Marking up the map (Attn: Vegas, Animus, Joshua, Ruby, Armstrong)

Armstrong nods at Joshua's matter of fact manner. "Of course Joshua, I'm willing to try looking whenever you are ready. I would prefer to be under a ward first though, possibly with some other magical protections active."

Once Joshua is gone she turns back to Theo. "Possibly, however I might be able to try something."

Spoiler:

(( yes, she can cast ))

Armstrong spends a moment adding things up in her head, then she builds the imago where all the pieces fall into place so that she intuits the Enigma. She improvises the weave of both Fate and Mind into her spell, backed by her formidable will.

Spoiler:

~~Narration~~

Armstrong begins to see the pattern of the formula, following what seems to be the main series several feet. After several seconds, she realizes that the sigils she is studying and assembling in her mind are nothing more than a red herring, designed to mask the nature of the underlying equation.

"Stop!" comes a hoarse yell. The owner of the voice is a wild haired man, who wears the clothing of a destitute quite at home in alleys. Hands drop the armload of books he's carrying, and their shiny library cellophane covers catch the reflection of the white bar of Celestial Fire flashing from his hands.

~~Narration~~

Everyone moves in time, or is not in the path, except for Vegas. The bolt hits him squarely in the chest, staggering him.

"Plowmen dig my earth," the man hisses, spittle flecking his beard. He squints, then turns and runs.

Theo sees the books fall, hitting the ground one after the other, sees the bolt coming towards the group, feels his back hit the wall as he dodges, and watches as Vegas gets hit with the white fire. In the back of Theo's mind a song starts that played as background music for some tv show someone had been watching before he left school. He had never actively listened to it though, so the lyrics didn't surface.
Then man starts to sprint away and time seems to speed up again.
"Halt!" he shouts after the man in German. Of course the man didn't stop.
He is about to instinctively give chase but stops himself. Instead, Theo hurries back to Vegas to check how seriously the celestial fire had damaged his pattern.
"Vegas, how badly are you hurt?"

~~Narration~~

Vegas mumbles something about cracked ribs, while touching them tenderly.

(( Sciurrus hasn't been on in a week, so I'm ghosting Vegas. 3B ))

Satisfied that Theo can take care of Vegas, Animus turns and runs after the man. No one messes with us and leaves unchallenged.

~~Narration~~

He's not very fast, and the baggy thrift store clothing isn't exactly aerodynamic. He is, however, approaching the other end of the alleyway, and will exit it before Animus reaches him.

No, we deal with him here. Animus crafts an Imago, imagining the man's hormones triggering in a fear response directed at the open space beyond the alley.

Spoiler:

~~Narration~~

The spell seems to have no effect, and the man exits the alley, turning left. Screeching tires can be heard, leading Animus to believe he is crossing the street as well.

Great, now Animus was going after the guy without help.
"Ok, it doesn't look to bad." Theo wished he had an ice pack, but he didn't and he didn't want to start using mana just yet. The injury seemed minor enough. "It's not serious."
From down the alley, he heard tires screeching.
"Animus?" Theo was up and sprinting towards the sound, jumping over the books.

Armstrong grunts as she tumbles out of the way and into, of all things, a garbage bag full of something extremely... foul. It seems to explode on impact, covering her in filth.

As she fights down the urge to vomit, she runs/stumbles out of the alley after Obrimos McFireball. Hopefully she can get a Suspension on him before he makes it out into the public.

As he reaches the street, Animus looks across, trying to spot the man he's chasing.

~~Narration~~

The man is actually running down the middle of the street, causing havoc with the traffic.

Animus runs along the sidewalk, watching for an opening to reach the man.

Theo turned down the alley and didn't see Animus. "Bitte Gott."
He ran down the small street, looking right, then left. Much to his relief, he sees Animus running along the sidewalk and the other mage running through traffic. The old man was going to get himself killed. Theo kept after them.

Armstrong moves down the street with Animus, keeping her eye on both the Ploughman and all the traffic that he's running through. With one eye it's far harder than it should be, but she doesn't dare take the time to cast a spell to negate the difficulty. The moment she tries to, she's sure a minivan is going to hit him.

((Holding Action))

~~Narration~~

The man darts the rest of the way across, and begins his shuffling run down the opposite sidewalk.

Between the traffic, and running, people are starting to get curious and watch the procession.

It's a lot more attention than Animus would prefer, but he refuses to just let the man go. He watches for a chance to cross the street.

Running had let Theo think a little. He was trying to puzzle what the guy had meant by "Plowmen dig my earth". It couldn't be a code phrase with the expectation of reply, could it? The man had fired first and run off instantly. It had to be a message, maybe a warning.
Theo skirted a group of pedestrians who had stopped to watch.
He focused a little more on the task at hand. He didn't want to ran into someone or lose track of Animus because he was lost in thought and he needed to keep his pace up or risk losing

Armstrong follows close behind Animus. She does not want to loose track of him or Apotheosis, but Animus was more likely to run into a trap.

~~Narration~~

It's apparent that Mr. Down & Out is no athlete; his tired gait turns to stumbling, and then to a fall on the sidewalk. Pedestrians look on in confusion and give curious looks towards Animus and Armstrong.

The attention they were getting was starting to become more and more of a problem. Something had to be done or it might get hairy.
Theo looked out across the traffic. They needed a distraction. He chose a spot in the confused traffic with a running car engine currently occupying it. The the car was being driven by someone honking their horn, so much the better. And with his soul he called to the heavens to trumpet the sound of that spot.

Spoiler:

He hoped the sudden increase in volume would be enough of a suprise for people to look for its source.

~~Narration~~

It does indeed provide quite the distraction, during which the man regains his feet and darts into another alleyway.

Animus follows the man, putting on a burst of speed. Hopefully he can catch him before he hits the next street.

Spoiler:

Animus tackles the man, bearing him to the ground.

"There must be some way out of here," the man chokes out, as he begins to beat at Animus ineffectually.

Animus ignores the man's blows. "The way out is through answering our questions. Why did you attack us?"

Theo follows more carefully across the street and into the alley after Animus, where it looks like the old man has finally been caught.
He approaches a little more relaxed than he's been but still wary of the stranger. He readies himself to dispel any attempts at casting from the vagrant.
"You ok?" he asks.

"No reason to get excited," the man answered, rubbing at the contusions from the fall. He looks past Animus towards the alley exit, but doesn't seem to be trying to rise. His eyes also seem a bit unfocused, and his gaze wanders to the alley wall, resting on more sigla.

Animus seemed fine and the crazy guy was calmer by all appearances. Theo relaxed a little. He followed the gaze to the mystic spraypaint. Theo was pretty sure their investigation of the runes was why they had been attacked. From what the old man had said Theo suspected he considered it to be an interference on their part. The possesive "my", the use of "earth" and "dig" instead of "field" or "till", all pointed in that direction. He wasn't sure he understood the symbolism behind naming them plowmen, though.
"Did you attack us because we were working on those? We weren't trying to destroy the markings, just study them." he explained.

"Fornication," the man sighs. "I don't want to be like this, you know." His gaze remains fixated on the sigils.

"This is not our fate," he mumbles.

Armstrong picks a fishbone out of her hair and flicks it aside. "It doesn't mater. The symbols are a diversion." She keeps watch over the alley entrance.

God she reeked. She was going to have to get to a shower before she did anything else.

Fornication seemed an overly derogatory way of describe it. The rest of his words were more or less just as out of place. The man was still speaking in riddles. Which meant more analysis and translation to figure out what he actually meant.
Fornication likely how he viewed the investigation of the runes. Used to describe immoral sex out of marriage. So, he considered thier actions as such with conviction bordering on religeous. It was possible he considered the runes "married" to him somehow, especially considering his previous possesive statement. There was the possiblity he was using the word as reference to the Latin base of archway. Theo couldn't see a reason that could tie in though.
The next statement was harder to make sense. "This" could be anything. It could be pointing back to fornification, in which case it seemed the old man considered his actions sinful. It could be he felt compeled to action through the "marriage". Theo right now considered that the best answer, given the man's state. Theo had started suspecting the runes had some maddening power or curse since getting a headache looking at them.
And finally "This is not our fate." Given the continued stare at the sigils, Theo thought that the man was describing their powers or purpose either over the city or maybe himself.
"What is the fate they bring?" he asked the pinned man.

He doesn't believe in giving a straight answer, does he? When Armstrong speaks, Animus turns to look at her, mildly surprised. "A diversion from what?"

Armstrong smiles sweetly, still watching the alleyway. "I don't know, I was distracted by a fireball. All I can be sure of is that they don't have anything to do with the equation. I'm assuming that this fellow would know more though."

~~Narration~~

The man seems content to remain on the ground, although one finger seems to be tracing symbols as his eyes flicker over the wall.

He has such fascination with the runes. Are they an active diversion, drawing the unwary into their thrall? And have they penetrated into any other Realms? Animus forms an Imago that could hopefully answer his own question.

Spoiler:

"Hey," Theo said stepping between the old man and the runes. "What fate is not our's?" He wanted more confirmation before moving on, even if it was couched in riddle. He was unsure how long the man's calm attitude would last, either.

~~Narration~~

Everything looks normal... almost. Animus can see the ley lines that the runes overlay, but their surfaces flicker and waver, and it almost seems as if there are shadows on them.

The man ignores Theo and watches Animus, finger paused in mid-twitch.

Interesting. Am I closing in on his secret? Animus takes a good long look at the ley lines.

Spoiler:

~~Narration~~

They're... ley lines. Animus is able to discern a slight trickle of power being skimmed off of them where the shadows are.

Theo notices the man's new fascination. "Animus, what are you doing?"

Animus carefully watches the man for any sign of reaction as he speaks. "I looked into the Shadow Realm for anything unusual. It looks like shadows are moving over the lines, but energy is being skimmed off at the shadows."

~~Narration~~

The man nods in agreement. "Businessmen, they drink my wine," he says solemnly. He reaches out a hand and begins petting Armstrong's leg.