Session 06

← Session 05 | Session 07 →

The seance continues, and something resembling a resolution is reached.

## Characters

* The Party, sans Kuno
* Pax Furyk
* Kitty Vance
* Silas Vance
* Pax's Dead Friend
* Benjamin Richards
* 0-771534

##### **Friday, October 16th, 542 (continued):**

Nyx declares that the party is going to get shredded by the debris tornado, giving them warning to be able to avoid it. She extends her senses to try and tell if the circle is actually doing anything, but there is too much psychic energy in the room to be able to get a solid impression. Hoping nothing is going to go wrong, she drops Pax's hand, and when nothing happens she moves Kitty towards the middle of the circle, which Silas helps with.

Nyx walks right up to the spectral figure, and tells it off, mentioning Colby's holy power as well as saying she had a vision that this is close to Pax's actual death, in about six months--the figure is going to get what they want, she says, so why not leave everyone alone now?

After Nyx makes this declaration, the debris storm drops mostly to the ground, and the figure manifests with more detail. They are a silhouette, floating off the ground, which is reasonably short. Silas picks up Kitty, who is still unconscious, and takes her to the back room. The two are not attacked on the way, and get there safely. Nyx, seeing this, tries to leave the circle of mostly clean floor, and a shard of glass cuts across her cheek as a warning. The ghost obviously doesn't want the party leaving.

Sam starts trying to snap Pax out of his dissociation, with limited success, to get any answers as to what's happening. The spectral figure resolves more detail, revealing wind-whipped torn clothes and longish hair. Nyx asks if they can write, to which they drag a pencil across the wall, as if to make a point that they cannot. Asa, seeing that Sam is making no progress, sits down in front of Pax. He is annoyed at this whole situation, and tells Pax to apologize, or at least do something. Pax, tearfully, says that he isn't sorry, and Asa convinces him to talk to the ghost.

Pax is still very shaken, but has reached a state that's semi-adjacent to functional. Asa asks what happened, and Pax says he suffocated the ghost with a pillowcase. When asked why he would do that, Pax replies that it was the best option--Eldridge wanted him to eat the other kid, and he wasn't going to do that. With this statement, Pax breaks, collapsing to the floor consumed by incoherent grief.

Asa grabs Pax's arm, trying to get him to calm down--and Pax does. Both are confused, but Asa realizes that was some of his faerie magic, and accepts it.

Sam confronts the spirit, asking if Pax's regret is enough, as he's obviously suffering. He mentions that revenge doesn't change the fact the both of them have blood on their hands, and wonders what one more death would do, but doesn't get much of a reaction out of the ghost. The spirit has coalesced much more by now, revealing a 13 or 14 year old boy in tattered clothes, with bruising across his face from being smothered and hands that are torn up, as if he was tearing at cement when he died. His face is twisted in anger. The blood drains from Pax's face when he sees the figure, and he freezes up. Asa kicks him, trying to get him to do something, but he doesn't know what to do. The ghost sends a fork into Pax's shoulder, out of sheer spite, but Pax doesn't flinch.

### **This City Aint Big Enough for the Both of Us**

There is a moment where nothing happens, before Pax looks up and tells everyone to duck. Colby throws himself to the floor immediately, and the rest of the party follow, but not fast enough to avoid getting a bit torn up. The remaining debris in the air arrows toward Pax, and he gets impaled with all sorts of debris, but doesn't flinch.

Pax asks if the ghost feels better, and if that's what he wanted. The ghost is still angry, but gives Pax a confused look. Pax says that he, the ghost, can leave whenever he wants, but that Pax is stuck here. The ghost gives off a general vibe that Pax isn't wrong about this, but he isn't happy to hear it. Throughout this conversation, Pax works on pulling debris out of himself. Pax says that Callum pulled the kid into an alley, and Pax tried to help, but wants to know how it's supposed to be Pax's fault he gave the kid an out, blaming Callum instead. He wants to know if they're done now, as he's said his piece, and won't be sorry for giving the kid an out.

The ghost has been slowly floating down to meet Pax's eye level, and these two child-shaped entities have a stare-down full of the kind of history that's only possible after a long life. The ghost blinks first, starting to fade, and while he doesn't go quietly he does eventually fade completely.

Pax sets himself to freeing himself of all the debris, getting Asa to help him with any particularly large chunks. Nyx leaves the main store to check on Kitty, who is sitting in a chair, conscious but not really functional. Kitty makes her way out into the store, and starts cleaning up. Sam offers to help, and Nyx stays behind to make sure everything is alright, but everyone else is summarily kicked out. Nyx doesn't stay very long, only long enough to apologize and make sure Kitty is doing as well as can be expected, but Sam stays a long time to help clean.

### **Picking up the Pieces**

Asa offers that the party can crash at his place, and Nyx catches up with them quickly enough to order pizza. Asa provides his whiskey stash, and both Pax and Nyx start drinking. Eventually, Sam shows up, with a new sweater and the assurance the Vances will call if they need any more help. He finally has time to process everything that happened, including his comments about revenge, and picks a corner to dissociate in for a while. Nyx admits that her prophecy was false, which Pax is less than enthusiastic about. Asa spends a long time lying on the floor. At about 11, Sam returns to reality, and offers Colby a walk home. The two leave, to sleep in their own apartments. Around 1 or 2 in the morning, Nyx tries to leave, insisting that she has work the next morning, but Asa stops her. She falls asleep soon after.

##### **Saturday, October 18th, 542:**

The next morning, Asa wakes to the sound of rummaging in his kitchen. Pax is washing up at the kitchen sink, and is covered in fresh human blood. Asa provides peroxide and helps him clean up. Aside from being hungover, Pax is looking pretty reasonable, which is a marked difference to the "riddled with holes" of the previous afternoon. At about 2 in the afternoon, Nyx wakes up, and Asa provides painkillers and some food before letting her leave. Soon after that, Pax starts organizing his backpack, and is on the way out. Asa asks for a phone number or an email address, neither of which Pax has, so Asa tries to give him a burner phone. Nonchalantly, Pax breaks the phone in half and hands it back to Asa--and is summarily kicked out.

At some point that day, Sam talks to Ben about the general concept of revenge, and particularly his situation with Anthony. Ben provides some news stories of other members of their parish going missing, people who had left with perfectly reasonable excuses given later by Anthony, and lays out the likelihood Anthony killed them as well.

##### **Tuesday, October 20th, 542:**

It having been some time since the party met him, everyone decides to pay Ollie a visit. He's happy to see them, and has done some significant repairs, including replacing his leg and getting some contacts so he looks human, as well as replacing the backpack full of computer parts with a cable tethering him to the ceiling. His apartment isn't very well decorated; he has bought some furniture but more or less strewn it around--there is a fridge, but it is still in the box. He does however have a very well-established computer desk, and he explains he's been doing freelance coding work since he can't leave the apartment--though he's working on that. The party spends a nice chunk of the afternoon visiting, and doing a bit of unpacking so his apartment looks lived-in.

## Quotes

**Kellen:** "Jesus doesn't like swears--actually, Jesus, do you like swears?"

**Pax** (with tears in his eyes)**:** "I'm not sorry."

**Pax:** "You can leave! I can't! You can leave whenever you want!"

**Parker:** "Colby doesn't fuck with ghosts." | **Kellen:** "Jesus doesn't fuck with ghosts, you heard it here first folks."

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