Ezra felt the web of a slow, creeping migraine spread from the back of his eye to the base of his neck as his family threw their pennies into the pot. Nisha’s asinine idea (which she was still embellishing upon in the background, underneath the voices of the other Vanburens) was followed with a more sensible one from Arabelle. His eyes lit up as Georgie stashed the ram skull in her secret vault of roses. It was potentially an ingenious solution to their little theft problem, yet the only kudos he gave her was a nod of approval upon her return.
Whatever warmth had begun to radiate from him for his family was quickly cooled as Shane excused himself to go raid the old man’s bar—Ezra’s bar, actually. Ezra thought to go after Shane, either to stop his half-brother from sliding further into his addiction or to, at the very least, stop him from drinking Ezra’s good scotch. Alternatively, the idea of grabbing a nip to ease the throbbing in his brain sounded pretty good too. Unfortunately, he was obligated to stay and play his part as head of the house, slipping away only for a minute to grab himself a cup of tea.
Justin had moved on from making it clear that they had to deal with the Triple Goddess no matter what and had moved on to dismantling Sabrina’s suggestion to call the cops. As a rich, white, middle-aged man it had been Ezra’s first thought, but he’d quickly come to the same conclusion that Liao did. Naturally, they wouldn’t say anything about magic being involved, just that a group of hooligans had raided their house, damaged their property, and assaulted their persons. Nevertheless, it would be negligent to call the cops on people who commanded hellhounds and whipped up tidal waves—might as well just call Officer Dewey over and feed him to LeBeau and save the time.
"So, uh, what can you all do by the way?" asked Justin before he demonstrated his own abstraction.
“How to even...I improve people and things. Temporarily, anyway,” said Ezra with a wave of his hand. “I can Configure the size of an item or make it a perfect Masterpiece, nigh indestructible, flawless in its design, and even capable of being an infinite resource...as long as I am able to maintain the spell, that is.”
As he spoke, the tea cup served as a model for the demonstration. As the memento bracelet on his wrist glowed orange and swirled with faint sigils, the cup doubled in size and then shrunk back down to normal as he channeled the entirety of the item to become a Masterpiece. He walked over to the edge of the deck so as to not make a mess and the channeling stopped, the cup radiating an orange light before the energy faded. Then, he glowed for a split second as he made himself a Prodigy. He began to pour the steaming hot tea out, his eyes focusing on Justin nonchalantly as the drink continued to endlessly flow.
“I could spend the next several hours explaining to you the proper etiquette for a tea ceremony, the history behind ceramics, or just blindly taste test teas til the charm wears off of me explaining to you the subtle difference between Earl Grey and Lady Grey, but I think that’d be a bit excessive,” said Ezra. He tilted the cup back up, which by then had poured out several gallons worth and had melted a fair chunk of the snow below him, and dropped the spells. “After all, my siblings need their go, and we still need to get back to the real discussion on hand.”
“Which, for the record, I think Arabelle's idea to contact the girl is the most sound. At the very least we’ll know what we’re up against. We don't even know if who attacked was the entirety of their cult or not,” said Ezra. He gestured to his siblings. "But we'll get back to that. Who wants to go next in show-and-tell for Mr. Liao?"
"So, uh, what can you all do by the way?" Justin asked before he felt the need to demonstrate his own abstraction. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a few steel balls, and then they floated into the air for a moment before they combusted into flames. They spun around in a circle as he explained, "Mine is Pyro-telekinesis. I can move objects with my mind but whatever I control catches fire. Pretty simple, yeah?"
Sasha impulsively scratched at his wrist, "I can do rudimentary necromancy, though I think you all know what that was." He was clearly referring to the act of summoning the ghost of their glorious father back from the afterlife. That one was the worst thing that he had ever done; bringing back the man that had been the absolute best father of the year to any one of them. Shane had left, not that Alex really knew him enough to be concerned, though he has been told that the former was a brooding alcoholic, so he could drink himself to death any minute now. And the new girl... well, he himself was kind of new to the people here, but James had mentioned his existence to the likes of Sabrina and Ezra; they definitely knew that he was their half brother, even if he did not bear the Vanburen name out of spite for James' lack of commitment.
Still, he wasn't done describing what the Spectre has given him as his magic. "I also possess phasing abilities, allowing my to pass through solid objects like a ghost. Though I have to hold my breath each time I do that, and I can still get burnt or electrified. Otherwise only magic energy could hurt me in such a state. Lastly, though," he then conjured a pair of chains; they had a faint green glow inside of them, and were unnaturally lightweight. "Just like that Morgana girl, I'm able to conjure chains. These are linked to my bracelets for ease of usage." Sasha pulled up his sleeve to show that the chain was somehow fused to the seemingly mundane accessory. "Remind me not to use these on the boy, though. He thinks that it's erotic."
As he spoke about what he could do, Sasha realized one thing... he was the smallest man in the room. Justin and the majority of his half brothers were massive six footers or above, and even Junior surpassed him. Was he really that malnourished when James had left him and his mom? Perhaps.
Raymond Salazar Vanburen
"I believe Ezra would not want me to show my thing after... what happened." Raymond scratched his head while avoiding contact with the brother that handles all the money, still a little embarassed that he had done quite a share of destruction while trying to throw out the wiccans from the mansion. "But as many of you have seen, I have Terrakinesis. I can control anything deprived from Earth, whether it be rock, mud, stone, and even metal, if it is not super pure." He had known quite a bit of knowledge on magic after the hours of studying in James' library, and decided to add on what Justin said. "Extra Normal beings like us are surrounded by a auras called Emotional Fields. Essentially protects us from the abilities of other Extra Norms; a luxury that non-magic people lack."
A pause, "And that little thing also kind of interferes when I use my abilities offensively. I can hit someone with a rock just fine," he said while making a slamming gesture with both of his hands, "But to bind and imprison an Extra Normal person on the ground? I just can't do it. Nu-uh."
Looking over at the new girl, who called herself Nisha and was really weird, he continued. "Plus, earth bending has a price on me. When I overexert, I get these cracks on my skin and they sting quite a bit. Would probably be infected if not treated quickly. Everything has a price, I guess."
At that, he turned to Nisha. "What can you do, though? If you're gonna be here... would be better if you help us with this dumb plan."
By the time Nisha finished explaining how she even knew all of the graphic methods of interrogation they could use on Morgana the conversation had long abandoned her and moved on. Her pal from the cafe, Ara...Are...Arielle? Arabelle. Right. Her friend Arabelle had joined the squad of soured faces, still clutching that security blanket of a skull, before the pudgy one whisked it away. Nisha had expected more of a fuss seeing how cagey Arabelle had been about the skull earlier that day, but apparently there was a pecking order. The girl turned on her, speaking with a posh English accent that Nisha assumed Her Royal Majesty was using to mock her for using both less fancy words and verbal wanking.
"And keep mum around...that. Can't have outsiders knowing too much."
Nisha winked and smiled at Georgie, seemingly unfettered by the jab. Truth be told, “that” was one of the nicer things Nisha felt that she had been referred to in her life. Generally, “that” was followed by something much worse. Alone, it didn’t really sting at all. What really hurt was how the family wasn’t absolutely jumping on board her fantastic idea. The sad(dest) looking guy said something about hoping she was a better actor than a Vanburen. She couldn’t help but quietly chuckle to herself as his insinuation went completely over her head.
The plan to come up with a plan had derailed itself as the cute guy hosting their little assembly began to spin hot, flaming balls around himself to show off his abilities and prompt the others to do the same. Nisha watched with widening eyes as several of the Vanburens demonstrated—god she was sure Her Royal Majesty was going to shit herself when Ezra had started pouring out the tea. This whole family had magic? That made everything so much more fun. Hopefully none of them could read minds. Or sense apparitions.
"What can you do, though?”asked the rock guy, perhaps unaware of how hard Nisha had been fiending for someone to ask her to show off. Nisha shrugged. “If you're gonna be here... would be better if you help us with this dumb plan."
Raymond had nearly finished his sentence as a mischievous smile began to stretch on the shrugging girl’s face as four phantom limbs crept out of her body and joined in with the shrug. Then in a flash the Long Arms reached up, grabbed two different sections of an overhanging outcropping from the second-story of the house, and suddenly flung Nisha up into the air. A rush of adrenaline spiked through her system as the Long Arms grabbed the rooftop and she violently hurled herself up even higher. She cackled with childish glee as she hit the peak of her arc and began plummeting back down to the patio. Maybe she should give them all a shock and show them all of her abilities. No, don’t rush it, dearie. Keep some tricks to yourself. Nisha sighed as her phantom limbs hit the ground first instead to break her fall, spidering out but barely bending as they kept her several feet from even touching the ground.
“Ta-da! Pretty cool right? But wait, there’s more!” she asked, waiting for no affirmation as the watery limbs poofed away. She dropped the remaining couple of feet and the limbs cascaded out of her body once again, this time snaking around the patio and looping between Vanburens to show off her control of them before they snapped back to her side and wiggled about like a quartet of wavy tube men caught up in a crosswind. “So much weird stuff I could do with these bad boys. They can pretty much squeeze through anything, so if you lock yourselves out of your Porsche or something feel free to give me a call. “
“So does this mean everyone in this family has some kind of super special power?” asked Nisha, followed by a sharp inhale of excitement. “This is so cool. Wait!” Nisha pointed a finger at Georgie. However, she was looking at Sabrina, who had a phantom limb hovering a few feet away from her face and pointing towards her, while the other three limbs had each pointed towards a different Vanburen. “So what can you do!?”
Georgie eyed Shane's back when he walked off to James's bar. "I veto taking him anywhere with him sloshed. Exclude him from all plans, until he's sober." Like hell she wants to be anywhere near him while there's magic involved and he's drunk. That's like getting into a car with a drunk driver. She's too smart and too pretty to die young. If he wants to be the next one to fuck off and die, then leave her out of it.
Perhaps she's given them all too much credit, because Justin just asked what everyone can do in front of the outsider like he's asking them out for lunch. This was a disaster if she's ever seen one. Justin showed off his fire balls. Ezra played around with his cup of tea, which she couldn't help herself but to join his side catch what he poured over the deck into her thermos, before he turned it off. Other than her, and before James died, Ezra is the only other person in the family that knows how to make a delicious cup of tea. She needs seconds to make up for her evening tea time. Her previous cup was for the one she missed when they were attacked. Every is better after she has her tea. She took a sip and wasn't wrong about Ezra's skills. Absolute superb.
However, the horse and pony show that was her siblings telling all, especially what's-his-face that isn't Alexander the Elder (told her your weakness, best tell her your mother's maiden name and your social security number too), dampened the taste of her tea. Might as well had drunk ashes and water. Then the real show began as the Northen Twat took her magic for a spin like a circus freak. If she were eight she'd be impressed. The whatever-she-calls-them snaked between her legs; she couldn't help moving out their way for fear she'd grab them all up and they'd be trapped. Her tea time is most definitely ruined. She didn't bother to finish the thermos and closed it up. Then she had a finger pointed at her. She couldn't understand what she said, but she gleamed it was her turn to demonstrate. Bloody hell she is.
"Didn't I say to keep mum around the Northern Twat? And here I thought you were all smarter than the monkey brained cunts that attacked us today. If you want a detailed explanation of what I can do, Justin, I'll gladly talk to you in private, but not with her around." She distastefully looked at the outsider, then turned her displeasure to Ezra. "I thought you were smarter than that. The DNA test isn't even back yet and you've thrown all caution to the wind. Hope you're generosity isn't as free as James's cock was. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have research to do on the Triple Goddess while you all smash your one brain cell together to come up with an idea that isn't a clusterfuck to get us all killed." Georgie left them to it, dumping her thermos in the sink for servant girl to clean up later.
She put her coat back in the closet of the entrance hall, then went to the living room where all the books they collected were piled in their designated stacks. She opened a small portal and hid James's rifle away for safekeeping. Everyone knew not to touch anything James held dear to him, but with that Twat around she couldn't take the chance that she wouldn't nab it just to see if it could shoot. She picked up the book on the Triple Goddess and started from page one. If they knew all James knew, then whatever plan they came up with wouldn't fuck them over. After all, the last smart thing Justin said was that she was the priority.
There was agreement both for and against getting in contact with the cult member.
Though he didn’t exactly explicitly say it, beyond agreeing with one of the more rude Vanburen members, it was easy enough to tell that Justin didn’t agree with Tuyen’s idea. It wasn’t something that should bother her - she wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for his business here, so of course his ideas would make more sense.
But it was enough to fuel the self doubts constantly dwelling in her mind and for the shadow to creep in where she’d held it off for the rest of the day. The voices around her took a slight sinister tint, vision blurring with shadows she knew weren’t really there. Tuyen’s lips twitched downwards into a pained grimace, gone as quickly as it had appeared as she forced herself back to looking as neutral as possible.
She was paying attention to this, not now. As if she could just ignore what was the truth.
Oscar listened to everything Justin said with folded arms and a few nods. He wasn’t surprised when Sabrina suggested going to the police. Of all of them she was the one most out of place with… violence, in his mind. Not that it was something Oscar wanted to rush into. But a chance to see the cult’s Abstractions again, and discover any other tricks they may have? It wasn’t something he could pass up on.
"So, uh, what can you all do by the way? Mine is Pyro-telekinesis. I can move objects with my mind but whatever I control catches fire. Pretty simple, yeah?"
Tuyen stayed silent, deciding not to say or demonstrate her abstraction like Justin had. For a start, she couldn’t. Especially not right now. They’d already seen all she would be willing to explain, so even if she was asked by any Vanburen, she would only give them the most simplest answer. Even that was as a show of trust and so that they would trust her and Justin.
Oscar’s attention, which had begun to stray, was instantly brought back by the question. It was something he was curious about too. Not all of his siblings were open with using their abstractions and it could be a little less obvious what they did.
Ezra demonstrated an ability to improve objects… and himself it seemed. Oscar nodded as he spoke, committing it to memory to dissect later before flickering his gaze to the next ones to speak. Alexander’s was interesting to him, watching the conjured chains with a quickly moving mind as he tried to figure out how it worked. He wasn’t so interested in Raymond’s… terrakinesis was mundane enough, in that it was described in plenty of superhero films. The weaknesses, though? Interesting.
The new girls were the most interesting of them all, having Oscar’s eyes widen in excitement. He wondered what kind of abstraction it was. An aberration of some kind? That would make more sense, but perhaps she was awakened.
”All very interesting,” Oscar mumbled, mostly to himself. His mind was filled with questions he wanted to ask them all. How long could Ezra maintain his spell? How big of an object could he cast on, how long did Alexander’s chains go, how-
”Why does what I can do matter?” Trisha scowled, pulling herself away from picking her nails and ignoring everything going on around her. It was only when some disgusting phantom tentacle was pointing at her that she was given no choice but to look up.
This was her absolute worst nightmare. Show and tell with their abilities? Please. Like she would ever admit to something so embarrassing. Did they think she was just going to pull out her laptop and demonstrate? As if. She was never, ever letting her family get wind of the fact that she could program… Nevermind that she found it genuinely interesting. She would die before she told them.
”Georgie’s right, I’m not just going to tell you all the details of what I can do. I don’t even know you so you can fuck right off. What I can do isn't that important to anyone here, anyway.”
It was a lie that she agreed with Georgie, because she never agreed with Georgie. It was just an excuse to not have to explain why she didn’t actually want to talk about what she could do. She was glad her sister had left, though. Just her presence was irritating.
”Oh, I can do two things, predominantly,” Oscar said eventually, having once again gotten lost in his own mind. He’d completely forgotten the point of all this and ended up focusing on all the abilities that had been shown. ”On one hand I can create and control water. On the other, I can essentially channel electricity through my hands.” He demonstrated this one, bright sparks jumping from his hands for a few moments. ”Both are simple enough on the surface, but I could keep talking about the nuances of it if there’s interest.”
But, Justin made sure to commit the Vanburen's abilities to memory. He had seen several demonstrations so obviously Raymond's abstraction was stone (Justin was gonna comment on just why he glossed over Emotional-Fields but hey, that would waste time), and Alexander was basically a BDSM Danny Phantom. What was interesting to Justin was Ezra's ability... the ability to change the size of anything and become proficient in it? That was fuckin' cool, but he was gonna keep that childish excitement to himself. Oscar's ability was simple, but rather effective (won't he shock himself if he uses both though?). Little miss weirdo decided to pull out her own abstraction and it was a mess of tendril-like hands that she wiggled around. She brought one in his direction and then he was tempted to hit one with his steel balls but he just sidestepped it. She better keep those hands to herself, or she's going to really need an abstraction like that.
However, Georgie had a bit more... hostile reaction.
Justin was split on Georgie in general. He appreciates her intelligence and observations, but on the other hand, she was excessively rude and hostile, and worst of all wanted to make this difficult. He didn't know where her hostility towards the weird one (or, as she liked to call her, the Northern Twat) came from, but Justin had not a clue who she was! Nor was he gonna play detective and attempt to figure out who she was. That's their problem and barking up the wrong tree will surely not end well. What was the problem was that Georgie ran off back into the house explaining that she didn't want to explain her ability around the weirdo and Trisha did the same thing. Well, Justin didn't exactly think that the latter would even get involved so he disregarded her. She probably had a lame power.
Like bringing art to life.
Still, they had to get a fuckin' move on. The faster they get this done, the faster they can worry about more important things. Like trying to look into who in the world stole those. He didn't want to seem impatient but who fuckin knows with that cult? Maybe they're planning to come back.
"So, um," Justin ran a hand through his hair. "We should probably decide on how we're gonna go about this real soon. I suggest we just go to them and try to catch them off guard."
“Ta-da! Pretty cool right? But wait, there’s more!” she asked, waiting for no affirmation as the watery limbs poofed away. She dropped the remaining couple of feet and the limbs cascaded out of her body once again, this time snaking around the patio and looping between Vanburens to show off her control of them before they snapped back to her side and wiggled about like a quartet of wavy tube men caught up in a crosswind. “So much weird stuff I could do with these bad boys. They can pretty much squeeze through anything, so if you lock yourselves out of your Porsche or something feel free to give me a call. “
"God, you're so weird." Raymond sighed as he facepalmed at Nisha's rather... boisterous demonstration. "That's... uh... good for you. But those are really... creepy as heck. No offense!" Of course they were creepy as heck. The scene that Nisha had made while crawling around in like a dozen hands and feet looked straight out of a horror movie, particular the Japanese one called Sadako. At least most of them didn't have Abstractions that looked as freaky as hers. He had Terrakinesis; a boring power, sure, but really useful. Justin lights things on fire, Ezra makes them better, Oscar has water and electricity... and then there was this odd one with extra limbs. Hopefully she wasn't hiding any tentacles in there-
"I thought you were smarter than that. The DNA test isn't even back yet and you've thrown all caution to the wind. Hope you're generosity isn't as free as James's cock was. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have research to do on the Triple Goddess while you all smash your one brain cell together to come up with an idea that isn't a clusterfuck to get us all killed."
Raymond muttered lowly to himself as Georgie just stormed in a hurricane, being as rude and mad as ever. "What's her deal..." True, Ray did not like how James Vanburen had just gone around and impregnated half of the women in the country, but at least he didn't freely insult his half siblings. In fact, he was always nice to them, even if he seemed to be a on a different wavelengths as the rest. Speaking of a sibling...
Sasha began to speak, his chains receding into thin air. "Well, since Ray here had their abilities listed out, well mostly, we can formulate a plan based off that. Hmmm..."
"So, um," Justin ran a hand through his hair. "We should probably decide on how we're gonna go about this real soon. I suggest we just go to them and try to catch them off guard."
Ray motioned towards the floor. "There wouldn't be any worry about destroying any of our own property deep in the woods, so I can go all out more than normally. Once we catch them off guard, which we probably will since they're really dumb, I could disrupt their balance with my earth bending."
A pause. "Or I could just make fissures and make sure at least some of them fall in."
Shane poured the whiskey into the glass... but seconds after the last drops went in several strands of fabric came from the side and wrapped themselves around the glass. The strands were several different colors at once but appeared like spiderman himself had shown up. Instead of the webhead, it was Shane's sister Sabrina who had a flat look on her face as she had her hand out. The strands of fabric were coming off of her fingertips, and the glass was carefully and gently pulled away from Shane. Despite his sister's delicacy, a little bit of whiskey spilled on James ol' hardwood bar counter.
The girl sighed as she manifested a rag out of thin air using her abstraction and walked over and wiped it up. She didn't even look at Shane as she said, "Let's not drink now of all time, we need a clear head, yeah?" Her voice was low, and her phrasing was a bit awkward. She sighed as it all was wiped up and then she took a seat next to Shane.
"I don't think going to fight the cult is a great idea... what if one of us gets hurt? Or what if we hurt one of them? I don't really want anything bad to happen to anybody."
Shane felt his fist involuntarily clench as his peace was disturbed and the glass pulled away from him. Had it been anyone else save Sabrina... Well, something about fools and vices and probably the possibility of violence. Shane looked ahead, his face neutral but inside he felt his anger stew, exacerbated by Sabrina's words confirming the Vanburens plan essentially was indeed to charge in there without any kind of plan and hope for the best.
"No offence, but even if I drank the entire bar I'd still probably be more use out there than most of them." The unsaid generalisation included Sabrina. Shane felt enough warmth and sympathy to not directly say as such but it was likely even she understood that.
Most of the Vanburens were not fighters, he couldn't really be quite as sure with Alexander or the new girl but as far as he was aware the rest of them were lucky to have seen a schoolyard scrap much less a situation with real, possibly life threatening, danger. Trisha, Ezra, Georgie. All of them were egocentric and headstrong, though come to think of it so was most of the Vanburens. How lightly they took the prospect of directly fighting the cultists, possibly even going further than merely beating them infuriated Shane as much as it distressed him. He wasn't any kind of commando but he had the frame and the experience to handle a gun, Georgie on the other hand would likely break her fucking shoulder if she tried using that rifle, yet she carried it haphazardly on her shoulder and whisked it off into her little pocket garden. He didn't doubt the Vanburens couldn't win if they went forward with a direct confrontation, but their collective arrogance was going to get someone hurt... Or worse.
Shane realised he'd went off into his own world as he heard Sabrina speak again and sit next to him at the bar.
"I don't think going to fight the cult is a great idea... what if one of us gets hurt? Or what if we hurt one of them? I don't really want anything bad to happen to anybody."
He shrugged and folded his arms over the bar table.
"Be nice to at least do it with a plan of attack." He muttered just loud enough for his sister to catch. "The reality is, Sabrina, that we don't have the luxury of considering much else. Sure, maybe Arabelle's faith is right and this cultist turncoat is willing to help us stop them, how do we know they won't already have packed up and moved by the time we figure something out? Or that they've switched gears and started getting ready to hit us again, or that they have friends they've called in. Or any number of variables that take away our advantage of knowing where they are right now and what they want."
He turned his head slightly to face her. "You saw that blonde girl today. They already know we're searching for 'em, odds are they're prepping to go to ground as it is and we have to pray for a new lead to find 'em again."
His expression softened to one slightly more sympathetic as he unfolded his arms.
"I understand you don't want to fight them. No one's gonna make you either. But the reality is that these kids won't stop, 'less we break apart their operation." There was more he wanted to say. An admission of faith in his sister, a statement of resolve that would renew Sabrina's confidence that her former cop brother had things under control. Even something as simple as a thanks for checking up on him even if it was unasked.
But it all eluded him. The old Shane would be able to flash her something as simple as a smile to set her mind at ease, but he could not even find it in himself to give her that. All he could do was place a hand on her shoulder for a moment before turning back to face the bar. No less bitter and on edge after having been interrupted during a chance to strip away some of the anxiety of being surrounded by his family. He looked ahead at the bottle of Jack Daniels placed deliberately on the shelf adjacent to him. Seeing his warped reflection in the brown glass.
"So, it's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation, isn't it? Never liked those."
Sabrina softly answered (without sighing this time) as she stared into James's collection of liquor. Right now she could use a drink or two but Georgie's words reverberated in her head. She was going to help herself to a bit of liquor and weed after all of this blows over... she couldn't believe herself but she was honestly considering going into the fray with the cult. She never had any experience fighting (and she was comfortable keeping it that way) nor did she have a powerful abstraction - she was certain that their little supernatural experts would just laugh at her if she said that she created clothes. However, they had to stick together, no matter what even if siblings like Trisha abhorred them for reasons that were honestly out of their control.
"But whatever we go with, I will be there... even if I can't do a whole lot other than weave a sweater."
Sabrina chuckled and her mood seemed to change just slightly... though she grimaced a bit before she added on.
"... But maybe let's try to talk them out of something stupid, 'kay?"
The Wiccan's "Lair" - Aka the Sunrise Resort.
Deep within the woods of eastern Araminta lied a peculiar place: The Sunrises Resort. Araminta was probably the last place between locations like Lancaster and Philadelphia to attract tourism - well unless they had a fetish for train tracks and heroin addicts. Naturally, the place crashed and burned and became another den for the homeless that was only run out by the occasional sheriff. However, recently a new lot moved into the place and ran out all the degenerates... another group of degenerates. Ever since they moved in, not even the bravest homeless dared come close to the Sunrise. There were reports of the damned place being haunted or Wiccans worshipping Satan there... which wasn't all that wrong.
Whenever people were seen heading to that place, they were left alone even by the most vicious animals (perhaps they knew they weren't an easy target as they looked). There were some very strange things going on there, and not a soul dared to witness it in fear of losing their lives in the process. Every other night there was a fire lit there, one that's glow couldn't pierce the treeline but one that carried the weight of something wrong. It was possibly more concerning the nights in which it wasn't there.
The individuals that made up the Wiccan cult moved their way through the forest before the sun went down, and when it finally began the fire lit again. That unnerving presence scared away anyone that was nearby as they all assembled in the lobby. Members of the cult formed a circle around the fire, in front of the said fire was an innocent-looking white billygoat with a beard and it was chained to the wall by a chain that seemed to be rusted by blood.
The leader of the cult, Morgana, - the one wearing the red robe and the deer skull mask on - walked from behind holding a black cloth with a ceremonial jeweled knife on top of it. She marched towards the goat and handed the cloth off to Thea and grabbed onto the sacrificial weapon. She unsheathed it with a satisfying sound as she stepped towards the animal chosen as a sacrifice. The red-haired cult leader grabbed onto the poor goat by the horn, placed her blade to its throat. She didn't even waste any time before she slashed its throat and sprayed its blood all over the ground as it loudly cried out in pain. Before it expired and fell over onto the ground, Morgana knelt and gestured for two members of the Wiccans to come along and they helped roll the goat onto its back.
Morgana raised the knife high up into the air and brought it down on the dead goat's chest area... she cut the thing open like it was a turkey until she laid her eyes on the goal: its heart. Using the knife she cut the arteries she detached the thing - before she stood straight up and faced the fire. She brought the oozing heart to her chest and whispered the prayer...
"Maiden of the waxing Moon, Mother of the full Moon, and the Crone of the waning Moon. Cursed be those that oppose your infinite beauty and wisdom and bless us with power and knowledge of your own. We, as your faithful servants, offer this sacrifice to you on this cold night and hope that you may access-"
Her prayer was interrupted by the door loudly creaking open and Morgana paused in utter shock as she immediately turned on her heel. The rest of the Wiccans watched as Samantha tried to slip into the room...
... Completely nude.
"God damn it, Sam!" Morgana hissed as she tossed the goat heart over her shoulder and it flew into the fire. "We were wearing robes, didn't you read the text I sent out?!"
"I don't read the stupid group chat because you all are always talking about weird shit in it!" Samantha hissed back before she added on, "But, I'm tired of trying to explain the bloodstains to the cleaners every other week!"
"You need to pay attention," Morgana rolled her eyes. "It's shit like this why the plan failed-"
"... no, the plan failed because it was fucking stupid! " Penelope's obnoxiously high-pitched voice pipped up from behind her own ram skull mask.
"The plan would have worked fine," Morgana answered.
"The plan would have worked fine," Penelope put her hands on her hips and shook her head back and forth in an obnoxious fashion as she mocked her leader. "If they were all retarded, obviously not as it went tits-up the second somebody with a working brain cell walked in."
"Well, I don't see you having any other better ideas, Penny." Morgana rolled her eyes.
Penelope's eyes shot open as she gave Morgana an empty look and she tensed up as she said.
"I had a whole fuckin' boatload of better ideas than trying to impersonate two random-ass chucklefucks and hoping that they could fucking distract them long enough to find the Horned God," Penelope put both fists on her hips as she rolled her eyes and said, "Like, I don't know; maaaaaaaaaaybe have Thea honeypot her way into the bitch and grab it - they're rich as fuck and she's a tall blonde-haired white girl, it's a match made in fuckin heaven. Or, or, better yet, we could have just had Haley and Samantha sneak into the bitch and just grab it. Those rich motherfuckers wouldn't know a thing.'
Penelope snorted as she walked towards the fire and then turned her upper body back around towards Morgana, "But nooooooo, we had to go with your sister's fuckin' stupid idea. At the very fuckin' least it was a better idea than yours, Morgana." She rolled her eyes before she scoffed.
"Yeah, I bet you still fuckin' think than an upfront assault on the bitch would have worked."
"Penny," Daniel tried to reason with her. "That's enough."
"Yeah, listen to your boyfriend, Penny," Morgana hissed, "Before you get hurt."
"The boyfriend that almost wasn't here because you almost killed him," Penelope hissed at Morgana. "Like, what the fuck were you even thinking dragging him by a chain like that?"
"Thea could fix him, and she did," Morgana shrugged.
"And you know that Mother Theresa can't revive the dead, right?" Penelope tilted her head as she looked at Thea. "Shit like this is why you're basically a shitty leader and we have people coming in naked."
"Oooh, you just wish that you were that confident, Chica," Maxine teased as she slid her own mask off just to stick her tongue out at Penny.
"Shut up!" Penny replied.
Morgana stomped a foot on the ground.
"Why don't you shut the fuck up, Penny?!" Morgana summoned the chains in her hands.
"Try me, hot sauce hair," Penelope took a step forward and had a fire in one hand and water in the other.
"ENOUGH"
An orange bolt of lightning struck the fire and sent embers flying around in all directions. When the flash (and the ringing) faded, it revealed the image of the Triple Goddess. In her strange, three-faced glory, she floated above the flames and everyone had her attention. The being's three faces hovered around her face as they scanned each member of the Wiccan cult.
"Thornton Walters, Babylon the Great, the Nightmare..." The Triple Goddess listed off the three names and each face spoke in a different voice. "Three major threats that lurk here in Araminta and the whole lot of you are ready to tear at each other's throats. Disgraceful."
The fire dimmed for a second as the goat heart that was charred black from the fires floated out of the flames, it was launched off to the side as the Triple Goddess said. "The Goddess rejects your offering. Because of your buffoonery at the Estate, we may have lost our only window to save my brother."
She closed her eyes as she said.
"I can no longer sense him. They may be using a type of spell to mask his aura, but it's also possible that he's in a different universe altogether now."
"Oh, Goddess, how may we remedy this?" Morgana stuck her hands out as she faced the Triple Goddess and sent the chains back to hell.
"Hmph," The Triple Goddess's six eyes looked down at Morgana as she answered. "Stop acting like such a child and disgracing me or I will find another, more suitable leader."
The Goddess sighed as she said, "Right now, the Vanburens are marching here to confront you all, I presume...." The Triple Goddess trailed off. "How you handle this, is truly up to you, Morgana. I would suggest that you flee and come up with a strategy and find my brother - but I'm certain that you will think of something to justify your position, Morgana. Good day."
The Triple Goddess disappeared in another orange bolt of lightning and left the Wiccans staring at each other.
"... Well, good job, dumbass we lost the skull for good, high fives all around!" Penelope clapped and put her hand up for Morgana to clap and she grit her teeth as the chains reappeared.
Thea sighed in relief, but she saw the tension between the two and quickly got in between them. She had one hand up for Penelope, and another hand up for Morgana as she said, "Will you two please calm down?!" Thea shouted and played mediator between the two. "At the end of the day, we all could have done that just a little better and Penny, please,"
Penny put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes as she braced for Thea's mother Theresa act.
"... You can complain all you want about how bad the plan was, you still went into it."
Penelope scoffed.
"So, what's the plan, boss?" Maxine asked as she placed a hand on her hip. "Please don't tell me we're gonna let these rich bastards boss us around."
"Hell no," Morgana answered.
"Nooo, no, no!" Penny put her hands up. "We are not picking this fight."
"Yeah, let's just go," Thea pleaded. "What are we getting from this fight?"
Morgana summoned the chains and they cackled as they hit the ground and dragged alongside the ground as she marched towards the exit with a purpose. "We are going to please the Goddess, duh." She rolled her eyes.
"If you don't want anything to do with it, then stay here. I'll handle it."
The Edge of the Woods.
The sun was almost down, and Justin wasn't sure if that would be an advantage or not.
They arrived at the quickest route to the resort, an old dirt path in the woods and a gate blocking the way. Justin knew where they were, they had a vague idea of who they were, the only question was what in God's name the Wiccans were going to do. They were an unpredictable lot, but Justin thought that it was the best idea to confront them soon as possible. He had an idea of what the Vanburens could do, and hopefully, this won't go horribly wrong.
Of course, hope was on short supply these days, but hey, at least they weren't fighting an eldritch abomination anymore.
Justin didn't have a whole lot of faith in these rich kids, but maybe they'll win by the virtue of the enemy being stupider but again they didn't have to go in blind. He turned towards the Vanburens as he said, "Alright, team, huddle."
Maybe he could motivate these people.
Or maybe he would be interrupted.
"... Why you all look like you're ready to go to war."
"The hell?" Justin immediately turned towards the voice, appearing from the treeline and he saw a skeleton wearing a suit with demonic-looking horns on his head. He had a glass of wine in his hand and it was definitely a peculiar sight, to say the least... Justin immediately reached in his pocket for the steel balls that were clacking back and forth with each motion.
"That's quite amusing," The strange individual said, "Now, don't tell me you're going to face down the Triple Goddess' cult..."
"Now, mind telling me who the hell you are?" Justin asked.
The individual put his hand up as he said.
"Run along boy, my business is not with you," He crossed his arms over his chest as he faced down the Vanburens. "Well, are you?"
It was difficult to tell by the black scarf covering his mouth or the determined look in his eyes, but Ezra was furious that they were all marching through the woods following some teenager with a hard-on for confrontation. He’d thought that Arabelle’s idea to get in touch with the cult’s traitor had been the most solid of the one’s proposed, but his family had drowned out logic with bickering and infighting. Now what was the plan? Show up at their front door, hope to hit them with a couple of suckerpunchs, and run them out of town? Stupid. An icy cloud of breath escaped from Ezra’s scarf. His boots cracked on snow and twigs and he continued after Justin in silence.
His body felt like it was being weighed down. Ezra tugged on the duffel bag hanging from his shoulder to try to make it less strenuous, but it seemed to change nothing. Perhaps it was just a drawback from lugging around the Masterpiece while walking through the woods. Maybe the weight he was feeling was a different one, tied to firearm squirreled away inside of his long, black winter coat. Going to kick in the door and bloody their noses as some chest-beating sign of strength would just keep the cycle of violence spinning, but amputating a few choice limbs would force the cult to let go of the merry-go-round, smack their head open on the concrete, and get the dangerous, rusted playground equipment permanently removed from the park. Justin had insisted that they avoid killing, but Justin was also a naive kid who’d probably think that every confrontation could be solved by gathering in a circle and singing Kumbaya.
"Alright, team, huddle," said Justin right on time, causing Ezra to break his silence with a quiet chuckle.
Ezra heard the branch snapped above and sidestepped to avoid the sudden shower of snow as he made his way over to their pee wee football coach. In the trees above, Nisha giggled as her foot broke a weakened branch and had to catch herself from falling with the Slaugh’s Long Arms. She’d joined the Vanburens on their woodtime assault even though nobody had asked her and, quite frankly, nobody had wanted her. Nisha knew from experience that only fun things ever happened in the woods at night, especially if some chucklefuck was stupid enough to bring a few bottles of Buckie with them. Besides, her “family” needed her to infiltrate the cult’s hideout and pretend to be joining. That was the plan right, after all? She had been distracted by Georgie’s little outburst to focus on the task at hand. Nisha smirked, thinking about how the girl had just dunked on her entire family. She was an utter bitch; Nisha quite liked her.
When they had made it to the woods, Nisha had taken it upon herself to play the role of the lookout. In actuality, all the girl had done was give herself an excuse to swing from the tops of trees like some kind of tentacled Tarzan. The Phantom Limbs had made it simple for her to scale up on, and every now and then the Vanburens would hear a branch shake from above as Nisha made her way through the treeline above. She was surprisingly silent with the exception of the occasional laugh when something bad happened or when she dropped snow on someone.
When Justin called for the huddle, Nisha dropped down from a branch with the same intensity of a jumpscare on a haunted trail. The only thing stopping her from crumpling to the ground were the watery limbs jutting out of her shoulder blades that snapped back into her as she landed softly on the snow below. Her bare arms were riddled with tiny scrapes and scratches, and one cut on her temple from a rogue branch was deep enough to cause it to bleed a tiny, harmless trickle. Nisha seemed as unbothered by her cuts as she was by the cold, still dressed for lounging on a couch while binging episodes of trashy teen dramas instead of a nighttime excursion in the woods. She bounded over to Justin, eager as ever, ready for a winter rumble.
"... Why you all look like you're ready to go to war."
Nisha turned with Justin and let out a surprised little shout as she saw the suited skeleton speaking. Instinctively, the four Phantom Limbs shot out of her and grabbed on to the trees behind her, slinging her back a few yards before snapping back into her body as she felt a warmth in the back of her head. Ezra’s reaction was more muted. He had seen what he thought was a deer approaching at first, and when its true form came clear he was able to keep his shock down to a simple eyebrow raise. He let the duffel bag slide from his shoulder to his hand as the thing spoke, ask questions that were strangely pointed. Ezra slid his scarf down to under his chin, a slightly amused smile on his face as the creature told Justin off.
“It sounds like you already know the answer to that question,” said Ezra, his steady voice managing to hide the fear he felt in the pit of his stomach. “So what of it? Are you a friend to those cult freaks? An ally of the Triple Goddess?”
“Are you her ex? Casual hookup?” asked Nisha loudly. These were the important, helpful questions that would crack open this mysterious intruder and spill the beans on his plans. Her smile was smacked from her face as she caught a sharp glance from Ezra. Under her breath, so she would avoid being hit by another piercing stare, she muttered, “You two do a lotta boning?”
Alex's thoughts swirled in a spiral brainstorm, going everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Ezra was right; this was a dumb, half assed plan, born out of a wretched subconscious to rip and let rip. He did not even recall any specific tactics or strategems back in the mansion; just the general idea of going in here and catching them off guard... hopefully. Did anyone have a good reason to assume that these cultist morons would not expect the Vanburens, their maid, and two paranormal experts that they paid to help with their stone problem to come after them other than the fact that the cultist morons seemed to lack the basic traits of an intelligent, sentient being? Perhaps Justin did; he was, after all, an expert in the realm of magic. Still, Alex had only decided to go with the rest of the family because he was concerned that doing something stupid without him in would end in an unmitigated disaster. This could just be his younger self speaking and overestimating his own ability to rein in madness (especially the one that was just brimming with absolute insanity... Nisha, was it?)
Raymond, at the same time, was... just going along. He did not have any strong feelings towards one way or another; all that he was concerned about was seeing his half siblings remain unharmed in the process of kicking some wiccan butt. He had always been concerned for everyone else, which surprisingly included Junior. Nisha was just really weird, and Ray gave up trying to tell her to calm down from swinging around the trees like a monkey. It was pointless, it seemed.
Justin didn't have a whole lot of faith in these rich kids, but maybe they'll win by the virtue of the enemy being stupider but again they didn't have to go in blind. He turned towards the Vanburens as he said, "Alright, team, huddle."
Maybe he could motivate these people.
Or maybe he would be interrupted.
"... Why you all look like you're ready to go to war."
"Chyort..." Alex cursed as the skeleton seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Mystical chains came out of thin air as he went into a defensive pose, trying hard not to make his bewilderment obvious. "Who are you?" He would then whisper to the Spectre, asking it the skeleton's identity. After all, the Spectre itself was an Apparition, and maybe it knew a thing or two about the rest of its kind. It was clueless about the Triple Goddess and the Horned God, but seeing as how both it and the skeleton had some resemblance in terms of being something like undead, maybe it knew a thing.
“Are you her ex? Casual hookup?” asked Nisha loudly. These were the important, helpful questions that would crack open this mysterious intruder and spill the beans on his plans. Her smile was smacked from her face as she caught a sharp glance from Ezra. Under her breath, so she would avoid being hit by another piercing stare, she muttered, “You two do a lotta boning?”
"God, you're really weird...", Ray shook his head at Nisha. "You should go back to horny jail..."
"... But maybe let's try to talk them out of something stupid, 'kay?"
Shane didn't really know how to respond. On one hand he agreed that they had basically no plan save for "attack" but on the other he stood firm on the view that the cult had to get broken apart. He had difficulty formulating a response that would make this view clear to Sabrina without possibly upsetting her but thankfully it seemed the Vanburens had already decided to set off. Sabrina went on ahead to join up with the family and their magical expert guides spilling out the door.
Shane lingered, instead making his way to his father's study where he took in the sights. Memories of frustrated conversations about the future and images of his father pouring over a seemingly unending stack of files at the desk flooded back to Shane. He scanned the walls and display cases at the weaponry James had accrued and seen as tasteful enough to show off in his home. To his knowledge, the majority of rifles and other assorted firearms on display were inactive, and Georgie had already taken James' personal rifle. But rifles had never been much Shane's preferred option anyway.
He stood over James' desk and crouched to the bottom left drawer, sliding it open with a creak to reveal a slightly dusted brown case. He picked it up and placed on the desk and forced it open in spite of its unused mechanism. Inside lay a black Browning Hi-Power pistol next to some cartridges filled with ammo. It was a gamble as to whether it'd still be here after all these years, but it seemed James was content to let things lay if he didn't need them.
Shane took the pistol out and aimed down the sights, it wasn't quite the type he was used to but it'd do him well enough. He didn't plan on having to use it against the cultists but whatever the hell they spawned outside the house? Might as well have some options, especially if he was stone cold sober at his family's insistence. James didn't have a pistol belt or any kind of holster tucked inside so Shane made do with the inside pocket of the jacket made by Mary Roberts, fitting tight enough to dissuade some of his worries about a mishap even with the safety on.
With that, he left the estate to join his siblings.
The Edge of the Woods
Shane felt somewhat vindicated in his decision making as the Vanburen siblings stood before a talking skeleton with horns protruding from its skull.
He hadn't voiced it, or indeed anything at all, but his annoyance at their lack of prep grew on the journey to the cultists hideout. He was planning on pulling Justin aside when they reached the building proper to try and at least coordinate a strike plan. Kids with magic sure but dumb kids none the less, just treat it like a police crackdown on your regular old hideout.
It was only now that Shane was reminded of the fantastical nature of their mission, any attempts at pulling the current proceedings down to a level of reality he could digest seemed determined to fail. The skeleton addressed the Vanburens and seemed to wish to talk with ONLY the Vanburens as he shut Justin down.
Shane folded his arms but felt his right hand press close against the gun in his jacket. He didn't like this at all. Even Shane didn't need Oscar or the kids to fill him in that not all of these magical creatures used force to get their way, some used cunning. Ezra seemed willing to indulge the... Man? Better him than most, at least. Especially the one that also interjected herself into the conversation, the annoying girl who's name escaped Shane. Along with Alexander and Raymond.
Truthfully, Shane didn't focus so much on the topic of discussion, he was content to glare intently at the Skeleton Man, waiting for the slightest twitch that he was about to engage the Vanburens. In spite of his cold attitude, to Ezra in particular, he found himself slowly moving forward to stand alongside him, at least in case his intuition was correct and things did take a... Violent turn.
'Bullet might not phase this thing, but that's not all I got if he tries making a move.' He thought to himself as he narrowed his eyes at the skeleton, awaiting its response to his siblings.
Georgie combed through all the information James had on the Triple Goddess and Horned God. One she hid in her dimension, but that didn't mean whatever he used to seal him couldn't do the same for his sister. Elemental magic, substantially weaker apart (but she doesn't have a point of reference for how powerful they are in general to know if that'd do them any good or not), and they have weakness to artificial materials. Artificial? As in anything made by human hands, even if it's made with natural materials? Or purely artificial? James didn't specify. She'll have to play it safe just in case. Better to be overly cautious than to slack behind. Georgie stored the books in her dimension for emergency purposes while they confront the cult.
Georgie was in the kitchen when she overheard Justin say they were ready to go. She couldn't have been gone long enough for them to have a decent plan. She opened the cabinet under the sink and pulled out all the cleaning chemicals: bleach, dish soap and detergent, wood cleaners, lysol, glass cleaner, whatever she could get her hands on, and stored it all in her dimension. If these monkey brains can't come up with a good plan, then she'll have to provide contigences. Chemicals for the Goddess, and the rifle for an escape. She hopes that'll be the last option, because it could send them somewhere else and not back home. She doesn't want to be responsible for single handedly fucking them off to another world.
She grabbed her coat and set off with the rest of them into the woods.
~*~
The walk through the woods was awkward. She couldn't remember the last time she went on a family venture outside the mansion. The Northern Twat was swinging through the trees like Tarzan, everyone else looked out of place. She wasn't dressed properly for a trek through the forest nor did she have the time to change into something more appropriate. All her hunting clothes were back in the flat she had in London. She rarely went to the country for such excursions, especially since she broke up with Lucian. Her poor dress won't last through this; she knows it. If they can get there. A skeleton creature appeared from the trees, she assumes, because she couldn't see from behind all her tall siblings. It wanted to talk to them, minus Justin, his partner, and Northern Twat.
"Lovely. Another of James's past problems, is it?" Georgie kept her distance, a little behind Ezra, rifle in her hands instead of hanging from her shoulder. She checked the chamber when she first picked it up and knew it was empty, but better safe than sorry. She double checked it. Still empty, but he didn't have to know that. She made sure no one was in the way of the barrel. If they needed a quick escape she can't have anyone in the way of the bayonet when she opened the portal.
Ezra asked it questions and the Northern Twat said something. Her nattering went through one ear and out the other. Other than everything magic feeling off to her, she doesn't remember reading anything in James's books about a skeleton man. She hasn't read everything, sure, but he only named a handful of the people as important earlier. The only man he spoke about was--oh no.
"Thornton Walters. Is that who you are?" She hopes not. Father didn't speak kindly about him; even seemed fearful.
