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xp_logsTopaz, Megan, Clea and Amanda go down to Baltimore and meet up with a local coven of magic users. The city is having some strange problems, more than the usual Poe Toaster and Legends of Black Aggie.
The Paper Moon Diner loomed garishly in the little Baltimore neighborhood. Nestled up against rowhomes and parking logs and boring little apartment buildings, it was a brightly colored, eclectic, downright confusing mess of a building. Neon painted fiberglass cows, mannequins and strange art constructions dotted the front lawn, alongside summer flower blooms and a tidy little herb garden.
Inside was no better, strange collections of toys and figures, sculptures of doll heads and car parts, every wall was crammed full of mismatched bits and bobs. The entire restaurant's decor was early 20'th century pop culture deco turned up to eleven.
Accordingly, the speaker connected to the jukebox had a volume dial that went to eleven.
The coven had taken up two tables, pushing them together, and already had plates of food - pancakes and sandwiches, vegan noodles and brisket and fried chicken and waffles and milkshakes, and strangely for a city like Baltimore, no seafood. As the group approached, one of the coven members stood, pointing to a group of free chairs. "Saved you some seats, waitress'll be back with more menus in a sec, food's on us since you came all the way down here." He stuck out his hand. "I'm Niy - pretty sure I talked to, uh, which one of you is Topaz?"
"That'd be me." Topaz shook his hand, then nodded back to the others. "That's Amanda, Clea, and Megan." She was doing her best not to laugh as she looked around. It was certainly an interesting place, but it was hard to keep a straight face with Amanda's obvious judgment less than five feet away. "Any recommendations for food? Almost five hours in the car and no one could agree on a place to eat."
"Or just about anything else," Amanda said wryly. She was holding back hoots of derisive laughter - the place was so airy-fairy, hippie-dippie that she could barely believe she was sitting here. But they were there for a job, so all professionalism all the time. Except maybe in the bathroom where she'd give herself a minute to make faces. She glanced around the coven. "Um, interesting place you have here."
"It's crazy, right?" Niy's grin was wide behind his beard. "It's a great place to talk shop about things no one believes in. Plus." He waved an arm at the table full of food. "Probably this is the only place we all can agree to eat too. Brisket sandwich is good, vegan linguini is a select choice, milkshakes are great, and you can get those soy or oat or cow." He glanced over his shoulder at the group. "We, uh, are avoiding seafood right now though."
Clea looked around the room at the collection of doll heads. They were slightly creepy and she could have sworn one had blinked at her. Moving away from looking at the dolls and at the people that were around her, "Crazy is a word I would describe this place, very...unique though." She smiled.
A waitress appeared with menus, handing one to each of the new arrivals. Topaz took it mostly to be polite - vegan linguini sounded fine, and they had other things to talk about. "Right, you mentioned something about the sea... people turning up drowned on dry land and the like?"
"The bay has always been a bitch, but she's our bitch." Niy explained. "Lately though." He winced. "Couple of drownings in the Inner Harbor, a block away from the waterfront. It made the Sun, but who reads the paper anymore? The Sun's paywalled." He nodded to indicate his group. "Then Jessie said her office had fish in the HVAC and it reeked of magic." He pointed across the table to a short brunette with a Tinkerbell hoodie and glittery hair extensions.
Jessie was the bubbly sort that fit in perfectly with the kitschy mess of decor, her lime green hoodie, glittery hair, and bold Rocky Horror-esque lipstick somehow not at odds with each other but making a confusing, if coherent whole. Just like the diner. As she spoke up, her hands moved and twirled, manic and yet deliberate at the same time. "I don't mean 'someone microwaved fish and it got into the air'," she explained, her nose wrinkling in a way that did Tinkerbell herself justice. "I mean they found a small pile of wahoo and monkfish in one of the duct junctions, and there was so much energy there it made my wrists hurt." She inhaled sharply and rubbed at the cuffs of her hoodie at the sense memory.
"Energy, hmm?" Megan raised a pink eyebrow and looked across her menu to Topaz and Amanda. They'd be able to get a good read on that. "Oh, I love your hair, by the way," she told Jessie. Megan herself looked quite at home in the colorful diner; she'd dressed professionally for the job in a style referred to by the Internet as "octogenarian art teacher". She really was quite digging the vibe, and she couldn't help but smile at her magic teacher's serious expression.
"Anything else?" Amanda asked, more interested in what she was hearing than the menu for now. Although a quick glance revealed a lot of craft beers. "Is there a history of anything magical here? Local legends, that sort of thing?"
"The city? Like you would not believe." Niy explained. "Edgar Allen Poe died here. The city's half haunted, we've got a ritual we have to do at his grave." He briefly raised his beer in a silent toast. "We already checked Fells Point, nothing but the usual drunks and posers, but the Harbor is screaming with something." Niy rubbed at his chin, and took a long drink. "More than I can handle, and I might maybe be the most powerful of us. Our usual history guy got slammed so hard by some mojo down there that he's home tonight. I can throw you his digits though, or email."
"Either would be great," Topaz said, looking at her phone. She'd done a bit of research about the city on the way out, but there was only so much Google and a spotty signal could tell her. She tapped out a quick note to check the harbor when they were done here. "Anything special about the harbor in particular?"
"Chessie." Jessie breathed the name, articulating the 'ch' in a very distinct manner to set it apart from her own name. Off of the embarrassed shrugs and eye rolls around the table, she stamped her foot on the ground. "I'm telling you she's real, and not just a silly 'ecology awareness' mascot." Belatedly noticing the blank looks from the non-natives, she elaborated. "Chessie is a monster supposedly native to the Chesapeake Bay, hence the knockoff name from the Loch Ness Monster. I think she's not a monster, but a nature spirit."
"Aha. Well, the Loch Ness Monster is a nature spirit that protects the Loch," said Megan, completely seriously in her high, airy voice. "Is the same thing going on here? Then the question is, what do we need to do to appease her?"
During the conversation, Clea had pulled out her own notebook that looked to be well-used with paper sticking out, and post-it notes that looked to be marking important areas. At the mention of a nature spirit, Clea stopped writing and started to thumb back to see if she had anything else on it. "Pretty sure he talked about it." Clea mumbled to herself as she stopped at a page and started to read. "Nature spirits are a little tricky. They are similar to the fae. I believe you need to know exactly what kind you are dealing with before figuring out what to do to appease them."
"Which is possible - there's a ritual to summon them that should work here." Amanda accepted her order - a pint of what she hoped would be an acceptable locally-brewed beer - and took a long draft before speaking again. "So, summon the local nature spirit, ask it what's up, and while you're doing that I'll ask Baltimore itself. Sound like a plan?"
"We'll help however we can." Niy said. "Not a lot of power here, but lots of passion." He gestured around the table. "Lots of appetite too, dinner's on me, so eat up."
The Paper Moon Diner loomed garishly in the little Baltimore neighborhood. Nestled up against rowhomes and parking logs and boring little apartment buildings, it was a brightly colored, eclectic, downright confusing mess of a building. Neon painted fiberglass cows, mannequins and strange art constructions dotted the front lawn, alongside summer flower blooms and a tidy little herb garden.
Inside was no better, strange collections of toys and figures, sculptures of doll heads and car parts, every wall was crammed full of mismatched bits and bobs. The entire restaurant's decor was early 20'th century pop culture deco turned up to eleven.
Accordingly, the speaker connected to the jukebox had a volume dial that went to eleven.
The coven had taken up two tables, pushing them together, and already had plates of food - pancakes and sandwiches, vegan noodles and brisket and fried chicken and waffles and milkshakes, and strangely for a city like Baltimore, no seafood. As the group approached, one of the coven members stood, pointing to a group of free chairs. "Saved you some seats, waitress'll be back with more menus in a sec, food's on us since you came all the way down here." He stuck out his hand. "I'm Niy - pretty sure I talked to, uh, which one of you is Topaz?"
"That'd be me." Topaz shook his hand, then nodded back to the others. "That's Amanda, Clea, and Megan." She was doing her best not to laugh as she looked around. It was certainly an interesting place, but it was hard to keep a straight face with Amanda's obvious judgment less than five feet away. "Any recommendations for food? Almost five hours in the car and no one could agree on a place to eat."
"Or just about anything else," Amanda said wryly. She was holding back hoots of derisive laughter - the place was so airy-fairy, hippie-dippie that she could barely believe she was sitting here. But they were there for a job, so all professionalism all the time. Except maybe in the bathroom where she'd give herself a minute to make faces. She glanced around the coven. "Um, interesting place you have here."
"It's crazy, right?" Niy's grin was wide behind his beard. "It's a great place to talk shop about things no one believes in. Plus." He waved an arm at the table full of food. "Probably this is the only place we all can agree to eat too. Brisket sandwich is good, vegan linguini is a select choice, milkshakes are great, and you can get those soy or oat or cow." He glanced over his shoulder at the group. "We, uh, are avoiding seafood right now though."
Clea looked around the room at the collection of doll heads. They were slightly creepy and she could have sworn one had blinked at her. Moving away from looking at the dolls and at the people that were around her, "Crazy is a word I would describe this place, very...unique though." She smiled.
A waitress appeared with menus, handing one to each of the new arrivals. Topaz took it mostly to be polite - vegan linguini sounded fine, and they had other things to talk about. "Right, you mentioned something about the sea... people turning up drowned on dry land and the like?"
"The bay has always been a bitch, but she's our bitch." Niy explained. "Lately though." He winced. "Couple of drownings in the Inner Harbor, a block away from the waterfront. It made the Sun, but who reads the paper anymore? The Sun's paywalled." He nodded to indicate his group. "Then Jessie said her office had fish in the HVAC and it reeked of magic." He pointed across the table to a short brunette with a Tinkerbell hoodie and glittery hair extensions.
Jessie was the bubbly sort that fit in perfectly with the kitschy mess of decor, her lime green hoodie, glittery hair, and bold Rocky Horror-esque lipstick somehow not at odds with each other but making a confusing, if coherent whole. Just like the diner. As she spoke up, her hands moved and twirled, manic and yet deliberate at the same time. "I don't mean 'someone microwaved fish and it got into the air'," she explained, her nose wrinkling in a way that did Tinkerbell herself justice. "I mean they found a small pile of wahoo and monkfish in one of the duct junctions, and there was so much energy there it made my wrists hurt." She inhaled sharply and rubbed at the cuffs of her hoodie at the sense memory.
"Energy, hmm?" Megan raised a pink eyebrow and looked across her menu to Topaz and Amanda. They'd be able to get a good read on that. "Oh, I love your hair, by the way," she told Jessie. Megan herself looked quite at home in the colorful diner; she'd dressed professionally for the job in a style referred to by the Internet as "octogenarian art teacher". She really was quite digging the vibe, and she couldn't help but smile at her magic teacher's serious expression.
"Anything else?" Amanda asked, more interested in what she was hearing than the menu for now. Although a quick glance revealed a lot of craft beers. "Is there a history of anything magical here? Local legends, that sort of thing?"
"The city? Like you would not believe." Niy explained. "Edgar Allen Poe died here. The city's half haunted, we've got a ritual we have to do at his grave." He briefly raised his beer in a silent toast. "We already checked Fells Point, nothing but the usual drunks and posers, but the Harbor is screaming with something." Niy rubbed at his chin, and took a long drink. "More than I can handle, and I might maybe be the most powerful of us. Our usual history guy got slammed so hard by some mojo down there that he's home tonight. I can throw you his digits though, or email."
"Either would be great," Topaz said, looking at her phone. She'd done a bit of research about the city on the way out, but there was only so much Google and a spotty signal could tell her. She tapped out a quick note to check the harbor when they were done here. "Anything special about the harbor in particular?"
"Chessie." Jessie breathed the name, articulating the 'ch' in a very distinct manner to set it apart from her own name. Off of the embarrassed shrugs and eye rolls around the table, she stamped her foot on the ground. "I'm telling you she's real, and not just a silly 'ecology awareness' mascot." Belatedly noticing the blank looks from the non-natives, she elaborated. "Chessie is a monster supposedly native to the Chesapeake Bay, hence the knockoff name from the Loch Ness Monster. I think she's not a monster, but a nature spirit."
"Aha. Well, the Loch Ness Monster is a nature spirit that protects the Loch," said Megan, completely seriously in her high, airy voice. "Is the same thing going on here? Then the question is, what do we need to do to appease her?"
During the conversation, Clea had pulled out her own notebook that looked to be well-used with paper sticking out, and post-it notes that looked to be marking important areas. At the mention of a nature spirit, Clea stopped writing and started to thumb back to see if she had anything else on it. "Pretty sure he talked about it." Clea mumbled to herself as she stopped at a page and started to read. "Nature spirits are a little tricky. They are similar to the fae. I believe you need to know exactly what kind you are dealing with before figuring out what to do to appease them."
"Which is possible - there's a ritual to summon them that should work here." Amanda accepted her order - a pint of what she hoped would be an acceptable locally-brewed beer - and took a long draft before speaking again. "So, summon the local nature spirit, ask it what's up, and while you're doing that I'll ask Baltimore itself. Sound like a plan?"
"We'll help however we can." Niy said. "Not a lot of power here, but lots of passion." He gestured around the table. "Lots of appetite too, dinner's on me, so eat up."
