(Sweet Dreams) I Had a Bad Dream Once...

Aug 12th, 2017 06:18 PM

As Ingrid hugs the distraught sister, she can feel a lot of the tension from her muscles disappear. This time, she does not resist this act of human compassion, as awkward as it might seem to some, accepting it as is. However, there is a darker, more disturbing side to this process: as fear dissipates, determination takes the throne, and Catherine becomes purpose incarnate, hell-bent on finding the people responsible. She had a job of protecting her little brother and she failed, but she is not done until those who did this die screaming.

Too bad for the two weirdos that tagged along with the Darkling detective. Some coincidence that they happened to show up just when she was about to discover the body.

Unaware of all these developments in the woman's mind, Thomas examines the place with fae magic, but if there's anything obviously supernatural to find here, it's too well-hidden for the Beast to notice it. His attunement with Autumn allows him to learn something the other two would never find out on their own, however: this whole place reeks of fear. Even now, it crawls just beneath the walls, like a maggot in a rotting body.

Ah, yes, the body. As the Nix examines it, she is able to discern one thing: what she sees makes no sense whatsoever. The cadaver is pale as if devoid of blood, but there are no fresh bite or claw marks to be found, nor does the body look anything near old. His mouth and bloodshot eyes are wide open, making Mark's face an image of horror. The only signs of external trauma the Siren can find are puncture wounds on Mark's palms, but those appear days old, maybe even more. Examining his clothes desn't help either: as old, dirty and crumpled they appear to be, there are no obvious clues on them as far as the cause of death goes.

If any of the Lost cares to look, the apartment itself doesn't look particularly impressive: there's a medium-sized living room, in which they are right now, a tiny kitchen on their right and a doorway to the only bedroom on their left. There are also doors leading...somewhere. The bathroom, maybe?

Finally, Catherine pulls away from Ingrids gentle embrace, looks once more at what's left of her deceased brother, and then at the Nix and the Mole Man. Her eyes never meet the Spring Queen, but as she makes a step backwards she says, no, hisses, quietly at the two:

"You... you killed him..." She doesn't bother to hide her hand reaching for the purse once more. There's no telling if she simply plans to call the cops or take justice in her own hands.

Any attempts to resolve the Catherine situation through words suffer a -2 penalty, equal to her Resolve. If the person making the roll stays reasonably civil, they can use a +1 bonus, so long as they attach themselves to Ingrid, who Catherine seems to trust...somewhat. Only one roll is required to dispel suspicions about Thomas and Sera, unless one of them is specifically excluded from the explanation. Ingrid can also use this bonus if she makes it clear the two are with her.

To make sense and establish concrete clues from the body, an Intelligence+Medicine roll or presenting it to someone reasonably proficient is required

Searching the apartment is a Wits+Investigation roll

**Seraphina** · Aug 15th, 2017 02:57 PM

The body, just wasn’t right. Where were the wounds? Shouldn’t there be a pool of blood or something? Or at least signs of trauma?!

The punctures on his hands were weird. And she wonders if they have anything to do with what happened. Not a place you would think to find punctures.

And then Catherine’s voice pulls her attention away from the body. Well, hisses at them.

Sapphires widen in surprise at the accusation as she stands, hands held up in front of herself,

“Me?” she asks, shock in her voice, “Do I seriously look like someone that would, could kill an employee of my park? Seriously?” she asks, eyes moving and watching her hands reaching. “I’m not a violent person and I have nothing to gain from his death. Now, I’m sure things look suspicious right now, us all showing up here,” eyes then look to Ingrid and Thomas, “and you finding Marks body. But we are all here out of concern for Mark, and as such, we should be looking around the apartment for clues and not jumping to conclusions.”

3 successes

**Thomas Land** · Aug 15th, 2017 03:05 PM

Thomas holds his hands up defensively. It's a pathetic gesture. Indeed, how could anyone consider him capable of murder? He seems barely able to hold it together in the face of Catherine's accusations.

"It's...it's quite true," he squeaks out after Sera finished her explanation. "We're only here to, um, help..."

And, as if to prove it (or to hide his own awkwardness given the tensions in the room), the Mole-Man sets about looking around the apartment for clues. It's not like he's going to calm the woman down. Maybe if he makes himself useful, she'll see the truth of the matter?

1 success

**Ingrid** · Aug 16th, 2017 03:57 AM

Ingrid is caught flat footed by the sudden turn of events.

Understandable, really. The Darkling is still holding out her arms for Catherine; still teary herself for the sudden and shocking death - the Vernal Queen was prepared for a lot of things, but nothing like this. In addition, the terrible blast of Catherine's focussed hatred is almost... overwhelming.

"What! Wait! No!" She almost squeaks.

"No. Lets not get hasty! Look! This is the shock talking. Look... Why would they do this? No. I think they're from a concerned employer. Like I'm form concerned friends. We want to solve this as much as you."

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2017-08-16 03:43:44	Ingrid to soothe nerves rolls 4 to Manipulation + Persuasion + Situation Bonus - 1 Untrained - Catherine (10 Again, WillPower)	2, 4, 8, 1	1 success

If she sounded rattled it was because, in essence, she was.

And she could see Catherine's hand straying to her purse again.

Aug 16th, 2017 01:33 PM

For a moment, Catherine's face remains still, vehement. The first sign that her disposition towards the Lost is prone to change is her hand, stopping abruptly. Slowly but surely her dark grimace turns to thoughtfullness, as she considers the arguments laid out before her by the Nix and the Darkling. Finally, Catherine concedes, deciding that the pair's words ring true - even if there are still blanks in their story. By their powers combined Sera and Ingrid managed to stop a disaster from occuring.

"But if it wasn't... then who? He didn't have a lot of friends, but no enemies either... not that I know of, anyway" Catherine manages to appear puzzled and spiteful at the same time. Clearly, not being privy to her brother's life is new to her. She looks up at ingrid, again "Concerned friends? You mean who? Was it the university?" The idea doesn't sit well with her, you can only guess that one of the reasons why is that the classes did not even start yet.

Meanwhile, Thomas suffers a cognitive dissonance.

On one hand, the plethora of books on such topics as engeneering, computer science or applied physics (all of them, according to the stamps, borrowed from California State University, Sacramento and due to be returned weeks ago) would suggest someone of sound mind, a reasonable person with high regard for science. But if that's the case, then what in God's name are all those talismans, medallions and dream-catchers doing here? The Mole-Man's beady eyes manage to spot a laptop on the bedroom's desk before his foot lands in a thick line of something white and crumbly. Salt. Spilled deliberately in the doorway.

If anybody else wants to search the apartment, please feel free to do so
The OS on the computer has been gutted open. It'll take some navigating to bring it back to life, but it's not hacking per se, therefore only a single success on a Intelligence+Computer roll is required@%1;, did you include the -2 penalty from Cathy's Resolve? In this instance it won't change the outcome if you didn't, but in the future I'd ask all of you to include all modifiers in the roll's formula (even if they equal zero after being added up), in case of close calls - so that we know everything's been taken into consideration. Thanks!

**Ingrid** · Aug 19th, 2017 07:03 PM

Ingrid pulls an apologetic face.

"I'm sorry, I wouldn't know. I was just asked to look in on him as he hadn't... hadn't... been seen in a while." The shock of finding Mark was still running through her. Added to which the mixed emotions emanating from Catherine were throwing her a curve ball that the Darkling was still trying to process.

"I'm a P.I." She coughed dejectedly. That was the whole truth. She had the card to prove it should Catherine ask.

Still focussed on the woman and not the ruined body. "You. You must have been very close. To be looking out for him the way you do. Did... Um..." She cast about, in part because of the nature of the question; in part because of the whole horrible mess they had walked into; and in part to play up her own confusion.

"Look. I have to ask. And no doubt other people will do the same at some point: Did you notice any changes in Mark's personality? Any shifts in his habits or... Anything he may have said. It might... Might be important in figuring out what happened here..."

Ingrid could not help it. Her eyes strayed to the terrible scar on Mark's hand.

Finally, she plucks up the courage to move away from Catherine. "Look, would you mind if I take a look around. There has to be some clue around here to what happened to your brother. I promise I'll try not to disturb anything. Um. Maybe you'd like to join me... You'd know if anything stuck out as, you know, out of place or out of character."

**Thomas Land** · Aug 19th, 2017 07:37 PM

Thomas frowns at the library books. Both because of the strange pairing they make with the more...eccentric touches of Mark's decor. And because they are late. There's a corpse on the ground, an anguished family member, a monumental mystery...but the Mole-Man is still a librarian. And nothing burns his whiskers like a late book.

Beady eyes seek out Ingrid and Catherine, "Perhaps, um, there's something to be found on his computer?" Not really waiting to get the go-ahead, the Beast makes his way to the machine.

A pause when he steps in the salt. The little man is familiar enough with the occult to know a ward against evil when he sees one. Again, he looks to Catherine, "I, um, never knew Mark to be so, well, superstitious...Did you?"

Truth be told, he never knew Mark to be much of anything, except a cotton candy vendor. But it's a safe bet that this isn't normal college kid behavior.

After Catherine answers (if she does), Thomas will continue his route to the computer, looking to bring the thing back to life.

Computer Rescue, 2 suxx

**Seraphina** · Aug 20th, 2017 03:04 PM

Sapphires flick over to the mole, as he squeaks out his reply then goes back to searching. Poor guy must feel out of place with what’s going on, but at least he stays on task.

Then she looks to Ingrid, who still seems to be distancing herself from actually knowing her and Thomas. Which wasn’t a bad thing, it seemed to give her another angle to work. So hell, whatever.

There was then a gentle shake of her head, “We don’t know yet, but I think we can all agree that whoever did this needs to be brought to justice.” She says softly. “We want to find his murderer as much as you do.” And see if it’s connected to the blog and the Hedge. Cause then things were going to get iffy.

“The university? Was he going to school? Do you know what he was studying?” might be another lead, or might not. No telling without asking.

She then nods as Ingrid asked the important questions, “Yes, any changes, no matter how small they might seem could be important.” Personality changes, suddenly spouting ears or a tail, you know, the usual.

Sounds like searching the apartment it was. Her Queen was going to try and stick with the sister, which was good. And Thomas mentions a computer, ok.

“I’m not too good with computers, so maybe I’ll look around the bathroom and kitchen?” she wasn’t into forensics, but maybe spoiled food could tell them how long he’d been dead. So unless stopped, she moves towards the other doorway.

failure

Very sorry Woland ! I need to pay better attention to that, won't happen again

Aug 20th, 2017 07:45 PM

Catherine gives up on inquiring further as to Ingrid's purpose or employers. Whether she chose to accept her explanation or simply concluded that the Darkling presents no immediate threat and a potential for alliance is impossible to say, but also of little significance to the here and now.

"Yes, we were quite close. Have been since forever" she admits, looking down on the floor with something like shame "And like I told you, we had very little contact recently. Maybe if I didn't have to work that stupid job I would've visited him earlier, would've... found out..." It all looks like a prime moment for another breakdown, but she manages to pull herself together, the visible sign of which is her fist, clenching "It's like he was avoiding me on purpose. On the rare occasions he picked up the phone he was always on his way somewhere... to meet some 'friends' or whatever. The way he said it - it was like he was constantly hanging out with someone. This never happened before, okay? You can't imagine how difficult it was to bring him to a party, and without me he hardly ever went out with people" Catherine smiles, but it's a sad smile. Pitiful.

Mark's sister then turns to the Mole Man as he asks his question and looks at him, puzzled, as if not knowing what he is referring to. Then her eyes rest on one of the dream catchers and she answers, but it's clear that she's just as much at a loss as the Autumn "I... no. He was always reasonable. A little hot-headed when it came to his 'projects', yes, but superstitious? Never. I don't think he even attended any church" Finally, Catherine's gaze moves to the Nix "Yeah, he was a student at the California State here. Engineering or something, I never understood what he was doing" Another smile appears, but it's warmer this time, as if she summons a pleasant memory. The Siren's smooth appearance probably is a factor, too.

After Thomas' question is answered and when the two other women converse with Catherine, the Mole Man focuses his attention on the computer. He quickly and methodically restores the system's functionality. It appears someone's tried to examine it for bugs and flaws. Mid-work, as it seems, since when the desktop appears, one of the windows is Mark's email account, still logged on. Most of the messages are either very old or irrelevant, but some catch the man's inquisitive eye. There are account activation emails for a lot of dating sites and chat rooms, as well as a regular subscription for a certain blog on the occult and supernatural. The Secret Garden.

Other than that he finds one of the chats still open, too. The other participant is offline now. It reads:

Chat

Meanwhile, the two Springs get to searching the apartment, with a small help from Catherine. Although Sera doesn't have much luck in spotting anything of significance, her Queen fares much better. Behind one of the books she finds a coffee-stained student ID confirming that Mark was indeed a student at California State. Another curious thing about the volume is that a piece of paper with a phone number inscribed on it was used as a bookmarker. The bathroom proves barren and almost empty as far as any products of personal hygiene go, but as it often happens the trash more than makes up for it.

Seraphina's idea of checking the food proves futile, simply because there is no food to be found. No bread. No milk cartons. Nothing. The only thing close to ordinary kitchen supplies are cans of coffee, of the strong variety. Instead, Ingrid finds mountains of takeout boxes of various ages and origins, thrown around the entire apartment and filling lots of space you don't normally expect to find them in. In addition, the trash bin yields several receipts for "spiritual paraphernalia" from "Mr. Cheng's Herbs & Remedies".

As she goes about the apartment, the Vernal Sovereign notices that there are no signs of struggle of physical intrusion and it's impossible to hide them so well that they couldn't be noticed by the Darkling. For all intents and purposes it looks like Mark's simply dropped dead at a certain moment.

**Ingrid** · Aug 21st, 2017 06:59 PM

Ingrid listened when Catherine spoke, pausing in her investigation to give the woman her full attention.

"Something definitely changed, then." Not an accusation but a simple statement of fact. At that point she nodded to the protective salt wards and the occult texts hidden on the book shelves. "The speed of that change is more than a little.... yeah... worrying."

She carried on her investigation...

If Thomas brings that chat log to their attention, she adds: "Well, love and lust certainly explains some of the changes. Wonder who this is and how they met..." She purses her lips.

"Are you certain he was, like, living here? 'Cause I'm not getting a lived in vibe. Sure he used it as a shelter and a base, of sorts. But ah... This place has less life than a motel room." Then Ingrid spied the pathetic body and winced, instantly feeling terrible.

At last her investigation concludes:

"Well. Ah. Looks like he got mixed up in some spiritual group of some sort. There is the books. And the... weird stuff we keep finding around the place. I don't know a lot but that salt look like its supposed to be a barrier of some sort. Not sure who the group was or their relationship to Mark but we do have something to go on - phone number..."

She presented the card with the phone details, paused and took a closer look at the book (and the page) she had found it in.

"Mark died..." Her voice died and she shook her head as she stared at his body. "Someone could have been here a couple of hours ago if that chat log is correct."

Ingrid was still grimacing when she produced the receipts from the trash. "The weird stuff seems to have all come from this place. Its possible they might remember Mark and... might be able to give you some more context on his... um... recent activities."

And lastly: "There is something else as well. I think Mark knew his killer. Knew them enough to let them in here. Np struggle, see. He... He didn't put up a fight. That means whoever did him in had Mark's trust. Or that poor Mark never saw it coming. It possible the murder weapon might still be around here..." That was for the benefit of Sera and Thomas, not so much for Catherine.

(Sweet Dreams) I Had a Bad Dream Once...

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