Atrophy

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

---

---

Ezra didn’t hear the knife hit, but the terrified shriek and the shouts from the other cultists brought a smirk to his face that he quickly tightened and wiped away. He could use his connections to draw information from the local hospital later to see if anyone arrived with a stab wound, then trace who brought them in to find out what kind of idiots decided to rob from him and his family. He poked his head out from the passage; the cultist was on the ground and another was reaching to pull out the knife. He sunk back into his hiding spot with a stern look on his face as he avoided the gaze of the couple of Vanburens that had followed him. A body could still give answers, but it also demanded questions. The only thing keeping him from getting sick was knowing that the states stance on the castle doctrine would unquestionably side with him.

First he felt his phone buzz, then he felt the whole house shake as the sound of heavy wind smacked against the house and the ground trembled. Ezra doubted it was just an anomaly, thinking instead that it was the doing of one of the cultists. He looked back down the hall to see if one of them was channeling anything in retaliation. He saw the cultist who had been pulling the knife out of the other on the ground, likely unable to steady themselves after their realization that their first aid failure had thrown their friend from being on the brink of death to plummeting straight to hell. He also saw the impostor run over to another one as they summoned a torrent of water that was rushing straight his way.

“Go, go, go!” shouted Ezra as he turned and began prodding his siblings to retreat down the passageway. The alarm in his otherwise normally calm-under-pressure voice would’ve likely been enough to get the others to start bolting even if it was accompanied by the sound of a rushing wave. However, even if they hadn’t been bottlenecked there would be no outrunning the water. The wave slammed into Ezra’s back and lifted him off of his feet, threatening to knock him into Alex and sending the pair cascading through the passageway straight back to the dining room.

---

---

In the safety of the stall, hidden from the mob of annoyed coffee drinkers in need of their afternoon brew, Nisha replayed the conversation she just had in her head:

“I’m sorry Ms. Vanburen, he did not answer,” said Cherry, the proprietor of Café, Oh Yay and current victim of Nisha’s abrasiveness.

Nisha had glared down the larger woman, her nails biting through the thin polyester of her light jacket to create tiny indents on her arm, her lip curled at one end. Cherry’s tone seemed overall friendly, but there was something in the way she said Nisha’s phony last name that Nisha didn’t like. Maybe she was just imagining it. With complete disregard to the line behind her, Nisha said, “Then. Call. Him. Again.”

“Your brother knows how to listen to a voicemail.”

“My brother is going to be very angry when he hears about this,” hissed Nisha, already invoking the power of an utter rich stranger because she knew it would set the unhelpful woman straight.

Only she didn’t budge. Cherry said, “Ms. Vanburen, I imagine that, like me, Ezra is busy. Now you can either wait quietly here or I can arrange for Officer Dewey to pick you up again and take you somewhere quiet.”

The two women stared at each other. Nisha only budged when she saw Cherry start to reach for the phone. “Fine, but I want a refill.”

“Anything for a Vanburen,” said Cherry with a smile.

Now that Nisha had time to analyze the event, she began to suspect that the owner didn’t believe her claim about being a Vanburen. Her eyebrow twitched. How dare that lady assume she’s lying just because she is! Nisha had half a thought to go out there and teach the old bitch some manners. She could use the Long Arms of the Slaugh to toss the entire store and that woman even know what’s going on—Nel had told her that the normals couldn’t really detect the arms, on account of them being all stupid. Nisha grinned wolfishly, thinking of how funny it would be to smash a hot coffee pot across Cherry’s smug face. Nisha might not actually be a rich person whose money put them above the law yet, but she could get away with it nevertheless—no cop would buy the story that the girl materialized some ghost arms to assault her.

Nisha heard footfalls coming from outside of her stall, which was odd since there had been no noise of anyone else opening the bathroom door. She pressed her eye up against the gap in the door, holding her breath as she watched two women emerge from the mirror, one pulling the other through. They both had red hair, although one was darker and the other was brighter, and the taller woman’s arm hung in an odd way. Odder still was the skull slung under her arm. Nisha felt her eyes drawn to it. A slow chill ran down her spine as she analyzed the skull, but then there was nothing. The smaller of the two women began speaking, her Irish accent catching Nisha by surprise.

Truth be told, it all was perhaps the third oddest thing she had ever seen happen in a bathroom that she could remember, and she could remember a lot of weird bathroom experiences. Still, the woman who had pulled the other girl through the mirror was the first person besides herself that Nisha had seen use magic. Wait, magic? No, that wasn’t Nel’s word for it, she had called it....something. Whatever. The two women would hear a flush followed moments later by the unlatching of a lock as Nisha emerged from the stall. She imagined they had thought that they were alone. The atmosphere felt heavy. Nisha gave them a once over and nodded at the sink.

“You’re in the way,” she said before stepping between the women to wash her hands. What was the proper etiquette when meeting another magical weirdo? She could’ve used Nel’s advice, but the spirit was always so shy around others. Did she show off her ability like it was some kind of secret handshake? Did they fight? Nisha watched the two in the mirror as she washed her hands.Hopefully it was the former, but if it was the latter they looked pretty soft, one of them was already injured, and she had more fists and although not great with math she knew that meant she could throw more punches than them.

“So that’s a cool little trick you have there,” said Nisha, watching Arabelle in the mirror. Her voice fired off like a machine gun, not letting the others get a word in edgewise. “I bet you can get into a whole lotta trouble with something like that. Outta it, too.” She leaned towards the mirror and placed a wet hand against it: totally normal mirror. A ghostly blue arm slithered out of Nisha’s side, yanked a paper towel from the dispenser, and deposited it in her hands before fading away as she turned around to face the two. “Don’t worry, if there’s a string of burglaries around here I’m not gonna be the one to rat you out to the police.”

“Actually, that gets my brain thinking. Can you do that with any mirror? Like maybe even those security dome ones? Wait, would bank vaults even have one of those guys in”—she pointed at Aileen, whom she recognized from a tabloid story from when she had “researched” the Vanburens—“Hey, I know you! We’re’ sisters!” A mischievous smile radiated from Nisha as she spread her arms out, anticipating a hug from someone who didn’t even know she existed, “Well, half-sisters. Who cares, right?”

“I’m Nisha. Oh my gosh, I was getting worried that Ezra was standing me up too. Phew! He’s such a prankster, you know? Very funny guy. Love him already. I was kind of expecting a limo but I totally get doing something more lowkey like this, way cooler anyway, very slick. How’d you know I was in the bathroom though? Oh whatever. Ahhhh! I’m so excited to finally have a family!” she squealed, peppering in fragments of a convoluted tragic backstory that she was forgetting nearly as quickly as she was making it up. Everybody loved orphans, right? Nisha, no longer capable of waiting for the affection that she felt she was truly deserving of thanks to her performance, launched herself at Aileen to pull her into a big hug, ready to squeeze her “half-sister” as hard as she was about to squeeze the Vanburens for every goddamn red cent they had.

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

If you get Ezra's social link up high enough he buys you a house.

_{Getting Nisha's up to rank 10 gives you the bad end.}

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

---

---

"Now that I think of it, I have reason to believe that I'm the one that consumed the stash of narcotics that day... Mmm. Makes perfect sense," said Alexander.

“Just don’t let Shane hear that. He might narc you out,” said Ezra. Or use them all, thought Ezra as his slight smile became pained as he turned away. Unlike Ezra and his cigarettes, Shane barely even bothered to hide his drinking anymore. It wasn’t a big stretch to think that the former supercop turned shut-in was attached to a few more vices.

”Artifacts?” He heard Tuyen say from beside him, bringing his attention away from blitzed beagles and back to the matter-at-hand. “There’s a chance that one of those might be magical, and what they’re looking for. I would appreciate it if you took me there.”

"The Irish girl used the secret passage. It'll behoove us to do the same, since the witches and their dogs went in the direction of the gallery," said Georgie before Ezra had a chance to respond. He gave her a slightly disparaging headshake, although less because she boiled their half-sister Aileen down to just being “the Irish girl” and more because she said the phrase “secret passage”. It was obviously just a service hallway, designed to allow servants to easily move throughout the house to perform their duties without interrupting the family or any of their guests, and was a totally normal thing for people to have in their home. Still, it was the best way to go to avoid any unwanted confrontation.

“Georgie’s right. One moment,” said Ezra as he walked over to where he had embedded the knife in the wall and pulled it out of the singed plaster. He reapproached Tuyen and gestured to the door with his hand, the bracelet hanging from his wrist glowing orange as he started to channel a spell. “After you.”

He had walked only a few feet after Tuyen before he fully considered what Georgie had said. Ezra stopped and turned sharply on his heels, holding out a hand to stop his younger sibling who was surely following them. The knife in his other hand began to glow orange as he warned her, “If you’re going to come with, stay back and stay out of her way.”

Ezra followed Tuyen through the passageway, keeping quiet except to tell her to go straight at the split as he finished transforming the simple kitchen knife into a Masterpiece. As their expert stepped out into the hallway near the study, Ezra remained with his back against the wall of the secret passage, his head turned ever so slightly so he could keep Tuyen in his periphery while staying mostly hidden.

The girl seemed to have a cool confidence to her as she whipped a notebook at a hellhound and called out to the four hooded figures. Ezra had seen her use her shadow to deck one of the doggies earlier, so he knew that she wasn’t all talk, but Tuyen was still heavily outnumbered. Maybe she was more powerful than she had come off as, or maybe she was just cocky. Either way, Ezra felt his stomach sink at the thought of just watching her get piled on by a bunch of meddling home invaders and their stupid dog, too. He touched his chest as a wave of orange travelled through his channeler, up his fingers, and into his chest as he cast Prodigy on himself again and became the perfect knife thrower.

“I’d told them to get out,” he muttered to himself. With one fluid motion he turned out of the secret passage and whipped the knife down the hallway. The blade flew perfectly straight, as if he had been practicing chucking kitchen knives his whole life, and buzzed straight past Tuyen towards the cultist who was distracted with rubbing their head. Unless there some interference, he was certain it would hit them right in the chest. Ezra didn’t wait to see if the strike landed as he slid back into the secret passage and listened for a scream, hoping that an unseen assailant taking one of them out would force the others to reconsider taking on the lone Tuyen—or at least weaken the strength of the pack pitted against her.

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

In all honesty, I got a bit lost too on just where everyone is, so I present to you all...

PLAYER TRACKER MK I

Dining room: Sabrina, Oscar, Trisha, Alexander

An undefined hall past the destroyed vine wall, beating up dogs and girls: Justin, Raymond, Shane

An undefined hall at the destroyed vine wall: Junior

A bathroom near the study: Arabelle, Aileen

Through or just stepping out of a secret passage to a hallway by the study: Tuyen, Ezra (eventually), Georgie (potentially?)

At a coffee house, unaware of fucking everything: Nisha

Gone forever: Niko

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

---

---

Free scones? Free latte? A chauffeur? Okay, so it had been a cop and she had sat in the front seat, but it was still a free ride. Regardless, pretending to be rich was already paying off; Nisha could kick herself for not thinking of such a brilliant idea sooner. Instead, she just kicked her feet up on the table, sipped her latte, and nibbled on her scone as she amused herself by scoffing at the line of plebs who actually had to pay for their drinks. It only took a third of a scone before her interest faded, turning towards the bundled up shoppers outside. Allegedly, the Vanburen mark would send someone to come fetch her in a pumpkin carriage and Cinderella her away to her new, naive family.

The familiar sensation of falling hit her before the chair completely dipped back. As if on instinct, or perhaps thanks to Nel’s ever vigilant eye, the Long Arms burst out of Nisha and caught against the floor to rebalance the chair. The spike of adrenaline faded as Nisha looked around the room. The people seemed unfazed enough that her spooky arms either were invisible to them or a totally normal sight, although she doubted it was the latter. Nisha didn’t learn her lesson; seconds later her feet were kicked back up on the table as she resumed her waiting.

Five minutes passed. People watching grew tired, so she pulled out her phone, realized she had no service, and went back to people watching. Now that she was pretend rich she’d have to see if her new “family” could buy her a phone that worked in America. Ten minutes passed. She had jumped in line now to get one of those big blueberry muffins and another latte. Even now that she was a pretend rich person she wouldn’t let that allow her to disrespect the queue. Fifteen minutes passed. Cherry, the plump and pleasant blonde woman who had comped her first treat did so for the second. Nisha thanked her because she wasn’t going to be one of those pretend rich who lacked manners.

Twenty minutes passed and Nisha was about to burn the motherfucker down to get back at the rich douchebag who was obviously standing her up. It wouldn’t be the first time she was disappointed by an older man from a wealthy family and she doubted it would be the last. Nisha chewed on her fingernail as the clock’s second hand rolled all the way around again. They were wasting her whole life now and what did she get out of it besides a shitty free cup of coffee and a mislabeled biscuit? This was unexceptable, just unexceptable. Nisha wouldn’t stand for it, so she stood up, her chair clattering to the ground. Just because she was poor the rich thought they could shit all over her. Well she had news for them: this bum had enough shit! Nisha stormed the front counter like her landing craft had just hit sand on Omaha. No queue was respected when it came to getting the goddamn respect she deserved as a fake rich person. Nisha got up in front of Cherry, lifted herself up against the counter to appear taller, and snapped her fingers for the woman’s attention.

“Hey! What’s taking Ezra so long!?” barked Nisha.

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

<Snipped quote by silvermist1116>

Ideally yes.

But, given how these RPs go, I'm not going to make any promises. Some secrets already, I can feel, are gonna be more important than the others but I'm gonna try to work in the other ones.

@The Ghost Note

I still can't believe that Sabrina was secretly a Parrothead this whole time.

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

---

---

"Hey, Ezra. Any idea on what these people could regard as stolen property amongst our father's collection? Sounds like he pissed off a lot of people in life, huh," said Alexander.

Ezra, annoyed but maintaining his composure due to Raymond calling him by that embarrassing nickname, turned and placed an arm over the back of the shoulder so he could get a better look at Alexander. As he turned, his Masterpiece spell on himself finished and the signs of stress evaporated from his skin. Had James pissed off a lot of people in his life? Undoubtedly. Ezra imagined that a fair number of them would be their mothers, especially considering how close some of his half-siblings were in age. Seriously, had dad been picking up women at the diaper parties? Ezra gripped the bridge of his nose: his dad’s game was the last thing he ever wanted to think about.

“I would take the things people who dress up in robes and animal masks say with a grain of salt, Alexander,” said Ezra, still rubbing the bridge of his nose. Was some of the things James owned stolen? Maybe, but Ezra didn’t know about them if that was the case. He couldn’t see his dad dressing up in a black jumpsuit and dipping beneath security lasers to nab a hot commodity like some kind of cat burglar, but it wouldn’t be difficult to imagine a scenario where James had inadvertently purchased a stolen art piece from a less-than-legal dealer. More likely, Morgana was either a “rah-rah the rich all stole from the poor” type to justify being a criminal or she had just been lying.

Thankfully, as Ezra spoke Raymond had stopped tearing up the house and Oscar used his magic to douse the flames in water—only for Raymond to take the opportunity to glide across the floor after the creeps. Ezra sat up in his chair, let out an exasperated sigh, and sunk back down. What was going to be a bigger headache: dealing with a repairman in the house all week, or coming up with a convincing enough lie as to how all of this damage had happened in the first place? He began making a mental list of who he’d have to call as Tuyen approached him.

“ I take it you haven’t seen these invaders before?” she asked. Oh, had it been obvious that his family was prepared to be attacked by a bunch of creepy cultists and their oversized hell dogs? Ezra scoffed and folded his arms, not even dignifying the question with a response. “Do you have any idea what they might be after? Anywhere they might go within this manor?”

“Maybe there’s some spare cash or jewelry laying around, but everything really of any value is either in the bank or in a stock portfolio,” said Ezra. He rubbed his chin and squinted as he thought of what else they might possibly be after. “Actually, there is James’ artifact collection. Most of it looks like junk, really, but a few of the items might be valuable. There’s a gallery past the ballroom, near the study. If you think it is safe, Arabelle can show...”

He really wouldn’t have sent their maid out into the mansion while there were maniacs running amok, but delegating a relatively small task to her was basically a habit at this point. Ezra glanced around to find the woman, standing so he could get a view through the hole in the wall. As far as he could tell, both Arabelle and Junior were missing. He let out a hmph and looked down at Tuyen, “I can show you where it is.”

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

---

---

Not many things ruffled Ezra. Not visibly, anyway. When his wife told him she was leaving he had only nodded his head as if he had anticipated it. When his father was found dead on Christmas morning he hardly reacted at all outside of perhaps the merest twitch on his lip. He rarely jumped at loud noises or cheap movie scares. The few times someone took a swing at him in anger he even managed to no-sell the hit. So when a giant hellhound burst through the dining room wall, destroyed the fireplace, and sent ash scattering across the room all Ezra did was raise his eyebrows, tighten his grip on the knife, blink, and thanked God that he didn’t shit himself.

A whirlwind of action unfolded around him, which gave him ample time to subtly step back and away from the fighting. If he was cowering he didn’t show it. Ezra stood with his back against the wall and arms folded, tapping the blade of the knife against his shoulder. If anything it appeared as if he was observing and analyzing his family, their supernatural experts, and the psychopaths that had raided his house. It was hard not to only focus on Tuyen’s shadow or Shane as they boxed with a couple of demon dogs, but Ezra forced himself to look beyond them to the three hooded figures who had stepped in behind the big distraction.

It became apparent that the one in the middle was calling the shots. Ezra took a couple of slow steps off of his security wall and felt the weight of the knife in his hand. Normally chef’s knives weren’t meant to be thrown, but a Masterpiece operated out of the realm of normalcy. It was perfectly balanced and wonderfully sharp. He tossed the knife and caught it by the dull side of the blade. It wouldn’t even be a challenge to sling it across the room and bury it into the ringleader’s heart. With the slightest hint of a smirk he lifted his hand, lined up the shot, and nearly got knocked down as a chained up Daniel was dragged past him.

By the time Ezra corrected himself, a wall of flames had emerged between him and the dog whisperer one of the others had called Morgana. He made a note of trying to commit the other person’s voice to memory. Justin leapt through the flames after the intruders, but to Ezra the most immediate threat was the house fire. Raymond was beginning to smother the flames with stones—stones that he got by tearing up Ezra’s goddamn floor. There was more than one reason why Ezra had wanted his family to leave it up to the experts.

Ezra heaved a sigh, shook his head, walked over to the overturned table, picked up one of the unbroken chairs, and sat down. He flicked his eyes over at Aileen, who had arrived late and almost looked eager to throw herself at all of the pishy caca the moment the fire was tamed. Ezra ran his hands through his hair, rolled his neck, and then chucked the knife across the room. It soared straight through the air before burying itself harmlessly into the wall near Raymond, far away enough to not seem threatening but close enough to get his attention. Ezra cleared his throat.

“Raymond, I appreciate you taking initiative, but maybe we can assign this to someone better suited for fighting fires. Wouldn’t you agree, Oscar?” said Ezra, turning and glaring with sunken eyes at his brother who could literally create water. His spell faded on the knife as he shifted in his chair, bracelet glowing a slight orange as he began to channel the spell back on himself. “The rest of you, please realize that this house is very old. Obviously defend yourself, but don’t bring the roof down while we’re all on the inside. It kind of...defeats the purpose.”

Recollections: The Coven [COMPLETED]

---

---

Vashti gripped tightly to Emily as the moped buzzed down the road, weaving in and out of crashed cars and fallen powerlines. Her boiling anger towards the Coven, and thus in turn Emily, had subsided momentarily. More accurately, it had been flash frozen by a terror that gripped her very soul. She hardly had a grasp on what the hell was even happening due to her own self-absorption, but she felt that even if she had kept herself in the loop about Annabelle she still would not have been prepared. She closed her eyes as Emily drove past the first dead body. It only made the screaming and howling that accompanied a city plunging into complete chaos that much worse.

A wave of panic broke through the icy terror as Vashti felt the Leviathan stir inside of her, wanting to do nothing more than to join in on the fun. She pressed herself closer to Emily with a whimper and began counting backwards from one hundred. There was a screech and a tire skid. Vashti felt her stomach sink while her body began to float. Her eyes snapped open. Everything seemed to crawl to a stop as she soaked in the scene of Emily rolling on the ground after the sliding moped; directly beneath Vashti was a Wendigo, its arms outstretched as it staggered towards the easy target. If Vashti wasn't so terrified knowing that she was about to break her neck she might've laughed: she'd known that Wendigos were more than myths.

The Wendigo picked up its pace as it worked its way towards Emily. Claws flashed as it let out a high-pitched screech and brought its hands down towards the injured girl—and immediately went flying into a car as the Leviathan's tail slammed into the Wendigo's side accompanied by the foley work of a perfectly timed thunderclap.

---

---

Dark storm clouds formed overhead in the moonlit sky as it began to rain. It was heavier than normal, as if the storm had been brewing for quite some time. The Leviathan looked down at Emily with her yellow eyes, roared as lightning lit up the sky, and then turned towards the Wendigo, the moped, and then back to the Wendigo. No fucking stupid scrawny ass cannibal bitch fucked with the Leviathan's royal ride. The Wendigo stood up to its full height and screeched as it recovered from hitting the car. It towered at least a foot over the Leviathan, but height wasn't nearly as important as raw fucking power. The Leviathan roared at her gangly subject, certain that would be enough to break the shitstain in two, but the long, lanky, wannabe regicide was too stupid to take the Queen's mercy. Fine. It'd get the royal execution instead. The Wendigo slashed out at the Leviathan with its long arm.

Big fucking mistake.

The Leviathan stepped into the attack and caught the Wendigo's forearm with her fangs, biting down hard enough to produce a pleasant scream but not to snap completely through. Then the Leviathan dug her claws in with one hand under the Wendigos ribcage, spun around its back while pulling the Wendigo's arm with her jaw, and latched her other set of claws in at the Wendigo's opposite shoulder. She then twisted and threw the Wendigo onto the ground, biting and shredding as she death rolled the Wendigo. Shrilling and shrilling screams gave way to nothing but a low, bassy growl as the Leviathan emerged victorious over the pulpy remains of the Wendigo.

The Leviathan, face stained with blood as she swallowed a hunk of Wendigo meat, looked yet again at Emily. Her eyes narrowed. This primate had failed to keep her Queen safe, plus she carried poison with her. It would be unwise to suffer the existence of such a disloyal subject any longer. Once, the vessel would react strongly against such thoughts of harming one that she seemed to be close with, but those blocks had been destroyed by a feeling of betrayal. The low growl grew louder. There was nothing holding the Leviathan back now and, really, rotten Wendigo meat was not a meal fit for a Queen. Fresh primate, now, that just might do.

With a crash of lightning and a clap of thunder the Leviathan hiss at Emily, her jaw opening wide, her teeth stained red with blood, and then she lunged in for the kill.

Emily screamed at the top of her lungs.

---

---

"You are not comfortable,"

"With leaving Lyss-Friend alone,"

"To fight that beast,"

"You want to go back,"

The Jaws gravely voice talked to Madison as she flew in any direction but there. She heard all sorts of sounds from there but she knew that she would die if she went back there... but, was it really right to leave Lyss back there? Especially since she had her back from the beginning. Madison sharply sighed as she kept pushing forward.

"We would have no issue,"

"In helping the Burns scion,"

"Even if it'd result in the death of all of us,"

"I don't want us to die," Madison answered as she came to a sharp stop. "I want to just... go back to the things were! Where we had Kayla, Izzy, and Claude - and we didn't have to deal with the feds or whatever the fuck that thing is!" Tears started streaming down Madison's face as she realized the severity of everything weighing down on her.

However, the Jaw's face craned around her body and then faced her head on. The thing was the minature skull of a T-Rex, but somehow she managed to extrapulate some type of emotion out of it.

"... Those days are gone, Madison Brown." Each head spoke in unison as she realized that she was acting no better than the likes of Vashti.

Speaking of which... she saw a conspicious dark cloud form overhead not too far away as she heard the cries of something. She strongly suspected that was Vashti, but how in the world did she transform? They were hauling ass away from the chaos, but the whole city's in flame. Madison wasn't certain but the new thing on her mind was making sure that Emily was okay. Vashti didn't look happy with the outcome.

She jetted off towards the eye of the storm and she was hoping that Vashti didn't do what she thought she was going to do. Unfortunately, when she finally arrived on the scene, Vashti was already transformed into the Leviathan and had turned towards a disabled Emily. "Fuck!" She whisper-shouted as she put both arms out and charged Vashti head on like she was superwoman.

"Vashti!" Madison shouted to get her attention off of Emily just for one second.

The Leviathan's claws dug into Emily's shoulders as her maw expanded to be large enough to snap off a good chunk of Emily's head. Upon hearing the familiar voice the Leviathan paused as the storm intensified around them, the pupils of her eyes narrowing into a thin slit upon recognition of the source. The Leviathan roared, spittle and Wendigo blood flying towards Emily's face, as she spun to face Madison. Her tail lashed around her as she turned, most likely smacking Emily away as she took two tremoring steps forward before Madison barreled right in to her chest.

As Madison hit her, the Leviathan reached out to grab the woman and force her into a death roll to quickly end it the same way she'd finished off the Wendigo. However, she was hit too hard and too fast to get a grasp. Instead, her claws racked against the girl, impossible to tell in the moment if she hit soft flesh or bone armor as the Leviathan was knocked prone. Somewhat dazed by the blow, she attempted to flip on her belly to lash out wildly at Madison while on all fours.

Mission complete.

Emily was saved, however, Madison had to save herself as fortunately the Jaws tanked most of the Leviathan's attack. Unfortunately, the Jaws was still weak from fighting Annabelle... The Leviathan didn't break through the Jaw's armor, but they definitely cracked it. Madison knocked Vashti off balance and when she hit the ground, she did a roll and landed on her feet. But, she barely had time to process things as she saw Vashti was on the ground. She quickly leap up into the air and raised her leg and got ready to bring it down onto Vashti's chest.

The Leviathan didn't even attempt to roll away as the stomp cracked a number of ribs with a sickening crunch. However, she took the opportunity to grab hold of Madison's leg with the immense grip of both of her hands. The Leviathan opened her mouth and snapped at Madison's leg, trying to take a crippling chunk out of the girl. At the same time, the Leviathan began to twist her body, hoping to bring Madison down to the ground for an easy meal.

The Jaws was cracking more and more under the pressure of Vashti's jaws, but he was holding on for now. She tried to fly upwards but the Leviathan brought Madison down to the ground with a painful bang - the impact felt like she fell off a one story building but she can still fight. She hissed in pain as the Jaws manisfested his three skulls and they quickly lunged for the Leviathan's throat, ready to rip it out.

The Leviathan caught two of the skulls with her hands but was unable to do anything to stop the third but jerk her head. It was enough to prevent the Jaws from tearing out her jugular, the teeth instead sinking to the muscle between her neck and shoulder. The Leviathan pushed up off of Madison, ripping both herself and a chunk of flesh free from the grasp of the Jaws. The Leviathan lifted its head back and let loose a roar that shook the streets as bolts of lightning struck an overturned car and the nearby street light. The rain pounded down heavier than ever as the dark clouds overhead began to swirl with an unnatural intensity. The Leviathan let loose another roar as she spun and swung her tail at Madison.

When the moment presented itself, Madison rolled over and landed on her feet. The rain intensified and it was already had to see with the Jaws active. Yet, she could see the faint blue glow from the cure - however, she couldn't protect herself from the swing that hit her right in the chest and knocked her right onto her ass. Of course, she was able to rebalance herself. This wasn't working and at this rate, the Jaws was going to give out before the Leviathan could. She eyed the potion again before she hatched a plan, a simple one at that. She quickly flew backwards as she put up her middle finger at the Leviathan,

"Come and get me you scaly-bitch!"

Naturally, the scaly-bitch planned to do just that. The Leviathan flicked out her claws as she stomped towards Madison, the wind whipping around her as the storm howled in unison with the Leviathan. She could see her prey weakening before her. The Pretender to her throne at the top of the Coven food chain was already dead, but she wouldn't be able to ascend until she turned Madison and the Jaws into bone dust. The Leviathan leapt towards Madison, claws ripping at the air, mouth open wide to bite her head clean from her shoulders, eager to taste blood and victory.

Thankfully, Madison's gambit worked - of course it did, regular Vashti wasn't all that smart to begin with. When the Leviathan charged at her, Madison jumped up into the air assisted by the Jaws. She quickly flew through the air and landed right by the potion, but she didn't pick it up yet. She turned around as she faced Vashti, giving her the middle finger again.

"... You said you were gonna kill me, right?" Madison shrugged. "Seems to me you're too fuckin' fat and lazy to get shit done!"

Madison's taunt could hardly be heard over the Leviathan, whose howling had morphed into a feral scream of pure rage. She finished rampaging against the space where Madison had once been and turned to find her prey yet again. The Leviathan's nostril flared as lightning streaked across the sky and popped against the top of a nearby building. Another bolt struck the ground between the two, sending up debris and smoke alongside a blinding flash of light. As the burst faded Madison could see the Leviathan charging through the smoke, claws held back and ready to slash through the woman.

Instead of dodging or even blocking the attack - Madison charged at Vasti as fast as she could - with her own fist cocked back. When she got close, she swung it directly at Vashti's stomach as hard as she could. The punch slammed into the Leviathan, the power behind it strong enough to stun her as it knocked the wind out of her. Now was the moment of truth, with her free hand Madison shoved the potion as far into the thing's gullet as she possible could. A tear streamed down her eye as she thought to herself: Forgive me, Emily.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Emily screamed at the very top of her lungs in harmony with the roaring Leviathan, who began to claw at her own throat as she thrashed away from Madison. The Leviathan's tail arced around in a big hit, but faded before it ever came close to making impact. The scales that covered the Leviathan shedded and began to clink against the ground like raindrops while the storm overheard subsided with one last low rumble before dispersing. The animalistic howling was replaced by a girlish scream as whatever remained of the Leviathan was eaten away by the potion. Her fingers stopped tearing at her throat as she dropped to her knees and began to roughly cough in a way that made her whole body convulse, her lizard eyes shifting back to human as they widened in terror.

She was dying.

With one final cough a wave of dark bile expelled itself from the girl's mouth. A tiny, crystalized lizard embryo was also spat out. Vashti fell silent as the terror stopped smothering her. She wiped her lips. Her whole body had felt like it was hurting from the most intense hangover she'd ever had, but as with actual hangovers throwing up alleviated a lot of the pain. Vashti stared down at the tiny, bloodied embryo as it was swirled up by dark water from the dying rainstorm and unceremoniously carried away to a sewer grate. Was that it? Was the Leviathan finally gone? She still felt sick, but the swirling in her stomach was different. It was over. It was finally over.

Vashti looked up at Madison. She should rush to the girl and hug her, thank her for saving her from her curse even if it put her at risk of getting chewed on by the Jaws again. All the ill-will and all the petty drama had been washed down the sewer with the remannts of the Leviathan. Vashti only felt gratitude towards Madison. She should be radiating with happiness, yet why did she feel so miserable? Then she saw Emily, saw the horror on her face, and realized how awful she felt right now was nothing in comparison. Shaking, Vashti stood up as tears washed the blood and muck from her face as she carefully approached Emily.

"Emily..." said Vashti, unable to make eye contact. Her voice was strained and somber, utterly devoid of her usual manic energy, as she continued,"Emily I'm so sorry. This is all my fault." Vashti knew that if she hadn't come along this wouldn't have happened. If she hadn't have joined the Coven this wouldn't have happened. If she hadn't have been so hungry for magic powers this wouldn't have happened. Her voice cracked as she began to sob between words, "Your sister...oh my god...oh my god..."

Vashti reached out to hug Emily.

"... Get off me, you bitch!" Emily screamed at the very top of her lungs as she shoved Vashti away with her unbroken hand. She forced herself to her feet, almost falling over because she was in so much pain that she couldn't hold herself up onto herown two feet. However, a red hot rage shot adrenaline through her that was telling her to kill Vashti. She stuck her finger out as she accused her and Madison, pain and simple,

"... You two killed my sister."

The Jaws deactivated on command by Madison, and the girl tucked her hands into her pockets as she looked down. She realized the weight of her actions and just who Emily was fighting for. She felt as if she did the right thing by helping Vashti, but was it really the right thing? Save one person and doom another? Well, she couldn't really say it was the right thing to do, and honestly, she didn't have the right or the place to truly make that distinction. That was why Madison hung her head and not a word escaped her lips.

"That's not true," whispered Vashti, clutching her chest where Emily had shoved her. Vashti frowned and glanced at the dejected Madison; for a moment it felt as if she was going to deflect Emily's accusation. "You can't blame Madison. I...I would have killed you. You can't blame her. It was me. Only me. Emily, I'm so sorry. Maybe We could—"

Vashti stopped talking. There was nothing she could do or say to make this better. She choked out one final apology and hid her face.

"... Don't bother," Madison just said with a sigh, before she faced.

"You..." Emily turned towards Madison as the next words coldly cut into her. Reeking of a familar rage to Madison when she faced down the Hound just a few months ago. "... Should have let me die."

"Vash," Madison spoke to her, "Do you think you can get her out of here?"

Vashti lowered the hands guarding her face and nodded. She could try anyway. She had a vague idea of the area they were in and the howling of the Wendigos seemed to be moving further away. Still, she wouldn't be surprised if Emily wanted nothing to do with her and refused to follow. Before she turned to usher Emily away, Vashti asked Madison, "Where are you going?"

Madison was illuminated in a purple aura as she floated up a few feet in the air. She was quiet for a second, all because she was not sure whether or not this was a sane action to take. She sighed as she just said,

"... I'm going back for Lyss."

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

---

---

Outside, Ezra appeared unfazed by the chaos unravelling around him, his “sword” hand unwavering as he continued to burn their unwanted guests with a harsh stare. Inside, as Ezra took in everything around him it felt like there was noxious gas pouring out of a million cranks and valves while a bunch of frantic workers in hazmat suits ran around trying to prevent a total meltdown. Arabelle said others had infiltrated the house via a portal and were walking around invisible. Normally, when the help started saying things like that it was time to put up a wanted ad, but considering the day he was inclined to believe the teacher. Besides, out of everyone else in the room, her contribution to the madness deluge was mild in comparison.

Shane, Justin, and the fake Justin all played a game of volleyball, replacing the ball with a very expensive and soon-to-be very broken chair. Georgie and the fake Tuyen both disappeared into their own respective portals, although Georgie reemerged momentarily. Alexander practiced his magical bondage on the faker while the real Tuyen’s shadow stood up from the ground. Instead of swinging, Ezra hesitated as she approached him—the so-called experts might be partially to blame, but at least they hadn’t been the ones to ruin the upholstery—and tried not to look annoyed as Georgie and Trisha’s mailer-daemon ran by.

Oh, and at some point he had heard what sounded like hell opening up. Suddenly, having the power to overcompensate no longer seemed all that impressive.

“If you would let me past. Unless you want whatever that was to come in here.”

Well, at least she had courtesy. Ezra didn’t have time to respond before Georgie was already back in the room, heralded by what sounded to be his entrance hall being destroyed. He looked through the threshold but could only see the portal to the Garden. Escaping didn’t sound like a horrible call, but he hated the idea of letting whoever the hell was in their house to stay in their house unchecked. Besides, judging by how quick his brothers were with the chair and the chain he doubted they would follow along with any sort of retreat and retaliate strategy.

Regardless, he wasn’t going to order any of his family to do anything about the intruders. They had people to take care of that. Ezra let the Configure spell on the knife end, loosely gripping the handle as he began channeling a Masterpiece spell. He turned back towards Tuyen. He really hoped this girl knew how to handle herself, because he really doubted their family would be able to recover from being involved in the death of a young girl—they had power, but they weren’t the Kennedys.

“Georgie, just make sure no more lunatics get in here,” said Ezra, stepping to the side to let Tuyen pass by. An orange light passed over the knife, whatever microscopic knicks on the blade fixing themselves to form the perfect cutting edge. Ezra sniffed, steadied his breathing, and continued, “Guess this is your shot at proving yourself qualified to help my family. Try to avoid doing any more damage to the house. Please, after you.”

He gestured towards the door, certain his intentions to follow behind her were crystal clear. Again, couldn’t have someone dying in his house. He dropped the Masterpiece spell he had on himself and was washed in a passing orange glow as he cast Prodigy in its place. The knife felt good in his hand. He flipped it and caught it with ease, ignoring the tightness in his chest as he slashed a Z in the air. As Ezra followed after Tuyen he looked over his shoulder, revealing the dark, tired eyes of a man who was at his wit’s end. A pained expression crossed his face as he said to his family, “I doubt we can top the last funeral. Just let them handle this and stay safe.”