[IC] 🦄 Darker Than Black - Merged With T.S.

[FantasyChic]

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Priya Khurana

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Location: Funeral Home
Skills: Profiling

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Before she knew it, Priya was now subjected to children. And not just any children. She was not a big fan of kids. She didn't dislike them, more that she didn't often know how to handle them and talk to them. These though were downright creepy. She glanced at them and then at Ryan and then at Riley. Was Riley ok with this? This was a lot to take in in a span of a few minutes.

She eyed the director, hoping he could get them all moving, as she had no jurisdiction here. She was still unsure about all of this, but she didn't want to step on toes. Not more than she already did, anyway. If all of this was true, what Riley told her was not altogether correct. But then again, perhaps there was more to this story than they both thought.

Priya stood by Riley, making sure the girl was all right. "Need a minute? This is a lot to take in."

[Morose]

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Cecily Ashworth

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Location: Sidewalk Across the Border
Skills: N/A

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Cecily winced for a moment, hearing her own name. Her knee jerk reaction was to scream NO and run off, crawl into some comic book store and read issues of Jessica Jones until she died. As illogical as it was, she felt like a comic book store was one of the last safe places in the world at this rate. Everything seemed to be infested with Juno, as if it were a parasite or a virus - and she didn't know which was worse. But Natasha trusted her - hadn't she? The knowledge that Natasha had lied to her had left her head spinning, but she took a deep breath. Natasha trusted her fiancé too. And despite her omission of the truth...Cecily still trusted Natasha.

"...Yes..." Cecily said, her voice cracking. She couldn't imagine how he felt. This was a woman he loved and wanted to marry - and now she was dead, being taken away in an ambulance after an ill fated trip to Mexico. Would things have turned out differently if Natasha had never met her? Was this her fault - some sick curse? Wallace had already died...And now Natasha, the true coroner of Justice, had met a grisly end as well...She had to take another deep breath, but it was far from silent - it was noisy and shallow, as if her lungs might burst from the effort.

She died...-Rogue

It wasn't the best explanation - and it might have easily been the worst one. But it was all Cecily could make her trembling fingers type out.

[Dragoknighte]

Mali Anson

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Location: Zoie's Farm
Skills: N/A

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"I still really like it, even after having worn it for almost an entire day. It does have a habit of getting in the way," Mali admitted, looking down at the now dirtied dress, "but you should be looking out for yourself first. I'm fine." Well, she wasn't fine, but in comparison to either of the siblings, she was in tip top condition. The sudden scream and crash made her instinctively flinch and look towards the source of the noise, but despite Relic's words she had no intention of going up there even before he spoke up.

Instead, she found an empty chair and plopped down, holding her chin on her fist. She was given an offer: get out of town to travel with the two. She didn't know if Zoie would agree, but it would be a pretty safe bet that she wouldn't object. But Mali wasn't sure if she wanted to go. On one hand, going out to who knows where just wasn't all that appealing an idea. Then there was the fact that it'd be tagging along for yet another deeply personal family event that she was an outsider to. She just would be out of place the whole time. Even if she did like them it seemed like something they should deal with on their own.

But on the other hand, it would get her out of Justice for awhile, which would definitely do wonders for all of their survival chances. The last couple of days were especially dangerous, and although she wasn't unprepared to die in the near future, she would very much rather that not be the case. And she did agree to be their partner in crime in all this. Now, more than any other time they could certainly use an emotional foundation of some sort. She had problems of her own, but she wasn't grieving like they were. And on top of this, the fact that he was inviting in the first place meant there was a level of trust that she couldn't disregard.

"...Maybe. I need some time to think it over."

[Nallore]

Riley Ridgeway

Location: Fisher & Sons Funeral Home, Grimm, Indiana
Skills: N/A

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Riley started to dust herself off once Cyril finally put her down, looking over towards the others that were there. And yet there was another bombshell that was dropped in front of her as Ryan’s brother walked over towards the door. There were two kids that entered probably around the ages between five and ten.

The boy seemed to sound like he was older than he looked the girl did give her a bit of a creepy vibe. As they went to sit on the couch on either side of Cyril. Ryan said that they were his niece and nephew Riley wasn’t even sure what to say or think right now. ”I’m going to need a little bit go ahead without me for now.” Riley said and headed outside for some fresh air.

[Lady Absinthia]

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Date: Monday May 23rd, 2017 - (Remember Time Zones)

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Funeral Home: Ryan looked over at Riley and then the rest. "Yeah, it's a lot to take in but I can explain," he said rubbing the back of his neck. As Riley walked out he looked at Priya. "Maybe you should go with her? I'll start taking care of shit," he said before grabbing David by the back of his coat and moving him towards the kids. "Come on, let's get this shit handled."

"Oh...yes, of course..." David stammered as he want into the room and sat down across from Cyril and the kids. Ryan sighed. He figured at least that Riley would have known some of this but Chloe did have her secrets. Just the fact she had kids that were nearly 10, he thought she would have told her twin sister. Seemed she didn't. Only reason he had introduced them was because he was sure she hadn't met them yet.

"Alright, got her will here, this is what she wanted," he said pulling the folder back out and handing it over. David took the paper and started going through them. "She had some demons, so wanted to make sure shit was covered," Ryan added as he pulled the girl into his lap and sat next to his brother.

"Can we see the body?" the boy asked.

"Oh yes daddy! Can we? Before the chemicals?" the girl asked excitedly.

"Yes, before, and during. That would be marvelous," the boy added.

David froze and eyed the kids as Ryan rubbed his face. "I'm sorry but you have to be a licensed mortician to go downstairs."

The Farm: Another crash came from upstairs and another yell. Relic leaned forward and rubbed his face. A lot was happening at once. The police had finished looking over things for now, the fire department was pulling out. The barn was still letting off steam from the fire being doused. And Zoie was apparently upstairs taking out her frustration on anything she could get her hands on.

"Yeah, don't blame you," he said quietly before getting up and heading towards the stairs. "I'm going to shower and change. I think there is some shit in your room. Zoie made some off handed comment last night about having things delivered for you," he said in passing before his feet his the stairs and he headed to his room. In Malis room she would find various pieces of clothing, pants, shirts, jackets, undergarments, shoes, and the like. All casual but of high quality. Even included some sleepware. Apparently Zoie had ordered a lot to be delivered after she had been fitted for the dress yesterday.

Queensguard: Over in Queensguard, things are calm - Maria is behind closed doors in a meeting with Elizabeth. This is one room where Elizabeth doesn't allow cameras. Outside, things were calm as well. A motorcycle approaches the gate. On it is a single figure. Leather pants and leather coat, leather gloves, and a helmet that covers their head and neck. They pull up to the gate and do not wait for the guards to question them. Simply slipping a folded up manila envelop into the gate. It is thin. Turning the bike around they drive off quickly leaving the guards looking at each other questioningly.

One of the guards goes over and pulls the envelop from the gate, taking a look at it. "Hey boss, you got a package," they radio into the building. They aren't moving to bring it in, looks like they are checking it over without opening it. "Checks clean," a second radio call goes through. One of the guards takes the envelope and starts walking it to the building. Unfortunately the bike was common and had no plates. The video surveillance of the grounds only goes so far, so once they hit the outside of the grounds, where it went they have no idea.

Texas/Mexico Border: There was silence on the phone before his voice broke and he finally spoke again. "Could you get Natasha and fly her to Chicago?" he asked nervously. "It's where her parents are buried and our...home. I..I could meet you there... I'll pay for the trip..." he said stammering over his words. It was obvious he was trying to choke down the tears.

A text came in. Who died? What the fuck is going on Rogue?" - It was Roy again. Another text rang through. "I'm gonna call if I don't get an answer damn it."

[Sigil]

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J. Keystone

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Location: Queensguard Industries R&D, Office
Skills: N/A

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Caesar had been diligent about sending updates back. Very diligent. There was a lot to sift through. There seemed to be a fair amount of conflicting tone in the messages, many of which could have been accounted for by way of grief, alcohol, or some measure of conscience that ebbed and flowed as the events in Mexico transpired. Keystone had a less than fair time compiling and setting them into a single section of file. Provided that the information was accurate and not addled nor typoed by the haste and intoxication rumored to be part of a large Gonzalez funeral, there were some good, solid puzzle pieces presented.

One in particular seemed to grab Keystone's eye. It was a name, captioning a picture, with two familiar looking figures in it, albeit from decades ago. "Nah, can't bloody be..." he said in hushed tones. "She was right bacon-damned 'ere, too. Huh." This was something he had to let his boss know about. Turnabout being fair play, he punched a message into his company sat phone and sent it off to Caesar. Maybe it was nothing. Coincidence. But it seemed in Justice, coincidences got you dead.

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Caesar Gonzalez

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Location: Queensguard Industries R&D, Receiving
Skills: N/A

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In the Private Security business, especially for a man like Caesar, something as seemingly innocent as receiving a package was a serious and deadly affair. He had seen quite a bit of death in his time. Perpetrated a good bit of it in new and exciting ways. One of them even involved a man's innards and a helicopter. It was a younger man's game anymore; creative ways to do someone in. He was a master of the craft, however. More experience with it than most people had walking upright. So perhaps it was with the slightest twinge of survival instinct that he, upon hearing that a package was delivered for him, walked down to Receiving with a laptop case in hand.

It was a time honored tradition with a long and glorious history, really. Murder by Messenger. Often suspected, which is why messengers were received in full public view, for official business. The countermove therein was to drop off whatever the message was and haul ass, which is exactly what this one seemed to do. What was more pressing a fact though, was that this package came for him, hand delivered, very shortly after he arrived via a previously undocumented private plane trip. He had returned a little earlier than expected. This told him that he was being watched. Good to know.

Caesar stood inside the doors to Receiving, waiting for the security guard to hand off the package. Whether he take it back to his office or open it right there, he would have to decide when he held it in his own hands. His phone made a pressing buzz in his pocket. A communication was received, but it would have to wait for at least a minute longer.

[Morose]

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Cecily Ashworth

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Location: Sidewalk Across the Border
Skills: Deduction

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Cecily hesitated - if she hadn't been paranoid before this entire mess (with the rough starting part being the murder of Danica Graves in her mind), she certainly was now. Justice wasn't a normal town and with Natasha dead, she couldn't help but wonder if Justice's roots had spread out across the country. Yet the man on the phone - Natasha's fiancé - seemed to be genuine. Natasha trusted him, she was constantly talking with him during the trip, and her heart went out to him. He seemed to be a man in genuine pain due to losing a loved one.

And besides, she hadn't been asked to return to Justice - he asked for her to go to Chicago. It was away from Justice and away from Mexico. The odds that something would happen in a city void of connection - they seemed low to her and she relaxed ever so slightly, as much as she could in her current emotional state. Maybe he'd know what Natasha had meant - why she'd lie. After all, he was going to marry her...She took another shaky breath. "S-s-sure....I-I th-think I can get them to tr-transfer her..." Cecily squeaked out. She honestly didn't know, but it felt like the right thing to say.

Her hands still wouldn't stay quite still as she typed out a response to Roy: Dr. Strange. She didn't want to type out Natasha's name. Maybe her phone had been tapped. She hoped Roy would understand from that name. It was all she could think of to say.

[FantasyChic]

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Priya Khurana

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Location: Funeral Home
Skills: N/A

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The situation growing tenser as the minutes passed, Priya ignored Ryan's dealing with the funeral director and instead, watched as Riley left to go get some air. She didn't know if she should follow or not, given all of this, but perhaps the girl needed someone to confide in. Even Ryan suggested it. But what really cemented it was the children and them asking to see the body. Before and during the operation. All Priya could think was ""Fuck this shit, I'm out." Children really were from hell. "Yeah, let me go see her."

Priya followed Riley outside. She stood close, but not near her as she wanted Riley to have some room to breathe and think. "I can only imagine what's going through your head. There's a lot of questions and very little answers. I don't know what is going on, but my gut is telling me that things are not as they appear. At least, not fully. Take a minute to think, but we should get back in there soon and see about putting some meaning to this madness.

[Dragoknighte]

Mali Anson

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Location: Zoie's Farm
Skills: Perception

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"Alright, I'll probably still be here when you get back." Mali was now expecting it, so she managed to avoid flinching when the next crash came from upstairs, although it still made her rather uncomfortable inside. But although it would probably be for the best to go and get changed, she decided that she'd rather wait until things had settled a bit before doing so. She wasn't concerned that something would go wrong per se, but it just didn't feel right.

But she was now left alone with her thoughts and the sounds of the house, the animals outside and the racket that the siblings were making. She wasn't entirely sure how to keep herself occupied. She didn't really feel like keeping herself occupied. The entire house felt like it was sinking into a tar pit in the aftermath of the fire. And she still didn't know what to do about anything now that she thought about it. Going with Relic and Zoie would either being extremely dull or ludicrously dangerous, but it would be just as dangerous to stay in Justice, even if she were only in the surrounding area. And what would she do if she stayed? And what should she do about Zoie? And all that didn't even get into the question of how to deal with Juno or Hera. Eventually Mali directed her gaze at the ceiling to get her head away from the depths of her own helplessness.

When her head cleared, she returned her direction to the room she was in right now. Every other time she'd been in there, she'd been distracted by some conversation or happening going on. But maybe there was something important in this room that she'd never caught onto before. Not necessarily something hidden from her intentionally or otherwise, but some item of interest that could teach her some factoid about Relic and his family. Or perhaps give her a bit of information on Juno that the others took for granted but she'd never been made aware of. Or something.

[Lady Absinthia]

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Date: Monday May 23rd, 2017 - (Remember Time Zones)

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Funeral Home: Inside, Ryan continued to take care of the funeral. Chloe did not want to be buried in Grimm. In fact she didn't want to be buried at all. She wanted to e cremated. Ryan was to get most of her ashes but the children were given the option to have their own mini urns with some in them. Ryan made sure that David knew to add one more into there just in case Riley wanted some as well. The funeral service would be in two days but he didn't want an announcement in the paper until afterwards. He figured with her sisters fame it would be better not to.

Outside all seemed quiet. Save the large drag of dark foot prints through the yard in front of the funeral home for a few steps and an orange balloon hovering in the air by a tree where its string was caught in.

The Farm: Every so often another crash would come from Zoies room but it eventually died down and a loud grunt could be heard. Maybe she had tired herself out. Relic seemed to be taking his own sweet time getting showered and then changed. In Mali's room, it seemed like your normal guest bedroom. Books on the shelves, pictures on the walls. There were several of Relic and his sister and a woman that looked identical to Zoie. Some of the pictures were of when they were younger. There was several pictures of the two women together.

Even though they looked exactly alike it was easy to tell which was Zoie. Zoie always looked more free while the other woman looked more uptight and was usually in some form of military garb. Either dress blues or fatigues. Even when she wasn't she dressed in darker shades than Zoie did or had her hair died black instead of the blonde shades. Most of the pictures were like that. Save a handful with Marc and the two women and Relic. It varied who was in which shot but it looked like the images had been from some time ago. There didn't seem to be any recent ones. There was a group graduation shot but it didn't seem to be for Marc or Zoie or even the other woman. They were all crowded around a single woman of hispanic decent smiling as she was in her cap and gown.

Queensguard: Maria was still in the meeting with Elizabeth as the man came up and handed over the manilla envelope. On the News was Amy Adams once again.

"This is Amy Adams giving you your news on the hour. Weather is scorching hot here in Justice. Word has it that a triple murder took place at Queensguard. No suspects have been named as of yet but one has to wonder. With Queensguard recently hiring an outside Security Service, and a slew of dead being wheeled out the doors, maybe Ms. Queensguard should have stuck with local work. Especially with such high ranking officials as our very own Supreme Court Justice being among the dead.... This just in the other two who were killed have been identified as recent transplants to Justice. Risa Couri, a language coordinator for the U.N. and a Mr. Lucas Walsh, a High School Art teacher. Just what is going on? Could this be MSS taking revenge on the deaths of their own workers? Stay tuned as we investigate further."

Texas/Mexico Border: There was some blubbering thanks and information given over. Ohara airport, Lincoln would text her the confirmation for the plane ticket when he paid for it, and so forth. He would send a digital copy of her will giving him power of attorney over her death. As well as temporary power to Cecily to transport the body. The man seemed to know an awful lot about moving bodies from one place to another. He said he would meet her in Chicago and try to get there before her so she wasn't left with having to do everything. He was very thankful and expressed it over and over again between the tears before he hung up.

As soon as the line went dead, her phone would start ringing again. It was Roy.

[Nallore]

Riley Ridgeway

Location: Fisher & Sons Funeral Home, Grimm, Indiana
Skills: N/A

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Riley took a moment and leaned forward looking out ahead of her, there was a lot of stuff going on over in her head right now she didn't know much about Chloe's personal life at all it seemed. As she was taken from her thoughts Riley turned to look over her shoulder seeing Pyria coming out to try and comfort her it seems. "Yeah seems like I didn't know much about her as I thought I would have." Riley said letting out a sigh as she ran a hand through her hair and turned to look forward once more looking out at the front yard and streets in front of her.

She stopped for a moment noticing the deep foot prints in the ground along with the orange colored balloon that was caught in the branches of the nearby tree. Raising an eyebrow slightly towards it, she wasn't sure what to think about it, Cyril did mention something about a clown when he came running into the room earlier. "Thanks by the way." Riley said softly looking back at Pyria and gave her a slight smile before heading back into the funeral home. She walked back into the room looking over at Ryan, Cyril and her apparent niece and nephew, and sat down. "Sorry about that, what did I miss?" Riley asked while looking over at Ryan figuring that he would be the one to take the lead on everything.

[FantasyChic]

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Priya Khurana

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Location: Funeral Home
Skills: N/A

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Priya could feel Riley's weight almost about all of this. Knowing her sister had a life she had no idea about had to hurt. And finding out about all of it after she passed? Priya couldn't imagine. The fact Riley was holding it together even a little bit showed strength. Priya kept quiet, letting Riley have her moment before they stepped back inside.

Priya wasn't too thrilled to be around those kids again, but she wasn't about to abandon Riley for all of this. Ryan was pretty much in charge of this now so she waited for him to get things moving. The sooner they could do this, the sooner she could leave and get back to the case at hand and the reason she was here in the first place.

[Sigil]

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J. Keystone

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Location: Queensguard Industries R&D, Office
Skills: N/A

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A soft tone emanated from Keystone's company phone. From somewhere in the security areas, a message was sent to their former Director, likely because the formal announcement of the change in hierarchy had not been made yet, announcing that the company was being mentioned on the news. He scanned the message and clicked on the flatscreen in the office. He muted the volume so as not to disturb his infant son and turned on closed captioning to get at least the gist of what was going on.

Live closed captioning was generally a tricky affair, especially with the news. It seemed like the people responsible always seemed to be three lines or so slower than the actual dialogue, and this looked to be no exception. It was not until the story blurb was done and a commercial about paper towels or some such pointless bullshit came on that Keystone acquired the knowledge of the last couple of lines. Maybe he should have keyed up the sound just a little bit, though the risk of waking the child was a harrowing concept to a man horribly surprised at becoming a father and unwilling to screw it up off from the start like his own did.

Supreme Court Justice... recent transplants to Justice... Risa Couri, language coordinator, U.N. ...Lucas Walsh, High School Art teacher...

Regardless of the precautions he took, the staff he called in, the personnel in the room, intruders got in and did horrible things under his watch. He had covered all of the entrances in the time provided, though there was little in the way of advance notice. This was not a valid excuse, granted, but it did make his job more difficult. From now on, that would be Maria's difficulty. He didn't wish to pass such a burden onto the woman, though he was glad to have a freer hand with what had to be done. That news woman - Amy Adams - she was right about something. MSS was out for revenge. They just needed to know where to lay the blade first. And this woman who was in the picture, Valerie Pye? Caesar would have to be informed about her. It was curious that he hadn't acknowledged the message that Keystone had just sent to that effect yet.

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Caesar Gonzalez

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Location: Queensguard Industries R&D, Receiving
Skills: N/A

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The phone went off again. Caesar wasn't sure if it was the original message making itself manifest yet again or another one coming through. He risked a quick look to see what the deal was. It was from Keystone. No emergency tag, and no second message, either. He would have to adjust the settings on his satphone to make sure that crap like this didn't happen too often. For the meantime, his hesitance to open the message from his subordinate cemented the fact for him that he indeed wanted to open the package that he was handed by his staff, from the mystery man on the motorcycle.

Carefully, Caesar slipped his phone back into his pocket. With equal display of the manual prowess for which he had gained notoriety, that being the positive general notation of common folk who might have glimpsed the older man handle a sharp implement, and a strenuous desire to get the act accomplished without drawing excess attention, Caesar produced a classically styled switchblade knife and actuated the blade mechanism, inserted it beneath the front flap of the manila envelope and pried open the brassy fitting holding the container shut. If anything was to occur from the simple act opening the thing, let it be here in front of witness and camera. Curiosity and impatience blurred with caution as he used the blade to lift the envelope's flap, followed by a committed peering inside to, for good or ill, see what lay inside.

[Morose]

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Cecily Ashworth

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Location: Sidewalk Across the Border
Skills: N/A

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Cecily was still shaking slightly, mumbling replies to Lincoln and trying to commit all of the information to memory. At least he'd be texting her confirmation codes and will copies. It would save her from having to remember a string of numbers for a ticket - and she didn't know if she was in the mental shape to do that. All of his knowledge about how to move a body...It was something disturbing, but then again, maybe he had had to bury a loved one before. Nothing seemed to be off about him. He was sincere and in pain.

Her hands were shaking as Lincoln ended the call, jumping a bit as she heard her phone ring. It wasn't her normal phone, otherwise it would have been the cheerful Big Bang Theory theme. Instead, it was jarring and impersonal, but at least she knew who was calling her. It was Roy. She felt like a scared little kid as she answered the phone, somehow expecting that she had done something wrong and simultaneously wanting Roy to tell her that everything was okay. "R-Roy?" Cecily stammered, answering the phone. She was still sitting on the sidewalk, the car's emergency lights on, and the pool of blood not too far away from her. She didn't know if she could move - not yet.

[Dragoknighte]

Mali Anson

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Location: Zoie's Farm
Skills: Research

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Mali looked over all the various pictures she found in the room. If she hadn't talked to Relic a few days back about family, she probably wouldn't have known who this other woman was. Well it wouldn't be hard to guess given the whole identical twin thing going on, but she had a lot more context now. Although she was staying in this room, she had a feeling that once upon a time this was Thalia's (that was her name, right?) room, and they'd never completely cleared it out since her passing, opting to convert it into its current state. She had no evidence to back this up, it was just something of a gut feeling. But at least she had a better picture of what the family's life was like before... whatever went down that started this mess.

But now she might as well finally change out of this dress and get into something where she didn't have to have pointy and hard shit stuffed into her bra. She set Wentworth's card, now somewhat bent out of shape, underneath the bed's pillow. On the bedside dresser she gingerly placed the little bone thing that Zoie had gone through so much trouble to acquire, and quickly changed into some shorts and a tank top. Briefly she considered whether to go out, but ultimately decided against it. Chances were that she'd still be alone if she did. If either of them really needed to get ahold of her, they knew where to find her.

Not to mention that she still had half of the books from two nights before to get through, and it'd be a welcome distraction from everything else that was going on. Mali picked up Findings Within the Temple of Kalabsha, and cracked it open, thanking her past self for having a bookmark in place, even if it were misusing a photo of a potentially priceless artifact to do so. She still had a copy on her phone. It was fine.

[Lady Absinthia]

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Date: Monday May 23rd, 2017 - (Remember Time Zones)

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Funeral Home: Ryan looked over as Riley came back in and stood up. David did as well and motioned towards the chair next to him since the couch was full with Cyril and the kids. "Nothing much, Chloe had pretty instructions on what she wanted, so just making sure they are followed.

"Come on Cyril, daddy can we go play?" Lunn asked and Ryan nodded.

"Yeah, stay in the front yard, Cyril stay with them," Ryan said before he sat back down. "Did you want a small urn of Chloes ashes? She had in the will that I was too give a small amount to both the kids, figured I ask," Ryan said as Lunn took Cyrils hand and the kids went outside with their uncle. "Hey! Don't..." The door slammed shut. "Slam the door..." Rubbing his face he shook his head.

"Alright, we will have the viewing in two days, and then I will take care of the cremation and urns, one large and.. 2.. or 3 small urns.." David said, stopping as he looked over to Riley waiting on her answer if she wanted a mini urn as well.

The Farm: Except from the book Mali is currently reading over - The Temple of Kalabsha is named after the village of Kalabsha, which located 65 kilometers south of Aswan dam. The city was known in ancient times for its various temples, and was later called Talames by the Greeks. The temple goes back to Roman times and the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus. It was dedicated to the Nubian god Mandoulis. After Augustus other emperors also contributed to further construction, including Caligula and Trajan.The Temple of Kalabsha was originally built on a much earlier site that dates back to the 18th dynasty and most probably goes back to king Thothmosis and Amenhotep II. The temple is considered among the most complete temples in all of Nubia. _{*Copied from AskAladin}

Mandoulis seemed to be the Nubian form of Horus. As Mali keeps reading she is going to start noticing a lot of similarities between the Egyptian deities and the Roman ones. Especially between Mandoulis/Horus and Apollo. There are a lot of images in the book and on careful examination there seems to be a carved relief that resembles the object that Mali has been carrying around in one of the walls.

Queensguard: The screen that Keystone was looking at flickered and went black with only a flashing icon where it looked like someone could type in. Then it started showing text. Everything might be connected but not in the way you think. Stop focusing on the cups and start focusing on the sword. The flashing type icon dropped to the next line. The ides of March are upon you. It dropped another line. The debt is half settled. Finish it. Once again it dropped, this time nothing more came up.

Over at Caesar, he would find a single sheet of paper inside it. Clippings of letters from what looked like newspaper headlines was glued to it.

Texas/Mexico Border: One could nearly hear Roys breath of relief as he heard Cecily's voice. "Yeah, it's me Rogue. Take a breath. The lines secure, as long as you think you are, talk freely, if not, just listen..." there was a slight pause in his voice before he continued. "Near Arkham right now. Sounds like you are too. Had to get out of Gotham. Don't go back, Batman is no where to be found. Can you suit up and meet me at Commissioner Gordons summer home?" It was a lot of code but he hoped she would catch on.

[Nallore]

Riley Ridgeway

Location: Fisher & Sons Funeral Home, Grimm, Indiana
Skills: N/A

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Riley looked towards David and gave him a slight smile as she walked over and took the seat he offered her, and leaned back slightly as she looked between both David and Ryan as they brought her up to speed on everything and nodded simply. Riley would look towards her niece and nephew as Lunn asked to go out and play, it was still really weird and wondered why exactly Chloe had kept this all quiet. Riley watched as the three of them then headed out.

And then a few seconds later the door was slammed shut, rubbing her eyes slightly before turning her attention back towards Ryan and David as they talked about her sister's remains. Most of the ashes would go to her and her kids which was understandable, and then bit her bottom lip for a moment. "I would like that a lot, if that isn't to much trouble that is.." Riley said softly, she would look over towards Pyira for a moment, and she was still glad to have some company, there was still a lot of questions that she wanted to ask Ryan. But right now really wasn't the time to in front of Pyira and David as well, she'd at least like to know more on whats been going on as well.

[FantasyChic]

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Priya Khurana

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Location: Funeral Home
Skills: N/A

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Priya was thankful the children were leaving. It honestly impressed her that they could be that creepy. They had to know what they were doing, right? That or she was now caught in some horror movie now. Truthfully, Priya was trying to think about anything else other than what was being discussed. She felt like an outsider observing, but she also didn't feel comfortable leaving Riley alone to deal with this. As much as she knew of Ryan's reputation, Priya couldn't help but feel this was all a bit too convenient. Then again, it may be her detective brain working overtime.

Priya took out her phone as the others talked and sent some quick texts to Roy. She was curious about what the man was doing now that she was here. "Hey, still with Riley. Surprising news for her. Sister was married and had kids apparently. Dealing with it now. How's everything on your end? Priya was desperate to get back to the case at hand, but she promised she would be here for Riley.

Then something hit her and she had to smack herself for being so stupid. It was when she was outside with Riley. There was something off about it and she didn't piece it together until now. "I'm going to head outside real quick. Felt I left something." Priya didn't bother waiting for a response, instead she went out and checked. Sure enough, bloody footprints. She should really turn in her badge. And the footprints led to another odd sight. A balloon in a tree. Priya stepped off and followed the footprints. Now that she was back in full force she was ready to tackle whatever this was. Something in her gut told her this was...off.

[Dragoknighte]

Mali Anson

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Location: Zoie's Farm
Skills: Research

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So this was something of a conundrum. She hadn't expected to so readily stumble upon validation for Zoie's gut feeling so easily. Well, she wasn't surprised at the parallels between pantheons. Not only was there active cultural exchange between civilizations like Egypt and Greece, but as human society evolved, they tended to take the same ideas and recycle them again and again, refining the ideas further each time. Same idea applied to religious systems as well. But the picture. That was the big one. And she wasn't entirely sure what to do with this information. She could go try to tell Zoie and Relic right now, but it wasn't really the time to do so, and she doubted that either of them were really in the proper frame of mind to follow up on it at the moment.

But at the same time, she really should let them know sooner rather than later. If she'd managed to actually stumble on something significant, they needed to act on it as quickly as possible before it could get caught by someone else. This was something of a race after all, even if the other racers didn't know she was competing. Not to mention it would be really awkward to bring up if she waited too long. "Oh hey I learned this really important thing weeks ago but never bothered to tell you." That wouldn't go over well. She'd let them know tomorrow at the latest. Assuming nothing crazy went down between now and then. And there was a good chance that it would. For the time being, she dog-eared the page with the relevant photograph and decided to keep reading.

Part of Mali couldn't help but wonder if she actually ran into something important and not some red herring. Perhaps Juno and Hera and Isis or however the fuck many of these gender locked conspiracies there happened to be already knew about this shit long ago, and this was just old hat. After all, this was just a book she pulled off the shelf. It wasn't especially hidden away or anything. Literally anyone could find it relatively easily and find the same thing. It was something you had to be looking for, but they were looking all right. She could only hope that Zoie was right and they were doing it in the wrong places.

[Sigil]

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J. Keystone

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Location: Queensguard Industries R&D, Office
Skills: N/A

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I am Keystone's sense of pant-shitting horror. I am not exercised enough, which is a shame considering how much he exercises everything else. The old boy has been shot at, threatened with castration while bound with rope, stabbed by his own father with the intent to do him murder, assailed by people and things commonly present in myth and nightmare. Still, I have rarely seen the light of day. It is humbling when a man of such bravery and physicality, such raw strength of personality (if lacking certain social graces) simply refuses to acknowledge my existence. But sometimes, just sometimes, a thing occurs that allows me a second or two of freedom.

When Keystone's cursor started acting of its own accord, he was a little startled. Perhaps he unknowingly had an elbow or something on the keyboard. So for s single, brief second Keystone took a simple accounting of his elbows. There were two of them. Both were accounted for, ergonomically placed along his arms between his wrists and shoulders, one to each arm. So, it wasn't that. There was nothing draped across his machine either, no scrap of paper or novelty desk items; drinking bird thingy or those suspended metal balls that go clack clack clack (God he loved those things), so he could only figure that there was one logical explanation:

Demonic Possession.

The Nuns had warned him about thing like this. Not that he grew up in an orphanage or anything, it just seemed like people with religious backgrounds sought him out to make sure he felt guilty about himself or so that he wouldn't suddenly begin smoking crack and worshiping Satan. The Anglicans and Catholics alike, like some kind of a magnet. So yeah, his computer was apparently taken over by The Great Adversary himself: The First of the Fallen. The Spoiler of Virgins. The MASTER of Abortions! It was doing things in a manner most unholy, things which simply could not be in a secure and loving world. The thing was sending him horrifying messages about... about... Wait, was that a clue?

Everything might be connected but not in the way you think. Stop focusing on the cups and start focusing on the sword.
The ides of March are upon you.
The debt is half settled. Finish it.

Holy crap, that WAS a clue! Only he had no damn clue what the clue meant. Maybe Caesar or Maria or Thalia might. Ok, not Thalia, she got involved after even he did. Only one thing to do. Keystone attempted to message Caesar yet again, a simple preset text message about a meeting being moved up, like it was some sort of code. The big Londoner had no authority over the old man, though he really hoped that Caesar had an excuse for not getting back to him on what was probably very important matters.

Tentatively, even hesitatingly, Keystone set his phone down on his desk and typed in a return message:

New here. Who the arse are you?
Mayhap you can tell who needs a blade taken to 'em, and where I might do that.
Yeah, and it's almost bloody June.

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Caesar Gonzalez

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Location: Queensguard Industries R&D, Receiving -> En Route to Security Hub
Skills: N/A

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Ransom note, eh? Well, it's not like it was the first time he'd ever seen this happen. So very many people in his long and painful professional background were snatched away by the Cartels, or by rich, independent businessmen who thought that stepping on the regular, working asshole would be overlooked by the Powers That Be. Seeing as everyone he held dear was either dead or in the same building he was, Caesar was pretty sure that the letter didn't directly involve him. Intelligent but murderous eyes scanned the paper nonetheless, which led to his immediate surprise. Was someone trying to help them?

Well, if they were trying to help him, they were doing a piss-poor job of it. With both hands and a compass, Caesar had no idea what to do next. Perhaps if he had some other information he could use fir a comparison... It's quite possible that his latest protege might have done something other than let people get killed under his watch. Like, oh, he didn't know... some minor investigative work, perhaps? Well, there was one way to find out. Caesar turned on his heels and started back toward his offices, just as his phone vibrated once again. This time he checked it. A text from Keystone. No, this required a more direct approach.

Calling the big man directly, Caesar continued his stride down the hallway, studying the paper in his hand. When Keystone finally picked up, the older man leapt right into the conversation. "Goddamnit, Keystone! Where have you been this whole time? Strange things are going on, and you're what, back in the office? No, stay there! I'll be up in a minute. We have to compare some notes, and I think we might have to head back to the airport today. Yes, I mean it! I'll be right there!"