We left our heroes in the courthouse parking lot ...
The bailiff looks thoughtful, as if trying to remember something. Then he makes a very clumsy attempt at a Judgment hand-sign for "verification?" Much too much flex on the thumb, and the fingers don't wiggle properly; it could be judgment hand-sign for "wet pig alert!" but this is unlikely.
Keiel gigles a lot and hand signals that they're a true Triad.
Yuriel takes Buzz's arm, to lead him away.
Keiel then signals that the wet pig sure sounds like fun, though...
Yuriel says "Keiel!"
The bailiff looks blankly at Keiel, but then nods. "Never thought I'd see one of you guys," he admits. "Be sure to get the prisoner back to jail eventually."
Yuriel mutters, "And she says *I'm* easy!"
Buzz's eyes widen. "Hey!"
Keiel winks at the Bailiff, sniffs at Yuriel and then follows.
Yuriel takes Buzz out to the parkinglot, and looks around for their car!
Buzz protests, weakly, as he is led away, "I demand that you take me back to jail! I have rights!" The bailiff simply shakes his head and wanders back towards the courthouse. As for cars, there is one fairly blackened sleekmobile at the edge of the parking lot; its license plate reads, "3x6 EYES"
Keiel says "Woo."
Keiel pounces the car.
Yuriel says "Hey! I get to drive!"
Yuriel says "I called dibs!"
Yuriel says "No fair taking the wheel when I have my hands full with a prisoner!"
Keiel hrms. "True. It wouldn't be..."
Yuriel throws Buzz at Keiel! Well, pushes him, really.
Keiel catches Buzz and pops him into the back of the car...
Buzz stumbles into Keiel and falls somewhat dazedly into the back.
Keiel flows into the back with Buzz.
Yuriel hops into the front seat and fires it up!
The car, a Z3 in mint condition before getting fried by explosion backwash, starts up, choking for a moment before settling into a steady hum.
Little colorful patterns shimmer in the front windshield where the inside of the plastic melted a little.
Yuriel will just have to drive fast enough to blow the soot off!
Keiel says "Pretty."
Yuriel says "Keiel! You melted our car!"
Yuriel hmphs as she throws it into gear and ZOOMs out of the parking lot!
11012 Scenario Lane is the first address on the list, with the names Michael Weather, Lois First, and their old adversary (possibly! if she's changed her first name) Jennifer Routine.
The car ZOOMs!
Yuriel thinks it's probably her sister.
Yuriel doesn't drive straight there, though. First she drives up into the hills (curves!) to someplace where Buzz can be dangled over a cliff head-down.
Yuriel takes all the curves at top speed!
Keiel wheee's happily.
Buzz's eyes roll back in his head.
Buzz slumps limply against his seat, wobbling back and forth as the car rounds the curves.
Keiel hrms at Buzz.
Keiel kisses Buzz to see if he wakes up.
Buzz, a prim and proper Seraph, simply faints further.
There is a strange catch in the steering wheel, a momentary resistance that comes up every time it's turned left more than a little bit.
Yuriel says "No wonder you gave in on driving!"
Keiel drats and slaps Buzz gently to try and get him out of the faint.
Yuriel imagines that there might be something inside the mechanism that turns the wheels that resists when it turns past a point -- or something inside the steering wheel. But if it were a bomb, it would have gone off at the first such turn, wouldn't it?
Yuriel will check the car when they get to the cliff.
Yuriel watches Keiel's antics disapprovingly in the rearview mirror. "I thought you were supposed to tie him up before you started beating him!"
Keiel says "I'm not beating him up. I'm just trying to get him to wake up!"
Keiel says "He's not supposed to faint, I don't think..."
Buzz makes a small moan. He buries his head in his hands.
Yuriel says "Seraphs can't take speed."
Keiel says "Oh."
Keiel says "I didn't know that."
Yuriel screeches to a halt at a scenic overlook, in a huge plume of dust and gravel!
Buzz's eyes distinctly do not open. But they are more amenable to the option, now, then they were a minute ago.
Keiel petpats Buzz carefully.
Keiel whees with the screeching halt.
Yuriel scrapes long black hair out of her eyes. "You wake him up! I want to check the steering!"
There is a distinct *click*.
Yuriel pops- leaps back!
Keiel says "He's awake, now."
Yuriel says "It *clicked*!"
Keiel leaps between the click and Buzz.
A hawk screams, no doubt upset by something it ate, and settles onto a wind-stripped branch of a nearby tree.
Keiel peers at the sound?
Keiel hrms.
Yuriel realizes that it was the click of metal snapping, muffled by being in a car.
Yuriel cautiously opens the hood...
Buzz opens his eyes, since it was on his side of the car and Keiel would have had to scramble across him to be between him and it. Of course, it sounded sort of low down, too.
Nothing unusual is obvious under the hood.
A coyote howls in the distance.
Yuriel checks the steering, but also looks for anything broken, where the click came from.
Buzz protests, weakly, "I'm awake."
Keiel nods, "There's just an odd sound, don't want you to get blown up yet."
Buzz says, "I see."
Yuriel crawls halfway into the engine compartment, long legs kicking for balance!
There's a tiny speck of daylight deep in the compartment, on Yuriel's right and the car's left, where part of the bottom of the engine compartment has melted and another part has sagged at an angle into the ground. Something black is vaguely visible from there, although it could just be the dirt shadowed by the car.
A feral-looking cat walks lazily up the road, tail waving.
Yuriel hops out of the engine compartment and looks under the car!
By the left front wheel, a piece of the car's steering system has snapped and sags onto the ground, a little black cube attached thereto.
Yuriel pulls out a magnifying glass and inspects the cube carefully!
Buzz says, uncertainly, "Not that I object to the view ..."
Keiel says "what is it, Yuriel?"
Keiel says "Hrm. You think you can help?"
Keiel slides out of Buzz's way, then.
The cube has no obvious distinctive features, being what looks like a precision-designed thing without outside moving parts, but it does seem to have been seared rather badly by the explosion. There's one place where the black has even melted away, revealing silver metal that radiates a nasty and uncomfortable heat.
Buzz says, "Actually, I was just hoping to get out of the car. But possibly I can." He looks hopeful. "Would you let me go if I did?"
Buzz pushes forward the seat in front of him and climbs out.
Yuriel cuts the cube loose from the bit of car it's attached to, and checks it over some more.
There is a soft, insectile hum coming from somewhere nearby, but not from the cube.
Keiel says "I can't let you go..."
Keiel gets out first, but lets Buzz out to look.
Buzz studies the cube uncertainly. "That's Jeanite manufacture," he admits. "But I'm not certain what it's for."
Yuriel's plasma rifle gives off an unpleasant hum.
Yuriel squeaks!
Yuriel pulls it out and runs the diagnostics, beep beep BEEP!
Something's unbalancing the radiation in the migma cell!
Keiel meeps!
Keiel's gun seems to be vibrating slightly, but is not quite up to a hum yet.
Yuriel sets the cube down and backs away!
Keiel steps back away from the cube...
Keiel asks Buzz, "What's it doing?"
The diagnostic firmly insists that the background level of migma radiation is increasing, although not as quickly now that Yuriel is away from the cube. Of course, migma radiation isn't only dangerous in connection with plasma rifles; it'll do unpleasant, explosive things to iron (and steel) and certain other materials, given long enough ...
Another hawk plummets out of the sky to a tree branch nearby.
Keiel peers about at all the wildlife.
Yuriel grabs a rock and chucks it at the cube, knocking it over the edge of the cliff!
Yuriel rolls the dice and gets 1.
Keiel hrms and does the same, since Yuriel is doing it...
Buzz says, "I don't know. It's ... glowing?" And he's right. The place where the silver is showing is ...
Two rocks collide with the cube, and it skitters to the very lip of the cliff! Then the hum grows louder, and a cloud of bees, like some phobic's nightmare, begins to rise from the cliff behind it!
Yuriel tosses another rock to knock the cube over!
Yuriel rolls the dice and gets 5.
Keiel meeps.
The humming of the bees grows louder, into a thunder, and that thunder becomes words. "Servitors of Judgment," it begins.
Keiel blinks and peers at the cloud. "Uhm... yes?"
Yuriel squeaks!
The rock hits the cube, which is now glowing fiercely, and it tumbles off the edge. The bees move aside with either a dancer's grace or with contemptuous ease, depending on how you look at things, and let it fall. "I would have words with thee," they continue.
Keiel says "Sure."
Yuriel runs the diagnostics on her gun again, without really looking at it.
One second later, before the cube could even have hit the ground, there is a cracking noise, like a branch of an ancient oak splitting in half, from the air below the cliff.
Keiel says "Zow."
Keiel does not go to look.
Then a glow and searing light and a backwash of heat explodes upwards from below the cliff's edge.
Yuriel squeaks and jumps back!
Yuriel says "Wow! I didn't know it would do *that*!"
Bees spiral helplessly skywards, sideways, forward and (for some) down -- singed, some few, and baked, many others.
Yuriel winces. Jordi's not going to be happy about that.
Buzz says, helpfully, "I didn't do it."
No one appears to be listening to Buzz, however. There is silence, and the bees do not recoalesce.
Yuriel looks around at the other wildlife.
Keiel sighs quietly.
The feral cat and the falcons make no overt move. Perhaps they are not hosts, but merely came to honor the Kyriotate.
Or, perhaps, they are evaluating the Dirty Triad's reputation. Hard to say.
Keiel grins.
Keiel says "Can you fix the car, Yuriel?"
Yuriel goes over to the cliff and peeks over the edge.
Yuriel says "Oh, sure. it's not *too* messed up."
The ground beneath the cliff has turned to slag. Most of the cube survived, but it seems to have split in two, and the silver has been bleached clean of the insides; a few spots of glowing stuff sit in the empty black halves.
Yuriel says "My."
Buzz says, thoughtfully, "Perhaps Jean is not happy with you?"
Yuriel says "We never did anything to Jean!"
Keiel thinks quietly, "Or the person pretending to be Jean?"
Yuriel says "...much."
Buzz considers. "I am sure it could be worked out. He is not an unreasaonble man."
Yuriel says "Yah, you said it didn't really sound like Jean!"
Keiel says "I mean, if he sounded odd."
Yuriel goes back to fixing the car, burrowing into the engine compartment with her rear sticking up in the air. "Did you get a recording of the message?"
Buzz reflects. "There are only four people who could pull off an impersonation of Jean -- well, I mean, in voice, and in technological design, and ..."
Keiel listens carefully.
Buzz says, "Technically, no. However, I am myself something of a recording device."
Buzz says, "I could show you the memory, if you liked?"
Keiel says "Cool."
Keiel says "Yeah."
Keiel says "I'd like that."
Yuriel looks up from her work!
Keiel guides Buzz over so that Yuriel can see to... whatever he's going to do.
Yuriel perches on the edge of the engine well, long black hair flying in the wind, and watches attentively!
Buzz nods. There is the faint whoosh of a point of Essence being spent, and then a passionless voice, with the power of a storm and the dust of ages in it, recites, "Bezek, servant of Lightning. You will be assisted. Do not try and escape or summon your plane until two angels appear in the courthouse. It is almost inevitable that you will recognize them." In Buzz's outstretched hand, there is a black crystal -- it looks like a celestial recording device -- that shatters when the recitation is complete, and then turns to dust, and then fades away into nothing.
Keiel says "Oh."
Keiel says "Hrm."
Keiel says "We could be your assistance then?"
Yuriel notices that it does, in fact, sound like Jean. Except that the pauses between words are wrong. Like videotape spliced by an *excellent* technician.
Yuriel says "That sounds wrong. Like it's spliced."
Buzz says, almost amused for a moment, "I do not think that you would be my assistance. Unless the word has been redefined."
Keiel says "Uhm.. dunno. What are you trying to do?"
Yuriel says "Hey! We're lots of help!"
Buzz shrugs. "My assignment is pedestrian. I am managing a team of local scientists working on the Human Genome project."
Yuriel says "Managing for or against?"
Buzz looks faintly offended. "Neither, except in Role. I am observing the scientists and preventing infernal influences."
Keiel says "He's likely right, we're not really good at that boring kinda stuff."
Yuriel says "But we're good at eliminating mysteries!"
Keiel says "True! Blowing 'em right up."
Buzz hesitates. "Yes, well, rather."
Yuriel says "We don't blow them *all* up!"
Yuriel says "Remember the one that sank?"
Keiel says "True."
Keiel says "And the one that just crashed."
Keiel hrms.
Buzz wonders, "How many did you drop off of cliffs?"
Yuriel says "And some of them burned down... Anyway!"
Yuriel says "Hardly any!"
Yuriel tosses her hair offendedly.
Buzz smiles slightly.
Keiel says "I think that one was good off the cliff."
Keiel says "Or it woulda toasted all of us."
Yuriel says "and I look terrible in soot smudges!"
Keiel giggles, "Quite."
A nearby tree opens an eye, warily.
Yuriel dives back into the engine well, behind wiggling as she chases down malfunctions and ruthlessly eliminates them.
Keiel peers at the tree.
Keiel says "Hello?"
Yuriel looks up again! "Keiel? Who're you talking to?"
Yuriel looks around!
Keiel points at the tree with the wary eye.
Yuriel blinks.
Keiel says "I think it's safe now."
Yuriel says "Of course it's safe!"
The eye winks at Keiel. A moment later, it closes for good, and the tree cracks open just a tad. A young woman in a floral-print dress wiggles out. She does not overly resemble Novalis.
Yuriel tosses her hair offendedly again.
Yuriel says "Hi! Who're you?"
Keiel blinks and looks in the tree for signs of the body...
She looks warily at the three of you, and says, "Hi. I'm, er, an envoy. Of peace."
Keiel peers back curiously.
Yuriel leans forward from her perch and holds out a hand. "Hi! I'm Yuriel, this is Keiel, and that's Buzz, our prisoner!"
She curtseys slightly. "Bishlam. Often called Bishy. I, er, have been sent to, um, examine the premises. For bodies. I mean, besides the, er, whatever the Animal Lord used."
Keiel blinks.
Yuriel says "Bodies?"
Keiel says "Why examine?"
Yuriel says "We don't kill *everyone* we meet!"
Yuriel glares!
Bishlam nods. "And to make sure you don't conceal any of them."
Keiel says "Uhm. Why?"
Bishlam blushes. "I didn't say you did. It's just, er --" She hesitates. "You're Dominicans. You've done the interrogation thing. Do you start with blurting out what you're looking for, or do you try and, I dunno, sly it out of people?"
Bishlam says, "I'm not trained for this. I was just, um, handy."
Yuriel says "We usually find that people are willing to talk to us!"
Keiel says "Very."
Yuriel shimmies her chest and then pats her gun and winks.
Keiel grins.
Bishlam looks relieved. "It's just," she says, "that it's awfully suspicious, what with Eli vanishing, and then some Dominican being seen driving around Jean's personal automobile, and then two of you right by his house with, er, something to hide so big you'd kill an *Archangel's* Vessel." She sounds faintly awed at this last.
Bishlam says, "So I'm supposed to check around. To see if, you know, he's in your car." She peers suspiciously at Bezek.
Yuriel blinks. "That was *Jordi*?"
Bishlam says, "Or around."
Bishlam nods. "Well, the Animal Lord is very concerned. He and the Creator are close."
Yuriel says "Oh my."
Yuriel looks slightly nervous.
Yuriel says "I hope he's not too upset..."
Keiel blinks a lot.
Keiel says "But we didn't *do* taht."
Keiel says "Oh."
Keiel hrms.
Keiel says "That's just Buzz."
Bishlam walks up to Bezek and pulls up one of his eyelids, as if checking for Eli. She waves a hand in front of his face. Bezek simply blushes.
Yuriel says "We haven't seen Eli! But if we do, rest assured he'll get a fair trial!"
Bishlam says, seriously, "You have to take a message to your master. I mean, if you *aren't* --" Her face goes pale at that last.
Keiel says "We'd have to get evidence and stuff."
Yuriel says "If we aren't what?"
Keiel peers at Bishlam.
Yuriel says "Why don't you start at the beginning?"
Bishlam looks frustrated. "I did. First Eli called Jean," and she waves her hand up the road, where only a few houses are, and not really in sight, "and then Eli was gone. And then you showed up here and wouldn't talk to the Animal Lord, and we thought -- well, what if he's not *dead*, but just bound by the Judgment Song of Binding, used by a real expert? He might be anywhere ..."
Bishlam says, "I mean, everyone knows that Judgment and Lightning are like *this*." She holds two fingers together. (Incidentally, neither of the Triad members have ever heard this, and Buzz is looking rather perplexed by it himself.)
Keiel peers at her.
Keiel says "We are?"
Yuriel looks at Keiel and Buzz and visibly bites her tongue.
Keiel says "And you're free to look around if you'd like."
Yuriel says "We didn't not talk to him! He got blown up!"
Yuriel says "It wasn't our fault!"
Keiel choruses with the "It wasn't our fault!"
Bishlam says, kindly, "I know it's got to be some sort of big secret thing, Judgment-Lightning, because Judgment is involved, but there's really no point in concealing it. I mean, come on -- it's not just the car. There was a Triad seen three days ago *summoning* Jean."
Keiel blinks.
Bishlam looks somewhat skeptical at the denial of responsibility.
Keiel says "Zow."
Yuriel glares at Bishlam.
Keiel says "I didn't know we could do *that*!"
Yuriel says "I'm sure they had a good reason!"
Bishlam says, "You couldn't, unless he was working with you!" She looks triumphant.
Keiel says "Uhm... then why didn't I know it?"
Yuriel says "Or unless one of the Triad was a Jeanite assigned to help a Triad with an investigation."
Keiel is looking tremendously perplexed.
Bezek points out, hesitantly, "Not that I object to the notion of collaboration with such fine angels as the Dominicans, but what exactly would the *point* of working with them be?"
Yuriel looks sideways at Buzz and gives a wiggle.
Bishlam says, self-satisfied, "That is what I'm here to discover." She walks over and starts peering into the car windows and the trunk.
Hiatus between sessions. Yuriel verifies that Z3s have trunks, for holding missile launchers and chilled champagne.
Bishlam pokes around in the trunk, studying the missile launchers and chilled champagne.
(Someone was thoughtful!)
Yuriel leans over her shoulder. "Keen!"
Yuriel grabs the missile launcher! "Dibs!"
Bishlam starts to open the champagne.
Keiel grabs the other as there were launchers!
Yuriel says "Hey! You shouldn't open the champagne until Keiel scores!"
Keiel says "Hey!"
Bishlam hesitates. She looks suspiciously into the bottle, no doubt for signs of Eli.
Keiel blushes furiously.
Yuriel grins angellically at Keiel (grinning impishly would be treason!). "But it would help find Eli!"
Bezek offers, "I am sure that Ser Jean would not do Eli any harm."
Yuriel says "It's your *duty*!"
Keiel sighs.
Keiel says "Just open the bottle, Bishlam."
Yuriel says "Eli called Jean on the phone?"
Bishlam casts a suspicious glance at Bezek. Mm *hm* say her eyes. Then she pauses. "I don't think that you can summon him that way," she says, thoughtfully. "If only because, well, do you realize how many calls he'd get?"
Yuriel says "Okay, so he really did summon him. Where did Jean go then?"
Bishlam blushes. "I mean, er, the other way, you were talking about."
Bishlam says, "But Lightning has an unlisted number, I think, in any case."
Yuriel looks at Bishlam as though she's making no sense.
Bishlam conks the champagne bottle against the car, breaking off the bottom. She has an expression as if she is being very clever and avoiding obvious traps for unwary Flowers Servitors. Champagne fizzles out into the trunk and onto the ground. One of the falcons flutters away again.
Yuriel says "hey! Don't waste our champagne!"
Keiel says "You *wasted*... aaww."
Yuriel says "That's *Judgement's* champagne! You have to fill out *forms*!"
Keiel says "And the car!"
Yuriel says "Well, the car needed cleaning anyway."
Keiel whirls over to look at the car where Bishlam conked it.
Keiel says "Is that a dent?"
Yuriel peers at the car!
Bishlam says, "In any case, Eli *did* summon Jean. The lightning bolt went right down the chimney into the fireplace. One of the Animal Lord's spotted it."
There is a very small dent.
Yuriel scowls at Bishlam.
Keiel growls very softly.
Yuriel says "Keep talking!"
Bishlam says, "And then the lightning bolt went back up the chimney into the sky, and when Novalis went to check on --" She makes a slight ulp, and bites her lip.
Bishlam says, "Anyway, he wasn't there, and he wasn't at his Heart, and he didn't leave through the door -- he was just *gone*."
Yuriel says "He Jean or he Eli?"
Bishlam says, "Eli."
Yuriel says "He probably just went to a party."
Yuriel says "Okay, why are you looking for Eli?"
Bishlam paces. "It's --" She wiggles her fingers. "It's a Word thing. His Word is tied to those of the Animal Lord and my Bright Lady. We can't afford to be out of contact. Not that we can keep track of him all the time, but --" She shrugs. "When there are events that sort of cross the gap, it's like a *connection* forms. Except, one happened, and it didn't happen."
Yuriel says "What event are you thinking of?"
Yuriel . o O ( I'm trying to make a Flower child make sense. Great. )
Bishlam smiles. "There's a small scrub bush in Nebraska called demorian. It recently experienced differentiation, producing a bush that we think will be hardier and more likely to evolve intelligence eventually."
Yuriel says "That's taking the long view."
Keiel says "Zow."
Keiel says "Uhm."
Bishlam beams.
Yuriel says "And so Eli should have showed up for this great event and didn't?"
Bishlam adds, "We're all very excited about it."
Keiel orbits about the Z3.
Keiel says "Should we be checking out those addresses, Yuriel?"
Yuriel leans decoratively against the Z3, watching Bishlam.
Bishlam shakes her head. "Oh, no. But he would have been *noticed*, if he were okay."
Yuriel says "Hm."
Bishlam thinks. "Like a brain notices when you poke its foot."
Keiel peers at Bishlam, "So what does any of this have to do with our mission and what we're doing?"
In the distance, up the road, there is a fountain of blue sparks, reaching upwards like a Roman candle on end, easily as big around as a swimming pool, possibly even a house.
Keiel peers at the fountain.
The boom hits a moment later.
Keiel sighs.
The Earth only shimmies a little, but the sound is pretty whole-hearted.
Keiel says "Is that a poke?"
Yuriel jumps!
Keiel jumps into the car, dragging Buzz in with...
Keiel assumes that Yuriel has fixed the darned thing enough...
Yuriel dives for the driver's seat!
Bishlam blinks, and looks at it. "A poke?" she wonders. "And I don't know what your mission is --"
Bishlam looks around in confusion.
The Ofanim make it into the car, complete with the Seraph prisoner.
Yuriel says "Wait, did we want to interrogate Bezek more?"
Bezek mutters, "Urp."
Yuriel twists around to look at Bezek!
Outside the car, Bishlam is starting to realize that the Ofanim are no longer standing around outside.
Bishlam follows this up by looking suspicious, and darting for her tree.
Buzz seems mostly to be urping because he was thrown into the car at Ofanite speed.
Yuriel leaps out of the car, across the intervening space, and nabs Bishlam!
Keiel says "We need to get to that explosion."
Keiel says "Dangit."
Successful nab!
Bishlam yelps. "Hey! I'm an envoy!"
Yuriel pins Bishlam's arms behind her back. "You're not going anywhere until we get to the bottom of this!"
Yuriel says "Well, now you're evidence!"
Yuriel pushes Bishlam back toward the car.
Bishlam stumbles towards the car, muttering, "You cannot suppress the people forever! Flowers are meant to be free!"
Bishlam is shouldered into the car.
Yuriel says "We'll get you a nice vase."
Yuriel says "Keiel, I think they should sit in the back. That'll keep them from going anywhere."
Keiel pushes the seat forward.
Yuriel says "I know you wanted to get Bezek in the back seat, but I think this is safer."
Yuriel looks perfectly innocent.
Keiel growls quielty.
Keiel slides into the front seat after they others get into the back.
Done.
Yuriel . o O ( If I embarrass Keiel enough, maybe she'll give him up and I'll get a chance! )
Keiel hrmphs!
Keiel grins.
Yuriel hears no dissent, so zooms back down the mountain and around all the curves to Scenario Lane!
Yuriel can zoom even faster because the car works right now!
Scenario is an innocent-enough looking Lane, with innocent-enough looking houses. There's something funny about 11012, though. And, at that, there's something funny about the house across the street, 11013.
11012, Yuriel concludes, is definitely not made of wood, even though it *looks* like a wooden A-frame. And there are some interesting things where the deck attaches to the house that look suspiciously like joints. Keiel may not notice much of this, but she will probably see what looks awfully like a gunport through a high window. 11013, Keiel observes, is twisting, ever-so-faintly -- sort of like a heat wave were in front of it, sort of like the house was writhing. Its windows have a definite hungry glare to them, which last Yuriel might also notice.
Yuriel says "I have a bad feeling about this..."
Keiel meeps at 11012, "Is that a gunport?"
Yuriel says "I think so!"
Yuriel keeps driving past, not too fast for a residential area.
Keiel watches it as they go past and a bit further on.
There are two cars parked in the driveway of 11012, whose license plates read "JUDGE" and "JURY".
Keiel says "Hey, Buzz, does anything about that house look familiar to you?"
Buzz looks uncertain. "Which house?"
Keiel blinks at the cars, "Hey."
Yuriel recognizes the cars?
Keiel points out 11012 to Buzz.
Yuriel says "And, what was our license plate?"
Keiel says "The cars, Yuriel, they say JUDGE and JURY, isn't that supposed to be one of ours?"
Keiel says "Or Game."
Keiel hrms quietly.
Yuriel says "Could be, or could be Comedians, or just whacked-out mortals."
Keiel says "I really get a bad feeling about this."
Yuriel says "No, they skip straight to EXCTNR."
Buzz peers at 11012.
Keiel grins at Yuriel.
Buzz hazards, "It's metal?"
Yuriel says "Why would someone build a house out of metal?"
Buzz starts to say something, and then stops.
Yuriel says "And then put tacky fake wood veneer over it?"
Yuriel says "Keiel, he's being stubborn."
Buzz says, "I can't speak with any certainty about the motives of people building a house I've never seen before."
Yuriel says "What were you going to say?"
Bishlam says, "Wood is murder."
Yuriel hand-signs to Keiel, "lean on him".
Keiel says "Then speak with uncertainty."
Keiel says "Percentages if you like."
Keiel says "As to your uncertainty."
Keiel says "Postulate.
Yuriel . o O ( Keiel speaks Jeanite! )
Keiel grins and wiggles at Buzz.
Buzz twists uncomfortably in his seat. "Well, it is difficult to build
any complicated machinery *out* of wood, although normally you would
just build it *into* wood -- for a house."
Yuriel drives to the end of the block, turns the corner, goes down a
block, and slides the car between two others along the curb.
Keiel says "And you've seen it now."
Yuriel says "So maybe that's not a real house?"
Yuriel twists around to peer around her seat at Bishlam. "Have you ever
been here before? Do you know who might be in those houses?"
Bishlam shakes her head. "I'm -- not usually on Earth assignment."
Buzz looks, suddenly, like he's had a revelation.
Yuriel look at Buzz!
Buzz says, "JUDGE. That was the license plate of the Dominican Malakite
who was bothering me about two months ago."
Yuriel says "Bothering you?"
Keiel says "What was his name?"
Buzz says, "He did not bring it to the fine art you two have
mastered."
Keiel beams.
Yuriel says "Why, thank you!"
Buzz thinks. "Michael Weather."
Yuriel twists a little further so Buzz can see a lot more.
Buzz nods. "That was the name he gave."
Michael Weather is one of the names of the fake Dominicans in 11012.
At least, Dominic said he was fake, and he's a Seraph. Though, of
course, so is Buzz.
Yuriel says "Buzz, how do you know he was a Dominican?"
Yuriel says "or a Malakite for that matter."
Buzz blushes.
Buzz says, "He was distinctly a Malakite. And -- he had the proper
documentation, and hand signs, and wrote down weird notation while
interviewing me, and so forth."
Keiel thinks quietly.
Keiel says "Uhm. Was it notation like this?"
Yuriel says "But you only assumed he was with Judgment?"
Keiel scribbles a bit of real Judgement short hand.
Yuriel looks to see what Keiel wrote.
Buzz considers. "I am a Seraph. He could not lie to me successfully.
Nor did the handsigns seem false ..." He studies the shorthand. "There
is a general resemblance, although the actual notation was
different."
Yuriel says "But did he *say* he was with Judgement? Or did you just
assume?"
Keiel wrote ithat she thinks we might
want to tell Buzz that the Domminicans are under suspicion.
Buzz considers. "To be precise, they said that they were a Triad come
to investigate allegations of heresy and insubordination."
Buzz adds, "And 'acts against the natural order of Heaven.' Whatever
that means."
Yuriel says "Who was with him?"
Buzz says, "An Elohite and a Mercurian."
Buzz says, "At the time I thought them an atypical Triad."
Yuriel says "Did they give names?"
Yuriel says "Can you describe them?"
Buzz nods. "Jennifer Routine and Lois First. -- Role-names, of
course."
Keiel says "So just a Triad, not that they were actually of
Judgement."
Keiel thinks quietly.
Yuriel handsigns to Keiel, "Should we be hang around watching them for
a while, or just go right in and tell them we're here to assist them
and ask for a full report?"
Buzz considers. "Mr. Weather was tall and lean, with longish gray hair;
Ms. Routine was sort of flat-faced, middle-range tall, and has short
black hair; Ms. First was -- well, a Mercurian. Very much so."
Keiel handsigns back, "We should go in with the Seraph, I think and see
if we can catch them in a lie, too."
Yuriel signs, "But we can't tell if *he's* lying."
Keiel. o O ( We're Ofanim, what do you mean hang around? )
Keiel signs back. Oh. Right.
Keiel says "is there a way we can tell if you're lying, Buzz?"
Keiel says "Just general inforamtion."
Buzz blinks at Keiel.
Buzz points out, "I'm a Seraph?"
Buzz adds, "You have seen my celestial form."
Keiel says "True. Hrm."
Yuriel says "Seraphs *can* lie."
Yuriel says "They just get Dissonant."
Buzz says, frostily, "Ofanim *can* tie themselves to an anchor and
throw themselves off a boat, but it is rarely done."
Yuriel says "Sometimes it beats the alternatives."
Buzz shrugs.
Yuriel says "Anyway, some Ofanim like that sort of thing."
Yuriel looks pointedly at Keiel.
Keiel misses it for a moment, "Hey!"
Keiel says "Do *not*!"
Yuriel grins.
Keiel says "Okay. Buzz. Our mission was to look into some folks that
were pretending to be Judgement. That's them. Do you want to help us
catch them?"
Yuriel scowls at Keiel.
Yuriel looks pointedly at Bishlam.
Yuriel gives Bishlam the Penetrating Judgement Look, in fact.
Buzz admits, "I cannot summon up much enthusiasm. I will attempt to
help, however, on general principles."
Bishlam wilts.
Keiel says "Cool, then."
Keiel peers at Bishlam and Buzz.
Keiel looks for Discord.
Keiel rolls the dice and gets 7.
No Discord -- but a very strong tendency towards destructiveness in
Bishlam. Plus a sort of Lustfulness hanging in the air.
Yuriel says "You'll come along and keep your mouth shut and not do
anything stupid. Right, Flowergirl?"
Keiel blinks at Bishlam quietly.
Bishlam says, "Yes'm."
Keiel handsigns to Yuriel, "There is Lust Discord in the air and
something way destructive about the flower girl..."
Yuriel signs, "Maybe you're getting somewhere with Bezek! Destructive
how? Self-destructive, or outward?"
Keiel handsigns, "Outward."
Keiel handsigns, "Leave her here? Or tie her up? Or something?"
Yuriel signs, "Bring her, so we can keep an eye on her."
Yuriel pulls out her gun and cycles the diagnostics absently. "Okay, so
we're going in and tellling them that we're here to take over their
case, and we need a complete briefing."
Keiel nods.
Keiel slings the rocket launcher over her shoulder and checks her gun
as well.
The guns have mostly recovered from the cube.
Yuriel cycles the migma cell down and back up. That should clear it.
Keiel cycles and sets it back into her holster.
Yuriel . o O ( Fortunately, gamma rays don't bother Vessels. )
Yuriel says "Okay, shall we go?"
Keiel then signals Bishlam to go ahead of them to the door... and puts
Buzz between Yuriel and herself...
Keiel says "Hyup."
Yuriel leaps out of the car, without opening the door.
Keiel opens the door for herself and the others...
Yuriel attempts to look perfectly natural walking down the street with
a plasma gun.
Keiel doesn't even have to try to look perfectly menacing walking down
the street with both plasma gun and rocket launcher.
The others leave the car and Bishlam goes towards the door. The rest of
them follow -- of course, it's a bit of a walk, around from where they
parked to where the house is -- and then Bishlam gives off a little cry
of joy and presses her face against the wall beside the door.
Yuriel says "What *are* you doing?"
Keiel blinks.
Bishlam says, "It's *beautiful*."
Keiel says "What's beautiful?"
Bishlam waves her hands at it. "I mean, can't you *tell?*"
Yuriel looks the house up and down.
Yuriel . o O ( This is the house that's not made of wood, right? )
The house across the street is writhing a bit more obviously now.
There are many shapes vaguely visible through the closed blinds. It
manages to seem far more menacing than the simple non-wooden house
Bishlam leans against.
Yuriel keeps an eye on that house too!
Keiel meeps quietly.
Keiel says "No, I can't."
Keiel says "What is it, Bishlam?"
Bishlam says, "It's hard to explain. It's like -- the house is just a
perfect *instrument* for -- it just resonates with me somehow."
Yuriel says "Instrument for what?"
Yuriel gives Bishlam The Look again.
Bishlam wilts slightly. "Did you want me to knock?"
Keiel signs, "Bad sign if she's aching with Destruction..."
Yuriel signs back, "No kidding!"
Yuriel says "Instrument for *what*, Bishlam?"
Keiel eyes the surroundings a bit nervously.
The shapes in the upper windows of 11013 slowly begin to drift away,
passing through doors into somewhere else in the house. There is a
faint heat drifting from that side of the street now. Bishlam says, "I
-- mean --" She offers, hopefully, "Movement?"
Keiel sighs quietly, "Knock."
Buzz glances thoughtfully at Bishlam.
Bishlam knocks on the door.
Keiel peers at Buzz.
Yuriel glances at Buzz?
Twenty seconds later, a man who could only be Michael Weather, unless
he was some other Malakite with a similar Vessel, opens the door. He
surveys the group. "Yah?"
Keiel murmurs to him, "What was the Truth behind what she said?"
Keiel murmurs to Buzz...
Yuriel smiles brightly! "Hi! I'm Yuriel and this is Keiel, and we've
been assigned to take over your case!"
Michael scowls at Keiel and Bishlam, and then waves the group in.
Yuriel doesn't get scowled at? She flutters her lashes, then.
Malakites, yum.
Keiel gets scowled at! She flutters her lashes then. Malakite, yum.
Yuriel . o O ( Great minds run in the same gutter! )
Yuriel does not let Malakite beefcake distract her from keeping an eye
on whacked-out Novalites, though.
Michael Weather says, roughly, "I have received no such notification
from Dominic."
Yuriel says "His Discernment is busy, so he just sent us."
Most of the ground floor of the house is one room, although the back is
sealed off. There don't appear to be typical A-frame support beams.
There is a loft. In a pair of comfortable-looking chairs are a couple
of women (or female Vessels) going over some papers on the table
between them. The flat-faced one glances up.
Yuriel undulates her way in, though, and smiles at everyone
impartially. Well, okay, more at the Malakite.
Keiel peers at the Malakite for Discord.
Michael Weather says, "I see." He hesitates for a long moment.
Yuriel says "So we'll need a complete report!"
Michael Weather says, "I'm sure I can find something for you to do."
Keiel blinks.
The Malakite reflects. "Yes," he says, and smiles. "Certainly."
Yuriel says "I don't think you understand. We've been assigned primary
responsibility for the case."
Yuriel says "*We* find things for *you* to do."
Yuriel's smile indicates that she's already thought of several things
for Weather to do.
Keiel nods at waht Yuriel says and looks at the Malakite curiously.
Michael Weather looks faintly amused. "As you say." He glances to the
Elohite. "Dominic has, apparently, sent us these angels to direct our
efforts regarding the movie."
Yuriel looks the other two over.
Keiel peers at them, as well.
Neither of them *look* like Margaret Routine. But they do match the
descriptions in your files and from Buzz.
The room is starting to get hot. Which is odd.
Keiel peers about to see where the heat is coming from, if she can.
Yuriel fans her cleavage with one hand. "You keep it hot in here! Any
reason?"
Michael Weather gestures you towards the dinner table, which has chairs
around it, enough for four. "Sit, sit. These other two?" His nose
wrinkles again as he glances at Bishlam.
The heat seems to be coming from behind the group --
towards the door, which presumably Buzz or Bishlam closed behind
them.
Yuriel says "They're assisting us in their areas of expertise."
Yuriel perches on the edge of the table, long legs swinging.
Michael Weather glances around. "Dominic must be concerned indeed if he
requires seven people for this assignment."
Keiel walks back towards teh door to check out the heat.
The Malakite admits, "Perhaps this is wise."
It has risen about twenty degrees outside since you entered.
Yuriel says "Perhaps! Why don't you go on with the report?"
Keiel opens the door to take a look outside.
Yuriel is not actually oblivious to the heat; she just wants the fake
Triad to be paying attention to her.
Michael Weather steeples his hands. "There is a chance," he says, "that
Jean may be at risk of Falling."
Yuriel thinks he's lying.
Keiel peers outside to see if she can see the source of the rise in
temperature.
There seem to be a lot of shapes in the
downstairs windows of 11013. Like, the ground floor of that building is
packed. And ... there are a few half-visible figures clinging to the
roof. They resemble Calabim and Balseraphs in celestial form.
Yuriel gives Weather the Look.
Keiel says "Michael! Yuriel! There are Bals and Calabim on the roof
acros the street!"
Michael weathers Yuriel's look calmly. "There is evidence," he
explains, "that Jean is directly and indirectly involved in a project
of Nybbas'."
Keiel yells that into the house and takes off across the street to bang
on the front door...
Yuriel slides down from the table and draws her gun!
Michael Weather glances back. He nods sharply to the two other
"Dominicans" on the chairs and runs for the door. A knife appears in
his hand.
Yuriel lets everyone run out the door ahead of her, so she is behind
them all.
Michael Weather yells, "Get *inside*," at Keiel as he races out of the
door himself. The other two "Dominicans" make a dash for the door in
the *back* of the room.
Keiel does not get inside, she races for the far side of the street to
try and bang on the door...
Bishlam and Bezek look confused.
Yuriel snaps, "You two stay here!"
Yuriel follows the other two through the back door.
There is a sudden ringing in the Symphony, a clamor building, like
Symphonic disturbance escaping a Song of Celestial Shields. It's
radiating from the house. And then the Earth bucks like an untamed
horse, just as the Elohite and Mercurian and Yuriel make it into a room
at the back of the house -- a room filled, interestingly enough, with
what look to be controls for some kind of machinery and screens
displaying the view from, hm, probably this house.
Keiel yells at Michael, "What *is* that?!
Yuriel looks at all the gadgets!
Keiel almost loses her footing, but catches herself against the door
she was pounding on. Which opens a moment later, from the inside. The
Elohite and Mercurian, running full-bore through a different door, are
thrown by the "earthquake" into the wall beyond them. Bezek and the
Flowers girl simply lose their footing. Michael whips off a Song and
night-black wings sprout from his shoulders as he bounds towards the
house. And then Keiel sees, through the open door, what looks very much
like a whole *roomful* of very unpleasant looking people. And no small
number of demonic shapes. Michael snaps back at Keiel, "Mech!" as he
half-flies, half-scrambles for the roof ...
Keiel blinks at the entire roomful of unpleasant looking demonics...
The only person we have yet seen who looks better than the Dirty Triad
is standing a ways into the house. He's wearing jeans and no shirt, and
he is smiling.
Keiel slings the rocket launcher off of her shoulder and aims it into
the house.
Yuriel rolls the dice and gets 15.
It seems likely that Yuriel, without Michael Weather's prompting, graps
that the house is, er, a transformer.
Keiel fires.
Keiel rolls the dice and gets 9.
Andrealphus rolls the dice and gets 1.
Yuriel piles into the pilot's seat and converts the house into
Balseraph-squishing mode!
With speed only an Ofanite could manage, Keiel gets the rocket launcher
up and fires before the horde boils outwards (which is looks like it
was considering.) As Keiel staggers backwards from the recoil, the
rocket roars into the house, and the drop-dead gorgeous man casually
snatches it from the air. He smiles, and starts to turn it around, and
pulls his arm back. That's when he rolls a 1.
Keiel dives away!
As 11012 Scenario Lane uproots itself and grows giant metal legs, its
deck separating into giant arms and fists, the rocket in 11013 explodes.
In 11013 Scenario, where the demons were, there is a *nasty* boom.
Michael Weather barely manages to backpedal away from the house before
it splinters and fireballs. Many of the demons inside are gone, and the
gorgeous guy is missing half his body (although he doesn't seem to have
given up the ghost quite yet.) Unfortunately, a number of them were in
celestial form, and were untouched therefore by the purely physical
violence ..
Soot slowly rains down on the street. Celestial demons pour towards
Keiel, Michael, and the transforming house. Yuriel notices a button
labelled, "Celestial Defense."
Yuriel pushes the button!
Many of the demons take on corporeal form as they roar towards the
protagonists. Many of these corporeal forms have vicious Numina Corpus
active. A good number, still in celestial form, splatter off the metal
of the house as if it existed on the celestial plane.
Yuriel powers up the PA system, and cues the Song of Devastation!
Keiel runs for the transformed house!
Yuriel scoops Keiel up in one metal hand!
Keiel says "Hahaha!!"
Keiel starts using the plasma gun on the corporeal demons from the
giant metal hand!
The half-a-gorgeous guy staggers forward and waves his hand towards the
house. A Song rages from him.
Andrealphus rolls the dice and gets 1.
Well, a Song whimpers from him.
One leg of the house cracks.
The plasma gun takes out a handful of demons. The half-a-guy winces,
closes his eyes, and starts to fade away.
Yuriel aims the speakers at the halfaguy and lets loose with the Song
of Destruction!
The fading guy is dissoluted, fraying like wet paper instead of
conveniently dripping into celestial form!
Two demons drop into the hand with Keiel. The leg of the house is
starting to give way.
The ground where the half-a-guy was dissolutes!
Keiel kicks one demon and fires the plasma rifle into the other!
Yuriel watches as the expanding, flaming vortex of the Song devours the
neighborhood like a swarm of actinic locusts!
Yuriel makes the housebot kneel before it topples!
Keiel giggles a lot.
The demon, kicked, falls off the hand and thunks hard into the ground.
The plasma shot misses, and roars into the house. Yuriel doesn't see
it, from her room, or where it hits, although a klaxon starts to
sound.
Yuriel checks the status displays! Anything major hit?
A small display reads, proudly, "Migma core disrupted."
Keiel grumbles and punches the other demon in the hand, if she can.
You say "Sure, go ahead."
Keiel rolls the dice and gets 11.
Yuriel shuts down the migma core and goes to emergency backup power!
The demon is knocked back into the house, tearing through the metal
wall (well, with her resonance, Keiel *did* roll a 21) and slamming
into a bank of equipment behind it!
A small display reads, proudly, "Migma core offline."
As the demon goes thunking through the house, the display adds, "Backup
power system disrupted."
Yuriel attempts to use the last bits of energy in the power
conditioning system to get the housebot into a stable position so it
won't fall into the maelstrom!
Demons with NC: Wings swarm into the house through the front door.
Keiel blows her hand off and tries to take out more demons with the
plasma gun.
Yuriel engages the internal defense systems! Which have no power. Buzz,
clink, thump.
What with the explosions in the street, and one demon accidentally
crushed underfoot, the only demons left are two outside, which Keiel
picks off easily, and five pouring inside. A small display reads,
proudly, "Backup power system going critical. 20 seconds."
The display changes to 19 as the credits roll.