a saturday and Nick's wife is gone on mysterious errands and Nick is at his leisure to work in the garden dying now autumn not dying but preparing to be fallow there is a wild brown rabbit which nibbles and nibbles and Nick is at his leisure to go on errands there is a pop-up market not too far from their home hosted in the courtyard of a derelict building empty store fronts except for a church a smoke shop a record store with questionable hours and a breakfast place which seems to be rarely open but enjoys a bustling hipster surgence come sundays there's that nice courtyard with a little creek over stones and the pop-up market has all sorts of knick-knacks and then of course there's their perferred grocery store and a nearby park too the park is very nice and it has water and the water sings songs like come to me come to me come to me and the only thing which is certain besides death and taxes whoever said that didn't know but the third thing which is certain is that Nick's keys have been filched are missing not where he put them and though after a protracted search he'll find them sticking out of the garbage disposal.
crow
It's autumn now and so the time for gardening is drawing to a close. Nick has just finished turning the compost heap, which has yet to produce any real compost but will by the spring. He is pruning the mums and the ivy which has burst over the backyard, ground cover will hold the soil in place during the bitter winter and looks nice besides. They're coming up on their first year here in the house, aren't they?
Nonetheless, he eventually finishes what he is doing in the garden and goes upstairs to shower and prepares to go on errands because maybe there's something he can find Pen in that little pop up market. He is dressed and his hair drying by the time he begins looking for his keys, which are nowhere to be found. Not for lack of looking: he searches the little keyhook by the front door first, and then he looks around the shoe rack in case they may have fallen. He searches under the end table and in its drawers. He searches his coat pockets even though he cannot recall having worn his jacket just yet. He looks in their bedroom, rifles through the pockets of yesterday's pants and the soil-stained carpenter jeans he was wearing while working outside. He flattens himself out on the floor and looks under their bed and finds only a lone dust bunny.
Eventually his search does indeed lead him to the kitchen, where the keys are: there, sticking out of the garbage disposal. Nick blinks at them for a moment as he stands at the sink, and then reaches to grab the tip of one of the keys and flip them up into his hand.
crow
[Alertness?]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 4, 5, 9) ( success x 1 )
senobnaws
and the key is cold when he pinches it between his fingers and as he flips them up into his hand it appears that somehow someway some mechanism some trick some uncanny knack of ill-luck the garbage disposal catches and turns on and grinds his key chain not the keys chomping it an unholy groan of a noise until look there's the switch for the garbage disposal still switched to off but a switch on and off again will turn the garbage disposal into silence and hush-a-bye and go on put your fingers in there Nick check to see if it's broken why don't you
crow
Check to see if it's broken. Nick's face screws up in to displeasure, and later puzzlement, at the unholy scream of the disposal against his keychain and he is quick to flick the switch and shut it off on off again. It must be broken.
Best not to stick his fingers in if it's catching; Nick crouches down and opens the cabinet below the sink and peers in at the underside of the disposal, at its motor, as though that would possibly tell him anything.
senobnaws
the motor looks very much like a motor and it does not turn on again at its own whim although there are bits of key chain fluff if nick's key chain was fluffy if it is metal there is nothing it is fine and it is good and he has his keys and the house is safe and silent and something is dripping upstairs drip drop drip-drip drop drop drip
crow
Nick's brow is furrowed as he inspects the underside; he had a metal keychain and so there is nothing, it appears to be fine. He raises himself and winces as his knee pops, and he gives his leg a shake before -
oh. There is a noise upstairs, something drip drip dripping. The ridges and valleys across his forehead deepen, a tectonic shifting, as he pads his way up the stairs to go and investigate.
senobnaws
He will remember of course that time his wife fell asleep while reading and the entire hall was flooded; this is not that bad. But the drip drop, drip drip drip drop drop, drop drip, that sound it is coming from the bathroom, and when he looks inside he will see the sink is full of silver-light water so full that the water trembles above the edge of the sink and each drop sends another two or three or four-five-six drops splishing over the side running to the floor where there s another tiny puddle and it seems as if the faucet just wasn't turned off enough and then look somebody pulled the tab so the sink wouldn't drain oops.
crow
There are tiny puddles and there is a noise of dismay from him, here; Pen is not home to banish all the water away. He doesn't know how the sink got clogged; he is too dismayed at first to do anything but question how the hell two things could go wrong at once. Terrible luck, isn't it?
Even for magi sometimes the mundane is so ingrained in them, is so human, that they don't examine such things straightaway. Instead he only strides over to the sink and lifts up the tab so that the sink will drain all the water away before it becomes a flood.
senobnaws
There is a truly terrifying slurp as the drain is lifted as it gapes a vortex mouth slurps on the water a drowning gasp sound and if Nick doesn't hold the tab the entire time the drain will keep closing so nothing drains but turning off the faucet would stop the drip for now anyway and where did Nick put his keys is he still holding them are they in his pocket they are not in his pocket where are they?
crow
Nick doesn't think to turn off the tap just yet; after a moment he does, after he realizes the tab is sliding closed again. He turns the faucet off; he holds the tab closed long enough to allow the water to drain. His keys are in his pocket except - where are they? Once the sink has closed and he reaches for them he realizes they are gone.
He breathes a curse and there is still damp on his fingers and he is standing in water and so it is easy because this is a gate a door:
[Spirit 1, diff 4, -1 for instrument.]
Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (3, 4, 9) ( success x 3 )
senobnaws
Nick on a gate at a door Nick on a threshold Nick in the water river-dark Banshee's young gentleman Nick looks through and sideways and he can still see the bathroom but the bathroom has that cast it gets when he is looking at the spirit world (one day he'll show it to Pen, right?) that lick of vibrance here and there while other things are faded and more wan especially in a building and sometimes there are eerie shades those who should be gone and utterly gone wheeled away and sometimes there are mischievous spirits gamboling interesting grotesqueries phantasms and right now the room Nick is in it is empty, it is utterly empty, right maybe right?
crow
[Alertness?]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 7, 8, 8, 9) ( success x 4 )
crow
Right now the room appears to be utterly empty. There is an uneasiness that stirs in his stomach as he slides his hand again into his pocket, balls it up around what should be his keys but there are no keys there. He looks around the bathroom, which because it is their home always carries a certain vibrance for him, looks brighter, the towels fluffier and the shower curtain carries a certain romantic gauziness, a glow. It is not an eerie place to him, and nevertheless he cannot help but feel very alone just now.
senobnaws
There are things he notices, sharp-eyed, bright-eyed, he notices three shadows bird-shadows winged-shadows that are not in themselves a spirit but an echo echo of presence and intention slipping still slow and delayed out of the room across his shoes the tiles the water and one of them has something dangling they might be keys and he can hear this human sound, this childish laughter, this laughter that might be mistaken for a child's, coming from: oh, somewhere - downstairs; downstairs, he thinks, then no: the bed room.
crow
He notices: bird-shadows, dark wings, and his uneasiness carries down into his legs which stir him away from the water. They carry him to the bedroom, and he is reaching beneath his shirt out of habit and finding that he left his bags in their bedroom as he often does when he is only running to the store or otherwise about some non-magick business. He is not Pen, who carries her weapons on her.
"Hello?"
senobnaws
[stealthy stealth]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 2, 4, 5, 9) ( success x 1 )
crow
[Alertness!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (4, 7, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )
senobnaws
he definitely sees the stealthsome creature which is creeping up on him he sees its winged shadows whisking eddying around his feet like leaves pale flags he sees also the mischief they have done unlatching one of the curtains the pole looks like it will crash should anyone tweak the curtains which are askew and it would indeed fall if anybody did do that fall right on their head and the creature well this is what it looks like a handsome man's face where a bird's face should be the handsome man's face being somewhat grecian clay figure fine in mien and nick might recognize his own eyebrows and its body is that of a mockingbird iridescent blue feathers and darkness and a star at its breast and instead of clawed talons it is walking on human arms and around the left is a little bracelet of something resembling coke tabs and its wings are very long and very pretty and it is stealthily creeping up on him walking on those hands about to launch itself and fly at his hair as it leaves the room entirely it does not think it can be seen he does not think he can be seen
crow
Nick does recognize his own eyebrows in this creature of air and darkness, sees something of himself in the sweep of its wings. His mouth is a thin line as he notices the curtains, and he lets out a hard sigh through his nostrils. And the creature does not think it can be seen. He is frustrated and weary enough from the disposal and the sink to nearly call after it, to let it know that he knows it's there; at the last moment he bites his tongue.
Rather than follow it right away, Nick walks down the stairs; he opens the garage and reaches in to retrieve a watering can. As he closes the door, he listens.
senobnaws
He can hear that same sound; distant, muted laughing - this time it is coming from the kitchen again; it is followed by the sound of the garbage disposal, catching on something metal, like keys.
crow
It is laughing and he can hear that his keys have probably gone back down into the garbage disposal; perhaps it is inclined to repeat its tricks. Nick wanders into the half bathroom downstairs and begins to fill the watering can, glancing out every now and again toward the kitchen.
senobnaws
The garbage disposal gives one truly terrible grind-sound of suffering and then noise stops; this probably means the garbage disposal is broken.
The spirit does not reappear, and the laughter has faded. There is another little spirit in the shadow corner of the house: something like a snail, but not; instead of a snail's tail it has a spider's many-segmented legs and it pushes itself forward in quick bursts, rolls over, explodes into a little spray of fur and runs out away from the light and the water.
crow
The laughter has faded, and Nick's brows are one long line so tightly are they pulled together as he steps into the kitchen to look at the poor garbage disposal. There is a full watering can in his hand, and he cannot tell where the thing has gone cannot tell what else it was in the house. He glances down into the disposal to see if he can tell where his keys have gone.
senobnaws
His keys are down, caught up and mangled in the blades; he can certainly see the glint of them. There is no spirit. The kitchen is empty. There is no drip drip, drop drip, drip drip drip drop drip-drip drop. There is no laughter; there is only silence; the weight of the watering can in his hand. Maybe there is a drip, drop; but it only comes from the can itself.
crow
There are a few spare drips from the can, though they fell on the floorboards on the pathway from the bathroom to here; Nick glances 'round the kitchen. And he sees nothing.
There is a sigh and then he sets the watering can down on the kitchen counter and retrieves a pair of tongs from one of the drawers. He leans down over the disposal, and he can see the glint of his keys there. He reaches down into the disposal for them, passing the tongs close to the blades almost gingerly.
senobnaws
The keys are, unfortunately, quite caught in the mangle of blades, and do not seem to want to pull free with any ease; it is an arduous, fifteen-or-so minute piece of work to get them out just using tongs, but it is possible. They do not look great, the keys, but they are still keys; they hold their essential shape.
crow
The keys are still keys, though it is somewhat likely that he will have to get them remade: keys are delicate things, see, and a burr where there isn't supposed to be a burr, an errant nick, can make them much harder to turn in the lock. He has to work and wiggle them about to free them from the disposal, and as he holds them up he lets out a little sigh and tucks them back into his pocket.
Nick leans against the counter and watches, and listens. Perhaps it's gone.
crow
[Are you gone, spirit?]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 7, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )
senobnaws
He is alone in the kitchen.
It is possible the spirit, having had its fun, having laid its pranks, having messed up this and that, has had enough and has flitted elsewhere; it is also possible it is in another room, waiting, sleeping: when something like this decides to take residence, it can be difficult to uproot.
crow
It can indeed be difficult to uproot, and he has no idea what might have drawn it here. Nick sighs and wanders back up toward their bedroom so that he can fix the curtains, before Pen ends up bringing the rod down on her head later tonight. He texts his wife as he ascends the staircase:
New friend in the house, pulling some pranks. Text when you get home before you come in.
senobnaws
But does he look where he's going as he ascends the staircase? There is a sense of air currents, moving; a sense, too, a back-of-throat tickle an impending cold a sense of what is it: some Thing. There is no other sign of the spirit; there is, however, one of Pen's necklaces on the floor, a glittering bit of dazzle, easy to trip on; go falling, head-long, heedless.
Pen texts back:
?
Bad friend?
Do you need me to come home?
crow
[Do I notice it? +1, distracted.]
Dice: 5 d10 TN7 (1, 2, 3, 5, 8) ( success x 1 )
crow
Pen's necklace, with its dazzling workmanship, is on the stair and it would be easy to trip, to have it roll underfoot and send him pitching back down the stairs from whence he came. It is only the stirring air currents that draw Nick's eyes away from his phone and to the necklace. He stops, and he lowers his phone and for a moment absorbs this, what's in front of him.
Then he leans down and carefully hooks the necklace through a finger and lifts it off the ground, carrying it with him back upstairs. When he texts Pen back he stops and leans against the wall in order to do so.
Not a good friend. Not sure if it's bad necessarily. I'm okay.
senobnaws
There's a wire loose in the necklace; if he is not careful, it will prick him; draw blood. The wire has never been loose before; Nicholas has taken this necklace from Pen's neck before; has clasped it, too; it knows his hand. This is the first time it has betrayed it.
Once again there is no sign of the spirit. Perhaps that was its last mischief, truly: that necklace, left as it went on its way - elsewhere? Or nearby.
Pen's text reads:
Should I come home?
crow
Nick is not easily fooled into thinking it is gone; he has to hold the necklace carefully, and after a moment moves the necklace around so that he will be less likely to snag his skin on the wire. He texts back one-handed, tapping out buttons with his thumb.
Maybe. You won't be able to see it though.
senobnaws
Her text is concise:
Ugh.
And there is no sound from below, no sudden re-animation of the garbage disposal, no garage door opening, no regular door slamming, no flood from a faucet, no car turned on. Only the usual house sounds.
And wind outside, wind howling: hard.
crow
Nick's return text, too, is concise: a frowning emoji. And then he tucks his phone away in his pocket because the house is gone quiet again, without any sound other than the occasional creak of floorboards or the shifting of an old house as it settles.
Save the wind. And now he is not really planning to go out on his errands, after all. The day's plans have changed. He isn't even really sure precisely what it is he's dealing with, yet.
senobnaws
He has seen it; that's something. He's seen it and he's seen its shadows and he knows that it can manipulate things on this side of the gauntlet; he does not know where it is. How pleasant their house is; it has a certain smell, their house, in autumn; when his wife goes on cooking baking binges of lonely homesickness; it has a smell, anyway; outside one of the neighbors honks very rudely which must mean both sets of neighbors happened to want to go somewhere at the same time.
crow
He has seen the Irvings and the Kidds both at the end of their respective driveways, honking at each other when they are each trying to turn in a separate direction. Old roads are often also narrow ones. Nick likes the Irvings and he likes the Kidds; he likes them both separately. Very much separately.
Nick walks to the spare bedroom which overlooks the front of the house and glances out the window, expecting to see the wind tearing at the branches and also Paul Irving's mustache bristling in range. He pauses with a hand on the windowsill and peers out. The necklace he still keeps hanging from a finger, as it has not yet occurred to him to walk into their bedroom to put it away again.
senobnaws
the necklace glimmers and gleams, luminous and milky in its radiance, and outside the wind is bending trees back has sent a sign or three skidding across the cul de sac it has sent a wash of brown leaves ragged leaves whisking through the gutters it is making wind chimes clamor one against the other it is
well outside nicholas can see a shadow a shade a ghost a mourning woman a woman all in white faceless with three little shadows clustered at her ankles a matryoshka line of possible children and each of them bearing some hideous mark one with a noose the other dripping blood which doesn't ever pool in a larger pool than just behind its ankle the other one leaving ash soot flecks of it as if it were burned the other trailing water and a final one difficult to tell it seems sleepy maybe drifting and the mourning woman tall tall tall she has blood drenching her robes wet and they are walking and walking and of course nobody sees them and what else can he see he can see a frog spirit bright eyed and cold somnolent autumn's coming and frog song is at its peak and he can see little moth spirits white diaphanous coming together creating a shape the shape might almost be a rune he can see the spirit of a house that was burned down superimposed over another house and he can see raven hanging out further down the road because raven hangs out quite often doesn't he and
of course the irvings and the kidds peeling away and he can see a dog with a leash running away from its owner its owner being a ten year old kid who is chasing the dog down while his parents stroll behind unconcerned in spite of the traffic
crow
Nicholas can see a mourning woman of the sort that would have left him wide-eyed and nightmarish during his first few months awake, the first few months when he kept his visions to himself. These were the things that sent him chasing after anti-psychotics, after alcohol, and in his darker moments after a noose; in the end he took none of them, but he thought about them more than he likes to think about now.
Nick can see a lot of things when he looks out the window. He breathes out, a slow exhale, and then begins to walk back to his study. Midway his feet carry him to their bedroom instead so that he can set the necklace there on the dresser, each of the stones arrayed out like dewdrops.
He moves to his study next, and he kicks up the corner of the rug that lies over the ring scribed in the wood below: and of course without any idea of what the creature is it will be difficult to call to it, won't it? Far more difficult to summon it. He could ask Raven, he could, and he might pay for the answer even if they are friends. He lights candles with a long wick. It will grow dark soon enough and and inside his study it looks like a temple, like a churchyard.
crow
[Spirit 1 + Corr 2 - can we find our friend anywhere around the house that I can't see? Base diff 5, -1 for instrument, -1 taking time. WP.]
Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (7, 8, 8) ( success x 4 ) [WP]
senobnaws
He can find the mockingbird with a man's Grecian face a man's muscled arms instead of talons he can find it indeed nestled in Pen's jewelry box one of her jewelry boxes folded up with his three shadows under a pall a mystery a secret no spirit here not doing anything nope but of course Nick is a magick-wielder he can find it he finds it he sees it.
crow
He can find the spirit there; unfortunately, figuring out what to do with the spirit once it is there is more difficult. There is no way to trap it, see: he lacks the knowledge of how to do such a thing, how to bind pattern to circle so that nothing can move through. He lacks the knowledge of how to target this creature specifically.
He could ask another spirit to eat it. More bargains, more borrowing. He discards the idea as he moves back toward the bedroom and leans on the dresser next to the jewelry box. "Hello there."
crow
[Charisma + Empathy? Trying not to spook you, yo.]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8) ( success x 3 )
senobnaws
the creature goes very still when it becomes evident that nick can see it is seeing it and look it cranes its head up his head up stares at nick but just in case doesn't move maybe nick is just testing the silence sometimes humans do that sometimes even shamans do that and it is funny it doesn't mean anything anyway nick finds himself examined, sharply, shrewdly, though its eyes wander to the glittering necklace
crow
Nick can see its eyes wandering to the necklace; Nick's hand moves in that direction too, and he hooks it again around his finger (carefully, see; he remembers the barb.) "If you're going to wear peoples' necklaces you ought to put them back where you found them," Nick tells it. The stones glint in the light of the bedroom; now the smell of warm beeswax is beginning to join the other smells mingling in the house.
senobnaws
"you can see me so you must give me your eyes," the spirit says, testingly, because it wants to see whether nick can hear it too; it lifts itself flies up and flies closer and closer to his face and it doesn't have a beak with that man's face instead but a man's mouth can still bite out an eye
crow
Nick is quick to draw his face back, and most of his body in fact, and so the necklace recoils along with him too. "It seems maybe you ought to just get better at hiding," he says. "What will you give me, for the use of my home?"
senobnaws
"I won't eat your eyes when you are sleeping," the spirit says, tries. It circles Nick's head once, and twice, and three times, and its three bird-winged shadows lazily follow; then it flits behind him and lands atop the tall mirror Pen sometimes draws out and looks down at Nicholas.
crow
"I would hope not. You've already been a very poor mannered guest," Nick says, gesturing with the hand that is holding the necklace. "Why should you want my eyes?"
senobnaws
"Because they see me," the spirit says. "Maybe you are the guest. This is my home now, and these things are going to be mine. I will have them all."
crow
"Mmm," Nick says, and his eyes sweep up to the spirit perched on top of the mirror with something akin to amusement. "And how are you going to accomplish that?"
senobnaws
"I'm going to nest in them, and frustrate you, and when enough things go wrong you witches will move and I will have everything," the spirit explains, patiently.
crow
"Do you not have a house of your own, that you should want mine?" Nick, too, seems patient; innocent, even. "Are you not concerned that we might be dangerous to you?"
senobnaws
"Things are less dangerous when I take their eyes out," the spirit says, feathers fluffing up and out, and see, its fingers tighten on the mirror. A crack does not quite appear, but there's a sound which resonates on both sides of the gauntlet of some thing bending. "I will take yours out and hers and you will not be dangerous. I will have this house."
crow
"I may still be dangerous without my eyes," Nick says. "She and I are both witches, like you said. Raven is nearby, and Owl. I could ask them to take your wings and give them to me as payment for my eyes, even if I were blind. Wouldn't you rather have a house that was less dangerous for you?"
senobnaws
"I would take your tongue, too," the spirit says. "I would take your tongue and leave its meat in your eye holes, and then you would talk when you tried to see," and it cracks up, highly amused by this image.
crow
The spirit cracks up and Nick, despite the stomach churning image, cannot help but smile because he shares mirth with other things. "That doesn't sound like it would be very helpful in making me less threatening. But we don't need our eyes. I knew you were here, without my eyes. I could trap you in a box, or if you took everything from us maybe our skins could come and find you while you rested. They could wrap around you and make you soft and human. I don't know what you would do then."
senobnaws
"I'd eat your skins," it says, and clicks its teeth together, soft. "But you want to make a deal with me, I can tell you do. You want me to go away and have nothing."
crow
"I want you to go away and leave my house in peace, yes," Nick says. "But I don't see a reason why we couldn't find you another house instead."
senobnaws
"I want this house."
crow
"What would it take for you to want a different house, then?"
senobnaws
"This house to be less what I want," the spirit says, and it laughs again. "Or you could give me something better than a house."
crow
"What would be better to you than a house?"
senobnaws
It yawns; it yawns very big. "I can't tell you everything. You either know or you don't and I stay forever and I get all of the things that shine and all of the fire too; it is all mine."
crow
Nick sighs and pulls his phone back out of his pocket: and here, taps out another text to Pen.
It's not leaving. It says it wants the house.
"I suppose we'll just have to live here with you, then," he says.
senobnaws
"Eventually you will leave," the spirit says, confidently, although with an air of melancholy. "They all leave. Do you agree if you don't know I stay forever and get all of the things that shine and all of the fire too that it is all mine?"
crow
"I don't agree," Nick says. "But it sounds like you've been in other houses before, so how can you stay forever?"
crow
[Wits + Alertness]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 5, 10) ( success x 1 )
senobnaws
His phone vibrates or buzzes or dings. Pen's response: Too bad. :(
The spirit, meanwhile, takes this moment to go slicing through the air, tearing through it right at Nicholas's head. If he thinks it is going to crash into him, he would be forgiven; it does not crash into him. It veers past and flies into another room, its three shadows weaving together.
"Forever will tell us when we get there," it says, over its wing. Now it is preening on one of the light fixtures. "Do you agree you must give me a house of things I ask for if you keep your eyes?"
crow
For a moment Nick does think that the spirit will crash into him; he swings his head away and to the side, out of its path. It is too much like the Owl that tried to claw at him once, might have done him harm if it hadn't been weaker than he. "That depends on what you ask for," Nick says, once he has turned to face it once more. "I think if you meant to take my eyes, you might have taken them already."
senobnaws
"Then I can take them?"
Nick
"You may not." Nick folds his arms, watching the spirit preen from where it roosts. Then he glances back down to his phone.
Heard of a creature with a man's head and a bird's body? Hands and arms instead of claws?
senobnaws
"I don't want a different house; offer me something better."
The phone rings, or whatever ring tone Nick has set for Pen sings out, in Nick's hand. The sound of it startles the spirit creature; he looks sharp and intent toward the phone, serene mask, unreal.
Nick
His eyes on the spirit, Nick answers the phone. "Hello?" A beat. "Our friend is here with me."
senobnaws
He's probably very smart to keep his eyes on the spirit. The spirit begins to creep closer. Its three-shadow birds sift up, a sound like autumn leaves re-settling.
"Is it doing anything dangerous to you, or to the house? I could certainly list off incidences of bird-creatures with human characteristics, but I'm not certain how helpful that would be. Perhaps you should take a trip to the ranch house?"
Nick
"It wants to drive us out," Nick says, and as the spirit begins to creep closer he takes a step back. "It's been playing malicious pranks and threatening me a lot."
senobnaws
The spirit's eyes brighten up, like silver coins given a good polish. They have a malicious glint.
"I see. Can it do that much?"
Nick
[Wits + Alertness]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (5, 5, 6, 9) ( success x 2 )
Nick
"I'm not sure, and I'm not sure if I want to find out," Nick says, and with another half a step back now that he has noticed the glint in the creature's eyes.
senobnaws
The creature rushes Nicholas: wings out-stretched, lovely; dripping iridescence which shivers in the air after it like a strange photo-realistic effect, a flaw in the computing software -
[Dex + Brawl. Not that it can, like, touch him, but still.]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 5, 6, 6, 6) ( success x 3 )
senobnaws
[Shadow 1]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 3, 10, 10) ( success x 2 )
senobnaws
[Shadow 2]
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (3, 6, 7) ( success x 2 )
senobnaws
[Shadow 3]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (4) ( fail )
senobnaws
And for Nick, it looks like all three birdish shadows are clawing at his legs, too, are clambering up his skin and enfolding him, though one of the shadows doesn't seem to be able to get any blows in.
Nick
From the other side of the phone Pen can hear a sharp oath, faint as Nick jerks the phone away from his face and flails his arms to jump away and to the side. It takes him a moment to realize that the shadows are not doing him harm, that they are climbing up and over him. He is sure Pen can hear his heart hammering when he finally lifts his phone back to his face. "I don't think it can come across the Veil," he tells her. His voice is a little reedy, still.
senobnaws
"What are you going to do?" Pen asks.
The spirit: is no longer in evidence. It whooshed through him, its shadows clawed at him, and then they went that-a-way.
Nick
"I'm not sure," Nick says, twisting his head this way and that to try to tell where the spirit has gone. "It keeps telling me to offer it something it'll like more than the house." He takes a tentative step toward the door, then a few more and peers out into the hallway.
senobnaws
"Ah. It wants a bribe; can you catch it and take it elsewhere?"
The spirit is not in the hallway. There is a gurgling sound coming from downstairs, from the kitchen.
Nick
"Probably not," Nick says, though there is a note of doubt there. "I thought about trying to trap it in something, but I don't really have the strength to bind it." He starts down the stairs, back to the kitchen. "Unless I were to try to trap it, physically speaking, which I could do, but that might be kind of dangerous."
senobnaws
"So your options are to physically trap it, but that might be dangerous, to offer it a bribe to leave, to ignore it and hope it goes away, or to find the nearest library and see if you can't find what it is. What - "
And then! His phone beeps, its battery suddenly drained. Hark, is that a bird shadow? It is indeed.
Nick
Nick hadn't been aware of how low the battery was, and he hisses in annoyance and lowers the phone away just to - ah. He spies the shadow there, and slips the phone back into his pocket. Then he makes his way the rest of the way down to the kitchen.
senobnaws
All is as it should be in the kitchen, all is as he has left it.
Except the faucet is on, and the drain is plugged up.
Glug, glug. Can he spy the spirit?
Nick
Nick looks for the spirit, peers down into the sink as he steps over to it to turn off the faucet. The furrow at his brows is a sign that his good humor is beginning to evaporate.
[Wits + Alertness]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )
senobnaws
Twisting the faucet's knob does not seem to have a noticeable effect on the water pouring from the faucet. The sink is slowly filling, and the spirit: he can see its reflection in some of the glass containers of rice and grain etcetera they have out; he can see its reflection in the coffee press. There it is: wedged by a cookie jar, watching with its eyes half-lidded, and small: smaller than it has seemed before. He might wonder if this is a second one.
Nick
Nick does indeed wonder if this is a second one, as he glances at it wedged in there by the cookie jar. "All right," he finally says, "what do you want in order to leave?"
senobnaws
"Your heart on Tuesdays," it says, helpfully, "and a bowl of new cream every day that no leaf ever touches and a handful of gold."
Nick
"I would be happy to give you a bowl of cream every day," he says. "I will not give you my heart, now or on Tuesdays. Do you want gold coins?"
senobnaws
"I want gold." The spirit sounds petulant. "I want all the gold in the sun and all the silver in your hair. I want the gold in the other witch's hair. I want hearts. What will you give me besides a bowl of cream?"
Nick
"If we can give you a necklace of gold spun fine as hair to wear around your neck and keep with you, and a bowl of cream, will you agree to leave our house and not return?"
senobnaws
"No. I will leave for one moon for those things. More. Another thing. Three."
Nick
Nick pauses, and the point between his brows reappears as he looks back at the creature. "I can tell you a story of whatever kind you desire, each moon, until I've found a suitable new home for you," he says.
senobnaws
"Plus the cream, plus the necklace, and I say what is suitable?" the spirit says, and see, look at its avaricious little eyes, how bright they are; how perfect is the curl of its lip, clearly pleased at pulling one over on this sucker.
Nick
"I will find a home for you and we will both agree on whether it is suitable. And you will not return to this house so long as she or I lay claim to it."
senobnaws
"Plus the cream and the necklace," the spirit insists, bright-eyed.
crow
The spirit's tone, its hopefulness, gives rise to a little smile in spite of Nick's frustration with the creature. "All right," he says. "So you'll leave the house now never to return while she and I hold it, and I will leave a bowl of cream for you daily. In addition we will leave a necklace out for you with the cream before the moon is out. Each moon I will tell you a story of whatever kind you desire until I have found a new home for you, and both of us will decide upon its suitability together."
senobnaws
"No you will find a home we both agree and then I will leave this house. Where will I go without a home?" And see its feathers go floof, fluff, flister, and it scowls at him like a little Caesar.
crow
"Where were you before you came here?" It is scowling at him, and his smile is suppressed now, thin. "If you don't agree to leave today I will agree to nothing."
senobnaws
"If you agree to nothing, I will break your pipes and steal fire," the spirit says, scowling even further. "I was in a nest before I was here. I was there. There."
crow
"So you left your nest and came straight to my house? What brought you to my house?"
senobnaws
"My wings."
crow
"If you don't tell me what kind of house you would find to be suitable, how am I to look?"
senobnaws
"I want it to be bright and have breaking things that make noise, and people's hair to steal."
crow
Nick makes a noise low in his throat. "What if I could get you into the metal and glass tower near the river?"
senobnaws
"I can get into metal and glass towers by rivers without you. I am bored. I like this house."
crow
"It's full of people there who wouldn't know to expect you, though," he says. "And full of vials you could shatter, and computers and pipes and lab equipment. It's much larger than this house."
senobnaws
"Lab equipment is boring. Why do you want me to go to the glass tower? Is it a trap?" And see, the spirit narrows its eyes, suspiciously, and picks up one hand balancing more precariously on the other and it picks at itself, scratching in a manner that is vaguely although unintentionally obscene.
crow
"I don't think I'm clever enough to trap you," Nick says. "You've almost gotten me a few times now. I thought it might be a place where you could have a lot of fun, since we probably won't fall for your tricks here. We both know how to find you now."
crow
[Manipulation + Expression]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (5, 6, 8, 8, 9, 9) ( success x 5 )
senobnaws
"You fell for many of them," it says, in a lofty and imperious tone. "Where is your flat electronic computer now?" And it smiles, and Caligula must have looked sweet, sometimes, and so does the spirit, and it ruffles its feathers again and says, "Okay well I can go test the home but if I don't like it I'm coming back."
crow
"All right," Nick says, and leans his hip against the counter as he watches that sweet smile and perhaps he feels a little sorry for the Union members he has just loosed the thing on. Then again: they took Alex, and they tortured him, so he doesn't feel that sorry. "I'll be here."
senobnaws
"I will probably not like it. And I will come back for my cream. I will go back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and get lots of cream," and the spirit: dive-bombs right for Nicholas, making a bird-screech of a sound: ca-caw -
[an intimidation roll for the road!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 5, 6, 6) ( success x 2 )
crow
Perhaps to its satisfaction, Nicholas cannot keep himself from trying to duck away from it as it dives toward him, even if he knows that it cannot touch him. It leaves him with a furrowed brow, annoyed and wondering why he cannot sometimes be more like his wife.
senobnaws
And so the spirit leaves, for now. But not without circling back one more time with Nick's keys, which it drops back in the garbage disposal. How does it leave the house? With aplomb, and a promise to return.
His phone has trouble holding a charge for the rest of the day and seems to need to be plugged in to work at all.
crow
It leaves, for now. Nick sighs and has to use the tongs to retrieve his keys back out of the disposal, and then he fixes the mesh strainer firmly in place. At least they don't have kids: such pranks could have been decidedly more dangerous.
And for the rest of the day he leaves his phone plugged in, and he waits, trying all the while not to seem too anxious.
