Little Bird

Geonet: Battle for the Megacity

Character Sheets have been added!

@TheNoCoKid

This open to the general public?

Geonet: Battle for the Megacity

Oooo... this looks like a fun one.

The Little Hamlet

It's not much, but it's honest.

The Little Hamlet

Yung Rinan

Late Morning | Just Outside of Hearth | Entering the Hamlet

Big wheels turned, creaking and squeaking as the old wagon dipped and bumped its way through the field between the ancient Monastery and the Hamlet known as Hearth. What the monks often referred to as “the road” to the village proper was, in reality, anything but. Since the pious dwellers of the temple had long since detached themselves from the worldly machinations of the world beyond their walls, neither they, nor the “Heartheans” had taken much time or spent much effort into developing the space between their two homes. What amounted to the path for the wagon was simply a meticulously measured route that best avoided the worst of the slopes, dips, and stones that dotted the fields north of the Hamlet; this planning had been done by the monks not too long ago as they began steadily reaching out into the society they had once cloistered themselves from.

They had done their best to mark the way: on either side of the wagon’s progress, it was flanked by pairs of narrow wooden posts on either side, hammered into the ground, with a roughly even spacing between each pair. Even with these delineators, however, there were no guarantees. While the Monastery had done its best to maintain their road, the lack of any actual infrastructure meant that the terrain could change on them; even if only slightly, altered conditions from weather, sentient actions, animal activities and the like, could make the road more or less difficult to traverse one day than it had been on the previous. Of course, this meant relatively little to anyone purely traveling on foot, as anyone with a stable pair of feet beneath them could negotiate the earth without much issue… But for anyone hauling a wagon, it presented quite the challenge.

As his luck would have it, Yung Rinan had managed to land himself on wagon pulling duty on this particular day. Beads of sweat fell from the half-elf’s cheeks as he manhandled the cart out from a particularly steep rut in the ground. The wagon dislodged from the rut with a bounce as it settled back down. It shook from side-to-side as it hit the ground. Ringing from behind Rinan, there came a clatter of metal implements, chiming loudly in five-tone harmony, accompanied by a thud of wood against wood as the large taiko drum settled aggressively back into the cart. A pair of monks tending to the sides of the cart scrambled silently to ensure that the large drum wouldn’t roll and damage their hand-pans.

The young monk stopped pulling, and turned to check that his brothers were ok, only to be met with a light whack to the face. The stern face of his superior, Elder Feng, stared at him, giving a lowering gesture with his hands, bidding Rinan to go more easily; the Elder tapped the top of his head, and pointed at the drum. Rinan looked more closely, and nodded, noticing that the calfskin stretched across the top of the percussive instrument had seen better days, and might not last a day at the market; if they were lucky they might draw in enough funds to replace it.

Grabbing hold of the wagon’s handles once more, Rinan grunted, to the dismay of Feng who put a finger to his lips with an even sterner glare, and heaved the wagon forward. Rinan quickly tightened his mouth shut, and continued on towards the Hamlet. He hoped that the effort of hauling the instruments would be worth the result. It had been a long shot for Elder Feng to convince the High Elder to allow them to attempt a public performance. The Monastery had, in recent months, found itself dried up on funds to spend at the market. They had tried seeking donations, but Ingrid, the town guard, had stamped out their efforts as “panhandling,” and shooed them out of the village with only a few copper pieces to show for their troubles. That was when Feng, once a wandering bard, suggested he take his shamisen, a few metal hand-pans, and the taiko, into the village, to put on a performance for the people while they busied themselves on Market Day.

While the High Elder was far from restraining his disdain for using their sacred ensemble for “entertainment,” he conceded when he saw how diminished the provisions had become. Assured that proceeds would only go into supplies and the maintenance of their temple, he allowed for Feng to lead his ‘troupe’ of musicians to market and put on a show for the people as they shopped. This, perhaps, would at least keep the giant of a guard off their backs.

Rinan, however, would not be among the performers. Lacking much sense for the arts of sound, his role in the day’s activity was purely to assist in getting the instruments from the temple to the village center.

Some time later, he brought the wagon to a halt in an empty spot in the market. It was already abuzz with activity, and the monks, more than usual, were drawing an awkward attention to themselves; anyone who had suspected that the monks of the Monastery on the hill weren’t entirely right in the head might have felt their suspicions validated as Rinana hoisted the large taiko off of the wagon and onto its stand. The monks’ “band” spread themselves out on a circular rug, about six feet in diameter. The percussion instruments set up to the back half of the rug, with Feng, shamisen in hand and already tuned, at the front and center.

With his own work done until the market closed or they were kicked out again, Rinan took to wandering about the village. It had been a while since had come through personally, and some things had changed; he noticed a wealth of newcomers had arrived since his last visit. Moreso, he noticed that a large, once rundown building, had been rebuilt into an ‘adventurers’ guild,’ whatever that was. Though the bell began to chime from the guild building, Rinan gave it little notice for the moment. Instead, he walked along the market until he spotted the preposterously tall figure of the local librarian. The half-elf had occasionally spent time in the library; though he never checked books out, he would usually find himself a book with useful information, such as new martial forms he could practice, and less useful materials such as poorly written and misinformed guides to meditation.

To the monk’s surprise, the librarian had brought a small collection of texts out into the market. Was he looking to sell? Rinan swiftly made his way to the cart of books, and quietly began perusing while the librarian and his acquaintances were distracted by the arrival of a child.

The Little Hamlet

Look at us all! Still alive, good for us 👍

@Dark Cloud

"Alive" is a very strong word.

The Little Hamlet

Reading to catch up with things. I'll figure my way into the mix once I've read through.

The Witches & Warlocks of Tanner 2.0

2PM. Day of the Handover Ceremony

A run of sweat ran down Cait's arms as they dropped limply to her sides. Thought the afternoon at seen to the usual Northwest chill, she was running hot right into her core. The sleeves of her lined plaid shirt had long since been rolled up to her elbows, allowing the late autumn air to cool her heated skin; as she gathered her strength and will, she unbuttoned the shirt and removed it entirely, tossing it into a crumpled ball behind her next to a light jacket she had removed not much earlier.

Her upper body was now stripped to just a plain, gray, t-shirt.

She craned her neck gently towards the calm sky above. At her nudging, a soothing breeze danced against her. Until her most recent training session with Daniel she had nearly forgotten that the element of air was something she could influence; she had spent the week since rediscovering that part of her magic.

"Wish I could show him. The day would have likely seen another secret rendezvous for practice, but the Handover Ceremony that would officially ascend Carlisle into the Leadership of the Coven was cause to leave the session until another day.

She shook off her head, undoing a few knots in her hair as she lowered her eyes to a large rock sitting otherwise comfortably in the back yard. Setting her legs in a horse stance, she proceeded with the routine movements of her recent learning. Arms out. Extend energy through the hands. Concentrate on your goal... The sense of pushback from her projected grasp told her she had the rock in hand. While the use of both arms was physically unnecessary, the mental factor made the process of heavy lifting that much easier; when she imagined she was lifting with both arms, she felt stronger... she wondered if Daniel would have any tips on getting over that.

Her mind processed the mass it was holding. By some odd 'psychosomatic mechanism,' as Dan had put it, her arms began feeling the resistence of the same weight. Heart slamming, she steadily pulled her arms up. Tethered to her by her telekinetic influence, the stone, an estimated 175lbs, rose from its spot in the dirt. There, she held it, three feet up, soil trickling down off the bottom. With a slow, arduous rowing motion, she pulled the rock towards herself; with a pressing movement following, she pushed it back to the space she lifted it. Repeat. The more she did these exercises, the more it felt like how she practiced skating... repetition bred refinement.

"Impressive."

It came at the apex of the 6th rep. Cait's focus broke. The tether of her magic around the stone snapped like a rubber band. She dropped onto her back, spread eagle on the back lawn, looking up at the upside-down face if her father looking down at her. "Dad!"

"Sorry. Sorry." Marcus Elliot Cade took a step back.

Cait turned, still on her back, reaching out to her father, who helped her back to feet.

"Need to work on concentration," Marcus said, in much the same tone as a teacher.

"Yeah. So... what's up?

Marc looked at his watch, smiled, and said, "Well, as happy as your mother and I are to see that you're finally embracing your magical potential, you should probably start wrapping it up for today. We've got to get cleaned up and dressed for the ceremony tonight. Your mother is getting a head start."

"Oh... Yeah... that. Cait soured slightly at the mention. She hadn't forgotten, but earnestly had hoped that wouldn't come up from her parents. "I was kinda thinking a might... maybe sit this one out.

"Why? I thought you were getting on well with people again. You have that guy that's coaching you..."

"That's one person though. And it's more of a teacher-student thing."

"Have tried reaching out to anyone else? You used to hang out with Victor quite a bit. And you used to say that you liked spending time with Lilith."

"Vic's going through some sh-- heavy stuff. And Lil..."

"All the more reason to be at the ceremony. Sometimes just being present is all you need to do for anyone."

"I...

"Caitlin Morgan Cade." Marcus' voice was uncommonly calm for using his daughter's full name. "You chose to stay. You said that to us the night after the Werewolf attack. But if all you do is hide around the house and out in the woods, is that any different from leaving again?"

Cait reeled back. She stared at her father, no words to come back with. He was right, and there was no denying it. Daniel had been the only other person she had spent any time with. Even her friends outside of the sphere if the Coven were left waiting on replies to messages and plans to be made.

Ushered by her father, Cait picked up her shed clothes and walked back to the house.

~=======~

The bedside clock changed to 4:00PM. Cait, showered and groomed was busy mulling over how she was supposed to dress for a Handover Ceremony. Fashion wasn't particularly her strong point; in high school, one of her superlatives had been "Most Likely to Underdress." She couldn't recall owning anything suited for a formal; she had rented a dress a shoes for senior prom... only to bail on it for a night in a half pipe.

"Stumped, huh?" Morgan Elizabeth Cade stepped into her daughter's bedroom, making Caitlin jump.

"Uh... yeah." Cait grinned. "I've never cared for playing dress up."

"I know. Come on. I'll give you a hand."

~=======~

Cait descended the stairs behind her mother. Morgan doned a simple, sleek brown dress; her feet slipped into a pair of white heels, though she carried a pair of flats in hand for later. From the pile on Cait's bed they had managed to tidy up an off-white button-up and a pair of navy blue slacks. In what Morgan called a small stroke of luck, they had also managed to pull a blazer that matched to the pants. Lacking any dressy footwear, Cait dug out a fresh, unscuffed pair of black, leather Converse. A belt that matched to the shoes capped her look.

"You pull off a Ben Stein kind of look well," Marcus commented as he looked Cait up and down.

"Best she dresses comfortably," Morgan stated pointedly. "So, Marc, what are we taking?"

"I was kind of hoping you'd let me take the Wrangler." A gleam of excitement flared in Marcus' eyes, and he met gazes with Cait, who returned a smile.

"Ugh. Your TAILGATER?" Morgan, though chuckling, was also rolling her eyes. "Babe, we're going to the Coven House, not Lumen Field. That thing will be an eyesore."

"No one has to look at it." Marc was already taking the keys to the Jeep off if the hook in the entryway. "Besides, with everything going on, I haven't had much chance to use my season tickets. Thing hasn't gotten out of the garage since January."

"OK then." Morgan laughed, and conceded. "Just this once though. Is that clear."

"Crystal." Marcus nodded. He spun the keyring around his index finger. The remote flipped into his hand, and with point into direction of the garage he clicked the start button. The revving of the SUV hummed through from the mudroom and the trio of Cades made their way to the vehicle.

The Whip

~=======~

The Cade Fam

As 6:30PM rolled around, so too did the Cades pull in to park on the lawn at the bottom of the Coven yard. The sound of Nirvana's "Come As You Are" could briefly be heard blaring out from open windows before dulling as they rolled up, and cutting off entirely as Marcus shutdown the engine.

The three hiked their way up to the house, merging in with the river of friends, guests, and dignitaries of the magical community. In a procession that felt much like going through a concert queue or amusement park line, they made their way up through the doors into the foyer.

On the other side of the doorway the leaders of the Coven stood, greeting people as they entered. Though for the most part a friendly experience, the Cades couldn't help but feel collectively put off as they passed the Astons. Amanda showed them only the faintest of expression; Carlisle, while courteous to his coming position, was quick with them, and only spared Cait a passing glance before turning to greet the next people in line.

"Par for the course with those two, eh?" Morgan whispered just audible to her daughter and husband.

"Well..." Marcus searched carefully for his words. "You know... things have been rough lately. Werewolves, passing the torch." Mark gave a sigh. "Plus I'd say that probably haven't been too quick to forget or forgive... certain hi-jinx." He and his wife both turned to Caitlin.

"What?" Cait's eyes rapidly darted between her father and mother.

"Just... be on your best behavior," her father said.

"Better, at that," her mother added. "Everyone who's anyone between the Covens and the Magi Guilds are here. Some of them already have their eyes on you... and me, to be fair. Just don't do anything to draw too much attention."

"Anyways, your mother and I are going to go catch up with a few people."

"So what do I do?"

"Go mingle. After tonight, your generation will be responsible for the Coven and its duties. You'll have to get on working terms sooner or later." Morgan looked over at Marcus after she spoke.

Marc nodded. "Once they hear you've been practicing I'm sure more of them will come around to you."

"Yeah." Cait dodged her father's eyes; she had no intention of telling anyone else that she had been training.

Little more to say to each other, Cait and her parents parted to their own devices.

~=======~

"Eyes on you?" Marcus whispered into his wife's ear.

"You know my family is crazy. Or did you forget our wedding day? There's a reason none of them were invited."

"Ah. Yeah. The Zealotry... That's why your father came here though. To get away from it. That's why you cut them off from us... and Caitlin."

"That doesn't matter much here. You should know that, Marc! As far as most anyone else is concerned, I am my family."

"Yeah." Marcus side stepped, pulling his wife with him as Amanda rushed pass them.

"Wonder what's got her like that," Morgan spoke in a hushed tone.

"Probably that," Marc nodded to the line of people still flowing in, where Mary looked to have taken a place by Carlisle.

"That'll do it I guess... Marc... are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"Huh?" He squinted... how hadn't he noticed before? "Is that..."

"Claire Montgomery?"

"She's dead though..."

~=======~

Cait wandered through the droves of visitors. However crowded the house had seemed a month ago paled in comparison to how it was now. Every direction she looked, it seemed people were want to stick their noses up at her. Even the other Tanner Coven members came off mostly in a rush to shake her off. A look through the guests was fruitless in her finding company. Daniel was either not arrived or caught up in the sea of people, as was Victor. She spotted Lilith, but she was with Miles; the last buzz Cait had heard was the two were together, so she kept away for the moment.

Resigning to her loner status, Cait made a beeline to a set if tables spread with hors d'oeuvres and, more importantly, glasses of wine. She flitted into the line, floating a glass over to herself, drawing annoyed looks from a few people in front of her. She downed the glass like it was a shot of whiskey, set the glass down, and found herself a spot out of the way to sit down and people-watch.

RATTLECHOMP

Last call for posts! :)

@Mokley

Suffice to say, we're set to move on here?

The Witches & Warlocks of Tanner 2.0

Daniel & Caitlin

Meet me out in the woods at 1pm. We'll get some training in.

Bet. I'll be there.

The morning hours came and went quickly for Cait after waking to a text from Daniel. The prospect of something constructive put a fresh energy into her. It was a scatter-brained energy though. She bounced about mentally. While the 'gift' from her mother still sat by her bed, she hadn't had much focus to spare on reading; not about family history at least.

Still uncertain of how to approach training, she donned a light jacket, and at noon, made the walk to the edge of the forest. She shivered in a short chill of Northwest autumn air. She looked around for Daniel, then shot him a message.

I'm here. Just outside the woods.

Daniel saw the text but didn’t bother responding, instead just jogging out of the woods waving, ”hey Cait, how you feeling? Ready to start mastering your potential?” Daniel wiped away some sweat on his forehead, he was wearing sweatpants and a plain green t-shirt. He had brought a hoodie along but left it at the training spot.

Cait heard Daniel call to her, and looked a short way along the treeline. Already, by the sound of Daniel's greeting, it was feeling that this would be a different sort of training training session than she remembered. The spirited tone in Dan's voice as he jogged out of the woods was a sharp contrast to the formality of training under the elder Witches and Warlocks. That he came up dressed like the high school P.E. teacher reinforced that.

Cait looked down at how she was dressed from feet to waist. The worn in Converse and cargo pants quickly felt less than appropriate; should she have come ready for sporting events? "I'm good." she looked at Daniel with a chuckling smile. "Just thinking I might be crazy to try to do this. It's been a hot second since I trained with magic."

”*Responding to Cait’s feeling, something positive*” Daniel waved for her to follow him into the forest, ”come on, I’ve been setting this up all morning. It’s not too far in, but it’s off trail, no one should be bothering us.” Daniel led the way and after a few minutes they came to what looked like an impassable wall of shrubbery. ”There’s a clearing just through here, I think we could technically walk in, or I could teleport us in, you just have to hold on tight to me.” Daniel didn’t want this part to be awkward, it would basically be like a hug, friends hugged, didn’t they?

She didn't need to think more than once, or for very long. "Taking sticks and prickers to the face wasn't what I had in mind for today." She grabbed hold of Daniel. "OK. Take us in."

Daniel held on to Cait and focused his magic. Taking another person with him was a lot harder than just teleporting himself twice. There was a rush of wind and then nothing, they had made it to the clearing. ”Tada,” letting go of Cait, Daniel presented what he had set up. There were several hoops around the clearing at different heights and of different sizes. There was also what appeared to be jump ropes on the ground as well as werewolf shaped standees. ”Well, what do you think?”

Cait gasped; she had never teleported before, and the sensation was odd at best, like being whipped into the wind back out again. It left her a bit winded.

She looked around the clearing with interest and a bit of skepticism as she caught her breath. The werewolf cutouts made sense, she figured. But the hoops and jump ropes looked out of place. "Thinking I should have dressed for gym class. Are we practicing magic or doing some kind of crossfit?"

”Well I find my magic is pretty connected to my physical abilities, but that could entirely be a me thing,” Daniel admitted to her. ”We don’t have to do anything physical if you don’t want to. I mostly set this up to help you test your abilities. I don’t know exactly what you can do so I worked with what you told me back at the party.”

Daniel teleported next to one of the standees and knocked on it, ”you mentioned having some kind of energy blast ability, I figured these guys would work well for target practice to start.” Next he teleported to one of the hoops that was at basically ground level, it was quite large, big enough to step through, which he did as he spoke. ”These are for your telekinesis, I can conjure things for you to levitate through them, it’ll help your control to move things at different heights and stuff. Speaking of levitating… Daniel teleported next to Cait and grabbed one of the ropes, ”you mentioned being able to levitate yourself, I was basically going to swing the rope under you as you did as a sort of motivation.”

Daniel dropped the rope and looked around the clearing before facing Cait again, ”everyone’s magic is different, so there’s no one way to train. I’m basically all self taught, and the best way for me to train was to just work on my skills. Reading theory is all well and good, but for me at least the only way to learn something new is to just do it.”

Cait gathered her thoughts for a few minutes while allowing Dan to explain his thought process. She quickly and consciously veered away from the standees and walked over to the set of hoops. "Might as well start with this, she said, pointing to the hoops. "To get myself warmed up, y'know?"

”Right now I just want you to do whatever you’re comfortable with,” Daniel told her, ”it will also give me an idea of what you can do so I can think of better way to help train. When it comes to your telekinesis what can you lift comfortably and what can you lift at your maximum? Think you could lift me?”

Don't think I can lift you. Cait thought it over for a second. "Most I've done is levitating myself; but only short distances. I weigh like 115… Let's see 60lbs to start?"

Daniel nodded and waved his hand. In front of Cait, there appeared a metal ball, flattened on the bottom with a handle on the top, with a big 60 on it.

”Okay, now don’t try and force it. You’ve gotta treat your magic like it’s a muscle, if you work it too hard too fast you’ll just end up hurting yourself. Just work at your own pace, of course if I feel like you’re maybe not pushing yourself enough I’ll try and get you to do more. But for now we’re just seeing how you fare with something you feel you can do.” Daniel gave her an encouraging smile and a thumbs up.

"OK." Cait swallowed and breathed in, scuffling into place. With her right hand she reached out to the kettlebell sitting some twenty feet away. The Telekinesis that formed the backbone of Cait's Magic had always operated as an extension of her physical body; that much she had learned, and even explored on her own to a degree. As she stood, arm extended, she was channeling an energy that, in essence, invisibly lengthened her reach forward.

The sensation was weird to her; it always had been. A feeling of energy coursing from her core and through and out of the palm of her hand. Her muscles and bones seemed to vibrate in what she imagined felt like electricity passing through her body. When it was all she had to focus on, it often felt uncomfortable, despite that she had gotten used to feeling it.

When she felt resistance, she knew she had gotten hold of the kettlebell. She could feel it in some ways… mostly that it was dense and heavy. She envisioned herself grasping the handle. At the upward motion of her arm the weight began lifting off of the ground… one inch… two inches… four inches… one foot. Then THUD!

The weight dropped to the ground. Cait looked up, catching Daniel's eyes with a stare mixed with embarrassment and concern. Hoping he hadn't read much into it, she shook her head like a dog shaking off the rain. I… sorry… uh… lost my grip on it."

Daniel wanted to do a bit of his own training so he summoned a shadow clone to stand off to the side and do some basic martial arts moves, just to get the feel of having a clone be semi autonomous. He watched as the weight lifted off the ground then suddenly came crashing down. ”You know Cait, you should be more confident in yourself. You lifted something more than half your weight a foot off the ground, that’s pretty incredible. Honestly I think telekinesis is one of the most useful types of magic. Being able to interact with objects at a distance has so many useful applications. Especially if you’re eventually able to lift more than what you could physically.” Daniel glanced at his clone, the moves were sloppy but they sharpened up as he thought about it. He either needed to figure out a better way to make the clones autonomous or how to do parallel thinking. Would parallel thinking be a conjuration spell? Probably not, but he’d have to look into it.

”I’m not sure why you’ve never seriously trained your magic before, whether you just didn’t really care or some other reason. I won’t push you to tell me if you don’t want to. But you have to remember that your magic is yours, and no one can take that away from you. I’m sure that you’ll go on to do great things with your magic, you just have to believe in yourself and stop being worried about what might go wrong. That’s why we’re here, so you can test your limits. Your magic is as much a part of you as your hand is, so don’t be afraid of it.”

What might go wrong… what it might mean to embrace this part of her… Cait had seen the weight it put on peers and elders alike; lauded or laughed at over what they could or couldn't do.

Certainly don't want to be laughed at, do you?

I don't want to be helpless.

So then?

She gritted her teeth and narrowed her eyes at the kettlebell. The quicker she got through this, the better off she'd be. The right hand reached. The essence of her magic flowed from the palm of her hand. It was faster, and more purposeful. The weight lifted, and, in a labor of the mind, she slowly pushed it towards the lowest hoop…

Fade Scene

RATTLECHOMP

<Snipped quote by dryden>

Hmmmm will have to see how it goes! I'm interested to know what the other players here think, here or in PM. :) Because I'm basically reacting to the character actions I can't guarantee if or when we'll hit another stop. Unless your character is already on the train for a completely unrelated reason.

For now, the answer is "potentially maybe!"

@Mokley

I'm OK with it if you are.