mission ♔ somewhere between our hearts and minds

[rationalizes]

♬ We Are Mice - Azure Ray

WHO || Gar, Kat, Mark, Dumage, Martha, Myri, Buffy, Sven, Spike [Closed]
WHAT || Following up on the Nightscape incident / Jade
WHERE || Chicago.
WHEN || Mon March 12th - Mon March 19th | BACKDATED
HOW || Actionspam

Welp.  That was a wild and crazy time.  So the Eternal Jade was... actually a person, Buffy tried to kill Spike, Sven snared himself a pet displacer beast, Mark and Myri got in a car accident, and Des stole their lead away.  Go team failboat go.  

The Saturday after the events at Nightscape was spent healing up those who needed it and piecing together everyone's memory of the incident: Spike and Buffy luckily remembered everything that had occurred, for now, at least. The singer, Jade, had given them a little bit of information that they could begin looking into for now: that she was being pursued by a church called the Brotherhood of the Enlightenment. On Sunday, Gar called Des to find out whether she was still safe, and learned that she currently being held for questioning by the Hoffman Institute.

Which merited a big unison 'crap' from the team - who had been trying to keep her out of their hands in the first place. Gar, however, didn't see this as a total bust. After all, she was ideally placed to learn anything that they might get out of the girl. Because of this, she returned to her undercover position on Monday and spent the next week spying on the proceedings. Her reports have not been particularly helpful, however. The girl - Eterna Jade - claimed to have no memory of anything remotely tied to the Talisman, and didn't seem to understand what the church wanted with her, or why her name was connected to the talisman's mythology. She couldn't answer most of the questions put to her, actually, claiming to be from the Shadow World recently, and remembering nothing but coming here and living at the club, ever since, which she says was given to her. Though she insists that she is the owner, she appears to have very little information about its daily operations, leaving that to a team of executives she calls the "Dreammakers". When asked, she cannot even name any of the men on this team. She's acted generally sullen and uncooperative, but Dr. Hoffman seems to have concluded, to his own frustration, that she isn't lying either.

She wanted to return to the club shortly after being detained, but the Doctor insisted they make certain it was safe first, and has, indeed, been monitoring the building and Brotherhood movements, to try and make certain that they aren't still after her, or hunting her down. There's been no evidence to suggest that they're looking for her currently.

In the meantime, the Knights have been working on researching more about the club, Jade, and the Brotherhood. And Buffy went on a personal crusade to hunt down information about the man they let take Jade to the Institute in the first place: Desmond Descant, who claimed to know Wynn. (Threads below!)

It's on Monday, March 19th, that Gar comes home excitedly from her job to draw something wrapped in cloth out of her bag and asks everyone to gather around. (Thread below!)

[[Various threads will go up below: as always, pick and choose what interactions you want your character to be involved in. Please make research checks where indicated! Also, you're free to make your own threads for general socializing!]]

Comments

Researching the Brotherhood of the Enlightenment

[shootfirst]

[Come pull up a chair and a Research check and help Kat find out what she can about these guys.]

Alright, let's see what we can dig up about crazy cult o'clock.

[witchwoman]

[Myri still is not entirely too confident with her reading skillz, but she's most comfortable with Kat and doesn't mind asking for assistance... if it isn't too much of a bother, that is. She sits beside Kat and looks for the first thing that she can pour herself over.]

I had hoped to never deal again with zealots.

[This is Myri being slightly nervous about running into Moncriith. And her distraction shows with a Research check of only 7]

[shootfirst]

Unfortunately, we get a lot of those around here. More annoying than your regular old bad guys since they back it up with truckloads of dedication.

[She reads off a site, letting Myri read over her shoulder]

Ok, so it says here that the Brotherhood "supports the true spirit of God's message to man" blah blah blah "that he has dominion over this earth and its creatures."

[witchwoman]

[Myri follows along as best she can]

It doesn't seem to be a very original premise.

[shootfirst]

Probably not... unless you do some reading between the line. [She swaps to a different site] They're Shadowhaters. A whole church of them. Who believe that "man is rightfully master of anything non-human on this earth". They're slavers.

Researching Nightscape

[nosdacaraid]

[Meanwhile, other Research checks can help in trying to piece together more information on the mysterious benefactors behind the club! Maybe.]

[slay]

[ Yeah, while you guys are all sitting around researching Nightscape, Buffy's more interested in the guy that they met there. The one who had betrayed them -- predictably so -- and turned Jade in to the Hoffman Institute. Dick.

So, Buffy's just going to go ahead and steal whatever laptop got brought, legs crossed in a comfy chair with the computer in her lap, hunt-and-pecking her way to looking up whatever she can about Desmond Descant, private investigator. On google. Research check of 10. No one said she is good at it. ]

[nosdacaraid]

[With skills like that she... is not coming up with much initially. We'll ask Chris for deets when she gets home. Mark is talking out loud to himself, because apparently no one is paying attention to him]

Huh. That security firm that the club hired? There's no names on file of who their contact is.

[slay]

Uh huh. [ Buffy says it in a detached way as she continues to click around on ... whatever results did pop up. That we will learn about when Chris gets home. ] That's nice.

[nosdacaraid]

[Omg Mark actually noticed something, it's a national holiday. he glances over at Buffy]

Yep. Oh wait. Found it right here. Someone named "Mr. Rogers".

Brotherhood Infiltration??

[postergirl]

[Dumage's latest brilliant plan is to try to go downtown to the Brotherhood's church headquarters and act like she wants to join up, to see what she can find. Pile on into the car, ye brave of heart.]

[slay]

[ Piling into the car. And judging your driving. ] Do you think we could maybe have someone else handle the vehicle operation portion of our adventure? Just ... you know. For a change of pace.

[bigbad]

[HEY HEY I HAVE A GREAT PLAN. LET'S BRING THE VAMPIRE TO THE CHURCH. IT'S THE BEST IDEA EVER. Oh well, Spike's a moron and hanging out with Dumage is fun, so. He's coming along.]

I could drive.

[postergirl]

You could always walk, if you have that many complaints. [Still, she turns to Spike, and tosses him the keys] Fine.

Since he probably shouldn't even be coming in. If they find out he's a vampire, they'll likely stake him on the spot. Shadowking hating church and all.

[slay]

Hey, I could get behind that. [ She raises her eyebrows, looking content with the plan. ] Come on in with us, Spike, it'll be a party. [ She looks at Dumage as she climbs in back. ] Think if we do it, they'll think we're the real deal?

Gar's Clue || for everyone!

[rationalizes]

[This is for that Monday when Gar brought home the thing \o/

She unwraps what appears to be a smooth, flat gray stone, that can fit in the palm of her hand. When she turns it over, however, it has the symbol of the Talisman engraved into it. She sets it on the cloth, looking up at everyone, saying proudly:]

From the Institute's vaults.

[witchwoman]

[Myri pushes herself up off the couch and moves to peer closer at the stone.]

What is it?

[shootfirst]

[Kat leans against the back of the couch, munching on a celery stick and looking at the thing speculatively]

Now really isn't the time to go adding to your rock collection, Gar.

[slay]

That's not ... the actual Talisman, is it? [ LOOK IT HAS THE MARKINGS, SHE HAD TO ASK. ]

[rationalizes]

This? Oh, no! [Gar laughs a bit breathlessly] It's an artifact that the Institute found a number of years ago. They think there's some way to activate it, but they haven't been able to discover how. It's usually used to show images, either through visions or a projection, if my guess is correct. I've seen something like this before.

MOVIE TIME! Spike and Myri.

[bigbad]

[It's early in the evening when Spike pops his head into Myri's room.]

Want to see a movie, pet? It's like the stuff we've watched on the telly, only much, much bigger.

[witchwoman]

[Myri and Amaranth both turn theirs heads to the door at the same time, and at the sight of Spike, Myri's lips turn up slightly in a smile.]

Bigger? [She asks, already moving to slide off her bed. The curiosity is evident.] How much bigger?

[bigbad]

A lot. Size of a wall. A big wall. [He smirks.] And in 3D apparently. [...he doesn't really know what that means, but it seems like a lot of the films have it. Maybe it's one of the things he'd know about if he had his memories.]

[witchwoman]

[She turns her gaze to the nearest wall and tries to imagine that.]

Stargods...

[Give her a minute for that naive wonder to shake off. She flashes him a bigger smile.] I'd love to see that.

[bigbad]

[He expression makes Spike smile, and he beckons, backing out of her room.] Then come on. My treat. [Or technically, the Knight's treat since he'll be using that credit card. It's very mission related. He's... acquainting Myri with the modern world. Totally legit.]