AtomicEmperor

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

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Leon and Lynette

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Mentions: Linqian Han, Britney Williams, Everleigh Thorne, Alizee Altiere | Location: St. Portwell, Oregon: The Temple of Charming and Graceful Individuals

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Personal investigation' before she... you know.

Leon spun in his seat trying to figure it all out when it was really just so simple. It all snapped into place, like he could hear his Father's voice in his head. She was just stressed... Just like everyone else, she was probably tense about what was going on. And, now that the concentration in the city was rising again, blowing off a little steam like she'd been known to before. Like him, she probably just wanted things to bottom out so that they could figure out just what the fuck was going on. It was all dumb. Poor Alizee had died over recklessness and complacency, and there was nothing he could do to bring her smile back. Another person taken from him, only this time it was a complete clusterfucking crossfire.

His massive hand climbed up to rub his chin as Leon turned his body.
"Personal investigation, I get. That's why I didn't bother going to Auri's little pow-wow; I had my own ideas about this Father Wolf from the jump."

She came, Then left soon as Kali said he was a fed. It was a whole thing. Eve here nearly shot him.

Leon turned a bit more to make sure his body language included her in the conversation. Any input at this point was better than none, and if she'd seen what happened there he was all ears.

I assume she went to Veni Vedi because Auri said she found a lead there.

Fair, he nodded along as she continued about what had happened thinking about the conversations the two of them had about possibilities prior to the big meeting.

Knowing Alizée she went in there causing a scene. Kinda her fault she died.

Alright, again fair but uncalled for. Leon bit his tongue to hold in the gut reaction, but he couldn't stop a scowl from spreading across his face as Linqian approached him and began to lay into him in front of at least a dozen followers, as well as the other Sycamore members.

Leon held his jaw clenched as Linqian spewed venom into his face until she finally pulled back and released his personal space from assault. Twenty years of meditation and deep breathing exercises for moments just like this... Leon ground his teeth together slightly, like rolling a piece of chewing gum between his molars, then nodded as the muscles in his face released their tension.
"Alright Linqian, good to see you too, first." he started, considering what he was about to say next very carefully.
"You've certainly not lost your skill at tearing someone down, especially in the worst places... Now, I broke your car? Well, you're not the only one, but tonight you'll be the only one who has the chance to scream at me for it, so congratulations."
Again, Leon paused as he closed his eyes just a moment longer than a blink before opening them again. Happy place, Leon. Happy place.
"Now, while you left St. Portwell after the Coven dissolved, Alizee didn't. And, amazingly, neither did I. No, see, we stayed because this place is home. But, people like you and your brother couldn't build good memories here. You left as soon as you could. So, while there were people here who gladly would have helped you, well... You weren't here to help. Now you walk into a place where someone who had deep and serious issues came to escape her problems and be with people who cared about her; and you look at my mother grieving over the loss of a beloved congregate and insult our practices that you know nothing about? Over dollar fucking bills? You're damn lucky that we're in the middle of a fucking crisis or-"

"Leon!"

Oh did her regal voice cut the room and Leon's trembling rage like a hot blade through soft butter. Visibly, Leon choked upon his words and turned back to see his mother standing at the pulpit in her place as Prophet. The sun beamed from her in his eyes, and a small tear welled up.
"Steel yourself. Your fury and defense are both unnecessary in the case... For all that brave little Coven did, each of your old companions are welcome here in our House and are counted among our extended family. As any family, she hurts with us and we shall not turn her away... Young Lady, I encourage you to place your name and information in the Book of Registry, that we may deliver unto you the recompense that you deserve. Medical expenses and transportation necessities will be provided for without question. The same can be extended to any of the Sycamore Tree Coven's many disparate members."
Lynette's voice was firm and commanding, as if she was making a complete guarantee and unwilling to leave a shred of doubt in their minds that she was genuine.
"Though, we do... Well... Sonnenrad's Remnants are not exactly the first people we'd like ourselves associated with, perhaps it's a necessary evil. Now, please... Register and be recognized as one of the most charming and graceful."
A woman from the group of onlookers broke away and came back rolling a special cart that had a massive tome of truly old paper. Even now, fresh names were being added to the entry columns, each with addresses and contact information. An archaic practice, but the only official way the Temple handled any kind of membership cursory or otherwise. In front of the book, an inkwell held a quill pen waiting for takers to jot their names down.

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

<Snipped quote by Atrophy>

It's been seven long years...

@FernStone

I remember Under the Sycamore Tree...

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

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Leon

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Mentions: Cyril Noctis, Alizee Altiere, Judas Bennet, Valjean Vasil | Location: St. Portwell, Oregon: Veni Vidi Veni Parking lot

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There was a level of strength in the scorpion beast before him that Leon wished he could keep up with. A stable, cooperative transformation was something he just couldn't have. Whether regret or envy filled him at that moment, he couldn't tell; it was a pang that radiated back into his third eye, drawn into the seal in that mirror again. He stared at the thrashing beast before him as the fire slowly fell from his singed and burned body. It was his own stamina, his own ability to handle more. She just wanted out, wanted to burst from the corpse like a black hole from a collapsed star. She had plenty of heat left for him, but he couldn't give it a great deal longer.
He couldn't make purchase on the hot top, claws crumbling up the tar and opening furrows like plowed fields across the parking lot before Valjean used his own momentum to fling him back toward the disparate groups scattered before the Wolf Pack. It was only then that the eyes were drawn to the massive pile of sand. All the noise, all the magic in the air, it was overload on the beast's senses: But sight did not lie. As his eyes focused, the manifestation of the Void he'd come so used to seeing, so intuitively fearful of it's capacity, that he shuddered to think what had gotten it so riled up. Netting captured him, slowed him, brought him back down to the ground. But he couldn't release his eyes, his ears, his entire focus, it all fell upon the struggle.

The sand. The Void Light.

Fifteen seconds.

The skin of his willpower sloughed from the bones involved and dribbled down his body like molten lead leaving little mounds of itself beneath his feet. It burned so badly, but he pushed it to the last possible second. There was a flash of metal, a hand with a threat. The beastial senses could hear the microscopic noise of the trigger's metal grinding and grinding. Rather than re-engage the scorpion, every bit of the physical form drove itself toward the incoming shots, and the exertion instantly turned fifteen seconds into no time at all. He smelled the hazy stench of the Void Light, the sulfur in the gunpowder as the bullet made its rush out of the barrel of the gun.
Too little, too late. The last bullet chipped through his claw and upper index finger as his lanky hand attempted to scoop the supersonic pucks of metal from the sky. He couldn't. Not with all of the no strength he had left... It had been a mistake to try and get her out of the situation; immediately he knew that he should've remained there steadfast with Alizée and the Sycamores. The last bit of fire crept from his body, and in mid-air as he dove past Cyril's fate, he reached the impasse he always came to with Lelou. Everything that was left of him wasn't enough to maintain the transformation, not enough to hold onto the power of Lady Lelou in any meaningful way. It was now that he was weakest, and the only solution was to begin breaking the seals piece by piece. He'd let her out then, let her back into St. Portwell, back into the burgeoning garden he wished to tend.

The Void Light exploded in its fury, and as Leon collapsed upon the ground, the false structure began to burn away and curl up into the sky to roil about in the Void's darkness. By the time it was over, a near naked Leon laid in a rotten puddle of tar from which he weakly stood. The chaos hadn't stopped, but he... He couldn't compete here. Not now. In that moment he felt a wave of hatred curl over him, his head swiveling back to witness the continued madness when...
Green. A washing wave of invigoration that finally hit him at the very edge of its field. Cells devoid of nutrients and energy inflated thick with lifeblood, and all of Leon's senses drove his gaze to the source. For a moment, he was confused as he felt energy filling the blank pool of his Seals again. Eyes trailed back again, slowly passing the Void Light took its final wrenching climb into the darkness with Alizée's murderer in tow. He wanted to scream and rage, to beg forgiveness from an entity whom he had come to respect in a sick way. He knew that thing cared about its host, and that they were so much more in sync than he was with Lelou. Finally, his eyes turned back to look at Alizée again. Her beautiful pale face looked at peace, serine in her death as the bullets crept from healing flesh.

He knelt down seeing the process occur, waiting for her breath to begin again as his hand gripped into hers.
"A-ali? Mon compagnon... No, no... No, no, no..."
It wasn't coming back. It wasn't coming. Blood wasn't pumping, breath wasn't drawing, and the Void Light was gone. She was gone. For a second, Leon took a deep breath.

"You failed. Not enough people holding your fucking hand, and what? We lose it? The whole plan?"
He heard his mother's voice in his head loud as day. He'd managed to get rid of all her papers, yet there she was still stuffed into his ear. It wasn't real... It was-
"She'd say that. I'd say I'm disappointed we're not killing for her."
"If you'd cooperate-"
"It's done... For now."
This was new. There'd been no other time in which the two entities harbored within the single body were able to come to an agreement, but Lelou was not blind. She'd get something out of this, of course, but Leon would too. Some kind of revenge. Some release.

As the conflict drew to a head with the arrival of Judas and his beasts, as the battlefield came to a screeching hault, Leon knelt by his companion's side stiff as a statue, the energies inside him gathering and gathering.
"No, no... We can't..."
"What!? Explain yourself."
"It's not over. It won't be over. Lelou... I beg you here and now, save this. Please, save the rage and the pain. Keep it, brew with it, but right now we'll do more good completing the initial objective. I... I can't risk her getting hurt any further."
"She's DEAD Leon! Fool! Moron! You may as well eat her for the extra ener-"
Leon removed himself completely from his internal dialogue, closing every bar and gate he could possibly close to cut Lelou from furthering her interactions. Crossing that line, the line where union may be possible, was a dangerous path when the apparition was as cunning and evil as Lady Lelou. An impulse of pleasure could easily lead someone down the path of destruction, and he had a legacy to carry. Alizee or anyone else, none would keep him from destiny. He knew the right move had always been trying to remove her from this situation, and it was only his hunger for battle spurred by Lelou that kept him emotionally involved.

His arms scooped up under her, lifting her tiny frame up into the air. Her legs dangled limp at one side and he was careful to tuck her head into the crook of his arm to prevent it from the same dangling. His arms tightened, hugging around her one last time as tears began to fall silently from his eyes in long streams. He took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and began to step forward into the fray. It may surprise, or it may make Leon an open target, but he walked between it all in an attempt to once more take his leave from the hellscape that he'd witnessed the birth of. He'd not wanted this to begin with, but here he was carrying a friend away.
Whether or not he'd be stopped by some force outside his control, he didn't know. But, looking up at Judas Bennet, he knew that negotiation was off the table. His gaze passed to the line of shields and his old comrades behind them, and he scowled. Disorganized rabble, just like the old days. People died because they were fools, or didn't care about what was right. Impulsive children crawling into battle on their bellies. But the girl was gone. His personal charge, his personal inclination. What kind of sword and shield was he? What could he ever be for them? He shook his head, continuing to walk as if there was nothing happening but always expecting an interruption that would probably be more than painful. They'd not have the satisfaction of his retaliation.

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

Leon NPCS or: Ladies of the Temple

NPC Lynette Hunter-Richoux

Lynette.Hunter-Richoux

52 | Lynette Hunter-Richoux | She/Her

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"The future is for people like us. They'll have their place in the badlands and the savage realms, and we will bask in the light of Eden."

Description:

Lynette was a (mostly) normal girl until she met the Richoux clan. Hailing from the Hunter family in the St. Portwell area, Lynette was bound to a small coven in upstate New York where she was able to freely study her abstraction among the company of skilled witches. Among them, another young witch named Annalise Richoux would quickly befriend the young Lynette, and the two would spend their weekends together in the civilized world of New York City among the gilded halls of the Richoux family estate. It was there she would, in her studious nature, begin to press upon the family's heritage and pry into whatever secrets her friend would give her to.
This would lead to her induction into L'église de la Nouvelle Lumière: The Church of New Light. She'd come from a sleepy place, and to hear the clan's philosophy as their bloodline stretched back through the sands of time, she became enraptured with the sensation that people like them; Adepts and the world outside the Blind were meant to hold great power in their hands. To wield it like a sword and a shield, and to use that power for fair good in the world. It was a lot for an impressionable nineteen year old.

Those days were the best for Lynette. Shortly after her first times with the Richoux clan, she met Maxwell; heir to the house whose boxing career was already shaping up to be a legendary affair. Eventually her presence in the Northern coven waned in favor of ringside seats and apparition hunting with her new family who quickly welcomed her intellect and skill to their retinue of globetrotting Hunters. Eventually the two became inseparable, living and working closely with one another until the inevitable came. Lynette took the family name, submitting herself entirely to the cause of the New Light and dedicating herself to the Richoux family in a way she never imagined she would. Her own family became secondary, and with her new position she began to cultivate followers of her own.
Shortly after the birth of their first son Leon, Lynette revealed that she had a vision as a child: She, and a million other children, gathered beneath the light of a burning tree so vast that it lit the nighttime sky like daylight and burned away their hair and clothes until nothing but the pureness of human youth remained. In the wake of the fire, the sun rose through the clouds of ash, and Eden grew around them from the dessicated Earth. Using prophetic text from the various works of New Light prophets and philosophers, she was supported by Maxwell in proclaiming herself as Prophet.

Maxwell saw fit to follow her lead, providing his family the ability to uproot from their New York roots to move back to the land this Prophet promised: St. Portwell. In order to avoid prodding eyes, her direct flock took a new name: The Temple of Charming and Graceful Individuals. From this, Lynette has been able to redistribute her family's ancient fortune into a chain of different locally owned businesses that allow the Temple to present community outreach and accrue new followers. Blind or not, donations are always necessary, and Lynette continues her various attempts to round up the disparate groups of Adepts scattered about St. Portwell in the hopes that one day her dreams will come true and Eden will reign in St. Portwell.
For Leon, she acts as an advisor when necessary, and a Pimp when it suits her. Leon is her bargaining chip; having taken to walking in his father's footsteps so closely, he serves her directly as a dog loyal to her vision as God's mouthpiece and his Matron. She tells him to show up at a local event, he does so without question. She tells him that a person is a threat to the Temple, he ensures they're stripped and flushed. In turn, she spoils him and pampers him as the Eldest child, praising him and his mastery over the beast imprisoned in his body.

Abstraction:

Lynette is a White Lux user whose Channeler is an old book of nursery rhymes.
Wallpaper: Writing a small poem upon a piece of paper allows Lynette to hear through it as if she were standing in that exact position. In turn, the paper can be applied to any flat surface and blend in seamlessly with its background, camouflaging it completely.

Peek Ahead: Lynette is able to take a small peek forward in time as one can do while reading a book. Essentially, Lynette frequently dreams of scenes and visions of everyday life, and can remember these dreams with incredible clarity for a long period of time. Ninety-nine percent of the time these visions are utterly worthless alone, but like any Prophet, Lynette has taught herself methods to "read the bones" and is able to interpret meaning where there may not actually be any.

NPC Mia Richoux

Mia.Richoux

21 | Mia Richoux | She/Her

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"Oh I'll be sure to get on that right after, uh... Never."

Description:

Mia is the youngest of the five Richoux siblings. Leon's baby sister and the only other child left in the immediate St. Portwell area, Mia is more a trouble maker than she is any sort of scion of the Richoux clan. Far removed from the family responsibility, she had been her father's pretty little princess until his untimely disappearance. She's never gotten over it, and more or less lives in a position where not even her Mother bothers with much concern for the girl. Though still a practicing follower of the New Light, Mia enjoys perhaps the greatest privilege a member of their inner circle can: Full autonomy. She's been allowed to study as she's seen fit, allowed to make money how she pleased, had no push from her Mother toward a particularly beneficial path for the Temple.
Mia is free to be a hellion.

As such, she's done exactly what a depressed and listless individual does: Get sucked up into life in the city. Or, she would were it not for Leon. She had a few years where things were touch and go, hitching busses out to different states, dragging herself back home like a cat out in the rain after a few months only to get cagey and run away again. When she was arrested on her twentieth birthday somewhere outside Las Vegas, Leon made a promise to his Father's memory that he'd make sure it didn't end like that. Since then, he's done his best to keep her around and sober without stressing her and forcing her into things that she would reject.
It's been a project, but at least she's not out on the street doing whatever the fuck she was doing before. She even has a job that she likes; Leon hooked her up with a gig at a local smoke shop with the kind of crowd she enjoys. She's made connections with people who she left a long time ago, and the two of them have even started work on her Lux after it had been neglected for so long.

Now she's mostly a nuisance to Leon, as she's become extremely receptive to his resemblance to their missing Father in both physical appearance and outward attitude. Her fragile psyche has built a strong dependence on her elder brother's guidance and approval, though he hopes that one day her continued therapy and treatment will allow her to be dependent on herself. Despite the road bumps that occasionally come up, Leon is as devoted to his sister as he is his Mother, and the two share a bond that Leon hopes can ultimately help her heal.

Abstraction:

Mia is an Orange/White Lux user whose Channeler is a black beanie hat.
Toymaker: Utilizing both Orange and White, Mia is able to enchant items of her own creation. This enchantment allows her to inhabit these creations remotely, observing and controlling the object based on its typical function.

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

@Estylwen
10 days mandatory mourning in the Temple over the passing of one of Eden's Chosen.

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

Hider

Leon

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Mentions: Valjean the Scorpion| Location: St. Portwell, Oregon: Veni Vidi Veni Parking lot/Surrounding neighborhood

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The cars and other obstacles were spaced enough that the beast had little trouble weaving it's massive ligaments between them. Each step and kick was a dodge, each second a fading abstraction of consciousness as he fell further beneath the surface of his own flesh. Before Leon, there was a mirror. It spun a light show of a million colors across his body and face, and the golden hair that was not his own fell to the floor beneath him in a cascade of falling straw.
Slowly, surely, flame began to trickle from his eyes and scalp, raining down until it replaced what was lost. Blue turned deep into gold and white at the edges, and each second he stared at the reflection in the mirror, it burned his eyes more and more until they seeped from the sockets down his cheeks like molten platinum.

But he could see Her. The Lady, her bright sparkling gown the same fire falling down her body that fell from his, but her pure obsidian flesh contrasted wildly against it. Burning eyes stared back at him through all the color and the smoke, through the looking glass of the seals that held the ancient spirit at bay. She didn't leave any question of where they stood with one another, her clawed hands gripping at the glass from the other side.

"Come again and again! Each time you take from me and expect me to let you take more!?"
"Oh sweet Lelou! I will take, and take again and more! You are the source of Eden's Light, and by the grace of your power I will make you kneel in it!"
"You are a worthless wretch! I have been beneath the coil of my Master and once you've taken too much, your body will be a distant vessel! I will wear you like haberdashery and dance across the face of this scarred world beneath the shadow of my Master!"

Leon let his arms outstretch, and from the mirror he pulled the fire from her across his own body, each new lick of flame searing his flesh and boiling the fat beneath until charred scrap sloughed away. Flame took shape, replacing the musculature across his form with ethereal hellfire.
Far from his mind's eye, the body reacted purely on instinct. The creature's most basic memory was hung up on two things:
PROTECT, LEAVE, PROTECT, LEAVE, PROTECT
Searing pain engulfed it's hand from within, the Void pryed away Leon's clutch upon Alizée until it couldn't ignore the pain anymore. The beast dropped her, simultaneously missing a pace on its gangly limbs. Leon's limp wrist stuffed under the bumper of an SUV, wrenching him up into the air and slamming him on his back atop the roof of the same vehicle. The entire ordeal imploded, blowing every window and windshield clear out of the car as the weight of the massive creature caved in the crumple zone like any forty-five mile an hour vehicular impact.

There was screaming. Loud screaming. He wasn't sure if it was agony or fear, but his ears were so sensitive that the voices being so close drove him up a brick wall. Small rivulets of flame cautiously leaked from the beast's eyes, trailing down its body as an organized pattern began to form in the searing fur. The body pushed up, driving the broken bones back into shape with a yelp and simultaneously lifted the mostly flattened roofline of the vehicle. From the percarious impact, no glass remained in the fixtures of the windows as his enormous mutated claws pulled and yanked up until the screaming people in the car at least weren't trapped in a coffin.
In this state, while he wasn't fully in control, Leon had learned to exhert his willpower enough that short directory bursts could be made. He was like a rider of the thing, only so in control as the thing was trained. For now, it was all about redirecting the original thought, pulling on the reigns and driving the spurs toward the intended target. But the screaming, oh... How painful it was in his ears, he couldn't do anything here. The only answer was to run; to lose the target altogether and assume that there was only one place that she'd rather be.

The shouts and screams of the injured became more distant as the thing trolloped along at a brisk pace.
Minutes, Leon, not hours! Now!
It spun hard, long clawed fingers digging into the pavement and rotating the momentum as it tossed its own weight high into the air. Its springy rear legs made purchase in a window pane, pushing off the structure to carry it higher into the air until it crested the roof. From here, both eyes could see the strip club lights in the distance. A single massive hand planted down on a set of roof shingles, blowing them off the building as the creature redirected its momentum over the city block. It was getting hot. Not just because he was running out of time, but rather... He could smell the deep throng of magic essence as it built and built in the air like an ozone layer. The thing's tongue lolled from its mouth, tasting the entire ordeal like a buffet being readied just for it.

There was a very clear target: A similarly monstrous beast spewing way too much energy and malice. A lot of energy seemed to be focused on keeping it pinned, and though some would imagine it may be strategic for Leon to keep such a thing busy in order to free up others to help in the overall conflict, there was only one thing on the beast's mind.
CONSUME
Giant clawed hands hit one building, then another and another still with his springlike back legs pushing off everything they had the chance to. The beast soared through the air as it lept over the last building across the street from the club, and with it came a howl so loud that it shook the hot air around them.
Ninety seconds max...
He was not privey to the treatment of Bianca, and truthfully it'd have mixed results. The chances were just as high that it could boost Lelou and set her free as they were it would weaken him by diluting the mixture in his seals.

If it was going to be done, it had to be done on his terms.

The arc was clear and open: The tail of the Scorpion. Would it connect, the beast intended to get as close to the stinger as possible, sinking teeth into it and pulling down toward the pavement. At the same time, the great length of the beast allowed its forearm to reach the massive claws on its hand downward to fish for a limb with a claw, wrapping around and tugging it toward the same vector as the tail. Overall goal; to flip and pin the Scorpion on its back before going for a belly kill. And if he could eat any bit of it, he may wind up prolonging his control over the beast for just a while longer.

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

@Estylwen

I hit post instead of hitting the preview button like a dumbass. That was a fantastic post.

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

@Estylwen
Feel free to break out, pummel Leon as much as you'd like, or if you'd like me to retcon the post at all let me know!

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

Hider

Edict

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Mentions: Lyss Burns, Linqian Han, Auri Auclair| Location: St. Portwell, Oregon: Municipal Library

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Edict laughed at Linqian's proposition. Like letting staff members hang out at the bar, it was a great way to make sure you recouped losses in an efficiently scummy way. He'd happily sell her all the tobacco she could ever want knowing full well that it's all his own money going around in one big loop.
"I hope you do, and I hope you come to enjoy it as much as I do." he commented, watching the shadow of a female figure approach them. Lyss Burns, as the helmet came off. He was surprised to see her, given they'd left St. Portwell around the same time, but everyone had some sort of reason or another for coming back. If he stopped to wonder about every single one of them, he'd probably not have any sort of time to work out what he was required to. The note in his pocket gripped at him, calling his mind back to responsibility and the desire for the almighty dollar. Yet, here he was pissing it out...
"Well God damn, if it ain't Lyss Burns! I was just about to split; I need to check on some things that I haven't had the chance to yet. Auri ain't leave yet, so like Linqian said, if you wanna get in there and bother her I'm sure she'd be real happy to see, y'know, a face that isn't insane or whatever."
Edict laughed at his last comment before turning his head to Linqian.
"But, hey you have fun at Veni. And remember to give me a call, we'll set up a place to meet. Your terms of course, wherever you're comfortable. And, remember, Pink and Violet!"

Edict turned his body fully, taking one last drag from his cigarette before tossing the stub on the ground and trodding over it with a slide. He made his way down the road a ways, crossed the street, and inconspicuously made his way into the back seat of the car that had brought him there. The driver, surprised that someone would have the audacity to just open the door like that in the middle of the city, made a turn in his chair as his hand reached to his side for a gun. But, seeing Edict's face, he took a deep breath and tilted his head back.
"Shit Greyson... Don't scare me like that, what the fuck happened? It's only been like thirty minutes."
"Shit went south, Molo. Just get me over to the Brick Harbor."
"You got it, Boss..."
The car's lights came on, and before either Lyss or Linqian could see the plates, it was down the street and into the St. Portwell evening. The heading? The last Mafia bastion in the entire city: His Uncle's pet establishment and the Devola family's original
power base, The Brick Harbor.

Hider

Leon

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Mentions: The Clusterfuck Coalition (AKA Sycamore Members)| Location: St. Portwell, Oregon: Veni Vidi Veni Parkinglot

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Things were so far downhill at this point that Leon was just biding time. There had to be a period of destress before he could reliably unleash the seals again, and if what he thought was going to happen was actually going to happen, he'd need all the energy he could get when the time came. At first, he backed off and tried to be as inconspicuous as a near seven foot tall man could be; especially with a bunch of ripped up clothes. He'd not even realized how big he managed to get during that short period, but the bulk of his transformation always destroyed clothes... Thankfully he wasn't a modest man, and between his figure and his confidence he didn't mind showing off a bit of skin. But, who really cared? The massive group of Sycamore Tree members rolling up on the strip club unannounced made him think that Auri had agreed with the idea of Father Wolf having something to do with Judas and his ilk, but this wasn't exactly what he had in mind. Five or six deep, most of whom he did want to talk with and catch up to. But, these circumstances were anything but conducive to that.

It was nice to see Britney, even if she wasn't his favorite person. He knew that Alizée loved her, and that hopefully she'd have some sort of brain about the situation. But, Sully, Stormy... Where was Drake? It didn't matter. None of these people were hanging around in St. Portwell regularly to deal with Alizée and her constant hunger. They all ran.
"Allez, ma fille, on ne peut pas rester ici plus longtemps! (Come on, Girl, we can't stay here much longer!)"
He stepped forward across the parkinglot, casting a gaze of death at everyone who chose to watch his massive bulk cross the parking lot. He approached Britney and Alizée, trying to smile.
"Alizée... Don't be a fool now, you know we can't be hurting people like this. I'm so serious, that this isn't the way we should've met everyone again. Come on now, we need to get to the Temple where there's someone willing to be fed on."
He tried to whisper, tried to be subtle, but then Stormy butted in. Pissed her off. She was so fragile these days, he felt like he was dealing with two Daisys. Before he knew it, she was back on her bullshit. The Void was very purposeful in keeping distance between itself and its eternal rival, and as she began to choke up on Stormy, she shoved the weakened Leon off his feet and onto the pavement of the parking lot. In that moment, he could feel the gentle vibration of the ground, and his head turned an ear to it directly. The sound of half a dozen bike engines roared in his brain.

They're coming...

Leon laid on the ground for quite a while, faking incapacitation as he felt Lelou's seals slowly but surely refresh. Once the engines were finally close enough that everyone knew, it was too late. All he could do now was activate what he could. If he kept it light, he may have another ten minutes in the tank, all that alcohol having made a decent buffer to start with. But now he was on his own reserve. It was either a powerful burst, or a low intensity burn. He'd pick his timing; and slowly but surely he began to release the seals again. One by one, the multitude of energies began to flood back into his body. He didn't pop the cork, letting the brew within ruminate as he continued to wait and wait again. He could hear them shouting, yelling, then... Someone said You there which wasn't exactly clear until Alizée spoke again.
"Wh-what do you want?"
It doesn't matter, Little Sister... They're bikers. They want revenge, but I know you didn't kill anyone inside. I was watching. I won't let anyone hurt you.
Then the kid got mouthy. Stepped in where he shouldn't have. Paid the price. Before Stormy had the chance to begin grandstanding, Leon's body was already shifting again. This time, it was serious. Flesh buckled and tore open rapidly, muscles on muscles building themselves unnaturally across Leon's frame. He let out a single loud snarl of pain amidst the group, and in a flash his unnatural physique saw him spin in place before the snapping and crackling of bones reforming themselves echoed loud as any shouting. A massive, claw covered hand made purchase on the ground, digging into the pavement.

"Oh, shut up Stormy... Who taught you how to talk like a hero?"

Pushing off the single fully formed arm, the half-transformed body of Leon flung itself across the pavement like Carpenters' "Thing". He was a mass of half broken meat and long blonde fur that peeled back further and further until he was right behind Alizée again, just like they had started things. Only this time, he wasn't playing anymore. It was rare for Leon to push it this close, but they had to be scared. Everyone had to scatter. He had to be the monster. His legs spun into place like some twisted flesh Transformer, digitigrade and fully clawed. Standing at full height, the golden werewolf was almost thirteen feet tall, and his hands were big enough to grip with the Void's hands. Instead, he fully wrapped one around Alizée's torso to lift her up off the ground. An instant later, they were both in the air. Leon had jumped over the bikes, over the gang, and began to take off down the street with Alizée in his clutches. He was headed for the only place he knew they'd both be safe... Home.

Recollections: Under The Sycamore Tree Part. 1

@Estylwen

Posting in 3-7 hours! @AtomicEmperor, post soon! :)

@Estylwen

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