|
|
Post by Wyatt Moran on Oct 30, 2012 20:27:32 GMT -5
[wyatt]That he let her pet on him was a sign that he was feeling more than a little off as he shook his head, letting it fall forward, eyes closing as he thought.
"No," he said, "It only works after the spell takes hold."
"But we can beat him with a bible," Dani pointed out, no sign of the worry she was actually feeling showing. "You have one?"
"Point it at me," Wyatt corrected without lifting his head. "Not hit me with it."
"Tomato tomahto."[/wyatt]
|
|
|
|
Post by Norah Byron on Oct 30, 2012 20:39:15 GMT -5
[norah]"See you blew your shot. I, in fact, do have a bible, and I was going to have Amanda of the red hair and freckles and improbably round breasts come over and sit on your lap to read you psalms. You're out of luck now, though."
Norah stood up and kissed the top of Wyatt's head, but after that stopped hovering. Much. Instead she checked Dani. "You, babe? They didn't mess with you too bad?" Even in the firelight she could see that Luke had the pallor that meant Incoming Migraine. She would pull him if she had to, but was just praying he'd last long enough to cover up them doing whatever it was with the eggs. Speaking of, "So what's up with the eggs?"[/norah]
|
|
|
|
Post by Wyatt Moran on Oct 30, 2012 20:59:53 GMT -5
[wyatt]"I'll be better once he's better," Dani said, looking over Wyatt and not liking what she saw. Part and parcel with her condition was kind of being able to see a person's soul, aura, whatever you wanted to call it, and her brother's was already fading out of him. This wasn't good. "I was serious about the bible, we need to open one."
Surprisingly, it was Miguel who went to get it.
Wyatt answered about the eggs, mostly because he wanted to be talking for once, it was helping keep him present. "Black fowl have an association with the black manl in hoodoo," he said, "The black man being a god, it gives them a magical charge in their own right. Good or bad, it all comes down to intent." He stopped, so Dani picked it up.
"They absorb evil," she said simply enough, "Or evil intent, in this case. The soap's made out of it, too. But the juju only goes so far and that was the only bar I had. There's a ritual and if it works, he'll be good as new." She even sounded sure of it, but her eyes as she looked at Norah were worried.[/wyatt]
|
|
|
|
Post by Norah Byron on Oct 30, 2012 21:15:27 GMT -5
[norah]Norah looked between the siblings, then checked the time on her phone, then sat down on Wyatt's knee and got her arm around his shoulders. "I gotta get me some of that soap. Maybe I'll talk Charlie into manufacturing it." She didn't pet at Wyatt, though she wanted to, but she did stay on his knee and keep her arm around him. She'd been doing Sexless Affection with him since the day they met and it was not the time to be changing that. "Tell me about the ritual." Just to keep him talking.[/norah]
|
|
|
|
Post by Wyatt Moran on Oct 30, 2012 21:32:08 GMT -5
[wyatt]"S'not much too it," he said, feeling decidedly drowsy now, lighter in a way that made it hard to think. He laid his head on her shoulder and went on. "Roll the eggs, say the words, throw them into running water when they're full."
Dani was watching all of this with the unease growing, looking from him to where Charlie had driven away, willing him to get back, even though it was too soon.[/wyatt]
|
|
|
|
Post by Norah Byron on Oct 30, 2012 21:43:22 GMT -5
[norah]She stroked at his hair, comforting as best she could. "Stay with me, Wyatt. I need you right now. Tell me about the last insanely stupid thing Dani committed you to because she's too damned open with her heart and her time. I need your help. I need you to talk and keep talking. Please." She wasn't afraid to play the damsel-in-distress card, not in this case. And she thought he'd respond to it. He might like to pretend not to be a white knight, but he was one just the same.[/norah]
|
|
|
|
Post by Danika Moran on Oct 31, 2012 7:40:41 GMT -5
[dani]Dani watched with eyes burning while Norah kept Wyatt talking, taking the Bible when Miguel brought it and opening it to a certain page, facing it east and setting it at Wyatt's feet while he told Norah all about how she had told Robby, a hunter Norah hadn't met, that they were going to have Thanksgiving at the Ranch and to spread the word. She couldn't help but smile, even in the dire situation, because even as weak as he was, he sounded so pissed about that and how now probably half of the hunting population of the southwest was going to crawling all over his place now. "Our place," Dani said gently, having sat by where she'd laid the Bible and started stroking his leg. "And you like the company, and I'm doing all the cooking, so shut up about it already and invite Norah." "Okay," Wyatt said, sounding weaker, almost drunk now, "You come, too." He closed his eyes, snuggling his head into Norah's neck, and stopped talking. "He's still here," Dani said, before Norah could freak, "But Charlie needs to hurry." Charlie was hurrying, but acting like it wasn't a matter of life and death (and he thought it was? Maybe?) and just a musician's demand and being friendly and what not took more time than he'd counted on. By the time he came tearing back in the van, Dani was gone and a big black weird looking dog was at his feet. It was the tail, maybe. He'd never seen a tail like that on a dog. Probably one of the new designer breeds, he figured, and didn't give it another thought. Dani lifted her head and whined, incredibly pissed she'd changed, both because she was losing her brother and because it wasn't the best time. Thankfully, right before it had happened, she'd explained to Norah about rolling the eggs all over Wyatt's person and the words that needed said as that happened and told her they could be thrown and broken at the base of a tree if need be. She nudged the girl's legs. It was up to her and Miguel and Charlie now, and time was of the essence. She was freaking useless to them now.[/dani] |
|
|
|
Post by Norah Byron on Oct 31, 2012 9:18:19 GMT -5
[norah]Norah kissed Wyatt's sweat-damp hair and slid up off his lap, getting Miguel to hold the hunter's shoulders so he wouldn't slump over. She gave Charlie a tight hug and took the eggs from him, picking up the first one and rolling it right over the bite mark on Wyatt's shoulder.
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." She recited Romans 12, which she'd been studying since Dani slipped skin, getting prompts from Charlie as needed as she rolled and rubbed the egg over Wyatt.
It was a disturbingly intimate process, sliding the delicate oval thing all over him, having to kneel at his feet sometimes, to push his clothes out of the way to get at places she sensed or guessed needed the touch of shell to skin. The egg in her hand would get heavier as she used it, until there came a certain point that it just felt 'done' to her. Norah wasn't any kind of proper psychic, but the running theory was that she was some kind of sensitive, had to be to attract so many hunters and monsters.
She was on her fourth egg, sitting facing Wyatt on his lap with the hunter leaning back into the support of Miguel's hands, Wyatt's shirt peeled off and discarded so that she could run the egg back and forth over the red, puffed bite mark when she saw the first flash of real awareness in Wyatt's eyes.[/norah]
|
|
|
|
Post by Wyatt Moran on Oct 31, 2012 9:34:25 GMT -5
[wyatt]By the time the fifth egg was set aside, Wyatt was fully back into himself (it was the only way to describe it), taking the next egg and doing the work himself. By the ninth, he was done. And in his boxers, because it had just been easier.
Getting his jeans back on very quickly, followed by one of his tee shirts - the one that had been the outermost, the innermost was damp with sweat and already smelled - he looked at the dog. "Well?" he asked, "I'm good."
Charlie watched as Wyatt started having a conversation with the thing, blinking when the dog chuffed in what was clearly an answer and looked off in the distance.
"I know, the tree, I got it. I'm fine, duty done, blah blah get back here already."
But the dog whined and ran off and Charlie had to do something because he was really getting very close to flipping his shit.
He bent and picked up the baseball hat that had fallen off of Wyatt's head, handing it to him. "Tree?" he asked.
"Have to break the eggs at the base of a tree, the older the better," Wyatt said, already scanning around to find one. Settling on a good candidate, he picked up the eggs and headed there. When Charlie started to follow, he shook his head. "Gotta do this part by myself."
Charlie watched him go and went to stand by Norah. "I don't suppose there's a nutshell version of all of this that isn't going to make me wet myself."[/wyatt]
|
|
|
|
Post by Norah Byron on Oct 31, 2012 9:39:27 GMT -5
[norah]Smiling a little sadly, Norah handed Charlie a beer and picked up a bottled hard lemonade for herself. "Not really," she had to admit. "It was what it looked like. Exactly what your gut says it was and your brain says it can't be."
"Luke," she glanced out at the party but didn't spot her brother right away. As Alec was still there, she assumed that Luke had gone off with a girl rather than had one of his spells, "is a medium. He's been able to see and talk to the dead since he was thirteen. But it wasn't until we got out on the road that we learned that ghosts are just the smallest part of it. There's a lot of weird in the world. And more than a little of it's dangerous."[/norah]
|
|
|
|
Post by Charlie Davis on Oct 31, 2012 9:55:36 GMT -5
[charlie]He opened the beer and took a long drink, listening to what she had to say.
At the heart of things, Charlie was a very basic entity. He didn't quite see the world in black and white, but it was a very, very close thing. And he had no reason at all to think that his friend would lie to him, or be punking him, or anything of that sort. It just didn't even occur to him.
"Okay," he said, just that easily believing her. "Why, exactly, isn't it common knowledge? I mean, wouldn't we all be safer if everyone knew about it?"[/charlie]
|
|
|
|
Post by Norah Byron on Oct 31, 2012 13:24:44 GMT -5
[norah]"I don't know." She was honest enough about that. "I've never really looked in to that. Part of it, I think, is that while there's some very weird shit in the world there's also per capita not that many people who ever see it or encounter it. Me, my friends, we end up seeing a lot of it because of Luke and because we help out hunters--people who work to make sure that the worst of it, the stuff that hurts people, gets taken down. It makes us kind of a trouble magnet." She sort of gestured over toward the bonfire, which was still going strong, as was the party around it.[/norah]
|
|
|
|
Post by Charlie Davis on Oct 31, 2012 13:58:26 GMT -5
[charlie]Charlie followed her gaze and shook his head. "And they all think that was just...part of the party," he said, disbelieving.
"You were ready to believe it," Wyatt said as he came back, going straight for his beer and the steak that was still there. He was starving. Nearly losing your soul to an unknown entity did that to a man.
"I mean, yeah, okay, maybe, but not really," Charlie said weakly then realized something. "Where's Dani?"
"That's a really good question," Wyatt said. She should have been back by now, assuming she'd run off to wait out the transformation back out of Charlie or anyone else's view.
As if on cue, Dani came wandering back from the direction of the lake. She was dressed just as she had been because the shift, if that was what it was, never ruined her clothing. One minute she was a person, the next a dog, same when she went back to being a girl. She had zero control over it. The only thing different about her was that she'd obviously been crying.
"Shit," Wyatt swore under his breath, giving Miguel a look and jogging off toward her, the other man following.
"It wasn't you," Dani told Wyatt in a very, very low whisper only he and Miguel could hear. "I thought you being about to be shellified was what triggered it. But," she swallowed. A thousand or so deaths and she still cried, it was sort of pathetic, she figured. "A girl drowned, out in the lake. Got a foot caught in vegetation. She's still at the bottom." She shook her head. "The body, I mean. Won't come up without help. Don't know what you," this to Miguel, now, "Want to do about it."
Charlie watched them all pow wow-ing, both men looking so serious. "So are they," he was talking about Wyatt and Miguel, "Hunters, then?"[/charlie]
|
|
|
|
Post by Norah Byron on Oct 31, 2012 14:06:12 GMT -5
[norah]"They aren't, not really. They're more like us, they provide a safe place for hunters who need it, or information about the ghoulies and ghasties and long-leggedy beasties that people might run into. But Wyatt's hunted in the past, it makes him better at dealing with direct threats than I'll ever be."
She was watching Dani with the guys, tense but they hadn't called her in and so she didn't go over. Yet. "I'm sorry, honey. I never wanted to draw you into this. It's not my whole life, just a part of it. A really strange and sometimes dangerous part of it. But it was never the intention to suck you in."
Miguel, meanwhile, was scowling. Because scowling was his default expression. "Was she one o' the partygoers?" She would be. Luck always, always ran like that.[/norah]
|
|
|
|
Post by Charlie Davis on Oct 31, 2012 14:28:36 GMT -5
[charlie]"Don't apologize," Charlie said with a shake of his head. "I'm not even close to figuring out how I feel about it all or what I'm gonna do with all this new information - and boarding me and mom up in the house is still on the table - but it's not your fault that I know it now. I mean, how could you have known..." He stopped, looked at her curiously. "Why is no one asking why the zombies came out of your fire at your party? Doesn't that worry you?"
"She only died fifteen minutes ago," Dani said almost apologetically, "She had to be one of 'em. One of the bikini girls," she sighed. "What a way to have to Go On," she told them with a shake of her head, "In a bikini, forever."
"Yeah," Wyatt said dryly, "That's the most important thing to come away with." To Miguel. "No one's sounding the alarm, either her friends haven't noticed yet or she was here alone. Either you let the body come up on its own or we call someone. But then we have to explain how we know she's dead." A beat. "And you get to tell Norah. I ain't touching that one." As it was he was working his way up to thanking her.[/charlie]
|
|
