11595/Snake Vampires and Werejackals and Frog Mummies. Oh my.

Snake Vampires and Werejackals and Frog Mummies. Oh my.
Date of Scene:	13 June 2022
Location:	The Midnight Mission
Synopsis:	Jon and Lydia talk and come up with something of a plan to fix Cael's werewolf-ness. Werejackel-ness? Were-ness.
Cast of Characters:	Lydia Dietrich, Jonathan Sims

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Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    With the taste of Ma'at still in her mouth, Lydia is sitting beside the silver cage, watching the sleeping Cael silently, sadly. She knows what it's like to lose to the beast, to lash out at people you care about. Luckily for her, and for Cael, no real harm was done. At least, nothing she couldn't heal from.

    Layla had brought down a t-shirt for her to change in, and sweats and a hoodie for Cael for when she wakes up human again, so Lydia had changed into it. Now she's idly playing with the torn and shredded burgundy blouse she was wearing, replaying the events over in her head. She should have armored up as soon as she saw what was happening, she chides herself. She's strong enough to stop a car, and tough enough to stop bullets when she's armored up, dammit. Still. The only person who really got hurt was herself.... and Bear.

    She winces. Bear. She hopes Jon got to him in time.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Once Agnes is settled in the room she'd used before, Bear resting and Lady Gray watching over them both, Jon comes back to the basement to see Cael. He brings blankets and a tray of food and tea pressed on him by Layla, and he's already changed out of the armor he wore into a set of clothing left at the mission for situations just such as this. He looks tired, and worn, and his shoulders are slightly hunched like he's carrying something heavy on them.

    "How is she?" he murmurs, as he sets the tray down and then turns to the cage, pondering how to put the blanket over her without opening the cage. "Any movement at all?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Asleep," Lydia responds quietly. "She flicked an ear once, but other than that she's out like a light." She watches as Jon struggles with the blanket and she stands to come over to him.

    "Here. Let me do that." She holds out a hand and tendrils of light reach out for the blanket to thread it through the bars. The tendrils unfold the blanket and carefully lays it across Cael's sleeping form. With that done she turns and sits back on the chair where she was keeping vigil.

    "How's Agnes and the pups? Did Bear..." Survive? No. "Is he okay?" There's worry in her voice. She knows how much the dog means to Cael and it would destroy her if she had maimed him or worse.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "He'll be fine," Jon says as he relinquishes the blanket to Lydia. "Ma'at healed him up, he'll need rest, but... he'll be fine." He sighs. "She fixed the window Layla crashed through, too, but she wouldn't touch the hall. She seems to think I should teach Agnes to fix that, or at least... show her. Since Agnes was responsible."

    He sighs, and goes to slump in a chair, staring dully at the tray with broth and tea and cheese and nuts and fruit. "It's so bloody obvious in hindsight. I don't know how I missed it."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "In Agnes' defense, Cael /was/ trying to eat her," Lydia says, shaking her head. "It's not something I'd punish her for." She looks a little thoughtful, "Though, repairing fire damage /would/ be a useful skill for her to have."

    "What happened?" she asks quietly.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "I don't think it's meant as punishment, and I certainly wouldn't mean it as such. It's more... balance? And, yes, learning to repair the damage she might accidentally cause. Her ability with fire is more akin to your mutation than other kinds of magic; her mother carried metagenes although not the X-gene. It's instinctive, it takes very little concentration or effort. Knowing how to clean up after the damage..." Jon shrugs.

    A sigh, and he picks up a piece of cheese, fiddling with it for a moment. "She's been... acting odd for days now. Snapping at people, snapping at /Bear/, craving meat. You saw her break the chair when Jake came out the other day, right?" He sighs. "At first I thought it was the stress of moving in together, but her aura's been... off. Strange. I could tell it was something unnatural, but I couldn't tell /what/. Whatever it was, was causing a heightened amygdala response, lowered inhibitions. The last couple days she's been /really/ possessive, really restless, pacing the apartment."

    He pops the cheese into his mouth, chews it, swallows. "Tonight, she suddenly felt ill. Like a flu or something. I didn't... it didn't even /occur/ to me. We kept thinking it was this... blood monster that had dripped on her, the werewolves didn't even..."

    He kicks the edge of the console he's sitting at suddenly, anger pouring off of him. "Gods, I'm /blind/! We should've had here /here/ tonight, not... not /home/ with Agnes and the dogs!"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia nods. "Balance. Yeah. I can see that." She leans back in her chair and picks up her ruined blouse to fiddle with again. "It's why I bake apology zucchini bread for when my beast makes me do something awful. I know it doesn't make up for it but... it's something at least."

    Her brows slowly furrow as Jon speaks about Cael's behavioral changes. By the time he kicks the console they're in a full blown scowl. "Jon? Was she bitten by a werewolf? Or scratched? At /all/?"

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon scowls. "Probably? She's been itching at a certain spot over the past couple of weeks, and... I mean we did /fight/ werewolves last full moon. But she never said anything, and I didn't... I just didn't put two and two together. She was /fine/ until the beginning of the month."

    He huffs out a breath and sits back, but kicks the console again. "We're going to have to figure out /exactly/ what these werewolves are so we can find a cure. Bloody hell."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia purses her lips as she runs her fingers through her shirt. "There are different flavors of werewolves," she says. "Like there are different flavors of vampires, each with its own set of rules. Some are born that way and have control over their transformation. Some are cursed by magical means and then you have this," she says, gesturing to the sleeping Cael. "A kind of magical virus that infects people when bitten or scraped."

    "It doesn't make any sense though," she says, her brain working this out loud. "If the strain is virulent enough to infect Cael with a wound small enough that you wouldn't notice it, there should have been /more/ of these things out there on the full moon, not /less/."

    She considers their ward, watching her through the bars of the silver cage. "She also doesn't look... well... /wolfy/ enough. The ears the... angular muzzle. It's not wolf but wolf /adjacent/." She looks up at Jon and gives him something of an embarrassed grin, "I... uh... read up a /lot/ about wolves when I was a teen so I could write werewolves right."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "Well, the power's being sort of... stolen by Anubis, so it could be were-/jackal/," Jon notes. "There was a whole pack out there, they had these runes carved into their bodies... they lured us out during the eclipse, and then Khonshu got sealed away and they killed Marc. If I hadn't managed to heal him..." He shakes his head.

    A heavy sigh. "Maybe there's another component to this that we're missing. Something beyond merely marking someone. Or maybe they just more often kill people than mark them. I mean... there /were/ a lot of them before we waded in and destoryed most of the pack and killed their Alpha. Maybe they're just building back their numbers."

    He waves a hand, then, idly. "You knowing things about werewolves is like me knowing things about... I don't know... Egypt. It's to be expected." A brief grin, though it doesn't quite reach his eyes."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia looks back at Cael and scowls. "Maybe there's something about Cael specifically that allowed it to happen," she suggests. "She died and went to the Duat. Maybe coming in close contact with Anubis made her susceptible?" She shakes her head, "I don't know."

    Shifting gears, her brain ruminates on something else. "What did these runes look like?" she asks. "I take it you didn't find anything in the Archive that matched up with them. Maybe if I can see them I can work out what they do? If nothing else it'll be another pair of eyes looking for answers."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon shakes his head. "That seems a little too specific. This is probably how they propagate, and we're probably just missing part of the process. Maybe they attacked her in a certain way, or only totally normal humans are susceptible--plenty of people are latent metagene carriers. Or maybe it /is/ something like the touch of magic." He shrugs. "We'll figure it out."

    He frowns. "The runes... they're spells of binding and control. I would /guess/ they might allow the werejackals to control the change? They look... familiar. There's a certain kind of..."

    He stops, suddenly putting a hand up in the air. It looks, for all the world, like he's doing a math equation. "And use /this/ unilateral..."

    His eyes widen. "Oh, gods. I know where they got those spells. The Eye of Ra. Maybe Elias specifically."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia watches curiously as Jon performs mental magic math, and when he finally comes to his conclusion, she slams a fist onto a thigh. "God, dammit! /That/ asshole? /First/ it was snake vampires, and /now/ it's werejackals? What's next.... /frog/ mummies?"

    She slumps back in her chair and pinches her nose. "So we know /who/ now, which will give us an inkling of /why/. And if those runes bind and control them then that means..." She looks up and catches Jon's gaze with her piercing golden eyes. "That means I can recreate and modify them."

    She suddenly stands up out of her chair, her mind whirling, "I mean... not like carve it into her or anything like that. Not unless we can't find the cure. But an amulet that she can wear?" She starts pacing around the room. "With your help we can pick apart the runes, find the bits that would give Cael control when she shifts, and toss the bits that would bind her to a master."

    "We could ... we could rework that into an amulet, for one." She says gesticulating wildly, "For another we might be able to break the binding... or, or supersede it. Tell them that /we're/ the masters. /Something/ to sow chaos into their ranks."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "I don't know if it binds /them/ to a master, or makes them the master of the spirit... but either way, hijacking that would probably be a good idea." Jon rubs at his face. "I need to get a better look at them to /really/ be able to pick them apart, but I can try to draw them from memory, what I /did/ see. It was... the heat of battle, you know? I didn't get a good long look."

    He huffs out a breath, then adds, "It's almost always Elias, with my life, yes. I was rather surprised he didn't show up /once/ during the angel business, but then, Michael probably would've smote him off the face of the Earth." A snort. "A /good/ thing he could've done."

    He picks up a spoon and starts in on the broth. He needs energy. "It's a good idea. Don't think... don't think I don't... I'm just tired, is all."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia rolls her eyes, "Yeah, well, thank God for small favors though. One can only imagine how impossible it would have been to get /anything/ done if Elias was trying to take advantage of the situation." She shakes her head, "Can you imagine if he had gotten it in his head that instead of trying to usurp Ra's power, he'd try for the power of an /archangel/?"

    She sighs and walks back to her chair and sinks down into it. "It's okay," she says, gesturing to Jon's food. "Eat. Rest. The fight was intense, and I took a lot out of you." She winces, "Probably more than I should have, but you've got a healing factor now so you'll probably replenish it all before the night is through."

    "Get some sleep if you can. You'll want to be fresh for when Cael wakes up in the morning." She looks over to their charge, "After..." She lets out a breath and shakes her head. "After you've spent some time with your family, let's see what you can remember of the runes and knock our heads together and see what comes out, yeah?"

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "Good lord," Jon mutters, to the idea of Elias hijacking an archangel's power. "Doesn't bear thinking about, really."

    He waves a hand. "It's alright... you needed the blood, and I'll regenerate. And you don't know Layla as well, yet. She's nice, though. I think she'll fit in around here just fine."

    He focuses back on the food, finally realizing how /hungry/ he is. "Sleep. Yeah. Yeah, I'll... sleep, and then we can... fix this. We're going to fix this." He hasn't looked at Cael in ten minutes, and there are tears dripping down his face now, but he ignores that and keeps eating.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia's face falls when she sees his tears. "We'll fix this," she reassures him. "We'll fix this."

    She moves as if she's about to stand up but thinks twice about it and settles back down in her seat. "This is me hugging you," she tells him. "I know you don't like to be touched but..." she lets out a small, frustrated sound. "This is me hugging you."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon makes an annoyed, strangled sound in the back of his throat, then reaches out a hand toward Lydia. "I'm sorry," he says. "I hate it too." He grabs her hand and squeezes it, hard. "I'm working on getting better. I am. It's just... it'll take time. And you and me? We've got all the time in the world to get back to hugs."

    They look up, with a brief smile. "Thanks," they add. And then go back to the soup.