The Haunted Man (Cedar Fields)

Feb 14th, 2014 11:08 AM

Silence.

Cedar Fields' Embalming and Preparation Rooms were filled with this weighty stillness. David was used to this, welcomed it, and was well-accustomed to the feeling. His Guest tonight was a young woman who's drinking addiction was her undoing. It was an accident, she popped herself out of the sunroof of a limousine at the worst possible moment imaginable.

The blunt force trauma, combined with her thin blood at the time, killed her instantly.

David moved about the room, arranging his images of the sons of Horus with his characteristic reverence. “I'm sorry,” he said to the dead woman lying on the slab, “that it came so suddenly.” Taking a moment, the Mortician put on his full-body gown reaching behind his head to tie it. “My name is David,” he introduces himself as he retrieves his hair net, “I'll be taking care of you tonight.”

The Shadow's movements are deft, having grown up around these rooms, this stillness, and death since he could walk. “It is a shame that you can't tell of the Green.” The last -- in David's mind -- mystery: what was a 'good death?' And was it truly lost for someone balanced between the gates of horn and ivory?

Gloved and with his clear face-mask on, he sets to preparing the embalming fluid: a bright pink lanolin-based liquid designed to restore some color to the Guest. David also began to sing. The Mortician's voice was a low warbling tenor, just above the sounds of the machines preparing the fluid, and in a language long, long dead.

<< Hail, O ye who make perfect souls to enter into the House of Osiris, make ye the well-instructed soul of the Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is true, to enter in and to be with you in the House of Osiris. Let him hear even as ye hear; let him have sight even as ye have sight; let him stand up even as ye stand up; let him take his seat even as ye take your seats.” >>

Chrisie

**Martha Villiers** · Feb 14th, 2014 11:46 AM

Martha made her way towards the sound of work in the preparation room.

She wrapped her cloak about her, gripped at her cane and hobbled closer to the room...taking care to shroud herself with Obfuscate.

As she hobbles closer she can hear the tell-tale words of the Egyptian 'Book of the Dead.' Her anxiety at an intruder eases at the recognition.

Not wishing to intrude upon the incantation she hobbled as quietly as she dare, creeping closer and closer to watch David at work...but realizing she wasn't fully invisible, she's working hard to be as quiet as possible...

Ready with a smile for David.

Feb 14th, 2014 12:20 PM

<<”My heart whereby I came into being! May nought stand up to oppose me at [my] judgment, may there be no opposition to me in the presence of the Chiefs (Tchatchau); may there be no parting of thee from me in the presence of him that keepeth the Balance! ”>>

Swaddled in the protective coverings of gowns and clear masks the lanky, thin David might cut an altogether stranger figure. His prayers, implored the young woman's heart to not betray her as she is weighed against the Ma'at feather and it is at this point the fluid is ready.

Methodical and precise in his workings, David inserts the strange metal insert into the woman's Carotid. The slow process of pushing out her blood and replacing it with the formaldehyde fluid was just beginning. Care was a watchword for David in these moments. A care and concern that was lacking in a world that would rather not look at the end. A world that would rather avoid the end.

Even Kindred.

Especially Kindred.

Perception 1 Success

Martha was quiet, near silent, but David was a fellow of the quiet and darkness of Cedar Fields. And so the tiny, insignificant tap of her cane was just picked up by the Mortician. Looking up and to the entry to the rooms, he noticed the Grand Wyrm.

After a quick check to the embalming fluid and excusing himself from the Guest, he stepped towards Martha, lifting up his clear face-mask and pulling down his surgical face mask. “Evening Ma'am. I didn't think there would be any here when Dr. French called me in.”

**Martha Villiers** · Feb 18th, 2014 10:20 AM

"Good evening." she whispers and nodding respectfully to David.

"I always try to see all is well. Is all well, sir? The young lady...you are attending to her I see. I hope your orisons guide her well." she nods respectfully to David.

Martha was interested to hear David talk about his work, but it occurred to her she might be interrupting a vital moment.

"Please, sir, continue your Art. I shall remain as a spectator, if I may. Or help too, if you require it." and she offered another shy smile.

Feb 18th, 2014 11:26 AM

“It is, thank you,” David answers, his voice even quieter than it normally is. An enigmatic smile forms and the Mortician nods, stepping away and replacing his protective masks as he returns to his Guest. By now, the fluid's work is nearly complete. The woman's skin regaining that blush of life both Kindred feign so readily.

A certain weight filled the air. Similar to the calm cultivated at the Nox Populi Elysia, but different somehow. Almost heavier in its intimacy. David resumed his songs, spells, and orisons, his quavering tenor a companion to the soul speeding into the Underworld.

<<Anubis - Pay good heed, O righteous Judge to the Balance to support [the testimony] thereof. Variant: Pay good heed to the weighing in the Balance of the heart of the Osiris, the singing-woman of Amun, Anhai, whose word is truth, and place you her heart in the seat of truth in the presence of the Great god.>>

Despite the affectation of modernity, the art was still at its core the same: giving closure and protection of that which has come before. It was something that David could give, even if he would never have it himself.

Carefully removing the insert from the woman's vein, he turned off the machine. David then set to the delicate work of sewing the vein shut with deft, deliberate movement. It is a slow, solitary process but the Shadow did not seem to mind as he brought the white sheet over his Guest.

**Martha Villiers** · Feb 18th, 2014 11:39 AM

As the ritual advanced and David returned to his work Martha feared she'd somehow intrude or disrupt a sacred moment

Careful to avoid making a noise tiny Martha laid down her cane and stood still. Silent and watchful she paid attention to David's ancient Rituals.

Feb 18th, 2014 12:21 PM

Like Johan had always impressed upon his erstwhile childe, there was a difference between knowing and understanding. Practicing these rituals himself, connected David both to his blood and to the rivers of History that stands eternal.

Nodding slightly towards Martha, David wheels the young woman's body from the small embalming room. The wheels of the gurney were well oiled, silently turning end over end towards their next location: the larger preparation room.

David's prayers didn't abate, segueing easily from the Speech of the Gods, to warning what the frightful chimera beast Am-Mit looked like.

Once in the preparation room, new implements are brought about to prepare the Guest: towels, soap, water and make-up. Strange, perhaps, how much the memes surrounding funerary preparation have changed – from mummification, to death masks, to open casket funerals. But looking closer, it is all far more similar than it first appears.

The Mortician pulled down his Guest's sheet to the neck and laid a warm towel on her face, beginning to wash her arms and legs.

<<”Who is this? It is Ra, the creator of the names of his limbs, which came into being in the form of the gods who are in the train of Ra. 'I am he who cannot be repulsed among the gods.'" >>

**Martha Villiers** · Feb 20th, 2014 10:48 AM

Martha followed with as much grace and dignity as she could muster. In truth, she felt very small indeed. Made puny by the sheer power of the ancient rituals and the sanctity of the words David was incanting.

She followed close at hand. Martha doubted he'd need her help, but she was there if he needed it.

Staying silent, Martha watched in awe.

Feb 20th, 2014 11:57 AM

<<”Who is this? 'It is Temu, the dweller in his disk, but others say that it is Ra when he rises in the eastern horizon of the sky.' I am Yesterday, I know Today.">>

While Martha may have felt small and puny in the face of thousands of years of History; David felt at peace and at ease. He took solace in knowing that he was a member of a greater whole and that his toil, as unfashionable as it was, would ripple across lives and perhaps even reach the Gods themselves. Just as the lowly Scarab beetle, as it pushed along its balls of dung, became a vital symbol of revolution and transformation.

Before the pair, David's work transformed the guest into the visage of who she was, and who the family wanted to remember. While his song counseled on the Gods the Guest will come into contact with, David's practiced hands methodically fixed her hair, trimmed her nails and toes, and fixed her make-up. The Guest was a lovely woman, but even the lovely have their demons and even her loveliness couldn't stop Death from coming.

By the time the Mortician was finished, his Guest looked nearly alive.

<<”What is this? "'Hidden in form, given of Menhu,' is the name of the "tomb. 'He who seeth what is on his hand' is the name of Qerau, or, as others say, it is the name of the Block. "Now, he whose mouth shines and whose head moveth is the phallus of Osiris, but others say it is [the phallus] of Ra. 'you spreadest your hair, and I shake it out over his brow" is said concerning Isis, who hideth in her hair, and draweth it round about her. "Uatchet, the Lady of Flames, is the Eye of Ra.">>

Once he returned the Guest to her casket and to her place of waiting, David began to pull off his masks and gloves. Silence, reclaimed its domain now that David's songs were finished. Unsure of what to say, David simply smiled bashfully to Martha, stepping aside to toss his gloves into the bio-hazard containers.

**Martha Villiers** · Feb 26th, 2014 10:51 AM

Martha didn't know what to say either. It was all very mysterious. She'd seen Death in many forms, stood vigil over corpses...but never had she seen such a ritual conducted with such solemnity and power.

She did what she felt was sensible. She offered David a humble curtsy.

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2014-02-14 11:43:39		Martha Villiers rolls 9 to Ob 3 (Int+Stealth+Obf) = 9 (10 Again)		6, 7, 2, 2, 2, 1, 6, 4, 3		failure

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2014-02-14 12:11:49		David Regan rolls 6 to Perception (Wits + Comp) (10 Again)		10, 3, 3, 3, 4, 2, 7		1 success

The Haunted Man (Cedar Fields)

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