[Marrick] (kinfetch activation: heeeeeeelp, temp gnosis)
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 2, 6 (Success x 2 at target 6) [WP]
[Marrick] There was a tugging feeling. No matter where Joss was, there was a pull, a nagging feeling that someone needed help from the distance. It was insistent and the spirits needed something. They directed the nearest Gaian garou, gave a feeling of the user.
It was a signal flare, carried on the wind that played with Joss’s hair and insisted that someone come help.
This is where we open our scene, with a signal flare blaring and a need for help unspoken.
[Joss Lehrer] She’s been in her attic most of the afternoon – and had expected to remain there overnight, doing what she does best. Warding, working, dealing, playing with the spirits. She is Godi, it is as much who she is, as what she does.
On her little landing in the attic, where the weather is cooling off, where the flowers are struggling to survive, where she’s getting things ready for the winter, the bees sluggish and ready to hibernate, the hummingbirds visiting less often, the bushes and trees trimmed and ready. Even she can concentrate only so long though – and a walk was in order.
Which is where the Spirit finds her. They pull and tug and nag and poke and Joss looks up, instantly aware of the presence that tug on her dreads, and try to pull her in a certain direction. She does not ignore the signal’s flare. She never would.
And thus, we have one Godi running through the streets of Bronzeville, looking crazed to the typical pedestrian and city dweller. Any of the nation would know, though. She is heeding a distress signal, and won’t stop until she finds them.
[Marrick] By the time Joss got to where she needed to be, she found herself at a junk yard. There was garbage and refuse and what-have-you splattered everywhere. It was a place that was built like a maze, ominous and silent for the time being. The air was far too quiet, not at all like it should be in a city. That was neither here nor there, and with that Joss headed off inside. There was nothing there.
Until she rounded a corner. There was blood everywhere. When Joss comes into view, what she sees is a vicious, visceral sight.
There are bodies there. One large, crinos form, stinking like putrid flesh and death. Its head has been torn clean off of its body, and there is little to really look at to distinguish it from other piles of fur. A dark haired female, who was tall and lean and lovely in her own right, but also barely distinguishable. The entire scene looks horrible. horrific. The whole area stinks like filth and corruption. Bodies are hard to tell apart from one another.
Somewhere, Marrick had moved Sheridan. Right now, she was trying, desperately, to put her insides back together. The blonde is disgusting, bleeding profusely, hair stained red in so many places that it’s hard to tell that she’s a blonde at all. the ahroun elder is desperate to keep Sheridan in one piece. Her eyes are blurry, there’s tear streaks on her face, and despite being so tired, so injured, so worn out mentally, and spiritually from the fight, she is mroe than content to protect that damned body.
“Who’s there?” she snaps, her voice is sharp. She hasn’t seen Joss yet, but she has a feeling someone is there.
[Joss Lehrer] Her skirts swirl to a stop when she does, twisting about her knees, her calves as she slips in a puddle of blood and barely keeps her footing. Pale gaze sweeps the area quickly, searching for survivors, for the one who called, already mentally preparing (…prepared…) to do what is necessary for whomever remains. This – however dismal and exhausting and emotional – is part of her duty as well.
The nagging of the kinfetch continues until she finds Marrick, slaving desperately over Sharidan, trying to put her insides together. She snaps around, animalistic, instinctual, and Joss holds out her hand. “Marrick? It’s Joss.”
She doesn’t come too close, not until Marrick recognizes her. When she does though, she moves quickly, sinking to a crouch on the otherside of Sheridan. She needs to see if there’s anything there, first… any spark at all that she can grasp for and save.
“Marrick, let me see.” It’s calm, and soothing, yet rings with distinctive command of rank – and above all? Calm. Something to hang on to, cling too. “Let me see.”
[Marrick] She lets her hands back and looks at Joss. There’s something grim in her young expression; she knows, on some level, that Sheridan is dead. She knows, on some level, that there is nothing she can do now, but given the sheer amount of guilt in her features, the Ahroun obviously wishes that this were not the case, or the tables were turned.
She took care of her, though. She made sure that Shridan was as in-order as she could be, made sure her eyes were closed, instead of staring blankly into space, and made sure that, above all, she was dignified, even in death.
Especially in death.
“We were investigating a rumor,” she said, her voice is even, “she said that something was organizing, and Sheridan came to be because…”
Well, because she was the ahroun elder. Told no one else but her. And it seemed that, whatever was going to happen died with the Bone Gnawer and the four dead bodies strewn throughout the area.
[Joss Lehrer] Marrick lets her hands fall, and Joss’s take her place, quickly sliding over the wounds, over the skin already growing cold. It’s as she feared, and she sits back with a sigh as she studies the dead woman’s face, blazening it into her memory.
But the living need more immediate care. There is nothing one can do for the dead but sing their songs – and Joss is no Skald.
Marrick tells her what happened, why they are here, and she nods slightly. “Ok.” They were clearly outnumbered, ambushed, and Maelstrom’s sept has lost another warrior. They have lost many over the past months, and each is another mark on the Silver Record that suggests the enemy is winning, gaining ground, solidifying their footing right here under their very nose. Joss reaches up and pushes Marrick’s hair back from her face, even as bright blue gaze seeks out the worst of her wounds. Soon, her fingers slide over her side, pressing tight, and she takes a breath – and focuses.
(Mother’s Touch: Int+Medicine= 4
Diff 6 (rage 0) -2 for Gaia’s Breath = diff 4.) (WP)
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 2, 3, 5, 9 (Success x 3 at target 4) [WP]
[Marrick] After a moment, there is no injury, or rather, there’s not enough of one to warrant any concern. The only thing that remains is the rather violent scar that runs up the Fury’s hip, towards her ribcage like torn flesh. It is not at all as bad as the one on her left side, but she is gaining a collection. Her torso, her legs, if she kept this up the Fury would be nothing more than a mass of triumph and scar tissue.
Or she would be dead. Either one.
“You should have seen her,” Marrick says with quiet pride, “she was amazing. Cut two spirals down before one got a few lucky shots in.”
[Joss Lehrer] She smiles at Marrick, a smile tinged with sadness, tempered by the fact that there is work that must be done. Her voice is soft, though, as she gives Marrick a few more moments to gather herself. “May her deeds long be remembered.”
She touches Marrick’s shoulder, than stands, and moves to the large bodies, tangled and screaming with wyrm still tainting them even after death. Joss shifts upwards, until she is in Crinos, and has the strength to haul them around to a central point. As she moves, she goes about the grisly work of ripping, tearing, clawing, shredding the enemy into smaller pieces, into piles of flesh, fur, muscle and bone, that cannot be separated and deciphered and put back together again. This is a puzzle to destroy, not solve.
As she grunts, ripping a leg out of socket, she speaks in High Tongue. [i]Will cleans, then dispose. You should be cleansed as well. Sheridan too. Then we will see her to the Caern, and these to a fire barrel where they belong.”
Too bad her Van is not quite ready – this would be a hell of a christening for it. That’s neither here nor there though, and Joss moves with methodical and careful strength, as if she’s done this thousands of times before. Because she has.
[Marrick] She regarded Joss and turned to go clean things up. The Fury took her time to focus and shift, and it took her time. Then, with little regard or word between things, she started to gather what would probably be Sheridan Payne’s last trophies. the Fury tears the head off of one body, then another. And another.
The Fury doesn’t skin them, not yet. Instead, she spends her time trying to make sense of the place, and trying to pull it all together. She is an ahroun, and she is a sept official. The Fury is tearing limbs off of her enemies, something methodical and cathartic.
Like running. She doesn’t flinch.
It’s the first person she’s died with in battle in this city, for that? Sheridan Payne would forever hold a place in Marrick’s heart.
[Joss Lehrer] Marrick chooses Sheridan’s trophies, the final things that she will have placed at the base of the Wyrm Pole, and Joss simply continues what she’s doing. She is methodical, careful, steady of hand and heart as she further destroys that which they have already defeated. Soon there is a pile, large and ready to be cleaned, and Joss shifts downwards once again, so that she can get into her Godi Bag that always hangs at her hip.
The cleansing materials gathered, she sets her willow to smouldering, and starts her circle. She gestures toward Marrick, and the circle is wide enough to make sure that Marrick and Sharidan’s body are inside.
Joss falls into the ritual with characteristic ease, her body flowing into the motions, her spirit one with those that came before her, with those that will carry out the rites and rituals far longer than she will likely live – she follows the steps that others have trod many times, and prepares the way for those after her.
And with a snapshift to Chrinos and a resounding howl – she does her best to cleanses them all.
(cleansing – Char+ritual diff 7, spending wp)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 6, 7, 10 (Success x 2 at target 7) [WP]
[Marrick] Marrick inhaled, and let the air travel into her lungs and watched as Joss performed whatever rite she needed to do. They were inside, and she was calm and collected. The Fury did nothing, nor did she try and disturb the Fenrir from the right.
After awhile, all was said, all was cleansed, all was done.
“.. I didn’t know her well,” she said, “but… I… I wanna do her rites for the departed.”
[Joss Lehrer] Once cleansed, Joss can breath again. She begins to look around the junkyard, trying to figure the best way to dispose of this mess. Fire seems the best course – as she has no way to lug all this to Imogen’s favorite body burning spot, it’ll have to be here.
Marrick speaks of the rite of the departed, and Joss smiles at her, her fingers resting lightly on Marrick’s shoulder for a moment. “I think she’d appreciate that.”
[Marrick] “… I hope so,” she said, “she’s gotta pack, though… I should probably ask them. But, god, Joss, y’should have seen her. I wanna remember this.”
She stopped, and she was helping her gather the bodies. They had to burn this. They had to dispose of the mess, and they had to get Sheridan home safe, but that was neither here nor there. “I know that’s morbid, but… I do. She’s th’ kinda woman that woulda done damned good back at Winds Meeting.”
[Joss Lehrer] (drummin)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 4, 5, 5, 7, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 5) Re-rolls: 1
[Joss Lehrer] “Not morbid at all. It’s a testament to who she was, and how she will be remembered. It is how we have spoken of our heroes since time before beginning. We tell their tales, we sing their songs, we remember their lives, and we praise their honorable deaths.” A pause, and a smile. “She would have – and did – do good everywhere she settled in. I heard tell she battled in these streets before she had been in town longer than three hours.”
The bodies are gathered, torn assunder and separate from the trophies that Marrick has claimed, and Joss once more digs into her godi bag. She settles to her knees near the pile, and takes a breath. She does not control elements – but she does control elementals.
She settles herself, and pulls her skirts up to bare the lean muscles of her thighs, marred with a matched set of perfectly placed and scarred claw marks. She begins to tap out a beat, slapping her song, and calling the spirits that she asks to come to her aid…
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 3, 5, 7, 7, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 4) [WP]
[Joss Lehrer] (and one more roll..)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 2, 2, 3, 8 (Success x 1 at target 5)
[Joss Lehrer] She grabs her lighter from her godi bag – a battered bic that’s seen better days, and she flicks the bic to produce flame… when the Elementals come – and they always come – she smiles softly, and issues her command…
A single word.
“Burn.”
And she tosses the lighter to the middle of the pile, which is soon engulfed with flame.
[Marrick] “No kidding?” She regarded the dead Gnawer with quiet awe. She was impressed with Sheridan more and more.
There was a little sadness in that, she would never get the chance to tell the Bone Gnawer these things, to tell her that she was amazing. To tell her that she made a difference. There was no need to drag her back from the dead for any of this.
Alas, the Fury inhaled, and looked down.
“I should probably tell Wyrmbreaker his packmate is gone.”
[Joss Lehrer] She steps back as the flames burn higher, consuming all that they possibly can, reaching and squelching and thirsting grabby fingers flickering over every last inch of the wyrmspawn that had fallen, but nt until after taking their sept mate.
She turns to look at Marrick, and nods, slightly. “Do you want me to go with you?”
[Marrick] “Can you? I’m expecting a backlash,” she said, “you let my packmate die, is just the icing on the I think you’re incompetent cake.”
Said the Fury as tehy watched the bodies of four Black Spiral Dancers burn.
[Joss Lehrer] “Of course.” She smiles briefly at Marrick, while keeping an eye on the burning of the bodies. Only when she is certain they have all burnt, till there is no possible way to have anything recognized, or investigated. Only when there is nothing that can tie anything to a battle, garou, blood, bodies, or anything supernatural does she give another command.
“Extinguish.”
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 5, 6, 6, 10 (Success x 3 at target 5)
[Marrick] She is silent for a good moment.
“Joss, can I ask you something?” she looks at her, taking her trophies by the hair. She is solid and confident, or as confident as she can be. She comes into herself ever so often, and there is clarity in her voice. “Th’ fact that we’re always fightin’ stuff… random… things comin’ up an’ ambushing garou… doncha ever think that maybe, maybe sometimes it ain’t so random?”
She paused, and she continued.
“The wyrm ain’t stupid, and…. an’ tonight proved that. We ain’t that different, they’re jus’ as capable of plannin’ an’ executin’ as we are… and…”
Another break.
“What if we’re just under siege? An’ we’re all constantly fightin’ these kinds of fights because they’re tryin’ to keep us from lookin’ at the big picture or a bigger plan. What if… what if we’re jus’ being distracted?”
[Joss Lehrer] “You can ask me anything, Marrick.”
The fire extinguishes, and she nods, slightly, pleased as she surveys the result, despite why it was necessary. Marrick gathers her trophies, and Joss moves to the dead Gnawer’s side. She doesn’t shift or pick her up just yet, instead she watches Marrick, and listens.
She takes a breath, and nods, slightly. “It’s a valid question. They’re not stupid – they’re just on the other side. I think often we get lost in the…” she gestures vaguely “things we fight, that we forget about what directs them to come this way. Those guys were likely a pack, just like ours, with strengths comparable, and clearly the ability to cut us down, one by one. We would be making a mistake to think that being of the Wyrm equals brainless.”
A beat.
“I think that is a very, very good question, Marrick.”
[Marrick] “You want to know what’s fucked up?” she asked, “before we came up on them, they were having a conversation. Poking fun at one another, saying this city had potential, and I know that I’ve had that conversation before. There is something that they saw in this city, and we can’t ignore that.”
She sighed, then looked at Sheridan. She cocked her head to the side and was content to try and think her way through this. What was going on? What could they do now.
“How do we know? And then, how… how do we inspire the sept to act? They’re lookin’ at things retroacively, not dealin’ with problems until they become problems. Look at the moots, we dredge up issues to bear ’em all in front of the sept instead of dealing with them when they come up. They ain’t gonna deal with anything until it is breathing down their damned necks and- ugh!”
Despite the lack of rage, it was nice to know teh Fury could still get angry about things.
[Joss Lehrer] How do they know… how can they find out.. how can they be sure. Joss remains crouching by the body of the fallen Gnawer, and braces her forearms on her thighs, hands clasped lightly by her knees. She takes a breath, her brow furrowed, slightly.
“I can see about sending some spirit scouts, see if there’s something that triggers them, that suggests activity more than the norm. Gathering information, if there’s anything to be gathered.” and by the tone of her voice, she’s almost sure there will be something found. Somewhere. “I can talk to those here in the city, the rats and the cockroaches, and see if they’ve heard anything along the wires. I’ve spent the time getting to know the Spirits here – if anyone has a chance of getting them to talk – I do. It might take some time, but if you like, I can get started on that, in between the other duties.”
Joss does a lot. Some would say too much. She works herself into exhaustion, sleeps, recovers, does it again. No one in this sept could say that she does not do her duty as Theurge Elder, that’s for sure. She is a talented Godi, who goes the extra mile.
“As for inspiring them to look beyond the past, and our city limits…” She shakes her head. “That’s a difficult one. I’ll start some recon, and see if I can’t get you some proof to lay before them. If it exists, we’ll find the spirits that can discover it.”
[Marrick] She nods. It’s something solid. The Fury inhales slowly.
“I’ll get back to you on this… after we get to the caern, we’ll need to stop by the Brotherhood.”
[Joss Lehrer] She nods, slightly. “Just say the word, and I’ll get started.” And then shifts to Glabro, and slides her arms under the form of their fallen, and lifts her, cradling her close. She nods for Marrick to take the lead – and follows her back to the Caern.
And the Brotherhood.
[Marrick] (I’m calling it, thank you Lessa!)