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xp_logsIt's your average day at the X-Force office. The mysterious letter is just the icing on the cake.
Clea had the mail checking process nailed down flat. It had become a habit at this point and honestly nothing brought her more joy than seeing who subscribed to what, and who got another parking ticket. She was just about done with the final process when a letter that wasn't there a few minutes ago was staring at her. She sensed magic and immediately dropped it. "What the bloody fuck. How--? AMANDA?!"
There was the sound of breaking crockery as Amanda apparently literally dropped what she was doing in the break room and came running to the front desk. "What happened? You okay?"
She pushed the letter forward with a pencil as if it might exposed. "I don't know how it bloody got there. It wasn't there and then it was there. I've heard stories about packages exploding but I've never heard of magical laced letters." Looking up at Amanda. "I don't want to touch it again." She almost whispered the last part.
"You won't have to." Amanda leaned over to look at the address, and then ran her hand over the surface of the envelope, focusing on the magical signature. "Bloody fucking hellfire," she muttered, before raising her voice. "Doug? You got a minute?" she called.
"A spare sixty seconds? Sorry, I only have fifty-nine," Doug joked as he wandered out of his office. "I'm scheduled to within an inch of my - okay, yeah, I'm full of shit. What's the sitch?" he asked, before he noted the envelope that the pair of magic-users were treating extremely gingerly. "Qu'est-ce que c'est?" he asked, quips discarded as he read the tone of things.
"Magical mystery letter. Literally." Amanda flipped the envelope and showed him the ornate seal in wax on the back. "I'm fairly sure I know who from, but I wanted you to confirm it before I opened it. Remember this?"
Indeed he did. "Balls," Doug said with a whole lot of feeling. "The Ancient One." His mouth worked like he was thinking of either spitting in disgust or indulging in some creative profanity, but he restrained himself. "I mean, that Drumm guy seemed okay, and I'm on the fence about Wong, but the rest of them are just... leaning way too hard into that 'wise and mysterious sorcerer' crap. And they don't tend to have time or respect for us, but by god when they whistle they expect us to drop everything..." He grimaced. "I guess we should open it."
Clea visibly moved her chair a foot away from Amanda. "Just in case."
Amanda snorted slightly in amusement at Clea's movement and then returned her attention to the letter. "I'm fairly sure the Ancient One wouldn't sent us anything explosive..." she said as she broke the seal. Nothing untoward happened and she unfolded the parchment (pretentious much?) and began reading. "Or, at least anything physically explosive," she continued, holding up the letter for Doug and Clea to see.
Check Empire State.
Doug rolled his eyes. "Cryptic much? I mean, what, do they have to pay by the word for transcription or something? Like, check -what- at Empire State? College campuses aren't exactly small places..."
"It's the Empire State Building," Amanda replied heavily. "Where the Dweller is." It was the only Empire State that had mystical connections, after the incident with Tandy years ago.
"Dweller? Sounds foreboding." Clea had appeared standing right behind Amanda to look over her shoulder at the signature. "Should we worry?"
"Interdimensional demonic type with a connection to one of the mansionites, Tandy Bowen," was Amanda's somewhat distracted reply - she was making plans in her head. "Doug, can you round up Angie and Wanda? We'll need to go see what's what. Dress warm - it's windy up there."
"On it." It was a good thing he'd gone heavy on the protein shakes and easy on the exertion, Doug decided. He was actually feeling decent in terms of his energy levels for once. He rather suspected that wasn't so much of a coincidence - years of experience with Marie-Ange had broken him of that. He headed back toward the offices to look for the others.
Amanda then turned to Clea. "You need to stay here. There's an artifact in the safe in my office that's important to all this. Make sure no-one goes in there, right?"
Clea raised an eyebrow. "Your spooky safe of wonders? Sure. Lets hope it stays hidden."
Clea had the mail checking process nailed down flat. It had become a habit at this point and honestly nothing brought her more joy than seeing who subscribed to what, and who got another parking ticket. She was just about done with the final process when a letter that wasn't there a few minutes ago was staring at her. She sensed magic and immediately dropped it. "What the bloody fuck. How--? AMANDA?!"
There was the sound of breaking crockery as Amanda apparently literally dropped what she was doing in the break room and came running to the front desk. "What happened? You okay?"
She pushed the letter forward with a pencil as if it might exposed. "I don't know how it bloody got there. It wasn't there and then it was there. I've heard stories about packages exploding but I've never heard of magical laced letters." Looking up at Amanda. "I don't want to touch it again." She almost whispered the last part.
"You won't have to." Amanda leaned over to look at the address, and then ran her hand over the surface of the envelope, focusing on the magical signature. "Bloody fucking hellfire," she muttered, before raising her voice. "Doug? You got a minute?" she called.
"A spare sixty seconds? Sorry, I only have fifty-nine," Doug joked as he wandered out of his office. "I'm scheduled to within an inch of my - okay, yeah, I'm full of shit. What's the sitch?" he asked, before he noted the envelope that the pair of magic-users were treating extremely gingerly. "Qu'est-ce que c'est?" he asked, quips discarded as he read the tone of things.
"Magical mystery letter. Literally." Amanda flipped the envelope and showed him the ornate seal in wax on the back. "I'm fairly sure I know who from, but I wanted you to confirm it before I opened it. Remember this?"
Indeed he did. "Balls," Doug said with a whole lot of feeling. "The Ancient One." His mouth worked like he was thinking of either spitting in disgust or indulging in some creative profanity, but he restrained himself. "I mean, that Drumm guy seemed okay, and I'm on the fence about Wong, but the rest of them are just... leaning way too hard into that 'wise and mysterious sorcerer' crap. And they don't tend to have time or respect for us, but by god when they whistle they expect us to drop everything..." He grimaced. "I guess we should open it."
Clea visibly moved her chair a foot away from Amanda. "Just in case."
Amanda snorted slightly in amusement at Clea's movement and then returned her attention to the letter. "I'm fairly sure the Ancient One wouldn't sent us anything explosive..." she said as she broke the seal. Nothing untoward happened and she unfolded the parchment (pretentious much?) and began reading. "Or, at least anything physically explosive," she continued, holding up the letter for Doug and Clea to see.
Check Empire State.
Doug rolled his eyes. "Cryptic much? I mean, what, do they have to pay by the word for transcription or something? Like, check -what- at Empire State? College campuses aren't exactly small places..."
"It's the Empire State Building," Amanda replied heavily. "Where the Dweller is." It was the only Empire State that had mystical connections, after the incident with Tandy years ago.
"Dweller? Sounds foreboding." Clea had appeared standing right behind Amanda to look over her shoulder at the signature. "Should we worry?"
"Interdimensional demonic type with a connection to one of the mansionites, Tandy Bowen," was Amanda's somewhat distracted reply - she was making plans in her head. "Doug, can you round up Angie and Wanda? We'll need to go see what's what. Dress warm - it's windy up there."
"On it." It was a good thing he'd gone heavy on the protein shakes and easy on the exertion, Doug decided. He was actually feeling decent in terms of his energy levels for once. He rather suspected that wasn't so much of a coincidence - years of experience with Marie-Ange had broken him of that. He headed back toward the offices to look for the others.
Amanda then turned to Clea. "You need to stay here. There's an artifact in the safe in my office that's important to all this. Make sure no-one goes in there, right?"
Clea raised an eyebrow. "Your spooky safe of wonders? Sure. Lets hope it stays hidden."
