8281/Birthright: Where *is* it...

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Birthright: Where *is* it...
Date of Scene: 17 October 2021
Location: The Laughing Magician
Synopsis: John can't find *it* and he needs to help defeat Leksandria. Lydia shows up at the Laughing Magician and helps. Random or Synchronicity at work?
Cast of Characters: John Constantine, Lydia Dietrich




John Constantine has posed:
    The Laughing Magician is closed to the public, doors locked up tight, unless a person is in possession of their personal Night Brigade amulet. It's one of the perks, twenty-four hour access through locked doors, warding and all.

    John's inside, easily seen through the windows when Lydia approaches. He has that big leather duffel back on the bar, shifting through it almost frantically, either checking its contents for accuracy or looking for something. He's covered in... something. It's hard to tell what from a distance, but it's probably something gooey and unpleasant?

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia got the ping from the amulet not long ago and quickly puts her affairs on the Asteroid on hold and gets a port down to the pub. Stepping out of a portal that looks into a white void, she walks up to the Laughing Magician and lets herself in.

"Hey, John," she says, closing the door behind her. "I got your summons. What's up?" Looking at Lydia, it's clear that her death changed more than her species. It broke her power in some way, too. Gone is the soft, bioluminescent green of her aura and instead fat black flakes of ectoplasm drift around her in a kind of ashfall. Paired with her pale skin and blood red lips she looks like something out of a horror movie.

What /isn't/ out of a horror movie is her dress. She's wearing a pair of blue jeans over some pink trainers and pink blouse that gives some color to her skin. Horror movie monsters don't wear pink.

John Constantine has posed:
    When John turns ... oh... Underneath whatever that goo is all over his face? His skin. Oh. His face, neck and hands are blistered; horrible sunburn blistered, the kind that involves thick pieces of skin sloughing off when the blisters finally pop. Gross.

    He opens his mouth to speak, but closes it before asking, "You okay? I'm sorry, Lyds, I'll do whatever I can to help make this easier for you as soon as I get back, I *promise*."

    His voice is strained, his words all tumbling over one another. "She tried to pull off her endgame tonight. We stopped her, but Phoebe. She's been poisoned. Her powers aren't working. I did the best I could to stall it."

    He turns his attention back to the bag and it becomes clear, he's looking for something. "Where the bloody fuck IS IT?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia waves a hand dismissively, "I'm /fine/," she insists. "I have the entirety of the Brotherhood at my disposal to help keep me fed and a three thousand year old sire to teach me the ropes." She walks up to John watching him desperately search for it... whatever it is. "You don't have to worry about me. I'm not going to be one of those vampires that wither and moan about their state of un-being."

The news of Phoebe's poisoning changes the air around the young vampire. Her eyes grow as cold as her skin and there's a red tint to them, and the ash that was her power starts shifting around in agitation. "What happened? How can I help?"

John Constantine has posed:
    "Giant scorpion, it exploded when I reverse exorcised it." That explains the goo all over him, but ... not much else. John's frazzled, he's not really getting anywhere digging through that bag because he's just shifting everything around on top of everything else and tumbling it all together.

    "This wasn't supposed to happen. Not today." Not ever but... "Not the day she found out about the adoption, not the day she found out we're officially her ... dads'. Not today."

    He picks up that bag and shakes it like he thinks that might do it. "Where the fuck *is* it?!" It hasn't even occurred to him that he could probably, you know, cast a simple 'where is it spell' to find *it*.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia reaches out and lightly touches John's hands to still them. "You're a dad? Congratulations," she says, biting off any kind of acerbic comment that might have come to mind. "I know Phoebe means a lot to you, and you a lot to her."

She walks around the counter of the bar and grabs a glass she assumes is clean, and pours a healthy glass of Scotch, and places it before John. Then she plucks the bag out of John's hands and sets it out on the corner, methodically picking out random objects from inside and setting them in a neat little row. Her pace is swift, but not as frenzied as John's was. Time was a factor after all.

"Bad guys have the worst timing," she says, calmly. She may not feel calm, but at least /acting/ like it might prompt John to calm down for a bit so they can find it. "I was going home to make my girlfriend a good homemade meal. I even bought some expensive wine to go with it." She's still unpacking the bag, watching John for any indication that what she's pulled out is what he's looking for. "Next thing I know I'm tied to a chair to an evil vampire's lair in Egypt."

"What were you doing with it last?" she asks. As far as she knows it might not even /be/ in this bag.

John Constantine has posed:
    "She's my daughter," John replies, his tone clear as a bell adding, 'of course she means a lot to me'. She couldn't, possibly mean *more* to him if she was blood. "Evil vampires suck," he murmurs quietly. ... and it's not even punny.

    "I should have stopped this..." Even more quiet than the not punny.

    He sucks in a deep breath and closes his eyes. The oddest thing happens next, his head bounces a little like he's hearing music in his head. Bloke's batshit, maybe he *is*. ... and that song he's mouthing, kind of whispering the lyrics? Oh dear God, is that ... Rita Coolige? Higher and Higher?

    It takes the first verse and half the chorus before he opens those faded denim blues again.

    What were you doing with it last? His eyes widen. If he's not *slapped*, he'll reach out and grab Lydia by the sides of her face to lean in and plant a SMACK of a kiss on her forehead. Even if he does get slapped, he'll still say, rather loudly, "Thank you! Bloody genius!" Before he's off toward the backroom.

    He comes back out holding the most HORRIBLE looking necklace, it's all teeth and bones and feathers and...

    It *screams* Voodoo. It *screams* Papa Midnite.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
"I'll tell you the same thing I told my family when they were beating themselves over the head when they wasn't able to get to me in time," Lydia says slowing down her unpacking. "A great man once said, 'It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That's not weakness. That's /life/.'"

She stops unpacking completely when John starts his little musical interlude. Her brows furrow and she wonders if she should shake him or perform some kind of exorcism when John catches her by surprise and smacks a wet one on her forehead. She stands there, blinking, stunned as he rushes off to the back room and by the time she recovers he's returned with the necklace. "What is that?"

John Constantine has posed:
    "It's a foci, necromantic. I got it from Papa Midnite." John says the name as if everyone in the mystical community should know it. Voodoo Priest bastard frenemy is what he is to John.

    "I'm going to kill that bitch, Lydia. I'm going to kill her so fucking dead it'll wipe the memory of her from the books." His voice, to that point, was calm and even, but in that eerie way that sounds a little.. nuts.

    Then he slams a hand down on the bar and yells, "She hurt my fuckin' KID!"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia frowns in sympathy. She's not the killing kind, but sometimes there are people so evil that putting an end to them is the only way to keep the world safe. After all, she has her own bitch to kill.

"Okay," she says, still radiating calm vibes. This isn't a supernatural power, rather something that teachers seem to have that allows them to deal with unruly students. "But don't go off half cocked," she warns. "This bitch has proven to be a powerful enemy and if you go off without a plan or, God forbid, alone, all that's going to happen is that you're going to leave Phoebe an orphan."

She nods to the necklace. "Is that for the poison? That should be your immediate concern. Can mundane doctors deal with it and if not what do you need that can?"

John Constantine has posed:
    "I did all I could for Phoebe before I left. This is to use to focus my power against her," John explains, voice even again. He's bouncing back and forth more than a damned rubber ball. He swings the necklace back and forth a bit, dangling from one finger and then shoves it into a pocket of his trenchcoat.

    "I need to go to Whitechapel, someone there I need to see. I have a plan." The plan is to kill her, that's his plan, but he says it like he has a *plan* and sounds a whole lot like he means it. Conman and all that. "Call Jon, help him keep her safe. I've warded her, don't let anyone clean the sharpie off her."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia nods as instructions are given to her. "Okay. I will." Done repacking the bag, she sets it under the counter and swings around it so she's standing before John. "Give me a call when you set things in motion, okay? I /promise/ you that this time I won't get kidnapped by an evil vampire."

John Constantine has posed:
    "I haven't forgotten you in all this, Lydia. I'm still going to try to help with that if I can." John doesn't leave time for protests or debates, he has a necromancer to kill. He murmurs under his breath and there's that familiar portal to the House of Mystery and whatever destination he chooses next.

    Look out Leksandria, Hell's coming for you and its name is John Constantine.