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Post by Krakenbox on Apr 27, 2021 19:08:08 GMT -8
 Lucas fades as the world of the ephemeral bleeds from the void. The theatre had shocks of half-formed ideas, already fading from the fire. Examining the emotional wounds, he notes that with the destruction of Yasmin's body, the taint of the dead had vanished, the pathways that the roots provided no longer viable. Whatever energy was trying to burst forth into the land of the living, it couldn't enter anymore. Eis gets the phone cracked, but can't find much. Her clients all had nick names, and the messages were mostly just saucy exchanges. She writes down various dates and meeting times, but when she follows up it's obvious these were just pickup points and the girl was always 'surprised' where her beaus had taken her for the evening. She also reports to Kai that Tanner's messages don't have any hints of the supernatural, and this Damien fellow was in consistent contact and seemed to give her street advice, but didn't seem in a hurry to stop her risky behaviour. Gavin knows one person in Autumn Court who is the botanist of the Freehold, and that would be Stephen Callahan; the Darkling Flowering that was the Squire of Chunhua and a Witness of the order of Eternal Echoes. Just because the man might be connected to developing this fruit, doesn't mean he's culpable in the murder, however, right? The Razorhand turns his immediate attention to the streets, focusing the stress of the investigation onto something more comfortable: hunting slavers. With the Summer Court neck deep in the Cartel, Gavin was vaguely familiar with Loki's mortal identity and reputation; the local Teniente had harvested a boogeyman reputation in terms of prostitution recruitment and the coyote rackets. No one in the Mexican gangs stepped a toe out of line in terms of kidnapping and circulating women, lest they end up skinned and beheaded under a bridge. Coyotes needed a mile long reputation of treating their wards with the Catholic mercy of Jesus Christ himself to leave the city alive. So the Cartel was out. White supremacists were small, and going off of Yasmin's lack of a street reputation, this felt more organized than an angry Aryan Warrior pimp. Zipping territory to territory, the Beast found himself in China Town of all places as the rumours of a Strip party going bust landed in his lap. The Big Circle Boys, the Wah Ching, and the Black Dragons had a latticework of gambling rackets and circulated hosting business opportunities with visiting tourists. One of their newest methods was modeling recruitment to get young women on both sides of the ocean into a country where they had no allies or even spoke the language, with soft nudges towards professional hosting and general arm candy for a glamourous evening. Recruiters were hitting up swanky restaurants where the young and hip congregate to groom them to the lifestyle, often paired with drug muleing across the border. However, Gavin's ginger Aussie mug stood out like a sore thumb. |
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Post by Krakenbox on Apr 27, 2021 19:41:32 GMT -8
Oren enters The Black Fish, a bar that was frankly harder to locate due to the lack of advertising. It was one of those affairs that curated its business via word of mouth, and somehow didn't sink within the first few months for such an arrogant business practice. He wasn't sure he wouldn't have been able to find it without making friends in higher places, and being more than willing to foot the bill to keep the evening rolling. The entrance was small and minimalist, with black varnish and red neon lettering, leading down underground to a broody intimate setting of a lounge that eventually split into a restaurant proper. Calianna settled herself in the lounge to watch the hired mermaids through the glass, looking wistful with a drink that caught the glow of the lighting and waiting to net some fish of her own. New friends ebbed and flowed, but eventually she gets recruited for a pack to venture into the bathroom and chatter about some opportunities that weren't suited for the open floor. Reyna Delacruz makes a nervous admission that Yasmin used to come here a lot due to one of the waiters having a crush and sneaking her in without the reference or cover fee. She didn't think Yasmin had much interest in him beyond friends with benefits, and had a side hustle with a couple of sugar daddies that she was quite proud of. Damien didn't seem jealous or anything like that, but definitely kept tabs, almost like he was looking out for her. The fact that both had disappeared made her nervous that her clients were gangsters or some shit. |
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Post by Tanner on Apr 27, 2021 21:20:47 GMT -8
"Is she all right?"
The Runnerswift had been in some kind of scrap, with healing stitches and yellowing bruises. It was an odd sight, given the resources the Freehold had to wipe it away.
Tanner wasn't stupid, and it had rapidly dawned on him that Yasmin was probably dead. He explained that they were just university friends, having started school at the same time before they diverged majors. He nudged Kai to come clean about the situation, though she had a feeling that the details weren't going to put the guy in a great headspace, she was hungry for leads and did her best to describe the explosion of plant life without maintaining an empathetic tone and encouraging the Twilit Page's wrath.
'Just university friends' didn't seem accurate, the Changeling clearly shaken and shutting down in the conversation. Kai gives him the time he needs to recover, peeling back details that she was a theatre major in her early twenties that was growing her network and planning on moving to LA come graduation. Tanner was reluctant, and even cold as he answered the Summer's questions, explaining he got more involved with the mundie's life when she started leaning on him for her emotional troubles and her life taking a hard turn when she was introduced to Sugar Babying to maintain her school expenses and avoid returning to a rough home life. He blames that he used a Contract here and there to get her past her anxiety issues, and it made her too bold in other areas, and once he found out a Spring Courtier was following her he took notice rather than dropping it.
He's clearly embarrassed Kai would get the wrong idea, and outlines the type of person Loki had executed, and that Tanner was clearly unaware that the man was dead. Damien pretended to show concern and care for the mundane, but he did fuck all to help them, and reaped the highs and lows. He doesn't know which Courtier pointed Damien in Yasmin's direction, but suspects Piper since he worked for her. He was part of an Entitlement that focused on breaking out into new beginnings, or some other generic Spring rhetoric. Tanner intervened, and obviously wasn't careful or subtle enough, because he got jumped with enough mundane around that using any Contracts wasn't an option, and ended up hospitalized. People were aware of his situation, so supernatural healing in the public eye of classes and campus wasn't on the table either.
In all, Yasmin's life had spiraled, and with Spring intervention suddenly she was swimming in cash and a bright future.
Apparently it came at a cost.
The Beast offered to tap his own resources to dig into what the ritual could be about, but there was something off about his affect that told Kai that the payment on his end was high, and he wasn't particularly concerned about that fact.
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Post by Kai Rose on Apr 27, 2021 21:39:13 GMT -8
A memory flashed from a time before, about a group that would burn it all down to make change and a Lyre candidate who may well have been a part of it. If Holly Mason was behind this...
"It might be, but I'm not so sure about that. An Entitlement about new beginnings? Change? After all this girl went through?"
It didn't add up. Piper was attached the wrong way to Spring's nobility for it to make obvious sense.
"Does the name 'Bodhisattvas of the Broken Cage' mean anything to you?"
She blinked at him.
"We need to know what that Entitlement is truly about and who its membership is."
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Post by Lucas Chevalier on Apr 28, 2021 2:23:50 GMT -8
Lucas crouched over the rubble, his eyes scanning for even the slightest spark of ephemeral energy to be found but there wasn't even a scrap of it left.
Good.
He had been wrong earlier. This city wasn't sick, it was traumatized. The trauma ran deep in both life and death. There was something off about the ghosts here. Their behavior didn't match what he had experienced in different places that he lived in. His mind replayed the events of the hospice residency, what he had experienced, and how despite the best efforts of all of the Gravewights combined, they weren't able to figure out the proper ritual to disrupt the creation of Reverents. They ended up having to rip the ghosts of the dead bodies and watch as the ghosts were dragged kicking and screaming into the Underworld.
There was likely some chastising coming at him in his future. That was fine. They didn't understand this situation like he did. They didn't realize how traumatic deaths could lead to ghosts being created. The more they dug into Yasmin, the greater her chance of becoming a ghost would have become. Even if he couldn't safe her in life, he helped save her death, and that was enough for him.
He straightened up, his cold gaze staring off in the direction of the rest of the group.
They weren't going to find the answers they needed here regardless. Whoever was behind this likely had connections with the Reverents, which were likely tied into the Underworld Gate in Buck's manor. If there was one thing tonight taught him, however, it was that this situation was incredibly dangerous. He needed to keep his emotions in check and come at things from a distance, rather than rushing right into them.
Who are you? What is it you want? How far are you willing to go to get what you want?
Lucas floated away until he found another dark spot to reappear in. He took out his phone, shooting Kai a quick text.
"When we're done here, we need to talk in private."
He shoved his phone back into his pocket and returned to the group at the university campus. The Gravewight watched Tanner closely, his usually expressive face currently looked like a blank canvas.
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Eis
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Post by Eis on Apr 29, 2021 17:45:08 GMT -8
To say Eis was frustrated by her shallow, unproductive lead would be an understatement. She'd given Kai everything she'd found on the phone. Which, frankly, was neither damning nor particularly useful in the Fairest's eyes. So that was it. It wouldn't do to simply leave the rest of her companions to their own devices. So, having completed her task, she hails a cab and meets up with them once more.
"That was a waste of time." she says to everyone and no one, wearing her emotions plainly on her sleeve. "The phone is accessible now, if anyone's interested in having another look. I'm done with it." Eis lets out a long breath and flexes her fingers to relieve just a bit of the tension.
Not everyone present had the luxury of a direct line of communication - as Kai did - so Eis indulges them in a huff. "Yasmin had apparently just been a good little call girl. No evidence from the phone that she had any conscious knowledge of the types of people she'd been in contact with." It's more tact than caution, in this case, that she doesn't specifically mention Tanner or Damien by name.
"If anyone produced something substantial, don't let me stop you from sharing." The edge is her voice could cut glass, and her crossed arms and dour look could easily be interpreted as hostility. She just doesn't aim it at anyone. She barely even makes eye contact; preferring, instead, to stare off at some unknown point of interest.
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Post by Krakenbox on Apr 29, 2021 18:58:07 GMT -8
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Post by Gavin Graves on Apr 29, 2021 19:30:40 GMT -8
Gavin felt the shadow of a distant haunting nightmare pass over him. There were no particular details brought to mind from this ill omen, only a mess of feelings. The hair on his neck was standing up straight and even in the warm air the skin on his arms showed goosebumps. He walked down the road where he'd parked after coming back from China Town. The vortex of ineffable scraps, where missing time, primal instincts, and experience bounced off each other wildly, slowly coalesced into one unshakable feeling. He felt like one of those hapless deer seen in the nature documentaries chewing on some bite of food right before a tiger puts it on the menu.
He'd just backtracked a ways from where he'd parked, having blown passed his intended destination due to the busy street and bustling activity. That feeling had him on edge and kept his head on a swivel. Continuing the walk, the rain picked up again, and a white sedan caught his eye. It was parked, running, and had its wipers going well enough to see in the pouring weather, but that was too fast for anyone who was just sitting in their car. Through the snapshot of clear viewing between windshield wipes, he caught a glimpse of a dragon tattoo on the driver's right arm. The art was of a Chinese style, like what would be expected on a hardened gangster. Worse, he'd seen that exact tattoo earlier in the night.
Gavin was being followed.
He did his best to hide that he'd noticed the tail. He kept the same pace, didn't look back, and reacted to a big drip from the awning edge he passed under. He had to keep it natural. Time would tell.
They followed me here, he thought. What have you got yourself into now? Keep your head straight.
Gavin walked apace by the meeting place, a distance away from the other Lost he was supposed to meet. Through a window he caught Eis' wandering eye. She saw him walk by the entrance and went to raise her arm to catch his attention before he might miss the place. Gavin still facing forward, looked Eis in the eye and held the eye contact with a serious concerned expression, and pulled out his phone, while continuing to walk by. He hoped his expression read 'don't.'
He fumbled about trying to get the others' contacts into the one group messenger.
It took a bit for him to remember Eis was in his phone under Rebecca. The nerves weren't helping.
He diligently but sporadically typed out his snap messages through the rainbow sparkles of his wet screen, "Don't come out. I picked up a tail. Worked a lead in China Town. Sniffed the wrong ass. Well more like the right one actually. Found the soft recruitment arm of a Chinese trafficking operation. My pasty ass stood out a bit. They're following me right now. White sedan, plate 890 H14. Or H1A. Was walking by. Dragon tattoo, right arm. I don't think they know I know. Not sure how to lose them. Could beat some ass in an alley. Could get weird. Ideas?"
He kept walking to buy time. Always looking for more time.
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Post by Kai Rose on May 3, 2021 22:16:44 GMT -8
As Eis reported to the group, she replied, "Thanks for looking. We may need to look further, but I think we've got an angle. Tanner was a close friend who she relied on emotionally. She was planning on moving to LA for theater when she graduated, but she got introduced to being a sugar baby to pay for shit. She ended up in with the Spring Court. Apparently, Damien was a piece of shit who acted like he cared about people, but did nothing to help them. He was part of a culty Entitlement that I've got real concerns about, a group called the Bodhisattvas of the Broken Cage. Focused on change above all, which you can totally imagine can get out of hand. Tanner intervened and got hospitalized for his trouble."
She sighed. "Her life had gone to shit, but then Spring made it great... until this. It's like they got someone at the bottom end of a spiral, raised them up and then..." She made a snipping motion with her finger. Cut the thread? Make an offering? Who knows what the fuck this nonsense was? "Whoever it was, though, is acting illegally. Even in Spring's Law, at Ostara. The sacrifices had to stop. When we find out who did this, good odds the Spring Queen will want to clean house."
Looking down at her phone, she explained, "Gavin's findings are interesting. Chinese traffickers were involved, which tracks with what I read on her - she was being hunted by them for escaping. That explains the bottom of the spiral, but they're probably not the culprit who killed her. Apparently Graves has picked up a tail, plate 890 H14 or H1A, and he's trying to lose them. We could call it in to Jack, maybe... unless someone else has a contact who can run the plate?"
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Post by Lucas Chevalier on May 3, 2021 23:47:47 GMT -8
Lucas' brows burrowed deep in thought as he had several knotted up in his mind that he was trying to untangle. He took out a notepad from his backpack, scribbling down his thoughts to help make sense out of them. For anyone who peeked over his shoulder, they would see the following notes:
1) Ostara used human sacrifices before. Possibly same connections used to get bodies for whatever Spring Contract Yasmin was involved in.
2) Bright lights by Ostara. Plant life in field of bodies. Yasmin + plant g essence
3) Leviathan--Old Laws?
"Roger probably could. He has already been working with us so he would be easier to flag."Lucas goes back to his previous train of thought. Could Yazzie be the one who is tied into the strange happenings with ghostly energy or was it all about the plant life that Spring is growing? He searched his mind for what he could recall about his former fellow winter Courtier and the Leviathan Motley. |
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Eis
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Post by Eis on May 5, 2021 18:22:58 GMT -8
Kai's findings have Eis' gears spinning. Damien might have been lowly, as far as moral character, but he brought in impressive elements. Enough to potentially earn the ire of the Antler Crown. Vegas' Spring Court seems more and more morbid, the more she learns about it. Sacrifices and necromancy seem to pervert the harmless, carefree image Spring so often presents.
Absently, Eis pulls out her own phone as Kai looks over hers. She'd missed Gavin's message. Even as Kai relays what Gavin's told her, she can't help but feel a little guilty. Better not to think about it.
"Either could work. Roger might respond sooner. Though I sincerely hope Gavin can buy enough time for that." she says, to both Lucas and Kai. Her brow furrows, and she looks at her phone once more. She sends Gavin a quick message.
[If things get out of hand, send an SOS. Do be careful]
"I've asked him to reach out if there's any real trouble. Violence should be the absolute last resort, and even then we'd lose valuable information if his pursuers flee." Or perish. She lets out a slow breath. The situation would work out. Surely Gavin can handle himself.
"Traffickers?" she asks, as an afterthought. She rights herself and fixes a look on Kai. "So Yasmin was being forced to do this. And now we've got a ruthless bunch of... likely armed mundanes to deal with. It doesn't bode well for secrecy."
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Post by Gavin Graves on May 9, 2021 16:45:37 GMT -8
Gavin kept apace down the sidewalk, noting the sedan flipping around to keep with him, it became apparent he was going to have to follow the advice to give them the slip somehow. He returned a message to the group: 'giving it a try.'
A small crowd of students on their night prowling was travelling the other direction, boisterously enjoying their evening. This was his opportunity.
Picking up his rate of travel he aimed to match their arrival at the mouth of an alleyway where he might slip down while they played screen for him to get some distance and change directions. If it didn't work, the chase was going to be on. Gavin felt the urges of his instincts pressing him toward breaking and running, either at or away from his pursuers--the instincts weren't choosey, merely demanding an immediate end to the threat.
A vision of viscera spilling from their bellies and a fountain of arterial spray repainting their pristine ride flashed to mind. He could almost feel the warmth of it already, calling back to the incident on the Trod, calling back to the depths of many other such incidents with no clear memory. "No. That's not who you are," he muttered to himself aloud, shaking his head to clear the thought and break down the alley.
The college kids' movements were matched to his maneuver and stumbling slowly through the intersection when he needed.
Will it be enough?
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Post by Krakenbox on May 9, 2021 16:56:36 GMT -8
Roger ran the plate, messaging Lucas that it was a rental and advising that if Gavin is being tailed by Black Dragon, he just needs to keep his cool. It was probably just a flex to inform him they know he's been sniffing their neighbourhood, and if they hadn't shot him yet it's just to spook.
Lucas recalls that Yazzie was a Coyote that left the Freehold after she failed to integrate into the local court. Though he wasn't versed on the nuances of the local Nations' cultures, she wasn't a big fan of Nohoilpi's namesake and outright called it disrespectful. She had been tapped more than once for her own extensive occult knowledge, and was rumoured to have some mortal ties that could help with the wards. Upset with the violation of her privacy and feeling like she was being treated like a token, she disappeared with the clear message she didn't want to be followed. The group that dove into the desert during the Revenant Crisis pointed to her as a possible source of the chaos and being involved with the motley who tried to kill them, creating court tension.
Lucas knows that the Leviathan Motley was an outside Autumn-aligned entity that had somehow gained access to the Freehold to operate under Vegas' interests, and their negligence caused the Revenant Crisis. Their leader, Echidna, was an extremely talented occultist, but is largely believed to have suffered from delusions of grandeur and megalomania, leading to the abuse of her pledge-mates. She has been since executed by the Magistrate of Nightmares, though not before an elaborate trap took several Chevaliers including Apollo. Blink was a Hedgespinning blacksmith rumoured to have been freed of servitude from the Goblin Market, taking the monstrous Grendel with her. Hemlock was a survivalist Wizened that had been keeping them hidden and safe until Loki tore his head off with a Cold Iron chain. The Gristleginder was unaccounted for.
As the group text's Gavin and ponders, the Beast suddenly pops his head in from the back entrance; a little sweaty, but all right and no traces of blood or struggle. He's caught up to speed on what they know thus far.
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Post by Krakenbox on May 11, 2021 21:20:04 GMT -8
Oren places down the coffee for everyone. There is a rare, serious look on his face as he relays what he learned at the Black Fish. |
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Post by Gavin Graves on May 12, 2021 13:42:04 GMT -8
Gavin was lookin a little piqued by his recent run in with the Black Dragons. As he approached the gathered group and they brought him up to speed on the results of their varied efforts, he kept looking around. His glance would flash to the entrances and exits to make sure their statuses hadn't changed and toward every perceived movement in his periphery. The beast's instincts were running hot.
"Gave them the slip for now, but they know where my car is parked. They'll probably pick me up once I get moving again."
That's where he thrived though, in the moment where one thing flowed to another seamlessly. Having to stop like this was going to be a thing if he couldn't direct his energy toward something productive to keep that flow going. He did not want to slow down.
"I've been thinking about the whole positioning of Yazmin in this mess. She was all down and out at least as far as most of society would figure, before all the mucking about in her life. Then everything turned around, and a meteoric rise toward reaching functional in short order. Fits the Bohdi renewal and growth angle in nicely. It's the difference she was attaining in that short time that stands out though. Renewal. Recovery. Rebirth. Repair. If she was being sacrificed, it was likely to capture that symbolic energy to feed the grander ritual or bargain. I wouldn't even hazard a guess as to the Bohdis involvement at this point they could be doing the work for whomever is doing the sacrificing, or their work could be the target of the other ritualists simply stealing low hanging fruit, or simply be a group that has similar interests. Spring having solid themes and all. You said Tanner got beat?" turning to Kai. "That says to me that there are competing forces at work. One side wanted one thing, another something different: Puts sabotage or a too many cooks scenario into higher likelihood now, I'd say." The ending to Ostara came to mind.
"These political waters are a little too deep for my treading. I'd like to take a crack at looking into the bioengineering & fruit production, and perhaps the necessary facilities. Had to have been made somewhere and by someone. They might be able to point in the right direction for one of the parties or even identify how it was supposed to work."
He already had a name in mind, but wanted to get an Autumn perspective on it before bringing it to light. Like Kai had previously brought to Gavin's attention, these people are political as fuck. Best to check things before stepping, and Eis had already put the spotlight on Tanner. It was already a thing that Fall was connected somehow. It was best to not raise that situation to include other specifics & certainty without need.
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