Mary Margeret doesn't have an immediate response - it's quite likely that she's asleep, because sunrise is merely an hour or two away at most, and already the rims of the Cascades are starting to stand out against the night sky.

Once Blue figures out how much time is left before sunrise, he opts for waiting till the time is right. That is to say, when night has fallen and there are a few hours to act. Besides, if Mary Margaret can come through, he will have to spend a few days learning the spell and operationalizing his plan. You don't go to war without a plan.

Blue waits till sunrise, and summons Sweez.

Sweez shows up, looking - well, he always looks pretty strung out, so it's hard to tell, but he doesn't look any worse than usual. The general throbbing of pulse-pounding electronic music drifts in a near-palpable musical miasma around him, as always.

:::Hey, Sweez. Sorry to call you in at this time, but I need some rest. Please wake me if anything threatening looks to be trying to get in here. When I wake, let me know what band you like to hear and I'll see what I can do to get some of their music playing here.:::

Sweez nods, in a way which is somehow obvious and yet difficult to differentiate from him grooving to the pulse of his ambient beat.

After a little apparent thought, he suggests: :::The motherlode. The origin. The neon light in the histories. Klaus Schulze.:::

::: Got it. I'll get on that soonest. Good morning.::: Blue turns in and plans to get a good sleep in. He sets an alarm for 8 hours. When he wakes, should there be no disturbance, he checks his messages for anything from Mary Margaret.

Mary Margeret does indeed have a response, and a positive one at that. <<<Sure thing, I can swing that. Drop by and I'll have it wrapped and ready.>>>

In the mean time:

MAYORAL OFFICE CRYSTAL SHRINE
DUWAMISH CALL FOR ENCLAVE REVERSION
MITSUHAMA EXPANSION TO GET UCAS NOD

OOC:
I'm putting multiple things into this post because I don't know when DS will crap out again.
#####

Blue wakes to find a good answer from Mary Margaret. +++ Alright! I love it when a plan comes together. +++

<<< I'll be there late afternoon, Mary Margaret. Thanks. >>>

He eats a decent breakfast while doing some simple news research into some headlines that appear on the scream sheets. He'll drop into student mode and try to analyze and look for the subtext.



After Blue cleans up the dishes, he says goodbye to Sweez, letting the spirit go for some private time. Karmakaze looks to be unavailable, so Blue hires a taxi to get him to Mary Margaret's shop. He chats with her a bit, pays for the spell formula for the agreed price. Before heading home to do some spell studying, he asks Mary Margaret if she has any idea what those fairy spirits might be. Maybe she has a book or something?

Back at home, Blue settles in to learn the spell. It'll take a few days to understand the formula and make it his own. He makes more use of his academic experience, years in student residence, to block out the thumpa thumpa from above. It feels almost like those giddy days when anything seemed possible.



After four days, Blue sits back and wipes some sleep from his eyes. """I get it. That last bit was a bugger."""

The crystal shrine thing appears to be real, if true, with the crystal church using some blandishments or arguments to establish a small shrine in a niche in the mayoral office.

The tribe of Duwamish is still arguing for its validity, and claiming that the whole enclave of Seattle should revert to the Salish, or something. (They're not very clear on their demands.) The likelihood is near-nil.

Mitsuhama put in a bid to expand their holdings in the enclave, and it looks as if a multilateral diplomatic arrangement including the UCAS and Freecal and IJS gave this plan the nod. They're about to get bigger in the enclave, with substantially more security staff.

Mary Margeret does have a few survey books on spiritual types, and flips through them with Blue. Her best guess is that they are actual parasitic spirits, but other than shuddering at the idea of a mosquito spirit invasion, she has nothing direct to offer other than: "Maybe ... fairies?"

[OOC: I'm fighting persistent IPS errors, so I'm going to post the whole thing as if it goes without a hitch. If you need to cut it off at some point, Koekepan, I understand. I will carry on from that point. If I hit an ABORT POINT (See OOC thread) that requires Blue to abort the mission, I will halt it there and try another night.]

After his study of the Stunball spell is complete, Blue completes his plan for Operation: Assault on the Pixies. Blue will make sure he has the following spells-on-a-stick immediately at hand for the operation: astral armour, influence, heal.

He calls up Karmakaze and ensures she has the night off. Once she arrives at around 02:00 with her vehicle, Blue comes out and summons a city spirit for the first leg of the operation.



Blue assigns the City Spirit two tasks right away to last until dawn or Blue releases it: Guard the vehicle and the two of them, protect the vehicle and the two of them by whatever means necessary.

They drive to where they stopped last time, near the target home. Once there, They look to make sure lights are out and no activity in the house is noticeable. Then, Blue assigns the City Spirit one more task to last the night, Conceal the vehicle.

Blue then assembles a squad of Watcher Spirits to accompany him into the house.



Once the Watcher horde is assembled, Blue moves to the front porch and summons the Hearth Spirit.



When the Hearth Spirit appears, Blue tells it he is there to remove the parasitic spirits. He asks the spirit three questions:

Who in the house is awake?
Are there any astral protections set up in the house other than the parasitic spirits?
Where are the parasitic spirits?
[OOC: This is the one of the most likely places, I think, where the plan will need to be rejigged or aborted. Especially if the spirits are not present.Assuming nothing untoward is reported, Blue continues.]

Blue tells the spirit he will return shortly, and once he enters the spirit's domain to Guard him.

Blue returns to the car, gets in, and nods to Karmakaze. "If shit happens and you have to leave, get my body to my place and I will find you there."
He projects astrally.

Blue enters the house astrally with the Watchers close by and joins the spirit-dog. Until combat is initiated, Blue will have Spell Defense set up, with 5 Sorcery dice plus 5 Spell Pool dice for a total of 10. He will cover himself, the Hearth Spirit and three of the watchers. Blue had explored the house during his first scouting expedition, so he has a rough idea of the layout. Together they move to just outside the room where the spirits are, most likely the girl's bedroom. Gathering his spirit force close, they all enter the target room in an upper corner, farthest from the bed if the girl's bedroom. The Watchers are to form a screen in front of Blue and the Hearth Spirit to impede astral combat reaching those two.



[OOC: another likely place for diversion if some of the pixies are faster or if the girl is astrally projecting (I guess if she woke up after the Hearth Spirit said all were asleep).]

Blue sees the pixie cloud and blasts it with a Stunball spell with the radius of the area of effect reigned in so as to miss the friendlies. He drops spell defence before casting the Stunball, aiming for as far away from the friendlies as possible.



[OOC: Oh shit! I forgot to reduce the radius, taking dice away from the casting of the spell. Well, live (or die) and learn. Hey, the friendlies could be over 4 m away from the center point. This is probably a good place to stop, as all kinds of bad stuff could happen. As I wait for your response, Koekepan, I will consider what my next PC will be.]

[OOC: Rerolling the spell by GM request.]

F4 Stunball, target is WILL of individual pixies: Spellcasting 6 + Owl 2 + spell pool 3 - 2 (reduce radius by 1 m) = 9 dice:
1, 6, 4, 4, 2, 1, 2, 6, 2

Reroll 6's in case a) pixies are tough, b) didn't reduce radius enough and Blue is in the area of effect: 2 dice:
4, 2 ==> so the dice are: 1,1,2,2,2,4,4,8,10

Resist Drain: target 4 (D+1); 8 WIL + Owl 2 + spell pool 3 = 13 dice: 6 successes

Use Karma Pool to reroll failed dice: 7 dice: 4 successes Total of 10 successes ==> No Drain.

Blue successfully infiltrates the house, sneaking in astrally without undue difficulty. Everyone inside is asleep, lulled despite the restless rumble of the world outside by a combination of cheap sound absorption and the domestic node producing soft sounds from the NightForest Sleep™ pack. It sounds very little like an actual forest, but it works.

The pixies are however alert and awake, but given Blue's careful preparations, they hardly have time to rise in a buzzing cloud of anger before his spell slams them back with the force of a thousand blackjacks. Little glittering spiritual remnants fade even as they fall back. Some remain, seeming to bleed where they fall, but even while Blue regards this, the domestic spirit charges past him, fangs bared, and lays into them with fury now that they are incapacitated.

While the Hearth Spirit despatches the remaining pixie bits, Blue erases the astral signatures of his work in the house. That and the pixies done, Blue converses with the Hearth Spirit.

:::Well, they are gone, for now, but in a month or so they might return. I will try to figure out what they are and what draws them. If I can, I might check nearby houses for more of them. Maybe I can learn something more about them that way.

:::I hope you can heal from what they have done to you. My name is Blue. MAy I know your name, before I go?:::

:::You may know me as Wirepointer. I may heal in due course, but for now I will feast on what remains of these beings.:::

Blue files away a question about how spirits feed on each other.

:::Good appetite, Wirepointer. You are free of services tonight. :::

Blue zips back to his ride. Under the protection of the City Spirit, the two runners return to Blue's place. Along the way the Watcher Spirits dissolve back home. Blue says goodbye and thanks to Karmakaze and tells the City Spirit its duties are done once Karmakaze makes it back to his home.

Music thunders out of the bar. Blue heads downstairs to his home and spends the rest of the night looking up the bands Sweeze said he likes:

The Motherlode.
The Origin.
The Neon Light in the Histories.
Klaus Schulze.

It shouldn't be too hard to find schedules and such in the Matrix.

Sweeze's taste is very heavy on rhythm, and most of it is quite modern but some is around a hundred years old. For some reason, Klaus Schulze makes the list despite having been an active artist back when Japan was still struggling to achieve any kind of dominance whatsoever.

Oh well, there's no accounting for spirits. Maybe Sweeze was influenced by someone back when Seattle was mostly a blue-collar logging and maritime town.

Blue learns of the four musical groups with a simple search on the Matrix, and is flummoxed by the inclusion by Sweeze of a musician, Klause Schulze, who died about a half century ago. But then, spirits are immortal, no? File that away. Sweeze was here when the Sixth World began. Or, maybe, a previous summoner introduced Sweeze to a 'classic'. Might be worth a chat with Sweeze.

Blue Messages the manager of Brainlaser through the link through which he pays rent.

<<< Blue here. Got a request from a friend. Any of the following groups: The Motherlode, The Origin, The Neon Light in the Histories going to be playing here anytime soon? If you need to book one of them, I'd be willing to put in a couple of hundred nuyen to make that easier. >>>

<<<Frosty, I'll reach out to their management teams and see what's on the plans. Maybe it could happen! This weekend will be Germanium Terror, opened by Valvetubetronics. You might like them. A little retro, very hypnotic.>>>

<<<Great. I'll look forward to hearing what you can hook up.>>> Once that conversation is done, Blue settles in for some needed rest. The parasitic fairies bother him, though. You can't really kill spirits here in the physical plane, or even in the astral unless you have special knowledge of them. As far as he knows, one has to go to their home plane and deal with them there.

That sounds like a task beyond him for now. He puts it on the back burner to simmer. There are, of course, the other houses that Wirepointer suggested were also infested. Maybe the next night he should do some reconnaissance.

As he readies for bed, Blue makes a note to acquire some ritual materials to help keep a watcher around for a longer period.

Hmmm. Speaking of watchers, rather than pulling Sweeze here again, Blue summons a watcher spirit.



:::Wake me if any metahuman or astral being other than you tries to get in this apartment.:::

He settles in.

Blue wakes refreshed and alert to a couple of ideas he didn't think of earlier. What if the pixies aren't spirits, but some other form of astral being? And, +++Why haven't I contacted the other people I know about them?+++

He contacts the metabiologist he and Karmakaze met outside Seattle. <<< Blue here. Came across some astral beings I have never met or heard of before: Look in the astral like little fairies with sharp teeth and aggressive; a swarm attracted to a little girl in an urban neighbourhood; she allegedly had some influence over them; others allegedly in nearby homes; not harming the girl but were slowly draining energy from the Hearth Spirit of the home. You know anything about these? Any info much appreciated.>>>

To Henry Swift he sends,<<<Blue here. Looks like I'm free from being hunted, for the moment. I ran across some astral beings in a neighbourhood of Seattle I have never seen or heard of before. I thought you might be interested in some scuttlebutt. Little fairy-like; cluster in a swarm; attracted to a little girl who seemed to have some influence over them; possibly in some other homes in the neighbourhood; didn't harm the girl but were slowly draining the Hearth Spirit of her home. Have you ever heard of these things? Any info would be much appreciated.>>>

The metabiologist responds with: <<<Never heard of anything like that, but there's a lot that we don't know. It does remind me of some elements of the forested umbra. Do you know whether there was a lot of moss on the house?>>>

Swift says: <<<You sure the girl wasn't a medium, or some kind of watcher-summoning adept or something?>>>

Blue considers the options suggested by his contacts. He tries to remember whether there was moss of any consequence on the house.



To corroborate, Blue checks Google Maps for the street view.

He replies to Henry. <<<She has magical potential, but I don't know what form. It was difficult to assense her while being chewed on by cute little fairies. >>>

Of course, why he didn't think of that after he had nuked the fairies is a good question.

There was certainly moss - just about anything that isn't brand new grows moss in this area - but not a thick, rich, mossy carpet like an abandoned shed.

Blue replies to the metabiologist. <<<Typical moss cover for Seattle for older but not ancient buildings.>>>

Blue sits with some soykaf and thinks over the events of the last few days. A few things become clear to him.

1) He is going to be working alone or with maybe one other, Karmakaze for now, though she seems to be tied up in personal affairs at the moment. He is going to have to improve his ability to arm and supply himself to cover material needs for his runs.

2) The convoluted series of castings and such Blue had to go through to deal with the pixies taxed his ability to keep himself as focused as possible. Sustaining multiple spells impedes that ability quickly. This twigs his memory about lessons one of his professors gave on circumventing the need to sustain spells. Using sustaining foci is the preferred way, but a quick look in the Matrix reminds him of how to use a dodge using Ritual Sorcery to sustain spells. It takes time and materials (yet more!) but can keep ones mind clear.

A man of action, Blue takes some steps to improve himself.

First, Blue makes detailed notes on how he interacted with Mary Margaret (so many recent purchases!) and others when buying or trading for materials or information.



Next, he downloads the professor's online notes from Sorcery 315 regarding Ritual Sorcery. He refreshes his understanding of that aspect of Sorcery. While doing so, Blue remembers why this wasn't as fresh in his mind as so much else. Memories of a certain grad student and how she took a shine to the shy philosophy major in her tutorial. He shakes his head and returns to the notes. A few hours reading makes things clear. All you do really need is time and materials, and a lodge in which to cast the spell. Teamwork is a dream for now.



After a meal to fortify himself, Blue sets out to use his new knowledge. He messages Mary Margaret. <<<Hey, Mary Margaret. I have some plans that might in the long run give you some important information. I need some ritual materials. Health spell oriented. I'm thinking 4th tier spell. Have the 2000 Nuyen ready to pay. >>>



Blue waits for Mary Margaret's response. While he waits, Blue considers whether the knowledge that parasitic astral entities are working their way into Seattle might be valuable to some. Or useful to others. He muses.

Mary Margeret responds that she keeps that stuff in stock - it has a regular demand, after all - and that he can swing by for it at his leisure.

The music seems to bleed through from the club, but doesn't sound quite like the usual club music - there is still a beat, but somehow it all seems more abstract than before.

Before going to Mary Margaret's shop, Blue tries to figure out what the new music is about. And before he heads upstairs to check it out, he summons Sweez to see if he (Blue thinks of Sweez as male) knows anything.

Something is interesting about the vision of Sweez. He seems to be somehow less strung-out dance club debris, and more ... psychedelic? Or something? His clothing seems to have become more whole, less worn, and more complex with small touches like tiny multicoloured slips of piping added to belt loops, and his twitchy demeanour seems a little calmer.

Oh, and the music surrounding him seems to have less straightforward throbbing, and a somewhat more airy tone.

+++Well, this is interesting, +++ thinks Blue.

:::Hey, Sweez. The music sounds different, and you look a bit different, too. What's happening?:::

:::Things grow. Things change. The great DJ fades in a new track, and old ones drop out. Even dragons change their moods. Eternity is a lie, but the groove is eternal.:::

His eyes show slowly swirling flickers, like looking at a galaxy through a kaleidoscope.

Blue shakes his head in wonder. :::That's deep, man. Go back to your groove for now.::: He releases Sweez, and heads upstairs to see what is going on.

The upstairs actually doesn't look remarkably different. Not even an ARO saying anything about being under new ownership nor anything like that. Just the usual, sweaty, gyrating bodies grinding up the dancefloor. The beat does not identifiably display any variation akin to what Blue seems to remember from beneath.

Is Sweez getting some other influence? Is he increasing or changing his powers? Is something else coming in? It doesn't seem to be from here.

+++Curiouser and curiouser. I had a bit of trouble with the summoning, but the music downstairs was different before I called Sweez.+++

Blue figures summoning Sweez up here to see if their nature is 'normal' would be probative. If up here Sweez goes back to the way he was, then there could be something about his place, or him, that is affecting things. But where to do so without causing a stir?

Well, as long as Sweez stays in the astral, only the Awakened could notice him. Blue tries. He goes into a bathroom and locks the door behind him just to be safe.

Sweez manifests quite easily, and the first thing that he does is to snort up a long line of white powder from the edge of the bathroom sink.

The sink. It's there in the astral, but looks different. This place has been around quite a while, but has surely been remodeled. Blue sees stickers advertising some band called Mudhoney, whatever that is.

Regardless of that, when Sweez straightens up after the impressive snort, he seems yet more animated than before, and the beat that surrounds him is yet more complex than before.

How to delicately get to look into Sweez's aura without being too nosy?

::: Sweez, you look like you are in an amazing state. I've never seen you so ... good. Do you mind if I take a close look at your aura? I'd love to figure out what is pumping you up tonight. :::

Sweez folds himself into lotus position, closes his eyes and manifests a third eye in his forehead with which he stares at Blue. :::Tune in, turn on, get hype. The great dance is already going.:::

+++Well, I guess that is a go ahead,+++ thinks Blue.

The aura is hard to look at. It's flush with power, and throbbing although his emotions seem pretty calm and muted. If anything, it looks like too much power in too small a container.

That great dance reference is a little disconcerting. Blue read the history of North America when magic came back.

:::Tell me about the great dance.:::

:::When the first volcano exploded, it was the drum that announced the first beat. It was the pyrotechnic that lit the stage. When the mists rose from the swamps, it was the fog effect that put the dancers in their own worlds. When the first creatures wriggled through the mud and slime, the first steps of the dance were invented.:::

While Sweez speaks, the music around him rises. The pace is hard, making Blue's pulse race. It seems to swirl around, confusingly.

:::The dance gained rhythm and purpose when the ice fell, and hunger for the beat grew with every flicker of the seasons, the lights of the sky were the lighting crew punctuating the beat:::

Voices seem to rise around Blue, chanting and joining with Sweez.

:::All these rhythms took their own pace, and the syncopation of life confused its import to all but the enlightened, and yet now is the confluence of times, the downbeat of this point, the cracking of a new egg.:::

Sweez seems to swell, blurring and duplicating into a crowd of dancers rising from lotus position and entering a dance together.

:::Sweez, I have two more services in this summoning. Rather than call you back, just go downstairs and answer my questions there when I get down there myself. This bathroom is not the right place to talk about ... whatever is happening."

Blue heads back down to his apartment to carry on the conversation. Hopefully coming up with a useful question or two on the way.

Sweez dissipates into a shimmering mirage when Blue suggests it, leaving just the club's music thumping behind him.

Blue makes his way back down to his apartment and looks for Sweez. He also listens to the music as he makes his way down, to see if and when it changes.

Sweez is in Blue's apartment as suggested, and the music shifts as Blue approaches his apartment.

Some parts of it sound like a weird, ecstatic, wordless chant.

Blue approaches his apartment and is, for the moment, flabbergasted by the change. And how it is becoming apparent as he approaches. So is it radiating out from his apartment... or is it being sent? Yeah, that's worth a look.

Blue tries to sense if there is a sending from somewhere that is creating the change.

It's certainly not coming from elsewhere. Sweez is somehow expressing a ... different spiritual vibe from before? He's changing? The apartment is changing? Something about his taste for classic origins of electronic dance music is altering the spiritual environment?

Blue enters the apartment. Sweez is still different. The music is still different. Blue assenses the aura of the ward he has up. He's running out of ideas.

The aura of the ward looks fine. Whatever is going on appears to be fundamental to the nature of the local spiritual environment. It seems as if things are getting ... funkier?

Here's what Blue knows, and it's not much.

The nightclub is the same.
The ward around his doss is the same.
He is the same.

The only thing that seems to be different is Sweez. Blue can't figure out that difference. Maybe Sweez is changing for good. Maybe it's some kind of temporary glitch. One way to test that is to send Sweez home and give him a break. At least until dawn, when there would be a flip of the astral time frame.

Hmm. There is one more thing Blue could try. He sends Sweez home to 'rest'. :::Hey, Sweez. Thanks for coming, but you can go home now and grok the universe.:::

Blue goes out and walks a good click away from his apartment. Somewhere secluded and beyond hearing distance of the bar. He summons a city spirit to see if there is something going on with his own magical 'circuits'.



+++Let's see.+++

Sweez fades out in a mist of cross-rhythms.

The walk isn't too unpleasant. The season is slowly warming up, and the smell of the ocean water isn't unpleasant.

The city spirit takes the form of a speaking dumpster, slightly overfull with black trash bags. It's one of the old ones without compaction or self-sorting robotics.

At first glance, it seems fine. No Sweez-like unusual aspects at all.

Blue is a little relieved to find that the City Spirit seems ... normal, if that word could be applied to an animated garbage bin.

:::Thank you for answering my call. Tell me, do you notice any difference in you in the last turn of the Earth?:::