February 3, 2008
At the Diner
When they returned from their adventure, it was morning. They want to the diner, where Zoe was immediately drafted into service because the other waitress, Joanne, did not show up.
They noticed a new person at the diner. A woman eating pancakes reading a script for The Tempest. Kyna noted that he script was slightly magical. Ely noticed that she was sitting at his table. Then he noticed there was a message for him on his phone. It asked if he knew where Kyna was. The Caller ID was blocked. Then it rang from the blocked number. He answered, and then his phone blew up. He called his boss on the diner’s rotary phone and left a message.
Walter stepped outside to check with his service. He had a new appointment scheduled for 4:30 PM with a Devon Miles at his office. He returned to is usual seat at the counter. He fell asleep at the counter. It had been a long night, and he had had a full day yesterday.
Ely approached the woman and asked if she was looking for him because she was sitting in his usual place. She said no. He introduced himself and she introduced herself as Allison. He commented on her script and she said she had an audition at the Gray Box theater that afternoon. The woman thought she was hitting on him and tried to make him go away. He let her be.
The other waitress on duty told Zoe that the woman had been at that table for four hours since 5 AM, all she had ordered was coffee until she ordered pancakes a little while ago.
Kyna called the theater and they rudely told her that auditions would start at 11AM, so stop calling.
The bell over the door tinkled, and Warden Beatty (of the White Council). He approached Kyna and said that they needed to discuss some things. They went to an isolated booth. Walter recognized that he was a bad dude.
Beatty told him that there was a situation that they needed someone to investigate. Kyna told him she would need to know more before she would accept the task. He told her that in Springfield, there was a small curio shop that for some reason has stayed open near the mall. Now that he tenants are being evicted in that neighborhood, the shop is not being evicted. It was a magic prop shop. He wanted Kyna to investigate so as to not scare the proprietor off.
Kyna tried to discretely glance at the script, but failed. Allison did not react. The script did not appear to be active magic to her.
Ely woke Walter up. Walter ordered a cup of tea and french toast. Then he went home to get some sleep before his appointment.
Kyna offered to cover at the diner as Zoe was so tired. That way she could keep an eye on Allison. Ely decided that he would try to audition for the play. Zoe took a power nap. Kyna was very successful at waitressing and got some tips. Ely went to the Gray Box Theater.
At the Gray Box
There was a mob of people waiting to audition. Several people have scripts that look like the one Allison had. Ely asked where one of the people got theirs. He told Ely that the theater was handling them out to people who responded to the Actor’s Wanted ad on Craigslist.
At the Diner
Kyna woke up Zoe around 11:00. Then they went to the theater.
At the Gray Box
At 11:10, the doors opened and they asked for people auditioning for Prospero. Ely did not know the role, the character, or anything about the play. He changed to spirit for and tried to walk through the wall. He was repelled, joined the group waiting to audition for Stefano, the drunken steward, and was handed a script. He attempted to learn the part.
Kyna looked for another way into the theater, but could not find one. Kyna and Zoe entered the theater with the Mirandas in hopes of sneaking away. They were taken to the green room. She was unable to. She was handed a script, and she examined it to detect its magical properties. She determined that it had been near something magical for for an extended period. Then she learned the part of Miranda. Zoe attempted to learn the part of Miranda, but got lost in the details.
The first Stefano was a professional who could not manage drunk. The second had at least studied the part. Then it was Ely’s turn, and he failed miserably and crashed into the back wall. He was met with “don’t call us, we’ll call you.” As he was leaving, Ely concealed himself and passed through and interior wall. The minders were not as concerned with those who had tried out already.
The first Miranda clearly cut high school. The second missed a lot of high school. The third could not spell play. Then it was Kyna’s turn. She was better than the other two. Zoe was equally mediocre. The next one was spot on perfect. As she was leaving, she hid and veiled herself. Kyna and Zoe saw each other change. They shared their observations. Kyna said she was going to observe the director. Ely was going to rifle through the office.
Zoe lost track of both of them and was herded out of the theater. She waited outside theater and observe the comings and goings. She got the impression that msot of the actors think that most of the parts have already been cast. Perhaps they were looking for understudies.
Kyna snuck over to where the director was. The man in the middle said that he would have answered questions if she had asked. It was dark, but the other two did not seem surprised that he was talking. She was offered “background” part because “her presence would be helpful.” She looked at him with her Sight and determined that he was a significantly more powerful wizard. She did not recognized him, and determined that he was a normal, if powerful wizard. He asked her to approach where he could see her. He was with a red haired woman who could see Kyna too and said that she was Miranda and then excused herself from her father. He asked for actual contact information and said he would call when rehearsals started.
Ely attemtped to search the office. It was empty. He could not find anything except for a non-functional copier, whcih was the only electronic thing in the office. Nothing was left on, behind or underneath the copier. He noticed that the copier was not plugged in, so he did.
He called Walter and asked what would make a copier normal but make magical copies when plugged in. Walter said he did not know and asked if it was just out of ink, paper or jammed. Ely examined the copier wth his pen light and discovered that those and other things were not working. But he did discover that the play was scheduled to run on one night, March 15th. Walter recognized it as the Ides of March. Ely signed off, unpluged the copier, cleaned up behind him, and made his exit.
Ely met Zoe outside and then Kyra joined them. Zoe told them that it appeared that the roles were already cast. Kyna told her that the director’s daughter got Miranda. She also mentioned that the director was a powerful spellcaster. Ely told them that it was to occur on the Ides of March. Kyna realized that that was a day of power. Ely also mentioned that a lot of money was being spent, but there was no advertising. Kyna described the director, and he sounded familiar to Ely, but he could not identify him.
At the Magic Shop
Kyna asked Ely for a ride to the magic shop. Zoe called Walter to see if he wanted come along. He agreed and joined them at the diner. They crowded into Ely’s car and drove to Springfield Mall. There was a lot of traffic and Ely got lost. They eventually got there. The magic prop shop was in an outbuidling in the parking lot, and all the other stores were out of business.
Ely, Zoe and Walter entered the store . Walter was enthusiasic. The bored teenager approached them behind the counter. Ely asked about costumes and the clerk was annoyed. Kyna entered veiled and looked for signs of magic. She did not find any. Walter asked about tricks to amuse teenagers. They were taken to a back room containing the large trick-related furniture. The room radiating so much magic that Kyna could not keep her Sight up. She figured that a spell had been cast to conceal something magical.
There was an early twenties woman there who refused to show them the swords in the basket trick, but offered to saw Zoe in half. She described the trick in meticulous detail and demonstrated on Zoe. Walter was truly impressed and negotiated a sale.
Ely noted that even though he was Marked by Power, no one had noticed him. Perhaps the spell was concealing him as well. Zoe noted that the shop seemed normal, but there were more rooms that did not have an obvious access. Ely went to the bathroom and sought out a wall to go through and discovered that there was a ward, and also a threshold. Someone lived in the shop, and he could not enter. He flushed, washed his hands, and joined the others.
The Group
- Zoe Kallas – waitress at grandparents’ diner in Arlington; journalism graduate looking for a real journalism job. (Changling who has no clue, mother was fey of Summer Court)
- Ely Vantide – debt collector – all kinds of debt. (Emissary of Power for a Dragon)
- Kyna Quinlan – wizard of Irish descent. New to the White Council. Muscle for Ely.
- Walter Ballard – were-leopard and therapist to the Supernatural.