1 — 80s Night & Disco Spike
Our story opened on a beautiful springtime Saturday. Each demigod spent their day in their own way—Alexandra working hard at home and at her job as usual, Thomas letting his feet lead him downtown for people-watching, Dee spending time with their family and their friend, Weave receiving a delivery for the bar and checking in with her dad, and Step constantly working away on homework and projects.
Some occurrences of note included Alexandra encountering a FOR SALE sign in front of her apartment building that hadn't been there the night before; Thomas making introductions to a faerie named Lapis and the church grim Goma; Dee catching a glimpse of Medea in a mirror and cracking it with the force of their reprimand; Weave's dad warning her against mortals meddling with magic and lusting for power; and Step "coincidentally" catching wind of 80s night at Elysium and inviting the Woven Band onto their trivia team.
That night, the demigods converged at Elysium. While Dee did their usual outfit in goth colours and Step donned some acid wash jeans, Thomas went all out with a DEVO cosplay. While Weave was overseeing goings-on and Alexandra was working, the trio of Dee, Step, and Thomas proved a formidable intellectual force as a trivia team. With Thomas' help, Step managed to get the last question and win the competition.
Later, while Alexandra was on her break in the back, she saw a text from her mom saying not to worry and that she would talk to the landlord. Alexandra searched and found a slick website for Horizon Realty, a property management company with the slogan "Expansion into dreams", but little information on the website. A quick google of her own address didn't show any sale listings yet, but she did find a blog post about how the apartment building is of historical interest. Alexandra showed Horizon's website to Weave, and when Weave Pierced the Veil, she saw a vision of a signature being signed; the name on the paperwork was John Anacreon.
Out front, Thomas and Step both got a bad feeling and looked to Disco Spike—a beloved decoration made by Step, which contained Elysium's router and magically amplified the wi-fi—as a bright white light flashed from within and all of the lightbulbs in the bar burst. With split seconds to act, Dee cast a spell to contain the burst of arcane energy, doing collateral damage as they pulled pieces of wood panelling and flooring from the surroundings to create a "hamster ball" around the explosion.
As Weave took charge to get things cleaned up and announced a round on the house, Alexandra produced flame for light, and Step examined the routers' remains and determined that a big arcane blowback had exploded out from it. Weave whispered the name she had seen to Thomas, who used his extrasensory perception to determine that Weave oracularly perceiving that name had caused the retaliatory blowback, and that continuing to follow the lead of Horizon Reality would cause this John Anacreon to reveal himself.
While Alexandra and Camila flipped the breakers and had an awkward moment, Step repaired the router. They reinforced it against similar arcane overload and gave it the disorienting feature as an extra defensive measure, infodumping to Dee as they did. As Dee sat beside Step and thought about the instinctive spell they had cast, they realised that the white arcane energy was somehow familiar, and that they would recognize it if they encountered it again.