It was a zombie jamboree took place in a New York cemetary....

[tezcatl_ipoca]

Tuesday, September 1st
Just after midnight
The graveyardSurprises me how steady she is walking out there. Picked up something from her just before we left the Tavern; not what the Doc does, burning off alcohol like steam, but maybe something like. Hope she's not sober enough to change her mind, because hell, this promises to be at the very least

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[kaeli_whyte]

We don't talk much as we go to the cemetery and all of the stuff he said about the man in the tower keeps buzzing around in my head. And with it, all of the stuff everyone else said too. It doesn't matter, its not like I'm going to go there just to say hello.

Tez pauses at a grave and I catch the name and dates on it and feel the blood drain from my face. That's the child..baby that was killed in the park, the one I was going to tell Mab about and the reason I was even in the cafe as late as I was that night.."This the one?" he calls. I walk over and look, the name doesn't ring a bell.

"How'd you want to go about this, then? C'mon, Pelan. Up and at 'em, boy." He says knocking on the headstone and sounding like a kid on his birthday. Smiling I shrug, "Not sure exactly, haven't really done this before either." I can vaguely feel the body beneath us, not really the body but where it is, mostly like a hole filled with nothing, no life, nothing.

I step over beside Tez, looking down at the area where the body is.
Its more likely that we'll end up with a patch of new grass on the grave or a place where none will grow, than anything else. "Just tell me if I need to stop," I murmur. Opening myself and shivering as I allow only the cold of him through and blocking the rest. Just a small amount of my own light blends with his as I guide it down, down past the bugs and creatures in the ground and into the spot where nothing is.

When it reaches the spot it stops and then suddenly I feel something start to pull like liquid being sucked through a straw, only harder. And now in the same spot where nothing was is something and its hungry.

I try to pull it back but it won't stop, its pulling harder and faster on its own and I think I hear a sound from Tez above the rush in my ears. Stumbling back I slam everything shut stopping the flow of energy, "Holy Shit," I gasp, now sitting on the ground. My heart still pounding in my ears as I check for any signs of life. "Still nothing," I breath, "It didn't work." Thank Gods I glance up at Tez and when I see the look on his face, I can't help but start to laugh.

[tezcatl_ipoca]

"Just tell me if I need to stop," and there's an odd little tugging, like someone delicately picking one thread out of a piece of cloth with the tips of their fingers. Neatly done, and I can follow the tug downwards through the warm surface of the ground into cold earth, little stones, the things that wind between them.....

-- that's what she does when she heals? Just - pours energy out of herself like that? After the precision with which she pulled at me, it's startling, and I think of the focus with which I have to knit bits of myself back together and...huh. Pouring out and out and out and fucked if she's ladling out that much of me. Yank myself free of her, twisted little sound of effort in my throat, and then she's stumbling against me.

"Holy Shit. Still nothing. It didn't work." She looks at me and she laughs, and oh hell, figure she's drunker than I thought, still.

Ok. Ok. Get my breath back. "Right. OK. Whatever it was you just did...figure I owe you a night of drinks." Starting about now, if anywhere's still serving. That was a distinctly odd experience.

...there's still a bit of my energy knotted up down there with hers. Try to draw it back into me, and something...squirms.

Uh.

"Um...Kaeli...?"

[kaeli_whyte]

"Right. OK. Whatever it was you just did...figure I owe you a night of drinks." Tez says a little shakily and I don't have to read minds to know he's thinking the same thing I am, I need a drink.

I nod, standing. I don't even really feel that drunk anymore, just---sick and I'm still shivering though at this point the air actually feels warm. I feel the shift as he looks at the ground trying to take back the energy that's still spinning down there, like a tightly compacted ball with nowhere to go. Spinning? Okay, now that's never happened before it usually goes..well..somewhere. Then my stomach drops to my feet as it moves..no life but something is moving.

"Um...Kaeli...?"

"I know," I whisper, watching as the dirt begins shift and move, then cave in. "But..there's still nothing alive.." I trail off, hearing a low gurgling sound as a shroud covered head slowly pushes up through the dirt. "Oh, what the fuck," I hiss, backing away.

[tezcatl_ipoca]

"I know." The earth's moving, and holy fuck, she did it! We did it. Healing death itself....

"Fuck me, Kaeli, you did it!"

"But..there's still nothing alive.... Oh, what the fuck."

...or not.

Something's coming out of the ground, but it's not anything human and alive. Tattered filthy shroud, and wet rumbling noise in the thing's throat, and the hands fighing their way out of soil look distinctly - well, dead.

Well, it's not the resurrection of the dead, but it's pretty damn good. And I believe that only raising the debt was required for the purposes of the debt.... Can't help starting to laugh. "I take it back. You owe me drinks. And, uh, Kaeli?" The thing's pulled itself free now, and it's moving - not fast, not fast at all, but purposeful and inexorable - towards the pair of us. And I'm pretty sure I can handle it, but I'm not alone here. "Might want to start running. Any time now."

[kaeli_whyte]

I watch in frozen horror as person and yes it is a person, or was, struggles and climbs from the hole in the ground. Okay now Tez is laughing and I'm...NOT. "I take it back. You owe me drinks. And, uh, Kaeli?"

"'K," I say in a flat tone, "Yeah, I think now's a good time to pay that debt." The thing is jerky and slow but it turns and Oh for the love of.. its coming towards us, not one spark of life in it but it moves and it does feel..hunger..shit.

"Might want to start running. Any time now."

"Ya think?" I hiss, "You're a god, do something!" I say, backing away fast enough to maintain the distance between myself and it. Not even an hour ago he was telling me he knows the thing in the tower better than anyone and he can't stop this? "We can't just let it run loose in town.." I say, pushing a bolt of energy towards it, watching in horror as it falls then gets right back up again. Okay that was even harder than I hit Lúgh and it didn't phase it. I swear, next time I get the bright idea to go out..I'm staying home. "Any ideas?" I ask, glancing at Tez as I back away. We shouldn't have stopped, maybe if we had kept going it would be alive and not like this. It feels hunger, I really hope it can't feel anything else.

[tezcatl_ipoca]

She's backing away fast, fast enough that she nearly trips on another grave, and oh, this is good. The look on her face...oh, Kaeli. Did no one ever teach you not to call up anything you can't put down? Syl would have a fit.

"You're a god, do something!"

Just look at her as she stumbles back and the thing stumbles towards her. "Why?" I ask, mildly, as she shoves something at it that knocks it down for a moment. Damned if the thing doesn't seem to like her; at least, it hasn't shown much interest in me yet. Give it time....

"We can't just let it run loose in town.... Any ideas?"

"Don't look at me, it's your baby." Grinning hard enough that my face almost hurts. This town, there's bound to be someone who can take the thing down. And really, seems to be about the only thing the town was lacking. Maybe they can keep it as a mascot or something.

Not going to let the damn thing chew on her, though, and it's getting kind of close. "Though like I say...I recommend running." Look at the iron palings of the fence behind her. "Or possibly climbing."

Give the thing as wide a birth as possible and end up next to her. Cup my hands, nod to her to put her foot in it so I can give her a boost. "Up you go."

-- damn, the thing's faster than it looks.

[kaeli_whyte]

"Why? Don't look at me, it's your baby." he says, grin practically splitting his face in two. "It was your idea," I say frustrated. Gods, he's seriously enjoying this, and this is why I really don't like gods. They have the most messed up, twisted senses of humor ever.

"Though like I say...I recommend running. Or possibly climbing." He says boosting me up over the fence I just backed into. Aside from the fact that I live just across the park and its me its following, I'm not going to leave this thing wandering around town. I look up at the sharp tips on top of the fence rails and then look at Tez as he climbs over, "I'm not running until this thing is dead again. Can you break one of those rails off at least?" I ask, irritated now. I can at least knock it down and run if it comes down to that. I can run and get Cain and we'll take care of it. I just really don't want to have to run and get Cain because I screwed up, again.

The fence is at least holding it for now, it doesn't seem to posses the sense to get around it. Though if it keeps slamming into it like that, the fence isn't going to hold up much longer either.

[glass_beddau]

'course I went to the graveyard, and running at that. Howling in my bones, biggest collection of the dead in town, and if I'm trying to find whether one direction or another has the oddity coming clearer I might's well be heading for the stone walls of the Abbey.

As it sets, the feeling is coming clearer, and it's starting to ache in my teeth. Don't like this, not in the slightest, and why I'm running towards it---ah, Excolo.

Round the Abbey, ducking to snatch up a staff or tool someone left lying alongside the back wall, and I can see the neat fine palings of the cemetery fence and two folk--three--in the moonlight--and--

(oh
    (my
          (mother's
                        (bones)

Kaeli. Kaeli and Tez, or at any rate something that looks like Kaeli. Tez I'm sure of for the falling heartbeat pounding in my ears and the wind blowing low and steady and not moving as much as a blade of grass.
"What'd you do?"

[tezcatl_ipoca]

Kaeli's lighter than I thought, and she goes up and over easy, one foot wedging between the spikes to help her over before she drops. Not so easy for me, one foot and still drunk, haul and scramble and snag and oh, there go Lucien's jeans, ripped all up one leg as I come down the other side. Least Kaeli should be paying off the bar tab.

Just in time - stupid thing's hurling itself against the fence as I hit the ground and end up on my knees. "I'm not running until this thing is dead again. Can you break one of those rails off at least?"

Well, if that's how you want it...head up the fence a way and start yanking at one of the spikes. The thing comes blundering along a bit, but when I back off it goes back to Kaeli.

"Aw, look," I say, yanking at the rail again, "he wants his mommy. Maybe you don't need to run - probably just wants to give you a big hug." Screech of metal and I've got it free, stumbling back and tripping a bit myself. Things to do in Excolo when you're drunk, I think, and toss it to her.

She fumbles the catch, of course.

"What'd you do?"

Oh look. The cavalry's here. With - a shovel?

"What does it look like we did?" Give Glass a grin, spit on my hands and start yanking at another rail, further away from the persistent corpse. "Did you want one of these too?"

[gaueko_erebus]

I really don't understand people sometimes. They're dead, for fuck's sake. Leave them the hell be. You have I don't know how many myths and stories and taboos against disturbing them, you have easily pissed off bastards like me guarding over them, and you still get some fuckheads trying to mess with them. Zombies, of all things. Sugaar's flaming balls, they aren't even any good for anything. Unless you have one hell of a preserving spell on them they start falling apart after a couple of days, which isn't a quality one looks for in a labourer. Anyway, they make my head itch like all fucking get-out. Needless to say I'm in a pretty fucking foul temper as I materialize in the cemetery.

Oh, and look who it is. Lugh's pet healer and Yohuali Eecatl. And a pissed-off dead man. Wonderful. They managed to get over the fence, and the zombie's bashing itself to pieces trying to get at them.

"This is cute," I comment, crossing my arms. And then I see my Glass. "Tell me you didn't have any part in this idiocy."

[kaeli_whyte]

"he wants his mommy. Maybe you don't need to run - probably just wants to give you a big hug." Tez says as he rips off a piece of the rail.

"Not funny," I spit, catching the rail, well almost catching it. My heads clear now but my coordination is still way off.

"What'd you do?" comes a voice from behind us and I turn to see Glass, who for obvious reasons, doesn't look too happy. "What does it look like we did?" Tez says, still looking rather happy about all this as he works another bar loose, "Did you want one of these too?" And you know he really is starting to remind me of Lúgh in the way he finds amusement in things most wouldn't. Must be a god thing.

Shaking my head I look back at Glass, "He wanted to see if I could heal the dead and that's what we got," I say nodding my head over towards the walking corpse. Not bothering with an excuse or explanation and frankly, I really don't think there is one. And given her knowledge of the dead, she might well know what to do. "Any idea on how to put it back to rest? I ask and I really hope she does.

Then the energy around us shifts and Anushka's god is here, "This is cute, he says crossing his arms and asking Glass if she had anything to do with this idiocy. Great. I've spent the evening trying to stay out of trouble with one god (which has just gone beautifully so far) and I'm not about to get in to it with another unless I have to. Given the fact that night and death are pouring off him he might at least be more helpful than Tez has been.

[glass_beddau]

"What does it look like we did?" and oh isn't that helpful, I want the act and not the consequence, I can tell the consequence. "Did you want one of these too?"

"Stop. Pulling apart. The fence," I say from somewhere quite far away and quite calm. An angry corpse come walking and maybe more than one, and more than passing interested in Kaeli, so let's tear down the fence. Yes, this displays a god's understanding of consequences to bleeding perfection, it does.

"He wanted to see if I could heal the dead and that's what we got," Kaeli says, nodding towards him.

"You did--" set it aside-- "only on him, yes?" I can feel him like a scream in my marrow, the poor dead man, wrenched up and out of true and into something wretched. Please only him. Please.

"Any idea on how to put it back to rest?"

"Yes." I think. I hope. Dammit, so many dead that long ago, could've been a bandit or one of the three who jumped me or one of the two left behind the Apothecary... Shroud-wrapped, whoever he was, I can see the shreds dragging at him, twining together with tatters of pulling skin, and jaws and face stripped mostly bare. "Draw him off?" I say and then the world goes black, rich and dark and dead as the man before us.

Oh my head. The screaming and the death and the wind and the heartbeat pounding in my ears and falling into itself, I am going to be sick or starving as soon as this is over. "This is cute," Gaueko says, and he sounds about as thrilled as I am. "Tell me you didn't have any part in this idiocy."

"Nothing." And I am dignifying that with a response only because I think he might take it as a slight to be ignored. Jam the spade into the ground by the fence and brace one foot on the stirrup of its handle and haul myself up.

(Spit and staunchweed, death does not need healing and even if it did he would have been six feet underground in a shroud. Does this lead to a long and fulfilling life? It does not.)

[tezcatl_ipoca]

Don't listen to Kaeli and Glass, because the hair's going up on my spine in an angry cat-hackle and oh, joy, I know what that means even before he shows up, lowering and glowering and telling off his girl. Who's -

- well, if there's one thing you can say for the women in this town, they're brave. Crazy to the point of outright fucking stupidity, but brave. And Glass is demonstrating that right now by scrambling her way up the fence towards the - yes, zombie, I suppose. Gets down unhurt on the other side and oh, look, now it's interested in her too.

For fuck's sake.

Get my fake foot up on the bent piece of iron I'm pulling at, boost with the real one, and here we go again. Sure, daddy's here to look after her, but fucked if I'm standing by to watch her get gnawed on in the meantime. Knee damn well hurts coming down the other side.

"You," I say to Kaeli, through the fence and through gritted teeth, "stay. There." Zombie's turned away from the fence and it's blundering across at Glass, and oh, crap. Yank the loose rail free and jab at it with the pointed end.

"Hey."

...nope, still not interested. Guess I'm not passing for human so well these days. Well, fuck it. Glass said draw him off, and short of throwing Kaeli at it there's not much choice. Least as a woman I've got two good feet, and what fooled a god'll surely fool an uppity lump of meat. Jab it again.

"I said hey."

- of course, I reflect as it turns, as a woman I've also got a fraction of the upper body strength, very little in the way of godly powers and a pair of too large torn-up jeans that're trying to make their way down to my knees.

Still fucking funny, though. Give the glaring death god a grin (...death god. That'll be why he's so cheerful about this, then). "Joining us?" Thing's nearly on me, but I'm still laughing. Just something inherently funny about the way human people react to dead things walking around. Always did hit my sense of humour.

[gaueko_erebus]

For whatever reason, Yohuali Eecatl is trying to rip the fence down. That'll help. But at least Glass wasn't stupid enough to pull this...probably sensed it just as I did. Well, good for her. We can talk about it later. For now there's stupidity to deal with.

Yohuali Eecatl heaves himself back over the fence as the zombie goes for Glass....what, you think I'm going to let my little girl get chewed on? But I let him. Tis can only get funnier. Oh, and it does. First he pokes it with a stick, and then he grows tits. And pokes it again.

"You know," I comment, leaning on a headstone, "If you'd looked like this the other night you might've had a chance at winning."

He's got it's attention, but fuck that. He can take care of himself.

[kaeli_whyte]

"You did--only on him, yes?" Glass asks and I nod, "Yes just that one." Though as drunk as I was that's only by sheer luck. Not going to mention that little fact though. Then she says she knows what to do and I breath a sigh of relief.

"Draw him off?" she says to me, looking a little pale and dizzy. For a second I think she's going to fall over and god the feelings coming off her are death and anger and they're not hers because under it is calm. I nod again as she's going up and over the fence and then thing is turning its attention to her. Then Tez tells me to stay where I am as he goes over the fence, poking at it with the metal. Then by gods he turns into a woman? and pokes it again? Okay Tez, its not a pin cushion and that's obviously not working.

And now Anushka's god trading shots with Tez, Oh for the love of.. I put my hand up to my face and sigh for half a second, Okay, Glass said draw it off and Tez said stay where I am...yeah.. listen to the one who deals with the dead or the one who has turned into a woman and it still grinning and poking it with a metal stick? Right.

I walk up to where the creature is and of course it immediately turns its attention to me, I'm the one it wants. The fence still separates us so I start moving away from where Glass is and it follows. She said draw it off and that's what I'm going to do.

[glass_beddau]

Funny thing about being the warm meat inside the fence with the walking dead, he starts paying attention to you, even if there're gods about. No mind for if he wants to kill me for disturbing his peace or eat me to get closer to being alive again or tear me open and drape himself in my liver and lights for life's warmth or just pull me down to the grave with him like a panicked swimmer, and with that marrow-scream in my bones it's not mattering at all.

Didn't ask for any of this. Poor man. Which does not make him stumbling far too fast towards me any more pleasant--

--and then the wind and the heartbeat drop right out of things and he's going for... still Tez, I suppose. Well enough. Reach through the fence and yank the spade out of the ground and pull it back. And then he's going towards Kaeli, and the fence is still between them, and she's walking it away. Good.

Remember something about the bandits, and the men in the alley, and those behind the Apothecary. There's one out of the nine who didn't have his head near-ripped or severed entire from his body, and his skull was cracked open and dripping. Muck and magic might be holding him together, even if my stitches and bandages have gone half to rot, but it's as fine a target as any to aim for. Judge the length of the spade, and wish it was longer, but it'll do better than bare hands.

Come up behind him and he starts to turn and I swing the spade, and swear I can hear an awful tearing sound even over the dull smack of metal on a rotting scalp, and then his head's twisted off to one side, dangling off and back behind one shoulder. I can hear the flesh holding it on starting to peel under the weight of his skull, old meat pulling and popping. Still coming, though, and spit and staunchweed the smell...

Back away quick and steady as I can--steady matters, do not want to fall down now--holding the spade up in front of me. Tez's still here, and she's a makeshift spear to hand, and poking holes in him won't help, but-- "Trip him," I hiss.