A Grab Bag of Awful

It's weird, coming back to Houston.

I know everything is still the same as it was before (read: terrible), but it still takes some getting used to after the crazy ass bullshit that went down in Atlanta. I'm not entirely sure if 'normal' is the right word, but...I guess it's nice getting back to dealing with the monsters I know, as opposed to the monsters I don't.

So yeah. Saturday was kind of a grab bag of random shit. I guess that's a good thing, since Brayker wasn't able to make it, and since I was running late. Not only would I hate to be on deck when things really go to shit, but I'd also hate to be late for it. Then again, I pretty much hate this whole 'war for reality' thing in general, but hell, not like anyone else is gonna do it.

By the time I showed up, Ash and Penny and Ellie the Sharkgirl and the werewolves ran off to investigate some creepy ass haunted house that Lester the half-vampire Servant had sold to the CUT, or....something? I dunno. It turned out to be a trap, because of course it did. More on that later.

Meanwhile, Wayngro gave us a call. See, remember those labs we kind of burned down a few months ago? The ones that were researching Truthy artifacts and had monsters that bled BEES? Well, the owner of said labs kind of found us out. She's from Egypt (I think?) and has a burqua-ninja kind of style, with the face veil and everything. Oh, and goons. She's got goons.

And no RQ. So she's not a Believer or a Servant. Yet.

So Artemis, Luke the Hacker Demon, and myself roll up to Wayngro's tower to have a face to face (or, well, face to veil) meeting, which...didn't go well. She's somehow got an idea that we were behind burning down her science projects and broke some fancy shit...which, we did, but I thought we covered our tracks better than that.

She's got some idea of the Weird Shit out there, and she knows she's getting funding from the Church of Ultimate Truth, and...well, we tried to hint at why this was a Bad Thing- but before we could really get into threatening or bribing or properly negotiating, Ash texts me.

See, apparently everyone on Team Haunted House got trapped in the basement, which then started to fill with blood, and then everyone started hallucinating, because...trap. This kind of cut our little meet and greet a bit short. I don't think Miss Burqua Ninja was very happy with us jetting out. I tried to just bluff her, and make her think I was a harmless, clueless idiot. You wouldn't think this would be hard, but she was pretty much the only person I've met in two years who actually thinks I know what I'm doing. Shows what she knows, right?

But yeah. I dragged everyone out of the meeting, jumped in the car, and tore-ass up to the north side of town. Thankfully, by the time we got there, everything was wrapped up. Apparently everyone had stopped tripping balls, and they'd captured the Servant who was watching the house, at which Penny killed the bastard. So, y'know, good for the killing servants thing, but we didn't get the chance to interrogate him, first, so...yeah. None of our people died, at least, so there's something to be said for that. Ash was pretty horrifingly stabbed, but she said she was cool with it, because ghost zombie, I guess?

So yeah. Everyone packs up and heads back to the Citadel- but, of course, nothing's ever easy.

Apparently, one of those Purist Werewolves flagged down Jacques and Weylin, which only didn't go to shit because the Purist werewolf was a Believer...but not an Accordist. He warned them (and, by association, us) to stay the fuck away from him where he's hanging out in some dive-ass bar on the south side of town called the Living Inn or the Living End or...something. I forget the name, but if you're ever in some shithole bar on the south side that smells like wet dog, get the hell out of there.

And on top of that, here's where things get REALLY weird. See, on the drive up, Kendrick nearly ran over some guy with a dog. Like, the guy (and the dog) didn't notice him. At all. Which I'd just write off as just 'weird' until I nearly ran over the same fucking guy, with the same fucking dog, and he didn't notice me. He also gave me a real bitch of a headache, too, which...well, I've kind of learned to stop asking questions at this point.

Anyway, after I gave a brief lecture on why “I USE WIZARD VISION” shouldn't be the first answer to all your problems (Apophis says it raises the RQ, so fuck that shit), we do a little normal-mortal digging on Guy-With-A-Dog...and, uh, it's fishy, but we weren't able to really pin anything down on the guy. Yet. Maybe it's Truthy, maybe it's just general weirdness, I dunno.

But yeah. To recap, shit went down, and I (thankfully) missed a lot of it. I got the feeling that things are gonna get worse, but that's pretty much my default setting.

So, y'know, be careful, you terrifying monsters. If you get killed, I won't have anyone to hide behind.