6342/A Search Begins!

A Search Begins!
Date of Scene:	26 May 2021
Location:	Jinn's Repository - NYC
Synopsis:	Morgan had an encounter with Glamour and Lydia while searching for information on the Gnosis Stone. While she did not find exactly what she was looking for, the owner of Jinn's Repository gave her a contact in exchange for money, and this contact may know more! Whether Glamour or Lydia will prove helpful in the future, or whether she will ever see them again remains to be seen! Until then Morgan has a lead to follow..
Cast of Characters:	Morgan le Fay, Lydia Dietrich, Glamour

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Morgan le Fay has posed:
Jinn's Repository is a small occult store. A few might know that this place is the real deal but from the outside it just looks like a run down liquor store. It even has bars on the windows. The paint is peeling on the outside walls and everything. There are never many people inside at any given time and the few that do come here tend to not be very talkative. The store is run by an Arabic man of unassuming looks and demeanor who simply refers to himself as "Jinn."

Morgan le Fay is one of those non-talkative customers tonight. She is wearing black jeans and a black hoodie, the 'uniform' of people who do not want to be noticed. There's no bell or anything chiming when the door opens. Morgan looks around for a moment and then begins to carefully search the stacks and tables. 'Jinn' does not look up from his newspaper.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
When Lydia went on the search for an occult bookstore for research into her novels, she never actually expected to run into an actual legitimate occult bookstore. She knew this was the real deal due to the lack of healing crystals. You always knew you were in for a bunch of neo-pagan mumbo jumbo when you see those. Since then, she had been a frequent customer since, slowly building a small occult library for herself. She's been careful about the books she buys. Nothing too dangerous looking. Simple things that explains the basics. Baby's first magic. Not that she plans on actually /doing/ anything with it other than to give her novels a more authentic feel.

Today she's dressed for a warm spring day. A light floral print summer dress, with sandals leaving her legs bare, a wide brimmed hat under which her unruly brown curls poke out in every direction. Around her shoulder is a sizable purse. Big enough to store a few books in it. As always, she's surrounded by a phosphorescent green mist, giving her a soft green glow amongst the shadowed aisles of the bookstore.

Right now she's just browsing the selection, her fingers trailing along the spines of the books, enjoying the feeling of the bindings to the touch. Her hand snaps back when she touches a particular volume and she shakes her hand. "Nope," she says out loud. "Not that one."

Morgan le Fay has posed:
Jinn is not phased at all when Lydia enters in her light hearted clothing, nor does he so much as look up to notice the green mist surrounding the woman. The very otherwise average looking Arabic man does not seem to even know that anyone else is in his store, his eyes fixed on the newspaper in his hands. Morgan is still looking through the tomes, scrolls, and items on display for sale. Nothing here is under one hundred US dollars and that's just the cheap stuff. Anyone else arriving will notice that the store looks more like a run-down, old liquor store than anything else, with peeling paint on the outside, and bars on all of the windows. The door does not chime or make any sound when you enter.

Morgan does however notice Lydia's green mist, eyeing her for a moment, but then dismissing her for now, because it's really none of her business. She certainly does not want anyone prying into her dealings tonight. She'd prefer to not even have to ask Jinn for assistance..

Glamour has posed:
You spend enough time in the magical community, you hear things. In Glamour's case, she'd heard of this place by leaning over the shoulders of the unwary. They really should've listened better to hear the faint tinkling of bells that comes from her motions from time to time, or looked to see the soft glow of her person which frequently obscured her actual (very, very tiny) physical form.

In this case, she flew throiugh the door a while ago, these things obscured by, well, intense effort oin her part and she alighted upoin the top of a book shelf. Abject curiousity is the name of the game.

She's bored, okay? And magical people are a frequently a little more interesting than staring at the traffic while waiting for an opportunity to play a super-hero. About this time, she notices a book stashed on top of the bookshelf and proceeds to mosey over to it and try to open it.

"..erf," she says, unable to do exactly that. She is tiny, okay? And easily distracted, anyway.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
"Hmmm," Lydia says thoughtfully as she crouches to reach some of the books on the floor, scanning the titles etched into the spines of the books, when they're there. Some of the tomes doesn't have any and it's one such as this that catches the mutant's attention. She reaches to to grab it and accidentally brushes Morgan's leg. When the green haze passes over her it leaves a tingling sensation, like mint was rubbed against the skin.

Lydia grabs the book pulling it out and looking up at the other woman apologetically. "Sorry," she says. "Was just reaching for..." she stands up and shrugs holding up the tome she had discovered as a completion to the sentence. "This."

The soft grunt of effort in the otherwise quiet of the bookstore catches her attention. She could have sworn that they were the only two people in the store (besides Jinn). Her eyes scan the bookshelves to see if she can see the other person, but Glamor is obscured so her eyes just move right past her.

Morgan le Fay has posed:
Morgan le Fay flashes a brief glare at Lydia but it passes quickly, "Whatever.. watch where you aim that thing." She turns away from Lydia and sets her eyes on a strange looking wand. That's when Jinn finally turns the page in his newspaper, perhaps the one action done by him so far that proves that he isn't a statue, or an illusion.

Morgan hears the grunt too but doesn't think much of it. This wand has her attention now, it looks kind of silver, and she gets an odd feeling from it. Not so much a magical sense as much as an instinct. She slowly reaches down to touch it, a few fingers clasping the top. She gasps in pain immediately, the cold iron singing her skin. It's not a hot burn, it's a cold burn, and Morgan immediately rips her hand away from the object.

Jinn finally looks up only to say, "Careful." He has a Brooklyn accent. Morgan looks to Jinn, and then down at her fingers, it'll be fine. She clenches her fist in a futile attempt to soothe the pain and keeps looking around for something.. anything.. that looks like it might contain information on the Gnosis Stone.

Glamour has posed:
It's not as if Glamour has 'detect cold iron' on her person, beyond the way its very presence can make her uncomfortable and a bit hive-y if she gets too close. Morgan's proximity to Lydia, her reaction, and more do not go unnoticed. It may take her a moment longer to piece together what just happened, if she does at all. She's not exactly a genius, after all, but her eyes are now locked on Morgan more generally. It's the kind of look someone has on their face when they're trying to place something that they feel like they've forgotten, or maybe *ought* to know and don't.

A pinky finger goes in her ear. Scratching unnecessarily.

Lips purse.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia just shrugs helplessly at Morgan, before turning to the book in her hands. She cracks open the book and carefully flips the tome to the title page. Scrawled along the margins of the page is a note:

"Lydia, this book is not for you."

She closes the book with a snap and very carefully squats down and puts it back in it's place. Better to not argue with such things.

Morgan's gasp of pain gains Lydia's attention. She looks up her brow furrowed. Despite Morgan's clear 'do not bother me' vibes, Lydia's more empathic nature takes over. "Are you okay?" she asks.

Morgan le Fay has posed:
Morgan narrows her eyes, currently peering over an old looking scroll, and when Lydia tries to be nice, Morgan just gets a bit annoyed, and whispers, "This is not the place to bother people if you don't notice. The clerk doesn't care that you glow green or that a metallic wand just burned my skin. Take a hint, don't ask questions, I'm fine. Now leave me alone."

She keeps staring at the scroll, not yet aware of Glamour, and if Jinn knows that the little fae is here he doesn't care. In fact Jinn is still very uninterested in whatever else is going on beyond Morgan's incident with the wand.

Glamour has posed:
"It DID burn you!"

Glamour squeaks excitedly from above. She's diminished her glow enough to lean forward and peer down over the edge of the top shelf. Ordinarily, it would be her worst enemy for being as short as she is, but hey, she can fly.

Actually, as short as she is, ANY shelf would be her worst enemy. But now she's directly *calling to the two*. "I knew something was up with that!" Three cheers for Glamour, she might manage to avoid a dunce cap temporarily.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia shrugs, and mutters to herself, "Yeah. She's fine," and turns back to the books. Another one strikes her fancy and she pulls it out. This one doesn't have any kind of cryptic writings in the margins and looks like a good, entry level into kabbalism. This isn't exactly what she was looking for, but it will do in a snap.

"Gwah!" Glamour's sudden outburst nearly scares the bejeezus out of Lydia, causing her to drop the book in her hands. Before it hits the floor, her ectoplasmic mist catches it, and raises it up back into her hands. She blinks rapidly, seeing the tiny person up on the shelf. "Oh my. Hello, there."

Morgan le Fay has posed:
Morgan is also looking up at Glamour now. She takes a few steps towards the bookcase that the tiny fae is "roosting" at, addressing her with a whisper since she assumes that Glamour can hear her, "Who.. what are.. you?" Morgan is very blunt. And this is definitely a distraction from very important research but.. Glamour is a rather unique distraction.

Jinn is still reading his newspaper, stopping only to take a sip from a mug that smells of booze, and coffee.

Glamour has posed:
"What, don't tell me you're the only person in the world who's *never* seen Peter Pan," remarks Glamour, "or even ever watched anything by the Disney Channel."

Glamour gives herself a shake off. This naturally creates a cloud of... of ... fairy dust.

For real.

It goes in all directions. "I can't make you fly, though. Sorry. Not *that* kind of fairy. Now, I'm super curious about what just happened. It's not every day I get to hang out in an occult book shop and watch ... watch something happen." She doesn't say what happened. She sort of missed it. She knows it hurt, knows Morgan's description, has a feeling.

She's just worried about looking dumb.

Morgan le Fay has posed:
Morgan le Fay stares at Glamour for a moment, "So you're a.. pixie? No a fairy?" She raises a brow, "Why do you care if that wand burned me?"

Lydia is given another look but her focus is primarily on Glamour.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia's eyes go wide, "A fairy!" She holds the book that she was going to take aloft and lets go, leaving it suspended in her ectoplasm, so she can turn to rummage around in her oversized purse. She pulls out what looks like a journal and a pencil, and quickly flips it to a blank page.

"Hi!" she calls out to the diminutive person. "I've never met anybody from the fae before and I would /love/ to be able to ask you a few questions about it." Yes. Lydia is going to try to interview Glamour. For research.

Glamour has posed:
"Because it didn't burn anyone else," points out Glamour, "Burnt you, though, right?"

SHe glances from side to side. Is that right? It feels right. No one is going to tell her otherwise at the moment.

"Oh my god hi," replies Glamour to Lydia, waving her fingers at her. It's a tiny wave. "Yes, I'm a fairy. I try to not to get too much attention normally because then everyone is like 'can fairies give wishes?!' and I'm like 'no, that's genies you idiot!' and then they get mad and it just goes terribly after that. Anyway.., wand-thingy! Can someone hold it up?"

Morgan le Fay has posed:
Morgan le Fay is rather confused about Glamour's honesty, then suspicious, "And why wouldn't you try to hide yourself? The little I know about faeries says that they try to hide themselves. Why aren't you?"

Her own ancestry is rather ambiguous and she doesn't remember much anyway. But she knows something is up. At the very least this little creature might know a small bit of something. Like why certain metal objects burn her.

So she decides to play nice, "Sorry I seem so.. defensive. My name is Morgan.. do you know why that wand burned me?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia nods at Glamor, "Mmhmm, mmhmm. No wishes." She scribbles in her journal. "I wouldn't have thought to ask that, but if you get it all the time then I suppose it's something people would think." When the fairy asks somebody to hold it up, she supposes that that she means her, since Morgan seemed to have been burnt by the wand. "Oookay," she says slowly before complying.

She decides that discretion is the better part of valor, and decides that she'd rather not chance getting burned herself by touching it with her skin, instead, she extends an ectoplasmic pseudopod out to pick it up and hold it in front of them.

She nods to the woman, "Mine is Lydia." Her introduction is more for Glamour's sake than her own. Turning to the fairy she asks, "How about you?"

Glamour has posed:
"... I mean I could be hiding right now. For all you know, you're talking to like ... an illusion of me, or something. We fae are tricky, right? We're the Hidden Ones and all that... yeah! And to be fair, I do hide a lot. YOU try being as small as I am. Do you have ANY idea how easy it is for me to get trapped in a room? IT SUCKS." She squeaks, hands on her hips.

Dust goes everywhere.

"It's all right. You don't have a good reason to trust random faerie person. I don't blame you for that. If it helps, though, I am very trust worthy... which is what I suppose someoine who isn't trustworthy at all would say. Crap. Okay. Let's try this," She lays a finger on her chin, "I can't really think of a good way to assure you that I'm not full of shit except to say I promise I'm not full of shit. That'll have to do." A glance towards Lydia. The psuedopod.

"HOLY SHIT," she says. "Well, uh. That was unexpected. I just thought you were like a random well dressed occultist type girl." A pause, "This is what passes for fashoonable right now, right?" A glance up and down Lydia. Then the pseudopod. "Anyway holy shit yeah that looks like what I thought it was. What I mean to say is that this is the opposite of anemic... it's all irony."

Morgan le Fay has posed:
Morgan le Fay blinks, "Irony? Opposite of anemic? You mean actual iron? Why would that burn me?" She recalls being burned by metals before but the fact that they were iron never crossed her mind, "But iron is.. everywhere. I mean if you count steel. There must be something wrong with the wand.. it must be cursed. Iron is just a metal."

She seems very sure of this. Jinn likely hears the conversation but still couldn't care less, eyes still glued to his newspaper.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
"I /am/ a well dressed occultist type girl," Lydia says with a huff. "Well. Sorta. Baby occultist. Got into it by doing doing research for my books. I'm also a mutant which is why I have--" she waves a hand through the green mist sending whorls and eddies behind it "this."

She looks at the wand thoughtfully, and carefully plucks it from her ectoplasm to roll it around in her hand. "Steel doesn't count," Lydia says to Morgan. "It's usually cold iron that hurts the fae, but cold iron is just a metaphor for an iron weapon, like cold steel." She scratches the back of her head as she thinks. "Maybe you have fae blood in you?"

Glamour has posed:
"Oh hey that's smart!" Snap point at Lydia, "Maybe you really ARE a well dressed occultist girl," says Glamour, completely bowling over the declaration that this is in fact what she was. "Oh, a mutant too! Cool! Mutants are awesome." She stares at the mist. The whorls. The eddies.

"...all I can do is make glitter," she lies, lamely, which doesn't exactly go towards her trustworthyness, but then she's nodding. "Yeah, yeah. Cold iron is like ... something specific. I don't run into it much. You can put the weird wand down."

Morgan le Fay has posed:
Morgan le Fay eyes Lydia for a moment, "Part fae? What so my mom or day was a faerie? I think I'd know.." She looks back to Glamour, "So.. I guess iron hurts you? If it hurts me then.. look neither of my parents were weird. I study... weird things. Never felt like studying either of them though and I had a normal childhood..." Not quite so normal but she's not going to discuss it.

"Fae blood.." She scoffs, "Not likely. The Fae would never stoop so low as to mate with a human. Humans are beneath them.. entirely. Beasts.."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia gives Morrigan a little shrug. "You could be a changeling, then. I don't know. I'm no expert on this," she admits as she turns to put the wand away. She hefts the book and says, "I think I'm going to go ahead and pay for this. It was a pleasure to meet you... uh... Miss Fairy." She never did get Glamour's name.

She turns and walks up to Jinn's counter and places the book on it, pulling out her wallet to pay in cash.

Glamour has posed:
"Who knows? Maybe its generations back. Or maybe one of the fae took a liking to you. Or maybe your great Grandpa Frodo decided to go on a grand adventure to throw a magical ring into a volcano and some of the magic rubbed off on him. It works like that, right? Magic shit. I could throw some fairy dust on you and see what happens, but the glitter is impossible to get out and your clothes are too nice to ruin."

Glamour scratches hre head, thoughtfully. "oh yeah. A changeling. That might be possible. I ... guess. And you can call me Glamour, not 'Miss Fairy'. Miss Fairy sounds like a bad superhero code na-- .. OH COME ON! Why did I never think of that?!"

She slaps her palm into her forehead. "of COURSE I could have been like ... Ms. Fairy, or ... you know what, nevermind. Too late now."

Morgan le Fay has posed:
Morgan scoffs, "Glitter? Frodo? Changeling?" She can't really argue with a woman glowing green and an actual fairy, but she also isn't going to trust complete strangers. The wand burning her, metals in general burning her in the past, it's strange but she's not jumping to any conclusions. She has bigger things to worry about.. like her memories, "Right.. whatever.." She looks back to Jinn as Lydia approaches the counter. Morgan realizes she isn't going to find anything in the scrolls or tomes..

Jinn gives Lydia a bored look, "Three hundred dollars." He says it so casually.. Morgan realizes that she may have to actually ask this guy for help. She stands behind Lydia now, waiting for her turn. She gives Glamour another brief look.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia nods, and pulls out enough cash to pay for the book. Once paid for, the book is slipped into her purse, and she turns to go. She turns to look at Morgan and says, gently, "Look. Just... don't be so sure of yourself. You never know what the truth might be." With that pearl of wisdom she leaves the store.

Glamour has posed:
"What she said," says Glamour, pointing after Lyddia.

"I think I'll hang around here. You know. So you can come back and ask questions. I'll keep an eye out for you and I promise I won't follow you home." A beat. "I'm not a cat."

Morgan le Fay has posed:
Morgan le Fay approaches Jinn when Lydia leaves. Jinn stares at her blankly, eyeing her lack of product in hand, "Need something?" His expression implies that Morgan is wasting his time. Morgan responds, "I'm.. looking for something. None of the books or scrolls seem to have anything on it. Have you heard of something called the Gnosis Stone? It's a crystal."

Jinn smirks, "You looked through everyone of those books kid?" He smirks again, "Look.. you've been here long enough and I don't like loitering. I'll give you a contact who -might- know something about that. But that's gonna be five hundred dollars. I sell product, this ain't a charity organization, and that goes for info too." Jinn sounds more like a mob associate at this point but that's how it goes.

Morgan sighs, she definitely brought cash, and this is a large chunk of her unspent grant money. But she just has to hope it's worth it. A dark thought crosses her mind, that she's going to visit Jinn again if the contact doesn't know anything, that she'll... do what? Hurt him? Worse? She doesn't feel bad about thinking it.. not really. But.. it's not important now. Her nightmares and visions have changed her some. So what?

She hands over a roll of cash. Jinn grins, "He goes by Goldilocks. Don't ask me why, he's weird, but he's knows stuff. If there's anyone in this city who can help you, it's him, but he told me not to send anybody else his way. I'm gonna pop a vein listening to him complain to me after sending you but the money's worth it. Now get out of here."

Jinn points RIGHT at Glamour too, "You too insect. Get out now. I'm done with you.. time to go." Jinn writes down a phone number and address, then hands it to Morgan, "We're done kid."

Morgan glances at Glamour and rolls her eyes, heading towards the exit too.