So you want to be a sleuth (ACTION)

[jerks22]

The truth is right in front of you, and still you won't believe. I guess you'll have to learn sooner or later.

If your muses are interested in the truth, make a subthread here describing where they're going and what they're doing. There are 5, maybe 6 things to discover. If your intuition is on the money, you're sure to find out something...

Comments

Genessia/Church | Well my intuition is crap but let's try.

[notsoholyspirit]

[When he saw the church in Genessia had been destroyed, he recognize it and headed that way. He had no idea what he might find there beyond the rubble seen in the video, but there had to be suomething.

His first stop in the ruined building was the podium at which Tepet and Mnemon had been filed.]

[OOC: now posted by a mun following instructions]

Re: Genessia/Church

[jerks22]

Upon walking in, he would see an old woman dressed in blue sitting in one of the few pews that had survived the destruction. She looked like the pinnacle of peace; utterly serene.

The podium looked normal enough, though on close inspection one could see handprints, as there was dust all over.

Re: Genessia/Church

[notsoholyspirit]

After looking at the very average--albeit dusty--podium, he peered out at the damaged pews. When he saw the woman sitting placidly, he approached.

"Afternoon, ma'am. It's a shame such a beautiful building was destroyed."

There isn't a hint of sarcasm when he says it, slowly sitting on the pew bevidence her.

Re: Genessia/Church

[jerks22]

Though without any visible attention, the woman did notice his presence.

"Yes, I suppose it was. But honey, buildings aren't what's important. I've always wondered what a sermon outside might be like. Sun on my face, hearing the birds chirp."

She took a breath, still keeping her eyes towards the front.

"I suppose you heard all about what happened."

Re: Genessia/Church

[notsoholyspirit]

"Not quite."

He looked around at the ruined architecture with a frown. Nothing about this was a farce. For just a moment, he started to doubt what he'd come to know as true.

"That's what brought me. I've been here for a service before and didn't hear anything about all of this..." Spirit gestures vaguely to the destroyed room.

"I needed to see for myself. Were you here when all this happened?"

Re: Genessia/Church

[jerks22]

She laughed, gently.

"No young man, I wasn't there. I was being an old sinner and fell asleep that Sunday, spending time with my grandkids. But I heard that that terrible woman, Teapot or somethin', tried to make everybody bow. I would'nta done that, no sir. I know who god is, and she ain't it."

She let out a relaxed sigh.

"So, now I'm here, makin' up for lost time. Hopefully god will forgive me for stayin' at home, instead a' bein' a martyr. But my grandkids do love hearing stories. Do you like hearing stories, Mr...Oh, I'm sorry! Here I am, blabbing your ear off and I don't even rightly know your name. I'm Margaret."

Re: Genessia/Church

[notsoholyspirit]

He smiles politely. Margaret was every ounce the elderly churchgoer he knew as a kid, and her genuine nature was comfortable.

"I don't mind listening. I'm Spirit. It's a pleasure to meet you."

If he didn't keep wondering about Tepet actually doing all of this or how it'd beend orchestrated, he'd be enjoying the conversation that much more.

"It's hard to imagine someone who swore to protect the city deciding to deliberately cause harm. A lot of people seem to trust her." Myself included. "I hope some of the more precious items could be salvaged and brought to wherever the congregation goes next."

Weapons Dealer Shop / Nova City

[weavemyownfate]

Well.. This is absurd.

It didn't take long for Satsuki to send a squad to tape off the explosion scene, but unfortunately it's a little slow running due to the confusion of the incident. Satsuki realizes she's taking a bit of a risk investigating the incident herself, but she simply has to get to the bottom of this.

And, maybe against her better judgement, she has Luke tagging along to help out as well as her Gothorita. She looks around at what is left of the shop with, what else, but a frown. "I recall seeing credit cards being used during the transaction," she murmurs to Luke. "Take a look around and see if you can find any of them.. Hopefuly they have not been reduced to ash. Gothorita, keep by his side."

As for herself, she will look around where she thinks the video was shot from to see if she can find anything there.

Re: Weapons Dealer Shop / Nova City

[jerks22]

If Luke follows her orders, he'll have a hard time finding any credit cards whatsoever; not even scraps. Except for one, however. It juts out from underneath the corner of what remains of the counter, and its rigid plastic has retained its original form.

Satsuki, looking in the corner of the shop, will find a lot of mechanical detritus. Much of the equipment here is long gone, charred and scattered in pieces, and all of it of varied origin. If she's familiar with the varied technology here, she may be able to pick out some bits that are highly unusual, even for a sci-fi pawn shop.

Weapons Dealer Shop / Nova City - Sneaks in (I won't do too much so other people can Plot!)

[lookprofessor]

Luke was exploring quietly, attentive to the details. The counter top was primarily destroyed, dusty and ruined. Very little was discernible until he found the remaining credit card.

"Miss Kiryuin? There's only one credit card here, but I'm not sure it's the one from the video."

Regardless, he brings it over to her. "Other than that, nothings there. Everything's broken, nothing opens..."

He hands the card to her and looks around the building. "Maybe someone's nearby who saw what happened. Sometimes the best way to start investigating is to ask people if they know things!"

[weavemyownfate]

Satsuki doesn't really possess any expertise on the technological side and could only guess what might actually be out of place. It's a clumsy tactic but she ends up looking four things at random that seem unusual to her. Perhaps she should have brought Chihiro.

A glance is given to Luke once he approaches, "This will be fine; thank you." she replies as she gives it a look over.

"And that is an excellent idea; go ahead and see what you can find- given the situation it is unlikely anyone will speak to me." Not without intimidating them first, anyway, and that probably isn't the route that she should go.

[jerks22]

Four things that seem unusual? A tall order, but here is what she finds:

1. Yellow bristles
2. A thin, charred square with a flesh-colored middle
3. bits of metal with the same color scheme as the weapon Satsuki allegedly bought
4. The charred remains of a shoelace

Meanwhile, if Luke proceeds to talk to people in the area, he'll have to be careful he hides the fact that he's working with Satsuki; only people completely ignorant of the news will dare speak to him then. Of those that do, and of those that remember the night in question, they'll recall that Satsuki seemed to have put on weight. Perhaps she was stomping around in a bit of rage. One man who walked closed to her that night remarks that he felt small tremors as she passed by.

As an aside, the credit card is in-tact, and reads "Morgan I. Taylor" for the name.

I AM SO SORRY I wrote this tag before but didn't post it

[lookprofessor]

Luke was finding his conversations with people a spectacular failure. Most seemed to regard such a small kid asking questions about such a big incident as odd; some downright said they wouldn't talk. He was about to surrender and call it quits when he wondered...

"Excuse me? Do you know who Morgan Taylor is?"

If he doesn't get a useful response he thinks he will return to Satsuki. All he's gotten to this point is that Satsuki had seemed...larger... when she had been here. A useful detail, but not so much all alone.

Np!

[weavemyownfate]

.. Well. Sadly, Satsuki hasn't much of an idea of what she has her hands on, but she can't rightfully claim they're useless.

But now that she thinks about it, Lex seems to have some wonderfully advanced equipment so perhaps she can call in a favor and see if he can analyze the metal and the square. What in the world are the bristles from though?

They're all placed in seperate evidence bags.

The story, and the transaction

[jerks22]

"Then I'll tell you what I know." He awkwardly cleared his throat, made a cursory glance around, then began.

"There may not be words to express myself. I will approximate. I am a spirit of order. The one I am pursuing is a spirit of chaos. It is... I will use a metaphor.

You have heard, perhaps, of a story called "The Boy Who Cried Wolf". In essence, a dishonest guardsman ruins his credibility, and a village suffers for it. This is similar. Only, imagine that the Boy is immovable, and he is employed by the wolves.

Alone, the chaos spirit is merely a nuisance. Unfortunately, he is a harbinger for worse. His methods, insofar as they are methodical, are to gradually weaken society's collective trust and believability. Over time, he erodes their sense of reality, until they are weakened and unable to combat the "wolves".

His first venture, as you may have seen, was wild and widely ridiculed as such. That was the point. By presenting something insane, and having it rejected as such, he paves the way for horrors equally insane to invade uncontested.

That would be bad enough, but as you can see, he escalates. Whether his acts are believable or unbelievable, they all serve the same end. Trust is fragile, and hard to mend. Because of this, any size "hammer" will do to break it.

Due to the threat he and his ilk represent, I have been dispatched to this world in pursuit. My progress has been slow, for creatures of order are set in their ways and not used to adaptation necessary for otherworldly travel. The spirit of chaos, however, is versatile.

This is why I must enlist the aid of those native to the worlds. There are two reasons for this.

The first is for purposes of investigation. Some of your detectives recommend "getting inside the criminal mind". I, as a spirit of order, find this nigh-impossible, for my quarry is anathema to me. You, however, have a greater chance of predicting his next move.

Secondly, I am a spirit. That is, I am hindered when hunting on material worlds. This is why I require the services, willingly or no, of those such as Morgan Taylor. Even so, our bond is weak, and it is all I can do to signal for better allies."

He'd let that sink in for a moment before continuing.

"Do you now understand what I require of you?"

And the confused raccoon

[mamizou_futatsuiwa]

The more that Mami hears, the more she realizes she's gotten herself into something that goes deeper then she could have realized. If she is to take everything that she is being told at face value, it would explain a lot of things.

The first and most obvious one would be why this man kept referring to himself as if he wasn't there. She had suspected some manner of ghost was involved, but it seemed likely this was something that she had never even heard of before. Considering her actual age, she was quite knowledgeable, but even she can't claim to have ever heard of these sort of spirits.

Verification of her theory that she was dealing with some sort of ghost aside, the rest of the story was a lot to take in all at once. If she was understanding things correctly, this 'spirit' had come to this world on purpose, not drawn here like the rest of the 'natives', and that the one it was hunting was the same.

"Yeah, no one was going to believe those silly claims made the first time were real. But with those damaged buildings, it is harder to just ignore the second time."

Also hard to ignore was the nagging feeling in her mind that she was getting in over her head. She was not a coward by anyone's definition, but she had intended to just put on a little show and report back to Satsuki. Now something from another world was asking for her help. This sort of thing would probably require her to take life much more seriously then she normally did.

'Luke's' fingers come up to his face, reaching for a pair of glasses that wasn't even currently there. It was a habit that obviously makes no sense for someone with no eyewear, and ends up making him look like he's just touching between the eyes for some reason.

"Assuming its all true, I can imagine what you are thinking. But is it? Can you prove any of that is true and that you're not just a crazy man?"

Re: And the confused raccoon

[jerks22]

He noticed the no-glass shift. A nervous twitch perhaps? It's understandable.

"That depends on what would satisfy as proof. It is not a coincidence that you regard me with doubt. That may owe to the chaos spirit's work. Perhaps I used words like "insane" loosely. To my mind, they mean things out of the ordinary. If that is what you mean by "crazy", then yes, I am crazy.

One way I might prove it is to be with you the way I'm with Morgan Taylor. However, by that point our fates would be intertwined, and the purpose would be defeated. Other than that, and the information I've shared, I know no other way."

[mamizou_futatsuiwa]

This of course left her with a rather difficult choice to make. She doesn't know exactly what this being means by 'with him like Morgan', but something tells her that there would be no way for her to keep up her disguise in that case. While she can basically figure it out, she doesn't know if, for instance, this 'Morgan' can actually even understand what is going on or not. So far she had seen no indication that this was the case.

Her curiosity was making it harder to hold onto this childish form. She was already slipping up in ways that would embarrass her if she went back to think about it. She was mostly acting like herself in a different body.

"I suppose that WOULD do it, wouldn't it? But are you asking me to let you live in my body? For how long? I'm still young you know! And would I even still be myself?"

Natural worries, regardless of if one was a young boy or a disguised female tanuki.

[jerks22]

On the plus side, Luke seemed to be taking him seriously. On the negative side, he was acting weird and panicky. Again, a normal reaction, but he had hoped his partner would be made of sterner stuff.

"That is probably what I'm asking you to do, yes. I have means to combat his power, which would aid our hunt. The length of time will be the length of the mission. Once that is completed, I will die. As for being..."

Time for struggles with language!

"You would be you, and I would be I. And in addition to, or instead of that, I would be I in you. Or perhaps superseding you. Or yourself in myself... There may not be a place in your mind to receive the answer to that question."

Meanwhile, in Onyxia's Lair...

[weavemyownfate]

Eventually Satsuki returns from one of the more bizarre crime-scenes that she's encountered here in Nova City, a twin of a sextuplet (is that the right way to write it?) group went an a rampage then blended back in with the group forcing her group to bring everyone back for questioning. Thanks to Koishi, Satsuki had been able to determine who was the guilty one in a quick manner.

It's too bad Luke wasn't there. It would have been one of the greatest puzzles ever.

Long story short, the others were released, Satsuki noticed that Luke still wasn't around, and is quite annoyed as it doesn't take a genius to realize where he went. A text was sent to Mamizou asking if he was with her before she returned to her office to deal with paperwork in her office.

Delicious paperwork.

[lookprofessor]

He is going to be in so much trouble.

Luke wasn't keen on leaving one Morgan I. Taylor alone by the Space Docks, but his willingness to help the man was immediately overruled (which seemed unfair, seeing as now there's only one other person and it didn't seem right that she should count twice even if she did have an extra spirit inside of her). The walk back to the Guardian's headquarters was quiet, and Luke was growing increasingly nervous. Maybe Satsuki wouldn't have gotten back yet. It hadn't been too long, really.

So the little apprentice opens the door and peeks in, and for about three seconds he's immensely relieved to not find an angry face waiting for him. Until he notices that the light is on in the office.

Sorry, Mami. Did you want to go in? He's still standing in the doorway.

[mamizou_futatsuiwa]

Many whelps, Luke. Handle it.

For all her worries this spirit was going to drag her off on exciting, dangerous adventures right away, Mami still ended up returning to deliver the news first-hand. It was not going to be exactly easy to talk about, all things considered. It was a difficult story for even her to handle, but she was taking it seriously. It was tough not to with that thing touching her soul in naughty places.

She'd remained relatively quiet on the trip back, and despite having the ability to defy gravity like it followed her rules instead of the other way around, had insisted on remaining on the ground to make sure Luke had someone with him. Even without that spirit's aid, next to no one would be hurting that kid with her there.

And while they had made it home unscathed, now came the part that neither of them were looking forward to for different reasons. Still, she was the adult here, and couldn't let the difficult of explaining what the hell was going on deter her.

A hand touches Luke's shoulder. "You're in the way, dear." Mamizou's voice lacks annoyance. "And the longer you are, the harder it is going to be for you to actually go in." And herself for that matter, but she was more concerned about the young boy right now. Sorry Mr. Spirit, some things came first. What good was 'saving the world' if she just ignored the people around her that were clearly suffering?

[weavemyownfate]

The Nova City Guardian is quite concerned on if the mission was even a success or not. There was no telling what would happen if two Lukes were caught at the scene, though if it were a bogus lead that may not have been so bad.

On the other hand, the length of time that passed would suggest it wasn't a waste which only makes her even more curious what could have happened. But rather than get anxious, she'd simply busied herself.

Suddenly, however, the door is drawn open the rest of the way and the raven-haired lady greets the duo with her usual frowny expression. Perhaps she shouldn't read to deeply into Mamizou being no longer shifted, but the look she gives the tanuki is an apologetic one- It would seem she is going to go ahead and take the blame for being unable to keep her word on keeping the tanuki's abilities secret.

"You appear to be unharmed. That's a good sign." she says as she draws the door fully open, steps back, then gestures to the pair of seats that are set in front of her long desk. "It is rather late, but I would prefer to have the report now rather than later."

[lookprofessor]

Luke was about to open the door the rest of the way when Satsuki appeared to do so herself. He glanced up at Mami for guidance and received none.

Quietly he trudges to the seat and sits, his gaze still pointedly on the floor. He is holding his little notebook still, though he's not decided what to do with it yet. On the one hand, the spirit had said to keep quiet regarding what he'd heard. On the other, he trusted Satsuki and thought that having her know what was going on and therefore be able to assist was pivotal in the success of the spirit's plan.

So he glances to Mami again, looking for her take on the situation. He would follow her lead. How he'd know it was her lead and not the spirit's, he wasn't sure--but he figured he would defer to the adult's guidance anyway.

Fayren | Burnt down cottage

[rulerofme]

Azula was the only one of the Guardians that David really didn't like, so he was curious to see if she had indeed done this crime or if it was some sort of fabrications. So he approached the location of the burnt down cottage in hopes of finding out just that.

He was interested in seeing if maybe the family was still lingering around or if someone who had seen it happen was there.