2023.04.12 Gremlin Paintball

04.12.23 Gremlin Paintball
Iris, Pink, and Branton discover chaos at the Craftsman's Guild when a Gremlin is set loose; Irsa and Trey work to help contain it! Look out, Oasis, you're next!
IC Date	04.12.23
Players	Branton, Irsa, Iris, Trey
Location	The Craftsman's Guild
Spheres	Garou, Bastet, Kinfolk, Sorcerer

Craftsman's Guild – Central Square

Regardless of which door one enters the building through, they're met with a modest antechamber furnished with a few couches and wall lamps, a television set and other such basic entertainment for those who might be tasked with any sort of guard duty. A second set of double doors ensures the privacy of the true interior.

    The building is more of a large boarder wall of rooms that surrounds a wide open square, its inside dotted with staircases from the ground level to the second, where an open air walkway gives access to its many chambers. Doors and windows cover both levels, leading to workshops and galleries, as well as a few personal living spaces. The ring of hammers, dinging of timers, the clanking and clattering of pottery and chimes create a blended music that can inspire one to wonder at the limits of the artistic imagination. The very walls of the building itself have been molded into friezes and pocketed sculpture honoring spirits of civilization and nature alike. Small but equally ornate garden beds are dotted all over to provide beauty, but more importantly to provide specific components for crafts that need such things.
    The huge square the building surrounds has a big section portioned out to things of a hotter and more flammable nature, such as forges, kilns, and smelters. The rest of the square is given over almost entirely to an open market. A riot of colors and scents, the vendor stalls and snack shacks create a maze of grass covered pathways.

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You've all received the message, get to the crafting guild STAT! It's SUPER IMPORTANT! Shit's going DOWN at the guild! What could this shit be? Is there an attack? Is it someone's birthday? WHO KNOWS! But anyhoo, Iris is here, as is Pink, and they're weilding GUNS! Weird looking guns, though. They look kinda janky.

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The air shimmers, heralding the arrival of an Umbral traveler. Hammer-Tooth steps across the Gauntlet, grumbling to herself as she shakes a few stray strands of webbing out of her ruff. It's night time, she's in the city in a Veil-safe place, and damn it, she's going to be a wolf at least once time today, damn it. If she had a fist to shake defiantly, she'd be shaking one now. A really big wolf, but still!

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Trey struts in. It's the pants. The *pants*, for those who have not seen them before, are a thing of... something... to behold. Hip-hugging, burgundy paisley with a flared ankle and decorative rivets up the sides of the legs to the knee. Pants like this demand something a little more interesting than the black t-shirt he's wearing with them, but hey, he's still working on it. He spots the guns, blinks, and is about to reply when the familiar wolfshape of Irsa pops into the mundane world from the Umbra. He does finger-guns at the group and poses in... some kind of dancey pose. Somehow, it works.

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"Friend!" Mercy calls when she spots her peeps, and Pink waves like a dork and mirrors the call with, "FRIENDS!!" He's very excited about friends, and rushes up to hug Irsa's big huge wolf head fearlessly. Fearless, but awkward, cause he's loaded for a commando trip. Bandana around his head, camouflage teeshirt, super impressive war paint on his cheeks. He looks like a Frog Brother, come to think of it. NOT the Jack and Mike kind, I mean the kind from the Lost Boys. Mercy grabs an extra gun and bandolier to bring to Trey, "Heeeey, nice pants!"

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Enormous Wolf huffs in amusement as she spots Trey. >> I see you are rolling your cat-cub in bright hides, << she rumbles at Iris. >> It suits him, as it does you. << She pokes Trey with her nose in a friendly way. Her huge jaws park in a bone-cracking yawn as she sits down on the ground. >> Good hunting! << she growls at Pink, leaning into the metis' hug.

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Trey beams at the yells and admires the camo with a grin, offering a scritch to Irsa's ears once Pink has his turn first, laughing at the nosepoke good-naturedly. "I know, right?," he replies to the comment, prancing a little bit just because. "I had two people tell me to come back to this century, one guy offer to buy them off me for a hundred bucks, and two girls eyeing me. I'm not sure if they were impressed, but they were smiling."

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R"Surely they were impressed. I mean, you gotta be *confident* and *secure* to wear those pants, and they do nothing but excellent things for the look of one's ass." Mercy assures and reaches up to drape a bandolier around Trey's neck. He'll have to get his arm through it on his own. Irsa gets one also, but it's more of a weird necklace for her. No gun though, thumbs are mandatory for those. The gun is skinny and has a barrel of medium length, with a sort of kidney bean shaped container on the top of the gun. The container rattles when the gun is moved, as if it's filled with things. The bandoliers also don't have bullets, the little elastic straps are just holding hard balls of many different colors. "There was a pest complaint, I thought you folk might be interested in helping clear it out." Pink tries to express 'confident commando', but mostly he just sorta looks constipated with that expression on his vitiligo face.

Branton enters the Craftsman Guild from the garden outside. Branton has arrived.

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Enormous Wolf perks right up as she's given a cool little gift. She snuffs at the necklace around her neck, even going so far as to mouth it carefully. >> Leg bark is always good, << she agrees with Iris. Her head tilts to one side at the Elder's remark. >> Pests? Of course. What kind of pests? << she asks, sitting there next to the others dressed in their shiniest rainbow commando gear. They have nerf guns, because of course you need those.

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Trey laughs. "Oh, I have no complaints in that regard. I love 'em. And far as I can tell, my ass looks great, so it's all good." And that, to him, seems to be the end word on 'these pants looking good.' He reaches up to hitch the bandolier under his arm, and takes the proffered gun. He examines it with a curious eye, and says, "Pellets, huh," thoughtfully. "What kinda pests are we dealing with?" He holds up the gun and does his best Bugs Bunny, "I'll *murdalize* 'em!"

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"There's a small Gremlin in here somewhere." Mercy fills in, "Just a little one, it's not being really dangerous but it's still messing with people's work. I dunno how it got here or if it hitched a ride with anyone, that's someone else's problem, ours is just getting the little bastard out. We're gonna have a real hard time seeing it, so we're gonna need to try and mark it, get it colorful." she says, and waves the paintball gun around. "Then we gotta try and catch it and evict it."

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Enormous Wolf's muzzle crinkles in partial dismay. >> Those things, << she rumbles. >> I have heard strange stories but never seen one. Does it walk between worlds? << she asks. This is clearly wolf for 'materializing'.

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Branton is present and prepared for mayhem. Which means really he looks pretty much the same as always. He holds up a bronze disc of an amulet made in an old style, pressed with images on both sides of a goddess with three faces and six arms. On one side wielding 3 great swords and the other 3 long bows "Who can see across the gauntlet and wants to cheat outrageously?"

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Trey huhs. "I've never encountered one before," he says, thoughtfully. "So what can you tell us about them? What they look like, their behavior, all that?" He adds, "They're Weaver spirits, yeah?" He looks over at Branton and raises a hand, "Me, me!"

<---======##==========[ Item Amulet of Hecate: 546323 ]===========##======--->
Level:..................4 Magic Type:........Wonder Name:....Amulet of Hecate
Owner:............Branton Type:...........41/Wonder
Updated:..20180429-1924 by SandSpider
Created:20180218-1055 by WhoopingCrane
Effect:Can hit a target with a melee or ranged weapon in any dimension the wielder can see
<-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->

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Mercy snerks, but leaves the passing of Wonderous things to other people and just sticks with her typical tour guide job. "Well they're not bad guys, really, they're actually a part of Cockroach's brood, but they *are* hostile little bastards. They probably should have been with Rat, but they're too... Weavery, really. They have varying appearances, from little monsters to something more insectoid, but they're crafty, sneaky little guys, and I suspect this one may have some sort of camouflage charm since it's eluding attempts to capture it. They're destructive terrors that like to absolutely wreck the shit out of machines or just make them go haywire. There's enough people here that have or work on tech that it's become a problem. We're not gonna kill it, we just need to catch and release somewhere, anywhere that's not here. So today's goals are 'catch a spirit and try not to get hurt' and 'think of a good spot to take a psychotic tech hater'. The paintball guns are to help us screw up its camouflage and not lose sight of it. Plus, painting! This place could use some color."

Mercy also totally adds to Irsa, "Yes, they can materialize!"%R

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>> This will be a good hunt. Find, mark, chase, harry into the open, and catch. It sounds clever, << Hammer-Tooth adds when Mercy replies. >> Where did it break things last?<< she asks her mentor. >> We can track it from there. <<

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Branton grins and tosses the amulet to Trey "This one's a loan not a gift. But while you wear it anything you can see you can strike, even if they are technically on a different layer of reality. That's what I was working on when Herself first manifested to me. Its special." He shrugs at the mention of materializing "The Amulet will make it so it doesn't matter to you." To his mate he grins "We could drop it on the Oasis. Its traditional."

<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======--->
Trey rolls Perception(3) + Awareness(2) (5 dice) vs 6 for 5 successes.
+6 +8 +8 +9 +10
<-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->
You lose one Gnosis


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Trey catches the amulet and says, "Noted, thanks!" He loops it reverently around his neck, where the goddess keeps company with Trey's ever-present crescent moon of Luna. "And now... I can stalk," he purrs, walking along the edge of the room to try and spot the gremlin. That this amulet means a great deal to Branton is clear; Trey touches it gently and activates it, and then the Eyes of Gaia... begins to look.

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"Right over here." Mercy says, and leads the way across the courtyard and over to the work shops while grinning evily at Branton. "It IS tradition." she agrees. She leads the group - including Pink - to one of the work shops and says, "Ta daaaaaa! Have fun kids, I'm gonna go make lunch for when you're done." The workshop smells of ozone and burned plastic, and the current occupant is still grumbling under her breath while trying to clean up the remains of what may have once been a laptop. It's just crap now.

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Enormous Wolf has nothing near as cool as the Eyes of Gaia, so she's forced to rely on her Nose of Gaia instead. She stalks around the indicated area, trying to find a scent that doesn't quite belong. This may be a Weaver spirit, and it might like to hide, but she's a wily city wolf herself.

<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======--->
Trey rolls Perception(3) + Survival(3) (6 dice) vs 8 for 1 successes.
1 2 4 7 +8 8
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<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======--->
Enormous Wolf rolls Perception + Primal Urge vs 8 for 0 successes.
2 2 3 3 4 5 7
<-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->


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Branton has a bag of cinnamon sugar dusted roasted almonds that he's snacking on as he watches the hunt begin "This should be interesting."

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Trey motions toward the wall and floor, where a pair of skidmarks are evident. The one on the floor could have theoretically been something else, but having it on the wall? That one's gotta be the critter!"

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Trey motions toward the wall and floor, where a pair of skidmarks are evident. The one on the floor could have theoretically been something else, but having it on the wall? "That one's gotta be the critter!" He motions to it, plastic gun in hand, sight still maintained on the far side of the Gauntlet. "Can you see anything on this side?" Oh, right, he's walking blind!

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Enormous Wolf pokes her nose into every nook and cranny, sniffing like a mad thing. >> Burning Weaver skin, << she complains. Clearly this is wolf for 'plastic'. She follows Trey gaze up the wall to the walkway above. >> Rrrr. No, but I can walk into Spirit, and chase it out, if need be. Let us go above, and see what we can see. <<

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There's people about, working on things and moving with stuff. Walking blind can be dangerous, or at least akward as a 'watch it' or 'hey' will attest to as the hunters move about.

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Trey uses one hand to help navigate, and then shifts to following Irsa because who the hell is going to yell at a huge wolf? Not him, that's for sure! "Um... let's see. Up there sounds good." He purses his lips and peers around, trying to find the stairs, hoping they have an Umbral echo-self. "We'll get a good perspective. I'll follow you, my sight's on the other side right now."

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Enormous Wolf huffs and shifts to her smaller lupus form -- all the better to smell you with, my dear, annoying gremlin. >> Hold onto my ruff, and I will lead you, << she rumbles, pushing her nose under Trey's hand. >> Direct me there, and if you see it, I can always step across. << Once the Bastet has done so, she leads the way upstairs.

Bones snap and break, shifting and warping into a new form, as the creature before you becomes a ragged brown wolf.

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Things seem pretty normal upstairs, for the most part. Sure, someone blew something up, no reason to panic anyone else, right? Right. So there's a few people up on the walkway just sorta chit chatting about various projects. Someone's talking to a friend about a loom they found and REALLY want to buy cause theirs keeps collapsing mid rug making. Someone else is sorting out an order from a chinese food place with a couple of people, swapping money around to pay for theirs since they aren't going with.

BLAM! A door to one of the workshops flies open so hard and fast that it rebounds off the stone wall, the door latch bent to shit. It was shot open by a blast of sparks and orange colored smoke, and also someone yelling, "MOTHER! FUCKER! WHYYYYYYY!" as they stagger out into the fresh air, coughing and sputtering and very, very orange colored. It's like a bottle of spray tan exploded in their face.

On the umbral side of things, there's a quick exodus of inspirational spirits that are all 'oh shit!' and just fleeing out of the workshop from a bad project.

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Trey drops the loose hand onto the now-smaller wolf's ruff, and says, "As soon as I spot it, definitely. If you want to harry it, I'll shoot it..." His gaze scans around the Penumbra in the area, focused on two things: one, spotting a gremlin, and two, not falling head-over-ass. "Oh shit, over there! All kinds of spirits booking the fuck outta dodge!" He uses the gun to try and sight it, and shoots a paintball in the rough direction of the center of that room. "Marked it!"

<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======--->
Trey rolls Perception(3) + Alertness(3) (6 dice) vs 7 for 1 successes.
3 3 6 6 6 +8
<-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->

Ragged Brown Wolf loses one Willpower

<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======--->
Ragged Brown Wolf rolls Perception + Alertness vs 7 for 5 successes.
4 5 +8 +9 +9 +9 +10
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<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======--->
Branton rolls 6 vs 6 for 3 successes.
2 3 5 +8 +10 +10
<-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->

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>> Keep watch on it here, I will drive it this way if I see it! << Hammer-Tooth darts into the workshop, head forward and ears swivelling this way and that as she tries to find the naaasty little gremlin.

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Pink has been following along to watch Irsa and Trey work. He might be Galliard born but its still sort of job shadowing as is proper for a cub. Staying quiet and out of their way but with his head on a swivel like when playing Nerf with his dad. Mercy's Messenger pages: First thing you notice when the orange smoke clears (cause sure, it's in the umbra too!), is a minor Muse with a big blue sputch of paint in her chest. She's lookin at you like, "...Bruh!" Second, you notice something blurry dive off a table and slip through the umbra, into the material world. You cant tell WHAT it was, but it's suspiciously zippy and hidey You paged Mercy's Messenger with ‘Ooops. I'll have to apologize properly later. :D’

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Trey calls out, "That way, moving toward you on material side, Pink! Irsa, left of the blue blotch. I'm sorry, Miz Muse, I'll make it up to you," he tells the spirit who got caught in the wake, and fires again on the mundane side toward where he thinks the Gremlin went.

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>> There is is! << Hammer-Tooth growls, immediately moving to pounce on the escaping gremlin. If she's quick enoguh to snatch that thing up in her jaws, she's gonna take the chance.

<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======--->
Trey rolls Wits(4) + Alertness(3) (7 dice) vs 6 for 5 successes.
2 3 +6 +7 +7 +8 +10
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<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======--->
Branton rolls 4 vs 7 for 0 successes.
1 4 4 8
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<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======--->
Ragged Brown Wolf rolls Dexterity + Brawl vs 6 for 4 successes.
1 3 5 5 +6 +8 +8 +8 8
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<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======--->
Mercy's Messenger rolls 5 vs 6 for 2 successes.
3 4 5 +7 +8
<-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->


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Ragged Brown Wolf shoots forward as Pink goes for the trip, taking advantage of the distraction opening her fellow Artist Garou granted her. Shifter Teamwork, go go go! She lets out a muted snarl as her jaws close on the spirit's midsection, clamping firmly in place. ~ Got you! ~ she exclaims in the Spirit Speech.

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Trey manages to pull his shot at the last minute as Irsa surges forward with the certainty of someone about to make a perfect pounce, and his paintball shot swerves far to the right, to the corner of the room where the explosion had happened. He then lets the gun fall to its strap around his neck and goes in to help with the grab.

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Pink saw the thing! And got excited so he stuck a leg in its way going for a trip or a block or whatever but either his timing was just off or the Gremlin can fly but he missed.

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The Gremlin burns rubber down the walkway, leaving a few little patches of said rubber. Even an invisible little speed demon runs the risk of leaving skid marks! But it's not QUITE fast enough to evade a chasing lupus. It tries to zig and zag, a high pitched sort of 'oh shit!' sound comes from the gibbering little maniac as Irsa clamps her jaws around... something. It's not visible enough to see outside a squirming mass of colors. At least, until Trey pops it with a paint ball during the pounce and grab.
Covered in vibrant yellow, it's a little bitty creature with a head that's too big for its body, and an equally large mouth filled with sharp teeth. Long, pointy ears splay out from its head, and it has little bitty hands with little bitty claws. Its naked little butt sits on a seat, and its legs travel downwards to sort of blend with the pedals of a unicycle. It can’t drop the cycle while being held by Irsa's mouth, it's an actual part of its body and the source of the skid marks. It hisses and pinches and tries to bite Irsa's snout, but the angle isn't really right. Still, it punches and slaps like a *lot*.
Great! You have a psychotic tech destroyer! ...Now what?

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Ragged Brown Wolf holds up the spirit for all the others to see. What a weird little dude, to be sure. ~ We're not going to hurt you,~ she mumbles around a mouthful of spirit. ~ We are taking you to a place where you can do even MORE damage for Cockroach.~ If that argument doesn't seem to be swaying it, there's a Command Spirit Gift for that! >> What is the place called that you spoke of? << she asks Branton.

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Trey Cuts in and adds, "The Oasis Casino. Man, are they gonna fuckin' hate me for this," he adds with a chuckle. "Hope Kieran isn't working tonight," he murmurs, and then nods to the spirit. "Lots of slot machines..." Oh dear. The cat is getting in on the persuading thing. He looks over to Pink. "Right?"

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Branton chuckles and shrugs as he offers his boy some victory almonds "Last any of the Nation new its a leech front business. So they deserve it."

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The Gremlin pauses its snoot punching, bigass ears pricking up, "Many many Machine??" he asks with interest in Spirit Tongue. It's not freaking out QUITE as much as some wild thing might when it comes to being inside a wolf's mouth. They *are* associated with Garou after all, and tend to have a fairly decent relationship with them. This one's just, you know, young and crazy, taking oportunities when it can, doing a little UrbanX and fuckin a few things up on the way. You know how it is. At this point, it's willing to listen, at any rate.

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~ Many, many Man-Things for you to break, yes, ~ Hammer-Tooth confirms. ~They used to belong to minions of the Enemy -- what can be better than that? You serve your purpose not once, but twice over.~ Young as this spirit is, that's hopefully an appealing compliment and lure for its coooperation.

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Trey mmms. "True," he agrees to Branton, and then he grins at the idea of mayhem and chaos. He adds to the spirit, in its speech, "And yes, you can help in the fight just by making those machines all go splody just like you did here," he agrees, grinning broadly. "So what do you think?" <---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======--->
Trey rolls Charisma(3) + Expression(2) + 2 (7 dice) vs 4 for 3 successes.
1 2 3 +5 +6 +7 7
<-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->

<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======--->
Branton rolls 4 vs 6 for 3 successes.
4 +7 +8 +8
<-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->
Ragged Brown Wolf loses one Willpower
<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======--->
Ragged Brown Wolf rolls Charisma vs 6 for 0 successes.
1 3 5 6
<-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->


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Pink goes for the huck finn approach "Its going to be so much fun, I wish I could go. I'm so jealous of all the fun you're going to get to have." Little dude is joking right?!

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The Gremlin keeps its clawed fingers wrapped around Irsa's whiskers and lip flap, but it listens. It's really weird seeing this thing hold still, almost like it's not at all natural. The flailing and punching was less unnerving than seeing it *thinking* and *planning*. "...Okay. We go break big pot machine of Jack." Man, Jack is going to freak out so much if something just shows up and wrecks his pot plants because they're in a hydroponics system! "Go go go! We go fast!!" Its unicycle wheel whirs into high speed in the air beside Irsa's snout, attempting to burn rubber and get going but... It's held in a mouth, so that doesn't really work out for it.

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~ We will carry you there. Think of what you'd like to break first, I know you are very, very clever this way, ~ Hammer-Tooth rumbles. ~ And tell us of your plans as we run, I like stories about breaking things. ~ She's a Bone Gnawer, its totally her jam. <---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======--->
Mercy's Messenger rolls 9 vs 8 for 0 successes.
1 1 2 3 3 4 6 8 9
<-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->

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Trey ums. "Who's driving? I just have my bike. And I think you'll have to shift if you want to ride with, Irsa." Not that he would mind. "Or if you're driving," he looks to Branton and Iris, "That would work too." He casts his gaze to Pink and offers a surreptitious high-five for the youg Galliard's convincing skills.

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Branton grins and pockets the remainder of his almonds "I've got a delivery van we can use. Lupus form out of sight in the back. Just make sure our glorious warrior here doesn't fuss with his transportation."

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"Break all the Machine!" the Gremlin shouts joyously in its crazy little high pitched voice, bursting into a maniacal cackle. But it IS distracted by fantastical thoughts of like the world's largest Apple store or something just burning to the god damned ground. With fireworks going off. And techno music. And a whole bigass crowd of spirits cheering about how awesome that was. Fuck yes. So the grand display of things exploding around the group doesn't happen in real life, just in its head. Instead, the only breaking that happens in real life is the cap falling off Trey's paintball reservoir to spill colorful, poppable balls of paint everywhere on the walkway, down the stairs, and off the side to drop to the first floor. It planned on that being waaaaay more impressive, but alas. This may or may not bode well for the van.

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>> We could do that, or travel in Spirit,<< Irsa suggests, flattening her ears as paint splatters everywhere. >> It is your round stone-foot thing, I leave that decision to you. << Clearly this is wolf for 'van'.

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Trey fixes his gaze upon the spirit and says, in spirit speech, "We will need the van intact to get you to the Oasis, or we can-- aw, shit! Look out, paintball rounds loose!" He tries to avoid slipping, or stepping on them, or generally being uncatlike, and tries to scoot the pellets flat-footed out of the path of the group as they move down the stairs. "My friend, you are very good at chaos," he says, then looks over to Branton. He can't actually SEE Branton, but he knows roughly where the voice came from. "Maybe Irsa has a point and we should take him through the Umbra. Safer, I think."

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Branton understands spirit speech and eyes the Gremlin as he nods in agreement with Trey "The umbra sounds like a better deal. I'll leave ya all to that then." Writing reality out to disk. Please wait... Reality saved. Thank you for your patience.

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As the group heads towards the courtyard, there's an "AH!" and a thud, as someone slips on a paintball and gets sputched. Such is life at the Guild though, surely. The Gremlin giggles helplessly and spins its wheel with little vvvvvvvvt! VVVVVVVVT! revving sounds.

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>> Run with us! << Hammer-Tooth growls. >> or I can open a Moon Bridge to take us there in Spirit. >> I have never seen Pink run there. <<

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Trey winces and says, "I think I better wait a few days before going back there," and then he checks the Pants to make sure there's no paint on them. There best not be! "Can you yank me across when you cross, Irsa?" He makes another mental note to add to the dozens already there to pay really close attention in his Fetish lessons to get his cat toy done, ay-sap.

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Ragged Brown Wolf makes like 'rrrrr rrrr rrr' noises, in time with the spirit's revving.

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Branton pauses before he leaves and says It'll take me a bit to get in the right state to open the way across. I'll get started then?"

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Trey pauses and hands the sorcerer his amulet back, with the same respect with which he'd accepted it. "Thank you. And yeah, that'd be awesome. Won't need to do this much longer, I don't think," he adds with a wry smile. "I have *plans*," he tells Irsa. "They even seem workable... for a trinket to help me cross on my own."

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The Gremlin's impatient as hell while it waits for Branton to get into an altered state, vvvvt vvvvvt vvvvvvting while being slobbered all over. The wolf drool itself doesn't actually seem to bother the little monster, it's the complete and total lack of anything to DO. Which, obviously results in some very annoying behavior, such as stretching out Irsa's whiskers to srum at like a guitar, but it's a distructive prick so some of those whiskers are going to end up mostly accidentally plucked. Or maybe picking up her lip to start messing around with her teeth or zerberting or something. Someone walks a little too close to othem with their phone out, the Gremlin sees it and makes grabby hands, causing the phone to glitch out a little bit.

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~ Rrrfth! ~ Hammer-Tooth agrees with Branton, around a mouthful of spirit. She keeps the gremlin entertained by telling it stories about all the wonderful machines she's seen in the past, and asks the spirit all the best ways to break them. ~ IWhen you are done breaking at the place we take you to, I may want to speak to you in the future if that is what you would like,~ she offers the spirit. She growls at Trey, acknowledging she's heard his words. More convo on that soon, after the spirit is gone.

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Trey nods his agreement with the growl, and contemplates an improved bong absently between thoughts. He jumps in with stories about things going horribly wrong for machines as well, because Irsa's kinda got a mouthful at the moment. "So there was this girl I knew, sorcerer, back in Denver. She was an Enchanter, but sometimes she worked with technology. And she was looking to make a 3-D display for her computer..." He's not even really worried about how good the story is; he's just trying to provide entertaining details of shit blowing up.

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Branton finds an unused room and goes in, taking out his flask of 'oracle juice' and a THC laden vape pen. And he meditates, calling for Trey when its time. The spell is in classical greek but you recognize it involves Hecate and sounds like a petition. Then after about a half an hour of meditation and a few moments of prayer he and Trey are in the Umbra.

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Man, Branton makes it sound and look all classy and ritualistic, rather than just 'I'm gonna get fucked up and do magic! WOOOOO!' Dealing with the Gremlin and avoiding any spectacular freak outs or ragesplosions is tiring, it's like babysitting the antichrist if it was a toddler. But the efforts are rewarded with relative peace in their vicinity, hooray! When it's time to be off, it spins its tire excitedly and shrieks, "GO! GO! GO! We gonna *break* it, YEAH!" When it comes to requests to visit, it says, "Yeah sure! You bring monkey wrench and we loosen bolts and talk talk talk!" Assuming it gets to the promised promised-land, of course.

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And go go go they do! Hammer-Tooth wastes no time in stepping across, and calling upon her totem to open a Moon Bridge to the promised location. Sorry, Oasis, it's totally your own fault for belonging to vampires. Farewell, slot machines! Hasta la vista, money counters! It's gonna be a rough week.

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Ragged Brown Wolf ALSO offers the spirit a drop or two of Gnosis. All the better to run wild with, the fiend. Ragged Brown Wolf loses one Magical Essence Ragged Brown Wolf loses one Magical Essence

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Trey comes when called, and bows in thanks to Branton as the stoned sorcerer opens the way across the Gauntlet. "I will offer the Lady tribute in thanks as well before the night ends," he promises, once they're across. Once Irsa and Pink are across as well, he smooths his Dancin' Pants and says, "Let's do this!" He steps cheerfully onto the Moon Bridge and once everyone is ready, is underway to the Oasis with a gleeful grin.

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Branton does not lead the way once in the umbra, he does point the right direction "They're over that way."

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During the relatively short walk, the Gremlin jibbers a lot of completely nonsensical bullshit that can probably be chalked up to excitement more than legitimate attempts at communication. Between jibbers it flaps Irsa's lip and makes sound effects, revs its wheel, and just generally embodies manic insanity.

The building itself is, um, it's like a building that is a casino. I don't have its desc on me so that's the best you're gonna get. In the umbra you haven't got to worry about people, but the place does have a pretty strong weaver presence given that it's full of a lot of modern machines for basically all of the things, and it's been present long enough to have a fully fleshed out metal-web reflection that is, naturally, crawling with spiders. Pattern Spiders mostly, but there's some larger more security based things located there, given the tight security a casino would doubtless have. You're free to park your moonbridge basically anywhere outside the building, inside might trigger some issues.

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Ragged Brown Wolf grins wolfishly as the Gremlin just totally messes with her muzzle while they run the Moon's Road. She holds the spirit up higher when they finally arrive at the Oasis, so it can behold the tempting edifice in all its glory. ~ There you are, all the things to break.~ She's offered some of her own spiritual strength to the Gremlin, in case it needs the extra boost to escape once it wears out its welcome. She's not a heartless theurge, she likes spirits. ~ It is good, meeting you. I will follow your scent to your den in a few nights, after you have rested. ~ She releases the Gremlin and steps back to watch the chaos unfold.

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Trey steps in beside Irsa, waving to the spirit and calling out, "Have fun storming the castle!" Yes, he just recently saw that movie. He's a little spotty on pop culture, sometimes. "You're a softie," he tells Irsa quietly, with a smile. "Don't worry, I won't tell a soul."

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The second the Gremlin is sat down its up on its wheel like it doesn't care about gravity, and begins zooming around the cat/wolf/kin quartet. It leaves burned rubber on the webs of the sidewalk and makes this god awful sound, like, 'Brrrrrrrrrrumbumbumbum!' as though it were imitating a motorcycle or... or something. Take this as a 'thank you', none of your stuff explodes or anything, so you know. It's a good sign. Its circular run suddenly changes direction and it just straight up bursts through the doors of the Oasis - probably the sliding kind, I bet.

Like literally bursts THROUGH them in an explosion of glass and steel. Don't worry, it's the umbra, the doors are fine, maybe they'll get a little stuck later, but it's no big deal. Pattern spiders rush along the building to quickly fix the broken reflection, a small swarm of spiders and one of the hunters moving through the wreckage to go find the culprit. It won’t be putting the place out of business or anything like that, honestly it's bound to just be an annoyance of maintenance fees, but it's gonna have fun while it can before it's forced to flee.

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Ragged Brown Wolf snorts at Trey. >> I am no such thing, << she growls, amused. Man, that Gremlin is making one hell of a mess. >> We should go before they start looking our way, << she suggests, trotting back they way they came from.

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Trey chuckles and says. "Of course, my mistake," his smile teasing. Her suggestion is taken as a good idea, and he follows her back along the moon bridge, breaking into the occasional chuckle along the way at the thought of the insanity to come.

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Branton chuckles and grins, saying "Making mischief counts as battling at least a bit yeah?" referencing the Litany obviously.

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>> They will sing of this for ages, <, Hammer-Tooth growls. >> The day the mighty ones with Shifting Blood caught a naughty spirit, got their whiskers tweaked, and became very stupid to travel the Umbra. << She huffs laughter all the way back to the Guild.

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Trey nods and agrees, "Of course it does. that's the Nuwisha's whole thing..." He adds, with amusement, "I got seriously pranked by one once, then beat him at a riddles-and-beer." He bursts out laughing at Irsa's summary, and notes, "Well, I may not be Gaia's sense of humor, but I like to think she enjoys the tricks sometimes."

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Steel looms high on all sides, draping lengths of cable strung between buildings, the occasional suspicious bulge in some webbings speaking to the dangers of being caught and calcified by the legions of spiders that roam around, swarming inside and outside. Air elementals torment the spiders while zipping by, electrical elementals arc through wires along the street, and one spider is silently grabbed and dragged through a storm drain opening by who knows what. Meanwhile, back at the Guild, Iris is helping pick up paintballs and mop up orange shit.

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Branton grins at Trey as they step back through to the Guild, in the same room they left from "One trick I saw a Metis pull? Beat someone's ass at a drinking contest. Poor fucker can't get drunk if they want to because all their forms regenerate. So do the same thing in Homid against a human born and you will always win."

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>> Many-Skins, << Hammer-Tooth remarks, possibly surprising the others with that name. >> When I last visited home, they had an Athro Uktena visiting, one of their Talesingers. She sang a song about Many-Skins, and how he once outran Death. << She's familiar with the city, and does her best to steer the group away from the worst of the Weaver's lurking pitfalls until they finally enter the Guild grounds. >> My tribe cheats at drinking with a Gift. Only the Fianna say they learned that before us. <<

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Trey laughs, nodding. "Oh, yeah, that's something to remember when someone challenges me. Usually I go for the riddles, but this might appeal to the more meatheaded sorts. I like it!" He nods eagerly at Irsa's comment, and adds, "Oh, Many-Skins is a story I had from my Kuasha, too. Someday I should tell you the one about how the Lynx stole Wendigo's sight." He can't help but find his step bouncing a bit as they make their way back; he chuckles and says, "Of course they do." He doesn't speak ill of the Fianna, but the tone says it all. Braggarts! "I'm kinda glad I missed the worst of the cleanup."

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Back at the ol homestead, most of the mess is cleaned up, though some of the stones on the second floor are gonna be citrus tinted for a while yet. With the Gremlin dealt with and word about that kind of getting around, some people are double checking their projects and making sure they're not doomed with a ticking time bomb. A couple kids Pink's age have stolen the spare paintball guns and are running around the place. Gremlin taken care of, yes, but the mayhem is upheld by teenagers. Damn it. Iris is bringing a pie out to an outside table and benches.

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Branton is headed for the pie. After returning to the material from the spiritual he always has a snack. To his mate as he sits "We return victorious."

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Ragged Brown Wolf returns to her birth form, cracking her neck from side to side once she's done. "Thanks, I badly needed t' wolf out tonight," she admits to the others. "Ain't done it as much as I wanted to this week, and it's been wearin' on me something fierce." She waves at Mercy with a grin. "Hey, did ya miss us while we were gone?"

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Bones snap and break, shrinking and shaping into a new form. The creature before you becomes a dark, scarred woman.

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Trey gives up his paintball gun for the play, and chooses instead to follow the pie -- er, Iris -- to the table outside. "That's why a lot of the time I sleep as a kitty. I spend so much time in this form that it gets... much, I guess. I'm almost used to it as a matter of course." This is a not-good thing to him, at least from the sound of it. "The one good thing about it is fun clothes."

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"I heard! Well done, friends!" Mercy beams while slicing up some pie and getting it onto plates. Branton gets a kiss with his, of course. Bigass slices, none of this 'proper portion' bullshit cause she doesn't bring out any other food. It's just pie for dinner! Blackberry pie is all you get! And also milk, she did bring some of that out. "I missed you *so* much, I bit my nails and I paced back and forth, pining and *wondering* about your fates! How glad I am that you survived and return to me!" She gives Trey a comforting shoulder pat. "Learn a gift called Mimic, and then you can speak as a man while you're in your feline skin. Then you can be more yourself and not feel like you have to change quite so much."

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Irsa snickers at her mentor and joins the others around the pie table. "City's a bad place t' be a wolf. We don't breed with dogs or jackals, like some in th' Nation think, so we got no chance of every bein' mistaken for one. I'd pay cash money I ain't got t' learn a Gift that'd change that, for sure." W20 could always strike in the OOC future, who knows? "Just think of all th' campers you could scare when Halloween rolls around," she adds to Mercy's suggestion.

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Hey, they're grown-ass shifters and sorcerers, they can have pie for dinner if they want to! Trey accepts the huge slice with an appreciative smile and takes some of the milk as well. "I know, it was harrowing. For a few moments there, my life flashed before my eyes!" The pat makes him turn to face Iris directly, and her advice makes him nod. "That sounds like a good idea. Will have to seek out that Gift." He nods again and says, "And then you all get to look more at my gloriously stumpy tail!" He beams at the trickery idea and notes, "Let them wonder how we made it possible. I keep thinking I wanna go to a comic convention in Sokto with a few pieces of fake fur glued on and see if anyone figures it out."

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Branton snickers at Trey "You could do your fur color and pattern as a different kind of Cat. Or have the fake fur be from other marking patterns or something." To Irsa "I can conjure constructs out of Ghost snot that can move and even make noise on their own. I could do a baller haunted house." Branton also gives his mate a SMOOCH

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Sitting down with her own pie slice, she catches Trey's attention with a tap on the arm, purses her lips and whistles. Not a people whistle though, it's the complicated sound of some songbird. She does it again, and immitates an elk's call, and one more time to immitate a car's horn honking. It's not a long drawn out demonstration or anything, just a few repetitions so he can see what she's doing and get an idea of the range of possible immitations. There's a pause for an "Eeeeeeeeeeew!!" at Branton, for the snot golems, not the smooch, she liked the smooch part. But to Irsa she says, "The Children of Gaia have a gift that can help with that, give you the appearance of a dog that's similar to your build and coloring."

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Trey says, “Ghost snot?" That makes the cat laugh helplessly. "Yeah, I could go with a calico pattern, but then I'd have to be female. Or sterile." Cat jokes, yay. He considers this just as Iris does her own animal voices. He blinks, studying the elder theurge, and then looks distinctly pleased. "And you can just do it whenever? Very cool. I definitely am swiping that one!" He hrms and says, "There's a Qualmi gift but... I don't think I could teach it. A lot of our stuff doesn't seem to cross species lines, for some reason."

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Irsa loves blackberry pie, hands down one of her favorites. She digs into the baked treat hungrily, totally scarfing that down with a nice big glass of milk. Best. Mentor. Ever. "Yeah, I know y' mentioned that one before. It's the seeming of one, ain't it?" she asks Mercy.

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Branton grins and nods at Trey "Its Technically called 'Ectoplasmic Generation'. But since Ectoplasm is tangible both in the Skinlands and the Shadowlands at the same time and it looks like slightly gooey cotton candy. Ghost Snot."

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"Yeah, pretty much, as long as you've heard a sound before and can remember what it sounds like." Mercy answers, "But you're essentially putting on a performance, so you'll wanna practice." Mercy has a lot of bonuses to Performance so I didn't bother to roll since it's a non-stressful occasion. She ugh's at Branton and says, "That is soooo icky! But on the other hand, it sounds like you have a very apt defensive weapon for when we need to go poking around the low umbra." She also sadly adds to Irsa, "I don't know the gift of Domestic Seeming, I've never had a good enough reason to learn it. I learned Spirit Skin instead, to look like a spirit when I'm in the umbra."

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"Slimer, all th' way," Irsa remarks. "My pops likes that movie, had a shirt he traded for an' everything. Serious braggin' rights there when I was a kid." Her mouth is ringed with blackberry filling, but who cares? It just shows how much she loves her pie. "Can't say I blame ya for that choice. It's damn useful," she replies to Mercy. "It's one I wouldn't mind learnin', but I got so much t' learn still. Never ends for spirit-talkers."

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Trey ohs. "Right!" He chuckles, and then gets that dangerously pensive look on his face. "I haven't done much dealing with the Underworld or with ghosts. That's something I'll have to remedy at some point, probably when we go to Meros' realm." He finally digs into the deliciousness and makes happy-kitty sounds as he enjoys it. In between bites, he notes, "One of the first things I tasted that was sweet -- wild blackberries. I didn't taste sweetness, really, until First Change. Small cats, at least, don't have the taste receptors for it." He smiles brightly. "Still love 'em to this day." He points to Irsa and says, "Double that for sorcerer cats. But I will *never* run out of things to learn!"

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Branton just sits and stares when his mate mentions using that power in the low umbra "That...wow. That's gonna...holy shit." And he starts pondering implications so hard you can almost hear the gears turning in his head.

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Mercy grins at Branton as he starts building crazy ideas in his head, "No bringing snot golems home from the dead lands." she adds, just in case. Never know, Branton might accidentally bond with a summoned wraith booger, but his wife's not having that thing in the house! She nods sympathetically at Irsa, "It's true, I'm *still* finding reasons to learn new gifts. The problem comes in at forgetting all the things you know how to do because you only need to do some things rarely." A BIG grin at Trey, "That's going to be such a long, *weird* trip, I just know it. I'm really looking forward to it though. Have you seen the humans' pictures?"

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Branton snorts in amusement at his mate "I should probably avoid shaping any Tulpa while we're there. At least until I'm super sure about how the power works while we're there. There just have to be some super interesting implications and interactions. I kind of wonder if the ectoplasm I conjure there will manifest in the real world analogue of where we are. How do I even test this?!"

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"Right? It's why I always learn things I know I'm gonna use. Like, I don't like a lotta humans, so I don't got an interest in Persuasion. I'm leavin' that for Garou who are better with 'em. You can't be a one-Garou army, yeah? Same for theurge things. No sense in me and Rhapsody having all th' things in common." Irsa finishes her pie and chugs down more milk. She's lucky that didn't wind up being her rite name or something. "Ghost trap?" she suggests to Branton.

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Trey nods agreement. "My friend Casey, girl I knew in Denver? She was nuts over astronomy, so we wound up going to the Denver Astronomical Society a lot. So I actually got to see a lot of space. Her girlfriend and her would go sit together and have a nice romantic stargazing thing, and I'd just sit there and harass the docent about what everything was." He exhales. "Lame that they claim Pluto isn't a planet now, though. But then, humans don't know about the Aetherial for the most part, either." He looks at Branton, noting the excitement, and says, "Sometimes I think you have at least some knowledge of all the known paths of sorcery, man. And maybe some more that aren't known." He motions to Irsa and notes, "But it works on spirits, too. I picked up the cat version called Sweet Hunter's Smile from a spirit recently so I could be more persuasive with them when I start making talens and fetishes."

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Woudln't that be horrifying if it works literally the same way, but backwards?" Mercy asks with a grin at Branton, "Like we're in the wraith lands in some ruined building having some fight with a ghost, you're slingin snot globs of cotton candy grossness, and like in the human world like this 7-11 staff room just BOOM! Snot bombs out of nowhere!" And just in case, she whips out her phone while joking to show a picture anyways. She's not big on a lot of human things, but some of their science really trips her trigger and she's proud of that recent probe that's made it so far away from home.

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Branton sighs dramatically at Irsa "I still have notes from years ago about how to make a warded box to trap a spirit or a ghost in. Never wound up finishing the design, always meant to get back to it but I never did. One of the Sebbetu was being a problem and we were concerned about what would happen once their host body was slain. Wound up not needing it which was good at the time but without the necessity driving the research I got distracted." Trey gets a broad grin "Its the Library man. You should come over some time. How many languages do you read?"

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"Might work on 'em, but I ain 't skilled much in th' ways of subterfuge," Irsa admits to Trey. "It's why I always go for my own version of things, like I did with th' gremlin tonight. Why manipulate directly, when you can nudge 'em along with the truth?" Wolves are weird, ya'll. So direct! At least this one is. She snickers at the ghost talk and whistles at the picure of Pluto. "Now that's nice. Real, real beautiful. Hope th' Celestine knows that. Um, what's a Sebbetu?" she asks Branton.

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Trey ooohs happily and peers at Iris' phone, looking at the picture with eagerness and smiling as he devours another bite of his rapidly-dwindling pie. "So beautiful," he agrees, "You know it's still kind of amazing to me that we carry around access to so much of the world's knowledge in our pockets. I know feline-born are usually not big on technology, but some of it is pretty wondrous. I mean, I really like my bike. And I love the Space Boat, and that's... well, spiritual, but it's still part technology, too." The question about languages makes Trey flush a bit. "Just English and Kheuar sigils. Cat symbols, that is. Languages are on my list. Spanish was first, because it's so useful, but also a lot of the old, old ones. There's a Gift that lets us understand them easily but the Bubasti are kinda tight with their stuff so I need to get a workaround." He also notes to Irsa, "Oh, I suck at lying, but I'm good at expressing the truth in ways they like. It's more... making a good impression than trying to fool them, for me."

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"I really hate to admit it, but I would be so lost without my phone some times." Mercy says, sighing at her own reliance on this admittedly SUPER helpful weavertech. "But I wouldn't chuck it if given a chance. Google is literally one of the best things ever, I love it." She nods her agreement, spirit based or not, it's definitely tech heavy, if from a different sort of paradigm than the human world. "Oh hey, there's an app for that!" she says when reading written languages comes up, indicating the existence of a gift, and therefore a talen that helps with library stuff! She grins at Irsa as well and says, "It's a kind of galactic graffiti board, spirits just go there and build art cause it's quiet and available. Someone drew that bigass ice heart on it, and something else dusted the snow up here lemony colored, but I have no idea who. Or why, aside from 'just because'."

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Branton nods at Trey about languages "We'll see what you can read that will get you sorted out in the library. A lot of the more recent stuff is in either English or Spanish for the researcher journals. A lot of the academic texts are in Latin and Classical Greek." To Irsa "A High Umbral spirit that's taken a human body as a host. They're always taken at the moment of death so its not like the original soul is suppressed or tortured or whatever. They revered or reviled by human religions, they're called Demons then but they call themselves the Sebbetu, it means the Seven. For the Houses they're organized in." Then at the conversation about Smart Phones and the internet he Cackles "They do say the internet is for Cats after all."

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"I can teach ya Spanish," Irsa offers Trey. "Korean too, if ya want," she adds with a bone-cracking yawn. Wait, what? "Both of 'em are part a' my blood, y' know? I got relatives that looks like homeless refugees from K-pop bands." She barks out a laugh as she leans back in her seat. "Y'know, if ya count everything you learned just by bein' a shifter, it's technically more languages. Beast counts. So does th' Spirit tongue." She boggles at the info Iris and Branton share. "Now that, I'd love t' see sometime."

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Trey ohs and grins broadly at the idea of the library, and being able to access same; he nods slowly, and says, "That would be awesome, thank you!" The explanation of the Demons -- Sebbetu -- makes his brows move skyward; another series of mental notes is placed there, it's obvious. He cracks up about the Internet line and says, "Should I get an Instagram account and post selfies?" He blinks as Irsa offers not one but two languages. "Oh, definitely -- I pick up on them pretty quick, if English is any indication! Love to. And the Beast Speech, I've almost worked out the trick of. Spirit speech was easier, but still a little weird..." Branton's EFFECTIVE LORE_DEMON is at least 3

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Mercy spaces out in thought for a second, and then taps Branton to ask, "So... Do you think if a Bastet got that gift, the spriggan gift that grows you up giant sized, do you think that would just stretch them vertically for a disturbingly long cat?"

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"Great! Spanish I got covered all day long, but I ain't met anyone else in th' non-human sector that speaks Korean," Irsa remarks to Trey. "My cousin does, yeah, but it ain't th' same. I'm used to bein' surrounded by other ways a' talking." She nearly chokes on her milk at Mercy's long cat theorization.

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Branton is short circuited by his mate's question and eventually stammers out "I don't think so? I think they'd remain proportional. Though given that it’s a gift of the Fianna and originally devised from Wyld magic? Who knows what might happen if something goes wrong."

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Trey sputters at the mental image of a looooong cat. "Like a weiner dog, only... cat? And big?" He snickers and says, "Like the catbus in that animated movie... uh, Totoro? I don't want to be a weiner cat!" His mind goes weird places. Maybe his brain got just as bent on that one as Branton's. Irsa's reply brings forth a cheerful, "Oh, absolutely. It's also good to use skills so you keep 'em. Teaching helps with that. At least, what I found."

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"Fairy magic." Mercy agrees while still pondering the idea of a kiju LENGTH cat just noodle stomping through a city, "I bet they'd do that..." She bursts out laughing at 'weiner cat' and thunks her head on the table, shoulders shaking while she fills her lap with laughs.

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"Great flick, no lie! I mean, who wouldn't want t' ride in a cat bus with rats for running lights?" Irsa offers up a fist bump for Trey. "Spirited Away, now there's another good film." She's snickering like mad at the image of a weiner cat.

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Trey pats Iris' shoulder and says, "Don't worry, we totally won't put me in a cute little sweater if I wind up a weiner cat." He manages to deadpan this, somehow, and then returns Irsa's fist bump and grins. "Oh, totally. I didn't expect to like animation but I do. Well, some of it. If it has anything with tentacles in it, I learned to avoid it the hard way." A shudder follows that. "Ugh."

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"If you DO end up a weiner cat, I'm gonna sneak you into places by wearing you as a stole." Mercy promises to Trey, she won’t leave him out of adventures just because he's a fuzzy cat-erpillar. She laughs at the poor guy for having found out the hard way about tentacles.