Also, there is a short story (by Jenna) that goes along with this episode. It will appear in an accompanying mail. Read it now (for foreshadowing purposes) or wait until the appropriate moment in the session (which I will point out), your choice. Pete and I, the actual players, both read it beforehand, and it was quite effective.

And now, the summary:

Around this time, Jasmine took on a personal project: surveillance of the Bryce family, and especially Chadwick's younger brother Jimmy. After the police showed up, the Bryce parents confessed their lifelong suspicions about their older son (whom they believed might even have murdered his infant sister), and how they had kept him attending boarding schools his entire life to protect themselves and Jimmy, thereby inadvertantly inflicting a heartless monster on the rest of the world. Hearing that his brother had actually killed someone, and seeing the change in his parents, Jimmy came forward with the letters and photos he'd received from Chadwick (none of them as sick as the stuff in Bryce's briefcase, fortunately), and seemed clear of any danger of following down his brother's sociopathic road. Having recently been impressed by the older Virtuals' practice of Appearing Omniscient and Omnipotent, Jasmine tried the Tooth Fairy trick, magickally leaving a note under Jimmy's pillow. After re-introducing herself and asking if she might visit when things were quieter (smart kids of her and Jimmy's age group being rare), she told him that he could contact her by leaving notes of his own in the same place.

Meanwhile, Ivan and Tyler were teaching themselves to ride the motorcycle the team had acquired, putting Ivan's ability to absorb knowledge from the collective unconscious to good use. Ivan also decided that the group needed a place of its own to meet on campus. The new U-Stor-It was nice, but fairly distant, cramped, and lacking in amenities. He settled on the boathouse. Of course, that was *everyone's* secret meeting place and makeout spot; how could the group possibly secure it for themselves? Ivan thought he knew how: make the place appear haunted in the wake of the Jacobs murder. While he didn't have Courtney's ghost to hand, he did know of a real ghost that might be persuaded to help -- Tyler's Aunt Shannon. Reluctant at first to take on the stereotypical attributes of her kind, the child-ghost finally agreed when Ivan promised to turn his magickal talents toward making the boathouse a safe and easy place for Shannon to manifest.

That same week, Ivan continued to ponder the mystery of who had been behind the Night of Raging Lust. His spirit sight had shown him strange sparkles in the air the last time the effect had occurred, but there was no obvious focus for the occurrence. His books on magickal correspondences assigned no significance to the date or timing of the affair. There had so far been only one major "outbreak" and a few minor incidents, giving him no way to establish a pattern.

Finally it occurred to him that he should try to find out just who had been affected. But how to ask *that* question? Scarily enough, it occurred to him that the only person he might be able to get an answer out of without being beaten up was his roommate, Simon. As always, Simon was reading a book in their room. He had been in the commons building when the lust started spreading; he confirmed that he had noticed strange things that day, and had felt funny himself, but had simply returned to the room and read a book. That told Ivan that the effect had reached beyond the cafeteria -- and that Simon was possibly even more of a complete spasmoid loser than he had previously thought -- but didn't help much. Then he thought to ask Simon if the local ghost population had done anything odd that day. Turned out they had all *fled* before anything happened, which was why Simon had been out in public in the first place. A talk with Shannon confirmed that the local Restless had sensed something Bad on its way, and had made themselves scarce.

Ivan began to suspect Infernal involvement. He sent Jasmine (of all people) to the high school side of the lake to see if those students had been affected; she visited a computer lab, helped an older kid with his homework, and learned that they had, but in much smaller numbers. Meanwhile, Ivan himself visited the library. He had realized that there was probably a dry, long-winded history of the school written by somecrusty old faculty member. If anything like the Night of Raging Lust had ever happened before, the scandal might just be reported in its pages. After hours of mind-numbing reading, he came upon a promising passage. Discussing an incident in the early part of the century, the author reported that much talk had been roused by the shocking number of illicit liaisons during and immediately after the visit of a particularly infamous guest speaker to the Academy.

The speaker? Aleister Crowley.

Ivan began to wonder just how far up the wickedness scale *patricide* would push him.

Racing to the U-Stor-It, Ivan got on the motorcycle and sped recklessly into the city, practically kicking down the door and summoning his father in a voice that brooked no disagreement. Crowley, calm and vaguely amused as ever, consented to this obviously all-important chat. Ivan laid out the situation, explaining that he'd nearly lost his girlfriend and had to kill a close friend because of the incident, and strongly suggesting that Crowley tell him WHAT THE HELL HAD HAPPENED. The old magus patiently explained that he bore no *direct* responsibility for either incident . . . but he did know who *was* responsible. At the time of his visit decades before, he had been keeping company with a lower-echelon demoness by the name of Charissa, who delighted in forcing the repressed impulses of mortals into the light. She had gone off on her own shortly after the earlier incident, and Crowley had lost track of her; it appeared, though, that she was still at Huntington, and had probably been aroused (groan) to activity again by the appearance at the school of Crowley's son. Not to worry, though; Charissa could be made to leave simply by telling her, to her face, to go away. The problem would be finding her. While she would need a physical form to affect the corporeal world so strongly, she was a possessing spirit and could therefore be anyone at the school.

Armed with this knowledge, Ivan returned to school and shared the information with his friends. A plan was needed, and Ivan thought he had one. He proposed acquiring massive quantities of holy water, a couple dozen Super Soakers, and two sets of team insignia (purple and green, of course). The resulting water-gun warfare just might identify the demon . . . and it would *certainly* allow Ivan and Tyler to see a bunch of girls in wet clothing. Jasmine proposed adding a "bait" element to insure the demon's presence, whereupon Tyler remembered that there was to be a dance at the end of the week -- an event planned by the administration to take everyone's minds off the recent horrors and reduce the local tension level to somewhere below the stratosphere. In such an environment, a lot of people would probably be pairing off to release their frustrations anyway; the demon probably would not be able to resist helping things along a little. Ivan proposed adding some "helpful" drug -- perhaps even Viagra -- to the punch, but was persuaded that would leave the demon with little to do. (He nevertheless made a note to acquire some Viagra for future pranks.) Jasmine asked if Ivan could get hold of a drug with the *reverse* effect -- a sexual response inhibitor of some sort -- that *they* could take to avoid distraction while watching for the demon. The boys were well and truly horrified at the very suggestion of such a thing, though Ivan allowed that he could probably get hold of a quantity of saltpeter. There then commenced a hilarious exchange in which each boy strove to insure that he would not be the only one taking the stuff.

"I'm not taking it unless *he* takes it!"

"Well, *I'm* not taking it unless *he* takes it!"

"OK, so we'll both take it. How long does it last?"

"Two weeks."

"What!?!? No *way* I'm taking it!"

"Well then, there's no way *I'm* taking it!"

etc., etc., etc.

Jasmine finally broke that up by pointing out that neither of the two had really been seeing great *use* for his sexual response lately -- at which point the boys stopped fighting and agreed that they should work together to Make Jasmine Suffer As No Little Girl Has Ever Suffered.

But first there was a demon to be caught. The group finally decided that they could rely upon mental shields to dampen the lust effect. Holy water was still part of the plan, but it would come from the building's sprinkler system. Of course, for that they needed some kind of religious officiary who would agree to perform such a blessing with no questions asked. After some discussion, they settled on Mia Walters, Jasmine's quasi-mother (the kung fu mistress). When called, Mia performed the required ceremony, though not exactly with no questions asked. With some work, the kids were able to reassure her that they could handle the situation, and would certainly call for backup if it turned out they couldn't.

And so the night of the dance came. Everyone showed up nicely dressed and began pairing off appropriately. Ivan had apparently decided that, lust demon or no, he was going to get lucky that night, and so exercised all his charms upon Melanie while they danced. Tyler, being single for the moment, quickly accumulated a miniature harem of giggling female hangers-on. Simon showed up, apparently having decided to work on his social skills, and asked Jasmine to dance (as a "practice girl," Simon not yet being prepared to talk to "real" girls his own age).

Things went on like that for awhile, and then everyone began to feel a telltale Warm Tingly Feeling. Ivan, playing a hunch, kept a close eye on Kelsey, the randomly-chosen girl he'd slept with on the Night of Raging Lust. (Now suspecting that the demon's initial interest had been in *him*, he began to fear that the choice had not been so random after all.) He signaled Jasmine to cut the power, and then magickally concentrated all the body heat in the room on the sensor for the sprinkler system. So it got dark, and it got cold, and everyone got doused. Ivan noticed Kelsey flinching away, and yelled at Tyler to stop her. Ditching the harem, Tyler did so, and Ivan quickly ordered the demon to depart and never return. That done, everyone filed out onto the lawn to continue the dance. The unexpected occurrence actually seemed to have broken the tension and lifted everyone's spirits. Ivan's spirits didn't stay raised for long, though; when he attempted to use the occasion to press his attentions upon Melanie, she demurred and headed for bed early. Perhaps taking a lesson from the last time, Ivan did *not* seek out a randomly chosen girl to take her place. Instead, cursing conventional morality and organized religion even more than usual, he too retired.

The rest of the week passed without notable incident. Then, one week after the deaths of Courtney Jacobs and Chadwick Bryce, Tyler finally got the call he'd been waiting for. His father and stepfather had successfully captured Julia Dornfeld, his grandfather's top henchwoman, and his mother suspected that the old man would move against them in a matter of days. Tyler was being pulled in to await that confrontation. He walked across the hall and told Ivan, who wished him luck. He found Jasmine sitting out in the yard; she was floored by the news, but made sure he had everything he needed for the trip and gave him a farewell hug. Then, asking Jasmine to stay outside for a few minutes, Tyler headed into the girls' dorm to complete his business with Melanie.

[This would be where the accompanying story comes in. If you haven't read it already, do so now. Then return here and continue.]

After Tyler left, Jasmine returned to her room in a largely zombie-like state, and was surprised to find her roommate crying on her bed. When Mel asked where in the world Tyler had gone, Jasmine took in the note in her hand and the necklace she was wearing, and surmised that Tyler had told Mel of his true feelings for her. That was only confirmed when Mel handed Jasmine the smaller note that had come with the necklace; the whole business about not being a diamond girl had been the same thing said by Tyler's stepfather, Mikhail, to Tyler's mom, Ryan, when he had presented her with a ruby engagement ring.

It was about then that Mel started asking the really difficult questions, the ones that couldn't be answered fully without a lot of explaining that Jasmine wasn't really up to providing. Was Tyler going to kill himself? (No, not strictly speaking.) Where was he going? (Home.) What did he mean about possibly not coming back? (That he might not come back. Ever.) Jasmine finally asked to be left alone for awhile, and said she would try to explain things later. Mel allowed that she obviously needed to have a talk with Ivan, anyway, and left to do just that. After she left, Jasmine finally started crying, and didn't stop for a very long time.

When Mel showed up at his door, having obviously been crying and insisting that she needed to talk to him, Ivan figured she was about to break up with him. Turned out it wasn't going to be that easy for him. She invited him out riding, and after saying nothing for a long while, finally came right out and asked him how serious he was about their relationship. What with Tyler's recent departure, Ivan figured out the score pretty quickly, and realized that he was really going to have to start Explaining Things if he and Mel were going to stay together. Putting her off for the moment, he asked her to meet him at the boathouse later that night, after which she would either understand him a lot better or run screaming into the nightand never want to see him again. Dropping the subject for the moment, the two then went to get ice cream.

Some time later, Mel and Ivan made their way to the boathouse, where Ivan was to deliver on his promised enlightenment. Part of the building was open to the lake, so that boats could come in and dock. Ivan walked over there, concentrated for a moment, and stepped out onto the water. Then he held out his hand and gestured for Mel to join him. With some trepidation, she did. After waiting a few moments to let the experience sink in, Ivan led Mel back onto solid ground. Naturally, she immediately began asking for an explanation. He offered one, using something he had once said to her about most people being sheep in a pen. Some people, like Ivan, were not constrained by the corral, and could see the outside world for what it was. That let them break the rules on a number of different levels. Of course, there were those out there with a vested interest in keeping the rules intact, and so the magic-workers had to keep a low profile. Mel began to suspect, and Ivan confirmed, that Tyler and Jasmine were also among those rule-breakers. Ivan then called in Jasmine (waking her from a fitful sleep, and shocking Mel again when Jasmine appeared from thin air in front of them) to help with the explanations.

So Mel learned the basics about the world mages live in, with her instructors making heavy use of _The Matrix_ as an analogy. Most people, they explained, spend their lives Asleep, until something Wakes them. Sometimes, as in Tyler's case, it's a sudden trauma. Other times, as in Ivan's case, a lifetime of study and immersion in hedge magic culminates in a moment of enlightenment. And a few people, like Jasmine, are born Awake. They continued: Depending on how a person comes to Awaken, he or she will employ different metaphors and props in magickal practice. Ivan is a Hermetic, a traditionalist, complete with musty books and spooky incantations. Jasmine's a Virtual Adept, a technomage, who manipulatesreality through mathematical models and computer simulations. And Tyler .. . Tyler's a Euthanatos. They kill bad people, hoping that they'll reincarnate with better chances to be good.

That, of course, led to the whole issue of where Tyler had gone and why he might not come back. And so Mel learned about the Nephandi, of which Ryan Elliot Sr. was one, and that his daughter and grandson intended to kill him very soon, if they didn't die themselves in the attempt. Mel didn't seem to like that much, and liked it even less when she deduced -- and the other two confirmed -- that Tyler had killed Chadwick Bryce the week before.

Mel next asked what *else* existed out there in this spooky, magickal world. Ivan confirmed ghosts and vampires; Jasmine added faeries and werewolves. On the theological end of things, Ivan confessed to having summoned demons before -- a revelation Mel didn't much like, though she was somewhat mollified when told that the same knowledge could be used to imprison or banish them. Ivan had never encountered an angel, though he supposed they might exist; he wasn't sure if he'd ever want to meet one,though.

So far, through all the esoterica, nothing had actually been said that bore directly on Mel's original dilemma: Which boy did she want to be with, Tyler or Ivan? She'd found out that both led much more complicated and darker lives than she'd previously known, but she'd heard nothing about Ivan's real feelings on the matter. Eventually, though -- and perhaps not entirely intentionally -- Ivan let slip that the reason he hadn't already gotten himself thrown out of Huntington as he had at every previous school was that he'd fallen in love with Melanie. Afterward, realizing what he'd said, he seemed somewhat petulant at having been caught saying it, but insisted that he really did mean it.

Finally, having quite enough to think about for one night, Mel retired to her room to ponder. After she fell asleep, Jasmine came in (having stayed away to give Mel time to be alone) and got on her computer to see if there was any news from Tyler. He was online himself, having been unable to sleep. They chatted for a bit, Jasmine pondering whether or not to tell Tyler about the recent events. Finally, she gave him the choice. When told it had something to do with Mel, he decided he had to know. Once told, he was a bit surprised, and slightly annoyed that Mel had been told about *him* without his being there. (Of course, his strange departure had sparked all of Mel's questions in the first place, so it really only made sense.) He wasn't too disturbed to hear that Ivan had matched his confession of love; he hadn't exactly figured on winning Mel away from Ivan with his deliberately-discouraging note. Jasmine thought Mel might still surprise him on that score; after all, Tyler had recently given *Jasmine* his "I don't want you in my dark, dark world" speech, and she'd told him where to stick it. Mel could do the same. Tyler doubted it . . . but was glad to hear that Mel was at least wearing the necklace he'd given her. They chatted for awhile longer, and then Tyler's stepfather Mikhail came up behind him with a syringe full of sedative, which he took as a sign that it was time to go to bed. Jasmine went to bed herself, but lay awake worrying until her body finally insisted on sleep.

Ivan awoke around noon the next day, feeling like hell. He soon discovered that all the paradox he'd incurred the night before had taken its toll: his feet were wet, and stayed that way no matter how vigorously he dried them, and his armpit hair was a foot long. Deciding that it would be a good day to stay in bed, he took a cube of frozen booze from the freezer and sucked on it while watching cartoons.

About an hour later, Jasmine woke up to find that Mel had brought her lunch. Mel didn't appear to have slept very well; she described a succession of strange and symbolic dreams which strongly implied that she was on the verge of Awakening, though she had not yet taken the final step. Subsequent conversation with Jasmine netted Mel the full scoop on Tyler's "arranged marriage" and the identity of Ivan's father. Ivan confirmed the latter in a subsequent phone conversation, but asked Mel to keep it quiet for security reasons; the elder Crowley had many enemies. After that, everyone went back to bed, each for various reasons not being all that interested in activity.

The three did meet for dinner, though, at which time Mel had a surprise for the other two. During her nap, the dreams had returned, and this time she had followed them through to their conclusion, accepting what they seemed to be offering her. Now, she realized, she could see the telltale auras of magick around her mage friends. More than that, she could see the future. One look at Jasmine had shown her the now-infamous wedding. And Ivan, she said, would soon have a run-in with a redhead who would be either hisgreatest challenge or his greatest victory.

So, Mel was Awake. Not entirely unexpected, but still a complication. Someone would have to be found to mentor her. But in what Tradition? The precognition made Ivan hope for Ecstatic, which would give him an excuse to teach Mel Tantric sex. Mel herself, however, had other ideas (as anyone thinking with his brain rather than his libido would have realized). Given her devout Christian background, she could only imagine her new abilities as a gift from God. Celestial Chorus it would be. ("Great," Ivan washeard to mutter. "Now her religion's an integral part of her practice. I *have* to respect it. Damn!")

Relocating to the boathouse, the group began Mel's instruction in the rudiments of magick, going over the various Spheres and how one first learned to perceive, then to manipulate, and finally to create in each area. Later, they would introduce her to the only full-fledged Chorister any of them knew: Beck, a protegee of Rabbi Solomon's. Beck was Jewish, of course, but could probably locate a suitable Protestant Chorister to mentor Melanie if she so desired.

That taken care of, Mel was still left with her original problem of which boy she wanted to date. (Hard to believe that such a commonplace teenage dilemma had managed to spark a complete spiritual awakening, without actually being solved along the way.) Though she was still leaning toward Ivan, the now even more obvious differences in their worldviews worried her . . . and him, it turned out. They tried to discuss things rationally and arrive at some kind of mutually respectful compromise, but that was not to be. Ivan finally blew up, growling that while he would like to have Mel by his side as he walked his path, it was *his* path, already chosen, and he wasn't going to change it or explain it or justify it even for her. She exploded right back at him, reminding him of all the times she had let it slide when he had made snide remarks about God or faith or Christianity. Where was his respect for *her* path? Finally, a disgusted Ivan just stalked away.

Well! Whole lotta changes goin' on this session, with more promised for the next! Tune in next time for Tyler's return, a couple of new NPCs, and even more reshapings of our bizarre love polygon. Seeya then!