2019.04.03:Let's (NOT) Do the Time Warp Again

2019.03.19: All Gone
Marshall others explore the mysteriously abandoned House of Keys.
IC Date	April 03, 2019
IC Time	Evening
Players	Marshall,Jasmine, Cody, Teagan
Location	House of Keys
Spheres	Mage

House of Keys - Lobby

"I'm not sure what you'd call them but I'm skilled in Ars Potetentia, Mentis and Conjunctionis." Marshall explains and peers at the leaves along the branch he's holding back so that he can stand by the door without getting swatted by it.

Having fangirled over House Quaesitor's significance here, Jasmine finally returns from her fangirling and blinks as she looks at the newarrivals. Glancing between the others, she translates. "He's talking about the arts called colloquially as Prime, Mind, and Correspondence." she says, translating the Hermetic for the non Hermetic.

Cody nods his head and smiles to Jasmine " I had forgotten the Hermetic jargon, or repressed it." He teases slightly.

A little relieved at Jasmine's clarification, Teagan lets out a sigh. "You know, there's nothing wrong with using people words to describe this kinda stuff." Laughing she waves to Jasmine and extends her hand out in greeting if she approaches. "Teagan."

The young Hermetic inhales at Teagan's words though here were ready to unload a whole lecture on the failure of modern education and the lack of classical education but just smiles. "Sorry," he appologizes and tries to tuck that pesky branch behind another so that people won't get whacked.

"She tried to unweave something in another room that's just creepy dark," he points to Jasmine and then towards the direction of the Lounge. "Not sure what's going on in there but light wouldn't cross the threshold." Oh, is it time for introductions? Considering she's the one dressed in Lara Croft chic with her khaki short shorts and her baby doll white t-shirt with "WICCAPEDIA" emblazoned on her chest, she decides to have a little fun. "My craftname is Carmen St. Germain, Second Degree Adept, bani Quaesitor." A beat. During that potentially awkward silence, she huff and puffs her chest a little as she looks to Cody and Teagan for a reaction to her haughty intro and the slight British (not fake!) accent that comes along with it.

Then she gives it all a dismissive wave. "But here on campus, I'm just Jasmine. Or Jas." she replies with a cheery smirk. "So uh, any of you versed in ars tem... erm, time? There's an inky black spell that I tried unweaving, so it requires knowledge of prime to unweave, forces to make sure you're not blinded, and time cause well... that part I didn't figure out yet. It just needs it."

Cody smiles "Cody Covington bani Verbena <ooc honored lineage>. Unfortunately The River of time is the only Ars I have absolutely no skill with." He speaks and motions towards Mei, "My apprentice, Mei." He glances about "Alright, now with a basic understanding of what you know, what can you do that would be helpful?" He asks in a tone that is polite but also using this as a teaching moment.

"Again with the people words." She mocks playfully, letting out a small chuckle in response to Jasmine. "I'm afraid I'm not really too well-versed in Time, it's a bit too wibbly-wobbly and all that. Correspondence, Entropy and Life, that's me. Oh! And nice shirt!" She smiles, the compliment directed at Jasmine.

Marshall turns to Teagan when she mentioned her skill in life magic and asks, "These plants seem -overly- green if you ask me. It's like someone dialed them up to twelve or something. You think they've been messed with?" And then, considering Cody's question, he wanders over towards the fountain and then looks up at the cloudless sky above. "Wasn't it like overcast when we came in?" It's a muttered question - as though he were thinking to himself and not asking any one person directly. It was but who's to say that it didn't suddenly become a sunny, cloudless skill in the few moments that you've been inside.

"Are you his master?" There's a bit of a quirk of her brow at the seeming teacher moment from Cody. There's a little cough as she nosewrinkles a bit at the Verbena affiliation as she is an old school Hermetic afterall, WICCAPEDIA t-shirt withstanding. Smiling at Teagan, Jasmine beams. "Thank you. Had it custom made. I could order you one if you tell me your size. But it seems that we dont have the proper knowledge of the various arts to attempt an unweaving that would at least be successful." It's then that she turns to Marshall, grinning toothily and puts up two fingers in a V-shape. "Give me two weeks and I'll unweave it. I just need that long to wrap my mind around the ars temporis. It's been on my list of things to study. It's better than the penis stealing spell I stumbled across in a tome of malefica afterall." a beat. "Besides, I did that already once. Detached phalluses need feeding or they shrivel up." she continues as an aside.

"Weather manipulation is again pretty advanced spellwork." she hrmms, pursing her lips as she looks at the foliage. "I have no knowledge of the ars vitae myself, but you can retty much figure out and do something relatively simply. A fifth degree initiate would be able to do this work." she explains, looking at the large overgrowth.

"I'd love that!" She returns Jasmine's enthusiasm but quickly adds: "I'm a size Small, buuut I feel like there's probably more pressing issues at hand." Leaning down to inspect some of the flora more closely, she nips a small leaf off of a branch. She furrows her brow and gives the leaf a quick, cursory sniff. Leaf still in hand, she turns to Marshall. "Definitely."

Her eyebrows shoot up a little at the mention of detached phalluses and she clears her throat before giving Mei a wave. "Hi!" Her tone is friendly and her eyes linger on the woman for a short time before flicking back over towards Jasmine. Nodding sagely in agreement with her conclusion, it's pretty clear Teagan doesn't really understand what Jasmine said.

Marshall looks to Jasmine after she made the comment about who his master might be and the lad bows his head to cover a smile. "Perhaps we should check out the other rooms?" He glances towards the library or the door to the closed glass door that leads to the north (Chapter). "Like you said this place is big enough it might be one huge puzzle...and we'd need to know the pieces."

Cody shakes his head "Nope, just asking a question aloud that a seasoned mage asks internally or instinctively." He says and glances to his apprentice. He shrugs and falls silent as if waiting for something. He glances to Teagan and smiles a bit. His hand resting on hte hilt of the dagger casually, drawing it and pricks his finger and lets a couple droplets of his blood fall, and closes his eyes briefly

Pausing, Mei's phone beeps at her and she'll look down at it with a sigh. Looking up at Cody, she'll say apologetically. "I'm super sorry, but I have been called to deal with a shipment, something has gone wrong and I need to manage it." She'll give Cody a super apologetic look and then look to the others and bows politely. "My apologies, please do enjoy the investigation of this strange place." Then, she'll turn and quickly attempt to walk out, calling someone on her phone as she walks, her voice sounds angry and she talks in very, very fast mandarin.

"One thing is for damn sure, this place is OLD AF." Jasmine says rather matter of factly as she reaches into her small backpack and pulls out a small leatherbound notebook as she starts to scribble stuff. "It has clear Hermetic influence. I mean there's the symbols of House Quaesitor and Bonisagus at the fountains, but that means, this could've been like you know, still pretty recent like the Hermetic chantry hat's here with all the Egyptians."

Mumbling a bit more, she chews on her pen for a few moments. "But this place is hella old. We're talking like early Council of Nine old, I mean, there's the influence of the Subtle Ones in the courtyard." a beat. "Cause that was tote their markings. Let's see just how old this place is." another pause. "And how many rooms are there, cause if there are NINE I'm going to shit myself, cause I wanna see if there's some Solificati influence. Their alchemy was something else, other than you know, huge betrayal to the Order of Reason and all." she says with a shrug before she looks towards Marshall before motioning for him to lead the way now that she's had her little soliloquy.

Marshall nods to Jasmine and takes a few steps towards another one of the other glass doors.

Key House - Library

      OTC Chapter House
         UCP Campus
 +--------------------------+
 |     |                    |
 |     O     Library        |
 |     |                    |
 |     +-------O---------O--+
 |     |              |    U|
 |     |    Atrium    |    U|
Chapter|              |    U|
 |     O       X      O     |
 |     |              | Lobby
 |     |              |     |
 |     |              |     |
 +--O----------O------+     |
 |                DDD |     |
 |      Lounge        O     E
 |                    |     |
 +--------------------------+
X = Fountain
O = Door
E = Entrance
U = Stairs Up
D = Stairs Down

The apprentice Hermetic opens the glass door from the Atrium into the library and the vibe changes immediately. The bright, lush, garden-like atmosphere of the inner garden is now replaced by...Bilbo's study? "Oh...I could get used to this," the lad mutters and has to squint a bit because there's almost no light in the room. Not the inky blackness of the other - just dim light from the atrium streaming in through the door. Thick, velvety curtains have blocked any window if there even was any. "But could someone find a light switch before I fall and kill myself?"

As they head into the library, her inner Belle oooohs and ahhs. Jasmine spins for a few moments, taking it all in. All that's missing is the Beast and a golden gown and she'd be in heaven, or something like that. Still, a few things catch her eye and she goes looking about the shelves, tracing her fingers over the design as she makes some notes. After scribbling a bit, she beelines straight to the fireplace and stares at it for a few seconds.

Teagan nods along with Jasmine as she tries to convey the intricacies of the hermetic whatsits. It is nothing but words, but at least they're fairly pleasant words, and Teagan gives her a friendly smile. As they enter the library, Teagan is struck by a sense of wonder, her eyes slowly scanning the room. Managing to snap out of it, she turns to Jasmine. "So... You're a student here? I mean, not -here-" She gestures to the room. "But, you know, at the university." Coughing a little as she manages to swallow some of the dust that's been stirred up, she turns to Marshall. In response to his question, she grabs her phone from her pocket, turns the flashlight on, and shines it into the room.

...and -just- as Teagan turns on her cellphone there's a faint flash of a shock like static electricity and with that the techno-thing goes dead. Digital watches, phones, etc. don't seen to want to operate in here currently. Attempting to activate them draws a static-filled surprise. In the dim light from the door, several candles can be seen set in a few places around the room. A notebook lies open on the center table.

The questions snaps her out of her reverie and it's then that Jasmine looks to Teagan. "Oh, uh yeah. I just started this semester." she beams. "I'm a linguistics and English lit major. Moved here from a boarding school in the UK. It was basically Hogwarts but not..." a beat. "Well it kind of was since I attended a Hermetic collegium."

That would explain the theoretical and occut knowledge brewing in her head. It's then thatshe points back towards the shelves. "There was some Theban writing there. Super subtle and whatnot, it basically said Follow the Owl. I'd try to find the owl but it's dark." She whines and tries to get used to the darkness, before seeing the various candles. "I have a matchbook in my backpack. That should help shed some light on the situation, no?"

Marshall was -just- about to raise a hand in some arcane gesture to conjure fire to ignite the candles but he rethinks that choice -real- fast. "Uh...yeah, let's go with a match." he confesses and holds onto the edge of the table as he moves towards the notebook - making sure that he doesn't stumble upon anything in the dim light.

A brief flash of light from the phone illuminates Teagan's pained face. "Fuck!" She instinctively drops the phone to the floor and shakes her now empty hand. There's a long, and quite annoyed groan before she speaks again. "Well. That's typical." Utterly defeated, she lets out another sigh as she picks up the busted phone.

"Basically Hogwarts? My roommate went to uh... Straussen Academy? She's one of.." she waves her hand "you types... From what I've heard it sounds absolutely wild. But, I guess anything beats public school." She's managed to regain a bit of cheerfulness in her tone, but she's still pretty peeved about her phone. "Follow the Owl? What's that mean?"

"We'll find out once we find the owl? I feel like whoever made this place had a boner for Escape Rooms." Jasmine admits ruefully as she looks to Marshall and smiles sweetly in his direction. "Now based on what you know, how can you help in this situation." A beat then a giggle snort. "I'm just messing with you, but seriously, when weird stuff happens, it's best to not cast more magick." she offers as sage advice as she pulls out some matchbooks, handing one to both of them so more candles can be lit.

A loud, beastial roar can be heard coming from the Atrium - Who invited Smaug? The closest your brain can interpret the sound is to say that it's like a dragon roused from its slumber, growled at something that woke it, and then went quiet.

"Where's Cody," Marshall asks and heads back to the center room.

Key House - Atrium

As Marshall and the others rush back into the Atrium they find a pile of clothes infront of the dragon statue. Cody's shoes, pants, shirt, etc. Anything not magically connected to the man is laying in a pile - but no sign of him.

Huff. Puff. The sight of the clothes on the ground causes Jasmine's eyes to widen. "First rule of exploring formerly magickal places. Don't touch shit." she emphasizes before she nosewrinkles and facepalms. "Okay, so either there's a naked Verbena somewhere here or a naked Verbena potentially in another location or dimension." A shrug. "So that really doesn't change much does it."

"Maybe if we wait long enough we'll get a hint?" Teagan laughs, but is interrupted by whatever sound just came from the Atrium, and heads back over. Upon arriving she opens her mouth a few times in order to try to formulate something coherent. It takes a while but she eventually manages to phrase a question. "Uh. Does this usually happen?" she looks to Jasmine and Marshall, utterly confused.

Marshall reaches down and collects Cody's things to see if things are present and that there's not an action-figure sized version of Cody crawling through the mountainous pile of cloth. "Nope...he's not shrunk at least." Perhaps it's a good thing but the young apprentice can't help but smile at a discovery "Heh...never figured him for a boxers guy..."

There's still her active etheric senses. Glancing in the direction of the fountain, Jasmine squints hard, trying to see if theres any traces of magick that could potentially be undone. "Maybe he was teleported somewhere? If so there might be time to ya know, unweave the spell and bring him back?"

Sometimes, having your third eye open to the flows of quintessence is not a good thing. Not when you're in certain locations. Her eyes widen and then she covers them as she lets out a scream of pain as she falls to her knees. There's only so much the human brain can process, and if it wasn't for her earlier active mental shielding, she could be having morethan a slight seizure at the moment. There's a long drawn out groan which sounds between the cross of pain, pleasure, mid orgasm, and getting eviscerated from the inside. WTF IS GOING ON WITH JASMINE??

Cody bamfs! In all his naked glory. Holding his athame in one hand and wand inbetween his teeth. He glances around, not bothered by being naked. Making sure he is back in the present.

"Yeah but see...dragon statue...and a roar. So I'm thinking it was a side-effect or someth..." Marshall starts to say and then...

"Holy sh..."he rushes to the more senior member of his Order and tries to hold onto her as she screams. "What's going on???" he tries to keep her from swallowing her tongue and everything else he's seen about people having seizures.

...and then a naked man appears with the not-so-quiet pop of air being displaced and the reverberation of magic washing over the whole of the room.

Shivering and writhing for a few moments longer, Jasmine wakes up not too long after Cody pops back in his naked glory. Clutching her head and rubbing at her temples, she squints for a few moments. "Ward this place ASAP. It's a node. It's weak now, but I don't know if I saw the past, now, or future, or all possibilities or not, but that was a head trip." she replies, her voice a little shakey from the experience as she drops the spell. Yeah no more magickal sight for her. EFF THAT

Teagan looks incredibly concerned as Jasmine seizes up, and starts moving towards her, but promptly stops as Marshall rushes over. Looking on from a distance, she decides that it's probably better that he deals with it. As Cody re-appears Teagan casts her glance towards him. She immediately regrets it, and covers her eyes. "Dude! Not cool. Not cool at all." She turns around to Marshall and Jasmine, giving them an awkward look before settling her eyes on the ground.

Cody walks towards his clothes. Nudity doesn't phase him. Damn old school Verbena. He glances between them, looking more curious than afraid. "The answer is yes, I believe the dragon takes you to the past. I saw the place when it was freshly built. The Unicorn I believe takes you to a possible future. The Lion returns you to the present. The keys unlock where you go. The node will need awakening, but before you attempt that. She is right. Wards are needed especially with the Union getting more active." he states calmly.

The word "node" is not so easily thrown around in magical circles. It's not a joke, it's not a punch line. It's where battles are faught for control for reality and Marshall's eyes go wide with the realization that they're smack dab in the middle of one. "Holy..." he starts to let another f-bomb fly and then sort of is distracted by...that leaf. That leaf -right- there...that just happens to be past where Cody's getting dressed. It's such a nice leaf; Not too big, not too small...perfectly sha...and then he pulls his brain back to Jasmine.

"Are you ok?" Yes, focus on the other Hermetic in front of you.

You paged Cody with 'but that might take a bit of thinking about what you saw and reasoning it out.' Cody pages: for hte end of it ...are you going with nephandi destruction or a different way. ICly ody will take time to process it so you can decide which you want and we can alter as you need :)

Listening to what Cody says, the grey matter is still processing things. "The keys of Bonisagus open the doors to the different aspects that Quaesitor judges." a beat. "And it's not a lion, it's a griffin." Jasmine corrects as she squints for a few moments, not having the mental capacity to focus on the naked Verbena. "But it makes sense with the Ahl-i-Batin connection. The Subtle Ones discovered Mount Qaf, the basis for the Digital Web through their theory on the correspondence point. The fact that this place is connected to being able to see anywhere and anytime is... powerful juju."

"Looks like we're gonna need everyone in on this," Marshall comments and stands up to help Jasmine to her feet should she need it. "And there's still more to see. I mean...what's up with the Forces going weird here?" His questions are possibly rudamentary but not exactly out of logical thought.

Back still turned to Cody, Teagan is relieved as Jasmine is back on her feet. Not even pretending to follow along with what she's saying, she speaks up not really addressing anyone in particular. "Is that safe? Like, traveling in time? What about the butterfly effect? How do we know that the timeline hasn't been altered? I mean, I guess we wouldn't know, but then again..." She rambles on for a bit, but catches herself before it gets too weird. With a chuckle, she adds "Power juju indeed."

Cody frowns a bit and thinks for a moment. "The one commonality is that physically I was in the same location, I think." he scratches his chin, now with the pants on upgrade. "The place will be here until the sky burns red and the life here withers." he looks a little unsettled. Though he doesn't go into anymore detail. "Most have been a powerful chantry at one time. physical and temporal relocation is no small feat." A hint of admiration in his voice for the skill that requires. "It's almost like a more .....scholarly version.... of my family's holding, though ours leads into the spirit world." he muses. for an instant a little homesick look haunts his eyes, then he blinks and it is gone.

Jasmine nods as she dusts herself off and nosewrinkles as she listens in on things. "There are more than a few magister scholae within the local Council. They could probably help discern stuff assuming they aren't too busy?" she offers helpfully from what she knows. "But think about it. Strong Hermetic connection. Wizards LOVE playing with elemental forces. We're the basis of your Dungeons and Dragons wizard!" she says rather matter of factly. "Add the fact that technology fizzled out, I'd say this was probably a base against the Technocracy or even the budding Order of Reason."

"Should we keep exploring or call for more backup?" he asks Jasmine - unwilling to touch a doorknob now that Cody was zapped to there and back again without his boxers. "I mean...this is kinda bigger than I expected." Marshall's voice seems a bit more worried than he'd like to let on but he's been beaten over the head with stories of the Technocracy and the War for Reality of late.

Teagan raises an eyebrow at Jasmine's mention of Dungeons and Dragons. "Are you saying Gary Gygax was a mage? I mean, thinking about it I guess it kind of does make sense..." Turning to Marshall she gives the entrance to the library a look. "Well... There's still that owl that we're supposed to follow, or whatever. Plus, I need payback for my phone." Lilian pages: So when is a good time to meet.

Cody isn't soo easily intimidated. "I wonder what the resonance of the node is." he muses. "Might give us an idea of what kind of Hermetics and what they commonly did here. If you want to avoid the timewarp. The other thing that might be good is to peak into the spirit world here." his mind going a million miles a second. Oh how he loves this stuff. "anyone have that ability?" he glances between them.

"It's connected to correspondence. It's meant for scrying for the acquisition of knowledge." At least she got that piece of information when her brain was filled with lots and perhap stoo much information. "It's why I brought up the Ahl-i-Batin and Mount Qaf earlier." Jasmine continues. It's then that she looks to Teagan. "Gygas was either a Hermetic or a budding Technocrat wanting to discredit us. At least that's the pervasive theory I've heard. And yeah, the owl."

Key House - Library

"We still need light..." Marshall mutters as the four of them re-enter the Hobbit study of a library.

There were matchbooks given out earlier. Beelining to the candles earlier, Jasmine chirps a bit as Cody points to the mantle. "Follow the owl!" she beams happily. "Is there some secret switch or something? Or what is the owl looking at?" However, she remains near the open book left on the table earlier and peers at it, now that she has a lit candle.

Cody hrms " Nothing stalking us across the gauntlet, which suggests that they had some strong spirit wards here at one time. Though I don't feel any present right now." he murmurs.

Oh, and at the question, Jasmine idly speaks up. "I think House Thig had an owl on their crest."

Teagan grumbles as she gets a lighter from her pocket. There's a couple of failed attempts before she strikes a spark. Using the faint light to guide her, she lights a candle and tries to get a handle on the room. "Right, owl." Distracted, she chooses to inspect some of the oddities in the room, almost as one would peruse an exhibit in a museum. There's the occasional "Huh!" and "Ah..." as she wanders around.

"Well, Cats are House Shea..." Marshall explains after Jasmine added the bit of information about the Thigs. "But I'm not sure about the Keys," he gestures to the shield above the fireplace itself. You paged Lilian with 'heh. This is how I hope we can get people past the baby-mage stage. :)'

Cody glances... "Anyone tried to find the connection between the keys and maybe owl yet?" His experience of growing up in a tradition family begins to show more and more. He may be only 20-something but he's been around verbena and magick and critters his entire life.

"House Thig was pretty much decimated when Doissetep fell. They were subsumed into Ex Miscellanea and considering they were the technomancy specialists, I doubt they had real presence here. I mean their derogatory name was the Hitler Youth." Jasmine offers as she squints at the book. "The scribbles are relatively fresh. There has to be some temporal thing going on throughout the entire house. Careful." she warns as she heads on over toward sthe owl, her gaze focused on that as she looks at its eyes, canting her head to the side as she peers curiously. Considering someone already broke the rule about touching shit, she might as well YOLO and she reaches out to touch the rather curious looking eyes of the owl.

Moving over to the fireplace, Teagan takes special interest in the carving of the owl. She tilts her head a little at it and speaks out. "Uh, guys, there's something weird about this owl..." She leans in closer to it, staring into its eyes for a solid few seconds before Jasmine interrupts. A little shaken, Teagan watches in anticipation as Jasmine reaches out for the eyes of the statue.

And -just- as Jasmine touches the eys of the owl carving above the fire place a subtle, soft-ish 'click-thunk' can be heard from one of the walls of shelves.

Nah...it can't be -that- easy, could it?

Cody pauses for a moment..."3 keys...3 aspects of hte goddess. maiden mother crone...3 fates...past present future....hmmm." he thinks aloud then get's distracted by Jasmine taking one from his play book and crocodile huntering.