a cold unforgiving place. [samir, elijah]

William
There is something to be said about a forest in the budding darkness. They had set out and by the time the two young men were in the thick of the treeline it was dark.

As though that would have made a difference. The trees were still losing their leaves but the occasional presence of an evergreen blocked what little light they were going to be able to receive naturally. It was getting dark, already dark but not the full effect of the darkness was felt. It was a forest, not a cave, but as the temperature dropped- no matter how sheltered from it the two mages were- they could tell that the cold and the atmosphere transformed the place into something more like a fairy tale.

The kind with witches in gingerbread houses. The kind where errant children are punished for their transgressions lest others make the same mistakes.

Elijah had actually done one smart thing, or perhaps not something that was stupid in his own mind (even though he was, in fact, traveling with someone who could pinpoint them on a map in relation to the rest of the globe had Samir so desired). He only went one direction. North. Continued going north and rarely deviated from that path. They came across a smaller stream. A few felled trees. The air was quiet; the world around them was going to sleep. That is what the impending winter was- a time for the earth to rest.

Human beings are not wild creatures, not anymore. Not in the sense that a stag or a falcon is wild, no matter how much majesty they seemed to portray and symbolize. Human beings are predictable creatures, but not domesticated. That which would feed upon them, had done very little in the way of making the species a more accessible food source. We digress.

The forest around them was dark. The only sound was their chatter (or lack thereof) and breathing.

SamirThough the sun was starting to dip below the western horizon Sam had gotten used to functioning in spite of darkness. Make of that what you will. The change Will felt in the Virtual Adept went beyond that of an attitude adjustment.

He went along with Will's stupidity because he thinks that's all it is. That Will has gotten it into his head to tromp off into the woods for the sake of adventure and now they're chasing fucking squirrels or something.

Just before they started headed due north Will asked what gives with Sam's new sense of increased power. He had huffed out a breath and buried his hands deeper in his pockets and said, "I don't know what to tell you, man. Shit happens."

And now it's dark. The woods wraps its arms around them like a psychotic lover and Sam edges closer to Will despite the ever-present threat of catching the younger man's virulent bisexuality.

"Where the fuck are we going?" Sam asks after a time. "I'm pretty sure this is how the beginning of Deliverance happened."

Samir[alertness!]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 3, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )

Samir[awareness!]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 6, 7, 7, 9) ( success x 4 )

William[Because I gotta roll this, too. Alertness?]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 5, 5, 9, 10) ( success x 3 ) [Doubling Tens]

William[and awareness]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 6, 7) ( success x 3 ) [Doubling Tens]

WilliamThere is a feeling that starts at the place where your head meets your neck, a sort of tingling that comes when you know something isn't right. There is a feeling that comes, and it sits from that place at your neck and moves down into your throat and tastes like smog in your lungs even though you know you are breathing fresh air. Even though you know that there is nothing that should provoke this reaction. It's not like smoking your  first cigarette- it's more like the memory of drowning in tar.

that feeling moves into being, into Knowing. It moves from the primal to the part of one's brain that is governed by cognitive processes. It comes in folk wisdom, then transcends into true knowledge. It is the feeling that something is wrong, that something has pushed past the natural order and moved into the realm of fundamental unbalance. There is no approximation for it.

When Samir looks, and something does catch his eye, to the north east, perhaps thirty yards from where they are, a humanoid figure. Tall and thin and attractive in its own right. The shoulders are narrow and its waist is slender but not comically so. On its body, he sees a suit. Something that is a dark gray and pristine with a gash of blue against its chest- like the crest of some exotic bird when, really, it was just a tie set against a very expensive outfit.

The figure he sees is tall, and he hears no breathing. He hears nothing about its movements, as though it glides more than it walks- or perhaps it is merely so careful that when it does walk the snow does not slosh beneath its feet.

There is no mouth. No eyes. No nose. There is nothing distinguishing about it save for that blue flash of a necktie.

Samir[OH SHIT]

Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (1, 3, 7, 7, 7, 8) ( success x 4 )

William[Elijah: Fuck. This. Business]

Dice: 5 d10 TN7 (1, 5, 5, 6, 8) ( success x 1 )

SamirHis first thought is that there is a Technocrat out in the woods watching them.

Then instead of reacting Sam takes in what is happening.

Worth mentioning that Sam often engages in magical or superstitious thinking if he does not just act on muscle memory. This is a part of himself that he has only recently accepted and he hasn't accepted it as a part so much as he accepted that this is who he is. He believes things that have no basis in reality.

But then again the things that they do have no basis in reality. The harder they violate reality the harder reality hits them back. Both these young men know what it is to have reality deny them their right to function in it.

And yet it takes Sam a moment to realize that he is looking at something that should not exist. To process that it is without facial features and is dressed as a humanoid would dress and to accept that the dread he feels is due to his innate desire to stay alive and not because of any cognitive processes that he is aware of.

As he had the night they met in the park Sam grabs hold of Will's elbow to keep him from approaching it.

"Do you see that?" he asks in a hoarse whisper.

William[Int+Cosmology: ???]

Dice: 6 d10 TN9 (3, 4, 4, 5, 7, 7) ( fail )

WilliamIt's not polite to stare.

It's the only thing that he can think of when he looks at it, that it isn't polite to stare and he has lost some of the color in his expression and his brain is trying to process what it is that he is looking at and it keeps trying to make its form human even though it isn't human.

He knows that. On the level that Samir knows this, they are looking at something that has no right to exist on this plane.

"What the fuck is that?" he whispers back. He feels Samir's hand on his elbow and, just as they had in the park, William made a little move to see closer but stopped when he felt pressure. He looks back at Sam, and then at the figure. There is no recognition there; the Hermetic is out of his depth.

William[Inquisitor: do I notice you?]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (3, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 8) ( success x 2 )

William[and for Samir]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (2, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )

Samir"How the fuck should I know?!"

His grip on Will is becoming less to keep him from approaching and more to get him to retreat. Sam has a very strong sense of self-preservation. Staying alive is very very very stressful for him. He would not be such an anxious mess if he didn't think it was worth it.

WilliamIts attention turns, and there is a cold feeling that comes when that attention comes their way and settles, easily, on the two young men half-hidden in the trees. It would feel as though eyes were boring into them but it has no eyes. It has no mouth. It has no features, save for its inky skin and the only splash of color on its chest. That's how they know it is squared to them. That tie is in full view.

It tilts its head, slowly, and begins a slow approach.

"You must come out," in a voice that is neither male nor female, but calm. Measured. Placed and practiced but... in its own sense young. Youth is its only true defining factor, "you do not wish for this to end in pursuit."

SamirDoesn't matter that the fucking thing hasn't got any fucking eyes. Sam feels as he has felt nothing else recently that it is staring right the fuck at them and his palms are slicking sweat against the inside of his gloves and his heart is pounding so hard he's sure the vibrations could generate their own gravitational pull.

And then it starts to walk towards them.

Repeat: IT STARTS TO WALK THE FUCK TOWARDS THEM.

"Stay back!" he says. Not in a whisper. Still holding onto Will's stupid fucking arm and Will has never heard Sam raise his voice. No one has. He has the capacity to sound  "We don't want to hurt you!"

Doesn't say they don't mean to hurt it or that they won't. Just that there's a lack of desire. Come on Will tug tug tug let's go.

William[manip+sub: I am not scared shitless right now]

Dice: 7 d10 TN8 (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9) ( success x 2 )

WilliamInquisitor: Oh, cute.

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (5, 6, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 6 )

WilliamYou do not wish this to end in pursuit, it says.

There is something in Williams mind that flips, he regards Samir and wonders how fast he can run, wonders if he can make it to the trailer and whatever wards he has up might hold. Wonders about a lot of things but he stands there and stands straighter. Holds himself tall like he's supposed to be brave and like he's not scared of this thing.

"We need to leave," he tells Samir. He's never heard Samir yell, though. Not when he was in his right mind, doesn't seem like the type. William swallows, hard, tries to pull back.

---
Inquisitor
Samir tells it to stay back, not in a whisper. He insists that they don't want to hurt it, and it seems to consider this. The approach does not halt, though. Does not slow. It has twenty yards to make up but its voice is so incredibly close that the two men can feel it in their ears. Like a whisper meant only for an individual yet they can both hear it.

One of them plays brave, looks like he is planning an escape route. They are both tense, they are both anxious and uneasy and the being is far from the experiences of humanity. If it knows what distress looks like, it does not care.

There is a moment, and they should hear the crunch of snow but they do not. They should see the flurry of movement when it moves at them in a pace like a sprint. Bounds forward towards them, but it does not move like a normal human being. It moves its legs, yes, and glides, passes over the ground as though it has no true need for this arbitrary movement.

Before it is standing right in front of the two young men, puts a hand on each of their shoulders and it feels like that suffocation they felt at the nape of their necks when its presence was first spotted.

"I merely wish to ask you a few questions. You have information I require," its gaze is even. They do not feel a pulse, "will you give that information freely?"



SamirWe need to leave.

The comic books got it right. With greater power comes greater responsibility.

Sam Awakened when he was sixteen years old. War was on the horizon of the country in which he was living. It was not his country. It affected him anyway. He had a part to play in the way the revolution went and Sam does not regret anything about his life or the way it has gone but the fact remains that he has been Awake longer than Will has been. Right now he is capable of more than Will is.

The fact that he yanks Will hard as he can to get him behind him may well serve as fodder for a gay joke later. But right now he does it because he wants to put himself between the thing hurrying towards them and his friend.

This is how reality deviants operate. Their lives don't mean shit when their friends' are in danger.

"Wh--" Christ his throat feels like they're out in the desert pull your shit together Lakhani. "What information?"

WilliamHe gets yanked behind Sam, and neither of them are strong but he takes it anyway. Moves and stumbles because if he doesn't move the way Samir pulled him then he will fall and neither of them want to be flat on their asses. His brain is reeling.

All he can do is stare. Breathing shallow. Uneven.

---
Inquisitor
It looks at the young man with the darker hair- the one who stood in front of his younger companion and insisted that they didn't want to harm it. It is standing close. No concept of personal space and not towering over Samir but certainly filling up with a sort of presence. Aware. Solid.

"What... are you both?" measured, "you appear human, but... that seems... inaccurate."



SamirSam has a thing about personal space. One could capitalize it as a Thing but it falls under the umbrella of his mental illness. He worries about violating not only other people's personal spaces but using that violation to hurt them. He knows he would never do it. But the thoughts themselves are distressing enough without the knowledge that he and reality sometimes embark upon a trial separation and he cannot state with any certainty what he has or has not done.

This thing gets right up into his space. His space is now Will's. In silence Sam forgives it. It's not human. It doesn't have a fucking face. It doesn't know their customs maybe or even if it does it may just be in an academic sense and then there's the question and he's breathing fast and erratic because he's fucking terrified but he has a strong spine and it's growing stronger the older he gets.

"W--" Fuck. "We... we are... human. But we..." Free information. Fuck. "... we can..." Fuck. "... we can do things other..." Fuck. "... other humans... can't... who are you?"

WilliamInquisitor
There is a pause, and with a wave of its hand, it takes itself away from actually being in danger of touching either of them. It seems unnecessary for now since it would seem this one was willingly volunteering the information it wanted.

"Irrelevant," it says, to answer Samir's question of who this creature might be.

"How many other humans can do 'other things', as you say? How many in this city?"


SamirFuck.

Fuck fuck fuck.

Fuck.

"I'm not..." Yup. Fuck. Fuck with a side of Don't fuck with me. Will can see Sam stand up straighter. "I'm not going to tell you that."

WilliamInquisitor
He isn't going to tell it that. It seems content to look from Samir, who has been answering, to William, who seems pretty well having the worst time fathoming what the fuck he's looking at that he isn't going to be terribly talkative either.

Looks back at Samir.

"This is your last opportunity to answer before I pry the information I need from your exposed brain, human. It is easier this way."

Last chance.


Samir"No shit it's easier!"

Sam really does prefer that Will stay behind him and not talk. That he not expose more of himself to this creature than is unavoidable. Will is taller than Sam is but Sam has more mental problems than Will does. If he even senses that Will wants to move around him to try and talk Sam can move just as fast as Will can.

Thus far he hasn't sensed that want. He also isn't aware of anything other than the faceless nightmare in front of them.

"The wrong thing is always easier!" He shucks back his hood like being able to see his face without shadow is going to convince the thing that this isn't a fight it wants. "You want it so bad, you're gonna have to expose my fucking brain."

You fuck.

WilliamInquisitor
Oh, Lakhani. It seems to bear down and look at him. Tall and trim and ready. It moves with a sort of inhuman grace, an odd presence to it. And it makes a sound-

This is not a sound that a human throat can make. It is not a sound of this earth and it resonates in a different place than the ears, it reverberates against one's chest, under the rib cage. It is a sound that clicks, and the closest approximation is a repetitive click of a baseball card in the spokes of a bicycle.

And, then, it moves.


SamirIf it's going to move he's going to unzip his coat enough to pull out his deck and meet whatever it presents to him in kind. Part of him hopes it's moving to rethink its bad choices and retreat.

Most of him knows better than to hope.

[inits! +5]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (3) ( fail )

WilliamHe's trying to pull for recognition, because if he knows what he's dealing with then he can deal with this. He can process, he can stand up and not be terrified and in a moment he's impressed by Samir, stands up straighter and tries to push back the lack of calm to seem like he was some kind of backup.

It makes that sound and it makes William freeze, pull through memory after memory to try and place it. The closest approximations he can come up with are enough to make his blood feel cold, make his heart pound harder.

"Fuck."
[5+1d10]


Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (2) ( fail )

WilliamInquisitor: +8

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (7) ( success x 1 )

WilliamWilliam doesn't even take a second. He just spouts off... something. Something that is most assuredly not in English.

[Prime 2: Maybe killing it with prime is always a good idea?]

SamirSam does not go on the offensive. Not yet. First he executes a program that will convert any damage he takes as a result of this creature's actions into Quintessence. It's a risk. He may take no damage or the creature may dole out enough to kill him. He ought to ward both himself and Will against Mind attacks but Sam knows how much time and effort that will take and he doesn't know yet if that is the tack the creature will take.

So:

[prime 1: self-sacrifice. base diff 4, i can't be fucked w/ modifiers.]

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (2, 7, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

WilliamThe creature regards him, and Samir is right in front of him and takes a swipe- when he looks he may notice that something has come forth from its fingertips, something small, like needles on the end of each finger.

It's not so much swiping as it is a precise movement. An attempt to touch and penetrate the young man's skull.

[action: poke! Calling it a melee attack at 1/2 damage since person being alive is imperative for, you know, brain stuff]

William[Dex4+melee3=7, diff 8 (b/c targetting)]

Dice: 7 d10 TN8 (1, 1, 2, 7, 7, 10, 10) ( success x 2 )

William[you lucked out, bro. damage]

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

William[You know, rolling like normal makes more sense, we talked about it, it's totes cool. Can pull damage if need be. str 4+ succ 2 +2 (target), -1= 7]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (4, 4, 6, 7, 9, 9, 9) ( success x 5 )

William[[so, we kind of stunned Samir. Oops]

WilliamWilliam:
Prime 2- Because fuck you, that's why.
diff 3 +2 (sphere) +1 (vulgar as fuck)= 6 -1 (quint) = 5



Dice: 2 d10 TN5 (2, 10) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

WilliamIt's fast, it's almost the penacle of human achievement fast and no sooner does in descend upon the man who had so rudely refused to give it his information it has its fingers at the back of his neck, at that point where the head meets the spinal column and with surgical precision it inserts its needle-like extensions into his skull.

It's enough to make anyone want to collapse.

William is panicking, he's speaking quickly and his words are intent and all he wants is for this thing to go away and Samir is bleeding and it's dark but magick doesn't care if you are having a hard time seeing your target. Words will strike true, he just hopes he has time...

WilliamWilliam: action: extend and then release the effect!

WilliamInquisitor: doobeedoo- poking through your memories

WilliamWits+enigmas, diff 6

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (4, 4, 6, 6, 6, 9, 10) ( success x 5 )

SamirIt knocks him down.

On another night he could understand where it was coming from. He does not at all agree with its methods. It stabbed him in the back of the neck and when his legs go out from under him it's less that he's stunned and more that it sort of divorced his spinal cord from his brain a little bit. He retains consciousness. But his consciousness is bleeding out from him fast.

Sam wants to live. But right now he's bleeding out in the snow and he can't feel his legs and he trusts that Elijah can handle this thing on his own because Elijah has --

Last time something like this happened he divorced from reality so hard he lost himself for almost two weeks. The same thing happens now. He is stunned from the pain and the impact of the injury and then he is stunned because the earth turns into ice beneath him and the ice starts to keen like it's giving birth and he can't even move to try and ease its pain.

So he groans sharp and angry and presses his forehead into the earth.

[i think his action has to be resisting the effects of quiet? that'll be a WP roll.]

Samir[WP!]

Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (1, 5, 7, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 5 ) [WP]

WilliamInquisitor: Oh, fuck, sanity check.

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7) ( success x 2 )

WilliamPrime 2- because seriously. Fuck you. Extending.
diff 3 +2 (sphere) +1 (vulgar as shit) +1 (extension= diff7 -2 quint)= diff 5


Dice: 2 d10 TN5 (2, 5) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

William[aaaaand that means our inquisitor takes 6 agg. Sorry, buddy. Not your night)

Williamthe world comes in to pin point accuracy, blows apart for Samir because he wants to live. He's bleeding, he's bleeding and he could die tonight but he is stubbornly holding on to that he is going to live. The world is coming apart and the earth beneath him keens and the creature above him screeches.

It pulls its fingers from his skull and the sensation of it rifling through his memories as though they were for its own personal amusement abates.

The smell is atrocious, its flesh is burning and it drips like tar onto the ground. The only sound beyond its scream was that of the young Hermetic finishing whatever spell he had just finished. Whatever had burned this being so badly and it wasn't enough.

It does stop, though. Stops long enough to turn its attention elsewhere.

WilliamWilliam: try and convince it that you'll tell it everything it wants to know if it fixes Samir (aka: promise it the world through lying now that you have its attention)

SamirHaving that thing inside his brain doesn't hurt. It's something worse. It's a violation. It's a violation and he can't move away from it can't even lift up his hands to pull it out of his brain and he doesn't think to scream because it doesn't hurt. He can feel its talons in his head and he can smell the stink of it as it rifles around and he's screaming on the inside but on the inside he can't move because he's wrestling with his own insanity.

Then that's over. Then he can breathe again. Then the thing is still there reeling with what Will did to it.

[put up a force field between himself/will and the inquisitor.]

Samir[I ROLL THINGS]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (8, 10, 10) ( success x 4 ) [WP]

William[William: I am totally lying to you and telling you what you want to hear]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 5, 5, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 4 ) [Doubling Tens]

William[Inquisitor: I call bullshit? ]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 6, 8, 8, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 6 )

William"You're going to kill him-" William was quick to say. There was panic in his voice, crept into his shoulders.
"I was quite clear with my terms," it said, though its voice sounded almost pained.
"Look, there's not a fucking point in this, this guy's been here for a fucking week, he doesn't know-" he rattles off quickly "-look, if you just-just fucking fix him- I know people, I'd be better at this anyway-"

It made that clicking sound again, turned its head at an angle that let both young men know that it was not amused by them.

"I do not work in concert with those who traffic in deception-" it hissed. reared back ready to strike, all the while unaware that Samir had done his work, and done it well. It would have a lot to fight through if it were going to make it past.



SamirIf Will is going to try and lie his way out of this paper bag then Sam can just lie there and not feel either his legs or his connection to reality in silence. He can at least hear what the kid is trying to do. It's stupid like most of his ideas are stupid but it's born of a good heart. Pushing back his insanity as he is even Sam can recognize that.

But the creature recognizes that Will is lying. And Sam begins to fear that they are both completely fucked.

William[William: Seriously, because Prime 2 is his weapon of choice. Sorry Inquisitor, not sorry]

Samir[action: extend that force field!]

William[INquisitor:

1: eviscerate the Hermetic (you suck, sir)

r1: and maybe pound his head into something a couple times]

William[dex+melee, diff 6 (yousuck)]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 8, 9) ( success x 5 )

William[aaaaand since it surpassed the shield it only gets to use 2 of those]

[str4+succ2 -1=5]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 3, 6, 10) ( success x 2 )

Samir[dex + lololol]

Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (4, 6) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

Samir[I FORGOT WOUND PENALTIES IGNORE THAT]

Samir[forces 2: i'm already in quiet fuck it frying your ass. modifiers are dumb handwave handwave.]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 7) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

William[William: Prime 2: Because seriously, I hate you so hard]

diff 3+2 (sphere)+1 (vulgar)=6

Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (8, 9) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

WilliamInquisitor: X_x

WilliamParadox!

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 4, 5, 7) ( success x 1 )

WilliamSoak

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

William[Prone to Quiet, because seriously?!]

Dice: 5 d10 TN8 (1, 3, 4, 10, 10) ( success x 2 )

WilliamThere is a moment when the Inquisitor lunges, breaks past the shield and Samir tries to push against reality, tries to protect the two of them but it isn't quite enough- not yet- and there is a moment where William is bloodied but otherwise in decent shape. Samir saved his life, Samir saved his life twice tonight, whether he realizes it or not. Drew attention to himself and blocked what would have otherwise been a lethal blow for the young man.

The forest erupted into light, and the creature fell, slumped over before it began to come apart into flakes, into tiny flecks of black and ash and dissipate, slip back into the shimmering nothingness or realm from which it came- no longer able to orient itself on their plane.

William is left with his friend, bleeding and losing a war with himself over what is real.

"Samir?!" his voice cracks, he crouches and there is blood all over the snow and he isn't moving. He-

He's not dead. He knows that he isn't dead but he's hurt worse than William can do anything about- like he could have done anything anyway- and he sits beside him, swallows and tries to think about the various things Jenn tried to teach him in first aid and it's all a blank and-

He pulls out his phone, not immediately to call someone, but to get his GPS coordinates.

"I... I'm so fucking sorry-" he's trying to hold it together. It isn't working, but he's trying his damnedest.

SamirIt's because the damage did not extend into his brain that Samir is still breathing.

He is facedown and fully cognizant. But after the fight is over and the creature stops attacking them he does not peel himself off the frozen ground and find his feet again. Just before the fight the Virtual Adept let down his hood. He wears his hair in a knot at the nape of his neck and in weather like this he pulls a ski cap over his skull. Neither of those things helped insulate him from the creature's claws. They went in through his cervical spine and found his mind. Dug around and pulled back out and the wound weeps blood steady enough to stain but not enough to drain him.

That doesn't mean he's fine. Samir is pretty fucking far from fine. He keeps on lying facedown long after he should have at least twitched a finger or asked a question. Still breathing but it's hard to tell he's breathing from looking at him.

If he could draw enough breath to tell Elijah to shut the fuck up he was fine Sam would do it. He can't. He's aware Elijah is freaking the fuck out and he can't do anything about it. Can't even move his pinky. Can't even think Dude shut the fuck up it's not your fault at him hard enough because Mind is one of his weakest Spheres.

So Samir cashes in the fucks he has to give and trusts Elijah will get them out of this and closes his fucking eyes.

WilliamHe gets his coordinates, patting himself down before finding in one of his pockets a sharpie marker- pulled off his gloves to write the coordinates from his phone on the back of his hand since he didn't know where the fuck they were beyond somewhere. Samir lived in the middle of nowhere for a reason- it was so he could be away from people. He was going to be away from people-

He calls Kiara. She's more likely to answer than Serafine.

KiaraHe's in luck.

The Verbena does, in fact, answer. After about four painstaking, agonizingly long rings out there's a little click and the unmistakable sounds of someone in transit. Maybe they'd lucked out and the pagan was already out somewhere.

"Elijah, what's up?"

William"Samir and I are in a fucking forest-and-and-" he swallows "-and there was this thing-"

Exhale, he's getting off topic.

"Samir is really hurt very, very badly and I can't move him and he isn't moving. Can you get here if I send you GPS coordinates?"

KiaraThere's a beat of silence. Faintly, he can the strains of city traffic, beneath that there's music playing that abruptly terminates. The Verbena has switched it off. "Hold on one second, okay?"

A horn blares. There's the soft rumble of an engine accelerating and then chiming. Wind bruises static against the line. Wherever she is, Kiara has pulled over and opened her door. "You're in a forest?" He can almost feel the woman calculating the distance to get where he may be.

"I can come right now. Send me the co-ordinates." Another pause. "Is Samir breathing?" Calm, that. Surprisingly so, considering everything Kiara's been through of late. "Is he losing any blood?"

WilliamShe asks if he is breathing and he nods, only to realize that she can't see him. "Yeah... yeah he's breathing... it's-it's not well, but- it hit him in the back of the head and maybe it hit his spine, I don't know?"

Exhales a shaking breath.

"He is losing blood but.. it's not as bad as it could be. I just know that he can't stay out here. I don't know-" he doesn't know anyhting about first aid beyond what his knowledge of Life affords him. Just knows there is blood and that he isn't moving, "I'm gonna hang up and text you the coordinates... it might take an hour to get here. He can make it until then."

Like he has utmost faith in Samir. LIke his saying it makes it willed into existence.

SamirNo shit you're in a fucking forest Elijah the forest is safer than the city if you don't go out in it like you're trying to reenact Troll Hunters there are things out in the fucking forest do you see Samir out in the fucking forest dancing around half-naked trying to summon things? No. No you do not. Because Samir likes it when all of his blood stays inside his body. All of it. Not most of it. All.

Fuck and now you're calling Kiara great because Kiara hasn't been through enough the last month who the fuck is she going to tell about this when Samir is the one she usually tells about awful shit happening. Maybe this doesn't count. Not unless the thing you just killed has a buddy that's hanging around intending to jump on you both the second she shows up.

Jesus fucking Christ Elijah he can't even tell you how much you suck right now. Maybe if he opens his eyes--

Nope. That's too much effort. You're on your own, kid.

Kiara"Elijah, it's going to be okay."

She can't know that, of course. Nobody ever can. But it spills off her tongue, without thought. She switches her phone to her other ear and slides back into her car.

"Just - stay with Samir. Keep him talking, if you can. I'm on my way. You can do this."



William"Things are going to be okay," he insists. Doesn't move. He sits down, and waits.

Hangs up with Kiara and texts the coordinates. He doesn't think they're out of the fire yet, but without a means to tell if anything else is coming, he just hopes it works.

William[int+academics: do I remember The Odyssey?]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 5, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )

Samir[do i remember enough to hate you later? -2 bc ow.]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 3, 10) ( success x 1 ) Re-rolls: 1

Kiara[Sorry guys, I'm doing dinner so I can't post just yet! Kiara is on her way though.]

Samir[No sorry!]

William(No worries!)

Kiara[Dex + Ath. Just seeing how she's travelin'.]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10) ( success x 2 )

Kiara[And how many speed limits did you break, Kiara? Most of that driving was on flat road, so let's say diff 5.]

Dice: 4 d10 TN5 (2, 4, 6, 10) ( success x 2 )

KiaraThe cut of torchlight arcing through the trees is their first indication that the Verbena is nearing their location. The feeble light bounces across the treeline and there's distinct sound of feet scrambling over uneven ground, broken by the soft rush of breathing. They'll be able to feel the earth witch, soon enough, the surging of her resonance as she makes careful work of the wilderness around her.

Her phone is in one hand, following Elijah's co-ordinates and when she's close enough, there's the crack of a twig underfoot coupled with: "Elijah?" And then a curse as something heavy drops to the ground, torchlight skittering across it as the Verbena climbs back to her feet, brushing herself off.

There's a coat hanging open over Kiara's clothing. Clothing decidedly not suited to hiking, a hood half drawn forward over her face and she's peering into the distance, the female. Sweeping the area with careful little gleans of light.

"It's Kiara. I'm here."

[And just for flavor, awareness.]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 5, 5, 7, 10) ( success x 2 )

WilliamWhat she is greeted by is the sound of the Odyssey, recited by memory and drolling on- occasionally stopped and stilted while the young Hermetic clawed through what he could remember and pulled the rest from a laughing- I don't remember this part.

He laughs because he's nervous. The snap of the twig causes him to jump. He doesn't get up to see her and he's sitting down in the snow by a body laying face down.

There is blood pooled uncomfortably there.

"He hasn't said anything since... yeah."

SamirNothing else to do while he waits but to close his eyes and rest. Cold out here but for the effect Will fired off to keep the wind and the chill away from them. His bleeding a bit worse than it would be otherwise for the beer they had up in the treehouse before hiking out here. The torchlight finds his hair and his jacket dark but the blood oozed out of the wound and rusting across the back of his neck has dyed the ground beneath him too.

Not an exaggeration to say that Sam is very badly hurt. He fell as one falls when one's strings have been cut. Collapsed in a heap unable to break his own fall and stayed in that heap for not being able to move his arms or legs.

He's in pain. He can't move. He can't draw breath to tell Will to shut the fuck up with the Homer recitations already. So he did the only thing a body can do in that situation. He fell asleep.

May very well look as if Will is babysitting a corpse by the time Kiara gets there. Both young men's resonances jangle in the air Will's stronger than Sam's and then there's the lingering strangeness of the creature that attacked them.

Kiara[Okay, so. We're going to roll Medicine + Intelligence to (hopefully) help drop our diff down for healing. Each suxx drops our diff down by 1 to a max of -3. Diff for roll is the same as the healing/magick roll so we're looking at Diff 7.]

Dice: 7 d10 TN7 (1, 3, 4, 4, 6, 9, 10) ( success x 3 ) [Doubling Tens]

Kiara[And Life 3, healing. Vulgar af. Base Diff 7, -3 (Medicine roll), -1 focus, I'm gonna say -1 for appropriate resonance in this situation cuz we are rejuvenating you af, Samir.]

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (2, 8, 9) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Kiara[Extending!]

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (1, 3, 4) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

Kiara[He's so healed. Posting!]

KiaraShe moves with purpose once she sights them.

The blood in the snow has the Verbena's features draining to a slightly paler shade, but her mouth compacts into a line and Kiara runs across to settle at Samir's side, tucking her phone into a pocket in her coat and snagging her gloves off in her teeth.

"Okay. It's okay." Kiara's dark eyes flash in the dark as she holds a torch out to Elijah. "I want you to hold this for me. Shine it on Samir so I can see what I'm doing." She's careful when she touches the Mercurial Elite, the snow seeping through the layers of the Verbena's clothing to chill her skin. The hood of her coat falls back to reveal gleaming hoops in Kiara's lobes; her eyes are painted up for whatever occasion she'd been headed to (or from) when Elijah called her.

She half turns Samir over, reaching down to tear back whatever layers existed between the bare skin of his chest and her palms. "You stay with me, Samir. You're not allowed to die." She leans over him, frames his face with one hand for a moment.

Her touch is startlingly warm. It only grows more so after a beat. The hand trapped beneath layers of his clothing feels as if its sinking deep, deep beneath his skin, curling and expanding like ivy, suspended and then propelled into sudden, violent motion. Kiara's eyes close and her brows draw together.

Her lips moving in silent conversation as tiny zaps of healing energy pour into the man crumpled in the snow. It's hard to imagine how it feels, if it feels like anything at all - one moment there's nothing but hazy awareness of agony, thrashing through your every nerve ending and then - just as abruptly - as if a hand reached in, curled around and thrust your system into regeneration in hyper-drive.

There are no blinding lights here. There is no holy revelation. There's just Kiara's motions in the dark, illuminated by a feeble little cut of torchlight as she sets her hands on the bloodied man's body and pushes it back together.

SamirWhatever took him down was not gentle with him.

No real violence in the injury. The tiny puncture wounds punched into the back of his neck were meant to extract. Like plugging a cable into an outlet. But the back of the young man's head is not an outlet and the needle-like talons were not cables and the resultant interface not only let out blood but lanced nerves and chipped bone.

When Kiara rolls him onto his back he flops. It isn't like rolling a dead body. Shallow breath moves in and out through his throat and his eyes don't do so much as flutter as the cold air hits his snow-stained face. Peaceful as most people appear peaceful in sleep but it's the oblivion that does it and not the act itself.

Ignore the sick way his head lolls about. The crunching sound come from his bones. Were they mundane healers they would have to put his neck in a brace and hold him stabile just to turn him over. They are not mundane healers and this does not do him further harm. The damage has been done. Kiara is here to undo it.

The witch has to unzip his barn coat and move a flannel button-down and a t-shirt out of the way. Finds his chest in the same condition it was the last time she had to press her hand to his flesh to heal him and in a moment she'll recognize another parallel between the two moments but in this one all she knows is that Samir was hurt and that he was not allowed to die.

She knows when the healing has taken root. Sam gasps hard and harsh his lungs starved for a good deep breath and his back arches like his spine has flooded with the dammed-up information it hadn't had before and he grabs onto the earth as if he fears it won't be solid in a moment. Eyes fly open with the termination of pain and paralysis and Kiara can feel the cold sweat sprung up onto his skin even after she takes her palm from his breastbone.

So he lies panting for several seconds grateful in his bones that he is still alive aware in some fashion that it is no doing of his own but when Sam pulls his eyes back down from the heavens Kiara recognizes that feverish cast to them. The hyper cant to his breath even as he's lying still.

Maybe she doesn't know it intimate but neither does she know the hacker intimate. She knows his Quiet though.

When he regains his capacity for speech Sam still panting runs his palm across the ground beside him. Does it again. As if he's petting a wild beast. Looks down at the snow-crusted earth as the petting takes up a certain soothing rhythm and then he frowns and says, "Shh... shhhh... it's alright..."

KiaraThere are some aspects to what's happened here that Kiara can't fix.

She can set her hands on Samir's body and repair the physical damage but there is more than that to what's broken inside the hacker right now. His mind, his capacity for reason and understanding has been rattled. He's withdrawn from reality and the instant that she draws her hands away and carefully leans in over him to gauge his expression and sees his eyes - she recognizes it.

The same wild light in them that had been there when he'd been pressed against a wall staring between her and Grace as if he were a startled animal, preparing to bolt from hunters.

She sits back on her heels, the Verbena and carefully draws her arm across her brow. "He's fine." Samir had begun to stroke the snowy earth as if it were a disgruntled feline. "Physically." She adds, with a tiny knitting of consternation, pushing herself to her feet and feeling, as if for the first time since she'd trekked across the dark landscape into the woods - the chill and relative isolation of the area they were in.

The was still blood in the snow by Samir; drying into a pinkish puddle.

It's hardly the worst thing she's had to face this month, but all the same, it requires a careful inhale in. And out. Her fingers lifting to rub along her hairline, there's a barely perceptible tremor to them. "We need to get you guys out of here. We can go back to Samir's trailer. Somewhere out of the cold." Kiara's eyes venture back to the man in question.

Her sneakers compact snow underfoot as she moves to settle down on her haunches beside the Mercurial Elite. "Samir, it's Kiara. I'm - " She breaks off, cutting a look at Elijah for a beat. "We're friends. I came out here to help make you feel better. We need to go for a walk now.

Will you walk with me?"

Samir[can you stop being crazy for a minute buddy?]

Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )

Samir[WOOHOO]

Kiara[ATTA BOY.]

Kiara[Dis is for Elijah. Same deal as before. Intel + Med to reduce our diff.]

Dice: 7 d10 TN7 (2, 2, 4, 6, 6, 9, 10) ( success x 3 ) [Doubling Tens]

Kiara[Rinse and Repeat, Life 3, etc.]

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (5, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Kiara[Okay I think that's Elijah healed and a pretty 3 Paradox for Kiara. That's gonna sting later but no need to roll Backlash rn.]

SamirHe's fine. Physically.

"... it's alright... stop crying..."

Several seconds pass between Kiara's administration and her rising. Her conversation with a panicked and bleeding William. William called her out of panic but there was an element of wisdom to it. He called the person he knew could do the most good in the least amount of time. Who cared about the man she was healing even if in that moment the man didn't recognize himself or his friends or his place in the universe.

The universe is a vast cold unforgiving place and he's listening to it shriek as he lies there reeling from Kiara's healing.

We need to get you guys out of here.

He rolls onto his side like he's rolling over in bed to calm a lover come thrashing out of a nightmare. Rust-wet snow beneath him and he doesn't recognize it as his blood. Doesn't recognize William or Kiara and they've both seen him like this before. A trauma had reality draping itself over him like to protect him but all that does is lock him in with his madness.

They both know how mad he is. He's come to terms with it. That doesn't make it easier to deal with when it rears its head.

"... stop, stop, shhhh, shhhh, I'm right here, I'm not gonna let them hurt you."

Then she says his name. That stills his hand. Stops his soothing. Sam plants his hand firm into the snowy earth. Kiara can see the cold blistering red on his brown skin. He doesn't.

"I'm not..."

It takes her presence and his will for Sam to recognize that what he is experiencing isn't real. That Kiara and William are here and they are real. That they give a shit about him. His eyes are still starry and faraway but Kiara says more than two words to him. Gives him an anchor to grab onto and it doesn't pull him down further. It gives him something to pull himself up towards. His breathing persists as an erratic panting but as he focuses and as he shuts out the hallucinations that distance recedes from his eyes.

When he regains his sentences Sam sobs. It does not devolve into a meltdown. Maybe he wants to have a meltdown but they both know him. He has strict boundaries. A single sob like the atmosphere stabilizing in an airway and then he realizes his hands are covered in dirt and water and blood.

"... Kiara?"

Yes. Yes he will walk with you.