Melba nodded.  "Excellent.  Come Garrett, let's liberate dear departed Shannon and consign Iconna back whence she came."

“Oh, yeah! It’s way past time for the Demonic Diva to sashay away!” Garrett stared at Luthien with arms crossed and an arched eyebrow. “We’re bringing the Thin White Duke for extra good luck, right? He might counteract the 7 Years Bad Luck we’re probably gonna have.”

Melba grins, "Welcome back then Thin White Duke.  Feel free to shoot darts in lovers' eyes but remember we two are far too snarky to love."  And with that, she leads Garrett and Luthien in the direction of the girls' changing room.

"I'm mostly here for support. Making people fall in love is beyond my paygrade."

Deciding who should love who was definitely not on his responsibility list!

Melba runs her hand over her turquoise hair and winked at Garrett as the popular culture reference (or obscure film reference given where Melba works) flies over Luthien's head.  She keeps walking though.

Garrett snickered as he walked alongside his best Judy, grateful for the laughs amidst the scariness.

Luthien just shrugged mildly.

There were clearly many pop culture references he simply didn't get.

"On a day there is less evil, you all might have to catch me up on all these references. I am definitely...not with it."

Melba kept on waddling but she did say, "Sure thing Daddyo and yeah verily shall we school thee in the ways of twentieth century youth,  forsooth."

“I suggest that you talk quickly.” BJ said coldly as she eased back the hammer on her gun. “Quickly before loose patience and traumatizing events will be seen by the children.

Without looking back, Melba said to BJ, "I shan't be traumatised, Miss, I love the sound of explosions."  As she said that, she reached the door.

Exeunt pursued by a whatever Luthien is.

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, Yesterday.