Potomac Calls to Chesapeake || Rituals
Oct. 25th, 2021 07:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsBefore X-Force even arrives, Amanda, Topaz, Megan and Clea - and the Baltimore Coven - do a ritual in Druid Hill Park to try to find out what, how and why.
Their location seemed a little too on the open side for mysterious magical rituals, but Amanda's connection with the city ensured privacy - drivers found themselves taking detours away from the park without really knowing why, only that they felt it was a bad morning for driving that way and a fog off the nearby water made things too damp and uncomfortable for the usual joggers, dog walkers and insomniacs. Amanda herself shivered a little, shrugging deeper into her battered leather jacket - there was an edge of fear to the city that stirred the hair on the back of her neck, and she hadn't even done any deep diving yet.
"You lot all right over there?" she asked the group who were setting up for their communion with the nature spirits of the place.
"Bit overwhelmed." Niy had changed his usual leather jacket and jeans for a henley and cargo pants, and had been munching on what seemed like an endless supply of snacks from the pockets of said pants. "We, uh. It's usually a little more back yards and secret clearings." He set down a piece of marble, checked it's placement against other pieces that other people had placed and dusted his hands off. "You said local rocks, Dave figured we'd bring over some marble, there used to be a big quarry, it's why all those little houses in the city have marble steps."
"Quaint," Topaz mumbled. Her face was illuminated by the light of her phone as she looked up the park history, because Druid Hill Park was slightly on the nose. So far she'd learned a lot about architecture and landscaping and not much else.
Clea was crouching to touch the earth below. She wasn't an Earth Witch by any means but she knew enough to know how important the connection must be if they were to successfully communicate with a nature spirit. "Marble will be fine." She looked over at Niy and smiled. "Anything to help really connect to us." She stood up and dusted off her hands on her pants.
"'The universe is Why, How, and What, in any order, and all at once'," Megan quoted as she circled the arrangement of rocks near the prominent stone. It was inlaid with a plaque dedicated to poet Eli Siegel. "Yes, I think we'll be able to connect here." The way she understood magic was in the subliminal space between all things, living and nonliving, and she was definitely getting a tingle in her wings. She repeated those words quietly to herself - "Why, How, What? How, What, Why?" - a mantra as she prepared for the ritual.
"All right, let's get things going before someone gets curious enough to ignore Baltimore's suggestion they go somewhere else," Amanda said briskly. "So Niy, Clea, Megan and Topaz will provide the energy for the spell for the most part, but you and your people will be casting - these sorts of things tend to work better with locals. I'll hang back for the most part, but if you need a bit of extra oomph, I'm here." She looked over at Topaz. "You have your own extra bits, so use the empathy to get an extra read on things. Pixie, you're the most sensitive to the elements, so you work with Niy here to talk to whatever we summon. And Clea, you get to be the structure gal - you get to hold the spell together for everyone if the coven need help."
Niy sketched a wry salute. "Yes ma'am. Been fueling up all morning." He held up a bag of trail mix. "Spicy chex and peanuts, if anyone wants some. And dried papaya." He busied himself getting his coven in place, handing out handfuls of trail mix and little bundles of herbs as needed. "We did bay leaves and dried celery and black eyed susans for the bundles, figured since you said local was better, I'd route into that. Also sage is all appropriative, and also expensive."
"Huh. Apparently the locals thought druids might live here because of how big the oak trees grew." Topaz was paying attention, but she had also finally found an interesting article about this place. And there wasn't much she could do to prepare besides make sure she had aspirin - check - and wait for everyone else to settle so she could get a baseline.
The coven shuffled into place to begin, and she put her phone away, closing her eyes. Now that they were all settling in and focused, it would be easier to get a read on what was familiar and keep an eye out for anything that wasn't.
Magic swelled around them as the ritual began, turning the air to static. It was gentle and free, more probing energy than force. This coven was, above all, gentle. They loved their city, and they were worried about it, and it was clear in every flicker of magic. It was almost sweet.
Which was probably why the sudden blast of anger threw Topaz completely for a loop.
"What?"
She hadn't meant to say it out loud, but the sheer suddenness had broken all concentration and composure. Her eyes flew open again, looking around. There was nothing that had really changed, save for the soft glow of the spell, but every positive emotion was being drowned out now by wave after wave of sorrow and regret and sadness and... anger. So much anger. But from what?
"Uh..." She turned slightly to seek Amanda out, trying to find words for whatever this was.
Amanda was having her own issues. She'd dropped down to sit cross-legged on the grass, her hands sunk to the wrists into the ground either side of her, her eyes closed as she moved into that strange headspace that was her city link. Baltimore was one of the older cities in the States, which meant it had more personality for her to connect with - it was perhaps a little stuffy and formal, especially since she was English and all, but it wasn't hostile. And then beneath the surface impressions, she tapped into a wave of fear that was almost primal, overwhelming... and familiar? The city was deeply afraid of something, that had been obvious even in the diner, and what's more, it knew what it was afraid of. Something ancient and powerful. Amanda nudged a little more, trying to get specifics...
...and suddenly found herself back in her body, lying flat on her back in the wet grass where the force of her expulsion had left her. She blinked up at the sky and collected her thoughts back from the city-space. "Seriously?" she exclaimed, not even really aware she was talking aloud. "You really don't want help? Talk about being stubborn and stuck-up..." She looked around at the curious faces and sat up. "Um, so Baltimore doesn't want my help. Something about not wanting any meddling from my sort. And something about your National Anthem?"
Niy shook his head and laughed. "Yeah, it got wrote not far from here, and I'm pretty sure no one who lives here will let anyone forget it. It's like one whole third our identity. Poe, Francis Scott Key and Old Bay." He stomped one booted foot and huffed. "Well, uh, now what? We wrap this up and hope we can figure out what's going on? Because right now I have my bets on us getting cursed by Spiro Agnew's ghost and gods and goddesses, I don't want that to be what happened and why my basement has seaweed in it."
Topaz was only half tuned in to the conversation. Part of her was still trying to sort through the emotions, the other part focused on the dissipating magic around them. Wait, not dissipating. Moving. "Oi!" she yelled, whirling to find Megan and Clea. "Move-"
Too late. Bright energy burst to life around them, effectively trapping them in a funnel.
Clea felt the magic being pulled in and out of her. It was the the sudden pull out that made Clea gasp as it felt like a punch to the gut. Then all she could feel was water filling her lungs.
"What?" Megan yelped as she was ripped away from the circle, sent spinning by what felt like a magical back-slap.
Amanda jerked around at the yelp, seeing only empty space where Clea and Megan had been. "Oh, you bloody better well be joking," she said, anger and frustration filling her voice. "Where did they go?"
The ritual goes sideways, and Clea and Megan end up taking a swim and finding some bodies.
The marshland was noisy. Frogs singing their mating songs, birds shrieking, the buzz of insects, and the slorp of muddy water against reeds and plant life and trees along the also muddy shore. A twin splash barely disturbed the wildlife.
"Ah, cachu hwch!" Megan swore, or maybe that was just the sound of her spitting out marsh water as she surfaced to waist-high muck. A wave of cold fear rippled through her as she looked around for the others, taking in the unfamiliar landscape. "Clea?" She began wading toward the other woman.
Clea emerged with a gasp and coughed up water. She wasn't expecting to be teleported, much less straight into what appeared to be a marsh of some kind. Wiping away her eyes, she turned to look at the sound of her name, "Megan! Oh thank god that I am not alone." Once she was standing in front of her friend, Clea looked around. "I don't think we are in Druid Park anymore." She pointed to their left, "Looks like land is that way. Did the magic backfire?"
"Something didn't go right," Megan admitted, hiking up her purse. She didn't want her phone getting any more waterlogged as they made their way to more solid ground. While she moved forward, her right shoe stayed firmly in the muddy bottom. After a moment's flailing, she freed it and trudged on. "Why can't magic ever be easy? I'm glad we're together, at least. Is anyone else here... wherever we are?"
"Tell me about it. Though this is the first time being teleported to a swamp." Clea looked around. "AMANDA?! TOPAZ!? NIY?!" She stopped to listen and after a few beats shook her head. "Maybe they were brought somewhere else? We are talking about a Spirit Nature. Just be lucky they didn't send us to another plane. Do you smell that?" Clea put her hand to her nose, even if it smelled like swamp water, it was still better than the sudden decay smell that hit her.
Megan was almost to the slope, pushing her way through some water reeds, when it hit her as well, but she was even more surprised by something else. "Ah! There's someone here. OH NO I don't think they're alive!" she exclaimed, scrambling back and almost falling backwards into the muck.
Clea reached out to steady Megan before peering over to see the body of someone laying face down. "Bloody hell." Covering her hand over her nose and mouth. She walked past Megan and up the slope, her eyes traveled past and saw the legs of a second one. "There are two."
"Two bodies." Of course they were dead. There was no way they could be mistaken for being alive, but panic does weird things to your brain. Megan forced herself to a place of calm and reason and followed Clea up the slope, digging in her purse for her phone. A small frog jumped out and she almost laughed, despite feeling sick. "This has to be related, or why would the Spirit send us here?"
Clea crouched down, hand still over her mouth as she inspected the bodies. "I don't feel a wallet but both are males." She stood up and walked away as the smell was getting too much, "Is your phone bloody working?" Clea reached into her water soaked bag looking for hers.
"It's booting up and... it looks like I have a signal." Thankfully the new case had protected it from getting too much moisture inside. "Amanda pick up," Megan prayed as she pressed the contact and hoped for a dial tone.
There was time only for half a ring before the call was answered and Amanda's frantic voice on the other end. "Megan! Are you okay? Is Clea with you?"
"Yes! And Clea is here too! I don't know how far the spell sent us - can you track our phones' GPS now that they're on? I haven't pulled up a map yet, can you see a marsh nearby?" Inwardly she was screaming Mum can you come get us?! but instead she calmly reported, "There's two bodies here. Adult males. It may be connected, I don't know."
There was some swearing on the other end of the phone and then some muffled conversation, as Amanda spoke to someone else with her. Then she returned: "Okay, stay put. The locals know roughly where you are and I'll get Doug to track your phones. Some of Nly's people are going to swap places with you and call the cops."
"Thanks Amanda. Hopefully see you soon." Ending the call, and giving the device one more wipe with her sleeve to help dry it, Megan announced, "Help is on the way. I guess we should treat this as a crime scene, though Niy's people will handle the police."
"That is fine. I rather not explain to the police how two young ladies wandered into the marsh lands." Clea had found her phone, which was still functional, and was already taking pictures. "But I would like to know why we ended up here. Unless we were supposed to find them."
Their location seemed a little too on the open side for mysterious magical rituals, but Amanda's connection with the city ensured privacy - drivers found themselves taking detours away from the park without really knowing why, only that they felt it was a bad morning for driving that way and a fog off the nearby water made things too damp and uncomfortable for the usual joggers, dog walkers and insomniacs. Amanda herself shivered a little, shrugging deeper into her battered leather jacket - there was an edge of fear to the city that stirred the hair on the back of her neck, and she hadn't even done any deep diving yet.
"You lot all right over there?" she asked the group who were setting up for their communion with the nature spirits of the place.
"Bit overwhelmed." Niy had changed his usual leather jacket and jeans for a henley and cargo pants, and had been munching on what seemed like an endless supply of snacks from the pockets of said pants. "We, uh. It's usually a little more back yards and secret clearings." He set down a piece of marble, checked it's placement against other pieces that other people had placed and dusted his hands off. "You said local rocks, Dave figured we'd bring over some marble, there used to be a big quarry, it's why all those little houses in the city have marble steps."
"Quaint," Topaz mumbled. Her face was illuminated by the light of her phone as she looked up the park history, because Druid Hill Park was slightly on the nose. So far she'd learned a lot about architecture and landscaping and not much else.
Clea was crouching to touch the earth below. She wasn't an Earth Witch by any means but she knew enough to know how important the connection must be if they were to successfully communicate with a nature spirit. "Marble will be fine." She looked over at Niy and smiled. "Anything to help really connect to us." She stood up and dusted off her hands on her pants.
"'The universe is Why, How, and What, in any order, and all at once'," Megan quoted as she circled the arrangement of rocks near the prominent stone. It was inlaid with a plaque dedicated to poet Eli Siegel. "Yes, I think we'll be able to connect here." The way she understood magic was in the subliminal space between all things, living and nonliving, and she was definitely getting a tingle in her wings. She repeated those words quietly to herself - "Why, How, What? How, What, Why?" - a mantra as she prepared for the ritual.
"All right, let's get things going before someone gets curious enough to ignore Baltimore's suggestion they go somewhere else," Amanda said briskly. "So Niy, Clea, Megan and Topaz will provide the energy for the spell for the most part, but you and your people will be casting - these sorts of things tend to work better with locals. I'll hang back for the most part, but if you need a bit of extra oomph, I'm here." She looked over at Topaz. "You have your own extra bits, so use the empathy to get an extra read on things. Pixie, you're the most sensitive to the elements, so you work with Niy here to talk to whatever we summon. And Clea, you get to be the structure gal - you get to hold the spell together for everyone if the coven need help."
Niy sketched a wry salute. "Yes ma'am. Been fueling up all morning." He held up a bag of trail mix. "Spicy chex and peanuts, if anyone wants some. And dried papaya." He busied himself getting his coven in place, handing out handfuls of trail mix and little bundles of herbs as needed. "We did bay leaves and dried celery and black eyed susans for the bundles, figured since you said local was better, I'd route into that. Also sage is all appropriative, and also expensive."
"Huh. Apparently the locals thought druids might live here because of how big the oak trees grew." Topaz was paying attention, but she had also finally found an interesting article about this place. And there wasn't much she could do to prepare besides make sure she had aspirin - check - and wait for everyone else to settle so she could get a baseline.
The coven shuffled into place to begin, and she put her phone away, closing her eyes. Now that they were all settling in and focused, it would be easier to get a read on what was familiar and keep an eye out for anything that wasn't.
Magic swelled around them as the ritual began, turning the air to static. It was gentle and free, more probing energy than force. This coven was, above all, gentle. They loved their city, and they were worried about it, and it was clear in every flicker of magic. It was almost sweet.
Which was probably why the sudden blast of anger threw Topaz completely for a loop.
"What?"
She hadn't meant to say it out loud, but the sheer suddenness had broken all concentration and composure. Her eyes flew open again, looking around. There was nothing that had really changed, save for the soft glow of the spell, but every positive emotion was being drowned out now by wave after wave of sorrow and regret and sadness and... anger. So much anger. But from what?
"Uh..." She turned slightly to seek Amanda out, trying to find words for whatever this was.
Amanda was having her own issues. She'd dropped down to sit cross-legged on the grass, her hands sunk to the wrists into the ground either side of her, her eyes closed as she moved into that strange headspace that was her city link. Baltimore was one of the older cities in the States, which meant it had more personality for her to connect with - it was perhaps a little stuffy and formal, especially since she was English and all, but it wasn't hostile. And then beneath the surface impressions, she tapped into a wave of fear that was almost primal, overwhelming... and familiar? The city was deeply afraid of something, that had been obvious even in the diner, and what's more, it knew what it was afraid of. Something ancient and powerful. Amanda nudged a little more, trying to get specifics...
...and suddenly found herself back in her body, lying flat on her back in the wet grass where the force of her expulsion had left her. She blinked up at the sky and collected her thoughts back from the city-space. "Seriously?" she exclaimed, not even really aware she was talking aloud. "You really don't want help? Talk about being stubborn and stuck-up..." She looked around at the curious faces and sat up. "Um, so Baltimore doesn't want my help. Something about not wanting any meddling from my sort. And something about your National Anthem?"
Niy shook his head and laughed. "Yeah, it got wrote not far from here, and I'm pretty sure no one who lives here will let anyone forget it. It's like one whole third our identity. Poe, Francis Scott Key and Old Bay." He stomped one booted foot and huffed. "Well, uh, now what? We wrap this up and hope we can figure out what's going on? Because right now I have my bets on us getting cursed by Spiro Agnew's ghost and gods and goddesses, I don't want that to be what happened and why my basement has seaweed in it."
Topaz was only half tuned in to the conversation. Part of her was still trying to sort through the emotions, the other part focused on the dissipating magic around them. Wait, not dissipating. Moving. "Oi!" she yelled, whirling to find Megan and Clea. "Move-"
Too late. Bright energy burst to life around them, effectively trapping them in a funnel.
Clea felt the magic being pulled in and out of her. It was the the sudden pull out that made Clea gasp as it felt like a punch to the gut. Then all she could feel was water filling her lungs.
"What?" Megan yelped as she was ripped away from the circle, sent spinning by what felt like a magical back-slap.
Amanda jerked around at the yelp, seeing only empty space where Clea and Megan had been. "Oh, you bloody better well be joking," she said, anger and frustration filling her voice. "Where did they go?"
The ritual goes sideways, and Clea and Megan end up taking a swim and finding some bodies.
The marshland was noisy. Frogs singing their mating songs, birds shrieking, the buzz of insects, and the slorp of muddy water against reeds and plant life and trees along the also muddy shore. A twin splash barely disturbed the wildlife.
"Ah, cachu hwch!" Megan swore, or maybe that was just the sound of her spitting out marsh water as she surfaced to waist-high muck. A wave of cold fear rippled through her as she looked around for the others, taking in the unfamiliar landscape. "Clea?" She began wading toward the other woman.
Clea emerged with a gasp and coughed up water. She wasn't expecting to be teleported, much less straight into what appeared to be a marsh of some kind. Wiping away her eyes, she turned to look at the sound of her name, "Megan! Oh thank god that I am not alone." Once she was standing in front of her friend, Clea looked around. "I don't think we are in Druid Park anymore." She pointed to their left, "Looks like land is that way. Did the magic backfire?"
"Something didn't go right," Megan admitted, hiking up her purse. She didn't want her phone getting any more waterlogged as they made their way to more solid ground. While she moved forward, her right shoe stayed firmly in the muddy bottom. After a moment's flailing, she freed it and trudged on. "Why can't magic ever be easy? I'm glad we're together, at least. Is anyone else here... wherever we are?"
"Tell me about it. Though this is the first time being teleported to a swamp." Clea looked around. "AMANDA?! TOPAZ!? NIY?!" She stopped to listen and after a few beats shook her head. "Maybe they were brought somewhere else? We are talking about a Spirit Nature. Just be lucky they didn't send us to another plane. Do you smell that?" Clea put her hand to her nose, even if it smelled like swamp water, it was still better than the sudden decay smell that hit her.
Megan was almost to the slope, pushing her way through some water reeds, when it hit her as well, but she was even more surprised by something else. "Ah! There's someone here. OH NO I don't think they're alive!" she exclaimed, scrambling back and almost falling backwards into the muck.
Clea reached out to steady Megan before peering over to see the body of someone laying face down. "Bloody hell." Covering her hand over her nose and mouth. She walked past Megan and up the slope, her eyes traveled past and saw the legs of a second one. "There are two."
"Two bodies." Of course they were dead. There was no way they could be mistaken for being alive, but panic does weird things to your brain. Megan forced herself to a place of calm and reason and followed Clea up the slope, digging in her purse for her phone. A small frog jumped out and she almost laughed, despite feeling sick. "This has to be related, or why would the Spirit send us here?"
Clea crouched down, hand still over her mouth as she inspected the bodies. "I don't feel a wallet but both are males." She stood up and walked away as the smell was getting too much, "Is your phone bloody working?" Clea reached into her water soaked bag looking for hers.
"It's booting up and... it looks like I have a signal." Thankfully the new case had protected it from getting too much moisture inside. "Amanda pick up," Megan prayed as she pressed the contact and hoped for a dial tone.
There was time only for half a ring before the call was answered and Amanda's frantic voice on the other end. "Megan! Are you okay? Is Clea with you?"
"Yes! And Clea is here too! I don't know how far the spell sent us - can you track our phones' GPS now that they're on? I haven't pulled up a map yet, can you see a marsh nearby?" Inwardly she was screaming Mum can you come get us?! but instead she calmly reported, "There's two bodies here. Adult males. It may be connected, I don't know."
There was some swearing on the other end of the phone and then some muffled conversation, as Amanda spoke to someone else with her. Then she returned: "Okay, stay put. The locals know roughly where you are and I'll get Doug to track your phones. Some of Nly's people are going to swap places with you and call the cops."
"Thanks Amanda. Hopefully see you soon." Ending the call, and giving the device one more wipe with her sleeve to help dry it, Megan announced, "Help is on the way. I guess we should treat this as a crime scene, though Niy's people will handle the police."
"That is fine. I rather not explain to the police how two young ladies wandered into the marsh lands." Clea had found her phone, which was still functional, and was already taking pictures. "But I would like to know why we ended up here. Unless we were supposed to find them."
