S1 E1 "Pilot" (RP)

Deacon simply shrugs his shoulders at the Chief. As they watch the deaths of both victims, Deacon finds his attention drawn to the creature. Can you slow it down around the moments we can see the creatures face. Also can you replay what it said?

If Tereza 'zooms' in on the creature, [/color="green"]Deacon[/color] get's a better look.



It's ragged clothing looks "period."

If Tereza replays what it (...he) says it's become clear to Deacon, and Caroline, that within the gurgling, creaking voice it's clear he speaks with a prim British accent.

Caroline hrself tgries to look unaffected by the horrifying scene, her eyes locking onto the images of the two dead for a few moments before she forces herself to look away and focus on the chief.

'It's okay. maybe we shouldn't have started you off with this...' Tries to place a reassuring hand on her back, follwing her questiong gaze to Tereza and back. 'Don't..worry about it. She just really gets into rituals.' She tries to guide her away out the room, gesturing with the others to keep looking for clues.

She pulls out her phone to read Jemmas text, other hand still supporting Sarah. Fey, that wasn;t good. Her mind goes to Alabaster for a moment, before responding.

When am I not careful? xX

We saw what happened. Its not pleasant. Dorian Grey with roots over paintings. T may have ruined her chances with the Chief.

Meet up?

When no further requests come in, Tereza begins chanting again, not in Latin this time, but in Czech. She doesn't expect anyone else to follow along. The circle is broken by this point anyway. It's just a general way to dispel the lingering magic.

The shadows explode back onto the walls that they were drawn from and Tereza's eyelids flutter again until her pupils return to their regular spots, looking ahead through her glasses rather than being turned back into her skull. "Holy hell," she mutters as she feels faint. "That was more intense than I expected." Noticing that Sweeney is no longer to her right, she lets herself fall to her left, into Deacon's arms, instead. "Where is..." She doesn't finish the question when she notices the open door and the fact that Caroline is missing as well as the Chief. She decides she'll have to talk to Sweeney before the woman leaves. This might have been a bad idea. "Was it helpful?" she asks into the round. Her own mind is still working on putting everything it absorbed into place. "I think we saw what we wanted to see, yes?"

I'm off to my bed, you should too ;)
It has been a crazy day. Will the Cheif hire us as consultants for this case or are we still broke?

Jemma has a rummage around her shred before going inside her house. She places a pair of scissors open on the front and back door as an X. In her windows, she puts 2 iron nails also formed as an X. Warding aginst fey intruders.
Close this house, protect it be, rest here peacefully as under the lovers-tree.

Shit! I meant the "willow tree". Too late now. She changes into her pyjamas and goes to bed. 10 min later she gets back up, takes a shower where the water stream is directed on a strategic spot, and when satisfied, she returns to bed. This time not bothering with the pyjamas.

...In the hall to Tereza's apartment...

Sweeney leans on the wall, and looks when they exit. "That was not pleasant," she says. "But, Jesus, is that the type of stuff you all do when investigating?" She purses her lips--he thinking face. "I'll talk to the powers that be, about discretionary spending; consulting fees."

She pushes off the wall. "Now I need to tell the families of the two victims." She frowns and is prepared to leave.



🌙

---

...Sweeny gets to the driver side door of her squad car, puts her hand on the handle and stops. She looks up, through the falling snow, at the coven as they exit the building. Her eyes make contact with Tereza. She lowers her hand and waits, the witch's body language telling the her she may want to talk.

'Some times. We each have our own methods...Remind me some time to introduce you to Al.' She tries to keep a cheerful face up, reassure hand still on the officers shoulder. 'That would be great. The others...may have overexaggerated our.. need for for/b] She coughs and looks away as she cuts off. [b]'I wouldn't ask it it was easy for us. But we are committed to helping get this guys. It's our town after all, weird as it may be. '

As the other s drift out the room she give the chief a last grin and moves to grab her brother an leave. As she spots the chief slow at her car she turns and gives Tereza a subtle wink before pulling out her own phone to grab a taxi and read Jemma's response.

Sleep. That was the last thing that was going to happen for a while with what they saw. She didn't need to let the others know it had affected her though.

Nights still young though. I'm going to see what info I can dig up on this guy.

Chief's gonna a pay us, so then we can focus on this for a while.

She goes to put her phone away before suddenly remembering something she forgot to pass on.

This person/fey/being thing, it sounds from across the pond. Don't go opening the door to anyone with the british accent. Except me of course. ;)

See you tomorrow xX

Tereza takes a deep breath, then wanders over to Sweeney, fairly nervous. She notices Caroline's wink but doesn't respond to it. Why does she have to suddenly have developed a crush on the older woman? If she didn't, this situation would be pretty funny. Instead, it's nerve-racking.

"Sweeney, can we talk for a moment?" she asks the chief. "Alone?" Once they have some reasonable privacy, not necessarily out of sight but definitely out of earshot of the others, she says, "I am very sorry for what happened. I was trying to help you with your work and did not consider the impact seeing something like this might have on someone unused to the experience." Her accent sounds weaker now than it usually does. It isn't gone, but with her actually thinking each of her words through now, it comes out much less strong. She hesitates, then adds, "And I was trying to impress you. Show off. Rituals, divination, it is my art. I love it and I am proud of it. But demonstrating it to you like this is like saying I love movies and then showing you a snuff film."

She lets out a heavy breath, then says, "What I'm trying to say: One, I hope this was at least helpful. Two, I want you to know that magic isn't always like this. It can be beautiful. And three, I hope you will still come to our full moon festival at the brewery."

Sweeney listens to Tereza, a skeptical look on her face, hands shoved in the pockets of her coat. She guffaws at the mention of a snuff film.

"Look, I'm not judging you or your...art," she says. "That was just a, I don't know, a lot to process." She thinks for a second, recalling Tereza's 'transformation' when communing with the root and past. "It's not always like that," she asks, incredulity in her voice.

"But yeah, it was helpful... I think... I just have a lot going on at work, and you know, we have a professional thing going on here now..." She shrugs. "I just mean I think I'm pretty busy, so I probably won't have time to make it to the festival..." A gentle excuse.

She kinda shrugs and opens her car door. "Um, I'll call with any updates." A half smile she gets in her car.

Caroline watches Tereza nad the Chief speak as she waits, trying to judge the conversation by their body language, but the taxi arrives before she can see then end. Getting in with Deacon she gives the others a last wave before heading home.

-------
As the pair get back Caroline wishes her brother a good night before stepping into her own room and shrugging off her suit jacket.

The room is incredibly tidy, with her own pir of meticulously kept bookshelves. Most of the books are about business, but also several on Salem and its history, as well as leylines from when she first arrived. One bookshelf holds a locked drawer at the bottom. Hiding away the books directly about magic, and the fey. It had been a while since she had looked at the latter set, but with Jemma's text she got a feeling she may need to soon.

She summons Alabaster and for a moment just pauses to study him. He was so different from the one in the vision, yet shared similar origins. At least no life sucking vines got involved in his pranks.

'It going to be a long night bud, we've got to earn that consulting fee after all' She addresses him before dropping into her chair opposite a laptop. From a desk drawer she pulls and energy drink, the secret stash showing this is not the first, or last time she's worked late into the night.

'Braddock Manor huh. Let's find out about you.' She fires up Google whole gesturing for Al to grab some books from the shelf. It was going to be a long night.

-----

Caroline always liked to get to the brewery early. Check everything was in order, see if any last-minute cleaning needed doing, go over the books, before talking to everyone in a morning briefing.

As Alabaster goes around finally taking the sad decorations down the witch is found where she always can be in the mornings, sat at the bar typing away on her laptop. One of her best ideas was teaching Alabaster to use the bar’s coffee machine. Though were normally a small cup of coffee can be seen next to her during this time, instead today is a larger mug, often a tell tale sign she’s had a long night.

She’d gone to bed eventually, but even then she’d kept having images of the victims, the vines, whenever she closed her eyes. Then there had been the dream, the vines bursting for her own arm to wrap around her…. That morning had been one of carefully applied make up, to try and hide the lack of sleep.
Research notes on what she had found on Braddock Manor, any details on owners she could dig up, and start at looking into said owners, especially any mentioned to be British, sat next to her. Ready to be presented to the others when they arrived, hopefully better rested than her.

Even from where the others are, Tereza's body language makes it very obvious that this is not going well. She bites her lip and nods. "I understand, of course," she says quietly. "If you do find the time after all, that would be wonderful, but..." She trails off, then lets out a breath. "I am sorry."

And with that, Sweeney leaves, leaving Tereza behind, standing there uncertainly before, after a moment, she stomps back towards her house and the others still gathered in front of it. The others hear her mutter "I'm a fucking idiot" to herself just as she reaches them. Then she looks up at them, disappointment and frustration barely concealed on her face. "Are we done? I need to have a drink inside."

When Tereza walks in, she manages to immediately ruin Caroline's hopes. She's elegantly dressed as always, in all black rather than white today, her hair tied back into a ponytail, but her face is pale and there are circles underneath her eyes that almost rival Caroline's. That one drink she spoke of had turned into more. And then even more when her roommate had joined her. At least now she can be more focused on her hangover than the sting of what happened with Sweeney the previous day.

"Am I glad that this place smells like coffee and not beer right now," she comments to nobody in particular as she steps in. "That would actually push me over the edge and get me to throw up." She looks at her covenmate's fey companion. "Al, please make me coffee."

She sits down near Caroline. "I have biggest headache," she comments. "Living in America has made me weak. I used to handle my vodka better." She sighs, then briefly looks thoughtful. "I also might have slept with Nicholas last night. I will have to ask him when I get home." She shrugs, then looks at her friend. "Why do you look like hell? Long night too?"

Camera quickly flashes to a night of research, illuminated in a digital blue.

- No mention of a Braddock Manor in Salem Mass.
- But there is mention of a Braddock Manor house in Surrey.
- It's a 17th century home, an article mentions a restoration effort undertaken in 2009.
- The last owner of the home was one Lawrence Osmund Braddock:- He inherented the estate at a young age when his parents disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
- Lawrence Braddock set sail for the American Colonies in 1675.

Heels clicking on the wooden floor, Tara enters the tap room from the back hall. She stops, looks at Caroline and Tereza and gives a slight shake of her head.

Clutching her thick, leather bound ledger she heads for the table where Caroline sits. She the ledger down harder than she needs to, pulls up a chair, and says, "good morning" in the most passive aggressive voice she can muster.

Caroline raises and eyebrow looking Tereza up and down as she sits. 'I have no idea what you are talking about.' She feugns ignorance to being tired. 'ai' m fine, just the lighting in here' Even so she glances a look at the mirir in the handbag next to her. Maybe she needed to reply the make up,especially before Jemma turned up.

'.. So....elephant the room.. Given the fact you look like to never want to touch alcohol again, and the person you slept with last night was not a cop... Guess it didn't go well?' She offers a sympathetic look as she places a hand on the younger witches shoulder. She hesitates as if trying to think of something else to say before Tara intterupts.

' Morning ' She tries to sound energetic, in her tired state taking a few moments to clock the Boole keepers tone. When she doe her eye narrow.

'What's wrong? If it's about the glasses that Al broke I' ll sort it. If it's not.. I didn't say anything about any glasses.' She gives a grin. 'The chief agreed to the fee, you don't need to worry about the red for a little longer.

When Caroline asks about Sweeney, Tereza's already sour expression drops a bit further. She lets out a breath. "I fucked up," she says. "The ritual really scared her. After it, she doesn't see me the same way." She tilts to the side, resting her head on Caroline's shoulder. "I haven't given up on her, but my chances are now very bad. Worse than before."

She startles and makes a face when Tara puts the book down loudly, that noise clearly not mixing well with her hangover, but she stays where she is, her head on her friend's shoulder. "And don't you dare say it's because my ritual was bad," she adds, her tone a bit lighter and more teasing again, though the underlying sadness is still very obvious in her voice. She knows that as much as they enjoy bickering about it to each other, Caroline wouldn't hold it over her head in this situation. They are friends, after all. "The ritual was flawless. It was just... too much for someone uninitiated."

Sarah yawns as she comes into the shop. "Morning, all." She was not her usual bright and annoyingly cheery self. It was as if the ritual had left her emotionally drained. Such an eventuality was not unusual for her, as she cared little for the gorier side of investigations, but she recognized the need for such. "Do we have anything on our English friend?"