Siren Song

[Wyll Wyldclay]

"Hrm?" the Wyldclay said, blinking. "Oh, of course. Miriam has him."

[Miriam Bell]

"Oh, is that what you were waxing all poetic about?" Miriam asks innocently. "You could have just said so." she smirks, holding out her hand and opening it.

[Leo N. Eskandari]

Leo nursed a sudden and entirely explicable headache, quietly muttering something to himself about someday murdering the infuriating Fae if Sam didn't take him to another world.

[Will Stanton]

In the palm of Miriam's hand was one of the earplugs the Wyldclay had provided; one that had proved so utterly useless against the Orb-enhanced Siren.

It stayed that way for a moment, until Miriam physically prodded it, at which point it twisted and melted in a familiar way, the curled-up form of Will Stanton revealing himself to the group.

He took a few shuddering breaths, arms wrapped around his knees, as he lay there gathering his bearings.

[Samantha McManus]

"...well then, if Agent Eskandari has any more macho posturing to do, now's the time."

[Leo N. Eskandari]

Leo sighed. "No. I'm good. Glad to be rid of him."

He scratched his neck. "I... sorry about my temper, he just really gets under my skin. Entirely on purpose, I'm sure. Being so easily goaded is a weakness I need to fix."

[Wyll Wyldclay]

"If you think I'm under your skin now, just wait until your next tattoo appointment. Or was that your previous session? I suppose we'll never know."

[Samantha McManus]

"So how close are we going to have to get to the Agency to get back to Maldon? You lot don't need to sneak in to grab anything, do you?"

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"I can gather Katarina's belongings. They will not see me." Ryn notes. Whatever might have changed when the deva broke her unchanging nature, her confidence wasn't part of it.

[Miriam Bell]

"I can move the passages. I think. The music helped but I should still be able to do it."

[Leo N. Eskandari]

"And I can run interference," Leo offered.

Looking to Wyldclay, he said, "Assuming, of course, the story of what happened here is no longer your concern."

[Wyll Wyldclay]

"Oh, it's always been your concern. You're the most experienced Agent on the scene, after all."

[Katarina Kane]

"I can gather Katarina's belongings. They will not see me." Ryn notes. Whatever might have changed when the deva broke her unchanging nature, her confidence wasn't part of it.

"I don't have anything I n..." Katarina started, and then paused.

"I don't have much I need," she corrected.

[Samantha McManus]

"Well then, let's get moving before questions start getting asked."

[Miriam Bell]

"No place like home and all that. Here, hold this." she says and shoves TinyWill into Sam's hands. "Give me ten minutes to work something out." she dds before making her way back towards the abandoned mine to find an out of the way passage that'll work as a doorway.

[Will Stanton]

TinyWill stretched out a little, blinking, clearly still a little bit disassociating from the world at, uh, Large, and slowly coming to grips with being hunman(oid) again, after God only knows how long.

[Leo N. Eskandari]

Leo approached Sam with a solemn look on his face. "Listen. I don't know how much like me your Leo Eskandari is, but you should probably keep an eye on him. He may be more than you or he thinks he is and if he is, he's going to need friends with the strength to stand up to him."

His expression became one of intense guilt. "My friends... weren't."

[Miriam Bell]

It takes a little longer than the promised ten minutes, but eventually Miriam does emerge from the mine's entrance again. Her eyes are red and a bit puffy and her mascara is definitely diminished but she's wearing her usual aloof expression. Emerging with her is a swell of sea air and the smell of another world's ocean.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"Morrigan." Ryn says as solemnly as she can muster. "Clay of the Many. I owe you apologies and thanks. Son of Tiamat." she nods at Leo.

"I've never been one to bestow blessings, but I wish you fare well. Your world can be proud of at least one of it's Gods."

[Will Stanton]

"You want to apologize to me? Then try to make this world a better place then you found it.

And don't break other people's stuff!"

[Samantha McManus]

"I already fought our Leo after a mad scientist turned him into an animal hybrid. I think we've got it covered."

Turning to Ryn and the Wills, she shakes her head.

"This is about the best I've gotten out of her, Will. Give it time."

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"I--" she starts, then hesitates because finding right-words still doesn't come easy to her and probably never will. "Have learned more these last couple days than I have in a millenia." Maybe she doesn't agree with all of them, but at least she can tell that she's a relic. She'd never done it to fulfill a purpose but the need and thus tolerance of her fury has waned. No... not waned. Concentrated into fewer monsters. She thinks on the odd statues of her the humans build for their houses of judging with it's sword and scales and how unlike her it has become. How they've worked to stop the monsters with their civilized ways.

"And I'm too old to change." she says, glancing at Katarina. "But maybe there are still new-things to find out about myself."

[Samantha McManus]

"I think you're already changing more than you'd ever thought you could, or would want to."

[Will Stanton]

"Listen to your elders," Will deadpanned. "Life is change. People grow...or they don't. But if you stagnate too much, you get left behind..."

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"Sharks and crocodiles." she mutters, but not as vehemently as she once might have. Still, she isn't people. Not as such.

"I will think on it." she concedes. "But change too much and you will leave yours behind."

[Samantha McManus]

"You know, we could keep each other honest."

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"I'm always honest."

[Samantha McManus]

"Of course, of course."

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"And the passage to your world is supposed to be closed, no?"

[Samantha McManus]

"Everything you care about is about to pull up stakes anyway, aye?"

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"Not to leave for another world, I don't think." she says, looking over at Katarina. Though they would certainly be beyond the reach of the Agency.

[Katarina Kane]

"Well, Los Angeles sometimes feels like another world, especially to someone who isn't used to it," Katarina joked.

[Samantha McManus]

"You heard what I was saying to the Wyldclay, aye?"

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"I doubt your human-world makes any less sense to me than this one but Katarina could not guide me through it like here."

[Katarina Kane]

"You heard what I was saying to the Wyldclay, aye?"

"Yes. Don't trust him, even for a second. Give him an inch, he'll take a mile, and make you think he's doing you a favor by doing so."

[Samantha McManus]

"I more meant what I was telling him about our world, where you'd have less to hide."

[Katarina Kane]

"I suppose, if you two think that's best, it would certainly change what problems I face," Katarina agreed.

"But this is my home. I've fought so hard to gain it back..."

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"Then we will stay. And anyone who has a problem with our freedom will regret it."

[Samantha McManus]

"I can only offer. I know it's a lot. Just the train's leaving the station, soon."

[Miriam Bell]

"Yes, we might want to get going. I think however it happened, that portal was an errant part of this network of doorways and now that I pulled it back into it it'll shift and change like all the other paths soon."