2020-02-29 - Lost Books (Part 1)

From TwistedMUCK
Jump to: navigation, search


Lost Books (Part 1)

Summary: It's time for on the job training for two of MCPD's newest recruits. Conveniently a plot seems to fall directly into their laps.



Who: Constantine, Kaijin, Rayne, Superboy
When: February 28th, 2020
Where: Various


Constantine-icon.gifKaijin-icon.gifRayne-icon.gifSuperboy-icon.gif

The information contained within this log is to be considered information gained Out of Character (OOC).
This information may not be used as In Character (IC) knowledge or in roleplay unless it has been learned in-game or permission has been granted by the parties involved.

Questions should be directed to staff.


MCPD - Offices and Training Rooms(#5298R)
TEMP DESC: A long series of hallways containing rooms used as offices for the various departments, the large training room, and evidence lockers. A very scary, overly secure looking door is labeled ARMORY.


Sitting in the back of the training room, a thick manual in hand and a uniform that looks too new to be anything but, Superboy is trying to make sense of things for the fifth time while adjusting his collar. It's not that he doesn't have a good memory, he's a genetically modified clone after all, but something about the manual just doesn't click with him. "It reads like stereo instructions..." Bored of it, he turns it upside down as if it will magically help and lets out a heavy sigh.

"I kinda miss Batman's methods at the moment. DO IT RIGHT OR I'LL STRIKE YOU DOWN!" Who is he talking to? Himself, obviously. He's been doing this since he left Cosgrove earlier. Maybe the officer just has that effect on people, or maybe it's lingering concerns about his favorite motivational poster?


Walking into the training room, Kaijin is a bit surprised to hear someone talking to himself. She'd flipped through the manual when she got her her copy a night or two back, and has done her best to memorize it, but damned if she can tell how successful it is. At the moment, she's fidgeting with her costume. "

"How the hell am I supposed to move efficiently in a uniform that looks like it's going to fall off or shred at any moment?" she mutters to herself. "Seriously, they couldn't have just made something in my size and then made adjustments for my tail and back?" She sighs, and then makes her way to a seat as well. "Hey," she calls back to Superboy. "Here to start the day's training too?"


Superboy makes a strange gesture which very likely will not be quickly identified as flipping his sunglasses up when he's not actually wearing any. His brow raises along with it, so who knows. Maybe it's on purpose. "You definitely don't look like a local. Ever been to Apokolips?" Likely not the best way to start a conversation, but at least he's not trying to hit on her. He rubs his chin for a moment, taking her in completely and then shrugs, "I wonder if the Chief would be okay with the idea of outsourcing uniforms to Gotham? I know a guy who can do some awesome things with flexible Kevlar." He sideglances and mutters under his breath, "...if he's not still mad at me."


"From wherenow?" Kaijin has only read a bit of DC comics, such as Swamp Thing, and hasn't really learned about the New Gods or anything. "...Whatever. Anyway, I'm a Titan. Different Earth from you probably." she says with a shrug. "I'm Kaijin." she adds. She's not sure if she should use either of the surnames that Monarch has been suggesting. They seem..well, oddly on the nose /and/ a little arrogant at the same time.


Through the door steps Rayne. She looks tired. What else is new? "Yeah, sorry about that. Kinda short notice, and we don't have a tailoring expert on hand. Or in the city at all, as far as I've been able to tell." She sighs and shakes her head. "If you've got some contacts in Gotham or elsewhere for that, I'm all ears, Conner." She looks down at some note cards in her hand with a frown before looking back up. "I wasn't planning on doing this myself, but... someone came down with a bad flu and... yeah." >.> "So." She looks between the two. "I'm going to be taking you two with me on a regular patrol. Um. Normally, I'd have a training patrol use one of the patrol cars, but..." Her eyes are on Kaijin. Or rather, on her tail. And the back plates.


Puffing up his chest, Superboy starts to unbutton his shirt to reveal the S-shield worn under his uniform, but before the first button comes off he thinks twice about it remembering that he was going to try and enjoy having a secret identity for once. "I'm... um..." And Rayne walks in and introduces him. He grins at the timing. "S'alright, Chief. We've got our walkin' shoes." Coming from the person who's floated around nearly every chance he's gotten since arriving? Does he even remember how to walk?


Luckily, Kaijin's back plates don't usually show unless she's angry. or preparing to fire. But she did have to make sure the tailors were aware of them so she's willingly extended them. Then she notices where Rayne's gaze is an blushes a bit. "Ok, so my body isn't normal. Sue me," she mutters. Then the Monster Princess looks over at Conner. "Hey, nice to meet you." she says, before nodding to Rayne. "I'm fine with walking. I mean, it's not like I don't do my fair share of walking already." she adds with a grin.


Rayne glances away. "Sorry. I just don't know how comfortable it is for you to be in the seat of a car. The other tailed officers are a bit more, well, mammalian in nature with their tails?" She means thinner. She's really not sure if saying Kaijin has a thick tail it would be taken wrong or as an insult. She then glances at Conner. "Do try to keep your shirt on," she deadpans. Yeah, she caught that. "Okay. So if you two would come with me, then, I'll do my best to explain how we try to do things in the MCPD as we go."


"I've ridden in cars before. It's a minor hassle at the most. Though some people were working on modifying a few cars to have seats where I could just slip my tail into them and have it out of the way." Kaijin says with a shrug. Then snickers as Rayne comments on Conner looking like he was about to perform a strip show or something.


Conner sweatdrops at having his inner battle to brag about his identity being called out and as per the course he fails at diffusing the moment by stating, "Hey, the ladies like me without the shirt on. Nothing I can do about that." He pops his collar, gives the cheesiest grin he can muster, and promptly lets out a sigh and goes along quietly letting the two women talk amongst themselves as he follows.


Kaijin snickers. Oh God the cheese! But still, at least he's willing to try to fire back in silly situations. "So Conner, where are you from, anyway?" she asks, curious about the other rookie to the force.


Rayne sighs in minor annoyance as Conner flexes his ego some more. "Well, if it comes to it, Altering a car seat might be easier than getting the right fit on a shirt. For now, yes, we're 'hoofing it' as the saying goes." She walks on ahead, but doesn't interrupt the conversation between the two.



MCPD - Main Entrance and Lobby(#5295R)
TEMP DESC: Inside the doors is a large waiting room and lobby. There are doors leading into public bathrooms and access to the rear of the Courthouse. Beside the reception desk window is a hallway that requires a keycard to enter. This leads to the main interior of the Police Department.


Shoving his hands in his pockets, Superboy ties to fade into the background as best he can. Even he knows he gets on people's nerves. It's not on purpose, his mouth just likes to operate on its own most of the time. Not that anyone but him really gets that at the moment. Following them out into the lobby, he glances around to see if there's anything interesting to look at while wishing that his sunglasses counted as part of the uniform. Kaijin's question gets another raised brow as he ponders the best answer to that, "Metropolis originally, although I spent a few years in Hawaii and Happy Harbor." That's not strange is it? "I... uh... travel a lot."


"...Huh. So you're from the same world as Constantine? Huh. Didn't see that one coming." Kaijin says with a shrug. "I was born in Castle Bravo, but I've been all over the world already. or at least it feels like it. I live in New York, but I've also been to Japan, China, the UK, a few parts of the EU..oddly enough I seem to scare the hell out of Canada because they don't want me crossing the border."


Almost as if to answer Conner's question, they pass another officer that has shades on. Rayne doesn't even give the woman a second glance. But they're making their way to the main office. "'Happy Harbor'? It sounds like an amusement park." She then pauses slightly and looks back. "Constantine is from the same world? Interesting. Or is it just another version of a similar universe? I've heard of that being a thing." She holds the pause another moment before moving on. "It's an odd perspective," she says quietly without fully intending it to be a part of the conversation, yet still aloud. "Hearing people talk about having been all over a world. When in my time, that'd be like never leaving your home town. Different perspectives, of course."



Mabase City Courthouse 1st Floor(#5316R)
TEMP DESC: Right now only first few floors are accessiable. It is a long hallway with many doors on each side. There are a few meeting rooms on this floor, access to the boiler room in the basement, and the Welcome Center just to the side of the main entrance. A side door leads to the Police Department.


"Oh yeah. You mentioned having done some planet hopping before," Kaijin says. "The only Titan I know who can make that claim is Ghidorah, and father thankfully put an end to him. Still wrapping my head around the idea of more human-sized aliens. I mean, when your only example of extraterrestrial life is a five hundred foot tall three-headed space dragon that spits lightning and generates category 6 and 7 tornadoes and the like..." she shrugs. "It's hard to imagine there might be some benevolent life out there in the stars that would be more normal size. So what's space travel like, anyway?"


The name drop gets more of a solid reaction from the Metropolis Kid, "Wait, Constantine's here?" He nervously looks down at the ground. "...I'll have to track him down for a chat at some point." How well does he know Constantine? Not at all actually! But he knows OF him enough that he should probably touch base. Especially if he's going to keep this Conner act up for longer than he pretended to be Kung Fury.

As Rayne contributes more to the conversation Superboy is forced to let out a laugh, "Yeah, it's a tiny coastal village built around this too-large mountain that was probably a volcano at some point. The Justice League used to operate out of there before they first moved to the HALL OF JUSTICE." He does his best to imitate the announcer from the old Superfriends show as he says the name. Likely from a similar cartoon that existed in his world since that always seems to happen with DC characters. "If you think that's weird, try having conversations with people who are all clones of somebody else. That gets real awkward real quickly."


Kaijin stares a bit at the odd way Conner brings up the 'Hall of Justice' and shakes her head. "Ok....So that happened." she snickers. "Something tells me you're gonna be a barrel of laughs, Conner."


Rayne considers the question from Kaijin. To do so, she remembers her early memories of that first time she was on Earth... when most people didn't have access to space travel still. "...I'm not sure how well I can relate it. I'd guess it'd be like air travel in your time? I mean... it's routine for me at this point, even if I've not done it in... it has to be over a decade by now." She laughs, though. "I can't imagine a five hundred foot tall anything alive, frankly. I'm technically an alien from your perspective, then. I was born on Avia which isn't even in Earth's arm spur." She then clears her throat. "Right. This is the courthouse we're in now. If you need some extra work, the bounty office is still open to you when you're off duty. If you run into newcomers, I'd suggest pointing them to the Welcome Center here. They have the training and facilities to properly deal with them, but you'll be getting some training in what's basically 'first aid' when it comes to dealing with a newcomer, as well. Any questions yet?"


Kaijin nods a bit. "Hadn't thought of it like that. I guess that makes sense though." Then she looks around at the court room. "Huh. Y'know that /does/ bring up a question. Even if we're off-duty, are cops here /allowed/ to do bounty hunter work? Seems like it'd be either a conflict of interest or a straight up ethics violation, wouldn't it?" she asks. It's never come up in her world, so for her, it's kind of an idea that just popped in her head.


Superboy takes everything in with a brief grin to Kaijin at the barrel of laughs comment. Yeah, he doesn't comment much on five hundred foot tall anythings. There's a few of those kinda things where he comes from too. He does raise that brow again at Rayne's statement about the bounty office. "So the old director's legacy lives on, huh...?" There's no follow up statement to that. Either you get it or you don't. "I imagine it falls under 'keeping the bad element off the streets'. As long as we're off duty and not breaking the laws every little bit helps, right?"


Rayne pauses as she considers how to answer that. "You have to realize... when you're bounty hunting, you don't get the benefits of things like backup. Or if you do, you're effectively put on the clock. Also, bounties might not be what you're thinking. This is, as much about dangerous creatures as it is about criminals. More so, actually. We only post criminal bounties here if we've already exhausted too many department resources on hunting someone down." It sounds like there's no questions on the welcome center, so she starts moving on. "Not as much as you might think. We're always short handed on protect and serve minded officers as opposed to people looking to straight up be a hero. Something about this place just... pulls the people that want to play hero, and the bounty office is as much to keep them under tabs and busy as anything else."


MCPD - Courthouse Entrance(#5286R)
Outside the Courthouse, which makes up the more iconic front of the building, is a fair sized parking lot protected by a wrought-iron fence and a guard booth which is usually unmanned. The courthouse is about four stories tall with stairs leading up to the two double wide front doors.

The parking lot wraps around to the rear of the building where the main Police Department itself resides.


Conner winces as the daylight hits him. "Actually, Chief? Are sunglasses allowed?" It's an important question. A vital one. Why isn't anyone else bothered by how bright it is?


Kaijin isn't bothered. She actually seems to breathe in a bit more fully and enjoy the sunlight. Ambient radiation is alwayus good for her. So bright sunlight actually feels good to her. "Really? That's your biggest issue?" She grins over at Conner. "Relax. I doubt they're totally against regulations. I'm sure there are others who have light sensitive eyes, so they're probably allowed on case by case situations. I'm more worried about how to deal with my own natural weapons and how to make sure I'm not breaking any of those regs just by /existing/."


Superboy blinks, "Light sensitive?" He's part Kryptonian. "I just want my shades." This is why you shouldn't wear sunglasses 24/7 ladies and gentlemen. He won't admit out loud his main reason for not wanting to push it was because he tried so heavily to come across as accepting of the uniform, but hey. The brightness is right there. Let's use it as a crutch!


Rayne blinks and looks over at Conner with a look that suggests this might have been a slightly dumb question. "I've never seen a department without a few guys in shades. Just take them off when talking to a victim or the person that makes a call, out of respect. Remember. We work for the people." She really is an idealist. There's a look back to Kaijin and a shrug. "Lethal force is lethal force, whether it's from a gun, a punch, a spell, or some inborn ability." To emphasize her point, she holds out a hand and forms a ball of flames in her palm. She closes the hand and begins walking again towards the fountain. "It's how and when you use it that's the potential problem. Trying to regulate powers in a place like this would be insanity."


At which point, speaking of spells, Constantine comes sauntering up to the courthouse. His hands are tucked in the pockets of his trench coat. "Chief, we have a small problem." He glances at the kaiu girl, then at Superboy (is there a unicorn here?)


"You sure? I mean...well, radioactive fire and all..." Kaijin asks. "I was worried that even though my radiation doesn't linger and I only emit when I need to, that I might be presenting some kind of threat just by being here. But, if you're sure...." Then Constantine saunters up.

"Hey Constantine," she greets, thumbing over at Conner. "Looks like we have someone else from your world. Or close enough, anyway."


Superboy is in a police uniform with no S-shield on display, thank you. Not that Constantine would likely know this version. That doesn't stop Cadet Conner here from stopping and staring at the familiar blonde man in the trench coat. "Speaking of devils..." He doesn't speak up yet, more interesting to see if he's recognized. Doesn't stop him from pulling out his sunglasses now that he knows it's fine and putting them on before smoothing his hair back. Ah, yeah. He's feeling more himself now. His bravado is short lived as he's called out anyways. Thanks Kaijin. In the least slick way possible he raises a hand in a weak wave. Still, this could be entertaining.


Rayne says, "Like I said. How and when you use it. Don't 'emit' when you don't need to and you're fine." At Constantine's approach, she sighs and hangs her head lightly. "And here's another lesson: don't ever expect a day to go as expected... What is it, Constantine?" No, she's not even addressing the fact that he actually came up in conversation just a minute ago.


John Constantine sighs. "Sorry, but I figured..." He glances at Kaijin's uniform. "...you guys should probably know that somebody appears to be wandering around with a copy of the Arbatel, and while it ain't exactly the Necronomicon..." Oh. Joy. Do they have to put an APB out on a BOOK now?


Kaijin, who yes is also in a cop uniform, though it's a bit large on her due to the tailor erring a bit much on the large side, tilts her head to one side. The necronomicon she's heard of. This 'arbatel' thing though? Totally new.

"So are we talking about something that could turn this place into Night of the Living Dead, or are we looking more at a book that will turn your feet into the dancing crab meme crabs?" Hey, he said it wasn't on the level of the Neconomicon. "I mean as long as it isn't the Darkhold...." Oh yes. THAT one she's heard of from Marvel comics.


Conner takes a step back from all this conversation about magic. This isn't something he does. Someone else can deal with magic. "Arbiter. That's that thing from the Halo games, right?" He nods his head and crosses his arms, "I suppose the Covenant are a pretty bad deal." Really? Game references? Who does he think he is, Impulse? He doesn't grin this time so it's anyone's guess if he's serious or not.

Rayne blinks. "Arbat...I'm sorry, you're going to have to explain that one a lot more. I've never heard of this." She pauses a moment, then looks to Kaijin with a raised eyebrow. "'Dancing crab meme'?" She looks to Conner with a look that's even more confused, then sighs and shakes her head. "Is this absolutely now vital, Constantine, or can you leave a report in the office?"

"I can leave a report in the office." He glances at Kaijin. "Somewhere in the middle. Somebody's gonna get themselves eaten, possessed, blown up, or all three." He glances at Superboy. No, he doesn't tell the kid to take this seriously. He just tugs out a pack of cigs, takes a couple of steps downwind of the group and lights up.

"Basically this," Kaijin says, pulling out her phone and calling up the meme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDU_Txk06tM "It got pretty popular in the late 2010s going into the 2020s." she explains. Then looks over at Constantine. "....Ouch." then she looks over at Conner. "Really? Halo 2 and 3? That's where your mind goes? .....Enh, I guess to be fair they do sound /sort/ of similar in pronunciation."

All Rayne gets for her glance at Superboy is a shrug. He does sideglance at Kaijin a moment to ask, "What's a meme?" He's a little out of date despite everything. He does connect the dots to 'dancing crab' though. "That like an internet thing? Cat gifs or something?" Oh, a phone. He leans over to watch, bobbing his head to the music. "Oh hey! Neat!" Thanks to the distraction he almost forgets about Constantine so it's a good thing he doesn't get fussed at. He does eventually palm his fist as he remembers, "Oh, right. When you're not looking for the Arbiter, we should have a talk." He looks around nervously at his traveling companions, "Um. Being from the same world and all." Sure. That covers it.

Rayne looks upward, then back to Constantine again. "Better question. Do you have a solid enough lead already that I can bring along some new recruits to see how the situation is handled?" The video starts playing and she watches, more bewildered looking than anything else. She then facepalms and says, "Kaijin, Conner, focus please." It's clearly in regards to the video watching as opposed to Conner's request to Cosntantine to talk later. The later part is why Rayne's not concerned about that at the moment.

John Constantine shakes his head. "Not quite that solid, what I do know is that it was in a bookstore...from which it was stolen before I could buy it to get it off the streets. At least the person who has it is only going to be a danger to themselves..."

"Sorry chief," Kaijin replies, putting the cell away. "How long ago was it stolen? And does the store have any kind of security cameras or other features that would help provide a lead on the thief's identity?" she asks.

Conner blinks, he was focused. Technically. Maybe not at the right subject. He lets out a nervous sigh and is about to say something when Kaijin starts asking the right questions. He frowns slightly at that. Actually this sounds a lot like a test, doesn't it? The thought makes him eye Constantine a bit more carefully. "If it was stolen, why didn't the bookstore report it?"

Rayne nods to Kaijin, then looks to Conner. "They might have. But the danger the book represents might not have been known to the shop owners ahead of time, thus it would have been treated more routine." She looks back to Constantine, then says less to him and more to the other two, "We can check records and combine the cases into one later." She waits to hear the answers to Kaijin's questions before asking anything else.

John Constantine nods. "It was a normal second hand book store, not a specialist store which would know how to handle it." He glances at Kaijin. "Overnight, such as night is here. I believe they have security cameras. It's 'Retold Pages.'" Yeah, they wouldn't know what to do with a grimoire.

'Such as night is here' makes Superboy pause and look up. He still hasn't made it to the library so he's still out of the loop about a lot of things. He can't help but wonder what that's supposed to imply. Once more he curses himself for not doing research before rushing into the Police Station. He glances between the parties involved once he gets it out of his mind and asks, "Since this has all the hallmarks of being something a bit beyond our current level of training, should we step away and let the experienced professionals handle this? I should still take some time to get caught up on what's happened here..." He trails off at this point. It's not that he wants to bail especially when this was supposed to be training, but he is significantly out of the loop at this point.

"I'm more than willing to work this. It's got some danger to it, sure. But this /is/ why I signed up to help out. Besides, as long as nobody uses the magic in the book, we can just consider this petty theft so far, right?" Kaijin says with a smile. "Besides, it's only been twenty-four hours, so that gives us a fresher trail for the thief, provided there haven't been too many people who had their hands on the book. My sense of smell could help there."

John Constantine nods. "All good points." And all up to Rayne in the end, not John. He just wants the book off the streets.

Rayne sighs and facepalms. "Not Ray's Occult? Yeah, they'd have no clue." She lowers her hand, then asks, "Can you show us the way? I'm not familiar with it." Not a book person, Rayne is. She glances to Conner, then closes her eyes a moment as she considers. "Maybe. We should go ahead and make a report in, but I'd like to see what's going on." She looks a little less tired than usual now. This is no longer administrative, no longer desk work. This is why she wanted a proper police department. "But I also don't see a problem with having you two handle the initial investigation first. I'll have someone else come in behind, then if it's complicated enough, it moves on to the detective department. A bit of work experience, but you're still officially in training." She glances between the two, wondering which officers she'll end up partnering them with for their longer term training.

Kaijin nods. "Sounds like a plan," she says with a grin. "What's the owner like? Cause some people react differently in situations like this. Does he even really know what danger the book presents, or does he see it as just a random theft?" she asks to Constantine.

"I'm honoestly hoping it *was* just a random theft. Leather-bound book in Latin, looked valuable," John says with a wry expression. "And she's...annoyed."

John Constantine nods, heading back out into the street, cig dangling out of his mouth at this point. He's not saying anything just yet.

Rayne asks, "Was that because of the theft, or is that just her default state." She's known the type. She wonders if she's become the type, lately. "Come on, you two, let's not lag behind him." She's walking after John now, as well. "Sometimes it's good to know what you're going into with a victim, as well, Conner. At least, I know I prefer to know if I'm going to get screamed at before hand. But... yeah, a lot of the time, you go in blind."

Superboy takes in the sights as they walk, nodding at Rayne's words of wisdom. Still, he can't help but shake his head. "I'm pretty much blind to everything. Like right now? I see bits of stuff I recognize, but most of this? I might as well be in the city for the first time." Not that the weather means much to him, but he misses his jacket especially while walking behind Constantine. "Was there any planning to any of this or did things just end up wherever they happened to be closest?" It's not really important, he's mostly just voicing thoughts as they bubble to the surface.

Nodding at Rayne's comments, Kaijin follows along at a sedate but not lazy pace. She was also more asking if the bookseller, not the thief, knew what the book actually was, but she admits, she's curious now about why the book was stolen as well.

"Both, I think," John says. "But mostly the theft. She won't scream, though. She was just grouching a lot."

John Constantine shakes his head. "I believe that the city used to be a different shape and something, well, happened. Before my time," the warlock adds, ruefully.

Rayne shrugs. "I think there was some planning on Bishop's part. Actually, I'm sure there was a LOT of planning on Bishop's part. But I was off the council before that all happened, so... I only had extremely limited input to anything." She looks to John and says, "He's asking because he /was/ here before the whole dimensional tearing incident. He saw the City of Twisted. He just... had some fairly valid reasons to taking himself back through the portal he entered through." She frowns, then adds, "There are some stable portals. Conner came through one of them."

Superboy nods his head at Rayne's words, "Yeah. Gotham City is sorta anchored here. But it's different now? It used to be a wall in the subway and now it's sort of a weird area on one of the side streets? Whatever caused all this did some real damage to both sides of the portal." He tries to catch Constantine's eye at this point, "Which again reminds me we need to talk about that later." He drops down to catch up with Rayne and nudges her, "I hate to ask this, I really do. But I really don't like being out of the loop with this stuff? I know I asked you for this and I do want to carry on as planned, but can I sit this out long enough to go do some reading?" He reaches up and taps the top button of his shirt in the same way she caught him earlier, "I can be very /fast/ if you catch my drift."

Rayne nods to Conner's elaboration, but frowns when he makes his request to do research. "Okay," she says. "It would be good to make sure you don't have the wrong preconceived notions of the city." She notes the tap, then says more quietly, "I did say you were allowed a badge from your prior work, remember?" She then speaks more conversationally, "Very well, dismissed for your research. Do you need this first as well, Kaijin, or are you okay to continue on to the initial sight investigation?"

"I'm good to go, chief," Kaijin replies. "I'm not sure reading up on this place will be quite as informative as learning as I go, and I've done as much reading as I can stand at the present. I'm ready if you are."

John Constantine reaches the store. It's marked closed, but a young woman with slightly spiky black hair and a distinctly goth look to her is reshelving books inside.

Rayne nods once to Kaijin. "All right. Then pay attention, and speak up if there's need to." She steps up to the store and knocks a couple of times on the door before waiting patiently. "I hope this is sounding insulting that I'm telling you this, but we can't just walk into a place." Some worlds have far more militaristic police that thinks they can go anywhere. She doesn't know enough about Kaijin's world. "What's her name?" she hastily asks John once he realizes she doesn't know it yet.

Kaijin chuckles. "Not unless it's an absolute emergency. That's the same as my world." she says with a grin. "And I'd only be insulted if I wasn't expecting something like that coming."

"Heather," John says. "Wilson, I think." He's studying the store for a moment, as if looking for something. Rayne nods again... to both? Maybe. She knocks again, and this time calls, "Ms. Wilson?" She glances at John, wondering what he's looking for. "This isn't an emergency, of course," she mumbles.

The woman puts a book down on the top of her library school, and comes to the door. She scowls at John. "You. Call me Love once more..." Then she notices the cops. "Oh. The book."

Rayne says, "Yeah, he pisses me off with that one, too." She nods at the mention of the book. "May we come in?"

Kaijin watches the way the woman speaks to John. Apparently there's something else going on there. But then again, John did say he tried to shmooze her to get the book till they discovered it was stolen. She nods to Ms. Wilson in greeting before Rayne speaks if they can come in.

As Rayne already knows, John calls everyone that. Male, female, young, old, pony...


Heather opens the door. John's lips quirk. "They take the book seriously."

She shakes her head. "I thought it was just a fake. Lots of fake grimoires out there."

Which is, well, true...


"Ma'am, can you tell us anything about where you got the book and why you assumed it was a fake? I'll admit, I've never heard of the book before, but what made you certain it wasn't legitimately what it claimed to be?" Kaijin asks.

Rayne holds up a hand. "Kaijin. Hold on. At the moment, if it's real or fake isn't really why we're /here/. What /I/ would like to ask is to see your security footage, Ms. Wilson." She taps the badge on her uniform. 001, the Chief of Police. "It /could/ be real, and that's enough a threat that I'm dealing with it as if it were."

"Sorry, Chief," Kaijin says. "Got a bit ahead of myself there."

"I'm pretty sure it's real. If it's a fake, it's a real convincing one," John says, glancing over at Heather. She folds her arms. "Looked too new to be real."

Rayne sighs and facepalms. "Please. Ms. Wilson. May I look at the footage or not? You're still wanting to press charges on the guy, right? Even if it's just a fake?"

"Of course." Heather shoots John another look...maybe he was hitting her on something...then heads into the back room.

"So, how long have you two been dating?" Kaijin snarks at John.

Rayne sighs AGAIN and follows Heather on into the back. "Kaijin, follow me please. Let's see how the footage quality is." Because she's fully expecting to not be able to make out anything on the camera... but sometimes these small places can surprise.

John snorts, but says nothing. As for the footage...it's not too terrible, given the high tech around here, but it's not going to reveal the identity of the thief right off. Looks like a woman, but she's wearing a hoodie and a face mask. But when she looks towards the camera, her left shoulder shows a tattoo. An old-fashioned compass rose. It's...something.

Nodding, Kaijin follows Rayne, smirking as she goes. The footage is interesting enough. She doesn't recognize the tattoo though.



You are not allowed to post comments.


Personal tools