[Relationship] Nothing wrong with getting a good head start

[Samantha McManus]

Sam steps out of the backstage door not long after Tereza, casting her eyes about for her girlfriend.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza isn't immediately in evidence, but Sam catches snatches of people thinking about the woman with the guitar who passed by them, heading directly away from the stage.

[Samantha McManus]

Frowning to herself, Sam winds her way through the people milling about, trying to catch the trail.

[Tereza Rozanov]

It's not as if Tereza's trying to throw Sam off the trail and Sam can sense that Tereza knows she's being followed. Still, she has to wind her way through the crowd before she catches sight of Tereza, guitar still slung across her back, just walking and doing her best to ignore everyone around her.

[Samantha McManus]

Sam doesn't do anything to hide her presence, coming up beside Tereza.

"You alright?"

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza glances at her, yellow in her irises. "Holding it together. Just too many people and this... well..." She gestures around and shrugs without breaking her stride.

[Samantha McManus]

"I'm sorry," she sighs. "Should've started with something smaller, aye?"

[Tereza Rozanov]

"Playing with you, singing with Viv, in the music room, that's fun. This?" She gestures towards the stage, "This is work."

[Samantha McManus]

"I'd never have done this if I'd known it was going to be like this for you."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"In your defense, I didn't realize it myself until I got here."

[Samantha McManus]

"Aye, just..."

"...I think I really like it when I get a crowd going."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"Oh, I can tell," she says, tapping Sam on the forehead and then her own forehead.

[Samantha McManus]

"Can't hide anything from you, can I?" She chuckles with a faint flush.

"Not that I want to."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"Yeah, it's a little hard to miss the vibes. But just so we're clear, even if I'd known how I would feel, I still would have done this... because you and Viv wanted to and I'd go through hell and back for both of you."

[Will Stanton]

Will, who had kept quiet during most of this personal conversation, couldn't resist giving a quick Daaaaw, you guys are cute enough to rot teeth reaction.

[Samantha McManus]

"Believe me, I don't want to abuse the privilege."

"There's still the judging to go, and we should probably watch Will. You going to be able to manage?"

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza gives a half-hearted shrug, "I'll make it work. I don't want to leave you guys here."

[Samantha McManus]

"We're with you, love."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"I know," Tereza says, "Just not real keen on all the other people at the moment."

[Samantha McManus]

"That's what a pack is for, aye?"

[Tereza Rozanov]

"Not like you can make them all go away except just the pack."

[Samantha McManus]

"No, I can't. I guess I was just thinking... well, all these people don't matter if the pack is here. You don't have to worry about any single one of us."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"I'm not worried about the pack," Tereza says, "I'm just kind of through with people. You enjoy being in a crowd, getting them worked up. I just don't."

[Samantha McManus]

"Aye well, it wasn't that long ago that I was the opposite, and I haven't forgotten what that's like."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"I don't know if it's the wolf blending in a bit more or what, but... yeah." She takes a deep breath and looks around.

[Samantha McManus]

"Then maybe it's time for me to protect you for a change," she says, reaching out for Tereza's hand as she tries to wrap the flock around her girlfriend almost as a buffer.

[Tereza Rozanov]

As Sam puts a buffer around her, it becomes apparent that there's nothing truly bugging Tereza from the outside. She's just spent. It took a lot to get up on the stage and what little was left after that, she left on the stage. Even the rough edges where the wolf sticks out of the blend show that even the wolf is 'tired'.

[Narrator]

And as the band following after Will launch into a James Bond theme, something else tugs at the edges of Sam's perception. Ruffling the feathers of her protective mantle, so to speak. A vaguely familiar mind full of unsettling glee that probably wouldn't stand out from the mental roar of the crowd if it wasn't for the fact that it seems to be accompanied by something that burns like a heated needle in Sam's perception.

[Tereza Rozanov]

As the beam cuts across the assembled crowd, Tereza throws up her arm to shield her eyes as the hand Sam is holding pulls her close to try to protect her as well. As the light fades, Tereza releases her grip, taking a look at the chaos around her and then at the group throwing themselves towards the arch. "Go help them," she growls at Sam, her voice getting rough as she begins shedding her jacket to save it from her increasing size. "I'll call Viv. We'll try to protect the crowd."

[Samantha McManus]

"This is why we can't have nice things," she sighs, weaving through the crowd as she tries to find the source of the painful emanation.

[Will Stanton]

It looked like it was coming from the marble arch, Will pointed out. There was some kind of...laser beam? I was at too low an angle to make it out entirely.

Woah, watch your six!

[Narrator]

The source is very easy to pin-point as Conduit's gun. It's like a red-hot poker in reality. Not that Sam can really focus on it very well. The beam has cut through her perception like blinding light and she can feel the sparks blossoming all around her. She's seen them bloom when they returned the powers Lippincott had stolen, but this is different. She can see the sudden burst of energy shoot forth almost violently and coalesce into those abstract fractal shapes in the blink of an eye, all unique in their own way, some maddeningly similar in some way that she can't put her finger on. Maybe some of the shapes share similar fractal refractions? Impossible to tell from the sheer information overload happening around her.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza completes her transformation, taller than the crowd now. Her snow white fur ruffles and the ice crystals in it catch the light and twinkle. People who are already moving to the exits don't concern her as she looks around, they're 'safe' for the moment. The ones who are frozen in fear are more of target, whether for the whatevers or that damn gun. She uses her bulk to begin shoving through to get to some of them, intent on sending them on their way.

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

Stephanie bolted through the crowd, shouldering her way past anyone that didn’t make a wide berth of the werewolf, until she caught up with Tereza.

“What the hell is this. How can I help?” she growled.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"Don't know," Tereza growls as she gestures at the emerging mutants, "Even if they're not trying to hurt people, they are, so we need to get people away from them."

[Samantha McManus]

Samantha's trousers may have to think on their nonexistent feet as she bulls through the crowd, ultimately getting frustrated as she breaks into a flock of ravens and takes flight.

[Will Stanton]

The trousers, legless, crumbled to the ground and ended up trampled in the confusion.

[Narrator]

As Sam takes to the sky she can feel the whir of Conduit's gun and it's almost like the whine of it is pulling the flock closer together but she has little time to contemplate that before the bright beam lances through the evening sky again, this time directly aimed at the cloud of birds. It's like standing next to a freight-train, the sheer weight and impact of the beam noticeable even as it misses most of the ravens and for a moment it seems like Sam is in the clear.

But one of the stragglers is caught in the brilliant light and like someone stepped on her metaphorical cloak the entirety of Sam is yanked back. Birds plummet from the sky as Sam's consciousness is ripped into a maelstrom. Fractal shapes and images spin around her - branches of the tree Cailleach had showed her - but it's buckling under the beam of light. No, not buckling... swelling, seeping into cracks around it, extensions of it flailing and Sam can feel it searching for something. Trying to latch on to abstract ideas. Dislodging something in the process and by the time the fractal chaos places it back it's different. Still fluctuating in specific, settling back in and slowly coalescing down from countless thoughts and images into more specific ones. Bits and pieces are simple or familiar enough to recognize. Threes. Threes are important. Animals. Birds? Snakes? Dogs. Dogs are important. The Liminal Function. Boundaries of Death and Dreams. It fits. White red and black. Details fit. It is right.

When Sam comes to it feels like hours could have passed, but it must have been mere moments. The afterglow of the beam that lanced across the crowd, through Sam and into the stage area still lingers in the air above her. She can still sense her pack nearby. She still feels like herself. Samantha. Fledgling Goddess of Death and... Boundaries, Passage from the Underworld. Triad. Hecate.

[Samantha McManus]

Sam groans, groans, and groans. Then, she rises to her feet, rises to her feet, and rises to her feet. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder-to-shoulder with herself, three sets of eyes glare up at the arch.

"Rude."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

“….why are there three Sam’s?” Stephanie growled towards Tereza as she spun around, bewildered and unsure where to even start helping.