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Post by littlekreen on Nov 26, 2019 21:15:14 GMT -6
Ivor nodded as Catherine began her presentation. The major parties were destabilizing and there was a game-changer on the field. Projections against any things pre-veil were infuriating at best given the sheer scale many operated on. In an area where so many ley lines crossed?
His tone calm and low, "It's bad enough the sheer density of the area's power flows makes anomalous objects volatile. All the major players are off-kilter? Things that shouldn't, do, and now one of the few things-that-should-not-be is on the board. I'd also like to know about the artifact to make an effort to see if it's got a metropolitan sized effect. I can say there's an indication of an extremely axiomatic entity attracted by the hole in Tyrus' ranch. Nothing active so far which is why it's being fast-tracked for rehabilitation. If this artifact's a source of madness or chaos extremely axiomatic entities are often morally ambiguous at best. Opposites don't always repel."
There was a small phone bleep from his coat pocket and he gave it a quick inspection, "Speak of the muse. Chrysanta is on her way in. Remembered to use the right phone this time."
He pointed to the map with a laser pointer from his pocket for locations, "She's reconstructing an 'infrastructure event' at Big Town mall as it presented dimensionally foreign matter. Even mundane traces around the mall event just decomposed some point after the point collapsed then stopped. Nothing on police reports or hospital records of anything similar afterward. So far any attempts to track the initiator result either too weak or too wide without useful traces. Most of Dallas and the southwest are implicated under a zone of effect barely aware of wind conditions but there's nothing directly related for spells or other agents as yet observed. This is common to some natural flow events but we have started keeping an eye on this one that's staying stable."
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Post by Circe on Nov 27, 2019 12:38:15 GMT -6
Catherine raised an eyebrow at Ivor's mention of the mall, the area he was pointing at was generally one of the quieter ones when it came to calls for the officers. "The mall was demolished in 2006 and replaced with a FedEx terminal. So are you saying we're seeing further time distortions after Mezar?" She asked curious now. Time fractures and distortions weren't unusual, but they weren't something that anyone ever looked forward to dealing with. But they could ripple effect along the leylines after strong magical events, leading to things appearing and disappearing at random. It was concerning, but something she was going to leave up to Ivor's own team unless hers was needed.
"As for you mentioned, Maria, yes the court in question is beginning to stabilize from what we can observe. The heirs apparent have made only made moves to defend against attacks from Cedar Ridge." That was the truth, neither herself nor Tyrus or even Brandon had done anything except defend themselves. It had been discussed that the best thing to do would be to let the wolves hang themselves on their own. While Catherine wasn't a fan of that idea given her history with the group, Grigore and even Tyrus had been right, the more they did outside of defending themselves would put the court at risk while the new court was still cementing it's position.
Flicking through a few more slides, she came to a stop on a picture from an archeological dig somewhere. "This is the missing artifact. This is a 2000 year old green serpentine stone mask." The image was a grainy, a hallmarks early digital camera technology that hadn't yet been built up to withstand the rigors of the field or magical over spill. "It was originally found at the base of Pyramid of the Moon, Teotihuacán, Mexico. Like most magical artifacts from this time period, we don't know what it was actually used for. It's assumed that it was part of a ritual or an offering to appease a deity."
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Post by demikara on Nov 27, 2019 13:29:47 GMT -6
Maria did not want to deal with a time distortion. Weren't they supposed to be dangerous? Still, one that showed the old mall sounded non-ideal. She paid close attention to what Catherine was saying though. The time distortion would be taken care of by the scientists who were monitoring it. That wasn't her business right now. Her business was the mask. "Serpentine...isn't that used for improving magical flow?" She considered it carefully. "I could be wrong, but...well, I'm sure the people studying it had ideas." She wasn't certain on the stone though. It wasn't her area of expertise.
Apparently the current ideas were possibly a ritual of appeasing a deity though, she wasn't sure what was more likely. It wasn't like she knew anything about the culture. She'd have to look up more information.
Molly was interested in the time dilation, but that wasn't the case it seemed. So she paid attention to the case instead, despite itching to try her hand at the time dilation problem. "Who managed to lose a 2000 year old artifact?" It pretty clearly hadn't been stored in the archives where a great many different artifacts were, secured locked down and monitored. That was a place she was careful of herself. The archives could be dangerous. The fact that this wasn't stored there though...it was possible it was in someone's private collection. They mostly had trouble with things in private collections.
Some days it felt like the super rich who had these artifacts had no clue of how to take care of them.
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Post by littlekreen on Nov 27, 2019 15:27:20 GMT -6
Ivor blinked as Catherine flared the light of idea over dark spaces in his brain that immediately set to processing through the incompatibility even as he listened to Catherine. He didn't get out much and wasn't aware the mall got rebuilt. He'd not been to the site, he was only told of it but not knowing everything about everywhere meant a vulnerability to memetic infection somewhere. However now he recalled field ops saying the stoplight was broken and they almost got hit going out to return later. That it was otherwise all quiet and they didn't see any damage to the mall. Many of the R&D staff were the same as himself as lab-bodies though there was definitely material in forensics from the crater. The traffic on the street was fairly busy around lunch they said but nobody passed the barrier. Unaware individuals were passing in and out when the field researchers weren't observing. It was a good thing standard procedure was to cut eye-line to the anchor site. Someone would only stay on the outside until they looked too close at the anchor to silently lose their reference frame. Thankfully the apartments were far enough that it would be difficult to lose one's reference frame without a telescope. Or a security camera, hmm.
The man rubbed his eyes finally muttering, "Alice flask... it's got to be an Alice flask. I think you may be right, Catherine. The likely type of anomalies are damned hard to notice going in and they're rare. We don't know a whole lot about their inner workings. They're an artificial byproduct of the aggressive version of travel mirrors, splice fields, merging two planes with incompatible constants. There's no way to tell off-site if it's a time dilation or morphological divergence but the latter is likely as I remember them saying the area from inside appeared largely uninhabited but for car noise."
Ivor taps his head, "Resulting potentials fight at the fringe to stick the local information for that side in the mind until something collapses the reference frame. Secondhand is easier though more elegant ones were once used as traps set between mushrooms. I doubt the veil is pleased about the matter either in proximity. Do not mention the inconsistency to someone until the flask is collapsed or enter unless you're equipped to center yourself on one idea of the environment."
He sits back getting out his work phone looking for the researchers on site, "I'd have to agree it's likely an aftershock from Mazar made the local environment weak. There may be more. Procedure cuts eye-line to any anomalous inflection point and there's operative silence orders for anomalies while off site so I don't think there's a risk to the public given previous examples. In any case it's not the people on the outside that have a problem when or if the Alice flask is ejected."
They'd been looking for potential breaches but Dallas is a lot of ground to cover and they only had four vans. There was a checkout list for just such an occasion as he finally found the name he was looking for.
Worrying silence greeted as the cell system tried to make contact then started to ring, he looked at the mask, "Teotihuacán. The chance for blood magic goes through the roof for anything related to that area. However I'm not directly familiar with Teotihuacan or Toltec diefic structures. Definitely so little left it's a specialty."
The phone picked up as the man replies with a quiet voice, "Arthur? Good. I know it's a bad connection. Gather everyone and start frame-the-mirror protocol, immediately. Yes. The site is memetically contaminated. Use the chronometers to track sigma unit time. Large class? Good. Anything plus or minus 1 call me."
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Post by Circe on Nov 29, 2019 18:50:57 GMT -6
"Generally.. it's not used much anymore though." Xiaolian answered knowing that this was a question that Catherine wasn't exactly able to answer. She knew that the other didn't have a strong knowledge of the use of stones or other items in combination with various magics. The Warden was more so well versed in the political maneuvering and well connected within the unseen, that alone was worth more than something that could be gotten out of a book. "The only person who really uses stones in the old ways would be Rahal, Euthious, and maybe a handful of others." She added off hand. Using stones as reservoirs wasn't anything new, and had been relatively common back in Hong Kong; they were a way for amateur wizards to come off as more knowledgeable or powerful than they really were. Saving face was common in the eastern unseen, and given the Ba-Shu's predicament Xiaolian was no stranger to it.
Ivor was perfectly capable of getting the so called Alice Flask under control. "I'm rarely right though, so don't quote me on what I said being the case. It's just an educated guess based off the last six months." Catherine remarked. The circle Tyrus had created at Mezar had been charged with enough magic to likely cause micro tears and all kinds of ripple effects from the explosion. Time magic wasn't a thing she willingly messed with outside of the fae gates, it was generally something best left up to individuals like Ivor or Molly.
"Blood magic isn't what I wanted to hear about the mask either Ivor... that's something that only the previous court was capable of. I for one was thankful to see that that went away with this new court." It hadn't so much gone away, but was more than likely used with less frequency.
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Post by demikara on Nov 30, 2019 13:45:26 GMT -6
Maria could not have followed Ivor if she tried and she did try. What the heck was an alice flask? She was in over her head and she knew it. How bad was what happened at Mezar Ranch though, if there were still aftershocks occurring? At the note of the possibility of blood magic she paled. Blood magic was powerful stuff and incredibly dangerous to boot. She couldn’t think of anyone who knew more than the bare basics about it. No one used it. It was illegal. Still, the previous court knew it, which was news to her, so they’d have something, right?
“Mr. Rahal was a prince of the previous court. Would he know anything about blood magic?” It was a jump, but it wasn’t much of a jump and if nothing else, he may know where the previous court kept information on it.
Molly still wanted to hear more about the aftershock herself but focused on what was going on. “Would they even know what it was used for? If it’s not used much anymore, the information has probably fallen out of common knowledge.” Which meant someone with a stronger background may know it, or possibly someone with bits and pieces of knowledge. “What do we know about the owner of the artifact? Maybe one of their enemies took it and decided to mess around with it.”
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Post by littlekreen on Nov 30, 2019 20:15:51 GMT -6
Ivor responded to Catherine having ended his impromptu call, "I suppose so. It's more anomalous than I'd like. Field lead will quantify what's going on and assess safety. I was told whatever keeps it stable the foreign magic therein feels too indifferent and callous to be the veil by way of the faerie court on the distant end let alone an individual's concentration. Initial projections from inside put a possible second inflection point somewhere in the rail yard nearby. They'll flatbed the tracked field unit there as DPW within a day or two to find the other inflection point from both sides of the looking glass, as it were."
"As for the blood magic", he sighed, "I don't much like it either given the discipline includes magically virulent diseases. There were once Olmecs. Then there were not. Though I think you're right Molly, even if Rahal doesn't know what the jade mask was used for I think he'd have a better idea what kind of mages to ask who's magic would use Jade in the first place. Narrow your field of experts to trawl. The area those masks were made in was thigh-high in blood for a thousand years. Especially that particular pair of temples."
He shook a finger then added, "I suppose I should mention Dallas has recently acquired a high-level blood-magic practitioner. They've set up shop somewhere in Dallas. I read some reports and my logs that we've had bits of some insulated simulacrum pass through the mortician's office from knife attacks. All husk pieces were quietly acquired and disposed of as to not alert the press. Same externally unnoticeable make though all possible wearers recorded on camera were of different demeanors and didn't trip any minor divining spells they stepped through. No apparent magic was used while piloting the simulacra on available video evidence. A possible nulling quirk of methodology. Whoever is making and selling the fleshy human space suits likely is much better at fitting in than their customers."
Ivor didn't like this particular result but at his sunken smile, it needed saying, "I need to say that if there is solid evidence of self-perpetuating blood magic transferred by proximity with the infectivity of smallpox or worse, let alone one that causes madness and/or death with a short onset period, contact me immediately. R&D will need to decide whether it warrants me making several phone calls. Then breaking open a little red card to tell the dragon court to suspend 'infective activities'."
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Post by Circe on Dec 1, 2019 14:20:55 GMT -6
Catherine sighed irritably as Ivor went off into the weeds with the topic of alice flask yet again. "Plain English please Ivor.. not everyone here specializes in metaphysics." Had meetings always been this easy to derail or had she always been just that bad at keeping their attention? She was beginning to regret offering Ivor the opportunity to sit in on the meeting. Catherine really did try to keep a cohesive unit in Dallas, making sure that all parties involved knew what was going on. But the issue over in Mesquite wasn't exactly a thing her group could spare a person to assist with, and Research and Development was generally more than qualified to deal with any extra dimensional incursions.
"Rahal might know something.. but whether or not he can be persuaded to agree to consult is another thing altogether." Given Tyrus's current full plate, it was unlikely even if she could slip a few questions in during the three hours a week she met with him. "Either way, the Dragon Court will not be happy to hear about complications." There was too much personal involvement on this case for her own comfort. She knew what Ivor meant by requesting a suspension on infective activities, it meant that safe means of a meal would quickly become scarce. The thought of that alone immediately cast her mind back to another time and place, when food and safety were uncertain things. Propelled further by Ivor's droning on, she soon became lost in her own spiraling thoughts. 'I can't go back to that...' She thought to herself, gripping the projector remote tightly until the plastic cracked and shattered in her hand.
Jolted back to the present by Molly's question she looked at the other slightly puzzled. "The owner?" She echoed dully, trying to clear her thoughts. The room alternately felt too cold and too hot, like there wasn't enough air. "The owner is..." Catherine began forcefully dragging her thoughts back to the topic at hand. "Is Peter Corinth, a prominent investment banker in the area. He's claimed to have obtained several pre-veil artifacts for the sake of preserving the history of the unseen. However most of the artifacts when investigated show to be fakes." She knew she was going to have to get a better handle on herself or risk proving individuals like Agathon right, that she was unfit for the position and belonged back in Broadmoore. Catherine didn't care how much reform Tyrus had done, the place was still hell.
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Post by demikara on Dec 1, 2019 15:58:18 GMT -6
Blood magic was highly illegal and apparently there was a practitioner of it in town. That…merited looking into, probably by specialists which meant her now. That meant two separate cases already and it was just her first day. They really did like to throw you in the deep end didn’t they? She didn’t know if she should say anything about that though, given she wasn’t doing great at following what Ivor was saying as it was. She could have misheard entirely. Hopefully she had misheard entirely given how terrifying a blood magic user could be. She had heard horror stories about them. Everyone had heard the horror stories and it was taught in the school system as dangerous and to be avoided including a firm why on why to avoid it. If you weren't careful, it could eat through you. The only magic that was worse was necromancy, but both could lead to death all too well.
What she didn’t miss was the warden breaking the projector remote. She just didn’t know why it had happened. Either way, the warden didn’t seem well at all and that was probably not a good thing. Maria definitely didn’t know how to handle that, but supposed she’d learn that too. She had a lot to learn here, and she tried to console herself. It was her first day as a specialist and the academy wouldn't cover everything a specialist would run into. The Unseen was too big of a world for it to be able to prepare you for every situation. She had graduated well, in the top ten, and she had passed the test and was one of only five to manage that.
“So we think this mask has ended up in Cedar Ridge’s hands? Other than increasing aggression, what makes us think that?” Increased aggression could be cause by anything after all, up to and including the leaders being petty. Unfortunately, there was no guarantee as to what caused the problem. They’d have to find out and if this was on the table, she wanted to make certain other options were ruled out first. The idea of that this magical artifact managed it was unsettling, and she wanted to know why it was causing this now, and not before when the owner had it in his possession.
Molly frowned at the destruction of the remote. Something Ivor said must had hit a sore spot for Catherine to do that. Still, she hesitated on the note of the blood husks. Could it be Flynn? No, there was no way. The terminology was just similar that was all. Besides, Flynn had promised to be careful. They would have said something on one of the days that she watched the boys if there was something else going on. Given how often she watched the toddlers, she was sure she would know if it was Flynn behind it. But the other was trading a physically whole body in exchange for using the someone's appearance. Could that actually be blood magic?
“Next step is talk to Mr. Corinth I guess. Or at least speak to the officers who initially had the theft case.” She had to focus on the case now. She could question Flynn later. The less they could speak with the actual person the better as far as she was concerned. “Though how old is the scene?” If it was too long, there was no point to grabbing any magical traces. They’d need to rely on the evidence that was gathered. That meant on the officers who well, most were in Dallas for a reason. She'd be lucky if they had actually fully processed the scene. the worst of the corruption had been dealt with, and it wasn't nearly as bad as it was when she first came here, but she'd be blind to think that everything was above board now.
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Post by littlekreen on Dec 7, 2019 22:29:43 GMT -6
Ivor noted the collapsed controller and removed a robust notebook and ceramic rollerball pen from his lab coat. The pages were mineral paper clamped rather than perforated as common with the habits of many arithmages. No contamination from dead tree flesh roughly bleached and glued together just a solid composite in an even distribution.
The pen hardly made noise as he eyed the cracked remote periodically while studiously avoiding naming those few could afford to, "Cedar ridge would have a more likely need for a force multiplier. Their political enemies already have a lot of assets in a much more stable position. As Cedar ridge is often more aggressive in their strategies this increases Cedar Ridge's statistical likeliness of being willing to use that power. Even if the artifact is of dubious safety."
The paper beneath him filled with interpretations of Dijkstra's algorithm and the no-cloning theorem, "Similarly, they may not cover their tracks well. Their main political enemies would tend to have the power to spare toward such. However, in a position of strength and assets, their other larger political enemies would be statistically likely to possess access to assets to contain the artifact with subtlety. As such an artifact could have a strong negative effect on werewolves if it is linked to human blood magic. That could be also said of a third unknown party seeking to carve themselves some political power by force. Cedar ridge's enemies may be subject to the artifact for the same reasons they are. A terrorist uninterested in a power play but just destruction is possible but unlikely I think. If Peter Corinth is known to have fakes someone would have to be watching him rather close to see the real one."
He slipped the mineral paper from its clamp to cup his hand over the center diagram and closed his eyes for a moment.
Ivor lifted his hand and pushed over the paper to Catherine the center still cupped, "You'll need to touch a lot more information to collapse your current uncertainties. If you can narrow down what the mask is related to I can give you better answers to what range of things it can do. R&D's minds and mine might forever meander but getting us data is the cost for offering new paths to choose from."
Hand lifted there was another remote underneath this one quite whole. Though, there would only ever be one no matter what hand the remote now found itself in.
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Post by Circe on Dec 10, 2019 20:26:49 GMT -6
Those political enemies happened to be the Constantin family and its heirs. It was also a family who was content to cement its own position in the unseen before anything else, and that meant keeping quiet about Tyrus and who exactly the sire happened to be. Official court records had been written up to reflect something else, if only because there was too much danger in the whole truth being revealed. Thankfully, Mezar and it's rituals were behind them now and if anything it was business as usual, with a few exceptions that were being dealt with.
"Unfortunately by the time the scene was handed over to us any traces were far decayed beyond being of use." Catherine answered Molly. "Cedar Ridge is more than likely lashing out at what they percieve as a lack of social support, and have demonstrated this as an appropriate tactic in their books in the past." It just seemed that the behavior was getting worse, and the mask was the least of their worries. "Information is currently limited Ivor..." She cautioned taking the new remote from the R&D agent. Setting the broken one descretely aside to be disposed of later, Catherine turned her thoughts to the issue of blood magic and what Cedar Ridge could possibly be doing with it.
"Someone will need to speak with Mr. Corinth, someone to investigate this new mage.. and someone to talk to Rahal."
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Post by demikara on Dec 11, 2019 13:18:15 GMT -6
Maria could not imagine talking to Mr. Rahal. The fact that she may do so now regularly was a little insane to think of. It was also insane what Ivor had just accomplished. Maria couldn't have done something like that if she tried. A cloning ritual, or a copying one? Off the cuff even, with no planing ahead of time or pausing to gather a bit more magic and with nothing more than paper and a pen. She was so far in over her head. Maybe she shouldn't have passed the exam after all, if that was the sort of thing expected of a specialist. But she had to steal herself. She had passed the exam. She had something to offer this team of insanely magical people.
"I'm good at investigating. I'll take looking into the new mage?" She offered, uncertain if that was how it worked here. But she was good and investigation. She was one of the best of the officers she had worked with before and she knew she was talented now. You didn't need a lot of magic to be an investigator after all.
Molly beamed and raised her hand waving it in the air. "I take Tyrus! I'll also dig through the old scene notes. Hopefully they caught something." She was pretty sure she'd recognize it if they had. "I'll make an appointment with him through Broadmoore. His PA works out of there most days, I think." So it would be the easiest way to handle this. It also kept the Warden from needing to go to Broadmoore. Molly knew that the entire building and everything about it and the asylum was a sore spot for Catherine. She'd handle it to get that off her plate.
The fae teenager could be sensitive, when she wanted to and actually tried to. It just wasn't exactly a common occurrence.
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