It had been a busy and... interesting morning.

Thirteen had woken from an odd dream. She'd been back in Arcadia, moving through the mercurial landscape towards her Watchtower. Retracing the steps of her original Awakening. Yet this time, she got through it all faster. Faster was still not fast, however. The redhead still stubbornly bulled her way through obstacles, but not all of them. A few she was more clever about, this time. One, she actually trusted in luck to see her through. When she reached her goal, she found her name there, on the wall of the silvery tower, just as she'd left it. She'd extended a hand to touch it, but that was when the dream ended.

When the Acanthus had come to, finding herself safely in her bed, and she felt a bit off. Or maybe more on, than usual. It wasn't something she could put into words.

Sitting up, bare feet to the floor, instinct led her to test something. High Speech uttered, Imago imagined. A simple Time techne, and...

3 successes


Yes! Something was different. The improvised spell came through more clearly. Her connection to the Lunargent Watchtower was stronger. The Libertine let the spell lapse and got dressed.

More testing was needed, and the Scottish lass got it when she set about her monthly rituals. Normally they took all day, a solid 13 hours of casting. Today, they took half that time, and were much more potent.

She smiled. An unexpected boon to start off the month.

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Later, Thirteen was outside. It was a bit of an overcast day, but that didn't bother her. Perched along the radio station's roof line, and up among the tall steel structure of the radio tower, the murder of crows cawed at her in greeting. Jinx had finally led them here from their former residence, and the birds had adjusted quickly. They seemed to like the tower.

Everything was set up. The station was clean, the utilities repaired. All of her possessions were now moved in. There was still more to do, but the basics were complete. The old radio station was home now.

Her phone streamed a local Sacramento rock station. Metallica's Wherever I May Roam played as Thirteen knelt and sorted through a cardboard box.

"Whatcha doing?" Jinx asked, from where he sat on the concrete eave over the front door.

"Well, as I've found myself with extra free time today, I've decided to get on a wee project. I'd planned to do it tomorrow, but the Consilium meetin' isn't for hours yet," she answered as she pulled a spray can from the box, not looking up at her familiar.

"Mmm, right. The meeting. I saw you got your outfit all picked out, and those grizzled things are in the fridge."

"Gizzadas, and don't touch 'em!" she gave the nosy, hungry crow-spirit a look.

"The accusation hurts, Dorothy." He did not sound hurt. "I wasn't gonna! What's with the spray paint? Got tired of the motorcycle's color?"

"Nae. Gonna christen our new home!" The Enchantress smirked as she pulled on a pair of black rubber gloves and shook the spray can. Black paint, to start.

"This ought to be good." Jinx settled down to watch.

Black, green, purple, white. A combination of colors she sprayed onto the front wall of the station. Whatever she was making, the image was far larger than the preexisting graffiti, some even being covered up by it.

It took nearly three hours before it was complete, and Thirteen was satisfied with her artwork. By that time, the radio stream was playing AC/DC's Highway to Hell.

Graffiti! 7 successes


"Perfect!" she grinned, proud of her masterpiece. She pulled the gloves off and stood triumphant. Some spots of paint had gotten on her clothing, but they were old jeans, sneakers and a tee shirt that wore for working on her bike, so they already had old grease stains baked in.

Jinx had spent all this time either preening, napping, chatting with the mundane crows, or helping himself to the murder's feed. The Acanthus's announcement drew him back over to witness the final work, landing on her shoulder.

K R O W

Large, stylized, colorful letters. A call sign for the new sanctum.

The familiar tilted his head to one side, a little confused. "Uh, I thought we were calling it WCAW?"

"Always a critic!" She snorted. "W call signs are for east of the Mississippi River. Here in the western U.S., radio and telly stations start with a K."

"Oh. I did not know that."

"I could fill a bloody library with what you don't know."

"Don't get grouchy, Oscar! I wasn't coming down on it. I actually like Kay Arr Oh Dubya better, I think."

"Thanks. Rolls off the tongue," the Libertine nodded.

"Yeah! Nice work, Red! What's that spell, anyway?" the crow laughed.

"Funny! C'mon, we should get cleaned up and head for the Circle." She smirked and started putting the spray paint away.

"I'll wear my tux!"