LL&H: Sleeping interest

[Thirteen]

"You mean a postcog?" the Acanthus responded as she continued to scroll through web search results. "I can do that. Even have the rote. But that's a no go. For one thing, it's vulgar magic, so I'm not doin' it here. Second, I need a specific time and place to view. I can't just go fishin' in the radio's time stream and hope I catch somethin'." She shrugged, "I could try peekin' into the radio's future, but I'd need the right questions to ask first. Also, again, vulgar."

Thirteen wasn't sure what the Mastigos meant by perfect number. She was not a mathematician. Her search results, meanwhile, had her looking confused.

"The fook? This 46 FM station is in the UK! How are we gettin' the signal all the way over here?" More scrolling through results, some quick reading of web pages. "The 28 channels are... either very short range civvie channels, or a CB channel in Europe. And 55 AM... let's see... an antenna tuner for HAM radios? But back home it's a BBC radio station. 55 FM is for walkie talkies."

The red-haired Scot looked up from her phone, scowling in thought. "Tune through those stations, would you? Let's see if we pick them up, too." Another few moments of thought. "I'm no radio expert, but I recall something about numbers stations and how they work. They're short range radio broadcasts, but they can bounce off the ionosphere to reach receivers far beyond the horizon. That's why they were used to transmit coded messages to spies in other countries. That could be what's happenin' here? Not the spy shite, but the signal range."

Thirteen stared at the radio. If there was one thing she hadn't done yet, it was to Scrutinize the damn thing. She took a breath and focused all of her attention on the radio.

Scrut da Radio! 5 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2026-02-25 09:33:47	[04] Thirteen rolls 4 to Scrut da Radio Int + Occult (10 Again)	4, 3, 8, 7	1 success
2026-02-25 09:33:47	[03] Thirteen rolls 4 to Scrut da Radio Int + Occult (10 Again)	5, 7, 10, 3, 5	1 success
2026-02-25 09:33:47	[02] Thirteen rolls 4 to Scrut da Radio Int + Occult (10 Again)	9, 2, 2, 4	1 success
2026-02-25 09:33:47	[01] Thirteen rolls 4 to Scrut da Radio Int + Occult (10 Again)	8, 6, 10, 7, 6	2 successes

Aiming for both Identity and Nature of the radio, as per Mage Sight for Scrutinizing Beings & Objects. Nature foremost.

Equipment

Dedicated magical tool, light revolver (2L), knife (1L), motorcycle, motorcycle helmet, motorcycle jacket (1/0), smartphone, ID and some cash, keychain with keys, driving gloves, bottled water, ink pen and notepad, backpack, duct tape, flashlight baton, automotive tools (in motorcycle saddlebag). One weird broken radio.

Spells and Stats

Active spells: (R2) Sybils Sight (Mage Sight), (R2) Fortunes Protection (Mage Armor), (2) Paths of Power.
Health:
Mana:
Willpower:
Defense: 3
Armor: 3 (spell), 1/0 (jacket)
Initiative: 6
Speed: 10
Spell Tolerance: 3/2
Spell Control: 3/5
Paradox: 0

[Salem]

Salem is shaken from his pondering by Thirteen's response. He blinks at her and canting his head ever so slightly in confusion. "Are you sure? I'm certain that I've seen someone do it before and it was golden to my gaze. As far as the when, yeah.. that's a good point. Is there not a way of sensing or measuring how much time an object has existed? I might just be reaching there, I don't know. I haven't learned that Arcanum yet, though I certainly plan to."

He listens to the explanation of the stations and nods. "That is weird to catch them all the way from the UK..." he says as he starts to turn the dial on the radio. He goes to the closest number they know, sliding the dial up to 55 and waits there for a moment or two, checking for anything obviously out of the ordinary before dialing down to 28. He'll again wait there for a few moments before trying a theory of his own and dialing the radio to 10 last.

Equipment

Wallet, Keys, Smartphone (Dedicated Tool), Pepper Spray, Leather Jacket

Spells and Stats

Active Spells:
Mental Shield Potency 1
Read Matrices Potency 2
Third Eye Potency 1
Gain Skill (Occult) Potency 1
Health:
Mana: 4
Willpower: 6
Armor: 1/0 (Jacket)
Defense: 2
Active Spells: 4
Spell Tolerance: 4
Vulgar Spells: 0

[ReubanBrightwood]

The contemplation of vulgar magic, for all magic involving sympathy be it spacial or temporal is indeed vulgar enough to make reality buck and risk the paradox's of the abyss, is the constant risk reward question of the awakened. Their most powerful magics, their best tools come with risk and cost (not to mention the risk of breaching secrecy) and while teh car offers some privacy the two libertines are still in a public place with passers by and the like that could happen upon them at the worst time if luck was against them.

Even bouncing off and through layers of the earths atmosphere a few hops between earth and ionosphere would enable round the world broadcasting and does work best on frequencies in the 7-30 MHz range it does impact quality of broadcast and depending on atmospheric conditions carries risk of passing through the atmosphere into space. The quality of broadcast from the music channel makes this seem unlikely although certainly not impossible.

Working through the stations:

28 AM is currently quite, no one locally broadcasting

28 FM gets: Het lijkt erop dat er verderop een file staat, wat naar verwachting een paar uur vertraging zal veroorzaken.

[tip=Got that thanks for the heads up I'll see if I can get off on a side road to keep rolling.] Oké, bedankt voor de tip. Ik zal kijken of ik via een zijweg verder kan rijden. /tip]


55 AM: Favours the BBC signal it would seem as they get the reports from Rachel Burden and Rick Edwards about events in the uk today and their views on the headlines from across the country.

55 FM: Gets a babble from what sound like organisers or security for the flea market. Reports about rubbish that needs clearing, someone checking on as they patrol sounding fairly laid back about it, a heads up the burger van is going to close soon.

Thirteen takes her turn at scrutiny that intense focused stare to peel back the layers of identity. She takes in the radios unique fingerprint, if she should encounter it again she would know if it is the same radio. What is probably more interesting is that while it certainty is not the entire radio something inside of registers to her awareness as ... Oricalcum.