"You're not a necro or somethin', are ya?"

[renferret]

Mouse and Ishmael prepare a bit of revenge, Theurge style. Later, Riley and Dagny are recruited to help.



A series of familiar knocks emit from Mouse's door.

There's a difference in the apartment, though it's not immediately visible from the door. Plastic has been spread over the table centered in one corner of the kitchenette, and sitting on a corner of the /table/, is a large, plastic wrapped, square...gray oblong thing. Ishmael may, if he's ever worked with the stuff before, recognize it as pretty high quality clay. "Door's unlocked," comes Mouse's voice.

Ishmael opens the door rather quietly and tentatively, closing it near-silently behind him. Stepping rather uncomfortably and on an odd footing into the room, he eyes the clay with an upraised brow. "Sculpting somethin'?"

"Ayep," Mouse responds, moving around the table and gesturing toward one of the chairs. "We've got to prepare the clay first. You're the art guy, you worked with this stuff before?"

"Uh, yeah?" Ishmael responds rather dubiously, allowing his hands to dangle at his sides. "Why?" He leans against a convenient wall.

Mouse pulls out a chair for herself. "Talen making one-oh-one: most spirits aren't gonna hold with some random crap you bought from Wal-Mart or a catalogue. They're picky, they want something that not only represents them and their interests as well as the use you want to put them to, but they also want something you spent time on. It means more to them, it means more to you, and most importantly, it makes better and more effective talens. So.../sit/."

Ishmael holds up his hands rather suddenly. "Whoa, whoa. Hold a tic. Talen /what/? You know I can't make those, yeah?" However, he does sit. Gasp. And rolls up his sleeves. "I can do sculptures, though!"

"No," Mouse says, "But I can. First thing's first, though." She produces a bag of some fine, grey powder. "Volcanic ash. I want to mix this in with the clay pretty thoroughly. And then we're going to put the clay on a...frame, of sorts."

Ishmael rolls up a tiny little ball of the clay and promptly chucks it at her, grinning. "Kay. Well." Knuckles are popped. "Go on."

Mouse puts the bag between them. "First the clay," she insists. "I need your finger strength especially, mine's not terribly special. Mix all this in with the whole block."

Mouse adds, "I can get us some water too."

Ishmael idly scrutinizes the bag; knuckling a hollow into the claw, he lifts the thing gingerly and dumps some of its contents into the claw, nodding. "Roger." Knead, knead.

Mouse gets some of her own clay, and likewise begins kneading. It's going to be a bit time consuming--she bought a /lot/ of clay. And not a little ash either. "How're you holding up?"

Ishmael continues to knead rather merrily, then shrugs. "Pretty well. I've been taking Cordy out a lot. And Chris might have me take Bobby out for some training soon. Though I'm not too sure if I've condemned myself for that. Eheh."

Mouse seems to approve of this. "Good, I'm glad. How's Cordelia doing?"

Ishmael pulls up two great handfuls of the stuff and mushes them together. "Eh, generally decent. She's been pretty quiet recently; I think she gets homesick or somethin'. Relapse, maybe."

"Keep an eye on her," Mouse murmurs. "I empathize, but this ain't the time to be having homesickness." Knead, knead, knead. "So alright, you keep doing that, I'll go get the next part." She moves to the sink to clean off her hands, and from there, back into the main room.

Ishmael allows the clay to run between his fingers, finding this entire endeavour rather soothing. "Yeah, I am. Also had to mitigate a bit of a spat between Billy and Jack the other night. Big moons suck," he grumbles.

Mouse calls from the other room, "Great, what kind've a spat?" There's the sound of a door opening; probably the closet.

Squish, squish. "Somethin' about Billy thinkin' Jack was makin' an uninformed opinion about the Umbra. It was pretty dumb. But Jack's not in a great place, so I was concerned he might freak out and frenzy or somethin'. I kindly reminded 'em that you're going to castrate the next assholes that spill blood down there. Settled down shortly after that."

"The /hell/?" Mouse calls back. "Billy, as in Gnawer /cub/ Billy, was telling Jack, a cliath, he was making an uninformed opinion about the /umbra/?"

"I wasn't there for most of it," Ishmael reminds her. "But it sounded somethin' like that." Knead, knead.

"I swear, the average IQ around this Sept..." Mouse returns. And she's bearing...a skull. An unmistakably crinos skull, in both hands, which has been very well cleaned. "I've got two more of these in the closet."

Ishmael sort of just stares at the thing. Then glances up at Mouse. "You're not a necro or somethin', are ya?" He's clearly teasing.

Mouse snerks and hefts the skull onto the table. And then, all of her amusement vanishes. "This is the head of one of the Spirals that killed Cael." One eyebrow twitches upward. "I thought you might wanna help give Carnage his buddies back. Explosively."

Ishmael's amusement suddenly drains, and so does the blood from his face a little. "You... kept those?"

Mouse's eyes narrow slightly. "Yep." She detaches the jaw from the rest of the skull and sets it carefully aside, then turns the skull itself upside-down. "Remember I said the significance of the material used in talen making matters. The fire spirits I want to put in these? I want them to target Dancers."

Ishmael sets a big glob of the clay back upon the table and sighs a little. "Got a bomb or somethin' in mind? An' what do you need me t' do? Fill it up?"

Mouse shakes her head. "Fire spirits. It'll be /like/ a bomb, but unaffected by any anti-Weaver counter measures, and, ah...more selective. I hope. What I want to do is spread the clay all over the skull. I want it to retain it's basic shape, and I want the surface to be smooth. I'm going to make some glyphs on the inside of the skull, here, where they won't be able to be seen, and then we'll smooth the clay over the jaw as well, so that when it's baked, it'll be sealed together."

Ishmael nods at the instructions, itching his chin a little. "Mm. Okay. I can do that." Taking a clump of clay in one hand, he extends his free hand for the skull. "For the upcoming battle shit?"

Mouse nods, and pushes the skull toward him. "For the raids beforehand, I think."

Ishmael accepts the thing and promptly begins to smear the clay over it, rather expertly. He does this for a living, after all. "You goin' on those?"

"I don't know," Mouse replies. "We'll be in the umbra for the big fight, though." Pause. "Stacey asked me to lead that half."

Ishmael slows in his smearing a bit. "Oh." And then continues. He doesn't seem terribly enthused.

Mouse raises an eyebrow. "Objections?"

Ishmael shakes his head. "Like I'm gonna stop you from doin' anything."

Mouse says, "That's not what I asked."

Ishmael waves a hand. "Naw. I mean, you're doin' it for the greater good an' all. Er. And survival."

"So are you," Mouse points out, pushing a little. "Our pack's assigned to the Umbra side of the fight."

Ishmael tenses up a bit. "Who's gonna stay home and guard the Tenement?"

"If we fail at this fight," Mouse points out again, "There won't be any reason to guard the Tenement."

Ishmael holds up a somewhat clay-ed finger. "If we win and the Tenement is taken - that'd sort of suck too." He really doesn't want to go.

Mouse shakes her head. "Taken by whom? And if they know where it is to take it, we've /already/ lost."

Ishmael slaps a rather purposeful glob of clay against the skul and frowns. "Yeah, well. It could happen."

"It could," Mouse allows, "But it's unlikely, AND, as I said, if they find this place? We've lost it already, even if we fight them off. Do you really want to sit here at home when everyone you know is going to be off fighting, possibly dying? I didn't teach you that gift so you could find ways not to use it." Her tone, despite the words, is not harsh. It's questioning, a little incredulous.

Ishmael smooths the clay over the skull and grunts. "You know I don't do real well in stuff like that. Battles," he says, thumbing some of the clay. "Healin' I can do, though."

Mouse snorts. "What, and I do? The only way for you to do better is experience, scary as it is. Besides, it's the umbra. You might actually take a hit better, who knows?"

Ishmael turns to her and sticks out his tongue. "You crazy? I'm so going to go charm a metal elemental and have him stand in front of me."

Mouse smiles faintly. "Look, as long as you're /there/. We're going to need everyone we can get. I don't even want to /think/ about what the shadow of that place looks like. --Here, give me that skull back for a second."

Ishmael promptly hands it over, not really relieved, but sort of accepting.

Mouse smoothes a glob of clay on the inside of the skull, brushing it until there's a thin layer in one spot. Then she curls her fingers, and carefully etches three Garou glyphs: 'Vengeance', 'Fire', and 'Destruction'. There's a pause, and then, after a moment, she etches a much smaller glyph below those. 'North'.

Ishmael can't help but smile a little at that, at least. "Eh, well. At least I'm not against revenge in an explosive order."

Mouse examines her work for a moment, before she picks up the jaw and slides it back into place. She sets the whole thing between them again, and begins working on smoothing clay onto the jaw itself. "His cub name was Starts-the-Fire," she says quietly.

Ishmael nods, idly rolling some clay between his fingers. "Yeah, I remember. Sorta fitting, I guess. I know he'd be happy with some vengeance, at least."
Mouse gives a very thin smile, and continues to work on her side of the skull. "I know I will be."


-----



You paged Riley and Dagny with 'Ring ring ring, Riley's phone, Mouse's number. :D'.

Riley pages to Dagny and Mouse: The connection opens to silence. Then a painfully awkward, "...hello."

Long distance to Riley and Dagny: Mouse's voice, unsurprisingly, is on the other end. "Hey." She's either ignorant of the awkwardness, or ignoring it. "I need you, and Dagny if you can find her, for a project."

Riley pages to Dagny and Mouse: ...project?

Long distance to Riley and Dagny: Mouse repeats, "Project. And it's an important one, so you know, /now/, or at some point close to now, would be great."
From afar, to Dagny and Mouse, Riley mumbles, "Alright. Coming."

Long distance to Riley and Dagny: Mouse says, "Good. Thanks." Click.

Riley has arrived.
Dagny has arrived.


Mouse is in her apartment. Nothing in the main room appears to be different, but in the kitchen, the table as well as a large part of the counter are covered in /stuff/. Plastic has been set down to protect surfaces, there are clay smudges everywhere, mostly dried, and sitting at one end of the table, grinning ghoulishly and covered in drying clay, is the unmistakable form of a crinos skull.

There is no knock at the door - it simply slides open, and a profoundly uncomfortable Riley slips through the door, holding it open in order to allow easier entrance to the Garou directly behind him. "...Picked up one hell of a hobby."

Very little about the Get's scent says 'I have been among humans lately'. Except the fabric softener. Otherwise, she smells like woods and rotting leaves. At least she scraped her shoes off at the door. In the Walker Elder's apartment, the Get's eyes wander quite a bit before they look toward the kitchen area. The skull distracts her a minute and she echoes her own opinion. "Not a bad hobby, mind." A look is cast back at Riley. "How can we be of help, Mouse-rhya?"

Mouse pulls out two chairs around the table and gestures toward them. "Have a seat. It's not just a hobby--I'm making talens. I wanted you two to help with the vessel preparation."

The look exchanged with Dagny is one of moderate embarrassment, and Riley seems to become slightly quieter - he shuts the door and walks forward, pulling up a seat. "...I'm not much of a sculptor."

Dagny fills the other seat soon after and looks at Mouse with a little reservation. "I know little about Talens or their making." She announces honestly, and looks at the gathered ingredients. "But I'm a quick learner."

"You don't need to be," Mouse tells Riley. She slides around the table and back out into the main room as they sit. There's the sound of a door opening, probably the closet, and then Mouse returns bearing another skull. This one is not clay covered, and it's still very obviously from a crinos. She sets the first skull in front of Riley, and then makes another trip to the closet for another skull, which she sets in front of Dagny.

The ragabash uncomfortably regards the skull thats placed before him for a few moments before slowly taking it into both hands and feeling the weight of it, lips pursing slightly, "...this wasn't anyone we knew, was it?"

Dagny actually does the same, picking the skull up. She has no trouble looking at it or holding it until Riley asks his question. She looks at him sideways and then back at the remains in her hand. "I can't imagine we'd keep things like this from ours.."

Mouse takes up a spot across from them. "You met them," she says to Riley, and her tone has become very grim. "These three," she indicates the clay covered skull as well, "Were the Spirals who killed Cael."

The skull clatters gracelessly from Rileys fingers, clattering back down onto the table - the bone structure isn't damaged by such a trivial drop. If anything, it's simply noise. Riley's attempts at mirth drop off entirely, and he stares blankly down at the skull. Quietly, he murmurs, "...you should have incinerated them."

Dagny's fingernails actually scrape likes nails on a chalkboard against the side of the one in her hands and the focus she stares at it with has grown rather hostile.

Mouse's mouth turns up very faintly along the corners, and she settles back into her seat. "Oh. I intend to incinerate them. I just intend to incinerate their buddies along /with/ them."

Unable to share in Mouse's grim satisfaction, Riley's eyes remain distantly fixated upon the skull, one hand settled upon it, the other moving up to settle on his abdomen. "So when you said Talens... hunh." His brief noise of understanding sounds like a powerful exhalation, and he regards Mouse grimly.

"I don't know what Talens are but if they help with destroying more of these fuckers.." Dagny trails and looks over at the Walker Elder. "Where do we start?"

Mouse gives Dagny a strange look. "Talens," she repeats. Then she gestures toward the skulls. "They're objects that we bind spirits into, temporarily, to create a desired effect. In /this/ case...fire spirits. You see that other skull? That's what I want to do with these two. Cover them with clay, but make sure that the shape is still the same."

Scooping up the skull again with a look of fiery disdain, Riley swallows loudly and takes a steadying breath, and sets silently to work on the skull with the nearby clay, beginning to apply think globs of clay to the bone and smooth it on, slowly fleshing out what nearly looks to be a golem's skull.

Dagny takes the strange look with a raise of the brow. "This part of my education was skipped over in favor of smash-maim-kill and picking small animals out from between my toes." With that said, the Get grabs clay as well and gets to work.

Mouse wrinkles her nose and snorts, but offers no comment to that. "Well, it's the main province of theurges. Right now, we're making a /lot/ of them."

Riley works diligently, but for the most part, his jaw remains clenched shut, brow furrowed as he intently stares at the skull. After several minutes, he sets it down, taking a deep breath while looking at the skull. Finally, he speaks, "How much do we need to put on it?"

"And why us two, if I may ask. Not that we wouldn't have come anyway, but is there something between us and Cael that has to do with these or..?" The Get continues her work, smoothing and reshaping, adding, shifting.

Mouse gestures toward the finished skull, and holds her fingers a small amount apart. "About that much. I want the surface to be as smooth as you can make it." To Dagny's question, she sits, and answers, "You were his friends. His pack. These are his killers. I will write his name on these skulls, among other things, and then we will send Carnage's friends back to him. It's symbolic. Symbolism is important whenever you're dealing with spirits."

Riley lapses back into silence as he works - his ability to look as though he's not profoundly bothered by this task is not entirely spot on, however, as evidenced by his too-intent gaze and trembling fingertips.

Dagny grunts in response to Mouse, accentuating the sound with a nod. Something about what the Walker says has her curious and while she continues to clay the skull up she asks, casually, "Do we actually know where Carnage is?"