[Geist] Diamond Dogs

[Gull]

Chapter 1- Strohmann
A Fete
The Suspects
A Message
A Gift
A Mission

As a celebration, a wake is something that is intimately familiar to a sin-eater, second only to funerals. What is strange, however, is the rare occasion that said wake is for a sin-eater.

The Diamond Duke is dead.

No one is sure how it was done, and no one knows why. All anyone knows is that King Leer himself, Grandaddy Grins was found dead, murdered in his penthouse apartment, on the very same pink marble floor that you now stand on.

And now the Duke was laid out in a surprisingly somber (and tasteful) casket in the middle of the penthouse, and almost all the sin-eaters of Montreal (of which there are a surprising amount) are there to pay tribute to their fallen king.

As befits the wake of a man of the Duke’s resources and status, the occasion is lush, sumptuous. Tiers of top-shelf alcohol, piles of beluga caviar and white tiger shrimp, rows of fine cigars, premium kush, bowls of Peruvian flake…anything indulgence that you could ask for is available.

Sin-eaters of all stripes mill around the apartment as the Duke’s favorite Motown songs pulse through an incredibly expensive sound system. The message is clear. The Diamond Duke’s opulence extends even past death. Representatives from all the city’s krewes are there- Lo, from the Chinatown Hell Money krewe, Cranston from the Winterbone krewe in Cote-Des-Neige, Ellen from the Rosemont 44s krewe…the list goes on. Now, with the duke gone, old beefs are starting to rise to the surface.

It's a party! What is your character doing?

[The Kings Raven]

Elliot is here for the funeral, and to his disappointment so are his parents. He's just at the are where parents, especially mortal ones - are the pinnacle of embarrassment. Though they did relent and allow him to turn up dressed in a black cloak and silver lining, tacky yes but that was Sin-Eaters all over. Moreover a less biased perspective would show that they were actually making a rather good job of socialising with the dead-jazz crowd.

As soon as he was able Elliot detached himself from his parents on the pretext of Hors d'œuvres. Unfortunately when he went for the wine he caught his parents watching and had to settle for food. Still once he was detached he had no intention of reattaching and instead began to hover on the edges of any important looking conversation. The Duke had kept him away from Sin-Eating for being under-aged, this might be a chance to get in where the action was.

[LordBlackadder]

Will sat by the casket, watching the body of The Diamond Duke. His hand clamped tightly around a bottle of bourbon that would cost the equivalent of his house while a bowl topped with caviar eggs rested on his lap, the other hand idly picking up eggs in fives and sixes and plopping them in his mechanically chewing mouth.

The man should be popping up any minute now, telling everyone that they were fools to believe he was gone, and then grabbing a bottle of booze and leading the celebrations personally. But he wasn't. A corpse, immaculately dressed, but a dead inanimate body nonetheless.

The man he owed so much to was gone. But no, no, the debt wasn't cleared by a long shot. Who would dare do this?

[White_North]

Dressed in his best white suit -one of the few that isn't torn- Kevan walks through the room, a smoking cigar in his mouth and a glass of rum in his hand. The two keys and three crosses around his neck make a faint jangling sound as he walks, though it isn't much heard through the ambiant noise. He mostly stays away from conversations, his limited grasp of French allowing him to understand that there's enough bad blood circulating in this place that even a dead man should watch his step.

After a few minutes, he finally makes his way over to the luxurious casket, stopping next to a man trying holding a bottle of bourbon. He stays still for a moment, looking at the immaculate corpse before digging a hand in his jacket pocket and drawing out an antiquated-looking silver coin. Twirling it between his fingers for a moment, he reaches and puts it down gently at the top of the casket.

This one's for the ferryman, Daddy Grins. And this one's for you, he says before draining the rest of his glass in one pull. He grimaces as the liquid burns its way down his throat before pulling up a chair and sitting down besides the casket and the other man, sticking the cigar in his mouth and exhaling long, thick puffs of smoke.

[White_North]

After a few moments, Kevan leans nearer to the man next to him and gestures towards the bottle in his hand. His voice rolls deep, carrying a jaunting Jamaican accent.

I take it you knew the old man, then?

[Ichneumon]

Dressed smart, Samuel glides through the room. "glides" is a good word to describe it, not just "walking", but "gliding", as a shadow, trying not to get too much attention. He had an air of cold confidence around him. He watched closely. The hadn't really loved the Diamond Duke, but the guy had known stuff that could have been useful to him and he'd learned much from listening to him. Samuel wanted to know who had murdered him, the filthy obscurantists had to be punished, and who better to do it, than him?

"I don't get why you're interested in who killed him. The guys dead, for real this time. He's no good to you anymore, so why bother?", his Geist whispered in his ear.

Samuels, answered annoyed: "You're familiar with Plato, geist?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Plato saw death, not as an end, but as a beginning. Philosophy was a search for the separation of body and soul and death would provide it. The philosopher was the only one who actually got out of the cave of normal live and had seen the light of reality, he'd seen a glimpse of the other side. He had to go back into the cave though, back to society and live with all other people in darkness and shadows. That was his duty."


"What's your point!?" Samuel knew his geist didn't like philosophizing that much, and that's why he did it, to annoy him.

With an arrogant self-confident grin on his face, Samuel goes on: "Plato argued that the philosopher had a duty, to justice, to the truth. The truth he'd seen on the other side. He saw philosophers as the agents of truth, dwelling in the shadows of this world, while staying true to the light of reality. I'm an agent of truth as well. I had a glimpse of what's on the other side and, thanks to you, I'm now back in the cave. Somebody killed the Duke and it's my duty, to the truth... to myself, to find out who did it."

Samuel waited a few seconds, to see if his Geist would reply. He didn't. At that moment he noticed Elliot, going for the food and trying to socialize, at the other end of the room.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Geist?"

"The murderer would be someone who'd benefit from his death and that boy certainly seems to take an advantage from the Duke death."

Confidently, with his eyes fixed on Elliot, he walks to him. Offers his hand and says with a small smile and a German accent: "Hi, I'm Samuel."

[The Kings Raven]

"Hello, I am Elliot. I have not seen you around before. Elliot stands on tip toes to try and limit the hight difference as he offers to shake hands, he's already wearing thick soled shoes.

"How did you know the Duke?"

[Burnheart]

Richard wanders around the room wearing an ill-fitting white suit and taking the occasional sip from a glass of Scotch he carries in his left hand.

Approaching the casket he raises his glass in a silent toast before kissing an Ankh charm that hangs around his neck "Goodbye my friend i'll miss our long discussions about the underworld and the Geists" he then downs the rest of the Scotch in one gulp before moving away to get some food.

As he approaches the food table he notices a small child engaged in conversation with a young german man and moves closer so as to listen in.

[Ichneumon]

Samuel: "The Diamond Duke introduced me to some other important Sin-eaters and taught be much about the variety and history of Sin-eating. He taught me much. There is much more I could have learned from him, for sure."

He nods to Richard. "Hi, I'm Samuel Abendfield, nice to meet you."

[The Kings Raven]

"He did the opposite for me. The Duke said I was too young."

[Burnheart]

"Richard Carter" Richard replies to Samuel introduction "The duke was a good friend of mine, we used to spend hours discussing the nature of Geists and the truth behind what it means to be a sin-eater" at this point richard pulls out a tissue and wipes a few tears out of the corner of his eyes "Tell me do you think those lot" he points to the various Krewe representatives "Will at least wait until after the the duke is buried before starting up their pointless wars again?"

[Ichneumon]

"That's hard to say, depends on how much they have to gain from it." Samuel says with a cynical smile.

[The Kings Raven]

He can't possibly think that? Elliot thinks to himself. He feels the temperature beneath his feet rise and fall slightly, partly a shrug, partly a simple reply: He does.

Elliot replies coolly. "It also depends on who was capable of killing him." It's true enough. Elliot certainly couldn't, his only real power was turning invisible and the Duke could always see though his Shroud.

[LordBlackadder]

"I worked for the Duke." Will responded, turning a glance to the dark-skinned Sin Eater beside him. "And I owed him some as well, but didn't we all?" He started picking more at his bowl of caviar before offering some to the Jamaican. "Don't think I've met you before. Will Dubois."

[Burnheart]

"I doubt any of them did it, the duke was more powerful than all of them, it would have to have been someone from outside Montreal" he pauses for a moment then narrows his eyes "That doesn't mean one of them couldn't have brought an outsider in to do the deed though"

[The Kings Raven]

"Maybe it was something from the deep, something old that crept back through the gates."

[Burnheart]

"Maybe it was something from the deep, something old that crept back through the gates."

Richard seems to perk up at the thought "Do you think its possible? The Duke was always very careful about such things and then we would have to consider what kind of creature is powerful enough in this world to kill the duke probably not a ghost, the duke was well prepared against such an attack, Kerberoi? No they don't leave the underworld hmm"

[Ichneumon]

"We shouldn't rule out non-supernatural or non-otherworldly causes though. It's doubtful, but someone could make mortal enemies as well."

[Burnheart]

"Hmm mortal means? No no no" Richards shakes his head "It had to be something supernatural or else the Duke would have simple returned to life again"

[Ichneumon]

"We don't know that. Maybe he died by some cause and something else, something supernatural, is preventing him from coming back. We can't yet say both are the same thing. At this point, we have no *$&%ing clue."

[Gull]

"The real question," said a man, walking up to the three sin-eaters discussing the Duke's potential killer, "Is what happened to his deathmask. The Duke's over there, but where's what's left of his geist, the Iron Witch?" The man paused to take a long drag of his cigarette. He was Chinese, middle aged and dressed in a black suit and white shirt, cuffs long and undone at the wrist and collar open at the throat. What you first mistake for a mole under one eye is instead an old, faded tattoo of a number 4. "Lo. Hell Money krewe, out of Chinatown." He nods to Carter. "I think we met before."

[Gull]

"You got a light?" a man asks Kevan, approaching the two men seat on the dais the Duke's body rested on. As you two look up, you see a face familiar to William- Hanged Johnny, one of the boys in Old Port Hooligans krewe who were always causing trouble. Will had been given cause to speak with him on the Duke's account in the past. Johnny grinned, rubbed his hand over the rough mat of black stubble atop his head and nodded to Will, laughing. "Nice to see you, Will. I guess you're out on your ass again, now your beloved boss finally left us to, uh, our own devices?" Johnny suddenly fell into a fit of coughing- he may have come back from the dead, but the weal of the noose around his neck was still as red as the day he got it, and the coughing never went away.

[The Kings Raven]

Is what happened to his deathmask. The Duke's over there, but where's what's left of his geist, the Iron Witch?

"Perhaps the Iron Witch survived, did anyone try to find her?

"You got a light?"

"Only this." Elliot withdraws his Keystone from Twilight and opens the lantern door, offering the flame within.

[Ichneumon]

Samuel remains quiet. Only raising his eyebrow. and looking mistrustful at the Chinese guy who calls himself Lo.

[White_North]

Kevan rises out of his chair and smiles broadly at the stranger. "Shouldn't speak ill of the dead, friend. All we here know they have the bad tendency to keep coming back. Name's Kevan. I'm newly come to these parts." He then turns his head towards William and offers a hand laden with three copper rings. "Pleasure to meet you, by the way."

When Elliot offers the Keystone flame to the stranger, Kevan's eyes go wide. After a moment of slightly stunned silence, he lets out a chuckle, draws a deep pull of his cigar. He speaks words laced with smoke. "Looks like the young man here's got you covered, friend".

[Ichneumon]

Looking quickly to all the guys gathered here, Samuels says in a slowly, clear and sincere manner:"I think at least some of us here, are interested in finding out the truth about the Diamond Duke and what's left of his Geist. I think we'll all be more likely to find what we want if we work together. What do you guys think? To make this more than just a group of people guessing and spreading rumors, to turn it into a group, an enterprise undertaking the task of shedding some light on the Duke's passing away."

[The Kings Raven]

Elliot's eyes lit up. A real Krew! "I'm in". He casts a quick look to make sure his parents haven't herd.

[Ichneumon]

A big smile appears on Samuels face. "Great."

"What, Samuel? First you think he did it, now you're teaming up with him? I sure hope you know what you're doing." Samuel ignored his Geist, as he sure knew what he was doing, or so Samuel told himself. If he was going to find the answers, he'd need all the help you could get. To do this, he'd need to grasp opportunities where ever they were. If you hesitate, you lose.

[White_North]

Kevan contemplates Samuel for a moment. "Them's bright words for such a grim task", he says. "But hell. This city could use a little brightness right about now." His smile expands further and he takes a step foward. "I and I are in".

[Gull]

Lo and Johnny, never on the best terms, left the company of the five sin-eaters when the two groups came together, Lo spitting on the floor and turning while Johnny lit his cigarette from Eliott's lantern and moved off to antagonize someone else. "Be seeing you, Will," he said as he left.
A thin blonde woman coughs discreetly while you find yourselves caught up with each other.
"Excuse me, monsieurs Abendfield, Carter, Dubois, Dalton and Pinney?" she asks in Quebecois accented English. "So fortunate to find you all together. I wonder if you might come with me for a moment. I am Mlle. Potvin, aide to the Diamond Duke, and it falls to me to look after certain...bequests." Fashionably dressed, if somewhat severely, Mlle. Potvin has an air of almost superhuman efficiency about her. It doesn't escape your notice that she even called your names in alphabetical order.