Nine-colored Roses (Princess: The Hopeful) IC

[MReav]

"You mean whatever's left of it after you're done with it." Shira said, then mutters under her breath, "The Light is supposed to be a beacon for humanity, a guide. It's not supposed to be an orbital death laser."

She noted the gloves, wondering what that was about.

She then cuts her run short, though she does go a roundabout way home. She doesn't know why, Ember probably already knows where she lives if what she said was true. Hell, given how she managed to intercept her, she wouldn't be surprised if she had been following her all along.

She eventually made it back. She got in the shower, quickly rinsed off, then made her way back to her room.

"Inari? I think I might know a bit more on what the dream was about. I saw Ember earlier. She wanted me to relay a message to Miss Tellings to knock off her attempts to organize, because it'll just attract more of the Darkness. She also wanted me to join her, but I told her no."

[Entelechy]

While Bobby waits for a reply from Mana, she does a little brainstorming, and packs up to get ready to go. She chooses an outfit for herself, and checks her texts one last time before heading out....

[Beans]

"I'll be there this afternoon."
Carrie texts each of the others that there's a thing going on, indicating that all interested should meet her at the given address around 4. That, she thinks, should give time for school to release its hold on all involved.

[Felyndiira]

"Sure, 10:00 AM?" along with a link to a map of one of the popular gathering spots in the campus, was Mana's reply to Bobbie. Aya had already received a similarly brief text as well - though Mana was already at the spot designated on her text at 7:00 AM. She seems deeply engrossed in some research of her own, though it doesn't seem to be pertinent to the princesses or the mysterious woman from the day before. Rather, it seems almost like she's chatting with a few people - mostly socially, but occasionally with a quick, hidden question about the sightings of various people.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

I'm not going to roll for this "research" until the end of the day, after all of the interactions and stuff are done.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Shira

Inari bobs his head soberly, or as soberly as a plushie can manage. "Darkspawn do do that, but it almost sounds like she's being paranoid. There can't be that many around Portland to notice it and attack, right? Even eight or ten on Friday was a huge amount for this city...she probably just doesn't want people who don't work for the Queen of Storms to organize."

He's surprised at hearing about Ember's request, though. "Normally bad guys dangle you over a pit before they make that offer," he says. "Either she's not very good at this or she respects you, I guess...you think the dream was a warning?"

Bobbie and Mana (10:00 am)

PSU is bustling as usual, and Mana forms the eye of her own little social cyclone simply through her connections to people around campus. A sociology major with a bird's-eye view would have a field day, but mostly Mana just picks up on the general business of the school, sympathy for dealing with student council/Second Life/the newspaper/Professor Smith/Aya (all from different people, obviously), and rumors about the "shooting" that happened nearby on Saturday (which few people care much about, since no one was killed). Will actually drops by to ask if the paper should bother researching and doing an article about that shortly before Bobbie arrives.

When Bobbie does arrive, she will probably see Mana talking with a serious, business-like young man who appears to have five o'clock shadow at 10 am.

Carrie

Spoiler: OOC

Show

I...actually don't know what you're doing until 4. Any thoughts? I already used my Freeze-Dried Plot Device on the last Mana/Bobbie scene and I'd hate for random gunshots to get repetitive.

[Felyndiira]

"I would recommend against it," Mana replied. Will probably could not see it, but she quickly tabbed out of a particular IM window as he approached, leaving all the others open and visible to anyone who would care to sneak a glance. She glanced around briefly, then typed a hasty reply before turning her attention back towards the boy.

"From what I gathered, it was just someone having a panic attack and shooting a large insect. I wouldn't want to put her in the spotlight for a harmless mistake." She quietly puts away her laptop and stands, faintly smiling at the boy. "It's up to you, though," she continues, lightly patting the other boy's shoulders. "Whether you decide to cover it or not, I have faith in your judgment."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

I'll let Bobbie initiate conversation. Meanwhile, mini-banter with Will.

[MReav]

"I think she believes that there might be more coming." Shira offered, "As for the dream... I guess. But I thought you were supposed to be the enigmatic mentor figure with the answers. But Ember wasn't really doing anything threatening, well, aside from a brief moment when I pointed out that her fighting us serves the Darkness more than the Light. Probably not the best thing to say to a Stormite if you're trying to be diplomatic. Strangely, she was wearing gloves this time, and didn't have her sword. I wonder if she swapped it out, or was forced to swap it out."

"Should I leave you here so you can do your information gathering? Or given Ember's reappearance, do you want to stay near me?" Shira was feeling a little more able to move around without Inari since her meeting with Mr. Minotti. Still, she figured he'd probably want to keep close given what happened.

After Inari's response, she takes out her rose and concentrates on the woman heading up this new effort. "Miss Tellings?" She wasn't sure how early a riser Miss Tellings was. Might as well try it out though.

[theUnearther]

Both sisters shrug.

"Hey, we're twins," Marie-Helene says.

"Cutting each other off--" Anne starts.

"--is kind of a parlor trick," they conclude at the same time.

Giovanni actually smiles at this point.

"Less cute since we're not identical, though."

Anne shakes her head. "Look, this 'I know you know I know' stuff is pointless, and we're gonna be late for math."

Marie-Helene actually stops and thinks. "I guess...Mr. Minotti, are you a good guy or a bad guy? Because I know you're one or the other now."

Anne, sensing the flow of the conversation, bites her tongue rather give her sister another witty remark about her naiveté.

Haha, thank you for reassuring me. Alright. But you're wrong, I know you know I know is never useless. For one, it is always hilarious when that happens. But more importantly, you should not admit to something just because the other party claims to already know. And less so if they don't even tell you what it is they know! That trick's so old it predates the book, you know.
He turns his face from them to finish sorting his stuff, still with a genuine smile in his face.
Always remember that, it'll serve you well. I can say, however, that I am definitely a 'good guy', or as close as can be. I have no reason to be an enemy to you, or anyone you may plausibly know, to the best of my knowledge. Now, if you want to tell me whence this all comes, by all means, do so, but by now I think I'm going to not blink first, just because it's being fun.

Spoiler

Show

First off, sorry for being inconsistent, as usual.

Second, I was going to have Giovanni stand up and start leaving, but I realized first I need to know: was this the last class of the day? For either him or the girls.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Mana and Bobbie

"Well thanks, Mana," he says in his best joking approximation of a gee-whiz Midwestern accent, which is not very good. It's all in good fun, though. "I think people are going to want to know what actually happened, even if it was nothing. I can make some space next to the campus police blotter in the back."

Shira

"I'm just a low dream-spirit-thing on the totem pole, really," Inari replies, sounding a little defeated. "All I really know is what I find out. Even the sword thing...if I had to guess, she swapped to a less intimidating combat Charm. Or she just didn't Transform her sword since she was there to talk."

He looks troubled. "And...well, if you think you'll be okay without me, I can go look for what we need. I think if Ember was going to hurt you, she'd have done it earlier." He looks at Shira with questioning little bead-eyes.

"It's really up to you. I'm your Shikigami, after all."

When Shira tries the Rose, she gets a nice, not-exactly-woken-up-from-sleep-but-still-before-optimal-coffee-levels response from Alison. "Yes? Shira, right? What is it?"

Carrie

Carrie's internet perusal of her new acquaintances yields a few scattered results. Shira Rosenberg has just about no internet presence, and with such a common last name, it's impossible to broaden the search to her family. The best she can find is that someone by that name once won a local martial arts tournament (no picture) and circumstantial evidence that she's enrolled at a place called Pioneer High School (again, no picture). Giovanni Minotti has publicly listed contact information at both Pioneer High School (faculty) and Portland State University (graduate student). Bobbie Myles is an internet fashion designer, and a fairly successful one for someone clearly operating a home business. She's also gorgeous, which counts as important information to Carrie. All she can find on Mana is credit on Portland State University's student newspaper as an editor. There's quite a few other links that look interesting for her, but she won't have time to follow up on any of them before the meeting.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

I've actually forgotten if Carrie ever learned Bobbie's name/existence, but if it's alright with Entelechy and Fel it's alright with me. If not, disregard the bit about her.

Giovanni

"Hilarious?"

"His generation's ways of humor are different from ours."

Anne regards the teacher seriously. "Well, if you haven't figured it out, I think we've already blabbed enough for today, and we do have math next. I appreciate your reassurance. She's kinda impossible to live with when she thinks there's Evil Afoot."

Marie-Helene sighs dramatically, heading for the door with her sister. "She tries so hard at seen-it-all adult cynicism. It's a psychological tragedy..."

[Entelechy]

Bobbie walks like she and Mana are the only one's in it. She wears an ankle length dress a deep purple grey like the ripest of thunderclouds. The light loose material rolls and billows around her legs as she walks, revealing flashing of white-purple streaks like lightning. She sat herself on Mana's desk and hit send on a text with sly grin.

"If I knew you worked for the paper, I'd've worn a hat. It's almost a shame I don't smoke," Bobbie's text read, trying to give her best film noir dame pose.

[Felyndiira]

"Hmm." Mana's expression remains stoic as she appears to ponder Will's reply. Her mind is focused on something entirely different at the moment, but she tries her best to hide it under a neutral, politician-like smile. After a few moments of faux-pondering, she gives the boy an approving nod. "I see your point," she adds, "I just think it would be best to take extra care and keep it strictly pedantic. This is a delicate and embarrassing matter for the person involved, and we don't want to put her under a spotlight."

"A perfect politician's answer, no?" she adds with a wink and a playful laugh.

Her smile softens a bit when she catches sight of Bobbie. "Ah, there's the person I was-" she begins, her words quickly trailing off. She doesn't seem to know how to respond to the other princess's unique sense of fashion, and remains silent for a moment until the other girl's quip pushes her back into familiar territory. "You need not worry about that, Ma'am," she jokes in a clearly over-the-top impression of a venerable-aged politician. She gives a courteous bow to Bobbie, barely hiding a bemused smile as she continues, "Here at the PSU newspaper committee, we pride ourselves on ensuring that the impressionable youths of our fine university are not corrupted by such immoral pictures as cigarettes. By not smoking, you've merely saved us the trouble of photo-shopping a cigarette into a lollipop."

"This is Will, by the way. My junior in the newspaper committee and one of our best journalists^*. Will, Bobbie." The girl turns to Will apologetically. "Sorry to cut our conversation short, Will, but I have an appointment with Bobbie. As I said though, I trust your judgment in this matter. If you do decide to write it, though, just shoot me an e-mail and I'll send you everything I know about the event."

[MReav]

"I want you to stay here to do your research... but seeing Ember again kind of freaked me out." Shira admitted with a sigh, "I don't know. I'll think about it."

Turning to her flower, she spoke,

"Miss Tellings? I've been asked by a representative of the Court of Storms to tell you that they don't like you doing what you're doing, that it will bring in more Darkspawn into the city and that you should knock it off. I'm guessing you've had to deal with this sort of thing before?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

Bobbie and Mana

Will raises an eyebrow at Bobbie's appearance - two, actually - but makes no comment, just smiling slightly and politely nodding his head as he backs off, leaving Mana to her appointment with the very eye-catching lady.

Shira

There's a fairly lengthy pause from the other end of the magical communication.

"Yes...but I was hoping the Storms and Tears cults had either wiped each other out, or learned their lesson from St. John's," she says, somewhat cautiously given that it's Shira she's talking to. "If any of them were left, I was hoping they'd volunteer to join forces."

There's a slight whooshing sound, as if Alison either sighed or moved the flower away from her face so she couldn't be heard sighing as clearly.

"In theory, Darkspawn are attracted to Light. That's just how they are. It's better to have them focusing on a big, prepared group of us than spreading out everywhere causing chaos, though. Thank you for the message, but if the Storms Court contacts you again, tell them we have it covered, and to talk to me directly if they have concerns."

[MReav]

"Okay. Do you have specific contact information that I should give them?" Shira said in a half-joking manner, though given Shira's default deadpan mode of talking, may have sounded completely serious. However switching to a bit more serious (but with no shift in verbal tone), "More seriously, the girl whom I spoke with, who calls herself Ember Ash, at least when she's transformed, said she's been keeping an eye on me. That is something that I am more than a little worried about."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

If Alison asks, I tell her about our brief history. If she asks why I didn't tell them about that before, I tell her I thought she was dead.

[Entelechy]

Bobbie pulls out her tablet and writes Will a quick message.

Smirking, she shows it him at an angle that Mana can't see.

Spoiler

Show

Don't worry, Mr. Will, I'll bring her back before ten!

[Nerd-o-rama]

Shira

Alison does ask for details, and pauses for several seconds after hearing them.

"Well, normally, this is when I tell young people to go to the police about a stalker, but in this case..." she starts. "If she wanted to attack you or 'finish' what happened at St. John's, I think she would have by now. What I would guess is that she feels some kind of responsibility for the tragedy there, and the fact that you Blossomed. It's easy to write off the Twilight Courts as destructive fanatics, but at the end of the day, they're still human, and still Nobles, and think accordingly. Hopefully, she actually will find and talk to me and we can discuss things face to face. Beyond that, I have no advice other than to be careful."

Bobbie and Mana

Will reads the message, smiles, and (still grinning), gives Bobbie an "I'm watching you" gesture before walking off.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

In the interest of game pacing, I'm going to start the next scene. You're free to continue this one in the sidestory thread, or here if it is possible to wrap up in the next post or so.

Graye Investigations, 4pm

After everyone receives Carrie's text, it seems that fortunes align for at least that brief timeslot, if everyone chooses to respond. Giovanni has work he could be doing and Mana could likely take the time to go meddle with one of her organizations, but outside of that, it seems the perfect time for Noble ShenanigansTM, especially since two of the little group have run into this business name independently.

Graye Investigations' address is on the second floor of an older two-story brick office building, sandwiched between a pair of high-rises on the less-gentrified outskirts of downtown. It's not much to look at and doesn't have any exterior signage, but heading up the stairs past the accountants' office on the first floor (currently closed, presumably because whoever runs it hates people who file their income taxes late) leads to an open door and what looks to be a nicely-outfitted waiting room, although it's missing the usual accoutrements like magazines or a receptionist. Just plush blue chairs, a table, a water cooler, and a Keurig.

[MReav]

Shira sighs and thanks Alison for her advice.

"I hate to impose on you Inari, but I have to admit that seeing Ember freaked me out more than I care to admit. I realize that doing research is probably going to be harder in my backpack. How's about I get a jug of ice cream and make you a batch of chocolate sauce when we get home?" Shira offered.

She got the message, so she opted to explain things about Mr. Minotti with her friends after school when she could get them in a private area.

She makes her way to the location mentioned in the text. She hoped it wouldn't be too much of a diversion before she heads to visit her parents.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

I have some ideas on roleplaying between Shira and her friends, though I imagine Shira would be a bit miffed that they confronted him before she could explain things and she found out about it.

[Beans]

Shira will find Carrie and her car waiting outside the building; she waves to the younger girl. "Hey, um, Shira." Carrie is really good at talking to people yes yeah.

She glances from building to Shira to the road, a little nervous.

[MReav]

"So, what's this about, Carrie?" Shira asked the one who texted them with her own bluntness coming through.

[Beans]

Carrie toys nervously with a strand of hair. "Basically, uh, I found an envelope and when I opened it after the battle, it... said there were gonna be Darkspawn where and when it happened. Had this place's business card and I called them up, so... yeah. Kind of wish I'd opened it earlier, but it turned out okay."

[MReav]

Shira thinks about it for a moment, "Sounds like we're dealing with a prescient, or a setup. Do you have any idea who might have left it?"

[MReav]

"Well, waiting out here isn't going to accomplish anything. Let's go inside." Shira says before doing so.

[Beans]

Carrie nods, heading in after her. Arriving in the waiting room, she looks around and... uh... there's no receptionist or anything.
Um.
"... There should, uh... be someone to talk to. Somewhere."

[Nerd-o-rama]

After being in the waiting room for half a minute or so, the Nobles in the waiting room hear a woman's voice from a concealed speaker. Or magic, but magic doesn't usually crackle like it's poorly wired.

"You can come on in now," a woman's voice says over the speaker. The bolt on a nondescript wooden door across from the entrance clicks open at the same time. "You're a little late."

Through the door, assuming anyone heads in, is an office that manages to look cluttered despite quite a lot of floor space. Two walls are covered with tall, locked filing cabinets (and one similar furnishing that looks like a gun locker), while the other two are stuffed with crammed-full bookshelves, which appear to be neatly split between reference books and detective novels. A black cat is curled up in some of the only open space on the bookshelves, and a majority of the remaining space in the room is taken up by a large desk, four chairs sitting on your side of it, and one high-backed chair on the other side, where a middle-aged dark-haired woman in a business suit sits and regards the people coming into her office intently.

The office is dimmer than the waiting room, thanks to the drawn blinds on the windows, and smells heavily of cigarette smoke, with possibly the last ashtray inside a business office in Portland sitting dirty on the desk, alongside a closed laptop computer and a business-card holder.

"Sorry about the mess," the woman at the desk says, waving vaguely and not really sounding sorry. "I'm Regina Graye, and I think we're working in the same world."

[MReav]

"My name is Shira and I was texted to meet here at this time." Shira responds, "And don't worry about the mess."

[Nerd-o-rama]

She shrugs. "Not that there's much to do during the daytime anyway. Usually."

Regina leans forward over her desk. "I'm going to level with you, because my sources tell me you're already in on the little secret...or at least one of you is. I'm what you call a paranormal investigator."

She leans back again, but doesn't add the dramatic pause you'd normally associate with that. "Now, I know you know about certain things, like the events in that letter I had delivered," she continues, "and that while I'm pretty brilliant at investigation, there's only me and my registered firearms against what seems like half the world. I wanted to talk to you about trading information for some supernatural oomph."

[Beans]

Carrie nods. "Okay, I can understand this... I will admit, Shira's more... oomph than I am, strictly speaking. But I won't deny that credible intel from a source whose face we can see is a good thing. Just depends where and how you want the oomph applied."

[MReav]

"I have to admit, there is some information that I'm interested in, above and beyond what we've been dealing with. I guess that extra 'oomph' could be used to get more services... depending on what you need of course. We're not exactly a mercenary group hiring out to the highest bidder." Shira said, the image of Ember still weighing on her mind, "I guess the best course of action is to tell us what you feel you can spare at the moment."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Well, first of all," she says, actually putting her feet up on the desk at this point, "I've got a connection on the two corpses found in the park on Friday. You wanted to know about that, right?"

She reaches into a file behind her, then sits up properly and slides a printed web page across the desk, part of a news article with several details neatly highlighted. She taps one piece of information which is both highlighted and circled in pen. "Both of the vics were identified by Jane Williamson, who runs a homeless shelter north of downtown. Given that they were both hobos, I figure she probably knew them pesonally, and might be willing to talk."

[MReav]

"I take it you'd like to help you with that?" Shira asks.

Then she considers for a moment, "May I ask what your connection to our associate is?"