[Thvor]

Despite his initial reservations, Sam quickly found himself enjoying his time at the "reception". He was in his element and he knew it, despite the group's ostensible focus on magic. He was glad, however, that no attempts were made to separate him from Sammy, as she seemed to be slightly more anxious than he would have expected from a famous actress. As the conversation flowed, Sam was surprised to find that this particular secret society didn't require dues from the rank-and-file, though there was some indication that the lower ranks were expected to periodically perform some sort of "service", which was--naturally--left rather ambiguous.

[Crossbow]

The office of Mason Ritchie is a study of contrasts.  It was already clear from scans that Mr. Ritchie drew on the Pulp Fiction private investigator image that so many in his line of work embody, the decorative touches of the old furniture and poor lighting bear that out.   But the tech on display leaves no doubt that the man uses state-of-the-art tools in his work.

Fionn is welcomed to the office with polite and firm handshake, and after settling in to appropriate chairs Mason gets right to business.

“I am not used to being the one investigated, but considering what I know of your story, I will let it pass this time.” Mason calls up a display for Fionn’s perusal.  It shows side by side background files on Fionn and his sister, Maeve.  It showed personal information from overseas, plus stuff he had no business having.  Fionn sees himself in a private interview with the Dean of Matrix Studies, and what he assumes is Maeve on security footage with others on some kind of run.

“I hope this is sufficient to establish my bonafides, if you own inquires were not sufficient. I haven’t dug very deep, but there are definitely some curiousities surrounding the disappearance of your sister’s team.  I am going to need you to tell me anything and everything you can think of if I am to help you.” said Mason.  “My retainer has been paid, so I only need the go ahead and my questions answered to continue.”

[RHat]

"Damn, I'm kind of impressed.  Feel like I should already know how you got that." The joke was meant to break the ice, more than anything.

"Truth be told, I haven't been able to gather much; I've got a pretty loose timeline pieced together, including the last meet she was supposed to be at, but I don't know what the job was or whether or not she made it.  What I have been able to find is on here," He passed a datachip he'd copied his notes onto to Mason, "Including details for anyone I know of she might have contacted.  There's a guy we knew from way back who was originally from around here, but we lost touch after things went up in Boston; he said he was going underground, and given everything that happened since then for people like us, I can't blame him.  If she was able to, and she needed to become a ghost, she might have contacted him.  Outside of these notes, though, what is it you're looking to know?"

[Crossbow]

"The contact is definitely someone I will need to look into, I assume his name is on here..." Mason slots the chip and give it a quick scan, "...yes this will allow me to move forward with the investigation.  I will begin immediately and I will let you know the minute I get anything.  The group you were working with, have you kept in touch?  I imagine such physical assets may prove useful, I can contract out if we need to, but at this point it would be best to keep our cards close."

--------

"Quit fidgeting with it, I ain't paying for the antibiotics if you let it get infected." Frank said as they waited for their breakfast orders in the diner down the street from the clinic he had taken them to.  The wound was minor, even though the knife had gone all the way through, but the bandages itched like crazy.  It could have been a lot worse all things considered, Clem and Frank had both had to hold back Sal after O'Connor had laid out Dino.  Both tasks were quite remarkable considering Sal was quite the bull and O'Connor had had his foot pinned to the ground at the time.

"Really am sorry about that, dude.  I never had Zen before, didn't think it was gonna play that much havoc with my aim." Dino seemed genuinely concerned, but clearly was being careful.  He had the table and his running buddies between him and O'Connor, the shiner growing on his left eye clearly needing no more company.

All should be forgiven, Frank had even covered them for their drinks, their food and the Doc.

[HydroRaven]

Clem hadn't had the night she had hoped for. She didn't get a job, but she did meet a few wise-guys (or ex), she was in one piece and she was having a paid breakfast at a diner. All things considered, it hadn't been too bad of a night. And for bonus, O'Connor had had a knife through his foot.

"Are you kidding, Frank? He lives for that sort of stuff" answered the ork, nodding towards O'Connor. "Just remember: you guys need any outside muscle, you give us a call" said Clementine, finishing the last bite of her breakfast.

[Necrogigas]

O'Connor's night had take several unexpected turns, starting with Clem wanting to meet and ending with a knife in his foot. All in all though, it'd been a pretty good night. He waved off Dino's apology, "Whatever, I ain't all that mad 'bout it. HItting the guy that stabbed me is just a reflex." He nodded his agreement with Clem, as he too finished off his meal.

[RHat]

"Still in touch with most of them, yeah, though some of them just straight up disappeared after things shook out.  And if you do happen to find that guy, probably best if I'm the one to make contact - I'd guess he's still pretty bloody paranoid, you know?"

[Crossbow]

Mason rises and sticks out his hand.  "I will keep that in mind.  That should be all I need for now, let me get to work and see what I can turn up, anything else you think of, let me now." 

[farothel]

After Sammy agreed to join the group and had explained what she wanted, two of the primaries took her with them, followed by three secondaries.  They went to a side room which she identified as a hermetic lodge, although she saw things she hadn’t seen before.  Before she could ask, she was requested to stand on one of the points of the pentagram drawn on the floor.  The others stood on the other points, except one of the secondaries who stayed outside.   

“We are here to initiate a new member in the Club,” one of the primaries said, before turning to Sammy.
“Do you swear to keep the Club a secret,” he asked.
“I swear,” Sammy replied.
“Do you swear to follow the commands of those placed above you,” the primary asked next.
“I swear,” Sammy replied again.
“Do you swear to help other members to the best of your abilities when asked,” was the next question.
“I swear,” Sammy replied.
“Welcome to the Club,” the primary said.  The one secondary who hadn’t joined in the circle stood next to her with a pair of scissors and a small canister.
“Now we just need a material link,” the primary leading the ceremony said, “some hair would be sufficient.”
“Okay,” Sammy said.  From what she had heard, this was not unusual.  The secondary with the scissors took some hair, put it in the canister and left the room.

“Now we can go immediately for your initiation,” the primary said.  He started to speak on the nature of magic, at least according to the hermetic tradition.  His voice was droning and Sammy started to feel her eyes starting to get heavy.  While she remained conscious, things were happening on the subconscious levels as well.  Then the second primary took over, also speaking in that hypnotising way.  He was followed by each of the secondaries.

Suddenly the last one stopped talking and Sammy blinked.  A quick look at her watch showed that more than one hour had passed.  She felt weak and could hardly stand.
“John will take care of you,” the leading primary said, indicating the secondary who had left the room with her material link and who had returned.  He handed her a glass of water while the others left the room.  Then he showed her the secret signals she could use to indicate membership to other members, as well as her password for the secure server they had.  On there she could for instance request transport to the building they were in, as she wasn’t supposed to know the location in the beginning.  He also mentioned libraries and other things she could use upon request.

After being brought back close to home, Sammy told her brother not to disturb her and she went into her lodge to practice.  During the course of most of the night, she found that if she performed gestures like she had done during some of her trids, they helped her to mitigate the effects of drain on her body.

[Thvor]

After a while, Sam found himself in a quiet corner talking to a shapely young woman in an ivory dress. The mask covered enough of her face that she'd be hard to identify on the street, but what it did reveal was very attractive. She'd been introduced as Lyra, though given the secretive nature of the group, Sam was pretty confident that it wasn't her real name. She explained to him that the group consisted of all sorts of magical talents--magicians, like Sammy, but also mystic adepts and mystics. She insisted that Sam was part of this last group, but he wasn't convinced.

"Look," she said, "We want to help you. If you join our group, we will do what we can to help you grow--and we won't ask more from you than we know you're capable of." She smiled, and then moved subtly--so subtly that Sam almost missed it, but somehow he understood that she was being truthful, and that she wanted him to agree.

Sam blinked. "I've...never seen someone do that. People tell a lot through their actions all the time, sure, but that...that was deliberate. How'd you...?" He broke off mid-sentence, for once at a loss for words.

Lyra smiled. "I'm an adept, too. That's a skill called kinesics; I wasn't sure until I was able to talk to you for a while, but you have it too. The short version is that we're both very, very good at reading other people's body language, and at controlling our own. Trust me--if you didn't have the ability, you wouldn't have noticed anything unusual at all. Now, do you believe? Will you join us?"

Dumbfounded, Sam found himself nodding slowly. Lyra stood up, took him by the hand, and led him to a side room where he would officially be inducted into the group, all the while talking about how much he'd be able to learn, and how excited she was to have him joining.