8461/Lightening the Burden

Lightening the Burden
Date of Scene:	28 October 2021
Location:	The Laughing Magician
Synopsis:	John finally comes through with a little something to help Jubilation and her girl. It comes with a shocking surprise at the end compliments of Noriko.
Cast of Characters:	John Constantine, Jubilation Lee, Noriko Ashida, Phoebe Beacon

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John Constantine has posed:
    It's been busy, that's an understatement. It's actually been insane, that mind numbing sort of insane that makes deciding which direction to go at any given time all but impossible. But John finally got it all figured out and got a split second to breathe. ... so in that split second, he let Jubilation know that the ritual to lighten the load of her burden was finished when she was ready for it.

    He's not on his Pauper's Throne right this second though, no, John is on the stage. He's sitting there anyway, in a chair, an old beat up acoustic guitar brought to life by long, slender fingers. The rendition of Broken Crown by Mumford and Sons that he's performing is just darker and a little sadder still than the original for it being a solo piece, an acoustic version.

    He could have been, he could have made a name in a world not steeped in the darkness that he walks in now. Man could have gone somewhere with his musical talent if that bit of him hadn't been stopped in its tracks at the underground punk scene in Liverpool by demons, both external and his own personal ones.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    The trip over from Westchester just felt much longer than it normally does. Jubilation makes this trip more often than not, these days, but it just seemed to take /forever/ this time. After all, she knows what could be at the end of this rainbow, tonight, and that just seems to make time drag on and on and on. Plus, the extra stop she insisted on added a little time...

    "Alright, so, remember what we talked about. He's a really, really nice man," Jubilee whispers as the door to the Laughing Magician is pushed open. "...He just doesn't want you to /know/ it." After just a few steps inside, tugging on Noriko Ashida's gauntlet-bound hand, Jubilee stops in her tracks. She lingers there near the door and stares. There's just something about the song, the guitar, the stormy sad notes, and perhaps the fingers that pluck them that pierce her. She doesn't dare move, doesn't dare speak. Jubilee tries to squeeze Noriko's hand tightly but the metal gauntlets keep her from doing so. Instead, she reaches around the speedster and squeezes at her waist.

    When the song ends, Jubilee turns towards Noriko and leans in to whisper. "Remember. Nice!"

Noriko Ashida has posed:
The trip is /agonizingly/ long for Noriko.  She decided to do the whole thing with Jubilation, the way Jubilation normally goes.  She wanted to, she really did, but it doesn't stop her from fidgeting the whole way.  Eventually though, she gets in a minute cat nap.

Tap tap-tap-tap tap tap-tap-tap, some unconscious drumming comes from against the door jam as Noriko is suddenly there with Jubilation as the song picks up.  Those damned gauntlets.  They make a little swishy sound before the impact.  She stops completely when Jubilation squeezes her waist.  "Yeah.  Nice.  I know."  The side of her lips press together slightly at the prospect.

John may sound good, and Nori might have been drawn into the beat and heart of the song, but that doesn't mean she's a suckup.  The teen, of course, keeps her cool demeanor as she rifles her mind for what Jubilation means by nice.  She quickly determines...not mean since it covers the gamut of possibilities.  As cool as Nori appears, Jubilation would be able to detect the suppression of her breathing, the slight increase in her heart rate, the edge of Nori's excitement, or nerves.

"This is weird," she announces softly and suddenly in the silent wake of the song, not knowing what to do with herself.

John Constantine has posed:
    Despite the fact that his blue eyes were either closed or looking down at the guitar through the song, John still knew the second Jubilation and Noriko walked through the door. The same obsessive compulsive nature that doesn't allow him to stop until a thing is fixed, well it also didn't allow him to stop until the song was over.

    When that moment comes, he stands and settles the guitar aside, leaning it the chair. "You sure you're ready for this?" he asks the two of them. "It's not going to be plainless," he adds. "Worst of it'll be over quick though."

    It's all formality, he knows, at least the questions directed at each girl about themselves, but what about each other. Is one ready to let the other feel pain for this.

    As he's heading toward the backroom he tosses, "There might be an unintentional side effect. It may leave the two of you... permanently able to feel one another, emotionally that is. I just don't know. Never bloody well done this before, not in this fashion, for this reason." Great John! Way to instill confidence, right?

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee tucks a small object underneath her chin and releases Nori's waist. She uses this newfound freedom to clap her hands together for the end of John's song. To her, it's not sucking up. It's what you do at the end of a performance. When the clapping is over, she reaches up and grabs the small box tucked between her chin and neck. "It'll be /fine/" she whispers to Nori. It /is/ weird, but it'll be fine.

    Jubilee walks slowly through the Laughing Magician, each of her steps precise and careful, not unlike a cat. As she passes by the Pauper's Throne, the small white box she holds gets unceremoniously placed where Constantine normally sets up his little tableau of vices. She insisted they stop and get them on the way. Cigarettes.

    John's questions fuel the fire of her nervousness -- the perfectly reasonable reaction to all this that she was trying to keep hidden, deep down -- but she keeps walking.

    "Are we?" she asks, turning to face Noriko with those big brown eyes.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe pokes her head out from the shadows of the stairs that lead up to the loft, where she was finishing out cleaning the small bedroom in preparation for its next temporary inhabitant. Her hair is back in its chunky, short braids, showing the extent of the accidental undercut from her hospital stay, and she gives a small smile towards Jubilee and Noriko, giving a rise of her hand, holding a marge, opaque tuppeware container under her arm. Nori might be able to recognize the girl with the golden glow from contending with the Karens. She's here to help mitigate some of the damage to the living one.

    "Life's weird. If it's not, you're not living." she comments with a gentle quietness to her voice, giving a smile to the two other girls as she sets the container near the end of the bar.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Considering Noriko is the equivalent of a social alien (and she knows it), when Jubilation starts clapping, she does too, belatedly.  Her gauntlets go CLANKETY CLANKETY CLANKETY CLANK and then she abruptly stops clapping, a flash of red /instantly/ appearing on her face.  She turns away slightly and when she looks back it's like the blush was never there at all.  Like it never even happened.  Did it?

Lame minor miracles aside...Noriko accompanies Jubilation, not unlike a cat...but not like Jubilee, whose grace is obviously otherworldly.  She is definitely human, even if she possesses her own weird control over her own body, being a mutant and all.

The speedster's eyes re-register all of her surroundings now in this new situation...the exits, yes.  It seems automatic in a way.  "Well what is this safety mechanism thing?  I want to know what it does to her."  Is she concerned that she might be emotionally attached in some way to a vampire..like empathically in some way?  Nope.  This mutant is obviously not your average citizen...but then, her girlfriend is a vampire soooo.

Noriko keeps staring at John after she's checked the exits, as if looking at him might tell her something.  That kind of look.  "Are there any more risks we haven't gone over?"  The Japanese girl might as well get out a memo pad like some old lady at the doctor.  She's doing this right.  At Phoebe's comment, Noriko just stares at her with side-eye.  "Sure."  Then she squints and grins after she recognizes her.

John Constantine has posed:
    "It'll back her off until she's had time to pull it under control," John replies vaguely, as the King of Vague is wont to do. "It'll hurt, but it won't kill her." One in the backroom, he takes up the two pendants he had laying in wait on the table and holds them out to the girls.

    They're not the prettiest things and, for the moment, the just look like oblong-ish shaped pieces of ivory, bone, something... set in a silver and gold filigree setting. Each has a gemstone set near the top. He hands the one the onyx to Nori and the one with the garnet to Jubilee. "Put these on then, aye?" All business it seems.

    To Phoebe he says, "Stay clear, love at least five feet back." Just in case! He's not wanting to risk this twosome somehow becoming a threesome.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Phoebe gets a smile and a wave of Jubilee's hand, only held about as high as her chest. "Hi, Pheebs," she calls over. She might make some jab about how she's not, in fact, living, but there goes Noriko, asking the questions that Jubilee doesn't even think about. One of them leaps before looking. The other has a microscope. A perfect pair. As soon as Nori asks about the negative effects, Jubilation's expression flattens. There's just about nothing it could do that would make this not worth it to her. Immediately after John answers, Jubilation springs to life.

    "Oh, Nori, I don't care what it does to me!" she exclaims suddenly, as though she's expecting the speedster to call the whole thing off. Jubes reaches out with both hands, grabbing gently at the hem of Noriko's shirt. "Nori, Nori, there's nothing it could do that would be worse than..." She pauses, trying how to best summarize the invisible distance between them.

    "...This." She moves her hands back and forth in the air, as if to indicate the space between them. Apparently she has absolutely no problems saying things like this around other people.

    Cavalier, impulsive, enthusiastic, yes, but Jubilation does not roll dice when it comes to Noriko Ashida. When John holds out the necklaces, she grabs at both of them. "What about Nori?" she asks. "What will it do to her?" She doesn't sound quite so suspicious of John, but the question begs to be asked.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe gives a smile, and she introduces herself properly "Hey Jubilee, Noriko. Nice to meet you when the situation isn't a crisis. I'm Phoebe. And I believe I owe you lemon cookies." she states, motioning to the tuppeware at the bar, and she joins the group in the backroom. She crosses to the other side of the work table, and gives a nod and a thumbs-up to John.

    "Staying clear unless I'm needed." she states in confirmation, hopping up on a stool in the back in order to watch, the warm, dark eyes of the healer and apprentice set on the two girls, and she stretches her hands out, a circle appearing on the back of her left as she waits, readying her shield in case something goes wrong.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Oh-kay," whatever that means, Noriko's tone does the speaking for her, but it's clear she knows she's not getting more because she drops it, especially after he mentions it won't kill her.  "Well I do.  I care if it takes you from me."  Apparently the girl has a dealbreaker, but it's kind of moot...still, Noriko listens to Jubilation.

"I know," Noriko heaves with a sigh in reply as she her eyes turn down toward the gap between them.  For a moment, at least, Jubilation's frankness has emboldened Noriko to be just as transparent, as if the others weren't in the room.  This is obviously very important to the girls.  But then-

"LEMON COOKIES? I FORGOT."  How could she forget!  Noriko coughs, but it comes out super quick.

When she sees the pendant, Noriko just stares.  It is her fate.  It feels like a part of her fate.  Gauntlets, now a pendant.  At least she's making this choice, even if she doesn't get to choose the fashion.  She sighs and grumbles, "...doesn't go with parachute shorts..."  At least there will be lemon cookies.

John Constantine has posed:
    "Strengthen her life force against the pull of your feeding," John explains. Because while, yes, blood *is* the source of the feed, it's the life force of it that vampires crave and need, it's the life force, that invisible thing that keeps a vampire... alive.

    "...and probably hurt like a bitch through the creation of it," he adds almost as an afterthought. A beat and he adds, "Just for a second though."

    If John's at all nervous, he isn't showing it one bit. But is he? Oh Hell yes. It's a common misconception that the man is, most of the time, without fear. It's not true. He lives near every day of his life afraid of *something* and not just the little niggling fears that haunt most. No it's Big Damn Shit he spends his days fearing. Magic is messy and can bloody and dangerous and he's *never* done this before. Yeah, he's nervous.

    He jerks two of the chairs from around the table and places them inside a pre-drawn circle, near the edges to leave enough room for himself at the center. "Put them on and sit. Noriko here," he indicates the chair that will be to his right when he's facing East through the spell. "Jubilation, here," the other chair and he used her *name*, this must be *serious*, aye?

    It's probably not needed, but John still can't go without saying it. Those faded denim blues shift to his daughter. "Don't interrupt." No matter *what*.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Yeah, yeah, lemon cookies..." Jubilee confirms flatly, shaking her head a little, perhaps wanting to linger in that moment before the speedster's pulled away by the thoughts of food. She's used to it.

    Strengthen her life force. Jubilee's cheeks rise to accomodate her fangy smile. Strengthening sounds pretty good! She doesn't get to enjoy this for too long before John pops that balloon with his offhand remark about the pain of it. She gives Phoebe a knowing glance, typical, and then holds up both amulets. "Nori, aren't they pretty!" she enthuses. They're not. And she heard the comment about the parachute shorts, but... In her hands, Jubilation holds an expression of kindness.

    Jubilee reaches behind her head and fastens the little amulet with Noriko's face on it. It might be the most ghastly piece of jewelry a person could wear, but there is is, proudly on display. She takes a step towards the speedster, now just a whisper away from her, and brings both hands behind her head and moves the necklace into position. Jubilation gazes into Noriko's eyes, drifting into a dreamy silence, and waits for some kind of nod or indication that she should fasten the necklace.

    Once it's okayed, Jubilee fastens the clasp and smiles again. A thin line of red appears on her lower eyelids but it gets immediately wiped away. No sense spoiling the moment.

    The vampiress lowers herself into the seat, staring up at the man who just called her by her name. "Well, that's like, the second time..." she points out, grinning a little.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "I'll wait for your signal or your drop to move in." Phoebe replies smartly, and she digs out a pair of blue acetate glasses, and slips them on. She is paying strict attention to the group, and she gives a slight smile to Jubilee. Phoebe trusts John implicitly. Even when it hurts.

    It's why she's baring his last his last name, now legally, via adoption. It's been a weird month. Freaking October.

    She breathes out, and rests her hands on her knees. A second glowing circle forms on the back of her right hand, and she moves to scratch at her left wrist in nervousness.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
It's Jubilation's enthusiasm that shakes Noriko out of her cynicism and selfishness.  She looks at the pendants again through new eyes, a borrowed view, and grins warmly back to Jubilation.  "Yeah.  They are."  The effect Jubilation has on Noriko is obvious, starkly on display, and the speedster doesn't seem to care.  She's all grins now, no glamouring necessary.  The words are actually genuine.  Nori sees the pendants for what they are and what they mean.

And because the speedster's attention is all on Jubilation, she does /not/ notice any minute changes she might have picked up.  She probably wouldn't anyways.  She doesn't know the man and it isn't like he's typical.  Just because you can see someone do something weird and tiny with their lip doesn't mean you know what it means.

Back to Jubilation.  Noriko just stares and waits for some kind of signal too, but luckily it isn't too long for everyone else before she realizes ohhh and grins softly.  She nods.  After she is adorned, she sits down in the only seat left, so it must be hers.  She wasn't paying attention, but at this moment, before the ritual begins, she glances around, over to Phoebe.  She's in the room.  It's only natural, and then to that piece of furniture over there.  What does one do with one's eyes in a ritual! she suddenly finds her mind screaming.

John Constantine has posed:
    Once both girls are seated, John takes up his place at the center of the circle, between them. He crosses his arms so that his left palm is pointed at Noriko to his right an his right at Jubilation.

    ...and so it begins without bloodletting and the other gross things typical of his rituals. John just closes his eyes and begins to chant. The language? Enochian, both upper and lower, he seems to shift back and forth between the two depending on which of the two girls he's focused on. Not that it matters on the surface, they both sound pretty similar, but there's a purpose behind it. When one is working on trying to extract a bit of the essence of a person, the core of their being, it helps to use the appropriately 'colored' languages. Light for life, dark for death.

    It might seem forever to Jubilee and Nori, but it's only about five minutes before they start to feel it; it's a pull on that very center of them. It's uncomfortable at first, like having a hand full of hair tugged a little too hard. That discomfort grows, however, until it leans toward and past having the entire head of hair ripped out by the roots.

    John's hands move through it it as if he's grasping a small thread and pulling it ever so gently to keep the thing from breaking. Those with the right sight for it... would actually be able to see the moment he snatched a thread from each girl, see him struggle with the balance of pulling it out without letting it break or snap back. Pulling it out, into himself, fine threads of each young heart and 'soul' so that they can be woven together into something new that will tie the two of them together.

    Through it, John won't get memories and details, visions of their lives, but he will *feel* their lives, all the Big Moments, be them joyous, sad or terrifying, he'll feel their short lifetimes of emotion pass through him.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation's life, expressed as a feeling, would follow the typical structure of a three act story. Early moments were happy ones, charmed even, but with the general dullness that comes from having your every need taken care of by someone else. This is the life of a little girl born into extreme wealth, coddled by the shallow lifestyle one can only get in Beverly Hills. Pride swells from moments spent with mother, training for the Olympics, while the rush of adrenaline surges through precocious memories of skipping school or sneaking out at night.

    The second act, the Empire Strikes Back of Jubilation's life, hits hard and sudden. Despair, fear, and guilt take over as loneliness becomes her only companion. Awkward. Out of place. Afraid. This is not the usual malaise that comes with the start of puberty. Jubilee is alone in the world, parents dead, and living on the streets, doing what she can to survive. It all reaches a boiling point as feelings of self-hatred and hopelessness mark the start of her mutant powers.

    But then...Hope. Happiness. Belonging. A warmth comes over Jubilation that she had almost forgotten about. Love. Laughter. Life is happy again, much like it was in Beverly Hills, but astoundingly more complicated. Those feelings of dread and loneliness are still there, deep down, but they're not all that's there. Not anymore. This thread continues, weaving in and out of one happy moment to the next until...A ship in the night, out in the breakers, almost sails by rudderlessly. All of the happiness, love, and warmth that Jubilation has is cast into the darkness, searching like a lighthouse for the one who needs her. And for the one she needs. But then, her life ends as abruptly as it began. It all just stops as Jubilee dies on the side of that road in Westchester.

    All of this comes out in a sudden tickle, a noise inside Jubilee's throat. At first, it's like the reaction one has when they stub their toe, nothing more, but then... That pull. Constantine's pull at her core, her soul, can't be ignored. It's there, ever present, ever pulling. As he experiences her life, she does as well, with highs that feel muted and lows that feel much more darker and sinister than they really were.

    The vampiress reaches under her chair and presses her fingers into its frame, holding on, holding on, because she doesn't dare move. She doesn't dare ruin this. She can do it. She can hold out. Just... a little more, a little more she tells herself. She leans back, eyes closed tightly, and chest sticking straight out. Jubilee's mouth opens, four fangs ready to snap, and a scream begins to build. It's slow and quiet at first, but it grows and grows, finally turning into a noise she only made one other time in her short life. The time they told her that her parents weren't sleeping.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe is not part of the ritual. She's here for possible clean up. Should something Go Wrong with Noriko, the same way she was there should something Go Wrong with Jubilee. She sits on her stool, watching everyone with a quiet, studious expression, biting the inside of her cheek. She doesn't feel the pulls, the stress, but she can see it.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Somehow Noriko's 'short lifetimes' of emotions, the feelings of her life feel denser, like someone compressed a lifetime more.  It's not unwithstandable but it certainly is odd.  There is a brightness, blinding set of idyllic warmth that suddenly BURSTS and inverts into a blackhole on itself, everything closing in, everything gone, no everything /nothing/ and just an all consuming force gnawing everything into oblivion that ends with a bright BANG of an awakening and turmoil, like the rumblings of new beginnings.

There was so much hunger, not just physical, in her soul.  There's still a turmoil to it, but there's a bright big hurricane lamp in the storm that just won't quit, signaling where there's land.  Signaling, crash into me.

And then nothing as Noriko feels it leave her.  It may feel like forever for Jubilation, but it is forever for Noriko.  Her natural state is much faster than that of a human.  It isn't natural to be in sync, to be slowed down, and so as the process begins, she's immediately seized and locked into her natural velocity, making everything draw out much longer for her, like being scalped in slow motion.  Everything electrical goes dead.  Not just things plugged into the walls, but cell phones, etc.  Batteries are drained.

Noriko screams as her gauntlets clench, sudden bolts of electricity leaping across her skin.  Her eyes open, dazed and glowing, constellations of dry electrical storms raging in the darkness.  When it's all over, she looks around for the bodies....the bodies she expects to find, her heart racing like a humming bird, something only Jubilation can detect in the instances it takes her to figure out no one is hurt...right?

"I...is everyone okay?"

John Constantine has posed:
    John closes his eyes, squeezes them shut *tight* through the onslaught of emotions, his voice may crack just a bit here or there but never fully wavers. He can't risk that, the spell needs to go on uninterrupted and it does; he can process what he felt later or not at all - as tends to be his go to.

    And it does, it does go uninterrupted. The end of the spell involves him uncrossing his arms and shoving what he's gathered out and into those two pendants. At the end of it, each one depicts the face of the girl opposite them, etched into that fine bone or ivory or whatever that is.

    It'll grant Noriko her strengthened life force and protection in the form of a blast of light from both pendants should Jubilation accidentally overstep. But overstepping will be difficult given that first bit of what it offers. It also may, or may not, allow the girls an emotional connection, an empathy toward one another, enabling them to feel one another even across distances. John wasn't sure about that one, didn't know.

    What he also didn't know about? Noriko's electrifying powers that just so happen to burst into life the second spells done.

    ...and then it's *John* screaming, unbidden and probably even unrealized in his own mind when that current courses through him, leaps the connection still lingering between himself and Noriko. His hair actually stands on end there for a moment, it might be funny the way he's... faintly smoking.

    That is if he didn't just fall to the floor in a motionless heap of trenchcoat and lanky limbs when the dust settles and darkness fills the room.

    Magic's messy, innit so?

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    When all of it is said and done, Jubilation sits in that chair, slumped backwards, as the pain and torment begins to dull. Her hair is tussled, eyes tightly closed, and mouth agape. The scream has finally stopped, but it's a few moments before Jubilee is able to close her mouth and open her eyes. With a pained expression, she reaches out with her hand, helplessly, in Noriko's direction. Her intention isn't clear with the gesture, as it's a vague kind of motion that ultimate leads to nothing.

    With her eyes now open, Jubilee sees that Nori's still in that chair, apparently fine, but... John. Oh, John. The realization that their benefactor is now a rumpled pile is enough to shock the vampiress back into lucidity. She only hears three heartbeats. "Help him!" Jubilation calls out to Phoebe. As though she even needed to be asked, right? Still, it /is/ pitch black and one nice thing about being a vampire is seeing in the dark.

    Jubilee drops to her knees next to the downed exorcist and sticks her hand in the air above her head. A cloud made of dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of tiny pinprick explosions of color and light begin to form near her hand, giving the young medic some illumination.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Magic IS Messy.

    The spellwork was done, each girl is part of the other, and Phoebe blocks her face from the blast of light, but feels the buzz as her cellphone drains and perishes. Lights flash overhead, stopping their hum momentarily as the neighborhood around them begins to go dark. She'll have to reset her alarmclock. Again.

    Phoebe drops her arm in the darkness in the back room, and then with a word, the plastic in her glasses lights up a cheery, non-threatening blue, and she jumps off her stool, rounding the table and coming to un-rumble John from his heap on the floor.

    She checks for breath. She checks h is ears, looking for blood -- sudden pressure changes. Ruptured eardrums.

    "Give me room." she states, her voice cool and calm in spite of the fact that her heart was now running at a mile a minute.

    She couldn't re-start hearts at the Vampire Party.

    She checks John's neck for a pulse, and finding none, she gives a soft sound of distress.

    And then she begins compressions. She moves his tie and reaches up to loosen the tie and the top of his shirt. She brings her hand up and measures with her fingers where his sternum ends.

    "Jubilee -- grab his legs and elevate them a little bit if you can. Noriko, in the front, under the bar, there's an emergency blanket and candles. Grab me those." she states, and then reaches up, squeezes John's nose shut, and probably gives him the second most healthy thing that could be put into his body.

    No matter what healing she's doing, it's going to taste like an ashtray. Life's weird.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko /hears/ John hit the ground and that deafening, musty silence that settles after.  To her ears it sounds like a tomb.  It isn't until Jubilation's plasmoids appear that Noriko can do anything though.  She seems to move in a blink, but everything feels that fast when it is a life or death situation doesn't it?

The speedster can feel the electricity coursing through her and keeps herself at a short distance away from the others.  Her heart beats the fastest.  Is there something faster than a hummingbird?  It's that fast Jubes.  Noriko appears kneeling closer with the blanket and candles carefully, like she might break something.  "I'm so sorry...I'm so fucking sorry..." she just keeps going, her eyes wide, the words spitting out faster than a normal human could speak so clearly.

Noriko puts the blanket over him in jittery stop motion as she keeps trying to sync back with her peers' velocity, stuttering along.

"What do I do with the candles?"

John Constantine has posed:
    Outside, the sky darkens blocking out stars and moon alike, thunder booms and it's not a distant sound, it's a *right there*, right outside sound. It rattles the walls of the building, even knocks a few this or thats off a shelf. Blinding lightning flashes in the mere seconds following. Oops. Just coincidence or is that the sound of the beginning of the war in Hell that's about to start over the thrice claimed soul of a dying mage?

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    When Phoebe gives the order, Jubilation is quick to nod. "Yup," is her verbal confirmation. While the tendency might be for Jubes to be overcome with the romance of a situation, especially now given what just happened with her and Noriko, the sudden call to action, the emergency, belays that instinct almost completely. She lowers her hand, leaving the micro explosions of her plasmoids to hang in the air, the cloud stagnant and shrinking as they explode without replenishment.

    Jubilee pulls her chair into the circle and pulls at John's ankles, raising them so his heels are propped up on the chair. With that settled, her hand goes back into the air and the light from her plasmoid cloud grows as more micro-explosions start crackling again.

    "Nori! Nori, it's not your fault! Look at me! It's not your fault!" she cries out, wide-eyed. Her gaze flicks to Phoebe and her lifesaving efforts, falling into a ruddy silence.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe raises her head, and begins compressions. "Blanket to the side he's going to need it when he wakes up. Candles North and south. Give me poles and light to work with. Jubes, hold his legs. Noriko-- grab the bucket in the corner."

    And Phoebe reaches up one hand to the candles, her fingers curling as she gives an uttered incantation in Liverpuddlian-accented Latin (learned from the best, she did), and the ends light up. Thankfully, the right ends and not the stub ends.

    With light, Phoebe is able to see better. She grabs at John's shirt and rips it open. Buttons fly out in all directions. She'll apologize later and buy him new shirts.

    His chest was a mass of scars and tattoos, wards and spellwork and that eight-point star right over his heart. She looks for a good place, and then she gives a soft mumble under her breath. Her hands light up, and she presses her hands to his chest, over his lungs.

    "Noriko, if you can, hit him with a jolt right above my hands. I need to get breath in his body before I can heal it."

    She leans forward, tears stinging on her face. Frustration. Fear. Her heart beat kicks into high gear.

    "Don't you think I won't follow you to get you out. Don't leave me, Dad." she whispers, and she lights up. She focuses. Heal. Heal only. No Light. No Holy.

    Just Healing. And Hope. And Love. And all the other fluffy bullshite nonsense that isn't at all John Constantine.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
More than guilt overloads the speedster, so Jubilation's shout through the chaos of the experience gives the currently glow-eyed speedster something to moor her.  She quiets, perhaps realizing she's just getting in the way.

The blanket is instantly shuttled to the side and exchanged for the bucket, which she holds with both gauntlets like some kind of wide-eyed childlike elemental.  "Yeah.  I can do that."  The girl proves herself of a different metal, not shrinking away.  As soon as she gets the task, she's in position and smacks down on John hard with a closed fist, when most people would not do it hard enough.  Add to that her gauntlets and she definitely gives enough a force for the job.  As Phoebe does her healing thing though, Noriko looks across to Jubes under the shifting colors.

It wasn't supposed to go this way.

John Constantine has posed:
    Another clap of thunder that sounds even *closer* rattles and shakes shelving units not anchored to the walls near to falling. Not only has Noriko killed John Constantine, but she may have brought about the end of the world if that war rages too hot and heavy once it's begun.

    But then Nori hits him in right in the feels, that is to say that black and shriveled heart of his. It stutters and sputters to a faint start before picking up to a more even, if thready and strained rhythm.

    ...the lightning doesn't follow the thunder, something in the air seems to be holding its breath as John Constantine has yet to take one of his own despite the now strained beating of his heart.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    When the candles come out, Jubilee lowers her hand and lets the thousands of micro-explosions die out from lack of replenishment. Thousands turn into hundreds turn into dozens turn into none, leaving the intense work to be done by candlelight as witches and occultists have done for centuries. Jubilation nods her head and moves into a standing position, each of John's ankles held up near her waist.

    Perhaps she felt the speedster's gaze, perhaps she knew that Noriko needed her, or perhaps Jubilee needed Noriko's visage herself. No matter the cause, Jubilation looks back across at Noriko, tilting her head slightly as the lighting shifts from the blues, pinks, and yellows of her plasmoids to the somber amber of the candlelight.

    When the blow is delivered, Jubilation's eyes zero in on John's chest. She stares for a few moments and then... she hears it. The heartbeat.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Noriko hits with the jolt. Phoebe can *feel* it through her hands, and she breathes out, feeling her lungs crush.

    She tilts her head forward and she presses her hands over John's lungs. She filled them with a breath. She could feel that heart beat.

    Her heart slows. She focuses. She breathes in, and then she tries to pull breath through John's lungs, filling him with her own magic. The circles on the back of her hands light up in their warm, silver-yellow glow. Phoebe's aura, skin-tight and around her, glows dully.

    The room begins to fill with warmth, and the scent of rose petals and citrus begins to surround her.

John Constantine has posed:
    The first one John takes isn't a gasping and desperate thing, it's barely even there, just a faint sigh of a thing. It's the next one that really kicks things into overdrive. It's deep and painful and rattling. It leaves his oxygen deprived body want more of it, forcing him to try and take another before the first is even complete.

    It's sputters and coughs and hacking and gagging that's sure not good for the state of his newly started heart.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation grips John's ankles, not really able to do much else at the moment. She stares helplessly as Phoebe works her magic, her craft, aided by Noriko's sudden shock of electricity. Without a task to consume her thoughts and occupy her, her fears take over and a small drop of blood begins to emerge from each of her tear ducts. They crest and fall down her cheeks, leaving behind familiar red trails.

    The first signs of life stoke some hope in Jubilee, still staring down at John and Phoebe, too afraid to make a sound.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Right now, in Hell, there might be an awful lot of Hell Lords who are probably right pissed off at a certain little glow worm.

    Phoebe feels the heart beat. The girl continues to pump healing energy into John. The smell of roses and citrus gains that little bit of black pepper. She breathes in.

    Work the lungs. Energize. Spread the bracheoles. Oxygenate. Pull the oxygen and put it to the read blood cells. Strengthen the hearbeat. Invogorate the muscles. Heal the electrolic shock.

    The flames on the candles burn brighter, turn yellow.

    Of course, when John comes to, he's going to be partially shirtless. His burns from the electric shock will be gone. His tie? Mussed up. Hair? Slightly singed. There's candles for light and the block has gone dark, and there's probably an angry rumbling somewhere.

    But her powers hold out, in spite of his wards, she focuses tightly, hanging on that strand of Healing, even as her braids begin to rise up a little with the power she's emitting.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko grabs the bucket and then grabs John somewhat by the scruff of his clothing and rolls him toward the bucket in a guiding way in case he hacks up an organ or something.  She keeps hold of him as long as he feels limp to make sure he doesn't flop around, a light buzzing sensation from her touch but probably wholly unnoticeable under the healing noise that Phoebe is generating in John's body.

"Fuck..." she whispers in a shortened breath.

John Constantine has posed:
    John doesn't hack up an organ, but he does end up coughing up a bunch of yellow, blood tinged frothy crap before Phoebe's magic works its wonders enough that he can catch an actual breath.

    The first words out of his mouth after he's able to draw enough breath to spit them out is, "What the fuck was *that*?" That little spot of Hellfire dancing in his pupils might be him or... might be a reflection of where he was during his two or so minutes down.

    It's dark, candles, distant thunder... there was a ritual and then suddenly he was... No. No. But he's not now, he's back and he's *confused*.

    He ends up back on his back, away from the bucket and tosses both is hands up suddenly. "Stop!" Everyone, just stop. Everyone Back Up and give him a *minute*. "What happened?" The question's barely a whisper.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    The coughing draws out a few expressions from Jubilee, excitement immediately followed up with disgust as she catches sight of what's coming out. Her smile returns when John's coughing begins to normalize but fades again with his outburst. It's a whirlwind of reactions.

    Jubilation lets Constantine's feet go and moves next to Noriko. She reaches up and wipes away the red trails that go from her eyes to her jawline and stares down at John. "...Powers out," is all she says, her voice soft and quiet.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe lifts her hands. "Oh good! You came back!" she breathes out, sitting back on her thighs and looking both utterly exhausted and pleased, a little bit, with herself. She blinks, taking a moment to process as the scent of roses, citrus and pepper fades, and she motions. "Nori -- give me the blanket. Dad -- stay still a minute. I'm making sure you're not going into shock." she pauses "... after-shock. Don't. Move... please." her Triage the Issue voice breaks a little bit, her dark eyes looking to John in the candlelight.

    "Medical emergency happened. Unexpected effect of Noriko's abilities sent you into cardiac arrest. After cardiopulmonary resuscitation, I had Noriko give you a jump-start while I turned the key... so to speak. So you may be feeling disorientated, but you're... you're all right for the moment."

    And she folds the blanket in half and puts it on his chest.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko pulls the bucket away and lifts up her 'hands,' then a moment later tosses Phoebe the blanket.  They slowly drop at John's question.  "Something with my electrical mutation.  I don't know..."  Noriko shakes her head.  "At least I was able to keep it small...the surge I mean.  I'm sorry.  I didn't know it would happen...whatever that was."  That was a /small/ surge?

John Constantine has posed:
    "Wait, what?" Words, they're a little difficult to process right now. It's not even so much the stuff here that has him all turned around and upside down, but the stuff *there*. John reaches up to pinch the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index fingers, then digs those digits into the corners of his eyes.

    Cardiac arrest? He died? So that wasn't just hallucinations?

    Not much time to ponder it though, not when his very spelled, against all sorts of damage and being lost, phone comes to life in his pocket with Amazing Grace, Dropkick Murphys style.

    "Bloody fucking *hell*," he mutters as he fumbles around for the thing with the hand not attempting to pop his own eyeballs. "I'm fine," he assures everyone in the room, but especially poor Noriko, before he stops trying to gouge his own eyes out to swipe up and answer his phone. "John Constantine... ... .... .... That's not possible, Father, slow down. .... No. .... Yes... I'll be there in an hour."

    Sensitive ears, such as Jubilation's, might have picked up on that bit, a frantic Priest talking about members of his Parrish in the double digits all showing signs of possession.

    John looks at Phoebe, his expression just, apologetic? Sad? Resigned? 'I have no choice'. "I have to get ready for this."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Great." Phoebe shrugs. "Where we going, I'll grab my bag and change into my boots." Phoebe interjects before anyone else speaks, her lips set in a thin line.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation slips a hand around Noriko's back and rests her fingertips against the small of her back, a simple gesture, a small comfort, just meant to tell her 'hey, it's okay' without doing it aloud. She just stands there, providing that simple touch and nothing else. When the call comes in, Jubilee doesn't react with surprise, not even a little, but there is a touch of jealousy. No doubt her own phone is down for the count.

    When John declares that he has to get ready for something and then Phoebe declares her readiness, Jubilee turns to look at Noriko. "Duty calls," she says, glumly, despite the look in her eye. It's a look that the speedster would no doubt recognize. Jubilee doesn't want to go to some church upstate. She wants to become a tangle of limbs and hair and noise.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "You two have just been through a traumatic event." Phoebe points out to Jubilee as she hops to her feet. She moves to grab the bucket of grunge and one of the candles.

    "Why don't you take the cookies and go upstairs and just recover?" she questions to the two, candle illuminating her face eerily. Her voice is calm, considering how tired her eyes look as she looks to the two girls.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"How did...how is his-"  Noriko seems flabbergasted at how John's phone is still working, she's practically blubbering at chipmunk speed.  And then she's left with the fact that life seems to be going on very fast as if nothing ever happened.  At least for John.  For once, she's the one who is left behind and it leaves her with a slight look of confusion that fades as she takes stock of the situation unfolding.  Everyone leaving, Jubilation now leaving.  Noriko looks to Jubes and says, "Can you just stay?...tonight?  Please?"  She just killed a man and she does look a little whiter than usual.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Phoebe's suggestion that she should just go upstairs and recover sours Jubilee's face a little. Her body will recover from nearly any trauma, easily, given either some solid coffin time or some blood. She doesn't need recovery. She needs to be upstate battling the forces of darkness! But then Noriko speaks up and Jubilee turns to look at her, almost shocked at what the speedster said, the vulnerability put on display so freely.

    Duty, Shmuty! The mutant turned vampire turned slayer takes a step towards the speedster, reaching out to play with the hem of her shirt with both hands. Her mouth curls into a gentle smile. "Of course I can," is her answer. It arrives easily with nearly no pause, no consideration. How could Jubilee be expected to save the world when hers is right here?