Samangaluf's hut coalesces around Jake, complete with bean bag chairs, several teacups, many gags, and Samangaluf. More properly, ex-Samangaluf, as he is sprawled on the floor with a broken teacup by his foot (he seems to have tripped) and a huge slice right up the middle of his spinal cord. Of course, he'll no doubt be back in 5-6 days.

The Malakite is nowhere in sight.

There's a lot of blood, and it doesn't match the carpet very well.

Jaakobah sighs at the body of the Seneschal and picks up the shards of teacup. He disposes of that properly in the trash bin, making sure to keep the blood off his suit. He checks to make sure the stove isn't on, and steps out - once again over the body - the door to his truck.

The truck is empty.

(The Malakite, incidentally, sounded to be around nine to twelve Forces when she arrived.)

Jaakobah is unconcerned. It's not his problem, after all. (self resonate)

Jaakobah searches his truck for signs of, say, bombs.

No obvious bombs. Underside, under the seats, in the glove compartment, all the common spots - none.

There's a key and a map on the passenger seat, however.

Jaakobah picks up the key and the map. And checks them out.

The map appears to lead from the Tether, two local landmarks, and Jaakobah's Role's office to a house in Pleasant Valley. It takes the form of thick black lines along streets on a Pleasant Valley city map. The key is just a brass key. Neither appears to be a relic.

Jaakobah ahs. He can "Get a hint" such as it is. This is, apparently, a hint, and it means to go over to said house.

Jaakobah climbs into his truck and starts it, hoping it doesn't blow up or Malakim don't jump out and try to talk to him. The cleaving he can deal with, it's the conversation which jars him.

The car starts. No Malakim appear.

Jaakobah decides to, well, follow the map. Look, the Balseraph can follow directions. Watch him jump through hoops of fire. Watch him get into a car with 25 circus midgets. Watch him do something incredibly dumb!

Jaakobah believes he is smart enough to outsmart whatever is at the end of this map.

Off in the city, visible only as wiggly dots, a few things fly corporeally up into a cloud. Meanwhile, the truck progresses along the roads in inimitable fashion, into the heart of town, which has light traffic at best, off into a little development called "Even Pleasanter," and up to a small, pretty, and sturdily built house.

A little spiky snail is crawling up the mailbox post.

Jaakobah stops his truck, climbs out, and eyes the snail before taking in a big breath of good clean air. The place looks safe enough, and innoculous enough to bring about the Son of God.

The snail is very very spiky, with all kinds of strange protrusions, although none go any further out from the body than a normal shell would. It's very pleasant to look at, strangely. One could look at it for hours.

Jaakobah stops, entranced, and stares at the snail. He thinks distantly of squishing it.

Jaakobah . o O ( It's very very spiky. )

Surrounded by warm fuzzy feelings and watching the pretty wonder of the snail, it's only natural that Jake's eyelids would start to grow heavy.

Jaakobah starts to sag toward the curb. But dammit, he can't seem to take his eyes off the snail. He tries, and he tries, and he thinks about squishing it under his boot and jumping up and down on it, but it's so warm and fuzzy.

The spiky snail turns around and starts crawling towards the ground.

A small flea hops over to wait at the bottom of the mailbox.

Jaakobah sits down hard on the curb, happy thoughts dancing in his head, a key in one hand and a map in the other. It's... it's... man.

A bee buzzes quietly over and waits at the bottom of the mailbox as well. The spiky snail goes crawl, crawl, crawl. Then, for just a second, the sleepy feeling fades, as in that instant when you jerk your head off the desk and say, "I'm awake!"

Jaakobah jerks himself awake, and away from the curb. What the hell was he doing?

A grasshopper joins the small group at the base of the mailbox. It moves stiffly. The snail crawls marginally faster, in a race to reach the ground before Jaakobah gets completely away.

Jaakobah struggles backwards, starting to pull himself onto the grass to get away from... the warm happy fuzzy feeling. There can't be anything good there.

The bee limps up into the air and swirls around to hover menacingly between Jaakobah and the grass. It looks -- dead.

Jaakobah decides that this is definitely NOT good. Time to get off the grass, Jake, and run for the house. Get up, get up, run, run for the house....

Jaakobah tries to get up and make for the house.

... and staggers to the door, the bee butting impotently against his face.

The warm and fuzzy feeling fades, very slowly, like sleep does on mornings when one doesn't have to get up for anything.

Jaakobah is trying to jam the key he found on the seat of his truck into the lock on the door.

The bee kicks off into the air and flutters back to the mailbox.

The key fits.

Jaakobah turns the key. Kerchunk.

The door falls open.

Jaakobah rushes into the house, slams the door, locks it, and leans on it. Huff huff puff.

Inside is a small foyer and a sunny living room. Everything is tidy, but there is a small amount of dust.

Jaakobah calls out, "Hello? Hellllooooo-hoooo. Anyone home?"

Several magazines are spread on the living room table, and a glass of red wine, half-full, sits by the couch. An arch leads into the kitchen, in which one can see a refrigerator and cupboards. A door in one wall leads -- somewhere or other. There is mud on the indoor welcome mat, and a garishly-colored umbrella hanging on a hook nearby.

There's also a television set and a stereo.

No one answers Jaakobah's call.

Jaakobah breathes heavily, and tries to think Positive Thoughts. Is he thinking positive thoughts? Of course he is.

Jaakobah walks over, inspecting the magazines and anything else that might be in the living room before moving on to the kitchen.

The magazines have such exciting titles as "Modern Christian," "The Journal of Inner City Faith," and "Eucharist of the Mind."

Jaakobah fehs and snorts. He peers around the living room, and tromps into the kitchen. Dominican detective, he is not.

The kitchen is a fairly ordinary kitchen, although sunny and somewhat yellow. There is a window into the yard and a sink and a fridge and a separate freezer and an oven.

The floor and fridge are talismans. The sink is a relic. All at a fairly high level. The floor appears to enhance Running, and the sink transforms the water that passes through it into something else.

Jaakobah blinks. He looks.... confused. He works on thinking happy thoughts.

Jaakobah then walks to the sink and turns it on.

A mostly-transparent reddish liquid with a fine bouquet splashes down onto the dirty dishes.

Jaakobah dips his fingers in it and brings it to his nose.

It's wine.

Jaakobah shuts off the water and takes a step back. He says out loud to himself, "What the fuck is this place?"

Jaakobah turns and... very cautiously, expecting a head, opens the fridge.

Eggs. Milk. A wine bottle. Orange juice. Cheese. Yogurt. Leftover pasta salad. Vegetables.

No obvious heads.

It all seems very orderly.

Jaakobah searches around, and seeing nothing, he steals some leftover pasta salad.

It's a bit old, sadly, but whoever made it was a good cook.

Jaakobah sighs. It's too nasty to eat. He puts it back in the fridge, and closes the door.

Jaakobah then searches the cupboards.

There's a faint shuff-shuff sound from inside the fridge.

Jaakobah freezes in place.

The noise ceases.

Jaakobah resumes his search.

The dishes and plates and such in the cupboards seem normal, except for the wine glasses. Most of them appear to be Seduction talismans.

Jaakobah checks out the stove, just to see how weird it is, making a mental note to come back and take a few wine glasses later for the lady-ahs.

The stove contains some badly burned and old once-frozen french fries, but is otherwise normal.

There's a ting and a soft voice from elsewhere in the house as Jaakobah makes his mental note.

Jaakobah stops, and stands perfectly still. He tries to listen.

It's saying something, apparently in angelic. Then it stops.

Jaakobah thinks, "Shit", and then tries to locate where the voice came from. Which direction, man, which direction?

The voice came from beyond the door in the living room that was closed and is as yet unexplored.

Jaakobah looks around for someplace to hide.

There's a small "glass" door out into the back yard. It swings, and has a screen, and is currently unlocked. It's also a Move Silently talisman.

Jaakobah decides this is a boon, adds this talisman to his list of happy thoughts, and sneaks out the back door to wait until the angels go their merry happy way.

Much of the grass is also an artifact, although of what sort Jake couldn't be sure. His escape is dead silent, there are trees and such to hide among, and a fence if he wants to leave the property entirely, and he would have to walk around thataway to be able to see the mailbox. Birds tweet, but not near him.

Jaakobah does not want to go near the mailbox. He just wants to hide among the nice trees and bushes while the angels do whatever they're going to do and go the hell away.

The Balseraph hides among the nice trees and bushes. Time passes.

Jaakobah waits. Doo doo doo da da da dee dee dum dee. This isn't Funny, this is lame.

Jaakobah thinks about finding one of the angels, cutting off his head, and putting it in the fridge.

The angels stubbornly refuse to materialize.

Jaakobah waits and waits and waits and finally says "Fuck it" and goes back into the house.

The kitchen is as before.

Jaakobah knows where he's supposed to go. Through the closed door. Well, Jake, my boy, think them happy thoughts.

Jaakobah walks over to the closed door.

The closed door sits there.

Jaakobah puts on a big Jake grin, thinks "This will be hilarious", and opens the door.

There's a hall. Doors lead, judging by what Jake can see through their open bits, to a bedroom, a study, and a bathroom.

Jaakobah starts with whatever is closest.

That would be the bedroom. It looks like a couple of people had a wild time in there, actually. Most of their clothes are still there. Some of the female clothing is a talisman of one sort or another; every last piece of male clothing qualifies as extraordinarily multifunctional, right down to the funky-looking watch on the bedside table. (This refers to the clothes on the floor; the clothes hanging in the closet seem normal.)

Jaakobah picks up the watch.

It has a big cartoon Seraph on it, a red background, hands instead of digits, and relatively big black letters reading, "DOMINIC ALARM".

Most of the bedding is talismanic or relic in nature, one might also note; the bottom sheet is almost as impressive in aura as the male clothing.

Jaakobah stuffs the watch absently in one pocket, and takes a closer look at the talisman clothing, trying to figure out what it is a talisman of.

Almost every form of artistry, including skywriting and scarification, is represented; also, these clothes appear immune to muss, resizable, and willing to recolor themselves at random. The jacket can also leap on people it doesn't like and wrap its arms around their necks while going 'raar *raar* RAAR!' a lot.

Jaakobah decides to leave the clothing lying right where it is. He searches the closet and the bedside tables.

The closet contains female clothing. The bedside tables are tidy and have little on them.

The Balseraph can just barely make out a faint hissing sound from somewhere nearby, as he searches the bedside tables.

Jaakobah isn't baffled, he knows what went on - someone had a fun time, and that someone was seriously celestial.

Jaakobah stops, looks around, and tries to locate the sound of the hissing.

It's a small rip in the bottom sheet of the bed. Air is hissing into it.

Jaakobah sticks a finger in the rip.

It's extraordinarily cold on the other side; not ice, not the arctic, not space - something colder. Very painful.

Jaakobah pulls his finger away. Ow.

Jaakobah decides to leave the bedroom. This is all just bad. This whole house is bad.

(Jaakobah is having trouble thinking happy thoughts. :)

A very very tiny spiky thing is clinging to Jaakobah's fingertip. He can't even make out the shape clearly, which is possibly why no warm fuzzy feeling ensues.

Jaakobah makes a gurgling noise in the back of his throat, and rushes to the bathroom. He throws the tap on, with the intention of washing it off while he paws around for soap.

Jaakobah bangs around a bit and swears. Yuck yuck yuck yuck GET IT OFF OF ME.

The force of the water tears it away, and it washes down into the pipes.

Jaakobah pants hard, and sits on the toilet - which has the seat down, and breathes. Breathe in. Breathe out.

The bathroom appears relentlessly mundane, oddly enough. Not even the shower is a talisman of getting clean.

There's a Glade Plug-In by the mirror.

Jaakobah looks at the Glade Plug-In. Maybe it too is some sort of creature from beyond space and time.

The Glade Plug-In smells of jasmine flowers.

Jaakobah pulls the plug-in out of the wall socket.

Tunnels of gray lightning connect the plug to the socket, and the scent of jasmine flowers grows more intense.

Jaakobah pulls a little harder.

It rips away, squealing, and the tunnels of gray lightning fade away, and the power in the house dies.

Jaakobah goes "Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck" and shoves the plug-in back into the socket.

There is no longer a scent of jasmine flowers. Or power. The only light is turned somewhat gray by the thick glass of the bathroom window.

Jaakobah is still going "oh fuck" as he backs out of the bathroom.

Jaakobah turns, and looks around. Okay, the electricity has blown out. He can deal with this. He sees a path to follow. This path means sticking his head into the study, and then getting the hell out of here. Mary Mother of God? Let her stay missing in her wacko house of horrors.

There's a murmur of angelic from Jaakobah's pocket. "Plan noted," it sings muffledly.

Jaakobah reaches into his pocket and pulls out the watch.

The watch finishes its angelic singing.

Jaakobah shakes it.

It sings, "Heart rate normal."

Jaakobah peers at it closely.

It no longer reads DOMINIC ALARM. It now has a picture of a cartoon jogger, and a HEART RATE MONITOR written on top.

Jaakobah shakes it again. Shake shake shake.

It makes no response.

A jangle of disturbance from off in town.

Jaakobah stuffs the watch back in his pocket, and takes a hurried look into the study.

The study looks normal. In fact, it looks downright unused.

Jaakobah looks around at books, papers, anything laying around - if there is anything.

Tax documents from last fiscal year are on the table.

Jaakobah grabs them and stuffs them into the inner pocket of his suit. Fold fold stuff stuff.

Jaakobah then decides to get the hell out of Dodge.

A brief Celestial Tongues note wings its way to Jake's head from a momentarily and unusually loyal friend: "Malakim in the Tethers. They came up. Stay away."

And he is "out of Dodge."

Jaakobah just runs for his truck.

The lights in all the nearby houses have gone out.