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Chapter 1: Dead Moon Rising


Justin OOC

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MIa walks up to Curtis and circles around him slow looking him over she makes a little "mmmm" sound when she is behind him and licks her lips when she comes back in front of him.

Then standing in front of Curtis she looks past him at Kiki talking on her phone. "Hey you! Hello Kitty! Wait a minute I want you here when I roll the bones." She holds up a dark aged pouch made of leather or some sort of skin. "Matter of fact all yous still cheer gatter round, right cheer Ya. Won't take but a minute now."

She crouches down in the yard before the wreckage of the house and clears a spot. "Boss man yous be right dare, c'mon now, y'all makes a circle. Hello Kitty you stand right here so's I can watch dat sweet butt."  She indicates the spot next to her then starts to shake the bag rattling the contents. "C'mon now I won't bites lessen yous ask me too." She shakes the bag vigorously and starts mumbling in a foreign language. "mor hersker av de døde keeperen til hallene i Hel , gi meg , blod pårørende , kjøtt av deres kjød , gi meg synet vise meg skjebne" As she says the last word she upends the bag and rolls the bones...

Spoiler

Translation: mother ruler of the dead keeper of the halls of Hel, grant me, your blood kin, flesh of your flesh, give me sight show me fate

Here is my Prophecy roll

[Nina] 7:26 pm: anyone here to witness my Prophecy Roll?
[Jeremy] 7:27 pm: Yo
      [Nina] 7:27 pm: Int 4 + prophecy 3
Nina *rolls* 7d10t7: 1,10,2,2,3,1,8.  Successes = 2.
[Asarasa] 7:27 pm: Here
      [Nina] 7:27 pm: #sux
[Asarasa] 7:27 pm: So, 3
      [Nina] 7:28 pm: 3 sux
      [Nina] 7:28 pm: yup Ty

 

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They paused to stand as she said, and she rolled the bones.A revelation was given to her, She was shown the image of  a sea goat, the constellation of Capricorn, the stars are burning gold.  One by one the stars winked out, and a cold sense of dread washed over her, as the stars all began to shine with a silver light.   Down below Nothing in the city moved, not even the air.   Her vision moved around, and she could hear nothing, feel nothing, The city itself seemed dead.

Then She was back in her body,  and looking at the expectant faces of her teammates.

Ryusei fixed her with knowing eyes.  "What's the score Mia, did you gain any insight into this?"

 

Elsewhere, Sia and Clara were in the car with the detective, on their way to the next site, The first thing that was noticed was that the police tape was broken, and that once again nothing was there, nothing alive at any rate.

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Mia stares for a good while at the bones after her vision fades. Then scoops them up and stands. "We in deep shit, Boss. I sees the Gateway of the Gods, the paths of the dead," she points up in the sky in the general direction where the constellation of Capricorn would be seen at night, "Dat road be turning round, an dis city be dead afore it be done. Maybe da whole world. And only by blood of man and God, be dis done." 

She look at her companions and shakes her head sadly. "Yep we be in da shit now."

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Ryusei looked at her, "So it didn't activate until a Scion touched it."  He looked at the others.   "Well, this is pretty terrible."   He whipped out his phone and dialed for the detective, not getting a signal.   "Okay, Let's go to the precinct I'm sure we can take over a briefing room there for awhile.  Mei-Ying and Curtis, you can get set up in the lab, look up everything you can that might connect this together.  hack into the CCT feeds and do whatever you need to do.  There's not enough of us to put eyes on each site, so we'll have to rely on technology where we can."   He opened the folder, and pulled a map, with the sites on it,  "Kaori, I want you to go here, and keep an eye on this site."  The place he indicated was in the southwest part of the city, within the large St.Joan of Arc cemetery.  "The actual site is cordoned off, but the cemetery is open still so you'll need to be on guard."

Mia, I need you to work with Curtis to decipher the full meaning, and any other clues from your vision.  Once we have our workspace, I'll head out to patrol as well."

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Curtis at first was jolted a little when Mia began making appreciative noises. Certainly, dealing with come-ons from the fairer sex had not been really in his experience, and it was more than a bit incongruous with the necrotic atmosphere and surroundings. And then the odd behavior of hers and the fact that she really put the cryptic in prophetic did not help.

At least he could be more reassured with the part about hacking and getting set up. Technology made sense. You could rely on it. Except then Ryusei would have him discerning puzzles with the gothic vamp. He had the suspicion he would prefer Mei-Ying over Mia or the arrogant Aoyama.

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Kiki rolled her eyes at Mia.  "This, is why I work alone." Muttered at the pale woman with the strange accent.  Kaori's exterior was hardened with plenty of experience under her belt.  Simple things like twisted prophets and crazy Goths didn't scare her in the slightest, at least, that's what she led people to believe.  The Kiki inside knew better than to second guess a prophet, especially in this line of work.  Soothsayers and shamans were a dime a dozen in any culture, but when it came to Scions and prophecy... Kiki knew better than to cast the words aside as crazy ramblings.

Mia was off her nut, that much was certain, but to consider her warning an empty one would have been pure folly.  "The Gods place the heaviest burdens on those who can carry the weight.  I can handle myself."

Without another word she left, programming the directions to the cemetery into her phone.  The motorcycle sped off down the road.

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They left there, as it seemed that the leak was contained for now.  three hours later they were set up in one of three briefing rooms within the Police Precinct for Ward 3.  Ryusei thanked the Captain in Charge for the use of the room, several computers, and looked to Curtis once it was closed.  He tapped out a message on his ipad, and it came up for Curtis.  "Secure the room, make it a loop of us doing seemingly random things, and be ready to not include me as I won't be staying.  I expect some sort of video and mics in here, so plan accordingly.  I like them, i trust them, but what gets discussed might alarm normal people."

He smiled, and looked at Mei Ying and Mia, "Well, let's get unpacked."

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Clara, noting the police tape, motioned for Sia to get out of the car. while talking to the detective, "It'd be best if you stayed between me and Teacup here. Just in case something comes out and tries to well. Kill us" 

She then stepped out and let Jager sniff around, see if she smelled anything. All the while keeping her hand on her sidearm, concealed under her jacket. and her. "other" sidearm. Her phone. 

"So, let's go check it out. Shall we?" 

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Curtis nodded at the caution order from Ryusei, plunked himself down in a seat and opened his laptop, and in a few minutes had the police station feeds censored for this room. That was to handle the audio and footage. Gaining access to the entirety of New Orleans took less time. Ryusei shortly had a text message ping him: Muffled and eyes watching you.

After that, Mei, noticing the speed of his work, asked him to handle some ancillary research for her. The result: Mei had a quarter inch high of documents to go through. The Celestial Bureaucrat was relieved to see this, as she projected it would otherwise be three inches high. Unlike her pantheon, she wasn't fond of all that paper.

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Mia ignored Ryusi and Mei as they did the unpacking instead she wandered out into the police bullpen and drifted among the desk drawing stares from the cops in the office. Several of them recognized her from her repeated visits to the department for questioning on past suspected criminal activity and her suspected involvement in local gang incidents. Of course she always had airtight alibis and she had never even been charged let alone convicted, she was however guilty of most of them. She found it thrilling to be here among those who thought they were so much better than the Poor white trash creole walking in their midst, who they now feared.

She sauntered over to the coffee service and started pouring cups. "Hey that's for the officers..." The female cop stopped in mid word when Mia turn her dead grey eyes on the bitch. Mia remembered her from a vice raid a couple of years ago. She had been rough. Mia's countenance flashed and the cop saw the dark ugly face the evil side, and faltered. "We be workin here now cher, you wouldn wan us to go wit out now huh?" She picked up the four cups and brushed past the woman and whispered "Boo!". The cop swallowed hard and turned back to her desk.

She came into the office and set down the cups except one which she handed to Ryusi, the only one she had brought with a lid on it. "Didn' know how y'all takes ya coffee so i fixed it like i like mine, strong and black." She grinned that wicked little grin. "But don'chu worry," she tossed several packets of sugar and cream that she took out of her skirt pockets onto the table next to the cups. "I brought y'all some sugar in case y'all can't handle it." She pick up her cup and went and sat down and put her feet up on the nearest desk.

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By the time Mia came back in, Mei was in full research mode. She had a pair of heavy tomes open on the table top and was shifting her attention rapidly between them. Between the two books was the case file, opened up to a series of photographs taken of the crime scenes. Spread out over the center of the table was a map of the city, with black marks on it.

She glanced up at Mia, then at the coffee, then resumed her work.

"No coffee for me, thanks. It messes up my sleep cycle. Curtis do you have...ah."

For a moment Mei Ying stared at the sheaf of documents the computer wiz had produced, then nodded slowly and slid them over to where she was working.

"Thanks."

Sketches of symbols followed on a piece of blank white paper.

Then she looked up again, at Mia and Curtis.

"All right. The murders happened at points across the city corresponding to the stars in the constellation Capricorn. It's occult significance is regarding the connection between this world, and the Underworld...and there are some doctrines and beliefs..." she taps one of the books, "...stating that the world can be ended by inverting, or reversing, that connection. Exactly how that might be done is not entirely clear...as is how it could be stopped. But I did find references to symbols that I think might have been used at the ritual site we saw. The symbols there were very worn and hard to make out, but here..."

Mei Ying pushed the paper she'd been copying onto forward. "...are the complete versions. Mia, what do you make of this?"

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Mia leans forward and studies the papers, she doesn't touch them just moves her head this way and that. Then she sits back puts a finger in her mouth and spins her chair around and around. The rest of the team look on for a moment. "Well?"

She stopped and looked at the annoyed faces and stuck out her lower lip in a pout.

"Some a dem look like Egyptian hieroglyphs, some a dem look like Sumerian Sanskrit. But dey ain't." She spins her chair again and when it stops she puts her finger down on one symbol. "Don' know wat any a dees mean, ceptin dis one. We need to go to my Maw-maws house. She had dis symbol on da wall. I remember cause it was outta place. Didn't fit wit anyting she kept. Not catholic, Not voodoo, not Santeria. I asks her one time before she tried to kill me. I says, Maw-maw what do dat mean it not fit wit da other tings? An she say, Now now baby-doll chu don' worry bout dat der, it not nuttin for you. But'chu know me, I kept naggin and finaly she say, a'right baby doll cause you keep askin I tell you." Mia gets up staring off into space, she walks slowly to a spot in the middle of the room she reaches up and her fingers brush a spot in the air. "It a symbol baby-doll for de City," Mia shakes her head sadly. " My Maw-maw never said another word bout it." She come back to the desk and taps the symbol. "Dats the symbol and it be hanging on da wall my Maw-maw's house."

 

 

 

 

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Both animals began to growl as they looked within the place, not wanting to go any further within.  There was the sound of shoes on stone, and Without warning the Police Detective sprang into action, dashing into the home, leaving the two of them outside.  Sia looked to Clara.  'I'll keep an eye out here, in case they get past you."

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Sigi went in to the building, finding her police escort on the floor, out cold with icy skin. With a Asian man standing over him, she drew her sidearm and challenged him.

"Name, and ID. Now!" 

He didn't answer, and laughed. Flipping his medallion of some sort which she couldn't quite place. Doing what Sigi would call the  normal mystical Asian stuff. Before dissapearing, leaving that mist from before. Which caused Sigi's training to kick in, so she fireman carried the cop out, Going as fast as possible. 

Only to find Sia Price and her tiger. Missing

Running a hand through her hair, Sigi tapped her phone and called in.

"Uh, yeah. Reyusei. Chief Sigismund here.  Sia's missing and I had a run in with the mist" 

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Ryusei had been sitting there listening as they discussed their findings.  Coffee wasn't his thing, he preferred tea.  Still it would be bad form to not drink it.  

Just before he was about to open it to drink  his phone rang and he answered the call and listened momentarily tuning out what his braintrust was discussing to listen to the field report.    "Guys, we've got another point that's gone active, more mist, and Sia's missing now.  Curtis, get the camera feed on the area, I want to know what happened.  I'm going to head there and block the hole like last time, it seemed to slow it down.  Send out a warning to Kaori too."  

With that he headed for the door, ready to call Hokuto to fly him there, still he turned his head holding up the coffee where Mia could see it.  "Good thinking."

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ryusei called back  "Keep working at what's going on, keep me in the loop if you find anything out.  I'm going to run a circuit of the various points."  With that he was gone, once outside he called hokuto and took flight for Clara's position.  

Curtis was able to see Clara there, and rewinding the footage showed Sia there before, then she was enveloped in a strange mist, and vanished.  it was at that moment that one of the searches he'd keyed in on a wild hunch came back,  regarding the symbol they did know the meaning of.  What it came up with was the Atlantis Resort and spa in the Bahamas webpage, where the same symbol served as the company Logo.

Elsewhere, Kaori had arrived at the cemetery, and unlike the other sites, there were signs of life, the buzzing of insects, the wind moved, coming gently from the southeast,  but something was definitely off.  several areas of the cemetery were flooded, and it was from within the flooded area that she felt some sort of pull, tugging at the ichor in her veins.

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Kiki hated this place.  Not because it was wet, marshy or even a creepy cemetery, no those things were fine with her.  She'd faced jotun on frosty mountain peaks, battled oni in abandoned subway tunnels, dueled kenku in shadowy, stormy plains.  Easy peasy.  But this was New Orleans... if America had a seedy underbelly, New Orleans was its knuckle-dragging, slack-jawed and functionally retarded ass crack.  Even the tombstones here had drawls.  She was confident that whatever was going to leap out and try to kill her would be shirtless, wearing overalls a straw hat and speaking with a twang so impossible to decipher that communicating would be impossible, not that it would have anything intelligent to say... but the twang... ugh, the twang.

Kiki drew the Masamune from its scabbard and the melody of its emergence was a bolster to confidence.  Slowly she moved towards where the pull was leading her.  Her ichor burned in her veins like molten gold as she yearned to once again test her mettle.

Spoiler

Kaori possesses Eternal Vigilance and may not be taken by surprise.  Obviously, GM fiat overrules the knack, but it's just a reminder nonetheless.

 

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Mia sat down and sipped at her coffee. She glanced at the computer on the desk and clicked on the browser opening it up. She surfed for some raunchy porn and chose one then minmized the screen would be a nice surprise for some cop later. She watched as the nerd and the chink did their computer crap. She was bored.

She looked at the clock. it had been all of five minutes since Ryusi had left. Time for her to go, she stood brushed her skirt and went out the door . "Dis jus stupid and boring don'chu know you can't fight de' evil wit a computer. I go'on to see what i can find in da city."

She sauntered out found a cop. "I need you to take me to St. Luis Cemetery, I need to go talk wit Marie." After looking at the duty offer who nodded grimly the officer Mia had tagged grabbed gear. "If you would follow me Ma'am."

Mia with all exaggeration puts her hands to her breast with a shocked and indignant expression on her face, "Now Sha, I ain't no ma'am" as she follows the cop out of the station.

Curtis and Mei watch the whole spectacle, exchange a look, then go back to work. Neither say a word.

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Curtis rolled his eyes at the crazy and anti-intellectual. "And I was about to show her this." He brought up the tab with the finding of the symbol of Mia's and the Atlantis Resort. "I think we need to get some more information on the people behind this establishment."

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Mei Ying nods and stands up.

"Agreed. Good work. As I'm not being much use here, I suppose I should go make sure Mia doesn't get in over her head."

She plucked her phone out of her pocket and dialed Ryusei.

"Curtis turned up a lead on one of the symbols we've tied to these sites. It's an Atlantis resort in the Bahamas. He's continuing research, but I'm headed to the St Luis Cemetary to keep an eye on Mia, who decided to leave. I think we may need to have a discussion about her. Soon."

The Chinese scion paused to hear what Curtis had to say before heading out.

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Clara knelt down next to the police officer and gave him a more thorough check. She wasn't medically trained normally, but all SEALs went through a basic course of combat medicine, so maybe she'd be able to do something. 

"I assume there's backup coming. So I'll hold tight" She said to no one in particular.  

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