[Changeling] A Gathering of Mists IC

[Anarion]

The coldest winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco
-Mark Twain, apocryphally

A Gathering of Mists

The OOC thread can be found here.

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The thorns press close. When the hobgoblin said that he knew a route out of the hedge, well, you weren't expecting a broad open road, but you had hoped there would actually be a path. Calling this narrow space between sharp, jagged pine branches a path would be an insult to paths the world over. And one can ill afford such an insult in the Hedge.

However, any doubts you may have had evaporated a few minutes ago when you saw a distant light and a faint glimpse of fog wafting over what looked like worked stone. It faded in and out after that, but you were never in doubt of its direction.

As you push a final branch aside and step forward, suddenly there are no branches. As far as the world is concerned, there never were any branches. Certainly not on a polished marble second floor balcony. Especially not one with such nice worked railings, an old-fashioned post lamp surrounded by trailing fog, and an arched marble doorway next to the finest Corinthian columns.

Beyond the street and a small garden you can't see where you are. The balcony is lit by only the single lamp, and at its other end, about 15 feet away, you see two men who appear to be chatting closely with each other, facing the street, their backs to you. They're both dressed in dark suits, but with the fog and only the single lamp, you can't see much else about them and they don't seem to have noticed you yet.

[Raz_Fox]

Something desperate this way comes; through the tight press of trees that rake and tear, Marchande makes her way, calling out to her friends to follow her, her claws pushing back the thorns that bite at her, her fine suit of a moonlit night whispering silky-soft against her fur. Home. People, streets, music, dinners- no, no, kindness, love, comfort at the end of the day- there, there, the path is there, follow, follow-!

And then she pushes back a branch, wincing as the thorns bite into her hand, and she steps out into the night. The light's almost blinding for a moment, forcing her to blink, and she breathes deeply. Exhaust, and cold night air, and fleeting quiet. The taste of the city on her tongue. She looks back, grinning, with all her white teeth on display. "Home," she says, quietly, hardly able to find the words.

A man shifts, a shoe scrapes on marble; Marchande looks up, her eyes wide, to see two men standing nearby, not having seen the vagrants stumbling onto their balcony. Panic! Runrunrunrun! No, that's the dog- but she is a dog, and the girl of shadows, and the suicidal archangel, and the yellowed doll, and they'll be chased and hunted down, they're not supposed to be home, how can they be home and still be monsters? She still has the tail, the muzzle, the ears, the fur hanging from her wrists and run. No, bad dog! Quiet, be quiet, act like a woman. A woman who just appeared out of nowhere, a woman who looks like a dog- but her companions, they won't see them, they'll blunder out and Stephanie will start talking, and oh no no no not good at all.

She glances back, to her companions coming out of the thorns, and whispers, "Quiet!"

[Thanqol]

Aw man. Back in reality for all of three seconds and someone was already telling her to shut up.

She glanced over the side. Second floor? Why was Marchy worried about this? Clear lines of escape in all directions. No guards. This was easy - oh! Stephanie's eyes widened a little as she realised what March was trying to say. She wanted them to eavesdrop on their conversation!

"Don't worry, I got this!" Stephanie said with a bright smile and in a voice that, while quiet, didn't sound enough like a whisper to reassure anyone that she was taking this seriously. And, like oil across a mirror, she flowed through the shadows, over the edge of the balcony, and upside-down along the lower edge to just below where the men were talking.

[Contract: Spider Foot Style, Catch active (stone surface). No consequences for failure so no activation roll needed?

If you particularly need a Stealth roll, my pool is at 9 before situational bonuses and penalties]

[SiuiS]

Charlotte pushes her way out through the branches behind Stephanie, pulling her hair painfully out of the comb of needles. She absently tries to hold open the way for Kalina - for all the good that has done so far - but the scenery is overwhelming! Everything so bright, vivid, so real, she doesn't notice her arms fall slack at her sides.

The darkness hugging the fuzzy orange of a lamppost, the mists clinging to everything like a thin persian veil, the cool, clear air-

Charlotte coughs, muffling the sound in her elbow's crook. But it is cool at least.

[PhoeKun]

Rearguard of the thorns. Last in line to shield the way. In front are desperate shapes and shadows. Behind are thorns and memories. They rip and tear and catch at cloth and wings, but never damage, never mar. Kalina, flower among the thorns. One, two, three. Kalina steps forward, catches. Stumbles back. Forward one more time.

Rose breathes the clear and open air.

"Quiet!"

"I got this!"

Perfect lips pull thin and grimace. She releases the softest of sighs. And Rose, Kalina, stands and watches the first men she's seen in a lifetime. Quietly.

[Anarion]

The men seem caught up in their conversation and don't notice you suddenly appearing on the balcony, even with Charlotte's muffled cough. Luckily the fog serves as a damper for sound.

Originally Posted by Thanqol

Aw man. Back in reality for all of three seconds and someone was already telling her to shut up.

She glanced over the side. Second floor? Why was Marchy worried about this? Clear lines of escape in all directions. No guards. This was easy - oh! Stephanie's eyes widened a little as she realised what March was trying to say. She wanted them to eavesdrop on their conversation!

"Don't worry, I got this!" Stephanie said with a bright smile and in a voice that, while quiet, didn't sound enough like a whisper to reassure anyone that she was taking this seriously. And, like oil across a mirror, she flowed through the shadows, over the edge of the balcony, and upside-down along the lower edge to just below where the men were talking.

[Contract: Spider Foot Style, Catch active (stone surface). No consequences for failure so no activation roll needed?

If you particularly need a Stealth roll, my pool is at 9 before situational bonuses and penalties]

[That's close enough that you don't need a check to overhear the conversation. Stealth roll at your full dice pool with the sound dampening from the fog counteracting how close you're getting to the men. Don't open the spoiler unless you get a success on stealth.]

Spoiler

At this distance, you can see that the man on the left (relative to the rest of the party, not to Stephanie's new position) is Asian and the man on the right is Caucasian. They're both wearing ties and shirts with French cuffs and fancy cufflinks. Starting with the Caucasion man

"Listen Phil, this debate is not going to end well. You know as well as I do that opposing prop 13 is political suicide. If it ever gets out that our girl wants higher taxes on those rich estates, well, I don't have to ****ing spell it out for you."

"Look, I get that. But it doesn't need to get out. Our line is that the city needs to be more fiscally responsible. That's what we're sticking to: fiscal responsibility. Just tell her to stay away from the tax issue, and if it comes up she should just stick with "everybody pays their fair share." We have to have this debate next week or she'll look like a coward. We both know it."

"Yeah, but goddammit, it's like we're just baring our goddamn throats for the other side. I just

*You hear the sound of several soft chimes going *ding ding dong dong in a descending scale.*

"Oh, the second act is going to start, let's go back back in."

[Thanqol]

[One success. This is the WoD I know.]

Proposition thirteen... Suicide! Taxes on the rich! - Wait. Aw man, this was one of them boring conversations. She remembered these. They were common back here. Maybe they'd - aw no, now they were on about fiscal responsibility. Damn it. Too much to hope for.

The shadows back near the group took on a violet hue, wrapping themselves around the architecture and going taught as they were pulled on. The blonde infiltrator flipped back over the ledge.

"Nothing interesting. Unless any of you are secretly super rich, in which case they're planning to tax you. In the estates." She paused. "On the estates. For your estates. A tax for having an estate." That seemed close enough. "Oh, and we're outside a theatre or something."

[SiuiS]

Charlotte watches as Stephanie silently climbs - oozes, really - back over the landing.

Stephanie is still a cloud of shadows and sprightliness. Marchande (such a clever name!) is still the regal hound. Kalina is still beautiful and terrible. She herself must still be changed as well. On a landing? Outside a theatre?

"We need somewhere to hide..." She moves her hand slightly, indicating the group as a whole.

[Thanqol]

"Hide from what?" Stephanie said. "Opera security? With an open balcony like this we could just leave. It's barely two, three meters down."

[Raz_Fox]

From wealth to wealth. Their surroundings took on new meaning for Marchande, knowing they were at a noble opera house. Luxury, prestige, power- all things that were common back there. Was it any surprise that the path had led here?

A quick moment's deliberation, and she nodded at Stephanie. "We should get down. Find somewhere to hide. Rose, can you help Charlotte down?" Marchande had no idea how she'd get down, but the other three could get down easily. Maybe Rose could catch her if she came last.

[Anarion]

As Stepanie is slithering back, all of you hear the sound of several soft chimes going *ding ding dong dong* in a descending scale and the men begin to turn around.

[If you do wish to remain unseen, you have a turn to do something. Any rapid movement will need a stealth roll. Dice pool will depend where you're moving.]

[PhoeKun]

If this was a time for supposing, Kalina would suppose she was lucky. For the first time in memory, the air is cool and inviting and breathable. The sounds are all soft, business and pleasure and quiet concepts like politics and opera. Luxury and companionship. She is free. Completely and totally free.

And she has orders. Rose tilts her head to lock eyes with Marchande, then tilts her neck to let it crack. She turns to peer at the men again, in their suits with their well-combed hair, soft and happy and talking business. Safe. Her eyes wander to her and. She... would like to touch them. Talk to them. But she cannot. She has orders. Down it is.

Rose turns to Charlotte, stoops just a touch, and takes her into her arms like a newlywed bride. She hops atop the balcony railing, and pauses for one last look at the men. Huge, beautiful wings flare up from her back, kicking up a light breeze. And then, a quick step forward. She drops down.

[Thanqol]

Kalina had the right idea, Stephanie was pleased to note. Stephanie grabbed March - around the middle, she didn't exactly have the upper body strength to sweep her off her feet - and they fell backwards together over the edge of the balcony.

It never occurred to Stephanie that an unexpected upside-down jump off a second storey balcony might cause March to scream.

The violet shadows lashed out in every direction, spinning a web and catching them softly two feet off the ground. They flipped back to an upright position a second later, feet being placed safely on the ground.

[Anarion]

[Okay, that's going to be a stealth check from everyone. The men are at a -2 penalty on their wits+compsure due to the low light and fog. Marchande and Charlotte are making the check to avoid making a noise due to surprise and the fall and are at -1 on the check.

Just the stealth roll, but Kalina should also take -1 to it to represent the extra effort in landing quietly.]

[Thanqol]

[Activating Night's Subtle Distractions; catch met, no cost, 4 dice - 2 successes.

Stealth: 9 dice, 9 again on stealth: 5 successes - exceptional success! Can I translate that into covering someone else's failed stealth roll as well?]

[Anarion]

Originally Posted by Thanqol

[Activating Night's Subtle Distractions; catch met, no cost, 4 dice - 2 successes.

Stealth: 9 dice, 9 again on stealth: 5 successes - exceptional success! Can I translate that into covering someone else's failed stealth roll as well?]

[Yes you can! Would you prefer to help Kalina land and negate the need for that athletics roll, or use the shadows to muffle a potential shout from either Marchande or Charlotte?]

[Thanqol]

Originally Posted by Anarion

[Yes you can! Would you prefer to help Kalina land and negate the need for that athletics roll, or use the shadows to muffle a potential shout from either Marchande or Charlotte?]

[- Team Obvious neither wants nor needs my assistance
- A chance to gag a fellow party member on the first page

Therefore I'll take the shout muffling]

[Anarion]

Originally Posted by Thanqol

[- Team Obvious neither wants nor needs my assistance
- A chance to gag a fellow party member on the first page

Therefore I'll take the shout muffling]

[Results will be described after others have checked.]

[SiuiS]

Charlotte has enough time to start forming the word 'what' before Kalina, unburdened by her weight, springs into the air. Eyes closed, biting her lip she falls, and then...

There is no 'then'. Opening her eyes slowly, heart in her throat, Charlotte realizes they aren't falling - it was only vertigo. She blushes slightly, ashamed that only paralysis kept her from screaming or burying her face in Kalina's hair.

Setting her feet slowly on the ground, she recovers her poise enough to shakily breathe "M... Merci."

[Anarion]

As Stephanie falls to the ground and the shadows lash out around her, Kalina, holding Charlotte cradled in her arms descends slowly to the ground, an angelic light glowing around her wings. However, as the two men head back towards the inner door and pass by the side of the balcony, the shadows lash out further from Stephanie, forming almost a solid barrier above Kalina's descent. Not even a single speck of light reaches the upper level.

In just under 5 seconds, the entire Motley has jumped off the side of the building with the silence of an owl swooping on its prey.

Looking around, you find yourselves on a lawn that forms a small decorative garden, only a few yards long extending from the building. Past the garden is what appears to be a service road leading out onto the street. The road is flanked by two large, ornate gates made of wrought iron bars, which are standing open. Behind you is the building. There is light coming out of a series of windows about 10 yards away from the road, which looks like a glass side entrance to the opera hall. There doesn't appear to be anyone else around.

[Raz_Fox]

Duck into the shadows, Marchande thinks, as Rose picks up Charlotte and bounds from the balcony like a startled bird. No, not a startled bird, like a superhero- stop thinking about birds!

She shifts her balance, ready to slip into the shadows under the lamp, when Stephanie grabs her around her waist and pulls her off her feet, straight off the balcony. Her stomach lurches, and it takes her a moment to stop being disoriented enough to even think about opening her mouth to scream. But she clamps her mouth shut and turns it into a whimper as they near the ground, and even that whimper is muffled by the thick, cloying darkness all about Stephanie.

A sudden lurch, reorientation, and she's on the ground, flustered and ruffled. For a moment she's uncertain what to do, whether she wants to cry or scream in relief or slap Stephanie. She then decides to act like she wants to act, and very carefully reaches up to adjust her suit and smooth it out, glaring at the grinning Stephanie as she does so. Dogs act on their emotions immediately, people make sure that everything is in order and make rational decisions.

Well. They're safe, for now, but they're still all freaks and monsters. They've escaped one danger, but, well, everywhere is danger now. Hidehidehide freak monster dig a hole and hide- rational. Rational consideration. Don't listen to the dog, listen to the suit.

"...we're not safe here," she says, after a moment. "We need to find shelter."

[SiuiS]

"But where will we go, so conspicuous?"

Charlotte looks around with barest turn of her head, letting the routine set in. No pain. No chill, moist air. No heart, fluttering in panic like a butterfly caught in a web in her chest. Just friends, with needs-

Charlotte blinks once, slowly, for all the world like a gecko. Friends? The butterfly in her breast stops its struggles. She has friends, and maybe, she has an idea.

"We need coverings. We need to find a place for Kalina to take off her armour. Are these sound, miss?" She looks to Marchande with a shadow of a smile beneath her stitching.

[Thanqol]

Stephanie took Marchande's failure to comment on the drop to be a sign of approval. Really professional. She'd freaked out way more the first time she'd jumped off a second storey balcony. Marchy was a class act.

"Oh, oh, oh," Stephanie said, "I've got a house! Well, an apartment-y thing, but it's mine, and we can stay there. It's just a little walk thatwayish," she gestured south and smiled brightly.

[PhoeKun]

"You have a house."

Rose blinks. She looks down at her hands again, as well as the rest of her body.

"You. Have a house." She doesn't say the words so much as spit them in the kind of horror and disbelief that can only come from... from... however many years of homelessness. Which is every single one she's been alive for. No one said the world was fair...

Her hands clench into fists. She sighs and drinks in the scenery around her and feels a rush of memories assault her brain. Here, the opera house. Over there would be that one restaurant that used to serve those amazing breadsticks even if you didn't pay for an entree. There's a decent bench for napping there, she thinks, or at least there used to be back then. And wasn't there a park somewhere nearby? She shakes her head.

South. South was... oh. Oh.

"With the appropriate raiment, we could easily be street performers."

Just change the subject, Kalina. It's better this way.

[Thanqol]

"Yeah, I have a house. I worked full time scrubbing dishes to pay for that house, so I feel like I earned it." Stephanie said, voice carrying a whisper of... grumpiness? Defensiveness? Hurt?

There was a touch of hesitation after the topic was changed before she brightened again. Not so much easily distracted, in that moment, as choosing to be easily distracted.

"Oh, if I can find some empty bottles or balls or something I could juggle! Do you guys know any tricks?"

[SiuiS]

Charlotte coughs tinily into the gap between arguing and forgiveness. "I can... Do... Pictures?" her voice even more of a whisper. Hazily she recalls having to do things, needing to, for good and shelter... The thoughts are so alien. Something so normal being as unknowable as hirrglyphics?

Quietly, Charlotte begins hyperventilating, blinking the barest of tears from her eyes.

[Raz_Fox]

Marchande nodded at Charlotte, almost absently, lost in worry. There was no way any of them could walk the streets, no matter where they wanted to go. Rose was a giant, an angel of glittering light, who'd never walk anywhere without being plastered over the news. Stephanie might be able to move in the shadows, as long as no one got a look at her, but one bright light and one good look, and she'd be in Rose's boat. Charlotte was off, and Marchande herself... she was too human to be a dog and too dog to be a human. Her spine was straight, her hips human, she moved like a human and was proportioned like a human and that just made it all a little bit worse, still being the dog.

They could steal someone's clothing, maybe. Give Rose a massive trenchcoat, wrap up Charlotte in scarves, and... no, she wouldn't give up the suit, and there was nothing that could disguise her muzzle, hat or burqa or mask. If they stole a car, maybe, but who could drive? She certainly wouldn't trust Stephanie at the controls, and Rose didn't look like she'd fit very well into a car, anyway.

And then she heard 'tricks'.

"No tricks," she barked at Rose and Stephanie. The bark was embarrassing, louder than she meant, and she stopped herself from tearing into them further, but she couldn't stop her hands from trembling with anger. No tricks. No more tricks. She was not a pet that performed on command and did clever tricks anymore.

Deep breath. One, two. Breathe in, breathe out. "Is there anyone living at your house, Stephanie? Would it have been rented out in your... absence? It isn't a good idea to be seen right now, or to get arrested for breaking into someone else's house."

[PhoeKun]

"...Aha."

Rose stiffens as she's rebuked on all sides, each in a different way. What she'd meant of course was... well, what did it matter what she'd meant? Her wings stretch and shimmer in the glow of the nearby lamp. She turns away from the others.

She takes several long strides away from the group, and halts. Steel plates clink and rattle against a hauberk, and she slowly closes and opens her hands around nothing. And where does she think she's going, exactly? Wandering the streets of the city, alone and directionless? No. No. And to think, this is what freedom looks like. Feels like. She slams a fist into the nearest solid object.

"We will be seen. What's going to happen when we are?"

[SiuiS]

Charlotte sees the panic on Marchande's face, could feel the sudden absence behind her, still hear the hurt in Stephanie's reply, echoing in her head. And here she was, verging on panic because she will have to earn her living?

Oh, I'm such a loud-mouth... The thought is bitter, but calming. Doing something the wrong way means there is a right way, too. Her breathing slowing, the pale orange veil of panic falling away, Charlotte turns. "We have to do something. We should follow Stephanie, miss Rose. She will need our help, and maybe she can help us too." She steps towards Kalina, her footfall deliberate and audible. "And it is dark, and late. No one will believe they saw us if we are swift."

[Thanqol]

"My absence?" Stephanie looked confused for a second. "How long's it been? Anyway, uh, the guy promised that no one would notice that I was gone. I dunno."

Without thinking, Stephanie stepped out onto the street and asked a random passer by, "Hi! My name's Stephanie. Could you please tell me what month and year it is?"

She did this while everyone else was discussing what would happen if they were seen.