15173/House Warding

House Warding
Date of Scene:	18 June 2023
Location:	Tynan's Safe House
Synopsis:	Ty invites Lydia and Nettie to her safehouse to get it warded up against evil magical threats. Ty learns a bit more about the differences of magics, history of Nettie, and about different schools of magics.
Cast of Characters:	Tynan Ireton, Nettie Crowe, Lydia Dietrich

---

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    Well, Ty saw the notice about checking in twice a day. She muttered a little bit, but understands. The woman has been meaning to do a few things about the safehouse she's been living in. Taskmaster gifted her the house on her arrival to the States, and she's been putting it to good use, but she needs to have a few things done to it now that she's able to do...more then just fire a gun or make things explode. The woman left a message for Nettie about getting some wards done.

    Just a little bit outside New York, but not too far away, Ty's safehouse is in Greenwich, just past Port Chester. As one approaches the house, it looks like a normal, run of the mill 2 story saburban house. Nothing very fancy. It has a two car garage, and looks just like an normal family home. Sitting outside on a chair, Ty is reading another cheesy grocery store romance novel as she waits for her guests to arrive. An elderly lady walks by. "Evening Missus Johns."

    "Evening Miss Morrigan. Waiting for company, or enjoying this evening?", the elderly lady says.

    "A bit of both, Ma'am.", Ty says with a light smile. "I invited some co-workers to stop by.", she tells. "Should be coming in just after sunset."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Opening up nearby Tynan's safehouse is a violet-and-green portal. Out of it first flies a big black bird, taking stock in what's going on in the neighborhood, and next The Greywtich, who seems in a very forced cheerful mood. She has two canvas bags with her, one in each hand, and a backpack, loaded with materials and reagents in order to build up the ward son Tynan's house.

    "Come along, Miss Dietrich! The tides of time and fate wait for no man regardless of what Doctor Strange might say!"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Doctor Strange says a lot of things," Lydia answers as she steps through the portal, her own bag of reagents slung over one shoulder. "All the time. I think he just likes hearing the sound of his own voice."

    The twinkling woman is dressed practically tonight. Fitted black jeans hug her hips, and a cream blouse compliments her pale skin. She's done her hair up in a bun to keep it out of the way, but with hair as thick and curly as hers is, it's already beginning to fall apart.

    "Nice house," she says, stepping up to Tynan and extending a hand. "Hey, there. We've only met in passing before. I'm Lydia."

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    Ty nods her head. "Ty.", she says simply. The woman is in a black tank top, and cargo pants. Her comfy outfit. Still practical if she has to do on the run jobs. "And thank you. It was a gift from a mentor slash co-worker for me coming accross the Pond.", she tells. Ty blinks at the cheerful Nettie. That is a level of disturbing as bad as seeing Batman smile...She's already looking around to see if Hell openned up a gate or something.

    Ty opens the door to her house. Its...still insanely normal. Its clean, furnished, well taken care off. Even the mail is in order...save for its addressed to Tynan Morrigan. Just an alias Ty came up with for being in states. She leads the pair through the house towards a master bedroom. "I have a maid service come by 3 times a week to clean things up, and keep it in order while I'm away.", she explains how the house looks so...nice/normal. She opens up a small hidden keypad, hidden in the corner of the closet. She punches in a number, and the floor on the bottom of the closet slides down into some stairs leading down.

    "Umm, also, watch your step. I havn't been able to really get any lights down these stairs. There's a small handrail if you need it.", she tells. Every left step Ty makes, one would feel a very very faint pulse of magic come from her foot and out in a bubble.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Most gentlemen do, I feel like that was one of the reasons why I prefered the gentler company." Nettie gives a toothy smile to Lydia, but it's clear there's a lot on her mind as she carries several bags worth of supplies.

    "It is rather refreshing to know you don't have kitsune hiding behind every corner and imps iving in your book cases, kitten. Been in places like that, wreck some havoc on those trying to keep places nead an' tidy. But I promise you if I find any of my books here there are going to be words. Probably tears, like 'Tynan, how could you, I think you put a dog ear in Mabel of Mountain Pines." she states, referencing a particuarlly awful boddice-ripper that was written by someone who thought the late 1700's were Victorian and Motorcars were invented in 1803

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia scowls as she's left hanging with her hand out in the air. Dropping it she nods. "Yeah. My parents does the same thing. Mom even made sure that she always tidied up my room. I hated it. I never had any real privacy."

    "Mm. I've read that one. Horrible trash," she opines. "A good example of how //not// to write. Sometimes reading those are just as important as reading good books. It's still in my library. Can't stand parting with any book I've bought. Sooner or later I'm going to need to expand it."

    When the front door closes, she turns around and places a hand on it, humming quietly to herself. She pulls out a piece of chalk from her bag and marks the door with a few glyphs. Notes for the full ward when they do it.

    "You don't have to worry about me. I see fine in complete darkness." She grins, "Magical vampire eyes and everything."

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    "Sorry, old habits.", Ty says. "I mean, about not shaking hands. Dad raised me to not shake hands without covering my face. A lady should not have old blisters on their fingers and hands he would grumble.", she tells. "Small things give away a rebel. Also, I don't have any of your books here, Nettie.", the merc says. As they head down, the stairs make a sharp 180 after a flight, and continue down. After another full flight, they reach a small hallway, and a solid steel door. Almost like a submarine door. Ty opens up another keypad, and speaks old gaelic into it. It carries a very heavy northern clip to it. The door squeals a little, and then opens up into a rather LARGE space that lights up fairly quickly. "Evening Dark Caliber. You have 5 job offers, and 8 articles of suspect to read. You also have 2 missed calls, one from a number not registered as safe. Another from a young female asking if she has the right number.", an AI voice goes. Its...very basic. "Thank you. I shall check things later.", she tells. Its almost a studio in the space. Two computers off to the side, both in sleep mode, next to them is a small work out area with free weights. There's a small rubber mat on the ground with a training dummy.

    Just off to a short distance there's an armory with a fair share of guns and weapons on the wall. There's a few spaces that look like they're sopposed to have weapons but are empty at the moment. Off to the side of that is Ty's...Magical library of 4 books. And a large number of romance novels. Nettie might recongize one of the books though. It has...some seals tied around it. There's also a large amount of salt circling it. And there's the flipping large demon horn on the ground in the middle of a circle of salt as well.

    Finally in the very back, there's a bank vault, loaded up with several of Ty's...more destructive projects. Her explosives. There's also a small table off to the side thats covered in a sheet. Ty walks over to the stereo, and makes sure that the powers off that, as well as the 90 inch TV thats all by themselves to the side. "If you'd like something to drink, I can have it sent down here.", she tells.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Ugh, if only I got *that* instead of my core color scheme being switched. You know, I was a brunette when I was a child? Horrified my mother when I came home with gray hair and blue eyes."

    "Better than havin' ta fetch your soul from ol' Scratch."

    "Pretty sure that's not where it was going. It was going to far worser places."

    Nettie walks along, and she gives a pause as she steps inside Tynan's base of operations. She gives a soft 'huh' sound, looking about the space as she rubs the back of her head, setting down one of the canvas bags.

    "Well. Color me impressed. Mean I meant high profile I meant mo re your collection of teachers... not... this." she states, and she waves her hand about "Don't know why you'd ever come to the Candle."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "'Dark Caliber?'" Lydia asks with an amused raise of an eyebrow. "I take it you're some kind of mercenary, then." A glance at all the weapons confirms her suspicions. "Yup. Mercenary." Despite all her time with the Brotherhood, she never really got over her distaste for guns.

    The items that are in the protective salt circles catches her interest though. Wandering over to them and being very careful not to break the circles she asks, "How worried should we be about these?" She turns to Nettie, "Should we put them in their own protective wards?"

    She goes over to the submarine door that leads into the place and places a hand on that, too. "Mm," she hums thoughtfully. "I'm thinking Mercrutia's Barrier for the doors and Volo's for the house?" She turns to Nettie. "Did you bring any iron spikes?"

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    Ty blushes a little bit. "Aye. Merc. Born in Madripor, but trained by my dad who was a NIRA commander. The horn I'm working into creating into a pair of enchanted long knives. I shot that off a demon, but trying to work out how I want to work them.", she tells. "The book...Well, I will admit to...borrowing that from Nettie. Its something that reminds me to be careful with my magics.", she tells Lydia. "Its a book of souls that has several schools of magic written in it, but just as many mages' souls. It steals the soul of the reader after they master a school, and the mage of that school gets released.", she tells.

    "And Dark Caliber refers a certain blade that made a certain King invincible at night. I couldn't use its true name.", she tells. The woman blushes horribly. "And this...really isn't all that impressive. I mean, its pretty basic overall. The Candle has resources, personnal, and I don't have to cook stuff myself!", she laughs a little. Ty opens up a small fridge near the TV, and pours Corvax a small thumble of irish rum.

    "Plus I keep caches all over the place. One at the Griffin, one at the Candle, one at an apartment in the Bronx. I just kinda realized after you mentioned it, that I never learned defensive or offensive magics. Most of my stuff is straight support style.", she admits.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Like your mentor never warned you about being guarded with your magics after showing off she had a teleportation rune to the best Columbian restaurant in Boston?" Nettie questions thoughtfully, and she eyeballs Tynan.

    "You're forbidden from borrowing anything from me without my permission, you do realize. THAT book is *not* for students. It's far too dangerous, even for me." Nettie mutters, and she pulls out an old leather-bound book, about the size of small journal. She brings out crushed egg shells from a blood red hen. Spent beeswax candles. Nubs of old roots and, of course, a small black cauldron.

    "No, mate, I think ol' Nettie's *jealous*. You know how them old folks get about keepin' up with the Jonesing."

    "I have a couple, do you want six penny nail size or the railroad spikes from the Ol' North Cumberland?" Nettie questions, and she gives a short snort. "Volo's has holes in it. Have you tried Sweet Mercy? Anything brushes too long against the webbing and -ZAP!-!"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia just //stares// at Tynan when she explains about the book. "Why do you have that? What on earth possessed you to take a book that can //steal your soul//?" She shakes her head and holds up her hand. "Nevermind. I shouldn't judge. Your soul is to do with as you please."

    She bobs her head at Nettie. "Yeah. That's why we also put up Mercrutia's. It'll fill in those gaps nicely and it'll only let people with a key in." She thinks about Nettie's suggestion for a bit, though. "That could do. I was thinking less zap and more barrier. We'll have to be careful. We don't want to accidentally electrocute the mailman." As for the spikes? "If we're going with Sweet Mercy, then we'll need the railroad spikes to ground it."

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    "Well, to be fair, the book...kinda found me.", she tells. "Hence why Nettie took it away from me.", the merc says. Ty blinks as she listens. She didn't reach the ward areas. "Plus, I was very new to magic at the time, and didn't understand a lot. Nettie took it away, and did a bunch of seal work on it. But I did figure out the magics I wanted to learn cause of the book. Illusions and enchanting.", Ty tells. She sits down, watching the pair work. She's only seen warding one other time, and that was when Nettie was first building the Fledgling space.

    "And I thought I wasn't a student anymore.", Ty teases Nettie a little bit. Ty's being a little brat. "To be honest, it looks like you're setting up curses, then again, I was more into the runes when I was studying in a certain place.", she admits. "Are Wards and Curses of the same school, or different branches?", she asks.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Best defense is a good offense. Could pull out the ol' Romero Flower spell I'd cooked up one night in the early 80's. Someone tarries too long? Suddenly it's raining corpse flowers in full bloom... heh he h heh..." Nettie grits her teeth. "Some days you can still smell the too sweet lingering odour of dead bodies in my old house in Tibet."

    And Nettie gives a soft, thoughtful 'hm'.

    "See, when I was tought, it was in my family's tradition. There were certain things that we were just expected to know and be able to do by certain milestones. Oh, some of us were better than others at some things. Richard was always the best at getting us out of trouble. I was the best at getting us into trouble. Ellen of course was grace personified and never kept to the darker side of things, didn't agree with her stomach, an' Liam -- short for Liam and for most other things, cursed with my grandmother's fear of heights, our skulls were -- was as gifted a rune carver and scriber there ever was. Real artsy type. I reckon he was likely unenthused about his match-up to a lass by the name of Tiffany and if 'e were 'round today..." she pauses, pulling out a quill and a little ink pot, she chews on the end of the quill a moment.

    "... he'd probably run off to Provincetown, open a magical and non-magical tattoo parlor and adopt roughly three dozen kids with a husband."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Ah," Lydia says with a knowing nod. "That's a different beast altogether. Still. It's best to leave it with Nettie. You wouldn't accidentally want to read the wrong thing and find yourself trapped in there."

    Nettie gets a roll of the eyes. "Oh God. Corpse flowers? Really? Let's just stick with Sweet Mercy. I'll stick Mercrutia's on the door here, just in case somebody manages to get past that. She'll be able to use it as a magical safe room as well as a physical one, until she can get some help."

    She gives Ty's question a handwaggle. "Depends on the ward. Depends on the curse. My wards are more circle based, being a Kabbalist. Nettie is more witchy than that. I don't do curses, for the most part. If done wrong they can leave a black stain on the soul."

    With that she pulls out a length of string and a small lump of charcoal. She walks over to the submarine door and pulls it shut and starts making deep black marks on it.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "I curse liberally all the bloody time." Nettie interjects with curse words, sing-songing the words you can't say on television. If this were a broadcast, it would just be a long string of beeps.

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    "Now playing *bleepbleepbleep!* soundtrack.", the Ai voice goes. Ty snerks, and makes sure that the Strereo does not play that soundtrack. The woman hears Kabalist, and blinks a few times. "Ok, little confused, cause well, maybe my meaning of Kabal, and yours might be a little different.", she tells Lydia. "Then again, I tend to use Wylds slash Kitsune style, and then Hell Runes, with a little bit of Nettie style.", she tells.

    "Oh, Nettie, think I could get the book on Teleportation magicks? Save me some gas money.", she tells. The woman snickers a little bit. Ty does go to get Nettie some tea. No spirits for the happy go lucky Nettie. "So...what curse is affecting Nettie right now? She's more giggly then a school girl 10 minutes before prom ends...", she says."Thats the first swear I heard from her all night."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "I'm going to track down someone who killed my former student, tear their skull off their body with my bare hands and spit down their throat, because there's very few people who would be able to track down Dee, fewer people who would *DARE* do it, and most of them are Dead or In Hell, literally." Nettie replies in a sing-song voice, and she grits her teeth. "And trust me. The sole reason I'm not currently waist deep in spirits of the non-supernatural sort is that I need help tracking whoever made the doll down, 'cause I can't trust myself to not leap to the first conclusion and execute it." she witch replies, and she looks up to Tynan.

    "Kabbala with a K, not Cabal with a C, by the by, dear."

    she stretches her fingers, pulling out a lambskin parchment, and with her quil she begins to write.

    "And Certainly you can see the book on teleportation. How's your Middle French?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Kabbalism," Lydia explains, "is a kind of Jewish mysticism. It's a way of calling upon the name of God to perform magics. God has many names... an infinite amount, in fact. You just have to find the right one to invoke. All the Hebrew letters have meanings and numbers associated with them, and it's a matter of combining these so that the meaning and the math all works out."

    "That reminds me. I need to take apart that teleportation circle on the roof of my apartment building." She shifts uncomfortably as she works. "Unless you can foresee a need to teleport something into orbit."

    Once she's done scribbling on the door, she takes her string and uses it as a compass to etch a circle on the floor right in front of it. "Nettie's ways are as mysterious as they are mercurial," she explains to Tynan. "I try not to think about it and just go with the flow."

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    "Ok, I think I get it. Your stuff is close to my Hell Runes, save you invoke divinity? While mine is how much of my soul I need to use to cause an effect.", she says. That makes more sense to Ty. "While Nettie's is more...akin to draw from around her?", Ty asks. "Or more specifically inside her? I'm just trying to understand a few things. I kinda learned things differently. Like using the magic around me to produce an effect.", she says.

    "My Middle French? Is that like the middle finger? Or like...*starts singing a french sailor's song involving a lot of wine, and more then a few women* I don't know a single word that I sung, but it sounded good, and the sailor was happy when he sang it drunkenly...", she tells.

    "Hey Nettie, do you think that charm I made would be of any use to you? I mean, its extremely basic, but most people tend to ignore the most basic of things...The one that detects and tracks objects?", she says.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Basic is not the problem, poppet." Nettie replies with a little smile, and she opens one eye as she looks over to Lydia.

    "Tynan's got the right of it, I tend to rely on both what's inside of me an' the ambient energies around me. Part of the reason I got very good at necromancy very quickly. That was my knack. Not a lot ofp eople would admit to it. Necromancy's got a certain... bad rap to it, I suppose. Considering what most people do with it." she wrinkles her nose in distaste.

    "That's relatively modern French and that is *very* dirty, Tynan."

    "BUT IT WAS BRILLIANTLY SO! Bravo, no one writes bawdy like a French sailor!" the crow crows, and Corvax begins on the second verse, attempting to pour himself more rum.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia tsks as she works, circle done and now drawing geometric shapes within it. "There you go again, playing with your soul. I know you get more bang for your buck, but..." she shrugs. "I'm Jewish. I'm devout. The soul is a precious thing that I'm not willing to compromise for a bit of power."

    "After I was turned I wasn't sure if I had a soul or not." She hesitates in her inscribing before shaking her head and explaining. "That... isn't quite it. You see for Jews the soul is divided into five parts. Nefesh, Ruach, Neshamah, Chayah, and Yechidah. They all describe the parts of us that make us distinctly people instead of animals. I was afraid that I lost part of my soul... Nefesh, to be exact. It means 'breath' and it's literally the part of the soul that makes us alive." She shakes her head. "I asked the archangel Michael about it, and he assured me that as far as God was concerned, my animation is just a different kind of 'life.'"

    "Typically when you bargain with demons for power, you're bargaining with Yechidah," Lydia continues, fully slipping into Teacher Mode as she works. "It's kind of like the glue that binds it all together and ties us with God. Using a little bit of it is fine. It'll grow back. But too much?" She shakes her head. "Everything just falls apart. It's how demons are able to take your soul. Sever your connection with God, and the rest of the bits and pieces are untethered and can be stolen."

    "You probably wouldn't notice at first, but things like creativity, empathy, hell, even your //cognition// would decline until you're nothing more than an animal running on instinct." She shakes her head. "For me it's just not worth it."

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    Ty listens in, while snickering at Corvax. "Oddly enough, thats how I was taught by Sata...I mean, the Hell lord that taught me. Only use enough for the effect. Don't overdraw, and only use minor runes. Nothing major. Its enough to protect me from most things if I need protection, and it packs a nasty punch for offense. I did notice when I was learning, I had less empathy, but then again, during the time, I wasn't the best of shape mentally either.", she tells. The woman stretches a little bit.

    "She said drawing too much shuts down the mind and body both, leaving a husk. As for the Wyld magics...", she says. The woman smiles slightly as 2 other Ty's come out. Just using the magic around here. "Shame I can't learn the fire deal, but I was told that is very specific, and humans would burn themselves alive if they tried it.", she tells. The two Tys seem to move independantly of the main Ty. After a few minutes, they seem to ghost away. "And I still have no idea what I sang. Corvax knows the song...so must be one not for the kids..", she snickers.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Michael can go teach his grandmother to suck lemons." Nettie curses.

    "My soul's corrupted after it got severed from my body trying to ressurect my sister and wee nephew. Luckily --" she states, bringing her quill up and looking over her workings, "My father and uncle were quickly fetched by my youngest brother as I fought for my existence. Feeling the unraveling of that connection in slow motion is really quite disconcerting, but they patched me back up. Cost the color of my hair and eyes and I stopped being able to dream nicely." Nettie remarks, and then she sets the candles in her hands, along with the egg shells.

    She sits crosslegged in the middle of the room downstairs and utters a word that sounds horribly gutteral, and with the most fowl smell of rotting eggs and the cloyingly oversweet headiness of hyacinth, the paper, candles, and egg shells disappear into a warp of violet and black magic.

    The house gives a bit of a shudder.

    "Now we just have to drive a nail into one floor of the house a piece to keep it up."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Still too risky for me," Lydia says as she finishes inscribing sigils and Hebrew letters within the arcane geometry of the circle. She pulls out a wooden match and strikes it, muttering something to it in some arcane language (Aramaic to be precise) after which the flame turns blue. She sets the flame down and alights the charcoal lines, which all flare up in blue fire. After a few breaths, the fire dies down, but the lines continue to glow softly. "There," she says with a satisfied nod. "Use the phrase 'D'eat-kht-emt'uon' to seal the door. 'Aep-t'akh' to open it again."


    When the house shudders she gives Nettie a nod. "Alright. I'll do the top floor, you do the ground?"

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    Ty pulls out a recorder, and records the Seal and Unseal commands. She's getting use to the different langauges, but still sometimes it helps to hear it a few times afterwards. Ty takes a deep breath. "Just...watch out for the second door on the left side. Do not open it. Its the Raid Room.", she tells. "Wired to take the whole house down, and seal this area down here. Basically, its if the cops or Interpol pays a visit.", she tells. Ty yawns a bit, and lays down a bit. She yawns heavily. "Sorry. Getting a bit tired. Jet lag from coming back from Russia today. Got to catch an early flight to deal with an incident up in Maine, or am I offmission until things settle down?", Ty asks Nettie. Ty looks like she's about to crash though.