12466/Shadowcrest Mages and Plans

Shadowcrest Mages and Plans
Date of Scene:	17 August 2022
Location:	Shadowcrest Manor - Bristol Township
Synopsis:	What started as control for Charlie Gages ends up being a discussion about Phoebe's malady and Atrun-Rai's adventures into the darker pasts of Atlantis
Cast of Characters:	Phoebe Beacon, Zatanna Zatara, Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe, Atrun Rai

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Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Another day, another training period on the grounds of Shadowcrest Manor, though this time Phoebe felt a little more prepared to work with Charlie. She arrives in a glade at the heart of the woods surrounding the grounds, and she slips off a heavy backpack, listening to the music of birds and the rustling of leaves in the trees. She did like it here, in Shadowcrest, in the woods where the pervasive sounds of Gotham City didn't reach.

    The young woman with the short curls and coils takes a look around, and then she begins to set up a few things. First was a blue crystal wrapped in copper wire, which she sets to the side. Another was a couple of candles, and then with a slight sound of frustration she pulls from her bag a fire-resistant blanket, which has a containment circle enscribed on it.

    And, for good measure, a fire extinguisher. Just in case.

    Behind her, Idu bounds through the woods with the utmost glee, chasing butterflies nearby.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Zatanna takes no magical shortcuts when she wishes to spend time in the glade. The long walk in settles her, brings her back to the great magic that animates the wood. Truly, it glows with a special magic, its heart in the large oak whose branches tower high above the other trees, embracing the natural circle of soft fine grass, studded with golden and white flowers.

The magician paces slowly into the glade and inspects Phoebe's magical preparations with care before giving her a short, satisfied nod.

"Charlie should be along shortly. The fire extinguisher is not a bad idea though I think you both should be able to put a fire without it."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe gives a nod, and gives a wry smile to the fire extinguisher followed by a little shrug. It pays to be prepared.

    She sits down in the grass a moment, watching Idu gambol about chasing the flitting, colorful butterflies a moment before she looks to Zee.

    <How have you been, Zatanna?> she questions.

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    There is a slash of pink and purple smoke as she touches down near Phoebe and Zee. The inaudible but sharp sensation of CHAOS magic is evident to any with a lick of magical senses though. It is jarring to anyone of order for sure.

    Charlie actually looks sheepish, both because of the fire extinguisher and because of the sheer amount she is distracted by the sight hound now "Pupper!" okay not very sheepish as she steps towards Idu and butterflies.

    Big mood Idu. Big mood.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
There is a long pause while they both watch the butterflies loop from flower to flower with Idu fast on their trail. Zatanna fills her lungs with the pure air of the glade, none of Gotham's pollution penetrates the ground around Shadowcrest.

"I have been well and busy since the Asgardian Embassy asked me to lend a hand with a project they have. We have been traveling between the realms," she answers aloud.

After seating herself cross-legged in the grass not far from Phoebe, a hand on each knee, she leans forward with smile, "I was on a boar hunt in Alfheim just last week, if you can believe it." She slaps her knee and straightens. the smile sobers somewhat.

Grasping her own throat in one hand, she asks with a meaningful tilt of her head, "And you?"

Atrun Rai has posed:
    Somewhere in the house, reality flexes - then warps, splitting open like plastic stretched over the mouth of a heat gun. Through that rent in existence laps darkness, fluid and menacing, spilling out the trunk of a tree in the form of writhing tendrils and coruscating black mist. Atrun-Rai steps out of the wound amongst the horror-stuff...and it withdraws immediately as he does, the sundered trunk sealing once more as if nothing had ever touched it. Perhaps one day, though, the kernal of rot placed deep within the old oak thanks to the Atlantean's passing will make itself known, and all that will be left of his passing will be sun-bleached driftwood. Such is entropy. Such is he.

    But. This morning, sheltered from the sunlight by the ancient trees, he walks quietly through the wood even as the world trembles quietly in his passing - no active threat to them, those ancient oaks, he nonetheless should not exist. He is /wrong/ here. Walking, talking life might not percieve it, but the land knows. The trees know. The world...knows. He will not linger overlong.

    Charlie's flash of magic up ahead catches his attention, and Atrun-Rai smiles. Feels other, familiar powers. Well, it will not be a long walk, after all. Strokes his beard of neat, coiled curls as he steps to the edge of the glade, the spiritual cleanliness of the place something that he does not wish to despoil without permission. Waits, for the moment, and watches the two women speak.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    <You know. Busy, busy. Trying to re-establish myself. Still have nightmares about what happened.> Phoebe replies noncommittally <Had to force my voice to work, so now it's back to 'six months from now maybe'. BUt I can't work what I need to while there's something going on with something using a bunch of urban legends for its workings. It's *weird*. Feels almost like what D- The Other One was working against last year.> she explains, and then her head snaps up. She catches Charlie's arrival, and she gives a smile, raising her hand -- but giving a grin as the other young mage goes towards Idu.

    Phoebe can't blame her. Idu was a good dog. The sight hound pauses, his ears turning towards Charlie, and he gives a happy sounding yodeling call, and goes to investigate the sense of Chaos magic.

    Phoebe then pauses, and tilts her head as she gets a sense of someone else joining them, and she gives a bright smile.

    <Atrun-Rai is here.> she 'thinks' to Zatanna, and gives a wave to the venerable Atlantean.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Zee's vision blurs momentarily as reality twists like a cobweb caught in a gale then rights itself. Charlie's Chaos jitters into existence and not far behind it she senses Atrun-Rae's uniquely dark signature. If the magic manifested here were electrical, the four of them together could power the lights of both Gotham and New York combined.

"Idu come!" she cajoles, suddenly wanting the comfort of his warmth at her knee.

Her eyes flick from Atrun entering their magic circle to Phoebe, then to Charlie. She rises out of respect and uncurls a hand, inviting him to sit.

"Come join us." Then, looks down at Phoebe with an inquisitive lift of her eyebrows, "What were you planning to practice?"

Gesturing between Phoebe and Atrun, she frowns slightly, "I'm sorry I haven't been available to lend a hand, Phoebe. Did you explain what has been happening to Atrun? And I would like to hear more." She means, of course, telepathically. She leaves the subject of Phoebe's healing aside for the moment.

Atrun Rai has posed:
    The ancient sorceror, now invited, nods one as he approaches the women and the familiar-hound, making to each in turn the curious mudra-like sign before him that serves as a sign of greeting. "Magi," he responds in reply, and then, slowing to perhaps twelve feet from where they stand, the grass quailing faintly about his feet in the presence of his unwanted existence, he smiles.

    "Magus Beacon," he says, and draws a glyph at his forehead - a tangled, strange thing that has too many branches, too many barbs, that fluctuates before him as it if were a thing alive. It bursts into pallid gray flame that gives no light. "You may speak to me, now, if you like. You will be protected."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Idu gives another yodeling sound, and makes his way back over to Zatanna, trotting (but giving Atrun-Rai a bit of a wide berth, to make sure that he's not going to be affecting the poor tessem hound!). He happily goes to sit by Zatanna's knee, tilting his head back, tongue lolling out of his head happily.

    Phoebe gives a wan smile, and holds up a hand, then points to the blue crystal wrapped in copper wire.

    <It's a broadcast signal. It needs a *lot* of power to do its thing, so I can really only use it here in Shadowcrest.> Phoebe explains to Atrun-Rai, and she leans back again in the grass. The grass felt good on her skin.

    <Not a Magus. No good giving me airs and graces. I've been contending with what I *think* are either extraplanar or some unseelie-type entities who are trying to kidnap and-or steal vitality from people. Someone unleashed unicorns that were tethered physically to power a trans-planar fixture and I had to help dismiss them all. I'm exhausted.>

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Zee shares a wry look with the elder Magus, and sighs dramatically for affect, "Young sorcerers don't know how to pace themselves, it would seem. I didn't, certainly!" Phoebe's insistence that she is of no consequence as a sorcerer deeply worries Zee. A theme that she thinks is part of the spell laid on her.

"Good that you are using it here," she narrows her eyes considering something and gives Phoebe an encouraging nod. Internally, she commends herself from not saying, better safe than sorry.

Atrun Rai has posed:
    Phoebe gets a narrow look, though he gestures over the abhorrent glyph that girds his brows - it vanishes, and now he fixes her with an expression that might be best described as...fatherly. Assuming the 'daughter' just kicked over a bucket of greasy water. "Magus Beacon," he begins, his voice taking on a certain sonorous quality deep within its baritone sound, "I lived when magic was young and when gods and angels still spoke to man as teachers - as did I. You cannot speak, but that does not mean you cannot give voice to magic. Neither does it mean you have lost your power. You are what you are, and could not be otherwise. Denial of that is from another tongue, I suspect, not your own." A glance is shot to Zatanna, and a faintly questioning quirk of a brow, before he continues.

    "As it happens, I have considered your troubles. I have cast divinations and spells of searching, in those places which are now entirely lost to even those who call themselves Atlanteans now. I intend to go to the ruins of my long-vanished home, those small places that may well still exist, and take you with me as you said you wished to go. There, I think, we will find a solution to your problem." He looks to Zatanna, then. "You are very welcome to join us. It is your birthright, too. Your history."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    <Last time someone gave an assessment of my abilities it was described, by someone who had dealt with magic half his life, it was with the descriptor 'demonic peicemeal' and before that by some very colorful language comparing me to a gentleman in a trenchcoat and my lack of skill. So. Y'know.> Phoebe replies over the broadcast, leaning her head back and making a 'so on and so on' motion with her hand in the air, but she settles and listens, her eyes going up to the sky over Shadowcrest.

    <I'd happily go with you and help where I can, but I'm not sure if there is a solution to the issue I have.> Phoebe admits. <I messed up, and I'm paying for it. Plain and simple. But tell me about these places we're gonna go? Much better than talking about me.>

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Zee's bottom lip disappears between her teeth and the muscles in her jaw clench. She takes a long breath, willing herself to not cast one of her darker spells on the author of that damaging quote.

Aloud, she manages, "You messed up but there is no payment or punishment, Phoebe. Give credence to sorcerers who have nothing to gain or lose in undermining another of their kind. Those words were narrow minded, mean and untrue."

Seating herself cross-legged back on the grass, she brushes the soft green stalks under her fingers for a moment as her heart rate slows. She knows better than to trod this ground again. Looking up from the grass, she focuses on Atrun-Rai and gives him a formal nod, "It will be fascinating to travel those ancient lands with you as our guide, sir."

Atrun Rai has posed:
    "As I believe one might say in this age," agrees Atrun-Rai with a nod to Zatanna, "This is not fucking high school. Give yourself a break."

    So there's that.

    And with that, he takes a deep breath, and smiles once more. "There are many places that might still exist. R'lyeh still stands, after all, though it is now a prison of the Void. I knew it when it still stood as a city of humanity. But. I wish to go to a place where, my magic tells me, there may still be some traces. A small place, a village. A place I stopped many times on the road between the great cities when I was still counted amongst the ranks of the Amatakoi. Perhaps it might light a fire of history in you."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe gives A Face.

    <Big mood, but oof on his part. In the former's defense he was looking out for his actual kid. In the latter's... eh.> Phoebe's face sort of falls, but she shakes her head. She was going to force a segue for herself.

    <R'lyeh? You mean where there are literally Great Old Ones there?> she questions, her eyebrows rising up as she sits up a little straighter as she listens, looking between Zatanna and Atrun-Rai, and she purses her lips. <I should like to see this place. Can I bring Idu?> she questions.

    Idu seems to know he's being spoekn of; his curled-over tail gives a wag.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
"He knows, I have only heard vague rumors of it." Zatanna turns a hand over in question to the venerable sorcerer, joining her question to Phoebe's. "It is my birthright though many generations have passed but I know less about those lands than I likely should. So I hope to learn more. I don't know if Idu would be in danger there."

Atrun Rai has posed:
    A faint shadow passes over the man's dusky face. "In the days of my life, R'lyeh was the capital of all sorcery in all the Great Cities," he intones. "Only there, the greatest place of magic in all this world, could the Old Ones be interred. And even it will fall, in time - but we do not hasten the damnation of this world by visiting its cradle. No. Reality must be preserved." And then, the shadow passes, and he smiles again. "We will visit the village of Legesh. There, perhaps, we might find a temporary measure for your voicelessness. Do you play instruments?"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    <I only know through what's been passed through fiction. It was weird enough learning magic was real, and I grew up in Gotham.> Phoebe points out to Zee, and she reaches over to scritch on the red and white hound.

    <I play guitar, does that count?> she questions, looking up to Atrun-Rai with curiosity in her eyes.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
The magician has little to add to the dialogue between them. "I had forgotten you played guitar. It will be wonderful when your voice is restored, Phoebe." She shifts slightly on the grass, content to feel the sun through the leaves on her face.

Atrun Rai has posed:
    "Indeed," agrees Atrun-Rai, again nodding to the Mistress of Magic - though he keeps in the shade, it must be said. "When I served in the court of his Esteemed Majesty Estuan IV, I was given a lyre that, through its strings, could translate the heart's speech into words. Mind and will, given form. It is the same as music. Perhaps in Legesh, where the lyre was said to have once been made, we might find something similar. Certainly there was always music there when I made visitation. It is perhaps poetic that, in lacking a voice of your own, an instrument might speak for you."

    The shivering of the world grows stronger - not visible, of course, just the faintest wrinkling of the grass beneath his feet, the very slightest browning of the blades around their edges. Entropy accelerates, and his welcome is wearing. "I withdraw, now. Soon I will call you both, and whomever else that I decide to gather. We will visit our home together, and see what we might see."