(Forbidden Fruit) Quaestionis

[Circe]

Circe actually has experience with addicts of various substances, fae and mundane. She honestly never much cared what they were high on so long as they paid. Her experience with "helping" addicts wouldn't fly here. Knocking out a changeling to dump with the Chirogeuns, force feed a cure all goblin fruit, or otherwise going through Lost rehab would be poor tactics here. Maybe some of the talking tricks that she used to keep them calm while she got closer could work.


Without the haymaker at the end of course. "Addicts? I see. I've had to deal with such individuals before. A pretty face without a badge can do wonders. But my responsibilities in such encounters often end with dropping them at rehab. Is there any consistencies to his reactions? Pattern to hallucinations or triggers that set him off that you have noticed yet Detective?"


If Detective Roberts asks why Circe quickly explains: "Addicts are easier to manipulate if you don't work against the hallucinations and avoid saying or doing anything that will cause an outburst."


Alex was definitely doing a great job. "As Mr Brown has said, you have few options and less to lose by letting us work. We try and maybe we get something. We fail," she shrugs, "maybe the blames gets spread around to more then you and your department."

  1 success

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2017-08-10 11:16:04		Circe rolls 7 to Manip + Persuasion: we are pros (10 Again, WillPower)		4, 8, 4, 3, 4, 7, 7		1 success

Circe quirked an eyebrow as Donovan brought up stomach pumping. She nodded before shaking her head, "A good suggestion but I am unfamiliar with the laws related to having someone's stomach pumped without consent."


She looked to Alex. It might be best to just let him take the lead.

[Travisc06489]

  failure

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2017-08-12 10:11:49		Roberts rolls 5 to Size Alex up (10 Again)		7, 2, 6, 5, 2		failure

  3 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2017-08-12 10:12:17		Roberts rolls 5 to and Circe too (10 Again)		9, 1, 8, 8, 2		3 successes

Roberts gives Alex a serious look. "He's admitted as much, from what we can tell. He called the substance 'his old friend'. Unless he was talking to a hallucination, my money is on him being an addict." she answers.

"He's been very vocal about his hallucinations. We've got a recording of the interview so far. I can't say if it's the drug or just his personality, but I think he imagines himself a poet. What's that got to do with anything, Ms. Blanc?" She stares for a moment at Circe's answer. "You're the expert." she retorts, with either sarcasm or just being exhausted.

She exhales, resigned. "Mr. Brown... I've told myself the same thing. We've got nothing to lose by giving you a chance.
What I lack is confidence" she directs at Circe, before turning back to Alex "that we'll get results."

The Detective pushes the door open and continues to answer questions as she leads them through a walkway between desks and busy policemen, towards a door at the end of the hallway. "It's how we obtained a sample. We're legally bound to try and save his life." she explains to Donovan. "He's been medically cleared, and his vitals are normal. But there could be delayed effects. Too much of anything can kill you." She lets out another sigh. "But all we found was some kind of fruit. The lab results won't be back for another few hours. Fucking bureaucrats." she says with no small amount of contempt.

Pushing through the door leads them into the interrogation room - the side hidden behind reflective glass. No other policemen are present, though there are a row of 5 chairs in front of a table that faces the room. The man inside, straight-jacketed, sits in a chair facing the window. Glowering and grinning intermittently and mouthing something unintelligible. His face however, is the most striking; his skin has a greenish hue, and his ears and canines alike are pointed and long. The flesh on his cheeks is sucked in and gaunt, framing an unusually shaped skull. Roberts doesn't seem to notice.

Roberts gestures to the recording equipment on the table. "You can replay the interview so far from here" she points out a button on the console "and view it on the monitor here." which she points out in a corner close to the glass wall.

"I won't retrace the entire conversation with you, because it has already been captured. Draw your own conclusions from it. Mr. Brown asked about the details of the arrest? He fled the sting on foot and took refuge in an unfinished condo, where he was apprehended. He had a backpack with him, containing some empty plastic bags and a 9 milometer handgun, as well as the burner phone. There was none of the substance left in the bags, so we don't have an intact sample. The bags are getting examined in the lab as we speak. Unless any of you has experience with such things, it's best they stay there. The rest I can get for you. Now or after you speak with the suspect. Any other questions before I leave you to it?" she eyes the three in turn.

[Circe]

  1 success

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2017-08-14 19:31:44		Circe rolls 6 to Read those lips Wits 3 + Comp 3 (10 Again)		7, 1, 3, 7, 8, 7		1 success

Lip reading wasn't Circe's forte, but she'd give it a shot.


Circe couldn't help the look of annoyance crossing her face at the sight of the hobgoblin it the room. That'd make this so much more difficult. Old friend could mean a lot more then just addict. The hob could be the fruit's main tender, a crippling blow to the operation. Or the fruit could be grown from corpses. Many, bad, possibilities existed. It also explained why the cops were failing so hard: Lost could pretend to think like the humans they once were but hobgoblins were not even close. The poet speech pattern was probably how it walked, period.

Circe nods along with Alex's request for the telephone, "I agree that checking the phone first could help. Even a contact list of names could help in our talk with...him. Thank you Detective."


Circe felt she had a better chance with the telephone. Sure, Fairest could manipulate people good but this Fairest preferred to use that to have violent fun. Hacking however was something she'd picked up. Once Roberts leaves she will tell the boys, "If its phone has security I can try to crack it. Cops probably already have but you never know," and if it was Hedgespun the cops might not know how to access it at all.

[Donovan Ackerman]

Donovan listened to the detective describe the symptoms. They weren’t what Alex had described from consuming the fruit but then Alex was used to seeing past the Mask. However, the idea that the seller was a mortal ‘seeing’ phantoms disappeared when they entered the interrogation room. The green skin marked him as a Changeling. Which meant the craziness was either from ‘overdosing’ on Hedge Fruit or was the man’s natural disposition. Whatever the case, the guy’s Clarity was likely not the most solid. And he was feeling a rush of ‘pure Wyrd’ as Alex described… what would that even mean?

“I got experience with drugs and stuff. If you have some of the fruit you found left that I could see or a picture,” he said moving to the matter at hand, not seeming to realize his claims as a young 20 something 'drug expert' could be taken the wrong way. “I might be able to tell what it is ‘fore those tests.” He wasn’t sure how pumping stomachs really worked, did they keep the vomit in a bag to throw away? “Or even the left over throw up. Might recognize a smell. So yeah, the bag might be useful for that too.”

[Travisc06489]

"Of course." the Detective answers with a professional nod to the Mirrorskin. "When we get the results you'll have them."

Alex and Circe both can pick up just a little of what the green-skinned dealer is muttering. The words 'I'm sorry' seem to come in spurts and refrains, and something like 'did as you asked'. If he is speaking aloud at all, it's not clear who the listening party would be. One ear repeatedly twitches as if he hears an answer. Then, an ugly smile splits his face and two words are distinctly clear: 'it's amazing'.

The Detective's already sour demeanor seems to go from bad to worse - though perhaps not directed at Alex's questions - and she sighs again. "He wasn't carrying an ID. Fled the scene on foot. And DNA and prints haven't matched any records we have access to. So we basically have a nameless drifter who, despite his extracurricular activity, has never been caught."

Donovan's initial comment elicits a raised brow, but the female detective nods. "Alright. A sample of the stomach contents -" she shifts her gaze to Alex and Circe "and the phone. I'll be a few minutes. In the meantime, you might want to review the recording." With that, she turns from the three and heads back down the hall.

Video

The recording, time-stamped two hours and thirteen minutes ago, opens with the dealer in handcuffs. He sits in the same chair he sits in now, across from none other than Detective Roberts. The dealer looks much different. His skin less green. His ears only slightly pointed. Everything that stands out about him now is less pronounced on the video. Roberts, looking much more composed, opens with some questions.

"Let's start with something simple. What is your name?" She smiles, friendly. Open.

"No. You first!" he snaps, with a wild look in his eyes.

"You can call me Detective Roberts. What can I call you?" Her face is calm. She doesn't react.

"Ask me now, ask a-gane. Answer will remain the same. Twisted girl with hidden shame, tell me now your truest name." His pitch elevates with his rhymes, getting more frantic as he continues.

She remains calm, not acknowledging his strange speech. "Cindy, then. Will you tell me your name now?"

The dealer seems satisfied, nodding to himself. "Cindy. Yes. Let me whisper." He leans forward over the table, looking like a child with a secret to tell. Roberts turns her head slightly, giving him an inch of cooperation.

The dealer takes a mile.

In half a second, one hand is free from his cuffs and clutching a fistful of her hair. He savagely smacks her head on the table, and it is all she can do to wrest free from his grip before being pummeled again. Moments later, two policemen open the door and restrain the dealer. They take him back out the door, leaving Roberts alone in the interview room. She makes a sharp sweep of her hand under her chin towards the camera and the feed ends.

It resumes half an hour later. A single policeman with a bad cut on his face glowers before shutting the door. The dealer is in his chair again - this time in a straight jacket. More like the creature he appears in the room behind the screen than before. Roberts has fixed her hair again, and fixes the dealer with a hard look from across the table.

"Three pairs of cuffs... you're really an escape artist aren't you? Got away from the scene fast enough." The composed and friendly Roberts has been replaced by the tired, unapologetic one the three Summers are more familiar with.
"Still haven't given me a name. Why don't you tell me what you've taken. We already have the contents of your stomach in the lab, but you can save us time. Let me know what it was so you can get the treatment you need."

"In the end. I think you'll know. My old friend. In fields they grow." The frantic singsong of before is mild compared to this. His volume and pitch seem to have no control. His head snaps to one side and he whispers to no one. "I know. But she can't see. Won't see."

"See what?" She says, sounding somewhere between curious and annoyed.

"The teeth! They bite and gnash at the walls! No, not teeth... thorns. But I have teeth! "

This back and forth continues for the next 20 minutes, with half of Roberts' questions answered in nonsensical rhymes and half with threats. Nothing the dealer says has any context, which isn't helped by he frequent asides to an unheard voice. Eventually Roberts gives up, and the recording ends as she exits the room.

[Circe]

Circe quirked a blonde eyebrow at Donovan's offer, unable to steel her expression completely. Yeah she knew that some narcotics had a distinct scent, even the norman ones, but that was an odd offer that Donovan was making. At least it would be to the mortal detective. She thought he'd already identified it for her and Alex. Maybe he was trying to fake something up for the cops?

After the detective leaves Circe just castes a flat look at Donovan before saying, "If you get more details on the fruit from digested muck, I will be very impressed."

When Alex asks if Circe is a hacker, all she does is nod her head with along to letting out a flat, "Yeah." Not that she could do much without an actual computer.

As they watch the video, the Fairest can't help but snark out: "I wander. Was he batshit before he tried to overdose? Or are there two of them in his head?" even as the video played. She'd heard rumors that some Lost could have that mental problem. The stories never ended well. Then the dealer blows up on Roberts. "Remarkable restraint on their part," Circe couldn't really get much detail from the ramblings.

"I got a little out of that," was her reply to Alex's question. About the only thing she could deduce was came from the part about the fields and the walls. It sounded to Circe like that meant a Hollow was being used to grow the stuff, "Sounds like someone is growing this shit in a backyard surrounded by a lot of thorns." She hoped Alex and Donovan got her meaning. "Barnum is be better then empathic, that'd be shit for tricking him," was her own assessment.

[Donovan Ackerman]

“You obviously ain’t ever had to find out what plants made a cow bloat. Some grass ferments different from other grass even though it looks the same.” He said casually as he squatted on his haunches to watch the video.

“Sounds like he might be tryin’ to fill some catches, getting’ her name. Makin’ her think about shame. Speakin’ in rhyme. Don’t know what he’d be castin’ though. That stuff get you new powers?” His chin in his hand, he tilted his hand “It does sound like he’s got someone else workin’ the fields. Could he reallly be talkin' with someone. Clause or Token? Honestly rather hope that than deal with a crazy guy talkin' with himself."

[Travisc06489]

The Detective hasn't returned yet. The three are left alone, for the moment. On the other side of the reflective glass, the dealer continues muttering to himself.

Please continue. Some time will pass before Roberts returns with the evidence in hand.