(TRtH) The next Step

[Aeolus]

It had been a few weeks since Apollo and some colleagues (who had moved on since then) have met a woman in distress outside the Open Hand community center.
Tonight was another of those weirdly effective NA meetings. The stories and gossip around it have subsided a bit, but after asking around for a bit both Shamans could be pretty sure that those meetings were still going strong, were still doing whatever they did to those poor people.

Monica - the sick woman they met last time - told Apollo and the others about a special offer extended to those who wanted to cut corners in kicking their habit. She was a bit vague on the details, but apparently hypnosis was involved to make the participants feel sick whenever they thought about the vice of their choice.

When Aurora and Apollo arrived there were no people outside - probably because of the light rain that doused the outside with grey and wetness. They were not late, so they could either try to blend in or go dig around some other way.

It'd work if they worked it.

Aurora Apollo your plot starts here.
Please include your active spells, stats, and equipment in each post.

[Apollo]

Apollo was slightly earlier than the intended, still it worked for him. He took up position across the street from the centre while he waited for Aurora. It gave him a few moments, to concentrate, mutter some words of power and prepare himself for their investigation. He needed to see and speak with Spirits, maybe they had seen something that would help. Supernal Vision wouldn't go a miss either.


After the first part of the investigation he was still suspicious, despite his research on hypnosis. Something about this still didn't seem right. It worked well.... too well.

Stats

Spirit Tongue , Supernal Vision ¦ Active Spells: 2/5 ¦ Personal Spells: 2/3 ¦ Vulgar Spells: 0 ¦

Equipment

Jeans, t-shirt, trainers, Smartphone, Wallet (Debit card, credit card, bus ticket, $50 cash), Copper Necklace with wooden pendant (Magical Tool), Tactical Knife, keys, pen, small notebook

Dice Rolls

Spirit Tongue

5 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2022-06-29 15:38:13	Apollo rolls 6 to Presence + Socialize + Spirit + High Speach (10 Again)	2, 8, 10, 10, 8, 1, 8, 4	5 successes

Supernal Vision (Prime)

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2022-06-29 15:40:19	Apollo rolls 4 to Gnosis + Prime + High Speach (10 Again)	6, 1, 8, 10, 7	2 successes

[Aurora]

Aurora had driven, but had parked her car a couple blocks away and walked to address. The rain didn’t bother her in the slightest, and she figured it might help them blend in better.

She wore regular jeans, but with holes at the knees, a black t-shirt and a black old leather jacket. One she didn’t mind getting wet or damaged, in case. No makeup for her, and her hair was left down. It was a toss up on if she could blend in or not without magic, but hell, she was going to try.

Now it was hard to miss Apollo, guy was fucking huge. Walking over, hands in her pockets, “Hey.” Not sure what name he used around Sleepers.

Stats

[3]Pulse of the Living World [6]
[3] Organic Resilience (Armor 6)

Health:
Mana:
WP:
Armor 6
Defense 2

Active Spells: 2/7
Personal Spells: 3
Vulgar Spells: 0 (0 to Paradox)

Equipment

Cell phone on silent, dedicated magic tool(cooper arm band, right arm) car keys, $20 in two tens

[Aeolus]

The two Mages gathered outside the community center and exchanged pleasantries.

Apollo has checked the Twilight for Spirits and walked away from that almost empty-handed: there was a resonance of caring around, and he hasn't looked into it enough into to clarify that intent of other people around him. In other words: the place might harbor some good intentions, but there was more to find.

[Apollo]

Apollo was slightly disappointed there were no spirits around, but the spell was still up and if any were inside he would certainly see them, then again there could be none but it was better to air on the side of caution. He smiled at Aurora "Hey, nice to see you outside of book club.... Aaron... just in case you are as bad with names as I am"

"Whats the plan on this one. Ask questions, pretend we want the shortcut and see what they are up to?"

Stats

[3] Spirit Tongue [1], Supernal Vision [1] ¦ Active Spells: 2/5 ¦ Personal Spells: 2/3 ¦ Vulgar Spells: 0 ¦

Equipment

Jeans, t-shirt, trainers, Smartphone, Wallet (Debit card, credit card, bus ticket, $50 cash), Copper Necklace with wooden pendant (Magical Tool), Tactical Knife, keys, pen, small notebook

Dice Rolls

Spirit Tongue

5 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2022-06-29 15:38:13	Apollo rolls 6 to Presence + Socialize + Spirit + High Speach (10 Again)	2, 8, 10, 10, 8, 1, 8, 4	5 successes

Supernal Vision (Prime)

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2022-06-29 15:40:19	Apollo rolls 4 to Gnosis + Prime + High Speach (10 Again)	6, 1, 8, 10, 7	2 successes

[Aurora]

A small smile offered, “I try to make them let me out every now and then.” She jokes. “Madison, because yes, I am really bad with names too.” A little smirk, it was true. Shadow names was hard to remember.

Looking to the building, she shrugs, “Not sure if either one of us could pass for needing whatever they are offering.” Not without a little bit of magic to help anyways. "Unless we claim to be in recovery but have felt ourselves slipping." shrugging again, “Could always go with a story of a friend in need of help, but we wanted to make sure it was legit before getting their hopes up. Or we stumbled into the wrong meeting.” Either could work. If they got stories straight and all that good stuff. “Or college kids doing a paper on addiction and word on the streets is this is the place to get the best help.” Passing for a college aged kid might be a bit past her at this age, but not Apollo. She wouldn't lie, she was hoping he already had an in figured out. "Whatever we go with, we should keep it simple and believable."

Stats

[3]Pulse of the Living World [6]
[3] Organic Resilience (Armor 6)

Health:
Mana:
WP:
Armor 6
Defense 2

Active Spells: 2/7
Personal Spells: 3
Vulgar Spells: 0 (0 to Paradox)

Equipment

Cell phone on silent, dedicated magic tool(cooper arm band, right arm)

[Aeolus]

With the various Spirit-related problems that have been going on lately not seeing any in Twilight here might be a blessing and a curse. And continuing with his idea of going in prepared the two Shamans talk strategy. The empty streets allowed them to do so without any obvious witnesses for their planned subterfuge.
They just couldn't know how long they'd stay alone.

Just give me a heads up when you're heading in and what your course of action is.

[Apollo]

Stats

[3] Spirit Tongue [1], Supernal Vision [1] ¦ Active Spells: 2/5 ¦ Personal Spells: 2/3 ¦ Vulgar Spells: 0 ¦

Apollo thought for a couple of seconds. "I suppose it wouldn't be hard to believe that I use steroids. I mean I get accused of that all the time." The truth was he never had but it would be believable. "The alternative is go in and pretend that we want to volunteer? Or maybe reporters wanting to do a story on this new method that is working wonders?" which originally wasn't too far from the truth.

Equipment

Jeans, t-shirt, trainers, Smartphone, Wallet (Debit card, credit card, bus ticket, $50 cash), Copper Necklace with wooden pendant (Magical Tool), Tactical Knife, keys, pen, small notebook

Dice Rolls

Spirit Tongue

5 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2022-06-29 15:38:13	Apollo rolls 6 to Presence + Socialize + Spirit + High Speach (10 Again)	2, 8, 10, 10, 8, 1, 8, 4	5 successes

Supernal Vision (Prime)

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2022-06-29 15:40:19	Apollo rolls 4 to Gnosis + Prime + High Speach (10 Again)	6, 1, 8, 10, 7	2 successes

[Aurora]

She thinks over what he suggested. Going in an saying he used steroids could fly, but she didn’t like it. It wasn’t a drug she knew much about, so she wasn’t sure how to play that out.

“I say we go in as college students who need volunteer time.” There were places that required that of its students, wouldn’t be that farfetched. “It would fit for students in the medical field and for ones going into social work.” If her memory served right. “Or two people who got in trouble and need to volunteer per court order. But they might want paperwork for that one.” They needed to keep it simple. “So yah, I say we do this. Anything to be on the lookout for that you saw last time?”

Stats

[3]Pulse of the Living World [6]
[3] Organic Resilience (Armor 6)

Health:
Mana:
WP:
Armor 6
Defense 2

Active Spells: 2/7
Personal Spells: 3
Vulgar Spells: 0 (0 to Paradox)

Equipment

Cell phone on silent, dedicated magic tool(cooper arm band, right arm)

[Aeolus]

Even though they arrived with a bit of time to spare, if they didn't want to arrive in the middle of the meeting they'd have to move soon. And if they wanted to claim that they were just here for their studies it would be even more important to either catch the people responsible before the meeting.. or wait until it was over, since the weird stuff supposedly happened afterwards anyway. Those meetings relied on a safe space and even without much information the Shamans could see how complete outsiders who didn't share the suffering could be frowned upon.

Then again: all it took sometimes was a nice, convincing pitch.

Not completely shooting down your ideas, just putting out a possible concern.

Also, if you want to get in before the meeting starts you can have two more rounds of discussion.