"Wow!" Jayne says. "They should definitely have said something about that. And even if you don't have the genes for Babylon 5, you do have the genes for something." She then play punches you in the shoulder. "I was supposed to be the pretty one. Now you're pretty and a veteran. How am I ever going to win?" she laughs prettily.

Abe smiled back.  "Well, you've still got me in personality, intellect, and looking a few years to the future, education.  I think you'll be okay.  Besides, we're not exactly competing for attention from the same audience."

As they talked he led the way back to the car.

"That is true," Jayne says and smiles. "Well, except for our parents. And you have three now. Do you know who he is?"

"I know enough of his information that I could track him down if I wanted to.  Not sure that I want to bother with it, though."  He responded as they continued toward the cars.

"Tom, you can come out to dinner at our home, if you'd like.  Otherwise, I'll probably see you tonight when I get back?"  He offered and asked.

Jayne nodded. "Yeah, I understand," she says. "You've had peanut butter your whole life and it's good. So why look for jelly."

Giving the two siblings some time to talk, Tom had been drifting along beside Abe and Jayne, not listening too carefully but picking up on the fact that Abe had a different father. "What's his name?" he asks casually as Abe mentions tracking down his father. "I could probably help you find him, if you want."

At the invitation to dinner, he smiles and says, "Tempting, man, but you go ahead and hang out with the fam. I've been training hard to get ready for camp this August, but I'll catch you soon." He pauses for a moment. "I decided to move out from where we were staying, but call me whenever you need me, okay?"

"Will do, Tom - I don't have all the resources for looking into people that I used to, so it might be nice to have a partner in crime if I do go looking.  Let me know if you need a running partner.  I can always help you check wherever you've gotten to against Marine-ready."  Abe said with a smile.  He wasn't sure what all had changed with Tom, but he knew he could still at least outrun Dean and Jack... but only in the day time.  If Tom was still on human-standard running and felt a need to train up for ROTC, Abe was pretty certain he'd be a good partner.  "I'll see you around, Tom.  Thanks again for the help."

Abe had conspicuously not given his father's name, but he would provide it in-person to Tom when away from his family at the earliest convenient time: Oberyn.  He'd also share with Tom that no one outside their cohort and Sparrow was allowed to know he was Oberyn's son at this point.

He replied to Jayne, "More like I've had peanut butter and jelly all my life, why go looking for sweet pickles?" He did so with a face that made his (low) opinion of sweet pickles clear.

"Bye Tom," Jayne says. "It was good to meet you."

"That sounds like a bad combination," Jayne says about the pickles. "I guess we have a lot to talk about when we get home."

"I'm not sure there'll be much talking about it.  Obviously Dad knows, but it's not been a topic of conversation and if possible I'd kind of like to leave it that way."  He started the car and aimed for home.

"So, how's the start of the summer going back east?"  He asked.

"It's good," Jayne says. "The research is really interesting and I'm TAing some of the introductory courses I've already taken and if nothing else I get to try something new and I get to reinforce my mastery of the subject, and I get paid."

"How's your summer been so far?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:05, Sat 04 Jan 2020.

You have a festive day as a family and after the family dinner that wrapped up the festivities, Jayne dressed up and got ready to go out.

"On the flight, I won two vouchers for this place downtown," she says when asked. "Arcane Lux, it's called. I had been seated next to this other student from Croatan, Thomas. And as I'm going back to Florida tomorrow, we're going out on a date tonight. I've got to see this place."

It's Sunday and you are back with Sparrow in her apartment.

"Traveling is one of our most useful abilities," she says. "Some call it Gating or Teleporting. But it is the ability to open a gate that will take you from one place to another."

She showed you how to cast it and you start to try. The first hour nothing happens and she continues to instruct you on how to refine your casting. After 90 minutes, something starts to sputter visually rather than auditorily. Opening partially and then closing prematurely and winking away into nothing.

After about two hours your first gateway opened up in front of you. The circle was barely wider than your shoulders. The other end was only about five yards away. And the rim was made of leaves rather than the fire around Sparrow's gates.

Abe nodded as Jayne told him about Arcane Lux.  He was even more suspicious about Thomas now.

When he had gone, he called Sparrow to ask if all patrons at Arcane Lux were prone to being part of the herd, or if it was selective.  He revealed that his mortal half-sister would be going there with an allegedly mortal friend tonight, and wanted to make sure she was okay without revealing that she was his sister.

</hr>

Abe squinted with effort as he finally created a gate.  He smiled when it formed.  It was hard, and he could barely imagine opening something he could step through cross-country.  But when he was a teenager he couldn't have imagined being able to run ten miles straight, either.  Effort and exhaustion were nothing new... but the scale of it for magic was.  "What makes the difference between our edges?  Is it like a fingerprint,  part of our family lineage, a magical inclination, degree of expertise, just current mood, or what?"

"No," Sparrow says. "It's a real club. Most of them know nothing of what's behind the curtain. Though I'm not sure how the Baron selects his herd."


-

"Fingerprints is a suitable metaphor. We're all different, but there are a few common themes, such as fire and nature. If people of the same theme are linked in some way, it's not by blood."

Skipping back to Saturday night.


You went to Arcane Lux, but instead of paying to get in the main entrance, you went in for free through the underground entrance. You had seen the voucher Jayne had won, free entrance from the VIP line and five free drinks.

You talked to Carson, but he wasn't interested in outside help. You still had the go of the club.

At the table, she had a drink and he had a glass of orange juice. They danced. They seemed to enjoy themselves. They seemed to have fun. And none of Carson's people or the few vampires in the club you knew by sight came close to them. A couple may have been as close as five yards from their table, but they weren't approached by anyone of them.

Abe was still suspicious of Tom.  He seemed benevolently aligned, but also like he must be some kind of wolf in sheep's clothing.  And not only because he was taking Jayne out.

So, Abe tried to observe the couple in two ways: first, to make sure that no one around took an interest in Jayne.  Second, he wanted to keep an extra close eye on Tom: did Tom take any note of anyone in particular as they entered or left the room.

GM passing a message

By the end of the night, Abe had seen enough.  He didn't want to approach Carson's people as he didn't want to draw more attention to Tom and Jayne from the supernatural group.  But he *was* convinced that Tom, like Daiyu, was something more than what met the eye.

He texted Sparrow to let her know he had some questions.  When he next saw her - whether that night or in the morning - he asked, "Sparrow, do you know of any supernaturals of a generally goodly disposition that can subtly mind-control others and either see the future or distant present, possibly in dreams?"

Back at Sparrow's apartment.

Abe asked his question about goodly, mind controlling, and precognitive supernatural creatures.

"Some vampires can do one or the other," Sparrow said. "But it would be a rare vampire that could do both. Some Fae can do some of that and pretend to do all of it, but only a powerful one would be able to do all of it. And only if they chose to go down that path. And there are more interesting or rewarding things to learn instead. But nothing else I can think of."

Abe dialed back his attempted deductions a bit, and let Sparrow know exactly what he had seen - a call saying there was a dream about a car accident and the group dying when they were (mostly) killed by werewolves.  Then showing up here, scoring coincidental tickets to the Lux, and having Carson's men and at least one vampire start to approach only to veer off with no outward sign.

"Interesting," Sparrow says. "From older pop culture references, the second part sounds like religious faith. That was the only thing that could hold vampires at bay. Usually with a crucifix. But in all my time, I have never seen nor heard of anything like that actually happening. And newer pop culture references have removed it from the list of things that can harm vampires as far as I know. And revelation has great importance for some religions. And that would fit in with being goodly that you mentioned earlier as well."

"Interesting indeed. Your observations point towards something that in my experience doesn't exist. Unless there is someone playing on the old pop culture references for fun. And Fae are known to do things like that. Or he is a Ta'veren, causing the very unlikely to happen just by his presence. But those are from the Wheel of Time and nothing I have a reason to believe actually exists either."

"Perhaps you should get Tom to sense him. That way you'll find out what he is."

"Oh, yeah."  Abe added.  "Add to the list 'Tom senses him as normal human.  Not even unusual human, like Carson's men.'  How odd is that?"

"Isn't that a mystery," Sparrow says. "We have a new supernatural creature no one knows about and it's undetectable by radar. That is very odd indeed. And apparently tied to the four of you."

She paused for a few moments.

"Could approaching the people you saw veer off give any insight in the matter? I'm assuming approaching the individual himself can't be done."

Abe shrugged.  "I can approach the person, but I was hoping to have an idea of what on earth I was approaching before I did.  I didn't approach the others that tried to approach him, as he was with my half-sister at the time and I didn't want anything to draw extra attention to her."  He admitted.  "I guess I'll just reach out to him directly and see what happens."

After a moment he added another question:  "You mentioned Fae going down paths... are there certain kinds of study or ability development that preclude others?"

Later on, he texted Thomas.  Hey Thomas.  Wanted to meet up to talk for a bit.  When's good for you?

"I'm sorry I couldn't be more illuminating in regards to this mystery," Sparrow says.

"In regards to learning as a Fae, it's the opportunity cost. When you choose to learn one thing, you also choose to not spend that time learning anything else. And some things take a long time to learn. And some things may be more interesting or easier to learn. And both of those things are quite hard and takes extensive study. So generally only those that take the effort to become very powerful gets around to learning the difficult and less useful abilities. Like your father has."



Sunday evening, as you are about to text Thomas, you get a text from the Baron. "Could you come to the club."

[OOC As the Baron wants to see you now, let's wait with texting Thomas until afterward.
And let's finish speaking with Sparrow before we continue with your meeting with the Baron.]