Dr. Simon O'Neill (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
protagonized) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
undergrounds2016-04-21 09:43 am
protagonized) wrote in undergrounds2016-04-21 09:43 am
Entry tags:
A Daily Mail Exclusive [open/closed]
#herodog trended in the UK for a grand total of forty-eight hours in early March, long enough to spark several articles about the incident in various local tabloids and newspapers, a fifteen minute segment about it on BBC Breakfast (complete with an animal behaviour expert), and two @herodog and @londonherodog Twitter parody accounts. Then the world turned and the sensation died down and few people remembered Maria Mitchell's little brush with fame.
Except Maria herself, of course.
She had been at a low point, but the hero dog ended all that when it dragged her off the tracks and away from danger after she'd drunkenly fallen off the platform, right in the path of an oncoming Circle Line train. The dog had done more than save her life, she'd tell her friends. It had given her purpose, a reason to stop drinking and start living.
She became obsessed with finding the London Hero Dog. If she could find it and thank it, or--well, they obviously shared a bond so maybe she could give it somewhere to live for the rest of its life! Right! The universe was telling her she was meant to adopt this dog.
She just had to find it first. And maybe look at some cell phone video she'd drunkenly recorded later that night...
i - No Good Deed Goes Unpunished (18 April - Open to Previous CR)
Simon's phone has been ringing at odd hours since Friday. He's taken to just ignoring the calls, since the number is usually blocked and whoever it is must not want to reach him that badly because they don't leave voicemails or a callback number.
But today is a bit different, because today he gets a text message. It's...huh, who would be sending him a video? This is all really--
Simon pales visibly.
"Oh shit. Oh shitting fucking Jesus Christ."
He hands his phone to his companion. The video is about five seconds long, showing a white dog that blurs and then suddenly isn't a white dog anymore. The only other message is a hashtag: #herodog
ii - How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? (21 April - Open to Hillingdon House)
Hillingdon House. Simon's heard of it, of course; he's reasonably well-versed in supernatural politics these days and as a shapeshifter he know that Hillingdon House ought to be his spiritual home. Had things been different and Sylvia Redbright not scooped him up and put him in her school back when he'd been a confused teenager with brand new powers, he probably would have ended up here. Shapeshifters from Hillingdon had been some of his first contacts within the supernatural community; Redbright had just gotten to him first.
But he'd never actually been here until today.
He takes a deep breath. What he's about to do is unsanctioned, potentially suicidal. He's probably just a couple of steps away from ending up a statue in the Night Council chambers, but he will definitely end up a statue in the Night Council chambers if he is the reason that the entire supernatural community ends up being exposed to the normal human one.
Simon doesn't know how Maria--he knows the woman's name now--found out about him, but Maria knows and she's threatening to go to the press about it. The Daily Mail would probably pay thousands for an exclusive on the witches and vampires and shapeshifters and everything else who currently inhabit London. They'd have a field day with it.
"How do I place a bounty?" he asks, approaching a likely-looking person.
iii - The Statute of Secrecy (29 April - Closed to Guardians)
"I've got a stalker," Simon says, and it's meant to be a joke but it's anything but. He looks even more exhausted than usual.
"I saved one person and suddenly I've got a 'hero dog' groupie."
He laughs hollowly. "She's trying to blackmail me into being her boyfriend. Says she'll expose me if I don't."
Except Maria herself, of course.
She had been at a low point, but the hero dog ended all that when it dragged her off the tracks and away from danger after she'd drunkenly fallen off the platform, right in the path of an oncoming Circle Line train. The dog had done more than save her life, she'd tell her friends. It had given her purpose, a reason to stop drinking and start living.
She became obsessed with finding the London Hero Dog. If she could find it and thank it, or--well, they obviously shared a bond so maybe she could give it somewhere to live for the rest of its life! Right! The universe was telling her she was meant to adopt this dog.
She just had to find it first. And maybe look at some cell phone video she'd drunkenly recorded later that night...
i - No Good Deed Goes Unpunished (18 April - Open to Previous CR)
Simon's phone has been ringing at odd hours since Friday. He's taken to just ignoring the calls, since the number is usually blocked and whoever it is must not want to reach him that badly because they don't leave voicemails or a callback number.
But today is a bit different, because today he gets a text message. It's...huh, who would be sending him a video? This is all really--
Simon pales visibly.
"Oh shit. Oh shitting fucking Jesus Christ."
He hands his phone to his companion. The video is about five seconds long, showing a white dog that blurs and then suddenly isn't a white dog anymore. The only other message is a hashtag: #herodog
ii - How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? (21 April - Open to Hillingdon House)
Hillingdon House. Simon's heard of it, of course; he's reasonably well-versed in supernatural politics these days and as a shapeshifter he know that Hillingdon House ought to be his spiritual home. Had things been different and Sylvia Redbright not scooped him up and put him in her school back when he'd been a confused teenager with brand new powers, he probably would have ended up here. Shapeshifters from Hillingdon had been some of his first contacts within the supernatural community; Redbright had just gotten to him first.
But he'd never actually been here until today.
He takes a deep breath. What he's about to do is unsanctioned, potentially suicidal. He's probably just a couple of steps away from ending up a statue in the Night Council chambers, but he will definitely end up a statue in the Night Council chambers if he is the reason that the entire supernatural community ends up being exposed to the normal human one.
Simon doesn't know how Maria--he knows the woman's name now--found out about him, but Maria knows and she's threatening to go to the press about it. The Daily Mail would probably pay thousands for an exclusive on the witches and vampires and shapeshifters and everything else who currently inhabit London. They'd have a field day with it.
"How do I place a bounty?" he asks, approaching a likely-looking person.
iii - The Statute of Secrecy (29 April - Closed to Guardians)
"I've got a stalker," Simon says, and it's meant to be a joke but it's anything but. He looks even more exhausted than usual.
"I saved one person and suddenly I've got a 'hero dog' groupie."
He laughs hollowly. "She's trying to blackmail me into being her boyfriend. Says she'll expose me if I don't."
ii - A+ Prompt Name
He leaned back and put his hands on his waist, the southern drawl that marked his origins as American coming out with a little suspicion, "Depends on what kind of bounty you're lookin' to place, Sunshine."
no subject
Simon gulped, finding himself suddenly at a loss for words. The man was so very American, in an almost stereotypical dueling banjos kind of way, and Simon felt the full weight of the potentially idiotic thing he was about to do on his shoulders.
"I don't want anyone hurt," he amended, sounding a lot less sure of himself than he had a moment ago.
no subject
no subject
His personal and academic email inbox were flooded with photos, love letters, and threats, all from the same person.
"Her name is Maria. She thinks we're destined to be together and she knows I'm a shifter. She's threatening to go public with it. "
no subject
"You need her to stop," Daryl stated, just to make sure he was understanding the bounty right. "You need someone to get her to cut it out. You got an address for her?"
no subject
He shook his head. "Just an IP address. She mostly hand delivers what she doesn't email." Or posted to his Facebook. Or his Instagram. He was strongly considering deleting his social media presence entirely. "She posted a card to my dad for his birthday, so she knows where my parents live too. That's...spectacularly terrible."
no subject
"That meN you got something she touched? Something that might have her scent on it?" He asked before pausing, "how often she deliver things to you? She due anytime soon? Be easier to find her place if I could follow her home."
no subject
"I've got a good nose." His tracking ability was one of the few ways in which he didn't feel hopelessly outclassed by the others when it came to his work as a Guardian. "But I couldn't trace it. London's too busy; I can tell she got on the Circle Line at Euston Square, but nothing more." A beat later, the second part of what the American hunter dawned on him. "I don't want anyone hurt!" He said it again, for the umpteenth time. "I just want to be left alone."
If the man could just...he didn't know what the man could do, beyond hurting her. He smelled like a cat, not a metahuman with mind-altering powers like Matt's. Oh, if only.
"You...don't know anyone who can change people's memories, do you?"
no subject
At the question, he shook his head, "Nah. Not sure it'd be a good idea anyway. She's already gotten some attention from the media for the rescue. You send someone in to scrub her memories and they ain't careful, she'll start wondering how she don't remember her fall or getting rescued or all those people chasing her for a feel good story. Wouldn't recommend it. They're easier ways."
Daryl took the paper and gave it a sniff. It smelled as much like dog as it did woman. Been in the kid's possession too long, maybe. But he had a starting point, the Circle Line at Euston Sq. He could go from there.
"200," he finally said, already pocketing the letter. "Come by with it in...-" he paused to think about it. Between his day job and the extensive tracking he'd have to do mostly from scratch... "-two weeks. I'll have it cleared up by then. She approaches you anytime during that, try not to antagonize her or anything. Keep your shit as short as possible, but keep it polite. Gonna take some time to pick up her trail."
no subject
"200?" That's lower than Simon thought it would be. He'd already withdrawn £600 from the saving account he wasn't supposed to touch except in a dire emergency, figuring that this probably counted. Another £800 remained in the account, ready to be called on if needed. He wondered if £200 was the going rate for murder too, or if he was getting a discount since he didn't actually want anyone dead--he just wanted to arrange a burglary.
"Thanks, I appreciate it." He held out his hand. "I'm grateful for your help."
no subject
When he let go, he turned his back and walked off, deeper into Hillingdon House, to where only known clan members were allowed. There was a loose possibility some of those there had seen or heard about this story and could give him a few leads the kid hadn't thought to.