2016.11.06: Cleansing Crew

Cleansing Crew
Sid and Felix clean up after the Fomor fight.
IC Date	Sunday, November 6th, 2016 — Evening
Storyteller	Sid
Players	Felix/Lets-Them-Eat-Cake and Sid/Dog Robber.
Location	The Dead Mall.
Plot	Dead Mall Discovery
Spheres	Shifter (Gaian Garou)

The mall again. Baron goes in first, just to make sure there isn't anything going on immediately inside, including cops who might've gotten calls. But Sid is relatively sure there is not, given there's no crime scene van parked outside. Time to hack up a body! And tidy up. When the all-clear is given, he lets Felix go first, and slinks through the broken door after him.

Felix seems excited about going back in, even if they aren't really anticipating fights this time. Rituals are good too, apparently. Or maybe he likes hacking up corpses. ...probably not that one. He's quite happy to go in first after Baron's scouted, and takes a good look around when he does, to see if it looks any different than it did when they last left.

It does not, that he can see. Sid carries a lot of trash bags, towels, a hack saw, and a carving knife for the dirty work, and his messenger bag now filled with ritual items for the cleansing. Maybe a mop and bucket in the car/bus. Whichever they'd gotten here in. Sid starts to the stairs first, because that's where the body is, as well as the swords and gross room. "Can you, um--" he nods to the awning that they'd left down, to hide the room's content. He had a hard time in Crinos, let alone now.

It's a lot of stuff for the Theurge to be carrying, but as he seems to have it handled fine it doesn't appear to occur to Felix to offer to take any of it. Instead he just moves through the atrium and up the escalator, returning to the group of shops, and shifting to Glabro as he goes. "Sure," he answers, leans down to grasp the base of the awning, and pulls. It does not move. His brow furrows, and he eyes the thing. "...a'ight, let's try that again here..."

Sid waits for the awning to go up, and gets a look at Felix again, in his glabro form. He settles his bag down by the wall, while he's pulling the thing open, and going to examine the swords for further magic. "I'm really not good at this," he admits of sensing magic. However, he steps away, when the shop is opened up. Jasen can go inside, and get the gross leather jacket off the remains of Anton. Sid's not going to say anything about his scavengerly ways, becauae that jacket looks to be worth a few hundred bucks. "Let's get him wrapped first. His head's already off, so we can just put that in a couple bags." Yeah, the scrawny metis is trying not to throw up. Why did they eat first, again? Hindsight, 20/20.

Felix's Glabro is weirdly human. He looks like a taller, stronger, more rugged version of his usual self. One could almost wonder why he doesn't wear it more often. At the moment, he also looks slightly annoyed and a bit perplexed at the awning's recalcitrance, but shakes it off as he goes further inside. "Did you figure anythin' out about 'em, though?" he asks, and considers the rest of Anton's gear, while they're at it. Might as well save the knife. Shoes? Pants? Okay, taking those might have a downside, but on the other hand, they're getting cut up otherwise and waste not, want not, right? Still, he doesn't dive in to that, instead finding the head and picking it up by the hair, nose wrinkling. "Still smells like shit in here," he observes. "Bag ready?"

Sid gets one back inside another, so it won't, uh, leak, and holds it open for Felix. "Not -really-," he says, happy for the talk, so he can be distracted. "Baron thinks they were like talens. One shot items. But I dunno, because no spirit came out of them. There's no spirit in there now, either, so I'm going to cleanse them." He still doesn't want to actually touch the things till they're clean.

"Huh. So just, whoever finds these will feel... somethin'. Whatever that pull was supposed to be. An' then nothin'?" Felix says, carrying the head over and putting it into the bag(s). "An' there's two of 'em. Maybe... it was supposed to make people findin' 'em want to use 'em an' kill each other? Though that wouldn't be real useful if, say, it was just one person. Did Baron notice anythin' back when you picked 'em up?"

"Maybe if it was just one person, you'd use it on yourself?" Sid suggests, but he doesn't know. "I think the effect fired, we resisted, or just I resisted, barely, and it's used up. But yeah, still not touching it, till I'm sure they're clean." Once the head is bagged, he goes to stripping Anton's shirt off of him, if Felix doesn't. Then he cuts at his arms, near the elbow first. It's clumsy, he's not a butcher. Just a kid who's had to clean up more than once. It sounds disgusting, too, trying to remove the forearm from the upper. The snap of joints.

Felix considers that, and nods. "Yeah, could be. An' maybe if there was more'n one, the one left standin' would wanna use it on themself then. Prolly never gonna know for sure, though." Curses. The Galliard has never done quite this kind of clean-up, not the dismembering -- just seen it in movies and on TV, and it's the sounds that seem to come as a bit of a surprise. He watches for a couple moments, then shifts onward to Crinos, to see whether claws can stand in for saws and let him help.

Sid lets him get the other arm off. Given how he'd beheaded Anton with his claws, they likely do work. But Sid seems to want to do it in homid, for whatever reason. Cutting the flesh and muscle, and twisting off the upper limb next. "Never get used to this," he mutters, nasal voice sounding disturbed, as he goes about bagging the limb. "Baron's scoping the parking lot, so nobody'll see us taking these bags out, without us knowing. Feeding him the rest of the gnosis I got, after this."

~Glad we got his help,~ Cake says, ~S'pose the bags oughta get in the Cleansing too, yeah? Gonna be a bunch of stuff needs it...~ He takes a look around, at the shop they're in, a glance at the shop that was Door #1, and then toward #3. ~Never did find out if there was anythin' in that one, too,~ he realises. He continues with the work, and seems to be following the way Sid does it, just with different tools and rather more force available for the pull-and-twist portions. ~You done this a lot?~

Sid nods. "Yes," he says of being done. He might want to say "get it away from me!" too, but does not. He's not even trying to look cool, so much as just trying not to puke. Of Door #3, "You wanna?" he asks, looking over at Jasen, who seems to have fallen asleep on a bench. "We can bury the rats in one of those flower bed things," he says of the concrete planters that are holding dead palms and bushes. "If you want." Then he's moving on to Anton's legs.

Lets-Them-Eat-Cake follows suit, working on the one Sid doesn't start with. ~Somehow ain't had to before,~ he says, seeming as though that's a bit unexpected now that he's thinking about it. He doesn't so much seem to be aiming for cool at the moment as he seems oddly detached from what they're actually doing. ~Yeah, let's,~ he replies, ~Both of those.~ After this is done, presumably. ~Hey. Is there a good way I can thank Baron?~

"He's a dog spirit. He likes, you know, dog stuff, and Gnosis. Dog toys and things like that. Jasen gave him an offering once, too." Sid does not, at the moment, mention a damned thing about offerings of bones, even if dogs like bones. Feet are cut, and he tries to get the mess into a double bag. "Oh, and, uh, leave the torso. Really. Do not cut into that thing." He's not one for giving orders, but he seems dead serious about that. In fact, after his leg is bagged, he gets a few bags for the torso, wanting it in as soon as possible. "You wanna free some rat corpses, while I, uh, get ready to do the Cleansing? You need three things to do it: a torch or smouldering branch, pure water -- Jasen gave me some holy water -- and a willow branch. The branches don't need to be big, which is a good thing, 'cause in the city, we don't want to attact that much attention. And I like to let the other branch smoulder, rather than make it a full-on torch, again because urban."

The torso advice gets a snort of a laugh, and a flicker of unease as if the grossness had broken through, then is gone again. ~Seen inside enough of 'em,~ Cake agrees, with a glance down at his own, and he helps as seems useful with getting it bagged, then goes looking for rat corpses to cut free. ~I think I gave him jerky an' poptarts,~ he says, ~I'll look for some better shit. I-- spirit stuff ain't exactly my strong suit.~ It doesn't stop him from paying close attention to the rite instruction, though. ~All gotta be good an' natural? Like, couldn't use a lighter as a torch, I'm guessin'?~

"Yeah, Gnawers are masters of stuff like that," Sid says of improvising. GNAWER PRIDE. "But it does make it harder to substitute stuff. So it's usually better to go to a park, and get a bunch of branches for use later, you know? Especially when you're starting out. Maple Park has willow. And so does that cemetery on the hill, though that place is...kinda creepy. You can use birch, also."

There are quite a few rat corpses. They'd actually be difficult to pull from the thick webbing in homid, especially for Sid, but since Cake is in his war form, he can do it easily enough. Most of them have mummified. The cats and small dogs are more...stinky, but all seem drained of blood. Some have been half-eaten, probably by Anton.

~I might hafta get you to show me which trees those are,~ Cake admits, ~Willow's the kinda droopy one, right?~ He looks pleased that there's at least the potential for improvisation here, still. The rat corpses are laid out by the hallway railing, for later burial; the others get bagged, and a few definite 'ew' faces in the process. ~Wonder how long that guy was here,~ he says, after the third or fourth that looks part-eaten. ~What's with the cemetery?~

Sid recalls, "There's this this abandoned church, and I went to squat there for the day, before I lived with Jasen-- right when I got into town," he says, unpacking his things, and helping with the rats. The branches are not big, though some of the leaves are still attached so Cake can see what he'll be looking for later. "And when I hopped the fence and got inside, there was a big holy water font, and it was pink, and smelled of blood. Felt Wyrmy, too, like something'd been there. So we sniffed around the cemetery after, and found more blood scent, over by one of the mausoleums. I think it's vampires, man. So I don't wanna squat there, anymore." A pause. "And yeah, willow's the droopy one." He holds up the small branch. "Which should I start with? Him?"

Lets-Them-Eat-Cake tilts his head. ~I wonder if the others know 'bout that?~ he says, ~You'd reckon, long's they been here, but might be it's new or they just ain't ever poked the cemetery. D'you know?~ He tries cutting some more of the remaining webbing, once the victims have been removed and dealt with. ~Yeah, him first sounds good.~ He's seen the rite done before, by several different people, but being taught it is different, and he puts everything else on hold to come closer and watch. ~...better livin' with Jasen or squattin' here anyhow,~ he adds, belated but definite.

Sid gets the branches in one hand, Morton's salt in the other, after giving Cake a bowl. "I'm gonna do a fake run, just to show you the steps. Then we'll do it for real," he says. "And I mentioned it to Dex, just briefly, but he didn't seem that concerned about vampires."

Okay, so, the first thing you do is make a circle in the earth, around the thing you wanna cleanse, or the borders of the place you want to purify. You can do this by drawing the circle in the dirt with a stick or your claws, but when we're working with concrete or flooring, you can use chalk or salt to create the circle. Lots of cultures find salt purifying, so I usually use that. Also, it's a little easier to get rid of, after the rite's done. It's also important the circle be drawn by going /counter-clockwise/." He starts around the dismembered corpse, going widdershins indeed, the salt tipped, but not open, so it doesn't spill yet. "Follow me with the water bowl bowl."

~Weird,~ Cake says about Dex's lack of interest, and there's the Crinos equivalent of a grin, ~Akecheta's first bar got blown up 'cause it USED to belong to vampires. But I s'pose if they're in a cemetery it ain't a veil issue. Just... Wyrm.~ He doesn't seem entirely thrilled with that, but: rite! He accepts the bowl, holding it carefully, and nods to the instructions, moving into position behind Sid.

Sid gets all the way around the pile of remains and stops, putting the salt down. "Once the circle's drawn, you light the first branch, or light your torch -- or flick on your lighter -- and set it to burning." He plucks a lighter from his pocket, the one Jasen had given him, and pretends to set the branch alight. "Then you dip the other branch in the pure water." He does the same, dipping it into the empty bowl that he's tasked Cake with carry. "The leaves are gonna go dry, because the rite takes a while, so I got you following me, so I can just keep dipping it. If you don't got another person, you can set the bowl on the ground, and keep dipping it, every time you walk around." He begins to circle again, still counterclockwise. However, this time, he whips the leafy willow branch at the bags. "If it was actually wet, the water would be sprinkled onto him. Which is the point of this. My old alpha used to whip the person, if they were alive, using the branch like a switch. But he was a Get Philodox."

Lets-Them-Eat-Cake watches and listens closely, with a level of attention that would probably make several teachers in Tennessee start checking the sky for swine, nodding periodically as each aspect is illustrated and explained. The last note gets another weird Crinos snort-laugh. ~Yeah, that sounds pretty Get,~ he says, ~Any damn excuse.~

Sid keeps walking, fake-dipping the branch, and sprinking imaginary water corpseward. "You wanna ask anything?" he asks, before they go to part 3 of the rehearsal ritual.

The Galliard considers. ~...yeah, I got one. What if you're cleansin' somethin' big, so the branch dries way before you get back around? Like, say you were tryin' the whole mall. Do you just... not, 'less you got extra hands to help? Or is somethin' that big just not doable?~ He keeps following, of course.

"You can use more than one bowl," Sid says, like he's been in that situation. "Like, when I do this mall -- which hopefully Joan'll help with -- I'm gonna have to do that. Using a bucket or bigger bowl works, too, but I like using a few bowls for larger places or things. Anything else? You can ask me questions after, too, if you think of them later."

~I'll help too, since I'll know how then,~ Cake says, ~...if I can. How exactly do you make it a more'n one ritualist thing? An' I reckon Dex'd help also.~ He nods to the rest of the explanation, filing it away. ~I get the symbolism of water for washin' shit away. Is the fire for burnin' it away? An' just how pure's the water gotta be?~ He pauses. ~Though if you wanna answer any of those after instead, I reckon they can wait.~

"Yeah, I'll do the explaination after. We're almost done. I was figuring, since this place is big, and has a second floor, we could each do different areas. But the last part of rite can have several different people helping," Sid explains, and then goes to finish. "So once you've sprinked the place or person or item with the pure water -- and it can be holy water like this, or it can be rain water you collect, spring water, sea water as long as the ocean is clean where you get it, or even bottled water, though I don't like bottled -- then we howl. That's where the other people come in. It's meant to scare away the wyrm taint, though it doesn't actually do that. But that's the howl's symbolism." And then Sid's going crinos, and tilting his head back, letting out his howl. A growling sort of howl, deep and...well, he's trying to be intimidating, anyway.

~Heh. I've helped with that part before,~ Cake realises, and joins in, going for a threatening sort of howl. Fear, Wyrm! ~Think the caern hot spring's pure enough? 'cause that seems promisin'.~

~Yes,~ says dog robber, as they finish. ~That's definitely pure enough. Just get a few bottles of it. Cleaned out wine bottles or whiskey bottles work good.~

Then the metis settles down a moment, and goes into the previous asked for explainations. ~So, the water's a cleansing symbol, yeah. And the fire is meant to be cleansing, too, but it's also a 'light the way' symbol, and a symbol of a...renewal? I guess that's the word. That's why we do it at dawn, too. You don't -have- to perform the rite at dawn, but it makes things easier, pleases the spirits more.~ He leans in. ~Truthfully, the whole howling, burning branches, sprinkling water, all of it, doesn't actually -do- anything itself. What we're really doing when we do rites is asking the spirits to help us. And the more we please them, the more come to help us. But you might've known that, already. I didn't know that for a while, though.~

~Well, those I can get,~ Cake says with a touch of amusement, and listens to the explanations. ~...that makes sense,~ he says, when Sid finishes. ~Always kinda wondered why some things seem like they matter an' others, I've seen folks do the same rites almost totally different. Maybe it's different spirits find different versions more pleasin'?~

Dog-Robber gives a nod of his canid head, ears a little more up and at ease than his omega-pinned usual. ~Yeah, that could be. Though when Gnawers do rites with, like~ he switches to English a moment, because the Mother Tongue is lacking the word, "Pepsi," before switching back, ~instead of spring water, it's almost always harder, even if you do it in an urban environment.~

Lets-Them-Eat-Cake tilts his head, and then nods back. ~Well, <Pepsi> ain't exactly pure,~ he says, ~You'd prolly do better with a straight whiskey if you had to... or somethin' else without a lot of additives an' shit, anyhow. I'd guess.~ One can probably thank the Fianna for being able to talk about whiskey without changing languages. He looks to the tools of the rite, and adds, ~I know one rite in a Gnawer version, ain't how other folks do it. I can do it the way they do, but the way I learned it seems like it works better.~

~Which one is it?~ Dog-Robber asks, curiously, ears perking a bit more, before they settle back to normal on the sides of his head. His tail wiggles, too, in that excited way that wolves and dogs wag. Perhaps especially dogs.

~Questin' Fry,~ Cake replies, ~I can do it with a stone, but it works better for me with a fry. An' best when gettin' the fries is part of the rite.~ He pauses. ~Plus the way I learned, if it does fail, at least you got fries.~

Dog-Robber fortunately, does not get hungry, at the mention of fries. He's still a little green around the gills. ~You mentioned that. I think I'd use a pendulum. But not with a crystal. I think I'd use a dog tooth, or something like that. Because trackers. You know, I knew somebody who used <Pepsi> with that right, too. I think she just really liked <Pepsi.>~

~Anyway,~ the Metis goes on. ~It's nearly dawn now. We're gonna cleanse him for real. You ready?~ He gets into position at where, um, they'd put the big containing Anton's head at. ~Fill the bowl with the water there,~ he requests.

Lets-Them-Eat-Cake nods to the pendulum thing, adding, ~I got the fry on a string, so it's kinda like that. Dog tooth makes sense, though. ...how did she do it with <Pepsi>? Maybe there's some spirit that really likes it too hangin' around her, or somethin'.~ He glances out the front of the store, toward the area the skylights would tend to illuminate, and nods. ~Yeah, I'm ready,~ he answers, and moves over to do as instructed, pouring until the bowl's a bit over half full, unless stopped earlier.

Dog-Robber explains, ~She'd use the can as the pendulum, instead of a crystal. She'd tie a string to the opening tab and dangle it.~ He doesn't grin, but there's something in his posture, manner, that says whoever it, he regards fondly. Maybe his mother.

The Theurge lets his student pour as much water into the bowl as he cares to. Then he opens the salt, and starts to pour that onto the ground of the store, going widdershins around the dismantled and wrapped corpse of the fomor, to create a purifying circle. This is quick, and while he goes slowly, it doesn't take more than a minute or two

Next, he lights up the branch, and uses his trusty holy water bearer's bowl to dip the asperging willow in. It soaks for a moment, and then he whips it at the bags, before he begins his walk around. It takes several passes.

Lets-Them-Eat-Cake does grin, a bit, though he goes more serious as they continue the rite. He follows the Theurge around the circle again in silence, bearing the bowl within easy reach for re-wetting the willow.

There's actually conviction in the way that Dog-Robber whips the droplets of holy water at the bag. It's not like his Get alpha had likely done, using it to flog someone, but it's clear he really does want the wyrm taint to be driven out of what's left of Anton. Hell, for a moment, he actually seems sure of himself. But a holy rite was certainly a thing one can lose themselves in. He finally comes to a stop at 12:00 again, the fomor's head, and lifts his muzzle to the ceiling. ~Howl with me!~ he tells Cake, but a third voice joins in, as he does: Baron, materialised and adding his own barking howl to the mix.

Dealing with spirits may not quite be in the Galliard's wheelhouse, but howling definitely is. He throws back his head and joins in, loudly and with the most threatening, ominous edge he can give it. Hopefully it's enough to make the taint quake in its boots and then run away in them!

Dog-Robber lets the howl go on for as long as he can hold it, he and Baron's tapering off together, which may or may not reflect their bond as shaman and familiar. His breathing's a little heavy, and he sinks into a canid sitting position, muzzle still raised, as though he's sniffing. In fact, he is. ~This place is still blighted, but it's actually immediately less noticable. We did it, man! You think you can do it on your own?~

Lets-Them-Eat-Cake looks decidedly pleased with their success, and takes a small sniff himself -- which, since he can't sense Wyrm and cleansing is unlikely to have done much for the mundane rot stench, is probably a bad plan. Still: success! ~Nice!~ he exclaims, and looks the tools of the rite over again. ~Reckon so,~ he says, ~Let's try it on somethin' else an' find out.~