The Barker Street Irregulars case 2 A vision in pink

[Stella Gaslight]

Celia had to admit that the last week had been the most restful she had in ages.  The wound on her back was healing quickly and would soon be a scar.  Toby was learning magic quickly and that had made her realise that his horizons needed expanding.  that was why she was quite happy when Reid asked her out on a carriage ride in the countryside.  Toby was a city boy through he knew farm animals from picture books not experiences and Celia was glad to be out of range of the city for an afternoon.  London would always be with her close as her heart beat but as she exited it's streets she felt an odd sort of lightness.  Out here she was only responsible for herself and her son and that was a nice change of pace. 

Toby was happily half out the window looking at the novel new land without pavement and buildings everywhere. Celia was very much enjoying Reid's company as they spoke of whatever came to mind.  She taking of magic and the city and he of his hunts and the lands he came from. Celia took Reid's hand as the carriage bumped and jostled them and wondered if she dared keep it. "Mama?" 

Her cheeks flushed a little and she almost wanted to hide her hand but didn't. "Yes darling?"

"I think something is following us in the bushes." He said with concern.

Celia looked and all she was the bushes trembling in the breeze of their passing.  "That is normal.  We are making our own wind because of our speed and I bet we are scarring little creatures out from the hoof beats as well. you will see when we stop for our picnic."

[Ranger Reid]

Reid listened to the exchange, and without consiously meaning to he began to pay more attention to their surroundings.  Celia's hand was distracting in a pleasant way, but the ranger still sensed something "off". It was almost the idea that the small animals Celia had mentioned were NOT moving as they should.  The pattern was wrong.   Without wanting to ruin the mood, Reid put one hand on his dagger.  ( and thanked his intuition that he had reclaimed it from Beety.)

"We should ride towards that hill.  It's so wide and open, it would make a nice stopping place for lunch."   the ranger said that part aloud, but thought "and will give me a view of anyone coming towards us"

[Stella Gaslight]

Celia soaked up the sun as she walked up to the top of hill hamper in hand.  Toby had found a stick and as was the way of all little boys was pretending it was a sword.  He was trying to swirl it the same way he saw Reid do in the tomb but it was tricky. Celia shooed him out of the way as she spread a blanket and started taking out the food. Toby looked at the little cakes studded with fruit and glistening with honey and decided that the country was all right. Once the food was spread they settled in to what was was looking like a lovely afternoon until the buzzing started.  A brown blur burst out of the bushes screaming and being chased by what looked like several hives full of bees.  She looked at Reid wondering if wards worked against bees.

[MWBailey]

Marley and Bill were out in the country as well, Marley inspecting a small country church with not a tower cklock, but a longcase clock, located in the apse of the church's nave, by the front entrance, and just under a window in the second-story wall at the first floor foot of the staircase, such that the chimes rang out across the nearby churchyard and as far as earhot would allow.  It was on the Knights' registry not because it actually governed anything, but rather because it tended to react when things were less than normal in the area.

There was also a collection of standing stones in the near vicinity of the church, which Bill had remarked on (how the fledgeling raven even knew of such a place so far from London was a mystery, but he was a rather mysterious bird anyway, so Marley let it be), and which Marley had decided to visit and look around in when he had finished his inspection of the church clock. He noticed that it's pendulum was off-beat by approximately twenty-six minutes of arc; such a thing was not necessarily abnormal in old clocks on uneven stone tile floors such as the church was floored with, especially considering the maze that was built into the pattern of the flooring, but he noted it down in his book anywhay, and set about realigning the pendulum and levelling the case. In the end, though he had gotten to the church when the Vicar was just arriving in the morning, it was now just past noon.

"So, ye fixed th' auld lady, 'ave ya?" the vicar asked. "Tha's good. I expect we'll 'ave no more bees in teh works, then?"

"Er...Bees?"

But the old fellow just laughed and waved him off, leaving Marley to ponder the nature of country humor.

But later, while he looked at and sketched the layout of the stone circle (such as it was; it was no Stonhenge), and Bill chased bugs and wrens, and finally got divebombed and chased off by a family of sparrows, he kept hearing  a faint but insistent and rather angry buzzing off in the distance. It seemed to move around a lot, going to all points of the compass, but never staying long in one place, and its cause never becoming visible. Marley would have laughed it off as a simple swarm of rather wayward bees, but then Bill came and perched on his shoulder, and told Marley he (Bill) had an itch in his tailfeathers. This had proven in recent weeks to be a sign that magic, or at least a very strong thaumic potential, was in the air. Thus it was that, compass in hand and Bill telling him when he was about to twitch in irritation, Marley and his little friend started off across the fields, following the apparently ambulatory thaumic phenomenon.

And thus it was, when the scream at the location of Celia and Reid's picnic sounded, that Marley and Bill were within earshot of the cry, and came running.

"WHAT!? WHAT HO!" Marley screamed in response. "WHAT"S THE MATTER!?"

Suddenly Bill actually screamed a human-like scream and nearly bowled Marley over, heading in the oppositre direction.

"WE'RE FOR IT! RUN LOOBY!" A mass of yellow and brown tiny bodies were hot on his tail.

Marley summoned the fire spell, while striking a spark with his snaplight- and WHOOSH! a part of the swarm, a nearby bush, and something unidentifiable blazed into flame. Bill squawked like a demented parrot and dove smoking into the pocket of Marley's watch coat as Marley fell backwards onto the truf and covered his syes with his arms - but nothing happened. He sat up, and looked around. He suddenly noticed a carriage, Toby looking at him with an expression of shock, amusement, startlement, and not a little indignation, and Celia and Reid nearby - and a slightky-charred, well-laid-out picnic spread in the middle of everything.

"What ho, Milady, and...Reid? Was that you two screaming that we heard?" He looked down at himself. "A fine rescue party I am..."

"You kin say 'at agin, ya great hulkin' Looby," Bill said as he clawed free of teh pocket amd flapped up into the air agian. "Wha' d'you bathe in, tar slurry?"

[Ranger Reid]

Reid saw the brown blur, but didn't know whether it or the bees represented the worse threat.   He pulled his katana out and prepared to try to duplicate the feat he had seen his master do a very long time ago.   The man had been old beyond description, but when he began the sword dance, it was as if the years had fallen away.  Pure art and skill displayed in perfection as the man attacked a rain cloud.  He was so amazing that no droplet fell without touching flashing steel.

Now the ranger prepared to try a similar act verses either the flashing ball of brownness, or the bees....... or both.   He held the sword out, and centered his mind.  Now more than ever, he needed the blade to speak to him.

As he was focusing on the dance to come, the was a swoosh, and a fireball swept into their midst.  Luckily the dagger in the ranger's off hand did what it does and absorbed the heat immediately around Reid Celia and Toby.   

Reid looked back to see Marley.  With a sigh the ranger allowed a small moment of self pity at the ruined outing.

Then he swept the katana out and allowed the heat to release into the swarm. 

Reid was standing amidst a smoking charred ruin of an outing, and in the smoke and haze he started looking for the brown thing he had seen before.

[MWBailey]

"Well, I knew it was too good to be true," Marley said as he saw Reid go into his stance and the bees and teh brown blur coming around again. "What in the sven deeps of hell is that thing?" He said, consternation in his voice. "and how did those bees escape the fire?"

Bill for his part dove back into Marley's pocket, muttering about bees and fire and  big curved swords, while Marley called up another spanner blade.

"If we can make it over to the Troll's Dance (meaning the circle of standing stones), I think we might be safe," he suggested. "That's if we can make it there, that is...

[Prof. Isambard Ravenwood]

Mallard paced the front room of his flat, occasionally sitting down in his armchair, only to get up and pace again "Countryside... Ha! never catch me out there... too boring. The city has something that the countryside just hasn't got. A sense of... excitement, a buzz... the one place where my mind is always occupied... I need to be occupied... I'm not occupied. GOOD LORD I'm BORED!!!" As per usual his landlady Mrs Lockwood opened the door to find him moaning and complaining, he had been like this for almost a month. "Come on, Hector, you need to get up and get out of here, it's not good for you it's really not..." she walked over to one of the two large windows at the front of the rectangular room and pulled the curtains "AAAARGH" screamed Mallard falling backwards, shocked from his sudden exposure to sunlight again. Mrs Lockwood thrust the paper in front of him "here, have a read of this, there's and article that might just interest you" she said with a small grin. "Good lord..." he exclaimed, looking at the headline. "Is it July?" His eyes widened and did his usual, slightly worried stare into the distance.

[Ranger Reid]

Reid watched the last of the bees fall to the ground.  He looked around at the ruined picnic.  Celia was talking to someone, (maybe that ball of brown).

And Marley was standing there, odd tools in his hands.  The ranger figured he knew where the fireball came from. 

"I do NOT remember inviting you for a"  the ranger paused and looked at the blackened food "cookout Marley."

[MWBailey]

"And I don't remember inviting you to my Inspection circuit, my dear fellow," Marley retorted. "I was enjoying the troll's dance, after inspecting and adjusting a local Watch clock, when suddenly somebody started making bees go maniacal, and throwing magic around to boot. Suddenly there's a scream for help, and my line of work being what it is, I came at a run to try and render aid. It's part of the Chivalric Code, you know. I'm sorry about your picnic, Ranger, but I had no other weaponry at my disposal at that moment. I'm not much good at running away, no matter how loudly a certain raven who keeps scratching me through my coat (he said distinctly  into the left side of his coat)  decides to yell about doing so..."

Bill climbed out a moment later, and said in a cockney accent, "oh. 'ello, Ranger. Gettin' cozy, are we? hee heh heh -!" He cut off as Marley swatted at him.

"Be civil, you! I suspect your Mum'd have words for you if she saw you like that!"

"Yeah, she'd say, 'why din't you git me any pie, cheeky lad.' Stuff like 'at."

Marely rolled his eyes. "Well, enough of that. you see anything else unusual around here? Wayward druids kidnapping damosels, maybe? No, that would be too much to hope for, wouldn't it? Chances are its another dabbler. Who's our Celia taklking to, by the way?"

[Stella Gaslight]

"Celia!" Came a scream from the brown blur.

"Oh no. I know that voice.  Charlie what have you gotten yourself in to now?" She shouted as he went by.

"Can't stop bees!" Celia sighed he hadn't noticed he was safe.
 
She grabbed him on the next pass. "For heaven's sake you are fine. Now sit and tell me what is going on."

"Oh." He said and collapsed bonelessly on the half charred blanket. "I was hoping to talk to you soon about an art robbery."

"Wouldn't you rather speak with the police about this?" She asked baffled and a bit bothered that she didn't get to spend time alone with Reid.

"It is a very odd robbery.  I think we should get in your carriage and go very fast while I tell you about it." He looked panicked and she was confused until he pointed at a cloud on the way to them fast. .

When Celia hear the buzzing she understood his fear.  "The bees are back and they brought friends." She shouted.

[Ranger Reid]

Reid swept Celia and Toby up into the carriage, and took the reigns himself.  Charlie climbed beside Celia.   Reid smiled evilly as he considered suggesting Marley take the "rumble", ( a foldout back seat where luggage would normally be stored)
But instead the ranger shoved over and nodded at Marley to climb beside him. 

Once all were aboard, the ranger whipped the team into fast action.  It was exciting to have a fine pair of horses responding to his commands.  Reid seldom used mounts, and when he did it was usually a simple horse and tac rig, almost never a coach or wagon.  *Too many of Reid's quarry liked to eat horse flesh.

The only downside to this arrangement was that with the pounding hooves and whisteling wind, the ranger couldn't hear what Celia and Charlie were discussing as they bounced along in the coach.   At least he did have the pleasure of watching Marley holding on for dear life.

[Stella Gaslight]

Celia was doing her level best to stop Toby from being tossed around like a rag doll while listening to Charlie.  "Wait I must of misheard you.  I thought you said someone was stealing the figures out of the portraits at the Victoria and Albert."

Charley was looking rather green as they bumped along.  "That is exactly what I said.  One day everything is fine and dandy and the next the canvas is all done up like it was a still life or a landscape with no people at all.  They have even had guards at every door and it hasn't stopped them from wandering off or some such.  See why I need you now?"

"I suppose so." Celia was rather perplexed herself. Why would anyone want to alter paintings like that? When they passed the farthest outskirts of the city the swarm dispersed like it had never been chasing anything.  "Magical bees and missing painted people what will they think of next." She wondered aloud.

[MWBailey]

"I say, did you notice anything odd about those bees, Ranger?" Marley said.

No answer.

Well, you can hardly blame the poor fellow, Marley mused while bouncing about like a rubber ball on the groomsman's seat next to Reid, he's on a picnic with 'is sweet'eart and gets caught up in a demonic bee attack, and somebody he thinks is a rival for the lady's affection shows up and burns the vittles, no wonder he's a bit closemouthed. "They're all the *AGHH* same," he went on, figuring he'd get nowhere if he just waited for a reply, "and all the same color scheme, no variation. there's always variation in nature." BOUNCE went the carriage, and Marley very nearly went flying into the weeds. Somehw he held on and managed to take a vial out of the pocket of the watchcoat opposite the one where Bill had once again taken up residence. "it's like they were painted by somebody with a limited palette, is what I'm saying."

"It's as if somebody's been dabbling with imager's magic, and it got out of hand. Those Golden Bough people, I wish they'd stop mucking about, they've got everybody thinking *OUCH!*  that it's perfectly alright to work magic as a hobby." He caught the little iron railing that edged the seat they rode upon just in time to avoid being pitched off yet again. "Do try to hit a few more bumps, dear boy, won't you? Perhaps we can get airborne." He opined as  he yet again nearly got pitched off. He opened the vial, and yellow smoke began to pour out. He held the vial toward the rear of the carriage, and the smoke billowed out, expanding and engulfing the bees, which began to drop like snow behind them, rendered unconscious by the intoxicating miasma issuing from Marley's vial. "I don't think I have enough to take care of all of them," he said, "but that should make the majority break off the chase."

[walking stick]

Seeing one woman in an outdated mourning ensemble wouldn't be extraordinary, seeing three exactly the same was.  "Beautiful day isn't it." smiled Beety, just before they attacked.  She was already moving, blocking with her umbrella, as the daggers came down.  Same moves, same weaknesses, same fall, same disappearance. Beety remained alert.  All sorts of enemies used imaging magic, none of them trivial.

[Stella Gaslight]

Celia slumped in her seat as the carriage slowed. "Well at least there will be lunch at the club." She said with a sigh.  Toby hoped that there were more honeyed cakes at home. He hadn't been able to sneak one before the fire. All that cooking gone because of bees. Celia poked her head out the window and shouted up at Reid over the background sounds of the city. "I think we have another case on our hands and it is bigger than bees."

[walking stick]

Beety hardly needed the written invitation to the Barker Street club but she always appreciated the courtesy.  As she added some more of Toby's favourite foods to the well stocked hamper she wondered if her strange attackers were related to the new case.

[Ranger Reid]

As they entered the city Reid allowed the team to slow to a walk.  They were a really decent pair, and hardly showed the effects of the sustained gallop.  The ranger heard Celia call out about a new case and smiled.  One more reason to stay for a while.

[MWBailey]

Another case? Marley thought. And I wonder what that old fellow was going on about concerning bees. "Bees in the works, that vicar said," Marley said aloud as they disembarked. "The vicar at the church where I was inspecting the clock made a joke about "bees in the works. The old fellow laughed it off, but now I think about it, he seemed a bit ... odd ... if you know what I mean. He stopped, remembering a small detail. "A limited palette...As i remember, teh fellow is a bit of an artistic type, likes to do pastels of the local scenery around his parish...

[CPT_J_Percell]

Fog appeared in the alleyway near the club just as the carriage pulled up and out stepped two soldiers. One was dress in a green uniform of the 95th rifles as worn in the early half of the 19th century while the other wore a red uniform. While the colours were different, both uniforms were the same style and bore the golden dragon emblem of the guards of Camalot.
"Sir, is this the correct place?" the lower ranked officer in red asked the older officer in green."
"Unless they have moved then it is." He replied adjust his great coat, exposing the two Katana's hanging from his hip.
"Why am I here, sir?"
The officer in Green look at the elven features that the young officer had taken on when given his second chance at life. "You have now been permitted to return to your real home.

[Prof. Isambard Ravenwood]

"Oh and Hector, this arrived for you." said Mrs Lockwood, handing him a sealed envelope. He snatched it away and ripped it open "Finally... oh yes... yes come to papa!" he read it and jumped to his feet. He threw off his tartan dressing gown and put on his coat. "Wow, that letter must have been good news,  I haven't seen you this active for a long while." Said Mrs Lockwood, smiling "Why would I be sitting down now when there's FINALLY something FUN to do!" and with that, he rushed out the door. He stuck his head back through the door "Pity it wasn't a murder, though..." and he disappeared again.

[Stella Gaslight]

Celia sighed getting out of the carriage.  "Let me guess another dabbler. Ever since the white knights upset the apple cart they have been popping up all over,  Do you know I had a representative of parliament try and get me to police them?  Like I don't have enough work just keeping the city going strong.  I told him he would have to take it up with the yard."  Really they were trying to treat her like their own errand girl just because they gave her a small stipend to cover the expenses of keeping London running.  Half the time she had to pay for Toby's clothes out of the club funds and he grew out of them like a weed.

[Steampunk Away]

Abraham had already prepared lunch for the group. He was setting down the last tray when his cravat fell off, revealing most of the veins in his neck to be black. He quickly snatch the cravat up and reapplied it before he thought anyone had seen.

Walking towards the front door, he opened it slowly to all the familiar faces, and produced a letter addressed to Celia.

[MWBailey]

Marley's watch clicked several times in rapid succession, in the manner of a bog standard repeater watch, but in a specific pattern, similar to but different from Morse Code in several ways. He yanked it out and looked at the face, touched a stud, and examined the vortex face, then fliped a small lever on the side wjth his thumb. Out swung a third animated clockwork face, a map grid but with no specific features, just a cartesian grid with pointers that moved along sliding channels to indicate coordjnates on the grid. A dial in the small semicircular section of tbe face off to one side, showed tbe words near, apace, and distant, with graduations between each along the limb (circumference) of the circle. The word near was indicated by tbe dial's pointer.

"Bloody-!" He exclaimed. "Sorry, just a nearby temporal incursion... he said, trying perhaps a bit too hard to be reassuring.

[Stella Gaslight]

"I hope that isn't from lord whom ever he was again. Because if he is trying to strong arm me in to being some sort of magical police man again I am going to kick him."  and with her reinforced boots it would hurt. She paused for a moment getting a feel for the letter and was a bit shocked. "Oh this is rather important isn't it?"

[Steampunk Away]

"Yes Celia, it is. I am afraid of the contents of that letter, as it may be many things. I am hoping it is not my deportation at hand."

He shifted away from the door to allow the lady to enter, and slipped Toby some cake as usual.