One battle down! WE ARE WITNESSED! [3/17-3/21]

Jude practically skipped into the room, covered in blood. Miraculously, very little was her own! Matches had nested on the top of her head in defiance of not being allowed to fight in this one....eventhough he was perfectly capable of such.

"We kind of obliterated them." She giggled. "I mean, my boyfriend turned into a Katamari Doomacy and Cinnamon was a death tornado!" She wiped at her face, smearing more muck.

"Matches even took out a straggler. We did so great tonight." She looked practically pleased.

"Has anyone else come back? Any news on how other things are going?" She adjusted her clothes, still spreading the gross on her. "I also want a shower." Her eyes shifted to Cass. "You need one too. Wanna conserve water?" She winked at him.

Jude watched as Cassidy moved towards her. It was supposed to be a fun and flirty comment. Instead she had asked exactly the right thing and Cass was prowling towards her. She let out a soft yelp as she was lifted and kissed. She clung to the Canadian and laughed as they separated for air. She laughed and kissed him again, just a quick little peck on his cheek.

"I am sure we will get points for trying." she waggled her eyebrows playfully.

The mage yelped again and laughed as she was tossed over his shoulder. Disgruntled, Matches flew from his perch and swooped around before perching on Ysolda, only giving a small burst of fire at having to move. She waved to the group, "I will get answers when we get back!"

        Solomon's Manor is largely empty, as far as you can tell when you arrive. You're fairly certain the house is some kind of alive though; you can hear the front doors unlock themselves as you approach, and when you start to look for Helena, the library doors open of their own accord. Helena waves you all over to the table she's commandeered. "Yeah, I'll be happy to help in second. I've got something I want to show you first."

    "Of course you do, love," Tycho chuckles. "I don't know why I expected anything else." Husband and wife share a kiss, giving Ysolda a moment to wipe her face clean of blood so she can kiss her lover in turn.

    "Well I got a new library to look through." Helena has gathered a selection of tomes around her and is taking copious notes. "Solomon gave me full access."

    Tycho grumbles. "I don't trust him."

    Ysolda snickers. "You don't trust anybody, Tycho. You're worse than me."

    Tycho holds up a solitary finger. "It has kept us alive. Tell me it hasn't."

    "I concede the point, sweetie, and I'm not saying you should just forget about California," Helena shrugs, "But that was like twenty years ago. He has undergone some drastic changes."

    "Yeah, I caught that he's an Avatar now. True King?" Tycho asks.

    Helena nods. "Means he has to care."

    "About his city, right? Not anything - or anyone - else." Ysolda chimes in.

    "Alright, yes, true, but my point stands. He wasn't indiscriminately violent before when he didn't have symbolic restrictions on his actions. Sure, he may not care for supernatural lives, but he's not going to let sleepers get slaughtered for kicks." Helena is quite insistent, almost overly so on this point...

    ...and Tycho notices. His eyes narrow. "Then why the concern?" He looks around the library. "This isn't your usual flurry of research. You were looking for something specific. Did you find it?"

    Helena sighs. "Yes, I found it." She shoots Crux a sympathetic glance. "You might not like this, hun." Turning back to Tycho, she elaborates. "You were here when the supernaturals of the city found themselves unable to leave."

    Tycho nods. "Not for lack of trying."

    "Our initial theory on the phenomenon tentatively identified it as an effect of the Tesserract's presence, along with the planar intrusion from the Hedge, the confluence of various determinism threads, and probably a half-dozen lesser manifestations. But I don't think it was. Look at this." Helena reaches for a particular book in the stacks on the table she occupies - the spine bears a title in Latin and an icon, a medieval tower with a battlement atop it and an eye emblazoned on the side-  and starts leafing through it.  "This in an accounting of a mostly defunct vampiric cabal called the Architects of the Monolith. Some French Tremere Embraced a Freemason, got into sacred geometry, not important. The important thing is this." She finds the page she was looking for and turns it to face the party; it's covered in arcane glyphs and formulae. "This is a set of thaumaturgical rituals collectively called the Gilded Cage; of particular interest is an entry called 'Lock the Gilded Cage'. I'll give you three guesses to figure out what it does but you'll only need one."

    Tycho's expression darkens. Ysolda's not looking much better. "He did it," she says. "He trapped everyone in the city."

    "It's not dispositive," Helena concedes. "The ritual as described can only restrict the movement of a single target individual, but if he found a way to amplify the effect..." She shrugs.

    "But why?" Ysolda asks. "He has to act in the best interests of the city; arguably, doing this would be taboo. Since the city had invaders within its limits at the time, rendering them unable to leave would have made it MORE difficult to protect the city"

    "Arguably, yes," Helena nods in agreement. "Unless he is pursuing a plan in which the city will be better off in the long run despite being endangered in the short term. It's not taboo unless his gambit fails. I haven't yet worked out what that could be."

    "But you have a theory." Tycho ventures to guess. "I know you, love. You always have a theory."

    "Well... yes." Helena seems reluctant to admit that her theory is even possible. "He may be attempting a symbolic act large enough to achieve God-Walker ascension."

    Ysolda looks incredulous, shaking her head. "That's a myth. Has been since Siddhartha."

    "Maybe..." Helena shrugs. "Maybe not."

        "As I said before, I really don't have enough information yet." Helena is quite irritated about that too. "This could be a good thing, in theory."

    "Good thing?" Tycho growls. "We've been here before. It's the Ascension War all over again, men trying to become gods..."

    "Except this time it's not the Hermetic Order trying to jump-start artificial divinity." Arms folded across her chest, Helena shuts Tycho down. "It's not Icarus flying to close to the sun."

    "... the sin of the will-worker is pride." Ysolda adds in a contemplative tone.

    For whatever reason, that phrase gives Tycho pause. "... all right. All right. If this is real - and that is a big if," He looks to Helena, who nods in concession of the point, "Then it's as natural as the pursuit of godhood gets. So the question of whether to protect the King in his stratagem comes down to whether we trust his motives."

    Ysolda is visibly reluctant to do so. "The idea of trusting a mad vampire with aspirations of godhood is just so confidence inspiring."

    Brow furrowed, Tycho paces around the room. "Yes, all of Malkav's Childer are insane, but... we don't know the nature of Solomon's affliction. I've been in his head. It's... subtle, whatever it is. This persona of his is an affectation, but how much of it... I can't be sure." He turns his attention to Crux. "Well, he's one of yours, and your clan's capacity for insight is well known... any ideas?"

Karen-Crux clicked her tongue in thought.
"We can dream to find out. Should we stop sleeping with him in the meantime?"
The lithe figure shrugged and clicked her tongue again. It was decidedly ottery.
"The group has become a great asset to cleaning up his messes, so we may be fine either way. As long as we look after ourselves, his goals might serve us. She's trying to get out, thinks she bumped her head. Give her directions and I can back it up," she concluded, laying on the floor and twisting her body slightly.
"Anyways, nice chatting with you."

Karen-Crux closed her eyes and that was it, as Jude entered, our usual bubbly vampire stirred, holding her heavily hairsprayed head.

"Eeep I fell again, uggh, so dizzy.."

Jude had left the shower a bit ago. Cassidy had elected to stay behind for a bit. THe hot water was soothing. He needed to unwind. Although there was a bit of that going on before Jude left. Mostly he needed some time to think. It had been a long month. He enjoyed every second, but he'd be lying if he didn't miss it being calm. Just being a food vendor to vampires. How would things be after the war? Would he just go back to that? Would everyone stay? Him and Jude were together, and he was sure that wouldn't change. What about Crux? Would they still be friends? Cin, Al, Vic, Gloria?

...

Nah it would be fine.

He turned off the water and began to towel off. It was nice to be clean. He grabbed his cloths off the sink and shook them out.

CLINK

What was that? Cassidy looked on the floor to find that skull necklace from the train. He had almost forgotten about it. He really needed to learn more about it. Maybe Helena or one of the other Sin Eaters knew. I He could go ask the mage as soon as he got dressed. Might as well try that. He put the necklace on and his least bloody pants, and walked out. He could grab a shirt later. Like, when he could remember where he had a not bloody or ripped shirt. God he bled a lot... Also he needed to get that fruit to that guy who healed him in the twilight. Also he needed to find out how to get a brick and mortarplace. Also a slurpee. He REALLY wanted a cherry slurpee. 

He walked out into the hallway and like always forgot to look before opening his mouth. He hold up the necklace.

"Hey Helena have you ever seen anything like... This?"

He immediately realized he walked into a fairly heavy conversation.

"Uh... I missed something didn't I, eh?"

"Sssoooo... eh, karen said you guys need my help?"
She allowed herself to be gently lifted by Al, and kissed his cheek in thanks.
"She said I might have to stop sexing Solomon? I don't waaaaannnnaaaaaa," Crux whined. It was a half hearted protest, genuinely, but she was kind of out of sorts.
She rubbed her head again.
"Finding out his dementation? Is that it? Or if we should foil his, wh, potentially dastardly plan? I want to help but I also want a nap..."