ic Fine Spirits [IC]

[Dr Archeville]

"Well, my Momma always said I never had a good head on my shoulders, so!," he drawled, then laughed. He reached out to shake her hand, proving to be just as solid to her as Mutt was. "Yeah, I'm Dead Head, and Mutt, well, I'm as much his as he is mine, I s'pose. It's so nice to meet new folks!"

She's 'ere with Nick, I wonder if she's someone 'e found wand'rin' about. Certainly a good night fer it.

Mutt trotted back to Dead Head's side, and sat at attention, looking up at Ghost Girl. His tail thump-thump-thumped the cemetery ground, all thought of chasing Hayley temporarily gone from his mind.

Dead head released her hand, "so, where ya from?"

[Gizmo]

Shaking Dead Head's hand vigorously enough that her floating feet upward and away for a moment, Kimber beamed cheerfully at the genial ghast's welcome. "Right?! Love meeting new people, and Freedom City's so good for that!" Seeing Mutt looking up at her, she released the zombie's hand in order to stoop enough to scratch the lumbering canine about the ears with both hands. "Hee, what a big doll. Oh, I was just saying, actually, I'm from Thunder Bay! I guess there aren't a lot of Canadians around here or maybe I have an accent because people always ask me that!"

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox sighed. She really was not at her best in dealing with the dead. Especially Dead Head. He was one of the most jovial, genuinely friendly and caring people she'd had the fortune of meeting... but he creepied the hell out of her.

Fortunately for the ghost, apparently she wasn't quite as unnerved he the sight of the head reattaching itself to a rotted corpse. "Dead Head," she said with an incline of her head.

Sticking a cigarette between her teeth, Equinox muttered "Anaptiris" under her breath, and a small ball of flame ignited on her palm, which she promptly used as a lighter, dismissing them with a shaking hand movement which oddly produced the sound of a Zippo clicking shut.

[trollthumper]

"Hey, Dead Head," Nick said. He was okay with Dead Head's little anatomical tricks; he'd seen ghosts and zombies who had done much, much stranger and more disturbing things. Still, a part of him wondered how juggling his head didn't leave the revenant woozy at least. Not having a working digestive tract must have been one hell of a deterrent to nausea. He decided to reach down and scratch Mutt behind the ears, to distract him from ideas of undead anatomy. "As I was telling Equinox, Ghost Girl's somewhat new in town. She also doesn't know many folks who are dead or in the psychopomp business, so I talked up the local necropolis to her. Any news from the locals tonight?"

[Gizmo]

Ghost Girl balked noticeably as Equinox summoned her small flame, floating backward through the air until Dead Head and Mutt were partly between her and the elementalist. Her leery expression quickly faded along with the fire but was replaced by a look of muted embarrassment over her reaction as she moved her foot in a manner that would have been toeing the dirt if she hadn't been hovering well above it. Coughing slightly she nodded at Nick's explanation, her innate good cheer reasserting itself with a brief application of will. "I don't even know what a psychopomp is! Probably not a crazy person in formal wear, huh?"

[Dr Archeville]

Canadian? Ha! Wherever I go, there's always someone from further up north comin' down!

"Some of 'em is," Dead Head chuckled. "Some go all out with the fancy clothes an' whatnot," he nodded towards Nick and 'Nox. "An' some jes' wear..." he shrugged and smiled, and tugged a the noose-tie around his neck, "well, whatever!"

Gal don't seem to like fire none. Must be tied to how she died. No scars on her, though... carbon monoxide poisoning?

He spread his arms and spun around, "pretty quiet tonight. 'Specially compared to this time last year!" He stopped and turned back to Ghost Girl, "Whoo, you shoulda been here for that! Heck, maybe ya were -- ghosts an' ghoulies got called down from ev'ry which way!"

[Ecalsneerg]

Siobhan raised an eyebrow at the girl recoiling from the fire. Could be she died in a fire... or maybe she's just aware what magical fire can do to spirits...

"I come from a school of thought which favours dramatic billow," sniffed the witch, blowing smoke haughtily from her nostrils. "And I'm not a psychopomp."

She turned to explain to Ghost Girl. "A psychopomp is someone or something which escorts the dead to the afterlife. Like angels, or valkyries. Or meddling revenants." She grinned at Dead Head. "And, if you didn't want me to, I wouldn't be able to see you, which'd be a terrible disadvantage for that sort of work."

He spread his arms and spun around, "pretty quiet tonight. 'Specially compared to this time last year!" He stopped and turned back to Ghost Girl, "Whoo, you shoulda been here for that! Heck, maybe ya were -- ghosts an' ghoulies got called down from ev'ry which way!"

Equinox's grin morphed into a wry smile. That had been rough. On everyone, not least Dead Head. In a way, she admired his ability to be such an optimist despite everything.

[trollthumper]

Nick decided to play damage control. He knew Equinox had meant well when she'd explained the meaning of "psychopomp," but given Kimber's nervousness at times and her desire to stick around on this firmament, he didn't want to give her the wrong impression. "It's more of an industry term, in my case," he said. "Psychopomps are often people who ferry the dead across, yeah, but they're also people who deal with the affairs of the dead and ensure they're ready to pass on. It's the ghost's choice to leave; we just make sure that they go on the right path."

He also shared a smile as Dead Head described the account of the dark conflict between Hades and Baron Samedi. "Yeah, that was definitely not a quiet time," he said. "But it did come with some fringe benefits." He reached out to scritch Mutt behind the ears. "Didn't it, Mutt?"

[Gizmo]

"Tch, gal might get the impression she wasn't wanted hanging about," Ghost Girl muttered from the corner of her mouth, self-consciously straightening her reaper's cloak as Equinox listed off the numerous parties eager to show lingering spirits the proverbial door. They certainly seemed to have the deceased's best interests at heart but she wondered how many bothered to find out the ghosts' position on the matter. Nick seemed to be a little more diplomatic about it at least, which she appreciated though she suspected the female practitioner would be less likely to mince words to spare her feelings if unpleasant truths were ever the order of the day.

Her eyes lit up from beneath her cowl at the repeated mentions of the previous Hallowe'en, her head turning from one elder hero to the next. "Ooh, that sounds like a story!" she exclaimed excitedly, floating slightly higher in the air and clapping her hands together.

[Dr Archeville]

"Hooo-eee, that was a story, alright!," he exclaimed, actually slapping one knee for emphasis. He slid up alongside Ghost Girl and put an arms around one shoulder, waving his free hand across the cemetery before them. "There was two whole armies, dukin' it out t'see who'd be the real Lord of all the Dead! On one side, Baron Samedi, an' all his zombies an' tonton macoutes an' hoodoo men an' bokors an' such, an' on th'other, Hades an' his shades an' strigoi an' werewolves an' all manner a' nasties! Whole thin built up for near a month," he spun around to face out to the city, turning Kimber with him, "critters an' cultists comin' form all over, convergin' right here," he spun himself and Kimber around again, back towards the cemetery, and pointed at the ground, "to a big cave system 'neath here! 'Course, the good men an' women a' Freedom wouldn't stand for that, nope, not one bit! We beat 'em back," he clapped Nick sharply on the back, and winked at Equinox, "an' the two a' them is still lickin' they wounds o'er the whoopin' we gave 'em!"

[trollthumper]

"Yeah, it was a hell of a thing," Nick said. "The two were operating through proxies amongst gangs they'd managed to sway to their causes, which meant they could come and go as they pleased. I hear some of the other gangs tried to get in the game, too -- not a whole lot of success, there, but more than enough disir and demons and... things I don't even want to name crawling around Freedom. They got out of town pretty quick once we kicked their bosses out, though. But, yeah, that was a hell of a time. Had to make a deal with Baron Cimitiere at one point. He's a hell of a lot better than his brother, but I'm kinda wondering when he's gonna ask me to pay it back."

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox pointedly ignored Ghost Girl's comment. Not working with the dead closely, she'd never really got why "going off to Eternal Paradise" was such an offensive concept to some of them. But she nodded at Nick's words. "Yeah, that's the worst occupational hazard. The deals. I once ended up in the Realm of Faerie, blindfolded, shackled and a couple of miles underground, solely because of one poorly worded deal." She looked over at the ghost. "Really, don't make any deals with powerful supernatural entities unless you know what you're doing."

[Gizmo]

Ghost Girl was startled enough by Dead Head's enthusiastic manner that she offered no resistance as the decaying hero spun her one way then the other. She wasn't used to anyone being able to physically interact with her let along good-natured manhandling, but the bulk of her attention remained on the story being told, frosted eyes lighting up as she looked closely at each place indicated as though trying to see the described event for herself. "Woaow!" she exclaimed, arms pushed downward straight as rods at her sides and fingers spread in a gesture of excitement. "Does that kind of stuff really happen a lot, then?"

At Equinox's warning, the phantom drew herself up self-consciously and protested, "W-well, I know that!" She had actually gotten a very brief primer on the most basic rules of the supernatural world from Daniel Storm but the reaction was more due to the witch's demeanor reminding Kimber that she was very much the inexperienced junior present. She didn't want to look bad in front of heroes she'd almost immediately added to her admittedly lengthy list of role models.

[Ecalsneerg]

Hayley prodded Equinox's leg. <Be nice.> The little raccoon frowned up at her. Equinox just sighed.

<I know! I know! Not good with the dead!> She restrained herself from reaching out to pat the ghost on the shoulder, and settling for just speaking softly to her. "I'm not trying to be horrible to you. I've just seen so many people your..." She paused, unsure of how long the girl had been dead for. But she seemed to still mentally be a teenager, so that'd probably still work. "So many people you age have been hurt. Really, really badly. It'd be irresponsible of me not to warn you."

[Dr Archeville]

"Naah, not a whole lot," he replied, then jerked his head towards Cimitiere, "'least, not if me an' Nick's doin' our jobs right! Oh, and, ah," he suddenly looked a bit sheepish, but quickly bounced back, "an' 'Nox, too. She's good people! Brave an' clever," he flashed a thumbs up and smiled at the non-necromancer, "really!"

The revenant raised a hand to one side of his mouth and leaned close to the ghost's ear, "I think she feels like an outsider with me an' Nick an' all the things we deal with sometimes. I'll tell ya more 'bout her later." He pulled away, gave Ghost Girl a quick wink, then knelt down beside Mutt.

"Nick's right 'bout one things, though," he knelt and gave the spectral hound a scratch behind the ears, "I got Mutt here after that all went down, an' that worked out great! 'E's helped me with all kinds of stuff, which was good, since that big ol' mess left me drained." Mutt rubbernecked between Dead Head and Ghost Girl, ever-happy for attention.

A thought, like a mouse in a haunted house's mansion, scurried across Dead Head's brain. He looked up from Mutt & Ghost Girl to Nick, "hey, ya think she'll be 'round long enough fer the team?"

[trollthumper]

"Yeah," Nick said, after Equinox offered her advice to Kimber. "A good number of us come into the game young, whether in high school or in college. Sometimes it's magic, sometimes it's discovering you've got werewolf blood, sometimes it's finding out you're a changeling. In any case, you're dealing with something people don't like to talk about... or if they do, they do it in terms of skepticism or fear. There are a lot of forces out there that try to take advantage of the confusion that comes with a situation like that. Some people try to bind you into their service by force; others do it with sweet words. If you're alert, though, picking out the creeps isn't that hard."

When Dead Head suggested the team, he turned back to him. "Oh, right," he said. "That's actually not a bad idea. We might have to run it by the faculty at Claremont, but it's worth approaching." He turned to Kimber. "We've been considering putting together a team dealing with some of the... weirder things out there."

[Gizmo]

Ghost Girl looked suitably mollified by Equinox's patient explanation, already feeling bad about getting a little snippy with the practitioner contrary to her naturally forgiving and upbeat disposition. That nature reasserted itself immediately upon the mention of a team, the phantom floating another full foot into the air in her enthusiasm. "Really? I could totally help with that!" she assured Nick before turning to Equinox and Dead Head in turn. "I'm still learning a lot of stuff but turning invisible and walking through walls and stuff it super useful, for sure!"

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox nodded at the suggestion. "Yeah, that might be a good idea. I mean, I'm trying to educate people through the World Wide Ward, but..." She shrugged. She was trying to bring minor practitioners together to educate one another and help them help themselves, but it was slow going, and not everything had a simple solution

"Well, sometimes you've got to grab your wand and kick some ass to make a difference. And since the last team faded away, we've not really had a concentrated effort to do so."

She turned to Dead Head and smiled faintly. "Is it true what I heard about Heshem's champion getting married and having a kid?"

[Dr Archeville]

Mutt trotted up into the air to follow Kimber, and nuzzled her hand once she'd stopped.

Dead Head reacted in a way 'Nox had never seen: he winced. "Well, I don't think she's his Champion anymore -- they had a big fallin' out some time back, when she got tired'a bein' used by 'im," he shrugged, "but... yeah. Got married, had a kid... then a few months later, a grown-up version of the kid from the future pops up an' starts hangin' 'round! Which was really weird, talkin' to a guy whose diaper ya just changed a few hours ago. Or, worse, talkin' to him while yer changin' his diaper! 'Course, compared to that, the fact the kid was a dhampir weren't so-"

He snapped his jaw shut, realizing he probably should not have said that last bit out loud.

[trollthumper]

Nick's eyebrows rose at that bit. Wait... Phantom's married to a vampire? Huh. Learn something new every day. Then again, I've met plenty of vampires who aren't assholes, so odds are she'd be with one of the good ones. I wonder...

He saved these thoughts for himself, though, ducking around Dead Head's comment. "Well, even if she's separated from Heshem, she's still got plenty of power to throw around. When the mystic scavengers of the Grue raided the Parkhurst during the Gorgon incident, she managed to knock their most resilient troops to the ground. And if she's stepped away from the life for maternity and... dealing with that weird time paradox, I guess... then there is gonna be something of a vacuum in the world of the arcane. I mean, we've got a good thing going at Parkhurst, but it's more like a collaborative workshop than an organized team."

[Ecalsneerg]

Siobhan just rolled her eyes are Dead Head. "Honestly, we're a necromancer, witch and a ghost, in a graveyard, speaking to a revenant and one of the hounds of Legba. And you think we suddenly draw the line at vampires?" She gave a small smile and shook her head.

She turned back to the main conversation. "But, yeah, a power vacuum would not be a good thing. I don't want to go back to medieval times, with gods and monsters lording it over humanity. That's the problem with a vacuum. Something has to fill it." The witch glanced aside at Kimber.

"Back then, gods and monsters walked among men. Mighty empires rose... to be used as pawns on a chessboard. The Pact got instated to stop them from interfering on Earth without human permission... but that doesn't often stop their cultists and scions from helping them do just that."

[Gizmo]

Kimber wasn't sure how much of the conversation she was actually following, not recognizing much of the terminology or any of the names being dropped, but her head turned attentively from one speaker to the next, listening intently to everything being said and trying to make as much sense of it as she could between vigorous scratching between Mutt's ears. It sounded like despite all of the supernatural threats Nick and his friends had rattled off in the short time since she'd met them all there wasn't really a superhero team dealing with them specifically, at least not a team in the way she was familiar with, like True North or the Freedom League. "Well, um, it sounded like there are a lot of people who'd try to take advantage of the dead," she piped up, primarily addressing Equinox after the witch had been considerate enough to fill her in a bit but shooting a glance toward Nick and Dead Head as well. "Or maybe really mess things up for everybody 'cause they didn't know what they were doing. And I guess since I am spooky stuff, I kinda have a responsibility to help handle other spooky stuff, right?"

[Dr Archeville]

"Ain't drawin' a line, 'Nox, jes'..." Dead Head shrugged, "jes' tryin' t'be polite 'bout it, is all."

He turned back to Ghost Girl, and found himself smiling again. "Yeah, too many people think yer rights end when yer dead, but 't'ain't so! They don't need as much protectin', sure, but some -- no one wants t'be forgotten 'bout. Oh, an' the cultists," he rolled his eyes (though they remained in his head, this time), "always thinkin' they's gonna be the next Malador, gonna 'sunder the gates 'tween this world an' the next!,'" he intoned with deep mockery. "Honestly, I don't know which is worse -- the few who do have both the power an' knowledge t'be a threat, or the dozens more with jes' a taste a power an' hardly any knowledge! You know how many ghouls I had to put down last year when a few pages of De Vermis Mysteriis got out to the frats at Freedom College?"

[Ecalsneerg]

"I prefer the ones without the know-how. Knowledge is power." Equinox smiled slightly. "Few months ago, some kid found this incredibly powerful magic staff. He went on a rampage to get revenge for his poor grades. Luckily, I was in my office in the building, and engaged him in a fight. He had enough power to just blow past my defences, but the important thing is he hadn't a clue how to do counter-magic."

She turned her right palm up as frost began to crackle out of it. "I froze him on the spot and just pried the staff out of his hands. You couldn't do that with Malador."

[trollthumper]

"That's the problem with this game," Nick said. "There are so many people out there who think that getting into it is as easy as picking up a book, reading the right words, and making an easy-as-pie, this-certainly-won't-bite-me-in-the-ass deal with the cosmic force of your choice. Most of them find out it's not that easy, and those who luck into power for all the wrong reasons often find out that just because they can throw fireballs, they're not the king of the universe. Problem comes when one of those forces decides to give them everything they want, or even use them as a puppet. And then you've got the newbies who learn quickly..."

Nick scratched his chin. "Somehow, I lost the point. But yeah, the game's a risky one. Especially for initiates, sponsored or not."