pembrokeshire ♔ the day has come where i have died

[immuno]

WHO || Lydia Martin, Alaric Saltzman, Helen Magnus, Rose Hathaway, Sydney Bristow
WHAT || A couple of knights take a short trip west to investigate reports of Shadowkind deaths.
WHERE || Police Station, Pembrokeshire, Wales
WHEN || May 20th
HOW || Actionspam

The briefing was simple and direct: a string of disappearing Shadowkind centered around a small farming town in Wales. The Karthur Institute wasn't called in until the local authorities got reports of incessant, blood-curdling screams coming from a barn just past the edge of town. They found a girl curled in the corner there, screaming her lungs out, shaking, and looking like she'd been running around the forest alone for days.

They also found the five bodies of their missing townspeople in the barn.

They tell the knights (and thus, Wynn tells them) that the girl is in police custody, but they don't tell them that she's pinned in a cell. They've fed her and given her a coat by now, but the deputy is quick to alert Helen, Rose, Sydney, and Alaric as they arrive of the bad news.

"She hasn't shut up since we put her in there." He glances back over his shoulder, toward the lock-up. "Not screamin', just wanting to know who they were." He looks back at the knights, grim. "Don't think she's got any idea how she got out there. I don't have it in me to tell her I don't either; wherever she's rom, it inn't Pembrokeshire."

Comments

[daredtobelieve]

[Taking a look at the building, Helen turns back to her teammates.]

Any suggestions on how we handle this? It's possible that a couple of lost women on the road could coax a few more answers than a true investigation. [She's lookin at you, Syd. And Rose for back up/additional pretty young lady factor.]

[superswank]

[ syd nods, and immediately adjusts the mirror as she pulls out a tube of lipstick, undoes a few buttons, and pulls her hair out of its holder to make it much less severe and more tousled (28 disguise). ] C'mon. [ she doesn't wait to see who's coming with, just pushes open the door with a put-out sigh, looking around. she looks around the store with wide eyes before they settle on the man, who she affixes with a surprised smile. ] Oh, thank heavens, I never thought we were going to see civilization again! [ she makes her way over to the counter, pulling off her sunglasses. ] Do you think maybe you could help me? We're from America [ she flashes him an apologetic smile like ~of course~ we're tourists can't you tell ] and we came here to try to track down our ancestors from Wales. [ she pulls out the pictures and slides them across the counter ] But someone lost our baggage in the airport, including all the papers we had with names written down. Luckily, I had these in my purse and still had the town name in my search history. We figured with these little towns, everybody knows everybody, so maybe you could help us? [ jesus that was a nat 20 bluff. whoever came in with syd would think she was an entirely different person than had just been in the car, a slightly flighty, flirtatious tourist, airheaded enough to not remember these people's names ever after flying across the world to find them. ]

[ex_ric243]

[And Ric will be hanging back because no disguise check on Earth could make him a believable woman. Pointless tag is pointless but serves as proof of life ok.]

[immuno]

[ Lydia looks at Ric like yoooo wish I could have a penis rn. But she begrudgingly climbs out and heads inside. WHO ELSE IS GOING WITH SYDNEY AND LYDIA INSIDE. I assume Helen, but what about Rose. Does Ric get much needed alone time in the car to recuperate from all the estrogen. ]

[daredtobelieve]

[no Helen is staying in the car and letting the younger gals do their thing.]

[ex_ric243]

[Yes, Helen and Ric will watch the car. No hanky-panky to be had here.

You all run along now and gather that information. This was a tag.]

[littledhampir]

[Rose is totally going with Sydney and Lydia and lets just ignore the fact that her mun fails at everything that is June. ANYWAY!

Rose manages to cover her WTF at Sydney's personality switcheroo (Bluff 24), still trying to make the 'I'm a hapless American tourist' look work which, to be honest, for Rose in a town like this really wasn't much of a stretch thankfully (Disguise 18 total). She has cleavage, that should totally make up the difference between her and Sydney, right?!]

[immuno]

[ the clerk stops shelving canned goods when rose, sydney, and lydia walk in. he moves around the back of the counter, leaning his hands on top of it to give them a look over, not bothering to disguise his leering even though lydia still looks like a little forest child despite her minidress. his name tag reads eddie.

eddie takes the photograph from sydney and looks it over dubiously, listening to her tale. he looks from it to sydney, then to rose, then back to sydney. ]

You sure this photograph's of your ancestors, darling? How far back is it you're looking?

[superswank]

[ she laughs, and leans forward on the counter which sure causes her boobs to sandwich up further as she looks down at the photo with him ] Well, no they're not, but our ancestors are probably all dead! I mean that these people are descended from them too, supposedly.

[immuno]

We were hoping they could share some family history with us.

[ with her bluff of 12, lydia is not doing anyone any favors.

eddie hands the photograph back, looking between them as if he's trying to decide how they're related. lydia and sydney are easy sells. finally he settles on a further question: you ladies come all this way on your own? ]

[superswank]

Yep, just us. We got a ride from some nice folks the next town over, though. [ might as well cover that shit in case he sees y'all in the car. ]

[immuno]

That's mighty kind of them.

[ he doesn't look thrilled by the notion. he glances between them for a moment longer, then smiles fully. ]

You ladies sit right here, I'll be back in just a minute. I've got a map you can use to get to the old Braddock place. That's them there in the photo.

[ he turns and disappears into the back, and lydia turns to sydney with a look somewhere between confused and concerned. ]

[littledhampir]

[Rose forces a smile that' supposed to be sorority sister sweet but on her?! somebody quick. Take a photo of this shit.

(Bluff ... LMMFAO Nat 20. Seriously. Pictures. Nobody will believe it otherwise).

Muttered.] If I keep smiling like this my face is going to start cramping.

[superswank]

[ syds expression melts into a frown when he's gone as well, starting after him suspiciously (sense motive 22? ) ]

Something's wrong.

[ she moves closer to the back door (move silently 26) to see if she can hear anything. ]

[immuno]

If you're suspicious, why are we still here? He could come out of there with a gun!

[ Lydia is doing her slightly hysterical whisper-shouting.

Out back, Sydney can hear Eddie asking someone what he should do about them. ]

[littledhampir]

If he comes out here with a gun at least we know who to blame for the pile of dead people in the barn.

[So not helpful Rose, though despite her light tone she does whisper and has one hand on her hip, ready to draw if necessary.

She's a smartass, she's not stupid.]

[superswank]

If he does, just don't move. I'll take care of it. [ by disarming his ass. which is why she's hiding beside the door. but also eavesdropping in case he's calling someone. but her listen check blew SO ]

[immuno]

[ Whoops.

He sure is staying back there for a long time. After a minute or so of awkward silence, Lydia's eyebrows raise and she looks between Rose and Sydney. ]

... I don't think he's coming back.

[ wis 17. ]

[superswank]

[ syd opens the door cautiously, glancing inside (move silently 23) ]

[littledhampir]

[Rose's eyes narrow, watching Sydney a moment before she moves away from the counter and over to the front of the room, looking through the windows to see if there's any movement out front. (Spot 25).]

[immuno]

[ There is no one in the back room when Sydney opens the door. A few industrial shelves hold shipping containers of backstocked inventory, and there's a table intended for shipping returns and unpacking, as well as a few carts to move product out to the floor. Otherwise, there's a mop and bucket, and a 'caution wet floor' sign.

The door that leads outside from the back room is immediately opposite the door into the main storefront that Sydney opened, and she doesn't need any kind of spot check to notice that it is cracked. :)

Rose doesn't notice anything going on outside except Ric and Helen chilling in the car. ]

[superswank]

Great. [ syd is going to abandon caution and bust for that back door full speed, throwing it open. ]

[littledhampir]

[Rose takes that great as the signal and wraps on the glass to try and get Ric and Helen's attention (Str 11: Thinking that won't break it?!) motioning with her hand to the side of the building to encourage them to keep an eye out.]

Stay close - just in case. [Thrown back to Lydia as she starts to follow in Sydney's wake.]

[immuno]

[ Helen and/or Ric will need a listen check of 18 to hear that.

Lydia more or less looks like she thinks this is the worst plan ever, but she doesn't have much of a choice but to follow with surprising aptitude in her freaking high heels (dex 13).

Sydney and Rose round the corner into the alley together and a spot check of 12+ can see a van rattling out of the right side of the alley and making a right—back in the direction of where Helen and Ric are waiting in the main road. ]

[ex_ric243]

[Ric hears Rose banging on the storefront window (listen 20 total jfc I forgot his listen modifier was so high), so she's able grab his attention in time for him to see her motion over toward the side of the building.

He opens the car door to vacate the vehicle, because there's not a lot he can do from the back seat. But he's watching the side of the building in case someone comes out and he needs to tackle a bitch. He's not expecting a van (wisdom 6).]