Jesdyn materializes out of thin air.

Jesdyn has made Jesdyn's local name Neil

fadethecat swings into the room on a bit of rigging.

fadethecat has made fadethecat's local name Draco

Jesdyn has made Jesdyn's local description A confident and cheerful 
Friend of Man, Neil's here in a place with no Men who largely do not 
regard him as a Friend. He copes.

StevenE materializes in a burst of blackness as he teleports in from 
elsewhere in the MOO.

@setgm me

William (#2330) has changed the GM of this room to William (#2330).

StevenE has made StevenE's local name Ekur

The GM says, "I have some thesis work that needs doing this weekend, so 
cutoff will be 8-9 most likely."

fadethecat has made fadethecat's local description A silver ferret 
wearing spectacles. He's carrying a notebook.

William [to Ekur]: The last time we saw you you were quizzing the kid 
from the dreamscape about his origins.  He's from the poor part of 
Trinidad (as in, Trinidad and Tobago), and seems not to have been badly 
marked by the Shedite's ride.  Most likely it was fairly short.

The GM says, "You mentioned leaving to confer with other angels of 
Dreams.  Did you have anything particular you wanted to confer about?"

Ekur says, "I wanted to mention this kid-and-Shedite, and ask-and-tell 
about the dreamscape having an effect on Civis."

Neil . o O ( "How do you turn a human into a kamikaze bomb" is a good 
question to start with.  )

Neil . o O ( If they can do that to Civis, they can do it /anywhere/. I 
don't think even Beleth is going to stand for that. )

The GM says, "This is news to most people you talk to... do you have 
Research?  *pulls up sheet*"

Ekur says, "The sandcastle created in the 'scape's wake across Civis, and 
how the Shedite seemed to think that there was a point to having the kid 
blow up a base in the same position as the Temple, are my major points of 
observed data."

Ekur says, "Oh, and how the geography of Civis seemed to affect the 
geography of the dreamscape is possibly pertinent, though the demon could 
have been doing that."

Neil . o O ( Could the demon have been aware of the external geography 
while in the dream? That'd require either weird songs or multiple 
viewpoints. )

The GM says, "The latter is well known, in fact you'd almost certainly 
know it.  A dreamscape in a Domain tends to mirror the Domain in a very 
broad sense.  That's why you don't tend to get dreamscapes floating 
through walls and such."

The GM says, "Research... you do not.  IQ-5 default then, I'll roll it 
with a difficulty mod..."

[ snip rolling ; success announced ]

Neil blinks. Science!

The GM says, "Pass by 0.  Some time perusing the records in the Tower 
indicates that this sort of thing was reported before, just past the turn 
of the last millenium (i.e., circa 1050 A.D.), although references you 
find are sketchy -- most of them happened in Far Marches Domains and the 
news flow from there to Heaven in those years were few and far between."

The GM says, "(Any response in particular, or shall we turn to Dorotea's 
imminent arrival?"

Ekur nods.  Ekur makes sure to have a report goes up the ladder with the 
mention of the sandcastle, the Shedite apparently thinking there was a 
point to the effort, and that there's something in the records about this 
sort of thing happening before, though details are sketchy.  Other than 
that, I can't think of anything to do.

The GM says, "Back to Civis, then.  Dorotea arrives late at night, just 
past midnight, with Aaron in tow in squirrel form riding her shoulder.  
Neil, where might you have arranged to meet?"

Jesdyn [to William]: Wilderness section.

The GM says, "To keep her away from the inhabitants?"

Jesdyn [to William]: Yes. She doesn't need any more bound spirits, and I 
don't need anyone to know about her yet.

The GM says, "However, I trust Draco is coming along?  You are about to 
engage in negotiations, after all..."

fadethecat [to William]: I assume so, yes. Did Draco get any particular 
forwarning about this, or is he just bopping along with the promise of 
some unspecified negotiation to help with?

The GM says, "I would assume forewarned is forearmed, but your briefing 
is up to Neil."

Neil ran Draco up to speed on the way back from Temple, since Trade is 
bankrolling our warden-slash-researcher.

The GM says, "Dorotea crests the last ridge and waves at you, coming down 
to the pair of you next to the sand castle.  'Oh,' she says, 'have you 
picked up a familiar too?'"

Neil says, "No, that's just a sand castle. 'Evening, Dorotea."

Draco waves cheerfully to sorcerer and 'familiar' alike, pulling out a 
notebook and pen. "I'm probably downright unfamiliar, in a certain sense 
or three," he says.

Dorotea eyes Draco amusedly.  "Well that's a new one.  At any rate, I was 
told you had a job offer for a Sorceress.  I'm willing to bet your 
benefits are better than Hell's, too."

Neil leaves the pitch to Draco; he'd do it himself, but he doesn't want 
to... twist her arm.

"Our long-term benefits are superior," Draco says, flipping to a fresh 
page. "As for short-term, it depends on what your priorities are. But 
that's why we're here to draw up a contract, isn't it? We can work out 
what you want, what we're willing to offer, and if we're particularly 
clever and reasonable people, come to an agreement from there." He 
adjusts his glasses, and peers up at her. "We may as well start by 
discovering what /your/ priorities are. I suspect ours are more 
flexible."

Draco scratches the crick in his neck from staring up at someone much 
taller with the end of his pen, and then scampers up along Neil's leg and 
side to sit on the Mercurian's shoulders. "I should have thought to bring 
a table," he adds to himself. "Or possibly a tall stool, but where's the 
dignity in that?"

Dorotea says, "Well, that depends on the amount of work involved.  If 
it's a one-shot job I'll have to consider the labor involved.  If it's a 
full-time position I have few objections to quitting my day job for equal 
pay and the chance to poke around the machinery of the Universe for a 
living."

Dorotea smiles chirpily.

Draco rubs his paws together, balancing the notebook on Neil's shoulder. 
"If you don't mind," he adds to the other angel, as he flips back to an 
earlier page. "Well, let me see what we've budgeted for. Where are you 
currently located, corporeally? And what's your annual income, including 
any special benefits you would consider part of that pay?"

The GM says, "As a note, what you are requesting is roughly a night's 
work every month -- this assumes that she does not take undue advantage 
of winning the Will-Wars involved in keeping the pirate crew under 
metaphorical lock and key, and vice versa that they submissively throw 
the match each time."

Dorotea says, "Phoenix, Arizona, United States.  And I make what my 
people would consider a lower middle class salary.  Is this going to 
involve relocating?"

Draco eyes his budget, and revises certain ideas. "Not at all. At the 
moment we're looking for a regular but minimal commitment on your part, 
with the potential for future expansion--with accompanying expanded 
compensation, of course--as circumstances and ability warrant. For the 
moment... Well, as the saying goes, don't quit your day job." He pushes 
the glasses back up on his nose again. "Much as I find the idea of having 
you on as full-time staff, our budget isn't allowing for that under the 
current circumstances. You do know how innovative projects go, no?"

Dorotea says, "...sure.  Look, what is the actual work?"

fadethecat [to William]: ...I'm sort of fuzzy on that myself. What /are/ 
we requiring of her?

Neil speaks up. "Warden."

Draco points to Neil. (Which does, at this distance, require watching his 
limbs so as not to poke the Mercurian in the head.) "He can give you the 
complete job requirements. I'm mainly here for negotiating the contract 
itself, and keeping things within budget."

William [to fadethecat]: She's to keep control of the pirate crew via 
Will-wars.  Order them to remain in service to Jane, not try to escape, 
not raid dreamscapes, and generally be on good behavior.

Neil says, "You'll enforce the judicial punishments and restitutions 
Heaven seeks to impose in Civis."

William [to Neil]: Oh.  That's broader than I was thinking.

William [to Neil]: So potentially expanding beyond the immediate need.

Jesdyn [to William]: That's why you only assigned her one night a month. 
I was wondering what you were thinking. Yes. I've been saying from the 
beginning we needed a sorcerer on staff, and honestly a sorcerer with 
limited resources is /even better/, because now I get to have people 
/convince me/ that I don't want to just kill them.

Dorotea hmms.  "Interesting.  Via Sorcery, which angels cannot use."  She 
edits herself.  "Directly."

Draco pauses, and flips to another page in the notebook. "Ah, we're 
working from the /revised/ budget, then? That does make things much more 
interesting." He scribbles down a note. "Now, a full-time position of 
this sort has the interesting feature that it can usually be accomplished 
without interfering with jobs kept during waking hours. That's a definite 
job benefit; there aren't many types of employment out there that one can 
literally do in one's sleep."

Neil eyes Draco suspiciously.

Draco is the picture of ferrety innocence and enthusiasm.

Dorotea nods slowly in agreement with this.  "Yes, but then, sleep like 
that which I am experiencing is not the sleep human minds require, so it 
does take away from my waking hours.  I would be able to make, say, a 
weekend commitment on a regular basis.  Unless you would wish to replace 
my day job entirely."

fadethecat [to William]: ...it does? I assumed that time spent jaunting 
in the Marches /did/ count as normal sleep for humans.

fadethecat [to William]: And do I have the budget to replace her day job 
entirely? I assume a project as large as Civis would have a large budget, 
but I'm not sure how many other /corporeal/ expenses are drawing from 
that right now.

The GM says, "There is no hard-and-fast canon referring to the matter, 
but I've always assumed the price a lucid dreamer paid for being 
conscious and rational in the Marches was that time spent outside one's 
dreamscape was not the time one's subconscious speds refiling little bits 
of the day."

fadethecat [to William]: Fair enough.

The GM says, "As for your budgetary powers, yes, a full-time salary is 
probably within your powers.  At the moment, however, you don't have a 
40-hour work week for her; Neil's basically asking for a Sorcerer 'on 
retainer,' available on demand."

The GM says, "So the weekend commitment might be about right.  Also 
consider that there may be things Dorotea wants more than money.  :^)"

Jesdyn [to fadethecat]: I'd really hoped to get her into one of Trade's 
Soldier-focused temping services.

fadethecat [to Jesdyn]: Heh. I have an idea, fear not.

Ekur . o O ( OOC: "Okay, we can get you $100 a day from a local agent of 
Marc, though you'll have to pass him a point of Essence, and we'll enroll 
you for free in the HMO we have our Soldiers of God quietly enrolled in, 
plus Song of healing angel phone number . . . ." )

Jesdyn [to StevenE]: Dude, don't mock Dial-A-Prayer. If you had /any 
idea/ of their Essence budget...

William [to Jesdyn]: ...  %^D

Draco tilts a paw. "For the moment, we'd want to hold off on a full-time 
commitment until we'd seen how an initial on-call service worked. But 
it's a definite future possibility. Now, there are a variety of ways to 
handle our end of the deal, including a research grant in a field 
directly related to your current area of study. But right now I'm 
interested in hearing what /you/ might want out of this deal." He leans 
forward, eyes bright behind the glasses.

William [to Draco]: She tries to keep a poker face, bless her inquisitive 
little heart, but the Seraph of Trade Choir attunement pings madly on her 
response to 'research grant.'

fadethecat [to William]: Ha! Score!

[ snip NPC rolling ; failure announced ]

Draco adds, casually, "Of course, for a research grant, it would provide 
a much better cover if you released an occasional paper based on what 
you'd been studying. While there's some information we can't have 
floating around Earth carelessly, I'm reasonably certain you'd be able to 
apply some of the on-the-job experience as data."

Dorotea says, "An on-call service would best fit my schedule if we aren't 
replacing my day job.  At least assuming the calls didn't happen so 
frequently as to prevent catchup sleeping.  Your grant proposal intrigues 
me..."  *corner of mouth twitches upward*  "...since I retain an ongoing 
interest in mapping and exploring the realm in which we stand."

Neil . o O ( "Long term, we need to know just what effects ethereal 
interaction with humans can have. Short term, do you know how to disable 
kamikaze human bombs?"  )

"Excellent." Draco scribbles down a few more notes. "Now, I feel obliged 
to caution that there's some information that you may discover or be told 
in the course of this job that must be considered confidential, even 
beyond the duration of your contract. If you're not willing to deal with 
this restriction, you should inform us now." He shifts further out on 
Neil's shoulder so that he can point at the Mercurian more easily. "Neil 
would be able to tell you more about what data /specifically/ we would 
consider confidential."

Neil says, "Sorcery, angels, demons, ethereals in general, Songs, the 
War, my car, gods, and the Symphony."

Dorotea says, slightly amusedly, "I don't think I could publish a paper 
on that anyway.  Even assuming you channel the grant through a legitimate 
medical organization, I'm already going to be an industry worker rather 
than a licensed psychologist.  The Sorcery of dreams offered such an 
immediate return on investment..."

Neil says, "Speculations (and theories you can verify without the 
Symphony singing backup) regarding the structure of human conciousness 
are fair game. I can probably arrange a consultation with some of our 
other angels who could answer your questions better at a later date."

Draco looks at Neil. "Doesn't your car fall under the category of 
'ethereals'? Or is it considered doubly confidential?" He turns his 
attention back to the human. "A very pragmatic approach to the matter, 
that. But you might be surprised at how many people would do otherwise." 
He flips to a new page. "This would also be an exclusive contract. So 
long as you were working for us, we couldn't allow simultaneous 
employment with agents of Hell, or ethereal powers not approved by 
Heaven."

Dorotea says, "I find those terms fully acceptable.  If the work picks up 
enough to require shifting my day job to part time I would expect the 
research stipend to improve in parallel, but until such time the terms 
are quite workable."

fadethecat [to William]: What sort of Dreamshaping roll would be required 
to conjure up a complete contract out of thin air? I assume you'd want a 
roll for the Law (Contract Law) part as well...

William [to fadethecat]: I rather figured that was one of the things you 
bought your Eternal Notebook[tm] *for*.  :^)

fadethecat [to William]: Hee. Okay, just checking.

Draco scribbles briskly away in his notebook, then carefully tears out 
four sheets. "Preliminary contract," he says, "loosely detailing duties, 
responsibilities, and exchange of money for service. You should both take 
a look at this in case there are areas you'd like to clarify." He hands 
the pages to Neil first, tapping the second page. "If you want to require 
more duties than those listed there, let me know. That should cover the 
expected tasks as they were explained to me."

Neil reads, making sure there's some provision for emergency service and 
review of publication.

Neil looks her right in the eye. "You /do/ realize that much of what you 
learn here will never be released to humanity, right?"

Draco turns on his Super Truth-Seeking Resonance for the answer.

Draco rolled 8 versus 27 and critically succeeded by 19.

Neil says, "This is going to cost you, make no mistake. It's going to be 
up to someone else to learn and release these things to the world."

Dorotea says, "I fully understand there will be secrets I learn that I 
cannot reveal.  It has been made clear to me that I have a limited range 
of intellectual publication made available to me for the general public, 
solely involving the observable mundane effects of what I here learn."

-Draco She's speaking the truth as she understands it.  She does assume 
that there will be the opportunity to pass on some of her knowledge to 
others aware of the existence of such things, in a master-apprentice 
style of relationship, but she distinguishes this from papers for which 
she may attain academic plaudits.

William [to Draco]: She's speaking the truth as she understands it.  She 
does assume that there will be the opportunity to pass on some of her 
knowledge to others aware of the existence of such things, in a 
master-apprentice style of relationship, but she distinguishes this from 
papers for which she may attain academic plaudits.

fadethecat [to William]: I think that falls within the realm of 
acceptable, under the circumstances. Do you need a roll for the contract 
itself?

William [to fadethecat]: To write the contract?  Yeah, Law.  You can 
physically write in the book.

Draco rolled 15 versus 21 and succeeded by 6.

Dorotea scans the contract and pronounces it acceptable.  Before any of 
you realize what she's doing, she produces a small knife, pricks the ball 
of her thumb, and smears the blood on the signature line.  This 
*probably* gives even Neil the willies, as it implies the contracts she's 
signed in the past... Draco, of course, has seen it done.  (Oh, and it 
successfully activates Divine Contract.  You can also have her sign 
normally if you want.)

Draco scratches behind one ear. "That's really not /traditional/ when 
signing contracts with Heaven," he says. "But it should suffice."

Jesdyn [to William]: You can drop the probably. Just because Neil punches 
people until they puke doesn't mean he wants to see a human shed blood.

William  <ooc> Okay, that's one objective for the evening.  Let's take a 
quick break and come back in a few minutes after dawn with Ekur back in 
the city.  We'll have Neil's notions on Lightning research and the new 
twist on city attacks to worry about.

Neil says, "Err. Are we taking an OOC realtime break, or just bamfing the 
clock forward?"

The GM says, "OOC realtime break for five minutes."

Neil sits down in a camp chair, and the stagehands start wheeling away 
the trees. Neil's stunt doubles are visible by the food.

Draco goes to see about finding a pair of spectacles that won't keep 
sliding down his nose. Not that it's easy to come across ferret-sized 
glasses.

Neil zaps Draco with laser-eyes. Instant 20/20 vision!

William [to Draco]: FYI, careful with the fast-talking.  Remember, you're 
a Seraph now.  Not fiddle-faddling with the truth.  :^)

Ekur suddenly remembers the Draco the Bouncing Ferret bit of HP.  Was 
trying to figure out

Draco [to William]: I have been sticking /scrupulously/ to the truth.

Draco [to William]: However, the conclusions people choose to draw from 
questions, conditional statements, or small pieces of truth, are another 
matter.

Jesdyn [to fadethecat]: I saw that -- you never said there was a thing 
/on/ that sheet, nor elaborated about how long that revised budget had 
existed.

Draco points to the Seraph of the Wind attunement.

fadethecat [to Jesdyn]: Asking supposedly rhetorical questions can be 
/so/ useful.

Draco suspects it would not be hard to justify buying Seraph of the Wind 
at some future date.

Draco coughs. "Though in that particular case, I also chose to assume 
there were budget variants available for use, because it would have been 
a bit tiresome to work out the precise details OOC."

Neil can't threaten Draco with punitive martial arts training, since his 
Dodge is /literally/ unearthly, but he's watching him anyways.

Draco appreciates the attention! It's good to have a nice reliable Judge 
around to tell you if you're doing something wrong. Very handy.

Jesdyn [to fadethecat]: Yeah, but you're stuck with Neil.

William [to fadethecat]: Hey, Marc likes Janus, Draco's a living example 
of someone who's changed for the better, I suspect it would be an easy 
sell.

Jesdyn [to fadethecat]: Maybe you'll get a nice and reliable Judge on 
your next assignment.

William finishes consuming a small snack, calls for the scenery grips.

fadethecat [to Jesdyn]: Heehee.

Draco finishes dusting his nose and gets back on set.

The Judgementmobile finishes his cigar and trundles back off camera.

fadethecat [to Jesdyn]: Of course, Draco has no idea how... Neilish Neil 
is, just yet.

The GM says, "It is later that day, after dawn.  Ekur has returned from 
the Vale and the Karsts you brought are settling into routine patrol.  
Draco has found his office in City Hall (somebody had left an axe stand 
in one corner of the room), and Dorotea is presumably awake somewhere."

The GM says, "Ekur had news and, Neil, you'd spoken to Priest and had 
some research you wantd to do, yes?"

Draco pokes the axe stand gingerly. Maybe he should get something to hang 
over it. Or paint it festive colors. Or put a dripping axe there and see 
who dares to ask after it.

Jesdyn [to William]: We've already been briefed by Ekur?

Ekur makes an appointment with Matthias while getting somebody on the job 
of providing Draco the stats on dreamscape incursions he wanted.  Reviews 
a few cases while waiting.  Sent a CelTongues to Neil last session.

William [to Neil]: So, yes.

William [to Draco]: A Lightning angel comes in with the stats you 
requested on dreamscape activity.  Humans arriving in Civis seem to have 
increased in a roughly logistic pattern that leveled out about three 
years after the city founded, and recently they've been on another 
upswing that doesn't seem to have hit the inflection point yet.

Jesdyn [to William]: /Logistic/?

The GM says, "Yes.  Logistic.  S-curve.  Flat, curve up, inflection 
point, concave down, flat again."

Jesdyn [to William]: Oh. Didn't know that one.

Draco sketches the graph out into his notebook with a few notes about 
relevant dates and numbers, and then chews on a pen thoughtfully, sitting 
on the desk.

William [to Ekur]: Matthias is always happy to oblige you when a meeting 
is requested, and you are escorted in to his office an hour later.  "If 
everybody in this city were a Vassal of Dreams like you these 
developments wouldn't be half so worrying," he says without pleasantries.


William [to Ekur]: This by way of greeting.  Carry on with why you 
came...

Ekur says, "You know this upswing in visiting dreamscapes?  I popped in 
one that was apparently directly affecting Civis.  A Shedite was riding a 
kid, trying to get him to destroy a base in the dream.  The base 
corresponded to the Temple.  The demon apparently thinks he can attack 
Civis through human dreams."

Matthias says, "Yes, that's just the *perfect* icing for the cake."

Matthias says, "I'm from Stone, not Dreams.  Isn't that sort of thing not 
supposed to be possible?  We've been letting the dreamscapes have free 
run of the streets."

Ekur says, "Yeah, it isn't supposed to be possible.  I found a reference 
to it supposedly happening in 1050 AD, bit details were sketchy.  It's 
suddenly jumped to the top of my priority queue.  And, worse I don't have 
any idea how to effectively stop it."

Matthias says, "1050... I was running around China back then.  Wait... 
wait."  He thinks.

Matthias says, "I do remember something.  This thing with the Volcano 
happened about then, too.  It was mucking up the passages in the 
Catacombs something fierce."

Matthias heads over to a bookshelf and pulls out a large book of notes, 
through which he starts leafing.  "Yeah, here it is.  1054, to be 
precise.

Matthias closes the book.  "So, maybe Fire knows something about this."

Ekur judiciously nods.  "Thanks, that's a lead.  I wish I could give 
better advice right now, but have people keep an eye on the dreamscapes 
coming in.  If they're a potential attack route . . .

Ekur OOCly is letting this dangle a bit until he can figure out how to 
include Neil and Draco on a trip to visit Fire, unless people want 
separate adventuring. . . . 

Matthias says, "I think there must be something transitory about it that 
we can fix.  They really shouldn't be doing that -- they haven't for 
millenia, after all.  Try to find out; no one's ever been able to herd 
dreamscapes and I don't think we can start now.  If it's a demonic thing, 
then we're looking at a wave of human shields.  I *hate* when demons do 
that."

Matthias says, "Neil has been muttering about doing some dreamscape 
research recently, he might be interested in your avenues of 
investigation as well."

Ekur says, "That's a good idea.  I'll grab him and get on this right 
away."

Ekur pauses a bit for Matthias to add anything, bows shallowly, and makes 
his exit.

Matthias lets you go.

Neil sits in his office with a book of case law on his left and a book on 
psychology on his right.

Neil mutters, "Should've been a dentist,", and highlights a passage of 
both books in orange-blue.

Ekur steps into Neil's office.  "Up for a field trip?"

Neil glances up. "Is it a good excuse to stop wresting with concepts I'm 
neither mentally nor psychologically prepared to confront but must 
struggle on anyways per my duty to my Word?"

Ekur says, "Well, it involves a serious threat to Civis itself.  Good 
enough for Dominic?"

Neil says, "He'll let me know," and grabs his tonfa. "Where to?"

Ekur says, "We were just there; the Volcano."  Ekur pauses.  "Hmm.  
Probably a good idea if we had a third for the group.  Any names suggest 
themselves to you?"

<<OOC>> Neil has no reason to suggest Draco. Nudge him?

William  <ooc> Sure.

The GM says, "At this point everybody in City Hall feels the city rock, 
apparently from an explosion on the north side."

<<OOC>> You'll pay for that.

<<GM>> Although I *did* have that planned, the straight line was far too 
good to pass up.

Neil says, "Oh, that's so not good."

Jesdyn [to William]: Disturbance?

Draco looks up from his poking at the axe stand, grabs a notebook, and 
goes scampering off in the direction that seemed to come from.

The GM says, "Zero.  Either no Essence was spent, or it was spent 
unconsciously by a human."

The GM says, "Or, well, a Skulker showed up, or a Superior, or..."

Ekur says, "I think we just got . . . what's that silly phrase I recently 
heard?  'Involuntarily reprioritized', neil.  No Disturbance -- want to 
bet a Civis-affecting dreamscape did that?"

The GM says, "There is an obvious plume of smoke on the horizon toward 
which to head.  In fact, several flocks of patrol squadrons are doing 
just that.  Many Ethereals are heading in the opposite direction."

Ekur heads out the door and makes his way to where the explosion 
happened.

Draco mutters under his breath about security matters and distractions 
and axe stands as he scampers.

Neil is out the front door in an instant, shouts for the Judgmentmobile, 
and leaps down the stairs to the floor.

The GM says, "Another explosion occurs on the way there, while the first 
plume of smoke ceases.  As you come upon the scene, there appears to be 
something of a small riot in progress.  Redcaps, pixies, and the like are 
trying to run away from what looks at first glance to be a three-man 
army.  At second glance, however, one realizes why the patrols are 
hesitantly hanging in the air above."

The GM says, "That's not a three-man army.  The two big Cherubim are busy 
running around patching up collateral damage.  The third interloper is a 
barefoot woman in a long robe whose hair is a magnificently dreamscaped 
mane of flame.  She's running down fae on foot, and tossing them about 
like rag dolls."

fadethecat [to William]: Just to be clear: that means the two Cherubim 
are also interlopers?

William [to fadethecat]: Yep.

fadethecat [to William]: Would this be apparent to Draco as well, not 
knowing the locals?

The GM says, "I believe Neil is the most likely to professionally 
recognize Aluriel and Mordekial."

Jesdyn [to William]: Yeah.

fadethecat [to William]: Or is this--ahah.

Jesdyn [to William]: I twigged. And the twig burst into flame and spoke 
with the voice of God.

Neil steps out of the Judgmentmobile in horror, and then tells it to 
*run*.

The GM says, "The Judgmentmobile obliges."

Matthias is also here, presently occupied in keeping order among the 
nearby angelic and ethereal population.  He looks over at Ekur's arrival 
and makes a rapid gesture that could be interpreted as almost anything.

Draco pauses at the far edge of the crowd, and pushes his glasses back 
into place. "Oh," he says. "Hm."

Neil gulps. Well, if this city's his charge, he's going to protect it.

Neil says, "Excuse me! Ma'am!"

The GM says, "Another couple of fae disperse from Mind Hit loss."

Ekur hmms.  Standing here and observing Gabriel is probably going to be 
informative.  Trying to control collateral damage would be useful.  
Talking to gabriel is probably too dangerous to be wise.  Running over to 
the gesturing Matthias probably would be a good idea.  He runs over to 
Matthias.

Jesdyn [to William]: I don't /believe this/.

Jesdyn [to William]: Jung Fu grapple to pin on the Archangel of Fire.

fadethecat [to Jesdyn]: ...

William [to Jesdyn]: ...give me a moment to work out all the possible 
consequences of that act.

The GM says, "First, roll a pin based on Jung Fu to actually see if you 
manage the necessary mental act.  Then we'll go from there."

Neil summons the mental state required to work Jung Fu, and notes that 
this is STILL better than dealing with those damn psych books.

Neil rolled 13 versus 21 and succeeded by 8.

The GM says, "Right.  At this point you realize that in much the same 
way, you might have attempted to pin, say, a locomotive.  You're 
picturing the hands, and they're in all the right places, and they're not 
slowing her one bit."

fadethecat [to William]: Given that Draco has an attunement from her, can 
he try to invoke Blandine? Assuming no one else is already doing so...

William [to fadethecat]: No, that would require paying for Divine Favor 
from Blandine.  You could try to invoke Marc...

William [to Neil]: She does stop for a moment.  She turns and looks at 
you.

fadethecat [to William]: ...I'm tempted, at this point. Given my PC's 
vast IQ, would you let me know if this would be an obviously Bad Idea?

Ekur will try to invoke Blandine.  Can't come up with any modifiers, so 
it'll be on a straight 4 . . . 

Neil falls to his knees. "Stop! Please!"

Ekur cancels.  Won't try on a straight 4.

William [to Ekur]: Oh, you're in personal danger at the moment, for +2, 
and there's always Essence, but if you don't want to you don't have to.

Matthias starts to say something to Ekur about the non-Fae in the area, 
when Neil does his thing.

Ekur okays, burns four Essence for an effective 10 on an invocation 
attempt.

Ekur rolled 11 versus 10 and failed by 1.

fadethecat [to William]: I don't have my books handy; what's the base for 
Marc?

Gabriel tosses a redcap onto the street behind her and walks toward Neil.  
"You have seen this filth in your city, protector.  You have let those 
who pay Teind to the darkness walk your streets and profit from your 
shelter, and the fat of their labor is burnt to Hell!

Neil . o O ( Thanks, Blandine. I guess this is the kind of thing you WANT 
to see happen in the Marches. I don't care how good you're in with Santa 
Claus, you're getting a lump of coal. )

William [to Draco]: 4, plus you're reasonably in personal danger 
presently for a +2, so 6 plus Essence.

fadethecat [to William]: I'll toss another 6 Essence in there.

Draco rolled 7 versus 12 and succeeded by 5.

The GM says, "Also, everybody hang on a moment."

Draco clutches his notebook nervously to his chest. "Boss..."

fadethecat [to William]: Oh, sorry.

The GM says, "IIRC, Ekur, you haven't attempted to invoke Blandine for 
the past couple of arcs, have you?"

StevenE [to William]: True, but I did just visit her in Heaven for the 
leg thing.

Jesdyn [to StevenE]: You paid for it with XP, I wouldn't count it.

The GM says, "Yeah, and not invoking for a year gives a +1, which would 
make that roll a pass.  Plus you're one of her Distincted, etc., etc.  So 
Blandine quietly shows up.  fade, you may still want to make that roll, 
depending on your response to what happens here..."

Jesdyn [to William]: Am I still trying to respond to Gabriel?

fadethecat [to William]: Unless Blandine shows in a way Draco can /see/ 
before he tries, he's still going for it, yeah.

William [to Neil]: You're on hold for a second as Blandine puts in an 
appearance on the second screen here.

William [to Ekur]: Blandine decides to show up subtly, and you can feel 
her presence sharing your point of view.  She wordlessly makes known to 
you that she's not particularly displeased with having the fae cleared 
out of Civis in a way that allows her deniability.  It's good to be an 
open port, it's better to be an open port without the riffraff.

William [to Draco]: So given your description, that's an Invocation from 
you next.

Neil . o O ( Oh, sure, /that's/ Just. She want a piece of this? I've got 
as much chance against her as I do Gabriel, and I already threw down with 
her. She better watch her step. )

William [to Draco]: Marc puts in an equally unassuming appearance.  You 
know he's the guy in the business suit that just looked out the second 
floor window of the building you're near; you further know that you're 
the only one who knows he's Marc, and you further know that one way or 
another, nobody else will get hurt today, Ethereal or angel.

Neil . o O ( Marc: "Except for Neil. He's just boned." )

William [to Draco]: . o O (*Talk* to her.  She's never as crazy as 
everybody thinks she is.  Find out why she came: what she wants, and what 
she was trying to do.)

Draco shoves his glasses determinedly up on his nose, and goes scampering 
forward between the feet of the crowd towards the blitzing Archangel. 
"Excuse me!" he says, darting back and forth around ankles, tentacles, 
and what not. "Coming through!"

William [to Neil]: Okay, Neil, time clicks back on for you.  You've got a 
flaming Archangel staring down at you where you kneel, having just chewed 
you out for sheltering Ethereals known to have ties to Hell.  (Which you 
did, in a broad sense, inasmuch as Ethereals could show up in Civis if 
they played nice and read to Malakite resonances as having played nice 
recently.)

William [to Draco]: The crowd has no problems letting anyone get closer 
to Gabriel than they are, and you quickly find yourself next to Neil.

Neil looks up from his knees. "Yes, I did. Because they're my charge, and 
Heaven's provided them a place of peace, and perhaps a chance to sever 
their ties with Hell."

Ekur starts sorting through the chaos, trying to help non-fae leave 
safely, trying to keep a semblance of order to keep people from getting 
hurt, and maybe spending his last bits of Essence (by my count, i'm down 
to 2) on EthHealing if it seems necessary.

Draco hops on up to Neil's conveniently-located shoulder again, and waves 
a paw at the Archangel. (Rather distantly thinking that if it weren't for 
the reassurance of his own Archangel, he'd be scared senseless about 
this.) "Excuse me, Lady Gabriel! Can I ask after the reason for your 
visit today?"

Neil says, "If that's not right, or not Just, then tell me so, and I will 
charge them, and if necessary I will punish them. But I won't kill them 
in the streets. And God as my witness, I have to try to stop you from 
doing it either."

Draco is trying not to dig his claws into Neil's shoulder, and hopes the 
Mercurian appreciates this.

The Mercurian would appreciate being torn apart by a nine-force rodent as 
a distraction at this point.

Gabriel says, "I read their hearts.  They leech off of your blood and 
laugh red tears while they... they..." she breaks off to stare at Draco.  
"You *are* quite badly scarred, aren't you?"

Draco adjusts his glasses, a nervous little gesture. "I believe so. Time 
will tell what's scars and what can heal."

Gabriel is staring quizzically at the ferret.  Ekur is finding the 
evacuations a little easier at present, now that the immediate commotion 
has died down.

Ekur, when things have clamed down, heads over to join Neil and Draco.

Gabriel looks up at the sky of the Domain, now dominated by the Volcano.  
"You were being deceived by their self-deception.  I will not have the 
slothfully unrepentant walking the foothills of my demesne.  Time to come 
is more important than the past... you must see what they *will* do, not 
what they promise to refrain from within the city."

Draco makes a note of this. "Is this what draws you here, Lady of Fire? 
Or did you have any other tasks in mind?"

Draco rather desperately wishes he hadn't skipped that seminar on proper 
address to Superiors not your own. It didn't seem at the time like it 
would come up very often.

Gabriel sways, and looks around at the crowd.  She says calmly,  "They're 
all arguing with me.  I hate arguing..."  She closes her eyes and winces.  
"Why did I come, little angel?  I walk my place.  This city for a brief 
time passes into my aegis."

Gabriel is quiet for a moment.  Then she says, "I killed a star once."

Draco nods, and closes his notebook, ducking his head into something like 
a bow. He's not quite sure how to respond.

Ekur says, "Bright Lady?  A question, if I may?  What should I know of 
the demonic plot to use dreamscapes to attack Civis?"

Neil is terrified and enraged in equal parts -- probably not something 
Gabriel's unused to, actually. Still, he's not responding unless she 
speaks to him or she starts tearing things up again.

Ekur . o O ( Hey, at worst, with Blandine here and Marc here, I'm telling 
them about the plot, even if I don't get any useful information. )

Gabriel looks at Ekur and says, "Its body falls to Earth, it comes 
swiftly, and Fire dances before it.  Man's capacity for destruction and 
instruction increases.  A fulcrum of change is upon us.  Dreams will be 
very dangerous, for a short while.  Kundalini must occur properly, or the 
light will... it will fall into the darkness..."

Draco opens his notebook to write this down, pen scratching away beneath 
her words.

Gabriel takes a deep breath.  "Angels of Fire must walk the slopes of the 
Volcano.  They will be with you for a while.  They must help you see to 
the safety of this place."  She looks around.  "This place... it has no 
Sun, this place.  Day, but no Sun... how odd..."  She walks toward the 
Volcano.

Mordekial follows her.  Aluriel comes over to the three of you that were 
addressing her.

Draco leans down to murmur in Neil's ear, "Thanks for distracting her."

Neil replies haltingly, "Y-you're welcome."

Draco adds, a little sheepishly, "Sorry about the claws."

Aluriel says to the three of you, "She seems to regard this city as part 
of her protectorate for the moment.  I don't think I'm going to question 
her judgment if she wanted to do some housecleaning.  I think we've 
handled all the side effects other than the ethereals she directly 
attacked.  Is there anything else we need to clean up before we go after 
her again?"

Neil . o O ( Yes. MY PANTS. )

Draco says, "Not that I'm immediately aware of."

Neil shakes his head. "I can't think of anything."

Ekur takes a look around.  "I don't think so.  Thanks.  And, well, always 
nice to know an Archangel is looking out for the place."

Neil says, "Do me a favor and call me if she heads this way again?"

Neil says, "It'll be nice to know if an Archangel is out looking for this 
place."

Aluriel nods.  "She doesn't leave Earth often... in fact, we weren't 
entirely sure how she got here, unless it was a very momentary 
Earth-to-Marches Tether.  Whatever it was, remember carefully what she 
said... she doesn't usually just stand around and converse with random 
people.  There's probably something about that conversation you'll need 
to remember."  He takes off after his twin and their charge.

Ekur . o O ( I'd rather have it be, say, and Elohite Archangel of 
Efficient Rationality, but . . .  )

Draco scribbles out two more copies of what he transcribed, then rips out 
the pages to hand to Ekur and Neil each. "This is what I got down."

StevenE [to William]: Okay, 8:44 where you are, and looks like a stopping 
point to me.  Call it a night and continue in two weeks?

Neil pockets it with a deliberately steady hand.

Ekur . o O ( You mentioned 8/9 earlier, is all. )

Matthias comes up behind you.  "No doubt he's quite right.  And since it 
was you three she spoke with, I'm putting you three full-time on figuring 
out what it meant.  And acting on it, if necessary.  We seem to be on a 
deadline of some sort.  If you need to get to Earth and don't have a 
Vessel, I can order one up.  But this is your priority for the present."

William [to StevenE]: Yep, that's the plot hinge right there.

Draco nods briskly. "Understood," he says, and detaches himself from 
Neil's shoulder. On the way down, he says, "I owe you for that one, 
Intercessionist."

Neil shudders. "On the house. But when you asked if this sort of thing 
happened often... that's a new one on me."

Neil says, "I'll jump on that immediately, but I gotta go make a quick 
stop."

Ekur nods at Matthias.  "Will do."

"As you'd like," Draco says to Neil, and shakes his head. "I'm sure I 
deserve to live in such interesting times."

Neil drives to the edge of Civis, and tells the border guards to /warn/ 
fae who enter Civis about what happened.

Neil does not put up a sign saying "BEWARE OF ARCHANGEL", but considers 
it.

------------------------ Session End -----------------------