8249/Weather or not: Spring and Autumn clash

Weather or not: Spring and Autumn clash
Date of Scene:	10 July 2019
Location:	Sanctum Santorum
Synopsis:	Loki attempts to trick Felicia. Dr. Strange seems to get involved.
Cast of Characters:	Black Cat, Loki
Tinyplot:	Weather Spheres

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Black Cat has posed:
It was a tender if also tense discussion to be had in the hallway of the Sanctum between the Black Cat and Sorcerer Supreme. Felicia was certain to pass on word of Jeremy's plan to the man, as precisely as she could remember, as well as remind Stephen that it was not only a good idea, but the Sorcerer's own ideas contained great merit. Despite the silver-templed man worrying, she also tried to allay those fears as well in her charming way. Whether or not it worked remains to be seen, for they parted ways soon enough, with Stephen entrenched in his secretive work and the Cat -- for now -- content to continue to enjoy her Shammy.

A day or two has passed with the cat-burglar behaving herself, but...curiosity has its lures and the bored mind is something never left to its devices without consequences. As such, Shammy is curled up in Felicia's lap as she splays on a couch in one of the Sanctum's reading rooms. The forest-green construct-kitten sleeps while she frowns at the old Nordic text translated to English. It's a triste on the old gods and guess who's of interest, given all the chit-chatter and warnings?

"I wonder if Thor would know if this is true or not...?" the blonde murmurs to herself. She slips her cellphone out of the kangaroo pocket of her fitted sweatshirt and goes into the contacts. Finding the number to the Asgardian Embassy in question, she dials it and waits until someone picks up.

"Hello, yes, I'd like to speak with his highness Odinson, please," she tells the listener on the other end, her voice airy and semi-distracted as she tries to find where she left off in the text.

Loki has posed:
"You can just call up Asgardian royalty and they answer?" asks the voice of a familiar young mage, in a mixture of shock and awe. Jeremy stopped in the door, leaning back, to stare inside at the lady on the couch. His cheeks color some, perhaps reacting to a lot of thigh.

Jeremy approaches, leaning over the back of the couch to aim a pet to Shammy with a palm, otherwise staying quiet, to allow Felicia to chat on the phone without too much interference from him. Is he eavesdropping? Definitely, but in a way that he's made it quite clear that he is, at least, dropping the eaves where she can see him clearly doing so. Jeremy is dressed comfortably, jeans and a t-shirt, arms adorned with a few various bracelets, a mystical necklace, his brown hair updated recently with streaks of blue dyed into it.

Black Cat has posed:
Felicia sits up further on the couch to wiggle fingers towards the arrival of Jeremy, having heard him speak up. A single finger asks him to hold his thoughts, though he seems to do so without prompting in an impaccable show of politesse. Her cotton shorts are indeed daringly short in honor of the warm weather and thigh muscle as well as shapely calves and French-manicured toes are on display.

"Oh, he's not in right now? That's okay. No, I don't need to leave a message. Yes, thanks, you too." The phone's screen blips back to neutrality as she hits the red disconnect button and she slips it into her pocket again. When her jade-green eyes land on Jeremy, she gives him a winning smile, Colgate-white against the red of her lips.

"How's my favorite kitten-wrangler?" she greets the young man brightly. "I like the streaks in your hair, very fashionable. Daring. Edgy!" Shammy in her lap lifts his head up into the palm and purrs sleepily, his eyes blinking slowly.

Loki has posed:
Jeremy hangs over the back of the couch in a languid pose, hand extended to pet Shammy in her lap. He doesn't seem shy about putting his hand there: after all, there's a kitten-construct, so it's fine and acceptable. Once she's off the phone he answers, but not before settling his other forearm on the couch back, chin propped on the back of that wrist.

"Doing okay. PROBABLY found a magical relic I was looking for. But I don't have somewhere to keep it," laughs the boy, turning his hand to pet the kitten's nose with a finger. A little blaze of white flutters into existance on the kitten's forehead like a star under Jeremy's finger.

"Do you like them? I wasn't sure blue was my color. But it's easy to change. Just have to pay for it with a piece of soul," he says, and then winks.

Black Cat has posed:
"...wait, you paid for those colors with a piece of your soul...?" Felicia's outright staring at Jeremy now, looking aghast with her mouth left parted. "You're...kidding, right? Ste -- the Doctor's always on about balancing magic and being careful about things like your body and soul. Jeremy, come on. Tell me you didn't swap a part of your soul for some hair coloring. You can pay, like, $19 for a box of temporary dye at Safeway."

Shammy wiggles his little nose and licks a paw to drag it up around and over his forehead once before settling in again. He seems not bothered in the least by the white blaze; his owner, still eyeing Jeremy in concern, hasn't noticed the new marking just yet.

Loki has posed:
"Eh, what's a little slice off the soul? I hardly use it," Jeremy teases back, and then laughs and shakes his head at her. "It was someone /else's/ soul." He lifts his brows with a smile, clearly playing, and then stands up, wandering around to the area of the couch where her feet are. Like he's known her ages, he waggles his hand in a 'move your feet' motion, intending to sit there, clearly, shrugging off his bookbag over his shoulder and dropping it near the edge of the couch.

"What d'you want with the Asgardians? I don't think very many of them even do magic," Jeremy asks.

Black Cat has posed:
Mollified by his continued light-hearted explanation, Felicia snorts in a decidedly unladylike manner and lifts her fist in what appears to be the bird sans the bird. "You jerk, don't worry me like that," she grumbles as she pulls her feet in to allow him access to the couch, her bearing now as regal as a queen -- why, yes, she deigns for Jeremy to sit there. Shammy wakes with a quiet 'prrt' of surprise at his lap-platform shifting. He ends up on the shelf of Felicia's chest beneath her chin and promptly splays out across it most comfortably.

"I was wondering about the few of them who can do magic." She lifts the tome she was reading and turns it to face Jeremy, her finger curled overtop it pointing at the bulking of text entitled: LOKKE. "I think I heard that the Asgardians started all this lore, so I hoped to speak to Thor at the Embassy. I guess he's off being busy though, so I'll try again later. See, I met him and his brother on a rooftop and Loki's just...he's different." By the way she says it, almost introspectively, Felicia's got more to say about him but having been warned multiple times, doesn't foray further -- for now. Glancing down at Shammy, she blinks.

"...I don't remember him having that marking. It's cute!" Her eyes flick to Jeremy. "Did you do that?"

Loki has posed:
This time, Jeremy doesn't evade talking about Loki. He still makes a bit of a face at her choice of book. "Urgh, light reading, that is. Probably not well translated, which has got to make that even more fun," he comments. "Met them on a rooftop? Just happenstance? Huh. So now you can call them up. Are you actually an Avenger? Maybe one of the masked ones? Spider-Woman?" Jeremey guesses, with a narrowing of eyes and smile. "Or on the other side, good pals with Loki? If so, we probably can't be friends."

"Now that I've sat down, I want popcorn," laments the teenage boy, with a despair of one hand flung backwards. He looks over at the kitten when she asks him. "Do what?" he asks, with a flawless reaction of pretending to have no idea about what she means.

Black Cat has posed:
"The white marking," Felicia says with a drag of her finger from Shammy's nose to his forehead. He starfishes his front paws and then gets more comfortable, content to ignore both humans otherwise. "Alright, be coy about it. I know you did it." She curls a charming grin at the young man for a second, eyes half-lidding, before she closes the book and sets it aside on the nearby coffee table. Apparently, her attention span is done for reading for now.

"It was translated, but yeah, maybe not well? I don't know. I'll return to it later. It's rude when guests arrive," she explains in the same light and airy tone, her jade-green eyes twinkling. "I could be an Avenger...but I wouldn't be able to tell you. I'd have to kill you otherwise." She pouts a red lower lip at him before giggling once.

Then, she snappoints at the young man. "You...mentioned a relic, though? And not being able to find a place to keep it? I could help. I'm good at hiding things." Her expression is guileless...almost too much so.

Loki has posed:
"Yeah, I did it," grins the teenage mage, clearly breaking his cool about it. He must just be a pretty bad liar, to break so quickly. "Little star for him," Jeremy says, with no humility: it just is. He looks up to her charming grin, and returns it quickly. He ignores where the book is put, since it really didn't actually interest him.

"Pretty sure Avengers don't do murder," Jeremy says, tapping one finger against his raised knee. "Or secret identities. Seems to me to take all the fun out of being a superhero that way."

The snappoint makes his eyebrows lift, and he watches her, attentive to her request for his direct attention. "Relic? Yeah. Well, it needs a spot of balancing magic. I don't remember if you recall, but these seasonal orbs was something I was trying to figure out," Jeremy explains. "I didn't hear back from the Supreme, so I did some hunting by myself."

Black Cat has posed:
"Guess I'm not a superhero then... Sad little me." Felicia pouts, though not for long because, frankly, the news about missing contact with the Sorcerer Supreme to go gumshoeing by oneself has her attention. It's almost a hook-line-and-sinker effect; the Cat even leans in a touch, her jade-green eyes narrowed now at Jeremy.

"I remember your idea and I told the Doctor about it." She doesn't slip up this time and nearly spill Stephen's name. "He said that he'd try it himself and see if it works. I don't know if he tried it yet though. If the Orbs are supposed to influence the seasons, it's still summer." She unfurls an idle fan of fingers towards the lightness of the late-evening beyond the Sanctum windows, proof of high summer.

"But...you found a spot? And an Orb...?" she asks a bit more cautiously, her brows gathering.

Loki has posed:
"No, I don't have a spot to keep it, so I just tracked one down, and then didn't do anything, because the last thing /I/ need is to have somebody tracking it find me, because I don't have a place to put it, and there's a mess," describes the teen, with a laugh. He bends over to dig into his bag, and procures an apple from it. He shines it slowly against the sleeve covering his wrist.

"I'm not really up there in somebody that can keep a world-ending relic safe. I'm more the category of cheerful sidekick, sadly," sighs the mage. "Trying to edge out of comic relief, maybe into wise counsel."

Black Cat has posed:
"Well, you're wise telling me. I can let the Doctor know if I see him before you do. I know he's busy, but leave him a message or something. You know, do something..." Felicia gestures before herself in a grandoise wiggling of fingers that are only missing sparkles for full effect. " -- magical. Or send a raven or an owl with a note. Nobody ignores a large black bird suddenly appearing out of nowhere." She laughs despite herself.

Crossing her feet daintily as she pulls in her knees, the Cat leans sideways against the back of the couch. Her hair falls in little locks here and there from the hasty braid long enough to hang over her collarbone. Shammy hasn't noticed it yet. YET. Resting her jawline on her palm, elbow on the back couch cushion, she narrows her eyes at Jeremy again.

"So...you DID find an Orb then? You can tell me, I don't bite." Those white teeth flash regardless in a grin.

Loki has posed:
"I'm not supposed to change my hair color with bits of soul, but," Jeremy lifts his hands to do some finger-waggles back at her, "it's okay to do it for sending a post-it shaped like a bird?" he asks, as if insulted. He continues to just shake is head at her, as if she clearly had learned nothing about magic, and tut-tut clicks his tongue.

"Yes. I mean, I think so. I found the trail, and then aborted the mission," Jeremy says. He perhaps realizes what that sounds like, "Not out of fear, though. I'm brave. I was on the astral plane when people's minds were being cooked. But because..." he considers. And shrugs a little. "I don't know."

Bright eyes then move to hers suddenly. "D'you wanna go look at it?"

Black Cat has posed:
A handwave with her non-supporting hand in combination with a lip-bitten giggle is Felicia's reply to the remonstrative click of tongue. Pfft. She still listens, however, and the narrowing of her eyes reverses. By the time Jeremy offers as he does, she's nearing a moue of sympathy.

But oh. Oh, that's an offer about as tempting as a diamond necklace on a silver platter because... Confirmation as to the location of an Orb? It would ease so much of Stephen's agonies over finding it -- and how clever she would look, entirely mundane and yet able to aid!

"Offffff course I do," the Cat replies with a musical lilt to her words. "But I don't have any magic, remember? I can't do this...plane stuff you were just talking about." Still, an electrical sparkle of interest makes those darkly-lashes eyes nearly glow back at Jeremy.

Loki has posed:
"I'm okay at portals, you shouldn't need magic. Haven't you traveled that way a bunch, with the Sorceror Supreme?" Jeremy asks, curiously. "Wait. But do you have any weapons at all? I mean. It probably has guards and traps set around it by whoever took it. I'm not really an Indiana Jones type." Skillfully weaving in some pop culture now and then helps Jeremy appear young. Relatively, to his real age, anyway. Keeping up and hip is important in this realm.

"But if we're going to just look, we might be fine. I have some scrying glass, so we can peek without having to get too close. I just wasn't going to do that and have some monster come up behind me," Jeremy shrugs a little bit. "I want to impress the Supreme, but not with my death."

Black Cat has posed:
"I guess I'm the Indiana Jones type, but man, you have to admit: young Harrison Ford?" Felicia rolls her shoulders in pleased little circles before giggling behind closed lips. "He set a nice example of how it's done...for cinema. I'd like a peek first though, since you've got the piece of glass. One should always be as prepared as possible if one's facing potential death by sudden rolling boulder. Running and screaming doesn't work well most of the time. Indy got lucky." She aims a wink at Jeremy.

"Is the piece of glass in your bag?" The question comes alongside an inquisitive look towards Jeremy's bag of impossibilities, which includes the earlier apple.

Loki has posed:
A gist of Indiana Jones is one thing, knowing the whole plot other than that there were Nazis is pushing it. Still, Jeremy grins back at her and nods about the rolling boulder. Sure, boulder. Humans, go figure. He shakes his head some, "No, I'd need grab it and to set it up, and it doesn't have good range. So we'd still need to travel a little way - to get it, and then to a place near the site." He looks over her clothing, or lack thereof. "You'll want to dress more warmly, and I don't conjure clothing. My soul is worth more than a scarf." Jeremy grins but eats more of his apple. "Or suffer, I mean, that's okay too." A twinkle of amusement enters his eyes: his smile does come up into his eyes, a fun little glitter.

Black Cat has posed:
"Gosh, Jeremy, I dunno... I'm really comfortable right here with my shorts and my kitten..." Felicia glances down at the forest-green ball of fur and sprawled limbs. One ear twitches, but he doesn't wake. "You make it sound like I'm going to have to get all gussied up in something fur-lined and warm." She looks beyond Jeremy and towards the hall, down to her veritable room of requirement provided by the Sanctum itself.

"I mean, I guess I can go change clothing. It's going to be cold where we go? Look, I can't be gone long either, I have plans. I've got to go out of town." Pulling her feet in, she rotates on the couch and cradles Shammy on one arm, preparing to rise to her bare feet. "Give me about fifteen minutes?"

Loki has posed:
"Sure, I'll cat-sit?" Jeremy suggests, taking over the couch with a teenagerly sprawl, extending his hands out for the green kittenfluff. "By the way, I wondered," he adds, quickly, "Do you have any abilities? I know you don't do magic, but I mean, are you really good-looking or something, as your power?" he asks, and then appears to blush. "Or, uh, stick to ceilings or explode or anything I'd need to know about or could maybe keep in mind, in case bad guys jump on us."

Black Cat has posed:
Felicia's red-red lips curl in self-satisfaction to see the young man stutter. She gets to her feet gracefully and does hand off the no-longer-sleeping Shammy. He murrrts in surprise to land on someone else's chest, but quickly enough, leans into Jeremy's hand.

"Being really, really ridiculously good-looking is a super-power of my genes. And jeans," she demures with a giggle. "I'm stronger than I look though, and I took gymnastics when I was younger. I also dance regularly." She shoots Jeremy a wink; who knows what kind of dancing she means.

What she doesn't mention, however, is the invariably and mercurial aspect of bad luck about her person.

"I can keep those nasty baddies away from you if you need to do some twiddly-finger stuff, don't worry," she assures him as she saunters past him and toward sthe door. A natural sway to her hips can't be helped. "Remember, fifteen minutes. Don't leave without me..."

Exiting the room, she speed-walks to her room and indeed, even less than fifteen minutes later, she returns in a thermal-lined set of pants, comfortably boots more akin to toed jogging shoes, and layers under a fur-lined parka, all in black. "This'll do, right?" she asks as she pauses at the end of the couch.

Loki has posed:
Jeremy left without her, possibly. He's gone. His bag is gone, and he left Shammy curled on the middle of a cushion.
He won't leave her wondering long, though; he returns with a rather laughably sparkly glowing cloud of firefly magic, over near the windows.

He orients at her in surprise, perhaps expecting to have beat her back. "I've got the glass," the boy says, and the stares at her outfit a little over-long. "Um. Mmm-hm."

Jeremy himself isn't dressed any differently other than that he threw on a warm mustard yellow cloak. It clashes a little bit with the t-shirt and jeans, but has a shine to the edges of it of maybe gold or magic. "All set?"

Black Cat has posed:
"Um...what the hell." The platinum-blonde says to the empty room as a whole. Shammy twitches an ear from where he's curled into a ball and is of no use in locating the erstwhile apprentice. However, voila: there's the disturbance of bright sparkling by the room's window and Jeremy gets a jade-green glower.

"Hey, you didn't say it'd be some...I don't know, Mediterranean weather." She grumbles as she shrugs out of the coat to reveal her top to be a form-fitting thermal long-sleeve. Very form-fitting. "Yes, I'm all set. Everything I need has a pocket. I love pockets." A happy sigh slips her lips as she pats at her hip.

"So we're going to magic our way there?" Having brushed aside her initial embarrassment at being 'overdressed', she's openly intrigued about the magical process of this whole affair.

Loki has posed:
"Yeah, walking sucks after you learn portal magic. Also I'm too young to drive. But not to do this!" A grin follows. "So to travel, I'm okay at it but I don't want to lose you, so if you can hold my arm, or um, I can have your hand, or something," hedges the young mage. There's a little bit of something amused in his eyes, though, despite the embarrassed attitude: as if he were, for a split moment, slightly less directly embarrassed, or perhaps more brave than he lets on. A ghost of some emotion that's hard to define. It's gone before it can really be seen or identified.

"Should we tell somebody where we're going? Or does that take the fun out of maybe returning with a prize and yelling 'surprise'?" Jeremy wonders. He adjusts his bag strap on his shoulder, and begins cautiously starting to work some magical sigils with his fingers, that etch into the air in glowing streaks of magenta, teal, and sungrass gold.

Black Cat has posed:
Felicia smiles at him during the flickering of uncertain emotions. She remembers her younger years well enough (not so far back as they are) and knows of the mercurial nature of youth in men.

"You're not going to get cooties if we hold hands. Ste -- the Doctor's not going to be jealous if we do anyways, since you're basically the taxi service. It's not like you're some on-call stripper or something." Reaching down, she elects to link fingers with his spare hand.

The appearance of the air-drawn runes distract her enough that she doesn't answer him immediately. After a second though, she adds, "Nah, I can text the Doctor and let him know what's up after we get there." Oh she of faith in modern technology!

Loki has posed:
"/Stripper/?" echoes the little mage, as if unsure what to make of that. His expression reads that maybe fourteen is pushing a little high on age after all. He could be less, and has some magic enhancing his appearance. "I wouldn't be on-call, I'd be scheduled," decides the quirky young man. He nods once at the texting, fine with that idea, and sweeps his palm across the colors he drew in the air, as if dashing the drawings aside.

The etched streaks splash apart and the world wrenches with the teleportation magic, as if pulling navel-first, and them remembering other pieces of the body.

They come out on a rooftop of what must be a european city, based on the buildings. The air is bitingly cold, but probably only due to the rooftop location. A city spreads out around them. Jeremy lets go of her hand and walks towards a roof edge, squatting there, and pulling his bag forward to fish around in it. The 'glass' looks like a bowl about a foot across, shallow, and inky black, empty. "So the trail is to a building about, I dunno, two blocks over, but I don't want to send up magical fireworks that we arrived right on top of it."

Black Cat has posed:
Left to her own devices to balance herself, Felicia wobbles for a second as her inner ear rapidly catches up to the fact that they're now a third of the way around the world. She rubs at her torso in passing as if she thought for a split second about being sick, but this passes, engulfed as she is with the novelty of her surroundings and with the potentiality of adventure stretching before her.

"Where //are// we...?" she asks even as she crouches down beside Jeremy, her motions graceful and poised even in the odd boots she wears. "Good idea to not go barging in, especially with magic. I've seen some spells go...pretty badly wrong." Her lips twist in a grimace of remembrance.

Loki has posed:
"Huh? Oh. Cordoba, Spain," Jeremy says without looking up or around, he's moves to sit on part of the rooftop, and cradles the bowl in his crossed legs. "The La Mezquita is... ummmm," Jeremy pauses, and gestures sort of loosely off to the distance, "Over there somewhere." He doesn't care, clearly, as is the case often with a lot of youth about beautiful cities or sights.

"Pretty wrong? No kidding. I've seen a palace made of people's minds, once. Not really magic, but easily one of the worst. That was last year," Jeremy shares. "I didn't do it, by the way." Nope. His palaces are nice!

"Okay, let me focus a minute." He interacts with the glass, spilling liquid out of his palm from nowhere into it, and clearly working an invisible magic that nevertheless adds a tension to the air.

Black Cat has posed:
"Oh, Spain...!" Felicia rises to her feet and temporarily abandons Jeremy to his bowl scrying in order to find the nearest edge of rooftop which grants her the fullest view of the city. A sigh fills and leaves her lungs, its sound fond and pleased.

"A palace made of minds sounds creepy as hell," she eventually replies, glancing over her shoulder at him. Oops -- he's concentrating -- the Cat puts fingers to her own lips in self-recimination. The shift in barometric pressure around them, however, is enough for her senses to notice and she rolls her shoulders without thinking in response to it. Turning with her hands on her hips, she squints at Jeremy, unable to see whatever he's concoting.

Loki has posed:
Jeremy appears to fail. Twice. He gets it going, and then something turns kind of muddy. He just starts again. Third time appears to be the charm, and though he's perhaps embarrassed, he gets the spell going, and gestures her over to come look. He moves it a little, presses his hands on the outsides, to sort of aim it, like a very strange moving, distant camera.

"Okay. So... oh. Well. Yeah," he says, pausing. There's a building now in the center of the bowl, that is covered in gorgeous leaves and vines. The blooming flowers are all sorts of colors: deep rose and purple and reds, the flowers exploding and crawling up building facades and up mixed warm brick structures of the building.

"Those weren't there earlier," Jeremy observes. The building seems alive with blooms and color and living plants. "The plants, I mean."

Black Cat has posed:
Nervy by the apprentice's second try, Felicia doesn't inch any closer to Jeremy. Instead, while she gives him a cautious squint at first, she pulls out her cell phone. Frowning at it, she at least attempts to send a text message to Doctor Strange: //Running an errand, back soon. Cordoba with Jeremy.// Whether or not it flies right away is at risk of local signal and world-wide carrier.

Slipping the phone into her pocket once more, she glances up in time to see him adjust the bowl's angling. Her feet make no sound on the rooftop as she walks over and bends at the waist to peer at the visual reflected up at them both.

"Yeah...that's a lot of flowers. It feels kind of cold for that many of them. You think it could be in that building because of the flowers, right?" Her jade-green eyes linger on Jeremy's face.

Loki has posed:
"Yeah. I originally was trying to find one of the other ones with my idea, but this is the one that resounded against autumn," Jeremy says, more quietly. "Did you text the Supreme?" He asks, though without looking up. It isn't judgey, it's relaxed, approving maybe. "I don't really want to wait around for a reply," he grins. "But it IS a little bit of a risk that using this bowl could set off mystic anti-spy stuff, but I think I can get closer," he says, adjusting the bowl. As it skims close past a row of flowrs, the flowers actually appear to be growing, blooming, even as they pan past them, a soft magical cast causing an unnatural shimmer in the leaves when Jeremy steers closer to get a better look.

"It's so inside there. Summer leaked magic out in another city a while ago, and it was a lot like this," Jeremy says, with an edge of nervous excitement.

Black Cat has posed:
"Wow..." The breath of a whisper moves before Felicia's lips as she watches the bowl's surface pan past the ultra-lively blooms. "I texted him, yeah, the text should send anytime now. The satellite just has to go by overhead." She briefly looks up at the sky and wonders at how long that will take. It certainly hasn't caused an immediate-gratification 'ping' from her phone yet.

"You're not wrong though. The Doctor's always talking about being careful about magic. If it is one of the Orbs, it's big-time stuff. I was able to touch one before wearing gloves, but I wonder if he had half an eye on things anyways," she reveals without thinking as she straightens, squinting out across the city again. She looks specifically two blocks out for any sign of the flowers reaching up to the rooftops.

Loki has posed:
The young mage is warm and curious about it. "Probably. What did it feel like to touch it?" asks the boy in a sort of hopeful awe. Clearly he'd like to touch one, though there's some fright there too. "Of all of them I bet this one is the safest," he adds, looking down into his bowl more.

"Can I see your phone?" he offers, extending a hand, while still gently cradling the bowl. "I have an idea! Almost as good as Shammy," he promises.

Black Cat has posed:
"It wasn't too scary to hold. I didn't really know what I was holding at the time, really. I knew it was magical and had power, but the whole..." the Cat pauses to fish out her phone and offer it to Jeremy, figuring his age concides with technological savvy. "...seasons part was a shock. Like I said, I'm glad now that I was wearing gloves. I did bring gloves though, don't worry."

Reaching into another pocket, she brings out a sturdy yet supple pair of leather gloves and shakes them to accent their existance.

"What...are you going to do to my phone?" It seems a belated realization, the parallel to Shammy given.

Loki has posed:
Jeremy does a few things to the phone, but what it looks like he does is sweep his hand across the shiny surface, and then across the glass bowl, and then with a cute little smile, hands it back towards her. There's a ghostly reflection in the turned off phone, that reflects the same as the bowl. "Just a simple eye spell. It can see right here, on the bowl!" Jeremy says, pointing at said bowl. "Like a relay. We can leave the bowl right here, and go look closer."

The phone also makes a 'yay sent!' little noise. Or seems like it does, anyway, as he offers it to her. "Or I guess I could stay with the bowl to move it to watch your back, but I'm brave too," the boy insists. "But we can't just leave the orb there, can we? What if it gets moved, and is lost?"

Black Cat has posed:
"Oooh." The cat-burglar takes back her phone and looks between its screen and the bowl's surface. Indeed, it's like a live camera feed, and she gives Jeremy a bright grin. "Let's..."

Her voice fades out as she muses, her red-red lips pursed. A few slinking steps brings her to the edge of the building's raised moulding nearby to Jeremy. "...have you move as close as you think is safe with the bowl. I know you won't set off any alarms, you're too smart for that." A wink is shot at him even as she sticks her gloves in the collar of her thermal shirt. Fingers take up her platinum-blonde hair and rapidly braid it, a thing of long-practice with the speed.

"I'll get across the rooftops to the building and slip in. I'm very, //very// sneaky when I put my mind to it. I bet I could get the drop on Doctor Strange if I wanted to," she muses. Out of her pocket comes a hairtie and she curls the braid up and around into a messy bun. A few twists and turns of the hairtie has it all back and away from her face. "Alright, let's go. It's a heist." Pulling on her gloves, Felicia then takes a few steps back before sprinting at the edge of the rooftop. Into the air she goes with a springing leap, harrowing in her self-confidence, and aims for the next roof over.

Loki has posed:
"It's audio, too, so I'll whisper," Jeremy agrees, watching her do her hair up and go into business mode with obvious surprise. It's honest, he clearly didn't expect her to go into stealth cat-burglar mode, at least not at that moment. If she checks her phone, she'll see the movement of the bowl: Jeremy is going to do what she asked, and it's a little disorienting since he's probably not as fast as she is at roof-climbing.

As she nears the building, she will find that it is a church; the courtyard is lovely, with a fountain and all of the growing plants, and there are patrons here and there enjoying the magical growth all around. Still, they don't look upwards: and the upper floors can be accessed: a mixture of worship areas, including a room where a wedding clearly recently took place.

There are balconies, and a mix of heavy wooden doors. The plants within start to feel dense, though: the magic of the growth of the flowers and vines has a clutching closeness. The doors to the main church appear so covered in vines they may not be possible to open.

"Psst. Psst. LOOK," hisses Jeremy from the phone. He's showing the side windows into the church, and there are lights, some bursts, fluxes of magic... something is going on inside!

Black Cat has posed:
It's relatively easy to spot the outer profusion of blossoms on the church's walls. No small wonder the building is attended upon by more than the usual number of patrons, but that doesn't stop Felicia from crouching in the shadow of a nearby awning to consider the easiest way into the building. She takes a moment to look at her phone, squints, and then grimaces.

"Jeremy, have you ever heard of steadying a camera?" she whispers. "You know what, never mind, you tell me when you get nearby." Looking up again, she eyes a cracked window on the upper floors. She literally wiggling herself into place, making microadjustments to her posture for the spring, when her phone projects Jeremy's voice.

Immediately, Felicia tries to line up what she's seeing with the windows in question and can now spot the odd flare and weird air movement inside.

"Let's go see what it is," she whispers back again. Stashing her phone in her pocket, she aligns herself again with the open window. Fling -- there she goes, arcing across the street below, and her fingernails dig into the revealed windowframe. Quickly as she can manage, the cat-burglar slips into the room and rises to her feet. This room must be storage, left to air out. Into the nearby hallway she goes and immediately sees at the end of it, where it opens up towards the interior of the church, that the light display is reflecting off the wall. She pulls out her phone again and slinks forwards until she can peer around the corner.

Through the bowl comes the quick hiss of reaction at what she's seeing: "Jeremy...what the hell is going on?!"

Loki has posed:
There is quite a scene going on in the main church. The windows, the long aquamarine stained glass throb against the magical pulses inside, as the interior writhes. A flash of red going past the window, and then more motion, sparks of energy continue. The plants continue to crawl in an obvious way up over all of the windows, as if they were slowly going to entomb the whole of the place like a wildly overprotective Groot.

"This feels dangerous, I'm sensing huge power in there, like Sorcerer Supreme power," whispers the young mage, worry in his voice. "We shouldn't get involved, this is----!"

A huge venus flytrap like plant worms it's way up against the large windows, the head beautiful but clearly fanged. It doesn't appear to notice the sneaky cat that is going just past it by an indoor window from the storage room, but more of the overgrowth continues to explode outwards all over the building.

Inside the room, as Felicia gets into sight, is probably the last person she expected. And he is in peril.

Dr. Strange is floating in the mid-center of the room, clearly fighting, with an array of mirror-like versions of himself dotting the room, engaged with a boiling mass of magical plant vines and animated stifling pollen, flung thorns, grappling roots.

The orb of Spring is present, rolling and rocking amid all of the roots and plant limbs, like a bobber in a sea of motion!

Black Cat has posed:
"Stephen?!"

That frightened squeak will translate clear as day across the bowl's line of communication. "Crap! Oh crap. Oh crap oh crap ohcrap ohcrapohcrap -- okay, Felicia, you can do this." Jeremy will hear the sounds of rustling as she takes off her jacket entirely and sets it aside on the hallway floor.

"It's like aerial bars and laser tag, but with vines -- don't sneeze," she coaches herself even as she crouches again. Flexing gloved fingers, she then breaks into action.

In a series of fluid motions, some beyond even the most masterful of gymnasts, she makes her way down into the chaos. Ducking and doging vines, leaping in a narrow swirl of limbs tucked tight to her body to avoid thorns, the Cat attempts to make her way towards the last place she saw the Orb of Spring within the tangle of tendrils. All the while, she makes no sound -- no need to distract the good Doctor. Easy-peasy -- in and out -- gloves will work!

Loki has posed:
The Spring orb is most obviously creating all of the huge mystical disturbance. It's also starting to splinter: pieces of it are starting to fracture, as it pulses like a horrible overgrown heart, expanding.

"Felicia?!" That's the sharpened voice of Stephen, as her arrival comes as a surprise to his peripheral vision, and he moves to protect and shield her from the nest of thorns that rain all around her like four inch long knives.

"Don't touch it! It is near collapse!" the doctor warns. As he warns her, a vine grabs for his arm, causing him to lurch as it pulls him.

The vine suddenly swells and in a mighty surge of magic, blue arcs of energy swirl down the vine and every root attached to it, causing a huge cascade of a fiery blast of retaliation to destroy half of the vines in the room. It is an amazing display of power, that just about entirely drowns out the 'WHAT IS HAPPENING' cry from Jeremy from her phone, an edge of demand in it.

The room, however, despite the entirely impressive super-blast, has regrown in moments, and it takes continual fighting from the Doctor to keep it from strangling them in a matter of seconds. The spring orb is under the mass. Maybe.

The area where the plant grabbed Dr. Strange drips with strange off-colored pus and ichor, eating into his robe, and similar scars start to splash and dent the floors and walls. A perhaps familiar gesture comes from one of Strange's hands: a portal starts to form, back by the altar, in a hoop of gold: an escape route?

Black Cat has posed:
"Shit!" It's a sharp hiss even as Felicia pulls a limbo move to make any professional limbo-master proud in order to avoid the swing of a vine as thick around as a soccer ball. So much for sneaking in under the radar! She flinches behind the mystical shielding regardless of its steadiness and watches the thorns break upon it.

"Don't mind me, Stephen, I've got my gloves!" Who knows if her voice carries over the thuds and hissings and displaced air and rattle of gigantic leaves in the thrashing growth. Even as she turns on the pad of her foot to dart towards the Orb, she's warned again it. A pause means having to clear the damaged church flooring from another vine curling past, seeking like the arm of an octopus.

"I think I can get it -- " Her words are drowned out by the nearly cataclysmic display of might from the man. Her mouth drops open. All the fine hairs on her body remain standing upright; it was like being near the epicenter of a lightning strike all said. The glitter of the oculus catches her attention and she gives the Sorcerer a hard, stubborn look.

"I'm not leaving you! I'm getting that Orb! It'll make this all stop!" Turning again, Felicia steels herself and runs towards where she last saw the Orb of Spring, once more ducking and dodging in her confidence.

Loki has posed:
"No!" Corrects Dr. Strange. He clearly has more to say, but he has to turn to deal with a giant manifesting venus flytrap that's about the size of the organ by the end of the pews. It takes some massive fiery blasts, losing parts, but is just growing so rapidly from the exposure to the Spring orb that it's healing things as quick as they can be inflicted.

"Get an orb: but not that one. Bring the other; I can use it to bring this one back into balance," the Doctor orders, still fighting, but the growth rate is just overwhelming! "You can do this," he begins, and sends her a look: as if he could give to her a dose of his strength, his faith. But then the heartbeat of the orb starts to slam the room, in subtle earthquake; the floor bursts in crags as vines force their way into the earth, up from the earth, pews flung....

"Go! /Now/!" he says, out of view now behind a sudden treelike arm of vines that surges straight up from the floor....

Black Cat has posed:
Brought up short to a halt so abrupt that Felicia briefly seats herself on the floor, she does an about-turn and scrambles to avoid the sudden limb-like SLAM of a vine where she once existed.

"But you told me -- !!!" Her voice breaks into a fightened yelp as she watches the Sorcerer disappear behind a riotous, nearly roaring upwelling of flora.

"STEPHEN!!!" In her pause, a tendil swats her between the shoulderblades. Despite the numbed flail of limbs, the Cat rights herself in her roll and lets out a grit-toothed cry of frustration. The thief then darts for the firefly-like gate opened up on the opposite side of the room. Her breath saws across her palate and she swallows down her heart in her throat as she dives for it in a veritable hail-mary for safety!

Loki has posed:
"Please talk to me," begs the scared little mage from her phone, "I can't see, it's just vines--- Are you okay?! Should I come help?" He seems to unable to see, and if she did catch a glimpse of her phone, that would be the case: it's just a tomb of vines.

Dr. Strange isn't visible, but fireworks continue. A wall of flame drenches across her path from the side, giving her part of an opening, though it's her own agility that will send her out of the madness. It carries a bit of Strange's voice; he isn't talking her her, though, but presumably someone else: "I know you can see me; your trap has failed, and I will not let you destroy Spring---"

Black Cat has posed:
Damn plants. A leaf as thick as a quilted blanket whisks in through Felicia's path and displaces her. She isn't enveloped, but instead has to twist in mid-air to land on her hands and feet as cats are wont to do.

"Jeremy, I can't TALK right now, there are -- AAAHHH!" She ducks another barrage of thorns that embed into a nearby pew like stakes, two feet long at least. "Look, it's like Audrey II ate steroid-laced Miracle Grow and 'feed me, Seymour' isn't cutting it!"

The path to the portal clears with the rapid flash-fire of spellwork. Another frightened grunt of effort leaves the Cat as she darts towards it and finally clears it, feeling a bit like a frazzled circus tiger.

Her landing in the cool, incense-laden confines of the Sanctum ends with her in a frightened crouch, still staring back at the plant-frenzied chaos beyond the oculus. She rapidly darts back to it, lingering at its simmering fringes. "Stephen! STEPHEN?!" No doubt her fearful cries are lost to the resounding effects of his efforts in defense.

Loki has posed:
The portal stays true and solid, though: but it has to be taking up SOME concentration from Stephen to hold it open. Magic isn't free, as she well has been taught.

"I'm coming to h-" began Jeremy, before all of the noise and everything else just made Jeremy's offer too impossible to decipher. A few vines start to stick their grubby roots in through the portal; one knocks over a vase in the hallway. It won't feel like she's chased so much as like a plant just filling all available space: it might make sense that Stephen is keeping the plant inside the church, but it did find an escape hatch much as Felicia did.

Black Cat has posed:
Felicia quickly looks at her phone and back at the writhing greenery now encroaching through the glittering portal.

"Jeremy, stay back! STAY AWAY! Stephen's got it!" But what's going to stop the vines from reaching into the privacy and safety of the Sanctum?! In a state of controlled, reactionary panic by now, the platinum-blonde looks around and grabs the nearest bladed weapon off the wall. It's a hand-and-a-half sword, sharp and gleaming, and she hacks at the twining tendrils trying to find space beyond the portal.

Loki has posed:
Energy bursts up through the vines, as presumably Strange sends more of those chaining energy blasts through the vines. He doesn't get them all; Felicia is able to hack through the other vines, and they fall, severed, at her feet: very real, but lifeless. A few little flowers along the edge of the vine start to try to open, white and soft, but they instead stop growing, and merely lay there.

If Jeremy is staying away and not meddling, he hasn't told her about it, or cannot. Distance may be a factor, after all....

Black Cat has posed:
Another few swings of the sword and Felicia lets it fall to one side, panting and disheveled now with wisps of hair freed from her hasty braid-bun. "The Orb -- he said he needs the Orb. Where's the...Orb -- STUPID EFFING PLANTS, BACK OFF!" More glinting swings of the sword, swift if untutored in her fury, send more seeking vines to fall to the floor.

"The box," she breathes, looking back over her shoulder and around the room. There -- on the desk nearby -- Stephen knew to link the portal to the appropriate room, apparently. She lets the sword fall carelessly to the floor to dart over and open it. Biting her lips, Felicia closes her eyes and reaches into it far more than she should feasibly be able to do. Rummaging around and wincing, her shoulders cringed, she does come up with...

...an Orb indeed. Cradling it in her arms, she turns and darts towards the portal again, stopping on the Sanctum-side of its aperture. "Stephen! Stephen!!! I have the Orb, come to the portal-thingie! The glowing window! The gate!" She screams at him as loud as she can manage through the glittering oculus and has to stoop to pick up the sword once more, one-handed in defense of the Sanctum.

Loki has posed:
"Making a path; I'm holding Spring together!" replies the Doctor. When she looks back through the portal, she'll find him in view this time, back near the Altar. Spring is there, in a huge nest of dead vines, the size of a bowling ball, with stress lines all through the beautiful, creamy pink pearl-like finish. A net of magic is around it, trying to compress it: the magic is blue and green, protective but clearly requiring effort from the wizard.

He flings one hand towards her, and his cloak suddenly jets across the room towards her: to possibly either help her, or accept the orb; it doesn't talk, so it's hard to really tell what it wants to do.

Black Cat has posed:
Indeed, Felicia has no idea what the cloak intends to do. Growling without thought, she swings the sword again and again in her own defense as she ducks back through the gate and into the church once more.

"Isn't it supposed to be -- " She slips to one side to keep from being swatted and hacks through the vine. " -- supposed to be calming the other Orb?! Having it nearby?!" The Orb of Autumn is still tightly tucked against her upper ribs in her other arm; she's heedless of any effect it might be having on her body right now. Gloves are one thing, but her thermal top isn't very thick material.

Loki has posed:
"It is. It's working," Dr. Strange answers, letting the portal fall shut after she's safely through. He continues to hold the orb in the cage of magic, and the vines around them start to slow down. They continue to writhe, but not so quickly. Sweat his glistening over the wizard's face as he adds a blast to help clear the area between them, creating a path for her of dead roots. It is still very dangerous footing, though.

Out of the contrainer, the influence of Autumn is going to be very strong: it's going to slow things down. Autumn is a preparation for decline, but it is also maturity. The vines that reach towards Felicia can't continue to move, not with Autumn there and so close.

"Careful," warns the doctor, but he beckons her over, while he moves around to the side of the cage that Spring is held inside. The cloying wet heat of the room dries out with Autumn present, though Spring still pulses away like an angry passionate heartbeat. "I'll balance them together; right here."

Black Cat has posed:
With sword in hand, Felicia attempts to pick her way through the path offered to her. She winces; at her ribs, the Orb of Autumn is making her skin feel clammy beneath her shirt, as if she were walking through a lingering blanket of early-October mist in a forest. Her palm is equally cool and damp inside her glove. It's easier to breathe now with the rampant vibrancy of Spring kept at bay, but even she, mundane, can sense the opposing forces checking one another like vibrating magnetic polarities.

"Stephen, are you okay?" Who cares about the Orb -- once she's close enough and done hacking through a gargantuan fallen vine, the Cat gives the silver-templed man a concerned, beseeching look. "Hey, let's take a break for a second. It's okay. It looks like they're keeping each other calm." The Orbs, she means. She continues to hold onto the Autumnal Orb, sword kept carefully down alongside her leg.

Loki has posed:
Light eyes move to her, holding her gaze for a long moment, and the Doctor gives one quick nod in answer, terse. He's wearing scratches and injuries, but they seem mild: more that he's just very sweaty: but so would anyone be, in the intense Spring room.

"We can, after we protect your hands," he answers, and, while leaving Spring entrapped, begins to weave a second small net-like circle of magical protection around Autumn, causing it to gently start to lift from her palms, if she doesn't cling to it.

"The one that did this ... could have ruptured the balance of all seasons," he says, matter of fact, with a minute shake of head at the calamity that could have befallen them.

And frum Felicia's phone, there's a view very tight on the windows, as Jeremy is outside of the stained glass, looking in, with a partially cloaked displeasure. A look that someone wears when a plan didn't really work out.

Black Cat has posed:
Letting out a quiet, tired sigh, Felicia extends the Orb out towards Strange even as he weaves his subtle spellworkings. The tip of the sword glances off the church floor and leaves a thin gouge in it without her notice; preternaturally-sharp, this blade.

"My hands are fine," she reassures the Sorcerer even if they are now prickling with discomfort at handling the nuclear-level empowered relic. "I'm glad we stopped him then." Her shoulders slouch and she threads her fingers back through the side of her hair, getting wispies out of her face. "Loki, right?"

Remembering her phone, she pulls it out of her pocket and looks at it. "Hey, Jeremy, it's okay now. We've got it figured out. You're safe," she says down at her phone, as if it were on speaker.

Loki has posed:
Once the orbs are encased in magic, Dr. Strange turns to the enormous mess around them. He settles his shoulders and back, his cloak rejoining him, and spreads his hands apart. Around them, the floor begins to mend, the vines to turn into a shiny magical-like vapor, as he begins to repair the church from the assault that happened inside. Glass windows that were impacted into shards of glass splinter in a tickle of sound as they warp back together, pews making loud sounds as they pull back into position on the stone floor underfoot.

"It is time we go back," Stephen says, in a tired, but focused way. "And while your arrival was well timed, I'd like to know what you were doing here. Jeremy is involved?"

Jeremy's face sinks lower in the window, then out of sight. "He can transport himself," Dr. Strange says, as if there were going to be a very stern talking to in the future of the young mageling. He opens a new portal, and walks to it, bringing the floating orbs in their magical cages along, in front of him, into the portal. Each poof with a slight little blue fuzz.

"I see you found 'world-ender'," he adds to her about the sword. "Not accurately named, but perhaps best kept in the Sanctum in the future."

He'll disappear into the portal with a flash of blue-gold.

"Waiiiiit," hisses Felicia's phone, quiet, spooked.

Black Cat has posed:
The Cat stays very still through the process of reverting the damage done. Her jade-green eyes go wide and her mouth parts to see it all happen. There's reversing a music video on your computer and then there's watching the fragments of bright glass meld together once more within their metal formed framing before your face.

"I mean, you answered your own question there, Copperfield." Felicia gives him a tired smile. "Jeremy." Her smile takes on a sad, knowing note at the Doctor's dismissal of the young apprentice; she figures it as a lack of trust rather than anything else right off the bat.

The name of the sword, however, has her lifting it up before herself and considering it. "I...um...I'll leave it at home next time," she murmurs as she turns to watch him leave.

How...odd. Not once did Stephen reach out to touch her. His trust in the safety of his own hands around her...not once. Her phone crackling makes her jump and she pulls it out again. "What, Jeremy? It's fine. Both Orbs are safe now." She walks towards the portal with a lazy sway of her hips, careful not to let 'world-ender' drag on the stone.

Loki has posed:
On the window, Jeremy writes on the foggy glass: 'NOT STRANGE'. He aims the bowl at it, so she can see his writing really clearly. Then he stares pointedly into the bowl, and then the window, and jabs a finger. His eyes are about as big as the bowl.

Black Cat has posed:
The Sanctum feels like safety as she passes the bounds of the portal and into the brownstone's familiar, spooky stillness once more. Felicia rolls her shoulder once, wincing at the forming of a bruise, and calls out, even as she glances down at her phone again,

"Copperfield? Where are..."

The cat-burglar goes breathlessly still. Color rushes from her face and slowly, she drops to her knees. The sword, left to fall of its own accord, clatters to the floor at her side. Her phone slides out of her grip to bounce off to the other side. Fingers over her lips stops the first sob, but not the second shuddering inhale.

"Oh my god..."

Her heart crumples into a small, tight corner of her chest in abject grieved disappointment.

"...what have I done?" she rasps to the emptiness of the Sanctum.

Loki has posed:
The phone falls, and she misses any judgement or empathy -- or victory -- on the face of Jeremy.

The portal closes behind her, leaving her alone in the hallway of the Sanctum, with a few dead vines and branches.