Werewolf Chapter 2: Tennesse Waltz

[Devonie]

Arianne climbed out of the Jeep, and nodded to Megan. She knew they were close, but had a ways to go.

"Sof, you've got the map, right? Let's get this show on the road. I want to get there before this be-damned bone moves again."

"Thanks Megan - we appreciate your help. Did you give Sofia your cell number? We'll call when we have something."

[LadyTevar]

"We'll be in touch. As I said, you may want to lie low at Smiley's until tomorrow evening," Megan said, pointing her Blackberry at Sophie's laptop. The laptop beeped as it received data. "There's directions, just in case."

With a wave to Sophie, Megan climbed back into the SUV and shut the door. The driver gave the gathered wolves a half-wave before pulling back out onto the road and speeding off.

[Cynical Cat]

"Let's go take a look at this place," said Alex. "See if it has the Godzilla of banes hanging around it or whatever."

[General Havoc]

"I've got the directions," said Sophie as she checked her PDA and got into the car. "I guess we should go see what there is to see."

[Cynical Cat]

Alex slid back into the car seat and closed the door. "Shall we go?" he asked as he reached for the seatbelt.

[LadyTevar]

Arianne got back in the jeep and followed Sophie's directions to the right street downtown, driving past the building first to check the layout.

The building was a renovated brick building from the 1920 boom-town days. On the edge of the area known as the "Old City", it and those to either side show off red brick and concrete Art Deco styling. Each floor was marked by a ribbed stripe of concrete under tall stretched windows. The top floor had arches over its windows; the concrete stripe below wider with bas-relief vases overflowing with stylized vines. The windows of the bottom floor had been tinted, the arched double door painted with the business' name in flowing script.

By the map Sophie was referencing, there was a parking lot and delivery area down a narrow alley around the back. The information from Megan showed the alarm box in a recess of the delivery doors.

[Cynical Cat]

"Nice," said Alex. "Hey Sof, are you up for hacking the alarm?"

[General Havoc]

"Do you even have to ask?"

Sophie got out of the car as unobtrusively as possible, her laptop already powered up inside its case. Moving around down the alley and towards the alarm box, she slowly slid the Vulcan interface out of her bag, plugging it into the computer as she moved towards the alarm box.

Looking both ways to confirm that nobody was coming, she took out her laptop, and balancing it in one arm, touched the other end of the Vulcan's cords to the Alarm box, fumbling around in her pocket for a soldering iron so as to complete the connection.

[Cynical Cat]

"How's it going Sof?" Alexander asked.

[rhoenix]

Though utterly and completely perplexed as to the details, Sees-Faces-In-Stars watched as Sophie performed her craft. Much as he would howl, sing, and dance to mesmerize the spirits, Sophie was plugging, unplugging, and talking by pressing parts of her glowing rectangle during this process. He imagined that were she to watch him as he were to bind a willing spirit to make a fetish, she would find it just as peculiar.

Regardless, she was experienced with the realm of the Weaver-ghosts, as he was with all the other ghosts. It made for an interesting thought that mankind had actually created another level of reality, and only Glasswalkers had been fascinated enough with the ways of mankind to learn its secrets to influence the world of men, and the worlds between. How impetuous and creative humans could be! Sees-Faces-In-Stars felt equally grateful for both halves of his being, despite being born lupus.

He simply watched her, staying still the entire time - fascinated with the process Sophie followed, rather than the details.

[General Havoc]

Unaware that she was being observed by either Alexander or Sees-Faces, for her concentration was entirely taken with her computer and the weaver spirits that danced within it, it wasn't until Alexander asked his question that Sophie popped back into the real world.

She grinned, something that humans found slightly unsettling, for there was a feral look to her when she was smiling in victory. "Security system is offline," she said with just the slightest hint of self-satisfaction, "I convinced the security cameras to forget that any of us were ever here..."

Sophie typed a couple final keystrokes into her computer, a brief rite of thanks for the weaver spirits involved in the building's security, encoded into hexadecimal code. As she did so, the front doors emitted a soft click as their computer-controlled locks disengaged.

"... and on behalf of the spirits of this building, 'come on in and make yourselves at home'."

[Cynical Cat]

"Sees, Breathes," said Alexander. "One of you, or both, want to sidestep into the Umbra and check the place out from the spirit side?"

[rhoenix]

Giving the wolfish equivalent of a grin, Sees-Faces-In-Stars replied first. "I will look."

He closed his eyes for a moment, seeming to sway slightly from side to side. His eyes snapped open, staring at the reflective surface of a nearby car bumper, and like so many times before, felt like he were falling to a place with no ground.

Though it seemed to take minutes, it happened nearly in an instant. Sees-Faces-In-Stars found himself in the other side of the world now, a strange reflection of the waking world. Spiderwebs, old and new, were hanging everywhere, connecting the corners of all buildings that he could see. Thicker strands seemed to be like metal veins carrying power; Sees-Faces realized that he must be seeing manmade lines, carrying information and energy both at high speed.

He couldn't see any of the others of his pack, though did see...a cockroach where Sophie was in the waking world. The cockroach was helping to direct traffic near a door with some confused-appearing Weaver spirits, touching them gently with its antennae. Each time it did, the weaver-spirit seemed to relax, and begin to ignore both the cockroach and the door.

[Devonie]

Arianne watched Sophie nervously. This was taking longer than she'd like - but she'd like the cops coming in on them even less.

She hoped Sees-Faces wasn't having any trouble in the Umbra and considered sliding in herself, just to make sure. She hated splitting the party like that though.

[Cynical Cat]

"So Breathes bitches about being confined to the car and the moment we have a good opportunity for him to go out and do something interesting, he decides to stay put," said Alexander with a smile. "There's no pleasing some people."

[rhoenix]

Looking all about him, Sees-Faces' fur rustles slightly in an unfelt wind as he observed everything he could, here in the otherworldly (but very comforting for him to be there) Umbra. Deciding to take a closer look, he began moving at a careful, watchful pace toward the building.

[LadyTevar]

"Shut up," Breathe-the-Winds growled as he cautiously got out of the car. There was still a chance of being detected, that was the last thing he needed. The rest of them weren't any better, just standing around doing nothing. "I'll go Umbra as well, since you're worried," he muttered, adjusting the jeep's mirror so he could see into it.

It took a little longer than Sees-Faces, but the horned Crinos faded away from sight, stepping through the Gauntlet into the Spirit Realm. With a snort at all the spiderwebs, he started for the door of the building. "Let's get this over with."

[LadyTevar]

In Umbra, the door to the store was also open, and could be easily nosed wider. The inside hallway was greyed out, as all Umbra-scapes were, with spiderwebs draped in the corners and weblines outlining the studs behind the walls, all signs of the Weaver's influence orderly influence.

The back hallway turned, leading towards the front of the building and the main entryway, guarded by an ghostly secretary's desk. Web-covered doorways lead off to the left and right, some open to reveal a breakroom, the table and chairs misty and insubstantial in the Umbra. The only movement was the scritterings of spiderlings over phonelines and appliances such as the microwave and fridge, detailing the flow of electricity into the building and the Weaver-tech it powered.

The director's office was one of the closed doors, but a spirit-Garou could walk through the insubstantial door if he was careful not to bother the webs too badly. Yet Sees Faces had a feeling something was watching from the shadows....

****
In the Real world, the back hallway was rather generic, painted in industrial colors and hung with landscapes of "Future Knoxville". The imagined ideas showed gleaming glass and metal buildings along sharp roadways, but no trees along the sidewalks, or grassy areas at all. Other paintings were 'modern art', swirls and spirals of riotous color that forced the eye to look away after a moment, dizzied.

The entryway and its receptionist desk was covered in brouchures touting the improvements Smokey Mountain Futures would make to Knoxville, and gave examples of places upgraded to 'modern standards'.

The door the Garou wanted had Aaron Sterling's name upon it in shining brass, and was locked securely.

[rhoenix]

The door on this side of the Umbra wasn't closed, or even locked - it had been left ajar, and was easily nosed open by a curious wolf. Spiderwebs of differing thicknesses lined the hallway in orderly patterns, devoted to things Sees-Faces-In-Stars could only guess at - he'd have to ask Sophie what some of the things meant. The only sounds made in this place were made by the movement of spiderlings as they went about their business in a precise and orderly dance.

As he followed the hallway carefully into a turn, he realized it led to the front of the building, with a big wooden desk sitting empty. This room opened to other rooms that he could see, some larger, some smaller, but most with tables and chairs. The spiderlings were more abundant here, anywhere there was a plug going into a wall, Sees-Faces saw.

There was a larger, closed door surrounded by webs. Sees-Faces' senses told him there was something in there, moving around at times. That was enough to make him curious.

Making his way near the walls so as to not disturb the spiderlings' work, Sees-Faces moved toward the closed door, and carefully walked through.

[Cynical Cat]

Alex stretched and switched to Glabro form. The wolf man would easily pass for human, especially in the distance and in the dark, and was far more physically formidable than Homid form. "So far, not a peep out of the Umbra," said Alex. "Security is down thanks to our Warden. Next up, cracking the place physically." Alex sauntered forward.

[General Havoc]

As the others played in the Umbra, Sophie disconnected her laptop and Vulcan interface, and entered the building in the real world. Quickly she began to search the empty lobby, focussing on the empty desk of the front receptionist.

Bingo.

Hidden in a drawer on the lower left was a small key, unmarked, but also unattached to any keyring. A personal key, even one forgotten in the office, would likely have been so. She swiftly pocketed it. Even if the Umbra crew could bypass doors, those more grounded in the real world could use such things.

[Cynical Cat]

Alex stopped and gave the paintings the evil eye. There was something off about them. Not surprising, but possibly very dangerous. "Find something Sof?" he asked.

[Devonie]

Arianne took a second look at one of the paintings ... there was something...

Suddenly she found herself unable to look away, no matter how hard her inner wolf struggled. She fought with herself briefly then staggered away from the painting her hand to her head.

"The paintings!" she gasped. "Don't look at them! They're trapped!"

She sagged against the wall, her head spinning.

[Charon]

Breathes followed after the Lupus, still grumbling as he had to be doubly cautious to avoid the strands of webbing which crossed this way and that. They shouldn't be just walking in here, but he wasn't about to leave Sees completely alone. At least he was in front though.

Unless whatever was going to hit them was behind them. Breathes looked over his shoulder, watchful for several seconds, which was why he didn't see when Sees just walked into the other room without any sort of caution. Breathes could practically smell the bad that was coming out of that door. Which would be a big problem. Squeezing on the small Fetish that still dangled from his hip, Breathes went to follow after the impulsive Sees-Stars.

[LadyTevar]

Sees Faces was the first to pass through the insubstantial, but tangible, barrier of the office door, and straight into a mouthful of webbing. As he pulled the sticky threads off his face, he got a view of the spacious office.

The entire room was one very neat, tidy spiderweb. The webbing outlined the large desk and chairs, gave substance to the books on the bookshelf, and were the studs the walls were nailed upon.

As Breaths the Winds entered behind him, something large moved in the corner of the ceiling. Unlike the smaller spiderlings that had traced electrical cables and phone lines, this was no minor Jagling but a full Pattern Spider-spirit: a black chiton-armored monster spider fully the size of a lupus Garou. Eight eyes shined down at the intruders, the largest two almost glowing as it dropped down to the top of the desk. Its front legs raised threateningly, fangs spreading to further the fearsome posture.


((And, in the OOC board, please roll Wits + Alertness (dif 4) for initiative, and we'll go from there. Those NOT in Umbra will have no idea what's happening on the Other Side, and may RP as normal.))