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Post by demikara on Dec 12, 2019 19:42:59 GMT -6
A blood mage in town was serious business and that was the only reason Tyrus had carved out time to meet with MCU and the specialists. If by carved out time, you meant they could came see him, but he was going to be eating lunch during this meeting, brought to him by his faithful PA and guaranteed to be packed full of calories. He had ordered in from Monmack's who could usually be talked into feeding him something guaranteed to boost his energy levels back up so he could keep performing magic. The food from Monmack's was always delicious and hearty and probably spiced with something to increase his appetite, if he was being honest.
Still, the door was open for them to come in to his office, and he was waiting, checking his e-mails for any fire that needed putting out that his PA somehow hadn't already caught. The whole PA thing really was working out, and he essentially got two for the price of one. One of them was just more surly than the other, that was all. But his time and schedule were heavily managed now, to his annoyance. It was working well, and with him having largely dropped from MCU consulting he had more time. The people he was training to take over were doing better every day. He still estimated it would be a year before he was comfortable handing Broadmoore off though. Even then, he'd probably still play some roll in the asylum and prison, if only to act as oversight and prevent another tragedy from taking place.
Still, it was getting there. He didn't intend on being involved in the day to day forever, especially given his forever had just gotten significantly lengthened.
The fact that he still had to carve out time to run down a meal was frustrating, but it wasn't like he could as his assistant to manage that as well. That would be going a bit too far in his duties and there was no telling what said assistant would scare up as a possible meal. The man had interesting tastes. Carter made a good PA though. It probably felt more like a dogsbody position than anything else, but it worked.
He still wasn't exactly sure who was being sent, but they'd arrive soon enough.
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Post by Circe on Dec 13, 2019 11:30:52 GMT -6
It wasn't a secret that Catherine didn't like Broadmoore, and it had taken a lot of doing just to get her to set foot in the place. But she didn't trust Molly not to make a mess of this, or treat the situation with the correct deference and respect necessary. So she had given the young fae another task, which hopefully wouldn't result in leading the team into utter disaster. All Catherine cared about right now was figuring out why the hell Cedar Ridge had such an artifact, who had stolen it, and what they planned to do with it. Never mind her promise to Izaak about Emily, he of all people should have known that things moved slowly in the unseen. Somehow though, she suspected that Emily's death and Cedar Ridge's instability were somehow linked. Proving it however, would be an undertaking. Meanwhile she just hoped and prayed that they didn't decide to target what shattered remains of family she had left who couldn't protect themselves.
"You don't mind getting saddled with a boring meeting do you Maria?" Catherine asked as they entered the facility. It was a strange thing entering Broadmoore, the unseen's premier institution for housing the supernatural and criminally insane. It had arisen out of a necessary need to treat those whose families couldn't otherwise assist or care for them, but then it had quickly become a secure facility run by the Council to house those that had committed unspeakable crimes and were not safe to be placed in what they considered a regular population. Showing her ID as a warden, Catherine and Maria were quickly ushered through security that required them to remove any objects that might pose a harm to them or other patients. This often included jewelry, side arms and the contents of their pockets. Belts, bags, and shoes were sent through a scanner while they themselves were scanned for any contraband items they might be smuggling in.
Broadmoore tended to reek, at least to those with better sense of smell, with the the stale metallic smell of industrial cleaners and stressed bodies. Underneath it was the musty scent of stale coffee, something that the staff no doubt drank in abundant quantities to stave off the exhaustion from each successive shift. Strange sounds occasionally punctuated their journey to Tyrus's office as well. Passing a nurses station, the scent of food wafted up, carried aloft by the strange air currents within the old building. It appeared that much of the staff was working through their own lunches.
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Post by demikara on Dec 13, 2019 12:15:46 GMT -6
Maria smiled hesitantly. "Not at all. It's a little exciting actually. I've never met Mr. Rahal before." She was too old for his control classes after all, and even those were very limited in who he'd accept. Except for exceptional cases of lack of control, he only took in children under thirteen. And even then, you had to be referred. It was his most public facing role, or at least the one he interacted most with the public in, and nobody dared disturb the classes. "Besides, I wasn't looking forward to investigating on my own so quickly. I'd like to get my feet under me first, in my new position." She had volunteered because it was where her skill set was at and frankly meeting Mr. Rahal was a little intimidating.
Broadmoore was a little intimidating too. It smelled like a hospital to her at least and the security here was strict. That was to be expected under the circumstances though and she knew it. She had just never had a need to come here before. It was another one of the locations that everyone heard of, but most not even by name just 'the asylum.' They had threatened to commit her brother here, if he hadn't been able to sober up in time. As if a mundane treatment facility wouldn't have been a better choice.
It wasn't long until they reached Tyrus' office and he glanced up as they came to the door. "Catherine? I was expecting one of the others to come. Come in. Who's your partner?" He stood and shook a slightly overwhelmed Maria's hand. "I'm Tyrus Rahal. Please call me Tyrus." They were here on business after all, and Catherine was a friend. It would have been awkward to have the...new specialist he assumed to call him by his last name while Catherine used his given name.
The meal on his desk was half gone by now and he glanced at it. "I hope you don't mind me eating while we talk. I'm afraid this is normally my lunch hour." Though claiming he got an entire hour was ridiculous. He was scheduled for one, but mostly it was catch up on his e-mails so he could actually stay abreast of everything.
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Post by Circe on Dec 13, 2019 12:56:56 GMT -6
Catherine couldn't quite understand why people were generally so intimidated by Tyrus, but then again most people hadn't known him in the same context as she had. There had been many nights where she was the one who had been called out to deal with his drunkenness and the chaos that had come with it. Before she was able to assure Maria that Tyrus wasn't as scary as she made him out to be they were at his office door.
"I can't exactly send Bronson or Boyuan." Catherine explained as they entered. "This is Maria Zhang, she just qualified as a specialist." She added. Everything about the new officer read as anxious and nervous, and people like Molly and Ivor who used magic as a toy had likely intimidated her beyond belief.
"Don't mind us, go ahead and eat. We'll likely get ourselves something after this anyway."
Taking a seat across from Tyrus's desk, she still couldn't shake the feeling of how strange this was. Would the orderlies try to accuse her of pretending? Would the guards even let her leave? The years she had spent in the hell hole they had willingly walked into had left their mark, and she just hoped that it didn't outwardly show.
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Post by demikara on Dec 13, 2019 13:19:32 GMT -6
"I was expecting Boyuan. You hate this place." It probably wasn't good for her to be here either. He took another bite of his potatoes and wondered what Monmack put in them to make them so delicious. Did he even want to know? "It's nice to meet you Maria. I look forward to working with you in the future." He had always had a close relationship with the specialists after all, and he suspected he'd develop one with this one too, end of his contractor days or not.
"It's nice to meet you too sir." And she was still visibly nervous being here, but she could manage to follow manners and do her job at least. Still, she fell silent, letting Catherine take the lead. The warden was probably the better choice for this regardless.
"So you mentioned something about blood magic on the phone? That's a heavy topic." And there weren't a lot who could do it. Tyrus ignored being called sir by the specialist. She'd grow out of it once she was more certain of her role on the team. He was more concerned about the idea of there being another blood magic practitioner in town. His brothers had been the last ones he knew, other than himself, and it wasn't a large or open field. Given it was an illegal field, it wasn't one easy to break into either. An apprenticeship was required, and it was the sort of thing you were carefully selected and vetted for.
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Post by Circe on Dec 13, 2019 13:36:12 GMT -6
"No one likes this place Tyrus, it's not ever meant to be a fun place." She replied plainly, deflecting the subject of discussion away from her. "I asked Boyuan to speak with Cedar Ridge, then help Bronson with some investigation into some other influencing factors that Ivor mentioned." Molly was not to be trusted yet on anything other than the research end. Catherine had seen how badly she had flubbed the political end of things at the All Hallows gala.
She was not about to let her fledgling draw her out into the weeds on a hunt for something that didn't even exist. But before she had to redirect the subject again, Tyrus was already back to the main subject at hand.
"Cedar Ridge possibly has an artefact that has something to do with blood magic. We think there's another practioner in the area, but we need to be certain about what we're up against. Since the Sun Court had access to those magics and you were part of that court... we assumed you could at least explain where to look for information."
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Post by demikara on Dec 13, 2019 13:47:37 GMT -6
"The Dragon court inherited the entire collection." Tyrus answered promptly. "And smart choice. Molly is...a bit immature for politics." And even the packs would probably recognize her as a child after the court had. "There's some scrying I can do to determine a general location of a blood magic user. Within two or three blocks." He offered. "And I can borrow some books from teh collection on your behalf." They were still keeping the relationship quiet after all. "Since I know where they've been traditionally kept and I doubt the library has been reorganized." They were also blood locked, so he and Brandon were probably the only ones who could get in. And Brandon would never do so.
Still the idea of a blood magic artifact. "As for the artifact...that's trickier. Can you tell me anything about it?" He couldn't help if he didn't know more information after all. Though he was certainly charging his usual fees to MCU for this consultation. Catherine was his friend and sire. The Warden was a customer as far as he was concerned and he kept the two relationships very separate. Other than the general friendly nature of them that was. But he tried to be friendly to everyone.
He was more concerned with Cedar Ridge have a blood magic artifact than he was with a blood magic practitioner. Artifacts could be twisted things and cause twisted results and blood magic was not a friendly magic to have sitting around.
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Post by Circe on Dec 14, 2019 17:14:32 GMT -6
She had conveniently forgotten that that was what had happened to the books upon the Constantin family's ascension to the throne. Catherine as usual had been too consumed in her own work to pay attention to some of the fine details when it came to what exactly happened when the court changed hands. Despite the warning to the previous rulers, they had still chosen to ignore their own impending doom. It had been child's play for Grigori, the head of the family, to take over the court. "Molly has her moments." Catherine readily agreed. The fae had her own way of doing things that were often at odds with the rest of the time, it was a miracle that Xiaolian could even tolerate working with her. But, they did get things done and with a reasonable amount of skill when they weren't nearly at one another's throats over something or another. It was a love hate relationship, with a very strong emphasis on hate more often than not.
"As for the artifact... it's a stone mask, we suspect it's made of nephrite jade." She answered producing a 8x10 glossy color photo from deep within the recesses of the beat up leather tote she carried. The bag looked like it had seen better days, but that was the point. It was security through obfuscation and obsolescence. While a younger officer may have preferred something made of a ballistic nylon or higher end materials, Catherine had kept the same worn leather tote for years. It was a thing that was often at odds with the suits she was required to wear as a warden for the unseen Council and had been required to wear as a specialist.
Sliding the photograph across the desk she continued, "It was found in the temple of the moon down in Mexico. We've noticed some instability among the Cedar Ridge pack within the last six months to a year, we had assumed it was a power struggle that would soon sort itself out without too much further trouble. Unfortunately, within the last year we've had a girl turned against her will, pups running amok, and now the area around Cedar Ridge is seeing an increase in domestics and the local LEO's report an uptick in the weird." Cedar Ridge's territory was housed within most of the exurban areas south of Dallas proper. They took advantage of things beginning to drop off into rural farm and ranch land as one got closer to the nature preserve and state park. It was one of the few truly urbanized packs left in the nation, many had already made the choice to leave or find more rural areas to raise their pups and young with the constant encroachment of the cities as the years went on.
"Both you and I know that the weird can be anything from a traffic stop to a tip called into one of the agency lines."
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Post by demikara on Dec 15, 2019 15:14:47 GMT -6
"A stone for balance." He noted "With protective properties. Though in this case." Hm hummed and examined the photo. "An artifact to pretend balance. It would make the owner believe they've found balance and calmness and ignore any hints to the opposite. Masks are tricky like that." Or at least, that was what he was assuming from what he had heard about it so far. "I'd have to inspect it to be sure of course, but as that's not possible right now, I'm assuming properties based on stone type and the metaphysical meaning of masks." Masks could be used to represent, yes, but they could also easily be used to conceal instead. This one seemed to be a full face mask and those were the trickiest. Judging by the expression though, he suspected it was more a pretender than a representative style mask. There were difference after all.
He examined the photo carefully. "Be careful when bringing this mask in. I wouldn't have anyone handle it without null gloves and a personal ward. Deceptive masks are tricky to deal with." On the note of blood magic he pondered a moment longer. "Expecting blood magic makes sense under the circumstances. It would likely be powdered by a blood sacrifice. Minor ones I expect though a major one would give it more power to spread. The sacrifice of a sentient being would...well, the magic would have easily reached the entire metro area for that one. I would assume this is more cut hands and small animals than anything more severe for now."
Maria watched wide-eyed as he deduced all of this so quickly. He truly was an expert in stone magic, wasn't he? Though it was concerning he apparently knew so much about blood magic. That was one of the forbidden magics. She was sure it was all academic though. He had grown up in the court, but he knew it was illegal. It was probably just reading the books he had mentioned. She hoped.
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Post by Circe on Dec 15, 2019 15:48:56 GMT -6
"Truth be told, we're not sure if it's actually nephrite jade or green serpentine." Catherine commented. Usually the owners of the artefacts, whether they were on loan to a collection or not were often very quiet about how the things were obtained given most mages at current time couldn't even begin to control the strong primordial magics often associated with them. "Let's face it the pictures aren't that good, and the details are even more spotty. We know it's pre-veil and was on loan, perhaps permanently, to the collection of a well known mage's school." This was just rehashing most of what she'd already told her team in their meeting, and undoubtedly there would be talks later between her and Tyrus outside of the confines of their positions. It was something that couldn't be helped, they were unfortnately linked as sire and fledgling as much as they disliked it.
"I sent Molly and Xiaolian to speak with the owner of the artefact who decided to donate it to the school, but so far it appears that they haven't had any success contacting the individual. My guess is he's either avoiding us or possibly dead." That tended to happen with such artefacts, not only was there a booming market for them, there was also a high risk of death to the owner. "More than likely dead, given that he was pretty vocal about owning other similar artefacts." Catherine never could understand why people went around advertising power and privilege, those were things best used quietly and behind the scenes. But she had never been terribly comfortable with her own station in life, feeling that it should have belonged to someone else entirely.
"As for the mask it's going to be a big IF for finding it." Those types of artefacts tended to have a mind of their own, more than likely thanks to whatever piece of the veil that had been ripped off and embedded into it. Some could almost say that they were possessed by the way they reacted to use. "Besides that.. I'm concerned when or if we find it, that it's likely going to tear through even Molly and Xiaolian's containment protocols."
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Post by demikara on Dec 15, 2019 15:56:53 GMT -6
Tyrus clicked his tongue and considered it. "If it's green serpentine then that changes everything. Serpentine in general is good an unblocking and increasing magical flow. It would serve as a power booster for anyone stupid enough to wear it." Those people did exist. "And if it's pre-veil then it'll be a hardy power boost too, not like what you'd get today." Tyrus took another bite of his food and considered the matter a bit more. "I can help Molly and Xiaolian come up with something, I suppose. Finding time to will be tricky, but it would need you or me to power it if we want to be sure." Molly may be fae and thus had more magic than most humans, but she was no where near Tyrus and Catherine and the mage knew it.
A possibly dead owner though complicated things when it came to the investigation, that much he was sure of. "You'll have to talk to my PA about carving time out for that, if we go that route." He wasn't going to have that conversation. Carter would kill him for the extra work of trying to even find a minimal time slot. He'd probably have to figure out something for his 'dinner' nightly if he was going that route and somehow he didn't think Grigore would approve of delivery.
"If you'll drop by the ranch tonight, I can have a scrying crystal made up for finding a blood mage. It tends to leave its mark on the user. You may end up hitting up some of their sites though." Instead of the mage itself. It depending on how they were using the magic after all.
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Post by Circe on Dec 15, 2019 16:26:46 GMT -6
Catherine was not amused at the idea of having to be the one to power whatever wards Tyrus came up with for this case. While she may have mastered a good amount of self control and fine control when it came to the psionics, actually knowing how much and when outside of that and the few fae magics she knew was still a challenge. She muttered a few terse words under her breath before turning her attention back to the discussion. "I can't say Cedar Ridge is high on my list of bright groups of individuals." She snorted derisively. It was no big secret that Dallas's only warden disliked the werewolves from the pack in question, but usually she could be relied upon to at least not let it interfer her work usually. Though it did depend on who she was talking to, within recent memory O'Hara and herself had nearly come to blows after the pack leader insulted her personally.
But then again, they were always looking for the upper hand and spoiling for a fight under the guise of equality and rights for werewolves. They had been afforded the same rights as everyone, if not more due to their need for territory and places to run. It wasn't MCU's problem that they continued to vote for bad ideas and not speak out against more development in their area. Much of the problem was their own doing, and often they failed to see that.
"We'll only go that route if absolutely necessary. I'm sure Molly can find something if I let her loose in the archives." It was more a threat than anything else, Catherine wasn't about to give Molly clearance to access some of the more secure areas of their archives. That was asking for trouble and both she and Tyrus knew it. "I'll see if I can find the time, there are things that still need to be done before I can even think about that." Part of her mind was still on the discussion she had had with Izaak and Brandon back in the cemetery. That was something she would have to try to figure out a way to take care of outside MCU, which it looked like was fixing to prove even more difficult than she'd imagined. It was already difficult keeping her role in the court separate from MCU, and if Izaak who was at the fridges knew, it was only a matter of time before her department was talking about it.
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Post by demikara on Dec 15, 2019 16:39:40 GMT -6
"Werewolves." The disdain was clear. "Some are absolutely brilliant of course. But none of those appear to be in Dallas at all." The ones in Dallas were a headache and a half. As far as he was concerned their pack had gotten too big and unwieldy and now all of Dallas was paying the price. It should have been several smaller packs instead. Those were harder to track, but tended to be better behaved. "And if you let her loose in the archives, make certain she has some form of supervision. She's young." He grimaced. She was a handful and a half. He looked to Maria. "Perhaps you could. You'll need to learn to work with Molly after all." And that included making certain that the other didn't get into too much trouble.
"Though of course, it's not my decision."
Maria looked confused for a moment. "Molly is an adult. I'm pretty sure she doesn't need a babysitter like you're both making it sound." She didn't know the truth about Molly's age. No one had told her yet, so how could she? Right now, Maria was quite convinced that they were being rather rude about the sergeant, who had made it to a sergeant and a specialist, so she had to be competent at least.
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Post by Circe on Dec 15, 2019 16:54:49 GMT -6
"In case you haven't noticed.. we don't exactly have enough officers to do that. Let's not subject Maria to that brand of chaos." Catherine said dismissing Tyrus's concerns. That alone was almost garunteed to send Tyrus into a fit, which somehow she still enjoyed doing. The mage took things entirely too seriously sometimes, and while this was a serious situation, she also felt that a bit of good natured prodding wouldn't harm him. "Besides which, even if I give her my access code.. I can always change it." She shrugged. There was a reason passwords and passcodes had to be changed so frequently, and that there were ratatoskr on half the offices in the building.
Looking over at Maria, Catherine chuckled in amusement at the young specialist's confusion. "I apologize Maria, I should probably explain what Tyrus and myself mean." She considered how much the sergeant would scream if she found out what the warden was about to say about her. But most of the office already had some idea that the specialist had fae ties, given how often there for awhile there had been a parade of her family in and out. "Molly is fae and a young one at that, I'm almost certain that your specialist classes covered some of this. While she's an extrodinary ward breaker, she still has some challenges within the human realm. That includes knowing when something isn't another shiny object to chase and become distracted with."
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Post by demikara on Dec 15, 2019 16:59:44 GMT -6
"True. We should let her get settled in first." He could poke back too. Though the note of not enough officers made him grimace again. There was no helping it though. It took time to train officers and to make sure they were experienced enough to actually get everything settled in place.
Maria's eyes widened and she swallowed. "A fae?" That was incredibly rare. She reached for some form of common ground. "Right. Okay. That's unusual. But I can see where that would be a problem. The classes mentioned that fae have problems with self control." So staying on task was likely difficult. Still, she was going to be working with an actual fae and that was going to be very different. At least she had a much better idea of what to expect. Poor impulse control, mischief that was hopefully harmless, and a lack of boundaries.
She could probably deal with that.
Maybe she shouldn't have requested Dallas.
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