Silent Prayer - The Jesuit (( Open to any who went along ))

[Roach Copeland]

"Or bein' really frickin' scared. Ever get so scared you can't breath?" Roach offered as he moved about the room, running a finger over the book titles. Most were using big words that he didn't understand but he found a few with simpler titles. He smirked as he came to one, pulling it out partially to get a glance at the cover before pushing it back into place.

"Shortest Breath, Shortened Breath. Po-Tat-oe, Pot-at-oe, I say. Sounds close enough. What's its deal?"

[Bronka Hajjar]

"Shortened Breath?" Bronka repeated, "that's pretty close. Do you think it could be the same one?" She turned to Cady and asked quietly "Do you remember for sure what the Loa said? I could have sworn it said 'Shortest Breath'". Then the rest of the Jesuit's statement sunk in.

"What warning?"

[Etienne Mbane]

The Jesuit looked up from his notes. "What? Oh, no, my son. Not fear. No, fear would be nothing..."

He turned a couple of pages in his notes, then back one. "Let's see... here it is."

He read aloud:

"May God protect us. Tonight's conversation with the houghan took a rather sinister turn. In our ongoing discussion of Black Papa Langa, one of their Loa came up by name, He of the Shortened Breath. Not the most powerful of Loa, it lived in the existence of that moment when one human took another human's life. Fortunately, Shortened Breath would never become a threat to these people, as such events never take place here, and it is a Loa confined to the people of this place."

[Roach Copeland]

Turns fully towards the Jesuit, his arms crossing over his chest.

"The murders that been happenin' around the school," he said before tossing a glance towards the others. He offers a shrug of his shoulders before turning back towards the Jesuit. "So... if this was our guys, could he be... feedin' off the deaths around school in order to continue his 'fun' with us? Like... he want's to screw with us so he doesn't want us to die. But he has to get his... existence? His energy? From... from something?"

He wrinkled his nose, this suddenly all feel all too close to home. He clears his throat, scratching the back of his neck. "It exists by feedin' off death, sort of? Without that last breath, it can't exist."

[Bronka Hajjar]

"That could be what we're dealing with," Bronka said slowly. "It's basically a Loa of Murder, and that fits with the impression I got from it's arcane energy." She looked at the notes in the Jesuit's hand and asked "What 'place' is being referred to there? Is it Etienne's home? Is this thing supposed to be restricted to the ... " she trailed off as a thought occured to her.

"You didn't say confined to a place, did you? You said 'to the people of this place'." She stole a quick glance at Cady before turning back to the Jesuit. "Could this thing have followed Etienne to Paragon City? Where murder is commonplace..."

[Roach Copeland]

"Sounds like it fits but it's confined to the people, Bronxe, right?" Roach said he he pulled out another random book from the bookshelf to look over. He wrinkled his eyebrows at the cover before opening it up to the first page. Finding no pictures, his nose wrinkles and he shuts it again. "I mean, could it just ride one guy? Does havin' one Cajun-Sauced fella count as 'enough' for it?"

Roach tossed a glance towards the others, his eyes falling, however, to a few of the pieces of the room. Some looked old. Maybe a good score on the black market. Artifacts usually-

"Hey, if it can't ride Etienne this far, could it have ridden one of his artifacts? Like... that skull-thingy?"

[Etienne Mbane]

The Jesuit shook his head. "Unlikely. The Loa aren't like other spirits. Normally, while they do grow in power from humans, they can't effect them directly. They more make conditions more favorable for themselves. Mules and houghan are special because they have ways of directly working with the Loa."

He read on for a bit, then closed his notes. "Now. What makes you think this is a Loa?"

[Cadence Calloway]

Cady had backed away from Roach after that whole hair sniffing affair, and had remained quiet while the others asked their questions. She felt her blood run cold as she listened to the Jesuit's notes. She bit her lip...and finally spoke up.

"Father...the Loa that took control of Etienne and attacked me," she started. It was obvious she was uncomfortable talking about it, but maybe...maybe this was Shortest Breath, so it needed to be brought up. "Could that have been the Loa your notes describe?"

Other bits of conversation she and Etienne had after that incident came to mind.

"We tried to find it after that night. And we tracked it down to Kings Row, but it just disappeared," she said, leaving out the details as to how they had gone about hunting. No use cluttering up the conversation trying to explain how riding sidecar with Etienne and the Loa worked. "And after that, there's been times that Etienne has said the Loa were terrified of something, something that shouldn't be here in Paragon City."

She glanced at the others...feeling a little guilty that she hadn't thought of all this beforehand.

[Etienne Mbane]

The Jesuit raised his eyebrows, reacting in surprise to something Cadence said. "I really couldn't say. There are a great number of Loa that we would consider malevolent. As for the Loa being afraid, there are few things that can make a Loa fear. It would be very interesting to document it."

He lapsed into silence, pondering for a long moment. Finally, he sighed. "There are a number of things that shouldn't be in Paragon, however. Some would even argue that the heroes themselves don't fit into God's plan. Sadly, I am poorly equipped to tell you if this is a Loa with which you are dealing, as I said to your headmaster. If it is a Loa, you would be best served by going in with the most powerful weapon any of us has."

[Roach Copeland]

"Please tell me you're talking about a machine gun or a flamethrower," Roach mumbled as he leaned over Bronka to get a better look at the notes. He squinted at the handwriting before finally just giving up reading altogether. Too many big words put together anyways. "Cause I got the feelin' you're not talkin' about that, right?"

He sighed, tossing a glance towards the Jesuit. "Please don't say faith. Cause we're generation X, Father. We traded our faith for video games and talkin' pictures, you dig?"