chicago ♔ give them all that they can drink and it will never be enough

[sirstickuphisass]

♬ blood - my chemical romance

WHO || Rose, Dimitri, Amrita, Lila, Aurelius, Tia, and Eric [closed]
WHAT || Investigating the crime scenes
WHERE || The alleys of Chicago, IL
WHEN || April 5th [ backdated ]
HOW || Actionspam

The Knights split up, Tia taking Rose, Dimitri, and Amrita in the rented vehicle towards two of the more distant sites from the hotel, while Eric leads Aurelius and Lila through the back alleys of the city to somewhere nearby. It's late by now, and Chicago is alive with the sights and sounds of nighttime in the distance. A light rain falls, dripping off the overhangs of the roofs above and pooling against the sidewalks.

Comments

[bittersweeter]

[Lila kind of wants to pat Aurelius on the head and teach him how to be a criminal, but she thinks Eric would get annoyed and it would be counter productive to bettering herself as a human being or however Wynn put it. Seriously though, he's precious and it makes her smile.

Which isn't at all off-putting, a tiny blonde in a creepy alley where someone was murdered smiling happily.

She takes her time, crisscrossing the alley a couple times so she can peek at the photos. Well, it's not really peeking, she just stops and looks, right up in his personal space before moving on. She stops finally, by the wall, and takes one of her gloves off, licking her index finger and pressing the tip to the mark. She looks at it mildly and makes a face.]

It's kind of weird they took the most noticeable girl possible, so shes probably special. And they would have had to have taken her since no one is just going to come strolling down here on their own. So lust, bribery, blackmail, threats, one of those. Although it would be a clever plot twist if they pulled a Good Samaritan, those are a throwback.

But Eric. Or you, Aurelius, since you're the smart kid. [She taps a single fingernail against the symbol.] What does this mean? I mean, I know a calling card when I see it, the whole written in blood thing gives it away, but what exactly does it mean?

[pickyourbattles]

[ eric frowns a little at having his intelligence dismissed, but doesn't argue as aurelius comes forward and leans in to examine the symbol. ] I've seen this before! [ he sounds positively thrilled to have made the connection ] This is from my world. A, um, an occult symbol, giving to those who worship Illsensine. [ he straightens up proudly ] God of mental domination and magic, and patron of the Mind Flayers. [ his pride deflates a few moments later as his pronouncement sinks in ] ... oh. Oh dear.

[bittersweeter]

[Oh dear. Jesus Christ, he actually said oh dear. And Lila's pretty sure he didn't do it to be ironic. But that's not the point. She wipes her hand on her jeans before she gets to the point.]

Mind Flaying does what it sounds like, doesn't it? [She huffs out a sigh.] It sounded kind of cool until you got to the flaying.

[sirstickuphisass]

[ eric looks hella serious now ] Mind flayers. Illithids. Incredibly powerful Shadowkind creatures who give evil a run for its money. They use psionic powers to control and manipulate others, and they're very good at what they do.

[bittersweeter]

[Lila has to make an actual effort to not look impressed. Which she sort of succeeds at. (Bluff 11) But that just sounds so useful. Scary as hell, but useful.]

Why would they grab a whiter shade of pale, specifically? And do these guys preclude the... um, reptile people? I wasn't paying attention for that bit.

[In her defense, she was slightly preoccupied with the six hour flight part at the time.]

[sirstickuphisass]

We'd speculated that the murders were linked to the yuan-ti cannibalism cult in Japan. [ he shakes his head ] But I was there, and saw those bodies. This is different.

Potentially worse.

[bittersweeter]

So what do we do now?

[sirstickuphisass]

Find out if the others found evidence to prove a link to the same thing. And from there... I guess finding out if there's any known mind flayers in the area's a start.

[bittersweeter]

Sounds fun. [No, it doesn't. Because Lila has self preservation skills and doesn't really want to go out looking for people called mind flayers, even if their power sounds kind of cool. She tugs her glove back on and flicks her hair over her shoulder.]

So we can head back to our band of merry men and get out of this alley? Not that I really mind being in a dark alley with two guys, but priorities.

[pickyourbattles]

Why would you--- [ wis check... 6, leave him alone. x( he shakes his head ] Never mind. I think Sir Carpenter is correct - there's little else we can learn here, but I believe we have a lead now.

[bittersweeter]

[Lila flashes Aurelius a genuine grin. Sorry. Except not. Much like calling Dimitri tall, dark and lickable, though, it doesn't mean anything to Lila.

She's pleased that their investigation seems to have ended for the moment and she moves toward the mouth of the alley.] Shall we?

[sirstickuphisass]

Let's go. [ annnd i'll ping you when the other groups catch up xD ]