This is for adding a Search Category to the thread.
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Occultation
Val's quiet for a little bit, looking down at the gun in her lap.
"I don't know. I mean, I'm so angry at him right now, but it was really, really bad back there. The entire time every single instinct was screaming at me to 'run away, run away now'. Some people just aren't suited to be cops." She says this like someone's told her this before and she didn't like the way it sounded when they told her.
"I guess most people just can't handle zombies."
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Occultation
Val is still a little shaken up about the whole zombie thing that she suddenly realises that she's sitting in a stranger's car. She must have lost more blood than she realized to be acting so rashly.
"I tried calling 911 before, but it transfered over to someone named Zilker, and he told me to wait here. Said something about a Veil"
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"The Guardians of the Veil," Orphan says, nodding. "They are an order of mages dedicated to keeping knowledge of our kind and of magic from falling into the hands of those who are not ready to Awaken, and those who might use the knowledge to hurt us or try to turn magic toward evil ends. Did your phone store his number?"
Without even giving her time to reply, Orphan barrels on. "You have every right to be angry at your mentor. What happened, from what I've gotten from what you've said, was horrible, and anyone in their right mind would be afraid, but that's not an excuse to abandon an ally, or a student, on the battlefield. He failed in his most basic duty as a mentor." He turns to look at Val. "You could have run, but you tried to save your fallen friend, and kept trying even though you might have been killed. What you did was very brave. When you're feeling a little better and have rested, I'd like to talk to you about the Adamantine Arrow. That's the order I belong to... a lot of people characterize us as warrior mages, and we do go into battle against the things that need to be fought, but our most basic duty is to serve and protect the Awakened society. Sort of like magic cops, I guess," he says, half-smiling. "And no, not everone is suited to being a cop. Your bravery though, trying to save a fallen companion... well, I get a sense you might have what it takes to be a cop, or an Arrow. Another thing is for sure... no Arrow would behave as your mentor did. An Arrow mentor would have stayed and protected you, or died trying."
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Occultation
Val sat in the car , hoping that she wasn't ruining Orphan's seats.
"I dialed 911 on Ghoster's phone, but I got that buzzy-tingling feeling I get when Something's going on and the call switched over to him. I don't know if the same thing would happen with my phone, but if it doesn't I'll get emergency services and my number is on record. There will be questions that I'm not sure how to answer."
She just sits while he talks about his Order, thinking about things. There were so many things that had happened that she was having problems keeping them separated in her head.
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"Smart thinking, Valkyrie." Orphan pulls over. "If you hand me your phone, I can see if I can figure out that 'something's going on' thing and call him back. It would be good to let this Zilker guy, the Guardians, know what is going on and that I took you from that location for your own safety. And if he has a problem with that, the brunt will fall on me, not you."
At the same time, Orphan thinks to himself "Not really sure I can figure out what sort of mojo he did and reverse-engineer it. If it's some sort of Forces thing, I'm screwed, plus with it being a Guardian, the mojo is probably cloaked all to hell, but it's worth giving it a shot. If nothing else, me trying to ping on his spell might register back to him and get him to call back."
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Orphan then realizes an important part of what Val had said earlier. "You said you used Ghoster's phone. Do you still have it?"
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Occultation
Val hands him both phones. "I'm sorry, it was all busted up when I threw it and I didn't want to damage it any more."
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"No apology necessary." Orphan takes the phones from Val and examines the damaged one. "Let's see how badly damaged it is. If it isn't completely trashed and Fate is on our side, I might be able to pull this off, and even if the phone doesn't work, I might be able to mojo the, um, mojo somehow."
Orphan then carefully opens up and tries out the damaged phone to see if it is even minimally functional.
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~~Narration~~
Ghoster's phone chirps when buttons are pushed, but the screen is unreadable.
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((I mentioned earlier that Orphan had pulled over. They're at the side of the road, after having driven a ways from Val's car.))
"Alright, the display's busted, but it still works some, so I can work with that," Orphan says.
Orphan remembers how confused he was in the days and weeks immediately after his Awakening, and realizes he has an opportunity to show Val a bit about how magic works – something she'd apparently not gotten much of so far. So, he explains to Val:
"In a bit, I'm going to try to use a spell to make the phone work better. I also want to figure out how that thing with Zilker intercepting your 911 call worked, though, and if I do the fix spell first, it might make it harder to read the magic that caused the 911 intercept to happen. Magic on top of magic can muddy the water, sort of. So, first I'm going to look back in time a bit to see if I can figure out that Zilker thing. That probably doesn't make a lot of sense, but I want you to try to focus on that "something's happening" effect you sometimes get and follow along with what I'm doing. We can talk it over later then, ‘k?"
Orphan then takes some time to pull up an Imago of the effect he wants. He already has Mage Sight up, but he wants to look back in time a bit to see what magic allowed this Guardian, Zilker, to intercept Val's call. He tried to estimate as best he could when he'd found her in her car, and decided to look a few moments earlier in time than that, since she'd been on the phone when he found her. "Sort of like doing Postcognition, but looking into the past of an object rather than a location. Still Unveiling, though, so it should work."
Spoiler
Next Orphan tries to analyze the resonance of whatever spell was in effect at that time.
Spoiler
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