2nd Ghost Story: Ch.4 [The VerbenaVerse]

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~~META:
title = 2nd Ghost Story: Ch.4
~~
====== The Second Ghost Story: Making Their Mark - Chapter 4 ======

//Game session: 8/30/2011. [[players:caitlin]] was absent.//

===== Tuesday September 1st, 2009 =====
Rattled by her near-death experience and astral projection, [[wod:geist:pcs:erika|Erika]] decides to head home to rest and recover her nerves. Before she departs, [[wod:geist:pcs:peter|Peter]] heads out to their cars and removes the transmitters from her and [[wod:geist:pcs:isobel|Isobel]]'s cars. Erika departs, and [[wod:geist:pcs:david|David]] asks Peter to check his Honda Civic as well, as it was left at the Botanica. Peter obliges, and carefully goes over David's car. He finds nothing, but he and David get into a heated discussion about music and the ten-year age gap really hits home as Peter has no knowledge of Metallica or Clearwater Revival. Peter eyes the two bugs and estimates they're worth about five hundred apiece, they're fairly high-end. The krewe regroups inside the Botanica to discuss what to do next, and they decide to stick with their planned excursion into the Underworld tonight, even without Erika. They plan to meet at the X at 8 o'clock, and then they go their separate ways.
 
Isobel goes to a sporting goods store to get some supplies for their excursion tonight, and then she heads home for a nap. David hits a hardware store for supplies and then heads home for a nap as well. [[wod:geist:pcs:anita|Anita]] reopens her shop and is immediately swarmed with a gaggle of Latina biddies as soon as her friends leave. The Latinas spend most of their time gossiping about her //gringo// customers and subtly one-upping each other, which Anita ignores while she examines her depleted stocks once again. She is startled to find [[wod:characters:victor|the orange cat]] on a high shelf, watching her. It meows at her and she hisses that he has to warn her when he reappears. The cat replies that it just did, but shuts up as soon as the Latinas discover his presence and swarm over to him to pet and coo. Anita realizes that this was doubtlessly the cat's plan all along, and leaves him to distract the old biddies.
 
Peter realizes that his death and the Bargain have shaken his morals significantly, so he heads over to Indian Orchard, to pawn the transmitters. He ends up at Gus's Pawn Shop, a place known for electronics and shady deals. A Caucasian woman in her thirties eyes him from behind the caged register area, and immediately recognizes Peter as a cop. Peter gives the formal "I'm not here to entrap you" speech and manifests his keystone memento – the liberty dollar coin – to aid in his false story of being out on disability but getting screwed out of his disability payments. The woman seems to buy it, so Peter hands her the transmitters. She examines them carefully and takes one partially apart to look at the interior components.
 
She soon corroborates Peter's initial assessment and says they are high-end goods without serial numbers, so whoever crafted them did so in-house and to exacting standards. Unfortunately, without the receivers that are paired with the transmitters, they're not as valuable. Peter hints that they're hot and she should move them quickly, so she offers Peter $100 for the pair, figuring she can sell them for parts. Peter takes the deal, and she prepares an illegible bill of sale and passes over five twenty-dollar bills. Peter walks out and heads to the nearest convenience store to blow the money on lottery tickets.
 
David, Isobel, and Anita find Peter waiting at the Walgreen's parking lot at the X at 8 o'clock; Peter bought twenty five-dollar scratch tickets and wound up winning $130. He stuffs the lottery tickets in his pocket and the Sin-Eaters hike over to Forest Park. They hop the wall and sneak over to the mausoleum, but a security officer in a motorized cart comes around the corner. Isobel manages to dive behind a tree and isn't spotted, but the other three are starkly illuminated in the cart's headlights! Peter promptly turns and runs down the path, and David and Anita follow a split-second later! Anita veers off the path as the security guard gives chase in the cart, and the guard chases the two men. David catches up to Peter, intent on strangling his fellow Sin-Eater, but Peter spots Anita's dive for the woods and promptly veers off the path and into an open field. David yells something about smoking pot and follows Peter.
 
Anita doubles back and is grabbed by Isobel; the two women stare incredulously as Peter and David lead the guard on a merry chase through the fields. They hit the woods and stop to catch their breaths, but the guard gets out of the cart and charges after them! Peter bolts again, so David runs as well. Peter melts into the woods and doubles back to the cart as the guard tackles David! David slams into the ground and is then roughly pulls to his feet as the guard screams threats. David claims he was just out for a walk with his friends and lost track of time, and he was joking about having any pot. Peter slips around to the security cart and pops the hood. He pulls out some wires while the guard demands to know where David's friend is. David shrugs and says he probably is screwing with the guard's cart, so the guard turns – and spots Peter! David groans as the guard bolts for the cart, but he takes advantage of the distraction and melts into the woods.
 
Peter runs down the path as the guard does a running slide into his cart and turns the key – only to hear the cart refuse to turn over. By the time the guard gets out and finds Peter's crude sabotage, Peter is gone. The Sin-Eaters regroup at the Barney mausoleum at 9:30 and Isobel and Anita glare at the two men; David looks sheepish but Peter doesn't care. They realize that Erika opened the Avernian Gate last time, but Anita slashes her palm with a penknife and infuses her blood with a bit of plasm. She smears the pinkish blood over the central gate, but nothing happens. David copies her and slashes his palm and infuses his blood with plasm. He smears his offering on the gate – and the gate separates soundlessly to reveal the inky black portal to the Underworld. The four Sin-Eaters feel their geists perk up slightly, so they enter.
 
They feel their way through the absolute blackness for several seconds, and then come out to the cavern overlooking the chasm down to the grotto. Their geists are active now, and soak up the deathly energy of the Underworld. The four Sin-Eaters carefully descend the chasm, and reach the grotto without any problems this time. Unfortunately they hit a snag: the last time the grotto was silent until Peter was grabbed by the ghost-child, but tonight the grotto is splashing with a half-dozen feral ghost-things that look like they've adapted to aquatic living: they have tails instead of legs and mottled skin that looks scaled. The ghosts turn their heads when they hear the Sin-Eaters speak; Peter refuses to go into the water. The ghosts sink into the water and dart for the side caverns to watch.
 
Anita derides Peter and sloshes into the water. Feeling guilty, David promptly joins Anita in the water but Peter eyes Isobel; she states she'll sit here and watch, thank you very much. Anita and David reach the far wall without any problems; the feral ghosts simply watch warily from their caverns. Peter turns to gesture Isobel to go next, but Isobel steps forward and shoves Peter into the water! Peter splashes in with a loud yelp, and flails without any pretense of dignity! Fallen Snow mocks Peter as a pussy, but Peter doesn't care. He manages to right himself – by standing up – and wades over to Anita and David without any interference from the dead. Rolling her eyes, Isobel gets into the water and trudges over to the others, also without incident.
 
The four Sin-Eaters recall that Erika used her Manifestations and secured a rope last time, but they gamble and dive into the submerged tunnel without it. Luckily they run into no problems and they surface in the garden a few minutes later. They notice that the vines are twitching with greater frequency than last time, and also the rocks blocking the third exit seem to have shifted, with a few tumbling into the garden itself. They head into the hallway, and almost immediately run into a ghost who nods respectfully to them before entering one of the apartments.
 
The four Sin-Eaters head down the hallway and soon spot a grisly sight: a broken ghost nailed to the wall in the shape of an X! Wondering if this is a threat – or simply a territorial marker – the Sin-Eaters decide to investigate. They stop at the "Blue Silk Brothel" and [[wod:characters:madam|the madam]] steps out to get them. She says they do not have their rent ready yet, but the Sin-Eaters assure her that they're not here collecting – and they wonder what she means, as she technically never negotiated anything with them. They ask about the broken ghost and the madam tells them that one of the "[[wod:characters:professor|Professor]]'s" men did this "as the ghost in question broke one of your rules." She doesn't know anything further but invites them inside; the Sin-Eaters demur and thank her.
 
They head down to the Professor's room and find the skull still rammed in the wall. Anita starts looking for paper, but Peter pulls out his policeman's pad and pencil and hands it to her. Anita scribbles a quick note and rams it into the skull's eye socket. There is a sickening squelch, and the note is sucked into the skull and vanishes. The krewe decides to "show the flag" and walk around the hallway for a bit, to establish their intent to remain in charge. A few ghosts acknowledge them with respect, but most don't seem to notice them at all. David ends up talking with a female ghost named [[wod:characters:edith]]; he's pretty sure Edith died in the mid-1800s and was of German descent. The others ask a few questions but Edith seems comfortable talking only to David. David learns that no one has seen the bloody-eyed slavers in the past few days, and she doesn't know why the ghost was shattered and nailed to the wall. She says that the Professor is "entertaining lady friends presently," but she knows nothing else. David thanks Edith, and thinks he recognizes her from an old picture in the Fort, a German restaurant in Springfield.
 
They walk down to the door leading to "the temple," but decide not to proceed as their guide isn't with them. On their way back they pass the "Frogger room" and they hear the sound of a computer running Windows XP booting up. Curious, Anita pokes her head inside and spots one of the [[wod:characters:groups:faceless|faceless ghosts]] sitting at the kitchen counter playing with a Dell laptop! She goes inside and coaxes the ghost to let her take a look at the computer, while the others hover in the doorway. The other ghosts are still playing Frogger, but this ghost reluctantly lets Anita look at the laptop. Anita realizes it's a Dell XPS from 2007 and seems perfectly mundane. She memorizes the Dell service number on the bottom and decides to look it up when she gets back to the land of the living. She hands the laptop back and the faceless ghost wipes her fingerprints off the machine with his sleeve.
 
The krewe turns to leave the hallway when the Professor's door opens and [[wod:characters:melissa|a woman]] steps out. The woman is in her late twenties and is wearing hiking boots, jeans, a hoodie, and a backpack; her skin is pale and her hair very dark. She is as startled by the Sin-Eaters as they are to see her, as she bears no obvious death marks yet she's not breathing. Peter tries to surreptitiously snap a picture of her with his cell phone, but suddenly she's in front of him with her hand clamped firmly over the device – and the Sin-Eaters didn't see her move! She growls that she is a guest of the Professor and thus covered by the privacy agreement they approved, so Peter deletes the picture of her palm. Anita apologizes as [[wod:characters:assistant|the ghost in the power suit]] steps out of her room.
 
The Sin-Eaters ask the ghost about the new wall decoration, and she explains that said specter was harassing [[wod:characters:hector|Hector]], who the Professor had agreed to protect – thus, an object lesson was needed. Anita asks about the strange occurrences here in the Underworld and hints at the shared dream; the ghost replies that the Professor believes a Dead Dominion in the Lower Mysteries was just destroyed and what everyone is feeling are the shockwaves. She admits that the Professor has been tracking similar phenomena for six months and believes this is the fourth such shockwave – and they're getting bigger, which might indicate that whatever is destroying the realms is getting closer to the Upper Reaches. She admits the realms may not be fully destroyed but may be collapsing into anarchy like The Ganglands across the river, but the woman in the hoodie is the one who supplies the term, "Failed state."
 
The ghost hints that the Professor is unable or unwilling to cross the river into The Ganglands and any data or evidence the Sin-Eaters bring back will be of interest and open to compensation. Anita reveals the shared dream fully, and the ghost gets very intrigued and asks if anyone would be willing to let her view the dream. David hesitantly agrees, so the ghost reaches out and touches his temples. Her fingers are ice-cold and David winces as the dream suddenly bubbles up from his subconscious for viewing. He gets the distinct impression that the ghost is "downloading" a copy, similar to a computer, and the sensation lasts for less than a minute. The ghost breaks contact and shudders pleasurably; she then kisses David and her spit works into his mouth – and grants him a bit of plasm.
 
In a fit of pique Isobel sweetly tells the ghost that Peter had the most detailed dream; the ghost eyes Peter almost lasciviously while Anita and David gang up on him to share. Peter demands an alternate route out of the Underworld that doesn't involve the grotto, as the idea of feral ghost-creatures grabbing his crotch is definitely unappealing. The ghost agrees and grabs his head. Peter gets the same "downloading" sensation as David did, and the ghost is shuddering even more pleasurably when she breaks contact. The ghost reveals that the other route to the garden exits the Underworld in the basement of the First Church in downtown Springfield, but the route is less linear and contains an industrial zone where the bloody-eyed ghosts have been seen congregating – and enslaving other shades. She tells them that the woman in the hoodie will guide them out, which will satisfy an apparent favor she owes the Professor. The woman in the hoodie looks less than thrilled with that arrangement, but she says nothing.
 
Anita agrees to let the ghost view her dream, so the ghost grabs her temples next. Anita flinches, as the ghost's fingers are searing cold considering she runs a few degrees above average thanks to her Bargain with [[wod:characters:witch]]. Her dream is likewise "downloaded" and she gets a sloppy kiss – and plasm – in return. Peter makes some derogatory comment, leading the woman in the hoodie to eye him and ask, "What is wrong with you?" The ghost looks meaningfully at Isobel, the only Sin-Eater left who hasn't shared the dream, and Peter mimics her expression in retaliation. Isobel sighs and nods, so the ghost eagerly darts forward and places her fingers on Isobel's temple. [[wod:characters:corpsman]] is less than thrilled but doesn't resist, and Isobel's dream is "downloaded." The ghost in the power suit is practically writhing in orgasmic bliss, and Isobel darkly advises her to seek release at the blue silk brothel after receiving her "plasm-kiss." The ghost doesn't reply, but says their guide's name is Melissa. Melissa grunts and motions the Sin-Eaters to follow her.

//Recap originally published on [[https://nwod-verbena76.livejournal.com/6173.html|Livejournal]].//

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[[{}wod:geist:recap:2_chapter_3|<= Chapter 3]]
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[[{}wod:geist:recap:2_chapter_5|Chapter 5 =>]]
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