Day 5, 4:30 PM, Outwater, Montana
Everyone is still in the Spitfire Bar and Grill, which is rapidly
becoming apparent as a Tether to Creation. Where else can you
smoke hash, eat really good food, and redeem a demon all at the
same time? Dana pulls Star aside and tells her that she should
never, ever, speak of the trip to Hell. Star nods, and then gets
pointed upward toward Heaven by Eli. She ascends back up to Heaven.
Dana walks up to Eli and he promptly starts looking around in
his pockets. He finds a slinky which, he claims, will "Definitely
destroy the universe" so she can't have that. But she gets
a small baggy full of small round coin like objects with Chinese
characters on them. "The Oracle!" Eli says. "Don't
leave home without it!" He distributes his other two baggies
to Daimon and Dylan, so that they, too, can consult the Oracle
and discern the Moment. There is much nodding and shaking of heads
and smiling blandly, not wanting to know. Dana asks Eli if he'll
remove her dissonance. At first, Eli claims that he never knew
he could remove dissonance, and this comes as a complete revelation.
Then he explains that he actually has a model of the entire universe,
but it's under his bed. Finally, he admits he can remove it, but
won't, because Dana is working for, well, Lilith, and that would
be messing with her servitor, which might be bad juju. So Dana
sucks it up, and transforms her dissonance into Berserk discord.
And she prays she doesn't go into battle any time soon.
Eli then gives Dylan an Official Twinkie Food Product, because
he looks like he needs one.
Dana looks at Daimon, and reminds him of the chocolate pudding.
See, she needs to relax. It doesn't take too much prodding on
Dana's part to drag him upstairs where there are nice little rooms.
They even include a vat of chocolate pudding. How thoughtful.
Eli talks to Dylan. Wouldn't it be nice if he had a Heart? Why,
Dylan thinks so. Eli asks him about being cast out of Heaven and
all that, and Dylan comes clean to him. Eli ponders this, and
tells him that he'd be happy to accept him for a while. Dylan
thinks this is a swanky idea. A few minutes later, and Dylan is
a Servitor of the Wind in the Service to Creation. He doesn't
get much from it, except he can call on Eli on really good days
and has a new Heart. Dylan also gets to check out Eli's really
cool sock, the one with all the stripes.
Eli takes off, saying that there's lots of Creation out there
that needs attending to. He gives Dylan a friendly pat on the
shoulder and takes off.
And now Dylan gets to wait while Dana finds out why Bright Lilim
are so wonderful, for several hours.
7:00PM, Day 6, Outwater Montana
Several hours later, Dana finally checks out what else is up with
this room. There is a nice big bathroom, and in a closet there
is new changes of clothing ready for her and Daimon. On top of
it, there are three small bags, filled with fresh clothing and
supplies, complete with their names embroidered on them. So they
shower, and change, and wander down the stairs to give Dylan his
bag. The three of them wander outside to find this 4x4 that the
keys Dana was given attach to. Outside, in the parking lot is
a purple Ford Explorer with all the options. It even has a full
tank of gas.
Then the group starts talking about where they want to go. Dylan
is becoming very preoccupied with going up to the Marches and
filming the battle. The problem is, his camera is sitting in his
Jeep, in the in pound lot in Boston. And they're in Montana. Daimon
points out that there is Vegas, Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco,
and Los Angeles all within a day or so. They're arguing this when
Dana's cellphone rings.
Dana gets a call from the Man himself, Baron von Terence, who
is really curious to know what she was doing in Hell, because
baby, he loves her and wouldn't want her to get hurt. Really,
baby, it just wouldn't be cool at all. Dana weathers the storm
of incoming balseraphic resonance, and does a lot of nodding and
smiling. Terry wants them to all come out to his pad in LA, because
not only can he put them up and take care of them, he can take
care of their better business interests! Besides, baby, everyone
of their visibility needs a promoter, and who else is better then
him?
Dana agrees to go out to Terry's place in LA. She hangs up the
phone, and says, "We're heading to Boston."
They talk a bit about Dylan's insane drive to go up to the Marches
and film things. Daimon suspects he's geased to go and do this
thing. Daimon announces that, if they are going cross-country,
he wants to see the World's Biggest Ball of Twine. With directions
to such, they pile into the Explorer, and take off across the
country.
In the glove compartment, there are maps, along with another cellphone,
a pack of bite sized snickers bars, and a pair of lacy woman's
underwear.
Dana tries her Incarnate Law attunement. It works…. Sort
of. Instead of giving her all of the laws of the area, it gives
her all the loopholes in the laws.
Day 6. Nighttime. Middle America
So we bought a pack of cigarettes,
And Mrs. Wagner's pies,
And walked off
To look for America.
All gifts from Eli have some sort of odd relic properties. The
question is, what the heck is it? It didn't take long for the
group to find out what the Explorer did, besides give a nice smooth
ride with a V6 engine. The radio occasionally cuts in, regardless
if there is a disc playing or if the radio is off or what, and
gives them news reports about Heaven and Hell - largely things
the group could not possibly know.
First Report: There has been some major unspecified worded Angel
murdered in Heaven, out in the Marches. At the same time, some
new evidence has come to light against Archangel Michael. This
has caused David to publically come out and support Dominic.
Second Report: The servitors of Fire are on something just short
of a rampage, being lead by an Ofanite of Fire named Blitzen.
Third Report: There is rioting in Hell, especially in the Hades
Principality, near the main gate. No one is entirely sure what
tipped it off. At the same time, there are rumors that Belial
may be making a move on Gehenna while Baal is out in the field.
Fourth Report: There are stories that Dominic's Malakim have begun
public executions of the Word Bound Creationers. Dominic was seen
outside the Spires for the first time when this began, and again
denounced Eli as a creature of Hell.
Fifth Report: Among the humans, the Dreaming is becoming worse.
Millions have been struck by the horrible nightmares.
Day 6. 4:00AM. South Dakota
The Explorer was out of gas, and they had to stop and fill it
at the border between South Dakota and Nebraska. While Daimon
walked away from the truck to stretch, he was beset upon by a
small group of people. Dana stood back and watched as Daimon tried
frantically to shoo them away. They finally went away. He came
back, as Dylan finished filling the truck.
"Did you know those people?" Dana asked.
"No, never saw them before," Daimon said.
Dana was curious. "What did they want?"
Daimon shook his head. "They wanted me to - get this - show
them the Way. Hell if I know what that means."
And so they got back into the truck. Dana crawls into the back
seat with Daimon. She called Dedan, who answered the phone although
it is 3am in New York. Dedan sounded tired and harried. They talk
a bit, and Dedan informs Dana that there are no longer any true
Judgment servitors left in DC, and very few left in New York,
and along the East Coast. Dedan has been sending them all into
the central part of the US, where they are less likely to be found.
She's only collected a couple of hundred servitors from the thousands
that used to be active on Earth. Dedan gives Dana a name of an
office building in Omaha, Nebraska, where there might be people
she can talk to. Dana announces that they are heading that way.
Dylan drives across Nebraska like a servitor of the Wind.
Day 6. 6:00AM. Omaha, Nebraska
As dawn comes, and all three of them get dawn essence, they pull
off the freeway and drive into Omaha, in search of the office
building. The traffic is almost non-existent at this time of the
morning, so finding the building is no problem. They pull into
the empty parking lot. They climb out of the car, and waiting
for them is… Raphael.
So Dana talks to him while Dylan wisely keeps his mouth shut.
There is discussion, and Raphael points out two problems that
need to be repaired. The first one is that Baal and Michael have
to back off and back out of the Marches, or there isn't going
to be a tomorrow. The second is that something needs to be done
about Dominic before David decides to clean Michael's infestation
out of the Groves. Oh, and stopping Gabriel from burning down
the Spires might be a good plan as well. He laments that no one
listens to him, but hey, they never do, so this is nothing really
new. Dana's brain works, but some of the things that Raph says
are just… creepy. Before Raphael takes himself elsewhere,
he leans forward and whispers into Dana's ear, "Now you've
taken something from me. I will take something from you."
And then he splits.
Dana comes to the quick decision that Raphael, who might not want
Armageddon to come and would rather not see the world destroyed,
is not a real nice guy after all.
They look for Daimon, who has, once again, gathered a crowd. It
was mostly people who were going to work early, and a few other
strangers, and he's rescued by Dana. He says that they want the
same thing again, and it's getting really weird.
They go into the office building, up the elevator, and to the
floor and suite that Dana was given the address of. Sure enough,
there's a bland blond woman in a nice suit leaning against the
desk, blowing steam off her cup of coffee. She introduces herself
as Susan Crippen, and she tells Dana that there is no reason to
be afraid here, they are all friends. She offers the three coffee,
and leads them into the inner rooms. The offices have been converted
to small apartments, with bunks on the floor, like a hostel.
Dana talks to Susan, and Susan assures Dana that these are people
who are all on the side of Heaven. But they are lost and confused
and they feel they have lost their place in the cosmos. It doesn't
take Dana long to figure out that this may have been the reason
so many have Fallen - a loss of Faith, a lack of Belief.
She turns to talk to Daimon and Dylan, and tries to convince Daimon
that he should go downstairs and talk to those people who are
mobbing him. He doesn't think this is the greatest of all ideas
in the world, but a little flirting seems to get his brain back
on track. There's some goofy talk about Daimon and Dylan becoming
the Blues Brothers, and Dana being Carrie Fisher. They go downstairs.
Day 6. 7:00AM. Omaha, Nebraska
"The nation that sat in darkness, saw a great light, And
those that sat in the country, in the shadows of death, The light
shined on them." - Isaiah 9:2
The boys go down the elevator, and come out under the Nebraska
sun. With guitar in hand, Daimon finds a car to sit on. He climbs
up so he's sitting on the roof of the car, and starts speaking
to the people. From him came words of Hope, and the people listened.
And he sang a few songs he had written during the trip.
Dana talks to the Dominicans. Unsurprisingly, there are no Malakim
among them. Some listen to her and some don't. Some even suspect
she's Falling. But a few, they perk up and ask questions.
Strains of music waft up from down below through the open window.
"A working class hero is something to be. If you want
to be a hero well just follow me…"
Dana is getting a better and better response from the Dominicans.
They want to know what they should do. She tries to explain that
she's no hero, she's no leader, and she'll be happy to step aside
when someone bigger and better comes along. But for now, they
should fight for Freedom.
The sounds of sirens breaks the calm of the music. More and more
people have gathered, stopping on their way into the office building
to work to listen. As the cops come to break it up, the crowd
breaks out into singing in chorus, "All we are saying
is give peace a chance. All we are saying is give peace a
chance...…"
Daimon and Dylan are arrested for disturbing the peace. On hearing
this, Dylan replies, "We're not disturbing the peace! We're
trying to give it a chance!"
Day 6. 8:00AM. Omaha, Nebraska
Dana's phone goes off, and it's Dylan. "Hey, we're in jail.
Come get us." They had a temporary argument over who should
call Dana with his one phone call, and who should call for pizza.
Dana can hear Daimon extolling to the drunks in the drunk tank
the greatness that is anchovies. Dana says she's totally unsurprised
that they got themselves arrested, and tells the Dominicans that
she'll be back.
Daimon realizes that no pizza place will be open at 8 in the morning,
so he decides to use his one call to call a 1-900 sex line. He
shares it with everyone else in the large cell.
As Dana comes in, she ends up overhearing the conversation from
a reporter who wants to know about the gathering that was just
broken up. He takes notes and leaves.
So Dana talks to the guy at the front desk, and learns about the
Funny Boys. They have to go up in front of the Judge in a few
hours, and then pay their fines. It's about $100 a piece, they
just have to wait, "Where they won't be causing any more
trouble." So Dana waits, entertaining herself with Dominican-like
stuff. She notices, after a while, that she is being watched.
She starts to get nervous. A large uniform cop gets up and brushes
her, and she gets even more nervous. Pretty soon she's starting
to realize, cops, judge, courthouse… this is just going downhill
from here. She gets in to get to the drunk tank, and sees them
both, just being goofy. Dana gives Dylan some essence, and then
leaves.
Dylan and Daimon 'plot their escape', most of which includes Daimon announcing to the drunks, "Dude, check this out, a miracle!". And they leave their vessels to walk through the walls, and take a nice leisurely, slightly lost trip back to the office building. Where, of course, the media is waitong.
