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| game_systems:world_of_darkness:mage:jacksonville:jacksonville_journal [2025/12/21 19:48] – [Finding Sam] Bryan Stephens | game_systems:world_of_darkness:mage:jacksonville:jacksonville_journal [2025/12/27 12:28] (current) – [The Party] Bryan Stephens | ||
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| Jessie opened with a somber look. //“Thank you for coming, | Jessie opened with a somber look. //“Thank you for coming, | ||
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| Jessie passes a the tray of various items, vapes, gummies, pills, drinks, his hands calm and steady | Jessie passes a the tray of various items, vapes, gummies, pills, drinks, his hands calm and steady | ||
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| Jessie ends the call and stands there for half a heartbeat with the phone still in his hand, jaw tight, eyes fixed on nothing. Then he moves. Because if Sam Birchwood is silent right now — truly silent — then something has reached into the cabal’s new, fragile world and closed a hand around one of them. And Jessie Calloway does not tolerate that. Not now. Not ever. | Jessie ends the call and stands there for half a heartbeat with the phone still in his hand, jaw tight, eyes fixed on nothing. Then he moves. Because if Sam Birchwood is silent right now — truly silent — then something has reached into the cabal’s new, fragile world and closed a hand around one of them. And Jessie Calloway does not tolerate that. Not now. Not ever. | ||
| - | Even and Jessie breaks speeding laws to get to Sam’s home, Bell and Josh arrive at the house to find Sam is not there and neither his is truck. | + | {{ : |
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| + | Bell and Josh arrive at the house to find Sam is not there and neither his is truck. | ||
| Bell stands on the porch like she’s been caught between relief and dread and can’t pick one. Josh has already circled once, eyes on tracks, posture set into that practiced readiness he falls into when things go bad. | Bell stands on the porch like she’s been caught between relief and dread and can’t pick one. Josh has already circled once, eyes on tracks, posture set into that practiced readiness he falls into when things go bad. | ||
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| //“He’s not here.”// | //“He’s not here.”// | ||
| - | Jessie’s expression doesn’t change, but the temperature in his gaze drops. | + | Josh's expression doesn’t change, but the temperature in his gaze drops. |
| //“Then we find him.”// | //“Then we find him.”// | ||
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| He’s standing between the trees, mid-step, as if someone hit pause on the world with him in motion. His eyes are open. His skin is fair enough that the sun has burned it raw where it’s exposed. Leaves cling to him. Bird droppings mark his shoulder. The kind of indignity nature gives the helpless. Bell reaches toward his mind — not prying, just touching the edge of presence the way she’s learned to do. It’s there. A slow hum. | He’s standing between the trees, mid-step, as if someone hit pause on the world with him in motion. His eyes are open. His skin is fair enough that the sun has burned it raw where it’s exposed. Leaves cling to him. Bird droppings mark his shoulder. The kind of indignity nature gives the helpless. Bell reaches toward his mind — not prying, just touching the edge of presence the way she’s learned to do. It’s there. A slow hum. | ||
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| Sam is awake inside himself. He’s just… held. Josh sucks in a breath, sharp. His gaze drops to the ground. A ring of mushrooms circles Sam’s boots. Not random growth. Not nature. A deliberate pattern. A faerie circle. | Sam is awake inside himself. He’s just… held. Josh sucks in a breath, sharp. His gaze drops to the ground. A ring of mushrooms circles Sam’s boots. Not random growth. Not nature. A deliberate pattern. A faerie circle. | ||
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| After putting down a blanket to keep the seat clean from him, Sam drives his truck, hands tight on the wheel, as if he’s proving to the world he still owns his own body. Josh follows in the Civic with visible relief, as if each bump they don’t have to take feels like mercy. Bell watches the rear window the whole time, half expecting to see mushrooms blooming in their wake like a laughing signature. | After putting down a blanket to keep the seat clean from him, Sam drives his truck, hands tight on the wheel, as if he’s proving to the world he still owns his own body. Josh follows in the Civic with visible relief, as if each bump they don’t have to take feels like mercy. Bell watches the rear window the whole time, half expecting to see mushrooms blooming in their wake like a laughing signature. | ||
| - | They get back to Sam’s home to meet Jessie and Weilin. Jessie has been admiring Sam’s set up. The node in back. The old fashioned brick bar b que pit. He praises Sam’s home, and Sam responds with pleasure, telling how he can move his cauldron into the pit with a bit of reconfiguration and how he bought the place without looking at anything but the backyard. It is a gesture of kindness: Jessie helps Sam have some dignity back and the two men have a moment. | ||
| They get back to Sam’s home to meet Jessie and Weilin. Jessie is already outside when they pull in, standing in the yard like he belongs there. Not //owns// it — Jessie’s presence is too courteous for that — but like he’s decided this place matters, and that decision makes it real. Weilin is nearby, quiet and observant, her eyes moving over the property with the same appraisal she gives a workbench: what’s here, what’s useful, what’s dangerous, what it means. | They get back to Sam’s home to meet Jessie and Weilin. Jessie is already outside when they pull in, standing in the yard like he belongs there. Not //owns// it — Jessie’s presence is too courteous for that — but like he’s decided this place matters, and that decision makes it real. Weilin is nearby, quiet and observant, her eyes moving over the property with the same appraisal she gives a workbench: what’s here, what’s useful, what’s dangerous, what it means. | ||
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| ==== The Party ==== | ==== The Party ==== | ||
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| Having come prepared to crash a party, the group lets Sam clean up, heal himself in his node, and get his feet back under him. Then they head for the woods where the rave is supposed to be happening. | Having come prepared to crash a party, the group lets Sam clean up, heal himself in his node, and get his feet back under him. Then they head for the woods where the rave is supposed to be happening. | ||