On Dark Tides, Scene I

Michael kept his expression blank, but wondered if it would ever be safe for a Forsaken to drink in a bar owned by the Pure. A few drops of poison when nobody was looking... he wouldn't put it past them, either...

His curiosity had been tweaked by Avery's mention of non-Azlu spiderfolk - not that he wanted to meet them, of course. He didn't like spiders much. But he couldn't help wondering what they were. Now was not the time to be asking questions, however.

"And if you need help, give us a call," Michael added. He wanted Maddie found, even if it had to be by her own pack. He was convinced that she was more suited to the Forsaken than the Pure, but he could see it would be hard to make her come to that conclusion too.

Bo, Cedric, Seventeen, Rakesh

"We've met." Rakesh said, still giving Cedric an absolutely murderous glare. Bo had, over the course of his long life, seen a great many glares, and this was an impressive one. It pinned Cedric as though he was a bug on a plate, and showed about as much consideration for his livelihood and existence.

"The Dyse bequest, I recall." Cedric was looking away and coughed discreetly. One wondered just what had happened.

"So, what can I help you with?" Rakesh said, in a tone of voice which suggested that Bo was going to be paying for this service at some later point.


Michael, Avery, Whim

"I appreciate the thought." Lucas said, closing his fingers around the phone. He flashed Avery a thoroughly devastating smile. "We'll keep low and move fast, and watch out for any spiders. Hopefully we'll find my missing girl before the spiders cotton on to our presence. Thanks for your help... I'll be in touch."

And with that, he shimmered, flesh shifting and turning, until the dark wolf stood there once more. With a last glance, they turned once more, heading north, after the scent. In a minute, they were out of sight. The rain had also stopped now.

"Okay, Avery, explanations." Whim said. She seemed to recall a somewhat different description of the Pure earlier.

"That...that was unusual." Avery said, giving Whim a rather sheepish look after Lucas and his pack made their exit. He waited a few moments, till he could make certain that they were out of earshot before going further. "What I said earlier, in most cases? Holds. Especially with the Predator Kings, or the more fervent Fire Touched. The Ivory Claws, like Lucas tend to play a more political game. But it's still pretty savage." He paused.

"And yeah, I was totally thinking with my groin and not my brain for part of that, but A, it worked, and B, probably saved us from a fight we might not have won. Though the fact that he's even receptive...more going on there than I thought." He actually grinned.

"We need to get back to the boat, tell Bo what's up, drop you off Whim, and then get back out here. Unless some really odd stuff happens, I should be able to hold the trail till daybreak at the least, just don't want to tailgate Lucas' pack. And Whim, I don't want to risk you getting hurt if it does turn into a throw down between us and other werewolves. To some pure? You're a bigger offense than I am." For all his joking with Lucas, apparently about that last bit...he was dead serious.

"Only you could think that way about a Pure," Michael observed, shaking his head. Their philosophy was repugnant and it was hard to believe even Avery could have contemplated such a thing. Even if it had worked out.

He nodded in agreement with Avery's assessment, however. "Picking up reinforcements sounds good to me," he said. As fighters went, Bo was better than Whim. She might have magic, but Bo could do his martial arts, understood the Pure (better than Whim, at least) and was hard to kill. Whim was just a fragile human - as their all too recent demonic encounter had shown.

Michael worried about Maddie, concerned that her Pack would find her first. The fact that she'd called him said something weird was going on (wasn't it always?), but he wasn't sure what. But it was much safer and more practical for them to look for her as a group, without stepping on Lucas' toes. So Michael didn't voice any of the concerns he felt, instead deciding to get started. "Alright then, lets get back to the boat and get hunting!" he exclaimed, concealing his worry. The faster she was found, the better.

"Lucas is concerned about her. But there's more going on." Avery said, shaking his head as they started to head back to the boat, occasionally stopping to sniff the air if there weren't witnesses for the rather odd behavior, trying to keep the trail that he had found earlier.

"Depending on how things go, we might be able to finesse this. It's going to be odd." There was a moment before Avery looked at Michael. "And he kind of fancies me too, by the by. Considering he's one of the Tzuumfin, he's either going to have to pull some Cirque Du Soleil level mental gymnastics here, or I'm going to find out if you get a Klaive instead of a toaster in situations like this. "

Michael, Avery, Whim

"Translation, Avery..." Whim said with a long-suffering sigh. Werewolves...

"Me? What did I do?" Whim said, though after the last time Michael had dragged her along to something, she was willing to avoid getting killed for a while. Whim was a necromancer, which meant she could be very casual about death... but she preferred to keep her own skin in one piece.

"Okay... but call me if you need me." Whim said, poking Michael in the chest. "Scrying, necromancy, whatever. Got it?"

"The Fire Touched, Predator Kings, and Ivory Claws are the three tribes of the Pure" Avery said, trying not to sound overly pedantic. "It's werewolf politics, with a lot of theology thrown in, and a bit of animism too." He then paused a moment, considering how to phrase things.

"As for them wanting to kill you? You're a human who has powers that in their world view, humans absolutely shouldn't have. You sort of tilt their worldview on the side, and that really pisses them off. To some of them, I can at least be convinced to convert. You? Well, yeah, walking blasphemy that can only be reconciled through death." He drummed his fingers on his leg for a moment.

"Again, the fact that he was even remotely social? Kinda odd. But a good odd. "

"Please, no details," Michael said wryly, holding up a hand. He did not need the mental image of a Forsaken and a Pure going at it. It was way too disturbing.

Michael chuckled and nodded. "Of course I will," he answered. If its safe for you to do it, he added mentally. He wasn't about to put Whim at risk, not after what had happened last time he brought her. She might be willing to take the chance, but Michael wasn't.

"Now, lets go. We aren't the only ones looking for Maddie, remember? And we haven't even started yet."

"This."

Bo showed Rakesh the photograph.

"It was reported missing from the Victoria & Albert recently but the last confirmed knowledge of its whereabouts was about six months ago. The bowl shares many designs in common with villages on mainland Europe that sacrificed humans to the ocean gods in return for good fishing and fair weather."

The immortal pointed to the eye symbol. "This is new to me, though. I have never seen one of these bowls with this eye-like carving. I hoped you had seen this sign before and know what it means."

Bo decided it best not to tell Rakesh this was for Chavez. He didn't know if the two ever met, but he did know of Rakesh's law-breaking proclivities and suspected it would be better if the werewolf didn't know this was for a police investigation.

Bo, Cedric, Rakesh

The prospect of human sacrifices and other sorts of doom and despair could always capture Rakesh's attention, and he turned his eyes towards the photograph. The werewolf took it from Bo, peering at it closely. For the next hour or so, he was a veritable fountain of activity, looking through old books, tracking down references from various occult and anthropological dictionaries and academic monographs. Half an hour in, he found a reference to a similar bowl in Sir Gregory Burke's book Riverine Practices of Neolithic England, and fifteen minutes later, in Alfred Watkin's classic book on ley lines. Margaret Merrow's Early Myths of the British Isles proved to be helpful as well.

"My best educated guess is that this is the bowl of a Fomori-cult." Rakesh said, looking at the eye sigil. "This would be an invocation of the Eye of Balor -- you've heard of it?"

Bo had.

"The Fomori, mythologically speaking, were pushed into the sea by the early Tuatha Dé Danann. Rather like the Greek Titans, they were the predecessor gods. However, there were cults that worshipped them for quite some time, left-hand path cults that embraced the Dionysian potential of such primordial titans. Fertility cults, ocean cults... they are sometimes called the Drowned or the Sunken Gods in modern occult dialogues." Rakesh regarded the bowl again. "If I were to make an educated guess, the owners are worshippers of river-spirits, judging by the location where this was found -- no handy oceans, alas."

A flashback -- another river spirit, the Uktena, ferocious and wild and violent -- Bo had not had good experiences with river spirits in his long life.

"The riverside supernaturals or local river spirits may know if there are any active Fomori cults at the moment -- the Selkie, the Mara, the Blue Men..." Rakesh said. He paused. "Unless one of them is responsible, of course."


Michael, Avery, Whim

Whim just shook her head -- werewolves, in her humble opinion, put entirely too much stock on old religious concepts for comfort. Still, there was no help for it. "Alright... if you guys are sure. Let's get out of here."

You may proceed to Scene II, to be put up shortly.