Log - Catch-all for July/August - Open

[graveyounglady]

Who: Mercy Graves & OTA
When: Throughout July and August
Where: Around Gloucester
Summary: Mercy tries to find a new building to expand housing into, checks out the Wolfe family artifact, tries to buy liquor for Johnny's bar, and reunites with a loved one.
Warnings: breaking and entering/illegal activities, underage drinking

I. Housing
She'd made a promise to Steve that she would prioritize finding everyone new housing just as soon as they had settled the problems in Wolf Trap. Zyrian Steel is dead and another apocalypse has been averted. She intends to make good on her promise. There are logistics to attend to in moving those who wish it away from ADI while keeping them all together and sustainable. First and foremost is shelter.

There are more than a few buildings of questionable integrity in Bonnie's neighborhood, and this weeks' mission is to inspect them... with or without a realtor present. Mercy's enlisted the assistance of like-minded individuals or just strong-armed someone into joining her for the company.

"You keep a lookout. I'm just gonna... let us in." She pulls out what is very obviously a set of lockpicks as she stands with her fellow in the entryway to a derelict-looking apartment block that stands a few buildings down the street from Bonnie's.

II. Artifact
Mercy hasn't been back to the Hammond Castle since ADI's disastrous Thanksgiving party there last November. The news articles have caught her attention, though. Wolfe. Given the situations they've dealt with in Wolf Pen and Wolf Trap, it might be a complete coincidence, but it doesn't feel like it. "You think it's strange, something turning up for a family named Wolfe that's connected to Dogtown when we just been putting down a problem in Wolf Trap?" she asks her companion.

"I ain't one to suspect everything, but that seems like a coincidence that keeps happening."

III. Liquor
"Hey, there, friend! You know I'm 21, right?" Mercy directs the question at the first familiar face she sees in the liquor store, trying to flag them down. "Season's been turning more than a little while for me here. Just forgot that ID I got. Mind telling this fellow I'm old enough to buy?" She gestures to the vexed-looking cashier who's clearly been arguing with her for several minutes and getting nowhere. Mercy's all smiles as she stands over the cash of liquor on the counter, relentless in her cheer and attempts to wear the man down. She could probably use the assistance of someone who is actually 21 according to whatever identification they might have received from ADI.

IV. Wildcard
Hit me up for more specific plotting at switalia!

Comments

[graveyounglady]

Hands that are just a touch too warm, a voice that sets her mind ablaze. "Aelwyn!" Mercy nearly jumps out of her skin, as well, but the jolt of terror is quickly replaced by excitement. She drops her sewing and twists in her seat as she brings her hand up. She goes for a kiss immediately. Whether that's Aelwyn's cheek, lips, or whatever else she can reach.

"You- when did you get back into town? Oh, heart, you been gone a season!" And what a season it's been. She has so much to tell the other woman.

[dangerousmind]

"Only a few hours, sweet," Aelwyn lowers her hands to Mercy's hips, squeezing them and bringing her - so human, yet so blackened by death, it's intoxicating - closer to her heat. She kisses her back, trailing kisses down her lips, face, neck, and she smiles against her skin.

"I would have called ahead. But I wanted to surprise you."

There's some things she knows already. Some things are hard to avoid. But she's been dormant in her coccoon for too long. Now she has her beloved. "I'm sorry it was so long. Things got... complicated. I thought I'd be back a lot quicker."

[graveyounglady]

A certain sort of interest burns in Mercy with each kiss and touch, but she tames that for the time being. There is so much to discuss. "Ain't your fault you was doing important things. And- well... guess you heard about what's happened with ADI, aye? Ms. Nia being an avatar of the Hunt, herself? Lotta folks pulled up stakes and left. Think I'm staying for now. At least to see what happens with her. Not all avatars is bad, anyway."

After her discussions with Martin, she firmly believes this and punctuates it with a hard kiss, back. "You gotta tell me everything you can, though. Where you been? What happened?"

[dangerousmind]

"There's something a little funny about that, right?" She smiles, planting a kiss on Mercy's jaw and laughing lightly against her. "All those seminars about the dangers of magic and all those speeches about how 'no fear is good fear', and she - ADI's grand leader - was just like the rest of us all along."

She so desperately wants to say it. She so desperately wants to lie. I died. I'm dead. I'm something new. I lived again because I let others burn in my place. Mercy says that not all avatars are bad and Aelwyn feels firsthand how wrong that is, but she kisses just as hard back, like the lie is oxygen and she's drowning. Martin wouldn't have thought Jon was a monster. Martin would have been wrong.

"...It's a lot, sweet. Not something that can be summed up easily. Something we should..." She was about to say something along the lines of 'sit down and talk over tea' or something along those lines. But tea is just bland liquid, like the water you use to dry a paintbrush, it's not something she can drink. "Well, we should sit down. We've probably both got a fair bit to summarize."

[graveyounglady]

"Well, I don't think she thinks anything different from all that. She's just willing to live with herself taking advantage now." It's funny in a very sad way. Mercy had thought of Nia as someone far closer to Father William, rather than Father Edmund. William... was a man who'd never particularly liked her, but he was a relatively fair man with a very conservative mindset. Edmund had been a monster.

"'Course. Of course" She leads Aelwyn by the hand to the lower bunk of the bed and sits, pulling her close. "I can start. Right. So, you left right before we found those kids playing at being ghosts in Dogtown, I think. That was a whole mess with people from ADI attacking them by accident. It was strange. Dogtown was quiet for them somehow, none of the dangers other folks've been finding in there. Don't rightly understand why."

[dangerousmind]

Aelwyn for one had only ever seen Nia as a monster. That's not specifically a bad thing. It takes a monster to fight monsters.

"They attacked the kids?" Damn. "Are they still alive?"

[graveyounglady]

"Aye, but-" She grimaces. "Heard of them lost an arm. There was some to-do about it with Mr. Manji helping to reattach it after cutting it off, too. Feel terrible. But they were playing at being ghosts, a Ms. Tommy Younger. And I think there were actual ghosts. We saw 'em lurking around the edges of Dogtown, but couldn't get close enough to talk to them. Or even just to attack.

"Found myself walking the edges of Dogtown more and more, too. But... not by choice." She rubs at the back of her neck. Creeping around the sides of it, Aelwyn will be able to see spiderweb-like tattoos. "Having you home's a relief in more ways than one."

[dangerousmind]

"Well, it would be that insolent little slime to do the cutting I guess. At the very least they won't do that again," She knows she should be more concerned than she feels, despite the tone. But humans all die anyway, right, they all suffer agony. What else is living under the scorching flame of the sun? But what's left of the girl she was remembers Adaine crying over a scraped knee.

What really makes her eyes harden into furious slits is that... tattoo. She raises a hand to touch it, trace her fingers over it and she whispers furiously. "The Spider Bitch touched you?" The Web, Lolth, what's really the difference? "It won't happen again. I won't let it."

cw: mention of spiders and swarms

[graveyounglady]

Mercy's lashes flutter briefly at the touch. There's still too much to talk about to let herself dig her fingers into the other girl's hair and pull her into her lap. Priorities. Focus.

She ignores Aelwyn's slight toward Manji. She's managed to patch things up to some extent with the samurai, but he's still not one of her favorite people here. No point in putting up a fuss for him. "The Web, aye. It's- There's a bus that patrols the edges of Dogtown now. But it ain't a bus. It's a thing called Gus that creeps along and pulls you in, forces you to ride it.

"It- Aelwyn, it's filled to overflowing with spiders and egg sacks. It marches you in and sits you down. And the little things in there start swarming you, covering you in silk until you can't breathe and pass out. Got caught by them once with Ms. Eda, not knowing what it was, then when I was trying to get a fellow named Johnny away from the street one night after... treasure hunting." Graverobbing, she means.

"You wake up with these things on you." A gesture to the tattoos. "And something controlling you when you sleep. I don't think I've done anything bad, but I don't remember. And some people have walked themselves straight into Dogtown."

[dangerousmind]

It's a lot to take in. She remembers the bus... that was happening shortly before she left, wasn't it? Was she so hungry that she didn't make it a priority? So lost? She squeezes Mercy's hand.

"I won't let her take you again," The Web holds power above the fire, above the eye even, above them all, but she can modify her own mind. She's done it before. She just needs to outsmart the very concept of manipulation.

"We'll have to figure out how to destroy the bus then. I'll talk to Nia."

Nests reduced to scattered ashes as she destroys her beloved children, ripping them apart, burning their hives, let the night fill with the music of her screams.

"...I'm a lot stronger now. I can protect you."

It's a loaded statement. Her own confession, or just before.

[graveyounglady]

Mercy squeezes back, grateful for the contact, the comfort. "I think killing the bus'd be a right good shout, just not sure how to do it when it can control you from a distance. Even... powerful folk." Her freehand rises to brush some hair behind Aelwyn's ear. She meets the elf's eyes as she says it. There's no hesitation or pulling away, no judgment, just and acknowledgment. Her girlfriend is an avatar now. Mercy had always known it was probably going to go this way. And if it means she's not starving? Maybe that's okay.

"Maybe if we could somehow take some of Mr. Winter's grenades on with us? But we'd wanna be off the bus 'fore they go off. I believe in you, just don't want you... burning out on something like that if you don't have to."

[dangerousmind]

The way Mercy's hands touch her, not in anger, not in shock, not even in grief, it's... strange to Aelwyn. But she remembers what it tasted like, death in her veins, decay in her throat. Mercy's never been an average girl, she's always been a bit bleak, and despite the differences in the ways people look at her and the way they look at Aelwyn, she knows Mercy's hands are stained too.

Strange. It's such a strange feeling. Love. To be loved. To love someone like this.

Love without expectation, what is that?

She closes her eyes. Then opens them.

"I have mind control of my own. I've used it on myself before, planting a memory spell deep in my subconscious to be triggered after a set event. I might be able to counteract the web that way. It's not something we could do half-cocked."

[graveyounglady]

"Maybe we could practice? See if it works on me when it sends me sleep walking?" She trusts Aelwyn to control her. Far more than she trusts the Web and whatever it wants.

"But that's something we can do later. I gotta tell you more about some of the stuff we been learning about. And the who thing that happened with Mr. Steel and his apocalypse ritual. Or have you been getting updates while you're out?"

[dangerousmind]

She'd rather experiment on anyone else. A random NPC, perhaps, this universe's equivalent of a Mumple graduate. Or any of the other more expendable agents of the ADI. But she gets the feeling Mercy might disagree with that, so she'll keep quiet for now. It's not the first priority.

"I heard basic reports about it, but I'm missing most of the details."

[graveyounglady]

She nods briefly to that. "All right. Well, you remember Ava, the Lullaby Girl? Things really started with her. Seems like Steel was the one who sent her after us. Or maybe... not? Maybe he did the first time. But it seems like he wanted rid of her when she attacked us the second."