anyport so far

<TWDuke|GM> ||||
<TWDuke|GM> The mid-morning sun is already bearing down uncomfortably warmly.
<TWDuke|GM> "Summer in December? I was told they did things differently in the colonies, but this is really something else." The tidy man sniffs at the air, his pencil-thin red moustache twitching in response.
<TWDuke|GM> The dirt path is longer than you were expecting - or at least, it's taking you longer than you had hoped to traverse it. Yet another of the frustrations you've had to overcome since your immigration. Your host didn't deign to provide you with a specific time to meet, so at least you won't be late.
<TWDuke|GM> Finally, the curtains of eucalyptus trees part to reveal your destination. It's a miserable excuse for a home - a tiny tin shack, practically falling over, perched on a hill as though it was afraid of slipping off and being lost in the underbrush. The only feature that strikes you as odd is the lightning rod - you had been informed that the weather in Anyport was almost perpetually pleasant. Still, you know that appearances can be deceiving.
<TWDuke|GM> ((You're up, Tuzi)) ||
<Teruzi|Piper> Can they ever be deceiving. Indeed, Piper didn't look like the proper lady she was. What with the sun, the heat, the damned dirt road and the shoes that Pearlie had oh so gently lent her.
<Teruzi|Piper> "I do believe it's a matter of hemispheres, Rey. But then again, it wouldn't surprise me all that much if this... place were inclined to be contrarian even with the weather."
<Teruzi|Piper> Anyport! Such a strange little town. Too strange. Entirely so.
<Teruzi|Piper> It was a strange feeling, that one. She was used to distrust, of course. But distrusting the very ground you walk on? Well, it certainly had made things -difficult-. And that bloody heat. Insufferable.
<Teruzi|Piper> Piper checks her pockets before making a face. Oh no. Not again! She was sure she had packed her handkerchief this time around- She begins to say something before she sees her loyal butler holding a handkerchief her way.
<Teruzi|Piper> All she can do then, is to roll her eyes amused. So opportune, that Rey.
<Teruzi|Piper> Piper cleans her face, then covers her eyes. She looks with the Sight, briefly. Just to get an idea of this little shack, so far from the city. Did it try to reach for the heavens? That's what the lighting rod implies to her.||
<TWDuke|GM> Not for the first time, Piper finds herself frustrated by this strange town's strange ways.
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<TWDuke|GM> At home, opening her Sight would cause the world to light up in a vast spectacle, a galaxy of spirits and connections, all spinning in harmony. Being the first thing seen after Awakening, it had taken her breath away.
<TWDuke|GM> But here? It was like a half-hearted community theatrical performance. The woodlands (though Piper could see why they called the dead-looking things here "bush" rather than woods) had a few meagre glimmerings of nature spirits, and the sort of connection that would let you infer that the inhabitant of the house would at least collect firewood there.
<TWDuke|GM> The sky, itself lazily swimming with spirits (presumably of air and weather and the like), does indeed reach down gentle tendrils to brush at the shack on the hill, which responds in kind. It's an almost loving gesture - a child holding it's mother's hand, perhaps - but muted like a sepia photo behind the cracked, dusty glass of an antique frame.
<TWDuke|GM> The shack itself was thoroughly unremarkable, in the distinctive way that would suggest to Piper's keen eye that it is a thoroughly magical place masquerading as something thoroughly ordinary. Streamers of connections spill back towards the heart of Anyport, but not many, and not strongly - this place is distinctively isolated.
<TWDuke|GM> Whoever lives here is something of a hermit - and a Practitioner. ||
<Teruzi|Piper> Intentionally isolated. The connections- Not broken, nor frayed. But faint? No, no, not quite that. And the sky- What is that? Piper believes she knows. A fond memory, a yearning.
<Teruzi|Piper> Loving times long past.
<Teruzi|Piper> It's quite beautiful...
<Teruzi|Piper> But how to use it?
<Teruzi|Piper> Well, there was a time and a place. Right now, Piper was visiting. Showing her face around as it were.
<Teruzi|Piper> "It really is fortunate that our gift hasn't melted yet, in this heat." Insufferable, ever-present heat.
<Teruzi|Piper> There were rules to follow. And rules to respect. She was invited by her host, and thus, she was going to play her role. She looked at the scented candle she had brought as a present. She was quite pleased with it! She even kept the other one for herself. It was just such a clever gift. There couldn't be that many good smells in the back of the woods. And a womanly touch might be just the thing to sweeten the introduction.
<Teruzi|Piper> Blinking, back to the mundane, Piper walked up to the shack. She knocked once with hesitation.
<Teruzi|Piper> Again, with anticipation.
<Teruzi|Piper> And lastly, once with finality.
<Teruzi|Piper> She would worry about wasting her time with subtle touches like this, but Rey was surely capable of appreciating them.
<Teruzi|Piper> Keen eye for details, in her butler.||
<TWDuke|GM> ((Take it away, Shade))
<Shade|Svend> Meanwhile, Svend was working.
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<Shade|Svend> The forge was raging, it's heart stoked to it's full fury by the strength of the demesnes. Svend had put on his welding mask and grabbed a jug of sand he had gathered the previous day. Pouring as much as he could into the metal pan attached to the rod, he opened door to the Storm's Heart.
<Shade|Svend> The maelstrom released itself, lightning and wind and roiling cloud dancing around him as he plunged the sand into the center.
<Shade|Svend> As he watched, the sand was struck over and over again, creating his desired medium: glass.
<Shade|Svend> Once it had all melted in the center, he pulled it out and poured another pile of sand on, repeating the process over and over until he had enough material to work with.
<Shade|Svend> He had been trained as a smith, not a glassblower, so the next part was pretty far outside his expertise.
<Shade|Svend> He dipped his makeshift pipe into the molten glass and lifted it, beginning to blow.
<Shade|Svend> The glass ballooned out, too much strength behind the blow, and it popped.
<Shade|Svend> Again he tried, and this time he was able to hold the bubble. He grabbed his bolt cutters and attempted to snip the bulb off into the basin of water at the center of the room, but the timing was off, and the glass sphere shattered.
<Shade|Svend> Svend sighed, scooping the glass shards up and tossing them into he scrap pile.
<Shade|Svend> He was moving to make another attempt when there was a knock on his door. The stranger who had contacted him.
<Shade|Svend> Splashing some water on his face, he grabbed the iron sphere and brass bells out of their respective niches and opened the door. ||
<TWDuke|GM> ((Go for it Tuzi. I'll interject if I need to. Give us some physical descriptions of your characters as they see one another :) ))
<Shade|Svend> ((Sphere in left hand and bell in right if it matters.))
<Teruzi|Piper> ((it just might.))
<Teruzi|Piper> Oh crikey, that was hot. The blast of air, that is. Still, Piper is pleased that Svend is actually home. She would be sorely miffed if she walked all the way over here for nothing.
<Teruzi|Piper> "Ah. You must be Svend. Good day!" Piper piped, giving the man a look-over. She smiled in the way only people that are used to smile can. Almost as an afterthought.
<Shade|Svend> ((It's not actually hot, there's no fire in the forge. The intense winds keep the ambient temp down.))
<Teruzi|Piper> ((*That was cool.))
<Teruzi|Piper> Her hair was fantastically frizzy. She blamed the heat. She was wearing what she would call a casual wrap dress, of a creamy sort of color. It contrasted against her somewhat darker skin. Her boots didn't seem to match. Pearlie's taste left something to be desired.
<Teruzi|Piper> Piper might be more worried about the sun, if Rey wasn't so dutiful in keeping the parasol up. She wore some sort of silver necklace and carried a black purse, of sorts. It was really more of a casual bag. She had carefully crafted this casual look, really. She hadn't worried about it at all. No that she would say that out loud. Oh, no. That would be bad.
<Teruzi|Piper> She offered her hand to her host.
<Teruzi|Piper> "It's nice to finally put a face to the name." She said, honest.||
<Shade|Svend> Svend would have been sweaty had the wind not evaporated all his sweat the moment it formed. He was wearing loose shorts and a sleeveless athletic tee that left his powerfully built arms free. His hair was a light brown and was normally shoulder length, although at the moment he had it tied up in a ponytail so that it would stay out of his face as he worked. His eyes were a striking blue, and his naturally light skin was heavily tanned
<Shade|Svend> from outdoor work.
<Shade|Svend> ((How old is Piper?))
<TWDuke|GM> ((A few years younger than yourself))
<Shade|Svend> He examined the extended hand, but didn't take it as both of his were full. Then, looked up at the girl in front of him.
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<Shade|Svend> "Miss Anderson, why are you here? And I don't mean at my home, although that is a question that I would like answered. Why have you come to my town, you're obviously used to much finer things," he said, indicating her jewelry and actually butler standing over her. ||
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<TWDuke|GM> ...
<TWDuke|GM> The dapper gentleman twirls the parasol, and one corner of his mouth twitches upwards, as he is referred to as one of the finer things. He remains silent behind Piper's shoulder. ||
<TWDuke|GM> ((Back to you, Tuzi))
<Teruzi|Piper> ...
<Teruzi|Piper> Well, bugger. Not the most friendly chap, was he? Not that she expected nothing else from a hermit. Self-imposed at that! At least her exile came with a very carefully crafted veneer of plausible deniability.
<Teruzi|Piper> "I have family here." Piper said, as if that was an explanation. In a way, it was the only explanation required.
<Teruzi|Piper> She retracted the offered hand, but her smile didn't waver much.
<Teruzi|Piper> "Rey, dear, do you think you could find something to entertain yourself while Mister Jansen here and I talk?" She asks, smoothly, before tackling the question of why she was here. She exchanges a look with her butler. Meaningful, direct and somehow subtle. The language that only trust could allow.
<Teruzi|Piper> With some more privacy, to give her host some peace of mind, she begins to speak again.
<Teruzi|Piper> "I am... introducing myself, as is polite." She half-admits, half accuses. "And Miss Andersson is my sister. Piper, please. Or if you must, Miss Piper."||
<Shade|Svend> "Visiting family is no reason to be gallivanting around, meeting the locals, especially this local. But your family might be the exception. Your family scrounges for power to pull itself out of the hole it has been slipping into due to it's own mediocrity. You would not be here if you didn't want something bad enough to step off your high horse and fraternize with the common masses, so what is it?" ||
<Teruzi|Piper> "I wouldn't call you common." Piper smiles, unfazed by the hostility. She expected that! Indeed, this was reassuring. It was nice to know where one stood with others. In posturing, or in pushing.
<Teruzi|Piper> "Perhaps not even part of the masses." She went on, disregarding his crudity. Did he expect to shock her? To make her feel uncomfortable? Hrmp.
<Teruzi|Piper> "And my family and I don't always see eye to eye. One of the reasons I'm here, quite so far away from home." She admits. Maybe the main reason, but well. What good is there in saying that?
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<Teruzi|Piper> "Some might say I'm being polite. Others would say I'm gauging the locals. Yet others would say that I'm trying to find how I fit in." Piper says, demure, playing into that expectation of a lady.
<Teruzi|Piper> "The truth could be somewhere in the middle." She shrugs. Then pulls out her gift. An aromatic candle. Teakwood and Tobacco. A more stern sort of smell, for a man that would willfully choose to live in such a hovel.
<Teruzi|Piper> "There's value in an introduction." She adds, polite.||
<Shade|Svend> "Which is a fancy way of avoiding the question."
<Shade|Svend> Svend trusted this girl about as much as a rattlesnake, and her tactfully avoiding answering any direct questions was doing nothing to assuage that notion.
<Shade|Svend> "What is the nature of this candle?" ||
<Teruzi|Piper> She smiles brightly at that. She loved her candles.
<Teruzi|Piper> "Oh, I hope you like it. It's Teakwood & Tobacco, from the P.F candle company" She gushes. "I wasn't quite sure what to get you, as we were complete strangers before this, but I figured anyone could enjoy a nice scent every once in a while. It's designed to last too. I'm glad it's keeping consistency with this heat!"
<Teruzi|Piper> "And what I wanted from you? I've already gotten it." Piper adds, calming down some. "I wasn't just saying that. Introductions matter. I wanted to make myself known."
<Teruzi|Piper> "And now I have. We are no longer strangers." For better or for worse. She didn't -expect- a warm welcome.
<Teruzi|Piper> "Or at the very least, complete strangers. We're acquainted."||
<Shade|Svend> "So we are. Now please leave," Svend said stepping out onto the doorstep and closing the door with his foot.
<Shade|Svend> "And if the candle as been altered  or affected by practice at all, you may take it with you." ||
<Teruzi|Piper> Piper clicks her tongue, annoyed.
<Teruzi|Piper> "Do I look like that much of a beginner?" She asks, rolling her eyes. Sometimes an introductory gift was just that. A gift.
<Teruzi|Piper> "Very well." Piper says, as she leaves the candle by the doorstep. Rey was going to have a smirk about that later.
<Teruzi|Piper> She focuses her magic on the tenuous connection between Svend and herself. She could work it, if she wanted. She knows she's good enough. And only people that know what to look for would even see the change.
<Teruzi|Piper> She looks at him. Then clicks her tongue, again. A smile passes over her face right away. Roles, roles, roles. Rules and rules. Hospitality, however meager, would be respected. She stops channeling her power.
<Teruzi|Piper> Anyone would be able to clearly see something was started, then abandoned, if they cared to see. Any decent binder would be annoyed at the apparent shoddy work. Just as well. She felt this was a shoddy introduction.
<Teruzi|Piper> But then, the air had been pleasantly cool at the start. Curious, for a cabin that seems to not have any AC running.||
<Shade|Svend> "You are not moving, I ask you again, leave this place, you intrude upon my home." ||
<Teruzi|Piper> "I'm waiting for Rey. It wouldn't do leave alone, would it?" She asks, sardonic. "I feel that would be quite troublesome for all involved- Oh, there we go."
<Teruzi|Piper> She smiles, as Rey comes into view. The trusty parasol, a flimsy bastion against the sun.
<Teruzi|Piper> Piper bows her head slightly towards Svend. Such a grumpy hermit. But then, wasn't that always the case. She doesn't wait for his next grumble before she starts walking, Rey falling into place with practiced ease.
<Teruzi|Piper> ((*the case?))
<Teruzi|Piper> ||
<TWDuke|GM> ...
<TWDuke|GM> As he approaches, Rey's genial smile has been replaced with a slight worried scowl.
<TWDuke|GM> ((Sorry, computer battery issues))
<TWDuke|GM> He whispers, though not quietly enough to avoid Svend's hearing. "Something's afoot. A foul air." He glances at the owner of the shack as he does so, wrinkling his nose slightly. "Perhaps foul play?"
<TWDuke|GM> Piper can tell, his hackles are up. ||
<TWDuke|GM> ((Tuzi, you can take it first))
<Teruzi|Piper> ...
<Teruzi|Piper> Bugger. That's not good.
<Teruzi|Piper> ((Did he take the candle?))
<Shade|Svend> ((He's left it where it was put. He hasn't moved.))
<Teruzi|Piper> Piper looks back, finally letting her smile fade.
<Teruzi|Piper> She scowls when she sees Svend at the same spot with the same expression. There are rules and rules, but good manners cost nothing!
<Teruzi|Piper> "Having called my family mediocre, I can forgive. Implying that I'm not simply introduced myself, I can let be-"
<Teruzi|Piper> The sun would melt it to nothing. She had to pay extra for her gift-related luggage. Out of her own allowance!
<Teruzi|Piper> "But disregarding my tasteful gift is just bloody rude. And I think I won't stand for it."
<Teruzi|Piper> ||
<Shade|Svend> "I ask you again, leave my home," Svend replied stoically, popping his neck and rolling as he did so. ||
<Teruzi|Piper> "I'm not even inside your cabin, Mister Jansen. Accept my gift or reject it, but I won't allow a perfectly good candle to go to waste because you're too concerned being bloody rude to appreciate a good thing." Piper huffs, annoyed. She eyed Rey, hopefully the whole mock fight would give her butler time to... catch the telling detail."||
<Shade|Svend> "Three times you were told to leave, three times you refused. You make me resort to force."
<Shade|Svend> "I call upon the Storm's Voice and Herald, always running ahead with a single message."
<Shade|Svend> "Run."
<Shade|Svend> Svend flicked his wrist, ringing the small brass bell. ||
<TWDuke|GM> ((Tuzi, can I get you to make a Willpower check?))
<TWDuke|GM> $roll 2l6 Rey Willpower
<[ATM]> TWDuke|GM "Rey Willpower" (2) [1]  = 1
<Teruzi|Piper> $roll 2h6 Pillpower
<[ATM]> Teruzi|Piper "Pillpower" (1) [2]  = 2
<Teruzi|Piper> ((Oh dear))
<TWDuke|GM> Instead of the tinkling ring, the brass bell elicits a thunderous crack. The cacophonous sound echoes across the hills, causing an eruption of birds to scatter in all directions. Piper feels it shake her very bones, and it terrifies her to her core.
<TWDuke|GM> Beside her, Rey jumps out of his skin - almost literally. Bright red bristles spring up across his face, his mouth extending to a snout, his eyes flaring up to a bright gold, pupils tightened to vertical black slits. His finery vanishes, replaced by further soft red fur and a finely embroidered green vest. A magnificently plush red tail sprouts, and tucks promptly between his legs.
<TWDuke|GM> The parasol disappears behind his back as he leaps away from the sound, dashing a few metres on all fours. Seemingly remembering his mistress a few moments late, the foxman makes a springing turn and draws a longbow from thin air, shaking paws fumbling with an arrow.
<TWDuke|GM> ((Piper is startled long enough for Svend to proceed)) ||
<Shade|Svend> A small smile escapes Svend's facade. He shouldn't be surprised by the butler, she was a binder after all.
<Shade|Svend> "I call upon the Storm's Cold Disdain, turn you icy gaze and strike down all before me!" he proclaimed, lifting the orb up. ||
<TWDuke|GM> ...
<TWDuke|GM> Before Piper's eyes the orb of iron manifests a thick coating of frost. Completely aside from the petrifying chill in Piper's spine, the heat of summer is erased as a bitter cold sets in. A cloud of fog rises from below your feet, spilling up from the soil itself, filling the whole clearing.
<TWDuke|GM> Overhead, dark clouds with a faint green hue roil and turn, spilling out from nowhere, blossoming out to fill the same area.
<TWDuke|GM> "Mistress! We need to leave, now!" Reynard's voice, despite his transformation, remains crisp and clear with his distinctly upperclass accent. A quaver betrays his animal terror. ||
<TWDuke|GM> ((Finally, the turn is Piper's. You're still under the fear effect, and you can tell that the area your in will become very unsafe very soon))
<TWDuke|GM> ((You're))
<Teruzi|Piper> 'We leave when I say we leave.' Is the first thing that comes to her mind. Then the second thing that comes to her mind is 'But that's right away, mate'.
<Teruzi|Piper> The third thought that comes to her mind is a very clear 'I should have gone to the bathroom before this trek'. All the more reason to make a quick, and hopefully painless, exit.
<Teruzi|Piper> She looks at her terrified partner, before snorting. It was all well and good to be -terrified-. But one must always strive to pretend otherwise. It was the British way of doing things. And bloody hell, she wasn't going to give it up just now. She couldn't lose face in front of her butler. Not yet.
<Teruzi|Piper> She stares at her butler-turned-archer. "Not that! Parasol." She calls out, reaching out her hand.
<Teruzi|Piper> "Then get me a bird. And then we leave." She orders. Giving orders was a second, or perhaps first, nature to her. It didn't make her feel any better. But it made her -move-.
<Teruzi|Piper> She would think herself clever, had she not gotten herself into this mess by being fussy about a candle. As lovely as it was.
<Teruzi|Piper> While her butler-turned-archer gives her the parasol, she uses the hidden edge on her necklace to draw blood. She has done so many times in the past. It has always costed her.
<Teruzi|Piper> A quick smear on the underside of it, before she throws the parasol up in the sky. She then begins her retreat. Running away, yes. But in a moment.
<Teruzi|Piper> Poor parasol, it had served well.
<Teruzi|Piper> But now, a tactical retreat.||
<TWDuke|GM> ...
<TWDuke|GM> Reynard instantly complies, frankly thankful to put away the quaking bow and stop embarrassing himself. It passes behind his back, from whence emerges the lovely parasol. He hurls it, javelin-style, and it finds Piper's hands. From there, he spins once again and bounces away across the clearing, plunging into the bush. He's devilishly quick.
<TWDuke|GM> The clouds overhead continue to spread, and darken. ||
<TWDuke|GM> ((Svend, you're up. You're confronted with one (1) retreating Piper and one (1) blood-smeared parasol))
<Shade|Svend> Svend gestured again with the orb, this time aiming at the parasol. It could just be shelter, or it could be something that would attempt to bind him or his elementals down. Either way, it couldn't be allowed to execute. ||
<TWDuke|GM> ...
<TWDuke|GM> A flurry of golfball-sized chunks of ice are flung directly from the orb with vicious speed. They perforate the delicate fabric of the umbrella, reducing it to tatters and wire. It plummets to the ground anticlimactically.
<TWDuke|GM> Piper feels the temperature continuing to drop. Whatever's about to happen is going to happen soon - and she's not quite out of the area yet. In fact, by the looks of things, she'll need to get all the way down the hillside, onto the dusty track away from the house, before she's free of the brewing storm.
<TWDuke|GM> She feels the connection between her and Reynard continue to extend - he's yet to catch his prize. ||
<Teruzi|Piper> All is well and all manner of thing shall be well. It was an idiom that one of her tutors was fond of. He had died horribly.
<Teruzi|Piper> She would prefer not to follow on his footsteps. No wells in sight, at least. She begins to say something, but then the parasol is brought down with extreme prejudice. She snorts for the second time. Men!
<Teruzi|Piper> Another idiom she had heard before: 'When all you have is a hammer.'
<Teruzi|Piper> She could still feel the connection between the tattered remains of the parasol and herself. It hadn't drained her much more than expected. Reynard was still doing whatever it was he did. Most likely shiver from the loud noises.
<Teruzi|Piper> Almost as if she was plucking the air, she grabbed strands that only she could currently see. Hundreds, perhaps thousands.
<Teruzi|Piper> They pulsed with the visceral horror of the birds fleeing. She twisted them, while making more distance. Svend was powerful indeed.||
<TWDuke|GM> ((Svend, you see her gesturing with her hands. What do?))
<Shade|Svend> He didn't really know what she was doing, but blasting things until they stopped doing something usually worked.
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<Shade|Svend> Svend reflected that his practice was not a subtle one as he blasted Piper with Bite of Winter. ||
<Shade|Svend> -||
<Shade|Svend> ((Actually rescind that last post.))
<Shade|Svend> "Bite of Winter, I give you your form, come forth, wreak your cruel destruction."
<Shade|Svend> With that, Svend turned and went inside, both to hopefully defend against whatever Piper was doing, and to get something a little more useful then the Cacophonous Bell. ||
<TWDuke|GM> ...
<TWDuke|GM> With a twanging resonance down the connection, Reynard reports that he has done as you asked. Drawing strength from your shared bond, he leaps from between the trees much more quickly than the intervening space should normally allow.
<TWDuke|GM> Clamped between his jaws is a bird. At first, from the shocking red colour, you think he might have killed it and ruined the plan. However, as he approaches you see it still twitching its little feet and realise that it's simply an intensely coloured parrot of some kind. You're not familiar enough with local wildlife to identify the Rosella, but it will serve your purposes.
<TWDuke|GM> At the mouth of the street, the two of you are just past the area of fog darkened by the clouds looming above. You turn to see the spirit manifesting where Svend had been standing.