Chill: Witness to a Murder

Yesterday, Chill, last time, etc.

The envoys convene at Britt Lepus' place and talk about what they know so far (not much) and what they might do next. Amelia Rostov senses the Unknown and sees (hears, really) that it seems to be lingering around them. Nicholas Failor considers how best to use his Sensing school of the Art, but without a specific place or target, he's kind of flying blind. 

Somewhere in here, Dustin Holmes texts Britt: "2nd date?" Last night he had promised to tell her something that was bothering him, but that it was more of a "second date" kind of conversation. She agrees and leaves to go meet him for a beer. Nicholas contacts Danika Baburin, one of the other people affected by all this, since probably she should have someone looking out for her. Amelia goes to look through the papers that have caused all this trouble and see if there's anything else in there that might be helpful. Mercy Williams wonders if her Heal discipline can fix Jean Cameron's leg (they poured molten sugar on their leg a week ago), so heads to their house.

Amelia looks through the old SAVE notes and manages to put some of it in context. There are six schools of the Art: Protective, Incorporeal, Sensing, Kinetic, Restorative, and Communicative. There are notes on several of them, but the Incorporeal notes are what keep getting them in trouble. She learns that attuning to the Incorporeal school requires doing kind of the opposite of what envoys are usually taught to do - that is, steel themselves against outside (Unknown) influence. Learning the Incorporeal school requires opening oneself up, and it's recommended that you never try that without having someone skilled in the Protective school (like Amelia) handy to intervene if something goes wrong. 

Amelia finds notes about "Leave the Body" (astral projection) and "Voice of the Dead" (channeling incorporeal beings, like ghosts). There's also a section on "Astral Attack," which would allow a physical being to strike a non-physical one, but bits of that are missing. Amelia is considering all this when her phone bloops at her...

Nicholas grabs a bite to eat with Danika and talks about her relationship with her three friends. She tells him that the one she's worried about is Rochelle - she seems like there's something bothering her, but Danika isn't sure what and Rochelle isn't being forthcoming. She knows that Rochelle is more focused on her kids, but is worried that if this "Unknown" thing really gets out of hand that she won't have anyone to turn to. Nicholas suggests maybe they drop in on her and see if they can figure it out, and Rochelle agrees. They're heading over there (Danika drives) when Nicholas' phone sounds...

Mercy goes to Jean's place (she calls first) and Jean tells her to keep quiet; their son, Dale, is finally sleeping. Mercy tells Jean that she's interested to see if she can heal a wound that's kind of supernatural in origin, or if it'll react in any way. At worst, she can change the dressing. Jean agrees and puts on a pair of shorts, and Mercy focuses. The wound starts to heal - it's not totally gone, but it's a lot better. Jean thanks her profusely and gives her a little box of honeycomb to take to the others ("nobody leaves here without something sweet"). And then Mercy's phone goes off...

Britt meets up with Dustin for a drink, and he takes a deep breath and, as he says, rips off the bandage. When he and his three friends were about 11, they witnessed a murder. 

They were cutting class (his idea) from Seward Middle School, and cut through the wooded area between the school and Rochelle's house. As they did, they saw a man and a woman walking into the woods, about 30 yards away from them. They were talking, though the kids couldn't hear what they said. And then the man grabbed the woman and started to choke her. She threw him off and he actually flew through the air and hit a tree, but then she tried to run, tripped, and he came up behind her and stomped on her head until she stopped moving. And then he dragged her off, but they ran.

Britt, stunned, asks if they ever reported it, and Dustin says they didn't. They were all too terrified, and it was so surreal that they kind of convinced themselves it didn't happen. Plus, they never saw anything about it on the news, no bodies found, nothing like that, so maybe they didn't see it? But that was the event, he says, that eventually led him to reiki and energy work - he started reading about true crime, then paranormal phenomena, then spiritual stuff. He knows that Rochelle started going to church with her grandmother more after that, and that Danika and Jean went back there by themselves once to see if they could find anything.

Britt, a freakishly fast texter, puts all of this into the group chat for the envoys, and the three of them all see it come through. She also asks if Dustin told the others he was planning to tell her, and Dustin takes a moment and pings his friends to say that he did. Danika sees that text as she and Nicholas pull up to Rochelle's house, and acknowledges that it's true. Jean, likewise, talks with Mercy about it. Mercy asks about them going back to the site, and Jean says they did (with Danika). They didn't find any sign of violence, but Jean got a feeling that they likened to the sudden dread of realizing your toddler has been quiet for too long. They say they didn't understand the feeling then, and it was much more intense. 

Nicholas and Danika knock on Rochelle's door. An older lady with a Russian accent (actually, speaking mostly Russian) answers and lets them in. Rochelle hands off a one-year-old to the woman (her mother) and sits down with them. 

If Rochelle has had any paranormal incidents, she's not talking about them. She tells them that she's trying to raise her kids and just live her life (her mother occasionally interjects with Russian phrases, but neither Danika nor Nicholas understand). Nicholas says that losing his crew was what propelled him to investigate this, and finding a new crew (the envoys) gives him the strength and structure he needs to continue. Rochelle says she'd do anything for her friends...but her babies have to come first. She does agree to contact Nicholas if anything weird happens.

Danika leaves (she offers to drive Nicholas back to his car, but he'd rather walk), and the envoys decide to convene at the community center. They obviously need to go to the murder site so Nicholas can have a look, but they also wonder if the SAVE pages themselves might be carrying something Unknown. Mercy does a little internet sleuthing, but doesn't find anything murder-related from the time that seems to fit. The envoys do note, however, that this happened in May of 2000, which was about the time that the Anchorage and Seward chapters of SAVE vanished. 

They head out to the wooded area (there's an athletic field for the nearby schools there now, but still a bit of woods), and find the place Dustin pointed out. Nicholas focuses and looks back 24 years...

A man and a woman walking into the woods. Both white, both late 30s or early 40s. The woman is wearing blue jeans, a light jacket, and an "Alaska SeaLife Center" t-shirt. The man is wearing cargo pants, a blue long-sleeve tee, and a Seattle Mariners baseball cap. They have a brief conversation:

WOMAN: You feel anything yet?
MAN: No, but it was right around here.
WOMAN: I really think we should contact the others.
MAN: Sure. You want to call someone? My phone is dead. 
WOMAN: If they’ll even answer. It’s gotten really hard to- hang on. Do you feel that?
MAN (smiling widely): What, that feeling like something really bad is about to happen? 
WOMAN: Yeah, but-
She turns to him, he grabs her by the throat, and starts to strangle her. She throws him off and against a tree and tries to run. He points at her and she trips, he walks over and stomps on the back of her neck until she stops moving.
MAN: Dammit. Guess I’m walking around like this for a while yet. 
He drags her into the woods to a hole with a shovel nearby and buries her.  

Nicholas snaps back to the present and relates all this to envoys. The pretty much guess this to be a SAVE team (or what's left of it), but they don't know who these people are or even what city they're from. They look around and find the spot where the hole was, but they don't have shovels or tools. (They also figure they need more light, since after 24 years there isn't going to be much left of this woman.) They mark the area and decide to come back tomorrow, and start heading to their cars.

But they don't get there. Time and light stretch out, and the lights on the street never seem to be getting closer. They stop and walk back to the clearing with the grave (that's still accessible). Amelia uses Disrupt on herself and everyone's perspective shifts - the lights get "closer" for everyone - but then they snap back. She considers raising a Sphere of Protection, but if she does that she can't walk. She uses Disrupt on Nicholas and he sees the lights change, but no one else does.

Britt figures that this means whatever is doing this is using Amelia as a conduit. Amelia draws a Line of Defense around herself, and the effect ends for the others. They decide that the SAVE papers might be carrying something, so Nicholas and Britt will go back to the trailer and try and figure that out. Mercy will stay here with Amelia and make sure she's OK. ("Go and get us some lobster rolls, huh?")

Mercy and Amelia hang out and talk, but suddenly Mercy feels pain in her spine. It starts at the base of her neck and moves down, getting more and more intense, until finally she falls to the ground, muscles in spasm. Amelia uses Blessing and tells her to get into the circle, and Mercy manages to push herself into it without breaking the line. The pain disappears, and the two of them sit there panting. "And I dropped my damn sandwich," mutters Mercy.

Meanwhile, Nicholas and Britt aren't having much luck, either. They go to the trailer to try and do some sensing on the papers, but both utterly fail to feel anything (they both botched the roll, with the same roll, which is impressive). They gather up the papers that Amelia was going over earlier, and head back out to the grave. 

When they get there, they find Mercy and Amelia both in the circle. They hand over the papers to Amelia, hoping that maybe if the papers are in the circle, the effect will end. Amelia senses the Unknown and feels something, but not from the papers. It's apparently hanging around her (or maybe her and Mercy). A peal of thunder above them, and a raindrop...a rainstorm will definitely break the circle.

Mercy steps out of the circle and she, Nicholas, and Britt leave the woods. They get back to the car and try to figure out where Amelia is, but they can't see her. When Amelia uses Disrupt again, she "appears", but then vanishes a second later. 

The rain starts to get more intense. Amelia decides to go for broke. She braces herself, activates Disrupt, and runs. She manages to get through the barrier in the few seconds she has before the Unknown reasserts herself, but in the process she loses a few of the papers in the wind.

The envoys get back in the car and collect themselves, trying to figure out what exactly they're up against here.