The Sins of the Father...

[The Hunted] It was Wednesday, February 2nd, and the city of Chicago had just been covered by a record-making snowfall. By now it was afternoon, and the storm had finally released its icy grasp on the Midwest, leaving the landscape blanketed with deep, wind-whipped snow-drifts. On a better day, and under different circumstances, it might have felt like a beautiful dreamscape.

Chances were, though... that's not how Ashley and Molly felt about it at the moment. Most of the city had been closed down today. Children had the day off from school. Businesses remained locked up. And the roads were more than a little obnoxious to drive on. Witnesses and poor traveling conditions made things a little trickier when one was trying to be both quick and subtle.

Ben Roberts had not been in the place that Molly had left him. Some time between their last meeting and today, he'd disappeared again. No doubt, this had been cause for some concern and frustration, but it hadn't been clear how or why he'd gone missing. One thing was clear, though - he needed to be found, so after another lengthy scrying ritual, the Adept and the Initiate had managed to lock down a location: which happened to be a house just out at the edge of the city, toward the suburbs. When the Traditionalists arrived, they'd find an average-looking middle class residential neighborhood, and a house whose mailbox claimed belonged to the Shepherds.

It was quiet. A silver Honda Civic sat in the driveway.

[Molly Quincannon] Molly doesn't look like Molly today, at least not the Molly Ashley knows. Her hair is light brown rather than the black Ashley's used to. Her eyes are brown rather than hazel, and she's not wearing glasses. The nerdcore look is gone - in turtleneck and smart trousers and flat, sensible boots, she looks damn near respectable. And she also says, before they get anywhere close to their destination, "It's not Molly today, okay? It's Maudlin. That's what he knows." A shrug, a grin-that-isn't, and she adds, "That's what it's safe for him to know." For her? For him? Both? Whatever.

In any case, she hadn't taken her very noticeable car either, so it's shank's mare until the Shepherds' place, at which point Molly (Maudlin) eyes it, keeping as many of her senses, including that elusive sixth, as open as she can.

[[Perc + Aware]]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 2, 5, 8, 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Ashley McGowen] Ashley still manages to find it beautiful, when she remembers. Some of the drifts are as tall as she is, and it makes it all seem just a little surreal. She'll be struck now and again while they walk, in between bouts of frustration and anger churning about in her guts, something that will make all of that vanish for just a little while. She's not talkative while they make their way to The Shepherds'.

The Hermetic (not only) has always spoken to something primal in other people. This is enhanced today. Other people find her difficult to look at, too distracted by their own wants, an echoing pang, for her to stick in their memories for long. This is wistful for some people, bound up in nervous anticipation or excitement for others, frightening for more.

Either way. There's very little about Ashley herself that stands out in the mind of anyone (anything) that looks. Hunger is in everything, and she moves through the world with a casual sort of ownership, a dominance, a strength of Will.

When they arrive at the box she glances once toward Molly, nods when Molly says that she should be called Maudlin, and then says, "I'll be right behind you."

[Ashley McGowen] [Awareness]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[The Hunted] There isn't much to be felt here. More than likely, the technocrat is masking his resonance (as he had been when Molly had found him in Lake View.)
to Molly Quincannon

[Ashley McGowen] Ashley pauses when they reach the mailbox, and her gaze moves away from Molly up toward the house. "...I think at least Nora's inside. I think Anya was around, too."

[Molly Quincannon] That stops Molly dead in her tracks; she'd been headed for the front door, trying to debate whether she should ring the bell or just pull out her Leatherman and jimmy the lock. The information from Ashley, however, just helped settle that particular debate once and for all. After giving the door a cursory check-over (is it locked? Has it been broken down at any point?), if she finds it locked, she pulls out her Leatherman and gets to work. She trusts Ashley to watch her back while she does this. Either way, they're getting in.

[[Dex + Streetwise, and man she's such a little crim...]]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 4, 4, 5, 6, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Ashley McGowen] Ashley does, indeed, remain next to Molly while she goes to jimmy the lock open. There's a glance, a curious one, toward the Cultist while she does this - though Ashley doesn't seem particularly surprised. Willworkers have a wide repertoire of skills, often unexpected ones (and Ashley has picked locks a time or two herself, thank you very much.)

She watches. And, sensitive to the presence of Awakened Wills nearby, keeps a third eye open.

[Molly Quincannon] [[It's too cold for this bullshit, clearly.]]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 4, 6, 6, 6 (Failure at target 7)

[Molly Quincannon] [[It's the audience. That's what it is. Bugger. WP this time.]]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 4, 6, 8, 8 (Success x 2 at target 8) [WP]

[The Hunted] [Alertness]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 5, 7 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[The Hunted] The front door was, indeed, locked. And from the look of it, it hadn't been tampered with any time recently. Rather than knock (and face the possible consequences of losing the element of surprise) Molly attempted to pick the lock. It took a few minutes - this was not an old house, and the lock was a sturdy one - but eventually the tumblers inside clicked into place and the latch opened.

Once inside, Ashley and Molly would find themselves in a small foyer. To the right lay the living room, and to the left - an office. At the end of the hallway seemed to be the entrance to the kitchen. The house was dead silent. That is, until a male voice spoke to them from the living room.

"You're too late."

Molly would recognize the voice as Ben's. It sounded weak. Strained. Thick from crying.

[Molly Quincannon] Molly was going to call out a greeting-warning-something - the old 'I brought you pizza'. (She did, in fact, bring him pizza. Seventy-five bucks gets one approximately nowhere these days, and she thought he might be hungry. Also the coffee, but she carries that with her all the time anyway.) That dies in her throat when she hears him and she heads for the living room, heedless of the potential for it being a trap. She's concerned. It's a thing. Ashley may not trust him, but she does. And Ashley has her back, so it's okay.

Trust. It's what she does, until it's proven that she can't.

"What do you mean, 'it's too late'? What happened?" Then, a little louder (again, she trusts Ashley about these things), she adds, "Nora? Are you here? Can we talk about this?"

[Ashley McGowen] The man's voice sounds...odd. Ashley isn't sure precisely what's wrong with it, she just knows that something is wrong here, and that this was not how they would've expected to find Ben.

When she follows Molly in, she does her best to keep the Cultist at her left rather than in front of her. She's wary here, and while Molly might trust she does not. She protects that side out of instinct, now, and having Molly there is better than having nothing, a wide open space from which she could be attacked.

She says nothing. She just watches, listens.

[The Hunted] Molly asked what happened. Ben did not answer. As the two Traditionalists made their way into the living room, they'd be confronted by the sight of Ben Roberts kneeling down on the floor next to the prone body of a woman. He looked much younger and better put-together than he had when Molly had spoken with him previously. Somehow or other he'd managed to get himself some clean clothes, a shower and a razor. On a better day, one might even say that he was attractive in a disarmingly boy-next-door sort of way. He didn't look like someone who was capable of causing so much hatred in others.

There were tear-streaks down his face. His hands had blood on them, as did the knees of his jeans.

As did the woman. She'd been shot in the forehead. A pool of dark red had soaked into the carpet beneath where she lay.

"Your friend's in the kitchen," he murmured bitterly, not taking his eyes from the body of the woman in front of him.

[Molly Quincannon] ".........She's not my friend." Molly's more or less stunned at this point. It doesn't look like he did this. And frankly, she remembers Ashley saying that Anya was here. "I met her for maybe five minutes and she basically stopped Anya from ventilating me on principle. Nora? Did Anya do this shit?" But Nora hadn't answered the first time...

No. There's an easier way. She sees the room. She has the flawless clock in her head. All she needs to do is look inward, set that clock back, and look outward again. Contrary to appearances, she doesn't always need the tech. "Keep a weather eye," she murmurs to Ashley. "Kitchen door. ...him, just in case." She hates saying it, and adds to Ben, "Sorry, but you've gotta know how this looks. I'm going to see what the hell just happened."

From the looks of it, she doesn't have to look back far, but she's going to look, regardless.

[[Time-scry backwards - she wants to catch the shooting. Looks pretty recent, so it shouldn't take much. Coincidental, 5 -1 focus, -1 practiced so diff 3]]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 2, 4 (Success x 1 at target 3)

[Molly Quincannon] [[Extending, diff up to 4.]]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 1, 5 (Failure at target 4)

[Molly Quincannon] [[And we're up to five. Maybe it's the scent of blood? WP]]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 1, 2 (Failure at target 5) [WP]

[Molly Quincannon] [[And because she's bullheaded, she's just gonna keep on trying. Diff 6 omg.]]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 4, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Ashley McGowen] In the kitchen, says Ben. Ashley's eyes linger for a moment or two on the dead woman. His wife, maybe; Ashley doesn't know. The look she's giving Ben isn't as cold or detached as one might expect. Not laden with pathos, but there's a kind of anger that tenses the lines of her jawbone and hands.

"Nora? Are you here?" she calls toward the kitchen. She doesn't offer her name forward, not with Ben there and not in unfamiliar territory. Hopefully the other woman will recognize her voice.

[The Hunted] Ashley called out to the Verbena, but she received no answer.

They wanted to know what had happened, but if Ben knew, he didn't seem to be in much of a state to tell them. The man looked like he was in a state of shock - or something close to it. Whatever had happened, it seemed plausible that this woman (whoever she was) had meant something to him. (But he wasn't wearing a wedding ring, and Molly had never noticed one on him previously.)

Molly did what she could to try and get some sense for what had happened here. She looked backward, working until finally a brief flash of a vision exploded in front of her. It was only a couple of seconds, and much of it was hazy and unclear - like splashes of color - but she saw what she was looking for. Anya had been here. She'd found the woman in the living room - the woman had been surprised - and shot her point-blank in the forehead. A boy (around 12 maybe) had come running in. She'd grabbed him and tossed what looked like a fine powder in his face, and then he'd fainted.

"How did she know?" Choked Ben, as much to himself as to them. "She couldn't have known. No one knew." And then, after a pause, "...She's never going to stop."

[Molly Quincannon] ".............bitch."

That's the first thing that comes out of Molly's mouth once she's managed to get something out of the mess. That done, she ... well, frankly she doesn't give a shit for the Verbena. "Ben?" She steps forward, crouches at his side. "Ben, listen to me. Who was she? And who's the boy?"

She doesn't glance to Ashley, but she does tilt her head enough to make it plain that she's talking to Ashley, rather than to Ben. "She's still here, Nora? You're sure? I don't think Anya's still here. She ... abducted a tween. Twelve-year-old boy. After..." She gestures to the corpse on the floor. "After this, the bitch. If Nora's here and capable of speech, we need a chat with her."

She shakes her head and then carefully puts a hand on Ben's shoulder, trying to offer comfort as much as she can ... and waiting for the answers to her questions.

[Ashley McGowen] Ashley's concern, by contrast, is more for Nora. The woman is dead; there's nothing to be done for her. The boy, well, he's alive for now - they'll have to find him. Ben she doesn't know; the Verbena will, at some point, be a Traditionmate and they've at least exchanged a few words. So, what concern she has is bound up in determining whether the other woman is even alive at this point.

Ashley doesn't curse. Really, she doesn't seem all that surprised to hear Anya was the cause of all of this.

There's another glance toward the corpse, and a hesitation before Ashley reaches up to touch a hand to one of the links at her throat, skewing her thumb through it, resting her fingertips on the hollow just where her pulse jumps beneath her skin. And she takes a moment to center, scent (the smell of blood is nearly overwhelming here), feel...

"We'll talk to her," is all Ashley says.

[Life 1, -1 for focus.]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 9 (Success x 2 at target 3)

[The Hunted] Ashley didn't get an answer, so she pushed out with her senses, looking for signs of life in the house. Other than the three of them, she found only one - and this one was faint. A flicker. A beat hear and there. It came from the kitchen, as Ben had suggested. Nora was indeed in there - and she was alive (barely.)

Ben, listen to me. Who was she? And who's the boy?

Suddenly the man's eyes widened in dawning realization, and he whipped his head around to look at Molly. The first part of her question never received an answer. He was too focused on the second.

"No. Nononono... he was out. He wasn't here... "

Ben jumped to his feet and ran out of the room, calling up the stairs to the second floor. "Brandon!? Brandon, are you here!? Please come out!" He ran upstairs, and Molly and Ashley would hear the sounds of doors being opened and then slammed shut again. And then, an inconsolable scream of rage.

[Ashley McGowen] "Tell him to calm the fuck down," Ashley snaps to Molly, and then starts toward the kitchen. Ben is, for her, apparently still a nonentity. An object, a thing that is currently toeing the line between inconvenience and risk. "Nora's in there, she's hurt. I'll talk to her."

Though who knows what she plans to try to do about the woman's wounds.

Ashley rounds the corner into the kitchen, cautious in spite of the fact that she's only sensing one other Pattern here. She hugs her left side up against the wall, eying the room before she moves into it. There's nothing timid in how she does this, and when she does move into the kitchen, it's with purpose. She pauses once she's in the room, her hand straying toward her pocket, her eyes seeking out the Verbena.

[Molly Quincannon] "............" Molly watches him go, and actually has to think about it for a moment before she realises what must have happened. "Fuck. She's got his son." It has to be. That's the only thing she can think of that would get that kind of reaction. With that, she says, "I'll ... try to bring him back down. Get everyone in one place. Just ... watch your back, scream if you need me." With that, she's up the stairs as fast as she can go, to keep him in line of sight if she can and try, at least, to calm him down.

It's not a promise she's sure she can make, but ... fuck it. "We'll get him back." Israel, at least, would help in this. She knew it in her bones. Solomon, too. No one would make an innocent Sleeper pay for the sins of the father. No decent, self-respecting mage would, at least. (And she's out of my Tradition, the murdering insufferable bitch...)

She's trying to stay calm, but she's clearly pissed at what's been done. Not as pissed as Ben, but ... that's understandable.

[The Hunted] Ashley moved into the kitchen... and there she was. Laid out on the floor like some kind of macabre present, the way that a cat might drop a freshly-killed mouse on its owner's pillow. Except, no... that was not the motivation here at all. Nora was not a gift. She was a message.

The Verbena had been severely beaten. Her face was bloody and swollen. Ashley's senses picked up other injuries - the ones that lay beneath the surface. Broken ribs. Punctured lungs. A cracked skull. There was swelling in her brain. She was - of course - unconscious.

And then written in blood on the floor in front of her, the word: Traitor.

Upstairs, Molly found Ben in the boy's bedroom. He was tearing open the closet and pulling things out, as if hoping to find someone safe and hidden inside. But of course, he didn't. We'll get him back, Molly said, and he screamed again, digging fingers through his hair.

"This is my fault! I wanted to see him before... "

He choked on the words and crumpled to the ground.

"I'm going to kill her... I don't care anymore. Send the whole fucking city after me..."

[Ashley McGowen] They discussed this, when they agreed that they should do whatever they needed to do to keep Anya from doing...exactly what she's just done. Ashley hadn't thought, then, that Anya would go so far as to almost kill her cabalmate. Nora had seemed to have some loyalty to them, after all, and Ashley can look toward her feelings toward her own cabalmates if she needs some frame of reference: Bran and Justine were friends of the like she hasn't really had again, and even Gregor and Wharil, who are more distant, are people she'd die for.

Ashley stops and takes stock of the woman's injuries. She can tell where the woman's body is broken; she can see blood pooling, moving where it isn't supposed to go, collecting at some areas in a vain attempt to repair them. She herself lacks the ability to heal those injuries. Some day, but not right now.

If she wanted to, she could simply pull the story of what happened from Nora's head and leave her there, and no one would be the wiser. She doesn't do that though. Ashley pulls a piece of candied ginger from her pocket, crouches down next to Nora, and then carefully places it in her mouth, trying to do what she can to avoid aggravating the woman's injuries. Her Will pushes outward, breaks the bit of ginger apart, releases it.

[Spending WP to activate charm!]

[Molly Quincannon] Molly does the only thing she knows how to do - she drops to the floor next to him and does what surprised her so when he did it to her the first time they met; she hugs him. An arm around his shoulders, she swallows bile and rage because that? That's not what's needed here. "We will get him back. I promise. We will find a way. She can't get away with this; she won't. But going in all blind-ragey won't get Brandon back. You need to calm down, okay? I know it's hard - believe me, I know. But take that feeling and use it. Don't let it use you. We will get. Him. Back."

She doesn't say anything about killing Anya. Frankly, she's going to wait until he's calmer for that. Hell, she's going to wait until she's calmer. Because right now she's biting down on a combination of I'll help and No you won't; she's mine. She knows that the latter, at least, isn't fair. She's not the one who had a son abducted. No, she just makes my Tradition - everything I believe in - look bad. But he wouldn't understand that. Not right now.

[The Hunted] Molly did what she could to help calm the Progenitor's rage, and for what it was worth, he did at least stop shouting, but it was a fair bet that he probably wasn't going to cool down at all until his son was safe. Who could? Not even a technocrat. (Because no, they were not robots. They were not inhuman, as perhaps the Four Horsemen would like to believe.)

But neither were the Traditionalists as singularly focused on revenge as Anya's behavior would lead one to believe. At least, one of them wasn't. One had to wonder where the rest of Nora's cabal was, and what part they might have to play in all of this - if any.

Ben didn't care about that, though. Right now, he didn't particularly care if Nora Rye lived or died. He wasn't thinking about her. He was thinking about his son. There was a moment of peace - of calm - as Molly hugged him and he stilled. Then he pulled away from her and stood up, wiping the tears away from his eyes. "I'm going to find her. Come with me if you like, but don't get in the way. I'm the one she wants."

Downstairs, Ashley reached for one of the charms that Jarod had given her and used it on the unconscious Nora. Wounds began to mend themselves. Bones re-aligned. Her face reconstructed itself before Ashley's eyes. (Jarod had made the charms as potent as he could. It did its job well.) Then the woman gasped and opened her eyes, sitting bolt upright. She looked at Ashley in confusion, then around at the kitchen.

"...Where is this? What happened? Anya..."

She looked down at herself and touched her ribs, her face... "Did you do this? Thank you." Then she noticed the blood on the floor and stood up. When she read the word, her expression took on a look that was all at once pain and rage.

[Molly Quincannon] "I don't want to get in the way, no," she says. She means it. She lets him pull away and stands when he does. "But it won't be just us either. Not everyone in this city is ... like her." And there's the rage, bubbling just under the surface. It's clear that Molly has a horse in this race. "You know better than anyone that preparation is nine-tenths of every success, and you have more backup than you think. The two of us have a shot. More of us? Have a better one. Please. Let's work together on this. We have the same goal here, and the more help you have - coordinated help - the more chance we have that this'll end well."

She reaches into a pocket and pulls out a hankie - the only clue that maybe her polished, respectable exterior isn't all there is, as it's got Keroppi embroidered on one of the corners. "Here. Dry your eyes, let's go downstairs and get some intel. My ... colleague is good at that kind of thing. And like I said, there are others. I know you're in a rush and I get it. We're not exactly less than chomping at the bit either. But let's do this right, okay? For Brandon's sake."

[Ashley McGowen] When asked, Ashley doesn't specify who gave her the charms and who Nora could thank for the help; she's often close-mouthed about more than a passing acquaintance with Jarod Nightingale, and this is no exception. She sits back on her heels a little, letting Nora absorb what's happened.

"I know it was Anya," she says. "She shot the woman in the other room. And took Ben's son. Do you know where she might have gone to? We want to find her before something happens to him."

She doesn't express condolences or really acknowledge the anguish that crosses Nora's face; maybe she just doesn't see it. Maybe she just doesn't think there's anything she could say that would make a difference.

[The Hunted] Say this for the Verbena - she held herself together. She could be cold when she needed to be (like the winter outside.) Nora didn't waste time trying not to believe that her cabal-mate was capable of harming innocent people. Clearly she'd already come face to face with that particular reality. So beyond that look... there was no mention of heart-break or betrayal. She packed those emotions away, where they would wait to be dealt with later.

Nora looked at Ashley, her eyebrows creased with tension. "No... I don't." She looked around again, then moved into the living room. That was when she saw the dead woman on the floor, and here she stopped... staring at the scene for a long moment. "She killed a Sleeper." It was not a question. It was a fact. "I... didn't know that he even had a son. No wonder he didn't leave the city."

Her eyes grew wet. She turned away.

"We have to stop her."

Upstairs, Molly reasoned with Ben, and the Progenitor looked at the handkerchief she offered him mutely, then took it and wiped the wetness away from his eyes. He pulled in a breath - shaky and thick - then nodded. That was all the answer Molly would get, but it was something at least. Then he handed the bit of damp cloth back to her and walked back downstairs. When he came into the living room and saw Nora... he stopped short. A hand reached back into his jacket to pull out a gun.

Nora made a quick motion to do likewise, but found that she didn't have a weapon. Suddenly her attention focused on the inside of her jacket, as she felt around to see what else was missing. Her eyes squeezed shut in angry realization.

Ben didn't particularly care about whatever Nora had lost. He moved toward her, taking slow, careful steps. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you right now..."

[Molly Quincannon] And Molly, being who and what she is, steps between them. "For the same reason that we didn't do it to you." She's looking at Ben, back to Nora, and no, she doesn't care that a gun's pointed at her. She's earned a little bit of leeway here, and she plans to use it. "Partly because she was hurt, probably by Anya because I don't think you were in any shape to, and partly because if she's anything like me, she's sick over what Anya did for any number of reasons and she could help. How much help will she be to you if her brains are all over the floor? Will that get Brandon back?"

[Ashley McGowen] Nora's eyes grow wet, and Ashley reaches out and touches the tips of her fingers to the Verbena's elbow for a few seconds. It's a light touch, and she's silent; of Words, she has nothing to offer. She doesn't try.

Whether she might have is up for debate. Ashley's eyes lift when Ben re-enters the room, and there's a wariness that settles across her shoulders like a cloak. Well-deserved, apparently, since the Technocrat is pulling out a gun. And then there's Molly, placing herself in the line of fire, and...

Ashley rolls her eyes. "Fire that gun and I'll fucking kill you," she says. "And it won't do a thing to help your son. Put that gun down before I Will you to do it. Let's talk."

[The Hunted] [?]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 8, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6) [WP]

[The Hunted] There's a realization here. The Verbena had no real way to defend herself if Ben decided to shoot her. She knew that, and when she looked at him, her face was a mix of barely-contained emotions - but none of them were fear. (She was prideful to the last.) But then Molly stepped in front of her, and both she and Ashley gave the technocrat reasons not to shoot.

Nora offered one more: "Because I know how to find your son."

She glanced at Ashley and shook her head. A warning. "If you do... then we'll never get him back."

It was perhaps lucky that Nora had chosen to put aside her own hatred of the man for a moment, because from the look of him, he was about three seconds away from going off the deep end. The look he shot Ashley was almost challenging in its self-destructive rage.

After a long moment, he lowered the gun. But he didn't put it away.

"This is because of you," Nora said to him, her voice taking on an icy tone. "If you survive this, I hope you remember that the next time you decide to torture a seventeen year old girl. Monsters are not born. They're made."

And with that she turned and walked back into the kitchen - perhaps unable to stomach the man's presence for any longer.

"I don't know what the fuck she told you," Ben growled after her, "but she's lying. And I'm not going to sit here and defend myself against lunatics. I have to find my son."

[Molly Quincannon] Molly throws her hands up into the air and sighs. "Okay, look, Nora?" This loud enough to be heard in the kitchen. "From what I heard from Ben last week - and I'm pretty damn sure he wasn't lying - you guys were at least partly misinformed. We could waste time asking my colleague to go digging in his brain for it - or asking this guy if he'd permit it, which is a whole other thing - or we could set it aside for the time being and find an innocent twelve-year-old..."

And then it hits her and she turns to Ben. "Wait." Anya's age. Nora's commentary. "You ... your crew ... and she's a bit..." She twirls a finger next to her ear, in that universal sign for 'off her rocker'. Then she shakes her head. "No, okay, we have time. Ben. I know you can shield, but I'm asking you not to. I think if we're going to get anywhere, we need to know the truth about what the hell's going on. With the drugs to suppress the Eidolon, with Anya, with all of it. So I'd like to ask you if you will let my colleague search for that truth so that we can get past all this distrust bullshit and save your son. Will you let her do this, so we don't waste any more time?"

[Ashley McGowen] There are times when Ashley is all right with letting someone else do all of the talking. Wharil and Kage, for instance, often say things that she wouldn't think to say, and she knows them both well. She trusts them. There are other situations in which she clenches her jaw and stays silent because it's the best thing to do even if she feels uneasy, even if she isn't usually inclined.

Molly is speaking about her as though she's a subordinate, or at least it seems so to Ashley, and she can see the Hermetic's eyes flash in her direction for an instant. But Ashley can at least recognize how tenuous the situation is.

So she looks once toward Ben, and then says, "I'll be careful. It won't hurt you."

[The Hunted] Accusations were made. They'd been tossed around by both sides since this whole thing had started, and truthfully... it was difficult to tell how much of each person's story was truth and how much was fabrication or misunderstanding. There was only one sure way to tell, and this was the suggestion that Molly made to him now. He could prove that he was innocent. All he had to do was allow a stranger into his head.

Molly (Maudlin) had done that for him, once. She'd trusted him when she had every reason not to, and in return he hadn't harmed her or even so much as peeked at memories that were not freely offered. There'd been no reason to.

But could he show them that kind of trust in return? Did he even want to?

"Fuck you," he growled, and bolted for the door.

[Molly Quincannon] [[5 +...]]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 2

[Ashley McGowen] [+7]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 9

[The Hunted] [+6]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 10

[The Hunted] [+6 again - Nora]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 4

[The Hunted] And the order is:

Ashley - 16 (base +7)
Ben - 16 (base +6)
Nora - 10
Molly 7

Reverse declares, please :)

[Molly Quincannon] [[Given recent dice rolls, I am tempting fate, but while she won't screw with his head, she'll screw with his forward mobility. She's going to drain his kinetic energy, slow him down. She doesn't want to hurt him - she just wants him to stop running.]]

[The Hunted] [Nora - Oh for fuck's sake, why must everyone around me insist on causing trouble? Run after Ashley and Molly - try to stop them from following him (verbally, not physically.)]

[Ben - RUN THE FUCK AWAY]

[Ashley McGowen] He runs.

To Ashley, this is as much as an admission of guilt. An admission that he's been lying. Of course, she'd expected that anyway.

Still, she'd rather he allowed her to take what she needs; Ashley, perhaps surprisingly, has no desire to break his Will and rip his memories from him. She will, if it comes to that, but it's not her preference. (You have to invite a monster in, you see.)

What she does instead is arguably more invasive, or less, depending on how one looks at it. She attempts to assume control of a small part of his Will for the moment - specifically, the part of him that Wills his legs to move.

[Mind 4, partial domination.]

[Ashley McGowen] [Mind 4, diff 7 (coincidental): -1 for focus, -1 for applicable resonance Static: Relentless. WP, specialty applies.]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 3, 3, 7, 7 (Success x 3 at target 5) [WP]

[The Hunted] [Let's see how strong our mind shield is today - will extend twice, from this morning]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 6, 8, 10 (Success x 4 at target 3) [WP]

[The Hunted] [Extending +1]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 2, 3 (Botch x 1 at target 4)

[The Hunted] [Extending again, spending a WP, *sigh*]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 2, 7 (Failure at target 4)

[The Hunted] [Scratch that last roll, but not the WP spending]

[The Hunted] Ben gets the door open and runs out into the yard.

Nora: "Careful! There's kids out there. Don't go after him."

[Molly Quincannon] See, this? This is why I went alone. Why didn't I just take Israel? She could do this shit without making people run away.

She doesn't say this, of course. (Yes, she's still giving Ben the benefit of the doubt. Ashley is scary. Ben is angry and not thinking straight. Shit happens.) Instead, she reaches into her pocket with her left hand, taps her right ear and murmurs something that's probably inaudible to everyone else in the room for one reason or another.

"Load ForceFeed. KinetAmp. Target - Poor Fleeing Fool. Drain. Engage."

[[Forces 2 - drain kinetic energy of target. Vulgar, with witnesses, 7 -1 practiced, -1 focus, -1 item with target resonance (she still has his cellphone) so diff 4, +WP 'cos we cannot screw this up, and HAIL KASHEENO for good measure. I have been so good...]]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 5, 9 (Success x 3 at target 4) [WP]

[Molly Quincannon] [[And let's bring the pain!]]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 3, 4, 7, 8 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Molly Quincannon] [[Soak?]]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 2, 3 (Failure at target 6)

[Ashley McGowen] [Extending! +1, spending WP again. Specialty: Domination still applies.]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6) [WP] Re-rolls: 1

[The Hunted] [WP - nooo, you cannot control me!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 4, 5, 8, 8, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[The Hunted] [Wait, scratch that, temp WP is 4]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 1, 6, 9 (Failure at target 6)

[The Hunted] They didn't run out after him, but Awakened will-workers had other ways of restricting someone's movement, and between the two of them, Ben's spur-of-the-moment, reckless escape plan had ground itself to a sudden halt. Outside in the yard, he suddenly slowed, skidding a little on the ice as he hit the sidewalk. Molly's effect had done its job, draining the force of his kinetic energy away from him.

Moments later, Ashley's Will broke through the shield that the technocrat had up around his mind, and then his movements stopped completely. Now he stood motionless, as children playing in their own yard across the street looked over at him curiously.

Nor ran over to the door and looked out carefully. She smirked. "Not bad." Truthfully, had it been her, he probably would have gotten away. But she had other uses.

[Molly Quincannon] Molly, it has to be said, has a headache. The only reason she's not leaning against a convenient wall or sofa is the whole 'forensic evidence' issue, but she is clutching at her head. "Consensus can bite me," she grumbles, "and frequently does. Now we just need to get him back in here." She sighs and heads over to the door. "Do we tell him he forgot his keys, or what?"

[Ashley McGowen] "He can hear you," Ashley says. Because Ben...is in full control of the rest of his faculties. There's a quick glance to Nora, and then Ashley says, "Come back inside, Ben."

At which point the poor Technocrat will feel his legs begin to move, and they turn him around and walk him back inside. Regardless of what he wants.

[The Hunted] [Increasing shield - pushing Ashley out - Mind 1, diff 4 -1(practiced) +3(can't use focus)]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 6, 8, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6) [WP]

[The Hunted] Ashley would feel a push as she tried to turn him around and walk him back inside. It's forceful and desperate - a man with a strong Will trying to regain his control. And for the moment, he succeeded. He did not turn around and walk back into the house. But he didn't run, either. Partly this was because Molly's effect still had him in its grip. Partly... he didn't think he could make it to safety without endangering the nearby Sleepers.

And he was really... really... tired of running.

So he turned around and looked through the open door. He hesitated, tears of rage and frustration freezing in the wind at the corners of his eyes. Then he walked back and looked directly at Nora, who stared at him coldly. And then... he put the gun away. "I'm not the monster you think I am."

"Maybe not," Nora admitted. "But you aren't innocent, either."

"No," he murmured, almost too quietly to hear. And he stepped inside, looking at Molly and Ashley. "We're wasting time. Let's just go. Please."

[Ashley McGowen] [Aw man, you're crying.]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 2, 2, 7, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Molly Quincannon] Molly sighs and shuts the door behind Ben. "We still need to know. 'Cos when this is over? There's going to be a lot more mess if we don't sort it out. Why'd you run, eff-eff-ess?" Then she sighs. "But you're right, we're wasting time and this place is going to be one mess of a crime scene soon enough, if there was shooting in the middle of the afternoon. We will deal with that when there's not a psychopath in our soup and a kid's life at stake. Question is, where do we put you?" This to Ben. "I don't think pointing you at a squat's going to cut it, and we're going to need you and Nora if we're going to save Brandon."

She turns to Ashley, then. Ashley's the administrative dean. This kind of shit is hers to decide. "Where do we go?"

[Ashley McGowen] Ashley watches the Technocrat walk back inside and put his gun away, and some of the tension eases out of her shoulders and her hands. They're not done, and the look she gives Ben suggests that: she still wants to know what happened. She wants to know how quickly he'll betray them. She fought not so long ago to save another defector, but in her mind that was a different situation entirely.

Still, there are tears collecting at the corners of his eyes, and perhaps it occurs to her, just for a few seconds, that he's a human being. If she's uncomfortable with that realization it doesn't show.

"We're going to have to find somewhere temporary," she says, because it's...still quite dangerous to even entertain the idea of bringing him to her home, her study. "And set up there. I should be able to track Anya down."

[The Hunted] There were still questions, and from the way Ben looked around the room, he knew that he wasn't going to get away easily without answering them, but for now those worries could be set aside. For now, they could work together to do what needed to be done.

And for now, he was content with that. He nodded. "I can help. If any of you have a safe place in mind where we can work, let's go."

And after gathering whatever things they might need from the house, that was exactly what they did.