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3:46 PM
Moonflower Suite

After debating whether or not to help the seemingly injured doctor Melinda up onto her feet, she replied to his debate by standing up herself her neck was strewn with fingermarked bruises. Did somebody assault her? Alex slowly strolled over to the area where Ri and the others were all stacked up gazing at the screen as he approached he felt quite a cold feeling about Ri towards him, from his knowledge he had done nothing wrong to her but he decided that he would be better off keeping his distance and let the other agents handle this one.

That Doctor Melinda looked pretty messed up don't you think? The voice in his head was speaking again eminating a small chuckle afterwards, You wouldn't happen to have anything to do with those marks on her neck would you?

The voice coughed, could a voice residing in your own mind even cough? Apparently so in this case, I assure you I had absolutely nothing to do with it. There was that sickening sincerity again making Alex wince, it was like nails on a chalkboard to him.

Alex had been stood there while certain possibilities of the monsters species were thrown about the room in open discussion, this included Aaron's altered minotaur notion which to Alex actually didn't seem all too strange. He still had his hand wrapped around the half full glass of water or was it half empty...he never could remember which one reflected which emotion, he was parched how long had it been..24 hours or more since he last had a drink. He steadily brought the glass up to just a few inches away from his lips, before his hand suddenly clasped hard on the glass crushing it tightly glass shards entering his hand and hitting the floor along with the liquid coupled with a large scream almost blowing his ear drums. What the fuck do you think your doing you fucking dolt! Don't you even touch water with me.

Alex would have replied mentally but he was bent over his teeth clenched with several painful tears dripping from his cheeks as he slowly clenched the wrist of the injured hand with his other hand. He took a deep breath and stood up most of the agents now looking at him, he sniffed slightly and put on a fake smile, "Sorry about that, just a twitch and the glass along with everything else...I'll clean it right up." He didn't want to ask with her weakened state but he spoke back to Melinda as he made his way slowly to the kitchen, "Miss Melinda if your feeling a little better could I have a little help with removing this glass from my hand please."

He stood over the sink running the cold tap over his hand now embedded with several small and two rather large pieces of glass. He slowly felt the chest pain again as he spat out a small gob of blood into the sink along with the blood that seemed endlessly flowing from his hand, "And here I thought that wouldn't be happening here.."

You have some serious problems man, I don't think you'll be much use t-..nevermind. I don't care what you think, just what are you anyway? Silence followed no more sounds being directly projected into his brain.

__________________

3:43
Moonflower Suite. The correct one this time.

" Uuuugh... " Izumi moved side to side as she lugged around her food container. The trip up another twenty floors was gonna kill her legs. So she took the elevator and when she finally got out, she was in this flimsy state. Her food bag, which was a large shoulder bag used to carry the team's lunch, was now on the floor. Izumi was leaning against the wall as she dragged the bag towards the front door of the Moonflower Suite. She opened the door and let herself in.

There were a lot of people inside the Moonflower suite. Some people she didn't know, probably new comers assigned to the agency for this mission. The client was there as well but he wasn't important at the moment. Some of the new agents looked at her.

" Val Singan's catering service. I'm here to show the groom the sample... urf... " she covered her mouth and ran to the kitchen.

Wrath, Alex and Melinda were there. Melinda looked as if she fell down a flight of stairs and Alex was giving her some water. Wrath on the other hand was talking, well more like apologizing, about attacking Melinda earlier. Izumi didn't have the time to listen though, she immediately went for the sink and discharged her lunch. " Ughh... " She left the faucet on as she washed her face and then began cleaning up her accident. Once she finished, she looked at the others.

" My apologies with coming here late. If I may ask, what happened while I was gone. " she took a glass and filled it with water before sitting down near Alex.

" We saw how the beast looked like. It was a half-man, half-hor... " Alex was sitting to the right of Izumi. She stopped him before he continued.

" It's called a Tikbalang. A monster from Philippine folklore that has a horse head and lower body with a human's upper body. It's been known to live in forested areas away from highly populated cities. " she took a drink from her glass. " A friend of mine told me a story about these creatures. He said only the most vain of all Tikbalang's would dare take a beautiful human female as a bride. In that story, this vain Tikbalang stole a human woman from her groom and when the groom came to take his beloved away, the Tikbalang proclaimed that the woman was his because he was the most " beautiful " creature of his race and that the women of his race were ugly. A female Tikbalang heard this and got furious. She attacked the vain male and ripped him to bits while the human couple toof off. "

There was a brief silence in the kitchen after Izumi told her story. She smiled. " It's not everyday that we adults are told fairytales like children. " Izumi had finished the last of her water and placed her glass on the table. " Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go report to... " A searing pain filled her right ear.

" Are you ok? " Melinda asked.

" Yeah. I'll live. I'm probably just tired. " Izumi shook her head and blinked a few times.

Bingo! A voice rang inside her head. What a nice little mind you have here girly. Filled with lots of information. You also have some combat experience. Hell, you could kill everyone in this room with that glass you have in hand.

What are you? Why are you inside my head?

Don't worry girly. I'll take good care of your body. I can't say the same for everyone else here.

__________________

15.37
On the road leading to the Hardin Hotel

Charles Baker waited for the traffic lights to turn green – they seemed to have been stuck on red for at least four years now and he drummed the steering wheel of the Ford Mondeo impatiently with the fingers of his right hand. Even the classical music (‘Jupiter’ from ‘The Planets’ by Holst) did nothing to improve his mood. He waited...and waited...and finally the lights awakened from the doze they’d been in and changed to green. Charles moved off, desperately wanting to use a clutch as he did so but the car didn’t comply as it didn’t have one. He hated driving this automatic and wished he managed to pick up a car with manual transmission from the hire company – driving without changing gears took all the romance out of the experience.

He pulled into the entrance bay of the Hardin Hotel just moments later and stopped the car in front of the doors. Charles closed his eyes and took several deep breaths to calm his mood as the last strains of music died away. He got out of the car, taking a large briefcase with him and gestured to one of the valets who rushed over to him, without running of course, took his keys and handed him a valet ticket as he did so. Charles secreted the ticket in the inside pocket of his jacket next to his wallet and, after brushing a small piece of dust off his shoulder, he stepped into the hotel.

The lobby was fairly empty, just a few people dotted around, but Charles wasn’t surprised: it was mid-afternoon so old guests had already checked out and most new guests hadn’t quite started checking in. He walked over to the desk, set his briefcase down and met the smiling face of the receptionist.

“Good afternoon, sir, and welcome to the Hardin Hotel. Are you checking in?”
“No. I’m just looking for somewhere – the Moonflower suite?”

The receptionist’s expression, the slight raising of mouth eyebrows and slight drop in the corners of her mouth, made Charles sure that he wasn’t the first person today to ask about the suite. But she recovered quickly and soon her smile was back on full beam.

“The Moonflower suite? Of course, sir...”


15.51
Outside the Moonflower Suite

Walking along the corridor, briefcase in hand, Charles heard the buzz of conversation coming from up ahead. I guess that must be the Moonflower Suite. Sounds like quite a gathering. He stepped through the open door and looked around. There were several people but although some seemed a little worse for wear, they were all alive. Rather disappointing really. He wasn’t sure who he was supposed to talk to so he just addressed the room using a voice which he hoped would cut through the chatter like a scalpel.

“Well, isn’t this a happy little gathering. But it seems that I have arrived rather prematurely as the scene seems to be rather lacking something: a dead body. So unless you’re hiding the corpse somewhere I’m inclined to believe there isn’t one here, and rather than wait around for one of you to find someone, or something, dead for me to investigate, I think I’ll make my way back downstairs to the bar where maybe one of the staff will be able to make me a pot of decent tea, although I doubt it. Look for me there if you need me.”

Charles turned around and began to head back out of the suite.

__________________
The answer must be in a book...somewhere...

15:51

Everyone had stopped the buzz of conversation at the rather strange arrival of the man who appeared to have no sense of personality or, apparently, dramatic timing. Lucien frowned, the Tikbalang idea still churning over in his head. Now that Izumi had suggested the creature, it seemed remarkably more feasible that what he and Ri had seen had not been a centaur after all.

“I’ll go after him. I want to start scouring the grounds anyway.”

This was only the half the reason that Hawker wanted to get out the room. There was a strange atmosphere that seemed to vanish the moment he left the suite. Alex and the glass, the unexplained injuries sustained by what seemed like half the Agency- none of it really made sense. Then of course there was the unexplained assaults he’d read about in the local police reports that seemed to have a central location of the hotel, each of them forming a very rough ring around the building. Pausing only to check that his gun was loaded and holstered within reach, Hawker let out a breath and made his way down to the lobby.

16:03
Hotel Bar

“Doctor.” The assumption about the man being a medic was based purely on the few seconds that they had been in the room together. It was either that or the Captain’s own southern English accent that caused the other man to turn around. There was something in the voice that Lucien had picked up back in the room; the subtle arrogance of a higher degree of education. Oxbridge almost certainly. He offered a hand to the doctor.

“Captain Hawker. British Military Intelligence attached to the Agency.” He deliberately kept his voice low so as not to attract the attention of anyone else in the room. “You’ll be lucky to get a cup of tea. Can I offer you something stronger?”

__________________
"Books are the carriers of civilization…They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind. Books are humanity in print."

Barbara W. Tuchman



"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

NOT Voltaire

16.04
Hotel Bar

Charles sighed
“I did think a cup of Earl Grey was possibly too much to hope for. Oh well.” He took the hand offered to him and shook it firmly. “Doctor Charles Baker, forensic pathologist. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Captain Hawker. It’s good to see that our Military Intelligence is intelligent enough to already have an agent in the Agency. And as for that offer of a drink, if tea is off the menu I’ll just have mineral water, still. I like to keep a clear head when I’m working and I find that alcohol has quite a negative effect on my cognitive functions

As Lucien moved over to the bar to order the drinks, Charles looked around the room to see if anyone was watching them and found that no-one was. The attention of most of the people sitting in the chairs nursing their drinks was held by a large television screen showing a game of baseball, a sport Charles had never found himself to be interested in. He looked over to the bar and saw that Hawker was just paying for the mineral water and a glass of something that Charles couldn’t readily identify for himself. He wondered why Hawker had been so quick to come and meet him – maybe his assumption that he wasn’t needed yet was completely wrong. Maybe they were hiding a corpse somewhere... Charles smiled to himself. He didn’t think that was it. It was much more likely that they needed someone to check out the new arrival, especially after he’d made such an odd entrance, and find out if he really was who he said he was. And who better to send than a fellow Brit? Someone who would have instant rapport and be able to develop a sense of camaraderie, or something like that. Although this Captain Hawker did seem intelligent enough and might be able to answer some questions.

Lucien came back over to the table where Charles was sitting “Here’s your drink. They were out of still mineral water so I had to get you sparkling.”

Charles poured the cold, fizzy water into the glass and sipped it, cringing inside with distaste. Who put bubbles in plain water and thought it tasted good? He placed the glass down on a beermat which sat on the table, like an island in a sea of wood.

“Now,” he said, leaning forward and examining Hawker’s face, “maybe you can explain what’s going on here and why the Agency thought it necessary for me to be here?”

__________________
The answer must be in a book...somewhere...

1606
Moonflower Suite

Rath had since backed away from the center of the room to allow Ri to work on the photo. He wasn't really sure what might've happened in the past couple hours but he suspected he may have done something particularly…dodgy to her and [most likely] a couple other people. That's another one I'm gonna have to apologize to later…damn I wish I knew what the hell went down… When the picture finally did come into focus, he nodded his head, as if in confirmation of what he already knew. The door opening again brought his gaze to an entering Shindo Izumi.

Her entrance into the room and her addition to the conversation only strengthened his hunch. This time, making sure not to intrude on anyone's specialty, Rath spoke up. "I agree with Izumi. When I was little my mother would tell me these crazy stories about a creature with the head of a horse and the body of a man that had hooves for feet trolling about my homeland's countryside."

He paused a bit, catching Izumi's short burst of pain. Pain in the ear? Why does that sound so familiar? Shrugging it off, he continued to relay his information. "These things have the ability to turn invisible to the human eye…but…" Another pause, this time to remember as much as possible, "In all those stories, Tikbalang were depicted to be playful, almost childlike…though I guess it's not too hard to suggest that this things may have developed a violence streak…"

When Captain Hawker left the room to follow the newly arrived…ugh, actually I don't think he even gave his name… Rath thought on again, more of his mother's old children's tales coming back to him by the minute. "This may seem crazy but I remember that if one wears their shirt inside out it will serve to drive the Tikbalang away." At this he sighed and chuckled a bit despite current situation they were in. "Then again, I'm not sure how much of that is really true. All I'm doing is making assumptions based off of stories I heard as a kid."

Unable to come up with anything productive, Rath fell silent once again. More jumbled images were surfacing, not to mention his head was starting to ache. "I'm just gonna go to the bathroom a minute, excuse me." He said before walking off. Something's up. Something DID happen between me and the doc...

__________________
"Easy come, easy go.
Everyone thinks they know, 'bout the thing, high unknown.
Put their thoughts on a throne, then they name it G-O-D, colonize, you and me.
But I'm free, in the sky, me, myself, and I. Word."
-k-os, "Dirty Water"

Stuff I'm in...
Van Hellsing Detective Agency - Rath Lindroos -Field Agent-
Blacklight: Epsilon - Ewan Stilis -Pilot/Muscle-

16:10

Lucien folded his arms and took a sip of his drink. It was a weak larger, nothing that was going to affect his performance in the field, but he got the impression that even drinking it was considered unprofessional by the doctor. For a while afterwards, he sat in silence, unblinking as he read the man in front of him.

“I don’t know why you’ve been asked in, actually. I know this branch is short of a medical examiner and we-“ Did I just say we? “- are expanding slowly to a much larger team than when I joined. But no, short answer, I don’t know why you’re here.”

“As for what’s going on….” The Captain paused and took another quick drink. “We got called in after a series of bride disappearances. One in particular caught our attention through a client, you may have seen him leaving as you arrived. We set up a fake wedding reception in order to assess the situation and indeed our agent faced an attempted abducted by whatever creature it is that is responsible. We were just identifying our target when you interrupted. Tikbalang, I believe we just identified it as.”

Again the pair fell into silence. Stunned on the Doctor’s part, Lucien’s slightly more comfortable, as it was, largely, his natural state. He finished his drink and glanced briefly around the room, clocking a man that could be a federal agent almost instantly. Suddenly, the Captain broke the sustained silence:

“I think you might be able to help us out though, Doc. Can you think of a reason other than schizophrenia why people on the team might be experiencing shifting personalities and exhibiting strange behaviour… like smashing a glass in their hand for no reason? I’ve got a couple of theories but I’d say it’s more your expertise than mine.”

__________________
"Books are the carriers of civilization…They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind. Books are humanity in print."

Barbara W. Tuchman



"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

NOT Voltaire

16.10
Hotel Bar

Charles listened as Captain Hawker explained the situation. It was annoying to discover that he’d been called here for no apparent reason but now that he was here he was going to make the best of it. Hearing about situation with the monster – what had he called it? A Tikbalang? – was more than a little unnerving; Charles had agreed to work for the Agency knowing that he would be dealing with mythical creatures and strange monsters but thinking that they would dead and cold, preferably lying on a table in his lab, not running around an hotel abducting people (or attempting to). Charles was about to say that he thought it might be a good idea if he left and only returned when the creature was dead to perform a post-mortem, when the Captain spoke again.

“I think you might be able to help us out though, Doc. Can you think of a reason other than schizophrenia why people on the team might be experiencing shifting personalities and exhibiting strange behaviour… like smashing a glass in their hand for no reason? I’ve got a couple of theories but I’d say it’s more your expertise than mine.”

“When you say schizophrenia I imagine you’re thinking about Dissociative Identity Disorder, or DID.” said Charles with an amused smile. “It’s a very commonly made mistake – I think most people get confused as they look at the Greek roots of the word, skhizein meaning ‘split’ and phren meaning ‘mind’, and automatically assume that schizophrenics have split personalities. Is that the mistake you made, Captain?”

Charles took a sip of his water, again grimacing internally at the taste, and continued, still wearing a slight smile.

“Schizophrenia generally presents itself with auditory hallucinations, delusions and disorganised thinking and mood. DID, on the other hand, is where the subject’s mind contains many personalities which can appear at different times under different conditions. Sometimes the personalities are unknown to each other, sometimes they’re not. But you said another reason apart from that... PTSD? After experiencing traumatic events the mind can sometimes find it hard to cope which can lead to shifting moods, strange behaviours and moments of breakdown, which could lead to someone smashing a glass, I guess. Epilepsy? Unlikely that several members of your team have this and not know it, but it could be possible; a mild seizure could cause someone to break a glass in their own hand...then again, the strange behaviour, that’s more difficult to explain. It could just be plain, old-fashioned stress – I imagine working for this agency would make anyone stressed enough to act weirdly.” He paused, “I suppose it could be something supernatural. How about this Tikbalang? Could it be causing this? I’m afraid my knowledge of mythical creatures is lodged rather firmly in Europe and ‘Tikbalang’ sounds Asian...”

“Philippine,” said Hawker, without moving.

“Well there we are. Perhaps this creature is causing the strange behaviour. It’s hard to know without taking a history from the subjects, which I could do but getting a psychiatrist to do it would be a better idea. I don't know if that's given you any ideas. Would you care to voice your own theories?”

Charles swallowed the remaining water in the glass and didn’t bother to refill it with the water left in the bottle. Sparkling water – ugh! He’d almost rather drink tap water. Almost.

__________________
The answer must be in a book...somewhere...

(what military time? Now im getting confused...)
sometime after everyone elses posts, Moonflower suite

Aaron stood for a moment, not only walked past by three people, but his theories immediately invalidated, and he was ignored AGAIN, He began to grit his teeth so hard his orthodontist was feeling it, and his face turned tomato red. He slowly put his hand to his face and everyone heard a small crack as his cheap sunglasses broke under the pressure of how hard he was gripping his face. He slowly slid his hand down his face, raking off the broken glasses. He crushed them further in his hand and then dropped the pieces.

They could almost see the steam coming off his head as he stalked out. Embarassment was something Aaron rarely experienced, but this was the most embarrassing thing he'd experienced since highschool. He pressed up against the wall outside the suite and slid to the floor, folding his long legs up as he sank. He sat there, knees to his chest and hands folded tightly under his chin, looking like he was in deep thought. in reality, he would've given anything to just drop off the face of the earth.

After a good ten minutes, he uncrumpled and stood, leaning against the wall outside, looking dejected, his head hanging and his shoulder length white hair draped around his face. He was half chuckling, half crying, trying hard to choke back his burning frustration. He carefully rearranged himself and pulled another pair of sunglasses from his jacket and put them on. He stood outside the door and turned into a statue.

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Quote: Im a GAMER. I have a PLETHORA of lives!


I make all my own pics... 'cept my profile pic... (( <.< I will edit it soon...))

16:20
Hotel Bar

“Being a copper doesn’t make me stupid, Doctor Barker. I profile everything from serial killers to creatures that people think are fictitious for a living. Don’t assume that I don’t know what I’m talking about. Schizophrenia:, distortion of perception and reality around the subject often resulting in hallucinations, paranoia, delusions and difficult speech and thought patterns. If I said schizophrenia, Doctor, it’s because I meant to say it.”

Lucien paused, knowing that if the boss was around he would be blamed for over-stepping the mark. None the less, he was sick of Oxbridge graduates in the medical profession who assumed that everyone else was intellectually inferior. If I’d wanted a psychological opinion, I’d have formulated one myself- surely they should be sending us medical experts with a speciality in the less natural side of things too.

“And no, I don’t think the Tikbalang is responsible. For a start it’s the size and shape of an upright horse and secondly it only appears to target women with a mild hypnotic or pheromone capability, hardly likely to be sending more than two of our agents completely mad. I was hoping that you would have the supernatural solution since you wok for an Agency that specialises in the field. I’d share my theories but I can’t say as I’m too sure that I trust you enough to share details of my colleagues, yet.”

With that, Lucien stood up and nodded briefly to the doctor before turning away again. He was fuming internally despite the cool and calm way in which he’d delivered his tirade of insults. The man had simply annoyed him, a lot. Just like every other pompous medical practitioner on the planet.

Once outside, he stood calmly on a paved terrace and started to survey the site from there. There had to be a sign, somewhere, that something else was living out here somewhere.

__________________
"Books are the carriers of civilization…They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind. Books are humanity in print."

Barbara W. Tuchman



"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

NOT Voltaire