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Post by Ylanne on Aug 16, 2020 19:50:59 GMT -6
In late August in Oberlin, Ohio, there were only so many things a group of upperclassmen could be doing in a low-rise brick apartment building on the outskirts of campus. Fraternities were officially banned - though that didn't mean that students couldn't unofficially form frat-like clubs. Classes wouldn't start for another week. Students at home with family or spending the summer elsewhere for an internship weren't yet returned. Only the juniors and seniors - and some students from other years who'd started later, either at Oberlin itself or one of the other nearby universities - were in town now in the apartment buildings generally avoided by people making enough money not to have to stoop to living next door to students. Which was almost everyone who wasn't actually a student. These particular students, contrary to their neighbors' assumptions, were neither partying the night away with alcohol and X-rated activities, nor hosting a bizarre exorcism straight out of an internet playbook suspiciously lacking important warnings and disclaimers.
The pair at the center - a stocky brunette with pigtails and a lanky, tall Korean exchange student - were eyeing two solo cups with innocent looking pills in the middle. Their friends, ringing them in the living room where couches had been pushed against the walls, could have been forgiven for assuming that the pills were some form of ecstasy or molly. But Temperance and Jaesoo were instead holding what the decidedly grumpy dealer had called "vivify," which Temperance had of course pointed out was a cringe-worthy attempt to mimic marketing for Abilify, except by using a butchered verb form instead. After years of hiding magical abilities anytime they'd been outside the premises of the small magic homeschooling groups both their parents had been part of - Temperance in West Virginia, and Jaesoo outside Oakland, California - they wanted to know what would happen if they just ... fully embraced their inner selves.
By morning, Jaesoo was in the ICU and two of their friends were dead. The other four had fled campus.
Campus security decided it was an unfortunate partying and alcohol related incident, and hours later, Temperance filed papers to withdraw from school.
Her mother was going to be pissed.
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Post by littlekreen on Aug 24, 2020 13:43:24 GMT -6
Periodic fuel to Rhanis' sapwell arrived by creatures too weak or stupid to get other food. Each culled from the cycle by her draw to darkened rootbound corners as their bones migrated to her ossuary. It was her purpose to heal those more worthy but injured mostly by man. However, there came some days when men would upwell through the roots into her ossuary. Each a lost starving creature that often poisoned themselves with chemicals or clearly gone mad. The green could see them rant and rave as it found them uninjured, unworthy to call of a healer's fruit, and slowly drove them to earth. It did the rest of Man a service to remove such diseased beasts of men from the human flock and of itself payment in kind.
What alarmed her was the day that started with a pile of bone-white deep within the musty drip of her rootbound ossuary. Though there within the walls covered in bones is a deep sap pool run with streaks just below the shore from the recent drought. A curious horned creature poked at the depths in this darkened hollow. The furrowed brow of a wolf that strengthens the herd by culling the weak but worries for future meals.
A wise wolf such as her that takes too many knew well what man will do. In their homes of dead stone and slaughtered wood would erupt Furies of iron and fire, blood and destruction, sparing nothing and no one. The image ignites the fae healer into a fervent inspection of the remnants of man's shape. Each took to the sapwell for an examination of the face that once was by glowing reflection. Looks of horror but not pain or sickness she would expect of their self-inflicted malaise. No matter what bloody shadow of bones she inspected, none bore her black Hecate's wheel. How where none judged? Almond eyes reflect back on the cloying fluid in contemplation of the faces new to her sapwell before they dissolved entirely. Roots of the fruit left in their memory proved nothing but a charred void where the mind ought to be. What modern horror of fire and iron had the humans built of the cycle's fruit?
The green knew what touch of the sun's light brought each life; thus, exact words could convince the green to share. The trees and plants told of many that arrive in short order and with terrifying rapidity. Their only predators in chase something their own, so the green considered them no more. Rhanis would have to go into the human world to discover what had gone wrong before she was put to the flame.
A skull of one that came with others held above the sapwell suited her goal to find what they'd done. By her intent rose a sugary glow of life in remembrance as tendrils sprouted to recreate what was move upward to that cleaned housing of the soul. Rooty patterns along the surface in translucent ochre eclipses the bone-white. Then as her will took root stood what was reaching upward with empty hands. Rhanis stretched her arms though the with the creak of wood than the pop of joints.
As not to be seen as herself found clothing to hide human ugliness in short order that fit the body. Neatly organized piles Rhanis did not wear littered a strange garden. Careful weaving of root and mushroom kept the cotton from rotting even if the clothing smelt of sweet damp earth. An unsullied memory of the body smelt of little else and far better than some of the diseased creatures in her ossuary. An oddly dressed girl rose from between fallen leaves as Rhanis surfaced. The way of its last path she could follow as far as the Green let her dare.
Though the constant nattering of humans was what showed her the first trail. A human barker showed this face upon Man's television. This lost lamb was missing? Not hardly, human. A flower pot next to this metal-tool store window bloomed with her mood as the television man mentioned another in their healing ward. She found most of Man's business uninteresting but knew where these places of healing were.
A wolf's amber eyes set out to look for the wounded bird as the girl in remembrance walked down city streets. The hospital was within able reach of a park that possessed one of her totems for a tireless Seelie-servant to walk to find her little plague bearer. A hood over her head in case others noticed the face but soon gathered a mask from the ground to hide it. A coincidence of recent human malady made stealth easier. Though possible for there to be Seelie in the hospital that knew of her thought it best for none to know she lived here at all.
The tint of muffled foreign accent in her voice Rhanis asked the desk person, "Hello. I know a Jaesoo is here. Can a friend go to see her?"
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Post by demikara on Sept 7, 2020 10:57:38 GMT -6
This was not even her region, Maria reflected. Somehow, she had missed the memo that specialists would be called to leave their region periodically. But two deaths and one hospitalization of Unseen college students was, apparently, something she could be called in for. Apparently, 'I'm up to my ears in cases' was not in fact, a reason to turn down a case not even in your region, despite Maria's protesting. It wa a good thing the mirror system existed at least. Maria had stepped out of the mirror station in Cleveland and rented a car from the discrete service that served the mirror station. There were very few options to choose from, but that was necessary, under the circumstances. At least she was going to be reimbursed the cost.
The team in Cleveland had given her what they knew. A new drug was on the streets of the magical world, which was the entire reason she had been called in. It was suspected that vivify was part of the reason for the deaths of the unseen students.
The deaths had made the news also, of course. Oberlin college had a small unseen department, so it wasn't unusual for unseen students to attend. Two deaths, four missing, one hospitalization called for an investigation. Not that she found out about the missing students until she had a chance in the car to read over the file some. "And why couldn't you guys handle this again? I get that I have a decent understanding of drugs, but there are other herblore specialists out there. And this could be a potion as well." Which could involve more than just herbs, even if it was primarily herblore that went into potions.
"We don't have any specialists with your skill set here. It's already hit the mundane news and we need a cover and answers quickly."
"The news has a cover. Drinking and partying deaths. The missing kids are the problem here for that cover. I'm going to start with the student who survived and is in the hospital. Keep trying to track down the missing kids, please." It was best to use her manners. She was still a new specialist after all. Besides, she didn't want to burn any goodwill the local specialists had with the local officers.
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Post by Ylanne on Sept 7, 2020 12:12:49 GMT -6
"Room six, down the hall," said the orderly at the nurse's station, clearly bored and hardly paying attention to Rhanis. Had he been looking, he might have alerted hospital security, for a visitor wearing a hood that nearly covered the entire face was certainly suspicious and warranted at least some questions. But the orderly was used to avoiding the extreme discomfort of confronting crying relatives of patients dying of cancer or from a drunk driving caused accident, so he had trained himself not to look too closely. Otherwise they might start asking him questions he was absolutely not trained to answer.
In the room, two patients rested in bed, each with half of the curtains drawn up, ostensibly for privacy, though the ultimate effect was really just claustrophobic. Jaesoo Kim stared upward with glassy eyes, the phone that had come in with her flashing a notification every few seconds. First it was her mother, and then it was her father and his second wife. Then her professors, the dean, and someone from the honors council. Then the relatives back home in Seoul. Then the cousins in Oakland. Then some detective, whose message almost tempted her enough to smash the phone to smithereens.
She could breathe now. Technically. She could also see, though the bizarre five-dimensions vision she'd gotten while high on vivify had now worn off and instead of technicolor energy waves rolling off the machinery, she just saw the same boring hospital displays that told her, unfortunately, she was still alive. And would have to face her mother. Whose flight was apparently set to land in just a few hours in Columbus. Jaesoo couldn't decide what would be worse - the dean or her mother.
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Post by littlekreen on Sept 7, 2020 13:19:13 GMT -6
At least the human hadn't said its name. Rhanis didn't want to talk to them if she didn't have to much less keep any names of the things. Her oath didn't permit the keeping of names and she'd have to give it back. Instead, Rhanis nodded and left the orderly behind before he could ask for a small boon for his useful service. Though she had to stop and remember what the numbers were. Once she figured out the order went down the hall smelling the faint scent of the broken in some of them. Flowers beheaded and left to desiccate slowly perhaps to remind the humans of a possible future if they do not remain strong. At least then the pointless destruction of the green would be useful.
As she passed one of the fire doors while counting to six her false-shoed feet met a steel sill. A looming burn through her shoes sent her step back with a whispered swear Fae. Floors of so many of their buildings sometimes with exposed steel and she'd forgotten. At least it wasn't too wide and eyed it as she stepped over. Though she didn't have to concern herself with being permitted to enter after a lack of disinvitation even if this weren't a place for the public welfare. The rooms were another matter but a familiar set of eyes and clothes came to the six room and looked in.
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Post by demikara on Sept 7, 2020 13:46:20 GMT -6
A show of her badge got her the room number, and Maria was on her way to room six, right behind Rhanis, though she didn't know it until she got there. She paused in front of the room and looked Rhanis over quickly. "Excuse me. Are you with the family?" It was best to play nice, just in case. "I'm here to speak with Jaesoo Kim." She pitched her voice to carry into the room. It wouldn't do to startle the patient after all. Maria didn't really get a good look at the other person, under her hood.
Then again, she wasn't expecting to encounter anyone but a human here. It would be odd to look too closely.
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Post by Ylanne on Sept 7, 2020 14:50:21 GMT -6
Jaesoo saw first the hooded figure and then the rather official looking human come into the room, but she didn't bother looking too closely. The hooligans had come. Or the police. Or some accursed creature coming to hunt down her soul or something. "Go away," she said, her tone dull and morose. "Leave me alone." She turned on her side, putting her back toward them, and grabbed her phone, scrolling mindlessly through her Instagram feed. Everyone seemed so damn happy. Gorgeous shots by lakesides and beaches, beautifully arrayed food that had to be fake, job offer letters, and way too many plane wings in takeoff or landing from partially obscured cities, all shown through a rotating plethora of preconfigured filters. She opened a string of recently posted stories, watching college friends dancing and singing - some half-drunkenly - and a string of vapid affirmations that were supposed to make people feel strong and powerful and whatever. Nothing about her kind, of course. Nothing obvious anyway.
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Post by littlekreen on Sept 7, 2020 17:30:14 GMT -6
Rhanis' shoulders jump at the voice of someone from behind as Maria makes herself known unable to come up with a more convenient truth, "No!"
There is so little Green here much of her senses were dark. Buildings of dead minced stone, deader wood, and strange plastic told her nothing and the quiet already put her on edge. Rhanis looked back at Maria as the human face looks back then around to see who was listening.
A furtive mind ground for a moment then added a carefully worded truth, "I'm here as one of her friends from the party. I don't remember what went wrong but they said there was a lot of alcohol."
She removed her face mask showing the clean human face once watching TV a room away and called over to Jaesoo, "Something went wrong but I still want to help."
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Post by demikara on Sept 8, 2020 8:34:31 GMT -6
"I'll have to speak to you as well, but separately. I'm Detective Zhang, with the police." Was this new person part of the unseen? That was the question, wasn't it? For now, 'with the police' would cover it. MCU was police after all, even if the specialists were more like the FBI than like a regular police department. "Can I get your contact information?"
She address Jaesoo now. "And I'm sorry Ms. Kim. MCU needs to speak with you about what happened the night of the party." Jaesoo at least, would recognize the acronym. If only because MCU was the police in their world, and Jaesoo was part of their world. Homeschooled, apparently though, which was unusual. Most kids ended up taking the mirror system to the nearest Academy. Homeschooling did happen some times of course. There was no stigma against it, not really. It was just unusual. It also meant that Jaesoo Kim probably had less interaction with MCU than the usual member of the unseen, who at least met MCU officers in assemblies.
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Post by Ylanne on Sept 8, 2020 9:18:02 GMT -6
MCU? Well shit. There went any hopes of eventually calming down her mother. Her estimate immediately went from three months for her mother to get a hold of herself to maybe two years. Maybe. Jaesoo kept scrolling through Instagram on her phone, willfully ignoring the detective, or at least, avoiding eye contact for as long as she possibly could. With her back still turned, she mumbled, "Nothing really happened. The doctors said I'll be fine in a couple days or something." Well, they were mundane doctors, so maybe they didn't actually know what they were talking about, but Jaesoo could hope. She did have an oxygen tube running into her nose, and an IV line sticking out of her arm, and she'd apparently been unconscious for about sixteen hours after it happened. It was supposed to be a fun experiment, not a horrifying one. "We're probably in trouble with honors council, because, you know, wild partying, drinking, drugs, all that." Temperance was already gone, based on the pings from the group texts that were now erupting with messages.
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Post by littlekreen on Sept 8, 2020 14:10:04 GMT -6
Rhanis' obligations as fae healer, thus neutral ground, necessitated an immediate polite refusal of a viable name, "Your name is very pretty, Detective Zhang."
Her eyes squeezed for a moment for the name to leave her ken. Hecate's wheel wielded by a Fae turned to draw in names even if she didn't want it to. At least the Veil made the effect less pronounced here.
A break in the floor tile captured her focus from worry as she didn't actually know where the person lived, "I don't have an ID or a phone. It's probably somewhere in the forest."
Unable to enter she stayed outside the door and stepped aside for Zhang to enter though didn't hide rapt attention to what was said. Drugs? Had the humans perverted the fruit in some foolish pursuit of hedonism? That wasn't what her fruit was for and hoped she wasn't going to get piles of revelers in her ossuary. The fruit on its own made healthy fools fall into the green and the bleeding ones traded injury for temporary sickness. They weren't for food or wine.
Though she forgot herself at the mention of the doctors, "The doctors don't train in everything." Then muttered at the IV racks nearby, "Lines of salt everywhere."
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Post by demikara on Sept 8, 2020 15:40:38 GMT -6
"Then I'll need you to come to the station for a meeting. Say tomorrow, nine am?" Maria found that giving people a time worked best. It also gave them less of a chance to refuse, which she didn't want this particular college student to do anyway. Hopefully she'd show at least. "What may I call you, so I ca let the desk sergeant know?" You didn't just ask for someone's name. People could offer a name to be called, but she couldn't think of anyone who gave their full name for anything. There was a reason they had middle names, according to her abuela.
It was a measure of safety against the fae, whom were dangerous even when they meant well. And they didn't always mean well.
Maria had no clue she was speaking to one currently.
"And I'll need more details than that Ms. Kim, but give me a moment to talk with your friend here." And to get said friend to leave. She didn't want them to corroborate after all. She wanted both of their takes, as they knew it, on the night.
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Post by Ylanne on Sept 9, 2020 11:58:17 GMT -6
Jaesoo mumbled something unintelligible and entirely lacking in enthusiasm. She didn't care. She didn't even really know any of the other students who were at the party. It was Temperance's idea. This kind of shit was always Temperance's idea. Jaesoo finally caved, and opened the string of messages from her cousins.
Aunt Nancy booked the first possible flight to Columbus
Man you're so fucked
What are you going to say
you alive
you there
hello
t minus two hours
pls tell me someone will record this one
Jaesoo flicked her phone screen off. She closed her eyes, huddled under the blanket, trying to pretend that neither the person who looked like another student (she sensed something ... off about that one, but couldn't quite place it) nor the MCU detective were still there. Then a nurse popped into the room, squeezing past Zhang to check Jaesoo's vitals, and she muttered obscenities under her breath. So much for pretending to go back to sleep.
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Post by littlekreen on Sept 9, 2020 13:03:29 GMT -6
Undecided at the moment if she was going to go to that place to get answers she recalled what the MCU was for. The police were full of iron and fire but the MCU had at least a few Seelie in it. Even if there were rude creatures among them this one was at least polite. Foreign to the city life as a Seelie living here for the benefit of the high among them she existed on the fringe. Listening to conversations while hidden within the Green or from cell phones. That didn't give her confidence a healer could dig without getting caught out. That would make things worse now that the mundanes knew they were there.
A name for in what respect she would come there was what she gave to Maria, "They can expect a willow straif."
Though she'd not said if she'd actually go it was one Fae reference for their healers in seclusion. There were not many and in part a test to see if the detective knew of it. Neither could she let the addled human be damaged by these mundane doctors if it was the fruit they'd survived. They were not condemned by Her Wheel. There was information she needed and consequences to the inherent solanine toxin borne into its magical effect. The latter she thought the mundane doctors clearly did not consider. Rhanis hoped there wasn't a division of spirit but the pain of looking in one's own eyes didn't show on the girl as far as Rhanis could tell from the door. That did not heal well with a line of salt connected to the blood.
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Post by demikara on Sept 9, 2020 13:28:12 GMT -6
Maria raised an eyebrow. "I'll let them know. Nine am tomorrow, at the Beech St station, ma'am. I'm sure, given who you're claiming to be, you'll be an excellent help." Willow Straif, a fae healing tree. That was one hell of a name. Hopefully she lived up to it. "If you would like to see Ms. Kim, please come back in two hours. I should be done by then." She should be done much sooner, but she wanted to give herself room, just in case Jaesoo decided to dance around any questions.
Maria entered the room more fully now and smiled to Jaesoo. "Ms. Kim. I'm Maria Zhang, a specialist with MCU. Under the circumstances, we had some questions for you. I'd appreciate your full cooperation, especially given four people are missing and two are dead from what happened." If there wasn't full cooperation, she'd probably list Kim as suspicious.
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