousness, but it was all there, she left out the part about zombies, and whatnot, as to not shame the poor girl too bad, "But...I had promised not to leave the girl behind, so I took her home...and here we are." She sighed. "Hell of a first week in town, I tell you what...."

[Enid Geraint] "I had an invitation," Enid says and pulls out the envelope (addressed to her new name) to hand over to her mentor - white rabbit, address of the church, everything. "It felt . . . I dunno, lonely. And I brought my notebook like Wharil said and I was writing stuff down, and . . ."

And Marianna's covered the rest, which saves Enid from having to do it.

"I . . . it hurt the kid, and I would have had to . . . if Nathan hadn't . . ." But Ashley knows that Enid has no way of doing such a thing that doesn't involve her bare hands. That she'd even thought about it says something - of mercy, of ruthlessness, of goodness knows what. But she shakes all the more at remembering the thought, and her ears (still ringing from gunshots so near) ring fresh with her mother's words.

[Ashley] Anna mentions Nate, and Ashley's expression sours. Anna mentions Kaya and Kaya nearly knifing a boy, and the Hermetic's expression sours even further, until it has become a scowl, lent darkness by her hair and the sharp blue of her eyes. "Thanks for bringing her home," Ashley says, and there are unspoken words that are, nevertheless, carried in tone: for keeping her safe.

"You'd have been right to have Willed it and stopped him, Morgan," Ashley tells the girl, and then she brings her over to the sink in the kitchen and begins to pull the gore from her hair. The chunky bits, at least, so the girl doesn't have to, so she doesn't have to think about what she's going to do with them or how she's going to clean up the shower once it's all washed away.

"You said you just got here, Anna? So you don't know who that kid was?"

[Marianna Engmani] "No I didn't know who the kid was, but I got the same invite, and the same strange sad sensation, you know, like listening to a Mountain Goats album on repeat." She spoke a bit, trailing off here and there, but she didn't say 'You're welcome' for the thanks, after all, keeping her word was its own reward in a sense.

A low vibrate chirped from Anna's coat pocket, and the woman nearly jumped out of her skin. Scrambling she grabbed her cellphone and looked at the screen, turning, for the first time in that night, even after all that had happened, a little pale. "I'm...I'm terribly sorry you two, I gotta, go, trouble at home, please, forgive me, and if you want, take my invite, we can puzzle this out later if want." she handed over her invite, and small slip of paper with a phone number on it. "My number." she placed it on the kitchen counter and tried to smile, but it was a bit shaky.

"Take care of yourself Ginger." she then turned to look at Ashley with a curt nod. "Don't be afraid to call, I'll see myself out."

[Marianna Engmani] ((I gotta head for the night, I have work at the buttcrack of dawn.))
to Ashley, Enid Geraint

[Enid Geraint] "Bye, Anna, and thank you," she says as the other woman takes her leave, and then, back for Ashley, "I tried. I could see . . . I don't know, there was something from outside the kid. And he had a weird glowing blue diamond tattoo. And I tried to talk to him and he almost listened but then it was like something else canceled me out and stupid Kaya did something to the stupid gun . . ."

She stops, getting progressively more upset as she talks about it; a deep, shuddering breath is required, and she lets Ashley see to the bits of gross and yuck in her hair, though she feels a bit guilty (This isn't being weak, right?) for not just taking care of herself.

"All I could do was see stuff, and not what Kaya was rambling about. So I tried everything else I could think of. He was singing some crappy arrangement of some church song and then Mad World - I tried to counter that with Walkin' on Sunshine, goodness' sake - and then the rest. And at the end, just before Nathan . . . he tried to sing a line of My Girl at me."

Unhappy, upset Enid is unhappy and upset.

"I don't think he was any older than I am. And I keep almost forgetting and saying I'm Enid."

[Ashley] Anna is calling Enid Ginger, and it strikes a wistful chord in Ashley for a few seconds. She used to tease Bran about that, once upon a time, long ago and not so far away. There's a pause while she exchanges contact information with the other woman before she leaves, and then she continues her ministrations with Morgan.

"It's okay," she says, of the girl's craft name. "That can be hard to get used to. Just like it's hard to begin to redefine yourself. Which is the point of taking on a new name in the first place." The rest goes by without comment, except, "You did what you could. Chalk it up to a learning experience, and don't deal with either of them again."

The boy, she has no words for. So she doesn't try to offer comfort. She scrapes the last bit of brain matter from Morgan's hair. "Go shower. You can stay here tonight, if you want to."

[Enid Geraint] "Alright. Thanks, Ashley." She's still a mess, but at least the chunks are gone - and so it's still messy (or at least sticky), but she gives the shorter Hermetic a hug. "I'll just . . . you know, clean up."