•Firlz|GM

You got called over to one of the houses, Cass's orders. You think he's gonna start talking about what to do in terms of your marriage prospects again. That's pretty much what life is around here for the unpowered. Finding out who's knocking up who, who's getting engaged, and religious service.

As you make it to the house Gressil walks up to you and gets close. He's arguably the ringleader of the harassment you've had, but he's family, and somewhere you know that it isn't all bad. Nothing he's done has caused permanent damage, even if it gets physical sometimes.

•Firlz|GM

It's been scarier than usual lately though, ever since he got back from that trip to help out one of the other families he's taken to finding ways to try and use his powers to mess with you. Given that his power is to create flames... You hope he doesn't take things too far on accident.

•Chlorine|Boone

'Are you part of this meeting? Do you know what it's about?' Knowing Gressil had already powered, it was a little strange that we'd be going to the same meeting, but maybe he's being groomed for leadership.

•Firlz|GM

He smiles brightly and calls out "Boone! Just who I was lookin' for." as he approaches he sidles up alongside you and moves to drape his arm around your shoulder, almost like a half-hug kind of motion.>>

•Chlorine|Boone

'I'm on my way to see Cassiel and Caspiel. This will have to wait. I'll see you afterwards.' I duck under his arm and walk forward.

•Firlz|GM

"No worries, we're headed the same way right now." He walks alongside you as you get inside.

Once you get in you don't see anyone else, and you don't actually hear anyone, which is fairly unusual if there was a meeting going on. You notice Gressil making a motion with his hand out of the corner of your eye. "Upstairs buddy." his hand is held out such that it's balled in a fist with his thumb sticking out pointing up the staircase.

•Chlorine|Boone

Starting to suspect this is a trap, I try to keep one eye on Gressil and one eye at the top of the stairs as I ascend. This wouldn't be the first time Gressil and Phobos have isolated me, and it never ends well.

•Firlz|GM

You make it to the top without anything happening, in fact Gressil seems like he's making it a point of walking slightly ahead where you can see him at all times. While normally that would be reassuring since it would make it harder for him to surprise you, this whole situation rubs you the wrong way.

He stands in front of the master bedroom and gestures inside before putting his hands up behind his head "Lookin' mighty twitchy there, 'cuz. You can take a look for yourself, on the strait 'n narrow here." He gestures at the room. It seems unlikely that the twins would let him do something strange, but the way he says it makes you think maybe he's


trying to psyche you out and there really IS something you should check for.


It wouldn't be the first time Gressil gave out hints just to torment you with them when you couldn't figure it out before whatever he had planned.

•Chlorine|Boone

I try to relax outwardly while still trying to keep as many doors as possible in sight, and pick up the pace. I'm pretty sure this is one of at least Gressil's games and I just want to get it over with. It's frustrating that he was granted powers before I was.

•Firlz|GM

OOC: so are you checking the room or just heading in while watching Gressil and leaving your back to the rest of the room?

OOC: he was gesturing to inside the master bedroom

•Chlorine|Boone

OOC: i thought it was the entrance

I try to look relaxed as I inspect any likely hiding places in the room.

•Firlz|GM

OOC: you went up the stairs and he is standing outside the master bedroom gesturing for you to go in

•Chlorine|Boone

OOC: do I roll wits?

•Firlz|GM

OOC: Roll investigate- Wits if you don't have the skill

•Chlorine|Boone

$roll 1d6 wits

•[ATM]

Chlorine|Boone "wits" [5] = 5

•Firlz|GM

You get a good view of the room walking in and manage to be pretty efficient in checking the closet and behind anything he might be concealing stuff in. You don't find anything, so it's likely he was just messing with you. ((roll reflex))

OOC: wits+dex if you don't have the skill


OOC: actually just reflex wits is enough

•Chlorine|Boone

$roll 1d6 wits

•[ATM]

Chlorine|Boone "wits" [1] = 1

•Firlz|GM

OOC: roll guts

•Chlorine|Boone

$roll 1d6 guts

•[ATM]

Chlorine|Boone "guts" [5] = 5

•Firlz|GM

$roll 1d6

•[ATM]

Firlz|GM [3] = 3

•Firlz|GM

You feel sudden heat all over as you hear the door slam shut. It doesn't actually hurt that bad but it is surprising all the same.

More immediately worrying is that you can hear and smell the flames sprout up around you. That fucker just locked you in Cass's room and lit you on fire!

•Chlorine|Boone

I drop down and roll on the floor in the hopes of putting the fire out while trying to remember anything I can about his power.

He can cause hallucinations of fire, but they still burned? They can be put out, but there's a trick to it? I try to lash out and kick him in the shin.

•Chlorine|Boone

OOC: is rolling helping the fire at all

•Firlz|GM

OOC: Roll wits

•Chlorine|Boone

$roll 1d6

•[ATM]

Chlorine|Boone [2] = 2

•Firlz|GM

You're not sure if it was the ad-hoc attempt or something else, but the flames don't seem to die down from your rolling on the ground. In fact they seem to be spreading if anything ((guts))

•Chlorine|Boone

$roll 1d6 guts

•[ATM]

Chlorine|Boone "guts" [4] = 4

•Firlz|GM

It's still hot, like touching scalding water in boil, but aside from the pain and heat it doesn't seem to have gotten too bad yet. But you can see that there's smoke coming in from under the door, and you can definitely hear something that could be a bigger fire dampened by the door. Dealing with his power might not be your biggest problem if he ac

tually set the whole damn place on fire. Is he out of his mind?


As if to respond to your question you can hear him talking loudly from the hallway

•Firlz|GM

"We're all gettin' a little sick of waiting. You either get your shit together and join us, or you end up dead. Either way we get to find out if Murmur had it in her to expand the family or if she couldn't even have a kid with powers."

•Chlorine|Boone

I groaned inwardly. It was well known that you couldn't force trigger events, or I'd have locked myself in a burning shed already. I force myself to ignore the sensations of my body to figure out which window would be the best to try to get out through.

I'm having a hard time seeing but I run full bore at where I think a window will be. Breaking a leg is better than dying in here.

•Firlz|GM

OOC: ||?

•Firlz|GM

As you get up off the floor from your rolling you notice that the smoke is filling room surprisingly quickly. You manage to spot the window as you get ready to stand up but find yourself dizzy as soon as you get to your feet with the room starting to spin around you in a nauseating fashion.

•Chlorine|Boone

I crawl towards the nearest window and push upwards on it. Maybe I can still get out that way even if I'm not up to ramming it.

•Firlz|GM

OOC: Roll guts

•Chlorine|Boone

$roll 1d6 guts

•[ATM]

Chlorine|Boone "guts" [6] = 6

•Firlz|GM

You make it to the window but simply pushing doesn't seem to open it. Must be a latch lock or something.

•Chlorine|Boone

My only hope now is convincing Gressil, which hasn't generally worked. I crawl back over to the door. 'Gressil! You can't force a trigger! You're going to kill me for no reason!'

•Firlz|GM

OOC: sorry, need a minute, dinner just got in be like 5-10 mins

•Firlz|GM

It might be the loudness of the crackling fires you hear, or it could just be that Gressil simply left you here alone. Whatever the reason you don't even hear a response.

As far as you can tell you're alone in here, in Cass's room. Which actually seems to have caught fire inside now that you look.

•Firlz|GM

Watching the flames in the room as the whole area darkens under the cloud of smoke somehow dulls the pain and burning. Or it could be you skipped right past the pain into shock which makes everything numb.

•Firlz|GM

Your breathing hitches and increases and the dizziness picks up in intensity. Added to the darkness your whole existence has devolved to little more than discomfort and loneliness. If you don't make a break for it now it's likely you won't be able to make a move shortly. It is getting harder to even concentrate on your surroundings by the second.

•Chlorine|Boone

I lay back and hammer on the door near the knob with my feet, my best guess at being able to escape. I turn my head to the side and breathe through my nose to try to put off the effects of the smoke

•Firlz|GM

OOC: brawn

•Chlorine|Boone

$roll 1d6 brawn

•[ATM]

Chlorine|Boone "brawn" [3] = 3

•Firlz|GM

You manage to connect but it doesn't seem to do much. The handle rattles but the door barely budges. It probably wouldn't have worked anyway, you realize. Despite being in such a grave situation you can remember your mother explaining that many of the doors had deadbolts on the outside to help prevent any new wives or husbands kidnapped from elsewh

ere from escaping the room on the wedding knight.


Even with their powers, it is not uncommon for captured wives to resist the greater calling and duty of the Lord until after hearing their first child.


OOC: Bearing*


It seems strange to you that someone who is blessed with powers would reject their status as the ones who would be left behind after the cleansing.

•Chlorine|Boone

I try to belly crawl towards the bed. Maybe I can use a sheet to breathe through, and there might be a gun or a knife hidden inside or nearby that could be used on the windows.

II

•Firlz|GM

It's difficult to get your bearings, between the difficulty seeing through the smoke, the random flashes of light from the fire causing night-blindness because of the rapid changes from dark to light, and the dizziness which makes even coordination hard you are honestly surprised that you manage to grab something that might be the edge of the bed.

But it isn't enough. As you reach to try and pull off the blankets you breathe too hard and enter a coughing fit. Inhaling while coughing catches a new lungful of smoke and the process continues anew.


You find yourself unable to break the cycle of forcing smoke out of your lungs, only to choke when you reflexively inhale afterwards.


In retrospect the burning wasn't so bad. It hurt, but it was the pain of life, that you might get out.


This felt like almost the opposite. Like life was being dredged out of you one breath at a time as your chest heaved and convulsed.


Not even a half-dozen repetitions into the process and you can't even process by sight anymore, it isn't the dizziness so much as the violent diaphragm movements that cause your sight to black out.

•Firlz|GM

It's hard to think at this point, every violent motion stealing just a bit more volition from your mind as you become nothing more than a physical thing that reacts instead of a thinking person.

in that space between pain and motion you lose whatever possibility of thought and escape that you might have harbored.


Your family was nowhere near to help, it was one of them who DID this to you in the first place.


your last thought as consciousness leaves you is that it was apparently all useless. You were the victim of forces outside your control and even your struggles were ultimately futile and meaningless.


Your eyes abruptly open and you don't hear the fire, just a dull reverberating sound permeating everything around you.


You're lying on the ground with your arm next to the bed, your chest aches terribly like you'd run for hours on end without stop.


You can SEE the smoke pushed back in fits and starts, when you focus on the sound you notice that the crescendos of the sound happen when larger bits of the smoke are pushed away.


-||


you also notice that the sound seems to peak and troughs with your heartbeat and breathing.

•Chlorine|Boone

I don't want to trick myself into thinking I just triggered, but there's nothing else to do. I use up what feels like the last of my breath and bellow at the smoke, hoping I can somehow get it away from me using sound.

•Firlz|GM

The force of whatever is dispersing the smoke gets a big kick, and in the direction you're facing you notice that the fire in the part of the room where the smoke is dispersed simply vanishes altogether. In the patch of the room that becomes imminently visible you can't even see scorchmarks.

•Chlorine|Boone

I take some deep breaths to try to recover. This is it! This is when I can be a true member of the family! I try to see if I can produce the effect on another section of smoke by willing it silently.

•Firlz|GM

You can distinctly /feel/... Something? You're not sure, but whatever it is it doesn't seem to respond like you wanted. Simply willing it in your mind doesn't appear to be enough, or at least not enough to do what you wanted.

Still you DO notice that the sound seems to pick up directly around you as you focus on it.

•Chlorine|Boone

I can learn more about how this works later. I shout at the door, trying to blast it open with my power, "Gressil! It worked!"

•Firlz|GM

It isn't so much the thought that makes you feel it working, but the excitement that seems to feed it. Still it seems to more or less obey and you can hear a doppler effect as the sound moves away from you in the direction of the door, blowing away the smoke in its path before it simply passes right through the door as thought it were no obstacle.|

|

•Chlorine|Boone

I try to listen to the sound around me as I focus on different areas of the room.

(er, I redid that too many times)

•Firlz|GM

OOC: it's fine

•Chlorine|Boone

I try to listen carefully to the sound as I focus on the window I initially tried to open, then try seeing if I can hit it with a whisper "open"

•Firlz|GM

As you concentrate but before you try to push it outward you notice that it isn't just 'noise' like you first thought, it has a bit of rumble to it and you can't quite place it. But after a moment of thought all you can think is that is sounds like...

•Firlz|GM

human suffering? Like someone in pain but who doesn't have the energy to actually shout out at the world.

•Firlz|GM

You somehow manage to focus on the feeling and instinctually you find your self throwing your hand in the direction you want it to go. With the sound of a small girl screeching in horror it ripples through the window. There is a dull thudding sound from right near the window and the glass seems to just crack and shatter, but not exploding.

•Chlorine|Boone

I let myself hear the suffering again, trying to see if I can build up destructive power or see if there are moments when it feels louder or softer.

•Firlz|GM

You spend a few moments concentrating but just as you feel yourself about to notice a pattern you hear the sound of the door unlocking.

You can see the smoke visibly recede on its own as the door opens and standing there are the Twins and Dagon.


Cass immediately sees the window and looks annoyed, but before he can even say anything Dagon comes over and checks on you. He has a kind smile as he asks "You mind turning down that racket? Hard on the ears."

•Chlorine|Boone

'You can hear it too?' I try to will it to be quieter.

•Firlz|GM

You recall the pulses from when you first noticed it and close your eyes and slow your breathing. You're pretty confident you aren't fast about it but nobody interrupts as you calm yourself down. At some point you are actually calm again and you realize you don't hear the sound at all anymore.

Despite the sound going away nobody seems to want to interrupt you while you're concentrating, probably waiting for you to tell you that you've got it under wraps.


(you to tell them*)

•Chlorine|Boone

'I think I've got it under control. Was this your idea? I thought triggers never happened if you were trying!' I look at Dagon.

•Firlz|GM

He looks at you smile off his face "Were you trying? Or did you actually think you were going to die." he doesn't add anything else, just lets that hang there for you to think about the experience.

•Chlorine|Boone

'I knew I was going to die. I would have died. The Lord must have made an exception to select me.' I turned to Cass. 'I'm sorry I broke your window. I thought that Gressil had left me here and I needed to find a way to escape.'

•Firlz|GM

Dagon nods at that "It is not an easy lesson to learn, but The Lord has no pity for those who will rely on him to save them. For all his Gifted we obtain our powers only once we have given up and truly in our heart of hearts put ourselves on his mercy. The reason you cannot trigger when you are trying is because the Lord will sense your half-heart

and will not bless you for that false surrender. To join in his kingdom you must not harbor false idols, not even Hope."

•Chlorine|Boone

I nod. 'Thank you, uncle. My Gift seems to still have features I don't yet understand. Does the family need me now? I'd like to investigate.'

•Chlorine|Boone

OOC: hey I gotta go to bed, pause?

•Firlz|GM

"No, you were called today in the hope that you might finally awaken your gift. You should thank Rosie, she was the one who convinced her brother to attempt this. Without her thoughts for you and the family we wouldn't have even thought up the plan used today. If kept secret from the un-gifted it may be possible to find ways to accelerate the ascendency of the future children using your case as the guiding example in the family. It is likely we will ask many questions about the experience to see what it was that allowed you to relinquish yourself to the Lord and find acceptance. For now, explore your gift and rest." ||