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Post by demikara on Jul 13, 2020 15:50:13 GMT -6
"We barely even have ranks." Molly pointed out. They operated more like a guild than anything else. Still the idea of there being corruption in the world she grew up in... It was disheartening. "But...I suppose corruption can be found everywhere. Though I don't think I could ever be jealous of that mandate. I don't know why anyone would be." Mandates like that were heavy burdens. There were some privileges, yes, but the burden of carrying it would be too much for her. If you screwed up there, you upset a god and that just sounded like hell.
Being Ratatoskr wasn't easy either. There were a lot of responsibilities, but there were also a lot of choices in what you did as one. Molly would one day be expected to regularly travel the tree in search of new worlds and possible corruption, but even then, it wasn't expected to be continuous. You didn't exactly get paid a regular wage for it, and you needed regular funding in order to live in whatever plane you settled in.
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Post by Circe on Jul 13, 2020 16:12:03 GMT -6
Xiaolian muttered something under her breath as she restrained her irritation at Molly. There were so many gaps in the other's functional knowledge of the world outside of ratatoskr affairs, it was ridiculous. "Okay let me boil this down to child level... because I'm sensing you're not getting it." For someone with a supposed college degree, Molly struck Xiaolian as exceptionally dense at times. "Ranks are just your group... people get jealous for reasons that make sense only to them. They think that there isn't something being shared with them or someone is getting something they aren't. In this case it was because we were entrusted with the care and keeping of the seal of heaven." It was both an artifact and a magic, in many ways the two were one and the same.
Xiaolian didn't know where the seal was, but as evidenced by the barriers she'd instructed to be used at Tyrus's ranch, it was still in existence. That much she could be thankful for.
"But I've already said too much."
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Post by demikara on Jul 13, 2020 18:55:38 GMT -6
"Oh! I thought you meant rank like...lieutenant and sergeant are ranks. And I know why people get jealous. I just don't know why they'd be jealous of being a guardian. It's not exactly an easy job. It doesn't make sense to be jealous of them." Especially given what had happened to them, though that admittedly was a recent affair. Molly still didn't understand it all though. Still, the other was right. Just because Xiaolian knew about the In Between and the societies there didn't mean they should be discussing it in such a public place.
The guardians probably didn't even discuss it with other people of the in between either. "But you're right. We should change the subject." The only other subject they had in common though was work. "Do you know how the progress with the search for blood magic is coming? I haven't seen Maria today to ask." Which was unusual, but the other could possibly just be out looking, given the work.
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Post by Circe on Jul 14, 2020 15:30:12 GMT -6
Xiaolian blinked and then frowned. Molly was right as usual, annoyingly right. "No I haven't heard from her at all today." That was a bit concerning given that Maria had decided to stick to Xiaolian like glue since the first day. Maybe it was a cultural similarity or something about the no-nonsense lieutenant put the other at ease. Either way, their newest specialist hadn't exactly been comfortable with the new team on the first day and it still showed.
"She was supposed to be on desk duty after O'Hara." Xiaolian explained, suddenly worried that the rookie might have gotten herself in over her head.
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Post by demikara on Jul 14, 2020 15:42:04 GMT -6
"She stayed on desk duty all day of the solstice." Molly had let the other call the shot on where she was going to go next, for the most part, and let her prioritize calls. With the warden out, it had been all hands on deck, even if one of the hands was stuck on desk duty. "She should have her cell phone on her right? Do you have her number?" If not, it was probably in the employee addresses somewhere.
Molly took out her own cell phone and began to flip through the contacts. She liked cell phones. They were convenient little computers and were, frankly, one of the neatest inventions human had. Up there with the internet really.
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Post by Circe on Jul 14, 2020 15:53:11 GMT -6
"I should. Hopefully she just forgot to tell us about something." At least that's what Xiaolian hoped. She didn't have the energy to even try to catch a glimpse of what lay ahead. The solstice had left her exhausted and without much of a chance to even recharge what little power she did have.
Pulling out her own phone, she didn't bother scrolling through the contact lists, instead she used simple voice commands attached to its OS. "Call Maria Zhang." Xiaolian instructed and listened as the assistant repeated back the request before dialing the other's number.
Cellphones were handy, but didn't quite operate at the speed of thought. Most telepaths begrudgingly accepted their use, if only because not everyone was terribly interested in sharing their thoughts with another.
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Post by demikara on Jul 14, 2020 16:17:51 GMT -6
The phone rang twice before the other end picked up. "Hello! You've reached Maria Zhang's phone." It was a male voice, though the accent was similar to Maria's. "This is her favorite brother Mateo speaking. Maria can't come to the-" Something heavy hit the floor in the background, and there was a scuffle for the phone. Distantly, unintelligble shouting could be heard in spanish.
After a moment, the phone was picked up again. "Hello?" It was Maria this time. She covered the microphone of her phone haphazardly and glared at her brother. "I'm sorry about that. Mateo is kind of a pain." Something was said in spanish loud enough to be heard and Maria snapped back at him. "Cállate Mateo! It's from my work." Brothers were a pain and a half.
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Post by Circe on Jul 14, 2020 16:24:35 GMT -6
Xiaolian raised an eyebrow and looked across the desk at Molly as if to say, 'See? There was nothing to worry about, now stop being so nosey.'
"This is Lt. Bóyuán... I'm wondering if you would be so kind as to provide me with updates? They're not in my email..."
She'd have a discussion with her later about allowing her siblings to answer her work number.
"And Warden doesn't have them either."
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Post by demikara on Jul 14, 2020 17:12:21 GMT -6
"Of course. And again, sorry about Mateo. He thinks jsut because we're at the doctor office means he can go through my things." There was no growing up when it came to her baby brother. But he was coddled heavily and spoiled rotten and they all knew it. So long as he was alive and off drugs, the family let him get away with near everything. He was a live and that was more than they had expected of him for a long time.
"I'm not finished yet, but I've definitely found several hotspots for what we're looking for." She was in public, she was not going to say blood magic. "One of which was O'Hara places. My main concern is that I'm finding traces of it at the homes of people who are supposedly amputees. But I've seen some of them and they aren't amputees anymore." Nor where the artificial limbs remotely like a prosthetic, not unless prosthetics came in the form of your own flesh and blood. "I had a few of them come in as possible witnesses to a crime. They all danced around their suddenly whole bodies. But there's a few other hot spots I'd like to check out as well, one of which is in the same complex as O'Hara but a different apartment. Records indicate an elderly woman lives there." Though Maria couldn't recall the name off the top of her head.
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Post by Circe on Jul 16, 2020 19:18:30 GMT -6
Xiaolian held her tongue and resisted the urge to lecture Maria about keeping such things out of reach of the sibling in question. But she suspected it was easier said than done, especially given how many sound beatings from her it had taken Zhen to stop being such a pain in the neck. While she would have done anything for her obnoxious sibling, there were times where she reached her limit and enough was enough. "Alright.. well keep us posted please, and don't go off on your own Maria."
They had had to practically beg to get another specialist, and given that Maria didn't rank far behind Xiaolian in durability, it was only right for her to be concerned. Loosing a member of the team whose common sense could help offset some of the distinct lack from Molly and others at times was invaluable. "We don't need you stuck behind a desk for the next six weeks again." Xiaolian added
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Post by demikara on Jul 16, 2020 19:31:27 GMT -6
"Of course. The doctor has said I can go back to light duties now, by the way. We're just waiting on a test result to-" The door opened and Maria lowered the phone as a frantic nurse entered the room and shut it behind it. "Ma'am?" It was a small clinic, one many in the Unseen frequented, run by doctors from their community. Sometimes you could get a referral to an actual healer, even, which was a rare treat. It had meant her healing went smoothly at least, and she was grateful for that. Besides, she had been coming here since she was born and they were very familiar with Mateo and his health.
They had helped get him off the drugs he had been on.
"Miss Zhang? Stay quiet. There's..." There was gunfire and Maria swore and turned to face the sound. That had been entirely too close. "Anti-magic extremists. They've found the clinic. The entire lobby is held hostage."
Anti-magic extremists were on the rise as the Unseen failed to deliver on the miracles that people demanded of them. They couldn't understand that this parallel world that had been revealed to them had the same foibles and problems as their own and certainly didn't have the infinite power some mundanes were convinced they were hiding away.
Finding the clinic was a worst case scenario. "Ma'am, Mateo, stay low to the ground, okay? Here, away from the door." She guided them to a better spot, one not immediately visible if the gunmen opened the door. "Stay quiet. Help is on the way." She held her phone up to her ear. "Lieutenant, did you catch that? The clinic is currently under attack. I'm across the street from Hyman Elementary school on Firethorn Drive. My weapon is in the car, along with my badge." Who brought a pistol to a doctor visit?
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Post by Circe on Jul 16, 2020 19:48:27 GMT -6
"Got it. I'm going to hang up now, just sit tight Maria. Okay?" Xiaolian said as she glanced back over to Molly. This wasn't exactly the call they wanted to get, especially given the recent tensions between the two societies. There had been a few protests, but those had largely just been people seeking to cause trouble and with very little to do. She had been grateful that the solstice incident hadn't reached the ears of anyone but a select few. Even as mouthy and drunk as Zhen tended to be, at least he knew to keep things about their society to himself. It was easier to exist in some ways within the unseen than the mundane, but none the less still difficult given the tasks that guardians were often assigned.
However, Xiaolian couldn't help but suspect that she could have seen this coming if she had just bothered to look ahead. Instead she had ignored the lingering feeling of unease, and chalked it up exhaustion from the solstice still. "We have an emergency." She said looking over at Molly.
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Post by demikara on Jul 16, 2020 20:08:14 GMT -6
Molly stood and grabbed her gun, holstering it with practiced ease. "Lead the way then." She grabbed her badge as well and slipped it on her belt. Emergencies were something she was all too familiar with. "What's the emergency this time, and how does it involve Maria?" It wasn't her for once, which was a nice change of pace. But an emergency meant it was a serious situation, which meant business all the way. Something had come as a result of that phone call at least and whatever it was, she wasn't looking forward to it at all.
At the clinic, Maria flicked out the lights of the examination room and joined her brother and the nurse. The nurse was shaking but managed to whisper. "There's still the other rooms. I haven't told them yet." Maria's was the first room there.
They would probably sit tight, Maria knew. People didn't tend to leave their examination room in a visit to the doctor, not once they had been shown back, even if it was taking a while. But that was a risk she didn't know if she could take. Maria hesitated a moment, and cast her eyes about, looking for something she could use as an improvised weapon. Someone needed to inform the other rooms and needed to make sure they stayed quiet and still.
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Post by Circe on Jul 16, 2020 20:38:09 GMT -6
"Somehow, someway, Zhang is having wrong place at the wrong time. Magic extremists have decided to target the clinic off Firethorn." Xiaolian explained as she checked her own items. It was the start of an area of the metroplex that was popular with the unseen, they were comfortable there and had a community built up.
But that had only resulted in them being targeted and further accused of hiding things from the rest of the world.
"There may still be civilians inside and who knows how the mundane police will handle this." She added as hurried down the hallway.
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Post by demikara on Jul 17, 2020 7:50:53 GMT -6
"I like that clinic. They're the only one for miles who serve fae." Given she wasn't even human as a base, it was impressive as far as she was concerned. It also meant she had approximately one choice in doctor in the entire Dallas metroplex. If she wanted to see a specialist she was better off going back to the fae realm and just seeing a healer. But that option was mostly closed to her now, so she made due with human doctors. It was better than nothing, at least. And the ones at the Firethorn clinic were at least familiar with fae physiology.
"I'll alert dispatch. We'll want a few of our own on the scene as well, so it's not just the mundanes." They could work together on this. There were protocols now, that would allow them to work together even. Barely tested ones, but everyone was at least a little familiar with the new set of rules for them all.
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