12184/15 Fears: Golden Child

15 Fears: Golden Child
Date of Scene:	30 July 2022
Location:	The border of the Astral Plane and Nullspace
Synopsis:	The Justice League Dark head to an Ivory Tower in the Astral Plane to rescue Rien from the Old Ones. In the process, Rien gets a new Name, and a certain mannequin gets blown to bits more than once.
Cast of Characters:	Jonathan Sims, Rien D'Arqueness, Robbie Reyes, Chas Chandler, Cael Becker, Bruce Wayne, Michael Hannigan

---

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Even as the Justice League Dark is preparing to track down and find their evidently kidnapped leader, a call goes out through the keys, pulsing with light to certain people and a soft feminine voice: "Come quickly! Rien needs your help!"

    When they arrive in the Velvet Room, they find a young girl waiting for them. She is perhaps thirteen or fourteen in age with long platinum-blonde hair that falls down her back. It is held away from her face by a blue headband with white butterfly wings on either side of her face. Her dress is blue and black. She has full length sleeves that fully cover her arms and white spats that cover her legs from thigh to the black mary janes covering her feet. The most striking feature though are her eyes. They are a vivid yellow in color with a strange dual layer to her irises. She looks a great deal like Elizabeth, another resident of the Velvet Room that the group has met before.

    "I am Lavaneza," the girl introduces herself with a curtsey, spreading her blue skirt. "I can open a portal for you very close to the Tower where Rien is being kept, but you will be on your own from there." She waves a hand, and a door appears in the air, that opens on its own to reveal an alien landscape beyond.

    A tall white tower stands on a island in the middle of a massive lake that is somehow situated on a cliff at the edge of an otherwise infinite plane. The lake is fed by a river that flows from mountains so far away it seems the eye should not be able to see them at all. The lake's edge is an enormous waterfall that plunges down over the cliff in an unending curtain of water down to endless depths, yet the surface of the lake is perfectly still.

    What's beyond the cliff? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. No, wait--there /is/ something, swirling stars and galaxies, flashes of hideous shapes, twisting architecture, and if you look long enough you can feel something, /something/...

    Maybe it's best not to look out into that abyss for too long. Or at all.

    The door opens next to a dock next to a seemingly empty boat, the only obvious passage across the lake to the Ivory Tower beyond.

    Once the last of the Justice League Dark are through the door, it closes behind them and vanishes, leaving them in this fantastical place.

---

    In the Tower, the screen Rien's been having to watch for days has been either staticky or blank ever since the Not-Rien's confrontation with the others in the Velvet Room. A blessed relief, maybe, but it leaves her rather cut off from knowing what's going on with her friends. Reality folds in on itself once more, and Nikola steps out in full plastic mannequin ringmaster costume, today wearing a bright red top hat. "Hello dearie! We've no more need of you, so it's time to unmake your insides and see what use we can have for your skin. I /do/ wonder if it will keep that lovely regeneration if it's disconnected from the rest of you."

    There's the briefest of pauses. "Please do fight back. It'll be /such/ fun."

---

    Somewhere in New York, Agnes Montague and Gabe Reyes are hanging out together in Chas Chandler's apartment. The young man and the almost 14-year-old girl have been put there together (along with a dog who adores them both) in order to keep them safe from the Old Ones that are attacking their friends and family. Bored with video games, and aware that--yet again--the adults are off doing "fun" things while she's stuck at home, Agnes spots a huge book sitting near Gabe's other things.

    "What's that?" she asks, London accent thick in her excitement. "Well, I mean. It's magic is what it is, but where'd you /get/ it?"

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Just as the air wavers, Rien drops the scrying screen she'd had up, rolling up to her feet to greet Nikola once more. She doesn't look upset, or scared. If anything, there's a sense of 'Finally!' that bakes off her in waves.

"I was wondering how long it would take for you to get to this. I've been waiting. But you know, you really shouldn't have given me time to prepare for this. I've been able to plot out my course of action, sift through a /lot/ of memories..." A smile grows on her face as she brings both hands together, gathering energy together, channeling it as she stares at Nikola. The gathered energy glows white, a pure, bright white. She's done her due diligence.

Rien's smile brightens, "I don't even have to /beat/ you, I just have to hold you off long enough for my friends to arrive. I'd feel bad for you... but you chose this. You chose every moment of this. Now you'll reap what you sowed."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Gabe, having lost a third straight round of mario kart to the younger girl, is ready for a break. He's about to suggest they take the dog for a walk to grab some ice cream (for them, not the dog) when Agnes spots the book. Pausing, frowning a little, he sets the controller aside and wheels over to where his backpack's contents are spilled out.

"I don't.. remember having this," he murmurs, picking it up and hefting it onto his lap, running his fingers over the words on the cover: 'Voyage of the Soul'. "You can sense magic?" His eyes go wide. "Wait. Good magic or bad magic? Can you tell?"

----

His brother, meanwhile, is looking out over the abyss, and toward the white spire that -- presumably -- holds his girlfriend. The young man is dressed for war: his tall, lean frame is encased in head to toe armoured leather, and his expression's grim as he mentally prepares himself for what's to come.

The boat's convenient enough-- perhaps *too* convenient. But do they have any other options? He starts toward it, after a questioning glance Chas's way.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas frowns at the surroundings. The abyss bothers him more than a little, but he keeps his eyes on it only long enough to send a silent warning to whatever may be looking back from the great beyond before turning to regard the boat. He's the lead for this mission. Jon's on walkabout... somewhere... and Rien, well, that's the whole purpose of the mission isn't it?

    Holding back the energies that make up what he is is off the table tonight and he turns to the gathered as white-blue flame suffuses his form and eyes, the angelic power pouring out in a wave that thrums against those with mystic senses.

    "Alright. We're going up against someone who has likely prepared for this meeting. The plan is simple, infiltrate, eliminate, and relocate. We get in, we take out whatever gets in our way, we get Rien, we get out. No need to carry out a war so close to their home turf if we can help it. These things are servitors of creatures from out... there" he gestures to the abyss. "They're tougher than they look, and likely have all sorts of tricks that lean toward making you insane, dead, or worse. Fight hard, fight dirty, and use whatever you have at your disposal to survive."

    He approaches the boat. "I know some of us can fly...but this is the astral, likely you can't get to the island without taking the boat. I don't feel like getting locked in an endless loop for God knows how long, so let's go." He stops right before stepping on the deck. "One more thing," he turns to the gathered, "until we get Rien; if I fall, listen to him." He points to the black cowled master detective in their midsts.

    Sure, have Batman come along for your first solo outting as a leader of the JLD. No pressure or anything. Christ on a stick.

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael steps through the portal, dressed in unbranded combat fatigues, and looking ready to go to war. She has a pair of pistols on her hips, and an AR-15 on a strap over her shoulders - and enough ammo to last her through a small seige. Everything is in greys, and blacks, very drab colors - except for the bright blue, teal, and gold leather cuff on her left wrist, with butterfly-shaped cutouts, and her hair. The top layers of her hair are blonde, but the left side of her hair has been trimmed into a buzz-cut, with a feather pattern shaved into it, and painted with hair dyes in blue, teal, and golden yellow. The rest of her hair has been trimmed in an angled bob-cut that extends just below her chin on her right, with bright rainbow hues dyed beneath the top layers of blonde.
    She's already checked and re-checked her weapons while everyone was gathering, and she's ready to geet this over with - ready to get Rien back.
    She listens to Chas's little speech, a determined expression on her features - not seeming to be put off by the power the man is displaying in front of. Could she finally have gotten //over// that? ...one can hope.
    She responds with only a nod as she strides towards the boat and climbs onboard. She seems to be paying no attention at all to the strange abyss.

Bruce Wayne has posed:
The Batman is a member of the Justice League Dark. Many would wonder why this is. After all, he has no skill in magic, he does not often face down threats from outside this reality. Honestly, sometimes it's hard to get him to leave Gotham, much less this dimension. Why is he a part of this?

The world needs protected from things that slink in the shadows, the cracks of the world. That is Batman's place to guard.

Today he is aiding a rescue mission. Not his first rodeo. He stands in the Velvet Room, swathed in darkness at the child(?), young woman(?), as she dispenses information. He is silent and stern as always.

Once they cross the threshold, the Dark Knight does take in his surroundings, scanning the landscape. Something in the abyss catches his attention. The twisting hints of shapes, the flashes of Things. All of it is enough to make a man crack. To drive one mad. Batman cannot be broken.

He stares at the Abyss until it flinches from him.

He follows Robbie towards the boat, his steps methodical and even. He is unfazed by the scenery, focused on the goal. He steps onto the boat and just looks at Chas, his expression unreadable. He says nothing for the moment, content to let this play out as it will. Business as usual.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
He's gotten phone calls before, but this is probably the first time Mike has ever experienced 'distress call by key'. There wasn't too much of an information dump when he got to the Velvet Room but the key points were clear. Rien's in another castle and they have to storm a dungeon to get her.

Well it wasn't necessarily stated like that but there's the general gist of things.

As far as asking Mike to help, this was probably the time to do it. Considering how his weeks usually go it's been VERY quiet. It's been almost a WEEK since the incident at the studio between the Screaming Whisper and Catman. The Screaming Whisper turned out to be a fast learner so that got cut loose already. So that means he's had the time to become reasonably well rested.

Let's see how that plays out.

Despite being well rested, Mike finds himself bringing up the rear once more. He could practically feel that portal closing up behind him as his second foot hit the ground. The ponytailed musician glances back, seeing the scenery that the portal once obscured. The appearance of the area is noted. Once again there's a bit of a dream like quality to the area. Which makes the visual of the descent into nothingness a bit easier to process. Save for the exception that he's not currently Phantasmed. A glance to the tower and its placement makes him consider the switch for the moment in order to fly over, but Chas's speaking up halts that thought process.

Mike gives Batman a slight glance when Chas points him out.

Okay. Infiltrate, eliminate, and relocate. If the angel keels over, follow pointy ears. Got it.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    The Justice League Dark step onto the boat, and once they're all onboard it begins to move out into the lake, quietly, the only sound the ripples of the water against the sides of the boat. There's no wind, no crew manning oars, just a silently moving boat. It's kind of eerie.

    Then fog begins to roll in across the lake, a fog that rises up from the waterfall far below and up over the edge of the cliff. It envelops the boat, and for a long moment those standing on the deck are hidden from one another. The fog is chill, and damp, and clinging, and feels... empty and cold. Lonely. Isolating. It whispers of promises betrayed and hearts broken, of the strength in being One Alone. It whispers that no one will ever truly know or love you. It attempts to creep into the soul.

---

    "Well, we /did/ need you to fuel the NotThem's subterfuge, but with that over and done with, you'll make a /lovely/ centerpiece for our next show. I'm thinking 'Queen of Nothing' in bright lights, and your skin on the prima ballerina, now that we've enough for the corps de ballet." /What/ is it talking about? Who can say. It seems lost in its own little world, gesticulating as it describes this bizarre ballet it has in mind.

    One thing of note, however: the energy Rien might fire at the mannequin splatters across a shield of absolute negation, unraveling as if it never was. Nikola has defenses it hadn't shown yet, evidently.

    In the corner behind Nikola, a blue butterfly flutters into view, and Lavenza's voice can be heard: "They're coming! You just need to hold out a little longer!"

---

    "Of course I can sense magic, I'm /homo magi/," Agnes replies with aplomb. "Perfectly good magic, so far as I can tell. It's sort of... blue?" Agnes waggles a gloved hand back and forth. (Agnes always wears gloves. Even while asleep.) "Magic books are generally brilliant, though, /loads/ of fun. Go on, open it!"

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
"Now that's interesting.. I never got a choice for what I wanted to be when I grew up. My life was scripted out for me. Prima ballerina would have been nice," Rien responds conversationally, that pure white energy sent right at Nikola, flashing and sputtering out as it hits that shield. "Oooooo, tricksy Nikola. Guess I should pull my trump card..."

Snapping her fingers, the room suddenly lights up, dozens of slowly blinking tiny red lights, pulsing in sync. And a small cylinder appears in her hand with a bright red button at the top. "How do you feel about C-4, Nikola? Great invention, I was there for it. Well, in the area, at least. The first tests were.. stunning." She hefts the cylinder and smiles, "Deadman's switch. Love these little things." Those blue eyes lift to Nikola and she grins, "I know I'll survive... will you?" Her thumb hovers over the button, "Shall we find out?"

She doesn't look towards the butterfly, but gives a subtle nod of acknowledgement.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
It's a testament, probably, to how determined and singleminded his desire to find Rien, that Robbie hasn't even properly processed the fact that the fucking Batman is joining them on this little adventure. He spots the older man as he's climbing into the boat, one foot and then the other while holding on to the edge. God, if only Gabe could see it; first, his girlfriend is Wolverine's daughter. And now this.

"Let me take point," he asides to Chas while making room for the others to pile in. It isn't a question, but it's not quite a demand either. At this point, it's a wonder he's not gone off alone to hunt her down. The voyage, then, is undertaken in pensive silence as the fog rolls in.

---

Gabe grins broadly at the answer, his dark eyes lighting up. He wheels back over to Agnes. "Like Rien, right?" The name makes him falter slightly. He's so worried about her; Robbie messaged him that they were on their way to find her, tonight, but that's only created new fears. "Umm. I hate to be a stick in the mud, but my brother'll kill me if I get you hurt.." He glances back down at the book, and finds the edge of the cover with his thumb, opening it with a soft crackle of buckram as curiosity wins out.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas makes for the fore of the boat. His hands rest on the railing and he watches for their destination to draw close. He had already figured that he wouldn't try to be stupid and force the Ghost Rider to anything -but- take point; likely the man's more on edge that he is for this little excursion. He nods to the leather clad man in reserved silence as an agreement to his suggestion.

    The fog is new, but he was expecting tricks from these sorts already. As the mist touches his skin and starts to whisper to his mind he steels himself. He was alone for four months, strapped to the wall of the Silver City. That was terrible. This is worse.

    He sags a bit under the strain of whispers and calls out to the others. "Don't let it get to you!" he says. "Ignore it. Push it away. Just... this is their first attack. I don't think it can hurt us if we don't let it." He tries to infuse more power into the shielf of literal star-fire that surrounds him, hoping to use it as a bffer to push back the fog.

    He takes a step through the weighty fog, then another, then another. It's hard under the strain of the whispers of his life having no connections; of those he loves leaving him. His daughter dying in a speck of time, others drifting away, even angels grow tired of each other when eternity is as vast as it is.

    He makes his way to the closest of his companions, hoping to give them some shielding from the effects if he can. "If you can see the light I'm giving off, try to come to it. It should help... some."

Bruce Wayne has posed:
The boat begins to slip across the water, and Batman just stands there. Because he's Batman. He frowns slightly as the fog rolls in. The voices taunting and cursing. He does a very good job of ignoring it, knowing that it is a trick and a ploy, his willpower incredible in the face of such things.

The end, the strength of one alone, that no one will know or love him, starts to dig in. These are things that Batman, that Bruce, has lived with since he donned the cowl. When Dick left, when Jason died. These are the things that he said to himself. His thoughts shift to his children. To his family. All of them out there, giving of themselves to protect a city that can't protect itself. His shoulders square and his frown fades, lips twitching upwards so subtly that it's not even noticable. The voices crumble to dust.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Taking with Chas's advice, Mike did opt for traveling in the boat. Seemingly fitting with the general mood of the mission, the musician performs the sound of silence upon the vessel. What is it with other planes of existence and rides on questionable vehicles? Although, at the very least, this boat ride doesn't stink to high heaven like that one from a few years ago. As the cool caress of the fog travels along the skin exposed by the tee he wears, Mike skin becomes dotted with raised bumps, holding thin, barely visible hairs upwards in an attempt to regain warmth. The effects do not linger long, fading after a few minutes of adjustment. Pale eyes fix upon a spot immediately before them as Mike does what he can to ignore the whispers. What's one boat ride's length of this to eight years of it? Besides, he could think of two very good counterexamples to the argument already.

And yet, the expression darkens.

Should he?

He glances in the direction of the tower, determining how far away they must be from the island.

No. Not yet.

Cael Becker has posed:
    As they entered the boat, Cael began to prowl the deck restlessly, checking for any signs of threat, or danger. "Hey, what's with this fog?" she asks the others as it starts to rise up around them. She's a good distance from them as it washes over the boat, and she can feel its affects seeping into her. A childhood alone - with no siblings, shunned by most of the other children at school, caring for he rmother as much as her mother took care of her. Time in foster care and group homes - where she didn't truly //belong// anywhere. The death of her foster sister - the only family she'd had left, and the way she'd pulled herself away from anyone who might have cared for her - for fear of being hurt again.
    Lonliness was something she knew, and understood, and- in some ways, almost found to be a comfort.
    She has a family now but- Jon was gone, somewhere - had been for days. Martin had been gone for months. She and Sara were distant, as Sara grew more and more busy with work...
    It takes her a moment to even realize she's lost sight of the others. "Chas? Robbie? Guys?" She recieves no answer in reply.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    The light that the angel puts out cuts through the fog, back-lighting it at first and then slowly dissipating it so that the group can see that they're about halfway across the lake. They're moving in a sort of bubble in the fog, the bulk of the Tower rising in the distance. And Cael is nowhere to be seen, as if she dissipated with the fog. It's only Robbie, Chas, Batman, and Mike there on the deck now. Did she go down belowdecks? Jump over the side?

---

    "Ohhh, good idea. Usually it takes a whole truckload of the stuff to kill me for good, but you /might/ just have enough. But go on, then. Blow us all up!" Nikola raises its arms, and one can practically /see/ the beaming smile. "So long as you can remember what /us/ even means."

    Reality... twists. Warps. Folds in on and over itself.

    "You didn't think I'd be fool enough to try to fight you directly, did you? No, no, straight-out fights are for the Old Blood or the Risen War." There's a momentary flicker of annoyance at that last. "Which is what you have there, a tool of slaughter. It's a wonder /that/ didn't come to you alongside us, but you are so /terribly/ Lonely. Still. Unless you can make sure it remembers what it's supposed to be it won't save you." Is that a bluff? It could well be a bluff.

    The trouble is that Rien is beginning to forget... everything. Not just who she is, but what /anything/ is. What is she holding in her hand? What... even is a hand? Nouns are losing meaning, /meaning/ is losing meaning. Nothing is everything and everything is nothing and nothing has a name. The room is not a room, it just is. Rien is not Rien, she just... is. She can fight the sensation, but it's there, creeping in. Might be time to just drop the deadman's switch and see what happens.

---

    Agnes reaches up to toss dark red curls over her shoulder. "It'll be /fine/. The worst thing I've ever heard happening from a magic book is that my Dad got perfect recall from one." Somehow Jon did /not/ impress the Mr. Spider story on Agnes very well, considering someone died in that incident.

    The book cracks open, and the words practically jump out off the page. Not just words, but /images/ and sound. The first chunk of the book tells a story about a series of murders in New York, and the group of people that try to solve the murders, only to discover that the murderer is one of their own--a man possessed by an angel. He'd summoned the angel to try to protect his daughters from a demon. The heroes work to bind the angel, to stop it from killing anyone else, but something dark and terrible has snuck into the minds of one of their leaders, and whispered in his ear. It gives him an idea: bind the angel in two different places, and fold reality over on itself to make sure the binding sticks.

    They don't know that the angel in question is the archangel Michael, the being that created the universe. They don't realize until it's too late that their plan will briefly pull the /whole universe/ through Nullspace.

    In the story, horrible things out in the darkness of the abyss beyond the world see the streak of light created by the archangel moving through their realm, and follow that beacon to a gateway into this timeline. The Queen of Nothing, the woman without a Name. She should not be in this timeline, and she was created without a Name, and so she is Nothing. So the Old Ones, the Fears, can use her to enter this timeline and poison their enemies. When she re-enters the world, still channeling the power of the abyss, they do too. Then they begin to move about through time, making sure that their entry to the world will occur.

    In the meantime, the heroes exorcise the angel from their friend, and begin to prepare for an angelic invasion of Manhattan.

    "I know this story," Agnes whispers with a frown. How much does Gabe even know about the world of magic? About the truth of the invasion, and the origins of the Justice League Dark? She bites her lip, unsure how much to say.

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
"You.. you... can't..." Rien blinks, then shakes her head. A frown appearing on her lips as she stares down at the deadman's switch in her hand and tries to remember... just what it's for. Why she's holding it. Who this person(?) is across from her. These blinking lights..." She looks up at Nikola again, frowning, unable to halt the nagging feeling that she REALLY doesn't like this creature despite its cheerful smile. ...why, though?

What saves her, or rather, how she saves herself.. isn't even her own memories. They belong to someone else. Someone infinitely older and even lonelier than she. The Demiurge. Eons of memory fly around in front of her, brief flashes of sights, of sounds. Places or beauty and horror, whispered conversations overheard, tortured pleas for help. Her grip firms on the deadman's switch as she /glares/ at Nikola, "I /am/ lonely... there will always be a part of me that will be. Because /my/ fate is not to end, but to continue. On and on, for as long as there's an existence to continue. I will not end. Not for you, not for anything. /I/ decide my fate, and I will accept the Loneliness of it, but it will /not/ define me."

At the very last moment, Rien does two things:

1. She wraps herself in a glowing shield of rich blue energy.

2. She presses the trigger on the deadman's switch.

"My fate is my own and you will not decide it for me!"

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Robbie has to drag himself out of his twisting, spiraling thoughts -- memories of the fire that killed his parents, dying alone and in terrible agony, and being brought back again only to have no-one but his brother, and then the fire *he* started that could have killed the only family he has left -- to realise they're halfway across, and Cael is nowhere in sight.

"..fuck. Fuck. Cael?!" He moves to the edge of the boat, leaning over to scan the lake for signs of recent entry, or a struggle. "Hey, Becker, sound off!" To Chas, "You want me to go in and look for her? Rider doesn't need to breathe, I can stay under a while." Both Batman and Michael are shot a glance, like he's curious whether they saw or heard anything.

---

"Your dad got what?" Gabe looks dubious. "Are you sure about that?" Agnes's overconfidence does not seem to faze the older boy; he's had a lifetime of being Robbie's brother as practice. Nevertheless, he turns the page in the book, and starts reading-- and lets out a little sound at what happens next. It really *is* a magic book; as if they've been drawn into the story.

Gabe starts to look concerned as he narrates what happened with the archangel Michael and the Old Ones. And, "Nothing? Do you think.." He bites his lip. "Rien is Nothing. Her name, that is. It means Nothing. I-- I don't know this story, but. I think this might've happened. Be *happening*?" He looks up at Agnes slowly, fear creeping into his eyes.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas manages to look around and notices Cael's disappearance. He wars between sending Robbie and keeping the group together. The indecision is hidden on his face but the pause makes it clear enough. After a while he shakes his head. "No. She's not in the water. We would've heard her fall over the edge if she was."

    He sighs and moves back toward the prow. "We stay together. Cael will be back or she won't... we can't let them divide and conquer." He has to trust the woman's instincts. Human, werewolf, or whatever... Cael's a fighter through and through and he has to trust her. "Focus on the mission at hand. The tower and Rien. And trust that Cael will be back with us when she is able to. Wherever she is... it's her fight and her's alone."

    They're close. Just a little more time and they'll be there.

Bruce Wayne has posed:
The Batman weathers the storm of the fog and the voices like a champ. One of the perks of being The Batman. He shifts closer to the angelic beacon, which also helps drive away the voices. He glances around, taking stock. Finally, he speaks.

"We're missing one. Miss Becker is ... Hm."

Magic sucks, and he hates it. It's why he has people for this. He glances at the Ghost Rider and then to Chas. "I wouldn't split us up further. I don't know a lot about the Astral Plane, but I assume it's like a snowstorm. It's almost more dangerous to try and find someone in it than to let them find themselves."

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Mike's initial response to the added light is rathered subdued. But with his eyes closed, there's likely good reason for this. His shoulders raise up and hold.

Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

The shoulders lower. Lips purse slightly as he slowly lets out the breath he drew in earlier. The expression on his face lightens before the eyes open.

The newfound light when he opens his eyes gives a nod of approval. Mike turns his head to look over to Chas but pauses once the rest of the deck comes into view. Wait a minute. Eyes look to Robbie, then Chas, then Bruce. "Where -" He doesn't get much further than that as Robbie has already sounded the alarm. Listening in to the discussion about whether or not to look for Cael or not. "As much as I don't like it I have to agree with them." Mike admits, the frown settling in again. "We won't be helping her if we get separated too."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    As the group on the boat try to decide what to do about finding Cael, the boat just keeps moving, inexorably coasting along the lake toward the island, and a dock that matches the one on the other side of the water. Beyond, two hulking forms stand near the only obvious entrance to the Tower, obvious guardians. It looks as though there's a fight to be had, regardless of where Cael might be.

    The boat touches the edge of the dock.

    The top of the Tower explodes.

    The world... warps.

    In a moment, all is darkness. None of them can remember who they are, or even what a name is. What is darkness? What is /anything/?

    A reflective surface appears before each of them. (A mirror.) An image appears before them, an image that might be familiar. And it asks each of them the same question, in a voice that is familiar and yet not. If they were able to understand, they might recognize their own voice, but the way it sounds on a recording, oddly distorted without the echoes inside their own skulls to change the sound. The sound reverberates, doubles, overlaid with static and strangeness.

    "Who are you?" (Who are you?) (Who are you?)

---

    Rien winds up in this darkness as well, floating in Nothing, almost familiar, almost comforting. There is no image in the reflective surface before her. She still cannot remember what anything is--not a mirror, not a surface, not darkness, not herself. But she can hear the whispers.

    "Who are you?"

    "You are Nothing. You are no one."

    "Do you even exist?"

---

    Agnes frowns. "I think... I think it /already/ happened. I remember this. The angels, and Manhattan. I wonder..."

    Though the story in the book touches on the war with the angels, on the heroes fighting battle after battle and ultimately traveling to the Astral Plane to try to defeat the archangel, on passages through magic deserts and down to the Underworld, the main focus is on the Queen of Nothing, as she leaves the group of heroes to fight off the demons that might try to take advantage of the chaos. On her lonely vigil, separated from those she might have called friends, by what she felt was her duty. She was not created to fight angels, after all. So she is alone as the others bond and struggle, until the very end, when she joins with them again for the final confrontation.

    In that battle, she and a handsome young man share a terrible experience--they both gain the memories of the creation of their universe, of its entire existence. It is stunning and painful, but it causes them to bond. They fall in love. They move in together. The Queen of Nothing joins with the other heroes. She begins to make friends. Things are looking up.

    And then a monster appears in her mirror, and her whole world shatters and begins to fall apart.

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Rien floats through the Nothing, a peaceful smile on her lips at the quiet of it all... Nothing to disturb her rest. At least, not until the voices begin. She frowns at them, the buzzing annoyance of those voices pulling her from her blissful Nothingness. Making her try to think, to reason.

"I am here, so I must exist. If I didn't exist, I wouldn't hear you. So I cannot be Nothing. Otherwise you would not be asking me." She reasons it out, lifting a shrug before settling back into her slow drift through the blank darkness. "You make less sense than Wonderland. But Wonderland has a Queen already. So if this is Nothing... and I am Queen of Nothing... then you have to listen to me. Now leave me alone."

No, none of it makes a lick of sense, except perhaps to her. The Nameless One, the proclaimed Queen of Nothing.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
He has to agree that they're right. And if his girlfriend's life weren't hanging in the balance, he might insist on going to look for Cael. But, for better or for worse, she's on her own for now; and Robbie's back to pacing at the prow of the boat, one and only one goal in mind: breach the tower, and find Rien.

The explosion that occurs next seems to happen in slow-motion. He feels the boat bump against the dock, and sway in place. The last thing he remembers is the feel of the wood beneath his hands as he begins to climb out, and the way the top of the tower bulges and bursts at the seams, pieces of it collapsing; silent over the rush of water and static that fills his head as everything is replaced by Nothing.

"Who are you?"

"I don't remember. I came here to find something. Something important." If only he could remember *what*.

---

"I thought that was.." Gabe's fingertips hover over the page, about to turn it again. "I thought it was just a fairytale. Robbie told me not to worry, that we'd be safe. That he'd take care of me. But you know, I take care of him just as much as he takes care of me."

He pauses when they reach the part about the young man their Queen of Nothing fell in love with. He might be a muggle, but he isn't *stupid*. He does know this story. Goosebumps prick his skin once the monster in the mirror shows up, and Agnes can see him swallow as he narrates.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas floats in the dark for a while. It's nice. It allows him to think. He lets all memory of who he was fade... at least that that can. Standing before the mirror is an angel. That much is clear. Nothing can have those wings and that fire about them without being an angel. The questions come from the angel and he listens to them.

    Who -is- he? He had a name, right? Everything has a name. What is he? That querey returns a much different result. Part of it is garbled. An unknown. The other part is clear. Something inexorable that cannot be removed from the memory of the universe. An ANGEL. One of the Hosts of Heaven. He is one of them and nothing he could hope to do would change that.

    Which means that must be him in the mirror. That makes sense. That's what mirrors do, right? They reflect. Right. He reches up to look at his hands, worn and calloused from years of work. He touches his face, scarred and lined from the hard life he lived before his time as an angel. But what is that life? A soldier? Is he a soldier? He misses the feel of something in his hand and, as if on cue a blade of liquid flame manifests there. A sword. He knows this weapon. It's -his- weapon. He -is- a soldier. But that's not enough to answer the question. There is more missing.

    What else can he be? There is a hole in his chest, a void that is filled by the smiling face of a young girl. A daughter. Geraldine. His Geraldine. He is a father. More of the pieces fall into place. What else? Images of his friends and comrades come to mind. His friends. He is friend. One face in particular, a perfect feminine face with alabaster skin and white hair. Asariel. His beloved. He is a lover. More answers fall into place and with them come words.

    "I am Francis Chandler. Father of Geraldine. Friend to many. Lover to Asariel. Dominion of the Ninth Rank. The Freebound General. The Remade Commander." The fire around him flares incandescent, boiling away the darkness around him and all questions that linger within. "I am your enemy for all time. I am the sentinel at the other side of the door that bars your way. I am the barrier that keeps you from breaking open the dam of your prison. I will forever be there to keep you back and -nothing- you can do will stop me from fullfilling that mission."

Bruce Wayne has posed:
Reality shifts, and Batman prepares for the worst. Unfortunately, the worst he prepares for is ... Not this.

Nothingness. Emptiness. A mirror. In this mirror is a child, a boy of around ten with dark hair and serious eyes. The boy looks up at Bruce. His voice full of the crushing sorrow of someone whose entire world has been shattered.

"Who are you?"

Bruce looks at the boy, confused and anxious. Luckily he is alone, and the mystique will hold. "I ... I don't know? ... No. I do know. I'm you. Something happened ..."

A gunshot. A scream. Another gunshot. Silence. A shattered heart. Traveling the world, learning violence. Becoming The Detective. His father's chair, shattering glass.

A bat.

"I am Batman. I protect my city," he says, looking at the image in the mirror. "So others do not have to suffer as I did. So that no one else has to make the choice I did."

The darkness fades, and Batman is ... Back on the boat? On the shore? It's hard to tell right now.

Michael Hannigan has posed:
The visual of the tower exploding causes for Mike to instinctively jump back. Or, at least he tries. He finds himself standing still a moment later only to see a mirror, illuminated via some unseen source. The very frame of the reflective surface acts as the only form of contrast in the area.

The reflection on the other side is much shorter. A brown haired boy, who can be no more than the age of eleven stares back with wide pale eyes. Red flecks of red dot along the face. One of the splotches is slowly traveling down the curve of the cheek.

"Who are you?" The voice, though garbled, seems stressed.

Mike is wordless, tilting his head as he looks to the smaller visage and sets his hand upon the frame, comparing the height difference. As he looks back to the reflection, he finds the figure grown. Older. But this time the blood's dripping from the knuckles.

"Who are you?"

Mike parts his lips, watching as the reflection grows darker, leaving nothing but the glow of the eyes and teeth to greet him.

"Who are you?"

"I..."

The visual of a pair of arms wrapping around the reflection gives Mike pause, giving a gulp, he tries to get a glimpse of the other. But seeing nothing, he grimaces.

Mike's eyes narrow, "...I'm Michael. I am a survivor. And I was loved. And I not going to let anymore of these ASSHOLES tell me or anyone else otherwise."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    The darkness pulses at the reactions, at the defiance of the angel and the Batman, at the Phantasm's declaration, and something /growls/. Something dark and terrible, that /wants/ them. And though it might try to grab at Robbie's confusion, it's all enough to push reality back to being... /something/. Something real, and true. An Ivory Tower at the edge of the Astral Plane, on a lake fed by a river that spills into a Sea of Souls far below. A Tower that overlooks a chunk of the Anti-Matter Universe, Nullspace.

    They stand in the ruins of the top of the Tower, the group of them, amidst the wreckage of a plastic mannequin and everything Rien had summoned up for herself. Reality warps and a feminine-looking mannequin appears before the group, a thing dressed in a ringmaster's costume with a red top hat. A thing with no face, and yet somehow there is a sense of an expression of distorted rage upon that blank face.

    "Fool. At this rate I'm going to run out of copies." The mannequin jerks oddly, seems to glitch, bilocate. "N-n-no matter. I will dispose of you all. You're too late to save her. She's gone. Or did she ever exist to begin with?"

    Wax figures suddenly surround the group, and leap to attack.

---

    Laughter echoes through the darkness surrounding Rien. "Bold words for one trapped in this place. Have you finally embraced your fear? Are you willing to admit you are Nothing? That you are ours? Are you willing to take your place as one of us?"

    "Or will you declare yourself Queen of /Nothing/, and be a Queen Alone? Embrace the Loneliness, the inevitable fact that you alone will survive to the end of time? That everyone you love will age and wither and die while you continue on?"

    There's a faint blue light in the darkness. Is that true? Is Rien /alone/? Really? Forever? With all the people around her who don't age...

    The voices go on as if they hadn't noticed the light in the darkness. "Choose, Queen of Nothing. Choose your path. Become the center of our dance, and lead us."

    "Choose, Queen of Nothing. Choose your path. Reject all others, and embrace your unique place. You do not belong. You are alone."

    A blue butterfly flutters across Rien's vision. A whisper down in her soul. An assurance that she /exists/, name or no name.

---

    "My Dad died to save the world from the angels," Agnes says softly, voice laced with pain she still hasn't really processed, because he's back, after all, right? He's alive. What is there to be hurt about?

    The story becomes filled with horror. The mirrors shatter, the Queen's aura begins to fade, the apartment burns down. There's no doubt, now, who this story is about. But then something happens they didn't know about--a horrible monster touches her and transports her to an Ivory Tower, while the monster replaces her and lives her life. Another monster, a plastic ringmaster, shows up and taunts her. And though the Queen guts it every time, spilling clockwork and stuffing across the floor, it returns over and over.

    Then the heroes uncover the way she's been replaced, and the monster comes to unmake her. The heroes come for her, crossing a fog-covered lake. The Queen blows up the top of the Tower. She floats in darkness.

    The narration indicates the problem: the Queen of Nothing has no Name. She does not belong in this reality, and so she is a gateway and an anchor for these things. She can fight them, hold herself together, but there is a fundamental thing she lacks, something that would let her hold on through the darkness.

    She needs a Name. It's the only way to defeat the Nothing tearing at her soul. Without it, the Nothing will consume her entirely.

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Floating in that comfortable darkness, it would be so easy to give in. To embrace the title, embrace the Nothing and just.. let it all go.

But that pulse of light catches her attention, makes her frown. That is Something. /She/ is Something. Perhaps not what she was created to be, but Something nonetheless. The frown deepens.

"N-no. I am... Something. Someone. There are.. people that care for me. I have.. a life. A duty. Friends. Family. I can't stay here. I can't... be Nothing. That might be my title, but it is not who I /am/." Rien clenches a hand, tyring to pull free of this darkness that seemed so comfortable, so comforting, just a few moments ago. She starts to struggle against the Nothing.

Still, she can feel the Nothing gnawing at her, that insidious whisper telling her to give in. "I can't stay... I need to get back. Back to my friends, to my... family."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
The mannequin, the thing with its un-face warped into a rictus of rage, serves to pull Robbie out of whatever endless thought loop he'd gotten himself into. He raises his head as he straightens slowly, every inch of him a weapon. A living, breathing weapon only waiting for the last thread of control to *snap* so he can show this thing what rage really is.

"Liar," he snarls. "She's alive. And I'm gonna get her back." And then he calls, and the Rider answers; his body goes up in a great gout of hellfire, his face burns and crumbles and falls away as ash, and all that's left is the metal plate over his skull-- and his lean frame surging in with a flash of flaming khukri.

---

Gabe's wonder is subverted by pain as Agnes tells him about her father. Jon. Someone Robbie's mentioned, of course, but not in any great detail. It's a pattern for him, not letting himself get close to people. Putting up walls, shutting down, trying to go it alone so he can't be betrayed again.

Pain, and then terror as the horrors begin to multiply. As the reality of what's happened, and what's yet to happen, is illuminated.

"The heroes travel to find her, across a fog-covered lake. The Queen of Nothing destroys the tower as they approach, and she is suspended in an endless dark." He wets his lips, staring at the page for a long while before jerking his dark eyes to Agnes. "I know what to do. I know how to fix this. How do we deal with the darkness?" A grin splits his face. She knows the answer to this, certainly.

"Lucienne. Her name's Lucienne." Light.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas lashes out with that flaming blade at the wax figures. Angelfire meets Abyssal infusion and there is a discordant cry as the two parties war over whether or not creation is sustained or destroyed. Chas releases a bellow of terrifying defiance and the blade cuts through, bisecting the figure from shoulder to opposite hip.

    He kicks the two halves free of each other and steps forward. "Come on!" he says as another two jump on him from opposite sides, tearing and biting and striking. He drops to a knee and the flames around him flicker for a moment before roaring back with more ferocity and frenzy. Chas leaps into the air, a pair of silver wings appearing on his back that gracefully flap and hold him aloft.

    He spins in midair and the wax figures fall to the ground thudding with sickening wet sounds as the fires melt away their substance.

    "You're going to have to do better than that, faceless one" the angel calls to the Ringmaster as he levels the burning sword at it. "We fight for something you can't comprehend. We fight for our friend. We fight to save what you stole. We fight because you do not belong in our world." A beam of holy flame, looking more like a laser cutter than anything fire flashes from the end of the blade toward that Ringmaster.

Bruce Wayne has posed:
Coming out of the mirror daze, Batman rapidly takes in his surroundings. The ruined tower. The faceless thing speaks, and the Batman frowns at it. He considers an angle of attack when wax-things appear out of nowhere!

Magic is terrible.

The Dark Knight gets blindsided by one of them, his vision swimming for a moment as instinct and training take over. He engages in tactical fisticuffs, doing his best to corral and drive the thing towards the ledge at the top of the ruined tower.

Gravity still works, right?

Cael Becker has posed:
    A single piece of wall stands at the edge of the top of the ruined tower - and somehow a door appears in it, and swings open. Who could blame our heroes if they grow anxious about what might walk through that door?
    So it's no doubt a relief when it's Cael that strides through, a determined set to her jaw. She doesn't hesitate in drawing one of the pistols she brought with her, immediately firing into the wax figures she sees leaping towards her allies. She needs the precision accuracy she can get with her pistol - the AR-15 is more power than it is precission and she can't risk harming her friends. "It looks like I missed something," she remarks. "Chas - focus on her, we'll deal with the rest of these things."

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Getting a growl back, Mike forms a half smile. Bullies never liked having to work for things. There's a twitch to the expression as the smile reverses along with the rest of the features. The scar that usually resides on his right forearm has once more relocated to the left. If they really wanted him to reflect upon himself, they got what they wanted as Mike Phantasms.

When the manniquin face comes into view, the dreamer cocks his head to the side to the appearance. Is this a THING nowadays? Looking like mannequins? He just had to babysit one of these things and now he's having to fi-

Before he can finish the thought Mike sees one of the creatures running towards him. He leaps up, flipping over the creature before turning around, concentrating his strength into a forceful shove to the mannequin's back. Here. Have a little extra momentum!

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "Perfect! And DONE!"

    The voice is not Lavenza's, nor is it Elizabeth's, nor Igor's, nor any of the other voices of the attendants of the Velvet Room they have met. It is a voice that echoes in all of their souls, their own voice and yet not, the voice of their soul and yet the voice of all souls. Whoever it is, they're /thrilled/ at this turn of events.

    The darkness around Rien shatters, falls around in fragments like the mirrors she'd shattered in the house before. It's her struggle that does it--the Name gives her the power, to struggle against the darkness, to use her desire to get /home/. And she's back there in the tower, standing amongst the ruins with her friends.

    Gravity works, and swords work, and pistols work, and the Phantasm works, and they make short work of the wax figures.

    Nikola shakes its head as the beam splashes across its necrotic shield, using up the last of the shield's energy. "No no no nO No nO NO NO NO NO NO! THIS IS NOT HOW THE STORY GOES! YOU EXPLODE AND YOU DIE AND THAT'S THAT!" It snarls, raising its arms. "If I have to die so do you! If I have to ex-ex-explode...!"

    Reality folds in on itself and five more mannequins appear, one for each of the members of the Justice League Dark. They move in to attack as one, plastic fingers growing claws, plastic face suddenly distorting in a horrific rictus grin full of terrible teeth. The claws attempt to rend and tear, the teeth attempt to bite, uncaring of what they're going after. Hellfire or angel fire, Nullspace or Astral power or normal human weapons--the mannequins merely attack, screaming in rage.

---

    The story has caught up, and even Gabe and Agnes hear the voice. Agnes laughs in delight. "I don't know what you did, but I think it worked! Did you feel that? /Powerful/ magic, that was. Names have power."

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Rien smiles at the familiar voice that gives her her Name. That familiar light blue glow starts to surround her, lining her completely as that Darkness shatters and Rien finds herself facing off against Nikola. A fierce grin appears, those foot-long claws aliding out from the backs of her hands.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhh, Nikola. I tried to tell you. I gave you a chance... I might be Lonely, but I am /not/ Alone. And you.. you are expendable. A mid-level villain." She launches herself at Nikola, claws first, looking to tear the creature apart a piece at a time. SOon enough there will be reunions and celebrations. Right now, they fight!

Robbie Reyes has posed:
The Ghost Rider tears through one, two, three wax figures in quick succession. These things are no real match for the JLD; and they're certainly no match for this one's rage. As they've all witnessed once before, that rage makes him stronger. With each slice of his blades and snap of his chains, his aspect becomes more fearsome. Rage gives him long, twisting horns that he uses to gore and mutilate his prey; hooked, serrated fangs and wiry legs that end in birdlike feet.

And once they run out of enemies, and more appear, he roars, and surges back in with his blades flashing. There is only killing at the moment. Killing and killing and killing.

---

"Shit--" Gabe nearly drops the book in his surprise, and his own nervous, joyous laughter joins with Agnes's. "Yeah, yeah, I felt that. I *felt* it. How could I feel it? I don't have any-- I mean, I'm not special like you. Like Rien." Blink. "Lucienne, I mean." He looks down at his hands, then back up to the girl. "It felt right, you know? Like I've always known it, and just.. forgot."

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas smiles at Rien and Cael's. "Good to have you back with us," he says before he charges to meet his ringmaster mannequin head on. He lets the claws sink into the muscle on his left arm with a hiss of pain. Blood spills hot and red against the white expanse of Rien's ruined cell. The tip of the blade drives against the center mass of the figurine, pressing against the dark magic that animates it.

    This isn't like the mannequins he fought before, during his investigation for River. The magic here is stronger. Darker. More vile. But he is an angel and this is the true enemy of his people. More than demons. More than devils. More than any other foe, he was made to struggle against the darkness of the Void.

    The pinprick of holy light at the tip of his sword parts the dark energy and the blade slides home. "Got you," he growls with sinister intent before flying up and then straight down, looking to shatter his foe on the floor of the field of battle with devestating speed and power.

Bruce Wayne has posed:
More strange, inhuman creatures! The Batman ducks a lethal claw swipe, dropping low in a swirl of black cape. He sweeps to the side, fishing a pair of Batarangs from his belt and hucking them at the feet of the plastic thing.

Should they pierce, a light will begin flashing in the middle of them. Bright red, it blinks faster and faster until the Batarangs explode.

It's not that bad, just kind of like an M80. So it might not have feet or shins anymore, so what?

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Oh, com'on. More of these fucking things?!" Cael exclaims. As one of the mannequins leaps at her, she fires off several rounds center mass -but it doesn't seem to do much to stop the creature. //Figures.//
    The pistol is dropped so she can twist to the side, avoiding the clawed hands, and reach out to grab the mannequin by the warm, dropping her shoulder to jam it into the... creature's? chest so she can toss it, aiming for the edge of the tower. She's not sure she'll make the distance - but it does place the mannequin away from her friends, allowing her to bring up the AR-15 - so she can really lay into it.
    There's some very palpable relief at Rien's appearance - she is alive. She is herself. But this is not the time for reunions.     

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Second verse, same as- Well no. These ones have claws.

Knowing something the one running at him doesn't know, the phantasm runs up to meet it halfway. But instead of leaping over this time, he allows for the creature to make a strike towards him. As the claws swing towards his face, Mike leans back, a hand grabbing the wrist of the mannequin and throwing it.

Right into the path of the Ghost Rider Destruction Train. That guy seems like he could use a bit of stress relief.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    One by one, the mannequins are gutted, ripped, torn, shot. The Ghost Rider and the angel have the easiest time of destroying them--their power was meant to fight these things, after. Rien has a fairly easy time, too. Michal's smart enough to whack his into the Rider's path--and everyone's already seen how well explosions work against the mannequins. Batman's version of Nikola explodes, right off its feet, following the one Cael chucked out into the darkness beyond the Tower. Cael's AR-15 guts that one, destroying its torso and head by leaving limbs sailing into the darkness. There /might/ be enough left for /one/ more Nikola, but it's sailing off into Nullspace.

    And then it's done, and there are no more enemies. The wax figures are chopped to bits or melted. The mannequins are gutted and torn to pieces where they aren't complete destroyed. There are only a pair of huge, hulking forms that appear just long enough to reach down and pick up one of Nikola's red top hats.

    "Don't mind us," one says in a bad Cockney accent.

    "Just picking up the trash," says the other.

    "Be seeing you," They say in unison. And then they disappear, as reality also folds around them.

---

    "Magic isn't really all that special," Agnes replies, smiling. "I mean, it's /special/, but it's also at the core of everything. Dad says magic is just an application of will to change reality. He says any time anyone looks at the way the world is and says 'no, it should be different,' and works to change it--that's magic. What we do, it's just more /obvious/. And easier to do alone. You need a lighter to make fire." Agnes holds up her hand and balances a flame on her palm. "I don't. But either way, we're making /fire/. Isn't that magic?"

    She grins at Gabe as she closes her palm, putting out the tiny flame. "You knew what you had to do, to fix a problem, and you did it. That's /definitely/ magic."

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
The Nikola clones fall to pieces, melting, exploding, burning... and Rien's left standing there feeling vaguely dissatisfied by how /quickly/ they were all dismembered. This isn't over. Well, it is NOW, but there's still more to come. She lets out a breath and tosses her hair over her shoulder before turning towards the group with a smile, "I knew you'd come. Your timing was perfect."

The two giant figures are frowned at as they claim a top hat and disappear. Sighing heavily, she shakes her head, "One of these times, I /will/ destroy that... that /thing/ for good."

But then there's a Robbie. Or, well, a Ghost Rider. Her face lights and she /flies/ across the intervening space to tackle him into a tight hug. "ROBBIE!" Eli might as well give it up right now, she's not letting go until she gets her man back. Holding tight to him, she peeks over her shoulder at Chas and smiles, "Look at you. Even got Batman out of Gotham for me? I'm flattered, and impressed."

Her eyes turn to Cael next and she murmurs, "Thank you. For not giving in, or giving up. I owe you big time, Cael."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
They *were* made to fight these things, Chas and he. It doesn't erase the enmity between them; but it does let them put it aside for a greater goal. And that goal is only accomplished once every single mannequin is torn to pieces, and that eerie stillness descends on the battlefield.

The cleanup crew over there's doing their thing, but Robbie cannot spare a single shit for them-- because his girlfriend, his *actual* girlfriend is right fucking there. His body's wrested back from the Rider with a guttural growl of determination, and no small amount of pain as flesh starts to heal over the equivalent of third degree burns.

"I got you-- oof." He catches her, collides with her, a little from column A and a little from column B. He smells like brimstone and fire and a clean sweat. "Hey, baby, I missed you. I missed you." Nope, he's not letting go any time soon. Everything else be damned.

---

"Your dad sounds like a smart guy," Gabe ventures, still grinning, eyes bright. He watches as Agnes creates fire by simply thinking about it, and laughs. "Showoff. I dunno, maybe you're right. Maybe I *can* do magic." He runs his fingers over the last page of the book, then closes it. Wheels away to tuck it back in his bag. "Still don't know how this got here.."

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas watches impassively as the two hulking men with Cockney accents retieve what the can of the mannequine and disappear. "It's never easy..." he says to himself before turning to Rien and putting a brave face on. "Well... I had to figure out what sort of homecoming present to get for a Frenchie like yourself. I figured Gotham's finest detective was a good start" he grins.

    He looks to Cael and smiles. "Good to see you back as well" he says giving her a nod of approval. "And still in one piece. I knew you had it in you. We can talk about what you endured later. That is... if you want to." He knows he is no substitute for Jon, but he does consider her a friend.

    He looks to the gathering and smiles wide. "I'd call that a mission accomplished if there was one! What do you say we go home and have a round for celebration!"

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael frowns at the strange pair that briefly appear, bring her weapon around to bear- but they're already disappearing by the time she fires off a shot. "Fuckers," she mutters under her breath.
    Rien's heartfelt words of thanks catch her off guard, and she looks towards her with a surprised expression on her features. Rien had been aware of everything that had been happening...? "I, uh- you're welcome," she says awkwardly. "...what're friends for, yeah?" she adds, with a small, uncomfortable smile.
    Turning away, she wipes something from her eyes - probably something flew into her face during the fight. Right? ... right.
    Clearing her throat, she looks towards Chas, her smile small, and tight. "Wasn't nothing. Just some... assholes who tried to make me forget who I am. You know? I took care of it."

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Mike ends up giving a contented nod as the Rider takes care of his off balance foe. It is likely that the Phantasm could have tended to this one the same way as the last one but- It seemed excessive considering they already brought a Ghost Rider.

The pair of persons suddenly appearing to collect the top hat and vanish causes for him to frown. "...Just don't go putting that hat on any snowmen." He mutters. A bit too late for the strange people to hear him. But then again, maybe it's better they didn't. They might just do that.

He looks over to the newly found Rien, giving a smile. He lifts a hand up to give a wave with the right hand, the scar suddenly reappearing on the arm as his his features un-mirror.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    The butterfly up in the corner flutters around the heads of the group and then becomes Lavenza, who smiles brightly at the group. "I /knew/ you could do it!" she says brightly. "You should not linger here for long, however. That thing's master will come to investigate, and we should not give him any excuse to come after us directly." Golden eyes regard Rien. "You learned a truth, I believe, yes? An important one. A /name/."

    She smiles brightly. "Names are very important, don't you think?"

    She turns, twirling, and creates a blue door in the air with a wave of her hand. "I'll leave this here for you to return to the Velvet Room whenever you're all ready. Right now, I need to go find your missing leader. Not all who wander are lost, after all."

    And then she's gone, in a puff of blue light.

---

    "Magic, probably," Agnes says, as if this really is the most obvious explanation. She seems to be pondering something, and sighs after a moment.

    "Maybe Dad's right. Maybe I'm /not/ old enough to do this hero stuff. I didn't even see the answer, and I /know/ magic." She smiles at Gabe.

    Then, "How about another round of Mario Kart?"

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
"Missed you too. Hope you kept your stuff in the car because you're coming home," it gets murmured against his collar as she holds onto Robbie, not inclined to let go for anything.

Michael gets a small smile and wave, mouthing 'Sorry for the weird hugging thing, wasn't me' at him. To Chas, she grins and offers, "You know, you're not bad, for a Brit. And yes. Definitely away, celebration tonight. Tomorrow, we need to talk. I found out some information, you're going to want it. Jon too, when he's back."

She doesn't call attention to Cael's eye-wiping, only smiling at her and giving a nod, "What friends are for. And don't worry, no hugs unless /you/ initiate. I respect boundaries." Because THAT is Rien. Lavenza gets a smile and a nod, "Yeah. From the best possible source, too. I owe him a /big/ thank you. And you, too. For letting me know."

SHe pulls back from Robbie just enough to smile up at him, "Lets go back to the sitting room and celebrate with everyone a bit. Then you and I have some time to make up for."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Robbie, the big clod, is actually crying for once. The guy who never lets on that he has any emotions besides GRR VIOLENCE. Arms wrapped tightly around Rien, he actually lifts her off her feet for a moment, kisses her, and sets her back down again. His knuckles are swiped quickly across his eyes, and he nods to her decision. Permits a small, rare smile that teases out his dimples. "Okay."

---

"Magic. Yeah." Gabe's voice is soft, and he pauses a long moment to consider that. Well, once his brother finally came clean and admitted he wasn't just a normal guy working at a mechanic shop, who happened to get in more than his fair share of scrapes. At night. Every night. And yet somehow, miraculously, was almost never still hurt come morning.

Yeah, the idea of magic is becoming a little more plausible.

"Mario Kart sounds good," he agrees as he heads back over, reaching for his controller. "But this time? You're going *down*."

Chas Chandler has posed:
    The fire around Chas slowly fades as the adrenaline wears off and he looks normal again. He chuckles at Cael's modesty. "Oh, certainly. Easy to just say fuck off to entites that pre-date time. Sure." He shakes his head and then listens to Rien's information. "Best news I've had all week, looking forward to it."

    He gives another look at the ruined tower and then out to the abyss beyond the edge of the astral. "Come on guys. I'll warm up the bar." He lets the two embrace and heads for the door left by Lavenza. He's more than happy to get out of this place and eager to be in the safe confines of the Velvet Room.

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Oh, I know. Unlike that... fucking monster." A shiver runs through as she adds viciously, "She was hugging //Jon.//" And she couldn't convince Jon to- stop it from happening.
    That had been hard, but it was in the past.
    Stooping, Cael retrieves the pistol she'd dropped, and pushes it back into its holster, before she adds, "Now we just need Jon back. But- he'll be back. He's coming back." Her gaze goes to where the blond haired... 'girl' had been a moment ago. What did //she// know about Jon?
    "Anyways. I need a fucking drink - you know?"
    She steps through the door, calling over to Chas, "Well it helps that 'fuck you' is like - my default setting. You know?"

Michael Hannigan has posed:
Mike's arm lowers as Rien returns the wave. Instead he ends up focusing on her lips as she mouths a brief explanation. Oh good the weird hug wasn't from someone he previously met but from a total stranger. That's real comforting.

Well, not normally but with the occupation he chose he could at least say Rien's not the one putting off the weird 'way too familiar fan vibe' at least. When Robbie starts crying, Mike glances away and instead looks to the others and then the door to the Velvet room. The promise of drinks does seem like a good way to end such an outing and he fully intend to step on over to the bar once he's sure everyone's accounted for.

Once he's certain Robbie and Rien are on their way out too, Mike uses the door.