(no subject)

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

Time: April 20, 2001
Place: Hospital Wing
Status: Private (Loki, Anathema, John, Bill, Sphix, Gabriel ... if anybody else thinks they should be in here, please ask)
Summary: It's been practised on a chicken without a problem, so what could go wrong?



Loki did not wake up early, because he was nervous. Loki didn't get nervous. As any good Norse god he could sleep whenever he wanted to without the slightest problem.

Besides the spell had been thoroughly tested on a chicken who was perfectly fine and liked having her soft feathery neck scratched. Unfortunately Anathema had taken her away after a day muttering about something that sounded like 'unhygienic'. Maybe that was even what it had been. It seemed to be one of her favourite words.

At least she still hadn't seen Ratty. Loki kept himself entertained with looking for the rat until he finally heard people move about in the hospital wing.

They didn't like it when he got out of bed on his own, but today he was supposed to be decursed, so he ought to go over there, right? Loki rolled out of bed and with one hand against the wall to support himself made his way to the door.

Comments

[anathema-witch.livejournal.com]

Opening the door to Loki's room, the first thign she noticed was the lack of said god in the bed he usually was to be found in. Frowning when she spotted him, his hand against the wall, trying to walk towards the door.

"Loki, you could have waited at least another two seconds you know," she said, going over to him, and crossing her arms across her chest. "Don't you think it would be better if you rested as much as possible. Who knows what could go wrong if you are more exhausted than normal?"

Well, she had come in here to get Loki and help him out of the room, and along with that try to take his mind off of what might happen. Things never really went as planned in the manor though, did they. Seems more she may be scaring Loki instead.

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

"What? I thought I was supposed to go out there for this." Loki pouted even though he knew it wasn't much use with Anathema. "Not enough room in here, remember?" Well, there wouldn't be once you shoved the bed away from the wall which would be necessary to draw the runes around it.

[anathema-witch.livejournal.com]

"Yes, well, you are supposed to go out there, but you could have waited for help. Conserve energy, it may help this along."

With that said, again, Anathema supported Loki's weight against her own and begun walking to the door. He had almost made it there.

[dangeroushabits.livejournal.com]

"All right there, Loki?" John said as they came in the room where the cursebreaking was to take place, glancing up from triple-checking the circle he'd painstakingly sketched in chalk. He was too much the cynic (and had too much experience with this stuff) to tell himself that nothing could go wrong, but if anything did, it bloody well wasn't going to be because he'd fucked up the damn sigils. "Ready to tell good ol' Czernobog where he can shove his curse?"

He'd read through the books on wand-lore that Bill had sent him, and understood better how they worked, though the books had referenced a lot of unfamiliar sources and terms. In substance, the things weren't so different from the tools of the trade that he knew. They were just much, much more refined and effecient (and safer,) allowing the caster to condense lengthy incantations into a sort of magical shorthand and do away with a lot of the traditional trappings.

He could have written a lengthy treatise on the pros and cons of that choice, but in practical terms, he had a better idea exactly what Bill was going to be doing and why this circle had to be built as it was, and even some vague ideas on what might be done if the whole thing did go pear-shaped. Though he sincerely hoped he wouldn't have to test them.

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

Loki somehow mustered a cheerful grin. "Morning John! Did you bring me my chicken?" He had no idea what had become of the chicken to be honest, but John had brought her to him the first time.

He stopped to rest a moment and take a closer look at the runes. They didn't look different from the ones Odin used as far as Loki could tell. Of course Loki had never really been able to tell one rune from the other. Nevertheless he liked runes.

[no-npc-here.livejournal.com]

Bill had Apparated with a rather loud 'crack!' on the Manor lawn, and announced his arrival with a cheery "Good morning!" After all, it would be nice to have had at least something go right today - there were still so many unknown factors to deal with and things that were liable to go wrong surely would¹.

"Anathema, Loki," Bill greeted them. "How did you find the books on wandlore, Constantine?"

1. No, he hadn't heard about Murphy or his Law, why do you ask?

[dangeroushabits.livejournal.com]

"Nah, no chicken on the menu today," John said, grinning maliciously (he really had no idea what Anathema had done with the fowl, either.) "I got through 'em all right," he added to Bill. "Some pretty weird shit, if you don't mind my saying so, but then you'd prolly think the same thing about some of my books. Which you can borrow if you like, when I get the other ones back to you. The circle's just about set to go, I reckon."

[anathema-witch.livejournal.com]

"Hello Bill," Anathema greeted the wizard. She looked at the circle that was John's handiwork and grimaced. She was glad she didn't have to do that part. So much could go wrong.

As to the chicken, Anathema had let it outside to run about. Maybe it had ran away, maybe it gravitated to a garden somewhere. Either way, she hadn't seen it in a while either. She couldn't kill it though, not only would Loki have been hysterical, but it just wasn't in her to kill somethign so cute, even if she would eat it afterwards.

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

"It'd better not be," Loki told John. He was quite fond of the first chicken he'd encountered that liked being petted. "You're sure you want me to stumble in there?"

To hi embarrassment he didn't think he'd manage to step over the circle without disrupting the runes. It seemed such an effort to lift his feet at all these days. Why hadn't they just drawn the circle around him?

[no-npc-here.livejournal.com]

"Great. You can just send them to me by way of Luna. Both mine and yours." Bill conjured up a bed in the middle of the circle, and stepped gingerly over the runes. He patted the bed, and muttered, "I guess it wouldn't hurt if it was a little softer."

"Come on, Loki. Just hold on to my arm and make a very large stride. Or if you'd like, I can just lift you with a Levitation Charm."

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

Large strides were out of the question, but Loki hated to admit to needing help. It was just so unworthy of a Norse god. Of course that wouldn't stop him from getting help.

"Levitation?" He beamed at Bill in delight. "You mean you can make people fly? Oh, yes, please. That sounds like so much fun!"

[anathema-witch.livejournal.com]

"Oh that sounds interesting!" Anathema replied about the offer of levitation for Loki to get into the circle. Really, she had been half afraid that she or John would have to carry him in, and accidentally ruin the circle themselves.

[no-npc-here.livejournal.com]

"Well, not fly, not really. More like float. Corpusardium Leviosa."

[no-npc-here.livejournal.com]

Bill braced himself, just in case, and cast Impedimentia!, followed by Petrificus Totalus!. Unfortunately, in doing so he had to let go of the curse, which rapidly spiraled out of control.

"Anathema! Freeze the Knot!", he yelled, urgency causing his voice to go higher.

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

Loki yelped as a sudden pain sliced through him, but at the same time there was a burst of energy. Chaos! Real chaos so close that he could almost touch it!

Ah, he hadn't felt this in too long.

Feeling stronger than he had in a long time Loki sat up to watch the scene unfold. There was a tough of worry niggling at the back of his mind. Chaos that hurt might possibly be able to harm him more than it helped, but he just couldn't see chaos as something bad. Maybe he shouldn't try to help this one along, though.

[dangeroushabits.livejournal.com]

At the edge of the circle, John's body snapped taut as the strands of the Knot abruptly started to twist and slide ominously around his awareness. Whether they would cut like the lashing cables of a collapsing suspension bridge or close in like the coils of an angry constrictor was pretty much a moot point for both him and Loki; either way, they'd do just as much damage, and they were slipping too fast for Ana's spell to prevent it.

Reaching out in a way he was only capable of doing at times like this, in an atmosphere already charged with magical energy, he could sense other pools of power scattered around the Manor--some stronger, some weaker (and one very large, seemingly bottomless chasm marked Adam that he stayed well away from.) But it was the most familiar and trusted he latched onto by instinct, despite the slightly sickening taint of Hell laced through them both. He'd grown inured to that a long time ago.

Crowley
Ellie

Crowley took the brunt despite Ellie's greater resources, simply because there was already a convenient channel open between him and John: the link between their enchanted wristwatches.

John drew ruthlessly on them both, every vital sign accelerating sharply as he took the incoming surge of power and felt it nearly doubled by his own unique amplifying trait. No other kind of rush had ever come anywhere close to this, and as always there was the temptation to just let it sweep him under and see where it took him; but he forced himself to focus on the crisis at hand, shaped the power to his will, and grabbed, halting several of the most crucial strands before the Knot could unravel beyond anybody's ability to fix it.

Christ, though, it was hard. Czernobog's malevolent energy was pulling him in ten directions at once, howling for release, and pitted against the power of two relatively minor demons and one reckless human conjurer it was only a matter of seconds before it would succeed.

"Hurry, Ana," he forced out between gasps, his body reacting uselessly to stresses for which it had no means to compensate.

[anathema-witch.livejournal.com]

As fast as she could, Anathema refroze the strands and hoped that it hadn't been too late. Loki's pain, Bill's curses and John's...whatever it was he was doing, but it had definitely been a good thing for Loki's sake, seemed to blur together.

Everything was happening too fast, and yet in doing one thing as fast as she could, it seemed to take forever. She herself felt frozen afterwards, waiting for some sign that Loki had died, or that Bill or John had been ripped to shreds by the fuming Sphinx.

[no-npc-here.livejournal.com]

"What the-" Bill broke off abruptly as the power Constantine was radiating overwhelmed his senses. It was like trying to stand upright in a hurricane. Breath, Bill, breath.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Anathema freezing the curse - Good girl! - and Loki sit up, looking better than Bill had ever seen him. He hoped that her freezing spell would hold, though - the consequences if it didn't - well, he hoped that they wouldn't have to go down that path.

Taking a good look at the intruder for the first time, Bill noticed that she was a sphinx. Oh, shit.

Hope I got this right... How long is the charm likely to last?

[theban-sphinx.livejournal.com]

The sphinx, meanwhile, was still hovering in the air, frozen in mid-leap and rendered unable to move. While her body had been inprisoned with the spells, her mind was still working, and she was starting to panic. What was this? How? Why? She could sense the gathering power, too, and her every instinct told her to run and crawl under a sofa somewhere. Since that was not an option, she clung to her anger. In the midst of all the confusion, that was something she knew.

Well, 2 hours on humans. And actually, she probably should have fallen to the ground on Impedimentia

[no-npc-here.livejournal.com]

This was turning out to be a bad day. Bill had no idea why the sphinx was still in mid-air - possibly it was due to the magical storm that was gathering. Putting his back into it, Bill added his Freezing spell on top of Anathema's. It seemed that Constantine had a few tricks up his sleeve, and Bill filed that away for later. Now, he had a curse to break.

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

Loki stared wide eyed at the sphinx hovering in mid-air.

"Beautiful! What did you do to her? Please, let her down. She's my friend. She only wants my bones!" Well, in hindsight, maybe the last explanation wasn't the best to convince Bill of Sphix' harmlessness.

For some reason Loki had a roaring headache all of a sudden, though and could barely think. It was probably only the chaotic energy John was still radiating that made him able to speak at all.

[anthony-crowley.livejournal.com]

Crowley had been lying on his bed reading - Chicago curled up to his side - when he was hit simultaneously with a massive power drain and a burning sensation on his left wrist. Had he been more vertical, he probably would have staggered to his knees. As it was, he curled up for a moment, uttering a sharp invective that startled the cat and sent her running for the bathroom.

He fought it instinctively at first, but a second later realized that it was John who was in danger and drawing so heavily on him - who needed his power for something - so he let it go, disconcerting as it was. Somehow he felt he should have known the man would be involved in whatever was going down that was giving the Manor the greasy electric feel of magic happening. Forgetting his glasses, the demon got to his feet and reeled down the corridor. If John hurt himself, Crowley was going to kill him.

Just before reaching the entrance to the hospital, he ran into Ellie who was looking a little worse for wear. One shared, harried look was enough to communicate everything.

"You too?" she demanded. "What the fuck does that crazy son of a bitch think he's doing now?"

"Fuck if I know, but if he needs both of us..."

They burst into the hospital to see a frozen sphinx and a crowd of people covered in the thick ozone tang of magic with Loki right in the midst of everything.

Chaos. Bastard.

Uncertain of what was happening and unwilling to interfere before he was sure he wouldn't just make things worse (it was a talent, really) Crowley fell against the wall, flat eyes glued to John's taut form. He didn't give a flying fuck about anyone else in the room - save for Ellie - but nothing was happening to Constantine while he was here and had power to give. In the meantime, he waited and watched, trying to keep the channel open and trust that John knew what he was doing.

[no-npc-here.livejournal.com]

"'s not me," Bill muttered through gritted teeth. Bones?

He concentrated on the centre of the Knot as much as he could - the ugly thing writhed and seethed in its bonds, trying to evade him.

He barely registered the presence of the two newcomers when they burst in; just enough to hope that they weren't going to make trouble as well.

Luckily for Bill, the more the Knot tried to break free, the more of it he saw. And suddenly he saw how and where to cut it. "Anathema! Release it!"

And in a swift motion, Bill cut the Gordian Knot neatly in half.

[dangeroushabits.livejournal.com]

John, meanwhile, hadn't shut down the channels between him and the demons when the Knot froze, because it had frozen about half a microsecond from ripping his consciousness to shreds. If he'd let go his hold on it there was no guarantee it wouldn't finish the job, regardless of how the others tried to restrain it.

Then Bill made his final cut and the entangling strands fell limp, dissolving into harmless background energy. John closed the connections and collapsed back into his body with a breathless groan of heartfelt relief, slumping to his knees and gulping for air. Sweat was literally pouring off him, and after a minute he started to cough; his lungs might be in unnaturally good shape for a smoker pushing fifty, but they weren't used to this kind of exertion. (Mild, but vaguely ominous twinges in his chest were also hinting that he probably owed Raphael the Psycho Angel a very big thank-you for dredging his heart a while back.)

As soon as he could muster the breath to speak, he croaked, "Loki. Ana, Bill. Talk to me." He'd lost track of what the Knot had been doing to Loki. If they'd gone through all that just to beat the cancer to the punch...

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

Loki didn't even notice when Bill cut the Knot. One moment he was still staring worriedly at the frozen sphinx and the next a sudden wave of dizziness hit him and everything went dark.