Water of Life Update
New story! We begin 5/31/05, the day after Memorial Day. The characters headed up to the Twin Cities. On the way, new Transmutations are purchased, as well as several people buying Presence and Empathy. Julia's webcam porn business is growing (she bought Resources), and Marty wound up in a little web action of his own.
Yeah. Someone on his boards (Marty runs a message board for supernatural beings he's met, and now I can't find the link, dammit - newbis, little help?) pointed him at a YouTube video of him...flying over the pines of Round Lake, IL. It's not really recognizable unless you know him, but still. The video has a message at the end, all text, claiming that it hasn't been altered or cut in any way, and there's more to come. It's signed "Network 0."
With all that in mind, the characters roll into the Minneapolis area and go to the Mall of America. Julia buys some slut-wear for her business, Jesus buys some new punch-daggers, and Julia (again) buys a knife to replace the one she lost in the River of Death. Hank tries to get the diamonds he brought from Stygia appraised, but they won't do it without ID...and of course everyone's ID dissolved. That's actually why they're there; so that Marty can contact his employers and have new documents sent to his PO Box. Well, there's another reason.
Marty's an environmental inspector, remember. Turns out there's something weird going on in St. Paul. Recently, pigeons in a downtown square near the capitol building were seeing flying in weird spiral patterns. In fact, it showed up on YouTube, too, because somebody filmed it and added a beat - but it hasn't been cut, those pigeons really are flying and spiraling rhythmically. Odd animal behavior is often an early sign of contamination, so Marty gets to check it out.
After the mall, the characters went downtown so Marty could hit the post office. They drove by a new piece of art near the capital building, a big sculpture made of glass and metal that seems to draw you in. The hypnotic effect isn't supernatural, they decided, just weird. Marty went to the post office and got two boxes of crap that he'd been sent, and the characters sat down in a nearby grassy area to sort.
And then they noticed the squirrels. The squirrels were watching them, staying still and never venturing near. When Hank got up and approached two, they scattered, but stopped about the same distance from him as though flanking him. This made the characters nervous, so they started heading back to the car...but a couple of squirrels followed. After dropping stuff off in their car, Marty decided to have a closer look at that statue. He activated Ephemeral Flesh and noted lots of spirits in Twilight (weird) that look emaciated (also weird). They just repeated that they were hungry, and weren't very helpful. He walked back to the sculpture and noted that it looked strange in Twilight, as though it had been here forever. Also, the hypnotic effect was much more pronounced her. Marty grabbed a chunk of ephemera to break off...and that's when it got all Hitchcock.
The pigeons swarmed him, pecking and biting. The others grabbed him and dragged him to the car...but those damn birds got in the car, too, and started attacking. Jesus drove (always scary), and they managed to kill the birds, but then got pulled over. The police, as it happened, had gotten calls about the "guy who got attacked by birds"), but when showed Marty's EPA ID, they got helpful (some lucky rolls on Disquiet, too). Turns out that a homeless guy had been killed by rats a few days ago. Yep, they just chewed him right open and he bled out. Never seen anything like it...
Marty got a number for the lady in charge of animal control, and then took the birds back to the RV for study. The news was there waiting, and he basically told them to sod off. When animal control showed up, they compared notes - Marty hadn't found a thing physically wrong with the bird. As he'd pretty much suspected.
Yeah. Someone on his boards (Marty runs a message board for supernatural beings he's met, and now I can't find the link, dammit - newbis, little help?) pointed him at a YouTube video of him...flying over the pines of Round Lake, IL. It's not really recognizable unless you know him, but still. The video has a message at the end, all text, claiming that it hasn't been altered or cut in any way, and there's more to come. It's signed "Network 0."
With all that in mind, the characters roll into the Minneapolis area and go to the Mall of America. Julia buys some slut-wear for her business, Jesus buys some new punch-daggers, and Julia (again) buys a knife to replace the one she lost in the River of Death. Hank tries to get the diamonds he brought from Stygia appraised, but they won't do it without ID...and of course everyone's ID dissolved. That's actually why they're there; so that Marty can contact his employers and have new documents sent to his PO Box. Well, there's another reason.
Marty's an environmental inspector, remember. Turns out there's something weird going on in St. Paul. Recently, pigeons in a downtown square near the capitol building were seeing flying in weird spiral patterns. In fact, it showed up on YouTube, too, because somebody filmed it and added a beat - but it hasn't been cut, those pigeons really are flying and spiraling rhythmically. Odd animal behavior is often an early sign of contamination, so Marty gets to check it out.
After the mall, the characters went downtown so Marty could hit the post office. They drove by a new piece of art near the capital building, a big sculpture made of glass and metal that seems to draw you in. The hypnotic effect isn't supernatural, they decided, just weird. Marty went to the post office and got two boxes of crap that he'd been sent, and the characters sat down in a nearby grassy area to sort.
And then they noticed the squirrels. The squirrels were watching them, staying still and never venturing near. When Hank got up and approached two, they scattered, but stopped about the same distance from him as though flanking him. This made the characters nervous, so they started heading back to the car...but a couple of squirrels followed. After dropping stuff off in their car, Marty decided to have a closer look at that statue. He activated Ephemeral Flesh and noted lots of spirits in Twilight (weird) that look emaciated (also weird). They just repeated that they were hungry, and weren't very helpful. He walked back to the sculpture and noted that it looked strange in Twilight, as though it had been here forever. Also, the hypnotic effect was much more pronounced her. Marty grabbed a chunk of ephemera to break off...and that's when it got all Hitchcock.
The pigeons swarmed him, pecking and biting. The others grabbed him and dragged him to the car...but those damn birds got in the car, too, and started attacking. Jesus drove (always scary), and they managed to kill the birds, but then got pulled over. The police, as it happened, had gotten calls about the "guy who got attacked by birds"), but when showed Marty's EPA ID, they got helpful (some lucky rolls on Disquiet, too). Turns out that a homeless guy had been killed by rats a few days ago. Yep, they just chewed him right open and he bled out. Never seen anything like it...
Marty got a number for the lady in charge of animal control, and then took the birds back to the RV for study. The news was there waiting, and he basically told them to sod off. When animal control showed up, they compared notes - Marty hadn't found a thing physically wrong with the bird. As he'd pretty much suspected.