9187/Is Ward Consultation a Thing Now

Is Ward Consultation a Thing Now
Date of Scene:	20 December 2021
Location:	Sara and Cael's apartment
Synopsis:	Cael seeks the assistance of a vampire in protecting her home from angelic invasion.
Cast of Characters:	Cael Becker, Sara Pezzini, Lydia Dietrich, Jonathan Sims

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Cael Becker has posed:
    The last few days have been trying ones, and Cael's mood has been yoyo-ing between despair, and determination. Perhaps it's best for everyone involved that she's currently set on determination. The afternoon has worn on into early evening, and Cael is sitting at the desk in her room, the door slightly cracked, staring at the screen of her computer - reading what the //internet// has to say about angels.
    No, it's probably not the best source of information in the world - but she's at least trying to make sense of things. And it makes sense to her to try to get at least some baseline of theological understanding of what they're dealing with. Really, it all gives her a headache, and occasionally makes her stomach clench or her blood pressure spike. At her right hand sits an insulted mug of coffee that she sips from periodically, and a half-eaten BLT sits next to it. No, it's not a good pairing. Yes, tomatoes are awful at this time of the year. It had just sounded good somehow, though now she's regreting it a little.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara had been raised Catholic, that is to say that she used to attend church when her Aunt took her, but by the time she was a teenager that stopped. She was no expert on angels, but she had the general understanding, based on her childhood religion, of what they were supposed to be. That didn't stop her from reading a few passages in the bible and looking further into the theological discussion of angels by catholic priests and the Vatican.

She sat on the couch in a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt, for her the past few days was actually only the past day. She had spent nearly twenty-four hours in a 'conference call' with Witchblade, that is to say that he encased her in armor in her sleep and kept her there for that time to 'talk' to her, and show her past experiences of other wielders that he thought might be useful in regards to recent events. In part, he was correct, but the method of this had caused her to miss an important event which did not make her happy at all.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Soon enough comes a knock on the door. Lydia had been asked to go meet Cael and Sara over at their place to help put up some wards. It's early in the evening with the sun just having gone down, which means that she had pretty much just gotten up and got fed before coming on over.

"Hello," she says once the door is open. "Good to see you again." She's dressed in her usual 'warm' attired. Sheepskin jacket, cable knit sweater, jeans and fuzzy boots.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon's just behind Lydia, bundled up against the cold, carrying a large bottle of spiced rum, because when you're coming over to put up wards that's what you do, evidently. He smiles a little wanly as the door is opened and says, "Happy Yule. Not feeling the Christmas spirit this year." Gee, really?

Sara Pezzini has posed:
The knock gains Sara's attention immediately. She sets the tablet she's been reading on aside and goes to answer the door. Peeking through the peep hole, one brow raises before she opens the door.

"Lydia, Jon, good to see you," she offers before stepping back to let them both in. Once they have entered, the door is relocked and she follows them both down the short hall to the living room.

"Have a seat where ever you'd like," she offers, reaching to turn her tablet off. "Can I get you both some coffee or a soda? No alcohol in the house." Except her bottom drawer, the special stuff, no one gets that.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
"I'm fine," Lydia says as she makes her way into the apartment. "I just ate." She makes her way down the hallway and situates herself down on the couch. "How are you two holding up? It's been... a lot these past couple of days."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Alis has been hovering in Cael's room, reading what she's been reading though she is incorporeal. After Saturday, she doesn't want to annoy Cael too much but she's reading to learn as well.

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael hears the knock at the door - but she finishes the paragraph she's reading before pushing herself to her feet, moving into the living room to look Lydia up and down with a cautious, speculative expression. They were letting a vampire into their apartment. But Sims was sure this was fiiiiiiine.
    Great.
    "Hey Sims. And, uhh... was it Lilian?" she guesses. Doesn't sound quite right, but who cares? She tried. "Well. Thanks for coming to help, I guess," is what she says instead, however, rather than giving voice to her thoughts. "I guess Sims thinks pretty highly of your work."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "I do," Jon says, smiling brightly as he steps in and offers the bottle of rum to Sara. Look, it's winter, you're supposed to put rum into drinks. "Lydia put together the binding circle we used on Michael, and came up with a /very/ clever way to channel negative energy into her ectoplasm. She's a sure hand at any kind of ritual circles and the like."

    He pulls off his coat and sets it aside. He's still wearing his cardigan. He moves to sit on the couch as well, evidently not having an issue with Lydia's proximity.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Accepting the bottle, Sara offers a quiet, "Thanks, and it's Lydia," before glancing to Cael. "You want some coffee?" She's not putting rum in anything for Cael, but if Jon wants it in something. "We have some eggnog Jon, would you like some rum in it?"

She doesn't seem to have any issues with Lydia. She meet her before she became a Vampire and still knows her after, and clearly Witchblade has no issues as there's no indication or armor with her being around.

"Stepping up to full on wards now?" She asks as she looks between the three of them.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
"Thanks," Lydia says with a grin. "It bound Michael, so I /must/ be doing something right." She catches Cael's caution about letting her in and she holds her hands up in a pacifying manner. "Don't worry. I just ate and I don't bite anybody unless they want me to."

Lydia nods at Sara. "Looks like it. Jon's adept at keeping hedgehogs out, but I think that this requires more than that." She pulls out a small journal and flips open to the first blank page. "So what kind of wards do you need?"

Cael Becker has posed:
    "I'm not particularly worried about hedgehogs getting in, no," Cael says in a dry tone, before perching herself on the arm of a stuffed chair, regarding her guests.
    "Well. I'm a little worried about angels - can't imagine why - and apparently demons think I'm interesting after my involvement with angels, though Luci swears he's going to try to keep them away," she remarks in a dry tone.
    Yes. 'Luci.'
    "So those are the big worries. But if there's a way to do generically 'keep bad powerful things out.' Or 'supernatural things in general' - that wouldn't screw with Alis being around... Uhh... Alis is or was my sister. Tenses get weird when your sister's a ghost."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Alis has made her way into the living room, knowing full well that Jon and Sara can see her. That doesn't stop her from inching up on Lydia and making faces at her. Ghosts get away with the most amusing things, and right now it's the 'making faces at vampires' thing she's getting away with.

Once she finishes with that, she moves over and whispers in Cael's ear, "Should I make myself seen or stay hidden?"

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "Eggnog would be lovely, thanks." Jon sighs. "Yes, there was a demon poking at the alarm ward, and it was one that had been at the Laughing Magician earlier. Lucifer--yes, /that/ Lucifer--claims it was only sent to investigate, and perhaps that's true, but he /also/ says he's 'on vacation.'" He does air quotes with his fingers. "Perhaps he's entirely on the level, and he's done everything we've asked thus far, but I'm wary of anything on a power level much beyond 'faerie queen' just now." And that's mostly because he likes Meggan far too much to be wary of her. Though even she'd say he probably should be.

    He eyes the ghost making faces at Lydia--who he can see even if others can't--and comments wryly, "I'm graduating to badgers soon I think. But, yes, general supernatural incursions, with an alarm in case anything gets through, and... probably some way to key the wards to ignore specific people."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara has become accustomed to Alis' moments of 'teenager' at this point, though it still amuses her when she does things like this. Heading into the kitchen with the bottle of rum, she pours out a glass of the homemade eggnog then adds a shot of rum to it. One for him, one for herself, and Lydia said 'no thanks'.

Coming back into the living room, Jon is passed his glass as she says, "Probably a good thing I wasn't there then. Witchblade does /not/ like demons on this plane, even if they aren't doing anything untoward at the time."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia nods and chuckles, scribbling down her notes. "No angels," she says. "I've already been working on that one. It's going to be pretty popular. I'm going to need to ward my apartment with it as well. Demons are easy. There's tons of wards people have already used for that."

Lydia may not exactly 'see' Alis, but she can 'feel' her presence. It's one of the benefits of being able to manipulate the stuff ghosts are made out of. Her eyes turn to Alis and says, "You're the ghost I saw the other night when Cael was rescued, right?"

"'Anything supernatural' is kind of a big ask," she says. "It'd block out me and Jon, and maybe Sara depending on how Witchblade works. It'd also banish your ghost friend." She looks thoughtful, "You can make 'keys' to let people in and out, but those would be physical objects, though. If your ghost is bound to an object, I could turn that into a key. Maybe if you had something of hers that she kept with her all the time I could work with that, too."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Hey, it's your afterlife. You do you," Cael answers her sister in a dry voice, propping her be-socked foot up on the edge of the chair's cushion, so she can rest her elbow on her leg, and her head on her hand. She watches and listens to Lydia, before offering some explination. "//I'm// the object Alis is tied to. Don't know if that's helpful or not. I, uhh - have some of her belongings from when she was alive - her toolkit mostly. I just always felt like... if I didn't take care of that, she would've //killed// me," she says in a wryly amused tone. "But if it needs to be an object - well. I'm sure we could do something like. A ring, a necklace... she's able to take things incoporeal with her."
    She makes no comment about the night she was rescued, though her heart rate does pick up a little at the mention of it, and her features show a momentarily uncomfortable strain. Not one of her favorite thoughts...

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon frowns thoughtfully. "Would it be better to just ward against demons, or angels...? I mean, look, Sara /does/ live here and she /does/ have Witchblade--the big concern is when Cael's alone." A pause. "And... the idea that angels are likely to be invading New York more generally, soon."

    He shrugs and sits back, taking the eggnog from Sara with a murmured thanks and sipping at it. "I'm really just here to power the thing, so... whatever works."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Alis just appears beside Cael, standing there. No smoke, no fading in... just one second not there, next second there.

"I'm bound to Cael and Witchblade," she offers. She's back in her mechanic coveralls, but barefoot rather than wearing her boots. She's at home after all.

Now that she's made herself known, she sits in Cael's lap sideways, "I'd like some jewelry, since you took my egg away. Something nice, with sparkle."

==============================================================================

"The wards your talking about won't effect me," Sara offer as she sits back in her chair. "He's not effected by magics of that nature usually, and given the 'tour' I went on on Saturday, I'm pretty certain you can't ward against him."

Taking a sip of the eggnog she runs her fingers through her hair to get it off her face. "He can help power a ward as well, which means he will be connected to it and alerted should it be triggered."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia scribbles more in her notebook. "Warding against the divine and the infernal would be easier," she says. "But if she can make objects incorporeal with her, that'd be the simplest if you want a general 'supernatural' ward.

"The best thing would be to grab something with symbolic significance," she continues. "Simplest thing would be to run down to the hardware store and get a bunch of blank keys. I could tune those to the wards, so that anybody who has one will be able to pass through."

She nods at Sara. "Having him power the ward would probably be best because, as you say, it'll be easier to alert him if something tries to cross the threshold." She looks down at her journal and starts scribbling out some circles.

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael is forced to sit up as her sister plops into her lap, earning an exagereated sigh for her antics. ...honestly, though, Cael was fine with (and almost grateful for) the physical contact.
    "...so if we did that, we could simply take the keys away from people, and re-gift them later, if someone... wears out their welcome?" Cael suggests in a curious, and uncertain tone.
    Look. She doesn't know how this shit works.
    "Alis - are those keys still in the tool chest?" she asks curiously. The car keys from all the cars Alis stripped down when they were working for the Alhambras. There's no real reason they //wouldn't.. be there. "You want to grab them?"

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon chews on his lip. "Well... if we don't have to worry about Witchblade pinging the wards, and he can help power them, that's easier than I thought. I'd actually made sure he wouldn't trip the alarm I set." He chuckles. "Guess I didn't have to."

    He frowns. "I'd be concerned keys could be stolen... but we could mystically key them too, I suppose, and it's not as if this is a secret headquarters a bunch of people want to get into. So if that'll work?" He looks to Lydia."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Alis nods to Cael, "They're still in there. A key for every car I ever worked on, even if we sold it later I kept one. They were my trophies." She hugs Cael, then gets back up. "I'll go get them."

==============================================================================

Sara sets the glass down. "I'll admit I don't know anything about this sort of thing, I haven't learned enough about magic to know how it works, but if I can help, let me know. I do know he can help, if you think that will add a boost to things."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia nods at Cael. "That's the idea, yes." She nods when she mentions that she already have some keys handy. "Those would work well. They already have a history for you so it won't take much to get them 'keyed' as it were to the wards."

She looks thoughtful at Jon's question. "I think I could do something to that effect." She looks thoughtful for a moment. "Have somebody hold the key to the center of the circle, speak a word, and then it's coded to you. That should work."

She turns her attention to her journal and continues to sketch. "I've got a few ideas on how to do this, but I'm going to need to do some research to make sure I do this right. Give me a couple of days and we should be good to go."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Keys at least aren't suspicious. No one's going to notice an extra key on your keychain," Cael points out reasonably. "And really, I don't expect dark arcane forces to be putting a lot of time, effort, and intel work into breaking into my bedroom... God, I hope not, anyways." She lets out a sigh - and then lets herself slip, so she's sitting across the stuffed chair - legs over one of the arms, back against the other.
    "...I appreciate the help with this, you know."
    Look, she has some social graces. Sometimes.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon stares down into his eggnog. It's his fault that Cael's even dealing with this in a lot of ways--not /just/ his, but a good chunk. And there was a moment--just a moment--the other day when he thought maybe it would be better to let Cael pull away. To /push/ her away, even, for her own safety. But he's been down that route, long ago, and it didn't end well. He knows better, or he should.

    So he just sighs, and says, "As Cael put it last week--it's sort of mystical ADT. It's for peace of mind more than anything else. Even if something /does/ break through the ward, we'll /know/."

    He frowns between them all. "Have you thought about... ahh... potential relocation? Just in case, you know." Just in case the angels invade New York. All of New York.