The Quincuinox

[Quincunx]

Tzimfemme settled tiny round bohemian sunglasses on her face and went to work as people turned towards the Conservatory roof, fluttering her fingers under outfits. A discreet portal hastened after her lurching, drunken footsteps, catching underwear and funneling it into her nest. "Heheh," she murmured, "much more fun than the long-distance approach," and tossed behind her a pair of long-legged peach control-lace briefs--frog-sized. Occasionally she dipped into a pocket and helped herself to food that people were trying to smuggle home for later snacking.

 

*****

 

"Hihihihihiihihi!" Minta pole-vaulted over the crowd with the velium brawl stick, waving wildly to Kaitlyn who was dangling from a tendril of the Gwerry-Go-Round, holding the vine in both hands. "What's your name, didya see my Double Frubble, I think it got lost but maybe since you're way up there you can see it!"

 

"Hihi!" Kaitlyn squealed, hooking her knees over the tendril, then hanging upside down and kicking her feet, "I'm Kaitlyn and what's a double frubble? Oooooo look, sunglasses!" and she pointed at her face where a pair of giant plastic heart-shaped sunglasses were sliding towards earth, but Minta was concentrating on the other stuff falling out of Kaitlyn's pockets.

 

"How come you got my dagger?" she asked, dropping the brawl stick and scampering forward to catch it. A set of skellie-bone-frame sunglasses flew up as she stopped, settling in her curly indigo hair. The darkwood dagger dropped into her hands, dripping a spot of poisonous sap onto the base of the Gwerry-Go-Round. Kaitlyn squeaked as the entire structure wilted and the vine on which she hung sagged down to the floor.

 

*****

 

From every banquet table in the party, celery sticks briefly dematerialized, leaving streaks of ranch dressing, peanut butter topped with raisins, and heavy whipped mana on the snack platters beneath the sticks. Fields sprouted thousands of divots where celery plants had been growing, then just as quickly re-sprouted, leaving the sole witness unsure of his sanity. On a distant planet on the opposite side of the universe, Celeryman tumbled off of the catwalk as his arch-nemesis Rutabaga Rob flourished his celery-wilting gun, but swiftly unfolded a series of celery-stalk levers and flipped himself back onto the top of the grain elevator. Xaious frowned and wondered which spell-bomb had exploded ahead of schedule.

 

*****

 

"Oh my god, it can't be time for the eclipse yet, my hair isn't ready!" Rydia wailed, clasping her hands to either side of her flared green cat's eye sunglasses while dead Gwerry-Go-Round leaves landed atop her hairdo despite the best attempts of her ears to flick them away. "How can I possibly MINTA!" she shouted, her hair instantly forgotten and ears flat with rage, "give me that dagger right now! No weapons at a party!" Rydia crossed her arms and glared at the neato necro gnomie girl; Minta pouted, squinted into the light, wound up her arm twice, and flung the dagger up and over her head; it also flew over Rydia's head and rose in a parabola, overarcing most of the party.

 

*****

 

On the observation deck, Rosemary winced and turned to face the light, casting a darkening shadow over most of the rest of the partygoers beneath her. Around her hair, beads, and jewelry, the light refracted into scintillating pink haloes. She reached up and removed the wraparound ultra-modern sun shades, folding them neatly and tucking them into her belt. "It will be that those who sing will see what I have seen," she breathed, and refused to take another breath; although her lips formed that accursed tercet in the last eight seconds, no sound came out.

[Wyvern]

Neon blue, neon green, and neon yellow flooded the party as the equinox passed in waves of colour. Rooftop runes glowed until they became mirror images of themselves, and the chocolate that remained in the mud wrestling arena mysteriously turned into milk chocolate as sparkling light washed over it. Many pennites stood motionless in awe until the bright lights had completely faded from the area, at which point an uncomfortable silence settled over the Conservatory.

 

"My, that was... interesting." Appy adjusted her Louis the XIVth wig, only to find that it was now glowing as a result of the light display.

 

"Indeed." Peredhil shifted from his spot on one of the Twister board tiles and carefully withdrew his Armani sunglasses. "Quite the spectacle."

 

Wyvern lifted himself from his curled position in a daze, turning towards DL Snake and Wrenwind who appeared to be chatting quietly about the patterns of the eclipse. He hobbled unsteadily towards the group, sparkles of light still twinkling in his vision, only to pause as a horrific sound caught his attention. Sorciere's scream, coming from the Conservatory rooftops.

 

A large crowd of people flocked towards the staircases as Sorciere's screams continued, growing louder. The group huddled around the observation deck upon reaching the rooftops, murmering amongst themselves as they found the sorceress' discovery. The innert body of Rosemary was still, Minta's dagger jutting from her chest.

 

"'Scuse me, comin through!" Jim the security guard jostled his way through the crowds, passing by Peredhil hugging Sorciere. "Calm down people, just be calm and remember that this is not a Werewolf-related event. Security is here, and we're always on the lookout."

 

Jim paused as he noticed the body of Rosemary, his face twisting into a contorted expression of shock. He carefully approached the corpse, not daring to move less than three feet away from it, and extended a hand as if examining the dagger.

 

"Must've been natural causes."

 

Wyvern's head jittered as he viewed the scene from over the Dreamer's shoulder. His beady reptilian eyes seemed smaller and more sensitive than usual...

[Quincunx]

Light streamed into the Conservatory, charged with the reflected magic of the planets, and outlined auras while bodies grew dim in the earth's shadow; if anyone had looked away from the dazzling sky in those moments, they could have seen souls. Awe sparked among souls, traveling the established pathways of relationships, eddying in a thousand circles and spirals of light, head-high to the crowd--to most people, just another color in the eclipse. Against the threads which connected the quincunx, the darkwood dagger rose up from the first floor and punched through Rosemary's chest, lodging in her heart. Her body, paralyzed, fell backwards from its heels, and her aura wavered. . .then peeled apart. Writhing black whips of soul fell down with the body but the pink-silver stood alone. Without eyes, it looked in all directions at the multi-dimensional threads--and reached out for one which floated alone above the crowd like hair on water.

 

That anima cord!--

 

They touched, and fused. Rose-Mary d'Englesche de Carpathienne remembered where she had originated, and realized exactly how far she was from her material shell. In pink-silver, she looked down at the scrap of D'Abydos in the reincarnated flesh, dying again, this time of darkwood poison--looked down from a great distance, as the magically charged anima cord contracted, dragging her back towards her proper universe. Beneath her, the spiral shrank into insignificance, then was gone.

 

*****

 

On the shore of a small lake, Lorraine, anno Domini 1197, World of Darkness.

 

"Rosemary! . . .Rosemary!"

 

The air vibrated for a moment as though it were a plucked lute string. A body appeared, dangling in midair and silhouetted against the moon's reflection on the lake, then fell lifeless to the ground. Its crescent-moon pendant gleamed in the dark with the last colors of an eclipse in a faraway galaxy.

 

"Rosemary!"

 

Two younger people descended from the forest after the shouting old man, the man breaking branches and muttering, the woman daintily holding her hem in one hand and never making an unwanted sound. "Vladimir, darling," she chirped while waiting for the man to catch up, "you don't have to come on Nicolae's little excursions, and you're certainly not suited for them."

 

"Why thank you, Astarre, I hadn't noticed that we're in the middle of an untamed wilderness," Vladimir replied, pausing to press his palms together and make a peculiar half-bowing gesture, doubly strange for its refinement in the middle of trees. "But I have access to skills which you and Nicolae do not. Notice that I am not shouting randomly for our little lost Malkavian. I have been looking for some specific tracks to tell me that she is near, and I see them," Vladimir lied. "Why don't you run ahead and tell Nicolae he's heading in the wrong direction."

 

Astarre flushed pink, then turned and bounded down the hillside with unnatural speed. After she had disappeared from view, Vladimir sat down on a fallen trunk and took from a pouch a modified sundial, now written over with moon phases, and suspending a pointed stone on a thread. "Let's see," he murmured, "the disturbance was about five minutes ago. . ." He held the sundial upside-down and aligned it with where the moon had been; the pendulum wavered, then jerked towards the lake shore. Vladimir took its bearing, then replaced the strange device in the pouch and re-sealed the knots. "Oh, I cannot wait to see how much it will cost Nicolae to get her reinstated. . ."

[Wyvern]

"Whoa." DeantheAdequate dropped his adequate shades and silently shook his head. "One colour too many for my taste, with the dagger thing. I'm outta here."

 

"Ummm, isss she-?"

 

All eyes turned towards Wyvern for a moment and the lizard stopped his tongue. Jim waved off those that tried to approach him while Ugh the troll bouncer grasped Wyv by a scaly arm, grinning at the thought of punishing him later. After a moment of awkward silence, the crowds of the Quincuinox turned from the area and began to take Dean's lead.

 

"Wash fun while it lasted *hic*. Where'd Vanessha go? I wanna show're how my shtaff is more effective under punch therapy..."

 

"Any of you got a ride for a lonely Knight? My spaceship could sorta use a mechanic..."

 

"Uhhh..." Wyvern bit his scaly lip, glancing left and right with wide eyes. Jim and Ugh blocked him from moving. "I mean she, she isn't...?"

 

"Wadda way to end a party. Still say my tornado was the highlight. *snicker*"

 

"What a drag! I only just got here, haven't even shown off my brand new trenchcoat yet."

 

"W-what..." Wyvern's tail trembled as Jim turned to face him with a cold expression. "I-I-"

 

"As host of this party, yer gonna have to answer to the other Elders about this."

 

Ugh grunted in the affirmative to Jim's comment, and twisted the lizard's arm out of "troll courteousy."

 

-------

 

Much later, when the halls of the Conservatory had been emptied of all of its guests, two figures crawled out from underneath the draped confines of Buffet Table #5. Verteniun coughed and brushed the stray magic fibers from his tunic as he stumbled to his feet. He glanced around the darkened chambers in a haze, then whispered:

 

"Daliarus... Daliarus!"

 

"Hmm...?" The assistant astronomer raised his cake-smudged face to Verteniun, then broke into a smile. "Vert! Y-you're alive!"

 

"We're alive!" The two clapped shoulders happily and let out a soft collective laugh.

 

"But, did you catch anything?"

 

"What, you mean the eclipse?" Verteniun frowned and shook his head. "Should have thought about bringing some sunglasses. I guess we should start counting our breaths, only a matter of time before Master Calzoo finds out."

 

"Whatever." Daliarus let out a long yawn. "Too tired to think about it now. All that trembling from tryin to dance got me worn out. Oh, for the record, you were a lousy waltzer."

 

Verteniun rolled his eyes at Daliarus, then let out a yawn himself. "It is sorta late, I guess."

 

Daliarus answered with another yawn, then gathered the drape of Buffet Table #5 into a blanket and promptly began to snore. Verteniun sighed and began pacing half-asleep through the halls of the Conservatory in search of a soft place to crash, not wanting to resort to the messy post-party floors. He staggered through the aftermath of the party until he came across what appeared to be a large and comfortable mountain of soft material, which he collapsed into. Safe in the comfort of the fabric, he dozed off into an incredibly peaceful slumber...

 

 

...

 

 

... unaware that he had just added himself to Tzimfemme's gift pile.

[Inspector I. M Clueless]

Inspector I. M Clueless watched as the crowds poured out of the Conservatory doors, patient with only two princes standing in his way before the entrance. The Inspector shivered in his unusually light attire and adjusted his dark and mysterious sunglasses, unaware of the fact that an eclipse had even occured. The princes departed one at a time as their escorts left out the doors, and Clueless finally found himself at the entrance to the Quincuinox party.

 

"Sorry" grunted the leather-jacket sporting troll bouncer, shutting the door and tagging it with a "Closed" sign. "We're closed for the evening. Skidaddle."

 

"Hmm... I see."

 

Clueless stood silent for a long moment, then let out a long sigh and turned back in the direction of his car. He passed by several angry men in dark overcoats, who spoke in sinister tones about Orlan, but ignored them as he searched for his vehicle. After four hours of thorough searching, he found his car totalled against a brick wall. Another byproduct of Xradion's dream.

 

Seating himself on a stray wheel that had seperated from his vehicle, Inspector I. M Clueless scratched his chin and began searching for clues about car insurence... particularly deals that offered free Private Eye trenchcoats.

 

And far off in the horizon, a slither of Sun began inching its way over the hilly Pen frontiers, signaling a new day.

 

- The End -