Granite Park (Attn: Tug, Orphan, Teegan, Brutus, Joshua, Falx)

Falx hops out of Tug's escalade as soon as he parks it. His weapons are concealed under his jacket. Realizing he grabbed far too much ammo for concealment he only takes one of each and puts them in the coat pockets. The rest are under the passengers seat. He looks around, his prime sight already going, for anything blatantly magically out of place.

Since they will be in a public park, Orphan has come up with a way to get away with having his daisho with him, if not immediately available. He carries with him a long canvas bag that contains his folding easel and some art supplies, in addition to his swords. He wears a knife and his pistol under his jacket. He carries the easel bag over his shoulder, carrying in his let hand a heavy steel case that holds pastels, pencils other art supplies, but which would pack a wallop if used to strike someone. He figures that if there is a need to set up somewhere to observe a spot for a period of time, he can setup his easel and appear to be working on something as a way to be less obvious in doing surveillance or studying resonance.

As they arrive, Orphan tells Falx, "He's not an Arrow, but that guy Ollie is interested in this stuff at the park, too. I told him I'd give him a call when we were going to come out here, but that was before knowing what West was planning. Think it would be okay to call him? He might be able to help, and I don't think he'd get in our way."

(( Remember to keep sig lines updated ))

"That's the guy who ran? Sure he can come as long as he understands that this is an Arrow mission." He smiles seeing what his bro wore. "Ya split up into our groups. Well once Joshua gets here at least. Then we get the lay out of the place and try to find anything weird."

Kelreth wrote:"That's the guy who ran? Sure he can come as long as he understands that this is an Arrow mission." He smiles seeing what his bro wore. "Ya split up into our groups. Well once Joshua gets here at least. Then we get the lay out of the place and try to find anything weird."

Timeline wise, when is this occurring in relation to the stuff at the funeral? If more than a day is passed, I'd be back up at full.

I should probably also reroll the triggered spell.

(I'm going off the, we just left the Circle so taking those notations with me)

((00C - ooops, I quoted the wrong thing, I meant to quote West's comment))

((so , are we at full, minus anything expended in the Circle workouts?))

(West hasn't said, I just went with that cause it made sense, but West said we aren't supposed link threads....so i guess we could be full even though we kind of linked them already, though this is linked....argh)

(( This is not linked, because you could go the day after the Circle, or a week after, having rested and recup'ed. All sig lines are full except what has been spent in this thread. ))

Spoiler:

On the way to the par Brutus attempted to bring up his sight; an action akin to putting binoculars to ones eyes while driving. His fellow drivers learned to benefits of defensive driving.

He also dropped his added weight in favor of increased reflexes and speed, not once but twice to gain a better effect. By the time he pulled up to the park his Aegis had dispersed and Brutus renewed the energy of his Resiliency. he pulls up near the entrance, but on the opposite side from Tug. Close enough for a get away but far enough away from Tugs car so as not to be cramped.

He keeps his Shotgun hidden under his coat along with a Peanut-butter jar full of what looks like living coffee grains and three bottles of water tucked in spacious pockets. His knuckles are stashed in his front pockets and the borrowed pistol lies hidden in its holster. He's ready to roll. Bring the zombies, Yeah!

((I screwed the Paradox. Won't happen again.))

Teegan's Explorer pulls into the park soon after Brutus. She parks it and jumps out and makes her way over to where the other mages have gathered. She's got her camo jacket on over her usual gray tank and black pants. She carries her MP5 hidden inside the large army jacket, a pistol holstered at her belt, and a combat knife stuck in one boot...just in case.

~~Narration~~

Granite park, mid-afternoon. With three or four hours of daylight left, it's full of skaters, artists, strollers, and stoners. A few dogs are playing frisbee with their humans, and there seems to be a group of high school kids playing football.

Doesn't much look like a scene of zombie mayhem to anyone.

Of course, the group of six Arrows blend right in.

Falx chuckles. "We aren't that inconspicuous. Put anything blatant away and then we will do some stretches and jogging and such.""

Ollie shakes his head at the Baseball bat offering "Nahh, I'll be ok."

He looks around the park, currently a stark contrast to the way he'd seen it last. This is how he knew the place. It was hard to believe it was the same Granite Park.

Ryan stood next to Ollie, not really sure what was going on other than trying to figer out what turned the place into a Dawn of the Dead re-enactment. Place doesn't look that bad.

Orphan waves as Ollie approaches, then looks to Falx. "I've got an idea I've been wanting to try out ever since we watched West's replay of the fight with the zombies. I was thinking I'd try some sort of improved Space effect, try to improve the range of my vision, then do Postcognition over by where Ghoster was when the zombies attacked. Maybe I can figure out where they came from, and who knows, maybe even see if there was someone hanging around giving them directions. I can set up my easel over there so I can take all the time I need to try to scan the scene as thoroughly as I can without drawing any attention to myself."

(OOC Question: I've been thinking for awhile of having Orphan do this when I got the chance, and since West already showed us a postcog view of the fight, is it reasonable that Orphan could have talked to West and learned when the various parts of the fight occurred well enough to pinpoint the right time to target with Postcognition? If it helps he could also activate Temporal Eddies, which gives him perfect time sense.))

~~Narration~~

It takes a while, and a bit of walking when the spatial Sympathy and temporal Sympathy become a bit much, but Orphan Postcogs the area.

He sees the zombies emerge from unnaturally thick shadows, and is able to discern that the shadows are most dense around the building currently used by the parkour group.

Orphan also notices a fuzzy, indistinct area on the same rooftop that Logos had climbed to.

He'll either need to get closer, or use a focused casting to see what's hidden, from his experience with Postcognition.

Falx had put his MP5 back in Tug's truck and had started to run laps around the outside edge of the park. While running he looks over the general layout of the park and the surrounding buildings.

Still posing as an artist, Orphan takes out a viewfinder and takes some time scanning around the park, trying to make it appear he is studying the scenery, the light and so forth in various parts of the park. His gaze finally falls on the rooftop where where he noticds the fuzzy,indistinct area and the building used by the parkour group, where the zombies appear to have come from. Before reporting in with Falx, It occurs to him to check for any current magical effects in both places.

First he enhances his current mage sight by adding Temporal Eddies to the mix, such that he might look for effects specific to the Time Arcanum as well as that of Fate. Then he takes a bit of time to study the resonance at each location, figuring a long-distance look might give some information that will be handy to take into account before he and some of the others get closer.

Spoiler:

~~Narration~~

The resonance surrounding the building is faint, and seems to be associated more with the ground than the building. It makes him shiver a bit, and reminds him of a dead bird he saw a few days ago.

The rooftop's resonance is hazy and indistinct, as if the same haze from the past exists in the present.

Taking note of the resonance for future reference, Orphan sends a quick text to Falx, then goes back to his easel and starts doing a sketch of some of the people lounging around the park.

Ryan nodded. He was sure splitting up is usually a bad idea anyway. But then again, what use would I be in a fight?

Teegan says "Hi" to Ollie and Ryan when Joshua signals and introduces herself. She keeps looking over at Orphan, idly watching him paint. She wonders momentarily what he sees in his viewfinder then says to Joshua, "What should we be looking for?"

As Tug gets to Orphan.

"Hey bud nice picture."

He comes to a halt next to them

By the time Tug and Falx arrive, Orphan has sketched out a rough of the drawing he was making and has started to apply pastels. His style is a minimalist one, one in which he uses a single line or squiggle to convey a lot. As he talks, he continues to draw, and every now and then he gestures with his implements toward the lounging people he's drawing, even while taking about things in an entirely different direction.

He says, "I found some good things with Postcognition and checking out resonance. That building over there, the one the parkour guys are using, the zombies emerged from an areas of unnaturally deep shadow over by there. The building itself has a faint resonance of Death, but it's stronger from the ground near the building, around the point I Postcogged the shadow, than on the building itself. I'm wondering if they came out of the ground there, and maybe are back in the ground there as we speak, or if maybe there's a basement or something around there.

"I also Postcog-saw something interesting on the rooftop of the building Logos climbed, something hazy and indistinct. The resonance is exactly the same now - hazy and unclear - like the same effect I saw backward in time is still in effect there now. I'm not sure what it means, but I have some guesses. One is that there was someone or something there that whoever is behind this doesn't want seen, so some sort of cloaking magic was used to mask it, either at the time or after the fact. Essentially, trying to erase the trace of whatever it was from the timestream. The other possibility is that there was something there, and it's still there and still being cloaked.

"I can probably get a better reading on both from closer up, but I wanted to check in first and see how you wanted to handle it. The parkour place, we probably could just wander up and act like we're checking out the place and what they're up to. I can look bored or distracted while you chat up anyone who seems to notice us. Getting up on the rooftop might draw more attention, though."

Orphan leaves the decision to Falx, since Falx is the one in charge.

Teegan shrugs at Ryan and starts to wonder around the park, no more that 20 meters away from the others as instructed. As she does she investigates the area's magical resonance.

Spoiler:

Joshua had told Ollie to split off with Brutus, but Orphan had been calling him on the phone and he wanted to touch base first. He jogs up just as Orphan is mentioning what he saw on the building.

"Woah, woah. That building? A sniper from that rooftop took a shot at me and a couple other Workers who I had working with me investigating the park then. He didn't get a second shot off because he got killed by a... Well, some bestial dude with a big knife. Decidedly not like any mage or Sleeper I've ever encountered. I went up there and Postcog'd the day after I got sniped at. When I was up there the shooter's body hadn't been moved, and when I looked back at the day before I saw what happened."

"That building is FUCKED from the sound of it. When were you trying to postcog to, Orphan? When you got blocked."

~~Narration~~

Teagan sees nothing unusual, other than a slightest hint of Forces residue -- just enough to identify, not enough to Scrutinize.

Orphan glances at Ollie and points past him at some random person in the background while saying "I was looking at the time right around when the zombie attack started, when Ghoster and Logos were here in the park alone. I saw the zombies emerge from shadow around the parkour building. At the same time, someone or some thing was on the rooftop of the building Logos climbed up."

Orphan closes his eyes for a moment, attempting to call up an Imago, imagining the scene when Logos was atop the building with the zombies climbing up after him. Then he turns and gazes at the rooftop, where he saw the obscured... whatever. Using Postcognition along with his Mage Sight, and knowing exactly what he's looking for, he attempts to see if the hazy something was present and in the same location while Logos was up on the rooftop.

Spoiler:

(( Please roll a normal Paradox roll, then re-roll Postcog with any suxx factored in, as well as a -3 ))

As Orphan attempts to use Postcognition to study the event in question, he feels something entirely unexpected... the seeping emptiness of the Abyss. Not having expected Paradox while using a covert spell, he had no time to use one of his magical tools to reduce the risk. He chose to take the Paradox into himself, not wanting to risk anything worse and not wanting to lose this spell, and he felt his muscles cramp painfully up as he did so.

Despite the paradox, and despite some unexpected resistance, Orphan was able to maintain and sharpen the Imago and complete the spell.

Spoiler:

~~Narration~~

Orphan can tell that he is fighting against a mystical occlusion, but that his spell simply isn't strong enough to pierce it.

Tug is unable to sense any flying insects on top of the roof, and the lazily drifting clouds make him realize that it's far too windy on the rooftop.

Teegan wanders over to where the rest of the mages are standing. She didn't attend the funeral so Joshua's fear of standing out wasn't completely computing to her and she couldn't seem to find anything too interesting out in the park on her own. She listens carefully to Orphan as he talks to Ollie about what he's seen trying to get a better feel for the situation before night comes around. That's when this place goes 'Army of Darkness' supposedly.... She adds to her thoughts, as she considers what nightfall may bring.

Falx looks to Joshua. "Orphan was looking around with the sight. The building over there" he points to the parkour building. "Has some sort of veil over it. Orphan says that it is focused on the ground where the zombies came out and on the roof where Logos was. Hes not sure if its a time veil or not but it's still there so there could be the risk of something still there as well." He looks to Orphan. "If I missed anything don't hesitate to correct me" He looks back at the building. "O, there also is a resonance of death around it, again focuses near the ground and the roof. And I like Orphan's idea of heading over there. I was thinking we could go over, we could ask to join them maybe. We should be in good enough shape to try parkour at least and get to ask the people some questions.

Orphan shakes his head. "The Death aura is around the building with the parkour going on, and it's really more in the ground near the building, or maybe underground, not so much the building itself. The Veiling magic is on the roof of the building Logos climbed. I can tell something is being hidden up there, but my spell wasn't strong enough to pierce the veiling. If we get up there maybe by working close up and together and using different ways of Knowing and Unveiling we can figure out how to pierce it."

He looks at the others. "It's possible that whatever is up there is responsible, or at least connected, to what has happened. Maybe it's just a veiling of the past in that spot - someone or something was there, and the veil is meant to prevent someone looking back in time and seeing who or what it was - or maybe there's still something up there that is important to what has been happening here."

He then looks at Falx and smiles. "I'm all for giving parkour a try, though. I've been wanting to learn how to do that ever since I first saw it about a year ago."

"But here's something else," he adds. "I don't know what's going on, but the spell I just did, that couldn't break through... it triggered Paradox. That's part of why I couldn't pierce the veiling. I had to eat the paradox, which sucks, but here's the thing... it was a covert spell. It shouldn't have produced any Paradox."

Falx face goes flat. "Didn't covert spells cause the abyss to mess with us at the funeral...." He looks at the building. "...." he looks at Joshua. "What you think about making the air on top of the building unbreathable? I can't do that yet."

"What do you mean by noise? We don't need sleeper authorities popping up if we end up throwing magic at someone."