Follow up

Grace

Grace puts the car in park and turns to Elijah. "Okay. You know where the thing is."

The thing. The body. What they're after. She's not going to give it an actual definition. Might make it more real.

"I don't want to get out shovels and draw attention to the place. I can scan it without digging it up," she adds, because yeah -- getting caught by some normals in the process of unearthing a hell-beast in the park probably wouldn't be a great idea.

Elijah

"Okay, so, uhhhhh… that's good? Because I figure we're gonna need more of a paddle than a shovel to go get to the body," he swallowed, flashed Grace a reassuring smile- it's not for Grace, though. He ran a hand through his hair, then unlocked the door.

"Most of it is in the lake, but part of it is under a pine tree- I can show you where that part is, but I figured it shouldn't be all in the same place."

vicissitude

Once this was a historic neighborhood with well-maintained historic buildings and ambling pathways that spoke of horse-drawn carriages and long post-prandial constitutionals. Trails wind around the park's perimeter and ponds and outdoor sports fields cluster around the indoor recreation center and in the dark one can almost ignore the decay that has taken hold of this place same as it has taken over every other place.

There's a boathouse. A launch dock. In the daylight the water tosses back the sun's rays creating a twinkling effect and the air has an oppressive feel to it. Joggers trot along the paths miserable in the pursuit of fitness and dotted along the benches are the homeless and the degenerate.

No one pays attention to the two mages sat in a parked car.

Somewhere in the distance a siren screams.

Grace

"Mmm. Maybe good," Grace says, and thinks that perhaps the next time they drain that lake to retrieve another body, they find something they didn't expect.

She pops open the door to the car, and steps out into the day. People are out walking their dogs, being normal. They don't know what the two weirdos are up to, and wouldn't even be able to guess.

"A piece of it is all I need to do some basic analysis. Let's go."

Elijah

Elijah stepped out of the car, exhaling a long and deep breath as he tried to remember which pine tree he buried the thing under. There were a lot of pine trees, this sort of thing is difficult when you had to think of something. the point was to be nondescript. Who was going to mark what tree they buried something under? It would draw suspicion.

Mostly, he remembers trying not to throw up, and failing. He had to bag things up with Kiara, when you've attacked something's very essence of being, it tends to fall apart.

"Let's get to moving, if we can avoid going over to the boathouse the better."

vicissitude

Maybe Elijah feels eyes on him. Trauma has a funny way of leaving the nerves wrung and ringing from the aftershock. Just because he feels them doesn't mean they're there.

A hacking cough rings out in welcome as the two mages step out of the car and seek to recreate the steps one took with another several nights ago. The siren whoops once twice and then falls silent.

Beyond the trees a child is crying. They cannot see where the child is and its distress is none of their concern anyway.

Whichever path Elijah chooses they will find it unobstructed.

Elijah

[Per+alert, what am I hearing?]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 4, 7, 7, 9) ( success x 3 ) [Doubling Tens]

Grace

She walks with Elijah, purpose-laden, but looking up into the sky, at the clouds, at the people, at anywhere except for where she's going. Elijah leads, she follows.

The sirens don't bother her. Sirens go off all the time.

"Just get me in the general area. I should be able to find it."

Elijah

He notices everything. Not overwhelmingly, not like he has before, but there is a moment where he can hear someone coughing, almost feels like he can hear whether or not it is a smoker's cough or if it is born of allergies. He hears some child crying in the distance, but can't quite tell if the crying is because of a lost balloon (remorseful) or a scraped knee (sharp, agonized) or simple fear (high, shrill). He knows the sound, can place the siren's pitch on a keyboard.

He walks, ambles by the tree line and it really is just that- ambling. Off to a tree that he knew he had chosen. Elijah remembered why he picked that tree, he remembered climbing that tree, falling out of it and falling on to Dan. He remembers saying a few words, like it would be right to give whatever had died a eulogy (it had eyes that were blue and sparkling with eyelashes that were thick and curled effortlessly set against a face with a flat, non-existent nose and a mouth that was too damn big.)

He stops at a tree, then exhales.

"I think this is it?"

Grace

Grace looks at the spot he specifies, and keeps right on walking. "Okay. I'm going to go find a bench."

Locations aren't a thing to her except a variable. Now that she knows where, she could scan that spot from anywhere else.

Partly, she just doesn't want to be found futzing on her phone over something's grave. Partly, she wants to find a decent place to sit down that isn't the ground.

Elijah

he follows along to a bench. Hands loose at his sides and then, off to a bench. He plops down with Grace, though he does choose, instead, to sit on the grass. He liked sitting in the grass, he liked feeling the ground. He liked the way that it had the tiniest bit of give underneath his bodyweight. 

"After this," he tells her, "I need to go to where it all happened. I have to actually be somewhere to stare at the timeline."

Checks his pocketwatch, carefully winds it. 

Grace

"Okay. I don't know how it works for you, but me..." she trails off and pulls out her phone, looks off in the direction of that pine tree, then back to the phone. Totally normal this.

She's only opening up the connection she has to the source code of reality and using that to determine the general aspect of the buried corpse of a thing with four arms that attacked her friends. Nothing to see here, normal people. Nothing.

With that, she opens up her special program, the one that looks like some weird cell phone game -- twisting lines, deep connections, colors that all mean something -- and starts filtering through it to find what she wants.

[Corr 2, Life 1, Entropy 1 (because we've suspected vampires) = What's buried under that pine tree? Diff 5-1 for taking time.]

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (4, 4, 10) ( success x 3 )

Grace

The first results she gets back suggest humanity. Here's a chromosome. Another. Tightly-packed data in the stream, twisted amino acids piled upon each other. The branched fractalline crystal of life. She has to separate it out from soil bacteria, but suddenly a burst of tissue, all alike, and yet broken down. Two people with two different sets of XX chromosomes. Women, pieced together? Would explain the four arms. Wouldn't explain the how or the why or the what the fuck.

"It was made of two women," she says, under her breath. Looks at Elijah with a disgusted air about her. 

Elijah

[Stamina: nope, that totally doesn't make me want to throw up!]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 3, 4, 8) ( success x 1 )

Elijah

(what am I thinking, that's not willpower)

Elijah

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (1, 6, 9) ( success x 2 )

Elijah

He pales. He pales and he looks like he might just get sick for a second because all he can think about is the sound, how it made sense (screaming, screeching like two voices and there's a kid crying in the background and he still can't place how or why) the eyes and the hands folded delicately across the mismatched torso (there's a lawn mower going off in the distance and there's people jogging and he can pick out the rhythm.)

Elijah looks at his watch again, inhales slowly and deeply- the kind of breath that gets forced out again. The kind of breathing one does when you're trying to will away reality.

"How the fuck is that even possible?" he asks, stands up because he's not sure if he wants to be staring at the tree now, thinks about the kinds of things he could have done, hopes that between Samir and himself it was quick. Thinks about the way its (her, their) hand came down and cut across his neck but it felt more like something desperate. He thinks of the situation, tries to piece it together differently. "Do you know how that happened?"

Grace

"Somebody with a really amazing amount of control over living tissue? Could have been an Awakened person," she says, and hey -- could have been. How is that even possible? Lots of things are possible, Elijah. Anything, really. Even the horrific things.

She dashes away the working she had, goes back to the fuzz of lines and data, the meaningless feed of it. Starts filtering down again, looking for the lingering effects of reality manipulation upon it. She knows that Elijah and Samir tried to take 'them' apart. That's not what she's after. She's looking for what held 'them' together in the first place.

[Corr 2, Prime 1 = What magic is this? FFS? Diff 5-1 for taking time.]

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (4, 9, 9) ( success x 3 )

Grace

Grace mutters to herself: "Bloodborne virus," and then a memory triggers. Some time ago, it was a virus that made her bleed in order to spread itself. There, a frown furrows her face.

"I'm going to scan you, Elijah. Just to be sure. This looks viral," she says, and it's floundering and rather suspect. Viruses can lie dormant for long periods of time before they strike. Could be asymptomatic, but trying to spread?

Again, she fuzzes the data on her screen, points in Elijah's direction, starts looking for some evidence of the same... defilement in him.

[Life 1 = OMG NO NOT ELIJAH YOU ASSHOLES. Diff 4 - 1 for taking time.]

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (2, 2, 9) ( success x 1 )

Elijah

He stops, turns around. She says something looks viral and it makes him slow to a stop and just… regard Grace. She had her phone on her, pointed at him and said that this looked viral. His breath was held and he put his hands up, like he was waiting to get scanned with a metal detector.

"So, uh… true story, pretty sure this is scarier than a pregnancy test."

Grace

There is evidence of a virus. Okay, it's the cold Elijah might have had two years ago. That is not the viral information we're looking for. She quickly loses track of Elijah's living code, but that's okay. She saw enough while she was in there.

"You're clear. I don't see it in you. Whatever the fuck it is... Could be something Technocratic, even though I don't know why they'd release a thing like that in a park. Then again, I barely understand half of the fucked-up things they do as is. Could have been after the two of you specifically."

Not a great thought, that. Grace fairly well burns with a passionate distaste for the 'Crats after what they've done, after what she's seen. It's true that unleashing horror-beasts into the populace isn't their style, but they did also try to wipe out the population of Earth with a strand of genetically engineered Ebola at one time too. Nothing goes without question.

She slips her phone back into her pocket, stands. "You want to try looking at the timeline, as you said?"

Elijah

He's already walking, watch in hand and setting the time back, slowly and purposely to the time that he was supposed to meet Samir… and then winding it backwards.. .back more… back more. Five minutes, two hours, five hours. Exhales slowly and nods. Grace is seething, he looks up in time that he can catch expressions- disgust, anger, distaste. He doesn't know all the context, but he knows part of it- the Union that Elijah has encountered in the form of a dude on a forum is incredibly different than the condors who released a virus into the population.

"Well, you know, any day that I don't have a debilitating death virus," he gives a half laugh, more nervous than anything. But, it's back tot he scene of the crime, so to speak. There's going to be a bench nearby, an overhead light. Pretty little path and a nice, disheveled set of bushes that were thick enough to mostly hide an eight foot tall amalgamation of human parts.

Grace

She walks along, and anybody looking in might tell that somebody's in a bad mood. Grace hates whatever it was that did this. But, it's pretty much as she feared -- there's not much here that she can find. Just evidence that yes -- it was magic what made the monster. And it's dead now. We already knew that.

Elijah, though...

"Yeah. You're alive. Good going there."

They arrive at the bench where Samir got his head nearly taken off, and Grace questions what 'business' occurs on a park bench at night, but keeps her mouth shut about it. Whatever. Keep your secrets, Elijah.

She keeps an eye out for him, though. Ready to disarm somebody wondering about whatever odd behavior ensues with a: "Oh, he's coming down from a bad trip. Don't worry, got it handled..." She's never seen how he does this. It might involve weirdness.

Elijah

He doesn't sit down. Elijah holds his pocket watch, says something under his breath, an affirmation of intention. 'We gather here just as those who  gathered at the edges of Mnemosyne- to remember."

His fingertips trace the circle on the face of the watch, an unbroken circle. Graze over the glass there and he is careful, he is cautious. He does not falter there, even though- in truth- this is the first time he's looked to the past in a manner that actually mattered. He took his steps forward, then in a metered breath he stopped. Held his hand over where he knew he wanted the effect to end.

Circle tarnished, but unbroken. All points a beginning, all points an end. He exhales, breathes, and steadies himself.

[Time 2, life1, entropy 1, prime 1, mind 1: okay, guys, see the past. All magic, all decay, all things living and having a consciousness.
diff 5 - 1 (taking the Hell outta some time]

Dice: 2 d10 TN5 (8, 9) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Grace

He's muttering while holding his pocket watch like it's extremely important. Yup, Grace smiles at some passers-by like chill -- this man is totally cool. She doesn't want to break his concentration by speaking, though. There lifts a tumult on the air as he Works, and she knows what that's like. Like being in the Zone, dead to the world.

She waits, to hear what he has to say.

vicissitude

Nobody in this park gives half a fuck what Elijah is doing. They're all staring at their smartphones or listening to music as they trot along the trails or arguing with their significant other with whom they're pushing a stroller over whether they're going to press charges against the neighbors.

The child finally stops screaming.

vicissitude

Three days ago the creature was one entity. Melded and mindless and miserable. The creature had found itself a bag of bones to slake its thirst and it had dragged the man behind the bushes the man a vagrant too drunk to scream for aid or mercy either. Silent in carrying her meal and not so silent in its consumption. The man was dead with the first bite.

Elijah can see how her jaws and mouth work. She could have taken Samir's head off with a single snap. She could have raked Elijah's face clear through to the gray matter. That night could have gone a lot worse than it actually did. He is not seeking out alternate paths that encounter could have spawned. He wants to know what brought her here.

She had not gone far. Stumbled naked and awful through the park headed north no sense of direction or purpose. Nothing but rage fueling its steps. Its steps led away from East Louisiana Avenue. From the football field at South High School.

That was where their forms fused. That was where their screams went unheard because it's hard to scream when a young man beautiful and alien with cruel eyes is in the process of fusing your mouth shut with his bare hand as another young man same cruel eyes but average in appearance looks on.

He can try to keep looking but their paths go too far away from the scene of the crime by then and so does the path of the one who did this to them.

Elijah

He stops. He's still. It's strange, because he's still and he pins something in the distance as though he could see that thread of reality, that train of thought. He sees the world in moments, pieces that get dropped and picked up, like you're skipping through the chapters on a DVD backwards. This could have been bad. This could have been more than bad- Elijah and Samir are lucky that things didn't go from bad to dead. He could extrapolate what if later, when his mind has quieted and he has seconds to himself.

He's still, looking at something that doesn't quite seem to be there before he turns and starts headed towards East Louisiana Avenue. There were limits to how far he could see, limits to how far he could pick things up. If it didn't happen within his own backyard, Elijah could hardly keep track of it. When he stops again, he's focused. Present.

"This wasn't your mirror shaded buddies," he says, first thing that comes out of his mouth, "they came through here, three days ago, ate a homeless guy, snapped his head off- easy. Flash back over at some football field around here, two women end up-"

He stops there. Decides Grace doesn't need the details of how in that particular juncture, or rather just concludes that he doesn't want to share that little bit of cruelty just yet, "anyway, there were two men- one young and fucking gorgeous and the other was pretty average. One of them… have you ever seen something or someone that is beautiful, but… inhuman? I mean, bipedal and shit, but… something doesn't fall into the realm of natural fucking human beauty?"

He shakes his head, getting tripped up, "that one- smoothed over one of their mouths with his bare hands, like it was modeling clay. I don't think that the two guys made the whole fusion of people thing at the football field, but… but our victims were subdued and taken from there. After that, I can't see far enough to know where they went.

"That's not…" he bridges the gap and comes back to talk to grace. Low, quick, intent. "That can't be awakened magic. If it was, reality would have wiped that guy off the face of the planet, he did the initial work out in the open- the level of difficulty and the fact that it was in public means that it would have been extraordinarily difficult. It's more plausible to think we're dealing with something that isn't human."

A pause, "I can see if I can get Jenn to draw me a composite of those guys? But, you know, if one of them can mesh two people into one, I really doubt that appearance is something that is permanent for him."

Grace

Grace listens as he describes the reality of the situation. Not a virus. Not mirrorshades. Two guys at a football field, one of which has probably gone to town on his own face like it was made of putty. Well, great.

She's not having the greatest day, is Grace. It shows.

"Listen, Elijah, I know what you're thinking, right? But unless you can get something a little better than that, like where those guys live? There's not much else we can do but -- as you said -- draw up a picture, spread it around, and tell people to watch out. I can't pull anything more out of it, I mean honestly, I got 'virus' out of that. Don't think it's a virus anymore..."

People act like this whole 'looking into shit' is easy when you've got nothin'. They always look to her, like she's the information fairy. And, well, yes, sometimes she can indeed pull the magic strings and get what she needs. Not always.

Elijah

"I can..." he takes a second, listens to Grace, looks at Grace... she was the type of person who could get information, and when Grace Evans tells you it's a cold case there are two options- prove her wrong (which is really fucking difficult) or accept her wisdom (which is difficult for different reasons.) 

"I can't think of a way to go about this safely. If I can get to the football field from here, that's one thing, but once it's out and about we're out of good territory. I'll hit the books, and maybe ask Henry if he has any ideas?" 

Because if there is one thing he has finally learned, it's this- ask your mentor when you don't know what the Hell to do. 

Grace

"Ask Henry. That sounds like a great idea," Grace says, starts walking back on the path to her car again.

At least then, he can be warned away. Or maybe Henry actually knows what the fuck that was, being a guy who's been at this whole Mageing thing for a while. Maybe he has ideas. Maybe he'll take care of this...

Grace has Samir to take care of, a guy who's still having extreme issues and refusing to eat unless she practically makes him. One thing at a time, mmkay?

"Don't do anything without asking Henry, okay. I mean it."

Elijah

"Dude, I just got the Order to kind of like me, I'm pretty sure if I do something stupid they will kick me out." And, obviously, he did not want to get kicked out, "and Henry said we were gonna go do stuff in the umbra. I want to be alive to do things in the umbra."

And, with that, he headed along to the car.