Messages

1

Parlor in Purgatory / Re: More Fun In Hell

« on: September 28, 2019, 02:58:39 AM »

Sabrina held his gaze until he looked away, and nodded when he finished. "The day after tomorrow, I'll come calling. There are some things I need to take care of in the morning, in light of what happened tonight. I need to make sure I can reach you and the others in a less, ah, invasive fashion."

As to the Necromancer, Sabrina chuckled. Her eyes had stopped shifting the moment they stepped through the Parlor doors, and now there was a dull twinkle behind them, "You'll have to get in line, friend. It's personal, now. " a snort, "Next time, I'll be smarter." This was spoken low, as if to herself.

With a deep sigh, she ran her good hand through her ash-caked hair, throwing it back from her forehead and frowning down at her fingers when they came away greasy. Her wounded arm wrapped itself around her belly, almost defensive. "Gods below, I'm disgusting. I hate necromancy."

She looked up at him again, then, suddenly intense. Her eyes travelled to those unfurled wings, all a-twitch at the tips, talking for her father as surely as the lashing of a cat's tail. "Thank you," she said again, "For helping me," A pause, "and for letting me...try." 

2

Parlor in Purgatory / Re: More Fun In Hell

« on: September 09, 2019, 06:56:50 AM »

"It will." Sabrina nodded, then winced when she tried rolling her shoulder before bunching her hands in her lap, "Eventually."

She continued to watch him for a long moment, before dropping her eyes, "I'm sorry if this is...hard, for you. It know it's hard for me. I never gave any thought, really, to having a father and now--" She moved her hands apart in a sort of helpless gesture, careful not to raise her shoulder.

She sighed, and looked over at Zeus again, sidelong "I won't call on you again like that. It's only because I was --" going to die "--I couldn't avoid it. But, I think I'd like to get to know you better? And I'd like to repay the favor, if and when I can."

Gathering courage, she inhaled deeply through her nose, and exhaled slowly through her mouth, before turning to face him fully again. "I'd like to be part of your life, and for you to be part of mine."

Her look was guarded as she observed him. He had every reason in the world to say no, to turn away from her and pretend none of this had ever happened. He could modify the defenses at the block, and figure out a way to to keep her summoning him again and that would be that. So far, he'd only ever given to her, after all.

3

Parlor in Purgatory / Re: More Fun In Hell

« on: September 09, 2019, 03:46:15 AM »

Sabrina smiled wanly at the perfunctory 'of course', noting the touch of warmth in his face that he hid away just as quickly as she'd snapped up her bitter comment earlier. A thought of nature versus nurture briefly surfaced and dissipated just as quickly. She was just too tired to hold anything in her mind for long.

So he'd done this before. Good.

She did as she was told without speaking, though she watched him the whole time. Her back straightened, shoulders rolled back and relaxed, though the latter caused her face to tighten briefly in pain.

She remained quiet as his large hands guided her forearm away from her body, and rolled her upper arms outward and back in. The ball of her joint settled into its socket with a sharp popping sound, and an impact that rocked her whole body. As he handled her, Zeus would see unnaturally dark bruises blossoming beneath the skin around the joint, meaning a large blood vessel (or several small ones) had ruptured during the initial trauma.

"God's thumbs," Sabrina cried, tensing as she fought the urge to jerk away from the source of the pain.

4

Parlor in Purgatory / Re: More Fun In Hell

« on: September 07, 2019, 08:57:55 AM »

"I need that goddamn know-nothing one trick pony dead and out of my hair," Sabrina spat bitterly before she could catch herself. As if to will the words away, she pursed her lips and huffed a sharp breath out through her nose.

"I'm sorry," she sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose.

In the fluorescent light, he would be able to see the Treacle bubbling up through the scratches on her arms, pulling her skin back together, "I think my shoulder is dislocated, I need you to help me reset it." She looked up at Zeus. Her father. The only parent she'd ever known had been a monster, and she'd dedicated the latter part her life to doing better by those she served. She had never been anyone's child, yet it was his name she'd called when she'd needed saving. He hadn't had a choice in the coming, but he did in the staying -- and here he was.

"Thank you. For helping me." She said, at length, her eyes searching his face. His true form was magnificent.

5

Parlor in Purgatory / Re: Duped

« on: September 07, 2019, 08:46:20 AM »

Sabrina moved her hand from his shoulder when the shake was offered, her large hand warm against his cool palms "I'll be in touch," she assured him, with a wink.

Nadia clasped his hand with both of hers when he sought her touch. "Are you ready?" she asked at length. Her tone was even and cool, but Pierre knew her well enough to detect the hint of anxiety in the words.

6

Parlor in Purgatory / Re: More Fun In Hell

« on: September 07, 2019, 05:17:07 AM »

The heavy wooden door swung open at Zeus's touch. Once her hand was released, Sabrina flexed her fingers reflexively before using her good hand to tuck her limp arm up around her ribs. Traveling through the shadows had been disorienting, but oddly comfortable -- like swimming through cool water; sights and sounds muddled and dreamlike.

She motioned with her head as she passed through the open door to invite him in. She breathed deeply as she crossed the threshold, and the beaten, magic-sick thing she'd been at the museum seemed to slough off her like so much dead skin. Back straight and shoulders as square as she could get them, she looked more now like an avenging goddess, even soot-covered and reeking of burned flesh.

The imposing exterior of the Parlor gave way to a riot of sound and color: enormous crystal chandeliers glimmering with the the light of thousands of ever-burning candles, the murals splashed across the tall lobby walls, the scent cooking food wafting from the kitchen, echoing laughter from the tenants scattered about the seating area underscored by Die Antwoord's "Baby's On Fire" playing from somewhere on the open second floor.

The lobby was well populated -- the self defense class Billie held weekly in the ballroom had just ended, and a few stragglers from family dinner were still lounging and chatting.  All conversation ceased and eyes turned toward the door, however, as the pair entered. The silence lingered for just long enough for hands to begin coming up to cover mouths dropped open in shock, until a young girl halfway across the room wriggled out of her seat and her mother's grasp and ran over to hug Sabrina about the knees.

Letting her limp arm dangle, Sabrina reached down to pat her head, then grasped delicately under her chin to tilt her small head back and forth, inspecting the thin line of sutures and underlying cut that ran across her forehead. "My head's all better, auntie!" she chirped.

Sabrina smiled down at her, letting her face go and stroking her hair "I'm glad, Judy. It doesn't hurt?" The little girl shook her head, then buried her face in Sabrina's torn, stained skirts, "No more playing on the stairs, alright? You know better." The child nodded without looking up, "Good, now run on back to your momma, sweetie. Auntie has some things to take care of." With one last squeeze, Judy did as she was bid, and scampered back to her mother's waiting arms.

The exchange seemed to break the tension in the room, and the growing whispers turned into murmurs that threatened to break out into shouting -- until Sabrina spoke again, loud enough to cut through the clamor, tone even and calm. She addressed a young woman dressed in yoga pants with a mane of kinky blonde hair, whose gaze had been ping-ponging between Sabrina and her demonic escort since they'd entered  "Billie, this is Zeus. I need you to get the workshop ready." Needing no further prompting, Billie scrambled off and up the stairs, moving faster than a human should have been able to. Sabrina followed at a markedly slower pace and motioned for Zeus to join her, the crowd dispersing as the moved through the lobby, though the whispers continued.

As they mounted the stairs, a different young woman -- this one with an enormous smile and rainbow hair pulled into twin buns top her head -- rounded the corner coming from the dining room with a bottle of champagne and 2 glasses in her hands. Seeing Sabrina, her expression dropped into one of concern, then horror -- but Sabrina was too busy pushing open the door that had appeared at the top of the stairs when Billie hung a framed photo in the formerly blank space.

Beyond was a room with a tile floor and stainless steel furnishings, but for the dentist's chair in the center of the room that Sabrina collapsed into as soon the door closed behind her father.

Inside, the photo on the door was mirrored -- an image of the rom they occupied, framed in brushed steel. "Could you take down the picture, please?" she asked, voice heavy with exhaustion. "It'll stop anyone else coming in here."

7

The Museum / Re: Witch Fight

« on: September 04, 2019, 06:05:41 AM »

Sabrina was already reaching for her father's hand as the other witch spoke, spewing her childish insults. Half-listening, a sharp sadness struck her: Tess couldn't be much different in age from Astrid. What had gone so wrong in her? What had driven her to this point -- a shadow of a human, too dangerous and reckless to live?

Hopefully Astrid would return from her trip with an answer.

Sabrina also understood the Black Goat's speech, and its urgency. She grasped Zeus's hand, and the shadows swallowed them before the Devil's shade could reach them.

For a moment, Sabrina felt like she was drowning. All was cold and black and choking, and her grip on her father's hand tightened. It passed in a moment -- not in the sense that she surfaced, but in the sense that something shifted, and she could breathe again. She spoke to the darkness, voice heavy with weary, "Zeus, please take me home."

8

Parlor in Purgatory / Re: Duped

« on: September 04, 2019, 05:41:14 AM »

Nadia frowned when he waved off her help, but handed his shirt over when bidden. 

"Long term? I'd say try to avoid getting into fights with fire-spewing demons." The was a twinkle in her eyes as she turned them back on him. Sensing the hesitation in Pierre, Sabrina smiled as she rose and placed a large hand on his shoulder once his shirt was back on. "Rest easy, mon ami. You did well tonight."

"And you," Sabrina turned her eyes on Nadia, who met them with hesitation, "No more surprises. While I am glad to have been of help, I will not have people in my house under false pretenses."

The witch's tone was kind, but firm. That would be her only warning. After a moment, Nadia silently nodded her assent.

9

Parlor in Purgatory / Parlor Staff

« on: August 29, 2019, 08:31:58 AM »

The crew in charge of running the day-to-day business of the Parlor are mostly NPCs, with the exception of Tansy. They are mostly seen in and around the Parlor itself, but occasionally make appearances in the South district. Whoever is on duty at the Parlor's front desk is in charge of managing Sabrina's schedule.

Duties:
1. Assisting those who live in the Parlor and the District
2. Passing messages back and forth from Sabrina
3. Handling minor disputes
4. Sharing information about the District and its leadership

Characters

Name:  Tansy Carmichael
Position: Head of Staff/Chief Assistant
Species: Air Nymph
Aesthetics: Rainbows and smiles. See full character sheet (linked above)
History and temperament: West Virginia native, with a big heart and a guileless, cheerful nature.


Name: Billie Alabama
Position: Doorman
Species: Were Shifter (hare)
Aesthetics: Kinky blonde mane, green eyes and red lips. Never leave home without her Face one. Cowboy boots and Daisy Dukes. Southern drawl.
History and temperament: Texas born and bred. Billie is suspicious by nature -- mostly due to the fact that she's got fingers in every nasty pie in town. She is a master low-profile criminal: thief, con artist, card shark and getaway man.

Name: Hand and Map
Position: Kitchen Managers
Species: Human
Aesthetics: Identical twins with scruffy brown hair. Hand most often has a five O'clock shadow and a wistful look, while Map is always immaculately clean-shaven and wears his hair combed back. They are slight, tall men.
History and temperament: Hand is a quiet and thoughtful artist, and Map is a taskmaster with little creativity. They are cagey about their history, but have lived at the Parlor for over 10 years.

Name: Fern
Position: Concierege
Species: Scaeri Di
Aesthetics: Albino-pale and completely devoid of hair, including eyelashes. Blinks rarely, and with an extra, membranous third eyelid. Short and slim, with a penchant for long, unsmiling stares.
History and temperament: Soft-spoken and contemplative, Fern comes from a nest deep in the Bayou of Louisiana.

10

Parlor in Purgatory / Re: Duped

« on: August 29, 2019, 07:46:57 AM »

"It is done," Sabrina confirmed, reigning in her instinct to swat Pierre's hands away from his midsection. What was he going to do, give himself an infection? "What's left should heal in the next few days." She clasped her hands together, "You may have nightmares. Let me know if they get too bad."

Nadia calmed herself in the space of a breath, turning her head to watch her love explore his new flesh with curious fingers.

Just then, a young woman's voice rang through the room as if over an intercom, "Sabrina, The Accuser is here for its appointment. It's getting...uh, antsy."

The witch pinched the bridge of her nose between thumb and forefinger, "Ah well," she sighed, "No rest for the wicked. I trust you can see yourselves out?"

11

Parlor in Purgatory / Re: Duped

« on: August 29, 2019, 02:30:58 AM »

What he grabbed onto was Nadia, and she was glad of it. As his fingers clutched at her, she buried her face on his neck, letting out a sound somewhere halfway between a sigh and a sob. She pressed her lips to his skin, murmuring his name over and over.

Sabrina sat back in her stool as the last of the Treacle retreated into her fingertips. The flesh left behind was pink and raw, but smooth -- no worse than a bad case of road rash. When pierre looked at her, he would see understanding in her eyes -- she had been there too, with the monster and its offer. Pierre had been wearing her skin, or a memory of it, at least.

12

The Museum / Re: Witch Fight

« on: August 29, 2019, 02:22:53 AM »

Though they might not feel pain, the ancient dead were as dry as tinder and the flames tore through them even as they clawed at Sabrina's flesh. Before they burned to ash, however, two of them got hold of one wrist behind the witch's back, and pulled. With a shouted phrase, they were dust -- but not before Sabrina felt something give, and her arm fell useless to her side.

Soot-streaked and stinking, Sabrina staggered halfway to her feet as the onslaught was called off --

-- and was back down, every part of her concentrated on not skittering backward across the floor like a mouse as Tess pointed the tusk at her.

Sabrina looked up at her aggressor from beneath a curtain of ash-matted hair, torn from its intricate braids by the hands of the dead. Her eyes flickered from black to their normal eerily paleness like television static. "I think it's cheap, " she spat, finally, speaking in words that would be comprehensible to Tess for the first time since the fight began, "I think you're nothing without your tricks or your master, viper."

Cheap, but effective. Sabrina realized all at once that she would not win this fight; not while Tess had... whatever that was, that made her blood feel like water, and compelled her to run. Trying would kill her. Rage boiled under her skin.

Opening her mouth, she scraped the scroll from beneath her tongue with one long fingernail and flicked it away into the shadows and rubble. Shrunken as it was, it would take Tess time to find it, and still more time to undo Sabrina's transfiguration. She had to get out of there.

With the other witch was momentarily distracted, sabrina bit hard into the inside of her cheek, causing blood to well under her sharp canines and cuspids. With her blood in her mouth and power in the word, she called her father's name: "CHTAHZUS'AAK!"

13

Parlor in Purgatory / Re: Duped

« on: August 21, 2019, 06:19:55 AM »

No one else lives here.
 
Said the thing, its voice like cool waves on sand across the surface of Pierre's mind. It lifted one too-long arm, and a spindly finger touched the center of his forehead and stayed there.

Are you not lonely, Jean-luc?

Shortly after watching the Treacle slide into the wounds Sabrina's scalpel made, Nadia felt her lover go suddenly limp in her arms, his eyes open but focused on nothing. Her whispers turned harsh, her fingers stroking, then patting, then striking the sides of his face when he did not return to her.

He wasn't there.

With Pierre's chin gripped between white-knuckled  thumb and forefinger, her eyes jerked toward Sabrina  "Witch, what have you done?" She cried, on the edge of hysteria.

"He lives," the witch told her without looking uo from her work, in a voice like cold, black water.

14

The Museum / Re: Witch Fight

« on: August 21, 2019, 05:52:58 AM »

As the dead moved in, Sabrina snatched the scroll from its housing -- meant to display, not to protect. It pained her to roll the ancient text between her hands like so much newspaper, but she was short on time. She turned to face the mummies again, lips curling when she found their advance blocked her view of Tess.

But that worked both ways.

Sabrina was no stranger to the item she held, and knew attempting to destroy it with the tools currently at her disposal would only harm her -- but transfiguration was not destruction.

That did mean such a feat was easy; the scroll fought her for every folded molecule as she forced it into itself, pressing the ends of its rolled form between her hands until it was no larger than a tab of acid. The touch of dead flesh at her wrist broke her concentration just as she slipped the shrunken scroll beneath her tongue with one long finger.

Another grunted word, and flames licked dry skin where it touched hers, but the dead knew no pain or fear -- nothing but their mistress's word. Wreathed in fire, Saint Sabrina was pulled to her knees.

15

The Museum / Re: Witch Fight

« on: August 14, 2019, 01:47:56 AM »

The sound Tess made cut through Sabrina's head like a knife, curling her reaching fingers reflexively into a fist and sending her staggering a step backwards. Worse still, it vibrated through the Treacle, loosening its hold and causing a spasm that wracked the witch's bones where it held them.

vision momentarily blacked, Sabrina heard the joined voices and snapped her teeth together, hissing an infernal curse through them. Her nose was filled with choking dry and dust and death, but under it she could smell Black Phillip.

As her vision cleared, her head whipped around, knocking a thin braid loose from the crown about her head. The dead were closing in. She was outnumbered, and possibly outgunned. 

Another word ground out from between her teeth sent Tess and her minions reeling as an invisible force pressed out in a shockwave from her body. In the same moment, long strides carried her across the room, focused on Tess's prize: the Scroll.