8102/PoP: Vanished

PoP: Vanished
Date of Scene:	14 October 2021
Location:	Perry Island, off the Coast of Maine.
Synopsis:	Another thinning, but this time it's different. This time John and his allies get a peek at what might be behind them. The Laughing Magician came through the final battle mostly fine for a change. But then Jubilee nearly killed him without even knowing she was doing so. Another day ending in Y, innit?
Cast of Characters:	John Constantine, Zatanna Zatara, Jonathan Sims, Phoebe Beacon, Jubilation Lee, Jessica Cruz

---

John Constantine has posed:
    This one was different. There was no burning map. At least there wasn't one before John but out the call to the Brigade. He was acting on a phone call from a contact in Bangor. A supply boat landed on Findley Island to find everyone just *gone*. It's a small, tight knit community only numbering a few hundred people. The Island itself was named after the founding family.

    Meet at the Laughing Magician in twenty, trouble in Maine.

    ...and here they are. John steps through the portal first, opened magically rather than via the House. Right smack dab in the middle of town. Which, by the way, looks an awful lot like some Shaker or Quaker kind of place. No electricity, no cars, no running water. A horse and buggy or two are in the streets outside the little town square store. The horses are alive, tied to posts, a little wide eyed and nostrils flaring at the appearance of people out of nowhere.

    There is not a living human soul in sight.

    "Well, at least we don't have to deal with lookie loos," John mumbles as he lights a Silk.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
"Or smoking prohibitions," Zee quips blinking into existence next to him, hat and wand in hand. Shivering, she mutters, ".sehtolc retniW" (Winter clothes.) Which earns her long stovepipe dress pants trimmed with a line of black satin down the side and a red woolen scarf that she throws over theneck of her tuxedo jacket.

    "What /do/ we know about these folks beyond it looking like they live like the Amish?" This asked as she turns in place and adds some sensible shoes to replace her heels. "There, I hate being cold for fashion. I don't think I've ever been to Maine before. Not even to ski."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon being the Archivist doesn't just mean he's got the ability to pull Stories out of people and dead bodies (evidently), it also means he has a compulsion to gather information. So when Zatanna asks, he says, "They're isolated and secretive. Their only connection to the mainland is boats that deliver supplies once a month." He frowns down at the phone in his hand; no internet connection but the page is still up. "Nothing about them being Amish or any other such /known/ group but... that doesn't preclude an offshoot of some sort."

    He looks up and around, frowning at the place thoughtfully. "I could..." He stops. Hesitates. "With a backup, I could walk around and see if anything... speaks to me? I, ahh. I pulled a dead man's Story from the spot where he died last night. The same could apply here."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe steps out of the portal, wearing solid shoes, ripped jeans and a black sweatshirt over her shoulders, her hair in short braids tonight. She's wearing a pair of red, fingerless gloves over her hands, dark eyes looking over the town and seeing the horses tied to posts, and she hikes her pack up a little bit higher, and bites at the inside of her cheek as her dark eyes half-close in concentration, trying to peirce through what veil there was between this world and the next -- but all she gets is squinty.

    "The horses lookt o at least be in good condition --" she trails off.

    "Well, they're Maine, so they cheer for the Bruins?" Phoebe offers as she takes a few steps closer to the horses as she reaches into her bag and pulls out a flashlight with a red lens, and clicks it on.

    "Fashion's a horrible thing to be uncomfortable for." she counters to Zatanna, but she gives a bit of a smile.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation Lee lifts her foot in New York City and places it down in Maine. She bends forward and dry heaves a couple of times but nothing comes. Her long hair shields her sickly expression from being seen by anyone. "Okay! So, that... was like a whole flight worth of air sickness crammed into one teeny tiny second!" she exclaims, shaking her head. Jubilee stands up straight and rakes her fingers through her hair, just now taking in the sights of this sleepy little town that has apparently been trapped in the past.

    "So, we all need to be /really/ careful not to crack our phone screens here because... I don't even think they have a mall, do they?" The teen looks at Zatanna and Jon for an answer to that.

    The young vampire is dressed like any other night for her -- a bright yellow tank top, black spandex short-shorts, and a pair of white sneakers. One benefit of her current situation is not needing to worry about keeping her body temperature up. Tonight, Jubilation has showed up with a cross body strap that goes from one shoulder and down to the opposite hip. It has three sharpened wooden stakes held in velcro straps like a bandoliere. Around her neck is a saphire necklace and the ugliest, most grotesque looking amulet anyone has ever seen, courtesy of John Constantine.

Jessica Cruz has posed:
The new girl, as it were, spent a full day recovering from last time and then spent a full day not wanting to leave her new room. Then she tried to go home just in time to get pulled away to a new adventure and glaring at John. At least someone washed her clothes. Now she is standing here not sure what to do with herself. Jessica swallows after coming through another portal and grumbles.

"This was. not in the job description. I have yet to cook one thing." She keeps her hoodie up and hands in her pockets.

John Constantine has posed:
    For a second or three, nothing anyone says to John registers. He's shifted over to that in between sight, where all the 'other' overlays the normal.

    To mundane eyes that look for them hard enough in the dark, there are little signs everywhere of the suddenness of this event. A dropped basket of groceries in the middle of the street. A child's toy, one of those wooden things with a ball and a cup and a string. A man's hat near one of the buggies, as if he was removing it before 'driving' home and it tumbled to the ground.

    "There's *nothing* here," John whispers with more than a little bit of... awe? Fear? Something in his voice that's not typical. "Astral's nothing but a *void*. Zee, can you give us some light?"

    "Maybe Jon, but not yet. Not until we know more. At least a little more."

    "Stop grousing, there's no better way to learn how to use what you've recently gained than this," he points out to Jessica. His tone isn't harsh per say, just... firm.

    ...and finally, it might be noted, that while John still looks tired, still has dark circles under his eyes, is still juggling too many balls at one time... he looks, it's the eyes themselves, they don't seem as shadowed and haunted as in recent weeks.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Watching John's caution sends shivers up the Magician's back. She doesn't answer but flips her wrist. A lantern, out of sync with horses and buggies, appears in one hand, then another, the gas mantles hissing like tiny snakes under the glass. She silently offers one to John and holds up the other, lighting the scattered remnants on the street of the missing people which cast lonely shadows.

"Well, here we are! But where are they? Have you seen any hint of them, John?" She can feel him using second sight to look around.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "No malls, no," Jon says sardonically to Jubilee. "What gave it away? The lack of cars? The lack of cell signal? The feeling that, perhaps, John has accidentally transported us through time rather than space?" He gives the ugly amulet at her neck a glance and very firmly says /nothing/. Nothing at all.

    Instead, he hitches his dark green cardigan--yes, the guy wears cardigans--closer around his shoulders as Zatanna lights the place up. He takes a step toward the hat near the buggy before stopping himself. He hesitates. Does he /want/ the Story of what happened here? Well, the /Archivist/ does, but does /Jon/?

    He takes a moment to close his eyes, then opens them and looks around. He actually shields his eyes while looking at Phoebe, frowns briefly at Jessica, blinks at Jubilee, eyes Zatanna's lanterns curiously, can't help breaking into a smile on looking at John. But his voice is somber as he says, "There's nobody here but us. Not... not that I can sense." Just backing up John, really.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe is happy for John being more himself; reason enough for her to like Jon even more -- though she's still guarded.

    She takes a deep breath, letting it hang int he air a moment in Costal Maine's chill.

    "I know it's not Derry, but make sure nothing's floating either." she remarks quietly, and she gives a small smile to Jubilee. "I don't think there's a mall for at least a hundred miles, and probably one whirlpool-threatened straight. Maybe there's a whaling schooner." she cracks a joke, John's even people-friendly today!

    It's a good day.

    "careful walking around the horses. You don't want to get kicked." she warns, wandering a little closer to the sidewalks to peer in some of the shop windows, pointing the red-lensed flashlight in.

    "No remnants of any portal magic or anything? Something we could trace?" she asks quietly, thinking through her own notes, and she goes to try one of the doors to a shop that looks like a general store. Maybe they have spraypaint.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "And we didn't even get frequent flier miles for this trip!" Jubilee calls out to Jessica, grinning a little in her direction. That portal was something! Jubes walks slowly down the street, apparently perfectly fine with the darkness. She gives the cup-and-ball a nudge with her foot and frowns at it.

    Phoebe's point about it not being Derry draws a fangy smile from Jubilation. "Right! Better keep our eyes peeled for Georgie while we're here, right?" she replies, apparently happy about the shared reference. Phoebe's point about the horses draws Jubilation's attention. She eyes the horses. They eye her back and stir nervously, clopping their feet against the ground. They do not like her.

    "I swear... everyone's just... /gone/?" Jubilee asks the group. "Did the next town over have a sale on... wagon wheels and tattered hats?" She shrugs her shoulders and continues to slowly walk down the street, staring down at the different artifacts of a town gone bye-bye. Zatanna's lantern light is apparently too much for the vampire's hyper-dialated pupils. She pulls a pair of Ray Bans from the waistband of her spandex shorts and slips them over her eyes. Just in time to stare back at Jon and shift her weight over one hip.

    "What?" she asks, catching the glance at the amulet around her neck.

Jessica Cruz has posed:
Giving John some side eye, Jessica walks away from the group. This is actually kinda nice to her. Quiet. A city or town without all the people. All the threats.

<He's right, Jessica.>

"Shut up." She mutters as she approaches a horse, looking it over carefully as she does. She starts to make little shh and soft cooing noises as she approaches. A hand raised as her hoodie is pulled down.

"Hey there, gal. How long have you been alone? Hmm?" She asks gently and carefully tries to place her hand gently on to its snout.

John Constantine has posed:
    Absently, still attention still divided between two planes, John reaches for the lantern. Cell phones, someone was talking about cell phones a second ago and now Jon mentions the again. It prompts him to ... check his. "Anyone else have signal?" Because he doesn't. Maybe not too far off the mark considering where they are, but they're not *that* far from the Mainland, should be at least a bar or half of one?

    Somewhere in the distance, a church bell rings. It's far away enough to not be a booming sound, but it might as well be when it breaks the unnatural silence of a town without occupants.

    It even makes John jump just a little bit. No locked doors here, it's one of those kind of communities. Any peeking inside or the like would reveal the same sorts of evidence. An order on counter that never got rung up and paid for, a little girls doll dropped in the middle of the store.

    The store itself carries the simple fare one would expect in a town such as this, any paint is in cans, the kind applied to barns with brushes.

    "Nothing," John murmurs but he's already moving in the direction of that church bell, which seems as if it'll lead him through an expanse of trees too small to be considered 'forest', but only just. "Do you feel that?" he asks, voice soft.

    It's there, maybe more so even for others than him with all the demon running through him, a snag or a tug, a little something nudging in the direction of the tolling bell. A tug on the soul.

    "Did she just tell me to *shuddup*?" he asks incredulously. But the horse nudges Jessica, looking for pockets and possible carrot bits and sugar cubes hidden away.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
    The island is far enough from the mainland to escape the light pollution of its cities, but a thick overcast obscures the stars. The street smells of horses and wood smoke. Zee smiles to herself at Jubilee's urban teenagers' take on the country town.

    Good warning, Phoebe, not everyone knows not to walk directly behind strange horses." Zee walks around Jessica petting the horse, her footsteps sounding hollow on the steps of the wooden sidewalk. She opens the door to a general store where shadows loom behind pickle barrels, reaching automatically for her phone at John's mention of it.

    The bell tolling feels ominous to her in the cold dark. "Everyone sure left in a hurry from the looks of it," she comments, her voice small in the darkness.

Zee picks up a rag doll by an arm, its well-loved face missing an eye. "Where is your owner, little missie?"

    John's incredulous exclamation almost makes her smile though his question doesn't. Listening with all her senses to answer his question and her own, she lowers the lantern, leaving her face in shadow.

    

    "How could I not feel a thing?" she queries the dark.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "Hmm?" Jon says to Jubilee. "Oh, nothing, it's--"

    The sound of the church bell overwhelms absolutely everything else in Jon's mind. Quips and comments and light and dark, missing people... he jumps only a little at the bell, because within moments he's not really Jon anymore. He's the Archivist.

    And the Archivist is going to follow that tug unless he's physically restrained from doing so.

    He picks up speed as he moves, walking at first, but then jogging and then running, right toward the source of that tug. He doesn't have any kind of super speed, he'd be easy enough to catch up to if one did, but he's got long legs and a single-minded determination to find out just what is going on. Well, shit.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe takes out her phone. It has a smiling, gray-muzzled dalmatian picture as its lockscreen, and when she unlocks its already-cracked screen, it's a selfie of her and a very puzzled looking Chas, and a grumpy looking John at his seat at the bar, with Jon in profile, the light lighting up her face as Zatanna walks into the general store with her, and she looks to the powerful magi woman.

    "My signal doesn't get too much of a boost the further we are from New Jersey but --" she calls, and then she pauses, slipping her phone back into her pocket as she borrows a can of white, and looks up to the sound of the church Bell. She feels its pull, like something familiar, the closer she is to the Light and what it encompasses.

    "That..." she trails off a moment, and she begins to jog, the can of white paint in one hand and her red-tinted flashlight in the other.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    The church bell earns a frown from Jubilee. She shudders a little as the sound echoes through the town. The sounds of the church do not sing sweet songs in the vampire's ear. Instead of commenting on it, though, Jubes shrugs her shoulders in Jon's direction and wanders into one of the abandoned shops.

    'Do you feel that?' is Constantine's question. Jubilation comes out of a wooden building with 'R.B. TERMINUS, FINE PURVEYOR OF TONICS & ELIXIRS' painted in a semi-circle on of its dusty windows. She is holding an ancient hearing aid up to one of her ears -- it just looks like a big, unwieldy horn.

    "No..." she answers dejectedly. She has no psychic abilities as far as she knows. Jubes gives the old timey hearing horn a toss and slips into a jog in order to catch up with the others.

Jessica Cruz has posed:
A small laugh escapes from Jessica, very quiet and just for the horse. It's the way it goes for her pockets that has her smiling. She pulls out a napkin wrapped thing and reveals a biscuit inside. She unfolds it carefully and holds it out to the horse to nibble or bite at as it pleases.

"Not the healthiest thing for any of us but it's a favorite of mine." SHe says quietly before looking in John's direction, "Wasn't talking to you, John, but if you have a shut up concious, feel free to own it."

She then looks in the direction of the church and frowns a little before looking to the horse, petting it lightly while feeding it and then she considers.

"These horses haven't been here long." She states to no one and everyone. She looks over the horse and casually starts to walk to its side, petting as she goes and shaking her head, "They haven't tried to get free so they aren't overly hungry or thirsty." She shakes her head and then frowns as she looks down at the ring on her finger.

<It's not natural, Jessica. Stop playing with the animal and focus on the situation.> Which of course gets Jessica a frown and a clenched fist before she glares at the ring and then looks at the horse, giving it another pet as if in defiance.

John Constantine has posed:
    Sorry Jon. When the Archivist takes off, John just reacts. He lashes out with one hand in a motion that's not unlike cracking a whip. There is no whip strike, however. What there *is* is a lasso of energy that whips around Jon's waist like a snake and tugs him back, perhaps off his feet, when John jerks that hand back again. "Whoa, Nellie," he mutters.

    "Because it's *gone*." He's not even sure he can explain exactly what *it* means, what it all means, but he feels it too... profoundly, the *nothing* that almost seems to be closing in on them. Nothing but that pull of the tolling bells.

    "Bollocks! Zee!" ...get Phoebe! ...is implied. He's already got *one* and a lantern in his other hand. "Elvira!" he snaps, but only to get attention. "Get hands on Jon and don't let go." Because he doesn't like both of his hands occupied when one might be needed to start magic slinging and dropping the light would be a bad choice... and he's certainly not letting Jon go.

    "Don't have one of those, luv, they get in the way of doing business," he quips back at Jessica. She's right though, about the horses, the one she offers a treat too munches sure, but not as if it's starving.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Reflexively at John's command, Zatanna snaps, ".og reh tel t'noD .yltneg reh potS (Stop her gently, don't let her go.) Which amounts to putting up a wall of pillows before the running girl. Senses on alert, she feels nothing but a darkness that smothers the town like the clouds eating the stars.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    The Archivist starts to speak, even as he runs. "It's peaceful, the light. Or is it dark? It's nothing; does nothing have a quality of light? It's nothing... no more pain, no more sorrow, no fear or aching need. What else does a soul desire, but rest?"

    The trance is strong enough to continue even when John's spell yanks Jon off his feet and onto his back; he stares up at the sky, still speaking. "The First Noble Truth, /dukkha/: existence is suffering. The Second Noble Truth, /samudaya/: This suffering is due to desire. The Third Noble Truth, /nirodha/: Suffering can be ended by letting go of desire. So let go. Let go, and walk into the light, the dark, the /nothing/. Let go."

    The Archivist tries to get up, to struggle to his feet. He'll be easy enough for Jubilee to catch up to. "Let me go. Let /go/."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    THOMP! Phoebe hits the pillows. She wasn't running like Jon was, she doesn't run into danger... most of the time... without a plan. She gives a soft 'OOF!'

    "I'm... I'm okay -- really. I can feel it pulling. But it's more -- I want to see it. I just want to see what it's attached to. The bells, what kind of church. It's been so long since I've felt a pull like that, that wasn't a pull on my power." Phoebe comments, and she takes a deep breath.

    "I bet you that's where they are. That pull. It's like being caught in a riptide." she whispers, and turns to Zatanna.

    "I'm okay! -- I'm okay. I'm not about to start talking the laws of Budhisim like Jon." she comments with a slight smile, and takes a deep breath to steady herself.

    "... please don't let there be giant spiders here. Again." she mutters to herself.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "What are you, like, a jockey or something? I thought they're all, like, short guys!" Jubilee calls over her shoulder at Jessica, noticing the woman's interest in the horses and grinning in her direction. The grin fades almost immediately as she hears that most dreaded name come from that most dreaded mouth: 'Elvira'

    Jubilee rolls her eyes at the name but, to her credit, she listens to the magician's order. She's closer to the back of the group, certainly a ways away from Jon, thanks to the time she spent fussing around with the odds and ends she could find in the shops, but she has no trouble at all catching up. Jubilation does a little gymnastic show of flair and hurdles, planting both hands on the ground and doing a quick round-off.

    When Jubilee's feet return to the ground, she rebounds and suddenly becomes a blur! Using that vampire speed and strength, Jubilation suddenly unblurs behind the Archivist with both arms wrapped around his midsection and her feet firmly planted.

    "Oh, hello!" she chirps, grinning a little as she keeps Jon from moving forward. "May I have this dance?"

Jessica Cruz has posed:
A roll of her eyes and Jessica finishes by putting her hoodie back up. She shakes her head slowly before looking to Jubilee as she moves a few steps forward. Her hands plant back into hoodie pockets and she looks in the direction of the church more directly now.

"Well, at least everyone here is broken." She states and then looks more directly at Jubilee, "And yes, I'm a jockey. I won the Kentucky Derby last year. Didn't you see?"

She has sarcasm down, at least. She then looks down at her pocket and slowly withdraws her ring hand. SHe eyes it carefully as she looks forward.

"Well. Have anything to add here?"

<Are you ready to listen, Jessica? YOu have yet to do anything I say yet.>

"Says the ring that forced itself on me." She grits her teeth and hisses that last bit out even as she clenches her fist and looks ahead.

"So, are we going to go check out the church or just walk off in random directions and lose our minds?"

John Constantine has posed:
    John holds up his lantern once he's reached the treeline and waits just long enough for the others to catch up once, subdued or whatever. "If he doesn't stop, knock him out," he instructs with a glance of her shoulder. It'll suck having to drag an immobile body around with them, but it's better than one of them running off into whatever trap's been set here.

    "That's what I'm thinking, Phoebe."

    Once in the woods, he makes no attempt at hiding their approach, no attempt to cover his lantern or anything. Whatever's out there, whatever's causing this, after Jon and Phoebe? He's pretty sure it knows they're there, knows they're coming.

    To that end, he asks Zee, "Can you shield us, physically? Keep it moving in front of us? In case of a blunt force or magical attack?"

    Stop the presses, pigs are flying, John just asked someone else to do what he's perfectly capable of doing so he might not be so fucking drained at the end of the night, so his energy will be saved for whatever might need to be unraveled ahead. What. The. Fuck?

    "Phoebe, stay close to Zatanna, don't leave her butt crack."

    "Elvira, keep your ears open if they work better than mine now and fuckin' keep Jon in line."

    "Jessica... listen to the power in that ring, it'll likely know what to do before I do. And stop with the smart mouth, aye?" That last part is the most 'snide and angry' sounding he's been all evening. Yeah, he's feeling a wee bit better, but his patience still wears thin after a bit. "Whining about your lot in life does *no one* any fuckin' good. You pick your feet up and put them one in front of the other and accept it."

    The trip through the woods and to the church is uneventful save the typical 'creep woods in the dark' stuff... a spider's web walked through here, a branch scratching a face there, undergrowth tugging at pant legs, shadows that seem longer than they truly are. Creepy, but uneventful.

    The church itself is as one might expect. It's a single room building, wood, painted white but weathered through in spots to brown, a single bell tower that just pokes above the treeline. It's even quieter here, darker... the pull stronger. Even John feels it here and has to suck in one breath and then another in order to calm himself into not heeding its call.

    ...it's quieter because the bells, they just stopped ringing. Why then is the pull so much stronger?

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
    How does one feel emptiness, is it the absence of light or life? Is this the great emptiness that Buddhism evokes or an emptiness with volition that eats everything in its path trying to fill its empty maw.

    In the absence of ambient noise she can hear the Archivist muttering to himself. Words are Zatanna's magic, and without thought, she answers Jon's words with a mantra: "Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha."("Gone, gone, gone to the other shore beyond. O what an awakening, all hail!) - fervently hoping that each of them will reach the other shore in one piece, whole, and sound of mind. She instantly amends that to as sound of mind as any of them could be as she watches Jubilee rush off into the night and listens to Jessica talk to herself. Then, of course, there is John.

     Holding her lantern high, she follows behind John toward the dark trees. Surprise is etched in her face at his request: maybe she has arrived on the far shore of nirvana, and the bodhisattvas are clapping and cheering. Hand in the air like a cop stopping traffic, she takes a deep fortifying breath and makes his shield.

    !!su dnefeD"

&T Then walks forward with her hand in the air.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    At first the Archivist struggles, and it might even be funny to watch--he's nearly a foot taller than Jubilee, but he's far weaker and she has training on her side even aside from her own enhanced strength. "Let me /go!" he complains. "I want to... I need to... /forget/..."

    It's Zatanna's words that snap him back, the mantra returning him to his own mind, calming his mind and heart. Enlightenment is not forgetting, but even beyond that it reminds him of his grandmother--not Gertrude, the other one--and the rest of his family, and things worth /remembering./ His eyes widen and he's /Jon/ again.

    "It's okay, Jubilation," he says after a moment, softly, sounding almost ashamed. "Keep a hand on me, please, but... I won't run off again. Not if I can help it."

    And so he'll follow along quietly to the church, shuddering as the pull gets stronger. He closes his eyes once they're there, whispers something under his breath in Egyptian. A prayer to Thoth, for the strength of heart to resist.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe pauses a moment, staying close to Zatanna. She hikes her bag up a little further, and she brings her flashlight up, hanging it from a hook to pose on her shoulder, and then switches the can of paint she borrowed to her right hand. Her left hand now has a glowing circle against her palm, looking to John a moment, then back ahead. This was unsettling.

    It pulled so hard that it *hurt*.

    "Audio elements, unsettling countence, commanding -- is it a siren? Some kind of fae? Unseelie?" she asks, trying to suss out for herself what may be going on, mostly talking to herself than anyone else.

    She doesn't pray. She doesn't ask for protection. She's sure no one would answer her here.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Ew, no!" Jubilee exclaims, shaking her head at Jessica's question about whether she saw her in the Kentucky Derby. Did she not detect the sarcasm? Did she not care? Who knows!? Jubilation keeps her legs strong, feet planted, and arms locked around Jonathan. "Can I let you go without you going all Looney Tunes on me?" she mutters against the Archivist's ear. When she hears him say her name (her /actual/ name!), she grins broadly and releases him from her grip. She gives him a gentle pat on the shoulder blade and stays close, hooking one of her arms around one of his.

    "Give my arm a tug if you need some, uh..." She searches for the right word to describe it, but instead just uses her own. "...glamouring..." The offer comes as a whisper, not wanting anyone other than Jonathan to hear it. She can hear the touch of shame in his tone.

    "My hearing?" Jubes calls out to Constantine, frowning as he calls her Elvira again. "Well, I can hear that you're not as much of a badass as you make it seem!" She can hear the thumping of that vein in his neck and it thumps as quickly as it should be thumping in this scary situation.

    The church's call to her is not nearly as strong as it is to the others, but she can certainly feel...something from it. It's confusing -- the church's call makes each step towards it easier and easier, but the closer she gets the more her expression sours. Religious symbols and vampires rarely get along and what's more religious than a church?

    "I...don't think I can go in there..." Jubilee whispers to Jonathan, looking up at him with a touch of shame of her own, showing her own vulnerability to him as he did towards her.

Jessica Cruz has posed:
<See, this is why I directed you to him. He knows you need to listen.> THe voice of the ring calls out to her and she grits her teeth. She's not really keen on taking this from within her own mind and from someone outside her mind at teh same time. She glares over at John a brief moment and then shakes her head and looks forward.

"You know nothing of my lot in life." She shoves her hands back into her hoodie and looks forward a htey approach the church. She eyes it briefly and then looks over at Jubilation before letting out a slow sigh.

"Worried the lord might strike you down or something? I assure you, he doesn't look here and he's probably not been in this place for a minute." She looks over the church, "I doubt anything holy has been here even before whatever happened." Yeah, she lacks a lot of faith but she steps toward the church all the same, sucking in several deep breaths as she walks up to it, "So, what's the plan this time? Wait till bugs fly out and then get eaten?"

John Constantine has posed:
    John stops about ten feet from the church doors and hands the lantern off to Phoebe with a muttered, "Hold this." He rolls his neck, shakes his hands out at his sides... and makes the type of entrance John Constantine is known for. He thrusts his hands forward and a blast of sheer force blows the doors to the building *off* their hinges and...

    ...right into the inkiest black, swirling hole of *nothingness*. A thinning, it's definitely a thinning, but it's so wrong. It opens right in front of Jessica. They're all wrong, but this one? It's beyond the realms of just *wrong*. Yet, with the doors open, that pull is even stronger still.

    "John Constantine," a voice from the depths of that black swirling pit hisses, papery, rasping, as if coming from vocal chords long unused, or dead. "... the little human that keeps... CLOSING MY DOORS!"

    ...and that thumping gets louder, quicker, little vampire. But see, being badass isn't about not being afraid, it's about doing what needs to be done despite that fear.

    One insectoid leg reaches through, grasping at the edges of the blackness, then another, one more... another. Each one is tipped with a spear like, curved claw. With a speed even Jubilation couldn't match, one of those legs strikes, intent, perhaps on impaling the object of its ire. It hits nothing but Zatanna's shield, causing the thing in the blackness to let out a screech of frustration and outrage, but it took only that ONE hit to shatter the spell.

    Stonger, stronger, stronger, the pull grows. Step into the peace of the blackness, the quiet, the forgetting, no more pain, no more suffering. Come. Come. Come.

Jessica Cruz has posed:
Jessica a few steps back to behind John and stares at the big insect thing coming out, twitching a little as she stares. "I was joking, about the insects eating us thing. Seriously."

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
    Thankful that Phoebe listened to John, Zee is glad for her closeness. The bell tolling is dizzying; she unaccountably finds herself gritting her teeth in the effort to maintain a shield against whatever emanates from the old-fashioned church. She expects to hear a cappela voices in close harmony float into the yard before it, accompanying the uncanny pull exerted on them.

    Smiling around the strain of holding the shield, she mutters, "Amen," to Jessica's words.

    Instead of sweet voices, evil fills the air. The sharp scythes of claws that skitter down the shield screech and Jessica drops her hands, letting the lantern roll on the ground to clap her hands to her ears.

    For just an instant, the hungry blackness overcomes the magician and the shield falls.

    "NO!" she refuses the pull and yells, "!!!kcaB" like an exorcist quelling demons.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon was going to say something, torn between smiling at Jubilee and glaring at Jessica--but then there's darkness and /nothing/ and something insectoid crawling through the hole...

    And for once in his damn life Jon manages to remember all the things he tells /other/ people, counts ten, takes a deep breath, remembers Thoth, remembers the mantra Zatanna spoke, thinks about the people around him, confused and tired and trying to help even while snapping at each other sometimes.

    It doesn't /look/ like anything, but a wave of confidence and calm and /resolve/ passes over the group, over anyone who doesn't have the wards to block it off, offering power to anyone who might need to draw on it.

    <<Stay strong!!>> He thinks, without really realizing he's /thinking/ it loud enough to be heard. <<That darkness has nothing worth throwing yourself into it for!>>

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe was about to give a quip about something Hole-y being here, and motion to her ripped jeans when John hands her Zatanna's other lantern. She takes the handle, and holds the latern up. Her eyes go wide, and she brings her elft hand up, a two-ring concentric circle forming in her palm, and wordlessly her own shield is raised to help cover the group nearest her!

    THe shield is only a meager five feet across, but it's pale like sunlight through glass, a Light in the darkness that she desperately hopes is too pale to bother poor Jubilee!

    She squares her stance, leaning forward into the shield to use it to proect the group with her and bolster Zatanna, give her enough time to cast! The shield is pretty, with slowly swirling little heiroglyphics.

    There was something with a fair bit of Holy to it; she's not a Beacon in name alone!

John Constantine has posed:
    John, too, is fighting the urge to walk straight into that swirling dark, but for every different reasons. He could do it, there's a slim chance that he could do it. Walk right on in there and blow that bitch up from the inside and maybe even come out of it alive. He could try. He could... try. ...and there's a chance that he could very well die.

    ...and not make it home.
    ...and not send the text message someone's waiting for, probably holding their breath to receive at this point.

    Another leg appears, one more. That's six. Only two more until Phoebe's fear might be realized, innit so?

    John backsteps, it's not a stagger, it's not fear driving him back, it's strategic, trying to get himself out of reach. So he can make it home, send a text message. "Drive it back!" he bellows at all of them, his allies. Drive it back so he can damned well close another of that motherfucker's doors.

    His eyes close, leaving him vulnerable, but they've got him right? His hands are held out, palms up and he begins to chant.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation does what any sensible person would do in response to Jessica's taunt about getting struck down by the Lord: she sticks her tongue out at her, a fine display of maturity if there ever was one!

    Jubilee's apprehension about going into the church, regardless of the cause, ends up justified as Constantine blows those doors right off their hinges. As soon as the opening is revealed, Jubilee instinctively turns her head into Jonathan's shoulder, as though she's expecting to catch fire or something. Unfortunately, there's something far worse in that church than mere religious symbols that are offensive to her kind.

    "Holy shit!" she exclaims. "Phoebe was right! It's Pennywise!" It's a deep pull, but that clown's true form is an insectoid monster, right? It moves much faster than she does, yes, but she can at least perceive what it's doing, and watches that piercer expel from the darkness and slam into Zatanna's shield.

    As soon as the leg hits the shield, Jubilee shrieks and pulls Jonathan closer to her as she takes a step to the left, trying to get them both more squarely behind Phoebe's replacement shield. Her Ray Bans keep her shielded from the shield, at least! She was instructed to tend to Jonathan, keep him from getting in trouble, but Jubilation can't help but eye the empty space between Phoebe's shield and the monstrous void. Can she still make her plasmoids? Her mutant gift... She /has/ done it since her return from the dead, but control has been squirrelly. Is it too dangerous? Does it matter? Drive it back, Constantine yelled...

    With her free hand attached to the arm not hooked around Jonathan's, Jubilation reaches out into the air reluctantly. Her fingers are outstretched, trembling. Suddenly, the empty space in front of the shield starts to pop and crackle as tiny explosions begin to form. A cloud of all colors, though with a heavy lean towards neon blues and pinks and yellows, begins to thicken as the plasmoids start to accumulate. Anyone watching Jubilee would notice she has dropped the act, the swagger, and is putting everything into this -- all of her concentration is spent on making sure this very dangerous mass of exploding molecules goes where it's supposed to and not...well, where it shouldn't.

    The cloud of fireworks and explosions slams into the tangle of insectoid legs, popping and cracking as the very air surrounding the monster begins to burn up and explode. Suddenly, the cloud putters out all at once and Jubilation falls a little into Jonathan's arm.

Jessica Cruz has posed:
<Jessica! Don't give in to it! Don't->

"SHUT UP!" Jessica screams at perhaps the others, at perhaps the ring, at perhaps the insect god thing of death and darkness or whatever it is.

"Do you think, for even a moment, I want darkness? I want release from suffering? I had that opportunity many times over the past several years. I could slipped into peace any time I wanted! I'm an America, I have the 2nd amendment!" Jessica steps forward but not toward the darkness, instead toward the insect and she glares at it. She holds up her hand and closes her eyes. Sweat beads up on her brow. She begins to float and slowly, once more her costume appears.

<That's it, Jessica. Think of what you want. Picture it and it can be yours.> And as the change finishes, Jessica opens her eyes up, raises her hand into the sky and green light forms into...

A giant fly swatter. One with a head the size of a dump truck. Then she brings her hand down as if she were swinging it and she brings it down hard.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Drive it back? This, this Phoebe thinks she might be able to do. She drops her own shield -- it can only stay up for a dozen or so seconds anyway -- and since she wasn't told to run back, Phoebe lights up, setting Zatanna's lantern to the ground as she takes the offensive.

    The cirlces in her palm stay, and with her eyes still a-glow, she just gives the warning of "Turn Jubilation away!" to Jon before she snaps in, coming in low from the smoke of the exploding fireworks and the mixed sanctified and profane grounds of this place which should be holy.

    Her staff lights up the night with its brilliance and Light as she plants a foot and brings up the staff, blocking a blow from the legs and letting it push her back, the toes of her boots leaving gouges in the ground between them before she turns and delivers what would have been an absolutely bone-shattering blow on other foes to its leg.

    Drive it back? She can drive it back!

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    The Archivist got a Story from the monster. Whatever that thing is... Thoth has seen it, just a little. The Archivist is Thoth's instrument. In this moment, the gods work through him, to the degree they can through an untrained vessel.

    One arm hooks firmly around Jubilee's and he turns to shield her from Phoebe's radiance with his body. Seems he's keeping her safe as much as she's trying to keep him safe. The other points at the monster, fingers splayed, every line of him sure and confident.

    "Eater of Hearts!" he calls out. "Anubis has judged this wretched thing to be yours to devour!"

    It's not as powerful as Jessica's swat, not by a long shot, but it's... /something/ that shoots from the Archvist's hand to the insectoid thing crawling out from the darkness, shining light, like moonlight. Not enough to hurt, but enough to help beat the thing back.

    Who knew he could do that? Not him, that's for sure.

John Constantine has posed:
    The sounds, the screeching from that thing with each blow that lands is ear splitting. It actually *hurts*, because they're hurting *it*. It's working. Only two legs left now, one holding the edge of the darkness, the other reaching out from the middle of it.

    John keeps chanting, the edges of that black, swirling vertical pit slowly begin to move together as he draws his hands together. It really looks like he's trying to shove a giant set of double sliding doors closed. The strain on his face, is that struggling with the spell or the pain from the screeching?

    This one's *wrong* and it's *harder*."

    One leg strikes again, the one from the middle, a last ditch effort and eleventh hour attempt to stop the door from closing; channeling all its own power into breaking through barriers. That scythe-like claw hooks John's leg, through the back of his calf. The spell he's weaving is interrupted by the yelp he lets out, but he starts right back up again as it drags him forward. His chanting grows louder, faster, more insistent, the language Latin, the intent, of course, to close that damned rift. He doesn't fight to get loose, but it's not because he's willing to go into that pit.

    ...it's because he has to trust them, all of them, to keep that from happening while he continues to do what he needs to do. Close that pit. A little closer, a little closer, the gap between edges narrows. Closer. If it manages to pull him through, the damned door's likely to slam shut behind him.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Oh, the give and take between them all is stronger than any single one of them. Stronger than their sniping and arguments. Zatanna straightens and raises her hands to renew the shield.

    Does she imagine an ibis standing on the edge of the clearing? Jon's admonition electrifies the homo magus, and the shield glows with the power that he offers.

     Jubilation's fireworks eating at the thing would make the occasion gay were the threat not so deadly.

    Such is the power that she receives, Zee hallucinates words that stand two feet tall as she commands the Spector:

                "BACK to NOTHINGNESS!"

    Slam that door, oh, slam it, she screams, projecting the wish both mentally and aloud to John as something green smashes the menace from above and Jon channels Thoth. She has to avert her eyes from the light pouring from Phoebe nearly missing the knife-edged claw taking John in the leg.

    "Take strength from us, John. Hold on!"

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    The cloud of plasmoids -- the scientific term for her mutant gift of causing molecules to explode -- took a lot out of Jubilee. In life, using them was no big deal thanks to countless hours spent learning to control them, but in death... things are trickier and she hasn't been able to really do it so well. This particular moment sends the girl into Jonathan's arm, immediately overcome with fatigue.

    When Phoebe's staff erupts, Jubilation closes her eyes so, so tight and cowers in the relative safety behind Jonathan. She presses her face into his chest and screams louder than she's ever screamed before. All around her, the highlights of the forest come alive in the brilliant light and Jubilation has no choice but to endure the searing hot pain as her skin begins to smoke.

    It looks like there will only be one volley of plasmoids tonight.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    The Archivist can feel the Hellblazer's fear, and his trust, can feel Zatanna pulling power from him, but Phoebe said to protect Jubilation and he has to because John is trying to protect that little vampire and she saved his /life/ and Thoth has not yet judged her, and somehow, he thinks, the judgement would find her heart lighter than a feather. So he wraps his arms around her and crouches down to protect her from the Light. "It's okay, Jubilation," he whispers. "It's okay." He's shaking, almost crying, but he holds firm.

    Jubilee might see what it costs him, though, to stay there with his back to Phoebe and her radiance, the pain and /terror/ on his face as he shouts, "For the love of the gods someone grab John!!"

Jessica Cruz has posed:
"Take that..." Jessica slumps down to the ground and nearly stumbles and falls. The fly swatter shimmers out of existence as she drops to a knee and holds herself up with one hand. Her eyes close as she tries to hold her focus.

<Don't you fall, Jessica. Dammit girl, focus!> And Jessica's closed eyes clench tight for a moment as she hears John yell out. She opens them to stare at the stabbing leg inside, well, his leg and she shakes her head, "No." She states and gets up and stumbles toward the darkness herself, "Still not happening." And then she looks into teh darkness and twitches. She can hear something calling out to her. The ring energy from the ring begins to falter. Distant voices of her friends, she can hear them. Calling out to her from within the darkness.

She should have died that night. Should have died with them. She still can. Still join them in the void. It's what she deserves. It's what they're owed. The voice of the thing in the ring is a distant thing from someone so far away.

And then her fist clenches, she sucks in a breath and with a grasp of tapering willpower, she creates a machete. She raises it and brings it down hard toward the insect limb trying to take John.

If he looks at her face, though, there's a look of loss on her face. Though what she lost, is extremely unclear. Her friends? A memory of them? Or perhaps the loss of an opportunity to just let go.

It takes so much to run that ring, what did she have left for life?

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    John gets grabbed! Phoebe cries out something that might have been a curse word or might have been the word 'dad' or might have just been a cry of frustration, and she lets her staff go out, knowing the risk it was taking with Jubilation right there.

    Phoebe's got a bag of tricks, and she's glose enough. The circle on her left palm still glows brilliantly through the red of her leather gloves, and she moves, dodging between the legs until she baseball-slides to John, and she brings her hand up, and with that machete strike coming down from Jessica, she gives a word for invovation -- it's not a particularly strong one, no, just a little gasoline-fart of fire.

    "Da mihi ignus!"

    Give Me Fire!

    Teamwork!

John Constantine has posed:
    John's lifted off the ground, hanging there and being dragged closer... closer. He's still chanting and now Zatanna's power and anyone she's pulling from flows through him and then out again into that spell.

    With just a breath of a hair to spare, Jessica frees him with that strike and what's left of the chitinous leg catches fire from that gasoline-fart attempt by Phoebe and retreats, leaving only the one hanging on to the edge of the rift as if to keep it open.

    John hits the ground hard on his back and nnnnnggggg, thinks a groan that he doesn't let escape because what needs to escape is the last words of the spell as he claps his hands together. The claw hanging, holding, is severed when that swirling blackness finally snaps shut to reveal...

    The entire population of the little town huddled in inside that tiny church. Talk about standing room only? There, above the alter, is the statue of a man, just a man... but is that a tiny arachnid on his shoulder? Where these people *worshiping* this thing? Or some form of it? Did they have a clue?

    They all look terrified, old and young alike. Terrified and confused, as if awaking from a nightmare.

    John just lays there, arm over his face, spider claw and part of a leg still attached via the hook through the meaty part of the back of his calf. ... he just lays there for a long few moments. Even when he moves his arm and pulls a Silk from his pocket to light it, he just lays there.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
    What other surprises does John have in store for us tonight, Zatanna wonders. All is revealed as the Arachnid thing is sucked back into the darkness, opening the church doors.

    The mage holds up a hand and makes a warding sign at the statue on the altar then kneels beside John. Batting her hand at the smoke from his cigarette, "Mind if I get rid of the thing through your leg?"

She doesn't ignore the townspeople, hoping they will come out of their sanctuary.

    Glancing up, she beckons them with a wave, "Come down. You're safe." Odd words after what they have been through.

    "Well?" she asks him impatiently.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    With the light gone, Jubilee's arms reach and feel for Jonathan's form, as she blindly tries to find a hug from the man. She squeezes him for dear life as her scream putters out into a whimpering cry. Jubilee is trembling, partly from fear, partly from the pain. It takes direct sunlight to give her a final death, but indirect light offers its own agonizing lessons. A thin cloud of smoke lingers around her exposed hair and skin, which has broken and blistered all over. It's a rather gruesome sight when she lets go of Jon.

    They say the vampiric id is supercharged, capable of extreme emotional responses, especially when threatened. What would Jubilee do to Phoebe Beacon for this? What would she do to her for bringing her so close to a final death? Jubilee, burned and blistered all over, takes a couple of steps towards Phoebe and...

    ...Raises her hand...

    ...And...




















    "Damn, girl!" Jubilee cheers, holding up her charred hand for a high-five. She manages a faint smile, but it's tough to do and her skin and hair are still smoking.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    With the Light gone and the danger passed, Jon opens his arms, lets Jubilee go, steps back a little. He hugged her, quite willingly, and he smiles at her reaction, at the way she walks over to Phoebe. They're safe. Both of them. Thank the gods.

    Well, Jubilee looks awful, but they'll take care of that, he's sure. His brain hasn't caught up to what that's going to mean, just yet.

    He's swaying, exhausted. He doesn't know what he's doing half the time, he's terrified, he's done too much, he didn't even know he could /do/ that thing, that 'Eater of Hearts' thing. But there are civilians who need help, and while Jessica's an adult he's not sure she's great with people. So he turns to face the church, smiling as well as he can, in a way that doesn't reach his eyes. "It's safe now," he repeats. "It's over. Do you have a mayor or a sherriff or...?" He's looking for an authority figure.

Jessica Cruz has posed:
"Take that." She says to no one in particular and looks to John and then at the others before raising a hand and then blinking slowly.

"Not again..." And she slumps slowy down to a knee and then falls to her side as her clothing returns to normal. She then slips right out of the land of the awake and alive.

John Constantine has posed:
    "That'd be great, luv," John grits out through clenched teeth. That is, after all, why he's just *laying there*. Getting up isn't much of an option with that thing through his calf muscle. "Don't destroy it though, I need it." To maybe give him answers, maybe.

    The people inside the church, some of them just remain huddled and unwilling to move, but a few push themselves shakily to their feet. One of them calls out, "I'm Father Byron." The closest thing this little town of religious oddities has to a leader.

    "I don't know how... how did... I was just in my kitchen canning ... I don't how I got here," an older woman pipes up with.

    "We were just having our prayer circle like every week," an older man explains. - so SOME of them were already here?

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe is sitting in the dirt next to John, looking exhausted. She blinks a moment, looking as Jubilee makes her way over, and she opens her mouth, about to apologize, it was the only way, she's so freaking sorry, and stammered words come out, fully expecting Jubilee to chew her out.

    Instead, poor Jubilation Lee offers Phoebe a high-five. And she gives a grin, forms a 'Thumbs-up' motion with her hand, and applies the gloved hand to Jubilation's palm and whispers "Turkey!"

     Because when you do a high-five and apply a thumbs-up to the front, it does, indeed, look like a turkey.

    "I would high five you, but I'm pretty sure my immediate aura's still charged up with Light. I'm probably glowing." she explains -- still just her eyes, mostly, and it's slowly fading.

    "But holy SMOKES those were neat! Were they reactive particles? Are they sodium based? Do they change depending on the amount of moisture in the air?" she asks, and she remains by John, on the ground, drawing one leg up. "because that was pretty freaking /radical/ and I know before you got some fangs you were a mutant but *Hot Damn* that was so cool!"

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
    "No way, I'm touching that thing," Zatanna replies with all the love of an averred arachniphobe.

    "Grab it when it goes. There will be blood."

    ".gel s'nhoJ fo tuo gniht eht ekaT" (Take the thing out of John's leg.) One of her longer spells but it /is/ an odd thing hanging through his calf.

    ".doolb eht hcnuatS"

    "We might check for venom."

    She smiles tiredly in Phoebe and Jubilation's direction as the townspeople come more fully to their senses and begin to sort themselves out.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee's eyebrows rise over her sunglasses and she nods her head, bobbing it up and down a couple of times. "Oh, right!" she agrees heartily -- Phoebe should not high five her if she's glowing. She knows about the danger the sun offers, but this is a totally different situation her curse has not prepared her for.

    As Phoebe geeks out over the fireworks, Jubilee grins and shakes her head. With a shrug, she holds both hands out in an 'i dunno' kind of posture. "I don't know... I just... you know, do them. Hank calls them 'plasmoids' but I just say fireworks! He says I'm ripping the molecules apart when I do it. I used to be better at it, you know... Before...." she admits awkwardly. "I'll get there again!" She sounds so sure. "So, what's the deal? You're, like, 'magic'? Could you always do that? The... you know, 'sun' thing..." Jubilation's description of Phoebe's powers are hesitant, as though the very notion of bringing it up involves flirting with danger.

    Suddenly, Jubilation's expression turns to one of surprise mixed with fear. It's a fear of recognition, as though she has a very clear idea of something horrible about to happen. Fortunately, the adults can handle the cleanup of this, the tending of John's wound, the de-brief of the townspeople. Jubilation, it seems, has other needs. "Uh..." she announces. "I'll... be right back..." With that decided, Jubes begins to walk back down the path that goes to the town, sending a trail of smoke in her wake. She doesn't blur away... she doesn't have the strength to do it. She has a thirst that needs quenching and knows she shouldn't be around people right now.

    Plus, she remembers seeing a couple of horses back in town...

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon wobbles. He's... not sure what to do, honestly, but he can't very well... /can/ he just leave them to it? No, no, they were worshipping something awful, better to... what? Tell them?

    He looks around at John and Zatanna, a little wildly, then says to Father Byron, "We came when the supply boat said no one could be found. Do you need us to contact anyone for you?" There, that's safe, right?

    He's also taking stock, now--Phoebe looks fine, Zatanna looks fine, he's exhausted, Jubilee... vampires heal by feeding. Which immediately puts John even further into the 'needs help' box. And Jessica's there on the ground. Well, shit. He's so, so exhausted, he can't quite work through the steps to get everyone home. He's tall. Will he need to carry someone? Jessica or John? Because shit, /shit/, Jubilee's feeding again.

John Constantine has posed:
    ...oh fuck his life, that hurts a little. John goes slightly pale before it's all said and done, but he just keeps dragging away at that cigarette tucked between his lips. Once the thing's out and clear, he picks it up. Apparently he has zero issues touching it.

    ...or tasting it. Seriously, he *licks* the severed end of the thing. Gross JOHN! "No, don't think so... no burn on the tongue, it's demonic though." So *maybe* he hasn't been poisoned? He flips it around and licks the other end. "...Yeah, nothing."

    He struggles himself to his feet, the ripped muscles in his leg protesting loudly even with the claw gone and the bleeding staunched. See John, he doesn't have so much tact as all that.

    "All the statues you have of that bloody bastard around town," he points to the statue over the alter. "Burn them, aye. Sodden fools, worshiping things blindly that you know nothing about."

    ...and then he's just limping around, picking up that other severed spider leg, looking over the statue, looking for any books laying around that he might find information in - he pockets a few of those. Time passes.

    ...and John staggers to his knees. "...aah fuck me, Elvira..." he mumbles. He's pale, he's cold sweaty. From knees to laying on his back, not passed out but just putting himself in the safe position before he does. His arm falls over his face. OH FUCK! This is bad, so bad. That's not a squirrel she's snacking on and John *feels* it. He feels the lifeforce being drained from him in buckets rather than sips.

    "Nononnonono, luv... no..."

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
    "Once we get them sorted out here, John. I'll portal us home," Zee says through the haze of tiredness.

    Looking dubiously up at the man who introduced himself as clergy, "We need to talk about that prayer circle you had..." It is going to be a long confusing talk, she has a feeling. Something she could use Jon's help for, she is certain. John not so much.

    Then they will be off this damned island and back to their version of sanity.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe had mostly recovered. She had picked herself off the ground, and tended to Jessica first to make sure she was covered and warm. Then she follows John around like a puppy, pulling a notebook and a bright green pen from her bag and takes a copious amount of notes, any explainations John gives (also 'licking things for magic and science?' -- until John staggers. The dark-eyed teen gives a look of panic, dropping her notebook and she grabs for him, careful to grab at the trenchcoat.

    "John? /John/?" she cries out, and gives a yelp of 'Jon! Zatanna!" as John goes down.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon, by the end of talking to the people, has decided to go ahead and call some authority or other in Maine to see if someone can come check on the island. As much as he hates to do it, he's not certain demon worship is really a thing they can just... leave unattended. Cult deprogramming (he might note in an aside to Zatanna) is hard, and mostly they need someone to check and be certain the children are okay.

    Besides, they have a vampire and people are tired. They can't stay forever. He's barely staying on his feet, himself; hopefully the townspeople will take his brief slurring of words as some part of his accent.

    And then John's on his back again and the Archivist hurries over to him. Kneels down next to him. "Zatanna, can you grab Ms. Cruz? We're going to have to help John." He's glaring at the man, but there's not much heat in it. He's too /exhausted/ for there to be much there but worry. "He'll be fine once Jubilation is done, I think." Ooops.

John Constantine has posed:
    Underneath the cover of his arm, those faded denim blues of John's roll back into his head and then close. He's gone beyond the point of just pale; he's downright *ashen*. ...and still, really really still. Few Thumpers in the woods, couple of squirrels? That John can handle, but an *entire* fucking horse worth of his lifeforce trying to make up the difference between animal and human? ...that, well, it's a *lot*.

    Could this be it? After ALL he's survived? Is it going to be a little baby vampire linked to him by a spelled amulet that ends him?

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
"Ms. Cruz it is! You all can grab John and Jublilation after she finishes feeding. Bleh. See what comes of licking spider legs?" that is Zee's version of mean to John to cover her worry about him."

    With less verve than normal, she walks over to Jessica and waves them both back to their point of origin.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe blinks a moment as she looks at Jon. And then looks at John.

    And she gives out a sloooow, squeaking breath of what might be frustration and irritation.

    "See, this is why I fight with everyone, because dads are going to dad." she mutters, and she closes her eyes. She has her hands splayed out, one on John's shoulder, the other on John's chest. Complete the circuit.

    She focuses, pulling just Healing and Light, which is love and adoration and all the fluffy Disney bollocks, and she tries her best to keep the Holy out of entering into John. That would be Bad.

    She focuses. She feels his heartbeat, the demon blood against her aura gritty like coarse sand between your toes, and the taste of cigarettes in her mouth as she heals.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Not five seconds after the words leave his mouth, John goes and proves Arc wrong. He stills for a long moment. Shudders. He can't think. He's so tired, he's /so/ tired, he's /so/ terrified and out of his depth and he can't... he can't /think/.

    He wishes, for a terrible moment, that he'd just flung himself down into the darkness so he could /forget/. It's all too much, it hurts.

    "Phoebe," he gasps, "please, /please/ keep him alive. Just... just... you've got this. I trust you. You love him as much as I do. You can do this." His brain starts to work, like thinking through molasses. "I have to stop her. She can't keep--" He can't /tell/ her. Can he? Fuck.

    He stands, wobbing, and then starts to run, shouting, "Jubilaton! Jubilation, you need to stop! You're killing John!" Oh this is /not/ the way to tell her that.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Charred, blistered, tired, and thirsty. Jubilation practically falls to her knees in desperation after she puts a quick end to that poor horse's life. The other one, predictably, ran off as quickly as it could once Jubilee got near, but no matter. One horse is more than enough.

    That velvety, warm blood surges down Jubilee's throat... offering a cure for every angle of what ails her. It's not human blood, no, but it offers Jubilation everything she would ever need or want and it's all for her. She could finally relax while feeding, as every possible witness is holed up in that church. There's no reason to be paranoid or anxious about what she's doing... It's just so freeing! How could she ever stop?

    By the time Jon gets within earshot, Jubilee's skin has already stopped smoking. Her skin looks a little flakey in parts, but the blisters have already started to heal. She looks up from the limp horse, blood and viscera dripping down her chin. She's on her knees, slumped over a lifeless horse with a large chunk ripped out of its neck. "Huh?" she mutters, blood gurgling out from the sides of her mouth.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon has... actually seen worse. He doesn't even blink at all the blood and viscera as he stops nearby. "The amulet," he says to Jubilee. "John... didn't tell you everything about it. You're feeding on John's life force, not just the horse's. He's /dying/ in there." His voice is shaking. "It's supposed to be temporary, until he can figure out something else, but... but... Jubilation, I'm so sorry, it's been draining him, he nearly falls over every time you feed."

    His expression is terrified and sympathetic and /so/ tired. He's crying, silently. "I know someone who works with vampires all the time. They don't have to feed on people. I can introduce you, maybe. But that amulet, we... I don't know, I think maybe we have to destroy it. Please, Jubilation, I'm sorry, I... I don't think you want to be hurting him..."

John Constantine has posed:
    John still hasn't moved, his breathing is a barely there thing, his heartbeat the same. Both are still even barely there only due to Phoebe's efforts to keep them that way. She can feel it too... him ebbing away, fading, only to be kept right there on the edge by her healing.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    No... no no no... John can't die. He can't just eb away.

    It's a delicate balance. She realizes people are staring, a glowing Black teenager with her hands on his chest and shoulder. HEr eyes tearing up, feeling the heat and burn of exhaustion as she keeps her Light turned on.

    "You /can't/ leave me yet -- stay here. Stay with me, Dad. Don't leave me... please don't leave me like everyone else has..." she whispers.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    As soon as she hears Jonathan say that she's been feeding on Constantine's life force, Jubilation reaches up and pulls on the amulet. The necklace breaks behind her neck and comes off in her fist. She tosses it in Jon's direction and, for good measure, spits a mouthful of blood into the air.

    "What!?" she cries out, horror filling her voice. "I...I didn't know that!" She has already stopped draining the horse, but Jubilee quickly scrambles to her feet and even steps away from the dead animal, as if it might help.

    "I drank so much!" Jubilee realizes, her mouth hanging open, revealing her blood-stained lips and tongue. "Fuck!" Her head turns towards the path that leads back to the church.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "It's not your fault!" Jon replies. "You didn't know, he didn't /tell/ you, it's his own bloody /stupid/..."

    He caught the amulet, and stares at the thing. His brain, for once... manages to not move like molasses. Maybe the Archive is helping, or maybe some other power, but with grim determination he sets the amulet on the street, then goes to one of the open stores and grabs a sledgehammer. He's not terribly strong, but again--something else is helping for once. Something wants John Constantine to survive this night, and it gives him the strength to lift the sledgehammer.

    Maybe it's just that he cares for Constantine so much, that the man is the only person left in the world that he can say he loves--platonically or otherwise doesn't matter just now--that adrenaline pushes past the exhaustion.

    He brings the sledgehammer down on the amulet once, twice, three times. Three is what does it; the thing shatters, the stone breaking apart and away from the copper.

    And then the Archivist drops the sledgehammer and drops to his knees, sobbing silently.

John Constantine has posed:
    John doesn't immediately regain consciousness when the amulet's broken, but his heart rate does seem to be able to sustain itself, his breaths become more present, more steady, stronger.

    A beat.
    Two.
    Three.
    Four.

    A deeper, gasping sort of breath like a drowning man coming up for air and John's eyes open. Unfocused, confused... he was sure he was dead. But he's not, there's no war waging in Hell around him, over him.

    "Bloody hell," he whispers, his voice shaking the same as his hands. ... and pretty much the all of him for the moment.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Not yet anyway.

    Phoebe leans back on her knees a moment as John curses in a whisper. She doesn't lift her hands off him just yet, but she takes abreath, releasing one she didn't realize she was holding.

    She leads one hand go to rest on her leg a moment, breathing out unsteadily, and then lifts the other hand to wipe at her eyes.

    "Take... take a moment, John." she suggests, "... Jon went to stop her."

John Constantine has posed:
    He's not getting up on his own, but with a little help John will be able to struggle to his feet and make it back. Surely Zatanna will see to the portal, if not it'll be through the House of Mystery as that takes zero effort on John's part but a tiny bit of will.

    Where everyone else ends up? John will barely remember once he's home. The last bit of it will mostly be a damned blur.

    Did he dream it? Nergal's face laughing, waiting, telling him that he failed, went back on his deal that they're all fair game now.

    Jubilee... is the amulet broken? Did he dream feeling that too? If not, is she okay? Tomorrow, all questions for tomorrow. Problems for... tomorrow. It'll surely be another day ending in Y.