soul_campaign | Fourth Brew | Video | June 4, just after midnight

[When the video starts, there’s only a view of the dimly lit Kishin Chamber’s ceiling and the sound of a Texas twang that’s rarely heard over the network. The voice is a bit distant, as if the speaker is talking to herself rather than the device, and colored by a level of level of exasperation usually reserved for a certain nerdy nuisance of a sorcerer.]

Jiminy Cricket! Not this place again! That cotton-pickin’ contraption always picks the worst times!

[ Really, couldn’t it just leave a witchy person to brew in peace, solve the occasional murder, and fix a supernatural problem once in a while? The voice trails off into a frustrated sigh and less intelligible mutterings. Something about a date? And a soul trapped in a mirror…]

[But the mumblings stop a few moments later when Lily notices the communicator lying on the floor. Dag nab it! Is that smartphone thing on, too? Is that what she dropped when she landed sprawled on the ground?]

[Finally, Lily’s face comes into view as she leans over the communicator, red lipstick slightly smudged and the curl coming out of her 1920s style Marcel waved hair as several brown locks escape from a chignon at the nape of her neck. There’s a bit of a bare shoulder visible for a second before she draws back and only her face can be seen again, expression uncertain as she addresses whoever might be listening. She doesn't like these gadgets but she needs help.]

Um, could someone tell me what day it is? [It had been weeks by her reckoning but she knows how BREW likes to muck with time.]

And I need help with a clothes problem. A woman would probably be better. I can’t go back to my apartment like this…

[Then, she recalls the last thing she remembers about this place being tossing her keys on the kitchen counter after getting back from grocery shopping.]

Dag nab it. I don’t think I have my keys either...

[is there some person in charge of the apartment buildings with spare keys who could let her in? Or does she need to call a locksmith after she gets out of this place?]

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That's good to hear, at least. Maybe, I should go visit if they're still there.

[When they first met, Lily had wondered if they might have been from the same Earth but what she had learned from Steve since then made it unlikely and this just further proved its improbability. One of her eyebrows goes up.] ...An alien invasion? These aliens didn't happen to look like oversized frogs, did they?

I suppose you could say that. More patronizing though and prone to making inappropriate jokes. [She's not going to mention his perverted antics from the first time they resonated!]

Think they'd appreciate that. Their injuries are better by now, but I say that a visit is always welcome.

Like Keroro and Giroro? [He shakes his head.] No, the aliens were gray and humanoid in shape. Except for the giant whale one. Those were something, could fly around despite their large size.

Doesn't sound like he's the most mature fella around. But you still enjoy working with him? [Not that he really enjoys working with Tony in particular...]

I'll have to do that once I'm caught up with things at work. [Maybe, she could bake something for them, too. She wondered if they liked blueberry muffins...]

Gray and humanoid? You don't mean like those trolls, do you? [She knew they were also from some foreign planet but hadn't heard any talk of invasions from Disciple or Aranea.] ...Wait, a giant flying whale alien? [The more time she spent here, the fewer things seemed to surprise her but still... What in tarnation?!]

Not hardly, even if I seem to resonate better with him than anyone else I've tried with. Sometimes, I feel like what he really needs is a babysitter to keep him out of trouble!

Not quite. Didn't have horns on them and their faces were more lizard like. None of 'em were exactly friendly either, while some of the trolls here are swell people. [He's spoken to Aranea, although 'Betty Crocker' left him with a bad taste. And really, he's now in a place where Betty Crocker is evil. Steve doesn't understand these things sometimes.] Yeah, not sure how they managed to fly either. Could be some part of their physiology, but I'm not the best person to ask about that.

Resonance sometimes works in strange ways, huh? Sounds like you have your hands full.

Huh. Guess these aliens were from somewhere else then. I wouldn't have thought there would be so many places with them. There wasn't anything like that where I came from unless it was in fiction.

[She nodded in agreement.] I once tried with the first person I ever met here but we didn't do nearly as well. And you could say that. He doesn't seem to do all that well with Madness either.

Not too sure where they were from either. Loki opened a portal in the sky and they just flew in from there. [Which is pretty absurd in itself. But he's seen the Tesseract open portals before, back when Red Skull suddenly disappeared from the plane. He didn't quite understand what was happening then, but his mind was mostly focused on other things. Like handling a plane filled with nukes.]

Not the easiest thing to resist. [During his first mission, one of the people started to attack him due to the Madness Wavelength.] You got a good handle against the Madness?

[She frowns.] A portal in the sky? Like to another dimension? This Loki doesn't sound like a nice guy. [Hadn't Nigel at the Chronicle mentioned something about a Loki when talking about superstitions surrounding the number 13? Probably not the same Loki though. It certainly hadn't included aliens!]

It feels ...disturbing. Cold, malevolent. But I don't start giggling in the middle of a fight the way he does sometimes. [And then there's the alarming shade of red that the flames of their fire spells turn when Lezard is losing his mind. But she's not going to mention that.]

From what I could see, it led to some part of outer space. [And where Tony put the nuke in, risking his life for everyone. He doesn't really like Stark's personality all that much still, but Steve knows that he's been wrong about him too.] Couldn't tell you the exact coordinates though. And he definitely wasn't, wanted to enslave the human race. But things didn't work out for him, didn't work out for the last guy that tried it either.

[Steve nods a little at her description. He remembers hallucinations and voices from the last time he's encountered it.] You managed to help him snap out of it?

Enslave the human race? This Loki was an alien then? [And then she blinks.] ...The last guy that tried? Um, is this a regular problem where you come from? [And she thought San Francisco had its share of troubles with demons and witches! It sounded like Steve's world had hers beat by far.]

[A nod.] Eventually. It was the worst the first time.

Yeah, he's from a place known as Asgard and thought he was better than humans. Claimed to be a god, but he wasn't one in my eyes. [For a variety of reasons, but he still respects and likes Thor.] The last guy tried it during World War II, wanted to conquer the world specifically. I think this problem is becoming more frequent, it wasn't always like this.

Things get better through experience. [He smiles a little] Well, that's the idea at least.

Sure doesn't sound like a benevolent god. [First, aliens and now gods. It certainly sounded like his world had its share of weirdness!] So, this Asgard is a foreign planet? Never heard of one by that name where I came from.

Still, I'd rather not have to do that too often! [There had been quite a few scorched spots left in the park that first time and she doesn't want to think what might happen if she doesn't manage to pull him back to his senses one day.]

That's for sure, but his brother was a good fella. He helped to stop Loki despite them being family. [Steve doesn't know much about Thor, but he can only imagine how hard it is to see a family member turn evil.] From another realm I think, apparently they've been around for centuries, but have only come to Earth recently.

I'm certain we can all agree on that one.

Another realm? Like another dimension? But it's good that his brother was willing to do the right thing. [Lily has an inkling of what it's like to have a relative become evil. She wishes she had been able to save her father...]

Fourth Brew | Video | June 4, just after midnight

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