Setting
Years ago fire ravaged this building, nearly burning it to the ground. All that was left was a burnt out husk and as many questions surrounding the fire as mysteriously as it had started. If rumor were to be believed, it was started in the archives that held numerous occult and magical items, and due to poorly designed fire suppression systems was able to spread throughout the old building.
In the time since its fall, the landscaping has taken over, the pavement nearby cracked and flaking away in chunks.
The organization and it's agents that once called the building home having fallen into an equal amount of disrepair; tied up in bureaucratic stubbornness and political red tape.
However, now there is talk of repairing and setting things to right once again.
Catherine couldn't recall if she'd ever told Alexander or not; more than likely hadn't as they both had their own secrets that they kept from one another. While that wasn't exactly a healthy way of dealing with things, it somehow allowed their marriage to stay relatively intact. "I wouldn't let the cursed thing in the house because it smelled; it reeked to high heaven of the worst kind of magic." She wasn't terribly inclined to believe him, but would rather sooner than later admit that it was a neat trick as to how his sire had managed to turn him. "Your sire must have had a taste for blood tinged with death."
He shrugged and smiled. "I missed you." More than he liked to admit. "All of you. Is Laura doing okay? Uncle Lex?" He wanted to know, for sure, more than just rumors. "My cousins?" He bit his bottom lip, a fang peeking out. "I tried to escape earlier, but fledgling bonds kept me close." And his needs as a fledgling as well.
Sighing she looked at the gaunt man, claiming to be her nephew. "Laura is fine, Alexander is... Alexander. I'm sure your cousins would send their love if they knew anything." She answered, not telling him that this was the first she had been out of the fae realm in quite some time. "Well then, it sounds like the bonds did exactly what they were supposed to do."
That didn't change that he was starving. Hesitating, he bit his bottom lip and smiled. "Come on. I need to pick up some juice boxes. There's a shop a few blocks down that carries them." It was safer than hunting and he couldn't go as far between feedings as he wished that he could.
"Juice? Ugh." She remarked making her own expression of distaste this time.
"I can't exactly walk up to the blood bank and demand a few bags." Though he rather thought it would be funny to try it out. The man shrugged and then looked away from her, seeking to change the topic. "What happened to HQ? I expected to find it still standing."
"Oh that?" She asked, returning his question with one of her own, not seeming terribly interested at the moment. "A fire broke out, they think it started in the archives; they would like to claim arson but never had any leads."
"And I could do without the need to be met. God, I forgot what being a fledgling is like. It's ridiculous to have to consume so much." Needless to say, he was not a fan. However, his sire was not one to let him avoid it for long. For that matter, he was surprised said sire had had him tracked down yet. Maybe he hadn't recovered from the psychic backlash of having their bond severed. Brandon hadn't felt like being gentle, once he had figured out how.
"Look Brandon, you've been around the block once with this. You know that if you don't meet your need for blood that someone will likely find this whole thing out, and put you down."
Still, it bore saying. "I'm surprised you haven't asked who turned me yet." He figured she'd want to kill them for it, or she'd at least have a stronger reaction. Maybe she was still in shock? Then again, he had always been pants at predicting his aunt's reactions to anything.
As she walked with him she considered all of this, it seemed that they had taken advantage of her fondness for Brandon, and grief at his passing.
"I'm not to be out unless escorted by a member of the Court either. Or rather, wasn't to be out. Like I said, I'm not that great at listening." Though technically, his aunt was a member of the court.
Most of the vampire world had been chomping at the bit once they discovered that the boy, now man who had been Parson Lessard was alive; and in the care of an MCU officer. The whole thing had been a mess, and forced them unwillingly to take sides.
Years in seclusion, only being called by nicknames meant he longed to hear his own name again. He wasn't going to say that though. He was just glad to be out, even if he had no doubt that he'd be paying for it as soon as the Dragon Court got their hands on him.
"My what? Oh..." She said looking at her hand with a frown. "No... there are other ways to bind a person." She explained rubbing the spot where the ring normally sat. "The ring can be removed.. it's more of a monitoring device than anything.... and it's something Tatianna requires."
The bindings must have interfered with his turning. That had to be why. "So. What have you been up to? MCU seems mostly disbanded as a whole, for some ridiculous reason." Or at least the local offices seemed it. Without police, of a sort, he knew incidents had risen between mundanes and magicals, and he didn't even want to know how many crimes had gone unsolved because of the lack.
"I do know that Alexander and June voted against the decision to disband, however they were over ruled by a majority." She said with a shrug. "It's an adjustment for some of us, some more than others." Catherine commented noticing his awkward movements.
"June and Uncle Lex have always been the sanest voices on that damned council." Definitely the sanest. he glanced to his aunt and smiled. "I'm kind of reluctant to wander off." He admitted, a smile hovering about his lips. He had only just found her after all. "But you probably need a moment to, I don't know, take in that I am alive, of sorts."
"Alive? Why don't we say dead man walking?" She asked wryly. Catherine was still trying to figure out what had happened, as Brandon's side of the story was only that; one side. "Wander Brandon. You have an eternity."
There was no mention of her finding him. he'd have to come up with a better option that staying in the archives though, that much was clear. For one, he was tired of looking homeless.
It was, perhaps, a good thing he had never suffered from too many morals. Plans already raced through his head on how to raise the funds to get a nicer place to stay. No one would miss the homeless after all.
"Look, my phone still works.. use that." She finally said finding it difficult to give him an exact answer. Now back in the current realm, she had duties to take care of, and that meant paying a visit to the Dragon Court; as detestable as the felt.
He had always been hard to punish, when it came down to it, especially if he didn't care about your opinion at all. it didn't surprise him that the house had been sold. Hell, he wouldn't be surprised if she had spent a chunk of that time with Queen Tatiana, his...well however they were related. He had never paid attention to that.
The vampire grinned and gave his aunt a tight hug. "Stay safe,o kay? And let Uncle Lex and Dawson and all know what happened, where I am?" He missed his family, after all, and was glad to let them know where he had disappeared off too. He couldn't wait until he got to see them all again. It shouldn't be too long, especially considering how their family didn't really die, it seemed.
And what was more violent than fire?
It didn't help that it brought out the nature of her curse. Fire was concerning that way, destroying all it touches, yet bringing in new life, and renewal. It was like what she had become, but in reverse. She didn't want to admit that's why she'd sought the remains of infernos out. Hoping to find some metaphorical key to switch things back to how they used to be, and to sate her need for destruction.
This one was particularly interesting to her. She'd heard whispers of it, tales of part of a large, secretive building exploding into hot, angry flames. She'd been stuck on Terra for so long, she was unsure why she'd waited until now to seek it out.
Maybe it was just because Nebrajit was far from where she'd been, or maybe it was because she hoped for an answer. Either way she was here now.
Rain trickled down from a lazy gray sky, pelting the lone woman along the road. She was tall, and lithe, walking along the cracked, and crumbling asphalt with deft strides. No matter how graceful her movements though, something about her just seemed out of place, even at a distance. Something about her was just wrong in an undefinable way. She was something that wasn't supposed to exist, but a suit of human flesh kept her glued into reality.
What made it strange was just how human, and normal she looked.
Dirty-blonde locks of well maintained hair tumbled down over her shoulders, reaching to her upper back; now plastered to her skin from the rain. It contrasted on her simple black pants-suit, trimmed in ivory-white, and tailored to near-perfection. She wore white open-toed wedges, and clutched a black leather bag to her side. While she looked overdressed for a burnt out section of a lowly town, nothing visible about her screamed wrong.
And yet, any average person who ever even glimpsed her would attest to just how unnerving her mere presence was.
Luckily, it seemed like no one was around. She closed her eyes as she trudged on, listening closely to the whispers of her brood. She could hear them, always, but it took focus to understand them. Hisses, clicks, and shrill screeches bombarded her, but a clear mind, and heavy attention turned them into a chorus of hushed speech. She could hear everything her little ones saw, and felt.
So much of the arachnid chatter was about deep puddles the tiniest Wolf Spiders couldn't cross, or the webs of Long-Legs jiggling with rain, drawing them out in case it was prey. One courageous Black Widow's voice stuck out, ever so lethal, but so tiny, it had it's eight glowing eyes trained on a Pigeon. The bird was wet, and taking refuge in a windowsill, trying to ride out the weak storm. The Widow wanted to eat it so bad.
It made Gwathel giggle. It had no chance, but with a single soft whisper she dispatched one of her brood to assist. A very large Hawk-Tarantula, massive for his already large kind, and a most adept hunter. It would ambush the bird, subdue it with venom, and leave it to the widow. It was her little gift, to make a dream come true.
After all, the chatter provided the Intel she needed. Sure, it was all useless day-to-day observations, but nothing she heard mentioned any humans.
She was alone, as far as she could tell. She sent tiny Wolf Spider scouts ahead, and picked up her pace. She was almost jogging, but between the slippery, and decaying ground, and wedge-shoes, it was more like a brisk power-walk.
She approached the old MCU building cautiously, tenderly. Despite the events being long over, she could feel the heart of the fire that consumed it. She could smelled the burning wood, and tasted the ash. The closer she got, the hotter, and more intense it was, the stronger the memory of trauma that Terra held onto became.
She stopped some fifty feet away from the steps up to the main entrance, the heat of the memory too intense for her to keep going.
That was what always happened in the end. It was an unfortunate side effect of what she used to be. Spirits of her ilk, those that created life from nothing, could feel everything, always. Even the memory of wood, or dust, and when something violent happened those memories would often replay endlessly. Like it or not. She closed her eyes for a moment, letting the memory swallow her.
She stood there, stone still for a good hour while feeling like she was being cooked alive, despite the rain.
It was a painful event, but the only way to block out the memory of a planet like this was to feel it wholly, to relive it. Once she was able to quell the echoes of the past, she set to work. Calling her brood to her, all the smallest spiders she could muster, and having them fan out. Their task was to spot but not touch any magical wards that might be left lying about. Normally something out of their capability, she'd prepped a rather powerful divination spell the day prior.
She cast it like a wide net over her clan, coating each spider in it's magic. They'd all be able to see wards. Gwathel just hopped the locations abandoned state meant that any abjurations or illusions cloaking them were gone.
She was starting to worry for her lovelies when they didn't report back for awhile with any sightings. A sense of dread came over her as she sat on the steps, worried one of her little ones would walk straight into its death. That unease went on for another ten minutes until the hissing voice of a tiny Wolf Spider filled her mind.
"I sssee sssomething Ssss red. It movesss. Never ssseen ssssomething like thissss before."
She knew from the vague description exactly what it was, but to be sure she peaked into the little spider's consciousness, into it's soul. It felt warm, and happy to have her attention like this, but mostly hungry, which made Gwathel giggle. No matter how small or large, spiders only ever thought about food. She pushed it's thoughts aside, and focused on it's many eyes until she could see everything it saw.
There right in front of it, was quite the ward.
She released the little beast, and sprang up, dashing around the the back of the building. Hurriedly she ordered her brood to a safe distance, then bent down and scooped up a rock. With a snap of her fingers the tiny chunk of stone burst into flames, and she cocked her arm back. This wasn't the best plan, and she was aware of it, but she didn't know how else to set the MCU's ward off without harming herself, or her kind.
The ward was one a third story window, or what was left of a blown out window. Not that difficult of a shot even for a human, but incredibly easy for Gwathel.
She hurled the stone with amazing force, and it collided with the ward dead center, setting off a massive fiery explosion. She smiled up at it, pleased with her work. Hopefully it would count as a potentially attack on the structure, and alert the owners. If not maybe it would at least cause enough of a ruckus for someone to be dispatched to check. At worst it'd be loud enough to wake anyone inside the hovel up.
No matter which way it played out, it was her best shot at speaking to someone of the ever-shadowy MCU, and maybe getting some answers.