Korpi picked up the hatpin she'd finally worked out from under the furniture, looked over and fluffed uncertainly at the glowing orb.

As the three men take a breath at last, Randolph offers quietly: "It seems to me, Mr. D'Alex, that we have been taking advantage of whatever methods seem efficacious in dealing with these aberrations -- your Christian faith, Sky Dog's primitive beliefs, the guns of Mr. Clarke and the lawmen, my erudition, Miss Hawthorne's... talents. Let's see what Dr, Whateley might bring to the table."


This message was last edited by the player at 01:04, Mon 31 Mar 2014.

Coraline's eyes widened at the unexpected glow that lit the interior of the church.  Cherry lips rounded in surprise, she took an involuntary step toward Abaddon and his faerie fire.  "Remarkable," she breathed.  From his description, it almost sounded as though he had been fighting the same battles that she had burdened herself with, though she had never heard of anyone using a magic wand to summon aid from other realms.

Daniel shook his head at Gabby's request for a demonstration - he thought he was pretty clear about his instincts concerning this, and to request that this man use his powers in a House of God was a bit of a slap in the face. He trusted Gabby to know what he was doing, but this seemed a dangerous path. He hoped to have time to discuss it with his uncle later.

As the demonstration was causing Daniel's teeth to grind again, he regarded Randy's choice of words briefly before responding. "Takin' advantage - sure. We all chose our path and are usin' it the best way we know how. Ain't nuthin wrong with that."

He looked again briefly at the resultant 'faerie fire' and regarded it with distaste. Or rather its source. He then began to pray, a quiet murmur that would make it quite difficult for any to discern his exact words.

He smiled slightly at Coraline's reaction. "I could teach you too, my dear," he said.

"By the by, while you have the advantage of my name, I do not believe any of you have introduced yourselves to me, save for the journalist Mr. Randolph Darling."

"Folk call me Gabby, on account o' I like to spin the odd yarn." Gabby says absently as he watches the demonstration. "Mighty interesting. How do you call up them faeries and ask 'em to do what you want? I didn't see you speak none. And do they actually leave when they're done makin' the magic? 'Cause if'n they're stickin' around after you done called 'em, they might just be grantin' power now in exchange fer the chance to do harm later."

"Oh, I don't think they're stickin' around. They're not quite here, actually. They are...somewhere else. It is hard to explain. I don't really talk to them, at least not aloud."

He reached out with a hand as if grabbing something as he spoke. "I sorta reach out with my mind. Faeries are tricksome creatures. I have to trick them into letting me do it. It's like playin' a game of Bryncir."

"This is made from the wood of the Llangernyw Yew, the oldest tree in Wales, ancient, maybe five thousand years old. That's good. Faeries like old things like that, they do. And some light is helpful when its dark."

"Do forgive my manners, doctor.  I completely forgot to introduce myself.  I'm Coraline Hawthorne.  Miss Hawthorne."  The stress on the word was deliberate, as was her friendly smile.  "Bryncir is a game?  Perhaps a card game?"  Her expression warmed further.  "I am so exceedingly fond of card games, myself." 

"Well met, Miss Hawthorne. It is, an old Welsh card game with two hundred and eight cards in the pile. I have a set around somewhere and can teach you how to play sometime, if you're free," he said.

Daniel ignore most of the chatter while he prayed, but he obviously heard the request as he took a few steps closer to Whateley, bible still in hand. "I'm Daniel." He didn't offer his hand or anything more than a cold, hard stare as he stated his name.

"I suppose you are," he replied to Daniel, pointing at the weapon with his wand. "Where did you get that sword, by chance? An old thing, that. A very old thing."

Korpi resumed a post on Daniel's shoulder. "Zhuliev. Shilneh doktor. Shilneh, kor...nye dayut diaboli, zhuliev. Amen," she told him seriously, pin held against his shoulder.

Daniel hesitated, then eventually nodded slowly at the comment. "Very old, yes. It was a gift from my father." His right hand drifted over to settle gently on the hilt for a moment before he returned it to his side.

His wand seemed to sizzle a little bit, just for a moment, again with a little glow and lightning crackling along its edge. "Well, I don't suppose you came looking for Moslems, but there are plenty of things that need chopping, I assure you."

"In any case, I'm glad we've got all that out of the way. I've been accused of being some manner of Satanists before by the ignorant and small minded, but not of actually being Satan himself. I'm not sure whether to be offended by the temerity or amused at the absurdity. And this certainly isn't the first time since arriving in Oakley that I've showcased my abilities. But the time for fun and games is over," he pronounced.

"Night comes again, and there will be another attack. I predict undead, but it might be the wolves as well. You came to help against some kind of raid. Will you stay to provide aid against this different problem?" he asked.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:01, Thu 03 Apr 2014.

"I shall stay," Coraline promised.  Though she felt obligated to help those in need, her other reasons for staying factored largely on the doctor's abilities.  She was certain that they were akin to her own and intended to learn just what he knew about them.  "I shall stay and help you defend these people."

The shaman walked in, pushing back his hood and squinting at the upper corners of the building before pacing soft-footed around two sides to make sure those corners were safe. Finding the collection plate, he donated a marble as offering to the god and wandered back down the aisle.

Once close to the conversationalists, he transferred a paper bag to his left hand and smacked the man he did not recognise upside the head. "It was owed you: you know it," Sky Dog said, offering the doctor his pick from the bag of sweets. "Do you come with us? It would be well to leave before noon, so that we might catch Quanterill at that time, when he is weakest."

"I have traded dollars for the oil for lamps," he told Daniel, offering him sweets also and handing a sugar mouse up to Korpi, who croaked in delight.

"What the devil?..."

He ducked back suddenly, but Sky Dog still managed to clip him on the side of the head. Still, he did take one of the offered candies, looking somewhere between incensed and bemused at the unprovoked contact followed by the offering of sweets.

"I feel like pulling a hair from your nose for that, but I'll take one of these instead, I suppose. I don't suppose you've an explanation for your conduct beyond cryptic mutterings?"  He fixed Sky Dog with a pointed stare.

Daniel smirked and shook his head at the doctor's response. "If ya think that's what was said, then ya ain't so smart as ya think ya are." He nodded at Coraline's response, then added his own. "Course I'll pertect tha people best I can. Though I'm curious 'bout what zactly ya jus' did with yer wand."

Sky Dog laughed. "Well you can try!" He canted his head slightly at the demand for an explanation, the gesture reminiscent of the black bird currently destroying a sugar mouse on Daniel's shoulder.

"If you are not an apprentice shamán who has run away from his master I have even more cause to make you remember with skull-hitting: fairies are not guns." He returned the doctor's look, quite serious. "It is not in their nature that you can bring and use them and put them away in the rifle-bag and they are never bored, or hungry, or expecting gifts of you."

"It is drawing attention, also, this lack of balance - so the peasants call in the little ones and make no pact, so many little ones are in a place, and the bigger spirits become curious or go to eat the little ones, and with them are those of our elder siblings that eat men...and the peasants are frightened and call more little ones, and so their luck becomes crazy with the weight of the spirits on the Middle World, yes?"

"-and if the peasants are frightened, it is the spirits most interested in frightened people that come - it is a good game, to them! You think it is all so well, as long as always you can bring the little ones for fighting, but one day you will reach for one as for a gun and grab the tail of a big wickedness from the Lower World. Then it is too late to regret! I will teach the people some balancing here, after the hunting." Despite the gravity of his warning and the random personal assualt, the shaman did not seem hostile in manner or overly judgemental. His words had more of the air of a man explaining to a child just why playing see-how-long-you-can-hold-the-burning-match inside the house was a bad idea. He offered the sweets towards the others, looking back at Whateley as a thought struck.

"Also I am not the Devil - I was born white only. Sometimes it happens with many creatures," he added, this confusion apparently being a common problem. "My name is Sky Dog."
This message was last edited by the player at 08:07, Sat 05 Apr 2014.

"An interesting name, that," he said. "I do not think you are a devil let alone the Devil. There's only one person in this room who would hurl about those types of accusations.," he added, conspiratorially, though he didn't look at Daniel.

"I understand that you suffer from albinism. I have heard that Smith & Robards has concocted some manner of product, a cream of some sort, that will reduce the impact of the sun on one's skin. You should look at their more recent catalog when you have a chance. Or have someone read it for you, if you cannot."

"As for the rest, you need not be overly concerned. I am an old hand at my arts. Now, what is this about Quantrill? Have you found him?" he asked the shaman.

The shaman did his best to follow the alien terminology, making an easy shrug. "I am always burnt in small patches, in summer - it is not so much suffering to me." He smirked a little at the devil remark. "Ah, only one?"

Sky Dog raised his hand warningly at the doctor's blitheness, but just held it there to be seen rather than bopping him again. "For you, maybe." He let his hand fall. "I will warn you twice again, but if you do badly for our siblings the spirits or the people, I will curse you until you behave better, yes?"

The idea of having found Quantrill brought out that sharp laugh. "Ha! No - this is for why we need to go hunting him and his quick dead ones in the day, before he comes to the town. After, he will be easy to find, but harder for ending! I know he is to the east of this place, probably running crazy circles if the demon in his skin is resting...if you have a picture of the land like Wyattearp, perhaps it will be easy to see where is not often looked on and where also is good to run...he will not go up steep places, Quanterill-the-man, or over water."

He looked to the others, studying Cora a fraction longer than a simple glance. "It would be well for the hunting to be done swiftly, if you wish to have myself with you - I will ask my sister to scout for you, either way, but I am concerned for the bitten men here, that one will maybe die badly if I do not set to curing him today."

"So you're just going to go off on a lark, then, go east until you happen to find him or not?" he asked.

"I don't have a map of the area, but I did come here overland - and there's not much east of here of note. If you are bent upon this 'plan', you should consult the locals who will undoubtedly be able to give you the lay of the land."

The church doors opened, the familiar shadow of a tall man in a hat darkening the doorway. He walked in, respectfully removing his hat and curiously regarding the glowing source of light that illuminated the room.

"Doc," he said, giving a nod to the only person in the room that he didn't already know. His tone was polite, but neither seemed to give approval nor did he give condemnation. The others, he addressed more directly and without preamble.

"Charlie and I were scouting and found some tracks outside of the town. I think it may have something to do with the deader attacks we heard about earlier. They were a few days old, so it was hard to tell, but that would be my guess. A good number of footprints, I'd say at least twenty men all in total. Curiously, they all stopped at a fenced in area that looked like a ranch property, though we didn't cross the fence ourselves."

"A lark? No, my sister can fly higher for scouting-"

"Korpi," Korpi confirmed.

"-and I have fasted on the trail, we will be-" he squinted at the tall man before Morgan's voice confirmed his identity; the shaman offered the US Marshal sweets whilst continuing. "-favoured, for finding them."

He looked down at the candies and grinned at Whateley. "Ha! Well it is hard, to act properly whilst doing well for the people, it is true...I am tormenting myself with the sugar notions, but they are so pretty! I love the colours! And for Korpi, I could not see rats of sugar and not make a gift," he remarked.

"It is not where people are buried in the ground, the edge of the ranch-place, I hope?" Sky Dog asked Morgan without change of tone. "Is it protected, this fence, Whateley?"
This message was last edited by the player at 21:34, Thu 17 Apr 2014.

The Marshal went ahead and tried one of the candies, tentatively, then popped it into his mouth. "It wasn't a cemetery. I mean, there might've been a burial ground of some sort somewhere on the property, but at the point where we crossed it was just what looked like overgrown grazing land. Tall grass."