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Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

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The Vanburen Estate

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"... But maybe let's try to talk them out of something stupid, 'kay?"

Shane didn't really know how to respond. On one hand he agreed that they had basically no plan save for "attack" but on the other he stood firm on the view that the cult had to get broken apart. He had difficulty formulating a response that would make this view clear to Sabrina without possibly upsetting her but thankfully it seemed the Vanburens had already decided to set off. Sabrina went on ahead to join up with the family and their magical expert guides spilling out the door.

Shane lingered, instead making his way to his father's study where he took in the sights. Memories of frustrated conversations about the future and images of his father pouring over a seemingly unending stack of files at the desk flooded back to Shane. He scanned the walls and display cases at the weaponry James had accrued and seen as tasteful enough to show off in his home. To his knowledge, the majority of rifles and other assorted firearms on display were inactive, and Georgie had already taken James' personal rifle. But rifles had never been much Shane's preferred option anyway.

He stood over James' desk and crouched to the bottom left drawer, sliding it open with a creak to reveal a slightly dusted brown case. He picked it up and placed on the desk and forced it open in spite of its unused mechanism. Inside lay a black Browning Hi-Power pistol next to some cartridges filled with ammo. It was a gamble as to whether it'd still be here after all these years, but it seemed James was content to let things lay if he didn't need them.

Shane took the pistol out and aimed down the sights, it wasn't quite the type he was used to but it'd do him well enough. He didn't plan on having to use it against the cultists but whatever the hell they spawned outside the house? Might as well have some options, especially if he was stone cold sober at his family's insistence. James didn't have a pistol belt or any kind of holster tucked inside so Shane made do with the inside pocket of the jacket made by Mary Roberts, fitting tight enough to dissuade some of his worries about a mishap even with the safety on.

With that, he left the estate to join his siblings.

---

The Edge of the Woods

---

Shane felt somewhat vindicated in his decision making as the Vanburen siblings stood before a talking skeleton with horns protruding from its skull.

He hadn't voiced it, or indeed anything at all, but his annoyance at their lack of prep grew on the journey to the cultists hideout. He was planning on pulling Justin aside when they reached the building proper to try and at least coordinate a strike plan. Kids with magic sure but dumb kids none the less, just treat it like a police crackdown on your regular old hideout.

It was only now that Shane was reminded of the fantastical nature of their mission, any attempts at pulling the current proceedings down to a level of reality he could digest seemed determined to fail. The skeleton addressed the Vanburens and seemed to wish to talk with ONLY the Vanburens as he shut Justin down.

Shane folded his arms but felt his right hand press close against the gun in his jacket. He didn't like this at all. Even Shane didn't need Oscar or the kids to fill him in that not all of these magical creatures used force to get their way, some used cunning. Ezra seemed willing to indulge the... Man? Better him than most, at least. Especially the one that also interjected herself into the conversation, the annoying girl who's name escaped Shane. Along with Alexander and Raymond.

Truthfully, Shane didn't focus so much on the topic of discussion, he was content to glare intently at the Skeleton Man, waiting for the slightest twitch that he was about to engage the Vanburens. In spite of his cold attitude, to Ezra in particular, he found himself slowly moving forward to stand alongside him, at least in case his intuition was correct and things did take a... Violent turn.

'Bullet might not phase this thing, but that's not all I got if he tries making a move.' He thought to himself as he narrowed his eyes at the skeleton, awaiting its response to his siblings.

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

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The Vanburen Estate

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Shane felt his fist involuntarily clench as his peace was disturbed and the glass pulled away from him. Had it been anyone else save Sabrina... Well, something about fools and vices and probably the possibility of violence. Shane looked ahead, his face neutral but inside he felt his anger stew, exacerbated by Sabrina's words confirming the Vanburens plan essentially was indeed to charge in there without any kind of plan and hope for the best.

"No offence, but even if I drank the entire bar I'd still probably be more use out there than most of them." The unsaid generalisation included Sabrina. Shane felt enough warmth and sympathy to not directly say as such but it was likely even she understood that.

Most of the Vanburens were not fighters, he couldn't really be quite as sure with Alexander or the new girl but as far as he was aware the rest of them were lucky to have seen a schoolyard scrap much less a situation with real, possibly life threatening, danger. Trisha, Ezra, Georgie. All of them were egocentric and headstrong, though come to think of it so was most of the Vanburens. How lightly they took the prospect of directly fighting the cultists, possibly even going further than merely beating them infuriated Shane as much as it distressed him. He wasn't any kind of commando but he had the frame and the experience to handle a gun, Georgie on the other hand would likely break her fucking shoulder if she tried using that rifle, yet she carried it haphazardly on her shoulder and whisked it off into her little pocket garden. He didn't doubt the Vanburens couldn't win if they went forward with a direct confrontation, but their collective arrogance was going to get someone hurt... Or worse.

Shane realised he'd went off into his own world as he heard Sabrina speak again and sit next to him at the bar.

"I don't think going to fight the cult is a great idea... what if one of us gets hurt? Or what if we hurt one of them? I don't really want anything bad to happen to anybody."

He shrugged and folded his arms over the bar table.

"Be nice to at least do it with a plan of attack." He muttered just loud enough for his sister to catch. "The reality is, Sabrina, that we don't have the luxury of considering much else. Sure, maybe Arabelle's faith is right and this cultist turncoat is willing to help us stop them, how do we know they won't already have packed up and moved by the time we figure something out? Or that they've switched gears and started getting ready to hit us again, or that they have friends they've called in. Or any number of variables that take away our advantage of knowing where they are right now and what they want."

He turned his head slightly to face her. "You saw that blonde girl today. They already know we're searching for 'em, odds are they're prepping to go to ground as it is and we have to pray for a new lead to find 'em again."

His expression softened to one slightly more sympathetic as he unfolded his arms.

"I understand you don't want to fight them. No one's gonna make you either. But the reality is that these kids won't stop, 'less we break apart their operation." There was more he wanted to say. An admission of faith in his sister, a statement of resolve that would renew Sabrina's confidence that her former cop brother had things under control. Even something as simple as a thanks for checking up on him even if it was unasked.

But it all eluded him. The old Shane would be able to flash her something as simple as a smile to set her mind at ease, but he could not even find it in himself to give her that. All he could do was place a hand on her shoulder for a moment before turning back to face the bar. No less bitter and on edge after having been interrupted during a chance to strip away some of the anxiety of being surrounded by his family. He looked ahead at the bottle of Jack Daniels placed deliberately on the shelf adjacent to him. Seeing his warped reflection in the brown glass.

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

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The Vanburen Estate

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Shane sat with his arms folded and his eyes down the entirety of Justin's speech. He found himself kind of liking the kid as he slightly stumbled over himself trying to formulate a plan, his plan seemed halfbaked but at least he was trying which was more than could be said for most of the people on Team Vanburen. Endearing or not however, Shane furrowed his brow at the notion of attacking the cultists head on. It was a fight they'd probably win but the Ruskie Alexander only seemed to have some of the cultists abilities known, and if they could summon something as crazy powerful as the triple goddess, illusion or no, they were at least more of a threat than their intelligence would imply.

'Been too long since I had a drink...' He thought to himself, chalking up his sudden tactical caution to his sobriety. Only just this morning he'd wanted to go it alone and crack open their skulls to finish this thing. All this strategic thinking and pontificating made him uneasy, not helped by the inclusion of his family. Of which, he was reminded more and more as to why he kept his distance from most of them.

Trisha, Oscar, Georgie, Ezra and the woman who claimed to be a Vanburen all threw out half laid plans with reckless abandon. Arabelle's had some merit at the least since the kid had let her escape with the horned thing, but it still seemed a risk to work that closely with her. Maybe she had enough of a conscience to let Arabelle go without incident, but turn directly against her friends? Shane wasn't as confident.

He found himself about to speak a few times before the sudden voices of another siblings or the mouthy woman Ezra brought home would rise up again. He gritted his teeth. Shane felt around inside the front pocket of the blue fannel shirt he'd changed into upon arriving home, thankful James had insisted on him leaving some clothing in his old room should he ever decide to use it again, not that it was all Shane had left there. The flask in his pocket was cold as its metal had been exposed to the new open air feature of the manor, but it sat empty. Thankfully, James had left behind a solution for that as well...

Shane was about to stand up and leave wordlessly, but the chatter of his siblings irritated him to no end. He turned slightly, speaking with the amount of dry irritation that they had no doubt become accustomed to.

"Attacking 'em head on is possible. But it's an all in deal. We fuck up, they get desperate and probably do something really stupid. We might have beat 'em back here but if we throw that same crap at them on their home turf then we're screwed before we even leave the manor." He looked at the room with his continued expression of slight contempt. "Unless we want to nag or bore them to death with art history bullshit, might be a better idea to come up with more of a plan than 'attack' so we don't show up at the place with our dicks in our hands."

He shifted his look to Arabelle, expression softening slightly. "The girl may want to help. And I don't want to seriously hurt any of those idiots if I can help it. But unless you can fully confirm that she'd be willing to turn on all her friends to stop 'em, then it isn't something I can put a lot of faith in."

Shane picked up the black wool jacket that Mary Roberts had so kindly made for him earlier today, he began to exit the room.

[colour=SteelBlue]"I'm going to the old man's bar. Come find me when we decide whatever stupid shit we're doing." He stopped and looked back once more. "If we end up doing the new girl's plan then here's hoping she's a better actor than she is a 'Vanburen'."

With that, he left, into the darkness down the hall in search of his father's stocked bar to indulge in their shared vice.

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

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East Araminta - Strange Street

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"Shane," Sabrina said. "We found out where Morgana and another member of that cult works, but we don't have a clue where the hell they are."

"... Do you know which direction that woman with the blonde hair and pizza went?"

Shane had thankfully just scarfed down the last remnants of his pizza as Sabrina exited the bar with their siblings presumably in tow. He continued to chew and gave a halfhearted shrug towards Sabrina before swallowing.

"Rounded the corner, there." He stated, pointing down the street where the road had a right turn back into town. "From there, anybody's guess. Pizza clerk said they've all got some hideaway in the forest, one of the abandoned spots I'd imagine. So, she's not headed there. Was carrying food too so it's likely she was off to meet her friends. Either they're holed up somewhere else."

He looked down at the floor and frowned "Or she took the long way around."

"If she's with 'em then they already know we're looking for 'em. Might as well just go to right to their workplace, try get a home address." He half-mumbled to himself but hopefully loud enough for the rest of them to hear.

"Alright." He said slightly louder, looking back up to face his siblings. "Maybe we'd better break off into twos. Two of us chase up where they work, try to find where they live if possible. Two of us ask or look around in the forests. See if we can pinpoint where it is they all decide to meet up in to talk about hitting mansions or killing farm animals.

The rationality in his voice was pretty foreign, at least these days, but it helped his clarity on the situation. Sobriety had its perks sometimes.

"Nothing drastic right now." Shane added, holding his hands up slightly for emphasis. "Just a little reconnaissance is all."

"We all in agreement?" He asked, placing his hands back into his pockets. His expression stone-faced as ever but with the slightest glint of determination in his eyes.

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

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East Araminta - Gino's Pizzeria

---

Shane watched from the window, the bored young, acne riddled young adult behind the counter scrolling on his phone. It didn't instill him with much confidence that this kid would be of any help but sometimes you had to really shake a tree to knock something loose... Whatever that means.

He breathed in, the cold still attacking his face. Better get started. He looked at his reflection in the window, thankfully his face showed no scarring from the attack at the manor but his knuckles were still cut up from the fight so he was going to have to keep them in the pockets of Sabrina's coat for the whole affair. Shane then ran a hand through his hair and began brushing it back, trying to neaten it as much as possible before doing the same to his beard. He shut his eyes and exhaled, standing for one more moment out in the cold before entering the store with a ding from the bell.

"Hey, friend." Shane said with a smile. "Had some... Timing problems with work today, missed lunch. You sell any single slices?"

The kid looked up from his phone at Shane and mumbled that they did. Undeterred, Shane kept up his friendly tone.

"Perfect. Just a plain cheese, pal." He watched the kid stand up and move over to the side. Taking out a ready made margherita and cutting out a single slice before turning around and putting it in the oven.

'Lovely...'

The kid seemed content to wait in silence much to Shane's chagrin. This was going nowhere fast and even by his standards he wasn't going to leave here with nothing to show but a slice of reheated pizza.

"Yeah, I... I woulda had a full hour for lunch but some of the kids around here were screwing around in the middle of the road. Had to take another route because they wouldn't move their ass." Shane mused casually, looking back out the window.

At this, the kid behind the counter actually seemed taken in, looking up at Shane more closely.

"Was it those weird kids from the woods?" He asked, his tone carrying a hint of curiousness that Shane took to mean he was on to something.

Shane shrugged. "That where they're coming from? See 'em around sometimes on my way to work, it was that loud redhead and a few others I think."

The cashier nodded and put his phone down. "That'll be Morgana. Her and her friends come round here a lot. Always yelling about this or that."

"Never used to see any of 'em round here. Not exactly sure what they'd even be doing this far on the east side." Shane said, keeping his hands in his pockets as he looked back at the kid.

"Yeah, if it were me and my buds we'd be at a bar or something... Not the one here though, somewhere nicer." The cashier said with a friendlier tone, eliciting a polite chuckle from Shane in response.

"So, wh-" Shane was cut off as the oven dinged. The cashier stood up to go and grab Shane's slice.

'Fuck.'

"Here's your order, sir." The cashier said placing Shane's slice on a paper plate and putting it on the desk.

Shane smiled and put a dollar with some change next to it. He leaned forwards a bit, now or never.

"Do you know whereabouts from the forest they're coming from? Would save me some time if I could just avoid 'em in future.

The cashier stood for a moment and thought to himself. "Sorry, sir, not specifically. I know they're hanging around in the forest somewhere though. Probably in one of those abandoned spots, seems like where kids like that'd lay their heads. I did see 'em following the footpaths into the forest though so it can't be that out of the way."

Shane raised an eyebrow and took his plate. Making sure to obscure his hand as much as possible. "Nice talking to you, thanks for the food." He said with one last smile and nod before making for the door.

'Foothpath into the forest. Somewhere abandoned...' It wasn't as specific as he would've liked but it put them in the right direction. They'd already narrowed it down from the whole of Araminta and lunch wasn't even over yet,

As he stepped back outside, Shane's face immediately reverted back to a neutral frown. Internally thankful he was pretty close to sober or else the charade might have been too exhausting to hold up.

He walked down the pavement a little until he was next to the bar. Taking a bite out of his pizza - surprisingly not bad, he was a little surprised his siblings weren't already out to meet him.

"All they've gotta do is just slip the bartender a tip." He mumbled quizzically to himself before taking another bite.

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

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Shane sat with a frown, his frame pressed up against the cab door. Either he was bigger than he realized, he'd tacked on weight or his siblings had done either of the first two. Never used to be this hard to fit more than one of them in a car, but then again that had been years ago. 'Least he wasn't poor Sabrina, sandwiched between himself and Raymond. The cramped affair seemed to be a constant reaffirmation to Shane that he should have just quietly left when he had the chance, he had two Vanburens more than he'd wanted with him as it was and now there was a third.

"... Do you think we could pull a few strings with the Sherriff's office and ask about her?" Sabrina asked. "We should have enough pull in Araminta, but there's a lot of corner stores here..."

Were it anyone else, Shane probably would have coldly rebuked or outright mocked them for their naivete. But, because it was Sab, Shane merely gave her a quick shake of the head. The other Vanburens like Ezra might hold some sway with Araminta's police department but Shane certainly didn't. Even disregarding his distaste for the law enforcement, local or otherwise, getting the police involved at this stage probably wouldn't do them much good.

As Shane saw it, though the cops would probably be involved by someone eventually, they had the element of surprise. Not much chance of alarm bells being sent to the cultist if their names happen to come up in conversation with some townie schmuck, but a full scale police investigation after blowing up the manor of Aramtina's most beloved family? They'd be forced to go to ground and may end up doing something really stupid, even by their standards.

---

Araminta - Forest Street

---

It was almost eerie. Smack dab in the afternoon and yet the streets were pretty vacant, Araminta wasn't any kind of hub of activity at the best of times but it felt like the whole town was still asleep. Then again, they were more or less at its outskirts were civilisation ended and nature began.

Shane left the cab immediately, eyeing the stores. He wasn't the most knowledgeable about, well cults, but it seemed logical enough they'd congregate in places were they wouldn't be disturbed, which would make the woods their best bet. So it stood to reason the stores here would be their first stops if they were coming to and from there. All the Vanburnes needed was a little luck, which did not bode well for them thus far.

"So, where to next?" Raymond asked. "Are we going to the bar and ask the omnipotent bartender about a suspicious character named Morgana?"

Shane doubted most of them were even old enough to drink, the ones that were probably would annoy the shit out of the patrons and staff of the bar that stood before them. Surprisingly enough, Shane had never been in this one, but it had all the trappings of a stereotypical "old man's" pub. It also seemed like it had only just opened or began to open anyway, the sign proclaiming it as 'Harry's' wasn't even switched on yet.

But still, it might be a good chance to split the Vanburen's up so Shane could actually focus.

"Doubt it'll do much. Still, worth a look. Bartender might have seen 'em at some point." Shane's speaking pattern had went back to its usual blunt and direct manner. The bar serving to remind him he hadn't had a drink since that one swig inside the manor. Maybe, that was another reason to let the other Vanburens handle the bar... Just in case.

"Going to check out the pizza place. He announced in his half mumble and already began walking off in its direction. He placed his hands in his pockets and went at a brisk place, if siblings had some initiative and decided to case the other stores they could all meet back on the road to see if any of them managed to find out anything. Not that Shane was going to direct them like that.

He eyed the blonde haired girl coming out of it for a moment. She didn't look familiar but... She stared at the siblings for a bit longer than someone sparing a curious glance. It made Shane suspicious but wasn't something he felt comfortable enough to act on beyond returning her gaze with his own "fuck off" stare until she rounded a corner and out of sight. If she was one of them, so much for the Vanburen's element of surprise.

Shane pushed open the door to the pizza place, where the bell gave a little ding to signal his entrance. Strange as it was to admit, his investigation somewhat hinged upon the knowledge from the person who manned the pizza place counter and the possibility that teenaged cultists bought pizza after partaking in all the strange shit cultists are want to do.

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

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As they got in the cab, Shane let Oscar sit up front with the driver. They weren't exactly certain where they'd be going yet but of the three, Oscar probably would have the best idea of where to start off. Shane sat in the back with Sabrina, in spite of his reservations about his... Habit, around her. It had been a long day already and he needed something to take the edge off and drip away the still flowing adrenaline.

He reached for the jackets breast pocket to take out his flask, shutting his eyes and gritting his teeth when he remembered this jacket to be the one Sabrina's power had given him, not the one he wore to the estate. Which still sat, unceremoniously, on the manor's steps.

'Excellent job, moron.' He thought to himself. He was going to have to pick up a new flask along with a new suit, though it seemed in poor taste to ask the cab and his siblings to stop by a pawn shop quickly. Was going to have to be a personal trip once all this shit was sorted out.

Doing his best to push away his frustrations, he heard Sabrina sigh. She thankfully seemed to avoid most of the fighting but this morning had clearly seemed to take its toll on her. He briefly considered saying something but, if there was a Vanburen the least equipped to give out emotional advice to another, it was probably Shane. He sat quietly.

"... What do you plan on doing to them when we find them?" Sabrina asked, "I hope you're not trying to kill them or anything."

"You know catching a charge would be the last thing father would want."

"Christ, Sabrina." Shane said, his usual stoicism contorting to obvious disgust. He'd expect that line of questioning from Georgie or Trisha maybe, but not Sabrina.

"No, I-..." He glanced over at the driver, hoping he was one of the cab drivers who didn't give a shit. Even still, he leaned closer and lowered his voice. "No. If I can help it, I'd rather sort all this out as quick as possible. They just seemed like stupid kids, even if they can throw out all kinds of crazy shit, they can still see reason."

He sat back. "Namely, that attacking the estate of one of the most well known families in town is real fucking dumb."He added, his voice still low but with a more than annoyed edge to it. "And about Dad." He said, expression returning to one of regular annoyance as he looked back sternly at Sabrina. "It doesn't much matter what he'd want right now." His voice didn't carry any kind of disdain, but he resented Sabrina's insinuation that he ought to care more about how his dead father would feel about a charge more than the charge itself. Unaware that the rest of the siblings in the manor had recently just seen much more of dear old dad than they would've liked.

"Anyway, back to the matter." He leaned forward, ensuring Oscar could hear him fine. "Where would someone like Morgana and her friends go in town? From what little we know, Morgana's boorish and immature, stands to reason her friends aren't much better. Theoretically, Morgana's got a memorable enough name, look and attitude that if we go somewhere communal like a corner store we've got a half decent shot at finding a lead."

It made sense enough to Shane, it might have also been from finding her profoundly irritating from just a few instances of her speaking, but he remembered Morgana quite well considering. But it was the words, the inflection, everything coming out of his mouth he detested. It sounded far too much like cop talk for his comfort.

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

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"You aren't gonna go after all of them by yourself, are you?" She asked as Mary Roberts manifested a scarf around her neck while she shivered just a bit. She stuck her hands out as Mary Robots created a thick winter counter stitch by stitch in her hands - one that would probably fit Shane.

"At least take this."

Shane took off his slightly damp suit jacket and let it drop onto the porch step, hardly going to get much use of it in the winter. He mentally reminded himself to swing buy a charity shop sometime and buy a new suit as he slid on the jacket Sabrina handed him. It was certainly warm, if a bit short at his arms. Its dark colour over his shirt and tie kind of reminded him of the heroes in those old Noire movies James used to show him as a kid.

"Thanks." He said plainly. He stood for a moment, some hint of sympathy spread across his usually annoyed glare. He rubbed the back of his neck, his sister was clearly waiting for an invitation he was unwilling to give.

"Sabrina, look... These people, we don't know if-"

“I don’t think going after them alone is the brightest idea,” Oscar commented, coming up behind Sabrina. “At least let me come with you, if that’s what you plan to do. I have a bit more… supernatural knowledge if they try to pull anything.”

Shane defaulted to his usual demeanour upon Oscar's arrival. He gave a short exhale and held his hands up for a second. Not really being able to think of any particularly solid reason to turn them both away. It helped, at least, that Sabrina and Oscar were probably the two siblings he was most comfortable with. And while Shane was the one with some investigative experience, Sabrina and Oscar probably had a comparatively better idea for where teenagers like those cultists might tend to hang around.

"Alright. If you two feel like tagging along then feel free, I suppose." Shane half-mumbled. "Town's not particularly big and Morgana had a memorable enough name, personality and appearance. Just need to find the right people and we can figure out where the leader of those cultists lays her head."

He folded his arms and looked up, narrowing his eyes at the light snowfall floating down onto his face and the surrounding ground.

"Pavement's gonna be all iced up. Walking into town's gonna take a while." He muttered, keeping his back to his siblings. "Unless either of you two drove here, we're better off taking a cab."

He looked back at his brother and sister, face softened ever so slightly. At least in the way that anybody who didn't know Shane extremely well wouldn't really be able to discern it from every other one of his angry expressions.

"You two ready to go?" He asked.

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

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---

Shane sat expressionless on his chair. Damn near all of his joints feeling like bricks and his knuckles still throbbing from knocking out one of the cultist girls. He glanced down to see the skin of his knuckles had turned red raw, actually, most of his body from his hands to his face had some kind of bruise or cut after tossing around Hellhounds all night... And whatever the hell that thing was that showed up in front of their porch.

He hadn't been hit by the wave of yet more water so he was comparatively dryer than most of his siblings but he damn sure looked like he'd been fighting all night, not to say he looked particularly well groomed when he first got the Estate.

His siblings spoke up one after the other at Justin's question. Sabrina nervously putting forth the Harrisburgs, that might be true. Trisha accusing one of the siblings themselves, that was probably bullshit. Any money to hire a bunch of idiot cultists to ransack the house would have went through Ezra and he seriously doubted any of the Vanburnes were silver tongued enough to get a bunch of petulant teenagers to do their bidding. Speaking of Ezra, he'd already left. Hopefully Arabelle was alright, either she had some form of teleportation power like that cultist girl or she'd broken some kind of marathon record to get all the way into town in the chaos.

"If you want, I could try to summon the old man's ghost from the afterlife for a while, try to get answers. I don't think he'd like to have a conversation with me, though. Not after what happened long ago."

That seemed like a route to take based on faith. That was not something Shane was particularly geared towards. He stood up, his tone as ever with a somewhat bored inflection and his face in a neutral frown.

"Spoke a little bit with the redhead while I was tossing her dogs around. Said she was after something our family apparently 'stole'. So, they weren't here to try and hurt us, I don't think." He glanced at the gaping holes in the dining room wall, showing the chaos from the entry hall with the front door still crooked off its hinges. "Hard as that is to believe."

Shane picked up his equally battered suit jacket and put it on, providing only the slightest addition of warmth considering most of his outfit had been put through the wringer tonight.

"Their leader, the one with the red hair and the whiny voice. Heard her get called Morgana. Not a particularly common name with somebody with an uncommon appearance. Worth it to try and track them down through her. All we have right now guesses." He didn't wait for any kind of response before he put his hands in his pockets and left the room. Feeling the cold sting of winter on his face the second he moved to the entrance hall, on the list of things to get fixed, the door was going to have to be number one.

Shane was no detective or investigator, but as far as he was concerned the magic nature of this shit was secondary. These were dumb kids that attacked the Vanburens, and dumb kids are dumb kids even if they can teleport or shoot water out of an amulet. He'll find them.

It occurred to Shane as he stepped out onto the porch and prepared to get into town, that that was the most he'd said to his family the entire night.

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

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Shane felt Maxine's jaw crack against his knuckles. Considering the girl and her friends had tore apart his family home and endangered his siblings, it was a bit of a nice emotional release. He watched her fall to the floor in a heap, any plans of attack she had basically thrown out the window. Her leader friend, Morgana, quickly noticed this shift in the battle.

"Hey, what kinda man hits a girl!?"

She screamed at Shane and threw her chains, which coiled around his leg but thankfully his barrier kept them causing any physical harm. Inwardly, Shane couldn't help but recall the many times he'd met such "men" as an officer when on domestic calls. He didn't really appreciate the comparison but considering the circumstances and the fact that said girl could probably shoot out water or make Hellhounds and shit like the rest of 'em, it felt like a pretty reasonable action to take.

Morgana sicced her dog on him, thankfully it seemed she missed Shane's previous encounter with one of her dogs in the dining room. He couldn't help but smirk a little as the dog leapt and prepared to clamp its jaws around his skull, beneath his shield. The Hound plunged it's teeth down, immediately being thrown back headfirst from its own momentum-courtesy of a Guardian Release.

The dog crashed down the hall, already injured from tangling with Justin. Who had already finished off the other Hound with the help of Raymond. With Morgana surrounded, Shane strode forward, preparing himself to start breaking each one of Morgana's fingers unless she told them everything they wanted to know. Here's hoping she didn't.

She held up her chains and the estate began to shake violently. Shane tried charging forward only for the shaking to knock him off course, at first he thought it was Morgana but she seemed just as confused as everyone else. A portal opened up behind her, someone stepping out and helping her drag through the girl Shane scrambled the jaw of. He couldn't make out what they were yelling over the chaos and windows smashing in but he watched them escape through the portal, slamming his fist on the ground and letting out an angered growl. They were sent packing but now the Vanburens still had no clue what they were here for.

And they still had to deal with whatever was shaking the fucking earth.

Shane struggled to get back to his feet as the grown continued to shake back and forth, putting a hand on the hallway's wall for stability. He let the aura of the Guardian Angel envelope himself but it wasn't doing too great for keeping him steady as he stood upright and got his bearings.

'The shaking feels like it's coming from...' Shane's anger melted into some strange mixture of annoyance and concern. He looked down the hall to see the earthquake looking worse from where they came, at the manor's entrance, where most of his more vulnerable siblings were holed up.

Shane, somewhat gingerly, started moving forward. Keeping his aura active and his hands against the walls. He hated having to do it but his progress wasn't exactly blinding, he looked over to Raymond who could glide on stone and Justin who could fucking fly. They stood a better chance at being more immediate help.

"It's coming from out the front!" He yelled over the sound of furniture being tossed around and wood splintering at the force. Regardless he kept pushing forward, he'd make it out there at some goddamn point.

All he could see as he pressed on, past the darkness of the halls, was the front door off its hinges and a sickly orange glow peering from outside the house.