16033/A Most Screaming Book

A Most Screaming Book
Date of Scene:	07 October 2023
Location:	Candle, Booke and Belle
Synopsis:	Bucky Barnes brings Nettie a weirdly warded book.
Cast of Characters:	Nettie Crowe, James Barnes

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Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Halloween is coming, and that means of course it's the brightest and most fun, and also the darkest and most harmful nights of Nettie's years. The acid-green jukebox against the wall is playing through Rhiannon by Fleetwood Mac, and there are packages on the counter that need to be opened and put away.

    Nettie has a pile of photographs in front of her, varying sizes and in states of organization.

    She has a handrolled cigarette hanging from her lips, the smoke circling her head liike a wreath as she gazes upon a couple of faces, chewing thoughtfully on the inside of her cheek before she sets it to the side, and goes to fix herself another cup of tea.

    There are no patrons in the shop. It seems like a quiet, drizzly day in Manhattan.

James Barnes has posed:
    The bell over the door dings -- there is a bell, right? -- because Bucky has just opened it. His bike is parked outside, and he's wearing a leather jacket, which he is unzipping presently. It's cool out but not quite cold enough in the city to necessitate it for anything more than the drive over from Brooklyn.

    "Interrupting something?" he asks as he spies the photographs on the counter, though his gaze travels to where Nettie now stands, at the tea stand. He walks over, doing his usual scan of the place that looks outwardly as if he's just browsing the wares but it's really meant to check the exits, verify sightlines, before Bucky's standing opposite Nettie, just across the other side of the counter.

    He pulls something from inside his jacket, wrapped in brown paper, tied with twine. "If not, I have something for you. I think, at least. Could be nothing, but figured I'd double check."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    There is a bell! There's a couple of bells, actually, cheerily ringing and meant to keep bad luck from following others in, and their sounding causes Nettie to look up to Bucky as he enters, favoring him with one of those smiles reserved for those In The Know.

    "Old friends are never an interruption," she replies with a smile as she reaches to pour hot water into a heavy ceramic teapot, followed by a steel ball with a pattern of stars punched out, which she brings over to the counter. "Every couple of decades I have it in my mind to scrapbook. And every couple of decades I mysteriously have twenty more boxes of photographs than I recall."

    "Take a seat, you standing makes me nervous. If you're not safe in my house, where can you be safe?" she questions with a frown, and then a finger waggle "Don't answer that, dont't answer that." she adds on with a soft 'hm', and takes a seat across from where he's standing, pulling out two tea cups.

    A peaceful, serene cup with city gray and grass green stripes is set in front of Bucky, and Nettie has her own violet cup. She pours the tea first. "Sugar? Milk?" she offers, while looking to the package he's taking in.

James Barnes has posed:
    The package is thin and book-shaped. Who knows, maybe it is a book. Either way the mystery will have to remain for now as Bucky takes a seat, obligingly, when he's instructed to do so. He's not going to make Nettie uncomfortable in her own shop, after all.

    "I'd say something like 'no one's ever safe anywhere' but that's a bit dramatic." He pauses. "Even for me."

    The package is set down on the counter and carefully slid across, towards Nettie, after the cup has been set in front of Bucky. An even exchange.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Thin and book shaped -- it COULD be a book. And what witch doesn't love a good book?

    Or a bad book. Nettie's got a few of those in her collection along with a Book of the Black Lamb's Tongue that's covered in glitter and puffy paint.

    That is an ANGRY BOOK.

    "Aye, the illusion of safety is a spell in itself as you well know. Someone threw a bloody *brick* through my window last night, so now we're planning a trip to the Hell Creek Fossil formation so I can track down who did it and give them a piece of my mind." Nettie comments in such a way that suggests that there is *so many more steps* to that story.

    But she looks the package over, tied up with string as it is, and then begins to open it with her wise, knowing fingers.

    "How've you been keeping? How's the cat?"

James Barnes has posed:
    The package is indeed a book. It's no old artifact, no; it looks like a fairly modern book, or even a journal, a moleskine with nothing particularly noteworthy on the outside. There's nothing that magical senses would pick up on. But inside, the neat text charts the journey of a novice of the magical arts going swiftly, almost eagerly off the deep end.

    There's talk of planar travel, extradimensional beings, realms-ending apocalyptic events... it could all be nonsense. Or it could be the tellings of some very serious threats to the world.

    While Nettie takes this all in, Bucky is content to sit there calmly and let her. There's tea, after all, and as a sniper he's long since accustomed so sitting somewhere quietly for great lengths of time. "Alpine's doing great. Just shedding constantly. So much fur."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Interesting, this is a neonate's journal. This isn't something I've come across before..." Nettie comments quietly, taking a few pages at a time.

    "And then probably being eaten by something they shouldn't have summoned. Lesson of summoning one oh one, never summon something larger than your head."

    "Which is why she decided on crows rather'n dogs." comes a crow's voice as Corvax comes in for a landing.

    "The local murder reports no sign o' the white thing that launched th' brick. But they're on the lookout now." he announces.

    He then looks over to Bucky, and then to Nettie, and then back to Bucky.

    "... we're past me having to pretend to be a normal crow, aye?"

James Barnes has posed:
    "Found it while I was investigating an old HYDRA installation," Bucky reveals, once he thinks Nettie has had enough time to flip through the journal. He folds his arms across his chest, briefly discomfited, then relaxes his posture, hands going back to his lap. "Not the work of HYDRA, someone who was camping there long after."

    He looks up at the sound of another voice, tracking Corvax's flight until he lands, and if Bucky is surprised by the talking bird he doesn't show it. Though he does shift slightly in his seat.

    After a pause, Bucky tips his head. "Always wondered about that bird you had following you around," he says.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Ah, yes. Corvax, you recall Sergent Barnes. Bucky, my familiar, Corvax." Nettie states, flipping another couple of pages.

    "You know, I never could get close to any HYDRA mystic-style bases. They always picked up on me before I could get a good look. Hazily remember flying over the edge of Transia once an' someone taking pot shots at my besom." Nettie remarks in consideration, and she frowns.

    "D'you recall which installation you were in? Is it still intact or has it been... ah... neutralized?" she questions.

    "Pleasure, Barnes." Corvax states.

    "Corvax I've had since I was a wee girl; my first big project actually. Hundred year dead pirate soul raised from the bowels of Hell."

    "Yeah. One minute chained to a wall with some demon flayin' me innards, next minute I'm a bird. Offputting." he states, alighting on the cash register. "And it's been that way for 'bout hundred an' sixty ears."

James Barnes has posed:
    The introduction prompts a quick nod of greetings from Bucky, but the topic of HYDRA bases keep his attention. "We never really encountered them ourselves during the War. Wherever they did their occult research, they kept it tucked away," he explains.

    He takes his phone from his pocket, and rather than explaining where it was, he just shows Nettie via pictures. First, a map showing a very small village in Estonia, then the following pictures are snaps of deep forests revealing a very old-looking, long-abandoned base tucked into a mountainside. There are plenty of images showing where the base had apparently been invaded, walls exploded inwards, dried blood stains on the ground, rubble everywhere. And then what is clearly some sort of much newer installation, where someone had been camping out. There are definite signs of mystical goings-ons in all the pictures for someone with a knowledgable eye as Nettie's, though the encampment is of a much different sort. Likely not HYDRA.

    "Nice to meet you officially, Corvax," he says while Nettie has his phone.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Nettie takes out a pair of half-moon, wire-rimmed glasses and scrolls slowly and with purpose through Bucky's phone, making sure to not look at anything she's not strictly supposed to. Her eyes narrow on a couple of images.

    "Whoever was camping there knew what they were looking for. I can identify some of the warding, some of it's newer work." she explains with a soft 'hrrm' "That one's a Saint Gertrude hex, inverted, so someone who probably has a Catholic background and either really likes cats or *really* likes Cats. It basically should make you allergic to cats while you're inside the hex area." Nettie explains,.

    "Pleasures mine, Barnes. Always liked you. Never threw stones at any of the birds." the bird hops. "Which is why some of the local crows made messes inside some of the tents. You mess with a murder, it'll go bad for anyone." the old crow chortles.

James Barnes has posed:
    There are only pictures of Alpine to be found otherwise, at least for some time back in the camera roll. So there's really nothing for Nettie to accidentally stumble upon!

    "I'm glad I didn't step through anything suspicious-looking while I was there, then," Bucky says after the explanation. He leans forward, and gestures for Nettie to turn the pages in the journal; the last page's words end abruptly, with a splash of what looks like blood... except it's a strange magenta color.

    "Not sure if this is spilled ink or something more sinister, but either way I figured you might be able to make some sense of it. Enough to know if we should follow up on it... or just burn it."

    He acknowledges the crow's words with another nod, though he looks mildly conflicted about what was said. But it's not as if he can go back and chastise any of his fellow soldiers for messing around.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "No, not anything that would have been act...ive." Nettie pauses as she comes to the last page, and that burst of magenta. HEr head tilts, and she takes off ehr glasses a moment to bring the book close and to get a good sniff of the color that's suddenly splashed out on that page.

    "Well, an ol' necromancer like me should be able to sort this out then.

    She brings her hand up and over the page, and removes her glove, holding her hand in place.

    "Sanguis, surge et loquere ad me de corpore tuo!"

    If it's blood? There's going to be chill air and whispering.

    If it's a different body fluid, probably just some chill air.

    Ink? Nada. Nothing. No reaction.

    Corvax appears to shrug.

    "Eh. I can't judge them. I was human once. An' the things that bored pi--sailors due ashore --"

    "Which is why you died of The Clap."

    "NETTIE!!" Corvax replies, positively SCANDALIZED.

James Barnes has posed:
    The answer is screaming. Or screeching, maybe. Overlaid it, in English, is pure confusion: "Where-- what was I doing? Where am I? Help! HELP!"

    Which is all very unsettling, enough that Bucky leans back slightly as the voice emerges from the blood-splash on the page. There's a few more moments where the voice over the strange, inhuman shrieking continues to express general confusion until the spell ends.

    "That was not what I was expecting," Bucky says, after a brief pause. He looks up at Corvax, shakes his head, and says, "Sounds like half the soldiers I used to know."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Nettie just sits there a moment, looking out over the shop. Her head slowly tilts to one side, her eyes narrowing as they water slightly.

    "Don't think Nettie was expecting that either." Corvax states, hopping a couple inches closer to the old bird.

    "Bucky. Where'd you say this installation was?" she inquires softly, closing the book slowly. "I think we should plan a trip to Estonia as well, see what there is to see."

James Barnes has posed:
    Bucky shares a sympathetic look with Corvax, then nods towards Nettie. "Near the Latvian border, not far from the Gulf of Riga," he says, and with his phone back in his possession he scrolls back to the map to show it again.

    "It'd be good to have you there either way. I felt like I was at risk of setting off magical traps with every step."

    He stands up, tea finished, and looks towards the door. "Give me some time to arrange some things and then I can meet you and your crew there, maybe we can figure out what happened."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Aye, that seems like it'd be a good plan. Best to go into these things on the defensive... never know what you might find." Nettie states quietly.

    "Keep an eye out for the Hell Creek trip coming up, yeah?" she asks, looking up to Bucky.

    "I could use another responsible adult on these trips. These young pups find all manner of ways to get into trouble." she gives a small smile.

    "... and it's good seeing you again, Bucky."