Later, at the caern, the entire pack and Ambrose are comparing and contrasting their ritual learning experiences when Death-from-Above strides past, stops and comes back. "Come with me." He moves towards the caern centre, and stops when he gets there. "Spread out and look attentative."
A moonbridge opens and a number of Garou step through. The two in front are
not known to Harmony's Dream, but the five garou behind them are - they are
Seeker's of Tomorrow. Dante greets one of the front two garou, an eldish
aboriginal woman. "Greetings, honoured one. My sept leader told me to expect
you. How may I be of assistance?"
"I am Annadja Guards-the-Rear and this is Sings-to-the-Moon. We wish to speak
to Ground-Runs-Red and Learns-from-mistakes."
"Certainly." He turns to Harmony's Dream. "Convey them to the thunderwyrm.
Tusulla is there." Harmony's Dream lead the invasion force up out of the
caern and to the thunderwyrm field. Both Tusulla and Ground-Runs-Red are
there, and neither look particularily impressed with their visitors.
Annadja turns and tells both Harmony's Dream and Seekers of Tomorrow that
they may go - Katannaja, Wind-tossed-leaf and Ramada opt to stay with their
elders, but Miranda and Thordal half-bow and leave with Harmony's Dream.
Miranda asks them if they are free to do anything. Alyssa says that they
have caern duty at the moment - what did they have in mind. Thordal explains
that they live in a caern where the closest town with a toilet is 200kms
away - they just want to do something while they have a chance to. Harmony's
Dream talk with Dante who says that as long as they keep their mobiles on
and if Furry Anarchy are happy to hold their place for a day, that will be
fine.
Miranda and Thordal are taken on a whirlwind tour of interest. They spend most of the day in Brunswick Street, but can't really buy anything because they'd have to moonbridge back with it. It quickly becomes clear that they don't get much chance to mess around, the rest of their pack is quite serious in mein. Much fun is had by all. Around 5pm, Dante rings Karen and says that the others want to go. They rush back to the caern and the visitors all moonbridge out.
That night, Alyssa goes back to Grant's house. As she pulls up though, there is a police car out the front. She goes inside to see what is wrong. It seems Grant was attacked just outside work. The two police finish taking notes and want him to come to the station tomorrow to give a description of the attackers, so that they can draw pictures. They head off and Alyssa demands to know what happened. It seems Grant was walking past a back-alley when someone said "Hey, mate?" - he took two steps down it and someone hit him on the back of the head with something hard. They took his money, but left the wallet. Alyssa voices some suspicions about who the assailents might have been - Grant looks a bit panicked, but then points out that he would be looking for his spleen if it was the Shadowlords. Alyssa agrees, and goes to get her family doctor to come over. He does, and Grant is found to have mild concussion and a fractured rib, plus a large number of bruises. Grant is put to bed and Alyssa drives into the city to check out the scene.
She finds the alley, and moves up it a distance. She starts changing to lupus, but gets stuck in hisbo, and can't seem to change either way. As she is about 2.5 meters long, 1.5 meters high, 200kg and pale grey-tan in this form, she has one quick sniff of the area and steps into... the Gauntlet.
A few hours later, Karen notices that she has been getting a null-feel from Alyssa for a while - she asks Meneghwo, who says Alyssa is gone. "Where was she?" At Grant's. Karen rings Grant and gets a very muzzy answer. She asks him if Alyssa is there and he gets up and has a look around. "No, why?" Erk, says Karen. "Do you know where she might have gone?" "I might... why?" "I'll be right there." "ok. Why?" Karen hangs up.
Karen drives over to Grant's and picks the bruised and somewhat muzzy looking guy up. She finally tells him where Alyssa probably is, caught in the Gauntlet. Grant hangs his head in his hands for a bit. He tells Karen what happened to him and where Alyssa has probably gone. They drive there. Karen takes a few steps down the alley and sees something that might be Alyssa, caught in the Gauntlet. She tells Grant to wait. He starts complaining about the Garou nation. Karen bunts Alyssa out of the Gauntlet and into the Umbra. Alyssa stumbles into the alley in hisbo form and looks left, right and then up. Above her, looking at her quizzically, is one of the largest pattern spiders she has ever seen. Alyssa sensibly runs for it.
Karen tells Grant to shut up and wait here for her to come back and steps into the Umbra. 30 seconds later she appears next to an odd pillar in the alley. She, too, looks up. Karen sprints after Alyssa as the spider gets stuck in the alleyway. Eventually they sort themselves out, step back into the Realm and go home. Alyssa spends the night with Grant.
Kris is sitting calmly in the Umbra, practicing her silence ritual when...
The day is spent resting. Karen crosses that fine line between curiosity and stalking by spending most of the day looking up Sydney phone books for Isaac. He is not listed in the White Pages as far as she can tell. She rings all the couriers she can find in the Yellow Pages and asks for Isaac Douglas as if she expected to find him there. Most of them are fairly quick to say that he doesn't work there, but three of them pause significantly before that (All Purpose Messengers, Unit 5/10 Bradford St, Beaconsfield, P.O. Box 267, Alexandria NSW 2015; Fastway Couriers (Aust) Pty Ltd, 491 Kent St, Sydney NSW 2000; Australia Chinese Transport, 422 Pitt St, Sydney NSW 200).
Karen scouts out ahead, as she moves twice as fast as the others due to Unicorn's gifts. She reaches Warragul Road and peeks. She can hear nothing, but can see police directing all traffic away from the shopping centre. She listens in on their radios and can hear the words "gunman, 2,000 people, redirect all traffic." Karen moves forward over the hill, and looks down on the Umbral Chadstone. In the Umbra, a huge octupoidal thing is attended by hundreds of Weaver spiders. It grabs randomly at passing spirits and crushes them into base ephemera, before dropping the remains to its attendant spirits. Karen tells the others she is going to peek, and Alyssa sends Meneghwo to watch over her.
The others run up to the top of the hill as Karen ceases to peek. She saw an almost full, but still car park and some nasty men in black with boomsticks creeping closer and closer to the entrance. The pack makes the decision to move closer in the Umbra, while keeping a look out for the attendant Weaver spirits.
They get to the doors to Chadstone and someone peeks. They can see multiple bodies, strewn all over the place. Most of them simply look like people have taken cover. The soggies have reached the pillars at the door, and seem to be awaiting instructions. The pack moves further in and can hear sporadic gunshots. They try and follow the sound. In the middle of a major open area of the shopping centre is a young woman, taking random shots at people who are moving. She seems uncannily good at it. The pack debates rapidly what to do, but just before they can act, the woman puts the gun to her head and pulls the trigger. As they are trying to figure out who she is by watching the soggies who come down, Dave notices a black fog manifest in the Umbra. As he watches it disappates, spreading out until it is too thin to see.
The soggies find the gun the woman was using, and several clips. They find her id - her name was Louise Pringle, and she is 23 years old. The pack stop watching the scene as ambulance men run in and start treating the wounded. Dave hits upon the idea that the spirit which seemed to posess the woman may still be sufficiently associated with her to still be findable by her name - they try a questing stone rite, and the spirit has not gone far - maybe 50 meters to the west, but it is drifting slowly. They race after it and find it drifting obliviously westward through the Umbral landscape. Kristen starts a binding ritual - and thats where it all goes horribly wrong.
Kristen suddenly leaps at Alyssa, flips to Crinos and starts tearing at her. Karen sensibly runs away a distance as Dave and Alyssa start trying to point Kristen down. Ambrose looks on in shock as Kristen throws Alyssa off and into Dave, who plunges over a balcony. Kris leaps upon the fallen Alyssa and tears her throat out. Just as she stands, Karen, now in Crinos form, slams into her and knocks Kris off balance. Dave erupts back up from below the balcony and rushes towards Kris. Ambrose moves to Alyssa and heals her sufficiently that she is back on her feet. Alyssa runs to get Kris from behind, followed by Ambrose. Kris wobbles a fraction and gets her normal expression back just as Karen, Dave, Alyssa and Ambrose tear her some new orifices. Ambrose follows up by disembowling Alyssa, and then leaping at Karen. With some effort, Karen and Dave severely wound Ambrose with claws and then Dave lays him out. Total result - Alyssa at Incapicitated by aggravated damage. Kris with 5 agg and 4 normal wounds. Ambrose with 4 agg and 4 normal wounds. The original spirit continues on, drifting away. Dave tries to bind it, but it simply breaks up under the strain of the rite.
People are gradually healed of all wounds and depleted of all gnosis. They move back to the caern to report to Death-from-Above. They fill him in on what they saw, and he tells them that according to the radio, the woman isn't dead. They look confused and at Kris, who says she saw the woman shoot herself in the head. All shrug. Some speculation is given towards what the hell was going on, but no one comes up with a firm idea. All retreat to the caern and meditate to regain gnosis.
Karen is visited by Unicorn, who is not very happy. Unicorn takes her homid visage and opens her robes to reveal many, many blankfaced humans. She tells Karen that someone is assembling an army of innocents.
All assemble again, later in the day, and talk to Dante about things. Karen passes on her vision. Alyssa shudders a bit and says why would people assemble an army? To attack something. Well, what about caerns? Dante's face goes pale and he asks whether the pack were observed in the area. They say 'no' they were only in the Umbra. Just as well. Dante says that they need to talk badly with Bounteous Plenty, especially Market Forces, who are handling the current situation. Karen mentions that when she spoke to Scratches-at-Fleas last, he said that a lot of street kids are disappearing - she suggests that she should check in with her friend at the Salvo's and see if anything unusual has been happening. Someone suggests seeing the girl herself in hospital - Dante considers it for a moment, but says that if they start playing with hospitals, Healing Fist will throw a fit, and they have a slightly direct attitude to the solution of homid problems. It would be best to talk to Bounteous Plenty first. Dante asks if they had a look at the gun - it might have been a talen. All trot off to Oakleigh Police Station.
Once there, the place is scoped in the Umbra. Karen leads Alyssa to the evidence room and she has a look around. Gun, four clips, id, address. Dave senses for ritual bindings on the gun and finds enough evidence to suggest that the gun may have been a talen. They find Pringle's bag. It scents of wyrm too, but to a lesser degree. It probably had the gun in it. Alyssa wants to check out the address they now have. They hum and har for a bit before Karen decides to take what they know back to Dante and the others will move on to the address. Karen heads back to the bawn and then on to the caern, while the others move to the house.
The house has 'Police Tape: do not cross` across the front, and is dark, with no lights. They scope it out in the dim light of the Umbra. It only vaguely appears, with little umbral presence. Peeking reveals that Pringle probably lived with her parents. It is a three bedroom house, one master, one occupied by a young male, who likes basketball and breasts, and the other is Louise's room. Looking about, some alarm is raised by the Crown of Thorns poster on the wall. She seems to be a fairly normal human bean - clothes hung fairly neatly, room tidy. Searching around, Alyssa discovers that her education is severely lacking and gets Dave to help her check things out. Pringle only had one Crown of Thorns album, but a lot of the rest of her music is dance tracks. Looking on her dresser, she has a large number of drink cards and free entry cards. It seems she likes her dancing. There seems to be no sign of where she works, if anywhere, or if she was going to Uni. Alyssa tries to contact Karen... but gets no response back from Meneghwo. People realise that they were fighting amongst themselves today - it may have put Meneghwo into Slumber. Argh.
Meanwhile, Karen is at the Sept, and has found Dante, talking with Melinda, Alf, Tusulla and Snarls-at-Pedestrians. She tells them that the gun was a talen, according to Dave, and asks how powerful a fomor would have to be to make a talen. Tusulla shakes her head and says that it wouldn't have been a fomor. Dante says that they would also have needed a significant amount of money to buy the guns in the first place. The mood is significantly muted. Alf says that they will have to talk to the other Septs in Melbourne, but he would prefer to do it slowly - Bounteous Plenty is interested in the well-being of the people being used as an army, but the other two septs will only see a wyrm problem, and act accordingly. Harmony's Dream will need to meet Market Forces tomorrow and exchange information with them.
The rest of the pack shows up and tell Karen that Meneghwo is out of action. She curses. They start listing things to do to wake him up, but head back to the caern house to get some sleep.
The pack troupe off to see Tusulla who says it sounds like the standard wake-a-spirit-from-slumber-chiminage, but they would have to ask someone who knows more about Amerind spirits than her. She suggests Moon-Guided-Travel who is at the Sept of Waking Dream, at the Olgas. The pack thank her for her help and go looking for Death-From-Above. They find him at Sarah's house. They tell him what is going on, and he says that he doesn't really want to open a Moonbridge there - have they considered asking either Dream or Unicorn? Ah, says the pack. Thanks. They troupe back to the caern.
Karen tries to meditate and contact Unicorn, but the previous day and things they have learned weigh too heavily on her mind. Kris steps into the dreaming. She appears somewhere odd. Everything seems a bit out of focus. She is walking through a forest, blue-grey sky above. She sees a fire ahead of her as it starts to rain. She moves to the campsite, but there is no one there. Something falls out of the fire - a bag, and out of it rolls a pine cone. The rain gets stronger and starts putting out the fire. Kris finds herself back at the caern. The others says she didn't even move. Very odd. Kris says that she thinks they need to get some pinecones. They wander up to the top end of the park and start collecting them. Karen joins the pack and they tell her what is going on. The pinecones are dedicated and brought into the Umbra. They grab a branch from the Moot-fire (which is often burning) and start a small fire, each giving some fur and some blood. The fire burns for a while then goes out. Nothing seems to happen.
The pack sits and thinks about this for a while. Dave suggests using spirit awakening on the pine cones, but the thought of burning to death awakened pinecones disuades him. Kris remembers that it started to rain when she left the vision - maybe they need water to put the fire out. Further leaps in deductive thought lead them to believe they need pure water. More pinecones are collected. Someone goes to the caern house and procures a wooden bowl, dedicates it and brings it into the Umbra. Alyssa asks Kooyongkoot if they may have some water. She is granted a bowl. The water is purified with Rite of Cleansing and then the whole process is begun again. When the fire is quenched with the pure water, Meneghwo forms from the steam and smoke. He is in homid form, and is a bit dazed. Huzzah.
Kris calls Bounteous Plenty and organises to meet Andrena. Harmony's Dream go to the city caern and meet her - Kris says she would like to speak to Andrena later. Andrena gives them an address of a flat in North Melbourne where some of Market Forces can be found. They go there and are let in. The flat is extremely messy (definate batchelor pad) and contains three Garou - Gav Best-Pack-is-Six (the flat owner) who is a late 20's guy, fairly broad shouldered, with red hair, wearing flannies; Linda No-Truck-with-the-Wyrm, who is in her mid-fourties with a bogun haircut; and Kelly Roots-in-Garbage, the pack leader. Gav does most of the talking, the others nod along or just listen.
Alyssa brings Market Forces up to date. They explain about the girl at Chadstone, who she was, what she did. Gav offers people a beer, but Ambrose is the only social barstard. Market Forces are told about the mystic information that they have gained - the fact the talen was a gun and Unicorn said someone was collecting an army of innocents. Gav then goes on to tell them about Sunshine - quiet guy, very gun-interested, walked into a shopping centre and opened fire. There was faint occultness on the gun, but they didn't think anything on it (they got there after the police shot him). Karen goes out to buy a paper, Ambrose and Gav have a second beer. They found out about the docklands gun-stash by tracing back some of the guns the guy at Sunshine had, and thought nothing more of it until the bikey shootout with the police. They still don't have anything to link them all together.
Ambrose and Gav have a third beer. Karen comes back with the Sun and the Age. There's not much detail on Louise Pringle yet - mostly interviews with friends. Apparently she worked at Safeway in Carnegie, was a bright friendly girl who liked going out and having fun. No one seems to understand why she suddenly went nuts in Chadstone. The two packs discuss the possible mechanics of where she got a gun and what triggered the talen - was it first touch or was it under certain circumstances. Harmony's Dream mention that she did like to go clubbing a bit - maybe she got it there.
Karen brings up the fact that the army of innocents might be connected to disappearances of street kids and homeless people. Kelly says that Scratches-at-Fleas mentioned this and they have been keeping an eye out but haven't seen anything. Ambrose and Gav have a third beer. Conversation turns to why someone would be doing this. Various theories are put forth - it could be to attract Garou attention and then connect them back to their caerns. It could be test runs of the talens. It could be accidental triggerings. It could be an attempt to influence the Umbra through terror and pain. The papers are perused again and Karen notices that the police are asking for 'extraordinary powers' to meet this crime wave. Discussions turn to the possibility that maybe the police are involved as they would make a great fighting force if all posessed. Gav and Ambrose have a... a... another beer.
Who is briefly discussed. Is it BlackSpiralDancers? Is it someone else? Gav says he doesn't know much about this all, its a theurge thing, but he thinks to bind a spirit you need to be able to know its there and to bring it through - it would be a powerful spirit that can come through itself. Plans for investigating are established. Harmony's Dream will handle the dance clubs and the hospital. Market Forces will handle the police and work with Scratches-at-Fleas about the disappearing people. Harmony's Dream head off and break up. Ambrose, Ken and Alyssa go back to the caern while Kris speaks to Andrena.
Karen goes and meets her friend Rosa, who works at a Salvation Army hospice. They chat for a while and then Karen brings up the drop in numbers of people. Rosa hadn't thought about it, but now that Karen mentions it, she has noticed some of the regulars not making it back. She says she will try and get more exact numbers.
At the caern house, Alyssa rings DarkAngel and explains they want to go and see Louise, but don't want to tread on any toes. DarkAngel sounds a bit uncertain, but agrees. She points out to Alyssa that she is 3 months pregnant. Alyssa emits expressions of surprise and then informs her pack when she gets off the phone that DarkAngel will be around in an hour, and she is 3 months pregnant. They all say "oh." Karen turns up just before DarkAngel. Ambrose is introduced to the Glasswalker and they all pile into cars and head off.
Alyssa and DarkAngel have a brief chat on the way to the hospital. When they arrive, people park up the back of the car park and step into the Umbra. Eventually. In the Umbra, the hospital is a horrid geiger-like mix of weaver and wyrm. As the pack approaches, they can feel waves of fear and pain spewing off from the wyrm tainted parts of the hospital. DarkAngel is asked whether this is normal. She says that it builds up over time. This hospital is probably in need of some fairly immediate cleansing and she will mention it to AirStrike. The pack moves into the Umbral buildings and are confronted with doctor, nurse and orderly spirits. DarkAngel waves a passcard of some sort at them and says it is a fetish.
Harmony's Dream move up to where Pringle is being kept. She is in a secure ward, in a isolation tank. There are two police guards outside, and her family is inside, in an observation area. Karen peeks and see her chart on the outside of the tank and tries to read it. It looks a bit fuzzy. Dave says "Stand aside", peeks as he is bending down, trips and headbutts the wall... which turns out to be a pattern spider who was slumbering. Dave, still peeking, is smack by said spider while Karen, Kris and Alyssa leap in to help him. The spider is eventually vaniquished and DarkAngel smacks Dave until all the weaver is out of him (I'm sure that it is the only reason).
Alyssa squints through the Gauntlet and notices that the window on the isolation tank is now broken. This has caused some confusion and panic in the Realm, and a few workmen are checking out the damage. Apparently the feeling is that it was a freak event and the glass isn't cracked all the way through, so it will probably be ok. Alyssa shrugs and reads the chart. Pringle suffered a non-fatal gunwound to the head. The bullet hit skull and ricochetted out again, but sprayed skull fragments through the cranium. She is in a critical, but stable situation. Ahh, says everyone. Pringle is examined for wyrm-taint, and she still has a strong taint, but it feels like an echo, as if it is fading. A Rite of Cleansing is considered, but felt to be too dangerous - it might cause some physical reaction.
Pringle is observed for a while, but there seems to be nothing more gained. Harmony's Dream head back to the Sept Alyssa goes to talk to Melinda and let her known what is going on. A short time later, a very strong surge of anger is felt through their totem link by the rest of the pack. Melinda comes by to the caern house, asking where Alyssa is, and people mention the surge. Alyssa is fetched from inside the caern and Melinda says that it might be an idea to keep on eye on Pringle - whoever was controlling her obviously wanted her dead, and now that she is alive, they might act against her. DarkAngel is asked if she will help and she shrugs and says "Why not?". The pack works out some vague rotation schedules and people settle down to watch her in the Umbra, in the Realm near her room and in the foyer... time passes... and some more time....
Kris is sitting in the real world in the main foyer when there is a huge crash - standing less than 20 feet away is Samantha, who has just dropped a tray of food and cutlery. Kris pretends not to know what is going on and Sam runs for the door. DarkAngel asks what that was all about and Kris just shrugs.
When the hospital closes up, DarkAngel and Kris use Gifts so not to be noticed in the foyer and remain.
During her stint in the real world hospital, Alyssa is approached by one of her social crowd, Belinda. Belinda is bouncy and brittle. Alyssa is looking... well. She is here visiting her grandmother. Why is Alyssa here? She's waiting for a friend. Its almost possible to see the wheels click in Belinda's mind. Waiting for a 'friend' outside the maternity wing. Wedding has suddenly been rushed forward. Wearing somewhat draping clothing. Hrmmm. Belinda suddenly has to go and spread evil rumours. She wishes Alyssa all the best.
Karen confides in Alyssa about Isaac, and her concerns about him. Alyssa performs a Rite of Questing Stone, and thinks that he might be in Singapore or somewhere of that distance.
Kris goes away for the evening while Ambrose goes home, with Karen and Alyssa.
Ambrose, during the day finds himself in an ever-increasing group of people at Red Hill. It is obvious from the mood that everyone is a bit uncertain about what is going on. He suggests they sit and talk about it that evening... when that evening blows around, everyone is sitting and watching him attentatively, except Marnie and Ben, who have opted to make themselves scarce. Ambrose explains what the werewolves think is going on, and what he has seen and what he is starting to think. Sky stands up and makes a speech about them going forth to prosetylise the werewolves, and that makes some people quite, quite nervous. Ambrose speaks to Sky later about her speech and she implies that she intends to go and preach to all the Garou. Ambrose says that he feels that what they do here is just as important, which Sky concedes, but when Ambrose says that they are interested in fighting more than living for Gaia, Sky says that is what she intends to change.
Alyssa is sitting at the caern when she gets a rather tense message from Grant.
Kris dreams that night.
Dave is sitting in a lecture when he hears "...the patient is recovering as expected..." in his left ear. He looks around. No one there. Nor on the right. He asks the others over Meneghwo. Alyssa heard nothing, neither did Karen. Kris is not responding. Alyssa suggests that Dave go to the hospital - he might still have some of the wall in him. He asks Meneghwo, who is lounging in the Umbra nearby. Meneghwo says that Dave seems clear to him, but he is sitting in a huge collection of Weaver, so its hard to tell.
Dave trots to the hospital when his class finishes and checks things out. Pringle has been moved along by one room and there is a workman fixing the window. Nothing seems to be amiss, nor does anything appear to have changed in Pringle's medical status. Dave shrugs it off as weird and heads back to halls. When he gets back, he notices something amiss. Rhys' notes are gone. Dave frantically searches around but can't find them. He also notices that some of his other stuff is gone - including the stone he has been trying to awaken to learn spirit awakening. Dave slowly changes to wolf form and sniffs around. He can smell a male homid scent that isn't his. His thoughts immediately move to Matthew Frost, next door. He is sitting in his room fuming when Andrea turns up. She says that Michael has gone into the city for something and she was bored - what's Dave doing? Dave explains what is happening. He has an idea and changes just the inside of his nose into lupus form, much to the amusement of Andrea, who was watching his expression. He sniffs around and finds that the scent that was in his room does indeed emanate also from next door. Dave bangs on the door and yells at Matthew, which attracts some attention from nearby people, but nothing from inside. Dave just can't figure out how Matthew got in. Andrea grabs his keys and tries them in Matthew's door - they turn. Which means that it probably works conversely.
Dave opens the door and sees Matthew on the bed, reading. The two of the yell threats and accusations at each other, attracting attention from other people in the hall and finally the floor tutor, Keith, who chases Dave out and speaks to Matthew. Andrea vanishes. About 15 minutes later he comes in and talks to Dave about things - he says that Matthew claims to know nothing about missing stuff, although it is true that his key works in Dave's door, he didn't know that until Keith just tried it. Keith says unless Dave has some proof, Keith can't back him up about the accusations. Keith says that he will get the locks changed late tomorrow and he doesn't want to hear anything about it again. Ever.
Late that night Dave goes out and into the Umbra and summons a Truth spirit. In return for Dave speaking the full truth for a phase of the moon, it will consent to being bound into a human for a short period of time and force him to speak only truth. Dave giggles and heads off with the spirit in tow. He uses his key to creep into Matthew's room and finishes the binding. He then shuts the door and wakes Matthew up. "Where's my stuff!" "Under the bed" Matthew grabs both hands and covers his mouth, looking shocked. Dave leaps under the bed and hauls out a box of stuff, including Rhys' notes and lots of little items that he didn't realise he'd lost - a lot of it which has been used to learn rituals. Dave confronts Matthew and says "Why did you take this stuff?" "Because it was occult." Matthew looks at his own mouth. "Argh, what are you doing to me?" Dave nearly blows it, saying "Nothing..." but catches himself and finishes with "...that you don't deserve". Follows a conversation in which Matthew's mouth continues to betray him and Dave presses questions. Matthew appears to believe that Dave is some sort of cultist because all of that stuff was occult ("How did you know?" "I just do") and he keeps wandering off to parks and things (Matthew followed him). Dave demands to know if Matthew will stop stealing his stuff and not follow him and in fact, will he move out of Farrer? Matthew says yes. Dave leaves with his stuff. Another glorious battle won by the Favoured of Gaia.
Half an hour later, Karen sends a call through Meneghwo for urgent help. Alyssa is all set to run off at great speed, but Kris suggests taking a Moonbridge. She consults Dante, and he agrees to open a bridge to Bounteous Plenty. Harmony's Dream run through and are greeted by the gatekeeper, who asks if they need any help. They decline for the moment and rush off, following Karen's directions. They cross the Umbral Brunswick St and turn up a suburban street, following along to the right house. After quickly choosing forms and then peeking, the whole pack steps out of the Umbra into the front room and then moves out the back. They run in to find Karen has a young goth girl pinned up against the wall, with a gun in her hand. The girl convulses and fires. Alyssa and Kris dodge, Ambrose is in lupus form and well under the bullet, but Dave catches it right in the chest and flies backwards.
Kris helps Karen pin the girl against the wall while Karen croons reassuring things to her, including her name, Angie. Alyssa takes a quick look at the other body in the room, only to find he's not a body, but it still alive (if in shock). Angie is moved from the wall and laid down on the ground, still pinned. Ambrose heals up Dave's wounds and brings him around (*boot*), and Dave performs a Rite of Cleansing. Angie drops the gun and convulsively curls into a ball, comforted some more by Karen. After some brief discussion, Bounteous Plenty is contacted and asked to send a car. Ambrose grabs a bin and scoops the gun into it. Dave heals the guys on the ground to a point where he is not dying. A car pulls up out the front and they see Gavin Six-is-the-Best-Pack carefully moving in to the office. All are scooped up into his kombi van and then an anonymous tip is rung in to a nearby hospital to come and rescue the young guy. Karen is dropped off at the hospice with Angie and the rest of the pack briefly meet Scratches-at-Fleas.