Gathering Storms: Changing Times, 02 Apr 1870
Selene Dashwood is a crouching snarling shadow of her former self in the corner of the Finches kitchen. The scientist couple quickly devise a plan. They bundle her up into Pieter's latest invention, the Mitchelson Resonator. It can increase the density of Aether to the point of slowing time inside the Resonator's chamber. With time effectively stopped, Selene will get no worse and the Finches can try to find a cure.
Thackery arrives at the Pickerings' to tell Isabelle to dress up in something nice. He plans to take her out for the evening but before he can do so, Isabelle's maid, Lizzie, approaches her with a domestic problem. Lizzie's husband has gone mad, apparently turning into the bear he resembles. He's run off into the night and Lizzie is afraid for his welfare. Won't Isabelle and her uncle help?
Thackery is put out by the imposition but in his usual fashion takes matters in hand and arranges a search party to find the missing husband. He takes Isabelle with him to Nicholas Varney's, intending to enlist the man for the search party, and thence go onward to the Finches.
Varney is hit by strange disturbing dreams of London being overrun by Beast Folk going amok. He wakes in his bed and tells his companion for the night, Sarah, that he's going be up for a bit, go back to sleep. Varney turns to his accounting books to occupy himself and falls into a haze. He comes to his senses some time later and finds that he's written:
Help the others. It's too late for me.
Help the others. It's too late for me.
Help the others. It's too late for me.
"Oh dammitall, it's ruined. I'll have to start a whole new set of books."
Frustrated and unwilling to admit he's spooked by the automatic writing--stuff and nonsense, you know--Varney informs Sarah he's going for a walk to clear his head. He finds himself in a bad part of London before too long. Beast folk are about and he can't help but look at them, comparing them to his dream. They seem normal. He asks a Hound man on the street if anything has been going on with the Beast folk. The Hound man tells him that oh, some folk've drunk too much and gone wild. Also that some toffs in carriages have been seen sprayin' Beast folk with something and theys what got sprayed goes mad soon afters.
This has been goin' on for three-four days now.
Varney pays the man for his trouble and walks off. Maybe there's more to his dream than he believed? No, it's too outlandish. Varney notices that he's picked up two people tailing him. They accost him, offering to 'escort' him to a safer part of town. Escort him right out of his wallet, more like, Varney thinks. He resists. The thugs threaten to beat him up and take him to the people what's been dealin' out the weird ....
"This is what happens when I follow dreams," Varney complains. "It all goes bad. Bugger off!"
Varney pulls his knife. Go now and live, he warns the thugs. They don't believe he's got the stones. A fight ensues. The man foremost clubs Varney in the head with a sap. Varney strikes back and the man falls, wounded in the shoulder. The others scatter. Varney steps on the wounded man's shoulder, grinding his bootheel into it. The man howls and writhes but Varney has him pinned.
"Tell me about these odd people."
The odd people are down at the Docks. Their activities are all centered there.
Varney leaves the man monaning in the street and turns for home.
Back at the Finches', Ariadne and Pieter split up. Ariadne will go to Selene's lab in Lambeth to see if there is any clue to her current condition there. Pieter will go four blocks away to the Royal Society and enlist help of the scientists there.
Ariadne is unsuccessful in gaining access to the laboratory. She is taken by the guards to their Captain, who promptly takes Ariadne into custody. She will take him and his men to her place so they may take Selene and the Resonator to the Colonel at once. With no way to break free and lacking the skill to talk her way out of it, Ariadne is thrust into a carraige and it drives her back to Finch & Son.
Pieter, meanwhile, is a little more successful. He gains entrance at the Royal Society and contacts Baron L. Sturdivant, explaining his need for help. Sturdivant mentions that they've lost 3 good scientists in an airship disaster over Africa. Losing Selene Dashwood would only add to the loss, despite her irrascible nature. He agrees to get Pieter some help.
Thackery and Isabelle arrive at Varney's place and knocks on the door. Varney answers. He seems unsurprised. His night's sleep has already been ruined, he's already been accosted and been in a fight, strange things are going on at the docks. Why wouldn't Thackery show up on his doorstep? So no, not surprised.
"Perhaps the spirits told you it was I," Thackery says.
"Had they told me, I would not have opened my door," Varney quips."Good evening, Miss Isabelle."
Thackery tells Varney their plans. Varney demurs. Why should he leave his house on Thackery's say-so to go chasing after a Beast person in the middle of the night? He wants to go back to bed.
"You want to know why you're involved? Here's a five pound note, you money grubbing Irish theif," Thackery growls and shoves the bill into Varney's hand. "Now get into the carriage."
Sarah appears at the door wondering what all the fuss is about and Thackery straighaway hires her to come with them to the Docks. No, Varney and Sarah are not going anywhere.
"Here," Isabelle says, opening her purse. "Here's more money."
"People keep throwing money at me," Varney complains. "I don't want any more money."
Sighing, Varney gets into the carriage and on the ride over, he tells everyone what he's learned.
Meanwhile Baron Sturdivant finds Mr. John MacDonald, R.S., respected biologist, and they both go back with Pieter to Finch and Son. Pieter shows them Selene in the Resonator chamber. The scientists are dubious. They have to be convinced that this isn't some sort of hoax.
At this point Ariadne's carriage crosses paths with Thackery's. She recognizes Thackery and the others through the window and starts screaming for the driver to stop. In her frantic worry to help Selene, Ariadne goes so far as to open the door of the guards' carriage and swing out over the cobbles, trying to wave down Thackery's carriage. If only she can get her friends to vouch for her, she can make the guards understand her position.
All Thackery sees is a woman of his acquaintance, screaming his name and hanging off a door of a moving carriage with people trying to drag her back in. He assumes the worst. He stops the carriage and jumps out to save her. Chaos ensues. Cooler heads prevail before anyone gets seriously hurt. Guns and weapons are put away. Plans are sorted out. Information shared. The parties split up. Thackery will continue on to the Docks to investigate the goings-on there. Ariadne is incensed--why is he galivanting around on the Docks when there's something more dire going on in her basement with Selene?! In her anger, she aims an open-handed slap at Thackery for his treachery. She misses and is bundled up in the carriage by the guards and driven off to Finch and Son.
Once at the watch shop, Ariadne is introduced to the august scientists and the guards are ordered to pack up the Resonator and take it to the Colonel. Pieter supervises the partial dismantling, ensuring that the mechanism keeping Selene in stasis remains intact and operating properly during transport. Ariadne is tasked to stay behind with MacDonald to go over their notes and to run tests on the samples they'd taken of Selene. Perhaps they can shed light on her condition.
MacDonald and Ariadne find a bacterium. Floridium soltine is effective in slowing the bacterial element down. Now that they have something to work with, they set to finding a way to make it more effective. MacDonald takes over Ariadne's lab with the smooth assurance of white male priviledge and sends her off to make tea. Ariadne swallows her resentment and makes the damned tea and does anything else he requires for assistance. Saving Selene is worth the insult, surely.
At the Diogenes Club, the Colonel pays Pieter 400 pounds for the Resonator and tells him he'll be informed in the morning. The Colonel orders a cab and Pieter takes it to the Docks to find Varney, Thackery and the others.
Varney and Thackery stop at the North Shore Docks. Thackery heaers a low growl and feels a hot breath on his back. He pulls his sword from his cane and stabs behind him. He gets wrapped in a bear hug by a bear. Knives and shots are thrown and fired by Varney and Isabelle. Their efforts are ineffectual. The horses are spooked by the shots and bolt, dragging the carriage away with them. Varney had already jumped out to help Thackery but Sarah and Isabelle are trapped inside.
Thackery shoots the bear and hits. The bear drops to all fours, wounded. Thackery is free and clear and Varney shoots the bear again.
Isabelle jumps free of the carriage but Sarah is still trapped inside.
The fight goes badly for the bear. With Isabelle there it's 3 to 1 odds against. Isabelle runs, the bear chases. She turns and shoots. The bear draws up short, stops, and sniffs Isabelle. The bear trembles mightily, wounded in two places. The bear shakes his head and incredibly, he speaks.
"Help," he says in a very tiny voice and collapses.
It seems they've found Lizzie's husband.
Meanwhile the runaway carraige finally tips and crashes. Sarah is banged about and lies unconscious inside while the horses kick free of their traces and run on. The sound of the crash reaches Thackery and party, and Thackery tells Isabelle to use her charms to flag a carriage down so they can go find Sarah. Isabelle shows a little skin. A carriage stops. They hire it and get in.
They find the wreck with Sarah in it and Varney and Isabelle take her and Thackery to St. Thomas, a hospital opposite Whitehall on the Thames. Both are healed. Varney sits with the wounded Billy Bear in the carriage. Thackery recovers in short order and dispenses Lizzie's fate--she and her babe will be taken off to Scotland with 50 pounds toward their maintenance.
He orders a cab next and has it sent to Finch and Son to fetch Pieter and Ariadne. Pieter arrives home in time to see the cab. He discovers they've been summoned by Thackery and goes inside to fetch his wife. They go to the Hospital. When they get there, they find Varney has found a veterinarian to see to Billy, and they test the Floridium soltine on him. It works. Billy now returned to his human appearance and mental faculties. Pieter explains what has happened to the Veterinarian and tells him what the party knows about what has been going on.
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