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Jul 23, 2019 16:30:05 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Jul 23, 2019 16:30:05 GMT -6
Xiaolian was not going to be pleased. Then again, Xiaolian had been not pleased with Molly since she had gotten a binding and it was obvious that Molly was not, in fact, human. But the warden coming down with something on top of all the trouble with the Dragon Court meant her partner was going to get pissy. Molly did not look forward to work that day. She dropped her head in her hands, took a deep breath, let it out, and walked to her desk. The other woman was right next to her after all.
Molly took one look at her partner and held back a flinch. "Hey Boyuan. The Warden is going to be out for awhile." There was no way to soften the blow. Molly couldn't think of one at least. Maybe if she broke it up? "So it looks like we'll be picking up the slack from that. Yay longer hours?" They'd have to use the crash rooms. Who were they kidding, Molly was already using a crash room. It wasn't the best, but it was better than nothing and it meant that she didn't have a commute.
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Jul 23, 2019 16:40:49 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Jul 23, 2019 16:40:49 GMT -6
Xiaolian was silent and continued to browse through her email, at this point in the week Molly was mostly just noise she ignored in the mornings. That time was generally reserved for building her to do list for the day, and finishing any tasks left from day before. "I know. Klein has already sent that email. Blackwelder is our contact if we need anything." She finally said. Xiaolian was amazed that the man even knew how to use email, he seemed the sort that would have stuck with smoke signals, magic mirrors, and other things that were predominantly unseen.
"I'm going to need you to not get distracted Bronson.." Xiaolian pointed out, knowing that the other had the attention span of a gnat. There were days when Xiaolian could swear she could feel her brain cells dying. "It's just us and support staff, Dumitrescu is going to want the issues with Mezar fixed ASAP."
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Jul 23, 2019 16:45:57 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Jul 23, 2019 16:45:57 GMT -6
Molly took her seat and nodded. "Yeah I know. I'm glad he sent out an e-mail. They were looking at twelve weeks." Twelve weeks with no warden and an active arson investigation. The again, they knew perfectly well who attacked the ranch. A bunch of vampires. And they knew who was missing in action. The entirety of Tyrus' family. Molly assumed they were dead under the circumstances.
"Have we gotten any more information from the court yet?" Probably not, but it didn't hurt to ask. This was not going to be fun. Molly was still struggling with working with her partner when there was less than no trust between them at this point.
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Jul 23, 2019 16:59:54 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Jul 23, 2019 16:59:54 GMT -6
Xiaolian shook her head, "No.. no news yet. I'm suspecting that something is very wrong." Going in person would confirm it, but that was a risk that wasn't exactly worth undertaking then and there. They were down a warden, which under normal circumstances could be dealt with, but Dallas was perpetually short staffed. There was a was a reason it was easier to get contractors than full time officers. "Investigating that isn't an option, unless you like being someone's lunch."
The work could be split between the two of them, but if they were honest, Catherine generally took the lion's share of any of the community work. That left Molly to handle anything with juveniles, and Xiaolian to take on some of the cases involving trafficking and sale of illegal magic items. Dallas with it's 3 major interstate highways could be a hot bed for supernatural activity and crime. Xiaolian just considered herself lucky that she hadn't gotten hurt yet.
Hong Kong had been similar, but more often than not she found herself in need of stitches, serious medical care, or tending to various cuts and bruises. The staff medic hadn't been much help either, as Lockheart hadn't been exactly well versed in living patients.
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Jul 23, 2019 17:13:19 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Jul 23, 2019 17:13:19 GMT -6
"I'm already certain of it. I've tried getting a hold of Veritas, but no one's seen him." The sole human in the family, he was the brother in law of one of Tyrus' brothers. He was also the one who handled day time business. "With the ruling family out of contact, I'm starting to think the only reason Tyrus is alive is because he's been laying low." She was fairly certain that's what happened, actually.
It also drastically reduced their investigative options. They hadn't been able to ID the killers, other than as vampires, and without the court's cooperation there wasn't much chance of IDing anyone at all. The court only cooperated because the ruling family thought it amusing, and Molly knew it. "Has forensics managed to salvage anything from the ranch yet?" Chances were fairly low on that too. The ranch was positively dripping with magic.
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Jul 23, 2019 17:23:02 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Jul 23, 2019 17:23:02 GMT -6
"No, nothing that wasn't already there. Forensics has not been exactly been terribly enthused about sorting through that mess." Xiaolian wasn't sure they'd get anything either, as most of the signatures had been ruled out as belonging to Tyrus, Molly, Catherine, and the two strangers she'd brought with her. Admittedly they had been quite competent, and half of Council more than likely would have given anything to have them as specialists. It seemed as the world became more connected and globalized, the problems that MCU dealt with became more severe.
"The two unknown signatures were already ruled out by the warden before she left."
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Jul 23, 2019 17:28:29 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Jul 23, 2019 17:28:29 GMT -6
"No one is enthused about sorting through that mess." And there went the low hanging fruit as far as topics went. "Has anyone checked on Brandon? If nothing else, we should let him know his aunt is going to be unavailable for awhile." They could use the standard she got caught up in a case excuse. The idea of lying put a sour taste to her tongue, but it always did. Leaving out the truth was one thing, and was what they tended to go for. "I suppose we could say it's because of the council. That's true enough."
Molly hadn't needed to be told that much. Given it was Klein who got a hold of her, she already knew. "Brandon might also be a good lead on the court. He's a vampire after all." And it was something. He tended to stay away from everything, but it was something.
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Jul 23, 2019 17:44:50 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Jul 23, 2019 17:44:50 GMT -6
Xiaolian thought for moment, that was the one individual who they hadn't thought to check on and likely wouldn't get them turned into food either. "I don't know.. but I think I've still got his info from a case he helped me out on awhile back." She was beginning to realize how unprepared and overwhelmed she was fixing to be. How anyone stayed sane in this job was beyond her.
A quick flip through a notebook she kept turned up what she was looking for. "Okay let's try his shop first, someone should be there." Brandon's help had been valuable when Xiaolian had been trying to crack a smuggling ring out of Houston. The man had known a surprising amount about one of the reagents she had run across on one bust. At the time she hadn't known him as the Warden's nephew, but instead something of an authority in the field of dark magics himself.
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Jul 23, 2019 18:12:34 GMT -6
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Post by littlekreen on Jul 23, 2019 18:12:34 GMT -6
Down the hall in a researcher's labcoat came Chrysanta in her simple flat shoes. The clothes easy to keep clean and firstly from contaminating the evidence were rarely stylish. They were comfortable at least. As apparently Xiao and Molly were set to the investigation she had a preliminary report for the two. Occupied with that her glasses lay forgotten in a pocket. Constant wearing of the glasses gave her headaches and had taken them off.
Two brass-colored eyes look over then Chrysanta came with the packet. At least here half or more the personnel were strong enough resist her uncontrollable gaze. Compulsive truth on coworkers never ended well. Xiaolian being a null suited her just fine.
She waved, "Detective Xiaolian, Bronson, I have a preliminary report for you. The house area's a mess but whatever Ivor did bottled the reagent area at least."
The file, fairly thick already, was in a binder to contain all the material. It was an entire ranch of a high profile case. Pictures galore and everything suspect tested twice.
The reagent storage itself while still contaminated by the blast isolated by Ivor's field. The destabilized area welded back together did their investigation no favors. Still they wouldn't randomly fall into a rift so recorded a general fire report of the house. While not an arson, persay, it did indicate the blast zone roughly coincided with the magical epicenter. The fire's origin enough a curiosity to be marked inconclusive as most of the area ceased to be but wasn't quite aligned. Magical outbursts were harsher on the north side which had a hotter burn much earlier in the fire.
The reagent room pictures indicated and identified each object to the best of her knowledge. Some of them were incredibly obscure. They'd recovered a ledger crammed with receipts and Chrysanta listed a summary of what was in the room versus what reciepts said should have been inside at one point.
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Jul 23, 2019 18:28:29 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Jul 23, 2019 18:28:29 GMT -6
"Given how busy we're about to be, I'd suggest the phone first." She preferred going in person, but under the circumstances she didn't think that'd work well. The sergeant took the folder from Chrysanta and smiled. "Thanks Chrysanta." She flipped through it and stopped at the list of the reagents. "Geez, think he had enough?" And some of this was obscure. How had he even found some of it. She handed it off the Xiaolian and frowned. "Anything stand out to you?" Though what had already been said suggested there may not be much. If everything was a mess, then everything was also a mess to make sense of.
They had to somehow wrap this up as much as possible before Tyrus and Catherine returned. They at least needed answers. She was hoping for some of whatever magic he had been doing to still be there, a magic circle, or most of one. Hopefully they could recover something. they might be able to piece it together. Worse came to worse, she'd hitched a ride back home and have him remake whatever ritual he did.
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Jul 24, 2019 18:00:55 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Jul 24, 2019 18:00:55 GMT -6
"Good point, maybe I can rope him into helping with some things too." Xiaolian mused, knowing that Brandon was always eager to take a stab, quite literally sometimes, at anything the MCU could give him. It fulfilled the requirements of his license to practice necromancy it's associated magics, not that his aunt was terribly thrilled about that one. Xiaolian just saw it as yet another tool at her disposal for her job.
"Great work Chrysanta, I figured you'd at least be bogged down in analysis for the next week." Xiaolian had been hoping that they could sit on the arson investigation until Catherine returned, but it looked like that wasn't going to be the case. "You know, for a high level mage.. I'm surprised he didn't take more precautions." She commented flipping through the documents Molly had handed her. This just seemed to be sloppy work, especially for Tyrus. "I don't think the reagents are what was targeted necessarily, but was more so.. what is.. gravy? What do you think Chrysanta?" Xiaolian asked, now thoroughly frustrated by the inconclusiveness of their evidence.
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Jul 29, 2019 8:36:21 GMT -6
Post by littlekreen on Jul 29, 2019 8:36:21 GMT -6
A smile and a chuckle she answered, "That's what I have that I can legally support with evidence so far. We check everything. The gravy is gravy with really high iron content my best guess is boudin noir or like materials, not turkey. Probably lunch. Though he didn't seem like the type to eat near his supplies. Photo marker #GB-16 and 44 in the storeroom. We're still trying to find where his fridge was launched to so we can corroborate."
She nodded at Molly and Xiaolian flourishing a hand, "I'm still following other leads. Tyrus was really prepared a lot of those high-quality gems came in one lot. I got some information from his nearby dwarf supplier on the receipts. Ivor's bottle nearly froze the whole cellar in time for days while we processed the house until it finally flared out. I still have some complicated conjectures I may have to find a consultant for. The smoking hole of shredded wards full of chaos magic doesn't help but the cellar is comparatively pristine. There are signs ward breaches and other nonfire misbehavior about 30m from the crater inconsistent with burn times as explosion flash-burnt the others simultaneously."
A bagged piece of seared marble from her pocket put it on the desk, "That's one piece of a ward that divinations read as stable on the initial wider survey. I have parts with that harmonic in bags as exploded. Both of them can't be true."
She made a knuckle and lightly rapped a symbol on the bag as it highlighted glowing marks, "I need to go back to the site to track any more of its pieces or find where the aura is coming from. I can't say for sure where it was or if it was related yet. I smell a proximal cause somewhere that predates the fire independently and messes with my timeline. This spell Tyrus built is really complicated and I don't know how many nonfae could intelligently mess with it. They'd have to keep the larger effort stable or would make the multiple wells unable to accumulate this much energy in the first place."
A shrug she explained miming a pressed ball, "You can put a fistful of C4 in a nuke but if everything isn't shaped just right you're gonna get a radiation cloud, not a boom."
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Aug 1, 2019 8:24:11 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Aug 1, 2019 8:24:11 GMT -6
"Send me a sketch of the ward fragments and I'll see if I can make heads or tails of them. I'm familiar with his style." They had worked together on occasion, after all. She wrinkled her nose. "I can take a crack at any of his circle that made it through, but it may have to wait until he's back as well." That was going to be fun. Hopefully they didn't miss their window. Time between the realms was more than a little uncertain after all. They'd either get a lot less time than anticipated or, what they were banking on, significantly more time than they would have gotten here.
Molly picked up the marble and examined it under mage sight. "His magic always gives me a headache. He puts way too much magic into everything." It was sloppy as far as she was concerned. Though it may be the best he could do. "He did a lot of stone based magic, so he may have split it between multiple related stones." That was a decent possibility. Though he was a walking fashion disaster given how many stones he wore on him at once. Maybe that was why his outfits were otherwise ridiculously stylish. He was aware of how ridiculous the jewelry made him look.
"He used a lot of runes for his bigger spells. Has a rune master taken a look yet?"
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grumpybear
New Member
Posts: 9
Discord: GrumpyBear#9260
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Aug 24, 2019 19:29:57 GMT -6
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Post by grumpybear on Aug 24, 2019 19:29:57 GMT -6
Pat had gotten bored waiting around for his contact, one of the few reasons why he was even in Dallas in the first place. He decided that since he was taking in the sights and sounds of the city he would stop by the MCU offices and offer his services as a way to ease the boredom.
As he walks in the doors of the building he notices that they seem extremely busy and very understaffed. "It really does seem like most of the council hates this place...."
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Sept 12, 2019 18:24:36 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Sept 12, 2019 18:24:36 GMT -6
"You think this is bad.. you should see the shit they give the Warden's team." One officer commented jerking a thumb over to where two specialists were intensely discussing a case with another person. By now officers were mostly used to the constant parade of experts and consultants. Their newest Warden seemed to firmly believe in using the community's own resources to combat it's problems, a skill that was often lost on most due to their previous experiences with MCU.
"No.. I can't find one whose willing to work with us." Xiaolian said shaking her head. Tyrus used archaic runes that most of the group hadn't encountered, and Xiaolian was generally knowledgeable when it came to some of those due to her 'travels' when she was younger. "We might have to dig through the archives.. which is going to take at least another week. No one has a seeking spell either." The woman groaned tossing a set of notes back onto her keyboard. This was the kind of case most officers dreamed of, but it was just another day for them.
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