November To Remember

November To Remember:

Disclaimer: The following is RP snippets for November Rain, the Blood Daughter of Fenris. The character Alex is played by Los, and the game is set in Rage Across New Orleans over in the Incomplete Sin board at InfinityBound. This scene takes place after the totem Fenris confronted the girl, and split his stomach open. She was bathed and drenched in his blood, and in fear she fled after this Baptism. I like to credit Los for his participation with his Son of Ether Mage. Alright, nuff said!

There was something just wrong with New Orleans.

It was, perchance, a simple, destructive effect of the flooding from Katrina.  Infrastructure was a damn nightmare, the place still didn't look quite rebuilt, and as far as he knew, the government hadn't yet gotten off it's ass to rebuild what defenses protected the city from nightmare floods.  Nightmare floods likely to strike again.  It was a matter of time; sooner or later the San Andreas was bound to go, a hurricane to slam the Gulf Coast, a new variant of influenza to bring waves of death.  Alexander was one of the many uselessly pealing the bells of forthcoming disaster, warning of the troubles to come.  Trying to do what could be done to stem a tide.  It was as if, collectively, the world wanted to fall, no matter how many moved to safeguard it.  Even his own life-quest was an attempt to patch the world.  A simple intellectual problem, now taking greater and greater import.

Though in all fairness to modernity, it seemed the world -always- wanted to die, and those few who had broken the strands of superstition and madness were the fingers in the dike.

But what Alexander felt -wrong- in New Orleans was worse than simple death.  The place seemed to offend.  It was a place brooding in anger and despair.  It was as if all that carnage of those watery graves had brought to a head the black-magic history and pain of New Orleans and made it manifest.  If, in more 'proper' terms, xenodimensionals had tasted the despair of the city and come for it, through whatever strange and terrible ways xenos did that.  New Orleans was foreboding disaster worse than the most hellish parts of any first world city he had ever visited.  The misery of a Mogadishu, or perhaps a Chechnya, might be worse, but nothing like this had ever impinged on his awareness in the 'civilized' earth.

Whatever the hell had happened to New Orleans, he did not know.  And Judas and his ilk seemed about as communicative and willing to discuss with reason as rampaging pitbulls.  The few other creatures he'd met, like the guhral and Sisilia, had managed to hone their fury like lethal, precise weapons.  Big Bear wasn't such a bad guy.  Sisilia, well…he just grinned, even under this New Orleans malaise…rememberi ng.

The malaise probably explained why that sick fuck was working out here.  But in part, only.  Yuri was a child of superstition and suffering; Alexander an exemplar of the age of Reason.  The Mogs, the Sri Lankas, the places where oppressed people lived in squalor, they were Yuri's favorite haunts.  He reveled in mortal misery.  Alexander, however, celebrated their triumphs.  He -was- in heart still human, as much as in blood.

He had to stay outside of the city.  Even if it was some redneck shithole, he needed away from 'Nya'olins.'  Climbing into the ZM4, he sped north to find some fairly clean hotel from which he could still wait to contact the pack again and deal with this new problem.  Also, better to get away from wherever that son of a bitch might be crafting new nightmares.

Something slowly dawned on his senses, then rocked them back like a shot.  A tear in the Tapestry, a terrible and painful one which reeked of Dynamism.  Something no instrument would be needed to feel.  Yet the tear, that horrid break in the Tellurian, was faint.  On these back roads, he could just floor it, and did.  A climbing needle on the tachometer showed a hundred, a hundred ten, a hundred thirty.

“You're an idiot, Alexander,” said the voice in the car.  Even as he sped up to reach where he felt the torn pattern, braking sharply when he reached it, the Etherite turned to his empty back seat and said, “Yes, I know.” 

Stopping only to grab a few things from his console, he parked the gun-metal grey ZM4 on the side of the road and locked it, leaving the lights on.  Then, knowing that tear was near, he began to move through the brush to find where it had come.  New Orleans was a swamp, and dangerous things were in the water; sense alert, he just hoped not to piss off a cottonmouth or a gator.  Fortunately, he didn't -feel- any on hand, and no such mindless beast would be able to get the drop on him so easily.

It was the mindful beasts he had to be more careful of as he searched the brush for whatever had so rocked his senses.

The feel of the blood was becoming welcome to November. It was only moments ago that the great totem wolf Fenris had come to her. She was scared then, and she was scared now. She had never seen anything like it. The great beast was alien to her, yet familiar at the same time. The great totems' gut was wrenched, and from it poured forth his blood.
The life blood of mighty Fenris bled out, as it roared in the physical world. The manifestation chilled November to her soul, and she could feel herself become warm as wave after wave of his blood soaked her. Trickles of red streams ran down her blonde locks, staning them. Her face was crimson, and still it flowed. She bathed in the blood, as it ran down her arms, her chest, and her back. She felt an odd absorption. As if a portion of blood was seeping right into her skin, and entering her own blood stream. More blood. More blood. Like it would never end. In mere moments, every square inch of her body was covered in blood. Fenris' blood.

That was 10 minutes ago. Since then, she ran.. and ran hard as the beast spoke to her. His words echoed in her mind. Words she didn't understand. Her shoes hit grass and forest floor as she ran and ran, and she found the highway in short order. Or rather, the highway found her.

Crossing the highway, a yellow SUV came at her, and plowed directly into her! The steel frame of the vehicle crashed into the blonde like a freight train, sending her sailing off the road and into the leaves down the hill.

She got up, amazed. Not a mark on her. Not one wound. She didn't have time to say or do anything. The fear still gripping her, the girl ran again, crossing the forest clearing as she spotted something parked on the road farther down. Maybe someone was out here?

One could only pray.

~

His hand inside his coat, ready to pull out whatever was within.  To the more worldly, it would suggest a piece, though that would not be accurate.  Salk was gone now.  Alexander was alone to face whatever he had decided to get himself involved in, and face it he would. 

A figure was swiftly running toward him.  He pulled out the small device hiding in his jacket, waiting for the figure to sog through the wet ground and darkness toward him.  Running his fingers along the side of it, he pressed a button and waited for a quick display in the small LCD screen.  This was -much- better than the old ZIGGY device he once used, but no where near as much fun.  No PANIC button.

Terror.  Sheer terror filled the mind of whatever creature was coming through him, and not anger directed at him.  Confusion, too.  Whatever it was wasn't entirely human – it threw off the quick scan – but it didn't -yet- seem threatening.  Soon, however, no special power was needed to see the girl's feelings and intention; her eyes spoke more of her shaken, confused, terrified mind better than could any anything he might be carrying in his pocket.  She kept right on running, too, heading toward the obvious headlights of his car.  Alexander, a few meters into the brush, had to call out.

“You, miss!  Miss!” what else was he supposed to call the young woman?  “Are you alright?”  The older man had a very faint accent, hard to place, but European.  He decided it would be best for him to be in the open.  Moving toward the small, open area near the side of the highway, away from the thick growth, he would be fairly easy to see even with only the moon and headlights to break the darkness.  “Do you need help, miss?”  He could see in the dark a taint upon her, foreboding.  Twiddling the device in his hands a bit more, it looked as if he was using a cell-phone as he approached the trunk of his vehicle.

~

November kept running, trying to keep the blood out of her eyes as it clung to her so thickly. She heard the voice calling out, the sound of a man's voice. Instinctvely, she ran towards her. Despite being 18 years old, she still had the natural urge to find an adult, to find someone who might help her when she was scared.

She lept over a log, her blue jeans now coated in blooded as her white sneakers with no longer white, and her long sleeved shirt looked like the red shirt of a landing party officer in Star Trek. The accent strangely comforted her, and she calmed down slightly, her mind rising with elation.

Then the feelings hit her. A stark painful shooting sensation up her spine. Her muscles and skin were on fire. It hurt, and the pain was getting worse. She fought it back ignoring it as she neared close. She ran in front of the vehicle headlights, running towards the man as the diminutive 5'1 girl reached out, clutching clothing of his chest in desperation. "Ohmygod Mister! It, the woods.. I… AGGH!!" she cried out, as the pain increased.

And before his eyes, Alex watches the unmistakable shrinking of her clothing. Except its not shrinking. November lets out a moan, and the loose shirt on her gets tighter around the blonde. For a moment, the tucked in shirt flutters, then pulls itself out of her jeans. The sleeves of her shirt constrict tightly, the cuffs of her forearms pulling back.

She moaned again, wincing as her shoes felt too tight, as her socks were pulled down from her growing calves, and her jeans feel her thighs and ass enter them until they appear painted on with their tightness, now too tight to even remove, like the rest of her clothes.

She couldn't have been more than 5'1 when she crossed the road, but she had to be at least 5'3. Or 5'4. She felt every inch as her body reacted to the blood, growing stronger and taller with powerful growth. Maybe it was the dark, but it was impossible to ignore for Alex.

The girl's frantic, screaming approach was enough of a problem; he felt her -wrongness-, her alienness from the world.  But when she reached for him, there was not a way to turn down the aid.  Fortunately, what he had foreseen to do was likely to help. 

And no he had a better look at whatever strange ichor covered her, dark and strange.  It -reeked- of unknown power.  What it was, what it did, he could not yet tell.  Nor could he do anything about it.  But it was frightening, to say the least, seeing this thing covered in tass that just -felt- like the blood and rage.  And worse, she was growing right before his eyes, growing and howling in pain.  Normally, he would have no explanation on hand, but the recent encounter with Judas and his ilk was fresh in his mind, even as the diminutive girl was suddenly clutching him with much more strength than she had had a moment ago – and more than he had.

“ugh,” he grunted as he tore away from that crushing grip, now glancing back at his device.  No, she was growing and changing before his eyes with no explanation that he could think of except that she might be one of those creatures.  And those things were -violent-.  In the back of his mind, he knew the danger, but the howling woman was in pain and in Alexander could not turn away.  Even as what he saw in his device kept him trying to think of a way to help, when he had nothing that could.

“Stay, stay calm,” he said, hoping she could do just that.  “I'll…I'll get you help,” he added.  If the thing went berserk, perhaps he would be able to overthrow its rage and calm it so there could be some reason.  He would need to bring this one to help who might know about her kind, and to do that, whatever storm was happening needed to blow over.

~

November nodded, swallowing a hard lump in her throat as she looked at him with the face of an angel. She released his chest as she pried away, and she stood there, chest heaving.

She winces once more, and then the pain started to subside. She moaned again in pain as she felt her body grow heavier. There was no other word to describe it. She felt heavier. If Alex had ever seen a garou change forms before, he would know this was different.

Then it changed. The pain ended, and she was filled with an otherworldly pleasure. Her body grew warm to the touch, as her skin began to absorb more and more of the spiritual blood. She moaned erotically then, her voice like silken honey that reveled in the power coursing in her veins.

She let out a sharp cry, as her feet burst of her shoes. Thick strong feet tapered into her calf muscles as her calves tear her socks. Moving further upward, the jeans protested her growing muscles, as her thighs thickened, and the jeans popped their seams along the side, splitting the raw denim like a dress.

The shirt that had untucked itself bore her midriff, as it deepened and crunched into a ripped 6 pack of muscular abs. Her chest rose, as her breasts were thrust forward by a faint swelling of her pecs, tending the shirt faintly and accenting the tightness. But it wouldn't last, as with a deep guttural growl of agreement she threw her head back, and with an orgasmic "YES!" she flexes her arms, and her biceps bulged with size and stature. The round muscle arched, a vein over each one as she flexed.

With each second, she was growing bigger and stronger, now nearly 6 feet tall and covered in smooth feminine muscle.. her face flushed as if being touched by an invisible lover.

Her mind raced with pleasure and power, fear washed away. And not a drop of rage.

Whatever was happening to the woman, it had certainly scared him, even if she was apparently enjoying it.  This -thing- was not human; she was changing and transforming before his eyes and there was no explanation.  No understanding.  Nothing.  What he did see was a release and exaltation – her screaming and moaning in ecstasy as her agony transformed into something vaguely sexual.  She grew from petite to a bit taller than he, and much heavier.  Her clothes, tearing, changing, were not likely to keep her modesty much longer.  He took off the suitcoat even as he took a step back, intending to hand it over if she needed it.  It looked like it might fit now.

“Are you alright?  What happened to you?” he said.  The magus had taken a few steps backwards, but the woman didn't seem a threat despite her transformation.  He bit back the question about -what- she was as well.  The woman had become…what he didn't know.  But yet the change did not feel as perverse and wrong as many of the much more horrid things he had seen.

Of course, they then heard something moving in the brush.  -That- was enough to snap any reverie, especially when he took one more glance at his device.  “Get in the car,” he said quickly.  “I'll get you the hell out of here.  Try to find someone who might make more sense of this,” he added.  He was quickly stepping toward the driver's side, pushing the button to unlock the doors.  Whatever was moving out there was -foul- and wrong, and the sooner they got away, the better. 

Of course, that's when the piercing cries rang out, screams of a person in pain.  A female voice, screaming in pain a few hundred yards up the road, around a bend.  Headlights out there, too, from a stopped vehicle.  A male voice, and some bestial snarling, followed soon afterwards.

“…fuck,” as he reached the door.  “Get in!  Get in!”  He didn't say they were going -towards- the scene.

~

November was in a sense if euphoric elation. She had no idea what was happening anywhere. Every cell in her body was dividing and adding to her hypertrophy as she started to tear up. Wet tears formed in her eyes at the joy coursing inside of her. The idea of a threat was far from her mind as a faint understanding washed over her like a warm blanket.

And then Alex started to talk to her. She could only nod, trying to listen to him as her feet pulsed. She could only hear him in part. Then when he cried out, she snapped into some semblance of reality. She ran past the headlights, and ducked into the vehicle as fast as she could.

She moaned again, as the constricting panties dug into her loins and rubbed hard there. The shy girl would normally be red with embarassment, but she was lost in its grip. She felt her toes curl into the broken leather of her shoes as it pressed into the passenger side cab floor.

There was several more pops and snaps, as her fists clenched. Instantly, those strained sleeves erupt, and the blatant sight of her biceps growing comes with the sound of very loud SHREDDING. Placing her hands on her head, she writhes in her seat, as if in the middle of torrid sex, her arms flaring with muscularity. The forearms give way then, leaving the sleeves in tatters as her shirt pops in the front, buttons hitting the dashboard as her bra holds fast. The jeans themselves are chaps now, barely on at all.

"Ohmigod, ohmigod!" she breathes huskily. "So good. So god damned good!" she cries out in bliss.

~

There was a part of him which just could not comprehend the absurdity of it all.  He had some weird, transforming girl climbing into his car, squealing in delight and moaning loud enough to be heard fifty yards away.  She was crying out, but climbing into the car, then thrashing in ecstasy in his front seat.  Meanwhile, he was breaking a sweat and hoping to deal with whatever horrorshow was down the road.

His vehicle roared to life.  Adding to the strangeness, Tchaikovsky thundered out a Symphony in F-Minor from his speakers.  The wheels caught immediately and the ZM4 surged forward much faster than expected.  The car tore down the curve and took it at much too sharp an angle for most vehicles, yet remained right on the road.  The bright headlights seemed suddenly stronger, illuminating the murderous scene before them.

Six or seven of the things – things, shapes in human form which oozed blood and talons and bloody fangs – were tearing into the vehicle.  Blood flowed from the vehicle, blood and pieces that once had been a person.  Some rotund, grim-jawed freakish thing was on the roof, biting down through the metal.  A screaming woman was flailing against one of the things, just barely shoving it aside as the beast above sheared through the metal with its fangs.  She bowled one of the figures over, and three turned their attention to her.  Two others crawled inside the vehicle, and blood splattered the windows.

There was a moment of horrid silence, then the howling beasts forgot the woman and let out otherworldly cries of rage.  As a unit, still covered in blood, they charged the ZM4. 

“Fuck!” Alexander screamed.  Then, he flicked a switch – wait, what did that one do? – which shouldn't -be- in his car.  Then, roaring to life came the heavy, terrible thump, thump, thump that tore through the air like thunder.  The car did not rock, but the air shock from the heavy sound.  Pieces began to fly off the creatures under the withering fire; limps were torn off and blasted away, yet still they kept coming.  Still thundering, he wheeled the car heavily, spraying that fire wildly.  The woman stared for a second, then began to flee even as the older man threw the car into a quick j-turn.  Meanwhile, though four of the monstrous things were down, three more gave chase as did that strange shadow with steel-shearing fangs.

~

She kept swallowing, trying to focus on what was happening. It was impossible. Her eyes told her things. Things that should not be. Her eyes told her many things, but her eyes weren't causing the cab to smell faintly of sex.

She stared out the window, biting her lower lip as she reaches over, taking the sleeves of her shirt and tearing them off with a grunt, turning her shirt into a vest. She was taking deep breaths, desperately trying to calm down and failing. She had never felt so much energy before! She wanted to kick out, to be free.. to run and stretch.. but her higher intelligence told her to hold still, to let this man do what he needed to do.

She bit her lower lip to keep from screaming as her backside suddenly tenses up, gaining the consistency of stainless steel as she felt the last of the threads around her crotch split, and she reaches down and grabs the fragmented jeans and throws them behind the seat.

The blood was soaking into her now, nearly 80% gone. Her body was taking it into herself and using it to empower and fuel itself. A patch of blood on her thigh vanishes, soaked into her flesh as she continues to get stronger still. Her height tops out, precisely 6 feet tall.. but her skin ripples still as her blood merges with the foreign blood entering her system.

As if enough wasn't going on; the writhing, screaming girl was just about helpless as she got to enjoy herself.  The J-turn had left his back toward the things, and it wouldn't be too hard to just floor it and escape quickly.  The problem, however, was that that left the mortal woman remembering what she had seen should she be lucky enough to escape.  The magus couldn't just leave another person out there, hunted by those terrible monsters.  Besides, thanks to enough dullard Hollywood flicks, believing a car could withstand the stress of two ma-deuces wasn't such a stretch anymore. 

Swinging the wheel around, he glanced over at the woman and said, “Hang on!”  Once more, a detached part of his mind realized how incredibly strange this was.  She was there writhing in prurience as something turned her into a female version of a B-rated barbarian hero.  She was drowning out both his music and the howling monstrosities.

Depressing the accelerator, he swung the vehicle right about, then brought the vehicle back around to face the beings.  They were much faster than he expected, almost on his vehicle.  One reached them, struck out at the car for the windshield with a massive blow.  It glanced off harmlessly; the Etherite's car would not even show a mark for that kind of blow.  He floored the accelerator again, and drove the car right over the beast.  It tumbled over the hood, over the windshield, down onto the street.  In his mirror, it was rising.  The round shadow, standing in the middle of the road, took the front end of the car right in the maw and with a satisfying thud was drawn under the wheels and mauled under the talismanic car.

With those -things- now distracted and busy, the woman was running for her life down the road, and she had enough of a jump.  Alexander threw the car into reverse.  This time, the beasts dodged his attempt to side-swipe them again, but he was able to bring the end of the car around in a quick reverse.  A second later, they were tearing down the highway, leaving behind the creatures as well as the woman.  With any luck, she would escape.  With any luck.

Alexander red-lined the machine down the road; it flew down with stunning speed.  Displays  of all sorts showed on the console, more fitting a space-opera vehicle than a luxury roadster.  The ride proved strangely smooth given how they were burning down the road.  Alexander waited for her to settle and said, “I think we lost them.”  He then motioned toward the jacket in the back, giving her some option to cover her modesty as he kept his eyes on the road.

~

The blonde girl sitting beside Alex took several deep breaths, summoning forth the need, the necessity to get ahold of herself. The power of the incarna held her firmly in its grip for several minutes, but she knew something was behind them, something that did something to those other people. And she did not want to be next. She crossed her legs, swinging a hip to one side as she looked for Alex's indicated jacket. She looked at it briefly, then tugged at a bit of her shirt-turned-vest and made the judgement call that it wouldn't fit her and she'd only tear more cloth. She was still wearing her underwear at least. She wasn't totally naked.

But god, what the hell happened to her!? One minute she was in the woods, and the next thing she know she's getting baptised in the blood of a monster! And whatever it was, it gave her strength. She looked down at herself for a moment, running her hands down her thighs, as if they weren't real.

A touch of nervousness entered her, as elation turned to worry. "What happened to me?" she asks out loud, not really expecting Alex to know the answer.

The vehicle itself roamed on, as she felt a pang of relief as they gained speed, pulling away from the speedbump behind them. Part of her is glad she was out of it for it. She recalls it vaguely, but her mind was elsehwere. She squeezes her thighs faintly, the gentle nailpolish on her fingers contrasting with the pale milky skin of her bare legs.

~

“Hell if I know,” he said as they kept driving.  That was the simple truth.  “I don't know what those things are, really, but yeah, they're real.”  That was the fair truth.  Everyone had -explanations- but that didn't mean they understood them.  They're 'tainted' and 'corrupted' by something.  Having a name for what was done to them had nothing to do with understanding what was -really- happening. 

“I don't know, but I -think- I do.  It's…rather complicated,” he said.  “I'm going to try to get you some help.  I hope,” he added.  The truth was he only had the quick scan to suggest the woman was of the kind that matched Judas and kin.  He could not be sure.  It was his best hypothesis, however, and whatever reason the Tellurian had for having him -there- when this changed was just a second reason to do what he could.  “Anyway, call me Alexander,” he said.  He did not use his full name.

Reaching for his cell phone, he dialed out to a number.  With any luck there was a chance the woman he was supposed to contact would be able to provide some kind of aid.  Hopefully, she was expecting the call.  “Hello?”

~

CJ hadn't been expecting any calls, because CJ had more or less been hiding out from the world. People had tried to give her purpose, work, to bring her out of her funk, but it was a deep one. It was so deep CJ wasn't sure if she wouldn't just run out into the woods, maybe live as a wolf for awhile. After all, she was certainly more wolf than human right now. 69 people dead…because of her…and she didn't even want to fathom what the last moments of Noah's life had been out.

She'd barely left Ahab's couch, getting rather acquainted to daytime TV and cartoons. She'd at least kept up with bathing, but she'd been on a mad meat binge since everything went down. Meat was really the only CJ ever ate, after all.

She was currently gnawing on a piece of raw steak, at least here in her brother's house, no one judged her. Her brother's girlfriend hated it, as she was a strict vegetarian, but she also didn't deny CJ her right to grieve.

CJ heard her iPhone go off. She raised a brow. The only calls she'd been getting were calls she'd rather ignore, but as she moved to pick up the phone, she raised a brow at the number. She'd said no, but apparently someone wanted her to work anyway. She sighed, touched the button for it to turn on.

"Hello?" She asked, her voice weak from lack of use and crying. Damnit. Why did they want her to go back into a world she obviously didn't belong to? Why would they force this on her? She was in no condition. She'd at least gotten some of her clothes from her house, and Noah's, which was what she'd been wearing…because it still smelled like him…

"What do you want?" She asked without waiting for a response, but already she was moving to change. She knew whatever this was, she wasn't going to have a choice.

Well, fuck it all.

~

Even the number was out-of-state, a 212 number. 

…but for the life of her, it was such a -hard- number to remember.  Just…elusive.  And her iPhone didn't save it…how very weird!

“Hello, Glass,” he said.  His voice was fairly calm, and carried a faint accent from the old world.  Meanwhile, however, his gut was doing flips and the adrenaline of what had just happened wore down on his nerves.  While things were going down, the Magus had no problem at all, but then as the moments passed, he felt the nausea and throb from the come-down eat at him.  They didn't give him a real name, and that was likely for the best.  “A friend of ours asked me to try to get in touch with one of you.  Big guy, rather angry.  And, well, I think I have someone here who could really use your help,” he said.  As he was driving, he took one last look at the young woman and then kept on talking.  “A young woman who really might need the help of a good mentor.”  This, he thought, would be an innocent enough conversation for the phone.  It was an unending little game of cat and mouse with electronic communications; out there, the hidden seekers of the Union would use the conveniences of the modern world to confound their enemies.  And he didn't plan to give them anything to go off of.  He was unsure if this little guess of his was right, but -sounding- unsure was entirely counterproductive.  He said, “Would you be alright with meeting us at…” he glanced over to the side of the highway at one of the few landmarks that might be about, and said, “…that diner on ten, westbound.  About ten miles from the city limit.”

Even as he waited for the other woman to respond, he was busy flipping open his device and doing -something-.  Before, it had looked like a phone; now, it seemed like a PDA.  Yet its interface was…odd.  He kept it up, glanced back at the young woman, and he mouthed, “I think she can help you,” as he continued working.  Meanwhile, he was braking and bringing the vehicle to a slow roll up the off-ramp.  After gunning the motor to pull almost a hundred sixty, the fifty he did up the off-ramp felt like a snail's pace.  They pulled into the parking lot, and he gestured for the young woman to remain still.  Grabbing his dark shirt and giving it a tug to make his meaning clear, he headed toward the diner in order to see if they had anything the young woman could wear in one of those silly tourist shops that accompanied these little rest-zones.

~

November looked over at Alex as he talked into the phone. She swallowed again, the lump in her throat refusing to go away. She didn't interrupt the man as he made his phone call. She was totally at this mercy, and that was fine to her considering the two alternatives of running blindly in the woods and going back to those… those THINGS out there.

She moved her hands, running them down her thighs to her calves and her feet, raising one against the glove box as she inspects herself. It was awe inspiring and impossible to believe. The road stretched out. Leading where? Who cares. It wasn't here. Hopefully this person he is calling isn't the police or something. It didn't sound that way. All that mattered was she was alive. And did she EVER feel alive.

November sat in the car, huddling in it as she was suddenly aware that they were close to public. How would they react to her? What would she say to anyone? Dammit! How would she explain this to her father!?!?

She raised a hand to her head as she considered what sort of excuses she'd use. "Hi Daddy! I took second place last night. And oh yeah, I put on a hundred pounds on the way home!" she jokes to herseld sardonically. She pulled her knees to her chest in the car, covering her face with her palms as Alex went out of the car and indicated for her to stay there.

~

CJ raised a brow. It obviously wasn't what she'd been expecting. She frowned some, "Mentor? Me? You obviously have some misinformation…Or smoked a lot of weed…" She shook her head thouhg. She didn't have a car, but luckily, Ahab lived a little outside the city. Not enough obviously not to be affected by the fog, but she definitely felt much more at peace here than she did in her own apartment. She stumbled into the bathroom, doing her best to get dressed while she talked on the phone. God, a mentor? Help? Her? She'd go of course. She wanted to say no, but she couldn't say no. It wasn't in her nature. She was betting this was probably out of her league though, but if it was, she had back-up. Ahab would come if it was immediate trouble, if it was just something she couldn't help with though, she could always find someone who -could- help.

"I'll be there soon…." She said, not saying anything else on the matter as she cut off the phone, sliding it into the pocket of her jeans. She took a moment to look herself over in the mirror. She'd lost a little weight, and she looked like shit. Her jeans were baggy and her shirt was too, but that was okay. It didn't really make her feel any better, but she at least ran a brush through her hair and her teeth to get the fuzzy sweaters off of them and then slid into flipflops, despite the cold weather, pulled over her blue coat, grabbed her back and gadgets and the keys to the car. It wasn't -her- car, but she'd been given permission to borrow it and where he wanted her to go wasn't too terribly far from Ahab's, and it was out of the city. That was good. The city was dangerous. She was wary of going back into it until they figured otu the fog business.

It was about 10 mintues before CJ pulled into the parking lot of the diner. She flipped down the mirror, took another look at herself and came to the same conclusion. That she looked like shit. She flipped the mirror up and tied her hair back, deciding to go with it.

She didn't know who she was looking for…but well…people like this…they tended to stand out in crowd…

~

Finding his way into the diner, where there was some tourist trap, he managed to find sweatpants and a sweatshirt that likely would fit the young woman in the car.  While he was waiting for their new companion, they had at least a moment to exchange names.  Alexander waited outside the car while November got the clothes on, giving her such privacy as he could.  While keeping his eyes on the device, he waited for the contact to arrive.  No clue what she might look like, or might wear, but there was more than one way to track someone.

He -felt- her coming while she was pulling in.  There was nothing too outlandish about his appearance, aside from the slight frazzled expression he wore after the encounter with the damn things.  He stood out, perhaps, for his vehicle, but even that was not strange here.  Certainly, a wealthy Texan or the like might have such a car.  His plated were from New York State, perhaps the most out-of-place thing about the entire set-up.

Unless one counted that it was a magical roman candle to blind eyes that could see.

He waved her down, then popped open the door.  Expecting CJ to pull up to him, he said to the girl, “I think this woman might know a lot more about what happened to you.  Besides, I have some business with her people myself.  We can tell her about those -things-, but not out in public.”  He waited for the woman to pull up to them, then glanced down toward November, adding, “She and I'll talk later,” he said.

When the other woman drove up, he went to CJ's window, where he spoke.  “Glass?  Alex.”  He gestured back to the woman who was in the car, then beckoned November back toward the two of them.  “We just had a little freak nightmare problem down the road.  I -think- this is one of yours, and if not, that they wanted to kill her was…” he let it drop.  That was enough.  He gestured for November to come forward once more, then said, “Is there some better place to talk?”

November sat in the car patiently as Alex handed her the clothing. She opened the door to the vehicle, sliding her feet into the sweats with a smile. The fabric ran across her legs. Never before in her life has she ever worn a pair of sweats that she filled. I mean, you weren't supposed to FILL sweats, right? Wasn't that half the point?! Her thighs hit the sleeve of the sweatpants and she grunted hard as she forced them up over her legs and around her ass. Standing up, she looked behind her, as the sweats look glued to her tight backside. "God! I barely fit in sweatpants. I better get used to stares, I guess," she muses to herself as she takes off the torn shirt completely. Her bra was still stained with blood, but that was okay. She could change it later. Sliding the sweatshirt over her head was easy. It was when it came up short that it took her by suprise. She grunted again, forcing her arms and shoulders into the shirt. The sleeves were not too bad. They were full, but not as tight as the pants. She looked down, seeing that 2 inches of her midriff was bare. "Oh, now I just look ridiculous." she said as she grabbed the cuffs of her sleeves and slid them up over her forearms and bunched the material over her biceps. That should hide their size a little bit and keep her intimidation down. Maybe. But a bare midriff with long sleeves? Who does that? Honestly?

She walked over as Alex beckoned her, her feet bare on the pavement. She flexed her toes a little as she walked. She kind of liked being barefoot. She stood there idly beside Alex, playing with her hair as she looked at the several streaks of blonde that were now permanently stained blood red.

The adrenaline had worn off. An hour ago, everything seemed a lot more normal than this. That was before it all went down. That was before one of the strongest totems in the Tellurian had bled upon her form.

November stood there in the dark. She was slightly cold; her clothing didn't fit very well and she wasn't doing much movement to keep her body heat up. At least before she was running. This Alex fellow was talking a good game, though the poor girl had zero idea what in the hell he was talking about exactly. Why is he calling her glass. And how is she one of theirs? She did know she had a "theirs". She repeatedly shoves the sleeves back up past her elbow, bunching the material as she rocks back and forth in place on the parking lot surface as if waiting at the lunch line.

She had a good deal of questions, and not many answers, but they were talking about getting away, and that was all that really mattered at this point. When she waswas introduced to CJ, the girl put on a smile and a happy face that didn't take much to summon. Another female was nice, and if she WAS a "theirs" to someone, it would be best to put your best (bare)foot forward. "Um.. hi. Yeah, I'm November. I.. I don't really know what's going on CJ. I'm really lost and confused and kinda scared." she cofessed as she was invited to get in the car. And accept the invitation she did as she reached for the door handle and pulled. There was a wrenching sound as the door was powerfully pulled against the base of its hinge, and November's face was a crest of embarassment as she looked down at it. "Oh my god, I am so sorry!" she blurted, as she held it in one and bend it back with the other. She quickly rushes in the vehicle, pulling her knees up and covering her face as she turned even more red. God, she was so embarassed!