View source for 2020-09-01: I Met Something Interesting...

{{Infobox Log
|name      = I Met Something Interesting...
|summary   = Vic visits Bobbi for a lesson about Bygones.
|icdate    = September 1st, 2020
|ictime    = Afternoon
|players   = [[Bobbi]] and [[Vic Rasmussen]]
|location  = [[Angel Restorations]]
|prptp     = 
|spheres   = [[Traditions]]
|themesong = [https://youtu.be/eTviNc52igI People are Strange by Echo & the Bunnymen]
}}
[[Category:Bobbi]][[Category:Vic Rasmussen]][[Category:Angel Restorations]]

Vic dials the number Bobbi prevously gave her on a business card. The call rings in with no caller ID signal, "Unknown Caller" is all the phone displays.

: <Phone> (Bobbi to Vic) "Angel Restorations, Bobbi speaking."
: <Phone> (Vic to Bobbi) "Hey Bobbi, this is Vic. I need to talk to you about something ''strange'' that I met last night," and yes, she said something she met, "Can we talk? If so where do you want to meet, the basement, the Nexus, elsewhere?"
: <Phone> (Bobbi to Vic) "You're welcome to come to my loft if you wish to speak privately. Otherwise I could meet you at either of those places, though others might show up."
: <Phone> (Vic to Bobbi) Vic says, "Okay, awesome. I can find it, your card's got your address after all. I'll head on over. See you there?"
: <Phone> (Bobbi to you) See you soon.

----

Parts of North East Prospect are what Real Estate agents euphemistiaclly refer to as 'up-and-coming.' This is not one of those neighborhoods. The eco-homes, yoga studios, and young families give way to gangs and drug crimes. Urban blight in the form of boarded up store fronts, vacant lots, and squatted building. Angel Restorations is almost as far North East as you can go, located near both a shelter and Tent City. Yet the streets here have a different feel to them. There's still the same economic ruin, but the gangs and drug crime seem to all but vanish. The homeless seem more together, as if they see their position not as some preordained fate, but a temporary stop-over toward middle class success.

Angel Restorations itself is in a fenced and barbed wired lot, a few cars, tow trucks, and white pane vans, but mostly a large variety of motorcycles -- some heavily modified and chromed out. In the lot is a new convenience store and a bar that has begun to get the reputation as the place to go for craft beers in the city of Prospect. Stairs above the garage lead to a loft where Bobbi indicated she would be.

Bobbi answers the door with a smile, barefooted, wearing denim short-short overalls -- the pockets sticking past the pant leg ever-so-slightly -- and a form-fitting red tee underneath, her dreadlocks pulled back into a fashionably messy bun. "Welcome, welcome," Bobbi greets in a friendly tone as she gestures for Vic to enter her loft, "hope you didn't have any trouble finding it. Would you like anything? Some tea maybe? A snack?" Bobbi turns to walk into the loft, expecting Vic to follow her.

----

Vic has come tot he door of Angel Restroations dressed basically as she typically does, wearing her boots, jeans and a t-shirt - this one specifically bearing a geeky computer phrase on it. Her bag, as always, is slung across her back and she smiles when Bobbi answers the door. "No, it was fairly easy to find, she answers before asking, "Sure, what tea and snack options do you have?"

----

"Oh, I have lots," Bobbi indicates in a voice that indicates her to be almost giddy to share. "Do you like red, white, green, blue, black, or herbal tea? I have a variety of homemade pastries and donuts." Bobbi makes her way over to the kitchen, reaching up on her tippie toes to pull down two ceramic mugs. "or I can see what I might have to cook, if none of that sounds good. Fair warning, though ... " Bobbi turns around, almost twirling to look at Vic with a grin, and inform her, " ... I'm vegan, for the most part."

----

Vic follows her host into the kitchen. "Peppermint tea with lots of sugar perhaps?" she asks incase that's not an option. "Donuts sound good along with that. Sugar on sugar is always awesome."

----

"Lots of sugar," Bobbi echoes back, her smile broadening. "I generally take my tea straight," Bobbi notes, "but sometimes I take a little coffee with my sugar." Bobbi turns once more, putting a kettle on a burner and switching on the gas range. Making her way over to the side, she brings back a serving tray with a number of delicious look donuts, placing them on the kitchen counter, and getting up on her tippie toes once more to pull down a plate. "Help yourself," she says as she hands the plate to Vic, "I make them fresh everyday, and give out coffee and donuts to the first responders, as well as my customers. I don't expect anymore today. Also, these are not vegan, per se. As good as my donuts are, most first responders I've found are not vegan, and I'd rather not have that conersation regularly with them, or seem like I'm pushing an ideology on them."

----

"That's great," Vic says without clarifying if she means the giving them out to first responders, customers, no more customer's tonight, or the fact that the donuts aren't vegan. She does take one and mmms after taking a bite of it as she slips her bag off her shoulder and sets it on the floor before sitting down on one of the stools at the counter. "Like I said on the phone, I had a very weird encounter last night."

----

Bobbi smiles as Vic seems to enjoy the donut, and then turns to open a cupboard. Pulling out a metal tin, she places loose leaf peppermint tea into two tea balls, placing them in the mugs as she waits for the water to boil. Bobbi also pulls out a stool, hopping up lightly on to it, wiggling lightly to find a comfortable position. "Given the places you suggested we meet," Bobbi begins to say, "I have a feeling this should be interesting. I'm also probably the right person to come to on this. I have a near encyclopedic knowledge of the Night Folk, the Spirit realms, and other things-that-go-bump-in-the-night. Why don't you tell me about what you experienced, and I'll see what I can tell you about it."

----

"Well, last week Arumi checked in on me and took me out to dinner. During the meal a person she knew came in and she mentioned something interesting about them," Vic explains and then continues by saying, "So yesterday afternoon I crossed paths with them and I asked if I could see what I could find out about them." She takes another bite of the donut after dipping it into her tea and then sips some of the tea also. "Long story short, they turn out to be a creature out of myth. I thought that they didn't exist... likely true where I'm from but apparently not here."

----

"One of the bygone creatures?" Bobbi wonders, though it seems more like an answer than a question. "Yes, 'bygone creatures,' 'creatures of myth,' it gives you some idea of just how common and known they are, even in this reality. I'm not sure you had a Mythic Ae in your timeline, but that was a period of the dying out of magick here. Many creatures were shepherded into other realms by the Verbena and the fair folk. Occasionally they make their way into our realm. What is your interest in them?" Bobbi picks up her tea, holding the mug close to her chest with both hands, the off-white ceramics dissappearing behind a curtain of tattoos. "You don't seem like the hunter type," Bobbi notes, "but I have to ask."

----

"Hunter? No, now, I'm not ever going to become vegan, but I don't believe in killing things for fun," Vic replies with a shake of her head. "I mean, that's just not right after all."

----

"mmm," Bobbi responds before taking a sip of her tea. "I've had some hear of my knowledge," Bobbi notes, "and assume that I would help them in some sort of genocidal crusade. There is sometimes reason to kill, unfortunately, but yes, it does seem like most self-styled hunters do so for fun or some sort of personality disorder. I've seen the bygon creatures mistreated in the past and it saddens me. And even though it's common knowledge that I am not the biggest fan of vampires, I do not support the indiscrimnate hunting of them either." Bobbi takes another sip of her tea, and wonders, "May I ask who this was that you met and what sort of creature they were? Professional curiosity."

----

Vic nods. "Sure, totally with you there. Rabbid dogs must be put down before they take others out but I'm not asking about this to hunt or hurt anyone." She pauses and covers her considering the request by putting a large bite of the donut into her mouth. After she swallows it she says, "I don't think they'd want me giving their street identity out freely so I will ask them if they want me to introduce you to them at some point, but they claim to be the Lernaean Hydra. Do you think that such a mythical being could still be alive today?"

----

Bobbi nods lightly, taking a sip of her tea as she thinks about this. "I've not personally met a Hydra," Bobbi notes to Vic, "but I did have breakfast with a Phoenix, so I'd say that there's a good chance a Hydra could still exist. They definitely exist as a historical fact. Whether they have numbers or this is the last one? That I would not know, but yes, possible. The bygone creatures do not have a political structure, so there's likely not to be too much fall-out from sharing with you. In fact, everything I know about them comes from direct interactions with others of their kind, quite strange varieties, as opposed to my standard research methods. It's good to be friendly to others, and I've found them quite friendly in return. I'm sure there's an exception to the rule somewhere, but I've yet to find it. That some of our kind would hunt them for power truly saddens me." Bobbi takes a sip of her tea, and then confirms, "Sure, I'll teach you what you need to know."

----

Vic nods again and sips at her tea. "Yeah, they told me that there wasn't any organization but not everyone tells the truth when they are first exposing their truth to someone they barely know," she says. After a bite of the donut she says, "I actually saw them in hydra form, it was a willing thing, not forced... and I examined them magically as well. Chock full of life energy. Big also."

----

"That's true," Bobbi notes with a nod, "though I've found the Bygone creatures to be quite honest in my dealings with them, a fact which causes others to underestimate them. I am curious, how many heads did this hydra have? That was something the literature always disagreed on, and I'm sure not something that would reveal this creature's mundane identity."

----

"Four," Vic replies without hesitation, "Although they implied they might grow more and are missing some they may have had in the past. Also that they'd worked out a complex lie with Hercules to get them both out of the trap the king set on them in the form of the other." The remainder of the donut goes into her mouth after she finishes that statement.

----

"Four?" Bobbi says a bit surprised, "I've never read of one having fewer than six, but that's not first handle knowledge, and from sources regarding something that happened quite some time ago. Though it would make sense that that number is not the number they always had. Some authors noted fifty, but I always considered that to be an actual myth. I'm curious to hear this lie, but perhaps I should hear it from their mouth. You are welcome to know that I am friendly with other bygone creatures, and could likely make introductions should they wish to meet more of their kind."

----

Vic laughs before speaking. "Yeah, I don't know about normal for a mythic creature... or a 'Bygone' you said, right?" she sips at the tea again and then says, "They're fully modern, even has Netflix. I've also got their phone number so I can keep in touch with them."

----

"Bygone creatures tend to be a common way to refer to them," Bobbi notes, taking a sip of tea. "Though, there are many names," she adds, "just like we might be mages, will-workers, witches, wizards, and so on. I imagine there might be some individual preferences, but I've never had one object to that term." Bobbi blushes lightly at the mention of NetFlix, and quickly sips her tea. "Sounds more modern than me," she notes, "oh, and thank you again for the help with the computer. That program got stuck in Spanish mode, but I needed to brush up on my Spanish anyway. Did you know about sloths? They have those too."

----

Vic seems to have been lost right at the end, having been nodding along the way until the mention of sloths. "Huh?" she asks about that, "Who has those?"

----

"The internet!" Bobbi exclaims happily, "there's a bunch of cat and dog webpages, but there are also sloth webpages. And they're /sooooo/ cute. My favorite is the three toed brown-throated sloth."

----

Vic snerks in surprise. "Uh, yeah. There's even artistic renderings of bygones to be found," she says, bringing the conversation back around to full circle.