Fantasy Come Winter's Light

Trina is the next to arrive, carrying a leather-bound volume from the library with a golden sunburst on the cover. She looks at Singhit and Morena anxiously. "What's going on?"

"Well, Anne's friend here is now working with us and he's one of those Green Sun guys." Morena explains nonchalantly while shrugging, hands still full. "I have a tuna sandwich and orange juice. That is the gist of what went on here. Also, we missed you while we were out. Danced, though that was the more awkward of things that happened."

"He's what?" squeaks Trina in alarm. She clutches the book as if to shield herself.

Morena shrugs as she puts her plate on the ground and pats Trina on the shoulder with her now free hand. "...One of the guys that are like us, but not. But he's apparently on our side. Let me get you something to drink, you look like you need something to help digest this all."

Bran looks over at Anne. "So uh. Can I come out of here now?" He actually blushes.


=================> Wheel of Fortune


Something was happening. Kip still sat, tied up-yet he'd managed to get his hands in front of him inside his shirt and he kept his eyes forward as he dialed. Something was coming.


Crash-he heard glass hit the floor elsewhere, before a door opened. Surely, the Dragonblooded wouldn't be dumb...


Elsewhere, Mizu's phone rang once. After a few seconds, it began to ring again-a signal from Kip to listen.

Mizu startles awake as she puts her phone onto speaker phone as it rings after seeing who it was that was calling at the hour of the night. She also taps another button on the phone, to start a recording. Then she waits to see if Kip -says- anything.


You idiot, what did you get yourself into? She muses as she leans back, once more awake as she sits crosslegged on the Dojo, the microphone on her phone muted for the moment.

There is a sound as the phone is set down. He finds the nail he'd found as voices echo, too far off for Mizu to hear as anything but indistinct voices, one higher and calmer-even friendly, the other lower and distressed. Something crashed. Water being sprayed-a lot of it and something scraping.


The shhhk shhhhk-pip of a rope being cut off. There was a rough sound of the phone being moved-under a dresser. Kip went across the room and picked something metal off the ground and sat back down. There was then a scream, cut off-the lower voice and the sounds of someone struggling for air. A bigger thump hit the ground.


Footfalls. Silence. A door opening. "Ahhh, there you are! Good boy! My lady has been looking for someone like you for a long time, but the masters don't let us get the shadow masters or the little oathmakers usually! You're in luck! My lady's done with asking."


There was a silence. "Where is this house? Who are you with the slow light? Why do I feel disgusted by you?" He asked in a carefully dull voice.


It sounded like Kip's impression of a surfer dude.

"To hell with privacy," Sophia mutters as she pulls out her tablet computer. Most people think of the convenient easy-to-carry computers as little more than platforms for mindless browsing, social media or even cameras (those people need help), but really, it's as much and more as a laptop, just crammed into a neater frame. The only thing holding your average tablet back is the OS, and Sophia had hers for all of 20 minutes before jailbreaking the ever-loving shit out of it.


The bluetooth connects to Mizu's phone like it was made for it (which, to be fair, it was), and in a matter of seconds, the call splits through the phone tracking program Sophia wrote after watching a particularly terrible cop drama with some of her new classmates a month back. Once she's in on the call, it's just a matter of tracking it to its source and cutting through the encryption the phone companies put on their cell towers. She smiles as the program spits out lines of increasingly accurate GPS coordinates, and finally throws up a map. She's got him.

Two die stunt!


Kip's location is narrowed down to one of two addresses in a really posh neighborhood.


"Oh, y-you already c-c-can see? Delightf-f-ful. It mak-k-kes this much easier. You can call me Mei-muh muh my brothers and sisters all d-d-do now. It's short f-for a really long t-t-tongue t-t-twister, really! Well I should r-really b-be more sh-sh-short-winded." She sounds nervous and young.


"Call me Dandy. You got the big aura but it's full of little shadows. Why?"


"I-I-interesting st-story there, b-but it's not what you think. Y-y-you need to come with me. My lady is waiting for us there."


There was a sound of heavy cloth moving across the ground. "Where is your lady? Does she need something? Is she a cop? You're covered in blood." Kip sounded only mildly concerned. "Where is the dragon lady?"


"She's gone quite to pieces!" She laughed as if it were funny. It almost sounded charming. "My lady has come all the way from Thorns, you know. She was such a big factor in trading there before the fall!"


The phone kept on, odd patches of static audible, with a curious sound of whispers and a far off crying belonging to neither. Audible. Barely. It sounded like it had gone through autotune.

Sophia looks at the others, clearly more than a little disturbed by the conversation. "I know where he is, if we want to go get him. Or, maybe call the cops, but I'm not sure that's safe, or that it's gonna do anything if it is."

Mizu frowns as she taps a few things on her phone, checking both the battery life and the signal indicators as she goes about making sure the recording is still going. She frowns as she listens to the conversation, picking up on the details and realizing things are about to get horrifically more dicey now. She sighs as the sounds trail off. "Damnit."


[dice]1022[/dice]

There is a silent alarm that indicates that the line has a third party, identified as Wisdom-Tablet. A pop-up asks if Mizu would like to take action and gives a few options-switch frequencies, hang up, scramble and a few others.


"She wasn't bad. She just tied me up. My sister's expecting me." He says dully. "I have a package to give her-you know, one of those knife-sharpening pyramids? Every house should have one of those."


He moved bit by bit. "So where am I?" Came his voice. "Where is your lady now?"


"Well, we'd just be going to Fianna Tower. Will you come with me, Dandyman?"


"No. I won't." Gunshots rang out. Nothing happened a few moments. "Why... why aren't you dying?"


"Now I am going to have to get nasty." She tsk-tsked.


Kip shot off more bullets, each hitting with a meaty thud. Quick footsteps and then Kip screaming. Metal clattered to the ground. "Get off! Get off! Get your teeth out! Get off!"


"Told you I would be nasty now shut up!" Kip's screaming cut off as something heavy slumped-and then was dragged off. "You could have made this easier. Why doesn't the lady just let an idiot like you die?" Kip was dragged from the room.


The phoneline continued, the static deepening, voices screaming from nowhere into the line and a voice of uncertain gender chanting something in languages neither Mizu nor Sophia had heard before.

Mizu frowns as she stands up and walks over to the door, and sees it's open, and puts two and two together. She apparently didn't hear the orgininal statement by Sophia. "... Well, you got your phone numbers. Mind staying out of my address book though?" The tone is not happy, but is willing to put -that- discussion aside. "We have a choice to make. Either we get moving, -now-, or we write him off as a lost cause." Mizu is already pocketing her still turned on phone. "I doubt we'll make it in time, but I vote we make an attempt anyway."

"Sure," Sophia agrees, sounding suitably chastised, "and I'm sorry for barging in like that, but I figured a life was on the line and privacy had to take a step back. As for his location, it's about 15 minutes away. A lot can happen in that time, but I don't think they can do whatever it is they're doing and clean up after it." She glances uncertainly at the others, "could be pretty damned dangerous, as well as announcing us to whoever the bad guys are, if we haven't already." She thinks for a moment, before finally sighing, "I don't know what to do here. I'm undecided about this."

(Reopened!)

It was after the group back back to Jiji's that Mizu, knowing somehow full well where to go, simply opened the door on the meditation room. "Old Man, we're back. So are something called 'Abyssals' and a 'Deathlord'. I'm going to bed."


The old man looked up as his student reported, from a cup of oolong tea. "Fuck."


"Not tonight I'm not." Mizu replies in a deadpan. "Tonight, I'm going to curl up in a bed, and try to sleep until a bit past sunrise or until I can think without my head ringing." Before he can reply she sets off up the stairs for the room she had claimed for herself quite some time ago.

Morena sighs as she helps drag in her Abyssal prisoners. "That was far too long of a drive for my nerves. But a promise is a promise; I'll let you bite me, Maiden."


The Zenith stopped in her tracks to really think about what she just said. "...That sounded way dirtier than I intended."

Maiden grinned. Her teeth looked normal at first; then her canines elongated. Her gums seemed oddly blue or grey. Mourn's lips drew into a sneer as the Abyssal leaned forward and bit down into Morena's jugular. It hurts, dealing a good four lethal damage. The pain does fade, though the new wounds throb with each new burst of blood from the beating of Morena's heart. Was this truly a wise thing to do? She does, however draw away before taking too much. Apparently she doesn't want to-or doesn't think she can-actually kill Morena that way.


She is one happy, beautiful tick. And a quiet one!


Ugly looks entirely exasperated.


====================] The Hierophant


Bran helped by picking up Kosche-which he did easily. "Gonna go set her somewhere." He announces, heading up the stairs and through the door, indeed leaving the resting Sidereal in an empty bed. He returns quickly enough and goes to Anne. "Hey." He rubs her shoulders. He takes a few minutes to do just that.


"I got things I want to do-but I want you to know... those chains you saw in my anima banner? I am working on breaking them. And freeing myself. I've... discovered a few. Call 'em shortcuts. The abilities of the Princes of Heaven can come from any of the kings and queens-Cecelyne, Malfeas, Ebon Dragon, Adorjan the Silent Wind, Szoreny, so on. Most of them are called angels or saints by the Immaculate Church. Lucian the Emerald Angel for example is an allegory and a reality. Malfeas was once Theion, the Empyrean Chaos, one title reclaimed in a way as God, the Black Jade Emperor. Every Infernal is supposed to be the priest of their particular patron. You notice how there are all those novenas to the saints and angels? As one of the Templars, I am priest of all of them in general. I met... a part of a few of them. Some don't involve themselves in Creation at all-She Who Lives In Her Name, for instance-and a few who kinda do, like the Ebon Dragon-but they don't exactly work together. They are allies and acknowledge Malfeas as Universe King... but most of them are wounded. I had already made the decision to rebel, but I couldn't act on it yet. I got more chains than you will ever know-and you have given me the courage to take the first step to actually breaking them. I believe there is a way. My sister... she is like your sneaky friends: a Sidereal. She's been helping me for almost as long as I have... been like this. Withiut you two, I would be a monster." He speaks candidly.


He clasps her hand. He reaches up and draws a line through the middle of his forehead. There was a brief moment where a large scorpian appeared at his throat, its tail wrapped around his throat. It unwrapped its tail and withered. "There. The first step. They call us Green Sun Princes. Give us almost anything we want-as long as we obey. They won't know who did it. They won't understand how I did it. I will help you as I shed these chains one by one. I cannot turn this seed inside me back into a Solar... but maybe I can grow up and find out if the asshole prince can become a good king."


===================>

Breath-Destroying Bodhissatva's Journal

My two weakest Knights have gone missing. I hope I can recover them soon from their mishap. The other knights report excellent results in their missions. This country is diseased already. It won't take much to make a corpse of this wanton land.


The masters have become indolent at their peril and I shall present them to the forgotten ones.


They will die screaming.

The now blood-drained and pale Zenith gets up and seals her bite wound with her essence. She still looks rather weakened and tired by the whole ordeal as she tries to stand, but stumbles a bit. "...I think I need some more orange juice before I go to bed. Maybe the rest of the gallon."

Sophia gives Morena a worried look as the solar's blood is drained. "You need more than that," she says, sounding slightly worried. "Sit down in the kitchen, I'll make you something stronger," she says, leading the way for the pale Zenith.


A minute later, stock has been taken of the larder and blood oranges, coconuts, cacao beans and chili peppers procured. "I hope you like chili," she says offhandedly as her hands start tearing peel from orange with a speed that is more than a little uncanny. A faint golden gleam starts emanating from her skin as she, without looking away from the rapidly mounting tray of deep red slices, hits a coconut with her elbow neatly launching it towards a cupboard against which it breaks, separating in two and spilling its milk into the pitcher underneath. A moment later, the oranges are added, then cocoa beans and peppers. Freeing coconut meat from the shell is usually a terrible chore, but Sophia simply takes the two halves, bang them against each other, and with a slight glow of gold, it too falls neatly into the pitcher.


She smiles, picks it up and as she walks over to the table where Morena is sitting, the ingredients swirl around in a sea of gold, and as she places it before her new-found friend, the consistency is perfectly smooth. "There you go," the no longer glowing Twilight says with a slightly smug grin.

Two stunt die! It is truly an excellent meal to cap a very long day.

After making sure the rather dim-looking "vampire" isn't going to drain Morena dry, Trina goes looking for the Green Sun Prince. New things are flooding into her world almost faster than she can digest them, but she still has more questions.

Bran is in the wide room, near Anne, looking thoughtful. "Well, hello there beautiful." Here, have a winning smile of charm.

His smile is charming, but Trina has seen a more dazzling one recently.


So she merely smiles in return and says, "I'm...curious. How did you become, well, your kind of Exalt?"

"Well uh." He looks utterly flabbergasted by the question. "Well. I was tossed into a tank. I remember dreaming of some pretty messed up stuff for... being that young. I was one of the youngest to Exalt in a long time. The person responsible for tossing me in got censure and got executed for going above the heads. She'd insisted that it had been at the behest of Malfeas, but." He shook his head. "I was in it for five days-the people involved-doctors, occult specialists-they changed my body, my... everything, really. Normal humans aren't really made to work essence-not the way Solars do, so when you are chosen, the moment of exaltation heals your body, opens up new pathways and floods your chakras with energy, fixing kinks in the flow and preparing it for much more rigorous use. Infernals require some difficult things to make us happen, because the energy of the yozis is really, really different from Creation-occurring energy but it's not Wyld or death-tainted essence, either. It uses a reconfigured Solar core and the stuff the eggheads do change the person. I don't remember beyond the first moments and going to sleep what happened to me... just. Seeing... what I was. What I was supposed to be and something... I can't even understand it now."


He sounds very unsettled.