The Stormcrow, A Superhero's Tale Options

[Acadian]

Roasted broccoli pasta is absolutely something I’d love. I often make up similar dishes.

Stormcrow rising out of the forest was very cool – and shows the significant progression of the young aviatrix.

Being ‘single piloted’ and lacking any cockpit instrumentation (or any cockpit at all for that matter), having Gadget as a talking gps nav system is wonderful.

If there's something strange
In your neighborhood
Who ya gonna call?
(Why do I have this song in my head?)

’It was green grass, green trees, and well, the green water of the River Rouge.’

[SubRosa]

Just an update. I am looking ahead, both in this Season and in Season Two, and it gets more into the law enforcement and court side of things. I have been doing some research on how the whole law enforcement bureaucracy works in Michigan. Unfortunately I have not uncovered much. I just sent an email to the Michigan Attorney General's office asking them some questions. Hopefully they will respond and not just blow me off.

But in any case, what I have inferred from my googling does change the suppositions I originally had. Starting with the idea that the AG is the "top cop". They clearly are not. They are the top lawyer. But I have found nothing to suggest that they can actually give direct orders to the state or local police. So I will be going back and tweaking Assistant Attorney General Duquesne's role a bit in the Crystal Death chapter. I am also going to be tweaking the police's motivations for keeping their investigation a secret as well. I want to make it sound less about keeping Blood Raven out, and more about keeping the agents of hostile foreign powers away from a potential source of world domination.

[Renee]

You don't have to write about COVID. There's so much about it in real-life, my gosh, it's enough already! I was just remembering you mentioned it once.

And I'm sorry to hear about your experiences with crime. Yikes.

Bullying nowadays is nothing like it was when we were coming up, right? Nowadays most bullies are online. That's the thing.... at least in our pre-Internet days, somebody might bully us at school (happened to me too) but once we were out of class / or home we could maybe forget about it. Nowadays, the kids carry can carry it with them all day. They obsess over comments made, or photoshopped pictures which are cruel. And so on. I'd rather have it in my face, where i could deal with it immediately (or attempt to), and then come home and cry to my mom, or whatever.

Of course, I'm not trans, so I know you had it worse than me. But I'm just sayin'. I think it's worse nowadays, but in a different way. If we're talking about actual schools, at least the ones my daughter has gone to, bullying is just about non-existent. Calling someone names and so on it taken much more seriously. But online.... there's only so much we can do. Parental controls online only go so far.

Okay, so not even the KoN know about Avery or Jan's true identities. Interesting.

Roasted pasta + broccoli. Yum! Pass the oregano, pass the Parmesan, please. And the basil. No basil? Okay, I'll live.

Wow, mom does not even know who her daughter is. Phew. Mom is aware of the Urban Dictionary though. Mom is therefore kind of hip. B )

Cool, I like that she's making her story into a comic. That must be fun to watch that unfold, especially since she's working with an illustrator.

Eloise is mentioned. I wonder what this is? I know it's the name of this set of chapters,

"Come at me demon bro!"

Okay I have to finish this later.

This post has been edited by Renee: Jan 15 2021, 02:04 PM

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

Just an update. I am looking ahead, both in this Season and in Season Two, and it gets more into the law enforcement and court side of things. I have been doing some research on how the whole law enforcement bureaucracy works in Michigan. Unfortunately I have not uncovered much. I just sent an email to the Michigan Attorney General's office asking them some questions. Hopefully they will respond and not just blow me off.

But in any case, what I have inferred from my googling does change the suppositions I originally had. Starting with the idea that the AG is the "top cop". They clearly are not. They are the top lawyer. But I have found nothing to suggest that they can actually give direct orders to the state or local police. So I will be going back and tweaking Assistant Attorney General Duquesne's role a bit in the Crystal Death chapter. I am also going to be tweaking the police's motivations for keeping their investigation a secret as well. I want to make it sound less about keeping Blood Raven out, and more about keeping the agents of hostile foreign powers away from a potential source of world domination.

I can help you on a lot of government-related function if you need it. Political science is my field, after all. Not necessarily well-versed in Michigan specifically, but I know a lot about how state governments in general work. (I do know that Michigan's AG is Dana Nessel, first elected in 2019).

You are correct that AGs are not cops. They are lawyers. Just look at the first word in the title. That's why they need a lot of legal, not law enforcement, experience to be AG. Theoretically, they can have both. They prosecute on behalf of the state and are the state's main defender in court if need be. The exact amount of authority and power they wield differs from state to state, but the basic responsibilities are the same wherever you go.

I can pull up some more info and references for you in a bit, but not right at the moment.

Here's some general info about attorneys general (note that when it is pluralized, you add the s to 'attorney,' not 'general'):https://ballotpedia.org/Attorney_General_(s...ecutive_office)
[*]A bit more info on the office for Michigan specifically: https://ballotpedia.org/Attorney_General_of_Michigan
[*]I'm guessing you are fictionalizing who the attorney general is for your story, so I won't link to the real one.
[*]Most, if not all, general state government offices have a national association for each respective one. For example, the NGA is the National Governors Association. In this case, we have the National Association of Attorneys General: https://www.naag.org/
[*]And, finally, here is the office website for Michigan's Attorney General: https://www.michigan.gov/ag/
[/list]

If you have other inquiries related to state government, just give me a shout. I can't and won't guarantee that I can answer them all, at least sufficiently, but I can point you in the direction of where to go if it's something I can't answer.



EDIT: I should also add that there is typically (I would imagine every state, but I don't want to be off-base just in case) a particular statewide agency that handles law enforcement, like how you've probably heard of state troopers. Here in Florida, for example, it is the FDLE--the Florida Department of Law Enforcement--and it is headed by a commissioner. And then each county has their own police department as well as certain cities and towns.

I haven't gotten to read much of your story, unfortunately, but depending on what the case is you might want to consider whether it should be handled by local law enforcement vs. state law enforcement. Each state varies in how much jurisdiction is divided between the statewide and local governments, and that extends to law enforcement agencies. But hey, if that's getting too much in the weeds, it's your story. Nothing says you can't tweak it a bit, or that in your version of Michigan law enforcement operates a bit differently.

This post has been edited by RaderOfTheLostArk: Jan 14 2021, 11:33 PM

[SubRosa]

Just an update. I am looking ahead, both in this Season and in Season Two, and it gets more into the law enforcement and court side of things. I have been doing some research on how the whole law enforcement bureaucracy works in Michigan. Unfortunately I have not uncovered much. I just sent an email to the Michigan Attorney General's office asking them some questions. Hopefully they will respond and not just blow me off.

But in any case, what I have inferred from my googling does change the suppositions I originally had. Starting with the idea that the AG is the "top cop". They clearly are not. They are the top lawyer. But I have found nothing to suggest that they can actually give direct orders to the state or local police. So I will be going back and tweaking Assistant Attorney General Duquesne's role a bit in the Crystal Death chapter. I am also going to be tweaking the police's motivations for keeping their investigation a secret as well. I want to make it sound less about keeping Blood Raven out, and more about keeping the agents of hostile foreign powers away from a potential source of world domination.

I can help you on a lot of government-related function if you need it. Political science is my field, after all. Not necessarily well-versed in Michigan specifically, but I know a lot about how state governments in general work. (I do know that Michigan's AG is Dana Nessel, first elected in 2019).

You are correct that AGs are not cops. They are lawyers. Just look at the first word in the title. That's why they need a lot of legal, not law enforcement, experience to be AG. Theoretically, they can have both. They prosecute on behalf of the state and are the state's main defender in court if need be. The exact amount of authority and power they wield differs from state to state, but the basic responsibilities are the same wherever you go.

I can pull up some more info and references for you in a bit, but not right at the moment.

Here's some general info about attorneys general (note that when it is pluralized, you add the s to 'attorney,' not 'general'):https://ballotpedia.org/Attorney_General_(s...ecutive_office)
[*]A bit more info on the office for Michigan specifically: https://ballotpedia.org/Attorney_General_of_Michigan
[*]I'm guessing you are fictionalizing who the attorney general is for your story, so I won't link to the real one.
[*]Most, if not all, general state government offices have a national association for each respective one. For example, the NGA is the National Governors Association. In this case, we have the National Association of Attorneys General: https://www.naag.org/
[*]And, finally, here is the office website for Michigan's Attorney General: https://www.michigan.gov/ag/
[/list]

If you have other inquiries related to state government, just give me a shout. I can't and won't guarantee that I can answer them all, at least sufficiently, but I can point you in the direction of where to go if it's something I can't answer.



EDIT: I should also add that there is typically (I would imagine every state, but I don't want to be off-base just in case) a particular statewide agency that handles law enforcement, like how you've probably heard of state troopers. Here in Florida, for example, it is the FDLE--the Florida Department of Law Enforcement--and it is headed by a commissioner. And then each county has their own police department as well as certain cities and towns.

I haven't gotten to read much of your story, unfortunately, but depending on what the case is you might want to consider whether it should be handled by local law enforcement vs. state law enforcement. Each state varies in how much jurisdiction is divided between the statewide and local governments, and that extends to law enforcement agencies. But hey, if that's getting too much in the weeds, it's your story. Nothing says you can't tweak it a bit, or that in your version of Michigan law enforcement operates a bit differently.

This is what I had already been able to gather in my research, both specifically on the AG and in general by reading up on high profile Michigan cases, like that of Kwame Kilpatrick. Plus some non-Michigan sources like the OJ Simpson trial. My original thought was that the state AG was in charge of the state police. Here in Michigan that is the Michigan State Police. While in Ohio it is the Ohio State Highway Patrol (they make an appearance later as well). Interesting note, Dana Nessel represented one of the couples whose legal challenge led to the Supreme Court overturning laws against gay marriage. She herself is married to another woman, has two kids, and is Jewish. I am using her in the story, but am changing her name. I have already written her first appearance. Eventually the Governor will probably make an appearance as well. Though I have changed her name as well. I have researched her too. That is easy. It's shark week...

My first question is what control the AG has over the state and local police? I believe I have already figured out that it is none. She cannot tell the police at any level who to investigate, who to arrest, who to release, etc... She is just an attorney, either defending the state in cases where Michigan in the defendant, or acting on behalf of the state to prosecute criminals. A lot of the latter seems to be white collar, grifter scammers.

I am also wondering just who in civilian government does have control over state and even local police? I know that the MSP is run by a Director who is appointed by the Governor. So that implies to me that if the Governor says do this thing, the State Police do it. If for no other reason she can sack the Director at any time and replace them with someone else. I did dig up that then Governor Granholm ordered the MSP to investigate Kwame Kilpatrick. So that seems to bear out that thought.

However, so far as I can tell the Governor has no control over local city or county police. Those fall under city or county government, and are often elected officials. The county sheriffs are elected in Michigan. City cops are different in that they are usually appointed by the elected city government. For example, the Detroit Chief of Police is appointed by the Detroit Mayor. In Sterling Heights, the City Council votes to appoint the police chief, and they report to the City Manager (not the Mayor).

I have also been interested in the AG's control over county prosecutors. Namely can they order a county prosecutor to drop a case, or pursue one? Again, so far as I can tell they cannot. However, I have found that the state AG can start the process of dismissing a county prosecutor if they can prove that the prosecutor falsified or suppressed evidence that would have directly led the exoneration of the person they were prosecuting. I also found that in certain situations the AG can prosecute a case that the county prosecutor decided to ignore. But that is very limited.

So really what I have gathered is that while there are state level offices for law enforcement and prosecution, there seems to be no real direct line of authority that leads from them down to the local level. Instead it is a very complex web of bureaucracy, with each strand being answerable to its own separate masters.

[SubRosa]

Acadian: I dug around to find just the right recipe from Jan's culinary endeavors. It could not be something too complicated. But it had to more than just hamburger helper as well. Pasta + Extras fit the bill nicely.

Using Google Maps and Earth helps me imagine what flying without any instruments at all looks like, without even a compass. I know the landscape from living here. But it still looks very different from a few hundred feet up.

Ghostbusting is coming up.


Renee: Social media does add a whole new element to bullying. One I am glad I missed. I don't use Twitter, Instatgram, or Facebook. They are all just too toxic, not to mention the breeding ground for Neo-Nazis.

Jan's mom is kind of hip. She tries.

Avery does give a really simple rundown of Eloise... It is a real place. It usually ends up on the lists for most haunted places in Michigan.

I do not watch ghost hunting shows. But I have heard plenty about them from some of the podcasts I listen to. Bros yelling "Come at me demon-bro!" down empty hallways seems to be the gist of all of them.







The Eloise Psychiatric Hospital

Eloise Grounds

Eloise main building (The Kay Beard Building)

Eloise hallway



Book 6.9 - Eloise

"That's it!" Gadget finally exclaimed. There was not much to see. The 'burbs and factories both had thinned out. Now the land was mostly just empty fields of low brush. A small police station stood at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and a small two lane road. Farther down Michigan was a wide empty space. It looked like a large swathe of buildings had been torn down there, leaving only bare dirt and struggling plant life behind. Of the hospital itself there only seemed to be one large building left, with few smaller ones clustered around it.

She braked with her wings, and brought herself down in the parking lot of the police station. There were just a few buildings, with a large sign pronouncing it at as the home of the Wayne County Sheriff's Road Patrol. The main building looked like it had been made in the 70s, with two stories, a flat roof, and floor to ceiling glass windows along the front wall. She strode through the nearest pair of glass double-doors, and into an office space beyond.

Every eye turned to her, as they always did when she was in her armor. Everyone stopped what they were doing. For once, no one appeared to think she was a cosplayer. But most of them still stared at her as if she had just stepped off the moon. Of the half-dozen people present, only two seemed to be actual deputies. The others were clearly office workers.

January sized up the oldest, and widest of the cops, whose shoulders were graced with sergeant's stripes. A mustache that Wyatt Earp would have been envious of exploded from his upper lip, and threatened to overwhelm his entire face if it was allowed to grow unchecked. The plastic nameplate clipped to his uniform identified him as "Shula".

"Sergeant." She walked to the man and extended her hand in greeting. "I'm Stormcrow. Have you had any calls about Eloise, next door?"

The middle-aged man looked dumbfounded. Then a lightbulb clearly went off behind his eyes. "Oh yeah, the ghost squad. They've been doing tours of the old place for months now. Some kook bought it and is going to develop the whole place. But he's getting his spook show in before they tear the last of it down," he explained. "We got a call from there a little while ago. Probably just a prank. We sent two deputies to take a look just to be sure. They didn't see anything."

"May I speak with them?" January asked.

Sergeant Shula looked put out, as if January was tearing him away from a box of donuts, or a football game. Still, he reached for the handset attached to his shoulder and keyed the mic.

"Landry, Vermeil, you there?"

"From what I am reading, Eloise shut down for good in 1982," Gadget's voice blossomed inside her helmet. "Most of the buildings have been torn down since then. The main one left is the Kay Beard building. That big red brick one. Looks like there's a few smaller buildings behind it."

"The deputy's right, a developer did buy it up," he continued. "The same guy is running the ghost tours. He says he's going to build a paranormal-themed hotel, and make it all look like it was in the 1930s."

January could not help but roll her eyes. "Aren't there enough haunted hotels?" she breathed.

By now all the staff members had managed to hover close by, and several shot confused looks her way. She noted two of them giving her that icy cold stare that she knew so well. But the rest barely contained their excitement.

"Deputy Landry, Deputy Vermeil, are you receiving me, over?" the portly deputy said into his radio once more.

"They might not be getting a signal," the other officer explained. "There's a lot of brick and concrete in that old building. Especially down in the basement."

"When is the last time you heard from them?" January asked.

"When they went into the building, oh about ten minutes ago," the older man explained. "They said they didn't see anything outside. No lights, no sounds, just the cars from the tour."

"I'm going in," January strode for the door. She paused at the exit and glanced back. "It might be nothing. It probably is nothing. But just in case it isn't, don't come in after me. That will just endanger more people. Maybe put some people around the building instead."

"It's not another giant spider is it?" the younger deputy said. From his tone and the way his eyes widened, he was clearly not joking.

"I don't think so," January said honestly. "But I don't know. One way or another, I will deal with it."

"Valhalla awaits..." she heard one of the office workers mumble behind her.

January spread her wings the moment she stepped outside. She rose into the sky with a great downward thrust of the hagfish fiber feathers, and headed for the tall, red-brick building next door. She absentmindedly noted a paddock behind the Sheriff's station below her, and even saw several horses. She put them from her mind, and pushed on. It wasn't My Little Police Pony time after all.

A wide field separated the small police station from the psychiatric hospital. Large swathes of broken concrete showed where other buildings or parking lots might have stood. A few trees rose here and there. She noted a little fenced off area in the center of the field, with what appeared to be a children's play house with ladders and a slide within a small plot of sand.

Then the five story edifice of the Kay Beard building rose before her. The side facing her was not straight, but indented twice, making it look like a capital I with an extra bar across the center. A dome of green bronze rose up behind the front face of the building. But it only took up a small part of the otherwise flat roof. A searchlight rose farther back on the roof, as well as several smaller structures and even skylights. January headed for them. One of those was bound to provide her with a way into the building.

Off to her right, behind the main building from the street, was another, smaller structure. Also of red brick, it was rectangular, and was shaped like several steps, each floor rising up from farther back in the building. A partially demolished structure seemed to lurk behind it.

January landed on the roof of the main building, and felt the gravel that coated it crunch beneath her boots. She noted several aerials rising from the roof, along with air vents and a bank of skylights. She stepped to the latter, and gazed down into inky blackness within.

"Sága, night vision," she said clearly. A pair of lenses snapped down over her eyes. Suddenly the world lit up into bright clarity. She gazed down into the building, but saw nothing except a crumbling room whose floor was scattered with chips of peeled paint.

"Should I call Blood Raven?" Gadget asked.

"I don't know," January replied honestly. "This really might be nothing. I don't want to waste her time on a PR stunt. It's not an Abyssal, I'm sure of that."

"But she did say that the Summoner's, well, summonings, might be awakening other magical creatures. There could be a real ghost in there that just woke up on the wrong side of the electroshock machine."

"That is true," January admitted.

January reached for the skylight, and pulled on one of the panes. Rusty metal screeched in protest. But the strength of Earth filled her arms. A few old hinges were not going to stand in her way. She had the skylight open in seconds, and dropped down to the floor below.

Her wings spread out above her like a parachute, slowing her fall. She had forgotten about them. She allowed them to transform back into her cape, so that they would not get in the way. Her boots crunched on the tiny bits of rubble scattered across the floor. The room she was in was bare of all but dust and peeling paint.

The door from the room was missing, and she walked through the empty frame and into a long hallway beyond. She saw it was lined with more yawning doorways, all missing their doors as well. The walls were plain cinderblocks covered with paint. She could not tell what color. The white phosphor night vision turned everything blue-white.

"So what do we have really?" she asked as she went from one empty room to another. Like the first room, all of them were completely stripped of furnishings.

"I've got a video the developer live-streamed about ten minutes ago. Here, let me play it back for you.

Sága lit up, and January lifted her wrist so that she could see her screen better. Her digital assistant's main window filled with a jumpy video clearly shot from a phone. It revealed a shadowy hallway inhabited by several darkened shapes. One resolved itself into a slender woman with long, dark hair that spilled down from her shoulders in an onyx waterfall. Her face was statuesque, with high cheekbones and sloe eyes. A scream tore from her throat. She stabbed one finger out, and covered her mouth with the other hand, cutting her cry into a muffled whimper.

The camera swung around to the direction that the woman pointed to. It took a moment for January's eyes to make sense of the blurred walls and ceiling. But once they did, a figure resolved itself at the end of the hallway. It was cast in shadow, making it impossible to discern any details beyond the general shape of the thing. It stood like a human, but its legs were jointed wrong. They seemed to possess two knees, like an animal's. The head too, was clearly not human. Instead it was dramatically elongated, and its mouth seemed more like a beak. Finally what looked like wings sprouted from its back, independent from its arms, which were nearly long enough to reach the floor.

Someone in the video swore loudly. Someone else began reciting the Lord's Prayer in a shaky voice.

The misshapen figure stood there for a long moment. It seemed to stare directly into the camera. Then it slouched off through a doorway, and vanished from sight.

"Tell me that's a prank!" a female voice demanded. The camera swerved again, and landed upon the dark-haired woman. "That's someone you paid, to wear a costume and scare us right?"

"God no!" A man replied in a voice that cracked and wavered. "That's not me. That's... that's... I don't know! We've never seen anything like that!"

Then the camera turned to reveal the man holding it. He was a deeply tanned man with glasses. He looked young, but the flecks of gray in his short, neatly trimmed beard suggested that he might be older than January's first glance would suggest. He was clearly not at his best. His hair was disheveled, snot dripped from his nose, and his eyes were wild and darting to and fro.

"This is Diego Islas from Motor City Paranormality. If anyone out there can see this, we are trapped in Eloise, and we can't get out. The doors, they're, they're just gone. The windows won't open. We can't get out, and there's something in here wi-"

The video feed stopped abruptly with that.

"If that's a stunt, it's a good one," Gadget noted. "It's good enough to be a movie."

"It might be a movie," January said. "You can't have a haunted hotel without a haunting after all. Can you get him on the phone? Or the two cops?"

"I've been trying," Gadget said. "They all just go to voice mail, like they're in a dead zone."

"Great choice of words..." January murmured.

She came to a stairwell and made her way down. Rounded handrails angled down along either side of the steps. She could see rusty brackets built into the inner sides of the steps, and imagined that a metal mesh or fence might have once been bolted onto them. That would have blocked off the otherwise open space in the center of the stairwell, and prevented one from falling through.

January looked down that open space. It was wide enough for her to fit. Without a second thought she leaped over the handrail and let gravity take her. Her cape streamed out above her, and she hoped it did not get caught on one of the rails that surrounded her. One floor after another raced past her, until the ground came up to meet her.

She came to a sudden stop on the concrete floor. Her knees bent slightly from the impact, but only slightly. She looked around the bottom of the empty stairwell, and found nothing of interest. She went out the only door, and found herself in a wide room filled with pipes and valves and gauges. Rust ate away at the decayed machinery, and the stink of oil and grease stained the air.

"Well, I found the basement," she breathed.

"You know, this is the point in the horror movie that I normally start yelling at the people to not do what they are doing," Gadget noted dryly.

"This isn't a horror movie," January insisted, "it's a superhero movie."

"If it was a superhero movie, neither one of us would even be in it," Gadget countered.

"We will in my movie," January resolved.

She looked back up through the stairwell, and briefly considered going back to at least the ground floor. But she quickly changed her mind. If there was a monster, it probably would be down here in the basement. After all, where else would an eldritch horror make its lair? Unless of course, it was busy chasing its victims somewhere above...

She found several more corridors and rooms branching from the first large chamber. These were filled with more machinery. Trays hung from the ceiling overhead, and carried bundles of pipes and wires throughout the maze of tunnels. The floor was stained with what January hoped was only dried oil and grease. She poked her head into one room and then another, but found nothing at all.

She was about to head back up the stairs when she saw a pair of feet sticking out from behind a gigantic generator. With a single bound, she was standing in front of them, and found a police officer stretched out on the concrete. His gun lay on the floor nearby, along with several empty shell casings. His flashlight lay nearby as well, one of those giant affairs that was truncheon first, illumination source second.

January knelt beside the man, and laid a hand on his neck, just like in all the movies. She felt around, and was relieved when she felt blood pulsing through his arteries.

"I found Landry," she breathed, "he's alive, but out."

"Got it," Gadget said. "I'll get ahold of the cop station, and tell them to send an ambulance."

"Make sure they stay outside," January warned. "Whatever did this must still be in here. I'll bring him out to them."

[Acadian]

A very spooky setting for an equally spooky episode! It did feel a bit like a horror movie and I’m glad you let Jan and Avery embrace the dark humor of that.

So I think we’ve ruled out the publicity stunt angle. There is definitely something amiss here. Can’t wait to find out what happens next!

Nits:
- ’We sent two deputies to take a look just {to?} be sure.’
- ’She had the skylight open in seconds, and dropped down {to?} the floor beneath.’
- ’She stabbed out one finger out {an extra ‘out’}, and . . . ‘

[SubRosa]

Acadian: I have definitely been going for a horror movie vibe here. Though I could not resist poking fun at the modern trend of "paranormal television", which really does seem to be a bunch of bros shouting "Come at me!" down empty hallways at night.

As ever, thanks for nits.



Book 6.10 - Eloise

She stood back up, and took a better look at the man. She saw no obvious injuries on his body. It was like he had simply fallen asleep. She felt something though, something tugging at the edge of her awareness.

She looked around her quickly, to make sure that nothing was sneaking up on her. But the mechanical rooms were empty. Or at least they looked that way in her night vision. Her night vision... That reminded January that she had other ways of sensing beyond normal - or even technologically enhanced - sight.

She closed her eyes and felt the mana as it flowed through her body, cool as a mountain stream. She breathed deep, in and out, and forced herself to relax. She stilled her racing thoughts by running her elemental mantra through her head. Once she was calm and still, she reached out with her senses. Not the physical ones, but the metaphysical.

The room sprang into her awareness, a dim gray world of lifeless stone and iron. Within that empty expanse the form of the Sheriff's deputy glowed, like a watercolor of ever shifting paints. She felt around that bright aura, and sensed something else. It was a worm of power that burrowed through where she imagined his physical head would be. This string of energy wound its way deeply into his aura, and darkened whatever it touched, turning his being black all around it.

January was tempted to reach out and grab it. But she was not really sure how. Worse, she was not sure if it might inadvertently harm the deputy. The last thing she wanted to do was add one more lobotomy to the list of horrors perpetrated in this place.

"There's a spell on him," January explained. "I think it's keeping him asleep."

"Well that's good then," Gadget noted.

"Good?" January wondered. She picked up the deputy's gun and put the safety back on. Thankfully Emilia had taken the time to teach her a few things about safely handling firearms. She stuffed the weapon back into the holster on his hip. She lifted him with ease, and slung him over one shoulder. "We know there is someone, or something, magical at work here."

"Yeah, but they only put him to sleep. They could have killed him," her partner reasoned.

"I guess that is something." January took one last look around, in case the other deputy might be nearby. But she discovered nothing but dust and detritus. She headed back to the stairs, and bounded up them with easy leaps. She swept through the open doorway at the first landing, and found herself in a long hallway that trailed off into the distance. She glanced in the other direction, and found that it quickly opened up into what looked like a lobby.

"Think I've found an exit," she said. She strode down into the large open area. A small desk took up the center of the space. A pair of wide staircases curled up to either side of it. An open doorway led deeper into the building behind it, and another long hallway stretched off opposite the one she had come from. She turned away from the reception area, to where the doors should be. But she stopped herself when she found nothing but a cinderblock wall.

January blinked. It was really just a plain wall. She glanced around again. The way the room was laid out, this was clearly an entrance of some kind. Only there was no actual way in or out.

"That's weird," she said.

"What's weird?" Gadget asked.

"Well, that wall," she explained. "Does it look strange to you, like it shouldn't be there?"

"What wall?" Gadget replied. "That's the side door."

"Door?" January argued. "That is a solid wall!"

"Have you been smoking the devil's lettuce?" Gadget retorted. "That's the door, what are you waiting for? I can see a cop car outside. The lights are still on."

January moved forward cautiously, as if the wall might snap out and attack her at any moment. She laid her free hand on the smooth, painted blocks of cement. It felt no different than any other wall. She even tapped on it, and it was solid as ever.

"You don't see the door do you?" Gadget said. "Your hand is on the glass right now."

"That's not what it looks like to me," she insisted. "Guide my hand, help me find the knob."

She moved her hand down, to where she imagined a handle or knob should be. Gadget coached her to one side, then further down. Finally he told her to stop.

"Your hand is on the handle right now," he declared.

"I don't feel anything but solid brick," January insisted. She tried to form her hand around what she imagined might be a handle. She pushed. But she just ran into the wall.

"Oh frag this." She backed up and gently laid the deputy down across the receptionist's desk. She turned back to the blank wall, and squared her shoulders. She dug in with her back heel, and sprang forward. Her mana rose up and engulfed her. She was Air. She was a hurricane. She was unstoppable.

She crashed through the wall as easily as if it had been made of balsa wood. Glass, plywood, and metal rained around her in a storm of debris. She turned her momentum into a forward roll and vaulted up into the air with a handspring. She added a twist, and dropped to her feet facing the direction she had come from, and settled her fingers into fists. She was ready for anything that might come after her.

A blank wall stared back at her, looking as strong and solid as the day it had been built. Yet the ground was littered with debris. She could clearly see the bent and battered frame of a metal door that she had ripped from its hinges. Just as she could see the broken glass sprayed all about it. Yet when she looked back at the wall, there was no sign of where it had originated from.

"Whoa," she murmured under her breath. Something was playing tricks with her eyes.

She strode forward, directly to the blank wall. She screwed her eyes shut as it neared, and braced herself for the shock of impact when she struck it. But she felt nothing. A moment later she was back inside the asylum. She turned around, and once more saw nothing but the plain wall.

She ignored that for now. Instead she hoisted the sleeping deputy into her arms, and turned to march back out again. She fought down the instinct to stop, and walked right into the wall instead. She felt the solid brick against her skin, just as solid as the floor under her boots. But she pushed on nonetheless, and in a moment she was back outside again.

"Someone's casting illusions," January said out loud. "Good ones too. I can feel them, not just see them."

She laid the deputy down outside, beyond the field of broken glass. Then she took a moment to shift her perceptions into the astral once more. She closed her meat eyes so they did not distract her. That allowed her to see only what existed in the magical realm that coexisted right beside the physical world. She cast her gaze down at his head once more, at that snake of mystic energy that wormed its way into the man's head.

It was smaller now, she was sure of it. It had also faded, and with it the darkness that had spread from it through the deputy's aura. She looked for any links from the spell to its caster. The poppets that she and Blood Raven had enchanted were all magically tied back to them. But this spell was nothing like that. She found no tell-tale threads of energy to link it to anyone. It stood completely alone.

On the other hand, it was also plainly temporary. She could not tell when it would wear off entirely, but given that its energy was clearly fading, it could not last very long, perhaps an hour, if even that.

She reached down and keyed the radio mic attached to the man's chest.

"Sergeant Shula, this is Stormcrow. I found Landry. He's alive, but there's a sleep spell on him. Don't worry, it will wear off. I put him outside one of the side entrances. I'm going back in to look for the others."

"A sleep spell?" she heard the older man say incredulously through the radio. "What is this, Dungeons and Dragons?"

"It might be," January admitted. "There's definitely a magic user in here. This is no hoax. Don't come inside. Whoever this is, they can make you see things that aren't really there."

January dropped the mic to the ground beside the deputy, and strode back into the building. This time she continued sensing into the astral. It was disorienting. She could see the dull grays of the floor, walls, and ceiling. But over that, and somewhat transparent, swirled a world of color, and sound, and smell. She could even taste and touch the energies that surrounded her.

She could not tell what most of it even was that she sensed. But she did understand that it was all roiled up. As if someone had dunked their hand into a tub and swirled the water all about. She was still seeing the ripples moving through the astral. From what, she could not be sure. Perhaps it was simply from the heightened emotions of the terrified paranormal investigators? Perhaps it was something more?

She found the second deputy almost instantly. He was in the hallway behind the desk. Like the first, he was laid out on the ground, flashlight by his side. Unlike the first, he had not even drawn his pistol. He must have never seen his stalker coming. January took a moment to inspect his aura, and found the twin of the same sleep spell that had incapacitated the other deputy.

"Is he..." Gadget let his words trail off as January stared down at the man.

"No, he's fine," January observed as she cast her astral senses across his aura. "He's just asleep, same as the other one."

She hoisted him into her arms, and headed back for the doorway. Once more, she found a solid wall facing her. This time she felt along the wall in the astral. But there was nothing there to suggest a spell had been laid upon the building. It looked the same as the rest of astral space. She shrugged it off for now, and once again willed herself to stride through the false wall, and set down the unconscious man beside his partner.

[Acadian]

I love how Jan used her magic to sense what her normal eyes and NVGs could not. Wonderfully described.

"Oh frag this."
- - You have developed January so fully and consistently that I knew exactly what was coming next in terms of how she would react to being blocked by a cinderblock wall. We do now know how those who preceded Jan were channeled and their escape prevented.

Lot of mystery here! Why did the unknown illusionist leave the two policemen alive? Is the force not as malevolent as we suspect? Or perhaps did it have a darker purpose for the two captives?

[Renee]

6.09 I love all the banter between Gadg and Jan as she goes into the haunted hotel. Uh oh. So she DOES find the one cop inside of Eloise. Cripes.

6.10 Whoa, she's got metaphysical senses. See, that's one thing I don't think any of the standard Marvel Comics type of superheroes can boast about right? They can fly, they stay underwater indefinitely, but can they use metaphysical senses to sense outside our 3 dimensional world? I don't know of any who can. Then again, I'm no expert on superheros.

'devil's lettuce' ! That's a new one I haven't heard before. That door / wall is weird, right Wyrd? Wonder what's that about. Of all people, you'd think Jan would be able to see that it's a door, and Avery would not. Strange.

This post has been edited by Renee: Jan 25 2021, 07:09 PM

[SubRosa]

Acadian: Lots more magic coming up. This chapter is chock full of it.

That will not be the last wall to face January's wrath in this chapter. Since the building is going to be torn down, she has no qualms about going all out for once.

All those questions will be answered, later in the chapter.


Renee: Jan and Avery's banter is one of the most enjoyable parts of writing this story.

Most of the Marvel superheroes don't have any magical senses. But that is because most of them are not magical in nature. There are a few like Dr. Strange and Illya Rasputin who are magicians. But I don't think their writers really dig into the idea of astral space being coexistant with mundane reality, and each reflecting the other. But I could be wrong. I never read much of either.

You don't know the devil's lettuce? I figured that would be right up your alley...

The reason why Avery can see the door through the video link, and January cannot, will be explained this episode in fact.






Book 6.11 - Eloise

Auras of warm energy glowed in the field east of the building. They flowed and pulsed with life and exertion. But not with magic, January knew enough to tell the difference between a magical person, a mundane person, and a spell by now. These were just ordinary people, driven by excitement and physical activity.

She let her astral senses drop, and recognized the two deputies from the Sheriff's substation. She waved them over. They ran up, and stared from her to their comrades, who lay in the driveway.

"Did someone taze them?" the younger, slender deputy asked. January now saw that his name tag identified him as Harbaugh.

"No, it's a sleep spell," January insisted. "It's wearing off. They both will be up soon."

"A sleep spell..." Sergeant Shula shook his head. "Is a first level wizard in there?"

"More like a gnome illusionist I would gather," January answered. "They have some talent, that is for sure. I'm headed back in."

"Wait, so you know this... magic stuff?" Deputy Harbaugh looked incredulous.

"I am this magic stuff," January answered. She could not help but show off, and allowed a peal of thunder to roll around the sky to underscore her words. Lightning flashed afterward, casting its brilliant illumination over the scene. She spun on her heel as the last flickers of light faded into the darkness, and strode back into the asylum.

She called up her astral senses once she was inside, and looked around again. Once more the eddies and tides of upset energy flowed around her. They made her heart quicken, as if the idea of hunting for a ghost in a haunted sanitarium in the middle of the night was not disturbing enough. Her chest was tight, like it always was before a real fight. She was not sure, but she thought she tasted coppery fear in her mouth, a wetness on her palms, and a dryness in her throat as well.

Were these her own fears writ large in astral space, or someone else's? She could not tell where one ended, and the other might begin. She still had a lot to learn about magic. But if she had learned anything already, it was that the only way she would improve her magical abilities was to use them.

So she leaned into her sensing, felt everything there was to feel, including all the terror that entailed. Fear was nothing new to her after all. She had lived in its grip all of her life. Fear of being found out for being trans. Fear of being persecuted for being trans. Fear of what other people would think of her. Fear of what they would do to her.

But she had learned to fight that fear long ago. She called upon that same fortitude that her mother had taught her, that same fighting spirit she had instilled in her heart. She could face anyone, anything. She just had to keep her chin high, her fists up, and keep swinging. Never give up, no matter what.

She looked back at the open doorway, which still appeared to be a solid wall. This explained why the paranormal tour was trapped in the building. Even with the exit right before their eyes, they never would have seen it. They never would have even felt the door handle if they had accidentally touched it.

"Gadget, you can still see the open doorway through the video feed right?"

"Roger that," the meta-inventor answered. "I take it you still don't?"

"Nope," she said. "It's a powerful spell. It doesn't seem to be cast on the building itself. So I am not sure how it is working. If I could find it, I might be able to unravel it. I sure feel a lot more comfortable practicing on it, then on those guys sleeping outside."

"So maybe the spell is on you?" Gadget reasoned.

"Hmm," January considered. She tried to pull her senses back, into herself. She had never really studied her own aura. How did she even do that? Could she look into a mirror? Could she make the magical version of one? Or did she just have to shift her awareness out of her body, and look down on herself, the same as people with out of body experiences described?

She slowed her breathing and willed herself to relax. To help, she moved into the Tadasana pose. Yoga always helped her ground herself, and push out the outside world. She allowed herself to relax even more, and forget the rest of reality. She no longer felt the floor under her feet, or the warm summer air on her skin. There was only herself, her breathing, and her power.

She felt into her own energy, that cool mountain lake of power that resided deep within her. She dipped into its water, and was rewarded with a truly breathtaking vista of color and sound and scent and feeling. Her bones were cool and hard, like veins of iron burrowing through a mountain. Her flesh was warm and supple, shot through with fiery blood that flowed like lava, which brought warmth and life where ever it went. Her muscles were thick cords of wood, her tendons supple cables of twine. Her lungs were vast skies of air, and everywhere, suffusing everything, was the gentle embrace of the waters of life.

She drifted through this phantasmagoria of her own self, momentarily overawed by both the complexity and outright beauty of it all. Great goddess, she was beautiful! For the first time in her life, she actually felt it, believed it, deep down in her bones. She was magnificent. Just as every other single person was. Whether she was divine energy made manifest, or just an ordinary product of nature, in the end it was the same: a symphony of energy, unique and brilliant as only she could be.

She willed herself back to her task. She had to find if there was a spell on her. It must have been something so subtle that she had not been able to sense it otherwise. She felt along her aura, until she found what she imagined corresponded to her head, and her brain, and the senses that all tied back there. She felt along those network cables bringing information into her consciousness. She cast herself into them. She felt along those millions of bits of data flowing into the computer of her mind.

And she found it. It was like a virus, worming its way around and through the stream of information going back and forth through her head. January imagined that her meat body might be curling her lip in contempt at the thing. Disgust was certainly what she felt at the sight of this alien presence that polluted her energy. Out of reflex, she grabbed for it with metaphorical fingers. It tried to slither away. But her power clamped down on its writhing, wriggling tentacles. They felt soft and wet, tasted rank, and smelled putrid. She crushed them, rent them, and flung them from her being.

When January opened her eyes again, she saw the doorway, plain as day.

She strode back outside. An ambulance had arrived, and the paramedics had loaded one of the deputies onto a stretcher. She waved them off, and stepped to the man's side. For a moment she recalled Blood Raven doing exactly the same with the burned man at the Flying Dutchman. What had his name been, Ken Reeve?

She said nothing. Instead she laid one hand upon the deputy's forehead, and closed her eyes. She shifted her senses into the astral, and felt down into the brilliant colors and sounds of his aura. She found the sleep spell, curled around his brainstem. She grasped it with both magical hands, suffocated its power, and pulled the last fragments of it from his mind.

She brushed her palms together, as if to shake off dirt, and the man's eyes shot open.

"It's here!" he gasped. He shot up into a sitting position, and raised his hands if he was holding a pistol. Thankfully the weapon was now holstered at his hip. So all he did was make an odd gesture with his hands.

January laid a comforting hand on his shoulder, and told him to relax. Then she moved to the other deputy, and broke the spell upon him as well. By the time she strode back into the asylum once more, she was feeling much more sure of herself. She had taken this illusionist's measure, and was ready to fight.

[Acadian]

You weren’t kidding! Plenty of magic to revel in here!

"Wait, so you know this... magic stuff?" Deputy Harbaugh looked incredulous.
"I am this magic stuff," January answered. She could not help but show off, and allowed a peal of thunder to roll around the sky to underscore her words. Lightning flashed afterward, casting its brilliant illumination over the scene. She spun on her heel as the last flickers of light faded into the darkness, and strode back into the asylum.’
- - This made me cheer at how comfortable Jan is becoming with her abilities.

’Great goddess, she was beautiful! For the first time in her life, she actually felt it, believed it, deep down in her bones. She was magnificent.’
- - Here, my cheering was that Jan finally realized what we have known since early on in her saga.

Your descriptions of Jan’s magic as she looked into herself, found and purged that illusion spell were fantastic. And her newfound ability was admirably put to use on others as she purged the pair of deputies of their sleep spells.


Nit: ’Once more, she {delete ‘she’?} the eddies and tides of upset energy flowed around her.’

[Renee]

A lot of self-reflection in this chapter, hon.

I think Jan's level of magic is like my level of modding, especially with advanced scripting. So I can relate! In both cases, there are some books (videos in the case of modding) / tutorials, but eventually those forms of media come to an end, and we're on our own. Oh sure, Jan can ask Blood Raven plenty of questions I'd imagine, but I'm noticing Raven is nowhere to be sensed in this chapter. Maybe Raven might even say "time for you to be on your own, grasshopper". Now what, Jan?

I recently heard an interview with Wolfgang Van Halen (Eddie's son) in which he was trying to ask his father some of the tricks he'd do on guitar. And Eddie couldn't really teach his son much, because so much of it was how he'd 'feel' in the moment as he played! ... You can't always replicate the sound you're hearing somebody else play, and so on.

She felt into her own energy, that cool mountain lake of power that resided deep within her. She dipped into its water, and was rewarded with a truly breathtaking vista of color and sound and scent and feeling. Her bones were cool and hard, like veins of iron burrowing through a mountain.

Then again, seems like Jan's doing okay on her own. This all seems very personal, this use of magics. Could Raven even experience any of this herself? I suppose each witch's magic will eventually become very personal, right?

Cool. She Norton'd her own Trojan worm. Kick ass, girlfriend! Question is, how did she get infected with that worm in the first place?

[SubRosa]

Acadian: Jan really shows that she is a Fighter/Mage in this chapter.

And as you noted, she is really coming into her own as a superhero, just as she is as a writer. She is finally making a real place for herself in the world, where she is confident that she belongs.


Renee: Funny that you mention that Blood Raven might someday say "It is time for you to be on your own." Remember that in a few weeks.

That is a good analogy between magic and music. As Van Halen noted, they are entirely personal things. They come from somewhere deep inside you, and that cannot be copied or duplicated. As Blood Raven told January in her first magic lesson: the hardest part of teaching someone magic, is that no one can teach you magic. You have to find your own power. Because it only comes from you.

That is a good question about where the spell came from in the first place. Someone, or something, must have cast it upon January. Without her even noticing it. There is definitely a high-level Illusionist in there somewhere.









Book 6.12 - Eloise

"This is Stormcrow!" she shouted into the shadowed corridors. "I got your message, I'm here to bring you out!"

Silence greeted her as she stalked down one hallway after another. She stopped at every room, and gave each a cursory glance. But she had yet to find any of the paranormal tourists.

"This place is huge," she murmured. "Searching it will take forever."

"Can't you do that... whammy you did when you found the djieien's heart?"

"Astral sensing?" January breathed. "I can try. It's kind of confusing when I am looking at the real world at the same time though."

A scream rent the still air. January turned this way and that, but she could not tell where it might have come from in the maze of hallways and rooms.

She closed her eyes, and slowed her racing heart with an effort of will. She let her awareness slip from her meat body. When she opened her eyes again, it was not in the physical world. It was in the other world, the world of magic and power. She turned her gaze this way and that. But she smelled it first, the hot, rank stink of abject terror. She sniffed the air, and followed that scent. Then she did see.

It was the aura of a person. It shone like a warm candle amid the otherwise dark eddies of energy that flowed through the sanitarium. January could feel that it was hot with both emotion and physical exertion. Yet even in its agitated state, it was not the brilliant flame of a magician. This was but a mundane spark in the darkness.

January immediately set out in the direction of the aura. It took her deeper into the building, away from the side she had entered from. She turned a corner, and slammed face first into a wall. She rubbed her nose. It was not a corner after all. Her astral senses were confusing her meat eyesight. It was like trying to watch two movies on the same screen at the same time, and keep up with both.

Moving along more gingerly, she made certain that the next corner was real before she stepped into it. She passed by an empty nurse's station, and strode down a long hall flanked by cubicles on either side. As before, all the doors had been removed. The floor was littered with peeled paint and other bits and pieces of detritus, which crunched softly under her booted feet.

"This is Stormcrow," she called out gently. The aura reacted to her words by crouching down, as if to hide. "It's ok, I'm here to rescue you."

She stepped into one of the small side rooms. It was empty but for a rusted metal bedframe that had been propped up in one corner. Crouched behind it, apparently for protection, was a man wearing a button-down shirt and dockers. His skin ran with sweat, and his dark hair was plastered wildly against his head. She recognized him as the bearded man who had recorded the video, albeit now much the worse for wear.

"Diego Islas?" January said gingerly. She stood still, so as not to spook him any further. "We got your video. I'm here to bring you out."

"Is it you? Is it really you?" He rubbed his eyes with shaking hands. From the way they darted to and fro, it was clear that he feared a literal boogeyman might leap out for him at any moment.

"It's really me, Stormcrow." For not the first time, January realized that her black armor and cape could be quite intimidating, especially in the dark. She probably looked like a vampire creeping up on a victim.

"Sága, light." January enunciated clearly. The screen of her digital assistant lit up brightly, illuminating the room with a cool glow. She turned her forearm inward, so it clearly lit up her face, and the white raven banner symbol emblazoned across her chest piece.

Islas fumbled with the bed frame. It screeched loudly as it skidded across the floor, and made an even greater clatter once he finally tossed it aside. He rushed up to her, and laid his hands on her arms.

"You've got to get us out here. There's... there's... some thing in here with us," he pleaded. "You've got to get us out of here."

"I will," January insisted, "that is what I am here for. Now tell me, how many others are there?"

"There were six of us, including me," he said. "There were the sisters, Anita and Lauren. Then there was the old man, Mr. Henry. He's in a wheelchair, you've got to find him. And there was Amy... I forget the name of her new boyfriend, and that other man. I've got them all in my phone, but the battery's dead."

He pulled out a massive smartphone, whose screen was easily twice the size of January's own phone. He fumbled with the screen and buttons on the side and back. But nothing happened. It fell from his shaking hands. Without really thinking about it, January shot out one of her hands, and easily plucked it from the air.

"Oh snap!" he stammered. January handed him back the phone, and he fought to shove it back into one of the pockets of his pants. Clearly, he was beyond flustered.

"Where did you last see the others?" January led him back into the hallway. His eyes darted down either end of the corridor. Then he clustered nearer to January.

"We were upstairs," he started. "On the fourth floor I think, or the maybe the third. No definitely the fourth, definitely the fourth. It was coming at us. It kept coming at us. There was all this light, and sound. It roared like a freight train. And we saw it, coming, coming at us. Oh sweet Jesus it was coming right for us!"

"This guy is either scared to death or the best actor I've ever seen," Gadget noted in her ear.

"Don't worry, I'll find them." January insisted. She led him down the corridor, back to the turn at the nurse's station. She paused there. She felt something, something close. She sniffed the air, and tasted despair. Turning her head this way and that, she focused on the feeling. She let the physical awareness fade, and concentrated on the astral. There it was, another aura down the opposite hall.

"What is it?" Islas asked. "Is it the Thing?"

"No, it's another person," January declared. She cupped one hand around her mouth, and shouted down the hallway. "It's Stormcrow, you can come out. I'm here to rescue you."

She shined Sága's light down the hallway, and pulled her awareness back from the astral. Splitting her senses like that was beginning to give her a headache. Clearly, she had a lot more magical training to do.

She heard feet sliding on the dusty floor. A few moments later the silhouette of a woman cautiously emerged from the gloom. January recognized her from the video as well. Her long waterfall of onyx hair was a mess, and her clothing disheveled. Clearly, she had been running and hiding in the darkness for some time.

"Diego, is that you?" she squinted in the dark. "Is that really you?"

"Amy!" he declared. "Come on, we're getting out of here!"

"Oh thank god!" the woman declared in a voice that was just a few octaves from turning into a shrill scream. "I want my money back! Are you crazy! I'm going to kill you once we get out of here!"

"It's not my fault!" Islas insisted. "I didn't know it was really haunted! We've been coming in here for months. This never happened before!"

January motioned for the other woman to join them. Amy turned from Islas to truly regard her for the first time. Then her face blossomed in that look of recognition that January had become used to seeing.

"It, it's you!" Amy stammered. "It's really you, Stormcrow!"

"It really is me," January agreed. "Now come on, I know the way out."

She led them both back toward the way they had come from, and Islas filled the silence with his voice.

"You know, this would be a good time for me to say how much I support you, and everything you do Stormcrow," he declared. "My brother, he's gay, and it was really hard for him when he came out. Our parents didn't take it well. It really means a lot to him that you came out, and to me. You're a role model."

"Oh shut up Diego," Amy spat. "Your brother's a Furry!"

"So, he's a Furry!" Islas countered. "He's gay too!"

"Are you two married?" January wondered aloud.

"Divorced," they both declared in unison.

"Well that explains it," Gadget murmured in January's earpiece. "Don't see what the big deal is with him being a Furry though..."

January did not either. In fact, she could relate to not feeling like you were born in the right body. She was thankful when they reached the side door. She led them out, but they both pulled up short, and stared blankly at her.

That is when January remembered the illusion. She stopped, and let physical reality fall away. She shifted purely into the astral. Then she dug into each of their auras in turn, and stripped the spell from their beings.

"How is that now?" January pulled back into mundane reality, and allowed her hands to fall to her hips in that classic superhero pose.

"The door, it's there!" Islas gasped.

"It was just a solid wall before!" Amy insisted. "It really was, now it's gone. How?"

"There was a spell on you," January explained, "an illusion. I've dispelled it."

"Oh crap, Marcus! You've got to find him," Amy suddenly gushed. She clutched at January's cubic boron nitride chest piece. "He's back in there somewhere. We got separated, we all got separated. He needs his inhaler. He's got asthma."

"Don't worry, I'll find him," January insisted, "I'll find them all."

January led them outside, to a small group of police and paramedics. She did not pause to update the cops. Instead she immediately went back inside. She was keenly aware that there were still people in the building, and something stalking them.

"You know what this reminds me of?" Gadget's voice was a comforting sound in her ear, "a predator. They charge a herd to break it up, and separate the prey animals. Then they pick out the weakest, the slowest, or the oldest. That's the one they go for, while the rest scatter."

"The man in the wheelchair, or the one with asthma?" January wondered.

"Either or," Gadget admitted.

January found the inhaler before she found Marcus. It was in a stairwell across the building. January could easily imagine it dropping from trembling fingers, or in the mad rush to escape whatever was hunting them in the tenebrous maze of corridors. Soon afterward she found Marcus and the two twin sisters, Anita and Lauren. They were easy to see, as one was fumbling along with a lighter.

January pulled loose the illusion spell that had wormed its way into their minds, and brought them out the same side door as before. That left only one, Mr. Henry, and his wheelchair.

[Acadian]

This felt rather like a quest that one might be assigned in an Elder Scrolls game – therefore, a lot of fun to follow along as Jan rescues this ‘Come at me Bro’ crew and leads them to safety.

The feeling that she’s getting closer to unraveling the mystery of the mysterious illusionist is palpable. Can’t wait to see what happens next!

[Renee]

Interesting that Jan and Avery can stay in touch, even as she goes deeper and deeper into this complex. Is it possible for them to lose signal between each other? I can't remember if they ever have.

That's interesting. So the astral version of Eloise does not mirror the physical version.

For not the first time, January realized that her black armor and cape could be quite intimidating, especially in the dark.

I like that, a lot!

Splitting her senses like that was beginning to give her a headache.

She just needs to bring some Advil along with her makeup compact next time.

What's a furry? Is that like a bear (hairy guy)? Hmm, maybe it's time for a trip to the Urban Dictionary.

1. Someone with an interest in anthropomorphic animals.

2. An anthropomorphic animal character with human traits, primarily a human/humanoid body(structure).

Hmm, sounds like I was close with the second description, just in reverse.

Avery's analogy, with separating the weak from the strong, makes a lot of sense. I like how with everything that's going on in this chapter, so much of it is guesstimating.



He pulled out a massive smartphone, whose screen was easily twice the size of January's own phone.... yikes, I found a nit?

This post has been edited by Renee: Feb 8 2021, 03:13 PM

[SubRosa]

Acadian: This does sound like a side quest. Save the Demon Hunter Bros.

January is about to meet the illusionist. Mysteries will be unraveled in the next few episodes.


Renee: They can lose contact, as it is essentially a radio/telephone link. The Junkman Isaac had a Faraday cage built into his lair that prevented her comms from working.

January often thinks about a less intimidating color scheme. But she has the whole crow thing to live up to. So black is always going to be her primary color.

Furs are both those, and people who wish they were anthropomorphic animals, like Khajiit or Argonians. I knew a guy who was a Fur - Ristin Racoon. Unlike most, he had an actual racoon suit he would wear sometimes. Basically a theme park mascot suit. I learned a lot about the whole Furry community from him.

Answers will be had in a few more episodes. January is about the meet the illusionist, and will be unraveling her secrets afterward.

You did find a nit! Arigato Chummer.







Raven Mocker pic

Nurse's Station

You Won't Make It Out Alive

The Coroner's table




Book 6.13 - Eloise

January ventured back into the asylum, and once more let her meat senses fall away. She embraced the astral fully, waved aside all the stale eddies of old fear and despair, and sensed deeper and deeper into the magical realm of power. She searched for long moments, sharpened her concentration, and focused all of her will upon the task.

Then she found it. It was above her, perhaps three or four stories. She could not be sure of distance in the magical world. She saw two auras there. One was on its side, stretched out, as if it was crawling. It was definitely human. Yet even in what was clearly a state of agitation, it was dim and faded, as if the energy of life was just a dim spark within it.

Lurking above it was something altogether different. It smelled old and musty, like a book that had been gathering dust for decades. But it was filled with energy. It radiated power in the astral, far beyond anything a mundane might possess. It felt like a parody of a human, somehow twisted by magic and darkness. It had a human's shape, vaguely, but the legs were strange, and the wings definitely did not belong on an ordinary person. They reminded January of a raven's wings, sweeping the air in the blackness overhead.

"The video wasn't faked," January said.

She knew there was no time to find a stairway up. Whoever that prone figure was, they only had seconds before the monster was upon them. There was only one thing to do. She called upon the elements, and became a hurricane. January leapt up, and effortlessly crashed through the ceiling. Brick, wood, and tile exploded everywhere as she barreled through the floor above, and kept going. She felt the next ceiling splinter beneath her onslaught as well. Then another shattered before her charge. She was an irresistible force. She was unstoppable.

She ignored the dust and debris that clouded around her. Her mind was fixed upon those two auras. They were right in front of her now, through a wall. But cinderblock could not stop her. It could not slow her. She was a storm, annihilating all in her path.

Then she was in the same room as the two auras. The monster -was it a raven, or a human? - paused with its claws just inches from the prone man's heart. January could feel the black icicles of those talons, cutting a hole in the astral. They were a hungry vortex, devouring the energy they came across. The heart it lanced toward was the opposite: glowing softly with life.

The raven-thing stopped, and January felt what she imagined might be shock flash through its aura. Then January was upon it, a tidal wave of force. She leaped with all her might, propelling her body directly into the creature. She soared over the prone man on the floor, and vaguely noted a tipped over wheelchair nearby. Then her arms wrapped around the raven-monster in a bear hug.

A brick wall shattered behind them, and another. They came to a stop in a bathroom. A row of toilets jutted from one wall, and if there had been any stalls or dividers, they were long since gone. Paint peeled away and littered the floor with detritus. A line of sinks grew from the opposite wall, perched beneath a row of broken mirrors.

The monster reached for one of the toilets, and effortlessly yanked it loose from the wall. It wielded it like a club, aimed at January's head. She lifted a forearm to block, and the porcelain shattered against the cubic born nitride plate that armored her forearm. January instantly countered with a heel strike at the creature's face, snapping its head back with the force of a semi-truck.

Claws came out of the darkness for January. Again she blocked. But neither her armor plates nor hagfish fibers could stop this attack. The black icicles of those claws passed through her body armor as if it was not even there. They bit deeply into her forearm, pierced flesh, and sliced the bright tendrils of her aura.

January bit down a gasp of pain. She knew how to take a hit. She was stone. She was the mountain. She was adamant. The claws stopped short of the bone. January willed them to, and shoved them out of her flesh, and her aura. Again she followed, this time with a front kick aimed at the monster's face. She felt something break under her foot.

I can reach out and touch you too, she thought grimly.

"Drek Stormcrow, what is it? I can't see a thing on the video?" Gadget's voice was definitely more agitated than usual.

"I think it's a raven mocker," January said. She did not have time for more. One wing came slicing out of the darkness for her. She ducked, and magical feathers hacked through a sink behind her, cutting it neatly in two.

The other wing came next. This time January did the splits, and dropped to the floor with her legs splayed out horizontally to either side. The razor wing cut nothing but empty air above her head. She only had to spare a thought to transform her cape into a pair of sable black wings of her own. With a single beat, they lifted her up into the air and backwards. She dropped to her feet out of fighting range, and took a long look at the creature across from her.

Her meat eyes still saw nothing, just blankness. But her astral senses not only saw the monster, they smelled her, like an old corpse. They felt her, like rough, dried out leather. She did not even want to explore what the creature tasted like in the magical realms. It was a strange fusion of power and decrepitude, just as it was a fusion of human and raven.

"You can see me," the creature croaked. It was an old woman's voice. It was a raven's voice. It was both, and neither. "You are a medicine worker."

"I can do more than just see you." January readied her wings. If the raven mocker could use them as weapons, then she could too. She stepped forward in a fighting crouch, her senses trained upon the magical being. She did not rush, lest she fall into a trap. But she never faltered either. Her advance was as inexorable as the tide.

They traded blows once more, wings clashing against one another in the darkness. The meeting of their auras sent off bright sparks of power in the astral, like two electrical poles crackling together. The monster's wings were separate from its arms, and it clawed at January at the same time that its wings made their assault. January countered by separating her own wings from her arms as well, and slapped away the raven mocker's talons with her forearms and hands.

The raven mocker snapped its jaws at her, and January sensed that its head was the barren skull of a raven. She slipped aside, and its beak clamped shut on empty air. She pushed in closer, and raked an elbow across the monster's throat. Then she drove a knee up into where the solar plexus would be on a human.

Claws skittered across January's face, and sprouted angry lines of fire in their wake. But January had her dander up by now. She barely felt a thing when the two of them crashed through another wall and spilled out into the hallway beyond. She ducked as a razor-edged wing hissed through the air overhead, and shattered cinderblocks beside her. Another wing came slashing in at her, forcing her to back up to avoid it.

Her legs ran into bricks, but the rest of her body kept going. She fell over backwards into what she realized was a small nurse's station a moment later. She spilled across a desk and continued her roll backward. She hit the ground and kept rolling, and was dimly aware that she had somersaulted through the open doorway of the cubicle.

She bounced back to her feet, and was ready for the raven mocker as it came at her once more. Thanks to her astral sensing, she did not need to be looking at it to sense its approach. She could feel its presence at all times. It was like having eyes in the back of her head. Yet as she had just learned, if she paid too much attention to the raven mocker in the astral, she would fail to notice the mundane realities of things like the walls all around her.

But not noticing a brick wall was less dangerous than not noticing the magical creature intent upon her destruction. So she kept all of her senses trained upon the raven mocker as she traded further blows with the creature.

Their fight took them into what might have been a patient's room. January noticed there was a flimsy wooden desk against one wall, and a stand with an ancient television set upon another. It was not a modern, sleek design with a screen as thin as a politician's morals. No, this was an old-school CRT cube of glass and lead.

January swept one of her legs out, and caught the chunk of ancient technology with the side of her foot. She kicked it like a soccer ball, and sent the twenty pound missile hurtling into the raven mocker. The creature met the improvised projectile with the leading edge of one of its wings, and it shattered into a cloud of electronics and dust.

Her mask slid down to cover her mouth and nose, and January felt the instant change to her suit's self-contained air system. With her night vision goggles already in place, that completely sealed her off from the outside world.

"Those things are highly toxic," Gadget noted in her ear. "You do not want to be breathing in all that lead."

January was thankful to have a partner watching her back, and thinking about things like that when she was too busy. For the TV had given her an idea. The raven mocker's strongest defense appeared to be its wings. If she could find a way to neutralize them, that could be the key to her success.

Without wasting another moment, she lifted the desk beside her and charged forward. She brought it down upon the raven mocker's head in an overhand blow. It reacted just as she expected, with its wings. Both of the monster's wings snapped forward to meet the desk, and drove deeply into its wooden surface.

January took that moment when its wings were occupied to step even closer and unleash a front kick. Her foot drove squarely into the monster's midsection, and propelled it back into one of the walls. Cinderblock shattered behind the creature, and it went sailing clear into the next room. The desk which January had used as a distraction fell to the floor in pieces all around her.

The raven mocker rolled across the floor of the second room, and climbed to its feet. January followed in after it. Out of the corner of her eye she noted that someone had spray-painted: "You Won't Make It Out Alive" on one wall. She sincerely hoped that was not referring to her.

She did not want to waste her advantage, and rushed in. Too late did she realize that while the monster had rolled backward, its wings had not simply dragged across the floor as she had originally thought. No, they had cut into it. With her first step the boards collapsed under her, and sent her plummeting down to the floor below.

Wood, bricks, plaster, and metal pipes shattered around her in a cloud of wreckage. She landed hard on something metal, and realized that it was a coroner's table when she rolled off it a moment later. Upon the wall beyond the head of the table was an x-ray film viewer made of glass and metal. Under it was a wide sink, a metal cabinet, and some sort of electronic device whose purpose she could even begin to guess at. It reminded her of a washing machine, given the small door in the front of the device.

The raven mocker came down on the metal table just moments after January had cleared it. The talons on its feet scored deeply into its surface. January noted grimly that the top of the table was indented to create a low depression, and it was lined with holes. Two sink-like basins hung from one end, with a hose attached. She did not like to think about the fluids those were meant to catch.

January kicked out at the table, and sent it flying back into the outer wall of the building. The raven mocker did not fall however. It was an avian after all. A single beat of its wings kept it aloft. Worse, the air generated by them shoved January back a step. That allowed the creature to drop gently to its feet a moment later.

Its wings were the key. January had to take them out of the fight. She could try using her own wings, or...

She leapt forward like a missile, arrowing directly for the raven mocker. It dodged aside, and slashed at her with one of its wings as she passed by. January used one of her own hagfish feathered appendages to block the attack, and soared through the air behind the monster. She hit the wall with both feet, and let her body collapse into the bricks like an accordion.

When she was squatting as low as she could into the wall, she pushed off of the cinderblocks and performed a backflip in the air. She landed on her feet beside the steel autopsy table, which now lay on its side. January grabbed it with both hands and hurled it at the raven mocker's chest.

As she expected, the creature's wings came out and hacked at the metal missile hurtling toward her. January was right behind it, and while the table went high, she went low. Even as the raven mocker's wings were shredding the steel furniture, she had somersaulted down to its feet.

She stepped down hard on the monster's instep, and sprang up just inches from its body. That put her inside the sweep of its wings. She brought her head directly up into its chin, and rocked its raven-like skull back. January immediately followed with a knee to the midsection, where the solar plexus would be on a human. That would have driven the air from a living being's lungs. The monster bent slightly, but nothing like a normal person would.

Since she was in close, January switched from krav maga to muay thai. She raked an elbow across its face, even as its wings beat helplessly against her back. She grabbed hold of one of the raven mocker's shoulders, and used it as a springboard to lift herself in the air. She came crashing down with her opposite elbow an instant later, and shattered the raven's skull into a thousand pieces.

[Acadian]

What a nailbiter of a fight with a formidable foe! When Jan was trying to figure out how to neutralize the hagraven’s wings, I thought she meant to somehow literally ‘de-wing’ her ala Maleficent. Very clever to, instead, simply get well inside their effective range. Much like a dagger or fist fighter getting in the face of an opponent with a long sword. At zero range, the tide of the fight quickly changed in favor of the Stormcrow.

Wow, that raven mocker really shows how blending woman and crow/raven can turn out poorly. Not at all like the beautiful results represented by Blood Raven and Stormcrow.


Nit: ’She did not even what {want?} to explore what the creature tasted like in the magical realms.’

[Renee]

I once had a lucid dream in which I wondered if I could crash through a brick wall, just to see if this is possible in dreams, and sure enough I could! So I can relate ...

I can just picture her exploding through the floor as a hurricane, in comic book form. Like, the moment when she does this gets illustrated in a comic panel as this whirling dervish-looking illustration. Yikes, she's fighting another monster!

t was a strange fusion of power and decrepitude,

Nice word there: decrepitude. Our very own Decrepit would like that.

I can just imagine what this fight looks like from Avery's point of view. Like she's just swinging her wings around and doing all these acrobatic moves while nothing is in front of her! OH YIKES that's what the Raven Mocker looks like. That looks like something out of the Monster Manual.

You wont make it out of here alive!!! ... That's wicked awesome.

Yikes, what a mess! At least it sounds like she d3f34t3d d@t m0n$t3r though!




-- Hey, I thought this would be fun. I know January is busy sorting out her new life, dealing with monsters and crises every other day up in Detroit. But would Jan like to take a quiz? Is she a true Millennial? Okay, that website is annoying with ads all over the place, so I'll try to post only the text questions here.

If you're too busy or whatever, don't worry about this. I thought this might be fun, though. I put my answers next to my answers, in parenthesis. But my daughter took the quiz too. Some of our answers are the same, but some way different. For instance, she reaches for her phone, first thing!

1). What is the very first thing that you do, every morning?

-- Reach for my phone.
-- Stretch, make some coffee have a smoke.. Then probably turn on the tv and answer all my texts from the night.
-- I go to work. (my answer, closest thing, anyway. I don't eat breakfast, for instance)

2). What type of phone do you have?
-- The latest iPhone...
-- Its definitely a smart phone...
-- One of the old style flip phones.. The new ones break too easy. (my answer)

3). What do you want to do with your life?

-- Something amazing!
-- I really don't know... (my answer. well, the closest I can come to my true answer)
-- I am grateful to just be living, that is more than enough.

4). What type car do you drive?

-- Drive? I use Uber cars! As you should know, they differ by the trip.
-- Oh i have a 2018 SUV freshly polished and delivered! Yay.
-- I am driving the same car I have drove for the last 10 years, my vintage 70's machine. (my answer, although I drive something from the '90s, not the '70s)

5). What's the wildest thing you ever did?

-- Got drunk, and have NO idea what I did that night... (my answer... closest thing, anyway)
-- I almost lit myself on fire!
-- We egged this house one time. So awesome.

6). Your view on marriage?

-- I would NEVER get married again.
-- If I ever love & trust someone that much, yes. If not, its always gonna be no. (my answer)
-- Marriage is outdated, I rather date around with no strings.

7). What's your top priority?

-- My family? (my answer)
-- God, get it right, kids.
-- My following and my image on my social networks!

8). And when were you actually born? (don't worry i am not asking a specific age!)

-- 1990's, of course.
-- The wee early 2000 crowd.
-- 80's or earlier. (my answer)

9). What is this? (Pic here)

-- Cannabis. (my answer)
-- Herbs?
-- That's definitely homegrown!

10). Which color makes you feel something?

-- Blue or green, the color of my love
-- Red & pink... Like love! Which makes me think of romance and peace.
-- Red.. Like blood. Black. Like my soul.

Hmm, I can't answer the final one. I'm really bad with choosing favorites. I tend to dress in demure colors as I get older. Closest thing is the Blue or Green answer, I guess. Dark blue or green, though. Too bad they don't include mahogany or darker beiges.

11). What or who, is God?

-- God is a mysterious and powerful being who controls everything with his infinite energy.
-- There is no God! Stop believing fairytales. (my answer!)
-- God is the big man upstairs!

And the final result? No matter if you're actually 90s kid, or not, you don't have a Millennial mindset or life style, you're way above your time!... A true old soul, never stop being you, even you feel pressured to connect, or fit in.

Cool, I can dig it!

My daughter took this too, and she got 50% Millennial: You're a little bit modern, a little bit old school. But that's okay! So many Millenials have their heads in the clouds (or electronics), it's totally awesome to find a grounded one!

Yeah I know this is kinda stupid, but how would Jan and/or Avery answer?

This post has been edited by Renee: Feb 19 2021, 05:45 PM

[SubRosa]

Wow, I am going to answer those right now.

January is a 50% Millennial as well.

Avery is 100% Millenial = You're a totally tech pro, flash-mobbing, highly advanced Millennial, on fleek!

Although technically, neither is a Millenial. They are both Gen Z.