It is about 65/i>18C) degrees. The mist is heaviest At Constitution and Lake/span

(Your target discovers a seemingly ordinary object at a yard sale or thrift shop that turns out to be a powerful supernatural artifact. Now various factions are converging on their location, each wanting to claim it for their own purposes. The characters must decide whether to keep it, destroy it, or find its rightful owner before things get violent.)

While Matias relaxes within the kitchen of his home, there is a buzz on his phone. Should he check, it is a text message from Seraphina No response to my good habits I see how it is! But anyway. I am kind of wandering around Downtown. One of the streets is having a block yard sale. If you want to come with me. It’s always better with someone else.

Matias is tending to the recently renovated kitchen the original east coast house interior having been destroyed by water damage from a hurricane flood. Now the seemingly magically grown floor and walls of living wood need to be cared for by the Windermere professor on a regular basis. The phone buzzes and he goes to check and clucks his tongue replying: In my experience as a Professor when someone says something so controversial selective hearing is the best course. I will be by in ten. and with that he tucks the phone into his blazer pocket and walks… yes walks… across town.

While Matias walks across the city, something that Seraphina is quite familiar with, the raven-haired woman peruses through one person’s junk to find her own treasure. She’s already holding a few trinkets. Shiny baubles and other’s oddities, as if she’s either bought them, ready to buy them, or at the very least say that she has done so already. When Matias finally makes it to the neighborhood, amidst a few more texts ranging from being, albiet probably joking, offended, to a picture or two of what might very well be junk, the raven-haired woman greets him with her hands on her widened hips, but with a smile. “Good afternoon, Professor.”

It is a pleasant day at 65f with no serious clouds or rainfall and no melting heat to go with the ocean humidity. Matias is a little overdressed in his academic attire with the blazer but he keeps it on regardless and today since it is the weekend he has on a panama-style short brim hat to shade his face. Upon seeing Seraphina with knickknacks and baubles selected he instead gives the Librarian’s assistant a considering look. “I like the jeans.” he decides in lieu of a greeting, stepping closer to the woman to consider some of her selections. “I suppose anyone who collects books has a natural instinct for rummaging through old forgotten boxes of old belongings. Find anything remarkable?” he wonders in a conversational baritone of a voice.

Seraphina glances down to her outfit, and smiles. “Thanks,” she says to Matias, for said compliment, despite that there was no true greeting to the woman outside this. “Well, that is actually one of the reasons why I thought of you to come out. Maybe there is something here worth a second or third look that the seller’s didn’t realize they put out, or don’t realize its actual worth.”

It is difficult to assess the supernatural aura of lawnsale items when Matias is so busy judging Seraphina’s outfit that he cannot even say hello! “I can have a look, are you hoping for something magical or just something valuable. There are quite a few tchotcke’s in New Haven given it is a city in-between that are valuable for collectors.” he says in that conversational baritone of a voice.

There is a bin of old toys, things well used and forgotten. Some are older than others. Some puzzle boxes, a familiar, brightly stickered rubik’s cube, a few jigsaws likely missing more than a few pieces to be frustrating when putting them together. And so, Seraphina begins to rummage through. “What do you think? Do you see anything?” She unearths a Rubik’s that no one seems to have bothered to match the colors in God only knows how long. “My parent’s had one of these when I was growing up!” She holds it to her chest, in a bit of a hug. “Little of A, little of B. It doesn’t have to be magical in order to be valuable, afterall.” Perhaps, case in point, the cube.

slate-grey eyes peer out over the lawnsale. Nothing seems to catch his eye, maybe a vinyl record player but before Matias can begin walking over to the find there is a bit of a prickle, a sniff sniff, what is that as his attention is drawn back to Seraphina and the nostalgic rubik’s cube find. “Interesting.” he leans forward a bit to examine the item and certianly not someone’ decolletage in that button down crop top. “I think you found something special here, besides being a perfectly good rubiks cube it seems to have a little spark of something… Think you could solve it?” he prompts her, straightening up and watching her expression now.

slate-grey eyes peer out over the lawnsale. Nothing seems to catch his eye, maybe a vinyl record player but before Matias can begin walking over to the find there is a bit of a prickle, a sniff sniff, what is that as his attention is drawn back to Seraphina and the nostalgic rubik’s cube find. “Interesting.” he leans forward a bit to examine the item and certianly not Seraphina’s decolletage in that button down crop top. “I think you found something special here, besides being a perfectly good rubiks cube it seems to have a little spark of something… Think you could solve it?” he prompts her, straightening up and watching her expression now.

The raven-haired woman sets some of the other cheap baubles she’d found so she can start twisting the cube about to see if she has the brain power in order to see the patterns, and how to possibly get the colors to line up again. “Did you ever play with these?” She laughs. “I would just end up peeling the stickers off the cube and putting them back so all the colors matched!” She peeks up from the cube to Matias, starting to try to work the old game into motion. “I can try… but like I said…” The person from the yard sale starts to stand and holds a hand out in a stop that manner, saying “Wait, no, d–” But that is as far as they get before Seraphina gives the cube a twist, then back to the original position. She is so focused that she doesn’t realize that she is no longer standing in front of the tchoksies for sale, but has magically moved somewhere in the direction she’d twisted the cube. And then returned. To hear, ‘… not for sale.”

Matias is standing right there for the moment that Seraphina bamfs away and then comes back. There is a perk of his eyebrows as his attention had been drawn to the lawnsale person’s protect. Unlike Seraphina he heard the whole thing but the important bit was not for sale. There is a quiet chuckle as his hands tuck into his pockets almost like the entire lawnsale were suddenly filled with cooties or potentially dangerous magical artifacts and its best none of them touch his hands. Who knows if he could let them go later! “I did not play with rubiks cube much. Only saw them in city, where I grew up it was a little more rural. A lot of go out in the jungle or beach and occupy yourself until its time to eat.” he explains to Seraphina evidently not terribly shocked or put off by the sudden teleportation in New Haven the openly supernatural city in between. “Interesting that it moves the user… That implies if we solve it, it might actually take you somewhere special… or put you in a subway tunnel when an oncoming train is barreling down.” and with a kind of amused tone, restrained but still present, “Can you… Put it down?” he does not sound like he thinks she can.

Seraphina is far too involved now with trying to solve the puzzle, and she twists again, poofing from Matias’s sight and the yard sale seller. The house owner bites their lip. “If she keeps doing it, it is very possible she will Wile E. Coyote things. Less the subway, but more into the mists… She doesn’t understand the power.” How could she? “It is less a curse, I suppose, but if you aren’t familiar…” Then the raven-haired woman is back by Matias, followed by a “Woah…” Maybe as if she’s been on some kind of excellent journey.

Matias reaches out to hold Seraphina’s shoulder when she bamfs back in, perhaps hoping if she goes off again he will be pulled along with her. “Miss Hawke, the sales person is trying to explain what you found.” and then to the house owner he shifts those unblinking eyes, “You were saying. It is not cursed it is…?” he leaves a tantalizing open ended pause for them to enlighten him or them, is she even listening!

Magic has a way of drawing in people, so as Seraphina reappears, there are more cars driving down the road toward the yard Matias and her stand at the side of. While the cube may not be exactly dangerous, it is powerful enough to draw attention of those who are likely part of the Court, but more importantly, Temple and Vigil. The raven-haired pretty thing, vapid sometimes, is actually listening, but likely grounded by Matias’s hand on her shoulder. “Sorry, what?” The seller says, “I can’t say what it will eventually do, but it is not for sale.” They hold their hand out for the item. “I was supposed to be protecting it, I don’t know how it ended up in the bin!” But then, it is a very common toy. The ditzy librarian looks to Matias then the seller, “Then I don’t think that you should be its protector if you accidentally toss it into the bin of forgotten toys! Don’t you think, Professor? Maybe it is something that deserves to come with us, and put in the vault at Endless Library.” She has a little mischevous smile playing on her plump lips.

Matias considers the seller/protector, keeping his hand on Seraphina’s shoulder in case she indulges in more rubik cube manipulation. “Miss Hawke is not wrong, the magical item was clearly trying to escape your care. In the Endless library there are restricted protocols for keeping such things from slipping out. What if some ipad drooling child had found it. They would have never thought to turn it back after making an adjustment. They would have simply vanished!” the latino professor claims to the seller trying to make a case for why it should come with the random duo of 20 somethings.

nods to Matias, “Right?” Seraphina asks, and just as the seller starts to pull out a weapon, a symbol of Vigil upon it, faint, hard to see, “You’ll have to give that up or — I will make you.” Cars park, and some people are getting out of their car, geared to the Heavens. One holding themselves an unusual gun, pointed and aimed at the innocent buyers that are the raven-haired woman and latino man. Hopefully by having his hand on her shoulder, he’ll go with her, because Seraphina is already teasing the fact that she has an upper hand, with twisting the cube row in one direction — very very slowly. Taunting its use instead of giving it up, and likely given -them- up in turn. “Bye!” This might actually be said to Matias as part of the group.

The world shifts uneasily around Matias, luckily, as well as Seraphina as there is a click of the cube as the row is moved along the cube and finds its place.

The more and more people that begin showing up Matias looks around and offers a polite smile that does not touch those slate-grey eyes. Even as he is preparing to ‘reason’ with the gun wielding seller, Seraphina is saying bye and turning the cube. Both of them bamf away the world shifting around the man who unlike Seraphina does not have the cube to focus on. There is a uneasy lack of balance and then they settle and he dry heaves with a *hrk* feeling taking his hand off Seraphina’s shoulder to put them both on his knees and bow forward before straightening with a queasy look. “That was… worse than planar travel, do you not feel sick?” he asks Seraphina

Whether Seraphina does or not, is not readily known, perhaps that she is so focused on the cube, and figuring out exactly how it decides directions. Still in downtown, but a street up. She does wobble a little as the world stops its spin, at least. “I don’t know that we have the time here to worry about our tummies, Professor,” she says. “I don’t know that whomever that was is going to actually give up on getting this little gift.” And gift, it is, isn’t it? A way to teleport to any place you want? Homes of your friends, of your enemies, the mist.. Everything has its consequences, afterall. But then, she takes a moment to ensure Matias is okay, approaching him and putting her hand on his shoulder now. “Are you okay?” But there isn’t a lot of time for compassion, as the sound of cars nearing is heard. “What do you suggest?” she defers to him for what to do.

“We have inadvertantly ‘recovered’ a powerful magical relic that has unknown teleporting powers and now some number of hostile societies or factions are after us.” Matias summarizes the gist of it while reaching out for Seraphina’s shoulder as she checks on him, perhaps to steady himself post teleportation nausea or because of the next thing he says. “I think the only thing to do is solve the rubik’s cube… and then place it in the Endless Library, retreat to Windermere, where I can leverage the security to bar our pursuers from campus. Hopefully once the item is secured in the Library and we are out of reach they will simply give up instead of deciding to torture us.” a hopeful notion of how things will playout by tha brazilian accented professor.

That is certainly a lot of hope in one or two sentences, but Seraphina is willing to listen and try and defer to Matias for the correct path forward. Path… no pun intended, surely! She says, “Okay, well, hold your breath because here we go!” She begins to turn a row in a different direction, unknowing where it will take them next. “But the question is… where do you think it will even take us if we solve it? What is the end game with this?” They dissolve in one place and are planted in aother. This time, the raven-haired woman appears far more woozy. “Maybe it is like Biringan, where we had to envision where we wanted to go, and when it is solved, that is where we will be!” A long shot.

Matias seems a bit less afflicted as they teleport and shift through reality this time. Likely mentally using some trick even though his eyes lose focus and have to regain it and he looks a bit queasy just not retching this time. “He said it was protected. So either it takes us to where it came from or worst case it is taking us back in time.” the latino professor supposes his hand squeezing Seraphina’s shoulder with a death grip as he clears his throat and suggests, “Try and solve the cube slowly, see where it is taking us each time… or if you spin it fast enough maybe we do not drop out and will just keep sliding until we get to the end… Can you even solve a rubik cube?” he finally realizes this is probably… super relevant to know.

“What if it does take us back in time? What will happen if we run into our former selves?” There are movies about that. “Will we have to kill our old selves? If we kill our old selves, do we stop existing?” There is little time to postulate as there is a man’s call, “YOU!” And it is not long before the two of them are zapped with a neuturalizer, the whine of the charge the only giveaway. But, does it affect a supernatural tool? Time will tell. She twists the row of multicolored blocks, and though they have been made unable to access their own abilities, the tool sends them further northeast. The last thing they hear is an expletive from the man, “Fu–.” At least half of one.

“Of course I can figure it out!” exclaims the very woman who admitted to just removing the stickers and replacing them.

When the neutralizer goes off Matias makes another *hrk* sound and tilts his head as if listening for something and then remarks drolly, “Well at least that shutup the demon.” though judging from the tension in his shoulders being depowered is not a thrilling experience for the latino who still has a grip on Seraphina. “If we run into our selves. We tell them anything we can about the future and then leave.” he informs Seraphina and then adds, “Or fuck them.” and then Seraphina claims she can figure it out so Matias looks at the rubiks cube…

Matias has apparently used all his luck recently, on what, who knows… but he is currently in his doomed storyarc.

shoves the cube in the direction of Matias. “You do it.”

Matias is spinning and turning the cube, rolling it over in his soft academic hands, and even as the world blurs and Seraphina encourages, the professor seems engrossed in the learning of the mystery of… the cube!

*aha!* the rubik cube turns and all of the sides are- wait no one corner is still not matching. Matias fiddles back turn back turn back turn, turn turn turn… the world spins and blurs around them until they arrive in a basement with faux wood paneled walls, a shaggy green carbet and furniture that looks like its from the 80s. The ceiling is unfinished cement with no lights and the only light is a small rectangular window near the ceiling on the north wall letting in the afternon sunlight. There is a very beautiful looking… fem… boy… androgynous figure in an oversized knit sweater and pajama pants. They are coppery skinned, not like they were tanned that way but almost like they were painted that color with golden flecks on their skin. As Seraphina and Matias appear the latino finally feels the series of over 30 transitions and goes *blargh* and spits up some watery vomit, probably just coffee this morning onto the shaggy carpet before wobbling and bumping into Seraphina. The copper skinned androgynous figure is sitting in a spinny computer chair and turns around from what looks like an IBM terminal and smiles at them, their blue hair looking very punk. “Oh hey! You brought my rubiks cube!” they say in a surprised and amused voice… On the desk where their IBM computer is there appears to be living tiny versions of the Star Trek crew from the original series with Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Uhara and of course Zulu and Chekhov and Scotty. They appear to be in some kind of living game for the beings amusement in fact this entire room is full of 80s and 90s memorabalia!

Seraphina lands right on her rear, luckily, nicely padded, when the rooms stop spinning and the two of them end up in some nerd’s basement. She crawls onto her hands and knees while trying to get her bearings, slowly push up to her feet. “This … this is it?” She looks to Matias, now yakking up some morning coffee. “Why would it be so protected if it was just going to send us to some …” But then she pauses. Perhaps not wishing to upset the very possibility of the adrogynous creature being less faeborn and more Fae. She smiles. “Where are we?” she asks. The creature rises, “Here, of course! Exactly where you are supposed to be! I’ve been waiting for so long for someone to come and play a game with me.” They coo, delighted, and clap their hands together excitedly. “And now I have two!”

After Seraphina regains her footing Matias is straighting up and wiping the back of his hand against his mouth looking down at the blue haired… faeish being. “Oh.” and then looks at his well padded companion then back to the faeish being. He tosses the rubik cube to him and suggests, “Right we brought the rubik cube. You know quite a few people wanted to keep that…” perhaps suggesting it was a really big favor to bring it at all. “After we play a game, do you think we could go back to New Haven? Miss Hawke and I have a… Duel to attend between myself and her employer. It will be pretty exciting. We might even duel shirtless.” he tries to make it seem like an event the faeish being would not want to miss and thus make sure they return the duo to attend.

“If I keep it with me, I will not get another visitor.” the faeish creature pouts, even as it catches the cube. It seeks to toss it back. “Part of the whole game is to put it somewhere that someone else will find it, and then I will have another to play with.” The smile turns slightly cruel. “But when we are done here, I might consider letting the two of you leave. For this shirtless duel. Will it end with pants off too?” Suggestively being suggestive.

“I can make that happen.” Matias assures the fae being without missing a beat and then offers a polite if reckless smile his slate-grey eyes glinting with some interest. “What are we going to play?”

Seraphina catches the cube, the colors magically mismatched when it is returned to her and Matias. She nibbles on her bottom lip some. “Yes, what are we going to play…” Hoping that there is not any other catch. “Oh!” says the adrogynous creature. “I have so many games that I’ll leave that to you. But if I win! Well, I will let you go, but I also get something in return. A memory. I want to know my capt… my guests!” The being gestures thoughout the room, also containing little jars full of little images. Little memories taken and kept and treasured, just as they have kept and treasured all the various memorabilia.

Matias takes a second look around the room and then at Seraphina and the fae being. “Well I think the oldest game. Roshambo… You know rock paper scissors?” he does the traditional one hand flat with the palm up and his fist resting atop it ready to throw a handsign. “All three of us can go at once!”

Seraphina makes the same positioning of her hands. The fae laughs. “Only if it is the best out of … oh I don’t know. One of you is stripped bare! But what the hell. You two are far more easy going than the last couple I have had. They refused to play, and wanted to fight instead.” Another pout. “On three.”

One… Two…. Three… PAPER because books and knowledge and learning and also so Matias can wave goodbye after winning.

The Fae throws ‘spock’ and while Seraphina tries, it ends up just being PAPER. The fae giggles at Seraphina, too. “You are tricksy! But you do not get to go away with out giving me a memory anyway.” They then explain, “Everyone knows that Spock trumps everything. You’d think you’ve never watched Big Bang!” They appoach Matias, “And now… to mind meld.” The fae puts their fingers on the side of Matias’s temples, making deep and awkward eye contact.

And then the faeish being turns to Seraphina, placing their fingers onto her temples. “Your memory gives me a little joy, Matias. Be careful where you roam!” Then there is that awkward eye contact with Seraphina. “So where did you guys need to be placed? Oh and don’t forget to put my cube somewhere someone else can find!

Matias looks at the fae being and suggests, “My house?” and then looks at the cube in Seraphina’s hand. “Oh we will put it where everyone will want to touch it.” he promises… in the Endless Library, secure, but on display… for academics.