August investigations (open)

[detectiveofthewest]

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]

Comments

[brightwitch]

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?"

[detectiveofthewest]

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?"

[brightwitch]

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.

[detectiveofthewest]

"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."