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Truths
Mar 26, 2019 18:23:26 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Mar 26, 2019 18:23:26 GMT -6
MCU got called out for the strangest things. That was, like, half the charm of it of course, but seriously. Oh hey, we found something we can't explain. It must be unseen! You guys handle it. And then the specialists get called because the local branch can't identify and it now here they are in the middle of nowhere, not where near an active mirror hub to investigate 'Something strange, I don't know how to describe it ma'am it's just strange.'
Mundanes gave the best descriptions, really they did. But with the big reveal, now MCU was on tap for the mundanes too. Hands in her pocket, Molly, still looking entirely too young and not liking it and not able to do a thing about it, slouched towards the scene. Xiaolian had won the coin toss on who drove, which meant nobody stopped them for underage driving this time, so hey, there was that. "So ten bucks says it's totally mundane and we made this trip for nothing."
Where even were they? Ah man, she was going to have to read the reports again and actually pay attention.
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Truths
Mar 26, 2019 18:54:22 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Mar 26, 2019 18:54:22 GMT -6
"Ten bucks says it's your lunch from last week." Xiaolian commented making a face at the other. This was a typical day between the two, the insults and quick witted conversation was something that often other officers didn't understand; especially their current boss, Warden Dumitrescu, who was more interested in getting things resolved than whatever it was Xiao and Molly spent their days doing.
"But seriously, did you even read the report Bronson?" The lieutenant asked with an annoyed sigh. Her partner tended to just coast unless they were interested in the case they had been assigned.
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Truths
Mar 26, 2019 19:15:17 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by demikara on Mar 26, 2019 19:15:17 GMT -6
"it was boring, so. No" she shrugged. "But I know you read the report, so you should let me know if this is just mundane nonsense and we're here to appease the locals, or if this is an actual case." She tended to let her partner do the drier reading and this had been both dry and coming from a mundane. It was two marks against the will to read the report.
Molly hated reports from mundanes. There was never much information and half the time it was a false alarm. The other half of the time it was something incredibly minor and they were sent out because the local officers were undertrained.
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Truths
Mar 26, 2019 19:28:59 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Mar 26, 2019 19:28:59 GMT -6
Shooting her partner a glare, Xiaolian pulled the information back up on her phone and annoyedly jabbed a finger at the report. "Read the god damn thing Bronson, it says they found some sort of box made out of black stone. That's not something normal, and no I don't care if it is where your from.. wherever the fuck that is." The petite woman said.
"Initial reports have said that it's too heavy to move even with equipment, and that what little of it they've uncovered has some strange sigils on it. The local authorities are too scared to mess with it, and the road crew refuses to go anywhere near it, saying there's too much bad juju or whatever."
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Truths
Mar 27, 2019 5:26:28 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Mar 27, 2019 5:26:28 GMT -6
"I mean, it could be normal. Weird, but normal." Molly pointed out more amused than not. She looked over the site and sighed. A mystery box, possibly magical in nature that refused to be moved. That sounded like a fun time, really it did. The question was, would she recognize the sigils or not. "And I'm a US citizen and have been since I was born, basically. I know we've been over this one. I just travel more places than most people do."
So, a strange box. It could be interesting, she supposed, even coming from mundanes. The woman paused at the edge of her scene and pulled her badge out, picking out the officer on the scene well enough. The uniform always made it easy to spot their own. "You called in MCU Specialists? We're here. I'm Molly Bronson and this is my partner Xiaolian Boyuan. What can you tell us about this box?"
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Truths
Mar 27, 2019 18:06:11 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Mar 27, 2019 18:06:11 GMT -6
Xiaolian just rolled her eyes at Molly's response, while they had been over it, it was still a bit of a sore spot between the two. Especially since she didn't usually answer the other's questions about where she was from, her parents, or much other than she lived by herself in a small apartment downtown. "Yeah.. 'travel'." The woman muttered boredly as she pulled a small notebook out of her jacket pocket. Wherever here was, it was still seeing the cold of spring and barely budded trees. There was the potential of life on the horizon, but then again so was another snow storm ready to knock it back to barren cold.
"Yes, I did.. you see.. that there construction site over there. Well they found somethin' a bit weird. Ya see it's like this, these men are diggin and well they hit somethin' unusual. We checked with the county and there's no reason for it to be here. Well.. see fer yerself." The cop drawled, more interested in his coffee than the two specialists from the so called magic cops. In his opinion this was something better left alone and buried.
The officer then ushered Molly and Xiaolian through the maze of vehicles and construction equipment to a cold, wet, gaping hole in the red earth. Inside the hole, was what looked like a black obsidian casket of some kind, with cold mud clinging to it's side and the inscriptions.
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Truths
Mar 28, 2019 16:57:30 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Mar 28, 2019 16:57:30 GMT -6
Molly twitched her fingers next to her temple. A brilliant world sprung up and she glanced down the hole. "The good news is the wards are heavily damaged. It should take about ten seconds to break them. The bad news is going in there to do so is going to ruin these pants." She could try and be careful, but hey that wouldn't work so well. She observed the box itself curiously. "Definite magical language on the outside, Xiao. I can't make it out from up here though. Shall we head down?"
She reached out on hand, able to work on the wards from here. It was, as she said, the work of seconds to tear down the remnants of the wards. They looked like they may have been strong in the beginning of their life, but they had certainly started to fall ages ago. The hit from the machinery was probably the last hit really needed. "Wards are down."
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Truths
Mar 28, 2019 18:24:53 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Mar 28, 2019 18:24:53 GMT -6
Xiaolian rolled her eyes at Molly's remark, "Oh come on Bronson, you've done worse than get yourself covered in mud. Also you knew this was a field trip, literally.. and yet you're still dressed like a desk jockey." The other woman said as she jumped down into the hole and into the mud. It was a good thing she hadn't worn good clothes for this little trip, she was now up to her ankles in frozen mud and making her way towards the casket.
Usually Xiaolian went first anyway, her null status tended to effectively negate any lingering traps or surprises intended to cause damage to curious minds, fingers and beings. "First set anyway, we'll see if anymore are left. Either way this thing is pretty old." She remarked removing a glove and tucking it into her pocket. Sliding a hand across the cold surface with it's various inscriptions, Xiaolian frowned. She couldn't tell if there was something left that Molly hadn't taken care of or not.
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Truths
Mar 28, 2019 18:42:00 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Mar 28, 2019 18:42:00 GMT -6
Molly snorted. "It's not like it's a big deal. And it's work. I dress like a desk jockey for work and then get the worst of stain dry cleaned out." Her dry cleaners made a fortune from some of her worst outfits. She slid down the edge of the hole, quickly just as deep in the mud as Xiaolian. "And be careful touching things. Just because you're a null doesn't mean there's not something out there that might affect you one day. I don't want to train another partner." And as far as she was concerned, she had Xiaolian trained into the perfect partner. The other even summarized the boring reports for Molly. It worked well as far as she was concerned.
She looked over the casket and hummed. "It's still somewhat magically active. I'm not spotting any obvious traps. But those look asian in origin, so what the hell is an asian casket doing this deep in the ground in Texas?" This deep suggested two things. It had either been buried here some time ago, or it had been left her some time ago and been covered up. She looked closely and pointed to two separate parts, careful not to touch. "Here and here look like the latches to open it. Think we should open it?"
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Truths
Mar 28, 2019 19:05:11 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by Circe on Mar 28, 2019 19:05:11 GMT -6
"That is.. a uh.. good question." Xiaolian said slowly. The casket was familiar to an extent, but she suspected that it was largely based on the writing. "But yeah, looks like it opens at that pivot point." The lieutenant added pointing a finger at the same area that Molly had noticed.
"My guess is the latter.. antiques, or whatever you want to call these tend to go through the port in Houston, and when they don't turn out to be what a buyer wants.. they dump them out here in the back of beyond."
She wasn't about to tell Molly about the writing, the other one was supposed to be the expert on the weird of the unseen, and Xiaolian was just there to ensure that they didn't violate any mundane laws.
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Truths
Mar 29, 2019 5:15:50 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Mar 29, 2019 5:15:50 GMT -6
Molly looked it over a bit more and shrugged. "I can't read the sigils. That's not one of the languages I know." She really needed to add more asian sigil languages to her repertoire. Well, it looked like she had a new thing to study if nothing else. She checked it over one last time and sighed. "They couldn't move it because it was too heavy. Let's go ahead and open it here." Molly stepped in front of Xiaolian and cast a ward to keep them save from what she was about to do. "Stay behind me. As usual." The other knew the drill by now. Molly was an expert in her field and could easily cast and medium-high level ward without preparation.
Carefully, she pressed at the pivot points and opened the casket, readying herself for an attack of some sort, magic humming at her finger tips, just in case she needed it.
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Truths
Mar 29, 2019 15:51:39 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Mar 29, 2019 15:51:39 GMT -6
'Thank god...' Xiaolian thought to herself as Molly complained about not being able to read the sigils. From what she had been able to read herself, things looked fairly harmless, but she had been wrong before. There seemed to be a rash of cases lately that involved confronting uncomfortable things about a person, and the woman just hoped that this wasn't one of those. But, she was starting to suspect that it might be, judging from the sigils alone. Whoever or whatever had buried this thing deep in the red clay of East Texas, obviously hadn't planned for a road crew to come through and discover it.
"As usual.." Xiaolian muttered as she backed away the best she could, boots squelching in the sticky mud.
As Molly pressed the pivot points on the casket, it slid open silently. There was little pomp or circumstance to it's opening, but instead nestled deep within the dust of ages sat a scroll with the same language and an accompanying dagger. It appeared that there had been something else in the casket at one time but it was now gone. "That's not good..." Xiaolian found herself saying as she peered around Molly. The missing item was an orb that had brought even the most ancient of armies to it's knees, and the fact that it was missing now worried the Lieutenant.
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Truths
Mar 29, 2019 15:59:43 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Mar 29, 2019 15:59:43 GMT -6
"I'll take no explosions. Objects are clearly magical, but nothing that'll harm us, so long as we're careful." She said and dug in her pockets, pulling out undyed silk gloves, with runes stitched throughout them to keep her safe and from disturbing whatever magic she touched. They were dead useful. But they also had been a pain in the ass to make. "Missing something here, by the spacing." She carefully picked up the dagger and examined it, careful not to draw it. "A ritual dagger. I'd have to get it to the labs to tell you more." She placed it back carefully, and picked up the scroll, examining it, opening it with extreme care.
It was old enough she wanted to go slow, so she wouldn't damage it. She examined it closely, spell still glowing on her eyes. "Same language. I can try and find a codex when we get back to base." She could translate it then. Molly placed it back as well and looked the casket over. "Now how are we going to move this damn thing to the labs?" It was huge and even the lid had been heavy. "We're going to need a crane. And a heavy truck to carry it once it's strapped down. And magic nullifiers all over the truck." That meant a good wait on the casket. She shrugged and considered it, then looked to Xiaolian.
"Grab the artifacts and send a team for the casket?"
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Truths
Mar 29, 2019 16:06:31 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Mar 29, 2019 16:06:31 GMT -6
"Not bloody likely Bronson." Xiaolian said shaking her head. She knew first hand the damage that dagger could cause and didn't want to ever be on the receiving end of it again. "Call a team or figure out another way, I'm not touching it." She added crossing her arms over her chest. "We're not doing this fast and loose with me grabbing the artifacts and taking a mirror." She explained, obviously wanting very little to do with the chest and it's contents. As soon as she was back at the office, she was going to put in a request with the Warden to be transferred to a different case until this one reached it's completion. But, knowing their current Warden, it wasn't likely to happen. She seemed to enjoy continuity and explicitly clear chains of custody, unlike others she'd worked with in the past. Undoubtedly, she also wouldn't go for just grabbing the artifacts like Molly suggested and getting out of dodge.
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Truths
Mar 29, 2019 16:10:52 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Mar 29, 2019 16:10:52 GMT -6
"Seriously? I'm not going to take unknown magical artifacts through a mirror. I'm not an idiot." She looked them over and pulled out her cell. "Guess we're waiting for the truck here. The casket I can trust they can't move. The artifacts I'm not willing to chance." Hopefully the other was up for a wonderfully boring guard routine. In the mud. Next to a casket of unknown origin. This was going to be so much fun. "You want to let the mundanes know their shift is over today and possibly tomorrow? I want to get a team in to process the scene just in case there's something else here."
Assuming the other was probably thinking along the same veins, Molly dialed a number on her phone for the local agency and because rapidly talking to the officer on the other end with an air of authority she didn't bother with using with her team. They knew her skillset after all, and she knew theirs.
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