She'll teach those hatches! [Open to Multiple]

[rae_of_sun]

Well, if there's ever been a reason for Sunshine to start pushing herself in the magic-handling department, the arrival of a mega-toxic kali nightmare goon from wherever-the-hell - and a subsequent text containing a ward symbol against said nightmare goon - definitely qualifies. Gods, has she missed wards. And, okay, she finds it a little hard to fully trust the effectiveness of a ward symbol drawn by… well, anyone aside from an accredited wardsmith (herself included)… but if there's even a slight chance that it'll work, she will gladly wallpaper the entire damn building with the thing.

Better to start small, though, especially if what she's going for is 'permanent.' Which is why she's standing outside her own apartment door with the little image of the symbol pulled up on her phone. She examines the picture with a tight little frown, memorizing the details in case intent is not enough. Then she tucks her phone into the back pocket of her shorts and braces her palms against the door.

Okay. She can do this. It's big - far bigger than anything she's attempted before - but it's only wood. Easy compared to metal or stone. And her grandmother said she could do anything in bright sunlight, and there's plenty of that shining in through the window at the end of the hall, all of two feet to her right. So.

Sunshine shuts her eyes, pictures the ward symbol as clearly as she can, and shoves.

A bolt of power runs down her arms and into her door, the recoil strong enough to force her back a pace. She opens her eyes, regains her balance, and takes in her new door.

At first, she thinks it was a bust; the change is so subtle. But then she realizes that the ward symbol is there, right in the middle of her door and as large as a dinner plate. It's visible only because the grain of the wood abruptly changes direction, like an incredibly fine inlay. She steps closer and runs her fingertips over the line where symbol ends and door begins, but she can't feel a seam.

"Gods," she breathes. Could she darken it? Probably, yes, if she tried again. Make it a bit more obvious, if that's what's needed. A smile tugs at the corners of her mouth. It worked. How's that for permanent?

Okay. She'll come back to her own door later. First, she has to do Spike's. And then the main entrances. And then the windowsills. And then literally every other flat surface she can reach.


[ooc: Sunshine is gonna spend the day WARDING ALL THE THINGS, so feel free to have your character run into her in any given hallway, down by the front door, or even up on the roof. Pretty much anywhere in the rebel apartment building is fair game. And hey, she'll probably ward your door if you ask nicely.]

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[rae_of_sun]

Okay, she's gonna have to call it a day on the magic-handling front. There's no direct sunlight for her to work with anymore, and while Aziraphale's boost was appreciated, it can only get her so far after the general shitshow of the past 48 hours. Besides, she likes not passing out. Three cheers for consciousness.

She can still make a final sweep of the place, though. Make sure everything's up to code, take note of what might need tweaking tomorrow, admire her handiwork that sort of thing. So she's wandering the halls with a large thermos of tea in hand when she spots a guy who just about screams 'SOF.' Um. Sunshine stills, watching him examine one of her better-executed wards and reminding herself that even if he was Special Other Forces, they're both in the wrong universe for it to matter. It's not as if he's going to run off and tattle to the Goddess of Pain.

Anyway, the look he's giving the ward is less 'who did this significant act of transmutation' and more 'what even is this.' He runs his fingers over it, and the sudden worry that he might actually do something to it spurs her into some semblance of action.

"It's a ward," she says, glancing between him and the door with proprietary anxiety. 'So don't screw around with it' is the implied clause.

[peacefulexplorer]

He glances up, suitably startled. He hadn't realized anyone else was here. He straightens immediately.

"Are these - did you write these?" Which is a less than graceful way to start a conversation. "Sorry, I just, I didn't recognize the language. I was curious. Um, Daniel." He holds out a hand, and this is not the best way to start off introductions, but to be fair he's had a bit of a bad day.

[rae_of_sun]

Okay, probably not much of an authority figure if he's that easy to startle, right? She might have a history of shocking SOF back home, but that's only because of what she can do despite not being all that imposing, not because she's a damn ninja. Being hard to spook is part of the job description.

So she shakes his hand. "Sunshine," she says, because let's face it, no one here is calling her 'Rae' and she'd kind of prefer to keep it that way. She can be Rae again when she goes back home. "And... sort of. I made them." No drawing involved; it's not her strong suit, anyway. "I don't even know if it's a language, but I know they're live."

[peacefulexplorer]

"Really?" He brightens, overtaken by familiar linguistic enthusiasm. This day might not turn out to be so terrible after all. "I was just admiring - they're perfectly inlaid. It's, that's seamless work, it's, it's amazing. You, uh, you don't know what they mean?"

He's missing about a dozen of his books of reference right now. This is, for once, his area. In a matter of speaking.

[rae_of_sun]

"Thanks," she says, thawing a bit more. It's hard not to be proud of the work she's done, in part because it's the sort of thing she has absolutely no business doing, but she went ahead and did it, anyway. (Gods, just imagine telling Yolande she warded an entire goddamn apartment building, more or less singlehandedly.) Strangers' appreciation is just the icing on the enormous cinnamon roll, and she takes a slightly smug sip of tea as Daniel gushes.

"Wards in my universe are symbolic," she explains with a little shrug. "Heavily stylized, sometimes, but ultimately they're just pictures." The wards she's been churning out here don't look like even a heavily stylized anything to her. "These aren't from my universe, so... I don't really know how they work. But they do feel like they're working."

[peacefulexplorer]

"Wards," he repeats. That's new. "You mean they - they serve a purpose. Well, I mean, they wouldn't be here if they didn't, obviously, but they're...they're more than just writing?"

He looks back at the glyph on the door, studying it with an intensity usually reserved for his "it's four in the morning and this translation is Very Important" days. He doesn't feel anything different about the air, but then, he knew he shouldn't really expect to. Whatever Sunshine's talking about is taking place on a level he can't detect. Unsurprising, really. The thing in the bar had been exception rather than the rule.

[rae_of_sun]

Sunshine falters for a moment, thermos stilling en route to her mouth. Is it even possible that this guy managed to miss Lucifer's arrival? Damn. She's officially jealous. "You didn't get the memo? They're supposed to keep out that godsbloodyawful piece of work that came through a couple days ago. I thought the text went out to everyone." She finishes that aborted sip of tea, then asks, "Or are you that new?"

[peacefulexplorer]

"Yeah, I'm, I'm new. Really new. Been a weird couple days." He gives her a shaky grin. "I'm staying with someone in the building. Um, at least I'm pretty sure it's this one? It looks like it, so..."

The sentence lapses off as Daniel casts around the hall, looking for some confirmation that he's in the right place.

[rae_of_sun]

Sunshine winces, then lifts her thermos in a sardonic toast - here's to our collectively unfortunate situation. "Sorry," she says. That seems to be the thing to say in these sorts of situations. Also on the list of rifty conversational gems is that whole calendar-measuring contest, but with such a newbie, it's just not fair. More to the point, she has no desire to count the weeks she's been here or ponder how settled she is versus how settled she should be.

So instead of going down that road, she tries, "What's their name? I met a lot of people on my… rounds," she gestures, somewhat sheepishly, to the proliferation of wards, "so I might be able to tell you if they're in the building, at least."

[peacefulexplorer]

Daniel hesitates - the last person he mentioned that to ended up nearly biting his head off due to some clearly bad blood there, not that he's really been briefed on the details - and then goes ahead anyway.

Caution is not one of his talents.

"Lucy," he says, still scanning the hallway. "Lucy Cole, I think? She lives around here somewhere - er, probably. I've been staying with her."

[rae_of_sun]

Hey, she knows this one! And as an added bonus, Lucy isn't an ex. Sunshine hums a confirmation into her thermos, then says, "Blonde, right? And with a…" okay, what do they call Albion here... "English accent?" She nods, casual and reassuringly drama-free. "Yeah. I think I remember which floor she's on." Well, she remembers which floor her first transmuted window is on, anyway.

[peacefulexplorer]

"Do you?" he asks, relieved. His smile becomes significantly less forced. "Yeah, that, that sounds like her. I'm sorry, I'm - well, like I said. New." He shrugs apologetically and shoves his hands in his pockets.