Expendable

~ Welcome to Sanctuary ~

Kat Theodora

---

Closing the refrigerator door, Kat sighs, and giggles. "I can't believe I did that."

Her first foray into town, and she actually went up to the chief of police. And its sheriff? Kat pauses, frowning. Could one person be both?

Now that she'd gotten her immediate issue over, it was just the question of what was she going to do for the rest of the afternoon?

"It would be weird if I don't go now, right?" she asked. "Seeing how I just found out about it?"

And just what was a 'night market'?

She pauses, taking a glass from the cupboard and filling it with cold water, then gulping it down thirstily after turning off the tap.

Okay, it wasn't too far, and maybe those other people disliked her shorts or something. There were a couple of dresses, time to see what she could put together.

The Eye of the Needle (where Fantasy and Sci-fi collide)

J'eon the Blacksmith

"Interesting," J'eon rumbled, feeling the machine taking shape in his head. And a means of hardening the surface of metal while the rest remained pliant? Incredible!

"I am eager to get started, once I have the materials," the Glen beamed, although he wondered what a 'paddle wheel' was, as the image that made in his head seemed strange.

He was going to need to set up a proper shop instead of trying to do all this from the work cart, both to control the temperatures as well as to keep away prying eyes. Still, they could get started.

"I need to understand how you measure these?" the blacksmith said, eyeing the odd shapes they used for letters.

---

Jack Mallory, X.O.

"Then do it yourself," Jack responded, staring at Dr. Fortin.

Jack turned his stare at the rest of the department heads.

This was so... damned casual. Some of them were people they had worked with for weeks or months, and yet the attitude here was like they were just going to be burning the trash.

But on the other hand, they couldn't risk possible soil contamination, or having one of the locals dig up the bodies.

"Please pass word that the ceremony will take place at dusk. Crew not on duty and civilians who wish to attend should be there 15 minutes prior. Make sure the ash collection detail have suitable containers for holding the remains, we have no means of milling the ash to break down the bone fragments. Wodan, at what time is dusk?"

Jack paused. What would the natives think of this?

Sanctuary Hills

@Expendable Stanley is good! I really enjoy the idea that gargoyles just kind of crop up on rooftops with enough magic associated with them. As a result, both libraries and churches are common birth places.

I'll add him to my relationship sheet, but just to say that Georgia is firmly unable to see him.

Is SEP a Hitchhiker's Guide reference?

@Gisk

Quite possibly.

We need to talk briefly about the telepathy, because this is something I wanted to touch on, but haven't gotten around to.

Magic that affects the minds of others has a lot of baggage around it, and many people consider it inherently "dark". Reading minds is an incredible invasion of privacy, obviously. But even sending telepathic messages can range from being considered very rude, to being considered a form of violence. The severity varies both on the exact nature and context of the contact, and personal opinion. Obviously there's a question of informed consent which can change the perception a great deal as well.

Of course, some magical creatures have such abilities natively, and how they are viewed varies in much the same way as humans using mind magic. Additionally, when it is a natural ability, there are going to be people who feel uncomfortable or even fearful around creatures like this. There are also people who are more understanding, and will be more patient(if somewhat on guard) about it.

In no way at all am I telling you not to include this in the character, but I want you to understand that it's a really touchy subject before you write scenes with the character. Because that's something that Stanley would certainly understand about the people around him.

@Gisk

To be sure, the only reason that Stanley responded to Sam in the first place was because she addressed him directly. Since people actively ignore them, it makes it impossible for gargoyles to have conversations with them. And young Sam told Stanley that she hoped to talk with him later. This is permission.

But yes, they know the rules. Stanley will not talk to anyone else without permission from them.

~ Welcome to Sanctuary ~

There were booths everywhere, and past them were lines going into restaurants and shops.

A poster on the wall announced it was Sanctuary's 15th annual celebration, running from 2 PM until 10 PM, with fireworks and... What the hell was a 'night market'? Was that like a red light district? Was this why Uncle Oscar liked this place?

"Okay, they're all getting set up, I need directions....

There was a booth with policemen....

There hasn't been anything in the news, she frowned. They won't be looking for me, right? Certainly not like this, and certainly not here.

Brushing a few of the white hairs that had managed to work free from under the bandana aside and squaring her shoulders, Kat and her bicycle made their way through the crowd to the police booth.

"Excuse me," she smiled. "I'm new to town and I'm looking for a grocery store, could you please direct me?"

Sanctuary Hills

Samantha Semenova, daughter of Professor Semenov, the locally famous magical anthropologist, watched as the freak rain came pelting down hard outside of the J.W. Steward's storefront and did a very rare thing.

She smiled, ever so slightly.

Surprisingly, there were some students who, with their apartment leases ending in the next few days, would rather lug their furniture to the nearest dumpsters rather than drag it home or sell their items back to the store. So her boss, Emily, had decided to hire a few of the male students who were staying in town and drive around in the store truck to do some judicious dumpster diving.

"Oh no, don't take the witch," she muttered to herself. But Emily was insistent that the store had to be manned today, of all days. So here she was.

Hidden behind the counter, in the well next to where the register sat, she had a miniature display set up of white plastic walls with round depressions, with a small fireplace on the end wall and a very large mirror. It all sat in an old tray of stenciled fiberboard.

J.W., it was claimed, had set this display up after a sales trip abroad to London one summer in the 60's, and had seen it in some television show there. He had actually bought some antique rent table to put into the middle of this dated display, and would putter around with it for hours.

Emily wanted it thrown out, but Sam had a different idea, shrinking it down to its current size. After all, Emily didn't say she couldn't keep the dated display herself, she just wanted it gone.

The miniature furniture were all items she'd found in the back and shrunk as well. Technically, it wasn't stealing as these items never left the store.

And it gave her something to do while waiting for customers who weren't going to venture in because of the rain or for Emily and some drenched boys to return from their trip to all the apartment dumpsters.

Sanctuary Hills

Stanley

Name: Stanley Livingstone (Gargoyle)
Age: 23

Appearance: In his compact form, Stanley is squatting, with his bat-like face resting in the palm of his left hand. Two folded bat wings rest on his back, and he appears to be approximately 3 feet in height. Standing, he's a bit taller.

Personality: booklover, curious, reserved, honest.

Background: Born on the roof of the Mary Parker Memorial Library, Stanley had his first encounter with a human while peeking in on a faculty garden party, Samantha Semenova. As small children tend to think of everything as their business, she managed to overcome his camouflage, and they've been friends ever since. He has not met her parents, and they think of him as her little imaginary friend.

Loves to read books and to wander the university, sometimes crashing frat parties, and is known among the feral familiars.

Magic Specialty:

Short Range Telepath

Gargoyles can read and project their thoughts into the minds of others within a range of a hundred feet.

Short Range teleport

Gargoyles can teleport up to a hundred feet at a time. The location has to be familiar to the gargoyle or within line of sight.

Variable Density

While their bodies appear to be stone, they are actually beings of magic and can expand or compact their bodies as needed. The more they expand, the easier it is to fly, but they also become more vulnerable to attack. They can also use this ability to drain away magic from people they're touching.

Somebody Else's Problem

SEP or "Somebody Else's Problem" is a sort of camoflauge that anyone within range of its effects will ignore the source of the field and anyone standing next to it. Basically, they can walk through a busy mall unnoticed. Range approximately 100 feet.

Rip Van Winkle

Gargoyles see everything through a clear membrane that acts as an internal eyelid. If this is opened, any living being within five feet that it focuses on will immediately be petrified, while the body within its stony shell is preserved as long as it remains intact. It takes a nitric acid/ethanol solution in order to free them from their stony cocoon.
Anyone at a distance greater than five feet will experience a headache - the closer they are, the more severe.

Other: Gargoyles are like a barometer of magic. The more they are, the more magic that exists within an area.

Gargoyles prey on small mammals - pigeons, mice, rats, squirrels, cats, small dogs, fey... whatever they can get their hands on.

Sanctuary Hills

Sam

Name: Samantha "Sam" Igorina Semenova
Age: 23
Appearance: This placid girl has round gray eyes. Her luxurious, straight, long hair is the color of black coffee, and is worn in a pageboy style. She is short and has a thin build. Her skin is very pale. She has a low forehead and a small mouth. Her wardrobe is practical, with a lot of black. She carries a wooden cane because of her bad right knee.

Personality: It's hard for her to work up any enthusiasm, rather obsessive with keeping things clean and organized, something of a pessimist, prone to sarcasm. Very grim.

Background

Father is Professor Igor Semenov, works as a magic antropologist, very well loved at Sanctuary Hill but few of his articles ever gets published, so he's relatively unknown outside of the college. Mother Sarah Semenova is very active with Witch Scouts, even today. Her younger sister Rachel, blonde like Mom is very popular, somewhat shallow and fashion-obsessed, and is very much the baby of the family.

Sam was six when she ran across an old guy sleeping on a bench at a bus stop and yelled at him to move. He didn't take kindly to that and claimed he cast a curse on her. Since then, she finds it very hard to get excited about anything. She did, however, get excited about Mr. Cooper, her potions teacher when she was 16, and would stay after school to help clean up and organize his lab classroom. Rachel found out and tattled to their parents, who yelled at her about all the trouble she'd caused for the family while her "good" sister never caused them problems. Sam realized that they'd never taken her side in anything, and she resolved then and there that she'd go elsewhere for college.

Realizing her parents were unlikely to help her, she got an after-school and Saturday job at the bank as a junior teller.

She got into New Salem Tech, doing well in her classes until she accepted a dare to spend the night in the haunted Salem church. They found her the next morning, curled up in a ball with her hands pressed over her ears, talking about "the voices...!" New Salem Tech contacted her parents, and she wound up at New Salem psychiatric hospital. It was a cold, depressing place, she was constantly cold as they wouldn't give her socks. During one of her water therapy classes, she slipped and banged her knee. Despite pain, the injury was ignored for almost a week before a doctor finally saw her limping around the room.

It was there she met Cass, a gray-haired old woman who told her about all sorts of supernatural encounters she has had. Watching this wizened old grandmother throw one of the Samoan nurses across the room, Sam became a believer.

When she was discharged (used up all the money in her bank account), Sam returned to her parents home, but she quickly tired of their self-imposed martyrdom. She got a job at J. W. Stewards', a second-hand student furniture store with a room to let upstairs (she suspect her father had a hand in that). While it's not much, it does allow her to make good use of her ability to manipulate sizes. However, since she hadn't completed college, she's only a minor witch.

But despite any curse, she wants to know just what happened to her in that church.

Magic Specialty: She can enlarge or shrink objects. Excess mass is being shunted away into a pocket universe she is dimly aware of.

Theme

Room 101

Why

Tubular Bells, Pt. 1

Relationships

TRANSCRIPT OF TAPE RECOVERED FROM 239 GREENWALD HALL, THE OFFICE OF FAYE KNOTLEY, SCHOOL COUNSELLOR, ON APRIL 19, 1994.

SUMMARY:

ON THE PRETEXT OF A PAID VOLUNTEER STUDY ON RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE SUBJECT AND FIVE RANDOM INDIVIDUALS FROM THE TOWN AND SCHOOL, SUBJECT SAMANTHA SEMENOVA WAS TRICKED INTO INHALING A TRUTH AGENT DURING THE INTERVIEW, SO THAT SHE COULD BE QUESTIONED ON AN OUTSIDE EVENT FROM 1993, IN A PRIVATE ARRANGEMENT BETWEEN COUNSELLOR KNOTLEY AND PROFESSOR SEMENOV, FATHER TO THE SUBJECT.

RELATIONSHIP PROJECT INTERVIEW WITH SAMANTHA SEMENOVA, HUMAN RESEARCH SUBJECT.
SESSION STARTED.
INTERVIEWING SUBJECT ON THE OTHER FIVE RANDOM INDIVIDUALS RECEIVED FROM PRECOG.

"So, I'll get paid after this interview? What's with the incense, it smells weird."

It's just something to help you to relax. Tell me about Aoife Fitzgerald?@naomimyselfandi

"Who? Oh, the Irish girl on campus, teacher assistant. Got to watch yourself around teacher assistants, they see and hear everything, did you know that? And if they wanna be teachers, they gotta make nice to the real teachers, like my Dad."

She sighs. "They cluster around him, laughing at his jokes, tell them their little stories about what goes on in the classrooms, listen to him spout off."

Samantha, tell me more about Aoife Fitzgerald.

"Uh, I see her about?" she replies, stiffling a yawn. "Always from a distance, always watching. It's like I'm under a microscope, being studied, being dissected. Like I'm some... weird bug."

What about Valeriano O'Connell? @kalanggam

"Hmmm? That musician who works over at the coffee shop? Stay away from him, he's not a guy to get on the bad side of. He's got no fear and doesn't mind giving you the short and blunt of it. Those eyes miss nothing, it's like he sees down into your soul. Nice hands, I hear him playing, sometimes...."

Are you...?

"Am I, what?" Sam pauses. "No, no. Never date a guy who wears more jewelry than you do."

Do you know Tobias Malkinson? @Fading Memory

"Uh, rich kid? He's been in the shop a few times," she yawns. "With his cash, he doesn't need any of the crap we got, but I don't think he's slumming. Not sure what his deal is."

Why do you call him 'rich kid'?

"From when I worked as a teller at the bank. The manager, he showed me the accounts they had for the family, like that would impress me. Then try to feel me up. Jerk."

Tobias?

"No, the manager."

Let's move on, then. Rose Blossomdew?

"Pretty fairy, flowers...."

Wake up, I need you to concentrate, Samantha. Rose Blossomdew.

"Fun teacher, sneaky. You think you're alone, and then she's pointing out some mistake in your notes. Wants to be doctor fairy, so you know she's making nice...."

Do you know her personally?

"Only from the garden parties my parents dragged me off to, she makes the bushes and flowers grow...."

One more. Georgia Keen.@Gisk

"Georgia? ████?"

████?

"Stupendous ████."

Ah, yes, I think I've got it...

"Every girl wanted her ████ in my class," Sam sighs. "Class."

What about class? She was in your class?

"No. It was in middle school. Movie in the auditorium, Young Frankenstein. You had to pay a dime to get in. Forgot my dime, teacher made me sit in the back," Sam says gruffly.

You didn't like the movie?

"Huh? Movie was fine, but afterward all the kids called me 'Igor' like the bug-eyed guy."

Did Georgia call you Igor?

"No," Sam pauses, "and I don't think she got measles after, either."

Measles?

"I didn't do it," Sam said, sweating.

Didn't do...? Never mind. How well do you know Georgia?

"Just from school, see her around. Can't avoid her if you want your car fixed up right."

>>> DEVIATION FROM RELATIONSHIP STUDY <<<

Okay, let's talk about what happen at Salem.

"No...!"

RUSTLING NOISES, CLICK FROM A LIGHTER

<cough> "More incense?"

It will help you to relax. Tell me about Salem.

"I just wanted to get away from all this," Sam whines. "But they locked me up in that hospital, everyone knows I went crazy, but they don't know...."

Don't know what, Sam? Is it the church? What happened in the church?

"The voices," she pauses, coughing. "Too much... smoke."

Just breathe it in, it'll be okay.

"S..Stanley?"

Who is Stan... AAAAGH! How did that get in here? AAAAH!

SCREAMING STOPS SUDDENLY. SOUND OF SOMEONE BEING DRAGGED ACROSS FLOOR, WINDOW BREAKING. SUBJECT VOMITS.

"Drugs...? She was drugging me...? With incense? Microphone? Stanley, what's going...?"

INTERVIEW TERMINATED.

Tryliin Blues - A Merc's Life

Welcome back. Still interested.

Mundane fantastic slice of life

Stanley

Name: Stanley Livingstone (Gargoyle)
Age: 23

Appearance: In his compact form, Stanley is squatting, with his bat-like face resting in the palm of his left hand. Two folded bat wings rest on his back, and he appears to be approximately 3 feet in height. Standing, he's a bit taller.

Personality: booklover, curious, reserved, honest.

Background: Born on the roof of the Mary Parker Memorial Library, Stanley had his first encounter with a human while peeking in on a faculty garden party, Samantha Semenova. As small children tend to think of everything as their business, she managed to overcome his camouflage, and they've been friends ever since. He has not met her parents, and they think of him as her little imaginary friend.

Loves to read books and to wander the university, sometimes crashing frat parties, and is known among the feral familiars.

Magic Specialty:

Short Range Telepath

Gargoyles can read and project their thoughts into the minds of others within a range of a hundred feet.

Short Range teleport

Gargoyles can teleport up to a hundred feet at a time. The location has to be familiar to the gargoyle or within line of sight.

Variable Density

While their bodies appear to be stone, they are actually beings of magic and can expand or compact their bodies as needed. The more they expand, the easier it is to fly, but they also become more vulnerable to attack. They can also use this ability to drain away magic.

Somebody Else's Problem

SEP or "Somebody Else's Problem" is a sort of camoflauge that anyone within range of its effects will ignore the source of the field and anyone standing next to it. Basically, they can walk through a busy mall unnoticed. Range approximately 100 feet.

Rip Van Winkle

Gargoyles see everything through a clear membrane that acts as an internal eyelid. If this is opened, any living being within five feet that it focuses on will immediately be petrified, while the body within is preserved as long as it remains intact. It takes a nitric acid/ethanol solution in order to free them from their stony cocoon.
Anyone at a distance greater than five feet will experience a headache - the closer they are, the more severe.

Other: Gargoyles are like a barometer of magic. The more they are, the more magic that exists within an area.

Gargoyles prey on small mammals - pigeons, mice, rats, squirrels, cats, small dogs, fey... whatever they can get their hands on.

The Eye of the Needle (where Fantasy and Sci-fi collide)

The Department heads hustled into the conference room - they were all busy but equally keen to secure more resources for their teams.

“I don’t need stupid people in my team. Give me sensible ones who’re good with their hands.” Zhao kicked off the meeting on a cordial note.
“Hold on, you’re not the only one who needs people who’re good with their hands, Zhao.” Feng replied in a calm, even tone.

“Though at this stage i’ll take anyone who won’t faint at the sight of blood.”

“We all need sensible people who’re good with their hands. But I wager that in the science team curiosity is the trait we’re in most need of. The equipment is all fairly self explanatory! The pieces that still work, anyway.” Edward Fortin chuckled.

"It would be nice," Mallory said quietly, "To have our pick of the best from a world-wide pool of candidates."

He pauses for a moment, resting his face in the palm of his right hand, then looks up. "Sadly, we no longer have that choice. This handful is the only available human workforce we have until we begin having babies and expanding our pool. As it is, there's already concerns we may lose some of our people to the locals - and the wealth of knowledge they possess."

He surveyed them gravely.

"They will make mistakes. They will make a lot of mistakes. After a week, we can try swapping some of them out - but I can pretty much guarantee that the replacement will not be any better. So I must depend on you to train the people you've got, just as I must train the ones assigned to the Command staff. Find a use for them, I'm sure there's some basic menial duties you have more experienced people doing, so this will free them up and offer opportunities for training."

"Now, we may be able to obtain some recruits among the locals to assist us with jump-starting our generators, but they're mostly as untrained as our passengers," he paused, glancing around the table. "We have our work cut out for us. Any questions?"