From the Ashes Reborn (IC)

[Spectrum]

Mr Rabbit did indeed just lie there..

But the issue was skirted around in school just the very last day.

Lilith: School! School! School! Today was about the old contracts that were laid out when The People were banished from the mortal realm. A question was asked about whether the old contracts were still in force if they weren't followed. It has difficult to follow, but it was enough to start getting your imagination firing. The teacher didn't give much more of answer other than 'that's the way it's always been'. Maybe, just maybe, its something worth looking into if you're going to get ahead.

[cobalt-blue]

Shannon North
Condition: Concerned
HP 2

"Okay, we start with her neighbors. We're working on a story for our school paper about a woman outside of our school district. She's just that good of a woman. It's doable I guess. But how do we tie that into our SIDS babies?" Shannon asked thoughtfully as they headed toward the area under discussion.

[Mr.Sandman]

Catherine McMars
HP 1

"Two school papers? There are four of us here so we split into teams of 2. One asking questions about the lady for a social studies paper, the other about the kids as an, I don't know, health class paper?" Catherine says, contemplatively.

[timothy]

Tommy
HP - 1
Luck - 1
Condition - focussed

"I don't think the deaths themselves are what we need to focus on.

"The question is why they started when they did. I'm pretty sure that it wasn't a coincidence, that Mrs. Jackson was, somehow, involved with holding whatever's behind this at bay."

Tommy moves forward, turning so he is walking backwards as he speaks.

"I think we need to focus on her routine. Where she went regularly and who she went with. If we can figure out what she was doing, maybe we can start it back up or at least figure out what she was stopping.

"Oh, and Shannon, you got a cell phone, right? Give Pat a call and see if she or Rachel can come up with anything on wardings that might have been used. Oh, and see if they can come up with any history of tragic chilld deaths in the area. Not supernatural, necessarily, just sudden and trauma-inducing."

He stumbles and just manages to not fall. He turns, with a sheepish look on his face, and focusses on his footsteps.

[Coyotzin]

Hypatia "Pat" Burgess
HP: 1 Cond: Confuzzled but insightful

"Uh..." Pat stood, speechless at whatever it was that came out of her mouth. And with both Lilian and Mr. Tibbs looking at her, she more than welcomed Rachel's interruption.

"I'll get the pizza." She said and left the room very quickly, her mind buzzing with questions. Okay, so apparently she also had the power to banish beings to wherever it was they had come from, maybe the powers she had acquired were that of some sort of exorcist? The senses to identify the supernatural, and the power to cast them out? But what about supernatural things that were native to the world? What was she supposed to do about those? She didn't feel particularly fast or strong to fight a vampire, for example.

To say that Pat had a train of thought would be glorifying the rail system. The closest metaphor to how she went through things was a jumpgate network of thought, and her latest destination was dialed when she returned to the store floor and saw Rachel talking warmly with some customers. People flocked to her naturally... as they would probably around Clementine Jackson. Rachel was too new to the area to be a pillar of the community, but if today was any indication, she was on the right track.

People probably loved Clementine Jackson.

She took her cellphone and dialed Shannon.

"Hello, Shannon." She greeted once the boy picked up. "Listen, I just thought about something; people probably held Mrs. Jackson in very, very high regard. My money's still in that she was a witch, like Rachel, but be very careful in how you ask things around the neighborhood, you're looking for anyone who might have been in on her being... well, "special", but you don't want to step on any toes. Oh... and ask for any pet she might have had... if she had a familiar and he survives her, he might now a lot more about what's going on there. I'd tell you to look for an animal with a broken golden chain around his neck, but I think only I could see that..."

[cobalt-blue]

Shannon North
Condition: Inquisitive
HP 2

Shannon smiled as Pat gave her litany of information. When she was finished, he said, "Good idea, Pat. We'll definitely look into that. Ed wants to know if you or Rachel know anything about any wardings of which we should be aware."

Shannon looked around the spoke. Catching Ed's eye mouthed, "We need to be careful how we approach her specialness. Ask about pets."

[Mr.Sandman]

Catherine McMars
Condition: Good
HP 1

"That makes sense. We split into 2 teams, 1 of 3, 1 of 2?" Catherine asks of Shannon. He seems the most able to be the leader.

[Hound]

Lilith
HP: 1

With every step Lilith took, the sound of her shoes on marble echoed through out the public records building. This building was easily the most important building in all of the Demon world, it's size was massive, bigger than any school, bigger than the blood sport coliseum, bigger than even the Over Lord's castle. This building housed a public copy of every single contract ever involving the demon world.

Hundreds, no maybe thousands of rows of shelves, each one jammed packed with folders, binders, and other booklet like objects holding together contracts. Some contracts as small as a single page, others as long as a thousand pages, stipulating every single tiny little condition and effect.

In such a hollowed ground, Lilith was understandably nervous, she had never come to such a place. The rules for visiting the public hall were simple. Any demon who causes damage to the contracts, or through action causes damage to a contact is immediately teleported to a holding cell where they await judgement. Obviously very few demons were dumb enough to start trouble in such a sacred place, where judgement often ended in the worse possible torture known to the three races.

The young demoness held up her stuffed rabbit, "Mr. Rabbit are you sure?"

"..." The toy said nothing.

"Aisle 217..." She repeated to herself and pushed onward. "File A7C4Y..." She began reading the folders looking for the correct document.

When she pulled out the document she read, "At the end of the Celestial, Demonic, Human War year 912 of the reign of Over Lord Borial, the Celestials... blah blah blah... Demons can only go to the human dimension, dimension 312, also known as the human world, if summoned. Summon musty be... blah blah blah... If Celestials commit... blah blah blah, contract is bull and void. Humans can... blah blah blah.... summon demons through anger... blah blah blah..."

Lilith sighed, after nearly an hour of reading through the file she turned to her stuffed animal, "What am I suppose to be looking for?"

"..."

"Really?"

"..."

"You're kidding!"

"..."

"Amazing... so you're saying the contract was voided by the celestials more than a millennia ago? All demon's have the natural flaw that they must follow a contract, so thinking we must follow this contract the only way for us to go to the human world is to be summoned. But since this contract is actually null and void, all we have to do is actually realize we are not bound by this, and are in fact capable of inter dimensional travel at will?" Lilith stared at Mr. Rabbit for a moment, gripped her rabbit and closed her eyes. "What the hell, let's give it a try. Worse case scenario nothing happens."

[insaniac99]

Ed

Shannon North
Shannon looked around the spoke. Catching Ed's eye mouthed, "We need to be careful how we approach her specialness. Ask about pets."

"So you think she might have had another symbiote or whatever Tibbs is? Shouldn't be too hard to figure out if she had a favorite pet. Did you find any photos of her? Perhaps it would be in one of those."

I'm posting from another country! I'll be back in my home town by Friday though.

[Spectrum]

Remember When...

No sooner than Pat and Rachel settle down with a piece of scrumptous fatiness on a shingle..

Two screams and a cackle come forth from the back room, each of them disturbing in its own way..
The shrill sound of a cat having its tail stepped on..
The shock of a young girl in a panic (wow Lillian could grow up to be a scream queen)
Something just as feminine, the sound twisting the air, making it corrupt in its wake.

The back room..

As Lilith steps from Hell, she feels something soft and squishy under her toes..

And is welcomed by her dog.. and oooh, an unattended familiar under her foot.

[RdMarquis]

Julie Watson
Condition: Neutral
HP: 4

"Do you want to draw straws?" She readjusts her hairpin. "Or does somebody get to pick their favorite? By the way, we might want to look around for people who didn't like Ms. Jackson, or were at least suspicious of her. Someone who cared about her would have a reason to stay quiet if they knew anything about her. If she had any enemies, they obviously wouldn't feel the same. Don't mention the supernatural right off the bat, either. Give them a chance to bring it up."

[Hound]

Lilith
HP: 1

Lilith cackled as she plucked the cat up by the scruff of the neck. "What is this? My Dog is with a Cat? How amusing..." Her eyes fixated on Lillian, like a tiger eyeing a mouse for a light snack.

"Tell me, Dog. Why would you run away from such a loving master as me? Did I not keep you safe? When others wanted to flay your skin, and fry it up for a midnight snack, did I not protect you? Did I not give you clothes to hide your shame? Did I not protect your maiden hood from that 16 armed, tenticle monster with the extra long tongue, with an affinity for drooling? All I asked was for your obidence like the dog you are. To serve me for life."

Lilith took a few slow steps toward the frozen Lillian, a faint smile curled on Lilith's face, making it hard to tell just what she was thinking. "It was an easy job. Clean my room. Feed the hell hounds. Do my laundry. Prepare my meals. Wash my back in the bath. You got to eat in the kitchen with the other servants, you were even given a small room adjoined to mine. What more could a dog ask for? Hmmm?"

[Mr.Sandman]

Catherine McMars
HP 1

"Shannon and I have the more defensive abilities so one of us should be in each group. I can go with Tommy while you two go with him. We can start from here and go separate ways, talking to different people." Catherine says, deciding they should get going.

[timothy]

Tommy
HP - 1
Luck - 1
Condition: good

"Good idea, Catherine. But it might be better to bring either Eddie or Julie with us. Just in case I need to, um, get a little sneaky."

[insaniac99]

Eddie

"It also makes sense that I go with the three person group, since I don't have any powers" Eddie paused as he remembered the earlier admonishment about messing with the board back at the shop "or at least none that I know how to control"