Part 5 of RIfts Steampunk campaign timeline....enjoy

Ley Line walkers, Juicers, Coalition Troops, Samas, Tolkeen, & The Federation Of Magic. Come together here to discuss all things Rifts®.

Moderators: Immortals, Supreme Beings, Old Ones

User avatar
Emerald MoonSilver
Explorer
Posts: 120
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2019 10:34 pm

Part 5 of RIfts Steampunk campaign timeline....enjoy

Unread post by Emerald MoonSilver »

Here is the fifth part of my timeline, although in all honesty it is more story than timeline. I got carried away again. The frustrated fanfic writer side of me is showing again. :lol: :twisted: :twisted:

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this part as I begin the new one in a couple days. How long that will take to get posted is anyone's guess....


1851:

The three young fox girls under Gwendoline’s care turn 13 this year and like most 13 year olds they are becoming quite full of themselves. This is especially true after Lady Kathryn increases their allowance, which they earned from their investments.

Up until this time the 3 girls were at least a little subtle in their spending. This went out the window this year when the three girls begin to buy a lot of the latest fashions from the Elvin-Centaur Alliance, as well as buying a Dinostang for each of them.

It’s becoming quite obvious that these girls are quite wealthy and this worries, Lady Gwendoline as wealthy orphans tend to attract the wrong sort of people who wish to adopt them.

The one wise investment that the three girls made was the establishment of a new portal in Salem Massachusetts, which is linked to the large portals in Seattle and St. Louis Missouri.

A fourth portal was opened in San Francisco by Lady Kathryn and these portals allow goods to be shipped country wide before the transcontinental railroad is to be built. In the meantime the cities with these portals become rail and shipping hubs.

This year also saw the completion of the first Levi-O’Shea clothing factory in San Francisco. Originally only men’s work pants and jackets made from denim were to be made, but the three fox girls who had invested in the company thought that women’s clothing line would be successful as well, and they were right as the sales figures by the end of the year would show.

Pants, skirts, jackets, and knee-length shorts were produced and were very popular, although many older humans thought the shorts were quite scandalous. There was even a line of pants and shorts for Vixen with premade cutouts for tails.

The miniskirts that the three young fox girls originally saw in the magazines that they found were ruled too short for this time period, by Ms. O’Shea, well at least among the U.S. population. More than a couple young dark elf girls wore them in the Elvin-Centaur alliance.


1852:

The year opened with a near miracle happening in Lady Kathryn’s opinion. Her rather plain looking daughter, Elana, had not only finally found a boyfriend, but he turned out to be the most popular boy in Elana’s school. How this happened is anyone’s guess.

This is not to say that he was a bad lad in anyway. He was handsome and had quite good manners. Not the sharpest tool in the shed though. Many people thought that the lad’s horse was smarter than he was.

Thomas knew the lad, in fact they were quite good friends, which irritated some as they could not figure out why the boy Darin hung out with the school “freak”.

Now Thomas knew early on in their friendship that Darin wasn’t the brightest, but that was his dear mother’s fault. She believed that the poor boy should never face any challenges in life, especially academic problems. This led the poor boy to having the same skills and knowledge of an average 8 year old. This didn’t bother him. What did though is the boy’s family. They used to be quite wealthy, but fell upon hard times. Since then they have been searching for someone to marry the boy off to, and what better candidate than the daughter of one of the richest women in the world.

Yes, Thomas would definitely have to keep an eye on that family to make sure they behave themselves. After all both Darin and Elana were now 16, and it was not uncommon for people of that age to be engaged to each other.

This year also marked the 4 year anniversary of the two teens form the future arriving in Long Barn. They were 15 years old when they arrived and as far as anyone could tell they had not aged a day. This was starting to cause people to talk, especially the red head Jennifer who now had the ability to not only heal wounds, but to regenerate entire limbs from people who lost them. She even restored sight 4 different people, including 2 who had been blind since birth.

Author’s Note:

(In game terms Jennifer has all the abilities of the Amana race, except resurrection, from page 18 of the D-Bees of North Americas Book, with a few super abilities thrown in. I’ll go over both sisters more in detail later on.)


The poor girl had been the target of two separate kidnapping attempts, the second of which involved criminals from Japan of all places wanting to use the girl as breeding stock for future priestesses.

This last group hunted down personally by Lady Gwendoline and vaporized in public as a warning to anyone who would try and harm “her children”.

A message crystal went sent back through the ley lines to Japan to the group responsible for this kidnapping attempt. The message was short and to the point, simply stating, “Your Next”.

The other sister, Tiffany was having a much better year in her opinion. Her strength and toughness had increased to supernatural levels, as shown by her giving Rex a bloody nose when she spared with the Grackle Tooth.

Rather than being angry, Rex was actually quite happy, as it had been a long time since he could spar with another being without holding back.

Later in the year Tiffany would soon discover that she now had the ability to summon a form of crystal armor and ever fire bolts of crystal. This armor also seemed to increase her strength and agility.

(This ability is the matter expulsion, crystal ability from the first powers unlimited book, page 77, for the heroes unlimited game.

As if this was not enough trouble for one year, Gwendoline had yet another problem to deal with. Several newspapers on the east coast regularly talk about the lives of the rich and famous and often the children of those individuals.

Somehow these newspapers had come across information regarding the newly acquired wealth of the three, now teen, fox girls Jessica, Ruth and Abigail. The newspapers had gone as far as to not only publish the girls’ names, but also the fact that they were orphans and where they were presently staying.

Now teenagers are usually a little difficult to place for adoption, this was not the case anymore, and it was causing Gwendoline to become a very cranky “innocent cat girl”.

It had gotten to the point where 2 kobolds were present in the room whenever possible parents showed up to try and adopt the girls. Those who refused to abide by this condition were shown the door so to speak, some with more force than others.

Rex was more than happy to show a few individuals out the door, “Uncle Phil Style”.

Back in San Francisco, Lady Kathryn was also more than a little upset. It was one of her businesses that handled all of the girls’ investments and if one of her employees had talked about the girls, he or she was soon to be a very unhappy individual.

Lady Kathryn knew first hand what it was like to be young, naïve, and taken advantage of by those who were supposed to look after you, and she swore that she would never allow this to happen another young girl if she could anything to prevent it.

Try as she might though she could find no evidence of wrong doing by anyone in her companies. This was a good thing of course, but the question remained, how did these newspapers find out about the girls?

Back at the girls’ school it was decided that it would probably be in the best interest of the three if they were escorted whenever they went out into the town. Although the town was technically probably the safest town for them to wander in, nothing is perfect.

Two of the girls, Jessica and Ruth, agreed to this but they were not happy. The third girl, Abigail outright refused and even snuck out of 3 different occasions. This didn’t surprise anyone as Abigail was turning out to be quite a handful over the past couple months, even going as far as to walk into a couple of the nearby taverns late at night.

After the second time of the school’s chaperones threatened to attach the stubborn girl to a carpet of adhesion if she did not behave herself from now on.

What the girls did not know was besides all of the so-called parents wanting to adopt them, there had also been three attempted kidnappings, which did not even come close to actually getting to the girls. The first two were the work of small time thugs, the third though was troubling.

The third attempt was much more organized and after some investigation it was found to been orchestrated by the local branch of the Church of Divine Providence.

The church had been losing money and worshippers as more and more people became familiar with the various non-human races in America. Whole new generations had been born who have always been around these races. They were not strange or dangerous, they were simply their neighbors.

The leader responsible was giving one chance to admit his role in the kidnapping. He not only refused but made threats against the girls and others.

He and his cohorts soon found themselves the subject of a familiar curse. They were now incapable of lying and were also prone to talking about their past misdeeds. Their downfall was quick, and only furthered the public’s mistrust in their so-called religion.

In another realm entirely, a small yellow ball of light slowly made its way through the cloud covered landscape of the dream realm to a nearby viewing portal. Despite the presence of many of its kind, the glowing orb was quite lonely and wanted to experience life in the mortal plane.

Doing so would allow it to create a physical form. Well at least if someone was willing to act as a partner for it, maybe even a lover. This though caused the yellow ball to turn bright pink and to sigh to itself.

Many of its kind have been to the mortal plane and have returned several times. Now she wanted to experience her first time there. Well the being thought of itself as a she, but her kind had no set gender.

Perhaps she used to be alive. There were rumors amongst her people that they used to be mortal, but if that was true then why are they the way they are now?

Such is the life of a young Dream Wraith, as they had been called by many species over the years.

Looking through the portal she spied a likely candidate for a partner. He wasn’t ideal and more than a couple “issues”, but he seemed kind and caring. Two questions remained though. The first being, how should she begin to communicate with him? The second being, would he ever want to have her as a partner?

What she wanted most of all was a name. She had a feeling that she once had one, but she could not remember it. Maybe if she concentrated hard enough he would choose a good one for her.

Thomas left the O’Shea resistance early one morning. Normally he would leave with Elana, but his dear friend was starting to annoy him as of late. Even though she was now more popular in school, and dating the most popular guy, she still continued to whine about how she was unsatisfied with her life and how no one understood her.

The girl seemed to enjoy creating drama while not realizing how good of a life she actually had. Admittedly both of her parents were absent quite often and it was up to the servants of the house to look after her. The problem in Tomas’s opinion was that Elana was too isolated from society in general. She had never experienced any hardship or difficulties.

This seemed to mirror how his friend Darin was raised but to a higher degree. Maybe he should talk to Ms. O’Shea about Elana, without consulting his parents first. They would have a fit and go into another one of their speeches about boundaries between servants and their employer.

He left the house and grimaced, the morning sun was not pleasant for one with metallic skin. He pulled the custom glasses that Ms. O’Shea had given him out of his pocket. The help cut down the light on his eyes dramatically. He had never even heard of the company that made them, Oakley. Maybe it was some small European manufacturer.

Walking along, Tomas felt his book bag begin to vibrate and what sounded like a small annoyed animal growl and snort from inside.
“Quiet you, I don’t want any problems this morning. So be quiet and don’t move around.” Tomas said to whatever was within his bag.

Coming around a corner, Tomas met up with Darin, who he usually walked to school with, and another new member who had decided to walk with the two friends.

The newcomers name was Shannon O’ Farrell, and she had arrived at Tomas’s school about 3 months ago. She spoke with an accent that seemed to be combination of modern Irish and Elvish. She mainly stayed by herself, not interacting with anyone outside of the classroom. Many thought that she was quite arrogant and looked down on everyone else.

Shannon was a rather pretty young Irish girl of about 15. She carried herself as if she were a member of the nobility back I her native Ireland. She was quite tall for her age, being a little over six feet in height. She looked quite conservative with her long brown hair being pulled into ponytail, with large black glasses framing her face. Her large blue eyes attracted the attention of all who saw them though, as they seemed to almost glow with an inner light.

She always dressed quite demurely, avoided the latest fashions introduced by Ms. O’Shea’s company.

The oddest thing to happen to her during the past week was that she and Tomas were now considered to be couple when they were caught kissing each other. How this came about is a bit of a story.

It had all started about 3 weeks ago. Tomas was just leaving his school late because of his marksmanship class. It was not uncommon for some schools in this time period and later in America to have some sort of marksmanship or hunting club.

As he was leaving he saw something streak by overhead. At first he thought it was just a bird, but most birds do not have a greenish-yellow glow to them. As he continued to watch it he noticed that this “bird” was actually a small pixie or sprite.

Most Fae tended to avoid human schools and any place where a lot amount of humans and other mortals gathered, so to see one here was a bit of a surprise.

Curious as to what the little creature was doing here he followed as it began to descend into one of the school’s small courtyards. He was quite shocked that just before landing the Fae began to grow in size until it reached almost seven feet in height. A Fae this size could only be a noble. What one of them was doing here was anyone’s guess.

His surprise turned to outright shock as the Fae shrunk about a foot in height, with her hair during dark brown and large black glasses appearing on her face.

“Shannon O’Farrell?” Tomas said a little louder than he intended too, causing the girl to face him with first a shocked then a look of panic on her face.

“You saw me?” Shannon said as her lower lip began to quiver and Tomas could only silently nod to her question.

“Please don’t hurt me or tell anyone. I’ll do whatever you want. I don’t mean any harm. I just wanted to see what my father’s people were like.” Shannon said so fast that Tomas was struggling to keep up.

Her thick accent didn’t make things any easier as well.

“I won’t hurt you or do anything to you. Tomas said as he put his gun on the ground.

“I just want to know what is going on. Why is a Fae noble here pretending to be a human?” Tomas said in a quiet voice hoping to calm the poor girl down.

Shannon looked around before motioning the boy to follow her as she made her way to one of the more covered wooded footpaths that were on the school’s grounds.

Sitting down on a somewhat secluded bench Shannon began to tell her story.

“You were half right when you thought that I was a Fae Noble. My mother is a member of Queen Titania’s court. My father is human who happened to find his way to the Fae realm, quite on accident many years ago.” Shannon began.

“I suppose it is a bit of a cliché’, but my father and mother became quite enamored of each other shortly after they met and spent many a day simply walking around the realm, as my mother showed my father all that it had to offer. What she either forgot or did not realize is that time moves differently in the Fae realm and although a few weeks had passed in the realm, almost 200 years had passed on Earth.” Shannon continued.

“My father was a person out of time and because of this he chose to stay with my mother, not aging as long as he remained in the realm. Eventually they began to grow closer and soon a child was born. That child being myself.”
Shannon stated.

“The human realm was changing though, magic was returning and the two realms were growing closer together. Time was also beginning to flow at a similar rate between the two realms. Because of this my father grew curious about his old homeland, so he was brought back to Earth and shown how his homeland had changed by several “Fae Guardian”, they being mortals who were entrusted with knowledge of the two realms including how to pass freely between them.

After a while my father wanted to spend more and more time in the Earth realm. His aging had permanently slowed down due to his time in the queen’s court so staying in one place was difficult at times, so he finally made his way to America where unusual people were less of a curiosity and more of a daily occurrence.” Shannon said.

“At first he visited mother and I weekly, then monthly. Over time he was gone for longer and longer. Mother really didn’t notice, she has other things to distract her, and my other siblings really didn’t care that much. I began to grow lonely.”

“Members part of the royal court are watched closely. The palace grounds are safe, but the Fae realm is vast and the Unseele have kidnapped members of the Royal Court before when they wandered off on their own. Still I wanted to see my father so I decided to leave. It really doesn’t surprise me that no one has been sent to look for me so far.” Shannon sighed.

“Your father approves of this?” Tomas asked.

“I told him that mother sent me to him so that I could gain experience in the mortal realm, and he believed me.” Shannon said.

“Why were you in your natural form out in public during the day? If you want to hide from your mother and not let people know who you are you probably should not be flying around.” Tomas said.

I do not have a choice in the matter in regards to my natural form. Although Fae nobles can keep any shape as long as they want, I am only half Fae. I can only maintain my human form for 8-12 hours depending on how tired I am.” Shannon sighed.

“Now that you know about me will you please keep my secret? I do not really know you, but I’ve heard that you are quite kind, from the other girls in the class.” Shannon said.
“I think it’s a bad idea to keep this from your father, but I won’t say anything. It sounds like you have enough to deal with, I won’t add to it.” Tomas said.

“I can’t do much but do you need anything or can I help you with something.” Shannon asked, while blushing for some reason Tomas noted.

“It’s alright I don’t need any…..oof…” Tomas tried to say but found it difficult with the Shannon’s lips now pressed against his.

“What was that?” Tomas asked, while now also blushing.

“Did I do it wrong? Mother also said that boys like being kissed as a reward. Oh I know I didn’t do it let me try it again.” Shannon said then through her arms around him and kissed again with even more enthusiasm.

Tomas tried to think of something to say, but truth be told he was having trouble thinking period. After all it’s not an everyday occurrence when a cute girl you barely know decides to kiss you. Not that he felt the need to complain.

The two teens continued to “practice” for several minutes not paying attention to their surroundings, which caused to not see a rather well known and annoying student at their school phase out of the shadows and was now pointing an image globe at them while smirking.

“Oh I see two students being naughty.” The girl said out loud, causing Tomas and Shannon to jump apart.

“Damn it’s her.” Tomas said in an annoyed tone of voice.

The girl in question was a young “lady” of about fifteen with long silver hair, pale skin, large red eyes and an overly frilly black and purple silk and lace dress. One other thing which set her apart from most girls was her height. She was no more that a little over 4 feet eight inches
tall. In the future this would be considered the “goth” look.

“What do you want Jezebel?” Tomas said.

“Now you know the answer to that my dear Tomas.” Jezebel said with a smirk on her face that made Tomas want to smack her.

“That girl has a very strange aura for a human.” Shannon thought to herself.

“Well then if you believe that I know, then you know what my answer will be. I do not give money to cheap thugs.” Tomas said as Jezebel scowled at him.

“Now who is this rather unpleasant person?” Shannon asked Tomas.

“Allow me to introduce you to Jezebel, the school spy and personal pet of our sociopathic vice-principal.” Tomas said to Shannon as Jezebel frowned again.

“Such a thing is allowed? I wonder if such a thing is even legal.” Shannon said.

“It’s probably not, but since the principal took a leave of absence, the vice-principal runs the school like her own little kingdom.” Tomas said.

“If you simply follow the rules, we would not have a problem.” Jezebel said in an arrogant tone of voice.

“You mean the rules which seem to change daily? The rules which you enforce without any compassion or understanding? What about poor Jonathon? His so-called father beat the boy so badly that he ended up in a hospital, simply because you could not keep your mouth shut about him being close to someone who wasn’t human.” Tomas almost yelled at Jezebel.

“It sounds to me like the girl’s soul is as black as her dress. You should be ashamed of yourself young lady.”Shannon said.

“Well there is one way to find out.” Tomas said as he pulled a like pink crystal out of his pocket and held it out towards Jezebel.

“Yes as I thought, a definite black streak with some arrogance and….. That’s interesting some sadness as well. Crystal must be defective.” Tomas said.

“You have an aura crystal? How could you afford one of those, they are over 1000 dollars.” Jezebel said with some shock in her voice.

“Oh this little trinket? Lady Kathryn passes these out to some who live with her. It comes in handy.” Tomas said.

“Must be nice having rich friends and never having to worry about having enough to eat, or taking care of two worthless parents who spend all of their time getting drunk while telling you how worthless you are.” Jezebel accidently mumbled out loud.

“Did you mean for use to hear that?” Tomas said as Jezebel first looked shocked, then embarrassed, before finally jumping into the nearest large shadow and disappearing.

“Stupid shadow jumper.” Tomas said in disgust.

“That wasn’t magic. It seemed to be some sort of natural ability, which would explain that girl’s odd aura.” Shannon thought.

“Well it seems we are about to be an “official couple” tomorrow.” Tomas said.

“That doesn’t sound so bad.” Shannon said as she kissed a blushing Tomas on the cheek.

“Just be prepared to be the center of the school’s gossip for a while. People are going to be paying close attention to you. Be careful with your changing forms in public. You said that there are others who might want to harm or kidnap you. I would not want to see anything like that happen.” Tomas said.
“Don’t worry I have a few ‘helpers’ who watch out for me. They will let me know if anything dangerous is about to happen. I am rather curious about little Miss Jezebel. What she mumbled sounding rather disturbing.”, Shannon said to Tomas.

Shannon next gave two sharp whistles, startling Tomas. A few moments later four small sprites popped into view.

“Dew, Ember, Clover, and Spice, I want the four of you to keep watch on the little Shadowling that was just here.” Shannon told the little Fae.

“You want us to punish bad little girl. I know many good “pranks”. Dew said with a frown on her face.

“No, just keep an eye on the girl. I know you can sense her. Just report to me each day about where she goes when she leaves the school.” Shannon said to the sprites.

For the first two days that the sprites followed Jezebel they found her hard to track as the girl seemed to teleport from shadow to shadow instead of walking.

On the third day, the four sprites followed Jezebel as she left the school and eventually made her way to the old docks part of town, which is known as not exactly a nice place to visit or stay.

They managed to follow Jezebel this day because the girl chose to just walk from place to place. She also seemed to be quite run down as if someone just sucked all the energy out of her. She was clearly depressed about something.

Jezebel entered rather run down building and as soon as the door was closed behind her the four sprites began to here yelling from within.

Peering through the window they saw Jezebel cringing against a wall as a middle age women and man were yelling at her.

The sprites were deciding what to do when they saw the man step up to Jezebel and slap her, causing the girl to fall to the ground.

As the man began to strike her again Ember made a slight motion and the man’s feet were suddenly pulled out from under him, causing him to hit the floor face first.

The older woman with him seemed to find this amusing as she pointed at him and began to laugh.

Clover meanwhile decided that Shannon should be notified and teleported away to find her.

The three sprites phased through the walls to get a better view of what was going on and were not very thrilled at the smell that hit them. Both of the older humans smelled like cheap alcohol. It was also quite obvious that neither had bathed in quite a while.

As the man tried to stand he once again found his legs pulled out from under him causing Jezebel to actually giggle. This proved to not be a very wise idea.

The man managed to steady himself and pulled out a small knife threatening the girl.

The three sprites began to panic as he lunged at Jezebel as she managed to get away from the drunken fool.

The older woman was yelling at the man to stop as they needed the money Jezebel brought in from her “activities”.

“Is that all I am to you, a source of money? What kind of mother would say such a thing?” Jessica said as she turned towards the woman.

By being distracted by her so-called mother allowed the man to barely graze Jezebel’s cheek with his knife, causing a transformation in the poor abused girl.

Dark shadows seem to spring forth from Jezebel and a feeling of dread started to flood the room.

“Oh this not good, girl’s aura turn almost all black. This is going to be very messy.”Ember said while now full out panicking.

Two bolts of dark energy flew out from Jezebel striking both the man and woman, knocking them both to the ground. A large black hand composed to dark energy then appeared and picked the man up by and began to fling him around like an oversized rag doll.

“You think I’m worthless? You think I’m yours to abuse as you see fit? Perhaps it’s time I show you what I think of the both of you.” Jezebel said as black lightning began to crackle around her.

“This is much worse than not good!” Dew said to Ember as shadow like lightning began to arc around the room and the sprites were forced to constantly dodge in order to not be hit.

Before things could get even worse the door to the home suddenly flew off its hinges with a loud bang as it flew across the room and “unfortunately” hit Jezebel’s father. The collision caused him to break free of the hand, which was a good thing in his opinion. What wasn’t so good was that he was now squished between the door and the far wall.

The distraction also caused the lightning arcing out from Jezebel to cease, which the sprites were quite relieved to find out.

“Well that was a tad violent don’t you think?” Jezebel heard a haughty and familiar female voice say from outside.

“Well it worked didn’t it?” said an equally familiar male voice from outside.

Soon thereafter Jezebel saw Shannon and Tomas step into the room.

“What are you doing here?” a confused Jezebel said to the other two teens.

“Would you believe we came here to rescue you.” Tomas said as he looked around the half destroyed room and the three sprites now collapsed on the ground breathing heavily.
“What?.......Rescue?......How did you even know where I was?” Jezebel asked.

“They told us.” Tomas said as he pointed out to the very tired sprites on the floor.

“You have sprites working for you?” a confused Jezebel asked.

“In a manner of speaking.” Shannon replied.

“Uh huh, it’s our job to look after the pri….I mean Lady Shannon.” A flustered sprite replied.

“After what we heard you say earlier we were worried about you and I asked Shannon to ask her friends to look out for you to see if you were alright.

“You were worried about me?” Jezebel said while sounding both confused and a little pleased by this.

Truth be told, Tomas did have more than a little sympathy for Jezebel. Her large red eyes and silver hair made her the second most “weird looking” person in school after himself, and she was teased for it quite often. Not that this was an excuse for her behavior, but it did explain it to a small part.

“As if anyone would care what happens to you. The boy probably just wants to get under your skirts. Not that I could blame him. If you weren’t my daughter I would tempted myself to…..” Jezebel’s so called father tried to say but was interrupted by Shannon back handing him back into the wall again.

“Disgusting creature” Shannon said.

“Now who’s being violent?” Tomas said with a smirk on his face.

“He deserved it.” Shannon said in a petulant tone of voice.

It was about this time that Jezebel’s mother finally found her voice.

“What are you people doing in my home? Get out before I get the police!” Jezebel’s mother said.

“I agree let’s get them, I’m sure they would be very interested in house your getting your daughter to steal and intimidate others for you. I’m sure they would be thrilled to hear what you had to say.” Tomas said.

“The girl is lucky we let something like her stay with us.” Jezebel’s mother said with a sneer.

“Will you all just stop it already!” Jezebel shouted to everyone before turning a furious look to Tomas who seemed surprised by her attitude.

“Do you think your actually helping me? You are only making things worse.” Jezebel yelled at Tomas.

“Do you like being with these “people”? Shannon said.

“Of course I don’t but what choice do I have? If it weren’t for them I would be out on the street. Do you know what happen to your girls who are alone on the streets at night?” Jezebel said as tears began to fall from her eyes.

“I know a few people who can help.” Tomas said as he walked up to Jezebel and hugged the sobbing girl.

Much to his surprise she did not resist, but started to cry on his shoulder.

“Why would you even care about me?” Jezebel said between sobs.

“I guess that’s just the way I am. I even care about those who have been a major pain in the butt until now.” Tomas said as Jezebel stepped back and starred the boy while looking deep into his eyes.

“You are actually telling the truth, but who else would want to help me?” Jezebel said.

“If you leave this house, you won’t be coming back!” Jezebel’s mother said.

“Not much of a loss, if you ask me. If worse comes to worse, I can take you back to see my mother. She always had a soft spot for girls in need. Of course if that happened I might not be able to stay here anymore.” Shannon thought the last part to herself.

“I will take her back to Lady Kathryn’s estate first before you need to do that. I think I can convince her to let Jezebel stay in one of the guest houses.”

“That’s one option anyway. The other is to introduce her to Sister Mary at her boarding school.” Tomas said as he gently squeezed Jezebel’s hand as she looked at him in confusion as to who this “sister” was.

“Sister Mary is a rather well-known figure in San Francisco. She runs a boarding school for children with special abilities. She is also Luna’s high priest for all of California. I can guarantee no one will make fun of you there, nor will they make you commit crimes for them.” Tomas said as he glared at Jezebel’s mother and unconscious father.

“It would take a couple days to arrange things, but until then you can stay at Lady Kathryn’s as I said.” Tomas stated.

“I’ll go get my things, it won’t take long.” Jezebel said in a sad but determined voice.

Jezebel returned shortly with one small suitcase and one very large steamer trunk which she was dragging on the ground the best she could.

“Allow me.” Shannon said as the trunk began to levitate off the ground and follow Jezebel as she moved around the room.

“Nice trick.” Tomas said.

“I have many skills.” Shannon said with a smile on her face.

“What’s in the trunk?” Tomas asked.

“Costumes I had to use for various occasions.” Jezebel said.

“I didn’t say you could have that.” Jezebel’s mother said as she moved towards the trunk, which shocked her as she touched it.

“Now, now, it’s not nice to take things that don’t belong to you.” Shannon said in a chastising voice.

“I paid for them and I’m taking them with me.” Jezebel said.

The three teens soon left, with Jezebel’s mother yelling and swearing at them as they walked away.

“Do you think your parents will try to cause you any trouble?” Tomas asked Jezebel.

“I know they will. It depends on how long and how soon they can get sober.”Jezebel said.

“Maybe I should have ‘fire balled’ both of them.” Shannon said as she looked back towards the house.

“I think that would a bit of overkill.” Tomas said

“And people say I’m scary.” Jezebel said as she looked at Shannon.

As they made their way out of the “scenic” part of town where Jezebel lived several of the areas more colorful looking residents were eyeing the floating chest as something they could steal.
A small lightning bolt at the foot of anyone who got to close told everyone that would be a very bad idea. Well that and the death glare they received from Shannon.

On their way back to Lady O’Shea’s Tomas made them stop near the Levi-O’Shea factory and went to talk to one of the guards there.
He returned in a few minutes with a smirk on his face.

“What were you talking to them about?” Shannon said.

“Oh I was talking care of a couple problems that needed to be dealt with. Nothing too big.” Tomas said with a grin.

Continuing to walk, Tomas noticed that Jezebel was very quiet and almost meek. This was quite a difference from her reputation as the “‘Tiny Terror” of their school.

A little while later a strange sound was heard and Tomas noticed that it came from Jezebel. When the sound occurred again Tomas realized that it was the girl’s stomach rumbling. For her part Jezebel was now blushing quite as bit.

“Are you alright?” Tomas asked Jezebel.

“If I use my abilities a lot I get hungry and we seldom have a lot of food around the house. I’m supposed to get food from others according to my mother. Most of the money I get goes back to them to spend on my more cheap alcohol.” Jezebel said reluctantly.

This was an entirely new concept to Shannon. No one ever went hungry in the fairy court. If anything there was too much food. Fat Fae were becoming more common now that they had access to the mortal realm.

Now that he thought about it there were some students at his school that seemed to be a bit on the thin and never seemed to eat that much.

The school provided from books and tuition thanks to Lady Kathryn but food was offered because the school was a boarding school. Thomas thought that perhaps he should talk to Lady Kathryn about that. No child should ever have to go hungry.

First things first though. Tomas decided that another detour was in order and he led the other two teens to the closest “We Has Da Meats”. One of those sandwiches could easily feed three teens, even a very hungry super powered one like Jezebel.

As they entered the shop and smell of the food hit Jezebel her stomach took this opportunity to “growl” three times louder than before attracting the attention of the Grackle Tooth behind the front counter.

Looking down at the tiny and frail looking little human girl the clerk and later the owner decided that she could get her meal from free. They ever threw in a “light snack” version of their sandwiches for later. The “snack” being more than enough food for two meals, for the average human that is.

Approaching the area where Tomas lived Jezebel began to grow nervous again. This was not due to the dangers that existed in her area, but do to the area being nicer than anything she had seen so far in this city. She had heard of this area but to see it first hand was something else.

The streets were all smooth concrete or other natural stone, having been created by warlock controlled earth elementals and even the smallest home here seemed to have elaborate gardens. Jezebel could swear she even saw sprites and other Fae in them.

The streets even had gaslights or in some cases large magic light crystals on tall poles throughout the area. It was almost like being in a different world to the poor girl.

Jezebel saw large walled home with names like Astor, Vanderbilt, and Rothchild on names outside the gates.

“There is one thing that I am curious about Jezebel.” Tomas said.

“What is that?” Jezebel said.

“Well you found Shannon and me together a couple days ago, but you never said anything like you said you were going to. Why is that?” Tomas said.

“Because I am tired of having people hate. I am tired of using people to support my worthless parents, and most of all I’m tired of being all alone. I’ve looked like this my entire life and the only time my parents seemed to think that I looked fine was when I first started to develop and they joked that some men like unusual girls and that they might be interested in me.” Jezebel said to a horrified Tomas.

“I was only 12 at the time they said this. Do you know how confusing that was to me? I didn’t understand yet why my body was changing faster that other girls or why some men looked at me “funny”. I only knew that my parents little “joke” made me feel dirty as if there was something wrong with me.” Jezebel said as tears began to fall.

“I take back what I said about fire balling your parents, that’s too quick. I need something slower and more painful.“ Shannon said as she hugged the smaller girl.

“You are never going back there again. I am sure Lady Kathryn will not have a problem with you staying for a while. She is very protective of those who are being abused and your parents are definitely abusive.” Tomas said.

“But what if she still doesn’t want to help me?” Jezebel asked.

“Well then I’ll just have to try harder to convince her.” Tomas said as Jezebel wondered why someone who barely knows her wants to help her out. No one else has ever done anything for her.

It did give her a rather pleasant feeling though as well as a little hope. Maybe she finally found someone who didn’t think of her as a ‘thing’ or someone to exploit for their own good.

Always the knight ready to help a damsel in distress.” Shannon thought in amusement.

They arrived at Lady Kathryn’s estate a little bit later with Jezebel now holding Tomas by the arm as if she were being escorted to a formal ball.

“I believe I might have some new competition for his affections. This could make life more interesting. I wonder how many relationships in the human realm are like this?” Shannon thought.

Approaching the gates to the O’Shea home Jezebel was surprised that it did not seem to be as large as a couple of the other homes that she had seen. The home and grounds were not exactly small but she thought that a home belonging to who many called the richest woman in the world, would be a little larger.

What set the home apart from the others though was the shear amount of magic that seemed to emanate from it. Jezebel, like a lot of people these days could cast a couple of cantrips that she had managed to learn, but even to her limited senses the house practically screamed that a very powerful mage or mages lived here.

Authors Note: I’ll be going over this later, but due to the rapid magic increase in 1800 the average person could now easily learn basic magic spells called cantrips. It required minimal training and some can even learn a couple spells without any formal training.

Approaching the gate Jezebel stopped in her tracks as a face on top of the gate actually spoke.

“Halt who approaches these hallowed halls?” the gate said.

“Santa Clause, now open the gate Chauncey, I’m not in the mood.” Tomas said.

“What’s the password?” the gate said.

“(Censored)” replied Tomas.

“Such language, wait until I tell Lady O’Shea of your behavior.” the gate said as it opened to admit them.

Tomas opened the front door to the mansion and followed the two girls as they entered. This was the first time Shannon was here as well as Jezebel of course.

Tomas only hoped his mother didn’t cause a scene about him arriving with two girls. God’s know she had been trying to find him a suitable future wife for quite awhile much to the poor boy’s displeasure.

Upon entering Jezebel noticed three people in the entry hall. One was a rather large bald man wearing some sort of old fashioned plate armor. He was talking in a thick accent and even more unusual, there was a small hamster sitting on his shoulder.
The second person was a tall female elf that had almost jet black skin and long silver hair. She wasn’t a dark elf, but some other type she had never seen before. She wore an elaborate purple gown that was studded with jewels. She seemed quite uncomfortable in it, as if she was not used to wearing such an outfit.

The third person Jezebel was quite plain in comparison. She was human with shoulder length blond hair, green eyes and flawless skin. She appeared to be not older than her early twenties.

This was Lady O’Shea. Jezebel had seen pictures of her in the newspaper several times. She was dressed quite plainly, wearing denim pants and an oversized man’s work shirt. Her otherwise flawless skin was smudged with some grease on her left cheek.

As Tomas was about to greet them a portal opened up and the two guests left through it. Too bad Tomas always like what Boo the hamster had to say.

With her two guests gone, Lady Kathryn turned to Tomas and grinned mischievously at him.

Lady Kathryn was quite surprised to see Tomas return home with not one but two girls. One of the girls was a tall brown haired girl who looked quite familiar to her somehow. She was quite pretty but seemed normal except for the large amount of mana the girl seemed to possess.

The other girl was a sight to behold. With her silver hair and large red eyes, Lady Kathryn briefly wondered if the girl was human or not before quickly looking at her aura. Her aura also showed how scared and depressed the girl was at the moment. The girl’s small stature also gave her the appearance of a scared child almost.

Without thinking, Lady Kathryn kneeled down in front of the girl and pulled her into a hug while saying, “I do not know what harm has befallen you young one, but you have nothing to fear here.”

Jezebel was stunned, here was a person who was considered one of the wealthiest women in the world holding her and speaking to her like a mother talking to her child, or so Jezebel guessed.

Jezebel’s real mother never spoke to her in such a soft and comforting fashion.

Lady Jezebel led the three young people into her study. It was obvious that they wanted to discuss something important with her and that was best done away from the entry hall.

Lady Kathryn found herself growing more and more irritated as the three teens told her why they were there. She imagined doing several rather nasty, if not permanent things to Jezebel’s parents but decided against it. No need to attract too much attention when there was a much simpler way of dealing with the problem.

Since the two parents in question seemed to be nothing more than two bit thugs it wouldn’t take too much effort for them to give up Jezebel. It would be a very minor loss of funds for Lady Kathryn at best. Oh well a short term loss for long term gains.

Contacting Sister Mary was next on the agenda which should not pose much of a problem. Kathryn and others help support the taking care of the children. Hopefully everything could be finalized in only a couple of days.

After their little meeting Shannon was taken home by carriage and Tomas began to show Jezebel around the mansion’s grounds before showing her the guest house.

Meanwhile an anonymous agent was sent to Jezebel’s house wherein they offered the two parents a sum of 2000 dollars for them to place the girl up for adoption. The agent was quite surprised that they agreed so quickly. He assumed that some negotiation would take place. Why some parents would give up their child for such a small sum, or any sum come to think of it made the agent feel a bit sick.

Back at the mansion Tomas was beginning to show Jezebel around the grounds. They had no knowledge, of the deal with Jezebel’s parents, yet, so the poor girl was still worried that she would have to go back after her stay here was done.

Tomas was escorted Jezebel around arm in arm with her head occasionally leaning against his shoulder. Tomas thought it was because the girl was tired and more than a little stressed.

Jezebel on the other hand was doing so because it was nice to just be near another person who did not want something from her or just to hit her because she was a “disappointment” according to her parents.

As they moved around the back yard, Jezebel was amazed at what she saw. The grounds were filled with flowers and trees from around the world and even a few Jezebel thought may come from another world. She had heard that some rich people buy things brought in from other worlds.

She saw many types of Fae, and the whole area was lit not only by gaslights, but by floating mage globes that seemed to change color every couple of minutes. She was sure that she even spied a unicorn, or it could just be her imagination.

The oddest thing though, was that the grounds seemed to be far bigger than the estate appeared from the outside. This must be some sort of illusion. Either that or this estate was even stranger than she previously thought.

A little distance away was a hot spring that was occupied by a beautiful young woman with long green hair, who appeared to be quite drunk.
As the two teens approached the woman greeted them and started to rise up out of the hot spring. It was at this point that Jezebel realized that the drunk woman was also quite naked, and that Tomas seemed rather annoyed all of a sudden.

“Oh not again.” Tomas said as he began to rub his temples.

Looking over the two teens the woman said in a thick Scottish accent, “Tomas my boy…..and guest, how are ye this fine evening?”

“Lady Emerald why are you here, I heard you were staying with Lady Gwendoline?” Tomas asked.

“Ah Gweeny is not being very fun as of late. All she talks about is looking after her students and improving her town. We haven’t gone adventuring together in a long time.” Lady Emerald pouted.

“Tomas, you know this…..person?” Jezebel asked.

“Jezebel let me introduce to you Lady Emerald Moonsilver, elder dragon of the west, and far too frequent drunken pest…. I mean guest.” Tomas said.

That got Jezebel’s attention. Lady Emerald was rumored to be one of the strongest dragons on Earth and was known to be responsible for slaying over 7000 soldiers in Japan, when they attacked her without provocation, as she was exploring the country with her two children.

“No need to be mean” the now pouting elder dragon said.

“Shouldn’t you then be looking after your two hatchlings?” Tomas said.

“They don’t want to be seen around their poor mother anymore” Emerald wailed quite loudly.

“Who is making such a damnable racket?” Lady Kathryn said as she approached the source of a quite annoying sound.

“I should have known. Stop bothering the young ones you drunken disgrace” Lady Kathryn said.

“I am not a disgrace.” Emerald said.

“I have no time for your foolishness. You are coming with me.” Lady Kathryn said as she grabbed Emerald by one of her pointed ears.

“Ow! Ow! Dragon abuse” Emerald yelled as she and Lady Kathryn went back into the main house.

“Is life around this house always like this?” Jezebel asked.

“Actually today is rather quiet. No nymphs or kobolds running around causing trouble. No insecure magical challengers wanting to fight Lady Kathryn. And best of all, my mother hasn’t trying to arrange any possible brides for me as of late. This may change if she actually meets Shannon though.” Tomas said.

As they continued to tour the grounds Tomas confirmed Jezebel’s suspicion that the grounds are indeed bigger on the inside than the outer wall seems to show on the surrounding streets.

Jezebel was beginning to relax to the point that she even began to make jokes including one where she hinted that maybe she and Tomas should sneak off to be alone at the hot spring later, clothing optional of course.

Much to her surprise, Tomas joked back and said he could only do that if Shannon joined them as well. Perhaps he wasn’t as serious and stuffy as Jezebel originally thought.

They eventually arrived at the guest house, which resembled a smaller version of the main mansion complete with servants who would take care of anything Jezebel needed.

Jezebel did have one small request of Tomas as he was about to leave her for the night. Being alone in such a big house made the girl a little nervous, and she wanted Tomas to stay be her side until she fell asleep.

He agreed and ever kissed the girl on the forehead after she fell asleep causing her to giggle in her sleep.

“The poor boys at the boarding school won’t know what hit them if Jezebel remains acts as sweet towards them as she was tonight.” Tomas thought as he left the guest house.

Jezebel stayed at the estate for 3days and the visit went mostly without trouble. A nymph tried to seduce Jezebel and had to be thrown back into a portal by one of the staff and Elana wasn’t too happy about Jezebel being there going so far to avoid being in the same room with the girl.

This was understandable considering how Jezebel acted up until now but Lady Kathryn still did not like to see her house guests treated poorly and two separate “discussions” were held in private between Elana and her mother.

When it came time to leave Tomas and Shannon rode with Jezebel to her new school and saw her off as she walked into the school with one of the teachers. It was supposed to be a while until they saw Jezebel again, as Sister Mary liked the new students to get accustomed to the school before they are allowed out on the town. With her powers though, Jezebel still managed to sneak out now and again to the local “We Has Da Meats”, as the girl seemed addicted to them.

With Jezebel gone the next 3 weeks seemed to fly by for Tomas. He and Shannon continued to date and began to spend a lot of time at her house, which led to Lady Kathryn beginning to tease the boy about when his wedding was taking place.
This leads us up to the present day with Tomas and his two friends walking to school, with an immature and somewhat annoyed glowing ball of light in his book bag. Said ball of light was behaving itself for now but had plans of her own about her future partner and the “candidates” she was sorting through for him.
Post Reply

Return to “Rifts®”