Cocktails with the Neighbors

The setup...

[OOC] Skynet says, "Instead of asking 'what are you doing and where are you' I am going to be mischevious with the scene setup. It is a given that you are in the Chantry for lazy times, but:"
[OOC] Skynet says, "Khoi, why have you been in the restroom for the last 20 minutes?"
[OOC] Skynet says, "Now, you popcorn to someone else and ask some pointed question that implies something about where they are but they get to fill out the details."
[OOC] Brey laaaughs!
[OOC] Skynet says, "Bernard, your go. Feel free to popcorn to Karina, Corinna, or Brey."
[OOC] Bernard says, "Oh my god Corinna where did you get that?!"
[OOC] Bernard says, "Do I pose in now? Or what until a full circle rotation?"
[OOC] Khoi says, "I think we wait until everybody's been popcorned"
[OOC] Corinna says, "Karina, *I* know where I got what Bernard is talking about, and *you* know
where I got it. But it wasn't what we were supposed to get. Why are you having a hard time getting
ahold of the supplier, and what we were we originally supposed to get?"
[OOC] Karina says, "I can tell you why I'm having a hard time getting in touch with the supplier
and what we were originally supposed to get, but first I need to know why Brey would possibly
bring that in here."
[OOC] Skynet says, "Brey, you can popcorn to me, I will be playing some Dr. Martin."
[OOC] Brey says, "I have legitimate reasons, how could you doubt me? I'm more curious as to how Dr.
Martin, after his days of learning about the modern world, decided THAT, *that* was what he wanted
to wear in the Chantry while fiddling with, watchacallit, you know that hobby."
[OOC] Skynet says, "Perfect."

Dr. Martin

Dr. Noah Martin, in a pair of flip-flops, a smoking jacket, and tiger-striped thong underwear, is crouched and bent over working on installing some Atomic Age-looking machine next to the hallway. It is big, bulky, full of vacuum tubes and dials. "FIFTY years of maintenance that just got IGNORED," he says to himself. As he explained when someone asked why he's wearing that in a more or less public room: "It's MY house."

Khoi

It's been 20 minutes. There's water coming out from under the door to the bathroom and the relentless sound of an ever-flushing toilet that Khoi is having absolute attack over trying to fix, if the Vietnamese yelling from behind the door is any indication. The English that crests over his language tirade is a wave of "WHO EVEN DOES THIS?!" The toilet wooshing stops, and soon after, there's a clatter of a tool thrown onto the tile. "THERE. FUCK!"

Corinna

Corinna's sitting on top of a big glass bowl, upside down on the shag 60s carpet of the conversation pit. Under her butt, and under that glass jar is a GIANT huntsman spider. From Australia. Next to her, a torn-open cardboard box that was supposed to have something else entirely. "Who the fuck? Who the fuck mistakes this," she's ranting, jabbing a finger down and hitting the glass.

"For, you know." She flicks a glance to Karina, and back to Brey and Bernard. She doesn't say what it was supposed to be. Much more subdued: "Stuff."

Bernard

Bernard has been in the kitchen tidying up and then making breakfast. It is after all another glorious sunny day in the central coast. Saffron, cinnamon and the sizzle of cooking waft from the kitchen. It is a serene, homey scene which makes the loud, "Fuck!" all the more jarring. A loud sign preceeds his turning around now covered in egg wash, fixings and a colorful medley of spices. The look on the usually symmetrical face of the lil'est Sahajiya is twisted as he tries his hardest not to sneeze.

Whatever distress his mess caused is whisked away when he sees Corinna and her spider friend. "I don't know why I forgot that was there. Ok sorry guys chilaquiles are going be a minute.". There is a bit of nervousness in the initiate's eyes everytime the come across the good doctor.

Karina

"NO! YOUR DAD! GIVE THE PHONE TO YOUR DAD!" 

. . . 

"YES, HELLO MR. TOODLES, PLEASETELLJIMMYTOGIVETHEPHONETOHISDAD!" Karina yells into her phone, she passed rage a few requests ago. Now it's onto bargaining and general hope. 
She just shrugs with disdain when Corinna questions her further. An accusatory glance thrown at the spider beneath Blue's butt. "Why aren't you an cassowary ribcage?" 

Totally stock standard stuff, see? 

If only what Brey brought in had been an cassowary ribcage

Christy

Christy comes into the main area of the house from one of the rooms upstairs, surrounded by a haze of incense and weed smoke. There's that faint sense of magick clinging to her, like maybe she's just finished some sort of casting. Slowly, she looks at everyone in turn, blinking as she reenters reality. Dr. Martin's thong gets a very, very long look indeed. "Oh, you are all really here," she notes, then re-focuses on the giant spider. "We are all one, even that guy."

Brey

Brey herself is just resting on the floor, back against one of the seating options, dressed as always in one of her long skirts and the today, an old sweatshirt. Plain gray. As Bernard spills food all over himself, she reaches to stop the squirming, curious brown-with-black-splotches kunekune pig in its little harness from heading over, doing her best to pick up the half-grown, oinking thing, "No, no, you stay here--" And then there's the shouting from the bathroom and the pig is squealing and running to try and get past Brey to hide beneath the bench, making her sigh, "Thank you for cooking, Bernard--" Brey tries to grab the pig by it's harness, "And really it's all--" Karina is shouting, and Brey half-collapses to her side, as the pig squeals again, trying to run with renewed energy. Fortunately, it's a fairly small, tame pig.

Dr. Martin

"HOW am I meant to THINK with all of this CHAOS? Who is supposed to have been responsible for keeping the house in order? The decoration is even the same. It is as if you all have collectively left it as it was, letting the cleaning device take care of messes," says Martin, wrenching something tight and tossing his spanner to the ground next to him. He stands up and turns, showing his slightly jiggly pale belly where his smoking jacket has come open before he cinches it shut. "But nobody has touched the matter-energy conversion coils, or the electrostatic screening devices, and the fuse box had dead roaches in it and a little piece of tape that said 'ell oh ell, eye dee kay'. What are these letters to represent?"

Corinna

Corinna leans forward, resting her elbows between her thighs, and nods maybe one too many times up at Karina. "Yeah. Cassowary ribcage." She looks to Brey and continues nodding. Totally. "Hey, could that little piggywiggy eat a whole spider, you think?" The blue-haired witch is just being practical, here. Her brown eyes flit up to meet the miniature pig's (temporary?) keeper.

Khoi

The bathroom door blows open, and Khoi spills out with a towel, dropping it on the floor just in time for a piglet to squeal past him. His knees and the front of his shirt are wet, he reeks of chlorine and drain cleaner, his eyes are red and irritated, and even his hair is screwed up. Not his perfect hair! It's a bad day indeed.

Khoi snaps his head up and he stares after the pig as he tries to sop up toilet water leaking into the reaches of the den. "Man I'm /trying/ here, Doc, but I'm not a plumber, okay, I'm trying." He sops up more water. "El oh el is uh, laugh out loud, I D K is uh, I don't know. As in, it means the person who wrote it does not know."

Corinna

And yeah, she's still sitting on that glass bowl with a big ol' huntsman trapped in it. The thing crawls around, tapping at the glass with lits little fuzzy paws to find some way to escape. No thank you.

There's a pig? Christy stares at the pig next, and her pale eyes register some concern. But then, Dr. Martin is talking, and while most of his diatribe seems to go over her stoned head, she latches on to something, "...ROACHES? WHERE?" Christy spins around, and her laid back expression turns to horror. "Are THEY here?"

Bernard

Bernard flinches at the Etherites outcry, his eyes narrow in the good doctor's direction lingering a moment before looking to more familiar faces. Looking Brey he offers a soft, "For sure." and the general assembly surrounding the spider bowl, "I'm going to clean this shit before dude get's more pissed off.". His expression clearly implies a bitten tongue and some modicum of relief at the excuse he gave himself to flee back to the distance he's maintained from the Scientist out of time.

Dr. Martin

"Besides the bulldog-sized Roach spirit that SOMEONE invited into my house?" Nevermind that Many-Legs-Trash-Thief only appears once in a blue moon. "No, the rest are dead. Decades old. Bit at the cables too much," the good Doctor replies to Christy. He straightens his jacket, and kicks closed the access panel to his machine. Then he presses a button on it. The lights in the party room dim a bit as the dials jump up and the bulky thing starts whirring. "Good. The heater should now be working in the transdimensional spaces upstairs as well."

To Khoi, he gives a solid look. "You do not know who is this lollidick?" He was possibly not fully paying attention to the Cultist.

Karina

Karina takes to rubbing at her brow as she speaks into the phone. Since yelling has been consistently failing, a lesson she will willingly choose to learn absolutely nothing from, she's swapped over to bargaining. Specifically she's overing the child foods that will probably keep it up long beyond reasonable hours. How cruel. 

While she makes offers the squealing pig catches her attention, one good eye tracing its path of attempted escape. "Bacon. . ." She says, absentmindedly. "Uhhh. . . yeah, I can make that happen. . ."

Brey

"Possibly, but its owner is trying to keep it on a vegetarian diet." Brey says to Corinna, and she, she definitely rolled her eyes at the idea. "Well, there wasn't precisely an -instruction- manual. And the Chantry hasn't really had many long-term members who really had the time to dedicate here. Brey pushes herself up to her feet, lifting her skirt so she can walk WITH PURPOSE towards that escaping pig. "Thank you for fixing the bathroom, Khoi. And the pig is going back to its owner in two days. Don't get any ideas." This said louder, for the room at large.

Christy

"Uhhhh..." Christy is reassured by Dr. Martin's statement about the roaches, and heaves a mighty sigh of obvious relief. Then she cocks her head, as though listening to something, and is abruptly galvanized into action, bounding toward the door to look out the peephole. "Uh, everyone, I think - there's something outside the house, shouting, and I think ... it's like, I hear fire. I mean, fire is happening."

Brey

Brey stops abruptly on her way, something catching her attention even through all this noise and mess that's ongoing. She turns to sweep her eyes over the room and then focus on the door, "Something's happening outside." She says abruptly, "And I don't like the sound of it. It's too near here." She reaches down, grabbing more of her skirt so her legs are more, you know, just make herself more able to go. If necessary.

Christy

"There's dudes in robes outside, throwing grenades," Christy says as she rears back from the peephole. She whirls around, making a gesture toward the door, and while magick ripples off her, it seems to dissipate just as quickly. "Fuck," she gasps out, taking another step back.

Khoi

Khoi hears Christy's voice and is caught up in a moment of disbelief. When 2 and 2 finally click to 4 in his head he goes, "Fuck!" and starts to psyche himself out for getting froggy on some terries. He bounces from one foot to another in some kind of footwork like he's winding  up to bust a move as the presence of his own magick sparks off of him.

Bernard

Bernard perks and looks horrified to hear fire. Panic creeps into the face of the Santa Cruz native as he scrambles through the kitchen on a mad dash search for a fire extinguisher he cannot seem to find. The progress of this journey is outlined by the "Fucks!" of increasing volume. He winds down a little when Christy's words finally hit him exclaiming in her direction, "Seriously?".

Karina

"Listen, I'll call ye' back, we'll do lunch." Karina offers to her phone even as she's pulling it away from her face and shoves it into the pockets of her grey sweats. Hand immediately slipping back out again with a gilded lighter in tow. 

A flick to open the lid followed by a rolling of the flint wheel to send sparks skittering out over her other palm and Karina's own hot resonance rolls out through the room as she focuses on the street facing wall of the abode. 

"What'cha got on ye', Blue?" Questions Red after further info makes its way in about what's going on outside, prep time, it seems.

Brey

Brey, ever-squishy sorceress she is, makes the executive decision to get the heck out of everyone's way. She hears grenades, and luckily she's already lifted her skirt so she can dart to the kitchen and behind the counter, juuuuust in case. She doesn't seem particularly worried, but then again, she's not exactly one to wear her heart on her sleeve. "Did any of you make any interesting friends recently?"

Corinna

"Hey, these guys know exactly what to do about giant huntsman spiders. Just burn the whole shit down. Good point." Corinna bolts up off the glass bowl. She throws a shrug Red's way, and glances toward her bag in the entryway, a bit too far away for useful given what she's about to do. "Gun? My other shit--"

Then she steps back just enough to get some room to quickly prepare herself. She shouts, and starts to hit herself, pounding her fists onto her arms and thighs. That might leave a bruise tomorrow.

There is a sense of her Will in the air as she keeps hitting herself and letting out pained grunts, now in the stomach. There is something in the way she stands straight, then, that just *seems* more solid.

Dr. Martin

Dr. Martin's eyes widen. He pushes his circle glasses -- like Khoi's but cooler -- up his nose. "Quickly! Activate the heterogeneous boundary mechanisms!" When nobody seems to immediately grok what he is saying, he just turns, and runs down toward the stairs leading to the basement. His flip flops slap disgustingly against the tile and wood.

Environment

A molotov cocktail, its fiery head crackling as it sails through the air, smashes through the barred glass of the front window, breaking on impact. Not the door, but a front-facing actual window. A spray of napalm cuts through the curtains, lands on the tile nearby, and threatens one of the old pieces of 60s furniture. The party pad main room is still huge, but the next throw might go further, given the lack of window in the way.

The fire burning on the tile seems to creep forward unnaturally, the burning gasoline slithering like a trio of snakes toward Karina's feet without any physics to explain it.

Khoi

Ah, fuck! Khoi's heart rate leaps as his footwork warms himself up, another few frantic seconds spared toward another few seemingly random jukes and hops back and forth, side to side, as he watches a gutter of flame down the way, practicing the upcoming art of Getting The Fuck Out Of The Way.

Bernard

Bernard stops his descent on the bag of flour once he realizes it's not just an electrical fire in the alley. The baby Sahajiya snatches a bucther's knife from the block. He looks to the rabble with steely eyes looking prepared to launch himself into the fray. Then without warning he lurchs from phantom cannon fire, the knife falling from his hand and clattering to the floor. A gasp nearly chokes as he collapses, grasping at a wound that doesn't exist. At least not now. "Sylvie!" he calls out mournfully with a southern twang that wasn't there before. HIs voices drops to whisper, reflective of the blood he thinks that he is losing. "I'm sorry...".

Christy

Christy takes a deep breath and spins around, her movements fluid and graceful. She makes a gesture toward the now-smashed window, a dance move of sorts, perhaps part of a pirouette. The magick is spinning off her as well, out into the alleyway and toward the assailants with the WRONG kind of cocktails for this time of day.

Brey

When one is the only sorceress in a room full of mages and an emergency happens-- one should always let the mages try to prove themselves and handle the situation: sometimes they can absolutely wrap things up. As Brey continues to watch the situation unfold-- Dr. Martin disappears, a molotov cocktail lands inside, Bernard's descent into a southern drama... Brey presses her lips together. It doesn't look like things are going to be handled quickly, mentally calculating her options on what to do next. She grabs her skirt and tucks it, turning the maxi into a knee-length, still behind the counter checking where to go next.

Corinna

"Fuck!" Corinna calls out at the sudden fire. She looks around once, twice, but keeps her chill. She's good at keeping a good head in panic type situations. She bites her lip, and rushes over to the wall near the kitchen. She flips out a knife from her pocket and begins to carve big exaggerated runes in the wall. Four of them, in total. It's speed, she's going for, not excellence.

She glances over her shoulder at the brightening flames. "Get ready to, uh, fucking, come 'round here," she calls.

Karina

There's a brief moment in which Special K does considere Blue's bag after that gun is mentioned. . . but in the end she decides 'guns blazing' perhaps isn't the best starting gambit. . . 

Especially not when the new friends outside were so presumptuous as to challenge her to a fire fight. 

Brandishing her lighter before her as if it were some holy symbol the Modern Barbarian glances towards the trails of flame creeping towards her and grins at it with a malicious mirth. 

Raising her free hand, she grips tightly at the burned flesh around her neck and yells towards that broken window. 

"YOU'RE MINE!" She demands, voice loud and full of steel, "BURN THOSE THAT GOT THE BALLS'TA THINK OTHERWISE!" Would the people outside hear her? Possibly, but she knew with certainty that, as an even more vicious rolling wave of oppressive heat resonated out from her, what she was really yelling at would.

Dr. Martin

Little panels click open along the baseboards of the front-facing wall. One on either side of the windows and one every 3 feet after. Thin poles lift out of the ground there, looking like Warp Cores out of star trek. They begin to crackle and hum like scifi fence posts. One is a little stuck, from the age, and from the burning fire atop of it. It flickers. Foreboding.

Environment

The flames that creep toward Karina burst up as she casts her spell, little tendrils as tall as her now within a few feet, and licking the weird 60s glass chandelier.

Two shotgun blasts ring out as one goon gets up to the door and fires through it, and another gets up to the fire-enveloped window encasement and tries to shoot through it. The one who shoots through the door manages to splinter a big hole through it with a slug, which scrapes through Christy's flesh as it carries through into the room beyond. The one that tries to shoot through the firey window, though, hisses as he gets too close and he burns his hand there, delaying him.

Deeper outside there is sudden screaming as Karina and Christy's combined efforts result in those molotovs that were intended for internal Chantry use are applied externally. One man has his arm aflame, another his feet, and a third has his entire body set aflame, as the dropped molotov lights all the other bottles that were sitting there nearby as well. A great boom shatters windows across the street, and a plume of fire outside can be seen through that burning window, thick black smoke rising into the air.

If the police were not already on their way, they probably are now.

Bernard

Bernard sits with his knees to his chest trembling with one hand on his gut and the other in front of his face so he can stare at blood he shed in another lifetime. When he notices Corinna carved he looks over at the blue haired witch bewildered, "Sylvie?" he asks in the slow Missouri accent he doesn't normally speak with.

The gunfire, explosions and other sounds of external battle continue to rattle the sweat soaked Sahajiya in the messy apron. Weakly he tries to rise, scooping the knife that clattered next to him. Still holding his gut he starts to limp toward the ruckus. "I'm coming." he mutters under his breath.

Karina

Escape? What's this about escape? There's a fire to feed, after all, and one generator and a few goons just weren't going to be enough for what had already been started. Let alone what this fire could potentially become. 

As the fire already inside grew nearer Karina, and fiercer still in its proximity, the redhead sneered more broadly. Apparently already assured of her ability to drive off whatever encroaching force their was. Certain enough, it seemed, to remove her hand from around her neck and the burn that decorated it to stretch it forward towards the now towering column of fire that reached towards her. Fingers spread and palm pushed forward as she called out more for it. 

"NOW YOU'RE GETTIN' INTO IT! C'MON! MORE! SHOW 'EM WHAT THEY'RE FUCKIN' WITH!" She demanded, and once more a surge of burning will flowed out from the woman. . . but unlike before it did not roll out over the area, spreading and growing. Instead it simply suffused the air. . . and as it did the column of fire in the house crept closer, sweeping around, like it wanted to encapsulate and enshroud her. 

". . . Hold on now, I already know what ye' can do. . ."

Corinna

Corinna just starts punching the wall, bloodying her knuckles in the process. It's old, plaster and lathe, not drywall. It's hard. It hurts. She yells. But as she pierces the wall with her fists, those runes she carved start to shine, the cracks letting out a deep purple-and-black. The hole she's punched through doesn't open up into wall, but into the void: a nebulous, beautiful starscape. Crack. Crack. More of it shows as she beats at the wall.

She looks askance at Bernard as he calls out to her, though it's the wrong name. Her nose curls over her bull-ring, but she returns her focus to her work. Carving a way out of the prison.

Khoi

"Leave?!" The incredulity in Khoi's voice is as loud as his frazzled panic as Bernard starts losing his mind, Corinna starts punching the wall, and he bounds up towards the -- OH! Jesus! Hot, hot fire! He jukes, nearly gagging at the smell of gasoline and the withering gout of heat as he jumps toward the door in some thoughtless bid to make sure he gets shot. See, in Khoi's mind it's "instead of others", but in reality land, I mean, he's probably just an idiot, not a martyr. "Get the fuck out of here!" Khoi yells, moments before an immolated man sears his horrible probably-death straight into his retinas.

Environment

The fire that has crept up to Karina is thin, but almost floor to ceiling now and starting to circle her like a curtain.

Brey

Brey's already in the kitchen-- and she's one of the old-timers. She knows where that fire extinguisher is, so as things get ~interesting~ and everyone seems to be doing what they can-- but she's clocked that the fire near Karina seems to be extra-fun. So after grabbing the fire extinguisher, she moves near Karina, following the instructions to rip what needs to be ripped, pull whatever's got to be pulled, point in the right directions and starts aiming for the fir enear Karina's feet, sweeping slowly to make sure it doesn't succeed. There might be a momentary dart of her eyes to check towards Corinna's progress, but she doesn't call out: there's enough chaos without distracting the other verbena.

Environment

The flames that lick up toward the ceiling near Karina kind of... scream? When Brey sprays them with the fire extinguisher. They abate, and slither back, recoiling toward the window from whence they came.

Christy

As Christy spins back away from the door, she reaches up toward her shoulder, where the shotgun blast and accompanying pieces of debris hit her and drew blood. She feels that area gently for a moment, and then pulls her hand back into a fist and PUNCHES the wound, screaming out in pain as she lurches toward Corinna and the wall. All the blood basically drains out of Christy's face, but she keeps on moving, pushing her body to the limit.

Environment

The men outside continue to scream. And run. And roll on the ground. Their not-quite-Klan-robes alight with their own mistakes. Two more shotgun blasts ring out, one through the hole that already appeared, and the other through the window. The blast through the window ends in a ball of fire centered on Karina as specialty ammunition creates a small explosion. The one through the window buzzes past Khoi and slams into the oven, back in the kitchen.

The fire in the house has spread to the walls and ceiling near the window and blackened a trail on the tile to the Modern Barbarian. It will be hard-pressed to end it with just a fire extinguisher now, but it can be slowed. If only Wizards with Magick could just turn it off.

Dr. Martin

The fence posts finally light up entirely, a sickly green glow appearing in the room as energy lances between them. The fire is split by this energy, and what rages outside on the bricks no longer threatens to keep coming into the house. That which is already in the house, however, continues to eat priceless Eames chairs.

Karina

The rapidity with which Karina's overly prideful sneer fell from her face as the fire began to surround her could perhaps have been considered funny. . . if it weren't for the fact that said humor was built upon the foundation of everyone possibly burning to death. 

And yet despite that set of circumstances its the screaming of the flame that has her attention over the actual immediate threat to her life posed by the flaming shell that impacted her. Doubling her over with a snarl of pain as it impacted her and flared across her form. 

As she straighted though, it was still the fire she focused on most. "Wait!" She demands. "Jus' wait, I got it!" She assures, standing up straight again with little regard to how movement might tear fire weakened flesh. 

And then she raised her hands again, one upon the burn on her neck and the other brandishing her lighter towards the swelling curtain of flame before her. "Down. Now." She grunts in a darker tone. "I've seen enough from you."

Corinna

The Two Blues work their magick together on that wall, turning it from a border into a threshold to elsewhere. With Christy adding her own Will to the task at hand, Corinna punches the final chunks of plaster out of the way, leaving a jagged hole into The Void where the wall once was.

It coalesces into a proper place, as if the hole in the wall simply leads to a dark space filled with flourescent mushrooms. The runes themselves still hum with that purple light, though.

"Let's fuckin' GO!" Corinna hasn't been paying particular attention, so focused on the gate that she maybe doesn't realize it's over. Situational awareness is hard. She windmills her arms, gesturing into the shimmering gate.

Khoi

Situational awareness is hard indeed. His ears ringing from the shotgun, his eyes and lungs stinging from the smoke and chemicals of the gasoline and what the fire consumes, he's in his own world. These guys are dig dugging a hole to elswhere, he's going to put out the damn fire. Khoi bolts, bounding to the kitchen to throw the pantry door open. No idea where a fire extinguisher is, but salt, salt, salt -- Ah!! He finds a canister, tears it open, and now he's pouring the whole of it onto the fires.

Environment

As Karina tames the fires like Chris Pratt taming velociraptors, it retreats and simmers. Black smoke still arches up and stains the ceiling, but the flames grow quieter, lesser. It is only the edges of the window, leading up to that sickly green fence that still burn. Past the fence, on the outside, the street still rages in an inferno. But none of that heat or smoke or flame seems to be coming inside. The sound of fire-trucks pealing as they head down Mission street make it hard to concentrate.

Khoi's salt is like spitting on it in comparison to Karina's magick, but does cause it to retreat another foot or so.

Karina

As the fires begin to lower themselves Karina grunts something of actual worth through those gritted teeth of hers. "There are two other people in here. Creepin' 'round. Upstairs, in the back rooms."

Christy

Christy is breathing heavily, face still white from the shock and pain of punching her wound. She doesn't stop moving, though, bounding toward Brey and attempting to gather her up and pull her through the portal to safety. "Come on, let's get out of here - Bernie, you're next!" she pants out, "We - wait, someone else is in the house? Fuck! No, safety first. Come on, Brey."

Brey

Brey's been doin' her best with the extinguisher. When she's suddenly collected, she lets herself be pulled, calling out, "Extinguisher!" Before she starts letting herself be dragged. There's a momentary glance back and perhaps a frown, "Check the back rooms after the fire! See if they've left anything behind--" But she's still being corralled to the portal, and she plunges through it with, perhaps, an inordinate amount of trust to toss herself into a space-rip to fluorescent star void of mushrooms and low lights.

Dr. Martin

Dr. Martin comes stomping up the stairs with his own fire extinguisher, this one with some sort of edison bulb having device that he's fitted on the hose. "MY BEAUTUFUL CHAIRS!" He looks aghast, and moves closer, thong-area jiggling. "Has NOBODY engaged the Boundary Matrix IN 40 years??!? It is a simple 8-step procedure, but because of the disrepair it took 23!"

He aims his fire extinguisher at the fires and sprays out a blast of cold so sharp that it leaves the floor, chairs, and window dripping with icicles. The fire is no more, and in its place a frosty, smoking ruin.

Bernard

Bernard doesn't respond to his name, sadly not even a flinch in his friends direction. His steely gaze turns to Karina announcing that there were intruders remaining. He whispers something to the butcher's knife as he pours a thin trickle of quintessence into the weapon. If the blade tugs in a certain direction the lanky Sahajiya seems to follow.

We decide to summarize the ending...

Bernie, possessed by a literal zeitgeist, manages to hunt down and ambush one of the creepers. After a brief struggle, the knife ends inside the occult-symbol-robed man. The robe, blue and silver, does have some symbols that are perhaps familiar to Karina, who dispatches the second creeper by bearing arms. Which means she uses her bear-like arms to bear-hug him to death or unconsciousness.

Meanwhile in the main room, Dr. Martin refuses to retreat from his home, and is appaled that his wall was damaged. On top of the fire damage!

The fire trucks spray the house with water to put out the fire, but none of that gets inside. And the Arcane effect that hides the place from casual inquiry seems to be strengthened by whatever that Boundary Matrix Dr. Martin was talking about might be.