Well, he isn't a bear at any rate.

He isn't really pursuing either.

But he is following along.

Melba walked off toward the restroom with the cursed mirror, followed by Garrett and Luthien. B.J. remained behind to watch Van Tiel, attempting to get more answers out of her. “I’ve told you what I know.”

As Melba’s group approached the restroom, they heard a loud smashing of glass from inside!

As usual, the fact it was a women's restroom meant he has to wait till Melba confirmed an actual emergency

Melba swore fluently in French, Latin, Hebrew and even Yiddish (which she didn't speak fluently but which had some fierce sounding cusswords).  She knew it was an emergency and she hoped Garrett didn't hang back like Luthien, because if he did, she was in trouble.  Never the less, she wobbled through the dooor and into the girls' changing room.  "What's happening", she asked.  "You okay?"

What Melba saw brought an onslaught of harsher Yiddish words. “Stay back!” Buffy stood between her and the sinks, her bloodied left arm held back in warning as she faced the cause of her injuries. Glass laid scattered across the bathroom floor.

Melba heard a sickening crunch as larger shards of glass drifted off the tiles and coalesced into a jagged silhouette. The smaller fragments reflected distorted views of Buffy and Melba. A large shard of glass topped the silhouette like a flat, crystalline face. In that shard, they saw Shannon’s tortured visage, twisted by her rage and decades of suffering.

Melba shook her head sadly and resisted the urge to call Buffy an idiot, in this case of course, she resisted out of self preservation not out of a desire to keep the peace.  Just like always in fact.  "You need to tell Iconna to release Shannon in the name of any God you have faith in.  If you don't have faith, you need to let Luthien treat your injuries while Garrett and I do it, k?".

She called out to Luthien, "Luthien get in here, you've got a patient.  You too Garrett."

"If Iconna is forced to reveal herself in the golem, Buffy will be able to kill her just by smashing her face in. Some things are delightfully easy once you get the puzzle part done."

But then there's the minor detail of the tortured soul...

"You two, go ahead and start the exorcism. ...if you need help I'll jump in."

He sounds more like a teacher grading a test than like he's even slightly worried about it going wrong.

He isn't particularly worried about Buffy either. For a Slayer, glass cuts were a 'walk it off' sort of problem, not a hospital level problem.

Buffy heard and  nodded. “Got it. I’m feeling all kinds of smashy!” She shook off her pain, standing like a Warrior called to end the sort of evil before them. “Y’know, Iconna, skipping classes, haunting mirrors, driving cheerleaders crazy. I’ve gotta say that your behavior reflects poorly on yourself and on this school!”

Then, Buffy’s foot darted out in a rapid kick at the Golem! Buffy attempted to knock the thing back if she couldn’t smash it. Then, she ducked and dodged as best she could to avoid retaliation.


OOC:

01:10, Today: Big Bad, on behalf of Buffy Summers, rolled 12 using 1d10+11.  Dodge.

01:10, Today: Big Bad, on behalf of Buffy Summers, rolled 19 using 1d10+11.  Kung Fu.

“So start talking. Why cultivate the spirit? Why risk your students?” she asked frustrated in the sheer indifference the Dean had displayed.

“A few of the usual reasons. Wealth. Longer life. Power.

 Savannah was founded on a necropolis. Many of the neighborhoods near us held bodies that lived here centuries before the arrival of Europeans. If you go back further, even before the tribes who lived here. Ancient powers connected to the underworld were ripe for the aspiring Necromancer.”

Van Tiel sighed. She seemed older and so weary in that moment. “I’m working for one such person. He goes back a long way, dear. His line runs from the criminals who took an interest in the young colony because of what they could exploit here. Not just the usual bootlegging or human trafficking. Darker trades.

Employment here requires an inevitable contract with those powers.” She cut her eyes toward Bonita. “If you stay here long enough, they’ll be recruiting you. Understand that ‘No’ is not an answer that he’ll accept.”

Melba nodded.  "Yes Luthien, you need to stay and try to draw Shannon for the mirror before we send Iconna back to whatever hell dimension she calls home.  We can close her access to this mirror but I don't know whether we can close her off from all mirrors.  I hope so.  Anyway...."


Melba stepped up, ready to do her beauty by Shannon, by Savanna, by humanity maybe.  She held up her Magen David, blessed as it was by the Lubavitcher Rebbe himself, Menchem Mendel Schneersohn, known as the Messiah to his followers and thus making it possibly a powerful artifact.  While Garrett intoned the traditional tones of the exorcism ceremony, Melba herself intoned.  "Inconna, in the name of Adonai Elohim, the Lord God of Yisroel, I call on you to release Shannon from your hands and to take yourself back to the place from which you came, severing your link to this mirror and to all of the mirrors in this world.  Be gone in His Holy name.  Kadish Kadish Kadish.  Get thee hence Iconna for it is written thou shalt obey the word of the Lord God of Israel."

Garrett wouldn’t even let his best friend face a Devil or even THE Devil by herself. Nearby, he racked his impeccably coiffed head for a spell he could cast on the spot. Here’s where the summers I spent indoors at the Bull Street Library pay off. I hope.

While Melba uttered her prayer in Hebrew, Garrett started chanting:

“Janus, God of Two Faces
Guardian of the Gate
Bind this interloper of Mirrored Spaces
as she bound her victims in Hate!”

The young Warlock repeated his chant over and over, attempting to bind Iconna permanently to the mirror she’d haunted.

OOC:

So Garrett is trying to close the door and lock the demonic baddy so she can’t run or haunt any other mirrors.

Willpower & Occultism and 1 Drama Point for improvising a spell on the spot.

Buffy’s foot hit the glass golem’s “hip”, sending chunks of glass flying! The demonic construct screeched in rage, hurtling everyone’s ears so much that it put Buffy off her defense. The thing slashed at her, hitting Buffy’s leg and leaving a shallow cut.

Melba gathered her nerve and her faith to face the true power behind Shannon. She prayed in Hebrew, calling upon the God of her ancestors who’d been in the city since 1733. Her voice rang out in the Girl’s bathroom, while Garrett attempted to improvise a spell on the fly. He’d never tried something this big in the moment. Casting on the fly carried tremendous risk to Witches.

The joining of friends and differing faiths for the same cause created swell of power that made everyone’s heartbeat flutter. Garrett felt a rush of witchy power run through him. Iconna shrieked even louder as “Shannon’s” face cracked! The fiend stared between Buffy and her two friends, confused, then suddenly realizing who was the biggest threat.

"Shannon", said Melba, "We know who killed you and we have proof.  They will never be in positions of power again.  Withdraw your power from this monstrous demon and head at last for peaceful repose."

There's a distinct beat before Melba's voice takes on a deeper, angrier timbre.  She growls and her eyes seem almost to blaze as she says.  "And as for you, Inconna. Go TO HELL!!!!!!!"

Luthien says, mildly, "You have the usual options. Obedience. Rebellion. Maybe you'll surprise me."

He bets exactly nothing on her choosing obedience as he steadily regards Iconna.

"In Nomine Dominum. Exite!"

His hand moves first vertically, then horizontally. Cross shaped...
This message was last edited by the player at 20:41, Thu 02 May.

In reply to Mrs. Van Tiel (msg # 526):
“Well I assure you my employer will conduct a thorough investigation, Mrs Van Thiel. “ BJ assured her. Maggie Walsh had an intense interest in hidden secrets of human cultists. Odds were she’d be able to write and keep her teeth if she cooperated.

Girls’ Restroom:

The glass golem swiveled its face so it could see the people with the loudest voices in the room, Melba & Garrett. It screeched at Garrett as he recited the spell and at Melba as she prayed, unable to decide who it should attack. Melba saw Shannon’s face in the glass. The girl’s tortured reflection screamed, ”I don’t like it here! Make her let me go!”

Then, Shannon’s face shimmered and disappeared. In her place, a gray figure with matted dark hair. The new face didn’t have any eyes or a nose, just a mouth with blackened lips that sneered with all the hate in her unholy heart. Iconna, The Dweller in the Mirror. Despite lacking eyes, Iconna saw her enemies. When Luthien spoke, she screeched so loudly all the other mirrors cracked!

“You’re really cracking up, Iconna!” Buffy grinned at the fiend in the glass. “Guess I’m getting the 7 Year Badness!” Buffy’s fist shot at Iconna’s reflection as the demon screamed.

OOC:

23:08, Today: Buffy Summers, rolled 16 using 1d10+11.  Dodge.

23:07, Today: Buffy Summers, rolled 17 using 1d10+11.  Kung Fu .



This message was last edited by the GM at 03:26, Tue 07 May.

Buffy lashed out at the fiend who’d tormented the girls of that school. Her fist struck the reflection staring out at them squarely where her mouth would be and the glass shattered! The headless golem flounced its glassy arms, then collapsed in a heap of shards. The restroom felt weirdly quiet. Luthien knew with bold conviction that Iconna was banished from their plane.

"You got her. She won't be back. Well done."

It was stiff...and perhaps awkward, but he held his hand in the air before her, hoping for this mysterious high 5 thing kids today liked to do.

Buffy wouldn’t leave The Man in White hanging. She smacked his hand with a quick high five. “Couldn’t have done it without you guys,” she said with a flash of a pearly white smile for Luthien that warmed even brighter for Melba & Garrett.

Glass crunched underfoot. Oh so much glass. “Watch your step, there’s a lot of glass.

I feel bad for whoever’s gotta clean this mess up.”

"It would be best to depart. What happened in here isn't something you can explain to a teacher."

He was happy she chose to honor his request.

And he also followed his own advice and got out of the way of whatever school officials surely must've heard that much glass shattering.

He actually headed back towards Ms. Cordova. Seemed the best place to go.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:01, Tue 07 May.

Melba asked, "But what about Shannon? She was a victim of all those horrible people, an innocent.  Is she at rest?"

She didn't expect any reply though and so she began cleaning up the mess. She was jonesing for pizza but she decided to wait until she'd finished before eating.

“There’s a way we can find out.” Glass crushed by his foot got a quick yelp. “Later. We’d better listen to Mr. Mysterioso and not be here when the Rent-A-Cop wakes up and finally checks this out.”

"Shannon will be alright. She might need a bit more assistance, but it can wait till the teachers clear out. She is no longer in the mirror.

...where she's going, her wait now will be so inconsequential she'll forget it happened."

That was said with considerable conviction. Good News, in the highest sense of that phrase.

To get their minds on the right line of thought...

"While we wait for civil types to do their work, tell me...what's the happiest moment of your life so far?"

He figures it'll take 'em a while to figure that out. Happiest moment is not always an easy thing to know.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:42, Tue 07 May.