"A fucking virus?" Nikki asks, incredulous.

"Now why the fuck wouldn't I think of that? Hang on, now I feel stupid."

Nikki concentrates, picking at a scab on her hand that begins to bleed again, rubbing the blood between her fingers.

((2008-12-05 07:40:14 Nikki rolls 3 dice to Arete (Diff 3) (Life senses: Life 1, coinc, -1 focus) 8,6,9 (3 successes)))

She looks around, her eyes open to the lifesigns of those around her now, searching for traces of  the infection in the normally relatively healthy bodies of the assembled mages.

Nikki will see the infections plainly. Its nothing natural at all but a twisting of everyones life patterns in such a way that it would take a mastery of the life sphere in order to reverse it...

"Oh. Ohhh. Oh that's bad. That is fucked up," Nikki says, immediately taking a long pull from her flask.

"I can't fix that. That would take a master. So how are we going to get rid of it?"

Nikki looks intensely worried, and keeps drinking from her flask in an almost mechanical way, as if this were just reflex.

'Same way me and Leonard did. You have to find the anti-virus.'

I tell Nikki. I had half expected them to accuse me of making this up. Maybe their infections are farther along than i thought...

'I know what the serum is called, the only problem is finding it and getting to it. We werent able to engineer our own anti-virals, but i do have a medicine that will slow the effects down and give you more time...'

I hesitate. The medicine is promising but the side effects can be severe. If they are willing to believe me and pop pills unquestioningly, well then im not going to ruin my luck by explaining anything anymore.

"Medicine, you say?"

Nikki ponders this.

"You know, having just met you and all, we might want to pass a pill on to Pelayo to study for a bit...he's the closest thing to a verbena I've found in the sons of ether, and that's definitely saying something."

Nikki looks up at Aurora. "Would that be alright? I mean, I know I can purge poisons out of my own bloodstream pretty quickly, but the rest of these fuckers can't really."

"Also, how the fuck do we find this antivirus? Or do we need to go on a quest for a Master Verbena? Cuz that might be easier."

"Thats not a half bad idea.  I'm not doubting you Aurora, but you showed up out of the blue knowing exactly what happened and how to fix it.  Things that sound to good to be true..."

Seamus ponders thing for a moment..

2008-12-09 10:04:54 Seamus rolls 3 dice to Sense motive 5,4,4 (failure)

..and as much as he tries to read Aurora, that mask she puts on is just to much for his skills to penetrate.

"So Aurora, what is the name of this Anti-virus?"

Orphen looks at Sean dramatically, giving him big stoner eyes.

'Dude we gonna die!'

Then he catches onto the end of Nikkis statement about am aster Verbena and shifts his tone, shaking a finger at her.

'No no no, we just need Dr. House.'

This is how Orphen deals with bad news and exactly why he is pretty useless in a fight. If you cant beat it by denial, smother it in absurdity.

'You can do whatever you want with the pills.'

Aurora says, picking up a small glass bottle and tossing it to Nikki. Inside are enough small white pills for the four gathered mages to have three doses each. Apparently she doesnt expect them live past 3 weeks even with preventative medicines...

'I have never met a master Verbena. If you know where to find one and how to convince him to help go for it. If not, I can get us into the monolith. Ive been inside before and the technocracy is all about mass production so this one will be the same.'

2008-12-11 09:13:03 Seamus rolls 3 dice to Perc + Emp (sense motive) 5,4,10 (1 success)

Seamus is finally able to see a small glimpse of the motives of this strange woman.  It is by no means a psychic reading, but it does give him some comfort to know that she actually has motives, whether good or bad.

"Really Orphen, House?  You do know this isn't Lupus right?  Not to mention the fact that he's a fictional character..."

Seamus will go over to Nikki and remove one of the small white pills from the glass bottle.  

"You wouldn't happen to have any water? "

Seamus is already in a strange house, surrounded by who knows what and talking to a strange who says they are all going to die.  What can taking a weird white pill do.

"So I heard rumors of some guy taking off the top floors of that tower by himself, one of you wouldn't happen to be that guy would you?  it sounds like he'd make things a lot easier..."  

--Last edited by Seamus Johnston on 2008-12-11 11:24:21 --

"Ha!" Nikki laughs bitterly. "I don't know any master Verbena either, what, do you think they grow on trees?"

Nikki stops abruptly.
"You know, they might actually grow on trees. Fuckin' A."

Her eyebrows shoot straight up and threaten to actually leap off the top of her head when Aurora says she wants them to go IN to the Monolith.

"Waaaaaaaait a minute. You want us to go IN THERE? Have you the brainworms? Because if you do, I can fix it, but seriously...do you have brainworms? Because there is no other explanation for why you think a few enlightened souls like ourselves can take down that machine. Just to find some antivirus that may or may not exist? Those assholes in the suits react too fast to get taken down."
"We tried already," she adds, nodding to Seamus as she passes him her flask. "Daniel blew the top right off that motherfucker. They rebuilt it, and they've captured his ass, probably reprogramming him right now."

Aurora shakes her head at Nikki.

'No no, we dont have to go in there. But someone will. It would be far too predictable to house the anti-virus inside the monolith itself. In my experience a raid on a related office usually turns it up. The trouble is, figuring out which one...'

Aurora gets an odd, discomforting grin at that moment. As if she just knows something she really shouldnt.

'And it wont be anyone here who goes into the monolith. You see, one of us is already headed that way, whether he knows it yet or not. One of you just has to convince Gand to rip out a hard-drive or hack a computer while hes inside. Then when the suits are scrambling to get ahold of him, we could hit the location of the anti-virus and probably meet minimal resistance...'  

--Last edited by Aurora Golden on 2008-12-11 14:24:34 --

Sean has been staring bug eyed at everyone who talks, trying to understand what there talking about, after a while it finaly clicks in his head.

"Bummer...." He says looking around the room.

Nikki takes another swig from her flask and ponder this newest information.

'So now, wait. Gand's already going there for some ungodly reason so you want us to tell him to break something so we can use hm as a decoy? That's pretty fucked up, and I don't think he'll take it from you, he seemed fairly...unfriendly when I mentioned your name."

'Gand and I have some issues to work out. But he knows as well as I do that he is dying. He is following a demon into the monolith for reasons i cant acertain.'

I play my hand honestly. Gand is bound to tell them all about me anyway so i need to head off their mistrust.

'Tell him whats going on, make him agree. Help him if you must, but the anti-visur should be your main concern...'

I have done my part. I laid down all the information and offered what i could. What the mages of this city do with my offer and my help is now entirely up to them.

"Demon, eh? Well, for someone whom I've heard called the Devil Man, I guess that's not too far out of character. But going into the Monolith? Now's that's suicide. But I'll see what I can do about talking to him, I'll see if he doesn't mind breaking some shit while he's there. I'll go talk to him right now, actually, if you don't mind," Nikki says, pocketing the medication that Aurora had thrown at her.

"I'm sure I'll be hearing more from you, especially if I convince Gand."

Nikki turns and walks out of the chantry, only pausing to retrieve her stuff out of Leonard's bag.

((continued in The White Rabbit: "I hear the phone-a-ringing," resuming Nikki's earlier conversation with Gand))  

--Last edited by Nikki Bard on 2008-12-18 17:23:24 --

As Seamus watches Nikki leave he will turn his attentions back to Aurora.

"I have to ask, how do you know all of this.  I mean the Technocracy part i can understand if you've done this before and seen it done, but how do you know Gand will be heading in there?  I've known Gand for quite some time, and waltzing into dangerous areas never seemed to be one of his personality traits."

"Though granted, if you are indeed his wife, you'd know a good deal more than i would.."

'All i know is that Gand will be accompanying a demon into one of the less-guarded structures attached to the Monolith.'

I admit to Seamus once Nikki departs.

'Knowing Gand he stands to gain something important from this arrangement with the demon or he wouldt put himself at such risk...'

Theres always the chance that Gand has finally gone irrevocably insane and this really is a suicide mission, but i prefer to think hes just being a manipulative bastard rather than putting himself needlessly at risk.

Seamus is clearly intrigued by this talk of a demon and makes note to call Gand once he leaves.  

"Well if there's anything I can do to help him, just let me know.  I've known Gand for quite a while know, and I still owe him a favor or two."

Seamus will rise and stretch his compact frame.  

"I'll take the pills to hand out to the others if thats ok, i know a few of us wern't here tonight and i'm pretty sure they'll want to know about this."

Grabbing the brown bottle Seamus will search his pockets for any scrap of paper and scrawl down two numbers.

Handing it to Aurora...

"Both numbers will reach me wherever I am, If you need something, let me know."

Seamus will head for the door, collecting his "foci" before he leaves and pockets the small brown bottle full of little white pills.