World of Darkness World of Darkness: Attrition - Two Girls, a Guy, and a Coffee House

[Lucien Hunt]

Thankfully the drive over wasn't as stressful as the Mstigos thought. Women drivers were bad enough as it was, but giving them the keys to a $201,000 sports car almost like opening Pandora's Box. He'd unleashed evil upon the roadways and there was left to do was hope they'd make it in one piece.

Oneca was quite careful with his 'baby' though. Sure, she opened it up once or twice to get an egde in the L.A. traffic but he could honestly say she didn't drive like a maniac.

They entered Liquid Haze, a little slice of heaven that was candelit coffee shop that was open from early morning 'til late at night. The baristas whipped up exotic coffee drinks like nobody's business, and the ambiance was warm and mellow. Morgan knew the proprietor was a Thyrsus mage of some sort but she never really got the chance to know him.

They sat in a shadowy booth, not really surprised by how busy the place was, even at the late hour. Within moments of being seated a young lady from the college approached them and offered to take their order.

"On me ladies, don't be shy." Lucien smiled. We're celebrating Morgan's return to L.A., as loud and colorful as it was." His smile was charming even if, from Morgan's point of view, he had no idea how loud and colorful it'd really been.

[z021]

"Mmmnn." Oneca glanced over the drink list and ordered something with about a dozen too many ingredients to just be a coffee drink.

She settled back into the booth, waiting for the others to order and soaking in a much more low-key environment. Her eyes flicked over to Morgan, "So....you want to talk about stuff? Or things? Personally, I favor things a bit more than stuff, but that's just 'cause I have something against double letters."

[Astra D.]

Morgan's pale fingertips tapped idly on the tabletop, drumming out a rhythmless, patternless staccato as she took a deep breath and tried to smile. In a few moments she'd have a nice, relaxing caramel macchiato with an extra shot of espresso to settle her nerves. Funny how that works. We down caffeine and sugar to relax.

"Sure," she replied with forced enthusiasm. "Let's talk about things." She placed both her palms on the table, tapping it briefly with her fingers, and sighed. "Sooo... I've been kind of out of the loop for a while." Understatement of the year. "Looks like a lot of things have changed." Morgan grimaced, a flicker of pain briefly surfacing in lamp-green eyes as she glanced from the pyrokinetic to the telepath; after her earlier outburst at the party, it was fairly clear which changes bothered her the most.

"Look, um... What I need to tell you guys isn't exactly easy for me, and after tonight, the last thing I want is someone running off at the mouth and telling hi- telling Declan about it." Another grimace, a tightness in her voice as she forced herself to say his name aloud. "It's my problem, and I'll fix it, I just..." She shook her head, tucking a strand of dark hair behind one ear with a nervous, frightened expression that made her suddenly seem much younger. "I just can't fix it on my own. Not this time. So, if you don't want to get involved, I get it. I mean," she added, nodding at Oneca, "we barely even know each other, so it's not like you owe me any favors or anything."

[z021]

She shrugged. "Sounds like it was a bad breakup or whatever. Declan seems nice and I do still feel a bit bad for setting him on fire once, but so long as you're not going for the jugular, I've yet to meet a man that couldn't use being taken down a peg or two every once in a while."

She grinned at the Acanthus, "Besides, the party was all about getting back in touch with people and catching up on everyone else's life. Honestly, I'd be rather happy for some drama that didn't involve a courtroom or my sister framing people for murder."

[Lucien Hunt]

Lucien grinned and stifled a chuckle. "Morgan, relax. You're making it sound like you've released the End of Days upon the world. Whatever trouble has found you we'll get through it. It's that easy. If you don't want Declan to know then we just don't tell him, okay?"

His eyebrow cocked up a bit as he looked to Oneca. "I'm perfectly happy on the peg I'm on. I see no reason to be knocked down one or two, I behave myself." He smiled mischievously.

[Astra D.]

Originally Posted By: Oneca

She shrugged. "Sounds like it was a bad breakup or whatever. Declan seems nice and I do still feel a bit bad for setting him on fire once, but so long as you're not going for the jugular, I've yet to meet a man that couldn't use being taken down a peg or two every once in a while."

She grinned at the Acanthus, "Besides, the party was all about getting back in touch with people and catching up on everyone else's life. Honestly, I'd be rather happy for some drama that didn't involve a courtroom or my sister framing people for murder."

"Yeah," she nodded, a crooked grin tugging at the corner of her mouth. "It's like we all just seem to attract Crazy. It keeps things interesting, I guess, but sometimes I kind of wish life was a little more ordinary. And, for what it's worth, I'm sorry about being such a downer. I wish I'd been able to come back under better circumstances, you know? All part of the joys of being special, I guess, and completely stupid."

God, am I ever sorry. And stupid.

Originally Posted By: Lucien Hunt

Lucien grinned and stifled a chuckle. "Morgan, relax. You're making it sound like you've released the End of Days upon the world. Whatever trouble has found you we'll get through it. It's that easy. If you don't want Declan to know then we just don't tell him, okay?"

With the shadow of fear haunting her eyes, Morgan looked sharply at Lucien, her gaze unwavering. Her voice, when she summoned up the will to use it, was not quite so steady.

"You might change your mind about the whole 'End of Days' thing when I tell you what happened. This is... a lot more complicated than an asshole boyfriend or spider-spirits, Hunt. I'm not trying to be melodramatic or anything, but I have seriously fucked up in a major way, and if you guys can't help me, I'm pretty sure LA is screwed."

At least, I hope it's just LA.

[z021]

The waiter came and delivered the drinks, giving the trio a natural pause to absorb Morgan's words. Oneca sipped at the warm confection drink and asked, "Well....what did you do?"

She looked back and forth between the two mages, "And you might need to give me the 'For Dummies' version. I know you guys can do some...stuff, a lot more than the people I usually hang out with. And they're weird enough to need a translation book most of the time, themselves."

[Lucien Hunt]

"Yes," Lucien said suspiciously, not liking how Morgan was stalling. Something was telling him she screwed up bad. Real bad. "What exactly did you do Morgan?"

He spoke to Oneca and nodded slightly. "Once we know what's going on, we'll give you the 'For Dummies' version."

[Astra D.]

Morgan nodded somberly, turning the warm mug around in her hands as she licked her lips. She was stalling, sure, but how exactly did you tell someone that you've basically broken reality? Releasing the mug, she pulled a napkin over and began slowly, deliberately twisting it into a tightly-coiled rod of paper.

"Okay. Cliff's Notes." Because I don't think I'd be able to make it through the long version right now without cracking. I might not anyway. She took a deep breath, fixing her gaze on the napkin she was destroying, and continued quietly. "I wanted a way to bridge the gap between the world of the living, and the world of the dead." Pause. "Reliably." Another pause, as she let that sink in. "I needed to find out why nothing I'd learned would let me communicate with certain people who di- who were already gone." Swallowing hard, she shook her head and pulled the napkin apart again. "Someone told me about a device that would establish a fixed, one-way door between the realms. It would let me bypass the usual mumbo-jumbo and go straight to the people I wanted to find, but..."

After a moment's hesitation, she forged ahead, the words pouring out of her in a mad torrent as her throat constricted and tears welled up in her eyes. "But it didn't work, Lucien. I mean, it did work, but not the way it was supposed to! I found Death, Hunt, do you understand that?! I found him! I found him, and I wasn't supposed to, and now he's trapped, just like I was, and I can't get back in with Michael's wards, because I wasn't supposed to get out in the first place and I don't think it was even supposed to work, and I don't know why it did! And now I don't know where Michael is, or why he even wanted me to try it if he didn't mean for it to work, or what's going to happen with the spirit trapped, or if I can even fix this!"

The shredded remnants of the napkin lay scattered across the table in front of the Acanthus, a few larger pieces still clutched tightly in her trembling hands as she stared at the whipped cream dissolving in her drink. She was shaking madly, her eyes alarmingly wide as white teeth worried at her lower lip.

[Lucien Hunt]

Dear Lord Morgan, what have you done?

The Mastigos remained remarkably calm. It was an act, but he did it well. Morgan was talking and acting like she was in shock, like a natural disaster had just taken from her her very livelihood, loosing his temper -and close to losing it he was- would only compound on their problems. He wasn't perfect, and neither was Morgan, whatever she'd done they were now faced with finding a solution. "Morgan, calm down. I know that might seem like too easy a request, but no one here is angry or disappointed." He lied all to well sometimes. "There is nothing that is done that can not be undone. We can help you solve this."

He reached over and gently placed his hand on hers. "Just help us to understand everything so we can start fixing it. Okay?"

[z021]

Oneca nodded, not really knowing what she could add at this point, so she just curled her hands around her drink and waited.

"Just lay it out," she said after a moment. "We can't fix it yet if we don't know what it is. And if we can't fix it, we'll go find whoever can."