eurydicebound

So. Yes, I am nearly two weeks late. I'm in grad school. What do you want from me?

Ahem.

When last we left our motley crew, they'd left the library trying to figure out what was next. There was a girl to find, some other people to find, a rooftop spell to sort out, and any number of other things to try. Upon leaving the Loyola library, they decided to motor back to Mo's Crab Shack (not only open late, but also accorded neutral ground) and determine their next move. Danny got a call from her White Council contact and went to take care of that [her player was out this session], letting everyone else hold down the fort in the mean time. Uno had something to do first, though; it was time to contact his Lady.

[Nota Bene: In this setting, to make all of this make sense, I've assigned a knight to each of the three ladies of the Courts. The least powerful is the Lady's Knight, as opposed to the Queen's or the other one, whom I can't remember the title of at the moment. Uno's the knight of the Summer Lady.]

Now, I did a little reading and discovered that I had not been handling any number of tasks correctly in previous games. It worked well enough, but it could work a lot better, so I applied myself to integrating more of the system into play. Upon

innocent_man's suggestion, I also tried to make sure and tap everyone's trouble aspect and one other during the course of the session, which I did. :) This made some effort for me but I think the game turned out a bit better because of it.

So, back where we were. Uno went to see his lady and tell her about the summoning circle. She was unimpressed, basically. She wasn't sure why he was spending his time on such things and began questioning his loyalty -- in a roundabout, summer fashion, anyway. He assured her that he was loyal, and she, in turn, brought up The Choice, reminding him that although he seemed drawn to his fae nature, should he choose to be something other than mortal, he would no longer be a knight, with all the requisite fallout that could incur. His Choice stands to land him in trouble either way, as there are some who'd like him to choose fae. This was brought to his attention and is something I'm going to have to continue puzzling out over time.

While Uno was taking care of that, the rest of the crew ordered a really late dinner and started talking about the situation. The upshot of all of it was that they didn't have a lead on the girl, so that got back burnered for a bit. Morris was going to get some security stuff (motion sensors, etc) and trick out the door to the roof so they'd know what was going on. They discussed what they knew, decided there was a good chance that the people casting the spells didn't know what they were doing, so somewhere they got ahold of a ritual or something like it and it just happened to work. Someone wanted to know more about Nicor, the demon speaking through Mouthpiece, and someone else wanted to know what the circle was supposed to summon. Oh, and Josh, the ghost of Dylan's brother who has latched onto Adia, kept talking shit about his brother.

Dylan got out his book again and tried to divine something new about the circle. What he got, while his crab was kept warm by Roz, the nice waitress, was that this event seemed to set up as sort of a repeating sine wave/spiral, only every iteration kept getting larger crests until it reached escape velocity, as it were. He asked if he could narrow down the timeline, but I pointed out that the variable for time could actually represent a set of numbers instead of just one, so no luck with this input. (Have I mentioned how weird it is couching this stuff in terms of math/physics?)

It was about that point that Adia felt compelled to point out that if anyone knew about demon stuff, it was her evil-ex, Mickey who tried to sacrifice her for power. People felt it was probably a bad plan for her to call him, but information is information. She calls up the ex, who is delighted to talk to her. He agrees to meet with her the next day, but only if she wears his favorite shirt. Everyone does the "we'll be here and kick his ass if need be" response and Adia feels comforted. She agrees against her better judgement. After doing so, though, she feels really nervous about going back to her place for the night, so Zeke gallantly offers to let her stay with him -- her in the bed, him on the couch. Everyone else returns home and sleeps.

The next day, Dylan checks in at school, grades some papers to keep up with his actual job, and makes arrangements to go see the library curator. While he's there, the head of his departments stops in. It seems there was a security report that Dylan made the security guard let him into the library late at night so he could have sex with some woman (Morris's "drunken" story to the really drunken guards). The dean wanted to know what was going on and sort of unofficially chastised Dylan for being there at all, even after Dylan dismantled the guards' story (and privately swore to get Morris later). In the meantime, Zeke's busy thinking chaste thoughts as he takes Adia back to her place for a change of clothes. They meet Dylan up at the university, where they talk with Daniel Scoggins, the head librarian.

Daniel is dour and devoted to his library. How much he does or doesn't know is really not clear, but he lets them know he appreciates their bringing the last evening's issues to his attention. He explains that the 4th floor room is really a vestige of an old, incomplete building plan. Students have known about it for decades and usually get up there to have illicit sex and drink sooner or later, but it's an odd time of year for it. He seems somewhat disbelieving about the attempted spell casting and refers to it as grafitti, but agrees that one of their people will take care of it. He also tells Dylan on the way out to please contact him if he needs anything next time at the library -- anything. While they're walking out, Sauriel takes a moment to speak to Zeke, letting him know that the girl is in danger and he really needs to find her. Zeke asked how, and Sauriel pointed out that he was a federal marshal before buggering off. Zeke sends Adia over to Dylan to go to the restaurant and says he'll meet them there. He goes back to speak to Daniel, who then sends him to security to look over the tapes from the night before. Zeke finds footage of both them and some apparent associates of the girl -- 4 boys and another girl. With all the reviewing of footage, it becomes apparent that he's going to be late to Adia's party. He does, though, notice that the ostensible leader of the group with the girl is wearing a TKE frat logo.

Morris goes to get the stuff the next morning, only to find out he can't get it all. He starts going over his car from the night before, and in doing so sort of gets caught up in his task and planning and talking with his sane, car-oriented, non-supernatural buddies. He also, feeling things are well covered, figures out he's going to be late. Uno decides to test out the girl's story of a rave and finds out where the next one will be this weekend. Doing so also makes him run late, though. In the end, it's only Dylan and Adia waiting for Mickey at Mo's -- and that's when Adia informs Dylan that she needs him to pretend to be her boyfriend.

Mickey comes in, all suit and charm and slime. Posturing happens, conversation ensues, Adia feels oddly attracted to Mickey still and hates herself for it, and things progress. Mickey agrees to see what people know in exchange for a price. He offers to get a bit of information, let them set what they'll pay for it, and then negotiate from there. This looks promising and things seem to be progressing and just about to move from business to pleasure when everyone else shows up, one by one. Mickey seemed unusually interested in Uno. Morris went on about Mickey's car and took advantage of the opportunity to plant a tracking device on it. Mickey extracted himself from the conversation and left none the wiser, at least as far as the characters know.

Next steps: find the girl, find the guys, find out what Mickey knows, Morris still wants to monitor the door, and there's undoubtedly something else I'm not thinking of. Woo hoo! Fun for everyone. :)