Penny/Kate: Crowley gives a dry smile at Penny's comment of not wishing to see Belial again, even as he starts to draw the sigil on the wall with what appears to be red chalk. Lucky for us, two of your little friends have thoroughly ruined Belial's day, so we might even have a bit before he notices you missing, he says as he draws. Really threw a wrench in the whole, stealing children's souls for weapons plan, which I could have told you was too risky, he added, knowingly. Humans are far too attached to their wretched offspring. People tend to notice when hundreds of the beggars go missing. Good thing that went south, though. We'd all be thoroughly screwed otherwise. You do seem to recall hearing of the stealing of souls and Belial's plans for use of them, though that task had fallen to other hunters. To Colin, actually, if memory served. This is the first you've heard of him in weeks, and you can't help but wonder how the Irishman has been faring.

By now, the seal is finished and the portal opens once more, revealing the parlor of a beautiful house on the other side. You step through, and the portal closes behind you, leaving the three of you in sudden peace and tranquility, the sounds of clinking dishes coming from down the hall, likely the kitchen. It's so suddenly different from the prison you've been in for the last 30 hours, that it takes a moment to adjust. You're suddenly keenly aware of how hungry, tired and exhausted you are.

Alice:
Ian listens with alarm at the news of Crim. What the bloody-! he cuts himself off to shake his head. I hope the bullets are bloody worth it, he grumbles. The fool could have died. He stands then, still shaky but looking a bit steadier as he talks. Yes, I'll be alright. I think if you two had been a few minutes later, those drops wouldn't have worked. I'm feeling stronger by the second, don't you worry, he assures you, though his eyes still flash with worry of his own. I just hope Penny...No. Belial wouldn't kill her. He's had too many opportunities. We just need to get her back before the solstice. Come. If Crim is out of commission, maybe Emma will help. She likes Penny, but then again, who doesn't? he adds with a half smile.

He grabs his coat, rushing out as best as his weak limbs allow, though he does seem to gather strength as he goes along. He starts back towards the headquarters with you, and along the way you run into Simon and Lily, both looking relieved to see Ian upright. Ian informs them of the plan to get Emma and soon you are all in the warehouse, heading down the ladder to the tunnels to find Emma. The place is bustling, filled with hunters and men of letters, all looking triumphant for some reason. There is drinking, clapping on the back, cheers. It all feels quite out of place, considering Penny is gone. Ian frowns. What's going on? he demands the nearest fellow, who's holding a bottle in his hand, a grin on his face. He turns to Ian in surprise, then his grin widens. Ian, my good man! Did you hear? That Irishman, Colin, was it? He and Amelia did it! They freed the souls Belial's been collecting. His army's not half so powerful without them! We have a chance, a real chance! At this, another hunter nods, adding, Aye, but the poor lad lost his life. He shakes his head, speaking in a thick accent. But leave it to a fellow Irishman to get things done right! To Colin! He raises his bottle. "To Colin!" Everyone around you seconds. Naturally, you have no idea who Colin was, but Lily, Simon and Ian's expressions tell you it was someone they knew well and this is sad news indeed. Ian's face darkens, and he pushes through the still cheering crowd with the rest of you following, at last stopping in Victoria's office. Lily, meanwhile, leaves to find Emma, intending to meet you there.

As you enter the office, you Victoria, sitting across from a young woman you've never met. She's beautiful, with pale blonde hair, alabaster skin and deep blue eyes. She's clearly been crying, and she looks a mess. Her long hair is wild about her shoulders, her once fine clothes are covered in dried blood and she looks like she hasn't slept in a while. Both women turn to look at you all upon entering, falling silent. Ian stops in his tracks, at a loss of what to say for a moment before turning to introduce you. Amelia Kirk, this is Mary-Alice Reussoe Conner. I'm...sorry for your loss, he adds sincerely. Colin was a good man. But...we need your help.

'They succeeded?' Penny queried automatically, not so much doubting Crowley as wanting to be certain. But the news did not bring her joy, not when children had already suffered and died, and it did not bring relief and hope in such a dire and desperate situation. But it did perhaps lessen her despair, to know they might yet defeat Belial, even without her, even without Ian.

She stepped through the portal, but the house on the other side seemed no less unreal, for all its pleasantness and normalcy in contrast to the bleak and impossible cell she'd been in, for being another translocation today. Where was she now? It hardly mattered. There'd been no fight out of there, no demons to unleash her frustration and anger upon. Now she was thirsty, hungry, tired, and aching, but above all grief-stricken.

Abruptly, Penny collapsed onto Kate's shoulder and at last released what she'd been holding in. 'Oh, Ian.' she sobbed, body wracked and cheeks wet, the fresh pain gnawing at her mind and soul. 'He killed Ian. I loved him, and he killed him.'

Alice gave a nod and assessed the woman. "We can't daudle. We got ta get ta Penny. I ain't leavin my best friend to face some super demon alone."

Simon is a bit less callus. He moved over and knelt in front of the woman, and taking her hands if she will allow. "I'm Father Simon Cole, of the Eastern Church. Grief counselling is something I have experience with. Right now, though, we have a friend who is in jeopardy. If she succumbs, then it will be all the world that suffers. You're man was a hero and he died a hero. Honor that legacy now and help us, we need you."

Kate held Penny tightly though she’s clearly surprised by the declaration of love for Ian. That was something new! She felt the pangs of loss, partly for the passing of a friend and partly for Penny who had lost much more than a friend.

“I’m sorry Penny, you’ve been through more than your fair share of pain. Let’s get you cleaned up and have some food brought up.” Kate led her daughter towards the stairs catching Crowley’s eye as they passed. “If you can have them send up a tray.”

Once upstairs Kate directed Penny to a small sitting room that was attached to a much larger bedroom. A cheery fire crackled in the hearth and she plunked the girl down in an overstuffed chair near the fireplace. “I’m afraid Crowley isn’t going to give us a lot of time to griev,.” she confessed, passing Penny a handkerchief.  “But I think I’ve bought us a moment or two so we can get you cleaned up and put back together,” She winced at the words, knowing that Penny would probably never be completely “back together” again.

“Tell me what you need and I will make sure you have it. Even if that’s Belial’s head on a platter.” She flashes a wicked grin.

Simon/Alice: Amelia wipes her eyes, giving a shaky nod but she runs her fingers through her hair, trying to straighten it as best she can, sitting taller in her chair. Her countenance changes. She's proper, strong, refined, even if her fingers tremble as they twist her hair into a bun. You're right. He'd never forgive me if I fell apart now, she says softly. Not after everything he did. She clears her throat, speaking firmer, as she turns to face you all. Give me a minute to pull myself together. I'll want to get this...blood off me, she says the word stiffly and you wonder whose blood it is. And I'll need some things. I'll make you a list, Victoria. Most of all, I'll need something of this woman's, to track her with. Any item will do, though the more significant the better. This isn't a solitary job either. I'll need two more witches besides myself, she adds, giving a gesture to Victoria. The stronger the better, which means you have to be one of them, she informs the other woman. Victoria nods, and with that, Amelia stands to leave, though as she passes Father Simon, she gives him a small, grateful smile. If we live through this, I may take you up on your counseling services, Father. Thank you. With that, she's through the door. With her gone, Victoria gives a sad nod. Amelia Kirk is the best we have, save for her father who is away currently. If anyone can help us find Penny, she can. She's suffered an awful shock though. She brought back Colin's body just a few hours ago. You'll need to keep her focused. Meanwhile, I'll track down Emma, prepare her to help with the ritual. What I need from you is to find something of Penny's. I imagine Ian will want to lead that little mission... she says with a knowing look at the man, and his eyebrows go up a little in surprise, no doubt not expecting her to know of his relationship with the woman.

ooc: Ok, so the ritual will take a bit of time to prep. Like, a whole day. Other than helping Ian find the items (which are back at his flat), how will your two characters spend their time? There's not long til the final battle, so there's lots of preparations to make on top of the hunt for Penny. Let me know any little details you want to take care of.

Kate/Penny: You manage to find clothes that fit Penny, even stylish ones at that, and a bath if she wishes it. It also doesn't take long before a tray of food is brought. Tea, soup, bread, pudding and, surprisingly, a bottle of scotch. That screams of Crowley's thinking, of course. Penny, you note that the time is roughly 11 in the morning, though how many days have passed is the real question. You'd estimate roughly a little over a day, though it felt like longer.
ooc: Feel free to converse and catch up with each other! This is one of your last chances before the last battle.

Simon spends the extra time in prayer to recover spent caastings.

Alice will spend her time tending Crim.

At last, Penny bit back her sobs and allowed Kate to lead her to a private room and to a comfortable chair, which she dropped wearily into. Taking the proffered handkerchief, she wiped dry her reddened eyes. She still felt so raw, hollowed and filled with pain. But having Kate, her mother and friend, back at her side was welcome, making her think she could get through this. She could not think what she might do were she alone. 'Thank you.' she murmured, but did not move to clean up any further. She was in no hurry. She added bitterly. 'But I would like to take Belial's head personally.'

She needed to change the topic, away from Belial, away from Ian. But there was precious little in her life right now that did not revolve around the demon prince. She turned to Kate and asked, almost pleading, 'Kate, what you doing back here? You were returned to your own time, were you not? You were away, safe, free from all this. How did you come to join Crowley and find me in that place?' She just needed to know the whole story, to understand what was going on. But knowing Kate was safe had been reassuring, making her believe at least one of them could be free. That she was not was disconcerting.

When the food came, Penny picked at it like a bird, without much appetite but only a need to refuel, though she did drink deeply of the scotch.

“You guys were losing. And it was reflected in my timeline.” Kate replied honestly. She dug into her pocket and produced a small package wrapped in plastic. Penny might remember the treat from her visit to the future as a candy bar. She plunked it in the tray, hoping to encourage her daughter to eat.
“It was really bad. Apocalypse bad. I knew something must be terribly wrong here but I couldn’t find a way back to you. Then I bumped into Crowley and it wasn’t difficult to convince him to help me. I’m still a little nervous about that….”
While Crowley had been helpful she wasn’t looking forward to when he came calling on her to return the favor. This is if they survived all this…

Munching on some bread dipped in soup, Penny frowned at Kate's hints of a future changed for the worst. It was that bad? The deaths of herself and others, and a fresh king installed in Hell, did not seem at the least to alter things greatly. Demons would always do dark and vile deeds, no matter who led them. But this suggested there was so much more at stake.

Then she looked sharply up Kate, full of alarm. 'What do you mean? He didn't try to strike a deal, did he? It's better to appeal to a demon's self-interest than to bargain with them.'

Kate flashed a grin. "Let's just say I owe him a favor..." She knew that owing a demon, especially one such as Crowley a favor wasn't ideal. But that was her problem, not Penny's.
"Don't worry about it, that's tomorrow Kate's problem."

'But you're tomorrow Kate.' Penny pointed out, puzzled by Kate's idiom as usual but knowing that, as she'd come from the future, as she was in effect from "tomorrow". But Penny shook her head, not wanting to get into trans-temporal grammar right now, though she still needed to talk, about anything but what had happened to Ian. She reached out to clasp Kate's hand, saying softly 'In any case, I am most glad to have you back, Kate... We did not get the opportunity to talk much last time, about, ah, the possibility of your baby being... me.' It was difficult to even articulate, even now: the revelation had come as such a shock, and it still seemed impossible that she should have a mother from the future, of roughly her own age, and that their relationship had changed from one of friendship to mother and daughter. How could a lifetime of such bonding be achieved now?

“No we really didn’t get to talk about it much at all.” She has a slightly haunted look at the memory of her time spent in captivity with the baby. With Penny. It still boggled her mind, but the bond she felt towards her once friend now daughter was undeniable. “I definitely think we could both benefit from some family counseling after this,” Kate squeezed Penny’s hand back with a grin.
“Just know that not a day has gone by where I haven’t thought of you. Wished we could talk. And now that we’re actually here together…I don’t know what to say! Her eyes were misty with un-shed tears but she managed to keep the smile on her lips.

Penny was not certain what this family counselling was, nor how they could possibly explain this situation, yet she understood the sentiment. And she understood Kate's longing and loss, better than she thought she would, for she had felt it too, all her life. Penny spoke hesitantly, screwing her hands through her nightgown in her anxiousness. 'Yes. I... All my life, I wondered what I would say to you, what would I ask you. If you were proud of me... And now the words seem too small and trite, they cannot begin to cover... such a huge gap in our lives. But I guess we must start somewhere.' She faced Kate with a hopeful half-smile, though it did not quite meet her reddened eyes. 'How have you been, Mother?'

"Oh God," Kate snorted "Mother, I'm never going to get used to that." Penny was her daughter so she would allow it, even though it was super weird to hear.

"I've been...okay?" She's asking herself the question more than Penny. It had been a rough time adjusting to her old timeline. She threw herself into hunting, and when she wasn't doing that she was usually drinking and watching re-runs on her television.
"I have missed you so much. I'd be lying if I told you it hasn't been a struggle. We were robbed Penny." bitterness crept into her voice. "But what's done is done, there's no purpose dwelling on what could have been. After all, who knows what tomorrow will bring us. I can assure you that no mother is prouder than I am of her daughter."

'Kate, then.' Penny concluded with a small smile at Kate's discomfort, for it had felt just as strange to say as it must have been to hear. She might as well call a perfect stranger or dear friend the same, and it would feel just as strange, having not grown up as her child. Maybe one day they could say 'daughter' and 'mother' and it would have meaning, but today they were still Penny and Kate, friends.

She frowned, her mouth a tight, sad line as she struggled to find her feelings and keep them contained. For Kate, it had only been quite recent, the pain was surely still fresh and the emotional wound raw. For Penny, it had been a whole lifetime, an absence of something she could only ever guess at. Yet she felt this growing warmth of connection now. 'Thank you. And I never been so proud of an ancestor as now.' she said steadily. She went on more softly as she remembered, casting her mind back to the moors of Devon. 'I looked for you, you know, while growing up. Father, or whomever he really was now, refused to ever speak of my mother. I suppose now I know why. But then, I presumed my mother had died in childbirth, and he had grown hard and resentful in his grief. Yet I needed to know who you were, where I came from. So I searched the house for photographs and letters, I asked the staff, the farmers, and people in the village. I consulted church and county records for some clue. I credit it with making me become a detective. And I learned to perform séances to find your ghost. I talked to fairies and nature spirits and other things, and though they could say little, they hinted at your courage and my destiny. It set me on the path to becoming a hunter.' She leaned forward as she confided something she was only just discovering now. 'So, you see, all that I am I still owe to you.'

Simon/Alice: Amelia's promise of tracking Penny down is fulfilled. It takes a lengthy ritual, the three witches meeting in Victoria's office for hours, but at last the exhausted women emerge, looking tired but triumphant. She's in town, Belial didn't take her far, Amelia informs you with a hint of a smile. I have an address. Though, who knows what traps the demon has for you there. This is not the time to skimp on hunters, she shakes her head. Victoria nods at this. Nor shall we. You stay, Amelia. You've done enough. I will go, and twelve of our best, along with Alice, Ian, and Lily, if that suits you? she arches a brow at you all. Emma lifts a hand then, her usually perfect hair a bit messy from the long tiring ordeal the witches have been through. I'm coming too. Don't ask me why, but I've grown fond of the Brit these last weeks. Might as well do what I can for her. Victoria nods and with that, you depart, since preparations were made during the ritual already.

Ian takes point as you all arrive on the quiet street on the outskirts of the city. It's daylight now, not ideal, but with the solstice so close you don't have time to wait for cover of darkness. The twelve hunters take different points of the house, a rambling, massive thing that looks well kept and well to do. They stay back a ways, so as not to alert anyone and, from what you can see, there are several guards on the wrap around porch, sitting and trying to act natural but failing quite miserably.

ooc: Alice: Roll spot, move silently, hide please.

08:14, Today: Mary-Alice Reussoe Conner rolled 29 using 1d20+10.  Hide.
08:14, Today: Mary-Alice Reussoe Conner rolled 15 using 1d20+10.  Mv sileny.
08:13, Today: Mary-Alice Reussoe Conner rolled 30 using 1d20+10.  Spot
Nat 20 on spot!

Alice: ooc: Wow! Nice!
ic: You manage to keep a low profile. It helps that there are lots of buildings and brick walls in the neighborhood to keep you covered. You scan the area, having a particularly good vantage where you are. The guards look on decent alert but are clearly distracted with mild conversation with each other and the like. Obviously they don't expect you and are likely there for precautionary measures at best. There are two entrances and they look well guarded, but what draws your eyes most is the window in the upper level. You see a familiar figure through it. Penny. She's talking to a woman with short, dark hair that you don't recognize, and she's dressed rather strangely. Both women look completely at ease, not the look of prisoners. They appear to be deep in conversation and talking about something important. This is not what you expected. Penny does not look like a damsel in distress. Something feels strangely comforting about this. You had expected to be coming to the rescue, fighting against Belial's men or even Belial himself, but it almost seems as though a rescue is unnecessary, at least judging by the way the two women are acting. What is going on? Who are these people?

Penny/Kate: Roll spot checks please. Kate, I know you're a bit busy lately so I am rolling yours for you!

OOC: I got a pretty good roll. :)
16:47, Today: Penny Dreadful rolled 30 using 1d20+14.  Spot.

Ooc: hahahahaha! For some reason knowing the way you two perfectly see each other cracks me up so much! I can just imagine this slow, awkward wave...

Looking up at Penny there is confusion written on her face. She pulled her gun, pointed at it and looked questioningly.

After some time speaking with Kate, Penny had risen and wandered around the room without real purpose. She was finding an urge to stretch her legs, to move and act, to do something against Belial and so distract herself from Ian's death. She could hardly sleep, not with the potential of nightmares of for Belial to disturb her again, and she couldn't wallow in grief all day, and most of all she couldn't afford to. All that had happened had showed her his victory was so much nearer, and so much more certain, than it had been before.

Idly, Penny glanced out the window, wondering where and indeed when this house was, and feeling a remote fear the enemy might find them here. That was when she saw the figure outside. Alice? She almost didn't recognise her, she didn't expect her to be here. With gun in hand and creeping about, she didn't appear to be here as a friendly house guest either. So Penny stared back with the same blank confusion, and finally shook her head slowly, hoping to convey the sense she was in no danger.

Penny turned away from the window. She was sure she could trust Kate, but Crowley? 'Kate? Does anyone know we are here? The Men of Letters maybe?'


OOC: Sorry, I was sick and forgot this.

“No. It was a pretty last minute decision. I didn’t have time to alert anyone. Why?” Kate noted Penny’s glance out the window and her hand slid to her weapon that was still holstered under her jacket.