Zachary and Reese fight the Sons of Odin

Characters in scene: Zachary, Reese

October 2021

Mia's birthday party closes up as the sun drifted under the horizon, guests slowly slipping away to attend to other responsibilities, or to go home, or to work on that omnipresent bane of all students, homework. One of the other guests, Kayla, had brought gemstone bracelets for everybody, with stones tuned to the immaterial. Zachary had been reluctant to pick up jewelry, of all things, but it was free and might have magical properties to boot, so he figured that he could survive carrying it long enough to figure if it did anything good, at least. Between the phone charger, Nescience's fang-knife, and the bracelet that he had all gotten from Mia's party, Zachary was swimming in free loot. Despite all of the disruptions from Nescience and Taylor's unexpected arrivals, he'd had fun! Surprisingly.

Now, as Zachary and Reese headed off of Calvarn's campus to the train station, he was significantly more relaxed than before. Sure, his staff was slung prominently over his back via its rope strap and he'd retrieved his knife back from Mia's gift shed, but there weren't many other ways to carry these things, and he didn't expect trouble to materialize now when he hadn't had any on the way in. Despite wearing Reese's hostility glasses, he'd nearly forgotten those were on his face and kept his Sight off so he could admire the gold-drenched light of the sunset painting the scenery around them, and the way it bounced off of Reese's hair.

"You think you'd ever want to go to Calvarn, when you're done with your mentors?" Zachary asked. "Levi had some pretty good things to say about her classes, and it sounds like Mia's learned *so much* just by being here. Might be easier to get in, too, if you just need to be a decent Practitioner instead of a decent student."

Reese isn't quite as relaxed, occasionally glancing around and switching their Sight on, but Zachary's presence is comforting enough to keep them from drawing on another connection blocker and rushing to the train station. They shrug.

"Maybe if the nazi problem gets better. It'd be nice to branch out more and have better resources, but my apprenticeship deal still has..." Reese trails off as they mentally check the timeline. "Oh. Less than a year left. Time really flies, I guess."

"Yeah, it does. You know, I heard that Calvarn has a sparring ground like Sanctuary, sorta like Cosmic Bob but not really. And they have fights there too, vicious ones..."

The two of them keep talking as they pass through the streets, which are empty of anybody else. This part of Fellward is all brick apartment buildings and a sidewalk shaded by trees turning brilliant colors for the new season. It seems like everybody is staying inside today, avoiding the crisp fall weather outside.

As they reach a four leg intersection, Zachary comes to a stop. The road straight ahead looks like it turns into a shady alleyway, whereas the roads to the left or right run along a brightly lit row of nice apartment buildings. "Which way is it to the station again? I'd use Wooble Atlas, but I forgot to charge my phone at Mia's party, ugh."

Reese instinctively looks into the alley with their Sight, checking for threats, and instead finds a strange array of connections surrounding the entrance. Several stands of blackened twine, most stretching from out of sight and one each from themselves and Zachary, being repelled from the alley like magnets. The brass tacks on the ends of the strings quiver in anticipation, poised to strike like snakes and attach themselves at the first opportunity.

*Backlash waiting to happen.*

Reese stops in their tracks, staring at the alley and trying to think through the urge to turn around and go somewhere else.

"There's something weird straight ahead. Connection blocker, I think."

Meanwhile Zachary has found a pile of fall leaves stacked on the road verge near them, right next to the sidewalk. He cheerfully kicks through it, plowing his foot right through a large clump as Reese speaks. Orange leaves scatter into the air.

"Yeah, but we're not going that way, are we?"

"Well, I mean, no, but... hmm."

Feeling their thoughts starting to drift away from their alley, Reese closes their eyes and shake their head.

"Shouldn't we check it out? Connection blocking a sketchy alley is kind of a suspicious thing to do."

Slowly, deliberately, Reese reaches into their jacket pocket and retrieves a small handful of glamour. They quickly open their eyes, grab a pinch of glamour, and flick it through the connection, strengthening it. The string originating from them pierces through the repelling force, flying forward and embedding itself somewhere in the alley. Immediately, their thoughts feel clearer.

"Shit. There's definitely connection stuff messing with our heads. I can fix it for you, it'll be easier if you give me permission."

They grab another pinch of glamour.

Zachary shrugs noncommitally, and then sends another pile of leaves into the air.

"Good enough."

Reese flicks the glamour through Zachary's connection, with the same results they got with their own. His connection lunges into the alley, the haze over his thoughts lifting as it attaches.

"Woah. Oh, fuck," Zachary says. He looks ahead with his Sight, lifting one side of the glasses up to see with both Sights at once. "Multiple people up ahead, I think five of them. About two blocks from here? Bright red on their end of the Connections, that's not good."

If earlier the spirits were subtly redirecting their notice away, now they seem go be helping them perceive it. A loud voice echos throufh the streets, saying, "So I walked up to the office for unemployment, went to the receptionist, and you know what I said to her? I need welfare for my dogs, cause they're mixed in color, unemployed, lazy, can't speak English and have no frigging clue who their Daddies are!"

The sound of uproarious laughter follows.

((The following contains Neo Nazis acting in nasty ways. Our protagonists are, in no particular order, queer, nonbinary, and/or Asian. Consider warnings for all -isms to be in effect.))

Reese cringes at what they hear.

"Definitely not good."

The glance in the direction they remember the train station being, briefly considering just leaving and not putting themselves in hate crime distance of a pack of neo-nazis, but their conscience won't let them go without at least making sure there's not an innocent victim somewhere in the alley. They look to Zachary, clearly conflicted.

"What should we do?"

((Intermission))

Zachary pulls Reese over next to the buildings, so they'll be harder to see if anyone looks down the street. He whispers quietly, "It's gotta be something important, if they put a connection blocker down. I'm going in. If there really is something going on, I might be able to stop it, and if I can't, I'm pretty good at getting away," Zachary says.

"If I can find the blocker, I should be able to take it down and make sure they probably get caught," Reese whispers back.

They glance around to make sure nobody can see them, then grab the bat charm from their bracelet and twist, snapping the chain. The glamour shatters, and the charm becomes an aluminum baseball bat in their hands. Just in case.

"You do that, I'll see if I can draw their attention away from you. Be stealthy. Best way not to get hurt is for them not to realize you're there," Zachary says.

He unslings the staff from around his shoulder and moves slowly through a few stances, making sure that everything is in good working condition. His right pocket is overstuffed, restricting his hip movement slightly. He drops the phone charger to the ground -- it's not his anyways, and Triviality's curse should give him a replacement one soon enough.

Then Zachary reaches up to the glasses on his face, which he offers to Reese. "Oh, also, want this back? Shouldn't wear this in case things get violent."

Reese takes the glasses, slipping them into one of their jacket's inner pockets.

"Good idea. And- just, try not to get hurt?"

"Yeah yeah. You too."

Zachary looks like he's about to go in for a hug, but at that moment, another loud, racist remark cuts through the air, and he pulls away.

Zachary sets off at a brisk walk, surveying his surroundings. The alleyway is quite thin, a small ribbon of road cutting between the buildings. It isn't fully evening yet, but there's hardly any room for the sun to get in, leaving the place darker than it should be. There's a few dumpsters on the sides, and the walls are dotted with external AC units.

At the end of the alleyway, where it rejoins the larger streets, is a group of five men, all white, working to spraypaint a huge black swastika on the wall. Members of the Sons of Odin gang Mia told the partygoers to watch out for. One of them is standing on a ladder, looking barely fifteen. Three more work on adding a red circle around the bottom of it. The last one watches them as they work, holding a large spear with a chain wrapped around it. They banter and joke as they work, seeming confident that they won't be interrupted.

"By god, Calvarn doesn't care about women anymore. Did you know, they let any man put on some makeup and go into the wo--"

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!" Zachary shouts. He strides towards them, slamming the staff against the ground to emphasize each step. His blood feels like it's boiling in his veins. "GET OUT, NOW, BEFORE I TEAR YOU THE FUCK APART AND FEED YOU YOUR OWN ENTRAILS!"

*Well, that’s one way to get their attention.*

Reese takes a fountain pen out of their pocket; not their usual enchanted one, but a transparent plastic one that gives a clear view of the shimmering, glamour-infused ink inside. The cartridge is running low, but it should be just enough. They start drawing another shield knot connection blocker on the back of their hand, working as quickly as they dare without messing up any lines.

When it’s finished, they creep into the alley, still moving slowly and carefully and sticking to the shadows to avoid straining the diagram. They look around with their Sight, eyes peeled for the telltale fresh ink that would signify the connection blocker they’re looking for.

The kid on the ladder startles. Two of the men painting the red below look uneasy, one of them in a dark baseball cap and another with a face full of greasy pimples. Good. Five on one is brutal odds, and despite his bravado, Zachary doesn't like his chances going against all of them at once. Better to scare them off while he can.

The last spraypainter, with a bald head and tattoos all over his body, chuckles and draws a switchblade.

"Heheh. Don't you know what we do to chinks like you? Gonna rape your ass and send you crying back to mommy."

The man with the spear touches Tattoos's arm, and the knife is lowered. His eyes turn to dark raven's orbs, and an ethereal set of white robes with a red line running vertically down the front is superimposed onto his overalls, like a priest's garb. Practitioner.

The priest speaks in a slow, concilliatory tone. "Foreigner, you must be new to our city. Are you a student at Calvarn? We are civilized men, unlike those in China; do not bother us and we will not target you. My friends are Innocent of the crimes you would attribute to them. Swear to forget what you have seen, and we will let you go."

Zachary tightens his fist around the staff, concealing a wisp of smoke. Posturing is good, he reminds himself. Posturing buys Reese time just as well as fighting does, and is a lot safer. Can't just let his rage drive him to smash their fucking faces in.

"Get the hell off your high horse," Zachary retorts. "First, I'm Taiwanese-American, not -- actually, you probably can't find these places on a map, there's no point. What matters is that *you don't get the right to dictate terms here.* Your choices here are to stop what you're fucking doing here, or face a shitstorm of fury like nothing you've ever seen before."

The priest sighs. "On your head be it. Men, gut him."

He makes a sign with his fingers, and a surge of courage runs through the area, bringing strength to the hearts of everyone nearby. The four other Sons of Odin pull out knives and rush at Zachary, who has raised his staff in response to start walloping.

So much for posturing only.

*Shit shit shit shit.*

With everyone's attention on Zachary, Reese gives up on moving stealthily and starts frantically looking around the alley, scanning their surrounding as best they can through the dizzying haze of adrenaline. Nothing on the walls, no- too obvious. Not on the ladder, or anywhere near the fresh graffiti. They start examining AC units, each one taking several seconds as they examine every side. With each failure to find the connection blocker, their panic begins to grow, and they have to force themselves to breathe steadily and keep themselves from rushing and missing a crucial detail.

*Can't fuck this up.*

They start checking around the dumpsters, even peeking behind them, and still turn up nothing, until- *there.* A post-it note stuck to the side of a cardboard box, positioned near the ground and mostly obscured by shadow. The diagram gleams in their Sight, dried ink overlayed with fresh. They kneel down to look at the paper more closely, making sure there's not some kind of trap they might trigger by tearing it up.

Zachary holds the staff as close to the end as he can, quarterstaff style, so he can sweep it in a large arc around him. The Sons back away, not wanting to be caught in its path. Zachary brings the staff around a second time and suddenly jabs the metal end of it straight into Baseball Hat's face. Skin breaks and nose cartilage crunches inwards under the weight of an octagonal edge. Baseball Hat collapses backwards, clapping a hand to his face and dropping the knife in the process.

That's one down for who knows how long. Forcing them to respect the range of the staff, or else. Can't use obvious Practice, not with Innocents, but he can still use this.

Zachary tries to back up into the wall so he can't be surrounded from his vulnerable behind, but Tattoos has preempted this thought and snuck behind him for a stab. Zachary whirls his torso around and brings the staff up for a block, catching the knife with the part of the wood in between his hands.

"Don't you want to *play?"* Tattoos croons.

Zachary doesn't dignify that with a response. He takes a passing step back, reorienting his legs in line with his torso and turning the staff around with it. It goes into Tattoo's ribcage, but is a weaker hit and doesn't have much effect.

Now Zachary's back is to the rest of the Sons, and they press their advantage with enthusiasm. Zachary throws himself to the ground in a roll, barely avoiding a two-pronged slice and cut. He regains his feet a distance away from the group, and runs for the wall.

The priest stands outside of the melee with a gentle smile on his face, content to wait.

Luckily, all Reese finds is a bog-standard High Priestess connection blocker, with writing around the edges tuning it towards Innocents, Enemies, and... Revenants? Well, if the Sons had managed to bring a Revenant on themselves, Reese doesn't have much sympathy. Setting their bat aside, they pull a regular, nonmagical pen from their pocket and start modifying the diagram.

A pair of lines added to each Block symbol turns the T-shapes into inward-facing triangles, changing the connection blocker into a connection amplifier. The connections being held at bay near the alley entrance are suddenly free to snap into place. A line from some cheesy sci-fi show about reversing the polarity springs to Reese's mind, and they roll their eyes as they put their pen away and grab their bat, stepping behind a nearby dumpster and listening for any sign that Zachary is in over his head.

Zachary, meanwhile, is doing relatively well, considering that it's a three on one. The wall guards his back quite well, and he has given Tattoos a black eye and shattered Pimpleface's fingers around his knife in exchange for a few cuts to his arms. The kid makes half-hearted swipes with the knife far outside of measure, too scared to try to properly get in range.

The priest opens his arms, chanting to the sky. "Odin, grant me strength to do what my men cannot! Bring this Chinaman down!"

He swings the spear like a lacrosse stick, letting the chain unpeel itself from the shaft and fly at Zachary. Zachary blocks high, catching the chain with the top part of his staff. He's able to stop the ends of the chain from continuing in their forward moment to impact his face, but --

The chain slides down around the staff, and wraps around Zachary's right hand.

\_They drag him to the tree by the rope around his neck, skin rubbed raw by friction burn. His feet churn on the ground behind him, unable to find any leverage on the forest floor that won't get his head snapped off. He scrabbles futilely at the rope with dark-skinned hands, but there's no use, there's no use, they're going to kill him and his wife and children and gather around laughing for a picnic.\_

Zachary falls to the ground, choking. He scrabbles for the collar of his shirt with his free left hand, but there isn't anything there, not physically.

"Don't kill him immediately," the priest chides. "I have some uses in mind for a Calvarn student, especially in the special programs."

A boot strikes Zachary in the sternum. He instinctively curls up in a fetal position, trying to guard his head and vulnerable innards, but he doesn't have enough *air* and there's no use trying.

The words “don’t kill him immediately” send Reese into a panic, and they take out their pocket knife. Waiting for the residual power in the diagram to do its job is too slow, they need results *now.* They slice across the back of their forearm, making the cut bigger than they intended in their haste. They wipe the blood that wells up onto their hand—they can worry about infections later—and smear it on the connection amplifier. A wave of dizziness washes over them as the diagram drinks in the power, yanking sharply on the connections it had been blocking moments before.

Zachary gasps for air, alternating between a past that isn't his and a past that is, before his attention is forcibly dragged to the present. Two of the Sons of Odin kick and stomp on him, including Baseball Hat, smiling in gleeful revenge despite his bloody nose. Pimpleface is too busy cradling his injured hand, and the kid stands apart from the mess, looking conflicted.

The priest kneels by Zachary's head, cutting a lock of hair loose while saying something in a Nordic language.

The blood on the amplifier is the tipping point. A man appears at the mouth of the alley, his red-brown skin undercut with a pallid grey tone. He's tall and broad-shouldered, and he has a look of pure fury on his face as he steps into the alleyway.

He's almost soundless as he grabs the closest person to him by the back of he head and slams their face into the side of one of the buildings. //

The kid tries to call out for help, but the sound turns to an unintelligble gurgle against the hard brick wall. Some still-wet paint smears against his face.

"Shit, it's him! Run!"

The rest of the Sons of Odin take one look at Hungry and scatter. Pimpleface and Baseball Hat sprint away as fast as they can. Tattoos grins and raises his knife, turning away from Zachary's prone form. The priest turns to leave with them, but as he stands up, Zachary reaches up a hand to smack weakly at the priest's legs, delivering a jolt of electricity that makes him startle and trip to the ground.

Reese peeks out from behind the dumpster at the commotion and immediately regrets it, shrinking back as soon as they can see that Zachary is being left alone. Gore on a screen is one thing, but the visceral crunch is much more *real* in person. They step back out after the fleeing Sons run past them, clutching their bat. They steel themselves to take on the remaining member if they have to, but they're only really expecting to help Zachary up while the newcomer takes care of it. They carefully ignore the bloody mess of the kid's face, not looking at the ground.

The Revenant glares at the punk with the tattoos. "Unless that's a special knife, it's not gonna do much to me," he growls as he lets the kid drop and steps forward to continue the fight. He curls his fingers, and in place of them he suddenly has claws. "I'd think about running, were I you." //

The priest makes a gesture with his hand, and everybody in the area is flooded with obstinate stubbornness. The ethereal robes around his form flares, visible only in the Sight.

Tattoo's grin widens. "Heheh, your brawn against my brains? I'll take that anyday."

Meanwhile, the priest slinks away.

"You can't be *too* smart, fighting me on your own." He shrugs and darts in, claws flashing out to attempt to rip the cocky fucker's throat out. //

Tattoos holds out the knife to block, which the Revenant's slash blows right through before tearing open his neck. Tattoos dies with the barest hint of surprise showing on his manic face.

The Revenant scoffs and kicks the body aside. "Wait here," he orders the two strangers before he takes off after the Priest.

"Cocksucker!" he snarls. "Stop running and face me like a man!" //

Reese crouches down, checking to see how hurt Zachary is. They go to unwrap the chain from his hand, snatching their hand back like it was burned as they feel the flicker of a foreign memory and a phantom sensation around their throat. Covering their hand with their sleeve, they try again, removing the chain and tossing it aside.

"God, fuck, are you okay?"

Zachary doesn't answer for a while, breathing fast and harsh as he finally is able to take in a full two lung's worth of air.

He rolls up to a sitting position, then lifts up his shirt, taking stock of the black and blue bruises blossoming over the his abdomen. At least nothing feels broken. His arms and legs are much worse, having taken the brunt of the blows.

"Hrrrrng. Could be -- much worse," Zachary says.

Reese grimaces as they take stock of Zachary's injuries.

"Could be a lot better, too," they mutter.

They offer their hand to help Zachary stand.

Zachary ignores Reese's hand and gingerly stands up by himself, wincing at every new bruise he discovers. He pulls at the collar of his shirt around his neck, and swears when he discovers it can't go any looser, bringing his knife out to slice down the front several inches. Then he swears again, this time for *forgetting he had a knife* as the Sons of Odin beat him.

He looks around for his staff, and finds it lying a few feet away. Next to it is a fallen toy model of a viking ship.

Well, technically he must have won his challenge to the spirits. The Sons of Odin *had* gotten a shitstorm or another unleashed upon him, whatever had gone on with that other stranger.

Zachary gestures at the items on the ground. "Can you pick that up for me? Both things?"

"Y-yeah, sure."

Reese tucks their bat under one arm and bends down to pick up the staff and the ship. They hand them over to Zachary, then look around for the discarded chain. They certainly don't want the thing, but they want to leave it around for someone else to stumble upon even less. They take off their jacket and use it to pick up the chain, wrapping everything up so that no metal is exposed, and tuck the bundle under their arm after shifting the bat back to their hand.

At that moment, a banging sound comes from one of the nearby windows. "Hey! What's going on! I have a gun and I'm not afraid to use it!"

Zachary looks at Reese. "Let's go."

With the actual killer gone, the situation Reese and Zachary are in would *not* look good if any Innocents came by. Or anyone, really. Sure, they'll leave their savior hanging, but they'll take that over getting caught with multiple corpses. They hurry out of the alley, back towards the intersection, supporting Zachary if needed.

Zachary limps out onto the streets as fast as he can, refusing help from Reese. The sun is still on its last bloody legs on its horizon, drenching everything in a dark red-gold. Sirens sound in the distance.

The train station is nearly empty of people at this hour. Reese takes Zachary into the single gender neutral bathroom of the station, locking the door behind them. Once inside, they snap a charm off their bracelet, revealing a first aid kit.

Zachary hisses as Reese bandages one of the larger cuts in his arms, nearly pulling away. "Jesus fucking Christ -- ow --"

When Reese is done, nearly a quarter of Zachary's arms have been covered in white gauze, with a few strips on his legs too. Zachary looks down at the sheer extent of his injuries, expression kept forcibly flat.

"Worth."

Reese gives Zachary the most tired look they can muster, not deigning to respond out loud. Mostly because they don't want to get in a gainsaying argument after everything else. They're much lighter on injuries, sporting only a single bandage over the cut they gave themselves. They feel a bit guilty about the disparity there, but not extremely. No sense in charging in as an inexperienced combatant and giving Zachary another person to keep safe besides himself. They busy themselves with reapplying the glamour to the first aid kit, transforming it back into a silver snake charm.

Once it's back on the bracelet, they start to turn towards the door, then pause.

"...Are you too hurt for a hug?"

Zachary draws his arms around himself, hunching his shoulders slightly. "What? I mean, no, but -- fine. No."

Reese falters at his change in body language.

"Do you... *want* one? I mean, it's fine if you don't, I get it after all that."

"I already said -- you know what, nevermind, not wording well right now." Zachary steps closer and thunks his head into Reese's chest for a few seconds. His shoulders relax just a small fraction. "This works as is. Can we go now?"

"Yeah, don't want to miss the train."

Reese opens the bathroom door and steps out, trying not to think too hard about the fact that they'll be holding a very fucked up ghost for most of the ride back to New York.

"...You know, I think I changed my stance on going to Calvarn to 'probably never.'"

Zachary, meanwhile, tries very hard not to think too hard about the fact that he just saw more people die in front of him in the past hour than in the rest of his life combined. "Yeah, no shit. Don't want to say that those Nazi fuckers scared me off of Calvarn, but... yeah."

They board the train shortly after that, Zachary immediately claiming a window seat to slide bonelessly into the wall. He places his hand over Reese's from the next seat over, squeezing more than strictly necessary, as the other stares blankly into the seat ahead. It's a welcome distraction from the anxious tumult of thoughts in their brain.

The ride back is an uncomfortable one, stretching into the late hours of the night. Each of them are more than happy to leave Fellward behind.

((Intermission, one more epilogue forthcoming))

A few minutes later, the Revenant comes back into the alley with the Priest's body over one shoulder. He heaves out a sigh when he sees the other two have disappeared, leaving him with not enough hands to carry all the bodies. He looks between Tattoos and the kid and goes for the larger one, hefting it up onto his other shoulder before making his way towards the woods. Luckily they're close by, for both his sake and the two people who summoned him.

He makes his way to the big tree where he's been lying low, stashes the two bodies, and sends a message to Elara to let her know. Then he collapses onto the roots and closes his eyes.

((Scene))