undergrounds | August investigations (open)

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August investigations (open)

Battleshots fired

Evening in the Black Bear Tavern, and someone had set up what looked like an oversized game of Battleship on one of the tables, with one major exception: all the ships had gleaming shot glasses carefully set into them at even intervals.

The bar was dark. The board was illuminated. There were cheesy underwater sonar noises involved. And Heiji stood on the other side of the board. "So. You ready?"

Handy Battleshots board here. Gameplay video here.

Battleshots works like Battleship. You and your opponent each have your own ocean grid, which is hidden from your opponent. You secretly place your ships on your ocean grid horizontally or vertically.

You and your opponent then alternate calling shots on the grid (for example, A1 or D5). If you pick a spot that your opponent has a ship in, it's a hit. Your opponent must then announce the hit and drink the appropriate shot off their ship. The middle shot on each ship is tequila served in a black cup.

Gameplay continues until you annihilate your opponent's ships, force a surrender, or someone passes out.

Groundwork (throughout August)

Heiji could be found throughout August in regular libraries throughout the city -- and libraries-underneath-libraries as well, looking through records and old archived newspapers. Or, occasionally, falling asleep with his face in a book or pressed against a handy keyboard. His topic of investigation? The East End Pack, and in particular one Derek Hale. It was all a matter of public record, which meant this was A-OK and totally aboveboard, right?

Right.

Reconnoitering (mid-August)

Lewisham was not a particularly safe place for the faint of heart -- in fact, it was a no man's land, a veritable hive of scum and villainy. But during a few evenings in mid-August, there was one extra supernatural beastie about: a black fox the size of a full-grown tiger, lurking about the rooftops and getting the size of the activity there. Heiji was doing a little reconnaissance work, though he could also be found scoping out the neighborhood in Havering.

[Or lemme know if you want anything in particular o7]

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"Everyone thinks they're doing the right thing," said Heiji simply. "Otherwise, why do it? That includes Redbright and associates." Even the most corrupt politicians, the greediest businessmen, the basest murderers and criminals.

"Not quite at the time. The cops figured it was some serial murdering nutcase. Enough bodies, though, and even the public would have noticed."

Well not all of them. There were a few madmen(and women) who just enjoyed causing pain. But yes that was what she meant so she didn't say anything about it.

It was surprising that a Vampire of such high standing was so sloppy. Perhaps she had come from some rural European country where the people were too scared to say anything about all the deaths. "Well then, it is good that she was taken care of. Sloppiness needs cleaning up." Sometimes the older vapires went a little off. Perhaps that was her problem.

Which they felt was the right and enjoyable thing to do. A better exception would have been people experiencing blackouts or other behavioral disturbances, whose control over their own actions was suspect -- if you couldn't control yourself, you could hardly be expected to act reliably on what you thought was right or wrong.

"She was a bad egg," said Heiji simply. Even in the forest, those who became too gluttonous eventually brought about their own destruction; Carmilla had simply met the end that she had winnowed out for herself.

"Anyhow, I'm gonna get going. I've had enough sex dungeon talk for one night."

Mab gave Heiji an unfathomable look as he brought back up the crazy bodyguard again and after a moment dipped her head. "Very well, I have several things I still need to attend to myself."

And with that she turned and separated from Heiji moving further into Lewisham.

There was one question which Heiji had been mulling over for a little while now -- one question that was glaringly obvious to him, but which he knew that not many of his own kind would think to ask. (Or care to?) Either way, when Heiji decided he should do something, his follow-through was invariably swift.

Thus whether at one of the many parties that seemed to spring up in the supernatural community in London, or simply between appointments for her duties at the Redbright Institute, eventually Heiji would find an opportune moment to approach Sylvia Redbright, ask:

"'Scuse me, Ms. Redbright. Do you have a minute?"

And be reasonably sure the answer would be yes.

Libraries were often a refuge for Kate, especially nowadays with her awkward sun allergy, and it wasn't exactly rare for her to be found scouring the aisles for various bits of random trivia. There's always time to kill when you're immortal, after all.

Except on this awkward night, she stops halfway through a page, phone dangling idly in her off-hand, because someone's already sprawled out on the table she'd planned to claim. Hm. "I didn't realize this one was taken. My apologies."

It's a new one on her, admittedly, but something feels off about the air in here. Worth sticking her nose into? Hell yes.

It was at the Redbright summer camp, in fact, on the closing days when Sylvia made an appearance to check how things were going. Though she remained devoted to the school, it was perhaps understandable that she'd had other things on her mind recently. The fae were more active than she could ever recall before, and it was surely no coincidence that their increased boldness had occurred around the same time as Abigail Widdowson declaring her new Midnight coven.

It was all rather troublesome.

So it was with a distracted smile that Sylvia turned to the young man outside the main tent, and she had to blink a couple of times to place him.

"Yes? Oh – you came to ask me about our summer school program, didn't you? How are you finding it?"

His name was on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't quite remember it. Something foreign.

Heiji was only halfway dozing, so he managed to haul himself into a sitting position without drooling on the table. He rubbed blearily at his eyes with one hand, and sort of shoveled his research materials over to his side of the table while he was at it in a groggy show at being polite and not. You know, taking up the entire surface.

"Nah, sorry. Must've dozed off." He was crinkling up an old newspaper, which detailed in a story (not a front page story, but the tale had still gotten some publicity) the death of someone named Laura Hale. It was part of a larger feature on how London was going down the drain, tsk-tsk, so many murders lately...

Heiji gets a nod of thanks as she drops her book-stack on the tabletop, one hand still aggressively marking the page she needed because she's not letting gravity ruin her work, damnit. And if it's an excuse to creep on whatever this stranger'd decided to pry into, then it's worth it all the more.

"It wasn't a hassle, really. But it's appreciated all the same." Laura Hale? Pity that she's never heard the name before, but it's still worth idly needling him over. "Though I'm told passing out on books gets rather uncomfortable. Doing some last-minute homework?"

"Well, I mean the main thing's having to worry about getting print on your face, but yeah, they ain't exactly the best place to rest your head." Did Heiji have print on his face? He checked quickly in one of the library windows, but didn't see any ink. Bullet dodged!

"I look like a student, huh? But nah, I'm just doin' this in my free time. I like to snoop once in a while, y'know?"

Was that normal? Sifting through old newspapers and records as a hobby? Hmm.

Kate rather comically squints at Heiji while he checks himself in the window. Hey, if he's distracted, then it's the perfect chance to study him out of sheer curiosity. "You do look like one, a bit. But then again I'm also an awful judge of character. I do hope it didn't offend..."

It's only a tiny lie, but it's not exactly a harmful one. Misdirection for fun and profit: everyone should try it. "Interesting hobby to have. Most people would pick something that allows fresh air, but I suppose there's value in learning what you can these days."

The question took him a bit off guard; Heiji had almost forgotten about that conversation, though perhaps he, too, had had other things on the brain lately. And besides, she probably ran into a million different faces a day. It wasn't as though he was expecting her to remember him at all. "Oh, yeah! Ended up not having the time to sign up. But that's not actually why I'm here today."

Heiji fiddled with the brim of his cap absently as he spoke -- just one more youngster who used summer as an excuse to relax his wardrobe a bit. "Truth is, I'm fae."

Sylvia wouldn't have remembered it either, except that she always made a point to remember people with strong magical potential, and she had sensed that in him. There was also the fact that she had met him at Abigail's party which was absolutely overrun with fae–

Speaking of.

She suppressed a sigh. Great. Now if he was an outcast, then Sylvia had all the time in the world for him; she knew how difficult their lives could be, shunned by their own kind. But if he was part of the Other Realm lot, who had been causing so much mischief in the south-east... well.

She shifted, folding her arms. "I'm listening."

Not pre-judging. She'd judge him after he had said what he wanted to say.

Hmm. Well, she hadn't tried to set him on fire, which he counted as a positive. So he simply nodded in quick acknowledgment and got right to it.

"As I understand it, you're the head of Circle Daybreak. I'm here to ask you to reconsider Circle Daybreak's policy of sealing off the Other Realm and driving the fae from its territories in the southwest of London."

And that was the whole of it, wasn't it? He doubted he could convince her that the fae were a positive force (he would argue they weren't entirely negative, either, but humans rarely wanted to hear that). Nor was he actually in the position to offer her some amazing boon in return; in fact, he suspected that being here at all was skating on some fairly thin ice. All he could really say for himself was that he was polite and direct about it... which wouldn't count for much in Court.

She blinked. "Why?"

It was almost a reflexive response to a request she had not expected. What did he or his kind care when they had the entirety of the Other Realm to play in?

The question took him by surprise, too -- Sylvia Redbright was not anyone he remotely expected to catch off guard. Did the fae really engage this infrequently with the residents of London?

Now he had a conflict of interest. He doubted he'd have a better chance to talk to her... but explaining the answer in detail would put him on even thinner ice than would showing up to talk in the first place.

"The Courts are opposed in most things," he said slowly, feeling like someone walking a very thin line indeed, "But they agree on one thing now, which is that Circle Daybreak's policy is to be taken as insult or threat."

Threat if unchecked, because Sylvia had been, if anything, enormously successful thus far. Control or influence over half of London, and likely aiming for all of it. Could any mortal faction be said to be capable of mounting a real resistance? The dark witches? He doubted it; they were too scattered, too small. The wolves? Three of their leaders had recently been lost in one way or another, and they had their hands full enough with the vampires and the upcoming eclipse. Hillingdon was all to itself, seemingly content to remain apart from all the others. A London entirely barricaded off from the fae was, in the minds of many, a real possibility.

"As for the other reasons... I can't speak on behalf of all fae, only for myself. And I'm not sure I could explain even that very well. I'm not human, after all."

Oh no, mistaken for a teenager... stop staring at him, Kate.

"Hey, I got other ones, too!" he protested, though with a quick smile to show that no offense had been taken. "Got a Hayabusa I like takin' out whenever the roads are clear. Drove it out to the beach the other day. It was nice."

Well... that was interesting. She had to wonder if a certain dark witch hadn't been whispering into fae ears, or if the fae had taken it upon themselves to decide that they had been insulted as an excuse to wreak havoc in the mortal world. Almost anything could offend them.

Diplomacy, then, would be her first recourse. Hopefully this one had in fact been sent by the Courts to make their request, and he wasn't some lone chancer trying to get a promise out of her.

She shook her head. "Let me assure you, that could not be further from the truth. There was no insult intended nor threat meant. We seal off the Other Realm to prevent any witch from summoning your kind. We do that to protect ourselves – but the seal also protects you. It keeps your people from being enslaved by dark magic. In Daybreak, we take a vow never to use dark magic, never to summon a fae. The seal keeps us honest and it keeps you safe. Do you really want to lose that?"

Heiji gave her a small smile. He somehow doubted that the Daybreak witches were all that broken up about the idea of enslaving them. The fae had no friends in London -- and he was aware that they had no one to blame for that but themselves.

"I'm not crazy about dark magic myself, or summoning. It starts more trouble than it solves. But surely you must know that if there's one thing the fae hate, it's being told what to do and where. Isn't there some way to keep those witches from doing as they will without shutting away Faery?"

She wasn't claiming to care, only putting forward the argument that she thought he would care about most. The look she gave him could almost be mistaken for sympathy.

"I'm afraid not. Believe me, I've spent a long time trying. This way is safer for all of us, and I won't put that peace at risk."

Her tone had a stern edge to it now, because it was the fae who had been the aggressors in recent months, and frankly she did not buy their excuse.

"I understand," he said, and though he wished things could be different, it wasn't as though this was the first time two sides found themselves unable to compromise. Because that, ultimately, was what it came down to. The fae as they were now would never consent to have their future decided for them by human witches -- and the witches, no doubt, felt threatened by the presence of the fae and the temptation they represented.

But that didn't mean one couldn't be civil.

"Thanks for talking with me. The next time we cross paths, I expect it'll be as enemies."

Snake canted his head toward Heiji, frowning. "The other side of what, exactly?"

"The Other Realm. Where we live." Surely Snake knew about the Other Realm, right?

"Oh...I've heard stories but I never knew if they were true or not." Can you tell Snake's major source of study is more based in science and less in fairy stories, Heiji?

"Is it like here but reversed or something?"

Heiji laughed easily. "No, not really. Some places it's a lot like here, some places it's not. The air is cleaner and it's wilder. I really love it there, 'cause you can enjoy the wind and stars without ever hearing crowds or traffic."

It was clear by the excited way he talked about it that Heiji was quite fond of Faery. "It's a little dangerous if you just wander in, but I'd be with you!"

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August investigations (open)

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