Skyscraper Graveyard IC: Renaissance City

[Anarion]

Tessen found Jack in the kitchen sipping coffee from a small cup. He was wearing a mustard yellow suit with a white shirt and a thin black tie.

"Morning." He smiled at her over the cup. "Sleep well?"

She smiles. "As well as could be for getting to bed just before 4:00 A.M. I was thinking that we shouldn't be so unprepared for spirits next time around, and I don't know anyone better than Kurosawa to teach me about them. Since I'm heading out there, I thought you might want to come so we can ask about that nameless person too. Also...I...uh...I need a ride." *bites lip and blushes*

[the_druid_droid]

Turing wandered into the kitchen as Tessen and Jack were talking, dressed once again in his usual suit-sans-jacket uniform. Today his shirt was a pale lavender. He poured himself a cup of coffee and filled a bowl with cereal and milk.

Moving to the table, Turing dug into the food, letting the others finish their conversation before offering his own greetings around a mouthful of Generic-Os. "Morning everyone. Happy to be brain parasite free, I trust?" He smiled for an instant, then his seriousness returned.

"Actually, I was thinking about all that business last night just before bed. It seems like I'm missing out on some of the best magey-wagey things around here, and I'm starting to think it's because I can't see spells in the same way you can," Turing pointed his spoon at Tessen.

"That's why I'm going to sit down with you and Amun until I can figure out how it is you do what you do, once we all get time." Turing's grin resurfaced. "In the meanwhile though, I've got a Seer or two to meet. Anyone fancy coming along?"

[Anarion]

Anyone fancy coming along?"

"Oh, um, I have a meeting too. But, Jack, you should go with Turing instead. We can always go see Kurosawa later. It's not that important..."

[the_druid_droid]

"Hmm?" Turing made a questioning sound around another bite of his breakfast, before taking a drink of coffee and clearing his throat. "No, you should figure out what's going on with that junkie. I'll see if Amun is interested - he can be my other set of eyes, although I'm not actually expecting there to be much trouble from Slade himself. The other Seers, maybe, but in that case we'd all be in hot water."

[Tiki Snakes]

"It's nice sometimes to be in demand." Jack failed to keep a straight face, distracting himself with a sip of coffee. After a moment, seriousness returned.

"Well, I think we have time to visit Kurusawa, Tessen, though we'd have to watch the time if you're going to be ready for your appointment later. I did say I'd go and listen to the long version of what's going on with our patient."

He spent a moment trying to gauge what Turing would make of that as an arrangement.

"If you'd rather have us ready and waiting as backup, you just have to say the word. This one is your meeting, Turing, so far as I'm concerned it's your call to make."

[Deadly]

Amun wandered into the kitchen as the last one, dressed as always in more clothes than one person could need in one day. It did seem to contain less blood than last night, but otherwise nothing seemed new here.

He leaned against a wall and listened to the other three.

[Anarion]

Tessen's face breaks into a broad smile when Jack says they can visit Kurosawa. Tessen drinks a glass of orange juice and has a piece of toast while Jack finishes his coffee. Then she grabs Jack by the arm and begins to hurry him to the car, eager to get going.

[i.e. I am ready to head to Kurosawa's]

[Tiki Snakes]

Having barely emptied his cup of coffee, Jack is stolen bodily. Cup spinning slightly on the table, Jack is dragged across the room.
"Uh, call if you need us, Turing. We'll come running."

Jack is bundled into his own car pretty shortly. He doesn't really put up any kind of fight, admittedly. He delays only long enough to pick out a blank cassette with the word "Japanese Stuff" written in biro on the side and put it in the Firebird's cassette player.

He breathes deeply for a moment, turns the music up and they set off for Kurosawa's, the noises of Detroit muffled beneath the sounds of the traditional japanese shakuhachi.

[Thanqol]

Kurosawa's ridiculously out of place temple-shrine was much the same as yesterday. The Mages made their way up the steps, across the bright purple and gold fuzzy doormat and bling-chair to be greeted by the street samurai himself. He lead them out the back to a rock garden - elegant but marred with the occasional broken bottle and dirty syringe that had been carelessly tossed over the fence.

"Right, I need you fools to sit down and open your minds. We're gonna be talking about some Upstairs stuff today," Kurosawa said.

[the_druid_droid]

Turing finished crunching his way through the bowl of cereal and settled back with his coffee cup as the two younger Mages headed off.

"So, Amun, want to join me in the little trip to visit Slade? I'm assuming everything will be fine, but it's always reassuring to have someone down the block in case the Exarchs rain fire down on us, or whatever it is they do to the unfaithful." A lopsided smirk pulled at Turing's features as he spoke.

[Deadly]

Amun sat down and took a small bowl of cereal himself, nodding while chewing. "Sure. Best be wary, though," he muttered. "You never know with these brain mages and Seers. So what's the plan?"

[It was Cyprus who wanted to see Tessen alone, Slade had no particular demands like that, right?]

[Thanqol]

[It was Cyprus who wanted to see Tessen alone, Slade had no particular demands like that, right?]

[That is correct]

[Anarion]

"Right, I need you fools to sit down and open your minds. We're gonna be talking about some Upstairs stuff today," Kurosawa said.

Tessen bows. "Of course Kurosawa-san. I'm hoping that I can learn the basics of spirit magic today. I didn't like feeling so powerless against something we couldn't see directly." She bows lower, then looks up and smiles warmly at him before following his directions and sitting where directed.

[Thanqol]

"Right, that's second. Sit down, shut up, and listen. Close your goddamn eyes. Listen. All right.

"Okay, listen to more than just the own sound of your wheezy-ass voices for a minute. Up there in the tree there's some fracking little birds, going cheep-cheep. Listen to the fracking little birds. Good. Listen to the sound of the kami fountain splashing, get your mind all zen and crap. If you listen real close you can hear the sound of some chick doing a donkey show in the sex shop next door.

"Cheep fracking cheep. Splash splash. Eey-ore. Eey-ore.

"Don't worry about the spider. If it walks across you without biting you that means you're lucky.

"Anyway. Shut up. Listen. Focus. Open your goddamn minds. This is about names.

"See, the Silver Ladder has this trick, see, and they don't share it around. They've got this old guy, named Reichstag, who shows up whenever an important or trustworthy Ladder dude is going to be a mom or a pop and he tells them about how to do it. Basically it's a technique that makes sure their new baby Awakens, one hundred percent.

"I don't know how to do that, but I know that it can be done, and I know a lot of old Ladder dudes know how. And I also know the important thing isn't that you're doing it on a baby but that you're doing it on someone who hasn't been named yet. And if the Nigerian back in the house hasn't been named yet then he's a potential Mage, so long as you can find out whatever weird ass ritual the Ladder does.

"There's two alternatives. One is Kitch's plan; that's all kind of weird mental complicated and I'm not going to disrespect the man by trying to explain it. The other is just to give the dude a normal name, and then he'll get up and walk away. Probably as a new person, but still a Sleeper."

[Anarion]

Tessen remains still and quiet, waiting to see if Kurosawa has anything more to say, and listening to all the sounds he's opened her mind to hear, though she doesn't think of them in quite the same terms as he does.

[Thanqol]

"Well? This Nigerian's your catch, you get to pick what to do with him," said Kurosawa.

[Tiki Snakes]

"You say Kitch has an idea of what to do...does that mean Kitch is in on this?" Jack asks after a moment's thought.

[Thanqol]

"You say Kitch has an idea of what to do...does that mean Kitch is in on this?" Jack asks after a moment's thought.

"I haven't told him nothing, but we've talked about the theory of nameless people before at meetup. He's got this idea to... like, make it into an avatar of humanity or something? I don't know, it's all based off Mind magic and Astral stuff and I can't really get my head around it."

[Anarion]

"Well, awaken him, of course. If it's within our power to do it, I believe we have a duty to do so. I'll consult with the Silver Ladder here in Detroit as soon as I can."

[Tiki Snakes]

"Huh. It would almost be appropriate, in a sense. Not a particularly funny joke though. I'm not sure I like the sound of that as a plan."

Jack sat in thought for a moment, before continuing.

"Any idea how we'd go about getting our hands on the ritual, or is that up to us to figure out?" Jack started, but by the sound of it, Tessen not only agreed quite strongly with the idea but had already half-way-aquired the ritual, in her own head.

[Thanqol]

"All right. I've looked into this Ladder thing a bit, apparently the last guy who was able to do it was some dude named Flect, round abouts '02? Apparently back then, he and ten other Ladder mages were big names in the city and were hustling to get the Heirach out of power amongst other things. Then most of them died and Flect went missing. He's probably the only guy in-state who knows the trick, unless you find him you're going to have to get someone out of town, though I dunno how that works for you Ladder guys.

"But seriously, at least hear Kitch out, I wouldn't want to turn you off whatever it is he's thinking by explaining it bad."

[Anarion]

"Well, we'll him him out, of course. I did want to study a bit of spirit magic too, if you're willing to teach me."

[Thanqol]

"Oh, s'right. S'right, them kami and stuff. Hold tight, this stuff gets weird fast.

"Okay, first off everything you know is complete crap - that step's easy, you're Awake, you've been there before.

"Next part is getting all the screaming out of your system. I'ma going to open your eyes to the Spirit World and you have to spend the rest of the day walking around able to see it and get over how crazy everything is. Remember most importantly that everything you see there can hurt you, but they can hurt you if you see 'em or not.

"Third part is when you're done that, you've got to learn how they do. That part's super simple to get but really tough to be.

"You'll owe me for this, but nothin' major, doesn't take me super far out of my way. Sound good?"

[Anarion]

"Oh, s'right. S'right, them kami and stuff. Hold tight, this stuff gets weird fast.

"Okay, first off everything you know is complete crap - that step's easy, you're Awake, you've been there before.

"Next part is getting all the screaming out of your system. I'ma going to open your eyes to the Spirit World and you have to spend the rest of the day walking around able to see it and get over how crazy everything is. Remember most importantly that everything you see there can hurt you, but they can hurt you if you see 'em or not.

"Third part is when you're done that, you've got to learn how they do. That part's super simple to get but really tough to be.

"You'll owe me for this, but nothin' major, doesn't take me super far out of my way. Sound good?"

"Would it be a problem if I have an important meeting later today? I could come back tomorrow too...or I could do it today, whichever you think is better."

[Thanqol]

"Would it be a problem if I have an important meeting later today? I could come back tomorrow too...or I could do it today, whichever you think is better."

"Shorty, it's your reality, you can live in it for as long as you want," said Kurosawa.

[Anarion]

"Shorty, it's your reality, you can live in it for as long as you want," said Kurosawa.

Okay, I'll, just deal with it. Let's do this now.

[Thanqol]

"Then see it for what it is, yo," said Kurosawa, clapping his hands.

The world -

- wasn't the world any more.

The sky was dark and sunless and purple, crackling and rumbling with a thunder that followed no lightning -

- she could feel the pulsing heartbeat of the tentacles that wrapped around her body, extending from her mobile phone and plugging into her mouth and ears -

- she could see the squat, hunched, filthy sex shop, soaked in sweat and constantly screaming -

- she could see the ruined tenement next door covered with enormous cockroaches, gnawing away at the exterior of the building -

- she could see the huge, eight-armed samurai standing behind Kurosawa, holding swords and SMGs and a demon face mask that sent a shattering blast of heat at her -

- she could see the crackling as bright blue men sprinted along the power cables. Some of them were hanging from their necks, strangled by illegal power lines, feet twitching -

- she could see vending machines on the street corners, big and boxy with stubby legs and baseball caps, trays full of white powder, blood, and broken syringes. There was a corpse in the road and three of the machines were ruthlessly and mechanically stomping it into a bloody paste and lapping at the blood with fat, red tongues -

- the Buddha glared down at her through his sunglasses from the shrine, and cocked his assault rifle warningly -

- everything was alive, and everything was a nightmarish monster. Nowhere she looked was safe. Everything was alive and everything was hideous and everything was hostile.

[Anarion]

Tessen had thought she was going to scream. She had been ready to scream. A good scream can relieve stress sometimes.

She didn't scream though. No, this was, this was...this was...this...was...th..is...w...

For anyone watching, Tessen is still breathing, so they know she's not dead, but that's pretty much the extent of it. After looking around, she shuts her eyes and goes absolutely rigid and perfectly still.

[Thanqol]

"Your problem," said Kurosawa, patting Jack on the shoulder and walking inside.

[Tiki Snakes]

Jack shrugged at Kurosawa as he left, as if to say what's a guy to do?
It wasn't the most surprising turn of events, he knew what Tessen would answer the moment Kurosawa asked.
"Tessen? You in there?" Jack said, lightly laying a hand on Tessen's shoulder.