2020-10-04 Getting The Fear
Getting The Fear
Location: Winters Retreat
Date and Time: October 4, 2020
Summary: Fresh blood on the Chantry's front porch
Mood Music: CLIPPING "Nothing is Safe"
"Hey, you guys like sushi?" Jason had the boat too. "The dude, Han, at KazuNori hooks me up with fat handrolls." It was almost like there was a reason they wound up in a chantry together. They were all going to save money eating off each other's plates and drinking each other's wine.
Jason unfolded himself from inside his frankly too-small Prius and dragged out a stack of to-go trays after him. He had pulled on yesterday's tweed jacket over a tank top and a pair of pants that might well have been made out of someone's kitschy discarded tablecloth adorned with smokey hot coffee cups seated on saucers. They were fantastically ugly. Not just a little ugly. -Fantastically.- On top of that he'd mismatched a flip flop with a single lime green Croc. The fact that he'd gotten high before he'd dressed was obvious, but where those articles of clothing came from was a deeper and more troubling mystery still. He gave Jinny a silly, lopsided grin while he ambled around the car toward the door.
Going in a straight line home, despite being what she really, really wanted to do, was the thing she didn't do. While her truck certainly did stick out, in the scheme of Los Angeles traffic, it kind of blended in if she used back roads and didn't rev the engine too high. Still, a trip to the post office that would have taken a half hour ended up clocking in at an excruciating two hours and fifteen minutes by the time she pulled into the driveway. The time spent was doubling back, taking exits, going up the freeway and back again, and watching her mirrors to make sure no-one was following her. That tan Honda? Turned off on Research and she never saw it again. That blue pickup? Followed for two exits then passed when she got off. There were a million threats that she saw in her mirrors and every one ended with something tragic and painful, often with her missing in the desert.
God, what would Luu think if she never came home? No, no, don't think that sort of thing now. Just get home. Get home. Get home.
Finally the familiar streets start rolling under her wheels and the striking silhouette of the Chantry comes into view, a surge of relief washing through Jinny as she pulls into the driveway, the gas tank on its last legs, the truck sputtering to a stop just inside the front gate, where it could close. No matter, that. Grabbing her bag, Jinny ran. Like, literally ran, full bore, towards the house. "Luuuuuu!" she yells as she runs. "JAssssonn! There's a PROBLEM!"
It's hard to tell if Luu is home or not. Her car is not in the driveway, but given that Alison uses it more than Luu does, that means very little. There are no obvious lights on in the Chantry, but that too means little. There's plenty of rooms in the back and upstairs that can't be seen from the driveway. On the porch, there is evidence that someone has been by since Jason and Jinny were last here …
"...You don't like spicy tuna?" He wagered an incorrect guess as he followed her around his car and toward the front door. That was the worst thing he could think up right now, given the quality of Han's wasabi tuna sushimi. He wasn't running. He still wasn't running when he watched her run toward the door and his eyes fixed on the blood there.
And the first thing he thought was 'not again.'
Seventy dollars of choice cut fish hit the lawn.
(Devon Dervish was shirtless and they were smoking cigarettes on the balcony while the punk god aired out a new tat. He and Jason were still tweaking so hard that Jason wasn't feeling the gimme gimme coke itch yet. He turned to the new disciple and explained; "Your body makes it's own go juice. Anything you learn to do on uppers you can do in the moment." Dervish looked like skin stretched tight over a corpse, even then. "When the shit hits the fan," the punk explained through a face full of metal. "Be the fan.")
He didn't remember walking to the back of the car, and when he got the trunk open, he just dropped the keys right there. Dead dudes didn't need keys. They needed Ithica over and under double barrel twelve gauges. Jason still wasn't running as he crammed a pair of red shot shells into the break-action and snapped the weapon together. He planted a shoulder on the door, and used the frame as cover, like in the bad old days.
If there wasn't a problem, as Jinny said...okay, yelled, as she ran up the lawn, there would be another platter of fish from a little dive in West Hollywood that she and Luu frequent. Omakase is her favorite - just sitting and letting the chef put out what's best for the day in the way that it needs to be eaten. Yes, it's a little pricey - which is why it's not done often - but when it is done? Oh heavens, that chef is magickal in the way that he puts fish together with rice.
That's the furthest thing from her mind right now as she hits the gravel at the base of the stairs and skids, nearly toppling but somehow regaining her orientation and enough traction to right herself, running up the three steps in two giant steps to stand on the porch. The blood there, on the ground, is bright. Jewel-like, almost, in its intensity against the whitewashed wood of the porch. It holds her attention for a moment, the closing of the trunk lid behind her and the very mechanical, very obvious sound of a shotgun being loaded breaking into her trance. She whirls, her eyes wide, nearly collapsing when she sees that it's just Jason, but still. Blood. On the porch. That should not be.
"Luu...." she whispers, looking back to him, looking at the door, one hand moving to carefully push on it. God, if it's unlocked she's going to absolutely lose it....
The door slowly begins to creak open, and something lowdown hisses at the two of them, just two small glassy eyes visible for a moment before whatever it is skitters away from the door.
The downstairs is quite dark, but a sliver of light extends downs from the upstairs bathroom. Between this and the light from outside, a few more drops of fresh blood can be seen on the hardwood floor, forming a trail going up the stairs.
With the creature having found a hiding space, the rest of the Chantry is almost eerily quiet. The parts of his brain that handled sentiment and panic and human reaction were all begging for blood and oxygen and processor time while old reflexes and procedures took the wheel. His response to her concern was to hold up three fingers. Then two. Then one.
Jason shouldered through the front door after jamming down on the handle latch and exploded into the foyer in a gust of violent, certain, action. The muzzle of the shotgun swept back and forth through the room across the doorways. His feet moved as if to a practiced dance, leading him to the places in the room where he'd have the most cover as he lined up a playlist of must-checks. Every interior door got a jerky quick peek of the head before a more thorough checkup. He swallowed as the adrenaline thumped a machine gun baseline in his throat.
From the threshold of the kitchen he turned back, pointed at his eyes, and then the blood trail leading up. 'You see that?' He was asking, via hand signal. The magus hop-stepped backward with his weight on his rear foot as he retreated from the back avenues of the house in preparation to ascend the stairs. There wasn't going to be a 'right' way to do that. The eerie old Jacobean creaked as he began the ascent.
Okay, okay. Deep breaths. Deeeeeep breaths, Jinny. You've got this. It's kind of like when you did the play in Junior High. Yeah, you were only the Maid in Waiting but you killed that one line and you got a kiss from Josie DeCecco in her Princess costume, so that was all around a win. Maybe at the end of this she'll get a kiss from Luu for being brave or something like that? The glassy eyes and the scampering, she noticed, and the fact that Jason noticed it, too, makes her feel a little better. "Yes, I did." she says softly, getting to her feet, her bag left by the door, being careful to not step in the blood, following behind Jason and his shotgun. "Please don't shoot it. We're teaching it to sew. Me and Luu." Yes, in context it makes sense, but to Jason it may sound like she's babbling a little.
She remains quiet, following the trail of blood along the stairs and scrubbing the wall for the nearest light switch. Study. Nope. Stairs. Yes. Dining Room. Nope. Ah, to hell with it. Jinny hits the lights so they can see where they're going, watching the side doors to see if anything comes out before following along.
The downstairs of the Chantry is empty, behind closed doors there is only darkness and an almost unfathomable quantity of shoes and paranormal tchotchkes.
From behind a vent in the wall, the creature silently watches the goings on, remaining still.
"Jinny? Jason? Is that you?" Luu calls out from the upstairs bathroom. Pain can be heard in her weakened voice, but there doesn't seem to be any sense of worry or urgency in her tone. If she was in a dire emergency, she would likely be able to call out to them with her mind, but she does not do this.
"Don't shoot... it?" What did she mean? His eyes went to the vent and he jumped back just slightly, but, to his credit, he didn't blast a hole in the wall. "...The fuck is that? The fuck are you, vent dude?" He finally exhaled a breath that he'd been holding for an eternity, only to perk back up slightly when he heard Luu. He still kept the shotgun in both hands and immediately handy as he called back to the voice. "It's us! You okay? Is anyone here? Besides you?" The Cultist came to a halt and carried on the conversation at shouting distance while shooting the occasional glance at the wall vent to renew the emphasis on his demand for identification.
Relief surges through Jinny at the voice from upstairs, Jinny pushing past Jason and his shotgun in her haste to get to the bathroom where Luu is. "Luu, are you okay? There's a big problem we need to talk about now. These guys, I think they were cartel members..." She pushes through the door.
As Jason approaches the vent, the creature once more hisses before disappearing further into the wall. It can be heard skittering along the metal events for a while, before briefly coming to a stop, and then continuing on aways.
Upstairs in the bathroom, Luu is standing in front of the mirror wearing a navy Celine sports bra, black yoga pants, and high top chucks. Her metallic orange hair along with her pale and clammy looking skin are smeared with an incredible amount of blood and a few chunks of gore, way too much to be all hers. A blood soaked shirt can be seen to the side tossed into a trash bin. There's a large white bandage taped to Luu's right forearm, a circle of blood forming in the middle from inside.
"Kinda?" Luu responds, wincing slightly as she turns to face Jinny. "I was down by Skid Row and I caught a stray," Luu explains, "the woman next to me wasn't so lucky."
"Shit, I'm sorry." Jason called down the hall. "You scared the crap out of us." Jason called down the hallway toward the bathroom while Jinny closed in on the situation. He let the rest of the breath out, and a wave of release flashed through the lens of Mind as he surrendered the spell he'd woven. He leaned over to take a look toward the bathroom door and, seeing shed clothes, he kept a respectful distance. Either that or he was way into peaking into the vent and seeing where their interloper had got to. "...Hey. Hey little guy?" He coo'ed gently. His head went momentarily to the containers he'd left strewn on the lawn. "You like salmon?" He called in the sing-song way you might talk to a cat while he removed the shells from the shotgun and left it propped up on the wall.
"Wait, what about cartel dudes?" A pause, and another half-hearted attempt to peak into the bathroom. "...And are you sure you're okay? The path up here's kinda grisly looking."
"She's not naked." Jinny clarifies to Jason from inside the bathroom. "And we'll get to the cartel dudes in a minute. You got shot, Luu." It's not an accusation, but more of a statement, Jinny wide-eyed at the carnage and the shirt in the trash. "Oh, your poor shirt...you loved that shirt. I guess distressed and bloody isn't going to be the latest thing in Paris, huh?" Yes, she's trying to bring a little levity to the whole situation and really failing miserably. She'll hopefully sit down with Jason and explain what little they know about the unexpected houseguest but, for now, Luu's the important part. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
Scrunching her face slightly, Luu gives a nod to Jinny to confirm that yes, she has in fact been shot. "I'm glad I was wearing my chucks," Luu says as she glances down at the blood spatterings on really the only pair of shoes that are easily or cheaply replaced. Turning her head a bit, she looks to see Rhode, but doesn't wait to actually see him, before calling out, "It's kinda been freaking out. I dunno, maybe it's worried? If so, that's kinda sweet, I guess."
"Is it bad?" Luu asks as she turns back to Jinny, and very carefully pulls the bandage up to show the damage. There's a big chunk out of her forearm, and some bone is visible. It's far from fatal, but probably something she'd want to get taken care of with more than just a bandage. Seeing the wound, now with any adrenaline wearing off, Luu goes paler and begins to faint.
There really wasn't any explanation for what happened next. Jason was 100 sure he'd cleared the gun correctly, and he'd put it up carefully. He'd seen a litany of shit in his day that made him a responsible (and apprehensive at best,) gun owner. As far as he was concerned, and Grace's opinion to the contrary aside, a well maintained kit of untraceable firearms was just part of being a mage the same way that Tass, magic wands, or political disagreements were. So imagine his surprised when the gun slipped from where he'd left it, and discharged a round that he was fairly fucking certain shouldn't have been still seated in the barrel directly into the ceiling. This caused him to fly backwards, arms flailing, into a small slick of blood, which took his Croc in a different direction from the rest of his foot. Conveniently, this placed him nice and close to the opening in the second story railing near the staircase so he could go sliding down it backwards, ass first, to the landing, where he came to a halt with an audible; (even above the ear ringing)
"...Ooof."
The Foreboding Jacobean was a classic example of Victorian construction that managed to survive the great remodeling of several different decades to maintain its façade and outline untarnished. Sure, there was the necessary paint and an occasional replacement of a broken window or something, but nothing to damage the lathe and plaster. That is, until the shot goes off, putting a neat dozen holes in the second floor hallway ceiling, sending a shower of dust and debris from the ceiling to scatter on the floor.
A few moments earlier....
The little whatever-it-is being concerned is admirable, and Jinny honestly thinks they might wake up the next day to find paper towels draped over anything that had blood on it. She shakes her head and comes closer. As Luu pulls the bandage away, Jinny winces, swiveling her hips to take a seat on the nearby toilet. "It's definitely not good. You've got meat missing, Luu. This isn't something you can get taken care of unless Jason happens to have some kind of healing magick locked up somewhere." She catches sight of Luu starting to faint and scrambles to support her when...
*BANG!*
"JESUS!" Jinny shrieks, slamming the bathroom door shut at the sound of plaster splintering from the force of the shot, which leaves her right in the path of the collapsing Luu. She can only watch as her homosexual life partner topples like an ice sculpture on a summer's day, right on top of her!
Getting shot and losing a bit of blood wasn't great, but actually taking a good look at the wound? That really did Luu in. Seeing it she feels a pins and needle sensation begin to run through her body. Her vision darkens and begins to fade, and with a loud bang, everything goes black for Luu.
Luckily, for Luu at least, Jinny was there to break her fall. While Luu managed to avoid hitting her head on porcelain, she did manage to smear Jinny with the blood of at least two different people. The red stickiness of course now topped with off-white hopefully-not-lead paint from the hole Rhode just accidentally blasted in the Chantry ceiling with his shotgun.
Luu is only out for a few brief moments, before her eyes flutter back open again. Looking towards Jinny who she is currently pressed against, Luu wonders weakly, "Did I die?"
In the vents, the critter skitters around frantically, lacking a true understanding of what's going on, but clearly not happy with it. Tonight, someone's material possessions are likely to pay the price via stress crafting.
"You could have been a hero." He heard in the ringing. Long legs and silver hair. She stepped gracefully over him and he could swear he felt the hardwood click of a pair of stolen Ferragamos while Story made her way past him on the stairs.
"Once upon a time." She added as a sing-song taunt.
The front door closed. Or he shook off a mild concussion. Or something. He saw that his hand was reaching up toward the sound of the closed door, but it was too late.
Jason gathered his senses, and sat upright, folded at an acute angle given that his legs were still on the stairs leading up. The Cultist rolled onto his knees and staggered up to standing before checking the back of his head for blood. When he could only attribute what he found to someone else, he seemed resolved to be okay. "The fuck was that?" He asked himself while his self doubt almost manifested into an impromptu Tulpa to chide him for being old and slow and a fucking joke. He stuck his hand in his pocket and came out holding the two shells he'd hoped he'd find there; this was something that would take him some time and theorizing to explain.
Jinny's shirt wasn't expensive, or made of rare materials, or anything like that. What it was, however, was kind of a special thing. The woman who directed her to the Baruti once she awakened for the first time gave her a t-shirt that, at first glance, might have been something of the catholic faith. Two hands with a light in them in black and white but, if one looked closer, one might see the pentagram in the light, the nested circles that go to a single point, and now the giant bloodstain that forever marks it as a part of Luu. Sure, there might be a way to get the blood out but, for right now, it's not important. Dead weight on top of her is still weight. Jinny tilts her head to look at the closed door, the smell of cordite and fallen plaster creeping beneath the door.
"You didn't die." she says from beneath Luu, taking hold of the injured arm and raising it above Luu's head to keep the blood from pulsing too quickly out. "You just fell over. On me." She looks down, not able to keep from smiling just a little. She keeps ending up like this on the floor with Luu. The blood's a new thing, though. She reaches over with her free arm and swings the door open. "That's...we don't know what it is, but it's learning to sew. It kind of scrambles around, and it's not a rat, and it's got black, shiny eyes...and that's pretty much all we know about it."
"That's a relief," Luu jokes, trying to see the humor in the situation, despite her current fragility. Taking hold of the edge of a tub with her blood left hand, Luu slowly raises up from the ground. "My ears are ringing now," Luu notes, seeming a bit confused by the situation, "did I hit my head or something." Standing up, she begins to feel around her head for a bump. It takes her a moment, but she's pretty sure she found it, and then the 'bump' gets knocked loose from her hair. There's a small *splat* as a piece of someone's brain falls to the blood plaster on the bathroom floor.
"I should clean up a little," Luu says, as she reaches for a sponge on the edge of the sink. "Then we should figure out who might be able to help and -- " Luu begins to say, but pauses, staring at Jinny's chest. "Sorry about your shirt," she says, as she looks to Jinny's face with a somewhat dazed 'forgive me?' look.
"Well now we know it doesn't like salmon." Jason called slightly-too-loudly over the ringing in his ears as he tried to compose himself and stagger his way back up the stairs. "...Or it's Vegan." It was LA, after all. "I don't think there's any gluten in seaweed wraps, can't be that." He muttered to himself as he limped toward the vent and collected his cursed shotgun, which was now going in the trash after being thoroughly stripped down. Never trust a cursed gun. Nobody had specifically told him that bit, but he'd sussed it out for himself.
Luu's acting kind of dazed, just like Jinny did after kissing Josie DeCecco so many years ago. The nonchalance that she plucks a bit of someone's brain from her hair and drops it on the floor is just....well...eew? Gross! "Yeah. Let's get you cleaned up and off to the hospital so they can patch you up. Some emergency room or doctor that doesn't ask questions." Jinny sighs and sits up herself, using the sink as a pivot so she can get to her feet. She sighs and pulls off her shirt, her own simple-looking Diesel sports bra a remnant from last night. She was going to shower today - really she was - but things kind of got away from her after the whole post office incident, and with Luu being kind of out of it....it might not be the best time to talk about that.
Jinny rummages around in the cabinet for a rag, wetting it with warm water and standing, moving behind Luu to inspect her head to make sure that she's not leaking some knowledge that she might need later in life or, y'know, to breathe and eat and walk and stuff. "Sit down and hold still." Jinny says softly, carefully cleaning Luu's hair.
Not really having any game plan, Luu turns on the hot water and begins to sponge herself off. It does a fairly decent job of removing the dried blood from her skin, at the cost of blood dilute with water getting on the edge of the sink, and lightly puddling at her feet beneath her chucks. As Jinny returns with the rag, Luu gives a small nod, and agrees, "Yeah, having a seat is probably a good idea." Putting the sponge down on the edge of the sink, she carefully backs up and takes a seat on the toilet, lid down.
"Who doesn't like salmon?" Luu asks, a bit confused on what's going on. "I think one our friends is probably a better option than a hospital," Luu notes regarding the situation, "but I'm not sure off-hand who to call regarding that." Noticing the plastery mess of blood and brain on the ground, Luu looks up to the ceiling and notices the bullet hole. "What the fuck?"
"I'm with Luu. No hospitals." Jason seconded the pragmatic notion. Hospitals had rules and mandatory reporting and police and records and all of that crap. Plus they were probably more expensive than asking a favor of the local druidic priestess. "Where are the Verbena at?"
He took a look over his shoulder as if checking to see if the gremlin was listening in. "Our friend in the wall. I'm like... ninety five percent sure it knocked over my gun." He checked their faces to see if this unlikely story was getting bought by either. "Honest." He insisted, with his hand over his heart. "...I mean, I was offering it fish and it just... I wasn't even touching the gun." The Cultist added.
"Our...friend, I think he's referring to. The sewing one." Jinny says as she studies Luu's scalp. No holes, cracks, chunks, or gouges to be found - just blood from wherever this came from. She's gentle as she scrubs, getting as much off as she can. This really could use a shower but, with the arm wound, Luu might pass out and then getting a naked, bleeding Luu out of the shower is a task that would definitely fall to her. "I can make a call. I...know a guy who does house calls. It'll cost a few hundred and a bottle of scotch, but he doesn't really ask questions and does decent work. My dad called him whenever he needed stitches or something. I mean..." Jinny leans close so Luu can see her hairline and, spreading the hairs and tapping, right there, is a little scar. "Stitched that up when I was nine without too much fuss so I think I could call him. But yeah...a nice local druid or Verbena or something would be awesome. Just..." Jinny blows out a breath. "Why were you in Skid Row, Luu?"
A slight nod is given as Luu hears about the gun and the Gremlin. This of course has her asking, "Why is there a gun out? Does this have to do with whatever you were saying about a cartel when you came in?" Sitting on the toilet in her sports bra with a bandage on her wounded arm, Luu does her best to work with Jinny as the other Angeleno cleans her with a rag. She moves her arms as best as she can to allow for easy access, tilting her head down slightly as well, to allow for bits to be picked out of her hair. Whoever was standing next to Luu must have really gotten it good.
Tilting her head to look at Jinny, Luu says, "Did you see that chunk that was missing? I'm too pretty to not be healed by a Verbena. That would pretty much mean no more tank tops or tube tops, and even a t-shirt would be questionable." Her lifted arms reveal sparse and unshaven armpits, something that has never stopped Luu from wearing such items of clothes before, but a missing chunk of arm is something completely different.
"I was down in the Fashion District," Luu begins to explain, "I went to walk through Skid Row to see what was going on there, and -- " Luu doesn't finish that though, instead jumping to, " -- and after that, I just ran for an alley and -- " With her good hand, Luu weakly wiggles her sparkle fingers.
"There was blood all over the front entryway. And the stairs. And like... everything. I... It looked bad." Jason explained sheepishly from the hallway. "I know the pogroms are supposed to be over but, this sorta... happened to me before, you know?"
(They turned the entryway of the brownstone into a killbox, but the 'Crats had the raw manpower of the NYPD. The front steps were littered with bodies before the first Agent even tried to join an entry team. He could still smell the cordite and see the thick fog of raining plaster. The floor was slick with blood. Jason had thought they were winning, or that you could win in situations like that. When he looked back he didn't understand, at first, why so many were missing, nor why they weren't all running together. He didn't understand why they had sent him away, or what they were buying time for until he'd made it to Damanhur. He didn't understand why they'd run there until they told the survivors they weren't going to help. He didn't understand why until they told him they couldn't, and he realized for the first time that you could be so powerful and still be afraid.)
He swallowed. "I'm sorry. That must have sucked." The Cultist told Luu with sympathetic eyes that seemed to be trying to wrap his head around a danger he couldn't relate to. "Seeing something like that, I mean. Are you sure you're okay? I mean, besides your arm." He was probably just shaken up from the gunshot.
"Don't...don't do that. Not alone. There's stuff down there still that the city's afraid of. I know you're curious, Luu, but I'd really rather you be around and alive than down in Skid Row dealing with..." Jinny finds a bit of bone in Luu's hair, tossing it into the sink with a sound like a pebble on porcelain, listening as it rattles its way down the drain. She sighs and squeezes Luu's shoulder. "Do you know a Verbena who makes house calls? Once you're rested up and healed, I'll tell you about what happened at the post office. I think that we've annoyed someone near Armageddon Highway."
As Jason explains the situation from their perspective, and then explains more of his past experiences, Luu listens to him with a sympathetic look on her face. "Sorry if I gave you a scare," she says to him, "I was planning to clean up, but you two arrived shortly before I did."
"I still need to go to the Fashion District," Luu says to Jinny, as she moves her arms about for Jinny to finish up the cleaning of the blood, "but you're probably right, I should avoid just wandering through Skid Row. I mean, like, especially now with the Conqueror Worm stuff, but it's also not the first time I've had to deal with a gun there, and probably won't be the last. Better to only be there with a purpose and with protection."
Looking herself over, and being about as clean as she can get without a shower, Luu gives Jinny a nod. "Thanks," she says, reaching over to give the other woman's hip a squeeze with her left hand. "I think I know some people we can try," Luu says after thinking about things for a moment, "I'm not sure who will be around, but I'm sure we'll find someone." Grabbing onto the towel rack, she slowly raises up from her seat on the toilet. "Help me get a dress on?" Luu says as she looks to Jinny, "something black, obviously. Then we can take a ride, and you can tell me all about this Cartel situation. Later we should figure out something with our sewing friend, but I might need a bit of rest before we can catch it."
