#I assume sean died after getting enlisted

[bardicious]

It did not register to me that it took Erik literally a year to get imprisoned into plastic hell. LMAO. A YEAR. Homeboy is actually not very good at the whole terrorist thing.

[colorfulandblack]

Ok, but I'm immensely curious of motives behind Sean's protective nature.

I mean Marion literally saw most likely all of them die one way or another and he just prevents it with his premonitions and soaks those marks. He's protective of the people he cares about

Sean though? He's obviously just as protective as Marion's or Jean (who deserves mad props for patching others up) but his way is just throwing himself headfirst into danger so others won't get hurt.

It could be just his personality, he did say and Marion confirmed that he and his brothers jumped in front of trains for FUN but it could be something else.

I was thinking about the fact that his brothers died and he didn't know about it for a while, and this may be the source of him needing to protect people around him because he couldn't protect his brothers but that bids the question how old were his siblings? I would make (more) sense if he were older than his brothers but he did say he enlisted illegally at the age of 16/17so I would be weird if his brothers got into army even younger. It could be that he is just a protector, it's his nature but it's doesn't fit as well for me

Also he's been through thick and thin with Marion as he mentioned he dragged him along with his brothers to the metro tunnels so I'm assuming they've known each other for a while and notice how he checks in with Marion every one and then especially regarding his abilities. It seems like he's worried for what would happen to Marion if people knew what he could do.

He also seems like a poster boy for a person with a hero complex, deflect and ignore his own problems and demons and just focus on others. Man literally doesn't spare a second glance at a spidery shadow monster after shooting it just "that's taken care of I'm tossing a rope, moving onto next thing", shots an Eldrich terror in the face but flinches at own reflection. Because supernatural shit can be dealt with shotguns and grenades but his own demons can't be. Is he subconsciously throwing himself into danger so he won't have to face his own trauma and in worst outcome die which means he definitely won't have to solve his problems or is just just defecting really hard?

All of those above could factor in here.

And let us not forget about that bomb he dropped at the lighthouse. The "weapons" he killed that were pretty humane and I got a sense that they were either very young or children form the way they were described (but I might be wrong) again he was following orders but he must have felt conflicted and in a sense helpless which now by protecting others he wants to redeem himself.

I might be reading to much into it. It might be just *trauma* which you know shows up and messes with a person in many ways.

I might also do a longer post on others from Thread and Needle but that's it for now

[seancamerons]

What are some of your favorite headcanons about Sean?

dude you have no idea, so if you don't know, when i love a character I make up entire elaborate backstories and the rest under the cut/read more.😊

first we got -

sean is 1 of 3 brothers. when his veparents were hs seniors they had 9 months later a baby boy, his name was carson. they shortly married at their local church strong armed by family. so that's the oldest. they were estranged for a long time. he'd been incarcerated since he was 18, for drugs and petty theft but he went away bc his friend hit a guy drunk driving and was charged with 3rd degree vehicular manslaughter or something like bad, like a 6 year thing, the person died etc so he was in jail most of sean's forminative years. he screwed up and he paid for it and sean was without being bullied by his older brother and such. tracker was also but they don't like talk at all. at least sean and carson had good times even when he was terrorizing him and tracker. tracker never let it happen he'd protect sean from carson's moods, unpredictable and violence. im not sure how this story came about but it only deepened when i started getting into shows in the teen drama variety and remembering things from the show contextual clues and whatever. so three bros, jail, hardworker and all drop outs - but sean was supposed to be the boy to finally graduate and make everyone proud and get out of wasaga. that were his goals. he had all that but the graduation and instead enlisted but idk how that all went. i assume good. i can see it going a few was. i think sean is alive and doing well. he works, till works out still handsome maybe has facial hair.

so more specificly - sean is the baby of his family. the bonus child, sad. totally a whoops, but still loved and maybe even coddled more the parents know they've been neglectful but he's loved and considered and has friends doing good, but maybe not as than perhaps the oldest carson who was when they were teens themselves and didn't know what they were doing, tracker who came later who at first were fine but their addictions to alcohol at home started later and sean bore the brunt and saw their parents at their absolute worse. totally a shitshow. by then carson was fucked up and incarcerated, his parents still doted as he was their oldest son and they kind of were young and should've never been that out of control but he got a rough hand and i kind of base that like how ryan atwood from the oc had this brother who was in jail the reason he even was in newport in so many ways but by then ryan had changed and trey i assume - similar to carson. this makes tracker the older, a bit wiser, less in trouble, family duty kind of good guy who tries his best but maybe is also cursed with the cameron destructo genes but also made it a good life for himself, helps his young brother after his brush with violence and such and put him out of harms way, at his mom's request to him. i don't think this was selfish NOW WE CHILDFREE WE CAN DRINK ALL THE TIME. no i don't think they wanted to drink, i think their body craved it so bad they NEEDED to drink but they ost the 'fun' of being buzzed or blitzed and rather needed it to stop feeling pain and numb, self medicate even if it's bad for them and the reason for 90 percent of their misfortunates like it or not. realistic, bleak and fucking dark. i also set some of my stories up to where they're adults dealing with this stuff because like it or not this fandom has a lot of adults and im sure they don't want a fluff fest where people are all honky dorey. i hate perfect people, so all my girls and guys are flawed but some people are super good people but live and exist in bad times or bad situations like 90 percent of people out here like it or not.

so for example in the story (backtrack) carson plays more of a active role in from his start, he wants to do better and change like trey atwood did after everything with getting released but then he started bad habits and hanging out with that girl and coming onto Marissa who just wanted to be nice and help him out, but he actually commits to it and finds happiness and becomes close with sean over a time. as kids he was tormenting him and calling him what he assumed a mistake and it explains how sean is because he's very mean to himself. he bullies himself or makes himself feel bad when good things are happening. anway carson based on sean. tracker is named after the father but like leave it to beaver - baby sean couldn't say scott but loved calling him tracker because of his tractor pajamas or his love of vechiles and his name kind of stuck. even now it's tracker, scott is their dad. tracker is tracker, sean's middle name in his backstory had been hope. so sean hope, i assume his mother watched soaps and watched ryan's hope or something (it used to be on soapnet i swear its related!) it's older than old but it's an older show about a young Irish family who settled in the Americas but in the present so they've got these thick Irish accent and they own a pub or at least someone does when they immigrated and all congretate and drama ensued.

i just wanted to sidebar this and say i did watch a lot of soaps as a kid, perhaps that's why i love making up stories. i used to do with my barbies too. when my mom would watch court tv for like OJ Simpson i'd be playing with my dolls and creating plots for them like it was days of our lives or all my children in my barbie dream house. i was kind of made to do that stuff. even with the grusome details and gory things i heard or didn't 'get', it was weird juxtaposition of adult shit and adult shit i assume is romantic adult shit. this is no different.

i watched days and all my children (my mom preferred amc)

i also used to watch springer and maury in the summer or when i was ill! so like the drama is still seared there, i mean with mary from paterinity or bad kids BootCamp kind of episodes, there was the maury drama stuff. also the weird competition reality shows like rock of love and flavor of love or the reformed ladies of both of these shows would be on the charm school and such and then Megan wanted a billionaire and got a murderer and the whole shebang fell apart. now vh1 plays trash. I'm obsessed with the 1980s thanks to that channel i love times like that you know, when i wasn't alive but would've loved to live at that time/place.

okay end rant.

so that's just one big large explanation. in short i can go on forever. is shared a lot of headcanons but that's one. ask if you want to hear some more. this is a bit weird bc i shouldn't think this deeply about the fictional but hey.

okay fine, you caught me in a good mood, and i think you're awesome - one more headcanon for sean:

the tattoo is real. jay's too.

i love platonic as well as romantic friendships or love between close friends, but in a strictly platonic way and of course romance in every sense but the point is, you can be soulmates in a friend kind of way. i believe that's true for jalex. they were best friends i think. the show establishes them as young kids, in love or affectionate, but also had history for a long time and maybe there's a lot we do not know about their lives pre show or after. do they talk? 100 percent.

so jay and sean got tatted. sean has a lot of friends in wasaga (in degrassi he has none) so when he first came back to degrassi and had all these friends, one big bad bully tyler (the guy who got him back over to) and of course you knew what comes next.

one of sean's friends is like a tat apprentiece. she's new and she wanted to ink a friend. sean trusts her judgment and he agreed, jay and him had a "if you do it, I'll do it" when asked what they wanted they were told, "Make sure you love it and have no regrets because it's perminant." by this time in his life this is between season 4 and season 6 a lot had happened but over that time sean had realized he cares about emma way more than a friend and she had like it or not moved on but at this time he had no idea about that. jay was instrumental but didn't tell at that time. he'd visit him and give him the low down. so the friend who is an artist apprentice who needs to practice took it, and she's still got to get used to skin as opposed to lettering and details so it looks mighty rough. but they both said out loud from their room one guy was on one side, and the other guy was in the other chair.

"emma" sean quietly answers. "spelled e m m a"

"alex" jay announced. "self explanitory."

sean's friend her name is sabrina, often called brina or bree asks them as she's working on the lettering and they're sitting tight in the office. jay actually doesn't tease sean about emma or getting inked. by this time ellie hadn't been a blip on the radar, but emma had been on his mind. she was the first face he saw as she drove away, and the first face he wanted to see if and when he comes back to town.

they talk abiout the girls in their lives. by this point jay had alex had been split up and he more than anything wanted to be like before, before when they were everything to each other. he didn't want to forget her. he didn't want to not be her friend, and he fucked up their relationship and this was his way of memorializing their relationship.

for emma she was close to his heart, hence the chest as the location of this tattoo and he truthfully feels like connected even if they're apart.

long story short, the tats were a secret. emma unless they bumped uglies probably never found out about the tat, unless they had the kind of secs where he wasn't shirtless but it's sean cameron of fucking course she's gonna have no shirt in that (sorry just a headcanon) i mean there was a reason he was often at home dressed like in wifebeaters or shirtless playing sports with the guys) im sure at home he dresses in as little as he can so shorts/tank top no hodies unless its cold and he works out frequently in his non heated/non ac or hot apt. im sure air is expensive fans are expensive and water is expensive so he's living in the now for sure but once he returned back to 'get the diploma;, he justified setting his eyes and heart onto emma. i do believe he had goals, but he truly more than anything missed emma.

say what you will but his heart is often found in the right place. he might have flaws, but he is deep down a wonderful guy with a sad life. six was a disservice to him and his legacy for being a little bit mushy in the inside heart of gold, hero complex but also a great guy to have in your corner. that's him.

so when he said (paraphrasing this) he didn't want to come back for all the things he'd said, what he really wanted was love from her. he loved her and he also hurt her. sometimes he hurt the people he loved, or who loved him, and felt bad later because in the heart of the moment with his words he burned all those bridges. such as when he stole from Simpson. i don't know if emma was ever proven right to her face, she sounds like assuming without knowing but assuming that something was said. he says to her, he pretty much came back to be around her again.

i do believe the scene in the basement in the 2nd part of "here comes your man" clearly he wanted to confess a little bit about that but she kind of set the boundary she can't care about it because

1. she's got peter/he needs her even if they'd had a lot of build up and yet she can't be her real self.

2. manny clearly has something against sean over peter (what even was that?) i wouldn't be nice to him either tbh.

3. i don't think she doesn't care, it's that it's hard for her to imagine that because she'd been burned in the past not just by him, but his departure, or indirectly through hurled insults and other things throughout her life experience/lived experience attending degrassi!

4. a secret option idk combination of 2/5

5. all the above!

either way this kind of breaks sean's heart (teeny bit) and she begs him to turn himself in, or suggests this is the only way but that was a sad thing. he got hauled off and shit and peter got what? slap on the wrist - why did the writers love him? he sucks. peter got away with too much.

the worst thing sean did wouldn't equate peter's worse - like what he did to manny? inexcusable. what a bad guy. why was manny defending him, and i don't wanna hear the obvious, "oh he stood by your side during your eating disorder!"

no, i aint buying they're doing the sexy shit either. so seeing sean, who i believe she was attracted to him beyond looks but they sure didn't make it a issue because he had the package - handsome and such, but also messing up a bit bc the street races were illegal and what they were doing was no question illegal and morally grey.

also why tf jay sabotogue sean like that and tell him to run? when is any vechiular thing warrant them to idk. but he did and stuff and we all know it was nothing. either he didn't know that running from the scene as his friend told him to do bc that there is a hit and run OR jay wanted to cause sean grief for some weird reason or things just went down and he panicked and didn't want sean to go to jail, and thought it'd be better if he ran but still. so i gave you a bunch of things to sort through.

💐💌ty for the message!

[irishmacguirefucker]

Why and how did the gang start a ranch?

(So this got long as FUCK but please read it because oh my god i'm so so proud of it ok? Big thank you to @awesomeundertalelover3​ for proofreading and editing this for me, especially since I'm incoherent when I type.) The choice to start the ranch and stop being a “gang” was the result of a few things. First, it was the botched job in Blackwater. Dutch killed innocent Heidi McCourt, planting the first seed of distrust within the gang. Then in the escape, they lost Sean and the gravely injured Mac, and John, Davey and Jenny were both injured. Then Jenny died, of course, followed by Davey. The next big push into the decision was the time spent in the mountains. The cold and the difficulty of survival made many members of the gang think long and hard about their life as gang members, especially now that Hosea and Dutch seem to be fighting over whether or not Dutches plans will work out. 

At this point they are cold, they are tired, and they have lost what they assume is 4 members of their family. But they kept on. They gained Sadie Adler due to Micah’s stupidity and they gained Kieran. You all know how things go until they get to Horseshoe Valley. But this is where things start to change in my AU. 

Horseshoe Valley is good for everyone, they continue to commit crimes as usual. But Hosea is contacted by the elder brother of his late wife Bessie. He wrote that he feared he would die soon, and his property would be sold to the government since he had no other family left in the area. His daughter lives in new york and she doesn’t want it. He’s going to go live with his daughter and get to know his grandchildren before he passes. But he doesn’t want the ranch he and Bessie grew up on in anyone else’s possession so he asks Hosea to do what Bessie would do. Who Bessie would give the farm to. 

The deed was to 55 Acres of land in New Austin. A beautiful 3 story ranch house with all the facilities to keep cattle, chickens, pigs, sheep, and horses. The man had sold all his livestock so that he could make it to see his family and then give the money to his daughter as a gift for letting him live with her. Hosea never told anyone, he was going to keep the deed for a while and sell it when the gang was in need. 

The Van Der Linde gang was being hunted and they all knew it. However, they tried to ignore it and tried to believe in Dutch. But with the unfortunate loss of so many members of their family at once was weighing on them. They were having trouble getting money and getting food, and they knew that gangs all over America were being wiped out around them. Arthur and Hosea would talk about how bad it was getting, and more than once members of the gang would tell Hosea that they just want to be loyal. They want to be safe again but they would never leave their family. The final straw was at the fault of Micah. 

When Arthur went to retrieve Micah in Strawberry he ended up discussing the jailed outlaw with the sheriff. He was going to get the man drunk and then get Micah out Hosea style, but when he spoke to that drunk sheriff he learned a lot. The sheriff revealed that the Pinkertons had been by and spoke with him and that he was part of a famous gang. With further prompting, the sheriff dropped the bomb that Micah was a rat. The Pinkertons had come to Strawberry to take Micah away because they knew who he was but offered him a deal. They would let him wait here to be saved and then continue feeding Pinkertons information, or they could haul him off to Siska and hang him before the gang even noticed he was gone. And so Arthur thanked the wasted lawman for his time and left Strawberry without the rat. 

When he got back and talked to Dutch and Hosea, he shared that Micah had told the law everything he knew and planned to come back as a rat. They knew very well that Micah knew far too much and finally Hosea knew what he was going to do with that land. With Dutch and Arthur there, he explained everything about his brother in law, and then he let them know *his* plan.

Hosea wanted the gang safe, even if that meant not being a gang anymore. He had been the shoulder to cry on for Lenny, who missed young Jenny. For Karen, who drunkenly admitted that she might be in love with Sean but never told him. For Tilly, who was terrified her old gang would find her again and she would be back where she was when she was 12. And for many others, who felt so broken by the last few months. His plan was to start collecting as much money as they can and use it to pay off their bounties and move to the ranch. To buy a few heads of cattle, take their chicken, buy some pigs and sheep, and start that ranch up again. 

Dutch thought it was crazy. Arthur agreed, but the look of hope in the blonde’s eyes was enough to see what he really thought. Dutch was angry, he was so so angry that Hosea would suggest this after everything they had been through. He even threw it back in Hosea’s face that he had tried to live the regular life, that Hosea couldn’t do it. That insult was the last straw.

He told Dutch that if he didn’t do this, he was going to die alone on a hill made from the bodies of this gang. People were going to leave him behind because they all know that the age of gangs and crime is over. Or worse, they would be loyal to him and they would die for it. Dutch would be responsible for the deaths of everyone in this camp. And with Dutch still stunned by the older man’s outburst, Arthur spoke up. He thought they could do it, and he would follow Hosea if that’s what would secure the safety of his new family. That’s what finally drilled it into Dutch’s head that this is the only option. His orphan son, who he had rescued off the streets at fourteen, was willing to leave him behind for this new plan. 

The first person they let into the new plan was surprisingly Strauss. While Hosea was sure they could figure it out, he needed to know just how realistic he was being here. He knew they would need to figure out what their collective bounties were and how they were going to pay that off. Strauss did a little math and a little research. Dutch himself had a $5000 bounty in New Austin. Hosea had around $2000 on his head, and everyone else (including Arthur) altogether was around $2000 max. They were lucky that many of the members were unidentified, meaning they were without bounties. Strauss told them they would need to get around $9000 dollars, and then another $500-$1000 to get the ranch started based on his estimations.

Getting the money would be hard if they kept the plan to themselves. The next people the three men told were Susan and John. They would need to start brainstorming ideas on how to get the money. Arthur was going to enlist the help of Javier and Charles to track down every treasure hidden across the map. John would start asking around towns for small jobs, legal ones. People who needed help building things, finding people, etc. Susan would have the girls get as much information as they could about possible leads with fake stories about their deadbeat husbands needing jobs to support their children or stories about wanting honest work for themselves to avoid becoming a prostitute. Everyone would have to pitch in, the only issue with this is that they couldn’t tell everyone yet, lest something go wrong and they can’t do it.

As they were collecting the money and saving, the gang was beginning to get suspicious. They were all working far harder and far more than usual for no apparent reason. Dutch was sending them to do legal work which was extremely odd, and the money they were earning was just sitting around waiting to be spent. Dutch knew he would have to tell them what was happening eventually, but he didn’t know how. He would have to tell the gang that they were no longer going to be a gang. That he was ending the life of crime they knew but expecting them to follow him into a new one. 

When they found Sean again, alive, spirits were high. They had his welcome home party and everyone celebrated. But Dutch was the first to see the toll that months of time spent with the bounty hunters had done to the man. He had new scars that he was hiding from his family, he was missing a tooth that he definitely had when he left. He had been tortured for months, and no matter how well he hid it, Dutch knew it was time for his gang to be safe again. 

Not long after the welcome party, many of the individual members knew. Charles learned from Arthur, Sean overheard a discussion between Hosea and Arthur and eventually told Karen, Susan learned from Dutch, etc. Soon Dutch was ready to tell the gang. And then Arthur ran into the Pinkertons when he was fishing with Jack and it really was the right time to say it. They moved to the new spot near Rhodes at Dutch’s insistence, if it were up to Hosea they would have up and left for the ranch instead but there were still a few things to be finalized. Once they were safe once more, Dutch made a speech. Arthur had let everyone know that Mac was dead, but hadn’t ratted them out and that Micah was dead too and he had been a rat, not long after he found out. And then he nudged Dutch forward to tell everyone what their new life could be. 

Dutch told them the whole plan, told them that they would be safer and they would be happier, but they had to trust him. And if they couldn’t trust him, they could trust Hosea. The gang is loyal, many of them were saved by Dutch and even with their uncertainty, they chose to go with him to this new life. And so in the next 2 months or so, they had enough money to pay their bounties. The Pinkertons would have to leave them alone, provided they played by the law. So they all travelled to New Austin to live on a ranch, and become more of a family than a gang. Bill was there for a while, until one night he wasn’t. There was a note in his room claiming that they had all turned into a bunch of soft bellied do gooders and he was going to start his own gang. Nobody searched for him.

[renegadesrpg]

Dark Angel : Creation. Battle Plans Part 6

Sin: *With a nod at Sean I acknowledge he is correct and take my seat at the table. Now that we have method, we need means, so let us see what we resources we have available. Thoughtfully, I begin…*

Once the Inguz rune is removed the Horseman will immediately become aware of my location. In that instance I will begin to pull power from him through the open link and I believe that will cause him to attack. But as we surmise he will try to wear me down we can assume he will send in those he considers cannon fodder. How many are in this “fifth column” Bryn speaks of?

Zav: My estimate is near 300.

--growling a little as I set my jaw --  

All are fighters and completely loyal to the Horseman. These souls were bound for the Hells and he offered them an out by being his personal Brown Shirts. They don’t take the names the Fates send to us. We’ve given up even trying to direct them. Instead, they act as assassins and soul thieves, killing innocents that the Horseman has consigned to Lucifer.

Sin: *I feel my countenance grow as hard as my heart at this. There is no greater betrayal of our purpose. That the one to whom the Fates entrusted this responsibility has not only personally betrayed it, but has enlisted an entire battery of minions to fulfill his betrayal only heightens my resolve to end this. Coldly I ask*

There are thousands of reapers across the world. How many will be loyal to you and are capable of fighting?

Sean: Uneasily Bryn, Adrian and Zav all look at one another and then at me. Clearing my throat,

“Loyal to us beyond question? Of the 5000 reapers not part of his storm troopers? I’d say four thousand. Able to do more than defend themselves? A thousand. Capable of fighting against this crew? Maybe two hundred.

Sin: *I raised my eyebrow at Sean*

I thought you said you had initiated training for the recruits he brought in after I left.

Sean: Ouch. That stung, but dammit we did the best we could with what we were given.

“I said we put ‘em through boot camp and rode ‘em hard. But the majority of them weren’t capable of the mindset it takes to be a soldier, so the best we could do for them was make sure they could take care of themselves in a pinch until help could get there. For the most part, that’s been enough. The ones we can’t count on to be loyal to us are weak and indecisive. They should have never been recruited but after you the Horseman wasn’t interested in having reapers with strong ethics.  We’ve tried to keep them to creampuff assignments and in a mass casualty event they’re paired with ones we know we can trust. Look,” running my hand through my hair in frustration, “I know it sucks there’s that many that just don’t have the loyalty or ability in them, but hey /we/ didn’t pick ‘em. We just tried to get them into the best shape we could.”

 Zav: --Sean looks as frustrated as the rest of us feel. The truth is reapers shouldn’t have to be warriors, at least not all of them. The system was set up to comfort and assist souls in moving on, not fighting off asshole demons. Unfortunately, the Horseman has screwed with the plan so much that now reapers need to be able to fight. Maybe one day Sin can set that to rights, but I’m not betting on it. A little taste of power is intoxicating and Lucifer was fucking drunk on it. —

Sean’s right, Sin. The ones that we can count on learned as much as they were able. Some of it comes down to sheer physicality. They don’t have the muscle or athleticism or they just don’t have the cojones to do more than defend themselves. Some have the balls but not the ability. That leaves us with about 200 that have both.”

 Adrian: -- My lips set in a thin line. Failure wasn’t something Spartans dealt with well and it had irked me when we were given basically nothing to work with.—

We did what we could with what we had Sin. None of us have ever been happy about it but we held it together the best we could.

 Sin: *Elbows on the table, I tent my hands and rest my forehead against them for a moment. This is my fault and I am aware of it. I left them to do the best they could. Given the circumstances, I could not have done other without becoming as big of a monster as the Horseman had become, but I still will not excuse myself. Finally, I look up*

Indeed you did and I am sorry my friends. The responsibility for this state of affairs lies with me. I should have returned to you much sooner.

*Heaving a determined sigh, I focus on the situation as it stands.*  

Since we will not have superior numbers we must focus on giving ourselves other tactical advantages. The first should be terrain. And we need to keep mortal races away from this. There would be casualties among them and I will not re-enact the crime that has brought us to this place.

 Bryn: “We need more than the high ground. We need a place I can ward.” At their questioning looks I add, “I was Boudicca’s strategist for more than my magic back in the day. We kept the Romans not only at bay, but on the run for as long as we did because she let me select battlegrounds that my sisters and I could lay the traps in. If Boudicca had listened to me after Mags and Aeryn were killed and given me more time, the entire history of the UK and western Europe might have been re-written. And I’ve got some ideas here.”

Sin: *Interesting. Whereas I would have thought Adrian might be the strategist of this group, it seems our quick-thinking witch is taking point.*

Have you a specific location in mind, Bryn, or are you generalizing?

 Bryn: “Both. We need somewhere that has places I can put wards and traps without them being obvious. Once we agree on location, we can get specific about what kind of magick we need. And I have a place I mind that might work.”

Raising my hands above the table, I close my eyes and murmur “Callanish a ’nochdadh.” In an instant an image of a 13 enormous stones standing in a circle on a grassy plain hovers over the table.

“The Standing Stones of Callanish on the Isle of Lewis. It’s a place of power.” Raising my eyes to Sin’s, “Power I can use to reinforce wards, or traps. And power you can use if you need it. The center stone, the monolith here in the center is the reservoir. Just behind it is the tomb of a powerful druid priest. It’s his power that’s in the megalith.”

Sin: *tilting my head as I look at the image and thinking…*

Yes, I remember this place and the souls there. But there were two, as I recall. I took them to Elysia some 5000 years ago, give or take. Their mortal souls did not return to this plain. They ascended. I had wondered if beings of power took such things with them upon ascension, but it seems he, at least, did not.

Sean: I had been a druid priest as well as a warrior in my last life, and likely in all the lives I’d had before it. In that last life it had grown to a specific manifestation…empathy I could wield to help, to heal, or to harm. If when I’d died in that last life I’d ascended, it would have returned to the earth to eventually be given to another. Now, we would be the channel that funneled that priest’s power to another. But there’s no way to know who. Sin? It seemed likely, but the power itself would choose. 

Quietly…. “Druids take it with them from life to life until they ascend. We have no need of it on that plane. His power is there, sealed into the stone with his blood. But once we tap that, it’s loose and it will look for its next host.”

Sin: *looking sharply at Sean*

The power chooses? Would it choose one of our enemies, Sean? Does it seek a vacuum of power to fill or simply a host?

Sean: Shaking my head, “It will seek a host with characteristics similar to its last host. The priest ascended, which says there was no darkness in him, so this power will also be looking for a soul filled with light. To go to one with any darkness in it would weaken it, and it seeks to maintain its balance in the universe. That lets out both Death and the rogue reapers, but it doesn’t clue us in as to who it will go to once it’s free again.”

Sin: *slowly I nod my head, filing this information away for future analysis. Tilting my head I focus on the stone circle, analyzing its value in the type of battle we will fight* There are stones leading to the circle in lines from all four directions. Is there power there as well? 

Sean: I need to take a deep breath before I can go on. Bryn couldn’t have known, but this place is very personal to me. 

“I know Callanish very well. There is power in all the stones. See, when a high priest or priestess, a prophet or prophetess, died at least one of their circle would have volunteered as sacrifice so their blood could be used to seal spells into the surrounding stones to protect the high priest’s power from being stolen by the unworthy. We already understood that the life we were in wasn’t the last we were destined to live so it was seen as an honor. In this case, it was his wife. She wanted their souls to travel together. She was sacrificed in front of the monolith, her blood drained to seal the approach stones and then her body buried in a cairn below the ground just at the northeast edge, symbolically guarding the perimeter. It’s her power in the stones outside the circle.” 

Sin: *Intently, I gaze at Sean. There is more here…* If you knew of this place why was it Bryn brought it to us? You were a warrior as well as a druid priest. Why did you not think of this place?

Sean: And here’s the rub of it. My face sets in stone as immobile as the monolith at the circle’s center. There’s a long story behind this, but a simple answer is all I can give right now.

“Because I never thought of it as a place of power. I always thought of it as my parents’ grave.” 

#TBC