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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Nutjob was not the worst descriptor used for Mab on occasion. It didn't bother her that he was reluctant. He could be as reluctant as he liked. In the end things would be the way she wanted. She considered it an inevitability. Mab did not lack ego.

Her gaze drifted to Heiji at his head tilt, acknowledging his presence more than anything before returning her attention to the sulky vampire. "You will treat all fae as hosts and fae allies as guests. This means you will not bring harm to them unless they initiate violence in which case they have forfeited guest rights and you are free to defend yourself. If a fae or ally of the fae requires help or defense and you know this, you must lend your aid. If you cannot assist, you or yours must contact myself or one of my colleagues." She paused for a moment to let it sink in.

"You will clean up any messes you and yours cause in my territory and avoid drawing attention to yourselves, which means you feed carefully and dispose of bodies outside the territory if you can. If you can abide by these rules you will have my support, I or one of my colleagues will come to your aid if you are attacked within the territory if you request aid. You may petition for challenge if another group infringes on your home and I will personally enforce a duel or wereguild." Her eyes sparkle with something a little more bloodthirsty, "And you may drain anyone who moves against the fae or a fae ally within the territory with no repercussions so long as you can prove your case."

Boris listened as Mab described what sounded like the world's worst impromptu supernatural bureaucracy, starting with a look of mild consternation as she started on guests and hosts and rights that deepened as she moved on to petitions.

"No, thank you," he said once she'd finished. "I'm a little too old to be dueling. And you're not family. I can't trust your word that you'll protect us, and it would be foolhardy to risk the few of us left for a stranger."

Well it wasn't like she immediately expected him to toe the line. But it was still irritating. And Mab never liked her word being questioned. The corners of the room frosted in about thirty seconds flat and a cold wind whipped through, sending fog curling around them from the sudden temperature change. "I never break my word." Mab replied with narrowed eyes and biting tone. "If you will not assist our allies you will receive absolutely no assistance or protection from me." And that could be something worthwhile.

"So long as you agree to the rest of the terms I will not force you out. But mark my words, Mr. Redrum. If you or yours attack any fae or ally I will destroy you utterly. If you bring too much attention to my territory without my agreement, I will drive you from this place. Your associates have not been circumspect in the past. This will change."

Her eyes drifted to Heiji, she didn't care what Heiji thought of such threats. He knew what she was.

"Very generous of you," the vampire said dryly. "I can only hope to experience more of this delightful fae hospitality in the future."

He was clearly feeling crabby about the whole situation.

Heiji, meanwhile, was just sort of looking on as one might look at a slowly enfolding trainwreck. Because he'd agreed (at least from his point of view) to try not to interfere, he said nothing, but his expression probably said it all.

Mab took two steps forward, well within range of attack of that Vampire. "It is very generous of me." She replied, her voice hard. "I am not a charity. I have no need to allow those who could not be accepted into their own society in my territory but I have offered to do so. I can appreciate your situation as you struggle to survive but I am not here to be your friend." She had goals so far above them that they were simply an inconvenience.

Mab had the wherewithal to know saying that bit out loud would strike too much of a nerve so instead she smiled and it was cruel. "Fae hospitality is not something you experience, it is something you survive. Show me you want to survive, Mr. Redrum."

Heiji preferred coming in friendly and she certainly didn't miss the expression on his face. But she had neither the patience nor the time to court every minor supernatural creature in the area. She could be patient but things like claiming a territory were time sensitive. He was being quiet for now and she was pleased he had decided to stand back. She didn't need him undermining her prison warden vibe here.

"I believe I'll show you the door. It's over there," Boris said helpfully, gesturing toward the archway they'd come in from. He didn't particularly care for her generosity (which appeared to consist of allowing him to live where he'd been living all along) or for signing on to be some serf, fighting for people he didn't know and didn't really care about.

At this point, Heiji was wondering how Mab opened pickle jars. Probably by threatening them and then smashing them against the counter.

Mab's jaw clenched in irritation. Surely this vampire knew how tenuous his standing in the world was. He would not be in this rotting tomb cut off from the help of his brethren and scrapping for meals like a dog in a dumpster if he did not. And yet he had not even acknowledged that he would abide by even the simplest version of her demands in which he had to protect no one outside his friends but could not attack those who were not attacking him. But he hadn't fought either. Instead he answered as though he had some standing in world in which he could simply dismiss her.

"You do not have to like what I tell you. But you must understand how things will be. Do you understand?" She didn't even look at the door indicated.

Pickle jars didn't need to be sweet talked or threatened. They simply opened as they were meant to do. Not that she had to, she had servants for such things. If she ate things like pickles. This was a formality. She had no intentions of allowing rouge vampire nests to run amok in her territory. She could have simply come in during the day and slaughtered them all. This was actually a kindness in her mind.

"Yes, yes, I understand. Now leave us in peace." Whatever it took to get this lady off his figurative lawn. Didn't fae have to be invited before they waltzed into somewhere? Maybe that was only houses; he had a dim memory that that might be the case. Maybe he should dig up one of his old witch contacts, see about getting some warding herbs put up.

At least no one had burst into flames yet.

The undead could not form thresholds unfortunately for the vampires. Only humans could manage such things. And the longer one lived and created a home the stronger the threshold, apartments had more difficulty with such things they were generally weaker.

She stared at him a moment longer, something vastly irritated in her eyes before she turned and walked toward the door, assuming Heiji would catch up. "They've been warned." She murmured to him, "anything that happens now is up to them." She went down the stone stairs outside and stopped next to the bodyguard, frowning at him. Her fingers lifted for a moment and the ice began crackling.

Heiji bent down to melt Renning's manacles, though the man eyed him suspiciously the entire time. But maybe this would be the missing link in the understanding between fae and vampire ally. Maybe this one small gesture of kindness and trust would bridge the enormous gap between their two worlds.

"I'm not into furries, either!" Renning said.

Heiji really and truly was a dreamer. It was almost cute. Her ice would have melted down enough for him to get out in an hour after she weakened it but Heiji really did have a Galahad complex. Frankly she didn't want anyone trying to shoot them in the back with a hidden gun. She sighed at the fox before blinking at the raving man.

"Who on earth dislikes fur?" Mab barley gets cellular phones. Furries are a whole other level of she had no idea what they are.

"No, it's a -- " You know what, no. He wasn't going to explain furries to Mab, forget about it.

Instead he turned and headed in the other direction, away from the tomb. "I don't think there's anything more to be done here."

Unless, of course, Mab really did want to take Renning up on that dungeon thing.

Mab walked alongside Heiji, her attention more on the man behind them than the road ahead. He was sitting up and checking himself for amoebas, frantically scrubbing at his wrists and then down his body.

She shook her head a little and frowned. "This is why examples must be made." She didn't trust the vampires to go on as they had been. But if they did it would give her a perfect excuse to make those examples. "If they do not know what is at stake they become surly and rude." It's a conversation she knows won't go anywhere. But she really dislikes rudeness. It's kind of Mab's version of whining.

"I mean, it's good that ya didn't start off by kickin' an old man out of his home, but wouldn't it have been better if you led with that and worked up to the fealty angle? It's called the upsell." He didn't blame the vampire for being crabby; they had tied up his sentry and barged into his crypt, after all.

"Anyhow, I'm sure they know better than anyone what happens if they attract too much attention. 'Specially after they staked that Carmilla." They, not we. Definitely they.

"I would have thought someone in their position would welcome a strong benefactor." She replied with a shrug. "Scrambling about like rats looking for their next meal and hiding from other predators." She shook her head and gave him a sidelong look. "They have been leaving bodies, you know."

Her brows furrowed. She hadn't been here long so Carmilla was not something she'd heard of. She'd really only started paying attention to things a few months ago and she had focused her efforts on the previous territories being claimed. "Carmilla?"

"No one likes a surprise boss," said Heiji, "And I guess especially not vampires."

"Couple months back, an old vampire royal rolled into town. Set up shop in Greenwich, yeah? So a bunch of us pitched in to take her out. Didn't go down easy, either..." And ever since then, that area of Greenwich had been slowly recovering. He'd gotten a nifty trinket out of it, too, which he'd submitted to the King and Queen.

"They do not have to like it, only accept what will not change." Mab seems unconcerned about the whole matter, they'll come around or she'll give them the ultimatum. Leave or die. Sometimes things were very simple.

The information about the Vampiress is interesting. "A ... bunch of you?" Where did he find a team willing to hunt a vampire royal? And for that matter, who was strong enough to take on a Vampire Royal aside from Heiji. Perhaps Balem had helped? No he didn't seem the type.

Heiji grinned easily. "Yeah, wasn't too hard. No one wants someone called the Bloody Countess movin' into their neighborhood. Know what I mean?" Basically the wolves and a metahuman or two had helped. Although even then, it'd gotten a bit hairy at times.

...Hairy, get it.

"Had to borrow this special ash sword and everything. Although after that, I hear someone else came by and looted a lot of her stuff..." You might have liked her throne, Mab. It had screaming faces on it.

It could be a the swear word as opposed to a literal bloody countess. But no, she imagined it would be somewhat daunting to hear that was the name of someone who had just moved in. Generally it was how people felt about her when they knew who she was. So she raised a brow at him. "Fear does drive people to act." She acknowledged.

"Were there any objects of power taken?" It was important to know these things. Mab thinks thrones with screaming faces are a little gauche, thank you very much Heiji. And crucified bodies belong in the garden.

"Nah, unless you consider interior decoration and some jewelry 'objects of power'. If I'd seen anything that could do some serious damage lyin' around, I would've taken it back." 'Back', of course, meaning back to Faery. Only humans or former humans would bother to take run-of-the-mill luxury items, though...

Crucified bodies were, Heiji would argue, more gauche than screaming faces.

"I don't think it was just fear, though. I think it was also people pitchin' in to make sure their town didn't run down the drain." He found that comforting. They cared about what happened to it.

Objects of power had power. So no she didn't consider that power. "I don't imagine her things were doing much good to anyone else." In other words, looting was fine if everyone was gone. Mab expected it.

Heiji wouldn't understand the use of a crucified body either so that was fine.

"Mmm, in the same way they are banding together to make sure it doesn't go down the drain by sealing off our realm?" She asked, rather pointedly. Not that she gave a whit about the countess but because it ought to be noted that anyone could feel the way that led to pitchforks. "Was she bringing attention to the community?" Supernatural community that is.

"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.

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August investigations (open)

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