1 Garret spits out something that sounds like a curse in Spanish. "All right, we have an official problem. I need you not to panic, all right? It's important that you don't get unduly alarmed. There seems to be an entity in residence inside you, and from what I can see, it's almost certainly infernal in origin. Before you panic, it's dormant right now, and not a threat." Gegi's eyes widen. She takes a step backwards, hands flying to her head. She flinches. Then, slowly, her posture relaxes and her eyes open. She chuckles quietly to herself as she raises her hands... A tall, thin woman across the Pub whimpers and clutches at her head, huddling on the floor in a little ball. "She's possessed!", yells Gabby, charging in with a look of fury and without the foresight to draw a weapon. "Dammit, you just couldn't leave well enough alone, could you?!-" Gegi concludes a quiet chant and gestures at Gabby, who is suddenly surrounded with flames. Before she has a chance to do more than begin to scream, however, the red-haired man in leather makes a snatching gesture with his hands, and the flames around her are sucked away. Seconds later, she is struck and knocked down out of the way by a large man. The Centurion rises slowly, and he helps the ruffled lady back up. Those who are observant will note that the ancient soldier's massive body remains between Gabby and the possessed one. Neither the victim, nor the villainess can see each other. Still facing Gabby, "Are you all right, Miss?" Gabby blinks, hesitantly patting her skin and her hair to reassure herself that she's only slightly singed. "That bitch," she mutters. "I always knew she'd end up this way." 2 Gegi shakes her head at Plots. "We pretended to be the people she loved and we used that love to manipulate her. It isn't right." "No, you used that love to save her. If there was any manipulating involved, it was just the love itself pulling at her heart. Act all you want as her family, but if she didn't love them, she never would have listened to you." She smiles. "I guess it just makes me uncomfortable because it -didn't- bother the others. Most of them, -especially- Chappell, couldn't have cared less about what became of her. We had to gather hope, we did, proceed to next mission. Jay and I care..." Plots nods. "But remember, that's their outlook. It's not the same as yours. As long as you care, than you're winning half the battle already." "Other people say I care too much... get too involved. I was reading a book somewhere about psi stuff... it kept emphasizing the importance of empaths learning to distance themselves, to shield, to shut off other people, to cut off their links, even and especially with those they love... I don't want to stop feeling. All I ask for is the power to heal. Is that so much to want?" Plots smiles softly. "No, not at all." She sighs and holds up her hand, thumb and first finger an inch apart. "This close. Snapping. Shutting down. It's always there. I'm crazy, you see." 3 "A moment...", says Bavin to Gegi, and he disappears, then reappears holding out a hardback book to her. "There you are, Vampire: The Masquerade, 2nd Edition. Took me three weeks to track it down, and I am not sure I was supposed to go into the world where I found it. I could have probably got a copy from the Library of Forever, but this is the original thing, bought with dollars. Oh. And I got this as well. The Players Handbook, which they told me almost everyone used. Both authentic White Wolf Games books, and definitely not purchased in the World of Darkness." She takes the books with a smile. "Thanks... strangely enough, I never had either, although I have piles of supplements... I covered for the first with the GURPS version, and compiled most of the second from the lists in the Storyteller's book..." and cuts herself off. "I'm sorry. I'm babbling." He smiles and looks innocent, which does stretch his abilities somewhat. "They are your books, so you get to say what is done with them." Chloe looks back and forth between Bavin and Gegi then to Gegi with pleading eyes, "Please may I see it, miss? I won't cause any trouble with it." "Well, I suppose..." Gegi hands over the larger book, keeping the other to herself. "But if it makes you feel uncomfortable, just stop reading." "Oh thank you so very much. If he," Chloe motions to Bavin, "wants a fee for this, of course I'd be happy to provide it. I don't have much to give, but.." Chloe runs her fingers across the glossy green cover, hesitating a bit. "And more uncomfortable things have happened just today. I was raised by vampires, apparently, and heard lots of stories growing up--this won't frighten me, I'm sure. So I pretty much believe they exist, that won't shock me..." Chloe pauses before continuing, as if making _sure_ that's what Gegi meant.. She smiles. "Believing that they exist is one shock. Discovering that someone somewhere wrote a game which parallels their existence might be another." "A game?" Chloe asks in an offhand manner. She flips open the book, conveniently missing the disclaimer page, and skims the descriptions of the various clans. "Yes, yes the artists, the punks, the...snobs? I thought the Ventrue were the most revered and worshipped clan. Like, the benevolent protectors and rulers of kindred everywhere?" She laughs at the Nosferatu picture, "I've never seen a Nosferatu. At least I don't think so. It's so hard to remember or even to know who was what." She reads the text with a bit more attention now. "My, this is written in a peculiar fashion. Like it's an instruction manual for a small child's imaginary game. Who on earth would want to pretend to be something so dangerous and evil? How very, very peculiar." "A lot of people seem to find it rather attractive." Chloe looks back and forth between Bavin and Gegi. "This _is_ a game! How could this...this Whitewolf man have found out so much about kindred to make such an accurate game? Wouldn't the masquerade protectors have killed him and destroyed such a book by now? And who plays such a game?" Gegi reaches out to touch the book, in case Chloe decides that she doesn't wish to hold it anymore. "This book is from -my- world. Not yours. One place's stories are another place's realities." Chloe's face takes on a horrified expression as she suddenly realizes something, "They don't _really_ play do they? They don't really frolic around drinking people's blood, do they?!" "No, no. -I- play. Do I look like I frolic around drinking blood?" She smiles and tries to look innocent. 4 Plots eyes widen. "You were part of a cult?" He asks bluntly. Gegi fingers the necklace absently. "I told you, my friends turned out to be into some really strange stuff... and I had to play along until I had a chance to get away. I was just trying to find things out about the killer... just trying to be useful." Plots nods doubtfully. "Ever hear 'Your Racist Friend' by They Might Be Giants? Has a line in there, 'Can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding'." He looks worried. "I hope you were successful in clouding them." His eyes seem drawn to the necklace. Garret scans Gegi, and curses. "All right, we have an official problem. I need you not to panic, alright? It's important that you don't get unduly alarmed. There seems to be an entity in residence inside you, and from what I can see, it's almost certainly infernal in origin. Before you panic, it's dormant right now, and not a threat." Plots' jaw drops. And bounces off the floor. "Say you're kidding, Garret..." he whispers. Her eyes widen. She takes a step backwards, hands flying to her head. She flinches. Then, slowly, her posture relaxes and her eyes open. She chuckles quietly to herself as she raises her hands... Plots steps next to Garret. "Okay, can we classify this is "bad", yet, and if so..." he gets a sudden smile. "Why should I be surprised?" He blatantly steps in front of Garret, waving happily to Gegi. "Hello? Mr. Demon? You want to vacate the premises of Gegi there? Or am I going to have to get tough?" She holds the necklace in her hand, chuckling to herself, and waggles her eyebrows. "Boo." There is a wash of magickal power across the room, and Plots blanches, but does not fall back. She seems amused. "You want me to leave? Make me an offer, little man." The woman in robes puts a gentle, but implacable hand on Plots. Inexplicably, he feels reassured by her presence. She presses him backward, behind herself and Garret. "No offers. No deals. Get thee gone, demon, before we destroy you. Your kind is not wanted here--aye, not anywhere." Her dog growls in accompaniment. She/? raises her eyebrows. The voice and posture are entirely Gegi's... "I am here by invitation, lady. You can't cast me out quite that easily." 5 Gegi tells the story of her arrival to Garret. "Shadow Plane?" he comments. "You mean the underworld, the land of the dead?" "No, it's the land of dreams and imagination. I don't know why they called it shadow." "Ah, then it's just another word for a place where Maya touches the astral realms. Interesting place, I've been there several times." <*But we -are- there.*> Gegi thinks. Garret lifts an eyebrow and replies vocally. "In a sense, everything is Maya, or illusion. That's what I believe, anyway." "And the first rule is, 'Don't look down.'" "It is when you're magi. One false move, and you'll not only incinerate yourself, but you're likely to take a few other people with you. It's very sobering, I assure you." She smiles. "How strong would a mage need to be to unravel the entire universe?" He cocks his head at the odd question. "The entire universe? I'm not sure one mage could do it, although an oracle might be able to try and get some sort of results. Why do you ask?" "Oracle. Another one of those terms I used to see tossed about... no reason, really. Although if it were easy to accomplish by someone crazy enough to try, it would just give us one more thing to worry about..." "Sorry. An oracle is a mage whose understanding of reality is so great that he can no longer spend a significant amount of his time on earth..." "The world is too fragile for them?" "I guess. I'm not sure if it's reality that's too fragile for them, or that they simply can't interact with it on the same level as the rest of us. I've never met an oracle, so I can't be sure." "Can you be sure that you've never met one?" She smiles. "So that's an Oracle. Now, what's Maya?" "The Dream-Realms. I've visited parts of them, like the Land of Nod and Hollywood." She laughs. "Land of broken dreams, Hollywood, no?" "The Hollywood realm is difficult to explain. For some, the movie-stardom dream is indeed sad, but like most dream-realms, it tends to reflect what you bring into it. Most people think it's a lot of fun, although like most realms it has its particular dangers, too." "Most things that some people call fun are highly dangerous... riding on the edge. Rather like demon-hunting. -I'm- having fun..." He smiles, a distant look in his eyes. "That passes. After a while, you find yourself wanting to do simple, non-violent, non-dangerous things, just because you miss not having to fight for your life every second." "You're always fighting for your life every second, really." He shrugs. "In a way. Really, only if you want to look at it that way. I fight not to exist, but to accomplish. Most people make the mistake of assuming life is a struggle against death, which it is not. It is more of a struggle to...be, I think...to know oneself...well, it is for me." "It's not death I'm afraid of... well, in the abstract, I'm not afraid of it. While I was being raked with a demon's claws, though, I was slightly concerned about continuing my life. It's my sanity that generally concerns me." "Yeah, that's the other problem. This is going to sound rather strange, but the best way I've found to deal with that is to...um...go nuts every so often. Do you read Douglas Adams? In "So Long and Thanks For all the Fish_, One of the characters just gives up and sort of goes crazy for a while to cope. If you try to hold onto your sanity too hard, you'll go crazy just as fast as you would if you didn't hold on to it at all." "It seems to be a matter of rolling with the punches. My emotions are so out of control, but as long as I can keep expressing them, and find people to hold on to, to help drain off the excess, I don't crack too badly. It's an empathic thing. I need people." 6 Gegi discusses her situation with Bavin. "I don't think so. Most likely we were gating out of this plane... in which case none of the powers in here should be able to reach to wherever they went. But when they notice I'm missing, it should be obvious to Chappell that I got left here, and he can't leave me here, so they'll have to come for me..." She snaps her fingers. "Time! That's it... time must run differently here. It -should-, being the Pub and all... so relatively, I could be in for a long wait." She shrugs. "Could be worse." Bavin grins his dangerous grin. "I have been quite a few places. Tell me more about where you came from and I might be able to pin down the group of worlds, even if not the exact one. Then once you are close a bit of snooping around can usually find it." She looks at him suspiciously. "So you're not him... but I should probably wait for him, anyway. Who or what are you?" He bows with a flourish, while never taking his eyes off her. "I am Bavin called 'The Strange'. I am by profession a thief, but my hobbies include far travelling, between worlds, across the multiverses, and shapeshifting. As to _what_ I am I have been quite a few things, not always by my own choice, but I do do quite a credible human, as you can see, even though I don't recall ever having really being one." She extends a hand to him. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance." She watches him with curious eyes, waiting to extend her own limited psychic ability to him through his touch. He takes her hand, but does not shake it. She gets an overwhealming impression of many strange worlds, some thronged with people, some nuclear-blasted wastelands, and cultures with technology from pre-Roman to interstellar empire. He moves through them, with a wry amusement, dipping into them, but never quite being of them, stealing things, and sometimes leaving duplicates as good as the originals, giving money to the poor, setting up secret organisations to watch for supernatural menaces, and tricking said menaces into defeating themselves, changing his shape as he goes. The wave nearly pulls her under, submerging her identity in a wave of experience of someone who lives life to the full, when he seems to realise what is happening, and the pressure eases up. He looks into her eyes, almost frowning for a monent. "That was an unwise thing to do", and then though he does not move, through her Empathy she feels him pick up her hand, kiss it dramatically in the French style, and wink at her. "Blame it on curiousity..." she says, a bit dazed. And as she starts to recover and sort out some of the impressions she received, she senses no malice in him, just a sometimes detached sense of humor, and a willingness to see how things play themselves out, as he releases her hand. He grins, "I blame all sorts of things on curiousity!" She recovers and smiles. "Overly curious, a litle foolhardy, and -extremely- stubborn. That's how I got into trouble in the first place... I was working very hard to get myself kidnapped, and I refused to be rescued ahead of time." "Trouble." He looks down at her pendant. "Hmm. Demonic associations. I would be careful with that if I was you. I could steal it off you if you like." "Be careful with what?" "The necklace. I don't think it is just a badly made piece of jewelry." "Badly made? I've had it for a long time. I'm fond of my jewelry." 7 Plots steps next to Garret. "Okay, can we classify this is "bad", yet, and if so..." he gets a sudden smile. "Why should I be surprised?" He blatantly steps in front of Garret, waving happily to Gegi. "Hello? Mr. Demon? You want to vacate the premises of gegi there? Or am I going to have to get tough?" And he's abruptly shoved rudely out of the way by Garret, moving so fast he looks like a black blur. At this point, Gabby bursts into flames. Garret grabs Gegi by the arm and tackles her to the floor. They struggle as he attempts to keep her pinned down. "The necklace!" Garret yells. "Get the damned necklace off of her!" The woman in robes has stepped protectively in front of Plots. She jerks the cross from around her neck, and holds in front of Gegi's eyes, chanting in Latin, invoking the Trinity. The flames and fear effects die as she does so. In a low, almost deadly calm voice, "Demon. You will leave this girl. You will never return. Or, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, you will be destroyed." The figure of Gegi looks up at the cross. And screams. Quite ear-piercing, throat-tearingly so. She then tries desperately to throw Garret off of her and get away from the woman... Garret bears his teeth, the muscles on his arms and the cords on his neck standing out as he tries to keep her pinned. Then, abruptly, he gives. Gegi yanks her arms out of the hold, reaches backwards, grabs him, and flings him forward, right at the woman in robes, who nimbly steps aside. With a bone-thumping "Ooof!", about 170 lbs of Euthanatos master tumbles to the floor in a scramble of arms and legs. Gegi scrambles to her feet and takes a few running steps away from Plots and the mages. As soon as she gets out of easy grabbing distance, she begins shrieking strange words. The astute and very sharp of hearing will recognize them as being the same spoken just before Gabby burst into flame... 8 She/? chuckles. "You want me to leave? Make me an offer, little man." "O--okay." Plots swallows. "You leave her now, and you get to live. Stay, and you'll be ripped apart. Sound good?" Her eyes suddenly widen. "Plots! Don't let them kill - " and then her face returns to the shark's smile. "Willing to destroy this body just to get me out of it? You wouldn't kill -me- that way, you know." Plots eyes her with a detatched indifferece. "Think about it, Demon-baby. You can obviously sense the power of the patrons in here. What makes you think you can survive, let alone escape?" "Bold words from one so well-versed in his own inadequacies, little man. But wouldn't you rather have me within the constraints of a mortal form, and one that invited me in, than manifesting as my true self? There are few here that could harm me..." "Guess again, demon-thingy. But I really don't want to have you find out. People could get hurt while destroying you." "Indeed. And you don't have the power to protect them, do you?" Plots grinds his teeth. "No, I don't. But don't think that'll keep me from trying." "Go ahead." Plots steps around the woman in robes, swiftly, so she can't block him. He strides purposefully towards Gegi (and Garret). "Last chance. Get out while you still can. We're a bit preoccupied with Gegi's safety for the moment, so you *might* be able to escape, *if* you vacate now." "Why are you so eager to see me gone?" Plots smirks. "First off, it wouldn't do for Gegi to get back to her friends with you tagging along. Second, possession is also a no-no in my book. I know what it's like to feel helpless." He states bitterly. "I wouldn't wish it on any other being, and I *certainly* won't stand by when it's happening to someone I consider a friend." "Helpless indeed. How do you think I got here? Your little friend summoned me. She knew what she was doing. You can't cast me out. You want me gone? Take a knife and slit her throat. Kill her. Then I'd be sent on my way. Don't you think it would be better that way?" There is a hypnotic quality to her voice as s/he speaks... the suggestion seems vaguely reasonable, even desirable. Wouldn't Gegi rather die than serve as the instrument of the destruction of her friends? Unless she is evil, in which case, wouldn't she deserve to die?.... His hands flex, but he doesn't respond. Plots' expression is difficult to read, as different emotions flash across his face. She turns wide, tear-filled blue eyes on him. "Plots?" she wavers in a high, thin voice. Her terror and sadness are as clear to him as if he himself were an empath. "Help me... end it..." Pain flashes across her face, and then the demon's maddened attention returns to the fight with Garrett. In a softer tone, he says, "Don't worry, Gegi. Things will be all right." He reaches for the necklace. "Don't touch that!" Plots breaks out into a grin. "Houston, we have touchdown." He turns to Garret, "Right on the money, Garret." 9 Gegi scrambles to her feet and takes a few running steps away from Plots and the mages. As soon as she gets out of easy grabbing distance, she begins shrieking strange words. The astute and very sharp of hearing will recognize them as being the same spoken just before Gabby burst into flame... Plots ducks as Garret goes flying, and scambles back to his feet to see Gegi several feet away. "It's never easy..." he starts, then makes a sudden sprint towards Gegi. Plots dashes up to Gegi, who is still chanting and waving her hands. He snatches the necklace off of her just as she concludes the spell with a sweeping gesture. Suddenly, six-foot high flames appear, completely filling the area at a one yard radius around Gegi and Plots. Gegi does not seem to be affected by the flames, but a yell of pain and surprise emits from where Plots was last seen. The sleeper half-stumbles, half-crashes to out of the radius (by about a foot), thudding to the floor, his clothes and hair still burning. The necklace is gripped in a death-clutch in his right hand. Feebly, a whimper that sounds like, "...Mandy..." emits from him before he lays still. The tall, elegantly dressed man who has been standing with Chloe waves a hand. Shadows detach themselves from the corners of the room and smother the fire. "Oh, fuck..." mutters Gabby, who, now that Sinjin is gone, can see what's happening again. She rushes in to beat out any flame remaining and drag Plots away from the fire. "Where did the doctors go? Somebody KILL HER!" 10 Bavin looks innocent (which does stretch his abilities somewhat). "Will there be anything else? And if you want to dispose of them at short notice just ask. There will only be a small charge." She raises an eyebrow, or attempts to, anyway, as she hasn't quite mastered the art of raising a single eyebrow. "What sort of charge?" "I am sure we could come to some sort of agreement", and he grins dangerously. She blushes with a grin. "I wish to point out that I am not a Fiend, and bound to their rules about Contracts for everything, but I don't play quite as fast-and-loose with things as some people do." And he looks a little more serious. He looks at her necklace again. "My apologies, if you are particularly attached to it, I could claim it has a certain... naive charm, I suppose. But my comments about demonic associations, and my offer to steal it off you, still stands." "Demonic associations? My Aquarius medallion?" She looks down at the necklace. Once again surprise flashes across her face. She reaches for it, and pauses. A look of strain crosses her face. She speaks slowly and carefully. "Have I tried to take this off before, and has something strange happened?" Her hand shakes. She closes her eyes and takes deep breaths. 11 Chloe examines the Vampire books. "I thought the Ventrue were the most revered and worshipped clan." Gegi laughs. "Most revered? Well, they beat the Tremere in the popularity contest, yes, but that isn't hard to do..." "The Tremere are nasty evil warlocks...one should keep a safe distance.." "Not all of them. I've known a few nice Tremere, one of whom was working hard to become an honorary Malkavian..." She smiles. "Why, I thought the Malks were so crazy they're not even worth regarding!" "Madness is wisdom, sometimes, in a crazy mixed-up world like this one..." Gegi gestures at a pale woman nearby playing a piano. Chloe continues to read. "...peculiar fashion. Like it's an instruction manual for a small child's imaginary game. Who on earth would want to pretend to be something so dangerous and evil? How very, very peculiar." "A lot of people seem to find it rather attractive." "How could anything so horrible attract people?" "They don't see it the same way you do. For them, it's safe. It's not real. They want to feel powerful and attractive and dance around in the dark in black velvet. They don't really want to slit throats and drink blood. A lot of them are vegetarians in real life." Chloe looks horrified. "They don't _really_ play do they? They don't really frolic around drinking people's blood, do they?!" "No, no. -I- play. Do I look like I frolic around drinking blood?" She smiles and tries to look innocent. Chloe swallows hard and with great difficulty. "I--I don't know." She shudders for a moment, "So, wait, there are vampires who need to drink blood. My father and Quentin, who sort of raised me too, were them, I thought. Well, I didn't, but now I do. Well, before this, I did, but not way before." She grows rather flustered, "But there are others who pretend to be vampires, but don't drink blood..? Father and Quentin did not look like they frolicked around drinking blood anymore than you, so..how's a girl to know?" "Too true. And there -are- people who pretend to be vampires who do drink blood, especially on your side. Blood Dolls." She sighs. "On my side too. And they can be a bit frightening. I wound up with them by mistake... I didn't know what they were really like." She looks at Chloe. "You can understand how mistakes happen. They weren't who I thought they were. I don't hurt people." 12 A yell of pain and surprise emits from where Plots was last seen. The sleeper half-stumbles, half-crashes to out of the radius (by about a foot), thudding to the floor, his clothes and hair still burning. The necklace is gripped in a death-clutch in his right hand. Feebly, a whimper that sounds like, "...Mandy..." emits from him before he lays still. Garret turns to the woman in robes. His mindvoice this time is cold and focused. <* Save Plots. I'll stop her if I have to kill myself to do it. *> He takes a carved knife from somewhere on his person and slashes a rune into his wrist. Garret faces Gegi/? and lifts his bloody hand. "In the name of Shiva, Destroyer of Worlds, Lord of Crypts, Master of Storms, Thrower of Dice, Knower of Dharma, I do abjure and command you to be still, oh filthy thing of disharmony! Thou shalt do no more more harm in this place! May fate itself form a collar stronger than steel, and by it's power do I confine you!" "Not again..." worries Gabby, who for once opts to stay by Plots instead of running into the middle of things. A blonde Asian woman kneels beside Plots and whispers a few words, passing her hand over him. His burns fade. Still coughing, Plots jerkily crawls just outside of the blacked-out area from Kao-Lang and shakily watches. Gabby gently shoves at him. "Lie down and -don't move.- She's done enough damage. They'll get her." The malicious edge to her voice is noticeable. Something in the air nearby shifts and pulses, then snaps tight like a rope. The color drain's from the wizard's face until it's white as milk, and twisted with pain. Blood drips from his wounded wrist onto the floor at his feet. The Gegi-figure freezes. <*NO!!!*> someone mindscreams. A ripple of mental energy rebounds through the area. Plots blinks several times and rubs his head. Another pulse follows, this one noticeably weaker. Plots turns to the others. "Did it work yet?" 13 "How could anything so horrible attract people?" Chloe says to Gegi. "They don't see it the same way you do. For them, it's safe. It's not real.They want to feel powerful and attractive and dance around in the dark in black velvet. They don't really want to slit throats and drink blood. A lot of them are vegetarians in real life." Chloe nods but doesn't seem to believe or understand. "Then they...pretend to drink blood and slit throats? Or they do it, but don't really want to, but they do it because the book says so?" "They pretend to... or they claim to. They don't -really-. Vampire fans sometimes bite eachother, but they almost never draw blood... it's just to heighten their passion.'" She looks Chloe over and decides that now is probably not the time for a discussion of S'n'M. "They bite eachother?! Almost never!? Oh goodness...What a peculiar passion." "Well, they seem to enjoy it." Gegi reaches out to touch the book, in case Chloe decides that she doesn't wish to hold it anymore. "Anyway, this book is from -my- world. Not yours. One place's stories are another place's realities." "Your world? The book is written in English, and I've been there, though I was raised in France... oh, wait, you're from America, yes?" Gegi grins. "I've only been to England briefly..." and shakes her head. "But that's not what I mean. I really am from a different world. Another dimension, you might say. Honest." Chloe looks a little hurt, "I'm not stupid, miss." "I didn't think you were. It's just that you've had rather a lot of shocks today. I'm trying not to upset you. Am I handling it badly? There -are- people who pretend to be vampires who do drink blood, especially on your side. Blood Dolls." She sighs. "On my side too. And they can be a bit frightening. I wound up with them by mistake... I didn't know what they were really like." "My side...of the Atlantic?" asks Chloe. "Your side of reality. Your world." "I read Through the Looking Glass once," she says. "Are you trying to tell me that you're Alice?" she giggles. "Something like that, although I hope that no one starts chasing me around trying to chop off my head..." "Then how did you come to be here?" she asks a bit incredulously. "Good question. I'm not supposed to be here. There seems to have been a slight accident. I got misplaced. When they figure out where I am, they should come back for me, and I'll be on my way, but right now I can't leave by myself." Chloe shakes her head. "Pretend vampires. I suppose people who don't need blood and take it are a bit more frightening then those who do need it and take it, but they both seem frightening enough. You were...a vampire, or a pretend vampire?" "A pretend one. I -am- anemic, but I get the extra blood from hamburgers, not people. I might or might not be a bit of a psivamp, but that's another story entirely." She looks at Chloe. "You can understand how mistakes happen. They weren't who I thought they were. I don't hurt people." Chloe nods enthusiastically at this, "Yes, I do understand! People very close to me are suddenly not who I thought they were. Well, actually they were always not what I thought they were but just recently I knew that they were not what I thought they were." Chloe spends a minute reviewing this, finds the logic to check out, and nods again. Gegi nods. "But you're safe here now." She smiles to herself. "Whereas I supposedly have a curse on my head for breaking the circle... but I really had no desire to be either a cultist or a sacrifice, thank-you-very-much. I was the thirteenth." She fingers the necklace absently. "A witch!" she takes a step back. "I wasn't a witch on -purpose-... I thought they were just goths, you know, and suddenly they've got me drawing circles and chanting spells and I couldn't get away... and then Anna made a diversion and we ran for it and I haven't seen any of them since." "You've broken from your coven? Goodness, I've heard stories of what a coven does to one who breaks the circle..Aren't you frightened?" She shrugs, a bit nervously. "They said that all sorts of terrible things would happen to me if I left, but leave I did, and nothing seems to have gone wrong yet... and as long as I'm with Chappell, I should be reasonably safe." She stops. "Of course, I'm -not- with them. I got lost. I hope that's not a bad sign." 14 Gegi stands beside a piano with a pale woman, the Malkavian Ophelia. They have been singing together. Wisdom in madness, and understanding. When Ophelia's hands touch the keyboard, her attitude suddenly changes. She no longer looks lost; her hands move over it, flicking a switch here, changing a setting there, plugging it in. She tries a quick scale - fast and soft - and then immediately begins to play. At first, it sounds almost like noise, a mad woman playing notes at random, but under the madness there is a little structure; the longer one listens, the easier it becomes to know just which notes go with which. She might be playing four or five tunes at once, but they are all related; as it goes on, it becomes clear that it is just one tune with far too many harmonies and chords. Or perhaps not enough; Ophelia looks as if she'd like to add more. And gradually the structure itself becomes recognisable, and oddly familiar. It conjures up flashes of something shiny, something cold and colourful and numerous; glass bottles, indeed, and a warm wooden bar; her fingers produce patterns for the tables, and an odd note here and there picks out one of the patrons. Her chords have a bizarre effect on the brain; as she plays on and on, her notes take shape, and become pictures, and for those listening the images of their own eyes seem to make less and less sense - just a confused jumble of things, a pair of green eyes, a bloody hand, a heavy table and a floor tile. Faces and people, but no connection between the two; everything is in the room, but each an individual with no connection to anything else unless you close your eyes and listen to the music instead. Silence, and Ophelia looks around the room; for the first time since she entered, she can see what is going on, and knows exactly where everything is in the bar, as her madness shifts to the others of the Pub. Only slowly does it seep away as heads begin to clear, and hers begins to fill again with confusions and images with no connections. The Malkavian smiles at Gegi, her expression becoming less and less focused as it ebbs. "Thank you. I have to be careful, as you can see." "That's amazing. How do you do that?" She smiles a little, faintly but surely. "It's not a matter of _doing_. It's about _being_. The music is me, just as surely as this" - she pats her own body - "is me. When people accept the music, they accept a little piece of me into themselves, and then because they're becoming me they see things as I do. When I stop, and they forget the music, they stop being me. I don't know where music goes when it's forgotten, but whereever it is I'm there too." She waves her hands in the direction of 'away'. "Every time I play for someone... I become many. I don't know what happens to the others. Every time I expect to be one of the ones in someone's head, one of the ones that lingers and then is forgotten, but every time there's just one that remains with this body, and every time so far it's been me. So I never get to find out what happens to the others. Quite frustrating... so many of me, and all of them know the answer except me." A smile flashes at Gegi. "Does any of that make sense to you ?" "Some..." she says, and sighs. "There's all this music in me and around me, you see, and it wraps me up and it carries me along. I can feel it, so intensely, but everyone else can't or won't... sometimes it fills me so much that I don't understand how they can look at me and touch me and not feel it, not hear it, but they don't, and when I try to speak or play or show it, only little pieces come through. I can hear -their- music, why can't they hear mine?" Gegi reaches for the piano and softly touches a D, then an A. She sighs, and a palpable wave of sadness washes over her. "I wish I could..." Ophelia's face - which looks quite intelligent and thoughtful, when it isn't looking lost and bewildered - now looks surprised. "I can teach you a little, if you like. But the cost is very, very high. I live in a different world from yours, my dear, and I'd have to pull you across. Do you really want me to do that?" She blinks. "Are you offering?" Her hand falls away. "At any other time I would have leapt at that, would have risked everything for it. But now..." 15 Still coughing, Plots jerkily crawls just outside of the blacked-out area from Kao-Liang and shakily watches. Garret ties a cloth around his wrist. He pauses by the woman in robes. "Get rid of the necklace, Karieta," he whispers. "If she comes out of it, let her go." He crosses the Pub to where the tall, thin woman lies collapsed on the floor. "I'm sorry, Rhiannon," he whispers as he picks her up. "Let's go." He carries her out of the Pub. The Asian woman with the blonde hair and the broomstick skirt looks back at Plots. "Get behind the bar, and STAY there." She turns back to the demon's host, stepping up to Karieta's side. "In the name of Dana and Yahweh, I cast you out. This reality and I with it reject you, and order you to the place beyond the Vale." She takes a half-step to the right, raises her arms. Small flashes of light flicker between the Chorister and the Dreamspeaker. Bars of light raise themselves around Gegi, solidifying. An image of a flame-consumed entity fades in and out around her, and Myung takes Karieta's hand, raising it back. A beam of sparkling red energy fires from between their joined hands and hits Gegi square in the chest. At the same time that the beam of light hits a possessed Gegi, one of the Gegi's talking to Bavin pulls off the necklace she was wearing and throws it away from her. All of the Gegi's, possessed or not, excepting the one who pulled off the necklace, collapse to the ground. A few flickers of orange light play around the ones who had been possessed, but then, nothing. The one left standing looks around. "Multiple me's," she muses. "Of course, if this is the Pub. The real Pub? How can that be?" She shoves at the wall that she tried to pass through before. "Not right. Shouldn't be there. Chappell said there was only one timeline." She looks at Bavin. "Pardon me, I'm not myself today. But I need me. I have to get back." In a clear, firm, voice, she says, "This is a dream," and closes her eyes. And vanishes.