That's Always Dangerous

[Molly Quincannon] One of those things that's either good or bad depending on your point of view is that life goes on, despite some of the shit that gets thrown people's way. There's still the basic, mundane things to keep a person going when things are a little bit shit. Not that company or teaching is a basic, mundane thing exactly, or a particular chore most of the time. In this case, at least it's a reason to do something other than sprawl somewhere and groan.

Molly, frankly, looks like hell on wheels when she answers the door to Isabel for the first teaching session after the holiday interval. Dressing in any serious way was more effort than she could really put in (not surprising, given that she is covered in almost as many bruises as she has tattoos), so Isabel is going to have to put up with the sartorial travesty that is a Freakangels tank top and a pair of purple-checked boxer shorts. And Darth Vader slippers. And bruises, bruises, bruises.

But she's still relatively cheerful, for all that. Triumphant, even. "Hey, Isabel," she says, sort of hobbling to one side to allow Isabel space to enter. The space garage is its usual eclectic self, with the mismatched furniture and Ellie's Nook off to one side and the huge Habitrail maze on the walls and ceiling through which two ferrets run. "Your very belated Christmas present sits upon the coffee table, there is gourmet coffee and there's pie. How was your holiday?"

[Isabel Burrows] Isabel was a bright shining face on the other side of the door. Like usual, her hair was immaculate and her warm winter coat appeared to be brand new and even more expensive than before.. in her hands was a neat package, wrapped with a bow. As soon as the door opened however, the smile fell from her face.

"Molly.. are you alright? What in the world happened to you..?" She stepped within the place Molly called a home and went to set the gift down on the counter and shrug off her coat.

"I leave for three weeks.. " She lightly tsked - not entirely serious, but she was trying to lighten the tone a little, especially since Molly didn't seem to be near dying today.

[Molly Quincannon] Molly chuckles at that, then shuts the door and limps towards the kitchen to go pour coffee and get snacks. "Oh, that touches on today's lesson - Paradox. Suffice to say that my roomie and I went out to investigate a little bit of nasty in the tunnels under the city and the universe decided it didn't want to take any more of my bullshit, so it smacked me around a lot. Damn, try to collapse one little subway tunnel and you'd think it was the end of the world. Anyway. Thoughts for later. Be glad you weren't around Sunday night, is all I can say. That was when a little mission from them all at the Chantry House ended with me taking many, many volts of electricity to the brain, courtesy Technocracy. But my wards held, and my anonymity is still secure for another day."

Thus she returns with some fantastic-smelling coffee, which she hands to Isabel. "Suffice to say, in your absence things have gone a little ... hectic, on that front. Thankfully, nothing really doomy has happened yet, but they're a little pissed with us now. And you didn't answer how your holiday was."

[Isabel Burrows] She took the offered coffee as the young and all too proper looking woman listened quite intently. All of this.. bad guy stuff was still a little above her head. Yes, theoretically she knew what the Technocracy was, but it was still hard to believe.. just like mages or twinkly vampires were. Crazy shit, all of it.

"Uh, my holiday was great. I went back home.. spent some time with the family and friends. I forgot how much I miss it there. And.. apparently it was a good thing I wasn't here. I don't think I would have held up through what you describe.. you're made of some tough stuff, Molly."

She went to find herself a seat on the couch. "Other than the disaster of the last few days, how was your holiday?"

[Molly Quincannon] "Oh, I make out okay." Molly flumps into a seat at the dining table, on which the two gifts sit, and gestures for Isabel to take a seat. "It's not like I was on the strike team or anything. Though I wanted to be, and maybe if Solomon had actually listened to the advice he asked me for and let me go with them, he and Israel wouldn't have found me lying on the floor of a cheap motel room a couple of hours after the main hit, twitching like a jumping bean and frothing at the mouth, but anyway, point is that we all do what we gotta, whatever it is we gotta do. It's what we are. We are awesome. We are miraculous." She reaches out and bops Isabel lightly on the tip of the nose with her index finger. "Never forget it."

Then she shrugs a little, the motion checked by pain, and answers the question. "Oh, it had its ups and downs. Me and Chuck broke up because he's a lying, hypocritical, shallow sack of koala farts. Well, at least I think we broke up. Can you break up with someone when you don't say it's over because you're not really sure if it even started? Anyway, at around that point, I got asked out to dinner by a guy who's not an asshole. Which is cool, and that's going well. And everyone liked their presents ... well, I think everyone. Almost everyone. I can't say 'everyone' until you've opened yours." She nudges the little box (wrapped in graph paper, of all things) towards Isabel. "So see if I've maintained my perfect record?"

[Isabel Burrows] Ugh, that sounded horrible. How in the world was Molly so chipper and what not about all that? She almost died.. like twice in the last week!

"Sorry to hear about Chuck.. but he did seem like a bit of an asshat.. " She shook her head slightly. "I wish you the best with a new guy and if you decide you need someone to cut his break cables if he treats you like shit.. you let me know.." She grinned some even as she reached for the present wrapped in graph paper.

"The thought is really nice Molly.. you didn't have to." A beat. "Open the one I got for you.. it's not much.."

Isabel began to carefully unwrap the gift.

[Molly Quincannon] At that, Molly laughs. "Oh, great Google, I'm not sorry about Chuck! No reason you should be! Seriously, I haven't felt this free in months! I was beginning to forget what in-depth affection feels like. And there's no point cutting Nathan's brake cables even if he does turn out to be an asshat. Which I doubt. He was the one who got the rescue team together when I got nabbed by torture-happy demon-worshipping freaks. I have faith in him."

"Oh, that's really nice! You didn't have to do that, but thank you!" Curious as to what's in the wrapping paper, Molly still takes time to explore the box with her fingertips, feeling it out before shaking it gently next to her ear, as if to guess at its contents, before opening it. That gives Isabel plenty of time to open Molly's gift.

Which turns out, when she opens it, to be a ruby pendant set in sterling silver, with matching earrings. The stones are small, in a tasteful triangular cut, but there's a simple elegance to the setting that sets them off quite well.

[Isabel Burrows] Isabel opens the gift and.. frankly looks a bit taken back by Molly's generosity. She does, however, appear to be very happy with it. "Oh .. wow.. it's beautiful.. you didn't have to! Oh thank you."

Molly's gift didn't shake at all - and as she'd find out when she opened it - itw as because it was very carefully wrapped in bubble wrap. Inside was a hand painted and delicate china tea cup as well as some fresh tea.. apparently from London as most of the labels would indicate.

"Alright.. and I'll hold off on the offer to cut anyone's breaks until they really deserve it."

[Molly Quincannon] "Yes I did." Molly smiles as she replies to Isabel's statement. "I did have to, because I am a creature of passion and excess and I would not in any way deprive myself of the look on your face right now and the knowledge that I had some small say in said look. You're welcome. Merry Christmas."

Then it's her turn, and Molly carefully extracts the teacup while making a noise best likened to, "ooooooooh..." She traces the designs carefully with a fingertip, taps it a little while holding it closer to her ear to hear the little -ping- noise it makes and then sets it down gently as she investigates the tea. "The cup is gorgeous," she says, "and the tea is awesome. I don't think I've tried this kind. Thank you! It was really nice of you to think of me while you were all the way across the freakin' Atlantic and everything."

Then she stretches a bit, wincing as she does, and says, "Right. Pretty presents aside - and my eternal hope that I don't break my pretty teacup at any stage in my life 'cos that's one to hold onto... I guess I should ask what of my massive infodump of Cloudy-With-A-Chance-Of-Doom you actually understood. 'Cos there are some people to watch out for - oddly, not Technocrats, but still there's got to be some wary there - and stuff going on you probably ought to know about. Besides, they'd take my Info-Dump badge away if I didn't explain things."

[Isabel Burrows] "You're welcome Molly.. and of course I thought about you all the way across the Atlantic - you're one of the few bright spots I had when thinking about reasons to come back home." She smiled lightly.

"Uh.. the info dump? What I got out of that.. is.. there are Technocrats runnin around.. you got the crap beat of you by Paradox cuz you tried to collapse a subway tunnel.. and you got a little electro shock therapy?"

[Molly Quincannon] Molly mulls that over, then sighs, all self-teasing self-deprecation. "Man, I really do manage to get all the information out in a way that confuses the hell out of people, don't I? Okay. Long story short. Some stuff started happening around about Halloween that told us that a new node - a site of power, a wellspring of quintessence; remember, that stuff I told you more or less makes our magic go? - was springing up in town. Apparently the thing has popped in and out of reality for years and years, and it's unstable and kinda nuts and kept throwing out weirdness. Like, say, the dragon a few of the gang killed over Christmas. Anyway! Point is that the Technocrats found it first. I did a little bit of a peekaboo at potential futures, there was no way we were going to get control of that place and hold it with the Technocracy on our case about it ... so we drained it. My part in that was to block out any signals coming out of that place because we didn't want them having back-up. I listened in on them, got a few phone numbers that are going to be very useful ... and then they spiked my brain with electricity. But we drained the node, so the Technocracy doesn't have it anymore, and thus they are pissed off. With me so far?"

[Isabel Burrows] Brows furrowed ever so slightly as Molly explained what she meant.. but Isa nodded when asked if she was following so far.

[Molly Quincannon] Molly watches Israel carefully, decides that the frown is more concern than anything else, and then moves on. "We haven't heard anything from them yet, and we might not for a little while - it all got a bit clusterfucky in there, from what I keep hearing, but we're just trying to keep in mind that now they know there's an Awakened force in Chicago. This is probably not a good thing, but so far, so good. Anyway. Almost immediately after that, I'm out for a walk and I see this mage pacing a front porch not three blocks away. I stop and say hello, and the first words out of her mouth are 'You have three seconds to tell me who you are and what you're doing here before I kill you'. Odd way to say hello, no? Anyway ... Oh. I should start with this: have you ever heard anything - any rumours, anything at all - about the Rogue Council?"

[Isabel Burrows] She blinked as Molly went on explaining about her very.. very strange week.

"Uh, no? I don't think so. You and Emily are the only two mages I know.. and I haven't spoken to Emily in.. months now. Everything I know about.. any of this I get from you. But, back to the guy who gave you the really strange hello. What happened there?"

[Molly Quincannon] "Well, that's why I asked, you see - so I know how far into that I need to get." She sips her coffee and moves on. "Someone else in the house explained that I was one of them - a mage, I mean, not ... I don't even know - and that defused that. Seems that this group of four are under orders from this Rogue Council I just brought up. Look ... around about the nineties, there was a war with the Technocracy. Big war, real war; not the cold war we're fighting now. It ... no one really won. Partly because ... well, so many of our big talents - the old masters - were cut off from us. They were in ... other places, other worlds, and this massive supernatural storm thing blew in between the worlds and we lost almost everything that wasn't on this plane. So, oddly, did the Technocracy. They had a lot of people off-plane too. That's why the war stopped. Anyway, point is that all our leaders - what little in the way of leadership we ever have, anyway - were lost to us, dead or cut off. And then, just recently, we here on this plane started getting messages from a group we've been calling the Rogue Council. Sometimes they're wrong. Mostly, they're right. Some people think the Rogue Council are the old masters finding a way to talk to us again; others think they're a biiiiiig Technocracy scam; still others think they're a bunch of uppity kids. Either way, they're here, in Chicago. This is the second time I've heard from them." She shrugs again. "This could mean trouble, is all. They don't seem like bad people, but they're looking at what they've been ordered to do like a mission from God. That's always dangerous."

[Isabel Burrows] "Very. So.. is anyone following this Rogue Council.. even though we have no idea if it's a big ploy or not? It seems like something that someone .. or a lot of someone's should really be looking into.."

[Molly Quincannon] "Looking into, but not following." Molly looks wry at this point. "I would - I still might, but I get enough accusations of recklessness without chasing after a group in which one member is described by her own side as having rabies. I did get a lot of information on them, mundane-wise, though, and Ashley's going through her contacts in the more mage-related world to find out more about them. The real problem," she adds, picking up her coffee mug again, "is the guy they're looking for."

Short breath, and then: "Okay. We don't know if any of this part of it is entirely true. We're hearing it from them - this cabal of mages calling themselves the Four Horsemen - and we need to verify it. But they were apparently ordered, this bunch, to take out a group of Technocrats who were coming up with a drug that was supposed to, at least theoretically and possibly temporarily, kill a mage's Avatar. One Trad of ours has a word for it - they call it Gilgul. Basically, it takes everything that makes you Awake and eradicates it. Painfully. Most people don't realise how much their Avatar's part of them until it's gone, or so I hear. I don't think the few who've survived that shit have retained their sanity. Anyway, the drug didn't work but this bunch got sent out to nuke the crew who made it anyway, or so they say. Hell, they probably believe it, but we can't know for sure. Anyway, this didn't even happen in Chicago that we know about; the only reason it's come up here is because there was one Technocrat who got away and he went to ground here in Chicago. He'd been squatting in that house three blocks down; that's why these Horsemen people were here. From what I got from his text messages before he had to leave to escape the Horsemen, seems the Technocracy have cut him off, abandoned him, because he's a liability. Now, I'm thinking that if we get to him before these Horsemen do, we could find out what's really going on, and maybe get him to change sides. But most people I know stop at 'pumping information out of him and then handing him over to the Horsemen'. I feel sorry for the stupid 'Crat," she finishes. "He's all alone and could be so much more, but everyone else is just ... gah."

[Isabel Burrows] "It does sound like you're got your fingers in some very sticky business, Molly. It all sounds a little crazy.. I mean, what if this Technocrat isn't really abandoned.. but is being set up to look like he is so that they can futher identify our numbers here in Chicago? I hate to be negative about it, but it does make me wonder.. if they wanted to kill this guy - you'd think they would have by now, right?"

She sipped her coffee, attempting to take in the second round of the info dump. Gah, so much to think about. Maybe it would be eaiser if she just stayed back in London?

[Molly Quincannon] Molly thinks about it. Not that this hasn't come up as a possibility, but she owes Isabel the courtesy of considering the idea, new or not. "Well, it's possible that he doesn't know he hasn't been abandoned. Thing is, though, that they couldn't have known I was listening, or whatever you want to call intercepting their transmissions, because I intercepted their transmissions a day and a half after those transmissions were made. I picked up the echo, I guess you could say. So there's no reason for them to have faked that transmission just to put this guy on the spot when they didn't think anyone but him was picking it up, because no one but him was picking it up until much later. As to whether they'd have killed this guy already if they really wanted to - depends on how resourceful he is, and how many favours he has left to call in under the table. The reason he got away from these Horsemen a few days back was because he got a message from a friend of his in the organisation - the only one who bothered to tell him he was burned, from the sound - telling him they were on their way. You can stay one step ahead of someone hunting you, if you're clever. Even if the hunters are using magic. Plus they're kind of going about it like bulls in a china shop, what with the crew member with rabies and all. I could find this guy in three hours if I put my mind to it. But that's at least partly because he's not afraid of me. He's afraid of them, so they're who he's keeping an eye out for. Anyway, fact remains that there are a lot of questions we haven't had answered yet and that's why we're being careful. But it still seems like a golden opportunity to dig into Technocracy dealings going to waste, if you ask me, letting them hunt and kill him. We've been played by enemies before - told that someone had done something that we'd consider evil and ended up doing another party's dirty work. We don't want to go through that again."

[Isabel Burrows] "Right.. so then - do we go get him then? Protect him?" Isabel wasn't sure how much exact help she could be in this situation - but maybe she'd surprise herself a little.

"I'm willing to help if need be. You look like you've been through enough lately.."

[Molly Quincannon] That gets a long sigh. "Honestly, I don't know. There's a lot of different viewpoints on how to handle this one, and no one's made a decision yet. Make a decision that the big guns don't approve of, and there tends to be a lot of fallout. I get that enough from the enemies without taking it from our own side, even if the fallout from our own side does tend to stick to the verbal. Ashley'd be pissed as hell if I went off and grabbed this guy and started shielding him when she thinks it's a suck idea. I think talking to him before anything else is a good idea, but everyone else has their own fish to fry, so..." She gives another abbreviated shrug. "It's still in the consideration stage. But seriously, if you want to help, and there's a way to get you in on it, it'd be appreciated."

[Isabel Burrows] "You think they'd be really pissed if I tried to talk to him? If it goes badly.. we can just blame it on the fact that I have no idea what I'm doing?"

[Molly Quincannon] "No," says Molly, wincing a bit, and not just from the wounds. "That's when they blame me for putting you up to it. You ... don't really know the score about what it means when a Cultist of Ecstasy takes an apprentice, do you? I never really explained; sorry. See ... until you're ready to hack it on your own, to finish your apprenticeship - I take the punishment for everything you do that could be considered wrong or bad or illegal ... at least in mage circles. I don't pay your traffic tickets, but if you do something that's worthy of being exiled or worse, I'm the one who goes down."

[Isabel Burrows] "Oh.." Her expression was.. one of.. oooh shit, that'd be bad! "Well.. never mind then. I won't be doing any of that.."

[[Fade on lesson of the day - Paradox and Why It Likes To Fuck With Molly]]