Logs:A Rose By Any Other Name: Twisted Garden Paths

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Content Warning

N/A

Cast

ST: DadHoc

PCs:

Setting

Bartram Gardens

Log

AdHoc: It's an unseasonably chilly day in the Delaware Valley. The polar vortex may have receded, taking its Second Winter with it, but it's left the clouds and the chill behind. A warm front is moving into the area, which will spell rain in the future. The clouds and the cold are a surefire prediction of that in this part of the country. Which makes today one of the only days this week where someone can escape to the botanical gardens and enjoy the sights and smells in relative peace. The chill is keeping the tourists away, and the gardens themselves are expansive. Getting lost in one's own thoughts here? A simple matter, really.


Alexis Bartram: Alexis is wearing a sturdy windproof jacket to ward off the chill, but anyone who has gotten a good look at her face can tell that she didn't sleep well last night. Her semi-panicked phone call to Jay after the incident with River helped calm her down somewhat, but the driving conviction that she was on the track to uncover something significant combined with her own past traumas coming back to haunt her has her mind churning with thoughts. A walk down along the river and through the gardens was a good plan, even with the chill.


Harmony: "Can you all hear me still?" The telepathic bond between the cadre is something Harmony is still adapting to, but at least she's stopped poking at it too much. Moving into the garden next to Kay in a coat against the chill weather and with a sports bag slung over her back, she looks around, smiling at the life deeply visible to her, but reminding herself to not get sidetracked. "Hopefully we find this interloper and let her find her Awakening without intrusion."


Diamond: Diamond walks into the park alongside Harmony, opened leather jacket, denim jeans, heavy boots, sunglasses on, hair braided and she keeps pace with her walking partner, she staring about completely looking like she's just strolling about for the fun of it. Peering at various people in turn, trying to see if any of them, beside Soulwardens have effects on them. "I'm really nervous."


Sirius: Sirius was a rather jovial man by default, but the seriousness of what they might face did a fair job of tempering the excitement that bubbled under the surface. They were there to make sure this went right, and every fiber of his being was dedicated to that cause. He was dressed equally casually as he walked beside Hearth, dark eyes taking in the sights as well as watching for anything untoward. "Coming through loud and clear."


Hearth: Hearth had an arm looped around Sirius, smiling cheerfully as the couple were out enjoying the brisk weather and gardens. "Did everyone get their meringues? I'm really happy how they turned out... Any sign of anyone else yet?"


Diamond: "I ate my meringue on the way here" Diamond speaks telepathically, turning her focus to other people. Careful in her attempts to determine who might be suspicious, through her Mage sights "I like this weather." Kay says casually, making mundane conversation with Harmony.


AdHoc: Several things begins happening at once. For those with active mage sight, potentia seems to suffuse into the air, rising up out of the ground like a low fog. It's possible one could even channel some of it into their patterns if they were so inclined. The potentia mist seems drawn towards Alexis, coiling about her legs and arms and snaking up towards her face. She is no doubt blissfully unaware of it. There is an ineffable sense, at least to those who are Mastigos or otherwise dabble in mind and space, that Pandemonium is at work here.


Harmony: "Mm, they were as good as ever Denmother, thank you." She likewise scans the area, but pauses as Kay addresses her. Acting normal, yes, that's a good plan. "I don't mind rain, good for the plants." She smiles. "Like me sun bathing, and.. yeah, good." Her sentence has that trail off as she sees the rising potentia, eyes widening slightly before she works to school her expression and studies it. "It's happening, it's happening now!" Taking a breath she studies herself, falling back on the sense of inner calm her earlier mediation offered. "I see no threats yet."


Sirius: The forming mist caught his attention, naturally, but it was that brief little click in the back of his mind that made Sirius stand a little straighter on reflex. It was something he had felt once before, albeit buried under everything else that had been going on when his own eyes opened, and that recognition passed along the link just as clearly as his 'spoken' thoughts. "Here we go...eyes peeled, everyone."


AdHoc: For Alexis, the scenery begins shifting subtly. What were once the inviting and familiar gardens of her family's namesake have taken on a vaguely menacing and ominous cast. Harmless tree branches are grasping, reaching claws. Even harmless flowers gain teeth and snapping jaws. The hovering moths and butterflies are growling hornets zipping back and forth across the path. The electric lights buzz with kinetic menace, their glare somehow more damning, as though the light can highlight her every flaw and personal failing, but burn none of it away for it all being true. The gardens suddenly stand in judgment of her, and it clearly finds her Unworthy.


Hearth: Hearth sucked in a breath as the potentia began to rise and focused her sight on its flow. She didn't draw it into herself, it seemed wrong to take it when it was meant for Alexis, but she let herself be immersed in it the way one might stand in a stream without being carried away by it, and tried to keep a sharp eye for any magical disturbances in the potentia that might indicate interference.


Alexis Bartram: "You too, huh?" Alexis says to the chill breeze, "All of you, always judging. Were you like that? A warped mirror that shows only flaws." She closes her eyes, touching fingertips to each other in a rapid pattern while she listens to noises only she can hear.


Diamond: Diamond stops near a bench and crouch, reaching down for a random trash piece on the floor, she watches the potentia flow and flow and flow through her sight, staring at Alexis, she murmur to herself in a different language (Ge'ez) "With God's Help."


AdHoc: The sensation doesn't seem to come from anywhere, but rather everywhere at once. A forming imago. Here, but not here. Mind magic of some sort, but it's all happening so quickly, trying to sort out its practices in the immediate moment would be a chore. If they believe it to be malicious, they'll have scant moments to stop it. If they don't, it's a matter of wait and see.


Alexis Bartram: Alexis' eyes snap open, the rushing immediate sense of condemnation coming from an indescribable direction making her pulse hammer in her ears, fear and fury at war within her. "What gave you a right to sit in judgement? So I don't fit in some stupid ancient box that my parents want me to sit in. So what? Am I supposed to be perfect?"


Harmony: Harmony raises her hands, turning to Kay with a grin and working through the spellcasting, hoping onlookers will think she's just fooling around. But the energy flowing around her is too distracting, even with her focusing on the efforts and the weave falls apart. Several rude words intrude on the telepathic link.


Sirius: Seeing the Imago form brought a scowl to Sirius' face, mentally reaching out towards the spell as it came into being to try and tear it asunder. The weaving slipped through his 'hands' like so much smoke, however, eliciting a "Damn it! Hearth, can you get it?" from the Warlock.


Diamond: Diamond takes a deep breath, she nods there and looks around carefully, letting her sight uncover the mystery around, letting her mind respond almost immediately to what she uncovers. "HEARTH End It!"


Hearth: Hearth didn't respond, she was too buy spinning out her own veiled potentia, countering the ripples of the imago with a counterwave that nullified the enemy's disturbance around Alexis.


AdHoc: With the successful dispellation of the incoming effect, events continue apace. Before Alexis's perceptions, a slim silver thread appears. She becomes gradually aware of many others, too, reaching from her across space. To the individuals she is unaware of, her present guardian angels. To others, more known to her, and others unknown, but sinister. That single thread in particular, however, seems to call to her. Of all the threads, it seems strongest. The most sure, if also the most treacherous. A way out of her present maladies and internal conflict, but one that seems fraught with dangers, too.

Such a reward, but at such a risk.

It reaches on, and on, and on. Past the world, past perception, through the utter black of pure malignant potential. A yawning cavity of roiling chaos, of cold wrongness, of the reason of the maddened mind. The logic of a murder of passion, the brutal efficiency of a death by starvation, and all the simple, little wheels that spin to bring both to fruition. It's a tight rope she must walk, or back away from. There is no third option.


Alexis Bartram: Alexis' hand snaps up, grabbing the fading echoes of Prime like a handful of frayed golden threads drifting in the wind. and she stares at them as they fade away leaving only the rushing wind made of undecipherable words and that single silver thread, "But...what if lashing out is what you want? All this howling noise, its all reflecting on me. But I already knew I wasn't perfect. And..." She reaches down, pressing her fingers to that singular strand, feeling the texture of impossibly fine, braided chains, "If I am to balance on such a precarious path...to lash out would be a mistake." She stands up again, her eyes focused on that vast distance that is both without direction and somehow directly ahead of her, "Let's go." She takes a deep breath, and starts walking along that thread, her feet falling faster and faster along the path.


Harmony: Harmony collects herself and takes a breath. The attacker might be nearby, or something they're using as a connection if this is happening from afar. Heightened senses alert she surveys the area, listening, seeing, even scenting the air to try and pinpoint anything out of place or anyone acting in unusual manner. Even as the wonder of an Awakening happened around here and she observes those events as well through the Sight.


Sirius: Sirius let out a sigh of relief as the spell faded into the mists, the smallest of smirks showing as Alexis tried to reach for the wisps of the countering effect. He took a moment to call upon the other lens of Sight granted by his tower, watching for any sign of a window the assailant might be working through. "I'll keep an eye on her; watch for anyone else trying to step in."


AdHoc: Sirius is the only one who can see it, but hovering above Alexis's head, and clearly following her steps, is a shimmering and occluded one way mirror of Space. This is an ambush.


Diamond: Diamond sends an emotional wave of her relief through the telepathic web around The Soulwardens when the first assault is handwaved away, but outwardly stand by the bench she's been close to, waiting for any signs she search for the same thing as Sirius did, to get the chance to see the mirror and maybe reach through it if she can later. (CoW?)


Hearth: Hearth desperately tried to counter the spell, sending out a sine wave of power to try and cancel out the enemy's own, though she didn't quite manage to achieve the same destructive interference that she had the first time. "Incoming!" she called to the others.


AdHoc: Two things happen nearly at once. The sort of serendipity that could never be planned or orchestrated, and which also feels entirely like kismet, too. The spell flares out of the portal and slams into the crown of Alexis's skull. Even walking her own path to Enlightenment as she is, her body convulses with it. Froth appears at her mouth, blood leaks from her nose, and eventually the corner of her mouth. When the moment passes, she simply keels over into the gravel of the path, wholly unconscious if not near death.

In that moment, Alexis's soul has crossed the abyss. Flung that impossible distance at impossible speeds, even as the thread behind her begins shuddering and convulsing with the impact of the spell. She can feel the thread she is travelling begin to fall away from her, as though the way back to her body is being threatened. But she can't feel it. And at present, there's nothing for her to do. Her soul slams down on the shores Supernal, on the fringes of Pandemonium where, in the far distance, a tower looms out of the hellish landscape with only a single, limp and fading thread for her to follow there.

And then? Then the portal disappears in a wink of impossibility.


Alexis Bartram: Alexis...is not dead. Yet. She looks rather awfully close, though, and her body is pale and umoving there among the leaves and gravel.


Harmony: Harmony winces as Alexis' body hits the floor and starts towards her prone form, then forces herself to stop. Her instinct is to heal, to safeguarding her life and see to her injuries. But the Awakening...

For a moment her face twists in pain and internal conflict before she forces herself back, turning to the others and weaving a different spell. A blessing over them.


Diamond: Diamond walks closer, under the cover of maybe providing assistance to avoid other people rushing over or making a terrible scene about it, she approaches and seems to be trying to check on the woman who randomly collapsed, tears in her eyes. A little bit of magic trickles as she fiddles with the braid in her hands, like a stress toys.

Mundane methods of stabilization will probably work, she's still awakening, she's on the other side right now the words come forward as she waves one or two of her compatriot over, probably Harmony.


Sirius: It was rare indeed that his cadremates ever saw Sirius angry, and the fury in his eyes at that moment was almost palpable. While the window was gone he knew the connection between her and the caster was still in place, and the Warlock put a hand on the leather bracelet around his wrist as he focused on those ties. He'd catch this son of a bitch yet, if it was the last thing he did...


Hearth: "Patience," Hearth counselled. "She can still pull through and Awaken. It's not over yet so keep your guard up."