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REALITY June continues to travel with Vera, picking up on the fact that her problems with her husband are more based on Vera’s jealousy than her being away from home too much. Due to the fact that June feels as though she owes Vera for her help, she wants to do something to help out, but it’s a tricky thing – on the one hand, a soul can only take so much of one emotion or another, but on the other it can hold an infinite amount of feeling, provided a balance is worked out. (Also complicating this is the fact the June can tell that someone has, at some point, Preserved the woman’s Jealousy, so there’s a chance she’s going to draw attention to herself – she’s stepped on the toes of other Powers by ‘helping’ people before.)

June’s had bad experiences with ‘balancing’ bad things with good things before (“I’m now very devoted, but I’m still really Jealous, so if I can’t have him, no one can…”), so opts for the simpler, but more strenuous solution of wiping out some of Vera’s Jealousy.

They continue the drive to Chicago.

LUST Senachiel grows/reveals wings and says something under his breath as he starts to fly away – something about ‘another of your allies’. Macy glide/jumps along building rooftops, moving after Senachiel towards the building with the dead angel. She enjoys this and it is fun for her. She decides to jump on the angel's (Senachiel’s to be specific) back as he is flying along. They come to a stop on the original brownstone’s rooftop and she stalls him from going into the building by asking several questions. He gives her a flower and tells her to call him with it. He finally is able to pull away and drops down to the front steps of the buildings. Macy runs down the side of the building and gets there first -- she tries to interposing herself between him and the door.

FUNGUS Arrives on the slope of Mt. Baldie. IT finds a dirt path that leads to a road, but parallels in the undergrowth instead of walking on it directly. Fungus follows its instincts, walking down into a washout ditch beside the road. It gets like a magnetic north kind of pull that leads to a storm drain. The fungi in the sewer are singing and talking to Fungus by way of greeting. Fungus asks where it usually goes when it comes down here. They respond that it is normally to see the professor. Fungus heads further down the tunnel.

PUNISHMENT She in the apartment across the street from her own, with her gun to the back of the head of the dude she caught watching her place. She interrogates him and finds out that he is watching on behalf of the Power of Imagination. Punishment asks if the guy thinks he is going to call for help. The spy tells her that he already did call for help. He suggests that maybe some nice tea would help her calm down, and she knocks him out. There is a knock on the door. The lady outside the door goes through a list of things she doesn't have with her (a very Imaginative list, har) and lets Punishment know she only wants to talk. Sian lets her enter. The girl looks friendly enough with dark blonde hair and a lot of smiles -- asks if Punishment wants some tea or scotch. Imagination offers to help Punishment and trys to explain things to her and the way Nobles work. Punishment is still holding a gun on her. Imagination tells her she (Sian) is a Noble in charge of Punishment… or Death, she “gets you two confused sometimes”.

ELECTRICITY Goes elemental and spreads over everything that will burn in the room. Things start burning. The other man in the room squints and all of the flames halt – that is, completely stop moving, but are still there. Ball of lightning gives the guy the finger and exits through a light socket. Electricity exits to Alantic City, NJ, but decides he really needs more information and jumps back to the house, trying to lurk in the wires without a ton of success. Goes back into the room and the man is still there, as are the (Pause Button) flames. He asks the man if he couldn’t just leave and let Donner look around for awhile. Avrileros offers Electricity the chance to throw himself on the mercy of the court. The phone in the room rings.

Just that phone, though… the one closest to Donner. Weird.

Oh.

GUILT The world gets tingly and phasey. She is now standing in an efficiency apartment in a low rent tenement; bedroom and bathroom. There is a man in the room dressed in a dirty white tank top, well-used boxers and a pair of dark socks who offers her a sip of whiskey. Guilt complains about her bleeding wound, but Hank isn’t terribly susceptible to Guilt-trips. June told him to bring her here. The man tells her she is one of those 'god people'. He tries in vague descriptions to tell her what is going on. He finishes with the story and when he is done she asks him to put on some pants. She asks about the Bronze Man, but he doesn't know about him. He says they are in Chicago. He runs through the list of people still to summon and invites Guilt to join him. They go up to the rooftop for the next one. There is a group of hippies who are stripping down for the ceremony. Guilt cradles her whiskey bottle and begins the slow chemically-aided detachment from current events.

LUST Senachiel explains how to use the flower he gave her as a focus for communication. Meanwhile, she listens to hear what is going in the building (Donner’s attack blew all the glass out of the second story, so it’s quite easy.) She chats some more with Senachiel.

ELECTRICITY Moves up a floor and to a back room through the electrical wires, waits for Gail’s call to catch up to his new location, and answers the phone. It's Gwen (of course) and she needs him and wants to know if he has gotten hold of anyone else. They talk about the dead angel, and she tells him that there might be a new Lust then – probably Must Be, considering that his heart’s missing. Electricity has been fighting Eternity – she knows that much about Avrileros, but not much else. She tells him to get closer to New Orleans. Gwen names everyone in his Familia and cautions being careful with Death (who was seen a little while back in the Chancel “he fought one of the Inquisitors; things fell down”).

LUST Talks more with Lost Things. He says he is going in to talk with his brother, so she jumps into the third story of the building through a (until then unbroken) window. She walks through to the back to find Electricity

ELECTRICITY & LUST Lust introduces herself as well as any amnesiac can and tells Electricity to meet her at a phone number she provides him, where she has to go (the woman who’s been calling her). Lust runs out the building towards the address of her caller. Senachiel and Avrileros are on the way up the stairs, and Electricity jumps into the phone lines.

FUNGUS Emerges into a lab environment and is found by Professor Wirtz. He is a wiry balding gentleman. Professor is happy to see Fungus who informs him that it has lost its memory. Fungus believes there are people after it (yah think?). He asks after the rest of the Familia. Fungus looks confused. The Professor asks about reforming itself – he seems to think that if she changes her form (the ‘little death’ transferal of her essence), she might get some of her memory back. Same confused look. Professor explains to Fungus that it might want to rot itself and reform for the purpose of regaining memories. Fungus wills itself to reform and slowly this happens – she regrows out of the ‘study fungus’ in the next room.

PUNISHMENT Still holds a gun on Imagination, who chides her for not using imagination more. Punishment asks how to get in touch with the others. Imagination asks if she has any flowers. Punishment finds out that her boss has been killed, and she thinks she might have lived because she is so focused – Imagination (“just call me Haley”) thinks it’s because she’s so stubborn. Imagination tells Punishment to look at her gun and imagine it is a spear. Punishment is able to focus on the gun and see it as the spear it ‘really’ is. When she looks up everything seems to be different (she’s shifted to mythic view). Imagination tells her to get some mushrooms from the kitchen and try and talk to Fungus. Punishment has a short conversation with an armchair about the owner of the apartment and decides she doesn’t like Mythic View very much. She describes the man she killed earlier and asks if Imagination knows who it was, but she doesn’t.

GUILT The rain dance continues. Guilt is watching the ceremony. She is truly unimpressed. The light bulb hanging from the power pole that the group is using as a sort of ‘may pole’ blows up and lightning is everywhere and forms into a man. Hank gives Electricity the low down on the family (and some scotch) and Guilt is hiding just out of sight. She chides Hank for not warning her about the lightning. Electricity says he’ll be back, but says he was interrupted in transit and leaves to meet Lust. Guilt commends Hank on his stock of alcohol.

Hank then starts trying to “get” Punishment. Imagination sees Punishment fading out and tells her “pleasedon’tkillanyonewhodoesn'ttrytokillyourfirstok” before she vanishes. Punishment gets summoned, and points the gun at Hank, somehow very upset about this and sure that He is Not the Sort of Person who Gets to Summon Her. Guilt tells her that she is not going to feel good about killing Hank in the morning. Hank gives The Speech to Punishment (though the speech gets a more simplified and vague as the evening progresses), and gives her some alcohol. They discuss Fungus and that they should summon it, but Hank doesn’t have the stuff he needs for her – it’s not complicated, but not the sort of stuff you can get at a local Stuckey’s, either. Instead, they decide to have Sian try this flower-communication prayer-thing that Imagination told him about.

LUST is running (across rooftops, at a good clip) to meet Jessica. She runs and jumps to the top of the building where she wants to be. She runs down the fire stairs to the penthouse and finds someone inside who is not a threat (Jessica tries to hit her with a bat when she walks in and that doesn’t work well. Jessica is aging rapidly now that she’s not Sisera’s anchor anymore – they talk for a bit and Lust considers calling Lost Things to find out how to anchor someone, but Jessica remembers. Lust cuts her arm and feeds Jessica some blood just as someone steps into the door of the room. Macy ignores his order to cease immediately and gets smacked across the room.

Macy jumps back up, rushes him, ducks under his attack, picks him up and throws him out the patio door – hard. He sails through the glass, CLANGS through the patio railing, and head towards the cement many, many, many stories down.

Macy pursues, jumping down the side of the building from balcony to balcony, watching the gaping hole in the street sixty stories down. About halfway down several patios collapse under her, flinging her into open space.

Somewhere around here, Donner shows up in the Penthouse and Jessica tells him what’s going on. Donner leaps out of the window and just falls to the ground below. He’s in elemental form, so the physical impact is not notable for him.

She gathers herself for the landing and spreads the impact through the ground (it cracks) with a crouching three-point landing.

The pavement crumbles beneath her and Lust falls through the sudden collapsing hole into the access tunnels beneath the street.

The Bronze Man charges her. They exchange blows – his are more ponderous and very powerful, hers are quicker and deceptive. Electricity is standing at the top of the impact crater (not to be confused with the Sacrifice crater). Pedestrian and automotive gawkers line the street, but they can’t see the two duking it out and Prosaic Reality is trying to pass Donner off as a damaged and dangerously live electrical short caused by the two sinkholes in the street.

Combat rages. The Bronze Man causes a cabby to sacrifice his car by gunning it into the hole and straight at Macy, but it misses. Meanwhile, Donner hits the Bronze Man solidly, Macy does twice and take a shot in the breastbone for her troubles (another deadly wound). The crowd suddenly reacts as though Donner is some sort of superstar and tries to rush at him – he’s in elemental form, so this will kill them – he jumps into the hole to get away from them. TBM jumps out the hole and Lust jumps after him -- Electricity hits him with another bolt. Bronze man crushes into the hood of a car several blocks away and Macy sails past him to land atop a taxicab. Donner arcs through the electrical conduits beneath the street, leaps out into the open from a streetlight about two blocks back from both of them.

FUNGUS Talks with Punishment (using one of the familia-aligned flowers that the Professor has grown in a window box outside his office at her request). Fungus has him drop the bag of mushrooms so it can try and to locate where they are (it needs to be outside Punishment’s Auctoritas to be Divinable. Punishment tells Fungus they are in Chicago. Punishment throws the mushrooms near the pigeon coop and Fungus locates them and reconstitutes herself out of the… biological matter... in the area (eww). Hank scrambles to get Fungus some clothes at Fungus's request. He has some difficulty locating polyester for Fungus, however (cotton fabrics are right out for her -- she rots natural matter in a few hours). Fungus gives some special mushrooms to Hank for his rain dancing hippie friends so they don’t freak out too much at what’s going on, or at least can explain it as a bad trip later. Punishment asks about food and Hank provides her with some of the stuff June sent him to get.

LUST & ELECTRICITY It’s a showdown. Suddenly, all the people within ten city blocks slump over unconscious. Cars coast to a stop. The Bronze Man shouts a protest as a large hole opens under him and he drops out of sight. A Voice tells Electricity and Lust that they should not be doing what they are doing in the middle of her city (“Don’t Freak Out the Mundies!”). She tells them to get into the phone booth (that just appeared) before TBM's friends get here. They step in and the booth sinks into the pavement. Minutes later it rises out of the rooftop of a specific apartment building in Chicago (where the other Nobles are).

ASSEMBLED GROUP Punishment points a gun at them as they enter. Lust asks her not to point the weapon at her as she has had a bad day (and she’s suddenly feeling cocky about her god-fighting powah). Fungus asks Lust who she is and she tells her. June will be here in 3 hours. Lust needs sleep and Hank suggests his bed. She refuses, as she has a sudden very CLEAR vision of what’s been going on there, so Fungus grows her a soft bed of her Estate. Those folks with more info fill everyone else in on who is hunting them and some of what they are in trouble for. Electricity jumps into his anchor Gwen (in the Chancel) and finds out what is going on with her, and hears more about Death’s appearance – after that story, they decide not to summon him just yet. Fungus decides to contact her Herbalist anchor (also in the Chancel). She is in her house and has not been rounded up, though her business has been closed by the invader’s order. Fungus asks what herbs would be good for memory loss. The herbalist is not sure what to recommend because Nobles are not like normal people. She gives a few suggestions.

Meanwhile, Guilt's whiskey bottle is empty and she's officially written most of this off as a drunken nightmare.

REALITY June and Vera have stopped at a Kwiky Mart on the outskirts of Chicago to pick up supplies. As June goes through the candy aisle looking for candy orange slices, she notices that everyone in the store has become fixated on different things to the exclusion noticing all others: the girl behind the counter is staring at the business woman leaving the store, who in turn is staring at the soccer mom outside loading three children into the mini-van, etc.

Just as suddenly, she realizes that there's a woman staring right at her from the next aisle over.

"You think you're sooo great, don't you?" The bitter sound cuts through the quiet of the store, even though the words are spoken softly. Turning, she sees the dark, narrow face of the woman glaring at her over the snack shelves. The air around her almost seems to bend with the intensity of the emotion she's directing at you, like heatwaves coming off a blacktop highway. "You've already taken everything from us," she continues, "but even when you run away you have to stop and try to take something else from me." He hand comes up and grips the top of the intervening half-wall of snack food. "Vera was mine, and you ruined it."

"Yes, dear," June says. "Sometimes you have to learn to share." The orange slices are so...orange. Oh, well. Little wedges of jellied sugar will keep. "Do you need something, young lady? What can I do for you?"

June opens her hands: they shimmer in the fluorescent light, full of invisible offerings. Conucopias of the spirit. Perhaps even a monkey's paw or two.

The woman's pale face twists downward as though she smells something foul-but-seductive... burning cigarettes wafting past an ex-smoker... her laugh is short and harsh, full of disbelief. "You can't offer me anything that I don't already have." She shakes her head, her (golden?) eyes still on June's open hands.

It's hard to tell if she is stating what she believes to be fact or forbidding June from trying.

June says nothing and waits, only trying to intensify her aura.

The woman seems lost for a moment in the light, but her unfocused gaze is on the past, not the wonders June offers. "We were a good Familia. We increased our Estates, watched out for each other, fought the War. Everything was good. I almost --" she cuts herself off, blinking and looking up at June. "It took us almost two years to notice that someone was siphoning away our strength -- bypassing the Heart of our Chancel -- but it didn't take us long after that to figure out who was responsible." Her hands grip the top of the rack that separates the two women even more tightly, her knuckles going white and the metal creaking slightly. "We never did anything to you!" She says through clenched teeth. "You were just... just Jealous of us and you're going to pay for it; the Inquisitors will make sure of it." Her eyes blaze with actual light, far past the simple flash of anger a mortal might manage.

June stops out of arm's reach; not the woman's arms, but her own. "If anything we did hurt you, I'm sorry. I don't know much about the business that was going on at home; I'm the kind of person that takes care of emergencies out in Reality. Sweetie, there are some things I can't fix, and the person who could fix them is gone now. There are a lot of things that nobody can fix. But there are a lot of things I can fix. Why don't you tell me about it?"

Her eyes narrow, "Oh that's right... Cathetel is such a loving, caring Imperator, he's so much better than everyone else. Except he's been killing off tiny sections of our Chancel's heart for two years; locking each piece in a timeless void and siphoning off the energy." Her eyes brighten again, even as they narrow. She looks suddenly triumphant. "Siphoning it off to you and the others. HE didn't have our Chancel's energy, which means YOU and the others must have gotten it." She glances out the large plate glass windows in the front of the store and smiles. "But they'll get it back for us."

June's gaze follows hers. Three people (two men -- one black and well-dressed, one white and disheveled -- and an east indian woman in traditional garb) are standing just outside the building and looking in through the window at June at the other woman. None of them are smiling.

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