2019.04.03:All Gone
| 2019.03.19: All Gone | |
|---|---|
| Marshall others explore the mysteriously abandoned House of Keys. | |
| IC Date | April 03, 2019 |
| IC Time | Evening |
| Players | Marshall,Jasmine, Cody, Teagan |
| Location | House of Keys |
| Spheres | Mage |
House of Keys - Lobby
The young man waits just inside the doors to the mysterious house, his cellphone in one hand and the strap for his satchel in the other. Having contacted Jasmine to seek her advice on this...discovery, he awaits the more senior member of his Order.
A busy week has been really busy! still, when she heard from her superiors that there was something afoot on campus, after facepalming profusely, she decided to show up. Just to be a bit cheeky, she shows up in Lara Croft chic with her dark brown workboots, a pair of cute khaki short-shorts, anda baby doll t-shirt that clings with 'WICCAPEDIA' emblazoned upon her chest. Idly running her fingers through her hair, she carries with her a small backpack of ritual instruments as she makes her arrival.
Glancing about, she spies Marshall and beelines in his direction. "I am known within the order as Carmen St. Germaine, Second Degree Adept, bani Quaesitor." There's the slightest hint of a British accent there. Waiting for a few moments, she stands up as if giving him an appraising glance.
It almost looks like she's glaring before she gigglesnorts and laughs heartily, giving the air of formality a dismissive wave. "At least that's what I'd say if you were already in the order. Jasmine Lange, at your service. Carmen is my craftname. You can just call me Jasmine or Jas, but definitely not ever Hey you, bae, babe or anything else if you want to keep your penis attached."
Marshall is rather surprised by the woman's arrival and takes note of her rather comic appearance but doesn't say anything other than a quick, "Yes ma'am." He introduces himself as Marshall Turner, a newly initiated member of the Order and so new that he has not been invited to join a House yet though his teacher has suggested he would fit well within th Bonisagus. "I would never call you 'babe'...ma'am." Clearly the man has been trained well - a hint of middle class manners spilling out from his lips as he adjusts his glasses a bit nervously.
"I was given the key to the doors by a...contact and told that 'everyone was gone'. So I came and searched the place as best I was able. Nothing. No one's here but it looks like they didn't actually leave." Turning, he points to the basic layout of the building and says that he's found a cup of coffee, still warm, in the lounge and a notebook and pencil on a desk in the library.
"It's like they just...vanished." He says but hates using such imprecise words.
"Ma'am is for old people or Southerners." Jasmine replies rather matter of factly as she hrmms for a few moments and crosses her arms ove rher chest as she glances about, letting her gaze wash over the surroundings. She's looking for any occult sigils or indicators of the local geomancy and leylines in the area as she walks around, doing her best Sherlock Holmes impression.
"Were you able to detect any magick prior to arrival?" she asks curiously. "Or have oyu looked at the resonance left in the building to see if there were any struggles either through a magickal and/or spiritual battle or the presence of paradox?" Certainly, she wants to be caught up with as much as he knows about the place.
"And it would help to understand your talents as well, so we can properly leverage them, right?" she offers with a chirpy smile.
"I was able to detect a minor degree of magic - it felt like some kind of mental fog or some effect that would cloud the perception of anyone that walked by. Perhaps just the presence of other forces but it was what caught my eye. I mean, I've been on this campus for months, walked by here dozens and dozens of times and never once ever looked twice at it." Marshall takes a few more steps in, looking up at the ornate details of the columns and some of the more intricate decorations of the molding with an appreciative murmur escaping his lips.
"My talents lie in Via (mind) (prime) and in the connections created by those magics aside from the normal aptitude our Order shares with such forces. I...could detect nothing other than a momentary flick of confusion in the center Atrium."
"Then it would be best to shield your mind as we explore." It's then that she brings her fingers together, steepling them for a few moments before making some strange gestures, following a few different rote mudra as she mutters a soft prayer in Enochian directly to the Archangel Michael for protection of her mind from that which would seek to invade it while also asking for the intercession to be able to see the weavings of any magicks that already might be in the area.
With her eyes and mind now enhanced, she takes in a long and deep breath, looking for trails and traces of quintessence and any resulting resonances within the area to give any sorts o clues as to what else may have occured.
"Oh...the second I felt the confusion I threw up my shields - thinking that it could be...well, whatever -it- was responsible for their disappearance." Marshall explains and takes a moment to pulls out a small notebook he used to quickly sketch out a basic floor plan of the building. Once he's got it roughed out he shows it to Jasmine and draws circles for where he picked up on 'blips'.
There's some faint threads of magic leading from the front door into the center of the building - no active traps but there's plenty of residual magical energy - as though something big recently happened.
"Smart!" she beams brightly at the mention of immediately throwing up the shields. Squinting for a few moments as she becomes accustomed to looking for what cannot be seen, she chews on her bottom lip as she follows the faint threads of magick towards the center of the building.
Warily, she looks back at him, "If something happens, we run and GTFO immediately and regroup. And keep your eyes peeled for any indications of different spells. Are you familiar with Enochian sigils? If so, look for those." a beat. "And seals of Suleiman are usual indicators that something is afoot."
"Right. If anything happens I'll meet you back at Roasters," Marshall explains and takes a few steps further into the room. "I'm familiar with them ma...Jasmine." The lad quickly corrects the title that he was almost going to say and switches it to her name - hopefully she won't tear his head off. His first stop are the columns that seem to create an arch over the doorway into an adjacent room; the lobby.
She's not a strict one or a mean one! She's just channeling her own upbringing and initial apprenticeship as such. Jasmine nosewrinkles a little as she ahhs. "Then keep an eye out for them." Deciding to make small talk along the way. "So how long have you been awakened? And how did it happen?" she asks, trying to learn more about him and potentially his avatar that way.
Meanwhile, she looks over the columns, before she reaches into her backpack and pulls out a rock. It's just a regular old rock, and she tosses it through the archway waiting to see what will happen to it.
The rock passes through the entry of the open door and you can hear it thud on the floor inside. Curiously you can't actually -see- the rock strike the floor as the interior of this adjacent room is filled with an inky darkness that seems to consume the ambient light of th elobby.
Inky darkness. Is that magically induced or are the lights just out? As she heard the rock land at least, she pulls out a box of matches and lights a few matches before tossing them beyond the treshold ot see if there's some illumination as a result. She does this while waiting for his response to her earlier inquiries at least.
"About a...well, a few weeks." Marshall begins, "I was what some would call a telepath before things changed. My teacher suggested that it might have been my avatar pushing its way to the surface." He walks up to the door and turns on the light of his cellphone and shines it through the threshold of the room to try and illuminate it. The bright white light shines out from the bit of tech but it doesn't seem to pass through the invisible barrier that separates this room for the next.
As the matches lit by Jasmine pass through the entry they stop burning the second they cross the barrier. They don't just go out with a wiff of smoke from the charred wood but are extinquished as though they were plunged in water.
Hrmming for a few moments, there's a little grump as she squints. "Take notes. We're gonna have to dispel this." Jasmine replies with a soft sigh as she places her bag down. It's then that she grabs some chalk from her backpack and goes to each of the columns and begins drawing some sigils in Enochian and a mixture of other languages. If he happens to have studied languages, he might even recognize some as Sanskrit and Cyrillic as well.
With the sigils done, she sits down cross legged in front of the columns and begins the unweaving or at least tries to anyway, not to much avail as it seems the effect suddenly moves.
Her eyes open wide afterwards as she clearly has a DAFUQ look on her face. Marshall records what he sees in his notebook and then waits for something to happen that might push back or dissapate the darkness in the next room. "What happened?" he asks curiously when he spies the look on the woman's features.
At her attempts, a cold breeze - moist and wet as though it were from an early morning laiden with fog, ghosts into the lobby as though some great beast had exhaled in annoyance.
"There's something else there. Something I can't unweave." Frowning a little as her pride is clearly hurt, she squints and stands up to examine the sigils she scribbled onto the columns. "No, this is right. I didn't make a mistake. There has to be something I'm missing."
Welp. With a shrug of her shoulders, she glances back at Marshall somewhat helpless. "This seems to be beyond my abilities." a beat. "At the moment." "Let's try checking the other rooms then," Marshall suggests. "I'm not sure what was up with this room but I didn't think it wise to try and walk in to a creepy dark room - ya know?" He pauses to offer the girl a hand up if she'd like it and then walks down the hall and pauses by the glass door that leads into the center atrium and then looks to a closed door at the opposite end of the lobby.
"The atrium door wasn't locked... but..."
Reaching up to grab his hand, she pulls herself up using him for leverage as she shrugs her shoulders. "We can always head that way. This place is big enough to where we can always slowly unravel the puzzle one piece at a time." Jasmine offers with a cheery smile, letting him lead the way.
As Marshall and Jasmine enter the fountain, the jungle-like growth of plants seem almost a bit too flush with life. The leaves seem a bit -too- green, too dense, to bushy, etc. The room has a quiet solitude to it, as though the walls provided some kind of insulation to block out ambient noise from the rest of the house. The sky, clearly visible through the glass dome of the ceiling, seems calm but somehow different. Unless the clouds - visible upon approach and while you walked across campus - are now gone leaving not but a cyan canvas.
"This is where I picked up on the weird blip - like an echo of confusion. It was almost like hearing a scream in a nearby room but only to show up and see nothing for a source." The lad had to brush away a thick branch of some plant as they walked in and continues to hold it back while they wait by the entrance.
What she wouldn't give for a machete at this point. It would probaably match the Lara Croft chic she has going on at the moment. "It could be some powerful psychic resonance from the past." a beat. "Or the future." Not one familiar with time magicks, she shrugs her shoulders as she pauses and freezes in her steps as she looks at the fountain.
"It seems this place was definitely Hermetic. The only thing missing are the scales on that fountain, but that is otherwise a recreation of the crest of Quaesitor, my house." she points out.
"Yeah...that's what I thought but I figured that someone more senior could make that call." He clucks with a hint of sarcasm to his voice. If a newly awakened mage were to have made the comparison he would have been laughed out of the room and put back into what someone would call "remedial studies".
As Marshall and Jasmine enter the fountain, the jungle-like growth of plants seem almost a bit too flush with life. The leaves seem a bit -too- green, too dense, to bushy, etc. The room has a quiet solitude to it, as though the walls provided some kind of insulation to block out ambient noise from the rest of the house. The sky, clearly visible through the glass dome of the ceiling, seems calm but somehow different. Unless the clouds - visible upon approach and while you walked across campus - are now gone leaving not but a cyan canvas.
"This is where I picked up on the weird blip - like an echo of confusion. It was almost like hearing a scream in a nearby room but only to show up and see nothing for a source." The lad had to brush away a thick branch of some plant as they walked in and continues to hold it back while they wait by the entrance. (re)
As Marshall and Jasmine enter the fountain, the jungle-like growth of plants seem almost a bit too flush with life. The leaves seem a bit -too- green, too dense, to bushy, etc. The room has a quiet solitude to it, as though the walls provided some kind of insulation to block out ambient noise from the rest of the house. The sky, clearly visible through the glass dome of the ceiling, seems calm but somehow different. Unless the clouds - visible upon approach and while you walked across campus - are now gone leaving not but a cyan canvas.
"This is where I picked up on the weird blip - like an echo of confusion. It was almost like hearing a scream in a nearby room but only to show up and see nothing for a source." The lad had to brush away a thick branch of some plant as they walked in and continues to hold it back while they wait by the entrance. (re) (re)
Cody wanders in glancing about, taking in his surroundings and moves rather carefully. He hears Marshall's voice and approaches. "Afternoon." He greets with a friendly smile.
The young Hermetic flinches a bit as he hears someone walking up into the jungle of an atrium. "Oh...Hey," it's a nervous tone but an honest smile. "Come to see the mystery?" he asks and looks around the 'room'.
The unmistakable sound of a twig snapping is heard as Teagan sets foot in the atrium. She mutters a quiet "Shit..." to herself before giving Marshall and Jasmine a sheepish look. "I'm not weird!" she calls out hastily as she takes a moment to adjust her glasses. "I just got here. I definitely wasn't watching you! Although, thinking about it, I don't think saying that is helping..." Clearing her throat, she takes a moment to just take the place in, maybe a little starstruck. "Uh, so, what is this place?"
"Abandoned...and suddenly," Marshall explains and raises an eyebrow at the woman's presence. "But are you sure that you should be here?" he asks with a quick glance to Cody to see if he might recognize her.
Dressed conservatively, he looks like a librarian's assistant or the president of the chess club in his khaki pants, button-downshirt and sweater vest - not exactly the picture of an intrepid explorer. "I called for backup when I found this place empty."
Cody nods his head, "I heard about your endeavor and thought it would be good to check in on you, given the recent communications from Eloise. Everything going well?" he asks Marshall. Hearing the twig snap and Teagan's voice and turns to regard her. A friendly smile once again and incline of his head. He doesn't answer her question though. Seeing that look on Marshall's face, he looks towards Teagan "I've not met you yet." he observes.
Teagan tries her best to reciprocate Cody's smile, but it's clear she's a little uneasy. "Uh... Yeah..." she manages to say, in a drawn out and uncertain tone. Collecting herself a little, she walks over to the two, making sure not to snap any other branches in the process. Reaching out a hand with nails painted black, first to Cody and then to Marshall, she dons a genuine smile. "Teagan. I'm new." Accepting the woman's hand, Marshall shakes and offers his own name in return. "I'd watch your step while we figure this place out. Don't want you getting eaten or lost or something." He smiles in that sense that it -could- be a joke but honestly he's not sure what happened here.
"You didn't happen to see anything or like...anyone on your way in did you?" Set.
Cody shakes the hand, then glances to Marshall and nods his head once. He unbuttons his sleaves and rolls them up methodically before adjusting his coat and in doing so reveals a series of pouches. Unstrapping a sheathed dagger from inside the coat to his leg. He does this slowly and with purpose. "My apprentice should be here soon." he mentions to Marshall "Not sure if you met her yet." He looks to Marshall, "What is known?" he asks.
Before answering, Teagan suddenly remembers something and casts a quick glance over her shoulder, and appears to be filled with a little relief. Turning back to Marshall, she responds. "Nope! Unless you count all the dust. You think this is some kinda Indiana Jones type of deal? Hidden traps and big scary boulders?" She jests, but there is an air of seriousness to the question. The young apprentice Hermetic looks between Cody and Teagan as though hesitating to see if it was ok to spill the truth infront of her. Oh well, it's not like her memory can't be wiped - he smiles over at her politely as the thought crosses his mind and he gets the new people up to speed.
"A...friend of mine came and found me today. He gave me a key to this place and told me that they were all gone. I was confused since I didn't even know that this building even existed. When I got inside I saw that the whole building was completely empty. And...there some uh...ripples that kind of got me thinking that something had happened."
Cody nods his head in response, "Alright. That must have been what I felt when I wandered in." he glances between them, "What skills do you have beyond your physical senses?" His voice is soft, but serious. His posture changes from a casual friendly manner to a more regal framework of his body.
Teagan grows a little cautious as the two get to talking business, but continues to observe them. There's a bit of an awkward silence after Cody's question, as Teagan isn't quite sure if it was addressed at her too. Regardless, she speaks up. "Like..." she lowers her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "-magic-?" Her eyes squint a little before she's struck with realization. Twirling over to Marshall she gives him another appraisal, biting her lip. "You're that- that... M... Mark? From the Psychology department? I didn't know you were, you know..." Struggling a little to communicate what she wants with body language, she settles on finger guns after some consideration.
