'Peculiar' is right

The adventures of the peculiar inhabitants of Peculiar, MO. We named this town too well.

[habiticadresdenfilesguild]

Clues, Recruits, and Plans

After leaving the Park, our brave heroes went to the Library to check on Miss Spindler, who talked to them in a study room.

She revealed that the Little Folk are doing well, if refusing to leave until receiving pizza.  Nicky volunteered to make sure they got one, and after telling her everything that’s been going on, Miss Spindler agreed to help take down, or at least chase away, Luthor Noble, the mundane ‘King’ of real estate because she still bears a grudge about the demolition of a historic library outside Joplin Missouri for the creation of another subdivision of Noble’s.  She also told the group that Andy came in looking for books on Camelot and Arthurian myth, one of which had actual spells in it, which she only checked out to him because her abilities let her tell who could use them and Andy couldn’t.

Jaime tracked down the returned book of spells and finds a page bookmarked with a receipt with initials and a phone number written on the back.  The page turned out to be a description of a spell used to make Lancelot nearly invincible, by summoning a spirit to increase both his physical ability and his physical desires.  The book attributes a loss of control to the spirit as the cause of Lancelot failing to remain silent about his love for Guinevere, ultimately leading to the fall of Camelot.

The receipt was from a club Mike had heard about Andy being seen at, even though he’s underage.  Mike, Chris and Nicky plan to put the squeeze on the two local low-lifes who could make fake ID’s for Andy and any other of the sorcerer King’s errand boys.  Jaime and Terry plan to track the phone number and the mysterious M.L. who may be casting the spell on Andy that’s causing his performance on the field to go up as his social skills go down.

If all goes well, you guys might get this wrapped up before Friday’s Town Hall Meeting, coffee shop open-mic protest, and intervention for Andy.  Wow that’s a busy Friday, how very... peculiar.

May the ‘odds’ be with you, you’re gonna need them.

[habiticadresdenfilesguild]

Wizards in the Park

So, after school, the group heads out to talk to Old Murry.  In the park they found him playing chess against an invisible opponent, and when Terry asked, Murry said there was only ever one opponent.

Jaime and Nicky relay the news about Luthor Noble, King of real estate and his Camelot project, and the mysterious sorcerer in the warehouse and his life sucking curtains.

"Soul-drain, heh, haven't seen that since Mor- you know what, me reminiscing about the olden days ain't gonna help anybody. What do you kids want from a washed up has-been like me?" Murry moved a white knight.

"That's not a legal move," Mike pointed out.

"In chess, no, but who said I was playing chess? Just because it looks like something doesn't mean it is. You should know that, death-speaker." 

Jaime convinced him to answer three questions, because of his experience, and because he sees her as a very young wizard herself.  Her first was about the identity of the person he saw using Soul-drain magic.

"A woman I knew once, she liked things that took, and took, because she never felt anyone ever gave to her. I tried my best, but she never really forgave me for what I helped be done to her mother, or for her brother. She's beyond all reaching now though, although it still seems wrong to conjure by her name." He moved another piece, a white bishop. Sometime between his last move and this one a black rook was moved, even though Murry only touched the white pieces.

Jaime lost her second question to Murry taking advantage of her inexperience with this kind of game and telling her he had many ideas when she asked the group for suggestions.  Resolving to not let him get the better of her again, she asked how to stop the two Kings.

"Well asked. The two Kings form a balance, but both seek to upset that for their own gain. The Fae know of such troubles. But unlike the Fae, the Kings are mortal, both mundane and magical, and they can be brought down through any means you would defeat a mortal man. As Uther wanted power, so his downfall was reaching too far for it in his greed, and as Arthur wanted a utopia that could never be, so was his downfall in his pride. You will find that greed and ego make all vulnerable. You defeat an Arthur by giving him a grail to chase. Find what they want, and tell them it lies elsewhere."

Chris expressed her doubts a group of mostly normal teens could stop something that full grown wizards had failed to do, but Murry was not so easily discouraged about the group.

"Winter child, you most of all should know, there is no such thing as an ordinary group of teenagers," he said to her kindly, moving a white pawn to the back row of the board. He picked it up and handed it to Chris, where she saw it was now shaped like a Fae, and wearing a tiny silver crown. "Anyone can do the impossible. You have everything you need, Morgan." He grabbed another chess piece and handed it to Nicky, a tiny knight with green in his armor, holding a sword, "As do you, Gawain." A bishop became a faintly blue robed woman with a book for Jaime and the other knight glowed faintly silver blue. "For the Lady and her knight." A rook became a castle spire with a shining gem at the tip for Mike. "You speak to those who have been lost, and these men, these Kings, they are so very lost, guide them where they belong." He dropped something and a bright light blinds our heroes for a split second, in which he and the board disappeared

Wizards, am I right?  So very peculiar.

[habiticadresdenfilesguild]

These Boots Were Made For Talking

Obviously, all cannot be our heroes running for their life, they don’t even know Harry Dresden, after all.  So, here are some interesting conversations from the Raymore-Peculiar High hallways.

---

Nicky encountered a fellow student Misty Martinez, an artsy type of girl with an edge, and had plans on getting some relevant (hopefully) gossip.

"Hey, Nicky, what's up with the Scooby table, you all seemed kinda down today, There's an open mic on Friday at Muddy's Coffee if you need to vent."

“Bad guy only had two masks to pull off last night..” Nicky smiled “But shhh, since we’re probably not gonna be allowed to talk about that kind of stuff. You heard anything about that?”

"Yeah, the goth-ban? No talking witchy voodoo vampire stuff? Listen, if you're down, we've been talking about organizing, Joe at Muddy's is letting us use his back room for prep on the open mic, if you're in, be there at 5 on Friday, if not, be cool, don't rat. I got to run, bye." Misty glanced both ways and dashes off.

---

Jaime decided to test out her newfound rapport with one of the cool kids, Jarell Moore, to see what he might know anything about Andy and his behavior that Dani might’ve missed.

"Yo, Jaime, what's up,” Jarell hails her.  “Thanks for that trick on remembering when to use sine and cosine. Anything you need, I got your back. Saved my bacon."

“No problem at all. But I was wondering if you could help me out. Have you seen anything going on with Andy lately? I mean, I know he and Dani just broke up..again. But This time seems different and I’m.. concerned about him.” Jamie asked gently.

"Yeah, I saw it too. But, Jaime, you gotta know, guys like Andy, I mean, his family has three generations of High-school All-State champions, Four total if you count his grandpa and his twin. The pressure is extreme. So, way I figure, guy went to get something to give him a boost, maybe he said, just one time, one game. But once you start juicing, it's hard to stop, no matter what he was using. And it wasn't anything normal, we test. But his performance goes up, his inhibitions go down, you know he's done something. I don't know if we can get him to kick it. The team was gonna do one of those intervention things for him, Friday, before the game, he fesses up, he just has to do rehab, he stalls us, he's off the team. Juiced players are dangerous, Jaime."

You’re right, Jarell. Even though he might be dangerous, we have to try and help him. Thanks, I really appreciate it.” Jaime smiled and nodded, then moved on to her next class, jotting down notes as she went.

---

Chris decided to stop by the school store, instead of the school workshop or the science lab, since it's closer. She can try the other two places another day if she needs. She noticed the clerk today is the more gossipy one, and asked the clerk what's new today as she bought a notebook to add to her 'bag of tricks'. She plans to pull a pen and a pencil out of her pencil case to add to the bag in her next class

"Well, if it isn't Miss Stein. Don't see you in here often, your mom equips you well. Hey, we're selling flags to raise money for the football team, you wanna see?" The clerk pulled out a long banner of black, white and gold. They're the school colors, they always have been, but Chris’s mind flashed to the killer drapery the night before.

"I think I'll pass on a flag. I'm not big on football. Seems pretty quiet here, unless I just came at a slow time. What do you do if there's no customers?"

"Don't tell, but I have this internet group I'm in, sometimes I log in and check up. It's amazing, like gossip central for this big freaky group of like, bigfoot sighters and people who claim they met vampires and stuff. Paranet, check it out sometime.”

"Sounds cool. I'll have to check it out sometime."

---

Terry stopped by Hope Mallory, another member of the Fold. "Hello brother," she began the traditional greeting, but he shushed her.

"It's not safe, Overwood is cracking the whip. I know you are really devout, but sometimes, safety is more important. No-one wants to see a sister culled from the flock by outsiders. So none of this at school, OK?" Really quietly he whispered "go safe sister."

Mike made a quick stop at the Nurse's office. One, he felt really shaky and weak, and two, like clockwork the Stampshed twins are in here with bruises and bloody noses. He listened to them talk about seeing Andy, or maybe a guy who looked like Andy, outside a local bar last week. He remembered the name for later and goes to Calculus

[habiticadresdenfilesguild]

Who knew recon was so dangerous?

So, having been warned and given a mission, our heroes split up to check out the library and the creepy warehouse.  Smooth move.

Terry and Jaime learn more about Merlin, or Merlins as the case may be, dragons, ley lines and a sudden unexpected bit of news.  Peculiar rests on a convergence of so many ley lines that the border of real and not real and maybe just a little too real is fuzzy.  Only problem, the other places like that, Atlantis, Camelot, the Lost Cave of Wonders, and Xanadu, they all got destroyed or dropped off the maps entirely.

They track the Mundane ‘King’, Luthor Noble, a real estate mogul intending to build a subdivision called Camelot Place on the land in question.  As they mention the others, the town librarian Miss Spindler, walks in and offers them a ride.  Apparently she sees the future.  Just when you thought the town couldn’t get weirder.

At the warehouse, Nicky disables a ward Chris senses and inside the three free three of the Little Folk being held as lights in iron cages, who tell them that a sorcerer called King lives and or works out of the warehouse behind the maze of curtains, and commands many mortals.  They also learn that the warehouse is the demesne of a living person, and those innocent curtains, totally cursed to suck the life essence out of anyone who touches them.  As they contemplate their next move, Terry bursts in with a carpet bag for the Little Folk and a warning to get out fast.  Miss Spindler peels out at top speeds as soon as everyone is in and her mini-van’s doors are shut.

Guess things are getting more and more peculiar.

[habiticadresdenfilesguild]

With Enemies Like These

Our heroes have grown and changed some, since last we met them, Terry has decided to ask Jaime to go steady, Nicky has decided not to ask Chris what a Change for the Fae would mean for their friendship, Chris has decided that she should investigate her options with the Change, and Jaime has started investigating...all things supernatural, while Mike is accepting his place as a one-trick wonder.

Again, our heroes at the same table in Ray-Pec’s cafeteria.  This has become sort of common, really, enough that when someone wants to find them all in one spot, that’s where they look.  Proof of that fact, Dani Lussier, she of the Popular and a part of the prank that united our merry band to begin with has come over to talk. She’s nervous, and under stress, as is obvious by her haphazard appearance.  Nicky comments on it, and Dani delivers a short warning and asks to meet at the park.  Due to her dishevelment, her honesty is presumed and the group meet her there.

The park is pretty normal, an open grassy spot, a few swings and a slide, and a bunch of picnic tables. Old Murry sits, as always, under the big hawthorn tree at the end with his marble chess set out and waiting for another player.  Dani sits at the farthest table from him with a paper cup of coffee.

“I didn’t know if you’d show up,” she admits, before warning the group of a corrupt Alderman and the Principal of their school conspiring to send anyone who brings up the supernatural to juvie, in a town five hours away.  Then she reveals her own trouble.  Her on-again off-again boyfriend Andy, who also was involved in the Cranston House Prank, has been acting strangely, aggressive and mean, not at all like the boy she fell for years ago.  After smelling strong incense in his car and knowing he didn’t use it, she looked up his car’s GPS history.  Andy has been going to an empty lot, only upon checking, it is not empty anywhere but paper.

After explaining her disgust for law-breaking from a seat of law as the reason she gave the warning, she leaves them to go through the records she copied from City Hall.

The city hall file on the land is odd, and old.  Six separate attempts have been made to build on that land, and each has failed due to underground stream-beds caving in, natural gas explosions, the spontaneous refusal of men to work there for no reason, random vandals destroying buildings overnight.  Only the road out there stayed up.  Jaime realizes this parallels the story of Merlin and the Dragons, Chris confirms Wizards are in fact real, and Old Murry makes an entrance.

He knows too much about Chris and her heritage, and he warns them that the consequences of letting a King build any structure there, either mundane or magical, are high, enough to destroy the town.  Two Kings, one mundane and the other of magic, seek to build there, and two with enough power to help them are already trying.  Should both succeed...the consequences are apocalyptic.

After countering Chris’s questions about his knowledge with questions of his own, he sips from a flask and vanishes with a gust of wind.

Jaime and Terry decide to do book-research in the Fold’s library, while Chris, Nicky and Mike do some more hands-on sleuthing.

Looks like things are getting Peculiar again, guys.  Let’s hope the ‘odds’ are with you this time.

[habiticadresdenfilesguild]

Just Call Me MacGyver by Chris Stein

My Dad and I used to watch MacGyver together, as a father-daughter bonding thing. We both liked “MacGyver Night” until I got too busy with school. Well I think I’m going to need to start watching them again. MacGyver had a lot of tricks up his sleeve, and that could be useful for whatever me and Nicky got ourselves into with Jaime, Terry, and Mike. First step, I’m stocking a small bag that I can grab and carry easily with useful stuff. I’ve only got matches, string, a flashlight (with a set of spare batteries), and a pocket knife so far, but there’ll be more. Oh, and paperclips. In tribute to MacGyver, if nothing else, though I can pick diary locks with them. I should start practicing again, maybe find a combination lock and a heavier key lock to learn as well. If the lock on that trunk in the Cranston house hadn’t been so rusty, I might not have gotten it open. And maybe I’ll start asking Mom to tell me “fairy tales” again. She likes to, thinks it’ll encourage me to Choose Fae. At the moment, I just want to learn more about what we might come across, I don’t want to Choose yet. Well, time to go on a MacGyver marathon. See what else besides lock picking I should learn from him. Maybe some of his survival skills, like building fires and scavenging things. After all, “the bag is for what I find along the way”, although I’m going to have what I bring along too.

[habiticadresdenfilesguild]

Shell Games - Rogue’s Gallery Strories

Find the Lady

Dee-Dee wasn’t sure who had found out about her ploys here some century or so ago, or how.  She was sure she was going to find them and make them pay.  It had been sloppy work and hadn’t even gotten her the babe.  If she had, she wouldn’t be stuck here, as Summer’s representative upon the Sheer.  She could have gone to the battles, could have seen the ragged Wizard rally the Little Folk against that weak little wretch, Aurora.  She’d always thought people didn’t respect the wizards enough. Their power was strong, but their wills weak.  They were the perfect little poppets to influence the world with.  And now someone was rubbing her failure to Titania in capturing and raising one to prove herself in her face.  It was not to be borne.

Rubbing the tensions away from her brow she went to greet her ever so happy husband for the morning. Eggs and bacon and those fried potato things he liked so well waited at the table.  He kissed her cheek and she kept her smile on her face.  No need to upset him, when he was doing so well. After he ran the annual Harvest bonfire, that one last insult to Winter, she’d surprised him with a new car, it ran on diesel, like the truck he drove across country for his wages.  The salesman had been quick to point out how much less carbon monoxide it made.  Dee Dee hadn’t told him it made up for it several times in black carbon and nitrogen oxides, Global Warming was simply the very best.

“Diana! Breakfast time, dear one!”

Her daughter bounded down the stairs, pigtails askew.  Dee Dee fixed them as Diana ate her sausage and oatmeal.  She smiled when her daughter reached for the honey.  They grow up so fast.  Soon her dark red hair would start to show the lights of Summer’s colors, flashes of gold or pink.  Then Dee Dee could teach her to use her powers.  Show her how to make things grow, blossom.  Start with the innocent looking things, flowers, maybe. Then food crops, like Dee Dee’s own garden with all its prize winning tomatoes and corn and zucchini and watermelon. Get her deep in the powers on small, harmless magic before showing her the benefits of blue-green mold, what was it called now, again?  Ah, penicillin.  Such a nice stepping stone into Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, although she still preferred the older names, phagedena gangrenous sounded like a flower.  La, anything that flourished so well in even the tiniest of cuts was good.  The mortals were producing a bit faster than she really liked, what with their bane-bearing blood and penchant for making everything out of the bane.  Time to prune the tree really.  Whoever had that genius idea to put E. Coli in tomatoes should be given a boon, in her opinion.

“Mom, there’s a carnival at the high-school next week to raise money for-”

“New uniforms for the marching band, yes, I was just thinking about bringing them treats to sell at concessions.  Isn’t it so nice we have this bond, Diana?”

“It’s so something,” she said with the faintest tinge of sullenness.  Dee Dee just smiled, her girl was a strong one, to manage even that with the compliance charms on all her clothing.  “Can I go, Mom?  I know I don’t go to high school until next year, but maybe if I spend some time there I won’t get lost on my first day.  I’ll be really good, Mom.”

“Hmm,” it simply wouldn’t do to let Diana think she’d won so easily, even if Dee Dee wanted the same thing. Bargains were a part of them. “Alright, you may go, as long as you get good grades on all your homework and keep working hard in soccer practice.  I don’t want those older children giving you bad ideas.  Peer pressure is a terrible thing.  Promise to stay away from that poor boy Terry who goes to that cult church and that delinquent Chris Stein.”

“I promise I won’t even talk to them, Mom.” Diana hopped up to hug her. “Promise, promise, promise.”

“Good girl, now out to the van, I offered a ride to school to some of the girls from the team.  I can’t believe they wanted to walk in this weather.”

The phone rang, “Hello, this is the Franks residence, Dee speaking.”

“You heinous bitch.”

“Oh, hello, dear. It’s been simply ages.  What’s the news?”

“You know exactly what I mean, Christobel has drawn a flower in her school book.  A flower.  I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but you stay away from my daughter.”

“Funny, I was just telling my daughter the same.  I simply must go.  Do have a happy holiday season, although I wouldn’t count on a white Christmas this year. Global Warming, you know.”

“Impertinent tart.”

“Ohh, tarts, I should bake those for the carnival.  Bye!”

She smiled as she hung up. Let the frigid Winter bint twist on that.  Although, the right ingredients, those tarts could be just the thing to let Winter know Summer wasn’t weak.

[habiticadresdenfilesguild]

Shell Games - Rogue’s Gallery Stories

Shill Trick

It was good to be king, or so the saying went.  Alderman Walt Campbell was very sure he would agree, if he ever got the chance to become a king.  But he was also aware of his limits.  Much better to be the biggest fish in a small pond than a minnow in the ocean.  And ponds didn’t come much smaller than Peculiar Missouri.

As he got out of his car he checked his hair, going a distinguished silver-grey at the temples and thick enough he hadn’t had to resort to a comb-over.  It made him look wise and trustworthy, while still seeming young enough to get things done, he decided.  Sort of the distinguished senior Senator from somewhere look.

Inside Town Hall, he smiled at the receptionist; an older woman, plump and dressed conservatively even for her station.  “How’s life, Lottie?” he asked like always.

Charlotte Stewart laughed, like always.  “Same as it was yesterday, Alderman,” she replied, like always.  These little rituals kept civilization running, and they both knew how things would derail if they were ignored.  “You’ve got a four o’clock with Principal Overwood from up at Ray-Pec.  She seemed pretty adamant about it.”

“Well, children are our future,” he said with a campaign smile.  “That seems to me a worthy thing to get adamant about.”  It was practically a soundbite.  That’s how he kept his seat so long.  He was always campaigning.

He went to his office, shuffled paperwork around to delegate to the staffers and interns, and thanked that stroke of genius he’d had to work out a Dual Credit internship which supplied most of his unpaid labor.  High school kids were under age, meaning legally he couldn’t pay them.  He could hire them and make them do his paperwork, but he wasn’t actually allowed to compensate them.  That would be child labor and therefore wrong.  He chuckled as the stacks got taken away by his minions, then decided that sounded too super-villain.  He spent an hour in his private bathroom practicing better laughs in the mirror.  He had a lunch meeting with a city contractor, who knew what to offer and how to offer it. He went back to the office richer by a favor to be decided, and in need of the right form to authorize a sub division to be built out by that old round about that led nowhere.  He got stonewalled by the Survey department, who told him that land had been left alone for good reasons, underground creeks, toxic gas pockets in the soil, other bizarre mishaps.  He gave the head of the department a skeptical look and made vague but pointed comments about stagnating the population size and bringing in more townsfolk, and their tax revenue, and made a subtle hint those losses would come out of Survey’s budget.  He got the paper, signed, initialed, dated, and signed again, got the on-staff notary to stamp it and sent out an e-mail for bids on the development. Good form must be observed even if he already knew who’d get it.

At four o’clock he saw his afternoon intern, Dani Lussier, who needed to be given the talk about office attire, again, he noticed, let in Principal Calla Overwood.  He had some time to observe before she got to the door. The window wall that made him seem trustworthy and approachable also gave him excellent sightlines over his staff area, and their desks were laid out to both encourage effective cooperation and slow any approach from outside.  Calla had lost weight, he decided.  It didn’t suit her.  She was already a touch too sharp in the cheekbones and chin areas, and the loss only emphasized that.  She might be under stress, that could be useful.  She wore a white blazer over a silk blouse patterned with daisies and a white suit-skirt.  Polished, prepared, not good for bargaining.  Her hair had been recently dyed, but only back to her normal pale brown, and she’d pulled it back in a ponytail.  Trying to look young, then, another weak spot.  He stood to open the door for her.

“Thank you Miss Lussier, please go talk to Miss Stewart about getting you a different shirt.  I know we’ve had the talk about appropriate workplace attire.”  He saw Calla smile, she agreed with him.  Dani looked a little wounded, but he could handle that better than an accusation of predatory behavior.

“So nice of you to make the time on short notice, Alderman,” Calla said as he pulled out her chair.

“Not at all, you are this town’s custodian of our children during their most vulnerable ages, and children are our future, so your concerns are quite important.”

“I’m glad we agree on that. I’m very concerned about possible negative influences with some students who shall, of course, remain nameless.”

“Of course,” he agreed amicably.  No need to fight yet.

“There have been the normal rumors, the ghost stories, the superstitions, you know, children’s traditions.”

“Mm, yes, I think I remember one about two people saying a word at the same time, immature, and I knew it then, but I still did it,” he encouraged.  She’d get to her point soon enough.

“Well, I’ve nothing against that sort of thing, it’s in the literature as a developmental point.  But some of the new ones are… worrying. Vampires among us, and witches, and I think I heard a student say Evil Fairy the other day.  It’s a little too Grimm’s Brothers.  I don’t like those stories, Alderman. I like the Disney versions better, with the singing and the pretty colors and the Prince marrying the Princess and living happily ever after.”  Calla’s high voice actually sounded a bit like the Disney Snow White, but when she tried to be stern with him he had a flash of the Evil Queen glaring at the Mirror.

“I like those better myself. Much less of the inappropriate material.”

“Then you’ll understand why we have to work together to stop these stories.  It starts harmless enough, but then they’ll spend so long in the fantasy that reality becomes the fiction and we start having women thrown in ovens on suspicion of witchcraft.”  She sort of lost the thread there, but he saw her point.

“Well, I can’t legally prevent them telling stories, but I’m sure if we both pay attention and work together, we can find the rumor mongers.  From there, it’s a paperwork hop, skip and jump to juvenile detention. Peculiar doesn’t have one, the closest is in Lee’s Summit.  Let them cool off away from the others and everyone will forget.”

“Yes, I’m sure we can. But I know how City Hall works, Alderman.  I’m not stupid.”

“Of course not, you’re an educator, we wouldn’t have hired you if you were.”  He let the subtle reminder that those who are hired may also be fired sink in.  “We can work out the exact details later.  Here’s my emergency phone line.  I’ll talk to you soon, Calla.”

“Soon, Alderman.”

In the one blind spot from the Alderman’s fish-bowl, Dani Lussier held her breath.  She’d ducked back here to adjust her borrowed, and embarrassing, shirt to look a bit more like it fit her, but she’d overheard part of his talk with Principal Overwood.  Kids who told ghost stories were going to get sent to juvie.  That couldn’t be right.  That couldn’t be legal.  She took this internship because she liked politics, it was like being popular in school, but bigger and more important and therefore better.  So she’d learned the laws, because they were like the Jimmy Choos of Politics.  You couldn’t send a kid to juvie for spreading a rumor.  But you could fudge paperwork enough that a judge might sign it. If the judge were motivated. Principal Overwood had implied… Dani didn’t want to believe it, but she had to now it would seem.  Alderman Campbell was corrupt, and he had dirt on a judge.  So that left one question.

What now?

[habiticadresdenfilesguild]

Shell Games - Rogue’s Gallery Stories

Cups and Ball

“Did you succeed?” asks the imposing figure.  The room has been arranged to accommodate two vastly different needs of its owner, secrecy and majesty.  High ceilings hung with long falls of fabric across beams give a sort of monumental feel to the place, dark curtains cover windows, tiny trapped lights of all colors rest on stands slightly above a tall man’s head.  The owner of the room, and of all who enter, sits behind a maze of black and white drapes, limiting access.  Splashes of glowing gold on the fabric remind all who approach to use the long, twisting, safe path, barging forward can get you killed.

“I believe I did,” answers the kneeling boy.  He stands as tall as many grown men, but here, at the foot of the stepped dais of his master, kneeling in supplication, he is small.  “I cannot provide proof, my Master.  I tried, but the tools I used failed me.  I will submit to the price.”

“If your tools failed you, and the death-speaker still lives, you have most likely succeeded. He is not the kind to have the stomach for true battle.  At the very least, he will ask questions.”

“Master, there is more,” the kneeling boy says.

“Did I ask you for more?”

“No, Master, my deepest apologies Master,” comes the hasty reply.  “It was the only way to get the death-speaker where you wanted him without raising suspicion.  I had to include others.”

“That was either very good thinking, or foolish enough to cost you dearly.  Who?”

“The faith-holder, the half-Fae, her beholden champion, and the scholar.”

“This may be a nice twist, but only so long as the Courts do not learn of it.  See to it that you are not discovered.”

“Yes, Master,” sighs the boy.

“Have you sacrificed in my name?” asks the shrouded figure.

“I have, Master, but only in pride.  To hold your secrets, I took insult and lost companionship.  Aside from the destroyed tools, I lost nothing physical.”

“You should be recompensed. What do you desire?”

“The faith-holder and the scholar took my rightful place.  I desire vengeance.”

“They are now a part of my plans, that must be vengeance enough.  Although, the little scholar might make a fine cats-paw, not yet bound, yet so dear must she be to the faith-holder.  You will get your vengeance, my subject.  Rise and say my name.”

The boy stands, shaky after so long kneeling on cold concrete, his knees damp with condensation. He settles his shoulders under a varsity football jacket.  “You are King, my Master.”

“Now go, arouse no suspicion.  Even now I feel the eyes of another, the veil is thin and it is not yet time.  Go and Obey.”

“I go and obey,” Andy says to himself as he walks the path out to his car.  “I go and obey.”

At home, Andy shrugs off his jacket and notes the wet stains on his knees.  Damn.  That was twice this month.  He has no idea where they kept coming from.  Sometimes he loses time, but like hell is he going to tell anyone, they’d pull him from the team!  He looks at a picture of Dani he has in his room as he logs on to email.  They were happy and goofing around in a photo booth. He doesn’t know what she’s on about this time she broke up with him, he was having a bad headache and might have lost a minute or so when it happened, but he’ll patch it up, he always does.

[habiticadresdenfilesguild]

Holy Tool - A Terry Jefferson Story

I built my first house when I was 7.  Alright, it was a bird house, but it was pretty well made.  It’s still outside my home.  Cardinals live there.

I built it at a church summer camp.  We’ve never had much money, but the church we were in at the time sent me for free, because Mom wanted me to have some regular old kid experiences, like summer camp, and they really wanted her to stay.  She never does, she’s always looking.  But what I remember best is the camp counselor who was our wood-craft teacher, a really nice guy named Jake.  He was big and black with thick workers hands and he was so full of kindness and wisdom that he delivered in his thick Southern accent.  He was… sturdy, like something that would not yield or change. Something about his presence made me feel fragile and protected all together.

He said something to me, to all of us, but I think I might be the only one who remembers it now.  I don’t think I can forget it.  We had really cheap tools, and a lot were broken. Some of the wood was bad, too soft, or rotting altogether.  It was really frustrating to use.  Jake told us we could quit, but we should know something before we made up our minds. He said “Any tool, no matter how big and powerful, or small and busted, is just as good as the hand guiding it.” Then he took the worst hammer, the bent nails, the most warped of the wood, and made this little cathedral shaped bird house.

So I took a hammer, and nails, and some wood and he taught me to build.  He tried to teach everybody, but at the end, I was the only one still trying to do it with these messed up boards and nails.

Jake looked at this lop-sided thing I made and he smiled.  “Nice work,” he said, and I got angry.  I knew it wasn’t good, I didn’t want false praise.  He let me yell, then he said, “wasn’t talking to you, boy,” and he pointed up.  “He did a real fine job on you, kid.  Not finished, maybe, but crafting is like that, you’re never really done.  ‘S why stuff keeps evolving on us.  Only as good as the hands that guide, boy.  You try that house again.”

And I did.  And I let other Hands use my hands, let them be guided. And I guess God likes Gazebo bird houses as much as nesting cardinals.  Or maybe God just likes cardinals and wants them to be happy in houses they like.

I built my first house when I was 7, and I never stopped.  Habitat for Humanity, Christmas in July, and October, fixing stuff around the house or for my older neighbors.  I learned the tools for bigger things, and for non-house things, like cars and microwave ovens and the old woman down the street’s black and white television.  I like putting things back as they should be, and I like building new things.  So I build, and I sometimes realize, in the right hands, I make a pretty decent hammer.

There are worse things to be.

[habiticadresdenfilesguild]

From the Private Writings of Jaime Collins

As it turns out, there’s more truth in fiction than some would have us believe. Now that we’ve joined up to right ‘mystical wrongs’ I need to know what we’re up against. That means research, and lots of it. Maggie’s journal gave me a rough idea of where to start and what to look for, so I can filter out the new age drivel from the actual occult info. The Harvest dance was absolutely delightful. It seems like once I stopped worrying about being considered a freak (I’m gifted, like Terry said), then people started listening and paying attention. The Harvest Court can really change a person, though. Even now I feel a composure and grace I didn’t have before. Now to make sure my raging curiosity doesn’t end up shooting me in the foot with my new..acquaintances. Or with Terry. It already messed up Chris and I, and I’m going to have to figure out how to talk to her, and other people. Hrm… Maybe a self-help Psychology book or two from the library could help...

[habiticadresdenfilesguild]

[habiticadresdenfilesguild]

Final Shots

After some none-to-subtle prodding by Jaime, and with Nicky’s stalwart support, Chris talks.  Namely she lets the group ask her questions, like Maggie did.  Nicky confirms that if Chris goes from Changeling to Mortal, they’ll stay friends.  Terry pokes a soft spot by asking about the Change, because honestly?  A version of Chris Stein not tempered by humanity is horrifying.  He knows what’s lurking in her, and he doesn’t want to lose a friend to it.  Jaime asks what happens if Chris never Chooses either side.  The answer?  Her options are live fast, die young, leave a Changeling corpse, or just choose by not choosing, if you never use the magic, you lose the magic.  Mike asks a more prosaic question about her powers.  Sorry buddy, Chris is not near Delilah the Psycho Fairy’s weight class, magically.

The sun is edging over the horizon as our heroes leave the house.  A new day in more than one way.  Mike snaps a quick group selfie in the dawn light in front of the house with his camera, which, while not as extreme as the mirror inside, shows subtle hints of the true nature of their gifts.  With just enough time to get home, get ready and go to school, everybody handles avoiding the notice of parents and gets to school

In the school’s front hall, Andy Drabyk confronts the group with a completely fried tablet leaking thin trails of smoke and smelling like melted plastic.  “You somehow knew, you freaks, you knew there were cameras and you sent me some kind of virus so I couldn’t record you freaking out like the dumb losers you are.  You probably bugged out as soon as you trashed my iPad.”  A crowd gathers to watch.

“Actually, Drabyk,” Mike says with a steel in his voice nobody knew he had yesterday.  “We have proof.”  He slaps the group photo against Andy’s chest.  “And no virus a high school kid could make could fry your computer that bad.  You probably got it in a sleazy chat room looking for porn.”  Dani shrieks and slaps Andy.

Nicky laughs and points out that would make Andy the freaky one, and Jaime points out their proof means Andy has to follow through on his end of the bet.  He retaliates in true Andy fashion, by tossing the word that has hurt Jaime worst in the past at her.  Guess he never got the memo that Jaime’s not the same girl too scared of her own powers to squeak anymore.  And the one about Terry growing a romantic spine, because his insult is met with a stern defense.

“Actually,” adds Terry, “We’re not freaks. The word is gifted, Andy, use it.” Summoning his courage, he turns to Jaime and drops to one knee. “Will you go to the Harvest Dance with me Jaime? We spent the whole night in a ‘haunted house’,” he makes air quotes, “if that doesn’t qualify us for the Harvest Court, I don’t know what does, and even without that, I want to dance with you. If you want to.”

Jaime starts blushing furiously the moment Terry goes down on his knee. He was just delightfully old fashioned and sweet.. And he wanted to take her to the Harvest Dance! She hadn’t even been sure she wanted to go, but now… “Yes! Yes, I’ll go with you.” She takes his hands and squeezes them, bursting with smiles. She drops her voice down a notch before continuing. “Together, remember?” Then louder, “I think We’ll give Dani and Andy a run for their money for Harvest Court.”

The group unanimously gives their votes to the haunted house sweethearts, leaving Andy forgotten and Dani with nothing but the desperate ploy of claiming she played matchmaker as Principal Overwood comes to shoo the crowd to class.  Well done, guys, but I have a peculiar feeling that you aren’t done yet.  ;)

[habiticadresdenfilesguild]

Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.’

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

[habiticadresdenfilesguild]

Finished Business Pt 2

Terry suggests helping Ernest get some closure, and Jaime offers to help him down the stairs, which is relieving to Chris and Nicky because it’s off the topic of Maggie all but spelling out in giant spectral letters SOMEONE HAS A SECRET.  Mike puts a bit of a damper on that relief by pointing out that Maggie had implied someone in the group knew Delilah, and the best closure would be a goodbye note, and a picture from his glitched out Poloroid camera that can photograph ghosts.

Nicky takes the hit for Chris by admitting she recognized the echo of Delilah as Dee Franks, scary PTA/Soccer/Everything mom.  Terry calls dibs on confronting her, because she enslaved an murdered people and then tried to shame his faith, which was super hypocritical, because how can she actually be “concerned for his soul”?  Chris knows from that accidental soulgaze, it’s because with time and practice, Terry’s faith magic could become even stronger, a bigger threat, and that’s rooted in his soul.

They decide not to confront her directly, or act like the ghosts were still there when they arrived because Andy is a jerk and probably told his friends about the bet, and Dee has her fingers in all the pies, all of them.

Downstairs they confront a sadder, less homicidal Ernest, who is willing to move on.  Mike asks if he still loves Delilah, or if he hates her for her actions as the two require different resolutions.  Ernest confesses three times in the way of Fae promises he loves her, despite knowing she’s a monster by human standards.  Terry consoles him with a verse from Corinthians about love, including an often left out passage that implies love lasts longer than all things.

While Terry and Mike deal with Ernest, the penny drops for Jaime about Chris.  When she tells Terry, he confesses he knew and couldn’t tell her, which is... odd, he’s usually a bit terminally honest.

Ernest writes a letter, by possessing Mike’s hand and Mike takes a picture. He swears on his power to deliver it and Ernest fades away. After debating delivery methods, Mike and Terry lift a stamp from the old letters and forge an old-fashioned postal mark, dating it to the day Maggie and Toby were found dead.

Jaime wants to make sure they all tell the same ‘bland’ lie, and asks Chris if that will be a problem.  Fairies have a reputation for being unable to lie, after all, even if she doesn’t say that.  So, Chris, confess your big secret, or let Jaime spill it for you?  Even in a town this weird, someone was going to put it together eventually.  But this adventure especially seemed to be intent on revealing everyone’s secrets to the group, how incredibly... peculiar.

[habiticadresdenfilesguild]

Finished Business Pt 1

The gang go back upstairs, to be greeted with spectral snapshots of Delilah Franks attempting to take Baby Cranston and threatening Maggie who attempts to blood bind her, but Maggie does not have the right information to pull it off.  Delilah sabotages her wards in retaliation for the insult.  The lights go out, all of them including the fire and ambient moonlight, and there in the dark the argument that ended fatally plays out.

Chris recognizes the voice of one who has been entranced by a Fae, but can’t tell anyone but Nicky without risking the secret she’s managed to hold onto so far this evening with everything conspiring to reveal it.

The lights come back to show a broken and dying Maggie using her final words “Never leave him.” in a Death Curse.  One that really could be anything, since her injury would kill her and they came from her own wards, but Delilah has stepped in to speed up the growth of decay, turning her into a jumbled pile of meat.  If you just got queasy, think how poor Jaime feels, still nauseous from the blood on the walls downstairs.  It’s ok, Jaime, nobody thinks any less of you for tossing your cookies.

Upstairs the gang go through all the items related to Baby Cranston.  Only a stuffed rabbit with a child’s intense loneliness and confusion is any clue that the child wasn’t perpetually happy and loved.  Trying the crib, Jaime gets a sudden vivid memory, the woman from downstairs leaning over and reaching for her face. The woman hisses and shakes her hand, taking away the soft cuddly thing beside Jaime before leaving. Time passes and Jaime had no idea of how long. She felt weak, like she’d gone hungry too long. She needs food, care, someone should be there to help her, the anger is overwhelming.

The next thing Jaime sees is Terry’s fingers snapping in front of her. Everybody else saw Jaime touching the crib, getting a frightened or maybe pained look on her face that transformed over about a minute into anger, and then being flung across the room, knocking into Terry who was pacing behind her, and both of them hitting the damaged door to nowhere.

After check-ups and some embarrasment from the two, Jaime shares her vision and Terry gives the rabbit back to the kid’s ghost, which releases it, to Mike’s shock.

Maggie appears to say her thanks and offer up answers in payment.

Nicky asks what Delilah wanted with Maggie’s son.  To this, Maggie replies, "Tobias had great power within him, power that, if caught in her web of lies early enough, could be reined and harnessed. She wished my son for a slave to build her monuments. My husband died to end the keeping of slaves, I would not let his son become one."

Jaime asks how Maggie knew about Tobias’s powers.  The answer is more than she bargained for.   "Not just mine. Jerome had power in his line too, although I learned it too late, he appeared to me before the letter, and told me of Tobias's likely gifts, power over elements, forces, the life span of Methuselah himself. I thought it was only more madness, until the letter came and I had to do what must be done. I wrote to a man called Blackstaff, but he did not arrive in time."

Chris knows that power set.  Jerome was a Wizard.  Stunned, she asks if there is more to do.  "I spent so many years afraid of Delilah's hound, locking him away. I do not believe that was right or proper now. If you can free him, I would thank you, for it was a wrong I now can no longer right," is her answer.

Terry asks if Delilah is still hurting people, and the answer he gets is, peculiar, to say the least.  "You ask a thing that those among you know. To answer that, I should rely on things your own companions have said. Look to those who yet hide their light."

Mike finds this unhelpful, so he flat out asks if there are more people trapped like Maggie.  He’s not happy when she answers.   "Many, but not many who suffer as I did, and you know of the death around you. The only ones I know who need help yet live. I know this is disappointing to you, speaker to the dead. But the living are yet in bondage held, even if they do not see the chain or whip, they live the life we fought to end."

With her final answer, Maggie glows brightly a moment and when the spots in our heroes eyes fade, she's gone and the connecting door stands ajar to show the bedroom.  How peculiar.  Guess you just have to free an entranced Confederate ghost, may the ‘odds’ be with you all.

[habiticadresdenfilesguild]

Ernest Noah McCreedy, the ghost in the basement.