Jimmy was leaning against the wall near the entrance to the kitchen when Laurella entered. He wasn't an official protector or anything, and wasn't sure if he wanted to be. Following orders wasn't exactly his gig, but free food and a warm bed were pretty tempting.

'Especially a free bed two doors down from her,' Jimmy thought, as he managed to ignore Zack long enough to drink in a nice long look at Laurella's ass. Apparently his sex drive was more powerful than magic.

Gael sat back, mildly amused by how worked up everyone was getting, especially Brother Harm, and listening to the suggestions. All well and good, but we've got more work to do than with us..

Stepping forward slightly, if only to get more attention than his voice would alone, he began, "I think we have another problem besides our coordination. There were students and faculty at that school that aren't protectors, I don't even think they were Society, that were able to resist possession. More than that though, they did as well, if not better, than us while dealing with the demons. We've already got him," he paused, trying to remember the name, "Jim? here, but we need to at least get tabs on these other students."

He paused again, before remembering the 'and faculty part', "Do any of you know anything about 'Mr. Silva?' He seemed to know what was going on, but so far as I know he's not a part of us."

Mr. Silva, for reasons unknown and for things beyond your reach of understanding, is in a nearby park, teaching the pigeons how to sing in chorus.

He has received twelve phone numbers.

And, for some reason, there seems to be a pigeon outside the building where you people are talking right now...almost like it's listening...

As Harm watched the boy step forward his amulet began to burn against his chest."The boy thinks to persuade us by magic as opposed to his words..."

Harm stepped up next to Zack and spoke under his breath, "A word of advice boy, seek to manipulate me again and the Mother will be down a protector," Harm raised his voice so the others could hear him, "As the boy suggested teams are needed, communication is needed, as is a definate support and command structure. With those in place we need not worry that we should be elsewhere, and can commit ourselves fully to the task we are assigned. As for outsiders, they remain outsiders until they are cleared by the higher ups. We are to protect her from all elements, supernatural and mortal."

The sound of a weapons moving parts suddenly interrupted the proceedings, as Simon raised his rifle, sighted down the barrel... and pulled the trigger...

CLICK!

Satisfied, he flicked the safety back on and closed the dust cover on the side. He then looked up, and saw that every head in the room had suddenly turned to look in his direction.

"Sorry, functions check", he said, rather sheepishly. He hadn't had time to finish cleaning the weapon before, so had brought the dissasembled weapon to the breifing with him. Now that he was done cleaning he had reassembled it and performed the functions test to make sure it was all working smoothly. He now placed the weapon on the floor at his feet and turned to face Tessa.

"As interesting as all of this talk is of various fuck ups and lack of team work and breaking protocol, which by the way I whole-heartedly agree with, the thing that concerns me is the extent to which this cult decided to go to in order to get Laurella".

He let the words sit a moment to sink in before continuing.

"They summoned hundreds of spirits and two blood summoned! That's a huge step up from the norm. I fear that this is just the beggining, if hundreds of spirits is their first wave of attack. Personally I think we need to re-double security around Laurella. We seem to have become lax in our duty and our enemies have taken the initiative."

He now raised his hand and began counting off his fingers as he spoke each of the following sentences. "Increase security. Find out who's behind all of this. Force them out. Crush them. It's really that simple."

((OOC: Sheesh, this thing moved fast! Sorry Ecurt! Oh, I'm godmodding just a little bit since time seems to have passed since my last post, and we probably shouldn't be standing in the school hall still... Lemmie know if this is a big problem and I'll change it.))

"It's worth a shot," Trish sighed. They were standing far off of the school premises, avoiding the rush of police, reporters, and ambulances. The authorities had swarmed the place, and so the twins thought it best to vacate the area. (END GODMODDING!!)

Now Trish held up a paper crane in her left hand, examining the contents of Laurella's backpack with her right.

"I mean, it's not like we have much to lose," she continued. "We can always figure out what to do once we get there. Worst comes to worst and we just run like crazy and hope nobody's developed anti-ninja missiles."

She pulled a sheet of paper out of Laurella's binder. It had a doodle of a woman shooting demons down with what looked like a missile launcher. Demons in various stages of vaporization littered the margins.

"Ah yes," Trish said. "Art as mirror of the soul. Tells so much about a person, you know?" She examined the page further, than grimaced. "Freeeeeeeaaaky stuff goin' on in that kid's head." She folded the drawing up into a tiny square, and slid it into the slit between the crane's wing and body. Then she cupped her hands around the little bird and whispered something to it. The paper glowed momentarily, then rose unsteadily into the air with a great flapping of paper wings. It twirled once or twice, then floated drunkenly away in a west-bound course, supposedly towards the Mother of Hell.

"Yes, yes. Go forth, my papery minion," Trish said grandly. "We will follow thee. Onward to VICTORY!" Thus saying, Trish skipped off after the birdy tracking device.




The sigil bird neared the gate of McCragge Manor, then erupted in a small burst of smoke and fell twitching to the ground. Huh. So they had defenses. Well, at least they found the place.

Trish leaned against the building down the street from the manor, eyeing the 'safe house' from around the corner.

"Nice place, anyway," she commented. "Not a place I'd want to be shot to death trying to approach, of course, but... nice. Good neighborhood."

John was sitting in a lone corner, coughing and looking rather dead. His healthy behavior from before the meeting didn't last very long. He hadn't been paying attention during the meeting, since he didn't care. The only thing John had learned from his meeting was that he did not like Zack. The little human boy was far to cocky with his pathetic magic, and obsessed over the Mother to much. He made a point to eventually take the boy down a peg.

But first, John needed more M&Ms. His current bag was empty. "Oh, Mother" John took a moment to cough, "would you be so kind as to fetch me another bag of M&Ms?" John made sure to not refer to her by name, since he was certain Zack would be displeased by this.

Edit - Changed last line a bit.

OOC: Wow, and I had every intention to make Zack a likable character. Instead, he is growing more hated with every post I make. Not that I mind, it'll be interesting to see how this plays out, but wow, I had no idea. *sniffle* I just hope this isn't a reflection of how you all really feel about me.

"Oh, for God's sake, I wasn't trying to MANIPULATE you!" Zack faced Harm without fear. He brandished the Grandeur card. "The only thing THIS does is make you more likely to pay attention to me! It has no other bearing on your inclination! I was only making sure that you all wouldn't IGNORE me, like what happened the LAST time I made that suggestion." In spite of himself, tears began to well up in his eyes, threatening to spill over onto his cheeks.

With voice cracking, he finished, "I was only trying to make a harmless suggestion! Can you blame a person for not wanting to be ignored? This has nothing to do with ego, it has do with protecting Laurella!!!"

Without even waiting for a response, Zack sprinted out of the room and down the hall. He ran into his room and slammed the door behind him, hurling a Force card at it to keep it closed. Like so many shunned, misunderstood children before him, he dove onto his bed, burying his face in his pillow and sobbing violently.

Why do I keep failing at EVERYTHING? Laurella might as well not even have me as a Protector, for all the good I seem to be doing.

OOC: Zack is very sensitive on the inside, in case you can't tell. The reason why will hopefully become apparent very soon.

John coughed a bit, spit up some blood, then sighed. "I'm going to have to get my own M&Ms now, aren't I?"

After sighing at the emotional display -- "Here Demon boy." Elissa called, tossing a King-Size bag of M&Ms to him.

"You're lucky I remember to bring these things along."