Number of fucks given in this post: 12
Jack and Levi have arranged to meet at Waxy O’Connors, in the centre of town. The pub is a maze and is conveniently located near Buchannan Street Underground.
Tius shows up there quite late into the evening. He’s wearing Jeans, t-shirt, and a waistcoat. He’s got a backpack with him and his signature court kit. He comes in and looks about for Jack.
Jack is there, sitting in a quiet corner with good view and a beer sitting on the table in front of her. She’s in her biker gear rather than the long coat she wears at court.
She starts to wave when she sees him, then stops with her hand still raised. She still recognises it is him but somehow his features are more defined, minor blemishes are removed and his face reminds her of something that should have been painted by a master artist. He is carrying himself like a professional model and seems unaware of the eyes watching him in admiration has he passes.
Jack looks fairly relaxed to Levi’s eyes, although she has obviously picked a good spot for watching people moving nearby.
Tius waves back and wanders over to her, nabbing a seat. “How’s it going?”
“Not too bad.” she replies, “Well… Manchester didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. But it could’ve gone a shit-tonne worse too. What about you? And holy shit what happened to your face… and everything?!”
He laughs at the last, “Well given I needed to get my face put back to what it was I figured I might as well ask for a facelift whilst I was at it. How is it? I think you’re one of the first to see it. Is it weird? Should I put it back?” On Manchester Tius shrugs, “Yeah it was alright. Kicked about with Barker in Manchester a bit. He found some stuff out as well along that front but maybe here isn’t the venue to go through that.”
“Nono!” Jack exclaims, “Keep it. It’s good work. The ladies will love it.”
“So what’s the plan?” She then asks as she looks about, “I’m assuming we aren’t staying in here?”
“No, not here. We need to get to a quiet corner where we’re not going to be observed. We need to get into Buchannan underground.”
Jack looks curious and stands up, “Okay. Last time I went underground it didn’t go so well there either.”
“No? Hopefully this will be uneventful.”
Tius gets up too and heads outside. He winds his way up behind the pub in the dark alley. He looks about for any CCTV and passers-by, “Let me know if you see someone. Also, are you going to be OK to teleport with me?”
Jack pauses, “Is that like when we went to the academy?”
Tius replies, “Close, yeah, but a little more.. freehand.”
Jack raises an eyebrow. “What are we teleporting into? I mean like room description, and stuff.”
“It’ll just be the normal subway station we go into. Their CCTV doesn’t really run past the normal hours. I had Daniel check into it.”
Jack nods, takes another look along the alleyway, and braces herself, “Alright.”
Tius lays a hand on her shoulder and the world goes black for a moment. The world returns and they are stood on the platform.
“Perfect landing.”
“… there are not perfect landings..?” Jack asks.
“Have you ever watched Harry Potter?”
“Never got around to it.”
“Well there’s a thing in Harry Potter where your insides can become your outsides.” he explains.
Jack comments dryly, “Lovely.”
Tius goes into his backpack and gets a cross out and hangs it around his neck. “Want one? it shouldn’t be necessary but I’ve had some bad times here.”
In a concerned voice, she asks, “Uh, a cross… does that actually work for us? And why might it be necessary?”
“Well it can’t hurt right?” Tius replies, “Last time I was down here it was to fight a demon.”
“Isn’t the demon away now? I don’t have the machete on me since we were in a pub… didn’t think I’d need it.”
“Oh yeah.” he responds, “The demon is well gone. You want a weapon?”
Jack elaborates, “I mean, I’ve still got weapons on me… just nothing substantial. Sounds like I might need one. I’ll take the cross too. Never hurt to be prepared.”
“Alright, I’ll give you something a bit meatier. You shouldn’t need one but better to have and not need right?”
Tius hands over a cross, concentrates a moment and a machete appears in his hand. He offers it to Jack. “This do?”
She shrugs, pretending not to be impressed, “Sure, that’ll do.”
Jack takes the two items and examines the edge of the machete.
Tius nods and climbs down onto the tracks, “Be careful, I don’t know if these remain live. It’s not far along here actually.”
He wanders into the darkness, pulling a torch from the backpack to illuminate the way, “So were you around for the big George square demon thing? It was a couple of years ago now.”
“I missed that.” she replies, “Just, I think.”
“Well this was where it was growing its power. Didn’t know what to do about it.”
He continues as they walk down, “So the thing that got me thinking last time was your thoughts on how powerful we are. I thought I’d bring you to the place I felt the most powerless.”
Jack follows Tius into the tunnel. She pauses mid-step at Tius’ last sentence, then continues on with surprised curiosity on her face.
Along the tracks, there is a tunnel leading off the side. Tius picks his way over some debris and into the side cavern.
“So the demon, before it unveiled itself fully, needed flesh to build a body. It was taking children to burn them up and use their ash.”
“Holy shit!” exclaims Jack.
“Yeah, you’re not wrong. This is where I found out what it was doing in the worst way. I followed a child down here.” Tius’s voice was level but his voice catches here. “Her name was Laura.”
Jack stops again for a moment, to process Tius’ words, then continues after him as she steps quietly over the debris. She watches him and says nothing, giving him space to say what he needs to.
Along the way there’s yet another side passage, this one looks like it had been sealed up but something inside had broken out. Tius takes a steeling breath before crossing over the threshold. The air is very still and dusty down here.
“I was asked to look for her by a… friend. It was a strange time all around then.”
Jack looks around at the passageway and the rubble, she shifts her shoulders to loosen them and looks behind her before stepping through but she doesn’t feel any change in the air or like she has crossed any physical or magical boundary.
“Are you okay for this?” she asks in a concerned voice.
Tius turns and gives Jack a smile, “I’m good, don’t worry about me. Just some of my own ghosts come to play.”
“Yeah? When my friends get nervous I get nervous.”
Tius give a laugh but it rings a little hollow, “I can understand that. There shouldn’t be anything here which can hurt us anymore.”
He turns and presses on, as they move down there’s the faint smell of sulphur and Jack’s heightened sense of smell picks up the faintest traces of dried blood.
“Let me know once you believe that.” she says, sniffing the scents in the air.
Sloping down this tunnel looks like it’s hewn from rock. Eventually they come to a dead end. There is a cracked sigil on the wall that looks like a serpent winding its way around a sword.
Tius takes a moment to look at the symbol, another sigh escaping him.
“This is where I followed her, I stopped her here before it could take her.”
Jack stops and leans against the side of the tunnel, her arms folded. “What happened?”
“So the thing had possessed her.. but she was still awake if that makes sense. I begged it to let the other children it’d taken go but it just laughed at me.”
In the dark she can hear Tius’s voice catch a little again. “I tried to tell it that they were innocent, they didn’t deserve it. It didn’t care to listen.”
“Shit!” she says softly.
Jack moves over to Tius. She puts her right hand on his shoulder. Her left arm is open, providing space for him to approach for a protective embrace, if that’s what he needs.
Tius looks at Jack. His brow furrows and he bites his lips, choking down his sorrow. He does embrace Jack and she can feel a slight tremor in his body. Tius holds on to the hug and he gasps for air he doesn’t need. There is the smell of fresh blood then Tius clears his throat and abruptly the blood smell vanishes. He pulls back and there are frozen tracks of ice coming from Tius’s eyes, he brushes at them quickly.
“Sorry.”
He clears his throat again to continue. Jack lets him withdraw from her arms.
“This is the place I failed to save even a little girl. All the power I’ve acquired and I couldn’t even do that. She died here in my arms.. I tried to comfort her.. told her we’d go for ice cream when we got out..” Tius looks away and the blood smell returns. When he looks back the smell again vanishes but you can see ice in the corners of his eyes.
Another clearing cough, “The point is that is why I think we are so strong.. I believe we are gifted with the ability to help and save the Kine. Our beasts are our dark counterparts but the powers we have enable us to achieve so much more. I don’t see the fact we’re more powerful than them to be bad.. it’s so we can stand against other evil things to protect them.”
Jack only nods at Tius’s explanation.
Tius frowns again, focusing on the task at hand, “You need to decide what you are empowered with your abilities for. Given what we’ve discussed I think you have good in your heart, you just need to be able to see past the beasts ravening.”
“It has you jumping at corners.” he explains, “Seeing enemies where there are none to try and bait you into false action. Tonight I haven’t seen you looking around at each flicker of shadow. You came with me to a place echoing with danger but you’ve been exactly as one should be, not jumpy or flighty.. more composed than I have been for sure.”
Jack frowns, “Shadows and places like this don’t make me nervous, not when I can hear anything approach a mile off. It’s people that are the risk. Kindred or otherwise.”
“Maybe that’s where we differ, people don’t scare me but the things that lurk in the corners do.”
“Yeah, maybe. My problem last time I was underground was the people panicking after one of them fell from the ladder. A gun, by itself, is just a tool. It’s when people pick them up its a problem.”
“Ladder?” Tius slumps down against one wall, “Tell me about what happened.”
“I’m pretty sure I mentioned it. I was trying to get in with some urban explorer types. They’d planned a big outing to go from one side of the Clyde to the other underground. But the ladder down was basically fucked and broke, sending them to the bottom of the shaft.”
“You mentioned the overarching details but not the specifics.”
“I mean, some of them fell.. and more were pulled off the ladder by 2 of them scrabbling to escape. They were quite… aggressive about wanting past me despite my attempts to calm them down. The enclosed space, the smell of panic and blood and someone trying to throw me off a ladder? I frenzied and killed them and anyone else who’d been above me and trying to escape.”
Tius nods, “I can see why your beast reared its head there.”
Jack shrugs self-deprecatingly, “Yeah, well, probably a stupid situation to put myself in.”
“So who were the people you went with?”
“Urban Explorers… or are you looking for names?” She sounds matter-of-fact but with a fragile undertone.
“Like, how did you meet them?”
Jack explains, “I went looking for the group. Spent a few months finding who was big in the scene and getting in with them. Figured if anyone was going to stumble on something that a Scourge would be interesting in then it would be them.”
“So part of your scourging duties then? I know there was some stuff that the Nos found dotted about. Was this your first outing with them?” he asks.
“First major one…. properly joining the team and all that shit.”
“Would you join another such group? Maybe one which was a little more level headed?”
“It’s a small scene, the groups have a lot of overlap. I might try again, but it’s been busy since then.”
“Just a little bit” Levi acknowledges.
Then he asks, “How have you found having underlings? I get the impression they look up to you a lot.”
“Yeah? Those guys are pretty good. I’m getting too used to having competent people around me.” she says warmly.
With a cautioning tone, Tius says “You know, you’re going to need to coach them through some things similar to this.”
A bit dismissively, Jack replies, “McGregor is way older than me.”
“Do you think that translates to experience? You’re older than me after all.”
“I suppose.” she says, a little sullenly like she’s been cautioned by a teacher.
Tius rides out a bit of silence here then eventually comments, “I’m getting the distinct impression tonight was a swing and a miss for you.”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“It’s alright, why do you think that?”
By way of explanation, Jack says, “You could always jump out at me swinging a weapon.”
“I could do that.” Tius says rising.
“Woah woah” Jack says quickly stepping back away from Levi. “I was going to say that threat analysis is low since it’s just us here, and it doesn’t look like the roof is about to cave in.”
“I see what you mean, do you think more auditory stimulation would help re-live what happened?”
With that Tius conjures a carbine which Jack recognise the style as one the soldiers were practising with before.
Jack backs up with her hands raised, looking left-to-right around the sort-of room for cover and exits, seeing only the tunnel behind her.
“Woah! Ricochets, dammit!”
Tius turns it casually in his hand but keeps looking at Jack, “You think a ricochet would really hurt us?”
“No… doesn’t mean it doesn’t fucking hurt!” she says with alarm in her voice.
“A little sting, it’s fine. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve driven a nail through my hand or cut my pinky off. That smarts somewhat.”
“You aren’t seriously going to shoot me?” shes says, half question and statement.
Levi responds with another question, “Do you think I’ll shoot you? I’m really no more or less dangerous than I was a moment ago, or in my quarters, or on our walk. You trusted me then right?”
Jack voice is a mix of tension and confusion, her arms are almost rigid out by her sides, “If you’d asked me a minute ago I would’ve said not a chance.”
“And now?” he asks, “Do you think I’m any different to how I was a minute ago?”
“Fucking hell!” she exclaims, her eyes flicking between Levi and the gun in his hands.
“So what I’m thinking is a little walk back. Whether I pull the trigger or not is totally dependent on you. You’re still in the driver’s seat.”
Jack is listening with her eyes wide. She backs off a half-step more and it takes a bit for your words to get processed. Then her arms drop a little and she nods. Her jaw clenches and releases and she steps to the side and leans against the wall as if to move out the way to let you exit out to the tunnel.
Tius shakes his head, “Sorry but it’s ladies first this time.” He says with a little smile, “So here’s what the rules are. You are I are going to make our way back to the station. You’ll be in front of me and if you rubber neck to keep an eye on me I’ll let off a round. Do you think you can handle it? Nothing has actually changed with us and I promise you’re no in danger from me.”
“Jesus Fucking Christ. No, I don’t know if I can handle it.”
Tius gives what he hopes is an encouraging smile, “I believe in you.”
“Fucking hell. You walk behind me and I’ve not to look? How much of a head-turn counts as ‘rubber-necking’?”
“Hey, what am I the semantics police?.. Well OK I guess I am here. Enough that I think you’re trying to get a bead on me.”
Jack leans against the wall for a while, working out if she can do it. There is the occasional muttered swear word.
Finally, she says, “Fuckit. What’s the worst that could happen?”
Tius beams, “Exactly! It’ll be fine. Nice calm walk please, no bolting.”
“Ha!” She straightens up, completely unsuccessfully attempts to loosen her shoulders, and turns her back on you… there is a twitch across her whole back and she almost immediately starts to turn but stops herself. “Fuck.”
There is a steady stream of muttered swear words as Jack walks back down the tunnel. She’s tapping her fingers on the sides of her legs. Sometimes she pauses and twitches but manages to keep going.”
As Jack walks, despite not turning, she is acutely aware of the crunch of Levi’s shoes on the rough floor. As he’s walking she hears him taking more care with his footing. He’s clearly trying to hide how close or far he is from the Brujah in front of him.
Then she loses her bead on Tius’s position. His footfalls fade to nothing until it’s just the sound of Jack’s own that echo down the chamber
Choking down the urge to turn and look she plows on into the murk. At the first junction you hear Tius’s voice, about 4 meters behind you. “You’re doing well.”
Jack continues muttering under her breath curses about cocky Tremere. Her steps are slower and her right shoulder twitches frequently.
As she continues, her mutters fade into silent concentration as she puts one foot in front of the other. Her left arm reaches out to trail along the wall to try to give herself some kind of grounding in the physical while her right fist is clenched. The sounds and smells around her become more acute; stone dust, dampness, the brush of her fingers and the distant scritch of rodents.
She progresses around the turn, out to the wider path with a couple of side turnings. It wasn’t far or complicated route so it is easy to remember the way. Tius doesn’t say anything further as you walk along.
The tunnel begins to lighten, the source being the t-junction ahead that connects to the main track of the subway. Jack can smell oil and the ozone from the days electric subway carriages. As though he’s stood right behind her Levi’s voice shatters the quiet, “Not far now.”
Jack yelps loudly and almost falls over forcing herself not to turn around, “Holy fuck don’t do that! Jesus Fucking Christ. Too close too close.”
She stops and leans forward with her hands on her knees as if to catch a breath.
There is silence once more as Jack takes the time to compose herself. She stands up and scratches the back of her neck. In the dim light, she can see blood on her fingers from her body trying to sweat.
Quietly muttering again, this time saying “Keep going. almost there.” she starts up forwards.
Jack makes it to the turning and walks towards the light of the platform. She tells herself that this is the home stretch; This last little bit like turning a basement light off and resisting the urge to run up the stairs. She is meters from the edge platform when Tius steps into view above her. His gun in hand but lowered away from you, “Nice work.” His body language is easy and has a smile on his face.
A growl escapes Jack’s throat as he steps into view and she starts to crouch for a leap but it fades as she recognises Tius and the lack of threat in his stance.
With a sigh of exhaustion, she collapses to a seating position on the ground where she is.
“Fucks sake, man.” she says with no force in it.
Tius laughs lightly and puts the gun down on the floor, swinging his legs over the side of the platform as he does so.
“What? See no problems and you got this.”
He’s got a big genuine smile on his face as he kicks his legs a little over the platform edge.
“You’ve got some fucking balls on you.” she says as she shakes her head.
He laughs again, “Well the same could be said for you. Going hither and yon with a spooky wizard.”
“True enough” she drags herself up and over to the platform edge and jumps up to sit close beside the Tremere.
“So how you feeling?” he asks, “Still on edge?”
“Apart from exhausted? No idea. Tell you tomorrow.”
She pauses thoughtfully then continues, “No, not so much on edge.”
Tius shrugs, “OK that’s fair. Wanna go unwind or do you want the night to yourself?”
“Unwind, I think. “You have a suggestion?”
“I was gonna suggest poolhall or gaming.”
Jack asks, “Gaming?
“Like x-box and shit.” he explains.
Jack blinks, “Sure. That sounds good. Where?”
“I got a setup back at the Academy if that’s OK? I can drop you back easy enough.”
Jack looks at Tius for a long moment, then she gets up a bit abruptly, “Actually, I really should head back.”
She holds up a hand, “Not that I’m being nervous about the teleport – I… just have a pile of stuff to look through.”
Tius blinks with a little frown but shrugs it off, “Yeah sure, no problem. Hard to get through all the stuff you need to. Maybe another time then.” Tius has clearly seen through the excuse but isn’t pressing it.
Jack pauses, and mutters to herself again, “Fuck.” Then she dumps herself down beside Tius and wraps her arms around him in a big hug.
Tius’s arms raise, letting Jack hug him while he’s a little stunned. He reciprocates the hug after the surprise passes.
Then Jack straightens back up with her hands still on your arms, looks into your eyes and says, “Thanks.”
He looks back into her eyes and nods slightly, “Anytime.” the expression on his face is a mix of confused and thoughtful.
Jack pauses before breaking the eye contact, saying “Right!”
Then she stands up and brushes dust off her jacket.
Tius gets up too rubbing the back of his neck, “So, erm, I assume you want taking out of here, like you don’t wanna need to break out?”
“If you don’t mind.” she responds.
“Cool, as I don’t know what the outside is we’ll take a slightly different route if that’s ok?”
“Sure” Jack says slightly forced cheerfulness.
“Cool, well take my hand again please.” He offers his arm.
Jack gingerly it and holds Levi’s arm awkwardly.
When she does, the world distorts in front of her. Jack finds herself stood in a strange place. It’s darker than the platform was, the tunnel walls have melted away and there is what looks like a starry night on all sides. She sees a slow river of lights flowing where the tracks were, the water looks black as pitch but has twinkling lights within it.
Jack looks at the stars in wonder, distracted by the inviting sparkle.
“Please don’t let go of me, it shouldn’t be a long trip.”
His warning is underlined by the alertness Jack can feel through his arm. His eyes are slowly scanning around for any dangers. Unlike their last walk in the forest his arms are strong; his movements are graceful and with purpose.
They climb up a hill with a small incline. Far off to one side Jack can see what looks like buildings made of glistening webs. There is the subtlest hint of movement within the strands She regards the webbed buildings with trepidation at the hint of monstrous forms.
True to his word the journey is short, Tius looks about him and the visa melts away. She finds herself stood in one of the many dark back alleys of Glasgow streets.
“I didn’t want to risk teleporting in front of a mortal so we needed to take this route.”
In a quiet voice, she asks, “Where was that?”
“Well that’s a complicated question, it’s here.. kinda. How’s your occult?”
“Eh… vampires and demons exist?” she replies a bit faciously.
A smile grows on Tius face, “That they do. So that place was like a spiritual reflection of the world, or at least that part of it. Space get a little strange on that side of the gauntlet. If you know how you can side step into it. There are perks and pitfalls with this kind of thing. Need to keep an eye out for werewolves that side. They don’t keep to the cities much.”
He continues, “We wanted to avoid the buildings generally but the edge where the sorta subway joins the sorta buildings was where we needed to skirt.”
“Right. Well” she says, needlessly brushing herself off again, “I’d better get going.”
“Take care, be seeing you and just give me a call if you need any help or want to hang out.”
Tius does a last check for observers and cameras before vanishing in a slight rush of wind.
