“Thanks for coming in,” Detective Reese Johnson gave Lysette a crooked smile and rolled a shoulder in a shrug. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I’d appreciate you sitting in and helping me keep an ear to the ground.”

The two walked side by side through the police department, on their way to a room where Reese had informed Lysette that others were waiting. Others who had been on the scene of the explosion at Abe’s store. It was an unexpected turn of events, that. It was concerning that something had gone amiss that couldn’t be explained as a gas leak or anything similar. Abe was a professional and extremely good at what he did. His entire career centered around identifying antiquities. If there was something in his inventory that could cause destruction of this magnitude, he would’ve known it and taken proper precautions. But, Reese had already spoken with the shop’s elderly owner who was just as surprised by it as everyone else.

Stopping before a door, Reese stepped forward to open it for Lysette, holding it politely as she stepped through. The room itself was… well… uninviting would be the kindest thing that could be said. In the middle of the room were two white tables that had probably once lived in an interrogation room. Here, they were pushed together to create a larger seating arrangement. Despite their probable origin, these  had various coffee stains on the top that suggested they were used on a regular basis in a more casual way. Other than that, and the chairs around them, the room was bare. The walls were most likely a stark white, at one point, but were now a more muddled grey from time and dirt. Smudges could be clearly seen around the light switch and around the door knobs. Either no one took the time to clean this place or the janitorial crew needed to be fired.

Around the table were seated four men: three humans and one who was clearly fae.

OOC: I'm pausing here in case anyone wants to react or introduce themselves. Lysette is a vampire and George is a werewolf. I'll let you two decide on whether you sense that about each other and how you would react.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:03, Fri 26 Feb 2021.

Solstice was legitimately trembling in his seat as he watched the two enter. The fae was about a hairs breath from a full blown panic attack. His wings were down and he was digging his nails into the chair he was in and his breathing was coming in short bursts.

Lysette kept her game face in place as she nodded at George. He had a way of showing up in her life these days and she wasn't yet quite sure how she felt about that. And the fae? What was he doing here, all shaky terrified? Had he been attacked? Had he done something wrong? No point in jumping to conclusions before she heard why the detective had asked her to join the party. She moved to one side as Reese followed her into the room, which was starting to feel cramped.

It smelled too. Of ancient despair and vomit and cheap booze, all swirled through with the stench of tobacco, steeped in the walls and furniture. Luckily she did not need to breathe. She shuddered instead and found a section of wall to stand by. She might have leaned against the wall but decided that the less contact she had with the interior of this room the happier the rest of her day would be.

"Happy to help, Detective Johnson," she spoke formally with a faint Latina lisp to her voice. "What's this all about?"

Dalion was in the room with a bored look in his eyes, and his hands cuffed behind his back, completely silent.

Ryan is both discomfited and relieved at the scene. If this version of Bellhollow was being run by the Proctors and the Hunters, most of the others would not be here. The Proctors didn't bother with niceties or 'interviews;' they'd strap you to a chair and begin torturing you.

Reese looked around the room, his eyes flitting across everyone briefly. After Lysette had moved past him, he continued to hold the door. Using a toe, he caught a small wedge that was near the doorjamb and slipped it under the door so that it remained open.

Unlike most of the cops they had passed on the way here, Reese was not wearing the usual uniform. Instead, he was sporting a dark blue T-shirt with Godzilla and Mothra towering above a city skyline, the words 'Kaiju-A-Go-Go' emblazoned above their heads. He wore jeans and comfortable looking sneakers, and his shield was clipped to his belt. With a smile, he rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a sucker, unwrapped it and popped into his mouth. The wrapper that he tossed on the table read 'strawberry.'

"So, uh... I wanted to thank you all for agreeing to come in and talk with me," Reese leaned back against a wall, leaving the last chair for Lysette if she felt so inclined to sit. "What we got here is a real head scratcher. You all were at the scene early, from what I hear. I just want to know if you saw anything weird. Out of place. Odd."

"Ahem!" Dalion fake cleared his throat to drawn attention momentarily towards the handcuffs around his wrists, he had to move into an uncomfortable position in the chair to show his wrists that were behind his back to the side of his body, while looking at Reese with one raised eyebrow.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:26, Fri 26 Feb 2021.

Ryan gives the drab walls an up-and-down look. There doesn't appear to be any protective wards set on the room, and the ... detective? ... propping the door open established, for the moment, an open atmosphere.

"I agreed because I'm from out of town," Ryan said. "Don't really want to be the odd man out when police are looking for weirdness. It sure wasn't for the free tour of the police department. But, anyway, no. I was a short distance away when the explosion happened."

George takes a seat next to Dalion, with a nod at Lysette.

Interesting. She's here. Wonder what her angle is? Best to not press her buttons right now..the Cops on the other hand...

Looking Reese steadily in the eyes,otherwize expressionless, he reaches over, pulls on his wolf nature to bring some strength to his hands, and quietly breaks the chain between the two cuffs.

When the chain breaks,his stone cold look of silent challenge drops.  Sheepishly he grins awkwardly at the room,in general, and almost stutters as he speaks..  "Uh...I..just dont like sitting with someone chained up like a stray d.dog.If he does something ...uh ..crazy..its on me, alright?"
This message was last edited by the player at 12:46, Sat 27 Feb 2021.

Reese chuckles at Ryan's answer, "Yeah. Can't argue with that logic. Place isn't exactly barrel o' laughs, most days. Every once in awhile, Steve tries to crack a joke but... no. He just... he's not... he isn't good at it. Can't fault him for trying to lighten the mood, though."

When George catches his eye and challenges Reese, breaking the handcuffs, the detective just raises an eyebrow and gives the werewolf a crooked grin around his pop, which he has pushed into one cheek. He seems wholly unconcerned by the act. Reese pushes himself off of the wall and walks over to Dalion, fishing in his pocket for a key. He gestures for the beggar to lift his hands so that he can remove the bracelets. Once they are off, he tosses the broken restraints on the table, leaving them there for the time being. Once everyone is gone, they can be taken down to repairs to be fixed. After all, in s world with supernaturals, broken cuffs aren't an uncommon occurrence.

"Oh, hey. No, I get it. It's cool. Hell, I don't even know the story about why he's cuffed," Reese shrugged and sauntered back over to the wall, retaking his place diligently holding it up. "Medics told me you all helped a guy caught in the rubble. Did you happen to, uhh.. see anyone else around? Anyone who looked out of place?"

OOC: Solstice and Ryan, you guys would definitely sense magic around Reese, if you were to try to detect it. He's pretty much eat up with it, though he's not a fae. He seems perfectly human.

You guys did not see anyone else on the scene other than the rescue crews.

Dalion, Michael would've told you about a weird tapping sound that he heard. But, he didn't think anything about it. He didn't know what it was, but it wasn't an alarming sound.

George barks out a laugh.

"Out of place? In this town? Hardly."

Then he rubs at his jaw...mmmmmm...maybe ...
Shooting a look at Dalion, he turns back to Reese.
"buuuutttt...as for strange, And weird for Bellhollow...I heard tell of mechanical crustations roaming the street..."

Sure Dalion will probably mention that, but, honestly...if George were Reese, he wouldn't take anything Dalion said that seriously. Yet...IF there Are giant metal crabs,then mentioning them first will surely give credence to the bums crazy story.  Cant hurt. If it is just a crazy hallucination, no harm done. If it isnt, then best get the cops taking it a little seriously.

"I appreciate that" said Dalion after the detective removed the metal bracelets, but intently looking at George while saying it.

"About the handcuffs, well I may have had a few critiques about one of your officers Mr. detective, particularly about their demeanor towards other people when they are having a private conversation... I may have said something about his work ethic too... and his intelligence, and his face, and his mother... It seems to me that he has very thin skin, maybe you should have a talk with him, I think I can still hear him sobbing ALL THE WAY BACK THERE!"

"As for what happened last night, well I'm guessing we're about to get some medal or something for rescuing Mr. bad timing from all that rubble, it took all of us to get him out... wait... except her" Dalion was pointing at Lysette "Ms. Despasito wasn't there, but you probably knew that already."

Dalion took a moment to look at the room's door, he wanted to see if the officer that handcuffed him was close but it didn't seem like it. "This morning I was having a nice conversation with Mr. living-under-the-rocks and he told me that he heard some tapping before the building decided to big spoon him, who knows what that noise could have been, that's when WHEN MR. SENSITIVE INTERRUPTED ME!."

"Oh and about the crabs thing, I don't know what to say, the city should be more careful who she hangs out with, It's going to need some type of super lice-killing lotion to get rid of that, I hear that piperonyl butoxide can work wonders"

Solstice was left dumbfounded by Dalion for the billionth time. He kept his mouth shut but the man irritated him. Panic or no he wouldn't help but the soft snort that escaped him after all this.

"Did I see anyone around?" Ryan asks. "No. I could try a spell to reconstruct the scene based on our memories. It's possible we saw something but didn't take notice of it."


(OOC: This would be like crowd-sourcing cell phone photos to recreate a scene, only using our conscious and subconscious memories. It's an opportunity for the Narrator to 'retcon' things that weren't necessarily on the table when the scene was originally written.)

Tilting his head to look at Ryan a little more closely, George thinks on the idea.

"If you do that...do you see what else in in our heads?"

Ryan looks at George. "No, we shouldn't. It would be a very narrow type of scrying, and we would only see a composite of our memories for the moment in question. So, no, I won't see the PIN for your ATM card or find out about your secret crush."

"Well..if you Do see the pin..let me know. I forgot it."

Looking at the room of people then. "So....uh..you all good with the idea?"
Squinting a little at the fae, yeah, he looks a bit..a Lot scared.. he continues. "You, you look as little worried. You ok with it? We can probably leave you out if its too much?"

Solstice took a deep breath. "I will do as I must... But I won't pretend to like it..." He told the other man.

Lysette glances over at Ryan and gives him the once over. She's always been a bit fascinated with magic, and here's a chance to witness a spell first hand. She's pretty confident of her own mental ability to resist anything that would be dangerous or even inconvenient to her.

"Sure," she shrugs. "Why not?"

"All right, then," Ryan said. "Detective ... Reese, is it? I'll need a medium-sized bowl of water, and I imagine someone in the department has some sage?"

As the requested supplies are gathered, Ryan explains what he intends to do.

"This will be like scrying - seeing something from afar," he says. "But, in our case, we're going to see the past. After I set the spell, I'll ask each of you to dip your forefinger - doesn't matter which hand - into the bowl of water as the spell is cast. There is no danger, no matter what we see, but if you feel uncomfortable at any point, just take your finger out of the water."

[OOC: I am picturing a large glass mixing bowl or a stainless steel serving bowl, the kind you'd see at a salad bar. Sage will hopefully be a bundle of dried sage, that you often see at new age/pagan stores. Lit, the smoke is used to 'clear' an area of negative influences, a process called 'smudging.' (Not pagan, but have pagan friends and have been to several rituals/circles.)]

Ryan sets the bowl upon the center of the table. He lights the bundle of dried sage, blowing out the initial flame so that it's like a stick of incense. In turn, he smudges each participant and Detective Reese by tracing a pentacle over them, then draws another pentacle over the table and bowl. He directs each person to dip a forefinger into the water.

Lord and Lady we call on thee
Our sight combined to share
May this, our vision, be true and clear
To see who, why, how, and where

[Ryan Blake rolled 2 using 1d6. Scrying] (Ick. I defer to the Narrator.)

Solstice felt by virtue of being present for this that he had no choice but to participate. So he put the forefinger of his left hand into the water.

Since he'd been encouraging everyone to give it a go, he really couldnt not participate..

and that Pin might turn up...

A finger, nail discoloured with persistent grim, dips into the water.

"In I go!" Says Dalion as he puts a finger in the bowl.

Lysette steps forward into the circle around the bowl and dips an elegant finger into the water as well.