On the Steel Road [Steel Mood]

[vesta]

It’s night. A fitting time to arrive at a new place: it had been night when she’d woken up on the way out of... The last place that she’d almost settled into.

The car sways gently as the train winds its way towards Denver, a pair of powerful diesel engines towing a long line of trailers. Some are loaded with containers, cargo on their way to the city, others destined to continue elsewhere. Other cars are empty, on their way to be loaded up and shuffled on elsewhere in their long, slow life of moving between cities and states, never really properly settling.

A figure sits on stop of one of the cars, legs dangling over the side. She’s watching as the distant lights of a city grow and multiply as they get closer. Her clothes are dark, well worn and dirty. She could have fixed that but there isn’t any point yet. And it’s better that she looks like a homeless, moneyless wretch. The railroad workers who find her would be more likely to leave her in peace. It’s all part of the great act. And if they didn’t? Well, they’d still have to find her.

There might have been make up on her face at one point, but that’s long streaked and wiped and washed off by rain leaking through the roof another car, another train. A blanket, picked up from who knows where along the way, is wrapped around her shoulders and gives some degree of warmth. The shivering isn’t completely to do with the cold, though. The remains of her fragmented, broken sleep stick in her mind, waiting to be banished by the rise of the sun. Until the following night, at least.

She takes a drag from a nearly-dead cigarette, the end glowing dimly red as she inhales. The butt is flicked away, falling to be lost somewhere in the plains. Her hand moves down and rubs the crook of her right arm absent-mindedly. There’s still the feeling of a bruise there, somewhere over a vein. It’s a reminder, but not enough. Not enough. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

But the past is done. The future will take care of itself. And, for now, she needs to hide. She had already found that the world had begun to warp around her, making her harder to spot. But that wasn’t enough. Not for the moment. Not until she begins to feel safe again.

By that time she might have disappeared altogether.

For now, she faces up to reality again and fights for her way. It’s not an easy fight – it rarely is when there’s a lot to fight for – but she wins. Her resonance fades and she becomes even less noticeable than before.


-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Mind 2: Masking resonance, 8 successes. 3 successes to duration (1 month), 3 to subtlety, 2 to effect.

If I've done the sums right: With her Arcane 3, it'll take 6 successes on Awareness to pick up her Resonance. 4 successes to pick up the effect. So her cover will be completely blown the first time she meets Sera Howl: I think I've worked this right, yell if I haven't and I'll tweak the post.

Rolls:

the devil
HDub witnessing!

Steel
[So, we're going for a whole subtle resonance masking thing. Target is 8 successes. Mind 2 and coincidental, so base diff 5. -1 for taking time. -1 for applicable resonance, as we're hiding things.]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (8, 8) ( success x 2 )

Steel
[Extending]

Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (5, 6) ( success x 2 )

Steel
[Extending]

Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (2, 3) ( fail )

Steel
[Grr, extending again]

Dice: 2 d10 TN5 (3, 4) ( success x 1 ) [WP]

Steel
[And again]

Dice: 2 d10 TN5 (2, 5) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

Steel
[Last time[

Dice: 2 d10 TN5 (5, 6) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Steel
[ -.- Ah well, that's 8.]

the devil
Heck yeah, effect!

[vesta]

The encounter in the park had shaken her. That someone had finally seen through the effect she’d fought for, the one to mask her resonance, had been one thing. It was going to happen sooner or later.

That that woman had then shredded it, scattering the effect and leaving her wide open and obvious? Steel’s speechless. The woman hadn’t even tried to work out who she was, what she was, if she was a threat to anything more than the digestive system of a fucking duck. She'd just attacked.

Technocrat. Gotta be a fucking technocrat. Stripping away her protection, her concealment. Making her easier to find and catch and cage and who the fuck knows what else.

She needs a place to hide. In her roaming of the less pleasant parts of East Colfax she’d found a few possibilities. Two seem more promising. The first, an abandoned laundrette. It had somewhere nice and secure in the back, where they used to keep the takings for the store. But it had a massive open window at the front. Not the greatest feature when you’re trying to stay unseen.

The other? A derelict funeral parlour. She stands looking at it. Had she been in a better mood, she might have cracked a smile. It’s fitting. Fitting in with the stereotype. And with any luck, the locals will be just superstitious enough to give it a wide berth before she tries to make it even less conspicuous.

It’ll do for now. First things first. The fucking ‘crats might be looking for her again, so time to make herself harder to find.

She’s managed to acquire a can of paint and a brush from somewhere and she uses it to add something to the building. Others had already daubed graffiti on the outside, some even venturing inside to add their tags. But this is more than simple art. This is something to make it – and her – a little harder to find. A large, open eye gets painted on one of the walls. The brush is loaded again and held in one hand, her other hand clasped into a tight fist. The open eye is painted closed as Steel fights again, pulling in the shadows around the building to make it harder to scry.

Somewhere to lay low until she feels up to pulling the shadows back around her, too. But it'll give her time to think about how to make some contacts in the city.

[Ward, 8 successes. 3 to duration (1 month), 5 to effect]



----------

Steel
[Ward, Corr 2. TN5, -1 taking all the time, -1 for resonance.]

Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (6, 7) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Steel
[Extending]

Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (6, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Steel
[And again]

Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (1, 9) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

Steel
[8 succs, cap hit]

Howl
[witnessed!]

[vesta]

Steel had hidden away for a while, only really venturing out into the local area around where she’d holed herself up. Her warding still stood, but was starting to show the signs of wear and fraying that most effects do with time. It would still do the job, if anyone did happen to try to find her, but it’s something that would need a little maintenance soon.

Something that would need repairing is the effect she’s originally fought for on the way into the city. Something to appear even less noticeable to people – to avoid Sleepers noticing something strange around her, and to try to avoid any Awakened picking up on her too easily.

Because that had worked out so well in the park. She sits curled up on an old couch – something she’d bought from a thrift store and dragged back here. It was worn, threadbare in places, but still serviceable. With a little time, and maybe a little Work, it could be restored. But it’s nothing that needs doing any time soon. For now, it’s something to sleep on and somewhere to relax.

Steel thinks back to the park, playing with a lighter in her hands. A cigarette hangs out of the corner of her mouth, barely noticed but occasionally dragged from. The little wheel on the cheap, disposable thing is flicked and a flame flares into life. It goes out, and there’s another flick. And another. And another. It’s almost hypnotic to watch.

It’s time to start reaching out again, though. She can’t stay here for the rest of her life. There must be others out there she can get in contact with somehow. But how to know if they can be trusted or not? So, so many people who can’t be trusted. So many who would just use up and cast aside others in their own little power plays and schemes and games. So the lighter gets slipped back in to a pocket, the cigarette dropped into a near-empty bottle of beer – now filling up with dog ends – and she fights.

She sits there, staring at the palms of her hands. Looking into the eyes there that look back at her. Sits there, pushing her will against the world and making it – damned well forcing it – to do what she wants. As the effect comes together, she closes her palms and closes the eyes. Once again, she fades a little more as her resonance dies away.

Next up, the tin of paint that she’d used to pull the shadows around the building is reopened, the old brush banged down on the floor to loosen up the dried and stuck bristles. She stands and fights and reworks the paint on the walls, renewing the ward over the place.

And then? And then another cigarette is unearthed and a bottle of beer opened. That’ll do, for now.

---------------
Effects now up:

Resonance mask. 8 successes: 3 to duration (month), 3 to subtlety, 2 to effect.
Ward over home. 8 successes: 3 to duration (month), 5 to effect.

Rolls:

Steel @ 2:31PM
[First up, re-Warding her hideyhole. Ward, Corr 2. TN5, -1 for resonance, -1 for time]
Roll: 2 d10 TN3 (3, 7) ( success x 2 )
Steel @ 2:31PM
[Extending]
Roll: 2 d10 TN4 (9, 9) ( success x 2 )
Steel @ 2:32PM
[Exntending]
Roll: 2 d10 TN4 (9, 9) ( success x 3 ) [WP]
Steel @ 2:32PM
[Last extend]
Roll: 2 d10 TN4 (1, 8) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
Steel @ 2:32PM
[Caps out at 8 successes, so that's home hidden for another month]

Steel @ 2:33PM
[Effect the second: Resonance masking. Mind 2, coincidental. TN5, -1 for resonance and -1 for time again]
Roll: 2 d10 TN3 (1, 7) ( success x 1 )
Steel @ 2:33PM
[Extend]
Roll: 2 d10 TN4 (10, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]
Steel @ 2:34PM
[Extend]
Roll: 2 d10 TN4 (4, 5) ( success x 2 )
Steel @ 2:34PM
[Extend]
Roll: 2 d10 TN4 (2, 4) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
Steel @ 2:34PM
[8 successes again. Le Woot]
ix @ 2:35PM
Witnessed!

[vesta]

It was starting to become habit. Ritual, almost. Once a month, almost like clockwork, her effects begin to fray and fade. Reality begins to reassert itself and restore things to how it things they should be. It affords her some small protection, in the way that it masks her from memory. Her presence may be remembered, but the specifics? Her distinguishing features she tries to keep hidden, through clothing or a little makeup. But the general features? She’s just some youngish, average height woman with... hair?

The ritual begins as it has in the past couple of months. First, the painting on the wall. The crudely painted eye – it’s not like she’d spent a lot of time studying art, but it’s there for function more than aesthetics – is redrawn. The same pot of paint, about half used now, opened up and daubed along familiar lines. She pushes her will against reality as she paints, bringing them into conflict. Always, always conflict. Because isn’t this always a battle? She has her wishes and demands, consensus opposes them. There’s no other way.

Paint can and worn, almost solid brush set to one side on the worn floor, she looks at her handiwork and finishes the effect. She looks down at her paint-flecked hands, looks into the open eyes painted onto her palms. Bringing the effect to a climax, forcing her will into the pattern of reality for another month, she balls up her hands into fists. The eyes close. The ward reforms.

She sits back down on the worn couch. A little something cheap to make the place a little more liveable. Not home. What the hell is home? No, it’s a little something for comfort. Something that she really should get around to improving and repairing, but until she’s sure this is where she’ll be staying? It’s not really worth the effort. She grabs an open bottle of warm beer and takes a swig before starting on the next part of the routine.

Reality’s little favour helps hide her from notice, but there are those around who would spot her for what she is as soon as she walked through the door. So she works, once again, to mask her resonance from attention. She forces the piercing shadows that follow her around further out of perception. There’s no paintwork this time, simply her looking back at herself in the eyes on her palms.

The fight begins once again, somewhere in her mind there is the image of a dance. Two figures circling each other, just waiting for the right opening. Only this time, she stumbles and falls. And there’s the opening for the other figure to move in and attack. The effect is more than in her mind, though. She feels the blow in her body as well as her mind, twisting and falling from the couch as if someone had just connected with a perfect right hook. The world spins for a moment, a ringing in her ears from the blow. There’s the taste of blood. And there’s more.

She can feel it. What she was attempting to dampen down radiates from her more than it had before she’d started masking it. It feels as if the whole building has just gotten darker. Shadows deepen and lengthen. Every corner becomes a hiding place for something. Hell, the building itself becomes a less hospitable place as the shadows pierce the walls and imbue them with an impression of her radiance.

“Fuck!” Steel spits blood, running her tongue around the inside of her mouth to check whether her teeth were all still where they were meant to be. She’d have a shiner of a black eye in the morning. But right now? Right now she would be way too obvious if she went out, risked contact with any Awakened or anyone – anything – else sensitive to their kind. For now? She needs to hide. This place has some degree of protection now – the ward – but it’s not the most comfortable of places to be. Well, it wouldn’t be the first time she’d been stuck somewhere she wanted to be away from would it? Hell, it wasn’t likely to be the last either. Life sucks that way sometimes.

---

“Is this where I say ‘I told you so’?” The man perches on a windowsill, illuminated by the warm light streaming by him.

“Oh, fuck off.” The light only reached so far. The window should have illuminated the room that she found herself in, once again. It wasn’t real. Or, rather, it wasn’t physical. Aspects of it were real, though: her and the man she idly throws insults at.

He rolls his eyes, looking back out of the window. “That’s it, exercise those debating muscles. But I did, you know. Tell you so. About how many times now?”

“Too many. And I still don’t care.” Inside the room, leaning against a wall where the light doesn’t quite illuminate, Steel flexes her jaw and probes the bruising with one hand. Oh yes, some things were real enough.

The man gives a sigh and watches something outside of the window, content to let it drop for now.

---

Night swings back into day, and the effects of the botched fight have left a mark. One of her eyes is swollen, the darkness of the promise of a bruise showing itself on the left side of her face. The room, though, is lit by sunlight. The windows have moth-eaten curtains covering them to some degree, but the warm light of the morning sun passes through the gaps and wakes Steel from a fitful sleep. She remembers the conversation, though. It’s not like she can get rid of him after all.

The shadows have returned to their former selves, no longer enhanced and empowered by the affect gone awry. And Steel? Well, her resonance is still open for all to sense. And that, still, is something she isn’t happy to allow. So once again the fight begins, the two figures circling. And this time? This time she pushes and fights and damned well gets what she fucking wants.

---
Effects now up:

Resonance mask. 8 successes: 3 to duration (month), 3 to subtlety, 2 to effect.
Ward over home. 8 successes: 3 to duration (month), 5 to effect.

Rolls:
Steel
[Refreshing Ward. Corr 2, coincidental: TN5. -1 Resonance, -1 Taking Time]
Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (2, 5) ( success x 1 )
Steel
[Extending]
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (3, 4) ( success x 1 )
Steel
[Extending]
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (2, 5) ( success x 1 )
Steel
[Extending]
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (5, 9) ( success x 2 )
Steel
[Extending]
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (1, 5) ( success x 1 )
Steel
[Extending]
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (7, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]
Steel
[Cap at 8 successes]
Steel
[Refreshing resonance masking. Mind 2, coincidental: TN5. -1 Resonance, -1 Taking Time]
Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (4, 5) ( success x 2 )
Steel
[Extending]
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (1, 3) ( botch x 1 )
Steel
[Well, bugger.]
the devil
HDub witnessing!
Steel
Paradox: 2 dice, I think?
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (2, 6) ( success x 1 )
Steel
Soak?
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (1, 2) ( botch x 1 )
Steel
o.O
the devil
Ow.
Steel
Le sigh. Will write a post around all this, but would like to get all the rolling out of the way. Will say she just hides out for a day while the paradox effects fade and she tries again the day after?
the devil
Sounds reasonable to me!
Steel
Casting the third, trying the resonance mask again. Same difficulty as before. *sacrifices cookies to the dice roller*
Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (2, 7) ( success x 1 )
Steel
[Extending]
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (3, 4) ( success x 1 )
Steel
[Extending]
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (3, 4) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
Steel
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (4, 8) ( success x 3 ) [WP]
Steel
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (8, 8) ( success x 3 ) [WP]
Steel
And we have 8 again.
the devil
Woohooo!