IC: Reclaiming the Void Options

[JxJxA]

Hearing his friend's voice, Uetz switches back to his native tongue.

"Hello, my friend. It is good to hear your voice. I wish I was calling under better circumstances, but I suppose you get used to hearing bad news given your line of work. Someone or something got the jump on me and my friends at my home. They called themselves members of 'The Smoking Mirror,' and ensorcelled Etain and Rene into attacking us along with the help of a powerful fire spirit. At first I thought that the attack was due to some crazy witchcraft stuff that my fellow runners stumbled into, but it looks like the hit was put out for me personally. I'm wondering if they're related to the Chimalli or some other blood cult that our faith offends, but I really haven't had a chance to think about it.

"Uh, sorry, I'm rambling. Basically, I've got a badly hurt dryad and a slightly less injured troll crashing in our place. We did what we could to treat their wounds, but I'm willing to bet that someone else is going to crash into our pad and I'd rather not have the wounded in the way. Is there any chance you could take them in while they rest up? I'm short on cash thanks to paying future rent early, but I can pay once I get the nuyen. The legwork guys are rustling up some work leads and I should have some credits in hand soon."

[Redjack]

The university offers still occupying some of his time as he goes over the mountain of legal disclaimers they sure are seeking, Papa also devotes a chunk of time to more the relevant matters of The Smoking Mirrors and the woman who enthralled and enspelled the duo left to care for the house. He slips his consciousness into matrix and begins searching the various shadow sites, data stores, public information nodes and conspiracy sites.

Once he returns with whatever information is available, he accesses his knew found mystical matrix of information for the same...

[BishopMcQ]

Uetz
“My friend, you have very bad enemies it appears. None would invoke that name, without it being them. These are the ones who give machine guns to the Angels, and are rumored to funnel the power of the sacrifices at Chichén Itzá."

He takes a deep sigh, the age and tenure of your friendship clearly weighing upon his face. He switches back to English, and lowers his voice to a coarse whisper.

“If these people are still after them, and you, I cannot have them here. Take them to the safest place you know and can afford. I will come and visit them, and give you what help I can. After that, I recommend you vanish. Hide deep within the lacunas until they stop searching for you or you find another place that they have no power.”

Papa Smurf
You tap several regular sources of matrix feeds and data drops, letting the program do most of the work of sorting out the chaff as you fine tune your search. There are no valid mentions of the Smoking Mirror on any of the public sources you have access to. Delving into shadow sources, you find some a few mentions in a conspiracy theories post. The post talks about a man wandering lost in the Mojave desert who had ripped out his eyes and deafened himself. When he was calmed down and questioned, he refused to give a name or SIN. He admitted to self-mutilation so that the shadows couldn’t see or hear through him any longer. He died within minutes of uttering those words.

In his belongings was a dried animal hide, written in the man’s own blood. It told an ancient story of Tezcatlipoca, using a smoke filled mirror of obsidian to confuse and drive away his brother, Quetzalcoatl. From that day, Tezcatlipoca ruled over all of the people. He deceived all that believed in Quetzalcoatl into worshipping him instead. From atop the great pyramids, he shone the obsidian mirror down onto the worshippers. Forever after, until the ending of the sun, any who spoke Quetzalcoatl’s name or called upon the nahuatl, would give Tezcatlipoca strength.

Other posters in the forum supplied pictures of an office supposedly #5B78 in the great pyramid of Tenochtitlan. The man standing behind the desk is distorted in the image, but a long white feather rests in his hands. He’s identified as the leader of the Smoking Mirror, Tezcatlipoca made flesh.

Beyond that, the conspiracies begin to run rampant. The Smoking Mirror is tied to everything from the reason that Aztlan invaded Amazonia, to sacrificing a winged serpent on top of the pyramids, to arming gangs across the PCC with military hardware. Sensing that the well is starting to dry up, on real information, you switch over to the facial recognition.

Starting with the PITO feeds that you have already subscribed to, and ear marked for later viewing, the browse program begins sorting hash tags. Hundreds of sensual and creepy women throughout the metroplex run across your vision. The recognition program cranks into overdrive as it tries to match the features from the woman at the party to other feeds. Nothing comes up. No one, outside of your own recordings, has seen the Hispanic woman.

While the recognition program keeps checking, you reach out to the dark passenger in your mind. You feel faint whispers of wind stretching out across the Matrix. The voice is more of a luxurious purr as it wafts through your synapses.

The Smoking Mirror is quite real. Tezcatlipoca used the strength granted him and cunning he was born with to banish his brother out of the mortal lands. Their sacrifice of the winged serpent was to reinforce the banishment. Sympathetic magic can be powerful. We have long heard that they were the gloved hand which pulled strings. They are insidious, drawing out a single thread to unweave the tapestry, rather than burning it quickly.

She is the agent of the Endless, as you know. A being of unspeakable age, sent to your lands to gather up their remnants before any other power can lay claim to them. She came across the looking glass, through the dreams of a boy. The fox knows of what I speak.

Elsewhere
The hunter could smell their fear, their hatred. The mortals of this place raged against shadows, not seeing the truth in their own eyes. A woman tended to children, their parents’ wealth having a higher value than time with their own flesh and blood. He looked over the mewling infants, silently choosing one. The hand of fate weighed heavily upon it, the child would grow to be powerful—that is if it stayed.

With the child firm in mind, the hunter departed. He passed the gateway, untroubled by the threshold. Passage into the mortal realms holds sway with many of the shadowy creatures. The creatures of mischief and darkness, which feed upon torment and suffering. The hunter secures one which will bear the face of a child until the rising sun, one which will feast upon the grief and anguish of a lost child and drive mortals to madness. There will be a price to pay for the hunter, but it is worth it.

Returning to the nursery, with the imp, the hunter called upon his pack. Dogs bore the woman to the ground, her mind unhinged by the illusion. He lifted the child, the one who would stand upon the bridge and turn the tide. The imp thrust its scaly fingers into the infant’s flesh, making it scream out in torment. Seconds later, a spark rose out of the infant’s throat and was swallowed by the imp. The imp wailed in the child’s voice, its scabrous hide replaced by the vision of soft flesh and baby fat.

The infant looked at the hunter with calm, piercing blue eyes. The touch of ancient darkness had left awareness in the child years earlier than nature intended. The hunter smiled, knowing the infant’s value had risen in the trading. He called off the hounds, vanishing behind more illusions and the pack carried the infant before him.
The nurse awoke from her walking nightmare, to tend to the wailing voice of a child.

Across great distances, the hounds coursed. The weight of the infant was negligible amongst the pack. The hunter offered the child to a wizened hag, a host gift for welcoming him into her demesne. With awareness beyond its age, the infant swelled with terror. The hag smiled, drinking in the emotion, a fine bouquet to well-aged bottle of wine.
When she was ready, the hag extended her gaping maw. The mouth grew impossibly wide, stretching past her waist. She ate the infant in a single bite, its mewling screams, adding pain to terror, echoed in her maw as she chewed.

The hunter smiled now, knowing his hour was at hand. The gift had been accepted.

[JxJxA]

Uetz nods, acknowledging his friend's words.

"I understand and I appreciate your advice, my friend. I'll let you know if and when I do find a safer place. However, if I can't move them, then I won't ask you to come here. If they are chasing me, then there is no reason to for me to lead them to you. Thank you, and may the Feathered Serpent protect you."

Uetz ends the call, burying his head in his hands as the gravity of the situation sinks in. Not only am I entangled in some otherworldly creature's quest, but now the enemies of my god have found me.

You are not alone, Brother.

Quauhtli's voice pulls him out of his freefall into depression.

If they come again, we will fight them together. However, now is the time to sleep. If the path towards Tlalocan is truly ours to walk, then let us walk it well-rested.

As she talks, an overwhelming desire to sleep washes over Uetz's mind. He slumps back against the wall and closes his eyes. The torrent of worries and concerns rushing through his head slows down to a crawl, and soon he slips into unconsciousness.

[BishopMcQ]

Argent

"Let's just say it's one of the perks of being me, and signing a certain young singer into a ten-year contract. Now, for the books, I can swing a walkthrough for you. I'll need the SINs for any guests you want to bring through, so I can register them in our database. Will the day after next work for you, say just before noon?"

Naiomi runs her hands across the air in front of her as she speaks to you, obviously interacting with glyphs and AROs invisible across the camera.

[Buddha72]

Troll Market
The air was filled with vapors and heavy fumes, every surface seems to have a layer of residue like a second skin on it. D'zan hovered carefully, taking care no to touch anything to his actual skin as he struggled to make out the hag through the haze and clouds of steam and whatever else cooked slowly over the pots and burners scattered in the space.

"Interesting business you have here. I haven't smelled things this..........interesting ever and trust me I have been to some questionably places. I was stopping by to see what you might have brewed up I could add to my arrows here. I was looking for something to bring down bigger things than me which is just about everything. I would like a lethal option and something that drops them but leaves them breathing. Can you help me out Meg?"

[Fenris]

"Beautiful and competent, always an amazing combination. That would be perfect. And look, I'll owe you one for this. Something comes up you think we can help out with, you let me know."

He turned back to the team after the call, a broad grin on his face. "Alright, so that's the hard part. Who's interested in checking out a casino? Unless you've got some mojo that makes you a better people person, Uetz, I think everyone that's coming is better of sticking with me. I'm betting getting a little time to look around is going to be easier during the day than at night, so we should go now."

[Redjack]

The cartoonish white beagle flies through the matrix, jumping from node to node sniffing for something. It visits countless nodes, some public and others allowing access only after the gatekeeper checks the dog's tags. Each without findings a solid trail to follow. It finds numerous rabbit holes, to which it digs at each one for a fraction of a second, dirt flying from its paws into the air and then across the matrix till it lands in a pile; A pile compromised of bits of dirt from dozens of nodes and growing. At the pile a cartoon gnome inspects each grain of dirt, throwing the vast majority into the air where they fly off in the breeze. A very few grains get tossed into a pot where a little plant is beginning to grow. Papa pulls the little plant from the pot and eats it, symbolic of pulling the data into his consciousness. In the Virtual World, the little blue, bearded man frowns and adjusts his large floppy hat. "Not what I had hoped for."

The hacker sits up, back in his meet body, leaving the program running. He closes his eyes again, this time tapping into the other worldly knowledge. Opening his eyes again, he didn't really understand the implications of the knowledge he had gained, nor fully appreciate the subtle differences in metaphor versus literal expression, but he at least had something to contribute.

He assembled a small report including not only the story of the man in the desert, but a paragraph on the various rumors before writing a third section about the Smoking Mirror and Tezcatlipoca. He sent Fenris the report and then went looking for his other, digitally-challenged team-mates. "Guys... I think you should see this."

[BishopMcQ]

D'zan

Licking her lips and finishing the gift you brought, Knucklebones nods. She cackles quietly to herself as she moves behind tables and jars.

"Yes, precious, yes. We have plenty of choices. Show us, show the barter."

As she walks, you see thousands of vials and bottles around the shop. Larger jars hold creatures floating in dark fluids. The hag stops in front on a cage with a small young fey-creature behind the bars. The fey's skin has thousands of tiny scars from knife cuts. It recoils back from Meg, and sneers with rows of needle-like teeth.

Papa

As you walk through the house, you find Uetz napping quietly. D'zan is missing from the home.

[Redjack]

"What the- Where is everyone?" he says quietly, leaving Uetz to rest. He checks TeamNet for others.

He considers his options before heading out and catching a cab. His destination is the Dollar Tree and the bazaar. Time to have a bag of trinkets in case I get back to the Troll Market. He looks for things like beef jerky snacks and candy, plus a snow globe, a small bouncing ball with a light in it, a glitter marker, , etc. He also gets a second bag of misc supplies: a bag of marbles, a roll of duct tape, a pack of sharpie permanent markers in various colors, a 50m spool of high tensile, thin-rope.

[Buddha72]

D'zan hovers in the river hag's wake looking with keen interest at the specimens in the jar around the room. A smile equally filled with sharp teeth stretches across his face at the captive fae. He speaks and the liquid tonal language of the elves spills from his throat. The tone is dark and biting, the words etched with malice.

"Well look what we have here. Not quite the life you imagined I bet?"

Upon hearing Meg's request for trade goods, he reaches into his small satchel and draws for herbal and mineral reagents and places them near her to examine.

"This is a taste of what I offer."

[JxJxA]

Uetz wakes up feeling much better after getting some rest. He looks at where he had suffered the severest burns, delighted to see that the healing process was well underway. He checks both Etain and Rene to make sure that they are still stable. Satisfied, he grabs his comlink and walks out of his room.

"Hello?" he asks out loud upon seeing an empty house.

[BishopMcQ]

D'zan

The hag sniffs at the reagents and begins nodding. "Yes, these will do well. More of them for more poisons, yes."

She lifts up a clump of quills attached to a tawny tail. Bringing it over to the fey-creature, Meg pulls one of the quills out and stabs the young girl's arm. Within seconds the fey girl's spine snaps rigid and a dark green begins climbing along her arm, making the veins bulge out. The creature seems on the verge of vomiting, when Meg draws a small knife and cuts a spot on the girl's other arm. A small vial collects the dripping fluid.

"Martichoras, powerful hunters, venom used to kill other predators. Meat not fit to eat. Very powerful for killing."

Stoppering the vial, she continues puttering through the shop and crawls under a table drawing out a large crockery jar. Inside, she pulls out a spider egg sac, deftly pulling one of the baby spiders out before placing the sac back into the jar. Slowly Meg walks back to the cage, cooing at the tiny creature in her hands.

You see the wounds on the fey creature have closed. She places the spider just below the young thing's ear and you see bruising begin spreading out under the skin. The fey girl's eyes roll back into her head and she collapses forward, still breathing. Meg crushes the tiny spider beneath the blade and makes another small nick, milking the wound into a separate vial.

"A child of Ungoliant, one of the spirits from before your world. Weakens all but the strongest, but does not kill, so they may wriggle in her web as she eats them."

[JxJxA]

Seeing the house virtually empty, Uetz begins making preparations just in case the Smoking Mirror makes another attempt on their lives. He summons forth a powerful Tlacelel and humbly asks it to stay nearby just in case the time for battle arises once more. He casts an increased reflexes spell upon himself, and then kicks back on the living room couch to rest off the toll of the spellcasting. As he sits, he pulls out his commlink and dials up Guillermo de la Cruz, hoping that the talismonger might have some leads on work and magical supplies.

[Buddha72]

Troll Market

"Perfect."

D'zan quickly fishes out the correct amount of trade goods and collects his poisons from the hag. He flies from her shop and returns to the spot where he was to meet Knockers. He hovers as he looks around and spies the small spirit hiding amongst the street trash. He flies down next to it and gestured for the free spirit to join him.

"All done my friend, I just need a portal back home please till next time."

Emerging from the debris is a small ball of light and color, it quickly flies around the pixie and pules with several different hues before settling in the air in front of him. It swells and expands into an astral gateway just large enough for D'zan to step through. The oval of light pulses softly as he steps through to find himself back in his loft in LA. Raising his voice and pitching out into the common area he calls out as the portal fades from existence.

"I'm back and do we have anything resembling a plan yet?"

[BishopMcQ]

Uetz

The phone rings once and then the deep Latin tone of your contact's voice resonates across the line.

"You are go for Guillermo. Ahh, Uetz my friend. It has been an iguana's age. Tell me, what can I provide for you today."

The conversation goes back and forth for a few minutes as you check on possible leads for a job or a sufficiently powerful focus. He is always looking for reagents and telesma from the Mojave and beyond if you have the time to collect them. He does not have a focus of the appropriate type at the moment--a Norse man with a clockwork dragon, bought the last one. He can make one, but it will be a few weeks. Otherwise, the Anasazi may have something like what you need. The scorpion shamans have sold to some in the past. You'd need an introduction to the tribes from someone else though.

"Yeah, so, you should go try talking to the tribes. Just don't mention my name. We had a bit of a falling out and a steel-jacketed goodbye the last time, something about sacred trees."

Papa

As you finish your shopping, Uetz's commlink links to the TeamNet monitoring frequencies you set up. He is currently on a call.

[Redjack]

Papa notes Uetz's presence online and forwards the report he created earlier as a priority notification. His collection of trinkets and other purchases made, he packs them into his backpack and heads out.

He decides to walk for a while and think. Being the odd man out in a group of magic types, Argent is his closest compadre on the team; Especially given the duo's addiction to P2.0. He felt relevant again with the details he was able to get regarding the Smoking Mirror, Quetzalcoatl & Tezcatlipoca. He knew this new information would be of great concern to Uetz and anxiously awaited a return call from the shaman as he walked. To distract himself, he downloaded the current single from Blood, Guts & Gore (one of his favorite Goblin-Rock bands) and checked on the Urban Brawl schedule for the next few days.

[Fenris]

"You can come distract some mortals with me, D'zan. " As he's speaking, he sends a message off to Papa.

Hey, meet me at the casino? It'd be nice to have someone watching my back in the Matrix while I try and talk our way in there..

He calls out to D'zan as he pulls on a new suit. "We need to go talk to the guys at the casino and see if they'll let us look at their books. Do you have a good idea of what we're looking for?"

He re-enters the public space, pulling a bit of a face as he catches sight of the punky little pixie. "How do you feel about Disney sort of fairy? I need to distract them, not scare them. I've got space for one more, Uetz, if you want to tag alone. D'zan doesn't get a seat." he jokes, tone light.

He's talking as he's walking out to his bike, keying in the necessary instructions to start it up and warm up the smart tires. He watches the vehicle flex for a moment, the thousands of rods that make up the riding surface aligning and calibrating before he climbs in and motions to any of the others that are accompanying him.

[JxJxA]

Uetz sits up at attention when his commlink buzzes with more activity. He sees Papa Smurf's research info and quickly scrawls a "thank you" message, complete with a list Rene's suggestions on Goblin Rock---added after seeing Papa's location at the music store and also having heard the names of these bands about a billion times from Rene. He then lets his body sink back into the couch and starts sifting through the information...

[BishopMcQ]

Uetz

After a moment of realizing your attention is elsewhere, Guillermo says goodbye and hangs up. The information packet that Papa sent over contains information about the man driven to madness by shadows, and theories of the cabal worshiping the dark lord of your pantheon. The ritual sacrifice of a winged serpent fits with what you know. There were several news articles just before you left Aztlan about the findings from their dissection after the sacrifice was completed. The serpent was a traitor to the state who had attempted to stage a coup and kill several high ranking officials.

Argent

The bike purrs gently beneath you as you settle in. An AR pop-up from Naiomi reminds you she can't file the paperwork for your visit without the SINs of any companions you wish to bring. You also receive a message from a new subscriber PlaysWithRocks. "Hey man great to meet you guys--let me know if you ever get stranded in the hills again." The profile picture matches the young boy who gave you a lift in a dune buggy.

Papa

Just behind the recommendations from Uetz comes a PITO subscription notification and message from PlaysWithRocks. "Hey man great to meet you guys--let me know if you ever get stranded in the hills again." The profile picture matches the young boy who gave you a lift in a dune buggy.

D'zan

Behind you, shivers of emotion emanate from your small loft. Leo appears to have caught flashes of your memories of the young fae creature in the cage, and noticed the vials from your bag.

[Buddha72]

D'zan feels the conflict again in his nature - his need to be Unseelie and his undeniable bond to Leo. He quickly closes off that portion of himself with a silent promise to talk later about the vials and the memories. He decides to bury himself in the task at hand.

"So how is this working? Me being unseen and looking around or are we trying to get inside as law abiding members of society?"

[Fenris]

"Let's go the unseen route unless they've got some serious magical mojo on-site we'll piss off by doing so."

He let's the streets unwind beneath the almost-self guided machine as he checks the boys profile. Maybe not useful now, but you never know what could come up. He tags the name to a couple of different filters for easy location later, and settles in for the ride.

"Now, to get into the casino...Maybe there's someone's coat tails I can ride on?"

[JxJxA]

As Uetz reads over Papa's intel, he feels Quauhtli start to worry.

Brother, I do not like this. We are clearly being drawn into something sinister, and I can do nothing more than offer advice and a modicum of support. Please, brother. It is time.

Uetz nods wordlessly, and gets off of the living room couch. He walks into his room, gathers papers and telesma, and begins to work on a formula to allow his sister to manifest in the material world...

[Buddha72]

D'zan thinks for a moment then slowly begins to gather the mana from himself and the magic all around. He begins to weave a small but complicated sphere between his hands. He speaks softly as he ties off the last few threads and seeks a fae spirit from beyond this world to settle into the structure and be his.

"Spirit of air and sight I call thee, to my will be bound and my servant you will be."

[Redjack]

Papa accepts the request from PlaysWithRocks, adding him to his "Outside the City" and "Contacts with Future Potential" lists.
<<@PlaysWithRocks [Papa] And if you find yourself in Tinsel Town or the City of Lost Angels, give me shout out!>>

The troll hails a cab, hacking the on board video before entering, spoofing in a feed of a busty blonde in place of himself. He has the cab drop him off at the stuffer shock a few blocks away, cleansing the logs before disconnecting.
As the cab pulls away, he disconnects his com from the matrix, spoofs a new access ID then reconnects.
<<@Team [Papa] Ok guys. What now?>>