Season Seven
Summary of Events. Also Todo List
2022-10-03
(Jules finishes a painting, Holly and Ariane talk about Sword and performing seances, Jules is angry/sad, Liz arrives, Holly has a chill shift at The Guild and brings a letter from the Lady of Kowloon back to Jules. Carlie gets followed home from the gym by corvids and meets Raven of the Tower of London getting Tower of London Corvid's Shilling Coin. The Pack finds out The Tower itself wants us to patrol/define the borders of London, the letter from the Lady of Kowloon offers us a choice of defend the Tower or beat the bounds. There's a discussion of logistics and if this will anger Dagenham, we verify the coin and hence the raven, and make plans)
Jules finishes the final piece of art that was commissioned by Giannis Valatos and it turns out well.
Holly digs into the journal entry about sword: When the casual observer assesses Sword they find it similar to Redcar, Smoke stacks and forges billow smoke into the sky. The best for industrial landscapes except perhaps Shield, but better than Gary, almost <f--t--d> like. If you travel up the main boulovard you'll see the Avenue Of 2 Great Titans which are not only people but companies. Sword is always trying to make the Unstoppable Force and Shield is trying to make the Immovable Object, one great titan is seen trying to push a spike through the others shield, and as they make better weapons better shields are made in response. I had to scarper because I pissed off a local, by making a request without due compensation. Also wood is forbidden here (asked for a repair to a walking stick). There are more details in the entry on Shield (Harold Styles on Sword)
Holly and Ariane talk about what would be useful compensation to offer, Lydia suggests the gospel (the most valuable thing), Carlie rolls her eyes so hard she leaves, walks ferociously, then hits the gym. The rest of us talk of the origin of The Primrose-Morton Sword, Ariane says she has many stories about it, but nothing concrete, we talk about if asking ancestors is a good idea and Ariane suggests a grand séance and Holly suggests asking Bell as a good starting point to locate a place suitable in London. We discuss if we should tell Lydia that its definitely possession and necromancy.
The Stargazers text Sunny, want to compare notes on latest trip, its just Sebastian freshly returned from the quest to find the origins of Covid (Laurent is notably not there as usual) they arrange to meet in the same cafe, so Sunny starts to cook for the owner. She attempts to recreat the rabbit a l'orange (Season_Four#2021-06-21) she learnt at the Primrose-Morton's but can't quite get it to go well, so whips up a quick batch of brownies as cover.
Jules breaks things angrily.
Holly heads to a shift, but as she's leaving the pack house Liz arrives. She says its okay because one day Holly will cover shifts for her in similar magical situations. Holly warns her that Jules is "a bit raw" and she cautiously directs her upstairs, Liz has chocolate which she uses to help break the ice on bartering entry to Jules room - where she has been obviously crying her eyes out. There's a bunch of emotional care with Liz's perspective being that people died because of many interlocking factors that brought them into the same place as things Jules did, many steps which put everything in the same place. She also suggests teaching from The Guild may help avoid future mistakes.
Meanwhile at The Guild: No one bats an eye at Holly. They seem to have an unspoken "spooky shit happens" agreement. During her shift the Lady of Kowloon approaches, leaves an ornate envelope with Jules full name and honourifics (Ahroun of Gaia, Alpha of the Southwark Bells, etc) then drifts away, and Holly carefully pockets it then transfers it to her locker.
At the cafe meeting: Sunny hands the brownies over and sits down with Sebastian, they have a discussion about whats been happening and Sunny tells him everything about The Realm of Creeping Soot, his eyebrows shoot up, there's talk of the hospital, and detailed information about the realm and fight (but she leaves Jules experiments out of it). Sebastian says this is better than any test he could dream up, welcomes her to the Stargazers and leads her to the bathroom to take her through the mirror for an initiation rite. On the way the cook tells her that her brownies were "pedestrian!" and that his Grandmother made better brownies, these were lacking zoom! Sunny vows to try again.
On the way back from her gym Carlie gets a takeaway coffee and realises she's being tailed by corvids, texts the pack, heads for the warehouse/wasteground where the Alpha Games took place, ducks inside and waits until a corvid comes in. It drops at a safe distance and they play yes/no hopping to answer questions. It tells her that its following her for someoen, who wants to talk, and it can't really bring them here as they're a spirit world native. She hops through to the Umbral version of the warehouse, spots a big corvid spirit that introduces itself as a Raven of the Tower of London, says its not been waiting long, confirms she's a Ragabash who talks her pack into/out of things, and tells her London wants her pack to do an important job for it, wants her to talk the Alpha into accepting "an important role in defining London" in the form of a job of travelling the edges of London, like a patrol but all of London, and that the Alpha will get offered two jobs and London wants them to do this one. It will owe Carlie and the Pack a boon if she pulls it off. When asked how soon this will be it shrugs and drops a shiny coin. She pops back out, gets check-ins from Lydia and Jules while most people are asleep.
Next day: Holly updates everyone that The Guild didn't ask questions, Carlie just opens by talking about a spirit of the Tower of London and Ariane speculates on beef eaters or princes, Carlie ignores her and tells Jules she'll be offered two roles and London wants her to the boundary walking. We talk potential issues like: Will this be patroling into others territories? Carlie's main point is that every time a big spirit asks us for help it looks like the right thing to do. Jules wonders if this is linked to her talking to spirits ages ago as part of the Alpha Games where she asked for help protecting her pack. A general plan is formed to deal with this after Jules delivers her piece of artwork and looks after Liz.
Sunny almost tells the pack she joined the Stargazers but Jules jokes about butt sniffing so she doesn't.
Holly then sneaks Jules the note from the Lady of Kowloon as she heads back upstairs.
Carlie and Holly examine the coin, Holly can tell it came from the Umbra but its now a physical thing, Holly checks it was given freely and confirms its probably a gift. We discuss if its a token?, A magical link to the tower?, Proof of the job?, Something to take on patrol? It's a shilling coin whos faces change a little based on what angle you view them at, seem to have names and faces of various Lord Mayors of London throughout history. Ariane tells a long dry story about Mongolian spirit coin tokens (ooc: she botches her knowledge roll and bores people). We also find out that Lydia doesn't know what a muppet is so show her some Seseme Street.
Jules meanwhile opens the letter upstairs, its in very flowery language but offers her and the pack a role in the annual celebrations of mythic London, a grand ritual that keeps the city safe, prosperous, and growing. There are 2 options: Defend/Patrol the tower of London while others do their thing (this is a role the Previous Southwark Pack apparently did every year) as sometimes neer do wells and undesireable elements attempt to sneak into it and disrupt people or patrol the borders and beat the bounds of London, a race like the first to visit every Underground station, where the member of the Pack who got the most stations would perform a rite to visit "Every part of London worth mentioning" and list them all by name. This is normally done by the Dagenham Deadbeats (however their light on members this year...). The letter is signed by the Grandese of London.
Back in the Kitchen when the letters contents are discussed there is talk of who is undesireable, plans, which jobs to do, we find out Lydia doesn't know about the Wombles, and making ties to the Raven and Tower. We talk to expansive definitions of London, not wanting to step on others territories, or intrude into the territories of external-to-London packs, Carlie wonders if this is The Guild kicking Dagenham and using us to do it, we wonder what happens if they refuse and say they still want to do it, suggest this is a matter for the Spirits judgement. Ariane suggests checking if this Raven is good spirit linked to the Tower, Sunny texts the Stargazers and they confirm the detail that if the coin shifts in the light its a legit marker from The Tower of London itself.
There's a general plan:
- Holly and Ariane: Talk to Bell about a séance for Sword
- Also ask Bell (and investigate) what happened to the Previous Southwark Pack
- Jules to try and talk to Raven of the Tower of London
- Talk to the Dagenham Deadbeats and confirm that this is okay, its our choice, but we'd like to know how they do it, where they draw the boundaries.
The pack ends in bickering, Jules heads upstairs texting the Deadbeats to arrange a meeting.