Unexpected messages

[demikara]

Scotty walked with Molly, scowling fiercely. The young woman was not impressed with this at all. "Look, I know that I had to report it and all, but why exactly am I going to see the warden over this? I've done nothing wrong."  She was not happy and it showed in everything from her posture to the fact that Molly now had a blossoming headache, literally because Scotty was basically willing it as hard as she could.  This was not her idea of a good time. She had come through to report some weird messages that had been dripping with magic at Brandon's behest. Just because she had a shoddy track record with this entire community did not mean she was all that worried. They didn't reek of wolf at least so she wasn't too worried it was from them, and as far as she could tell, those were the only people she had to worry about.

Not some mysterious letter writer.

Molly stretched again and rubbed her head. "Will you stop that. I know it's you. It's also super illegal." Molly grumbled, not impressed. Scotty was nice enough at the shop, but every time she came here she became a total bear and Molly had only seen her here this once. Not so mysteriously, the other woman was never seen at any unseen hangouts of events. Given Brandon was still supplying her blood, she was basically still a fledgling. The officer fiddled with her pendant, tracing a rune over it to strengthen her augmented mental shields. "And it's because as far as anyone is concerned, you're one of her foundlings. And frankly, she gets to deal with all foundling from her line herself, as far as the office is concerned." Okay, she was more like Brandon's foundling, but he didn't work here. If he did, he'd be dealing with the miss priss.

[Circe]

"Report what?" Catherine asked, mildly curious as she rounded the corner to find the pair standing outside of her office. Contrary to popular belief, she actually did more than just spend her days locked in her office, drowning in paperwork. A portion of the job involved some local travel and she'd just returned from supervising the registration and installation of wards on a local shop nearby. They had apparently had some trouble with customers causing trouble and had requested someone install new wards. To ensure everything had been above board with the Council, they'd also requested a Warden to sign off on them, ensuring the wards weren't anything deadly or violent.

"Also, if you would care to stop trying to give my officer a migraine, it would be appreciated." She added crossing her arms, shooting Scotty a look that said 'try me brat' as Catherine sensed Molly's discomfort with the other. Apparently Brandon had not been teaching the other much about the rules that governed the new society the other now lived in. But that was understandable, as Brandon himself often had his hands full with contract work, and commissions from clients.

[demikara]

Scotty rolled her eyes and held up an envelope. "A weird message addressed to me. It's coated in magic so he was worried. I read it though and it's, well. It's weird, but not super threatening. Like...low level internet troll level of threatening." she shrugged it off, not worried. "Mr. Hammerstein said I had to report it though because of some of the spells on it." That she had only found out about after she had read it of course. Still, she stopped bothering Molly, whose shoulders slumped in relief.

Bratty teenaged telepaths were the worst, but she wasn't going to get the kid in trouble for it, not really. Being told off by Catherine, even mildly, was enough for most people. "She got routed to me from the desk officers. I figured I'd escort her back." It kept the girl's energies focused on her, which kept her distaste fo the department down, which literally saved everyone a headache. Well, everyone but Molly.

[Circe]

"I see, thank you Bronson." Catherine replied calmly, her attention now on the envelope Scotty held. "Actually.. Do me a favor and stick around. This might require an extra pair of hands." She added, thinking back briefly to the conversation she had had at White Rhino. Molly's specialties might just be useful if the magic on the envelope and it's containing letter had anything untoward attached to it. If Brandon was concerned, and he had learned what to watch for, then the report wasn't anything to ignore.


"My office probably isn't the best place to look at whatever this is though." Catherine said, trying to remember if one of R&D's labs was currently unoccupied. The wards, along with the suppression systems would contain anything. "Why don't we go down to the dev labs and see what's open, and in the mean time why don't you tell me a bit more about this mysterious letter."

[demikara]

"Got it." To the dev labs! That was possibly Molly's favorite place, given they were the only place they could really let loose. She led the way to the lab she used most often. If they were dealing with unfamiliar magicks, it would be best for her to have a working familiarity with the lab itself. Besides, there really was not a better warded lab down there, for some reason. Molly had a feeling it had to do with her.

Scotty shrugged not certain what to say. "It came with the day's mail. I mean, there's no post mark, but it was in the box with the others, so I didn't think anything of it. I was sorting the bills out from the junk mail, and well. It had my name on it, and I do live above the shop, so I thought, maybe, maybe someone jsut left off the apartment letter or something." Not a big deal at all. It happened, right? Scotty looked uncomfortable. "So I started reading it. It's weird. I couldn't really look away, but...Mr. Hammerstein said I was looking at it for at least ten minutes before he knocked it from my hands and put it in the magic dampening envelope. It didn't feel like it."

She hesitated a moment. "The tone...what was there... It sounded a lot like how my dad used to talk to me. One part proud, one part chastising, you know?"

[Circe]

Catherine frowned as she followed after Molly, heading down through the levels towards the R&D labs housed in the building's basement. "Those are..unusual magics." She said thoughtfully, trying to ascertain what exactly would have caused such a reaction. She knew some about magic, but not nearly enough as her job sometimes required. Calling in a expert wouldn't be ideal, but she would if she had to.

"We'll get a better look at it once we get into the lab. If anything goes wrong, there's a protocol that they'll follow." Catherine explained to Scotty, not liking where this was going. If anything the letter was proving already to have a malevolence to it. "But yes.. I have an idea. My father was very strict, but.. a good man." She said to Scotty.

It wasn't often that Catherine spoke much about her father, even in passing. Often preferring to keep personal information at a minimum, she didn't want anything said to be used against her or loved ones.

[demikara]

"Mine was the same." A good man whom she had adored. "Mom would have said we were blessed." At least in their luck of having good fathers. Scotty didn't know if she saw it as a blessing, but she knew she was lucky to have it. She could have had a horror story for a dad. Some of the people who came into the shop certainly did. They came to one of the labs and Molly did a brief check before opening the door. Scotty followed the officer in, uncertain.

"I don't know what it was. I didn't even know it was happening." She shrugged, uncertain. "But it really worried Mr. Hammerstein. He wrapped me in a blanket and pushed a mug of hot chocolate in my hands and made me drink it before coming over." Which was ridiculous, but she had a feeling the hot chocolate had been heavily dosed with something as well. She didn't know what, but she seemed a lot calmer than she thought she should be.

[Circe]

Catherine nodded idly, not really sure what Scotty was getting at. Her Father's partner to the best of her knowledge had already passed by the time she came along. Sure, she had had Tatianna and various trusted companions of the queen, but no one really in the role of a mother. Sometimes Catherine wondered what would have been different if she had had that.

"Well.. for starters, it was likely a hypnotism or enthrallment spell. They're difficult to attach to objects, as the will and energy required is massive." She explained as she unclipped her ID and swiped it through to give the three access to the labs. The code required to enter the lab rotated often, and only a few officers had top level access to the labs at all times; the warden being one of those officers.

"But the chocolate contains theobromine and a bit of caffeine.. it's thought to help reduce some of the effects of negative magics or energies."

[demikara]

Molly didn't actually have high level access, to her eternal disappointment. Something about budget cuts and refusing to fix the things she somehow blew up this time. Magic was explosive. It wasn't her fault, entirely, that she was mostly self taught and still figuring things out. She couldn't risk her glamour falling, after all, so never went to a teacher. some things were more important than a formal education. Besides, the labs could mostly take it.

"It was weird. It was about...about the attacks? Like, proud I had survived but disappointed I hadn't fought back." she hesitated a moment and continued. "It said I should have used my telepathy. That I could have ended everything if I just had." But she wasn't that powerful, she was sure of it. The woman shrugged and stayed out of the way. Still, it looked like it was time to do the tests, and Scotty held out the envelope, not certain who to give it too. "Here. It's in here." She had already said that, hadn't she?

[Circe]

"The attacks? You mean the ones last month?" Catherine asked slightly confused as to who else would have known about them. Aside from the Cedar Ridge pack constantly harassing her and the Council for the decision to imprison the pack members that had attacked, she hadn't heard much else. Usually the Dragon Court would rumble slightly if something like that happened, but Catherine hadn't so much as heard a peep.

"Telepathy isn't a weapon Scotty... and there are very few who would be able to even do what you're talking about." She added plainly as she took the envelope from the girl.

[demikara]

"The cedar ridge things against me." The jerks. "But yeah. I don't know who all would know. It's not like we have a newspaper or anything." It seemed like everything was word of mouth here and she didn't approve. Sometimes, you just wanted to watch a video or read something to get the news. She gladly handed the envelope over, not wanting to deal with it anymore. The young woman wasn't exactly thrilled it had happened in the first place. At least it was out of her hands now and she didn't have to worry about it all.

She wrinkled her nose at the thought of using it as a weapon. "I know. Besides, the only time I ever even managed anything remotely like an attack was...was that very first time." Looking back, she knew what had happened. She still wasn't sure how it had happened, but it had. "The most I can do is give someone a headache."

Molly rolled her eyes. "Again. Illegal. Don't do that."

[Circe]

"Calm down Bronson, you're just upset that you're having to deal with another telepath." Catherine said, attempting to placate the grumpy Sergeant. Secretly, Catherine found it amusing that someone was able to get one over on Molly. It was almost as good as the week the woman had spent running headlong into her office walls, then begging to be told why she couldn't enter without permission. "It's not technically illegal, as she isn't really invading your mind." Catherine added simply as she turned the envelope over in her hands.

It wasn't really anything out of the usual by it's looks, but she could sense a undercurrent of magic beneath the temporary barrier Brandon had hastily erected around it. "Alright Molly, how are you at containment?" She asked as she prepared to open the envelope.

[demikara]

"Gotta be good at it to break it." She pointed out and grinned. The sergeant considered what to do. There were a couple of different tactics. She twisted and moved her hands, flowing from one spot to the next. "Ready to erect a containment cube that. That seemed the best choice." She worked largely with raw magic, and the static feel of it was clear as she held her hands apart ready. "I'll be able to compress it around the letter for manipulation once it's in."

Molly could break into almost anything. Her wards were equally good.

Scotty pressed herself back against the wall, not convinced. She had heard Stories, on in particular and didn't think highly of Molly's ability to get into anything. She had spent a solid week running into a wall, literally, after all. But Scotty was going to stay quiet and stay back, and pray that it didn't blow up in their faces.

[Circe]

Catherine raised an eyebrow at the other as they grinned. "Don't enjoy this too much." Catherine scolded Molly, finding it disturbing how much the other enjoyed their job. "Right then, let's get this over with," She said before briefly checking the time on her watch as a marker. "Current time is 14:00, item has been reported to have a time distortion and hypnotism like effect on the recipient." Catherine explained as she turned her attention back to the letter.

She didn't want her own hands caught in one of Molly's containment cubes, that would end badly, so Catherine held it easily enough through use of her own magics. It was if a pair of invisible hands held the letter firmly, and had begun to open it. The flap peeled back, revealing a blue security pattern on the opposite side of the paper, with a white sheet of paper stuffed inside. So far this was far from unusual, and in fact seemed quite normal at outward appearance.

[demikara]

Molly was careful, sliding the cube forward, ready to take the paper out. She twitched her magic slightly and a film covered her eyes. "I'm not seeing any magic on the exterior envelope." She reported. "Magic is visible on the interior letter." Brightly too, but they already knew it was a strong magic. Compulsion magic was powerful stuff. She just hoped that her skills were up to the task, that she hadn't been bragging. "I'm ready to receive it." she was on task now, and Molly could be incredibly serious, despite what she knew others thought of her.

she had thought ahead, luckily, and adjusted her magic. Carefully, she extended the cube forward, enveloping the envelope in containment magic. "You should still be able to telekinetically manipulate it, if I did the magic correctly." She didn't exactly have a co-conspirator to check that it would work after all, even if the math checked out, and it did. She had done this before. Just...not with a telekinetic person. If it didn't work, they'd find another way.