Logs:Eyes of the Mask: The Magician, Upright

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Content Warning

Torture, vomit, captivity, blood, poisoning, Seers, Detective Trenchcoat, oblique nudity

Cast

Mei Lee, Alexis Bartram, Little Fox, Kayla Sockum, Jeremiah Hamilton and DadHoc as Detective Trenchcoat, Quincunx Omnia, Yoshitsune, Weaver, Cypher, Man, Gardener and ST

Setting

The Sanctum of the Major Arcana

Log

On a street that is like all the other streets, in a house that is very like all the other houses, live(d?) people that were very much like all the other people. The mail came and the packages went. The people came to mow the lawn and trim the hedges. Once a week, the sprinklers turned on. At night, the lights turned on. In the winter, there are winter lights. In the summer, there is a flag out front of the door.

A car or two in the drive way. Sometimes the garage door would be open. And people would go in and out of it. There would be a cooler, and people would get things from it. The radio would play, and maybe it would be a game. Or maybe it would be AM 1500.

If you pan out, like some fractal image, the planned unit development would iterate outwards from one perfect McMansion to a larger, McMansion somehow formed of all the rest. The outer suburbs are recursive. They copy each other. And it's here, in the middle of everything and therefore in the middle of nowhere, that they plopped down their little flag on the map.

While all the churchgoers are at mid-day services or after service lunch, and all the gays are at brunch, that's when Quincunx drives a range rover into the driveway, full of the gang that Jeremiah had managed to scare up.

On the sidewalk out front, a white lady walks her labradoodle past the sanctum, none the wiser.

"Well," says the old man in his feathery voice, "This is what they reported as their sanctum. So I suppose we start here."

Kay is dressed in a black pantsuit, a pair of shades, hair slicked back into a ponytail. Death armor is summoned, weaving into her pattern, just in case things go southward. The magic woven around them is shielded, for the most part and with one glance toward the building, they attempt to assess structural integrity. "I suppose it would be over-cautious to ask someone to blanket dispel everything from this place." spoken in a surprising low, almost barytone voice. Which, honestly seems to surprise even Kay.

Fox is curled up in the back seat, wearing a hoodie pulled up and shadowing her face. The hoodie is a nondescript greenisholiveishbrown, her jeans are a nondescript color, but she is still barefoot. Fox spins her ring around her finger, rubbing the pad of her thumb against the smooth perfected iron. "I mean, we could, but then we wouldn't be able to really assess anything except through postcognition, so that's probably ... " She pauses. "Pavlichenko would probably advise against it." WWVD? is not always the best question, especially if vodka and cranberries are involved, but sometimes, like with Time, it is a good question.

Jeremiah was dressed equally darkly, the black jeans and t-shirt calling up an air of the unseen stagehand, known to be present but meant to be invisible to those beyond the stage, with a grey hoodie to round out the ensemble. He nodded in agreement with Spider's comment, looking over the house. "Everybody ready?"

Quincunx unbuckles his seatbelt and hops out as gingerly as his old bones allow for. He fetches a yard sign from the back of the range rover, plops an AMWAY EXPO sign down to ensure nobody comes to ask why so many people are poking around the home, and seems to honestly believe this is all that will be necessary to dissuade the neighbors. (Likely, there's more to it than that. But he's confident that is covered, in any case.)

"Don't worry about local police, media, or the neighbors. I have you all covered on that front. Worry about wards and evidence. Traps, and so on." He fetches his cane from the range rover last, and begins picking his way up the brick walkway towards the front door. "If you like, I can wait out here and chat away any bystanders. Or I can help you all inside. Though I am afraid I can't do both."

Mei has made herself pretty non-descript for this outing too, with jeans and a dark grey hoodie, and a pair of boots. "I can temporarily dispel the magic," she says as they're starting to unbuckle and climb out. "That way it doesn't alert anyone who is maintaining the spells, and if we want to look at the spells themselves later, I can just let go of my own Dispel and let the effects return for our perusal." She smiles at Quincunx. "Do you think bystanders are going to be a concern? I find that unless you're doing anything that looks suspicious, most people are woefully oblivious."

"I'm good with not dispelling for the moment, if it would hinder our investigation. Let me give a look to the building itself, just in case." Kay says approaching just for a moment, turning on her Sights and attainment upon it. "Just checking for basic building alterations." and in fact, just trying to assess durability or anything strange regarding the materials and build of the house.

Fox slinks out of the car. There's really no other way to describe the way that she moves. There's a little grunt toward Quincunx, more thoughtful than disrespectful, though who knows with Fox and Pentacle officials, as she slinks toward the house, hands in pockets. She pauses on the front walk and stares at the doors, each in turn, and then the windows, too, as if they might reveal the secrets of the universe.

"We can't know for certain how friendly they were with their neighbors," Quinn observes to Mei. "It's not so much the passersby that concern me, but the chance they took in the cat for the old lady across the street when she travels. That sort of thing." He doesn't object to the magic being muted for the time being, inclining his head in approval when Mei suggests it. For now, he waits to have something to weigh in on in an official capacity.

The structure of the house is improved, consistent with Matter magic being applied to exisiting build out. You guys could probably hold off a platoon of modern infantry from the house with little difficulty, and it wouldn't take too much damage. Which suggests it probaby was designed to at least APPEAR like an actual sanctum to trained eyes.

Mei, you've been around the Tree enough to recognize the early sign of naturally perfecting materials, which suggests there may well be a verge nearby.

Jeremiah moved to exit the vehicle with the others, keeping an easy pace to add to the 'nothing to see here' field that already surrounded the gathered Awakened. "Having eyes outside just in case may not be a bad idea."

"Yeah there's something in there making the material slowly perfect over time." Kay mumbles. "Probably a verge or a special domain or some kind of other object or function." Kay looks about, pointing out some of the stuff they noticed quietly. "I'm getting this weird feeling, do we have any sort of key to get in? I doubt they left one under the welcome mat."

Mei crouches down to get a better look at the door hardware as they approach it, then glances around them and stands back up. "I keep seeing small signs that some of these metals are starting to perfect on their own, which suggests there may be a verge nearby." She shifts her vision over to Prime sight and starts looking for any signs of magic, although she'd be surprised if there were any on the outside of a sanctum for the Guardians. But you never know.

There is, printed under the front door matt, the word 'Seriously?' is black box lettering, however. No keys to be found.

(And no signs of magic.)

Another grunt from Fox, and she slinks up next to Mei, sniffing at the door like a dog taking the scent from an outstretched hand. It's kind of weird to watch a human being do that, though these people in particular are probably used to that from Fox. "This is some high-level electronic bullshit. Security theater, anyway, for the most part. The mundane stuff is probably connected to some sort of company, just for the looks of it. And to use humans as Paradox bombs on intruders, heh. Probably magical cameras in addition to the ones I can actually see." There's something grudgingly impressed in her voice, sort of the verbal equivalent of the 'I Guess' comic panel. "Dunno if whatever sort of remote viewing system they have actually runs through machinery, though." One hand scratches at her cheek absently with grubby-nailed fingers. "And the doors are warded all to fuck." Sniff sniff sniff. "Gardener's work. Messy-ass nimbus. Space, Time. Little Forces, Time, some Fate." A beat, and she huffs.

"I'm gonna talk to the lock. Once the door is open, I won't have long to get to wherever the security panel is and disarm it. I can do it, just -- let me."

"Alright, do you need us to suppress anything, or get ready for countering?" Kay asks, taking the shades off of her face and hooking the branch of it in the pocket of their blazer. They gaze around, getting ready just in case.

"...you sure? We have over 160,000 consumer grade products avail-- okay. Have a nice day." Quinncunx is worth his weight in gold over by that yard sign with his cane. Someone coming up the block just switched sides of the street and is taking a right instead of heading this way.

He looks back up the yard and gives everyone a thumbs up. For he? Is helping.

(The yard is BIG. Don't worry about being overheard all that much.)

Mei hooks her thumbs on the pockets of her jeans and tells Fox, "I can just tell the sensors that the doors are still closed the whole time, if you'd like. That way we don't have to worry about the alarm at all. Or we can disable it when we find the panel." She glances back at the door again. "I can also just shut the wards down, still. Selectively, rather than turning off everything."

"I think both is a good idea, just in case there are redundancies."

"I think probably dampening the wards is a good idea, and then we can disarm things from the inside," Fox answers. "I can ask the lock to open up for us. I'm trying to avoid directly using effects on things if we don't need to, just because... " A vague gesture with one hand. "We're not leaving connections but anytime I can avoid leaving fingerprints on things, it makes Vasha happy."

"Jay, could you do the temp dispel thing?" Kay asks, turning to their cadremate. "Or do you feel better if someone else does it?"

"I can, although I'm not as high on the totem pole for Prime as I could be." He glanced between the others gathered. "Anyone better than Disciple on that front?" (edited)

There's a brief, subtle motion with Fox's left hand, and the stellar iron on her ring finger gleams before she tucks her hand back into her pocket, standing in front of the lock like she's waiting to be let inside. "Wakey wakey," the Spirit Master murmurs, gold eyes glittering.

"I can help you if you feel you need a bit of help." Kay reaches out to Jay, lending their support as a potential yantra.

It might be the spirit of the lock, or it might just be a spirit of locks. But either way, when Fox goes looking, there's a small little goblin-like creature visible atop the lock, swinging a little foot off the edge. It seems happy up here on the door. Because the ground? The ground is roiling with motes feasting on one another. Like the floor of a bat cave. The little spirit is minding its own business for certain.

"Hey buddy," Fox offers, which -- probably -- is a little offputting for such a little spirit. Fox is effectively a Rank 4 Spirit, after all. It's a little like if you were just sitting at your desk minding your own business and the VP of Operations, who is also an angel, appeared next to you. "Would be pretty fucking keen of you to open up the lock for me." Her gaze flicks down to the ground where the motes feast, and she glances back up to the little gremlin.

As Mei circles back around the house, completing her circuit, she pulls her hands up from where her thumbs are still casually hooked on the corners of her jeans pockets, moves her fingers through a quick series of Rote mudras, and reaches out with a bit of Supernal energy. It makes a featherlight tap against the edge of one of the wards, and like someone poking a Prince Rupert's Drop in the right place, all of the magic collapses into nothing. "Wards are down," she says casually as she rejoins the group. "I didn't touch anything else, so there's still some Time effect in the basement, but both the inner and outer wards will be gone for a while."

"Well, that's gone." Kay blinks at the sudden lack of spells where there were just a moment. then gives a look toward the lock itself, who's getting a talking to apparently. "Yeah, you do what Fox tell you." hands on hips pose. "Any idea on what the time effect could be? The verge?"

There's a rather loud clap of sound when the wards drop. Apparently the air pressure differed between the wards? Definitely not something anyone would have naturally thought to check for. Quinn is already holding a phone up to his ear and waving his hand in the air, to indicate you all should continue. Apparently it doesn't even rise to something he feels the need to caution you all about.

"Nicely done." Jeremiah nodded to Mei as she returned, blinking at the unexpected sound from the wards. Sparing Quinn a brief glance he nodded to his fellow Ladder before returning his attention back to the door and the magi speaking with it's lock.

The little spirit doesn't need to be told twice. He mutters the entire time, but he swings down off the edge of the lock and climbs into the keyhole. His grumbling echoes the entire time as tumblers whirr and catches click and at last the magnets click and the bolts drop and lift or pull as appropriate and the door swings open on an expertly balanced Swiss manufactured hinge that you won't find in an Anderson built home. Only with us here at Tollbrothers.

The interior beckons like a PTA meeting.

"Thank you," Fox purrs gently, a little sweet after her sharp-toothed smile and that glance down at those motes who look awfully hungry, and she pats the lock, humming to herself happily; the humming briefly bubbles over into absent-minded song under her breath. "Everyone's got someplace they wanna be let in," and the sleeve of her oversized hoodie slides over her hand as she rests her hand on the doorhandle and opens it. No need to be leaving trace biomatter behind, after all.

The biomatter stuff has also been handled through one of Kay's magical spells. "Oh don't worry about finger prints or skin flakes, one of the tricks I put up is keeping this clean. Still, doesn't hurt to be careful. Never know if they thought about this too. Walsingham is a Moros after all." Kay says, pulling on her bracer a little tighter around her wrist as she enters, surveying the things she can see from the entry way.

With the wards down, the Stygian resonance pouring out of this place is particularly potent. Anyone with eyes to see it can see it clear enough. If the verge isn't Stygian in nature, it would be a miracle.

Jeremiah smirked a touch at Fox's lyric of choice, quietly humming the next bit of the song as he moved to follow her in. He too kept his eyes peeled as they entered the house proper, looking for anything unusual...or perhaps too normal, all things considered.

"Oh this is going to be fun." Kay maintains her Active Sight of Matter and Death, hoping to notice specific phenomenons regarding it, studying the surrounding for hints.

"Definitely not my specialty, that," Mei says with a glance over at Kay, and then a smile. "Fortunately, we come in a variety of specialties, don't we? So many things to learn, and only so many hours in the day." She shrugs and waits for the door to open, and for whatever problem they didn't anticipate to come leaping out at them, because it always seems like there's something.

Fox slinks forward, tipping her head to wink sidelong at Jeremiah, and then sniffs the air. "Oh, hmm," she offers. "That's one of the two things I really suck at." She pauses in the ridiculous fucking foyer and -- her Exorcist's Eye still active -- blinks twice, bringing up her Matter Sight and Prime Sight, still humming the chorus of Skeleton Key.

"Hmm, I might be able to learn something about it... and I was just looking for a proper verge for something fun too. Someone I need to talk to on the other end of this." As Kay speaks, looking about

The house is lit. Inviting and warm. It smells of lilac and baked bread and rotting human flesh somewhere under it all. The pictures in the foyer suggest that Gardener was married to Cypher and Man was their child? But Man is a full grown adult, of course. Right? All the objects d'art on the shelves, all the pictures in the frames, all the baseball gloves next to trophies, they suggest a middle class idyllic life. Beer and hot dogs and soft ball and ignoring the missing stairs in our communities. You know. Suburbia. Cloying, perfect, oily suburbia.

It's an open concept layout. The parlor is just off the entry way, the family room beyond that with a dining room and kitchen around and to the left towards the back of the house. The central pillar of the structure, with its stone chimney and steel reinforcement, that's where the secondary wards protected. And that's the part of the house with no obvious means of entry from this floor.

Stairs lead to the basement. A basement from a movie featuring Bruce Campbell to look at it. And they lead to the second floor. The upstairs. Bedrooms. More little lies in cozy lying frames.

(The stygian resonance is pouring up from below, btw.)

"Getting major flashbacks to the last time I visited my parents." Jeremiah made a face as he took in the too-tasteful decor, shaking his head as he looked around. "Want to start from the top and head down or vice versa?"

"Yeah give me a moment to make sure what the energies are like, just in case it's zombie land down there." Kay puts back her shades. "Vibe check time."

It's like watching energy seep out of the basement and reach towards your ankles. Like the basement knows you're there, and it's waiting for you.

It almost makes the upstairs seem not preternaturally offputting. Almost.

"Yeah it's murder-like down there, I don't think there's zombies, but like, I feel there might not be pretty imagery either." She looks about "Also, did someone say earlier there was time stuff in here? Did we take care of that?"

With everyone now inside, Quinncunx Omnia retreats from his forward observation post on the corner of the driveway to a less conspicuous place for an old man with a cane; the chair on the front porch. He removes his floppy old man hat, rests it over the .44 he places in his lap, and adjusts the strap on his trifocals.

"Wish a fucker would," he mutters to no one.

"I can't say that I like the feel of this place," Mei comments as she wanders in and looks around, keeping her eyes open for any spells she might have missed before. Or anything that tells her anything about the Major Arcana in general, since that's her other specialty. Sometimes she makes Sherlock Holmes look like an oblivious bumbler, and in a moment she's taking in all the tiny details.

"No, it sucks, it feels like murder," agrees Fox, slowly wandering the house. She shudders at the faux-perfection of the Things on the Walls and the Pictures and the everything. This is not, after all, too different from the Perfect Life that she left to go work in Russia, from the family she failed to make contact with again for so long. "Time to find the clickable objects," she mutters to herself.

"I'll check on the death twilight front... just in case there's ghosts around." Kay just waves their fingers and trace some minor, rapid symbol around their eyes, then flex their fingers like new gloves just materialized. "Or ghost objects, do you think there could be goetia or spirit guardian too?"

"I can see goetia and spirits, and no, I don't see anything," Fox answers rather absently as she wanders the first floor, looking at statues and pictures and shelves, glancing at rugs and perfectly-placed accessories. Another shudder runs up her spine, and she makes a face. Gross. "No clickable objects yet."

Mei does a brief round of the place, touching nothing, and then returns to where she was. "I know how we open the hidden sanctum," she says. "It's going to take three of us at once, I think they designed it that way so that nobody could force one of them to do it." She starts pointing. "One of us will cover the eyes of that statue, one the ears of that one, and one the mouth of that one."

"Coming up clean mentally as well, so no surprises in the walls or anything." Jeremiah added, heading towards the ear-covering statue to do his part for the unlocking sequence.

"Oh nice." Kay moves to stand near one of the statues. "there might be ghosts down there, but we couldn't sense them from outside the verge, or anything, for that matter..." she looks vaguely toward Fox. "What's your cursor like? A fox paw or a firebird shape?"

With all the appointed statues covered in the appointed ways within the appointed span of time, there is another loud clack and clatter. Like a running out of chain, or a spinning of counterweights. Possibly both. After only a few short seconds, the great fire place that heats the living room swings open revealing the lab Vasily would have had if Zoya had let him. It even has chrome and mirrored walls so it looks bigger on the inside than it actually is--

No wait, that's a Sanctum.

And it is bigger on the inside. The Guardains were holding out on y'all. Tsk.

Who will be the bravest to step inside the Sanctum first? It is Fox. Fox is the bravest. Or at least that's what she's telling herself, even while she's slinking into the Sanctum as a fox will. "It's a fox paw, it changes into a firebird when there's a clickable and I mouseover," she deadpans back at Kay. Her eyes narrow as she scans, scans, scans.

"Been meaning to do this for our place..." Jeremiah added with a small smirk as he went in after Fox, eyeing the spatial set-up in particular for any sorts of keys or triggers that might get them punted off into an oubliette or the like just in case.

"Oh that would be cool. I have similar ideas too, but with my own shroomy twist." Kay grins at the replies they get from both Jay and Fox. "Alright then, let's see...." Kay does get ready for counter spells she needs to throw around however, given that her sight is active still. "Are there things protecting the sanctum"?

Mei spots no lurking dangers. Probably, they would have imagined that anyone getting this far would have already defeated them. They'd be dead or disabled, so what's another potentia drain going to achieve? No, this sanctum is just functional. There's an obvious weapons locker. There's a chemistry lab. A computer lab. There's a manufactury, where it appears they've been recently manufacturing firearms and bullets, and there's a maker space that wants for nothing save square footage. It's all packed in and efficient across three floors of a warehouse space. That feels like it must be underground somewhere. But it's clear that the sanctum isn't wherever the house is, and that the verge is not where the sanctum is. Even though it was within its wards. Which means that there has to be another security measure in the basement, similar to the one with the heads up here, controlling access to a similar chamber below where the verge is.

"That's pretty unusual for a Guardian sanctum," Mei comments when she peers in, and the place is bigger on the inside. She follows Fox in, though. She continues to avoid touching anything as she begins searching the room, trying to put any pieces together that she comes across, but until then, just putting all the information in her head for later use.

Kay wanders the sanctum trying once more to figure out the physical make of the place, durability of the materials and general value of it. See if it's altered in obvious ways. Also using her sights and general perception to maybe help Mei in her investigation

In silence, Fox walks the entirety of the sanctum. There's something kind of icky about being in someone else's Sanctum without permission, even if you have a Very Good Reason: it's like rifling through someone's underpants drawer or sizing up their dildo collection (pun intended). There's something so terribly intimate about it. So, at least for right now, she looks with her eyes, not her hands, just like her mother taught her when she was little.

It all looks quite consistent with what's been going on in the city lately. Mobilizing for war? There's signs of weapons being made. No doubt the maker space would have research into Mark on it, and the chemistry lab a tincture from the Tree. It looks like the sanctum of people trying to help out locally. Or, if you want to get very paranoid, the sanctum of people trying to look like they're helping out locally.

"Wall crawling!" Kay starts wall crawling, to approach the stone too, but after Fox, studying and watching for potential spells to potentially counter, just in case it triggers something there.

Without saying anything out loud, Fox just suddenly turns and walks up the wall as if she's in some Doctor Strange fight or something. Her hands stay in her pockets, and she treats the wall like the floor. Once she gets up to the ceiling, she points at a dark stone imbedded in the ceiling. "Look what I found," she announces, her voice quiet. "I'm not taking it down yet." The implication in the words is I'm not taking it down until we have a Reason to.

"Is it even theirs?" asks Diamond.

Jeremiah blinked as Fox pulled her best Peter Parker impression before grinning, a quiet "that is wicked..." slipping out before he got a look at what she was pointing towards. "Well then..."

"Well," Fox answers, "I can try to match the nimbus. I'm not sure I've seen all of theirs, but... you know." A vague shrug, there. "I'm gonna go ask HeavyGlasses McPentacle about the legal repercussions of taking this down. Y'all can come up the wall like this, I put that on all of you if someone wants to squint at it. Just don't like take it out until I get back." And she walks back down the wall.

"No problem! I'll just be looking at it like it's some museum artwork and I don't want to get kicked out." Kay looks down. "Come on up, it's pretty fun to stick to walls."

Fox briefly forgets why she came out onto the front porch until Quinn lets her into his concealment. It happens about the same moment when she becomes aware of what it is. He doesn't apologize for being careful, he simply looks up to her with his patient face. His eyes look enormous in those lenses.

He's not a don't speak unless spoken to sort. He's quite happy to let her start the speaking. Which is an admirable quality with a tactical nuke for a voice.

"I'd personally rather not muck with someone's soulstone," Mei says, as she continues investigating the area. She leaves others to decide, for the time being, how they want to handle that situation.

Oh, the temptation to join Kay on the wall by the soul stone was rather strong indeed, but for the moment Jeremiah joined Mei in continuing to search through the Sanctum proper. They were here for evidence of malfeasance, after all, and business before pleasure.

Yeah, that doesn't even bother her. Vasha does that shit all the time. "We found a soulstone." Sometimes Fox just rambles around until she gets to her point, adding in six facts you didn't know about pigeons along the way, but today she refrains from being the Orphans of Proteus version of BuzzFeed. "They're inside trying to figure out whose it is. Right now I don't see any particular reason to take it down, but... what are the legal considerations surrounding its potential removal?" She rolls her shoulders inside that worn-out hoodie.

When Jeremiah goes through the makerspace he spots some very official looking IDs. Federal Rangers, as it happens, and the passes are stamped for access to Centralia. And the mine fire there. There's papers and documents and work orders all put together to substantiate that sort of business, creating a back story for why they're even out there to begin with.

Similarly, Mei finds the ammo and after a bit of examination discerns it's mostly incendiary. Every fourth round is FMJ. So fire, fire, fire, slug, fire, fire, fire slug. A great way to tear apart a Beshilu nest, but a really lousy way to engage Seers of the Throne.

This is all consistent with either a genuine attempt to address a problem from a year ago, or an anachronistic attempt to appear like they're genuinely trying to be helpful. Either way, they're not glowing. The soul stone is. At least to Fox.

"I am here to ensure that there are no legal ramifications to our efforts here," Quincunx answers Fox quietly, his voice measured and whisper light. Carefully, almost artfully absent of emotional tenor. Perhaps he's trying to keep his words from swaying her off down some unspoken whim of his.

"You all contacted me because you had reached the very end of what you believed your Lex Magica stated was possible. Everything that we do now, Little Fox, is precedent. This question you are asking is precedent. This answer, precedent. Whatever it is your friends now do inside, out from under my squinting eyes, that too is precedent. So at this point I must simply trust in the character of that young man in there. As I am trusting your presence here, based on his word alone." His head ticks just a touch to the side.

"So just make sure that whatever you do, Little Fox, is something you would want done to you if you were in their position. The why of what you are doing with that soulstone is as important now-- perhaps moreso --than the what you intend to do to it. So. For posterity. For the sake of precedent. State for the record, Little Fox, why it is you wish to remove it."

His impassive face breaks into a very slight smile. An extended hand when one has no hand to extend because they're holding a gun and hiding it with a hat.

The nice thing, sometimes, about being someone who is terrible at hiding her feelings is being someone who doesn't care to do so, really. It saves so much energy, nine times out of ten. Fox's face journey as Quincunx answers her is, if not profound, at least very obvious. She's thinking. And at one point that includes thinking about whether everyone present is someone she'd use the word 'friend' about: the expression resolves into a tiny white femme's version of Obamanotbad.gif.

"I don't know that I do," Fox answers mildly. "I wouldn't want to do so unless I had, in a non-exhaustive example list," the former Mystagogue continues, "evidence that it was stolen or that the soulstone was directly enabling Seer actions." She scratches her cheek, that absent little gesture of hers which, to the careful observer, might look a little like the gesture one would use to pet the face of a cat. Or a fox. "Which I guess is answer enough. I'm not leaving a demesne here if the balance of evidence indicates that would help the people who keep trying to kill us."

Jeremiah mulled as he went through the makerspace, the pieces laid out before him painting an odd picture. He glanced towards Mei, an eyebrow arched. "Is it just me, or does it seem like this either hasn't been touched since the Centralia thing or they left this all out to make themselves look good?"

Spidercrawling Up the Wall still, Kay curiously studies the soulstone with keen eye and focus. "Oh, I know these soulmarks on the stone, this is..." and Kay takes a break there, narrowing her eye and expressing a quiet, fuming anger for a brief moment as they grit their teeth. "A problem. The owner of the soul stone is part of the Tears of the Martyr's Tree..."

A relatively nondescript hatchback arrives, pulling up to park on the side of the street and a casually dressed Alexis hops out, retrieving a backpack and a small gym bag. She is draped with the gentle web of a spell to brush away sleeping eyes that does not extend to the Awakened, and is humming along to some OST that isn't immediately recognizable. She wanders down the street to the house, glancing at the sign in the yard and chuckling before addressing the two outside, "I apologize for being somewhat late, I needed to retrieve some equipment." A head tilt asks if their conversation is any of her business or if she should just scoot on inside.

"No, I agree," Mei answers Jeremiah. "I'm actually curious if we can find clear signs that anyone was here more recently, and that this place hasn't just been sitting idle since them. There's some nagging part of my mind that wonders if the people we've thought were the Major Arcana cadre weren't, in fact, and that they got replaced around the time all the Centralia business went down." She gives Alexis a smile when she arrives and shrugs her shoulders. "No harm done. Glad you're here now."

"Then let us keep up the search of the sanctum, continue to gather evidence, and make a more informed decision as to what to do to the Soul Stone before we leave. In general, if your intention is to uncover more evidence in order to ascertain the innocence or guilt of the individuals to whom this sanctum belongs? I will be in favor of it. Especially if it is minimally invasive. Scrutiny, and the like. Keep in mind we tried everything to reach them before now. This is a wellness check as much as it is a criminal investigation."

"Jeremiah is inside herding the cats, I imagine he will be thrilled to see both you and your equipment." He then puts a touch of verve into the speaking of the words, "They have a whole secret lab down there for you to poke at." Alexis may be conscious of finding that notion incredibly appealing more than she might otherwise. That voice doesn't really have an off switch, sadly.

Fox grunts once, scratching her cheek again. Perhaps it is a self-soothing gesture as much as a time-filling one. That would certainly fit her general ... Fox-ness. "Right. That's what I needed to know." Her gaze flicks off across the lawn toward Alexis and she tips her chin up. "Hey, kid." It's not unfriendly, it's just the greeting of a preoccupied person. "Right." And without another word, she tips her head indicatively while glancing at Alexis and heads back in to the makerspace. Her keen ears pick up the tail end of the conversation, and she scampers up the wall to join Kay near the soulstone. "Wait, what."

Another deep breath. "It's got the markings of the Tears of the Martyr's tree on it. I peeked at it a few times before settling into making my own... this has implications." Kay's fist are clenching and unclenching rapidly.

Alexis sets down the gym bag, which thumps with the sound of tools settling, and glances around, "That is an interesting theory, and actually may be easier to prove than disprove, unfortunately. Depends on how much they scrubbed the place and what tools and skills they used to do so. So let's get collecting." Her backpack gets slid off and zipped open, revealing the guts of a forensics kit that probably wasn't stolen out of a detectives' car trunk. Probably. "That soul stone is probably going to be telling. And if it ISN'T their fault shit went crazy, it can always be returned assuming it is actually theirs, whereas if things are out of wack then its safer with the Consilium than here." Neoprene gloves go on and she sets about collecting bits of stuff here and there, looking in corners where dust may have settled and light doesn't reach while working to bring the workings of her own legacy to bear.

"Have to wonder..." Jeremiah replied to Mei, giving Alexis a quick salute as she joined the group. "Do we know if any of the cadre members were part of that legacy themselves, or are we thinking this may have been 'on loan', as it were?"

"Before I start staring at this myself, anything else you've already figured out?" Fox asks Kay. Her attention turns to Alexis, then, and she replies, "I don't know if you heard everything that Quincunx said, but we're outside the boundaries of precedent. I'd like to have something more than 'well we thought it would be safer with us for Reasons' before we disrupt a demesne and remove a soul stone. That's not a precedent that I want set."

Once inside the home and through the secret door in the fireplace, one enters the warehouse size inner sanctum and laboratory of what was presumed to be the Major Arcana. This laboratory is clearly underground, and clearly not in the same location as the house from which it is entered. The suction and air currents are precisely what you'd want to have in a lab where chemicals and such are being mixed. But it does mean there's no dust present to go off of. The only things she finds that provides any potential dating criteria whatsoever is a very, very few dead insects. They must have entered through the portal with those who come and go from this place.

Once she's got them all gathered in hand, it's not hard to recognize them all as spring and early summer bugs to a one. And so fragile and old as to not be recent. Consistent with the Centralia event dating.

"I admit that I am very personally biased with this and that my own personal shortcomings might be huh..." A pause and several blinks as they speak with Little Fox, greeting Alexis from the ceiling with a wave. "Involved in there, but I think the Children of the Tree should get the soul stone until we know how the legacy got obtained and use the favors of the stone, if necessary, to secure it. This soulstone is from a highly powerful Moros, just only slightly less powerful than me." (edited)

Sometimes it is best for a Magister to be present. There's a tingle of magic from above as he puts a shroud over the whole of the property and begins picking his own way through the home and down into the sanctum, one caned step at a time. It is probably no coincidence at all that he arrives in time for the debate about what is to be done with the soul stone.

He doesn't say anything. He just clears his papery voice softly and removes his soda bottle thick eye glasses to begin wiping them off on the end of his silk tie. He was kind enough to keep his glasses off for everyone's expressions to adjust to him suddenly appearing. When he puts them back on, his smile is neutral-pleasant and serene.

Everyone was saying?

"Cipher was recognized as a Master of Death by the Consilium." Alexis notes, "And said recognition does not always expose one's full skill-set. Hell, I think mine is officially out of date at the moment. Unless these bugs have been altered, they seem to be consistent with this space having gone unused since the time of the Centralia event. Which does not fill me with hope. One does not carve off a chunk of their soul to make a Demense and then NOT use that Demense. Its fundamentally incompatible with the mindset necessary to perform the act in the first place."

"Especially not when one is a Guardian of the Veil," All Fives agrees with a nod of his bespectacled head.

Jeremiah glanced towards Quinn as he arrived downstairs, giving him a respectful nod before looking back to Alexis. "Agreed. So if they got subbed out right around that point, finding proof of that will be important. Moreso if we can find out where they went."

"I wonder if any of the neighbors have seen them recently," Mei muses aloud. "Finding out the answer to that kind of question is a big part of my day job, but it might be better not to go asking the neighbors questions until we're done here, since it's only going to get them to pay attention."

"That's presuming that this isn't a stolen Soul Stone, which is exactly what we're attempting to figure out." Fox's voice goes tight; she's crouched on the wall, her hair falling sideways off of her head, hands tightening on her knees, speaking tensely through her teeth. "It is possible that the person who made this Soul Stone ... hijacked the Legacy, learned it out of turn, stole it, whatever. It could be Cypher's. It could also not be. That's... that's my whole point, and Diamond's, and given that this Legacy only belongs to one person that I, a Talekeeper of the Children of the Tree, can recall ever having it, this whole thing is excessively ... suspicious. But. As I said. There needs to be sufficient evidence for me, personally, to want to set a precedent about when it's okay for people to enter someone's Sanctum and take down their Soul Stone and disrupt their Demesne. So I would put before the group that it's probably a really good idea that we just leave this right where the fuck it is and look for evidence of malfeasance. If we find it, and not just our suspicions, I will take the stone out myself and let Weaver and the Lictor decide between the two of them who should hold custody of it for the time being."

"Yeah, I'll go with what Fox says." Kay exhales slightly, trying obviously to calm themselves down a little bit from the emotional state this particular event brought up. They spidercrawl down the wall and goes to give Alexis a proper hug of greeting. "By the way, wall crawling is fun."

"That's very kind of you," the Lictor in question remarks with dry amusement. He seems remarkably nonplussed about all of this, but then again this is the sort of thing he does as a day job. This. Over and over again. "Do you want to experience the rush of amusement that comes from getting a lictor to call a Councilor?" He's put his pistol away, having traded it for his old Blackberry. "I'll do it. Just ask. It's a rare treat, and I highly suggest you enjoy it while you have the chance."

"Well, since nobody else has been here for months, as far as we can tell, it seems pretty reasonable to leave it here for a while longer," Mei responds to Fox. "I'm with you in that I'd rather not wander off with someone else's soulstone, whatever our motivations might be, because there's a chance that we're wrong about what's going on and I want no part of even accidentally stealing something like that."

"Agreed. Better to leave this as-is for the moment and look for more information on what happened to them that left this place abandoned for as long as it has been."

"If that is the case, would it be appropriate for us to put up an alarm spell at least, in the case of someone else coming here? Once we finish investigating, of course." Alexis starts looking for signs of what this space was used for specifically when it was in use, and possibly where they aquired their materials from.

"It was my intention to replace the wards here with wards of my own once we leave. Safeguard the place no less well than its previous owners had, and with the benefit of my Emeritus rights overlording the place, woe betide the one that trespasses, et cetera, et cetera. Care will be taken in the future no less well than it has been up to this point," Quinn assures quietly.

They had been crafting incendiary rounds to fight the Beshilu, creating counter toxins to help fight exposure to Beshiu infection in humans, making fake IDs to get access to Centralia, etc. (See prior scene log above.) The materials, many of them, appear to have been acquired through governmental channels, legally. In that they are properly labeled and such. Anything that can be acquired bulk was acquired from the local home depot or similar big box. All of the technical equipment is akin to the chemicals and controlled substances. It looks like it was carried out of a government lab and left here, new out of the box. So whoever got it here was well connected. (Or knew how to become well connected on a whim.)

"I think maybe we focus on things right here before calling a councilor, I fear this would cause an overwhelming amount of amusement and I couldn't keep up." Kay says to the intention of Quinn. "Unless somethings suggest their life might be in danger or ours.." a look around.

"With the information I have it seems like the most likely scenarios are that they defected for some reason, in which case their lives are probably not in immediate danger, or they got replaced, in which case I would imagine they're probably dead already," Mei says with a wince. "But since we're not sure which answer might be right, currently, I'd rather err on the side of caution, since they might be alive, and also not actually Seer agents."

"I mean, isn't Walsingham the one who tipped us off in the first place? Might not be terrible for the Lictor to ask him some questions. He might, you know. Wanna help." A beat. "Or he might be dead, who knows." Fox hangs out with Vasha too much, maybe: the Ukranian's sense of humor certainly lends its weight to her Jewish wryness. After saying that, she grunts again, scratches her cheek. She doesn't come down from the wall for a minute; instead, she seems to sort of zone out momentarily. Everyone who has their Mage Sight up gets to see, when Fox's little fingers flex and curl through yantras, the explosion of green and petrichor which surrounds her. It's not a very strong working, so no one feels the Tilt's effects; they just see the Primal Wild briefly punching its way into reality through Fox's work. Her gaze goes distant, and she steps down from the wall, singing under her breath a little as her bare feet pap pap pap across the makerspace floor, hands back in her pockets. when my time comes around, she half-sings under her breath, lay me gently in the cold dark earth.

"He was, yeah." Jeremiah nodded to Fox, watching the Thyrsus as she did her, well, magic. "May be worth getting a hold of him to give him an update..."

Somewhere, Vasily is very proud of Fox and doesn't quite know why. Utilizing the man's own methods, Fox backs her way into some awareness. She goes looking for evidence of seer complicity and comes up short. Completely dry, in point of fact. You can't prove a negative, but there doesn't appear to be anything to find here fitting that criteria, either. Nor any inclination to seek for some other thread elsewhere. No urge to call for a pizza that will introduce a quirk of fate when the delivery guy turns out to be a Seer Proximus. Nothing. It's like looking to Fate and having Fate tap its foot and point at its watch impatiently.

"Alright! Then I guess we can all be overwhelmed with the joy of calling a councilor." Kay chuckle slightly and shrugs, moving around the lab to see if there's anything she can make sense out of from the gathered clues, even through the lenses of their Mage Sight

"I'm not an expert in spirits, but would it be possible that its something other than those two options, especially given that evidence points towards their last activities being involved with spirits of corruption? Like, could there have been something involved other than the Beshilu that got to them because they were looking at the obvious and active threat?" Alexis tilts her head, "Not everything that benefits Seer operations is the direct action of their hands. Not that paranoia isn't well founded there, either."

Don't worry, Vasha. Fox will tell you all about it later and demand praise, smooches, and delicious pelmeni. He taught her well. She walks slowly in circles around the floor, humming to herself, sometimes singing the words. Her footsteps are uneven, odd meter, hands patting at her thighs in 3/4 time. a boy with a coin he found in the weeds with bullets and pages of trade magazines, she absently sings, humming and singing, while everyone else talks and theorizes. She's kind of tuned out from that conversation for the moment. Humming and wandering. a girl with a bird she found in the snow sneaks out as actual words as she turns her face up, wandering without paying attention to where she puts her feet. A person could walk off a cliff that way.

She goes so far as to wander up to the ceiling again, as if trying to prompt herself, and stops next to the soul stone. Fox balances on one foot, dark hair pluming down toward the floor, and props her left foot on her right knee, hands folding behind her back. "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but the threads of Fate leading me to 'evidence of members of the Major Arcana collaborating with the Seers' just... don't exist. It's not... really possible to make all of those threads disappear with regards to this particular spell. It just... doesn't exist. There's not a there there."

"You would prefer I call Walsingham, rather than Baldur? I can call both. I can even conference them both in and pretend I don't know how it works and yell 'can you hear me' over their first attempts at saying hello." Quinn's continued attempts to keep matters semi-light may not be appreciated, but it seems to be how he navigates the world. Mastigos can be a prickly bunch.

When Fox explains matters, his bushy white eyebrows lift in surprise. "Oh, the villain does a turn. It's never the Butler, is it. Not really." Quinn is now looking about the room in his own right, continuing to be both eccentric and old if nothing else.

Mei cracks a smile at Quinn's joke, so there seems to be some appreciation at least. "Well, there's still something down in the basement that's making use of some kind of Time effect, which we haven't investigated at all. It might be worth checking that out before we start making phone calls? For all we know, we might find the Major Arcana in stasis or something. And there's the Verge."

Jeremiah smirked alongside Mei at Quinn's attempt at humor, looking about the room anew. "Downstairs sounds like a plan."

"Yeah I agree but, just a second, I think Fox and I can do something with the little dead fellows over there." Kay approaches it and look up. to Little Fox on the ceiling

What Would Vasha Do is sort of the watchword of this for Fox, it would seem. She unfolds from where she'd been casually hanging upside down with her hands folded behind her back and her foot on her knee, reaches up, touches her fingertips to the ceiling, then dangles from her fingertips before dropping down to the floor.

It is a beautiful thing, if one appreciates the aesthetics of Awakened magic, to see two Children of the Tree cast in concert. Fox's Yantra blends with Diamond's in a way that's hard to explain or describe within the bounds of spoken human language. It feels like doors opening and closing, like the pressure of the air itself changing. Master Revontulet's left hand curls through the air, leaving behind it a lunargent trail ever-so-briefly like she's sketching the Northern Lights across her personal sky. The work takes about half a minute -- hardly an extensive ritual casting -- as she folds time around herself and Kay together, bringing them to what's important to see with regards to their current task.

Some things come with the teaching, and the 'heads up display' of the Red Guards is one of them. That mental construct that helps Vasily to process a fire hose of magical information into visual heat maps, targeting indicators, graphical readouts, and the like-- all neatly arranged in the subconscious where it can even operate in a split mind, if one is so inclined, for full tactical awareness even while doing Sudoku.

Live an examined life with a heads up display is all I'm saying.

And once it's dialed in, the past temporal diagetic overlay appears ghosted in the heads up display's visual overlay. She can still see the present, and she can also see the past, but the two are blurred and intermingled and concentration is required to focus on any one or the other. But that's normal. That can be managed.

The mayfly was dead, in the first place. That's where the timewalk begins. The final leg twitch. She watches the life leave the clue that broke the case, because Fate knows she'd want to witness it. Someone needed to know.

Several days earlier, nothing happened. A mayfly was flying about, tossed on the passing air of someone who was never there just a moment ago. Buzz goes the mayfly. Buzz.

Some time before nothing at all happened, Gardener was in the lab with Cypher. She's draped against his side as he's peering into a microscope. He's trying to pretend he's working, but eventually she winds up in his lap and then Gardener made sure that nobody was able to see the nothing that they got up to in the lab shortly after that. Nothing happened then, too. Naked nothing, probably.

Before that, a Man was down there printing out documents. A man became a Federal Park Ranger. He sat at that table there and put his hands flat on the table and went to that place she's seen Vasha go before. And then a Man was SheilaThomas, Park Service, and not a man at all.

(More.)

A similar accounting is given for every fact that can be found in the room. Gardener and Cypher developing the anti-toxins, working on the ammunition together. All the things that are here, in situ, can be accounted for in the time walk. Nothing appears to have been taken. Nothing appears to have been moved. It was, in point of fact, materially redacted such that the state it was in prior to everything simply ceasing to be recorded on the temporal record is the state it was in immediately following that absence from the temporal record.

And that absence from the temporal record goes on for twelve days.

And downstairs, three time spells and a Stygian verge await. Fun.

Fox has no particular qualms or fuss about nakedness or sexuality; it's just another squelchy and often fun thing humans get up to in their time on this likely-cosmically-insignificant little ball of rock, liquid and gas. Still, it's a private thing to most people, who don't just like walk around their sanctums with their tits out all the time like that's meaningless because to Fox it is, so there's a puff of laughter. She doesn't convey that information to the general public, though, because if they'd wanted people to know, they would have made it clear, and it is not -- currently -- germane to the investigation.

"So... " A pause. "We have A Man becoming Sheila Thomas, a Park Ranger, and some research being done in here before the Beshilu expedition. The creation of toxins. And then... twelve days, just... gone. Scrubbed. Very thoroughly." She sighs. "Very, very thoroughly, by someone who doesn't even think bugs are alive." Respecting the privacy of someone you don't respect at all now is a difficult thing, sometimes. But Fox has her own code of ethics.

"I think we've gotten everything we can here for the moment. The basement awaits."

"Twelve days," Mei says, expression getting thoughtful. "Do you have any way of telling which twelve?"

"Alright, ready for the basement. Let's see how creepy a Stygian verge can be." Kay puts their sunglasses back on. "Just in case I need to take them off for a pun later."

The basement is designed with the careful artifice of the Guardians of the Veil to appear precisely as mundanely suburban family as the upstairs was. Camping equipment tucked away, and assortment of sports apparel for things A Boy tried and failed out of. A few hand tools from a man that fancies himself more of a handyman than he actually is. It's perfect.

With Alexis and Mei's perceptions altered, they see through the key pattern down here, similar to the one that existed upstairs. Only down here it's three separate pieces of media containing Walsingham. A DVD of Elizabeth, a copy of Her Majesty's Spymaster, and a copy of Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon. A Man is a Weeaboo. Once all three are located and interacted with, the locks hiss and the central brick stack against which the heater and water softener and so on are located dislodges and swings open, just as the fireplace did above.

Only it opens on a yawning blackness with a creeping purple aura. The verge.

Behind this wall, on the floor, the three time spells are located. Conspicuously human sized and placed prominently on some very clear floor.


"Yeah, it started after the first big battle at Centralia, the one where I-- " almost died because I was a dumbass who likes to be a fox "-- broke the soul jars, and ending right after that." She pauses, even as she's following after everyone toward the stairs. "So... if some or all of them were kidnapped, which is my current theory, and replaced, or killed and replaced... was all of that just a big fucking distraction?" Fox asks, her bare feet going pap pap pap on the floor.

"... uhhh... " she pauses. "... uhm." And points at the spots on the floor. "Time magic. People sized. I -- " Fox's mind is Eric Andre shaking a fence screaming LET THEM OUT, tbqh.

"That or they took advantage of it." Jeremiah replied, eyeing the verge as it emerged with an quirked up eyebrow. "That's not creepy at all."

"...I have many concerns." Alexis says, staring in the direction of the verge.

"This sounds like the kind of things we definitely should analyze before rushing in. I feel like there might be a trap." Kay stretches out a little, peeking above her sunglasses, trying to do a scrutiny, while the others may be figuring out other things

Mei's still digging back through her brain as they head down into the basement, sifting through her memories like someone riffling through a card catalogue looking for the right entry. Then it hits her, and her expression sours. "You know what?" she says. "I think the end of that scoured period of time is, pretty much to do the day, when their entire attitude shifted. When they went into malicious compliance mode, started being pains in the ass, dragging their feet, and so on. And..." she pauses, like she's going over a couple of things in her head again. "I think they actually might have blown their whole cover trying to regain control of the grigori.

She brings her attention back to what's around them again. "Also, that's creepy."

Was that cell phone always there? If it was, it certainly wasn't glowing to Fox's fate perception a split second ago, and it very much is now. The screen lights up, and it plays the Nokia chirpy tone. The number displayed is a numerical impossibility but the caller ID pegs it as 'Det. Trenchcoat'. The call is marked urgent.

She invokes the spell once more, mumbling something about tortured metaphors and Tarot cards, and then the phone! "Ah, a Clickable Object," Fox offers. She picks it up and answers it as if this is all very normal, "Go."

"Fuck. Why is at always fucking you." There's an audible, frustrated sigh from a voice that sounds exhausted. Haggard. At the last edge of a very frayed rope. "Let me guess, that Alexis kid is there with you, too. Right? And that Silver Ladder prick, and the detective you're fucking."

Quincunx just winks when the list doesn't include him.

"I'm out of options. I am a spent asset. We all are. It's like they shut the fucking door on us and threw us out. We've been replaced. All of us. Every single fucking one of us. Before you do what I think you're about to do, I want to know if you'll accept my surrender or not. Amnesty for me and my Pylon. Or just me if you need blood, I don't care. I did what I had to do, and now I want out."

Kay shamelessly leans into the situation to listen to the situation, their face dropping and their fist clench. "Wow." they silently mouth as there is a WIDE and WILD range of emotion running through the whole of their expression. "Internal conflicts galore right here..." they mumble, pointing to where their heart is. And then they wait for Little Fox's reaction when the voice is done talking.

All the same, Kay also runs her memory in law mode, trying to find precedent she can recall rapidly about surrending Agents of the Throne.

"A free tip for you," Mei says with a soft sigh and a faint roll of her eyes. "If you're trying really hard to give people the impression that you're exceedingly clever, you undermine yourself completely by getting key details wrong. It just makes you come off as desperate and insecure instead. What would be in it for us to just give you amnesty for the things you've done?"

The sound of a fox growling is... different from other canids. It's got a little bit in common with a cat hissing, and a little bit in common with a wolf growling, and meets somewhere in the middle. Clearly Fox didn't exactly believe the name coming up on the caller ID, even though it was probably Fate making that appear on the caller ID. Fate has a whimsical sense of humor, after all. But no. The minute that voice hits her ears? A low, animal sound curls in the back of her throat, something feral and disgusted all at once. "I would rather eat a bushel of asparagus and piss in your face than help you personally," she answers through her teeth, "so you're lucky there are bigger things at stake than your hide and your blood."

Mei's comment turns that growl into a dark, predatory chuckle. "There is that," she agrees a little more mildly: now her eyes go to Quincunx, her golden-eyed animal gaze fixing on him for whatever reason. "What's the quid you're offering for the pro quo you want?" A rephrasing of Mei's question as the fingers of her free hand flex slowly, like a cat stretching and retracting its claws.

"So the man who has tried to murder...what, at least half of us? Is now asking us for help." Alexis rests her face in her hand, "What, was it 'Nothing personell kid.' when you stuck my brain in a blender in an attempt to prevent me from awakening?"

"I can tell you how to save the lives of your friends, there. It was a clever bit of trickery, leaving them locked up in a time prison like this. If we'd just killed them, you'd have known right away. Ward drops, divinations, and all of that. Leave them balanced on the edge of a knife, however, and you can do just about anything you like while wearing their face." Trenchcoat Detective's voice shifts quite suddenly, until he sounds rather precisely like Man. For the few of those in the audience that ever met him.

"Methods. Practices. Other Pylons. Information. The network. A squadron of Mark IVs. A base on Mars. I imagine they'll either begin dismantling much of it, or shifting it away from our control. So that's a window with limited opportunities."

"Either way, you're doubtless discovering we're no longer the true threat, here. And the future doesn't give a shit about any of us." He chuckles, and it's his chuckle again. "So, yeah, kid. Nothing personal."

"What are the precedent for surrendering Pylons and Seers?" Kay asks aloud, though more toward Quinn, obviously. Their expression twitching between mildly annoyed and furious scowl. "I don't recall anything off the top of my head right away."

"Also, it is definitely starting to feel very personal in your case." A snide little twitch of their expression toward the phone, though really, Kay doesn't really care if they're heard or not.

Quinn indicates with a tick of the head that he won't be speaking until the line is muted. Presumably, someone will do that, of course. And so he does speak.

"Dead or alive, captives have always been remanded for trial. There has never been a case of a defection that I can recall within the body of the North American Lex. You'd have to reach back to pre-Gaveston days, which means you're invited to pick from which tradition of the Lex you most favor. There are east and southeast asian traditions, the Grecco-Roman tradition with which you are familiar, a north African Lex Magica as well--"

He realizes he's rambling and gets to the point, "You can reach back to whatever tradition best informs the leanings of your heart and heads, but it seems that's what's going to be establishing precedent here today. What he proposes is a commerce in human souls and human suffering, in which we can purcahse an end to much of it. The question becomes if it's a price you all are willing to pay." (edited)

Her golden eyes close slowly and then open again, and she keeps staring at Quincunx. It isn't a content, cat-like eye-closing, it's more keeping my shit together while things spin out of control. She raises a hand, a gesture forestalling more commentary, and a thready little smile slides across her face.

It's been a long year. "Hold, please." Her eyes half-lid. "The shamanic traditions which inform my legacy take a great deal from the oldest forms of Tengrism," she answers, as if this has anything to do with anything. "A prisoner is taken and given opportunity to show use. Demonstrated use determines any future possibilities." Her eyes open again.

Quinn does some brief inner consultation and shrugs his brittle shoulders gently, "This practice is mirrored in the Lex Magica of the Eastern Steppe peoples circa the twelfth through fifteenth centuries. This custom has fallen out of modern practice, but offers valid precedent. Do any of the Pentacle Orders present have any magical traditions that reach back to the eastern steppe? Certain east and central asian practices could likely claim tradition lineage through cultural sharing as well, after the thirteenth century."

"Maybe Yoshistune could have answer for that?" Kay supposes aloud. "Otherwise, there's few members around the pentacle orders who probably could know... Unless the Assembly could accept the surrenders, then it would be a Free Council or Children of the Tree thing."

"I'm more interested in a restorative and rehabilitative justice than punitive one," Mei says with a thoughtful purse of her lips. "A solution that leaves a villain free to pursue more villainy doesn't interest me, but if making a deal like this seems like it will ultimately result in less harm in the long run, then it's something I feel like we need to consider. It all depends on whether the information we get is helpful, doesn't it?"

"My magical inheritance leans largely towards classical traditions, but I will say that one of the purposes of the very existence of the Mysterium is so that we can learn from the dangerous mistakes we ourselves made in the past. Its why we don't destroy knowledge, even dangerous knowledge. Because if we deny it we cannot avoid it. The purpose of the Wings of the Dragon is to learn why we fell, so that we will not fall again from the same hubris." Alexis looks like she bit into a very bad lemon as she says it.

Fox's gaze shifts away from Quincunx briefly, staring off into the corner, and then returns to him. "It would appear we have sufficient precedent to bring him -- and his Pylon -- in." Her jaw sets. "We should call Weaver and Yoshitsune to request advice and backup. I'm not walking us into a trap trying to pick these assholes up. Plus, you know. It's their fucking jobs or whatever." Her teeth bare briefly, all sharp teeth meant for tearing meat from bones.

"It isn't strictly speaking required that one of you be able to claim legacy to the tradition. It just makes for a better explanation. 'Citing the magical tradition practiced by member so and so, we did such and such for these reasons.' It's tidier. It leaves future generations guessing less. About why you chose to do what you are now choosing to do, motivated as you are by hot tempers and cold injuries."

He gestures a hand towards Alexis, "And hers are the coldest of them all, I would say. I can speak for the Pentacle in assuring the Emissaries of the Children here present that we, as always, respect the precedent established by Penance the First with respect to deference to your customs when the Lex and your traditions interact. Even our Duel Arcane and nemesis passes through your traditions."

A pause and a glance between Fox and Kay, "So if emissaries were to demand the right of first refusal with respect to the disposition of this Pylon, and if Alexis is sincere in placing her desire to preserve knowledge even above her desire to avenge her own attempted murder? I would say, your own Lex Magica affords you all the custom and tools necessary to broker such an arrangement. And I can jus tbe here to give one very potent sigil to our side of the exchange."

"But either way, contacting your superiors sooner rather than later to let them know what we are undertaking will be necessary."

"Well, in case that's useful. I did form my own magical tradition by forging my own Legacy. I would very much be of the opinion that the Emissaries of Renewals would be for restorative and transformative justice, as it pertains rather significantly to my metamagical ideas behind it. Preserve, recover knowledge in any form, even if it becomes unrecognizeable in the new form because of the transformation it undergoes." Kay mentions, shrugging. Though its clear there's an inner struggle there.

"We can figure out the details later, I suppose."

"They attempted to destroy the Tree and to kill my mother. Twice. Yes, I feel certain that we must, as Emissaries, demand right of first refusal with respect to the disposition of this Pylon." Fox flicks her gaze around the room, allowing everyone to finish whatever opinions they wish to tender, and then says, "I'll drop the Forces bubble momentarily and address him again," as a warning.

"I believe that Phurba follows some kind of Eastern tradition as well, but I have no idea what their conceptions of justice and the like might be," Mei makes a note of. "Which is to say that it simplifies things if someone here's traditions can cover that territory, since I don't know if hers does." She shrugs, then smiles. "Just, you know, yet another Child of the Tree who might have something to say that falls outside of the Pentacle's typical perspectives."

For the first time in all of this, Quincunx eyes begin to sparkle with energy. These kids are finally starting to get it. They're riffing the way he riffs, and it seems that this alone is what thrills him anymore. The art of doing the right thing with the law. Even when the law sucks.

"We will," he assures her with a note of pride in his vocie that is felt like a shiver down the spine. He tosses Kay an encouraging wink, then mimes zippering his mouth and locking it so that Fox can resume the conversation with the increasingly impatient seer.

Now that everyone agrees that Quincunx is powerless before the righteous and justified nemesis of the Children of the Tree, he folds his hands up and smiles, waiting for this all to play out.

The Forces bubble drops. "Thank you for holding," comes a voice from Fox that no one present has ever heard before. Maybe Vasha. Maybe not even him. It's a perfectly-modulated customer service voice, rising and falling in pitch like a songbird's precisely-repeated springtime call, except this means 'fuck you' instead of 'fuck me.'

"We have decided to accept your unqualified surrender on behalf of your Pylon, under the terms which you have laid out. As a gesture of good faith, we request the first information you offered as a... down payment." On your fucking lives, Fox doesn't say, but maybe the meaning carries through. "With that information in hand, we may discuss the best method to acquire your surrender."

A beat. "Oh, I want the astral units and the Marks, too. My newest friends are so eager see their friends again."

Alexis shudders. Customer Service Fox is SCARY.

It may speak to just how psychically damaged these people are, that none of this phases him. He's just on to business. His life is saved, and that's what matters, and now he's got some work to do.

"Okay, so listen. Put up a Forces field around the time signatures you see. Set it to stop anything moving faster than the speed of sound, so you can still talk and all that. There are three bullets in the air, set to finish off your friends when the spells are dropped. A failsafe of sorts."

"Once you drop the time prison, and the bullets are frozen, you'll have a couple seconds to administer the counter toxin. Assuming nobody's turned it over, you'll find that inside the Verge, being guarded by the ghost in there. I told it truthfully that it's the key to saving your friends, so... you may have a hard time getting it from him. It's a magical toxin, so your spells might not work. The antitdote is a sure thing. I leave that to you."

"Once that's in 'em, you'll want to stem the bleeding and give them something to counteract the exposure they're suffering from. Easy trick for you, though, so I won't belabor the point."

Good. Lord.

"Alright," Mei says with a glance around at everyone. "I think everything but the ghost is something I'm able to handle, but spreading things out so that no one person is key never hurts, especially in a situation where we can't be entirely sure that we can trust our information." She looks over at Kay. "I think out of all of us, it's probably you who's most suited for interacting with a ghost, if I had to guess?" There's a smile along with that suggestion.

"What the fuck." Kay expresses under their breath, scratching the back for their head. "At least, maybe I can deal with the ghost in a safe way." Another repeat of the what the fuck comes out of their mouth.

"Depending on how angry they made it, lucky I protected us from ghostly powers." Kay activates her Death armor with an expenditure of potentia that gets added to the bracelet on their wrist.

With just a few gesture, the cloud of spores emanate from Kay, sensing living and dead beings of all size and powers. Then a spell gets cast swiftly.

"Yeah, I think I'd be good with the ghost...."

"Please hold," chirrups Fox back at Detective Trenchcoat. A shudder of Forces and she seals off the phone from ambient sound. "Before we do anything else," comes a rattling growl, "we need to call Yoshitsune and Weaver. They're in a Time effect. They can wait a moment longer so we can do this all right."

"That is a very good point. It also won't hurt to have some time to examine the effect, in any case, since that should make it easier for me to dispel it."

It doesn't take particularly long for Yoshitsune and Weaver to arrive, due in no small part to both being in the same cadre with Esther who enables Yoshi's refusal to learn how to drive. A circular portal appears in the upstairs living room, limned by cherry blossoms. Out of it strides Yoshitsune in his full armor, the oni mask he wears learing grotesquely at everything in his vicinity even as the ancient eyes behind the mask watch it all in precisely the opposite manner. There is a conspicuously large jumping spider on his shoulder, too.

Both mages descend into the basement, Yoshi eating up ground and taking up space like a man four times his tiny, tiny, really astonishingly small space.

In that time, Fox shoves the phone into the pocket of her jacket, keeping the Forces bubble intact and the call open. He can just well fucking wait seems to be her take on the whole 'Detective Trenchcoat' thing. The arrival of Yoshitsune with a giant spider on his shoulder prompts first a proper bow and then a sharp little yip of greeting. One for the Arrow, one for the Orphan.

"Adamant Sage Yoshitsune, Warmaker Weaver, I am sure you at least know of Lictor Quincunx, if you have not met him previously," she begins. This isn't Customer Service Fox, but it's something approaching Formal Fox, which is another thing not too many people here have seen, though whether she salutes the individual or the rank? Debatable. "The phone in my pocket is currently surrounded by a Forces bubble because it holds an open call to Detective Trenchcoat, one of the Pylon responsible for the time-redacted destruction of the Tree and the near-death of now-Archmaster Balm. He claims to be seeking amnesty for his Pylon in exchange for a great deal of information, including the knowledge necessary to retrieve the members of the Major Arcana from the Time effect which holds them here in this room, with several magical failsafes. They replaced the Major Arcana most likely sometime around the Centralia affair." A slow breath in, a slow breath out. "He has given us a description of the effects he claims are currently wrapped around the three of them, and we have not yet begun to take them out of it."

"Before we began, I wanted to have you both here to start arranging for their unconditional surrender. The Emissaries of the Tree have agreed before the Lictor to remand them to the Pentacle's care with the Children of the Tree having right of first refusal on any arrangement or consequence regarding the Pylon."

Mei offers Yoshitsune a respectful bow when he enters, and then a second one, although the second one is actually aimed at Weaver. "Thank you both for coming," she says. "This has turned out to be an interesting expedition." The details have already been filled out by Fox, so she lets that explanation hold for the time being.

Alexis stands up from where she has been very carefully examining the area around the time bubbles for any clues as to the methods used to enact any of the described effects around what are probably the Major Arcana, giving both of the masters a bow of her own.

Kay gives her assent to what Little Fox is proposing in a clear, yet non verbal way. They greet Yoshitsune and Weaver with warm smiles and waves, and any other acceptable silent greetings at the moment.

First, Yoshitsune offers a stiff bow to the Lictor. Then he begins returning the bows of those who greet him, starting with Fox, whom he greets with her Shadowname, simply in Japanese.

Once the business gets started, however, Yoshitsune simply falls into place. He bowed to the Salaryman of Kyoto for enough years to know a fait accompli when he hears one being presented to him. He is not here to stamp anything. He is here to be held and to have his forehead pressed onto someone else's decision.

They probably couldn't have called on a better man to ask that of, really. "Proceed," is his instruction. Quincunx has the kindness to at least offer Yoshitsune an understanding smile when the word is spoken.

Weaver hops down off Yoshitsune and springs through the air overtowards Fox, at whom he begins waggling his pedipalps and clacking rapidly, sometimes buzzing, sometimes popping.

Fox pulls her hands from her pockets and gently adjusts her stance to be able to catch Weaver when he jumps at her. She listens and watches/listens, at the end shaking her head slightly and setting him onto the top of her head or her shoulder, whichever he prefers.

Sometimes an Orphan just likes to be a hat. It happens.

Once he's settled, she makes a little rattling sound in the back of her throat, opening into a small yowl and a high, climbing cry. It's brief, it's definitive, and for those who understand her, it sums up to I've known that man for ages and ages, he never shunned me, I'd sooner cut my tail off than hurt him, with a side of and you hurt my feelings a little by asking. And then she inclines her head to Yoshitsune once more. "I asked you here for your advice on how to proceed, though we know we must." A tight smile. "I've never rescued Guardians and taken in a Pylon on the same day." But Yoshitsune must have, once. Right?

"Neither have I, come to think of it," Mei remarks after Fox's comment, and after a brief look at Fox for the sound that just came out of her, too.

Clearly, a funny joke comes to Kay's mind and they decide not to make it out loud, whatever it was probably linked to their own Cadre. Their attention shifts toward the Verge for a brief instant, trying to peek into it in a more direct fashion, hoping to maybe see and learn more about the ghost that's said to be within, with their spells, sights and general expertise.

"Only minor rescues and assist on my end."

"He has an overdeveloped sense of honor," Weaver explains to Fox through another series of vibrating arm hairs. "If I don't look out for him, you know exactly what will happen." And she does, too, and Weaver doesn't say anything more on the subject, as they're both still nursing the loss of Balm. They didn't mean anything by it, in other words.

Still, with all the necessary parties assembled, it's Quinn who finally moves matters along, "I would suggest we start by securing the anti-toxin. Or trying at least. Which would, I believe, be your role, Emissary to the Ancestors." He's indicating Kay with his pointy nose.

At that, Yoshitsune snaps his blades from their sheathes and begins moving towards mouth of the verge. His blades begin to him with potentia to those with the eyes to see it, no doubt enabling them to strike even the dead.

"Sure, I can do that. It'll be a fun thing to record as a Talekeeper." Kay corrects with a smile, moving toward the Verge and using her whole array of skills to at least perceive and sense the ghost. Just her Spore clouds attainment should be enough to feel its presence within their radius.

"Hello? I'd like a word please" Kay adresses the ghostly presence, attempting to find what they're dealing with.

There's a soft huff, in which she accepts Weaver's not quite an apology and lets it all go. "We can be both, I think," Fox shrugs. "Right, Weaver?" She shrugs vaguely.

"Hmm. I think. If Pavlichenko were here... " And then her left hand carves through the air, the Siderite ring with its hidden Lunargent and Brontium tracing the sigil she makes as sort of a trippy trail on the back edge of her hand. It looks a little like conducting Rachmaninoff in the air, perhaps. The shimmer of benevolent Fate curls around willing participants.

The thing with verges is that they serve to conceal the outside from the inside and the inside from the outside. So it won't be until Kay enters the verge properly that communication can take place. The verge is responding, the purple light in the forbidding blackness grows a more inviting purple color. But no words come back.

"I will go first, if you wish," Yoshitsune volunteers, because of course he does. And he accepts the luck, to boot. As people watch, his figure begins to fill out his armor. He doesn't get taller. He's just perfecting the shit out of that adept under there, apparently. "I promise to apply only diplomatic use of kendo."

And thus in Kay goes, with Yoshitsune, to help defend herself as they make it in. "Be careful, in and out are two different places." once inside, she re-iterate her greetings. "Hello, I'd like a word please."

Alexis looks as if she wants to ask how the hell diplomatic kendo works for a moment before deciding better of it. Instead, she starts working on a spell to help deal with the mundane side of the possible immediate medical emergency they will have to deal with.

Mei hooks her thumbs on the pockets of her jeans and waits, at this point. There's no need to rush things, and until they're ready to move on to the next stage of this situation there's not much specifically for her to do, except to observe, learn, and keep her eye out for trouble.

Passing through the lens of the verge is a tactile experience. There's a presistance to the air, like a membrane of fleshy tissue that one has to press past. One that bursts, that pops open like a sore, and expresses you.

And once through, true to Kay's prediction, it's a different place. Or a different idea of the same place, perhaps? The room is very Of A Period. Lots of wood, lots of conspicuous brass, too many forks. Too many glasses on the table. People don't sit like this any longer in rooms like these. And they're not dressed in such fine suits with such fine round hats.

The ghost that sits at the table flickers like an old, old film. Shuddering and jittering in the chair he occupies like a memory caught in negative and developed much, much later, and that can only live in the light. A beam of light in which he sits at present, being cast from some far off point, gleaming but unseen.

The ghost's skin looks dead, but not the pale blue sickly death of a white man. The ashen russet death of a black one. One that had a fine beard, strong mutton chops. A thick, shiny nose. And apparently, as of this moment, no eyes to speak of. Just two gaping bloody-- well, "bloody", this is all in stuttering black and white --wounds in the middle of his head. He considers the party and rises from his chair, lifting the hat from his head and offering Kay a slight bow.

There are no words spoken, just a sense of hospitable welcome.

"Ah, A pleasure to meet you. I'm known as Kay." They offer a similar bow, trying to read the ghost for signs of preferred mannerism or greetings. "What's your name?" a quick glance backward, just to see if there's anyone else coming in and then a look to their hand as if to try and perceive what was felt in their hands just a moment ago. "What are you doing here?"

The Gentleman, and Kay is not certain how she knows that, but now she is very certain that his name is The Gentleman, or that at least that is what everyone calls him that call him anything these days. All of that occurs to those within the verge as the ghost walks casually from his table over to the sideboard where a tray is set out with drinks. Those who might like one find themselves presented with a glass, filled with rich amber liquid that smells of smoke and oak. It becomes obvious, as he gestures to indicate the lavish living arrangements that he lives here. This is his home. And really, it ought to be him that asks the questions. Not to be rude. Not to be impertinent. But he has friends he must look after, they all realize. And so must understand his position.

She stands there thoughtfully, her gaze drifting to the floor, and Fox shifts her weight from one foot to the other. Mei, definitely, will know that this is how Fox looks when she's thinking of Ways To Be Terribly Clever. Well, mostly when she's thinking, but it does tend toward 'how can I be Most Clever, for I am the cleverest' since... it's Fox.

"Okay. I'm going to ask for the help of anyone who knows literally anything about Time," Fox offers thoughtfully. "I'm going to hang a Temporal Summoning the moment triggered to the moment that the temporal bubble drops, and pull out an older version of the Major Arcana, from before Centralia. Quincunx, I think it would be -- useful -- if you might be prepared to quickly convince the Major Arcana not to attack us for being in their Sanctum. My thinking here is that doing this will pull their past selves to the present and replace their present selves, who, if what that rancid fart of a human being said is true, will be injured and poisoned. Might not make the kill shots not kill shots, so of course we'll want to deal with the Forces matter," and here she looks at Mei, clearly deferring to the Obrimos on all things Forces, "before we drop the bubble. But it will give us crucial time to unwind any other issues before their past selves become their present selves."

Kay looks over at the entrance of the Verge, being a little confused at the lack of further entrance, but they pick a seat when invited to do so and waits for the question to come, for the moment, they do not acquire any drinks at the moment, uninterested at the idea of drinking in the current situation, like, at all. "Thank you for the invitation, Gentleman." (edited)

The Gentleman helps Kay into her chair before circling back around and retaking his own seat. No servants come to the bare, if set table. No cook brings a meal. Dust specks settle through the flickering distant point of light in which the image of the gentleman flickers and stutters and skips. He smiles slightly, inclines his head at the thanks, and then gestures airily with his hand Kay's way.

This is not a place for the living to come wandering through idly, it occurs to her. And this is his home. So clearly she would have to have come here for a reason, and it's probably what he wants to know. Why she's here, interrupting his meal. The fact that 'interrupting a meal' is the last thing she is doing right now makes it clear the origin of this thought is not actually Kay.

"There's a situation currently, that requires my attention within this place." Kay vaguely gestures toward the position where the time frozen people. "People that need our help in some manner." Kay motion between themself and Yoshitsune to indicate who is wanting to help, also toward the 'exit' too. "I overheard that they're sick and need some kind of antidote to save them, among other things."

Yoshitsune, contrary to type, has sheathed his weapons, though he has not moved to sit. He stays near to Kay, protectively, but content to let her do the talking. It's her wheelhouse, after all.

The Gentleman glances between the pair, not that his eyes are there to see anything at all any longer. He nods his head, causing a strand of sticky meat to slap out of his eye socket and down his cheek. He understands. You've come to get the antitdote the imposter gave to the Gentleman, no doubt. You will not object if he comes out of the verge to confirm all of this, of course?

He's already starting to rise, plucking the kerchief from his jacket pocket to daub at the smear of gore on his face.

"To confirm what exactly? I'm not sure what that means and I would not want to mislead you." Kay says, just wanting to clarify, just in case she misunderstand something

There doesn't seem to be any active menace from the ghost. At least none that seems to carry in this apparently psychoreactive little bit of his domain. He plucks a cane from the rack near the door and taps his hat brim with it as he glances back to regard Kay.

He's going to go confirm which person telling him tales has been lying.

It is more or less at that moment that a large manifested ghost comes stepping out of the verge, washed out gray like a flickering old movie, looking like someone went at his eyes with the claw end of a hammer. His gaze accuses. It's the only thing a gaze like that can do. But the voice that booms out from the empty air around the ghost is a deep, rich, warm baritone. It just isn't accompanied by the ghost moving its jaw, or anything.

"Good evening. Where is Cypher?" He might get around to apologizing for being brusque when he sorts out what all these people are doing in his house.

Kay follows outside "Cypher is locked away into your home, wounded and in need of help, which include the antidote you have." Kay explains. "We're here to help him and the others, would you help us?"

Meanwhile, outside the Verge, Fox tips her chin up toward Alexis, accepting her assistance in setting up the hung spell. Fox's spellcasting is both incredibly ritualistic and very ... regimented. It might be surprising, or unsettling, or just -- a reminder -- to know how much Mysterium theory informs the renunciate's magic. Or maybe Fox is just playing nice to make her magic work more easily with Alexis' Time abilities.

The work completes, and dwindles down to a spark, hanging in Time and metered to Fate. "Okay. Next up. Who wants to be faster than their problems?" she laughs. Somewhere, Vasha is very, very proud.

She pauses, though, when Kay follows a ... giant manifested ghost... out of the Verge. Her shoulders roll and she manages a lopsided curtsy, taken a little off-guard. When Kay speaks, Fox follows up with a nod. "Cypher is being held captive inside a sort of snow globe outside of Time, a pocket. I'd really like to make him ... not be poisoned... when we drop that, so, yeah, could you help? That would be really great." (edited)

Mei fiddles with her magical tools and speaks some words of High Speech as she puts a spell into place to protect those within them temporal pocket from high-velocity harm when the spell drops. Nothing within the area of that field will be able to go particularly fast, and that should suffice.

Once the magic is worked and there's a ghost there talking to them she smiles at it, having not actually spoken with a ghost before, and says, "what she said."

Everyone's seen the horror movie. That myopic zoom that makes it seem like the walls are breathing. Like the ghost is growing somehow nearer without moving at all. A gust outside causes the air pressure to change, and the windows and doors all sigh and belch and shudder as one. Or maybe it's the ghost making its displeasure known. He takes a step forward and the furnace clicks on, the whoosh of fire, and the hiss of the fans as they begin to churn the exhaust of these more enlightened times.

Without moving from its spot, the ghost seems to take the measure of each and every person in the room. And then he's gone into nothingness. Evaporated into twilight, most likely. The room, the basement, they're all very, dreadfully, boringly normal for several seconds before the Dutch Angle takes over on the cameras and The Gentleman looms up out of the floor in front of Kay. He's holding in his hand three syringes.

"If Cypher dies, you will want to leave slightly faster than those you hate here."

"Thank you very much, Gentleman. We'll take care of Cypher." Kay takes the syringes from him and looks over to the group. "Anyone here feels comfortable administering vaccines? I don't have any training to do that."

"Way ahead of you Kay, just hand them over." Alexis smiles at her cadremate and holds out her hand

Normality resumes when the ghost once more disappears from reality. But one can safely assume he is still very much here in every sense that matters, taking a very great interest in the goings on with respect to his master.

Yoshitsune has headed back to reconnect with Weaver, gingerly claiming them from atop Fox's head. Given the way Yoshi is leaning his head in the spider's direction, they're exchanging updates on what the other missed when they were mutually separated.

Kay smiles and gives the Syringe to Alexis. "There you go."

"Don't use them when I pull their old temporal selves into our time. We can't help them until they're in present time," Fox prompts. "Everyone's about to get very very fast. If you're not used to Acceleration, be careful." Her fingers curl in the air, and Fox looks just a little bit more tired. She's been chewing through her potentia, even with everything she's regained, and will most likely need the very biggest nap when this is all over. And pets. Lots of pets.

"Ready when you are," says the Time Adept. Vasha's sense of humor apparently came with the instruction in his favored Arcana.

"If you need a battery recharge, Fox, I'm all okay to share part of mine if you want to." Kay offers, as they feel time alter how fast they can go, causing them to tense harshly at the sensation, then mumble something about therapy as they take a deep, deep breath.

The look that Fox gives Kay aside is grateful for the offer, and followed by the smallest nod. Maybe she's been, you know, trying not to let on how much this takes out of her in front of the Big Kids.

"I also have no shortage of potentia that I could share with you," Mei remarks, since she has a pretty massive reserve to draw on at this point, and has used almost none of it. "But I'm ready, otherwise."

It's hard to unwind all the contingencies that are folded in and over one another. All the hair triggers artfully laid one over the other by this Fate Adept and that Fate Master. Strike a ball of rubber bands with a good sharp sword, and what results will look like chaos but stem from order. That's how fate magic is sometimes. Just a ball of rubber bands being whacked with a good sharp sword.

A spell makes certain that the Major Arcana that is trapped inside the time bubble that no longer exists aren't the ones from a year ago. No. They're the ones from a bit before that. Which sets off the marble of this Rube Goldberg of potentiality. The bullets in the air, firing at the wrong people, it decides to stop trying so hard and falls to the ground with a clatter. They all do, one after the other. Clack, clickety, clack-clack.

But the Major Arcana are no less bound, no less gagged. They're no more clothed, no more standing upright rather than lying prone in a pool of a future self's blood and vomit. Being attacked isn't really a thing that's going to be happening right now. They look terrified, and ready to respond accordingly.

And then Quincunx steps forward, the air about him illumined with the Words of Truth. He crouches down in the blood of a torture they've yet to experience, gets his knee right in it with that $3,000 suit, and says right into their eyes, "I am a Lictor of the Magisterium. You are being rescued. Be strong. We're not going to leave you."

And it's hard for anyone hearing that and seeing that not to want to act on that imperitive. We are rescuing them. And we're not leaving them.

Not that she wasn't already inclined to that? But Fox's resolve feels... quite redoubled, thank you. She'll think later about how utterly terrifying it is how ... true everything feels when Quincunx says it. There's time for those thoughts another time.

Right now she scrambles after the Lictor and drops herself to the floor so she's kneeling by the head of whoever is in the middle. "Hi, it's me." She knows they know who she is, whether they like her or not. "Listen, right now for you it is before Centralia. Good news -- that went very well! We handled that threat. However, I am sorry to report," and she does sound genuinely sorry, all of her bitterness at the Guardians of the Veil as an organization just sort of vanishing under the green fog of needing to take care of the tribe, seeing all this blood and vomit on the floor, these terrified human beings in pain, "that you were replaced by Detective Trenchcoat's Pylon at that time. You've been in a Time bubble for ... about a year, and before they put you in the bubble, they poisoned and tortured you. Right now, I have temporally summoned the you which existed before Centralia in order to move you out of immediate danger and make sure we'd caught all of the booby traps that dickhead put in place."

"In order to help you," she explains, her fingers rapidly moving to ungag the central figure, "I'm going to need to let that spell go and bring the present you back into place. And that, I am afraid, is really going to hurt for a few seconds, and we can't do very much about that." Yes, ungagging them means that they could try to cast things. She does it very purposefully. It is a gesture of trust. "I know it's a lot. Please take a breath and tell me that you understand, if you do. If you have questions, please ask them."

A second later, she adds, "Can someone grab some sheets at least?" They are, in fact, naked.

Kay as everything speeds around like there's no body's business and through the spore clouds, Potenia dashes from one spore to another and then into Fox, replenishing the reserve as much as they can. "I understand this is terribly confusing and upsetting, we're here to help you." they speak when there's a good moment for it. Taking a step back for a moment, ready to counter spell or perform magic to save people further.

Mei waves a hand through the air and mutters a few words of High Speech, and then she's holding blankets. They're blankets made entirely out of magic, but they're blankets none the less. "Of course," she says, moving forward with them and putting blankets over naked forms. "It's kind of a weird situation, but that's kind of our life as mages, isn't it?" she says rather casually, like it's not really all that big a deal, in the hopes that her own not being extremely worked up about it all won't push people who are on edge further toward going over it. (edited)

It's a bit much to believe, but with the Word of Truth up and a Lictor standing over her shoulder, nodding his head gravely to add veracity to every claim she's making, it is starting to sink in. It happens to be Gardener in the middle, though she is by no means the decision maker in her cadre. She keeps squirming, trying to find her friends. Her nimbus flaring as though threatening to respond as her training dictates. Which is no doubt very impolitely.

Man? Oh, characteristically mum, that one. Cypher, on the other hand, keeps calling for someone named "Clive". And it isn't until the ghost manifests near the Moros and takes the Guardian's hand, that the shouting stops. Perhaps some manner of ghostly familiar?

No words are ever exchanged between the trio, but Gardener finally grits her teeth and says, "Do it." As though this is as prepared as they're getting.

Fox attends to the cadre's bonds, because she wouldn't want to be tied up either in this situation. "Okay. Rashida, please give one of the needles to Parhelion," with a nod to Mei, "she's good with first aid too. Diamond, if you can handle a needle, I need you to take the third one. I'm going to hang some healing contingent on when I I drop the Time effect, so it'll hit as fast as possible, and I can follow up with more as needed. Diamond just refilled me so I'm good to go." Bossy little vulpine! She waits for everyone to be ready before starting a countdown, of course.

Alexis reaches over to hand Mei one of the syringes, taking a deep breath.

"Alright, I'll try my best." she grabs one and gets ready with hers.

Mei takes the syringe with a nod, double checks it to be sure there are no surprises waiting in how it works (probably not), and then prepares herself. "I'm ready," she says.

As the countdown plays through, Fox gets to watch Gardener try to guess what expression she'll likely have when the time stutter happens. Will she look smug in the face of the bullet? Will she try to hide it, to keep her would be killer from learning he's been had? The most awful realization of it is that Fox is watching someone try to figure out how "normal people" deal with imminent mortality.

And when it happens, it comes with all the confirmation bias of a Navy modeled on a ship of war called the SS Dunning-Kreuger. Its overton window focuses lasers that can cut steel. She's seen it in a lot of Guardians over the years. Vasily used to get that look now and then, when everything was coming up Milhouse.

It's the expression of someone who trusted in something she believed in and had it confirmed with her very life. So. That's a thing Fox knows now.

But it still leaves three bodies, three wracked bodies on the floor. Not to belabor the point, but they've been tortured within an inch of their lives and would have succumb to their numerous lethal injuries in short order had Fox not interceded on their behalf. All the healing seems to have done is make them fully conscious and aware of everything that's happening to them quite suddenly.

But between the slowing of the toxins and the healing of what wounds there were that could be healed by such an ersatz spell, they are out of the woods in the most immediate sense. Even if they are now starting to gag and choke and asphyxiate again. (edited)

Kay plops down the syringe in one of the three bodies, having gotten closer to one of them, she rapidly injects her part and it comes MUCH easier than they expect too, thanks to Fox's nimbus. Meaning, more of her potentia flow through the spore cloud as she grant each of Major Arcana the ability to heal themselves with their own potentia as if they were disciples of Life, just in case it might help. (edited)

Mei starts moving immediately, going to the side of the one of the trio that isn't being attended to already by one of the other mages. The first thing she does is administer the antidote that she's been equipped with, but she follows that up with a touch using her legacy's fifth attainment, which starts immediately mending wounds with little more than a touch of her hand. Even scars knit away to nothing in a moment, under the touch of a Cherub. "I'm sorry about what you went through, but you're going to be okay," she says at the same time. "We can provide you with everything you'll need to be sound of body again, and then proceed from there."

For once, Fox manages to just look like someone who is doing her job and not let on that she sees all of this playing out across Gardener's face. "Okay. We're ready. This is going to suck, but we're not going anywhere. I promise." She's made promises to Guardians before, but rarely outside of her cadre, because she really doesn't trust any Guardians outside her cadre further than she can throw them when she's a fox. But this time? She means it.

"Just keep breathing," she prompts. "Keep breathing. We've got you. We're here." Revontulet's hands shimmer in the air as she continues to work Life into the bodies of the brutalized cadre.

Alexis takes only a split second to judge her spot and then plunge her injector in, hands unnaturally sure and steady even before Fox's nimbus takes hold. She then starts working on any remaining injuries left untreated by magical means and checking them over to see if any other unnoted effects are still about.

He didn't warn you that the anti-toxin burns. He forgot to mention that. Because apparently it does. It burns like hell. Gardener can't keep her lid on it and starts shrieking until her air gives out and she passes out. (That's probably a mercy.) Man? Oh, he's a go down with the ship sort. He's not saying anything. He's not even choking. He's just raw dogging it like the freak that he is. Cypher alone is just human enough to not respond to this sort of thing with naked aggression or some sort of preternatural reserve of moral stoicism. That guy is just plain old suffering, even if he's holding the hand of a ghost while doing it.

It's working, though. Cypher's color is starting to improve just a bit. Even as he chokes back against the urge to scream. One can imagine Trenchcoat Detective has the line muted to hide his laughter.

This isn't showing off, not really. This is just Doing The Work. But this? This is a literal Master at work. She looks aside at Mei when she comes to heal one of the Major Arcana, mouthing a silent thank you before putting her hands right down onto the wounds of the Major Arcana -- gently, nimbly, but right across those wounds, fingers flicking blood into the air. Low, animal sounds curl in her throat, and she stays knelt at Gardener's head, her hands curling yantras in the air, painting the sacred words of Life into the world as Lunargent and Brontium and Siderite streak across the visual planes of those Guardians who remain awake.

The vulpine shrieks and cries clatter off the walls and fill the room, eventually resolving into "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," as their wounds close. "I'm so sorry." Their bodies close up their wounds, leaving not even a mark behind. "I'm so sorry. It'll be over soon."

Mei smiles at Fox when given that look, and comes around behind Little Fox to continue the healing. She has plenty of her Potentia reserves left to go around, and she's a Master of Life much as Fox is, so her ability to continue healing and her potential for doing quite well at it are both ready to go. It's only a matter of seconds, and the liberal application of magic that causes glowing auras around Mei that look much like her namesake, to take care of the last of the wounds on the Major Arcana members, including wiping away all the scars of their injuries.

She leans back a little bit into Mei when the Obrimos comes around behind her. She continues to work Life over the bodies of the Major Arcana, restoring their patterns fully in concert with her cadremate. "Okay," she offers in a hoarse voice once all that vulpine invocation passes. "I think you can get up now, if you want to." Her hand comes down to rest on the top of Gardener's head, just briefly, and her gaze flicks to Cypher, specifically.

"She'll be okay," the Thyrsus assures him quietly, with a gentle and rueful little smile. It's as much telling the Guardian what I know now as it is actually reassuring him. "She just passed out from the pain. She'll come to in a minute."

Kay shakes her head, taking a deep breath, emotions rippling through her expression and she quietly makes an exit with her gaze floating about to see any further magic so she can stop it, or at least try to.

The anti-toxin has an exponential effect. The relatively gradual onset is soon followed by miraculous recovery. And not just because Thyrsii and those trained in their arts about to mend wounds. For all that the anti-toxin burned, it burned away. And as the pain worsened, so did the recovery hasten. But in the wake of it, wracked by agonies they're likely not too keen to describe right now, and lying covered in blankets in their own blood and puke, are a fully healed and very much rescued Major Arcana. And their ghost. Familiar? Butler? Boyfriend? They're weird, these three. (Four?)

It's only with the Gentleman's assistance that Cypher is helped to his feet. And though nobody knows it, they've just earned the respect and appreciation of an Epopt. So they've all got that going for them, which is nice. He holds the blanket around himself with difficulty as he leans on his ghost. "So..." he begins, gesturing with one blood caked hand, "This is the basement. Needs... some work." He manages a grin at that before collapsing against the Gentleman again.

"I can help clear your thoughts, at least for the moment? Assuming you are alright with me using Mind, of course." Alexis offers to the recovering Guardians.

"If you'd like, we could also bring you upstairs, let you get some clothes, all of that," Mei offers. "It might be nice to get cleaned off, considering..." she looks around them at the mess. "We're here to help you, ultimately, so..." She spreads her hands. "We're happy to help."

"The basement needs some work," agrees Fox gently, still kneeling by Gardener's head. Perhaps it's the intimacy of having watched her facial expressions as she tried to steel herself for the pain to come, but she's not leaving the woman, just watching and waiting for her to wake up. "And you need a bath, and a minute." A glance aside to Mei as the two have the same thoughts.

"There's more to tell, but it can wait." Until everyone has some pants on and isn't covered in their own puke.

When Gardener regains her senses enough to respond properly to any of this, it's to agree that yes, they really do need a moment. "Why don't you go upstairs. Order some food. Don't sweat the cost. Make it good food. Stuff you want to eat, too. Plenty of drinks. We're going to clean up down here-- I still have a job I do. And we'll be up in a bit." Which is a pretty diplomatic offer from a Sentinel without clothes in whose sanctum you're standing.

Man has managed to sit up, at least. Still hasn't said a word, and probably still won't. He seems stubbornly disinterested in leaving the pool of his own blood. No, audience. I will not be standing with you here.

One of her hands touches the top of Gardener's head ever-so-briefly before she rises. It's a reflexive, animal sort of thing; one might wonder if Fox even knows she did it, that little 'I have seen to you and you are All Right Now'. "Would you mind terribly if I ducked into the workshop for a moment?" she asks, gesturing at her own blood-and-puke-covered clothing. "I won't touch anything." Fox just wants to borrow the demesne to Matter the stuff on her clothing into nothingness. You know. In case they would prefer she doesn't carry any of their DNA out of their Sanctum.

"Sounds like we're heading in the same direction, then," Gardener offers as she begins to walk unsteadily towards the stairs in her bare feet. Which is to say she doesn't mind, particularly. At this point, they're going to have to build a new one anyway.

Mei looks down at herself, from where she had been crouching to tend to injuries as well, and asks, "would you mind taking care of that for me, as well? And I'll see about getting in an order for some lunch. Does anyone have additional food requirements that I should know about? Dietary restrictions, etc?" She seems pretty casual about the whole thing, like their having come to the rescue is just in a day's work, and she's certainly not going to make a big deal out of it if nobody else does.

After the moment when Fox expunges all of the blood and puke from everyone's clothing by simply unraveling its being, and after the part where they explain to the Major Arcana that, well, they did in fact agree to accept Detective Trenchcoat's unconditional surrender along with his Pylon in exchange for information (and the Marks and the astral machines), including the information which saved them, she pulls the phone back out of her pocket, makes sure everyone knows she's about to drop the effect, and then does so.

Customer Service Fox returns. "Thank you for holding!" The 'asshole' on the end of that sentence is implied. "Your offered information has secured you a life long enough to surrender with, at the very minimum. I have some friends here who are very excited to talk to you," she chirrups. "Now. Let's talk practical details of surrender." And she flips the phone to speaker, letting those with bigger, shinier hats start hammering out the hows and wherefores.