Dovie nods at Annabelle, “Helpful to know.” she looks to Obadiah, “What did you learn?”

“Beating children is an important part of the instructional process,” Obadiah agrees with whatever is on the phone. Then he thinks for an and tries to recall if he knows anything.

“Childer.” Annabelle corrects with a sniffle, pulling back her phone dully into a clutch. “It’s what Vampires call their thingies.”

“Oh right, isn’t Jakem a fae or something?” Obadiah asks Annabelle. “To be honest this seems like something a fae would cook up.” He glances back to Dovie, “We could either ward the quarter against the Magic or shut off the broadcasts at their source. I am down to clown for whatever. You two are the smart ones.”

“I vote for manual though I hope it won’t take too long since I have an event to run.” Dovie admits.

“..I mean, if we think the problem is the distribution of fliers- I think it’s magic, but, I think going to its source is a good idea.” Annabelle votes as well, pulling out her phone. “With a little cash, I can block the broadcast for an hour. The more money spend, the longer it’s silence but like. Yeah.”

Annabelle says “Or, well. I guess maybe it’s an internet thing too. Is that how it works? Is technomagic a thing? I guess it is, since there’s an AI-dolon.“

“AI-dolon?” Obadiah asks blinking rapidly. “Right…. Whatever happened to worshiping the dark powers of Eldritch Horrors like a Normal cultist? Like what do these guys where wear?” He waves his hand then says, “Anyway, Anna, what do you need from Dovie and I? Between the two of us we can get you anywhere you need to be and past more barriers than you can think, but you gotta be the one to shut it down.”

Dovie nods in agreement with Obadiah, turning to Annabelle.

“To do my thing? Literally just the location.” Annabelle supplies, pulling out her phone. “Again, like, I don’t know how magic works. If he’s hypno-broadcasting people to go to his store, and that’s all he’s doing, I just need the address of his bullshit and I guess I we can operate the communications block on Order resources.”

“I-” Annabelle looks back and forth between Dovie and Obadiah. “WAT? What did you even get out of Es-someone? I don’t know where his thing is! I don’t know anything more than my text!”

Annabelle says “I can run a friggin’ ddoss and like, maybe I can get – like, deadass, gimmie something to work with and I can try, but if I knew how to pursue this I would’ve done it already.“

“Alright alright,” Obadiah says with a sigh of defeat, “Catboys and Scuba vamps. I swear to Christ on a gluten free cracker.” He scrunches up his face then looks to Dovie, “Can you maybe use all of your social clout, and 100k followers to try and find where in the IQ the source is originating? Like a community theater or public access tv or something?”

pulls up the case file, “Literally what is in the text… magically enhanced broadcast signals. Take out the spell or take out the broadcast. Dealer’s choice.”

Dovie taps on her phone, putting out a question to her social media about where they feel the strongest urge to go to the Den of Wonders.

Annabelle’s eyes flutter with relief, and she too goes down to tap on her phone. Zoomer problems require zooming solutions, so she goes straight to MyHaven with it and starts following the road of advertisements.

Dovie checks her social media, “Reports incoming from a radio tower in Ivory Quarter. Wonderful Communications.”

Both women, from two different approaches, find a small college run television station is the source. There is a broadcast room, antenna tower, everything a mischievous boy needs to send out enhanced advertisements

Dovie says “Looks like it’s a college run thug?“

Dovie says “Ahem. Thing! Let’s head there!“

“Well, we won’t be able to fight due to the wards. We could catch them unawares, or..” Annabelle mutters, taking a phone call.

…

She holds up a finger to her helmet at Obadiah and Dovie, tapping her finger impatiently.

“Hi! Lys? Y-yes! It’s… No, no I’m not Carol this is Annabelle? With the drea- mhm. Mhm, so, yeah, I’ll fill it out. Yep- okayshushIneedyourhelp. There’s a very mean scheme being run by a cult of thrill-seeker fixation that is making people go to their gladiator ring where they make monsters fight, and sometimes people.” She starts to bob her head. “Yep! Yeah, no, I’ve got that covered, but could you do be a big ol’ favor and fund it?”

“..Is it?” Annabelle’s pause isn’t promising, and she starts twirling a finger to Dovie. She pulls up her visor to mouth, Okay let’s go.

Obadiah/span looks over to Dovie, “Let’s see some of that Fairchild money…. Do you think you can call in enough?”

Dovie makes a call, “Hey Allison, it’s Dovie. Yes, yes not calling about property. You have clients around the school yes? There’s a cult stirring up some trouble there from a broadcast tower on campus, can you have your people look into it and pull the plug?”

lots of nodding and sad sorries are given on the part of Annabelle’s contact, taking a polite wandering away from the pair.

Dovie frowns, “Oh I see, not operating in that area anymore huh? Well forget I said anything then.”

Dovie tells Obadiah and Annabelle. “Stuck out, any other ideas?”

“So. Now, I know it’s a little crazy..” Annabelle’s already equivocating as she rounds back. “But we can’t hurt the student. The walls of the dorms, however, are paper thin, and we can just collapse the floor from the dorm below or above or from the side and break all the electronics that way.”

Even Annabelle can break through toughness 0 walls. The college, while secure to all residing students from the wards from violence, is not particularly stable as a structure.

Even Annabelle can break through toughness 0 walls. The college, while secure to all residing students from the wards from violence, is not particularly stable as a structure.[repost]

“Guess we have to do this the old fashioned way,” Obadiah says as he loads everyone up into the MM and explains as he drives. “We just going to shoot stuff until et explodes. I think this is a good approach. Any objections?”

One Indiana Jones travel montage later….

Annabelle pats out a small oil fire on the sleeve of her bomber jacket emphatically, have covered in dust and mold and whatever sorry collapse of wires and college-debris happen to fall on her from breaking through the walls and ripping out the cables line a deranged oversized rat. “WOW!”

Annabelle(doesn’t do that, ahem.)

Annabelle assumed the wrong kind of montage.

“Well we know where it’s coming from. Why don’t we just find people complicit with this who are working in the building and force them to stop it?” Dovie suggests.

“Generally because the student faculty doesn’t serve the student body, and generally abuses its students physically, as well as mentally through class,” Annabelle mumbles. “..And, for context, Windermere is affiliated both with the Teaching Hospital and the Black Sun’s Palladium clinic.”

Dovie simply stops and stares while Obadiah goes crazy.

Dovie stands guard, hypnotizing anyone who comes by asking questions, making sure they realize there’s nothing to see here…

Between the three of them, the broadcast cabinet is a disaster. Nothing is getting in or out of this space for a while, and some family or another is going to owe Windmer a new studio but we can address that later. The single stops, Dovie makes sure what witnesses there are become distracted or bought off.

“Great! That’s that,” Obadiah muses. “Do we need to do anything else you two reckon?”

“Well there’s people in line with this group right? People who work here? We should maybe grab one or two and hypno them into not doing this anymore, or actively stopping those who are, just in case?” Dovie offers.

Sadly for Windermere’s wards, if the walls can be broken, gone are the means by defending one’s belongings against adversaries. To try and push Obadiah and Annabelle out would mean to use violence against another sentient being, which the wards doth prevent. The dormroom’s denizen’s presence would be redundant, it’s just so sad to say. Annabelle gets to following the ethernet cable and kicks a Reebok into the drywall to get her blade, hand covered by a disposable glove, into the wiring. “..I.. Lemme…”

Annabelle is tazed for her effort, for a nitrile glove isn’t quite enough to stop the good ol’ knife to electrical socket. She shoots back and, not eager to show her face to her peers, she nods quickly. “If you can convince them! I can make them feel really bad.”

motions vaguely to Dovie to give her permission to do what she wants to do. Or rather acknowledgment he won’t stop her

Dovie snags the attention of THE manager of the station and talks them into not continuing with the broadcast, “… make sure you do not restart the broadcast…” while Annabelle guilts them in the background. “… so you really shouldn’t do this again, or else I’ll have you fired,” whether she has the power to do that is highly questionable, but she stamps her foot on the ground like an angry rich girl would, and besides, there’s the hypnotism.

The station manager nods furiously agreeing with Dovie’s demands and then licks his lips. “Yes… Yes Ma’am,” he stammers out looking very remorseful.

For his part, Obadiah is staying out of this part of the show. Dovie and Annabelle don’t need his help convincing witnesses.

Dovie whispers to Obadiah. “You’re probably going to need to wash your clothes after this. lots of dust.”

Annabelle takes off her helmet, digging a hand up into it to brush her hair down before it’s pulled out from the motion. “What a mess. Kinda messed up, all of this.”

Dovie nods at Annabelle. “He could hire a PR firm, that never hurts, but I suppose the supernatural means is easier.”

“I dunno you two are the smart ones,” Obadiah says with a small smile and shrug putting his shotgun away. “If you think we are done I’ll drive us back to the lodge so we can all get cleaned up for coffee and blackjack.

The press of Annabelle’s lips might be reconsidering, but she slowly answers, “..Thanks. He’s sweet, sometimes. Lesgo.”