2020-09-15 A Strange and Traumatic Day
A Strange and Traumatic Day
Location: Winters Retreat
Date and Time: September 15, 2020 evening
Summary: Something explodes outside, something explodes inside
Mood Music: "Explosions in the Sky" - Postcards from 1952
The trip back to the hills from the disaster zone takes quite a bit of time. Thankfully the Panda has a decent sized gas tank for its size, so it could go at least another hundred miles by the time they pull up in the driveway of the Foreboding Jacobean and into the parking place reserved for Jinny's various vehicles. Sitting there, behind the wheel with the engine ticking over quietly as it cools, Jinny looks over at Luu in the silence and simply leans against the other woman. "It's horrible." she whispers. "Seeing my city like that. So many people hurt...so many killed. She never said there was a danger there, either. It's all so...shocking." Sniffling, she straightens and opens the door, the pure air in the hills - relatively, compared to the city - rushing in, filling her lungs. Looking down at herself, her clothes are grimy from the smoke and she feels...oily. "I think..." she says softly. "I think I need a bath. And some new clothes."
The trip passes in silence, the conversation carried out by the occasional reflections of flame or a draft of noxious smells, and that seems to say enough. As the car pulls into the driveway, the rest of the City has vanished for now, but the sense of it still holds them still. Seatbelt still on, Luu turns to respond to Jinny, but the first word doesn't form more than a slight sound of saliva. "Yeah," she finally agrees after swallowing, "yeah." There's a long pause, an awkwardness that usually doesn't happen between the two, but then again the full scope of this conversation is beyond their control. "Right now we're in that phase where everything we hear will be rumor and telephone," Luu notes to Jinny, "so I don't know what I've heard is true and what's the furthest thing from that, but some of that stuff sounded weird to me. In a few days, we'll enter the phase where the narrative is made into sense, and usually that just means propaganda and disinformation, but the question is who's propaganda. It sounds like the City was either caught unaware, or just knew the situation was bigger than you and held back, but it might be good to speak with her."
Jinny nods numbly, wiping her eyes, the grime from the smoke leaving streaks on her skin, lighter compared to the dark, the tears leaving streaks along her cheeks before she wipes them away, a sooty green smudge left behind. "I'll talk to her and see what she knows and if she can tell me. Even the absence of information is information at this point, and listening not to what is said, but to what is not said, is the big one." She lets out a breath. "I don't like this feeling, Luu. This helplessness. I'm so used to knowing or, at least, having an idea of what the next act is. The next song. The next beat in the story but this...." She gestures to the city. "This is just....bizarre."
Reaching over, Luu puts a hand on Jinn'y s and gives it a little squeeze. "It's always like this," Luu notes to Jinny, her voice soft and reassuring. "Usually we have a specific frame of reference," Luu continues to explain, "a way we order things. Yet there are always unexpected things, always explosions going off. It's just that either they're in the peripherals of our system, little echoes and reverberations that we shutoff as noise in are signal, or they're always in our signal, and we've adapted to that chaos and seen it as ordered. Now there's a jolt and it's up close, and it's a bit shocking, but it's nothing you haven't done before. Same thing, just at a different volume." Pauing for a moment she continues, "I'm not trying to dismiss what happened, I'm just saying that you've already proven you're strong enough and capable enough of dealing with these situations. The shock will wear off, your ears will stop ringing, and it will still have been horrific and senseless, but you'll still find the same beauty and sense in the world." A beat as she adds, "and you got me for whatever you need or whatever you want to talk about."
Jinny reaches up to squeeze Luu's hand, nodding in thanks, but not really saying anything else about it. The city will call when the city calls, or when Jinny goes looking for it. Either way, answers will not be coming for at least the next little while. Luu's words are comforting, although she may not say it aloud, the way she steps slightly closer to Luu, walking next to her with a scant few inches between is enough for her. "I know you're not trying to dismiss it. It's just so face forward and strong that..well, I don't think I could have context for this unless I was in Dresden during the bombing or something like that. A city block evaporating isn't something that's supposed to happen, Luu."
Jinny waves a hand. "I know, I know. I'm focusing on things. I just need....a minute. Or a day. Or something, just to get my brain in order."
Thinking about this for a moment Luu notes, "I think it happens a lot more than we would like to think about. It's just something that's very out of our typical experience here, and I think the idea of it happening is something that we normally shut out of our usual considerations. One of the greatest mercys of being alive is the limit to what we can know or sense at once. It's super real to us because of how close we are to it, but most of the people in the world won't be aware of it, just like we're not aware of most of the other city blocks that get vaporized." Luu gives Jinny's hand a little squeeze and says, "What I mean is that we'll get through this, we'll heal, things will go back to much the way they were before. By that I mean it will stil be chaotic, but we'll have a new structure that makes sense of it, and in getting there we'll mourn the dead and see what we can do to help. There's not much more to it than that. We just need to figure out what we need to do for ourselves first so that we can be of the best assistance, and then do what is needed."
"How did you get so damn smart." Jinny asks with a smile, leaning into Luu, giving her hand a light squeeze as they step into the Chantry proper. "Thank you, Luu. I think I'm going to commandeer your bathroom to take the longest, hottest bath that...." Jinny trails off, catching sight of something in the hall ahead of them. Taking a step back, she flips on the light to reveal....a mess. One of Luu's Mannequins, not the one Jinny destroyed, had been moved downstairs into the main hallway. Pinned to it, stitched to it, running around and through the body and limbs, are several strips and circles of cloth, draping over it in what a child would make if given supplies and the idea that they could make a dress to the best of their abilities.
A little shrug is given to this by Luu, along with a smile and a squeeze of Jinny's hand. "I don't know that I'm smart," Luu responds to Jinny, "but collapsing categories to create new ones and the cycle of all that? Sort of my specialty, and from where I draw my strength and world views. Do it wrong and it's a bit nihilistic or meaningless, do it right? Things become so meaningful they have a hard time keeping up with you. Maybe it's just a defense mechanism, but it's a powerful one that works." Beginning to enter the house, Luu pauses as the lights go on, a bit surprised by what she sees in front of her. "Order and Disorder, Creative and Destructive," Luu notes as she looks around the space, hands on her hips, "they tend to balance each other out." Turning towards Jinny, Luu tilts her head slightly, as if waiting for an explanation from Jinny.
Jinny blinks when Luu turns to her, shaking her head in the negative. "Oh no, you cant think that I....That...that wasn't me! I haven't had a drink in months. I've been with you all day, so how could I have come back and done....that?" She peers at the mannequin again, over Luu's shoulder, beneath one of the hanging lights in the hall, almost like it was set there as a presentation - something that would not be missed.
Keeping her attention on JInny for a moment longer, Luu looks back to the mannequin presentation before them. While admittedly a little bewildered, Luu let's amusement take hold, if she can reframe the vaporization of a city block, whatever this is should be quite easy to deal with. "I don't know," Luu says as she looks things over, "and I'm honestly not sure I want to know. I'm sure we'll never be able to figure out what exactly happened here, and I figure we'll get better stories out of it if we accept that fact." A beat as she notes, "and yeah, I know it wasn't you, the mannequin's still in one piece."
Oh, she's going to keep bringing that up? Jinny rolls her eyes, the city block, for a moment, forgotten thanks to the embarrassment of destroying Luu's Mannequin over six months ago. Still, the one standing in the hall, draped with castaway cloth and fragments pulled from somewhere, is dressed in a patchwork, with every sort of pin keeping it together, including some staples going right into the skin of the mannequin itself. "IT could be lots of things." Jinny says. "A spirit would be what I would lean towards at this point. This is a fashion house, after all. You might have attracted one?"
Taking a step forward, Luu begins to examine the mannequin and it's 'dress.' She takes her time, as if giving a thorough and professional assessment of this obviously amateurish at best assemblage. "I think if I attracted a fashion Spirit," Luu notes, still examining things, "that it would be capable of putting together a dress, or at least demonstrating some competency in fashion or craft. Besides -- " Luu looks up from the mannequin to Jinny, noting, "You're the one that deals with Spirits, you're more likely to have attracted it here than me." Looking back to the dress, she notes, "I wonder if this was a finished project, or one that got interrupted by our return. The place is big enough that this could have been hidden from us, but this is clearly being presented." Giving a slight chuckle as she thinks about this, Luu notes, "Reminds me of your rocket bunny, actually."
That's actually a fair point. A fashion spirit would certainly at least be able to put something together but this? To Jinny this looks amateur and inexperienced at the very best. That's besides the point. "I don't know if it's a spirit at all, though. They generally stay on their side of the veil and we stay on our side with a very rare incursion between, here and there. If that was caused by a spirit, we may have to hire an exorcist or something or, at the very least, go into the umbra and see what's going on because that is not something spirits would do. It's too...complicated."
From a vent, a pair of black eyes watch the pair, immobile.
A nod is given at Jinny's assessment, before Luu finally steps back from the mannequin and looks to Jinny. "I mean, would we have to hire one?" Luu wonders as she looks to Jinny, "Isn't that the kind of thing you do? Maybe there's a difference I don't understand, but it seems within your wheelhouse." Placing her hands on her hips, Luu keeps her eye on the mannequin. "Whatever the situation is," she begins to say to Jinny, "it's a good reminder that we need to put some work into security here, setting up Wards and what not, investigating the space a bit better. I mean, this we can be a bit amused and baffled by, but if this can happen here, then there's plenty of other things that could too, and those are the things that I'd be concerned about."
"A theoretical exorcist." Jinny clarifies. "Just trying to put it into a pop-culture context for some strange reason...I guess I'm just tired from all the...y'know." She waves a hand behind her to indicate the city out there. "I'll get to work on some low-powered spirit wards, focusing on warning us and warning off common malevolent spirits. The last thing we want is a wildfire spirit taking residence in the attic." Luu can almost see Jinny doing some mental math on power requirements. They'll need something that won't tax the chantry's node too terribly much, otherwise that's like cutting off your nose to spite your face. You may be warded, but you're not doing much else. One idea though. "You...could leave a book out on sewing. Just...out somewhere. So there could be a bit of reference material for whatever did...this."
"I think we should make a plan," Luu notes of the Warding system, "figure out what potential threats we might have and what ways we both have to guard things. We can't handle every situation, but if we plan, we can handle the important ones and have some contingencies and other bits that will hopefully be a surprise for anyone trying to mess with us." Luu puffs out a breath to move a strand of hair out of her face. "Seems like a way to perhaps placate it," Luu notes to Jinny, "though also perhaps encourage it. I'm not even sure I have any basic sewing books, I'm like well past that. I bet we could find something simple on the internet. Then I could even use my sewing needle to bind that into a book, help show the multiple uses of the needle and the thread, who knows what may come of it."
The black eyes in the grate follow them as they talk, listening.
"In the morning?" Jinny plaintively begs, probably an act she's putting on, but perhaps not. "We've had a long day already, and setting up wards for a house isn't something that we just want to rush into."
The commentary about the book? "Maybe. But placating it would be good, and encouraging it to do things the right way would be good, too, otherwise you might get a few more of these scattered around the house. And I've already replaced one - I don't think I can afford any more."
A nod is given to Jinny, and Luu agrees, "Yeah, I didn't mean now. I just meant this is something that we should go about in a systematic way. It can wait, it's been a crazy enough day already, we don't need to add any more stress right now. I think placating it would probably be a good idea, whatever it is. I mean, we don't even know this was a Spirit, but putting out a book and not turning this into an issue? Probably the way to go. Don't want to invite the wrath of something you don't understand, but I can deal with giving a mouse a cookie."
