Flawless [IC]

[ylvathrall]

Ordinarily, Mi Na is gone when Bethany returns from a modeling job. Her night shift job as a shift leader at a call center requires her to work long hours, and she is usually already en route to work by the time Bethany is back, not returning until morning. Tonight, though, Bethany's roommate is there when she walks in, sitting on the couch. Her foot is tapping out a rapid tattoo on the floor, a nervous tic that instantly gives away her emotional state.

As Bethany walks in, Mi Na stands and begins pacing. "Hey," she says. "I, uh. I think I need a favor."

[Halae]

Bethany frowns, taking off her coat. She's still wearing the beautiful red gown she'd been asked to wear at work under it, showing off her curves, though she ditched the heels as soon as possible; her normal boots provide a fairly sharp contrast to the dress, being heavy on ankle support and more than a little ugly.

Mi Na has always seemed like the sort of woman that meddles whenever she has the chance. It's made her a good roommate for Beth; the albino's single-mindedness sometimes causes her to be overly focused on a task and forget things like chores, or eating. As a result, they've made a good pair thus far. But the request for a favor is worrying, as Mi Na is usually on top of things enough to not need to pace about in worry.

"Uh, yeah, of course, hon. Whatever you need."

[ylvathrall]

"Thanks," Mi Na says, with obvious relief. "It has to do with...with the succubus. You know I could never really let it go and move on like you could. I had to keep digging, looking for a reason. Well, I haven't found one yet, but...I think I found something else. I think she had a partner."

[Halae]

Bethany frowns. A partner? "And we're only finding out about this now?" This seems like the sort of thing that would have come up before. Beth starts taking off her boots, and moves to sit down in one of the chairs they have here in the main room. This one is a recliner they got from a secondhand furniture shop - not incredible, by any means, but Bethany's managed to claim it as her own, and the imprint of her body in the cushions from her extended use of the recliner for reading. She likes to be seated when there's something potentially awful going on, and Mi Na's pacing is making it seem like that might be the situation, "What's the partner doing that got you to identify them?"

[ylvathrall]

"What do you think they're doing?" Mi Na says, her tone perhaps a bit snappish. "They're doing the same thing she was, hunting down kids with potential and kidnapping them. But the way they're doing it, the targets they're picking, the way the kids just disappear...it's exactly the same."

[Halae]

Bethany nods, thinking. She's not offended by Mi Na's tone; she knows of the other woman's agitation with any sort of psychophage, "Alright, well, what exactly do you want me to do?" She asks, "Obviously you want me to stop it, but give me a starting point. Where would I start going about finding this second succubus? You wouldn't be asking me for this favor if it was something you could handle yourself," Mi Na has to know who Bethany needs to talk to to get started, otherwise she'd be out and handling it herself.

[ylvathrall]

"You're close to the Tribe," Mi Na says, still pacing. "And I think that's our in. See, this partner...they're taking street children. People no one will miss, you know what I mean?" The words "like me" hang in the air, unsaid but far from unheard - Mi Na was a street kid who was already hooked on drugs when she was taken by the succubus. "And I think the Tribe had its eye on a couple of them. They were their kind of people."

[Halae]

Bethany sighs, "Talking to Jack Tar, then. Getting his men to help me," Bethany can appreciate it, but she already owes the leader of the Tribe a favor, and this seems like it'd get her further in debt if she can't spin it right, "Yeah, I can do that. Let me get changed and eat something and I'll head out to talk to him right away."

She'll head towards her bedroom, a messy place kept haphazardly. The outfit she chooses to go for is a zip-up hoodie over a tanktop and some nice jeans; it only takes her a little time, and before long she's ready to get going. She'll eat scoops of peanut butter from a jar for a quick meal that takes no prep, which should give Mi Na some time to talk to her as necessary, but otherwise Bethany is going to just head out. No reason to delay when there's kids' minds on the line.

[ylvathrall]

The man called Jack Tar is not an easy man to find, as a general rule; he makes his home on the streets, sleeping in alleys and homeless shelters, wandering the city with no fixed address. But Bethany, following the incident with Nyraeva, was granted the rare gift of a phone number, and a quick text has him agree to meet her at a set location in an hour's time.

When she arrives, it's not hard to find him. Jack is a large man, but lean verging on scrawny. He always wears a canvas overcoat that has clearly seen better days, being covered in stains of uncertain provenance. His ragged brown hair hangs to his shoulders, tangled and matted; his eyes are a brilliant orange color not unlike those of a pigeon. When he breathes, one can catch the faint scent of steel and gasoline on his breath. Despite this exotic appearance, though, most people tend to pass around him without noticing him, as though he were not precisely invisible but simply not worth noting the presence of.

Tonight he is standing on an overpass, looking out at the city. Cars pass underneath, their headlights and taillights forming a snake stretching out into the distance. To the north, the direction he's facing, the lights of the downtown area are visible over the nearer buildings. He is leaning on the railing with a lit cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth; the posture hikes his long coat up just enough to make out the shape of what looks like a tire iron hanging from his belt.

"Evening," he says as Bethany approaches. "Wanna cig?"

[Halae]

"I don't smoke," Bethany says, the same line she gave him last time he asked, "My body is screwed up enough without nicotine."

She leans on the railings across from him, laying her hands on the railing beside her hips to give her extra stability. Part of the reason for her to lean there specifically is to be able to look at him straight across the walkway of the overpass; the other side is to be outside his... aura, for lack of a better term, of pungent city smells which he carries around like a miasma, "I'm here to look into something. A friend told me street kids related to the Tribe are going missing."

[ylvathrall]

Jack takes a long drag on his cigarette before nodding, once. "Yeah," he says. "It was hard to notice at first. These kids, they're street people, you know? They come and go. Some of 'em get into homes. Some just move on, run away to the next city. Some die from an overdose, or exposure, or starvation, or any number of other things that get you when you live that life. You learn to accept a certain amount of them just...not being there anymore." He pauses. "But this, no, this is something else. Too many kids with magical potential have vanished, too clean. It's well past what I could call coincidence."

[Halae]

Bethany nods, looking out across the city, "Something like this happened to me and some friends, once. Clean capture, disappearing right out of our homes. A succubus was doing it. I... managed to kill that one, and I think I might be able to do so again, if I have a shot at it. But I'll need help getting there; something from one of the kids that I can track, maybe." she grimaces, "I might not be in time to save them, though. Their lives, maybe, but not them."

[ylvathrall]

Jack's eyes go distant for a moment before he nods. "Yeah," he says. "You don't come back from something like that. Not really. I don't have anything, but one of the kids has an older brother, a Tribesman. He might have something you can use to track her. He'll be at the Sanctuary tonight. Long black hair, likes to wear designer hoodies."

[Halae]

"Alright, I'll be there," Beth says firmly. There's a personal stake in this, but by and large she's doing this for the kids. Nobody should have to be subjected to what she went through.

Bethany waits a moment. It feels like there should be more to say, more to talk about, but nothing comes to her in that instant, so she just says, "I'll see you around, Jack," And goes to head off, unless Jack himself stops her.

[ylvathrall]

Jack nods and takes one more drag on his cigarette before flicking it over the railing. "See you around, kid," he says. "Good hunting."

[Halae]

Bethany heads off, back into her car. It's not too long until the kid Jack mentioned should be at Sanctuary, so with nothing better to do but worry in the meantime, that's where she decides to head, though with some reluctance. The Sanctuary isn't a nice place for someone as... vanilla as Bethany. Certainly, the people there are free to do what they enjoy, but the entire idea of getting pleasure from being hurt spooks her. She doesn't know precisely when the kid is going to arrive, and she'll just have to deal with the club atmosphere until he shows up.

[ylvathrall]

At the Sanctuary, Bethany finds the unmarked building easily. A number of vehicles, mostly normal enough, are parked outside of the otherwise unremarkable warehouse, though no one is loitering outside.

The door swings open easily at her touch, revealing a normal enough lobby. There's barely enough room to stand before another door, this one firmly closed. To your right, behind a heavy sheet of bulletproof glass with a hole cut in it not unlike a bank teller's, sits a large woman in a small office. "Hello," she says, expectantly.

You can just make out the sound of music playing from the other side of the door. It sounds like a heavy bassline, with a voice singing over it. You can only make out one word, repeated over and over: Run.

[Halae]

"Ah, hello," Bethany returns, looking worriedly towards the source of the pulsing beat. Because that's encouraging right now. Bethany, however, is also aware that this woman likely deals with a number of people awkward about the situation, so she clears her throat and tries to avoid making more of a fool of herself, "I was, ah, told by Jack Tar that a boy would be here tonight. Long black hair, wears designer hoodies, is a member of the tribe?" Not that that'd mean much to most mundanes... "There's something I need to talk with him about; do you know if he's here already? Or..." she sighs, "do you even know who I'm talking about? I don't know his name, just that he'll be here tonight."

[ylvathrall]

"I'm sorry, I can't let you in unless you're with a member," the woman says. "You can wait outside and see if he shows up if you want."

[Halae]

Bethany considers the situation for a moment, before turning back to the woman behind the desk, "Well, what does it take to get a membership? My name is Bethany Calum. Maybe you've heard of me?" She knows she's going to regret this, but she has a little extra money, and name-dropping herself... well, maybe it'll work.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

spending a fate point on my [Locally Famous] aspect to get a favorable response from the woman behind the counter.

[ylvathrall]

The woman looks blank for a moment, then realization visibly dawns across her features. "The model, right? Good enough, come inside and I can get you the paperwork." She presses a button under the desk and the door unlocks with a buzz, letting you step through.

Inside, the music is louder. You're standing in a large open room with couches and comfortable chairs arranged around it. Art hangs on the walls, much of it explicitly sexual in nature. At the edge of the room is a table with food, ranging from chips and salsa to what looks like a pot of spaghetti with meatballs. Four doors open off the room: one into the office you walked past to get in, one into a coatroom, one into a bathroom, and the last one deeper into the club.

"All right," the woman says, coming around and handing you a clipboard. On it is a fairly standard nondisclosure agreement, a summary of the rules of the club (which are quite permissive, as might be imagined), and a statement that you understand the nature of the club and are willingly attending, being over the age of twenty-one.

The song ends and the next comes on, though it's not appreciably more comforting. The line that stands out most clearly is you're in a place for fear, lips are for biting here, and what you catch of the rest is about equally ominous.

[Halae]

Bethany does her best to shut out the music for the moment as she takes the clipboard and reads it over. Legal problems if revealed... club rules... Age requirement... yeah, this looks fine. She'll sign her name at the appropriate point, a well practiced signature, "That should do it," And she'll hand the clipboard back. Managing in the meantime to keep the concern off her face.

[ylvathrall]

"You're cleared to go in, then," the woman says, taking the clipboard. "My name is Allinav if you need any help."

[Halae]

Bethany nods and, with a little wave, will head to go inside the club. The nice part about a place like this is that, while she's clearly uncomfortable, she knows this is a place where people come to have fun. Perhaps it's not her idea of fun, but the only people in pain here are those that want to be, and that makes this whole place considerably less intimidating.

[ylvathrall]

Through the next door is another room appointed with plush furniture, though it has a large open space in the middle. Here Bethany begins to see the first signs that the place is not like any other club. A woman holding a leash is using the man wearing it as a footstool, while a naked woman dangles from a rope web between two columns like a fly in a spiderweb.

It's through the next door, though, that things become truly macabre. An enormous open space lies beyond, sparse and open. The floor is simple concrete, and the walls and ceiling are undecorated. Leather-covered massage tables are scattered around, interspersed with hard points on the ceiling. Men and women hang from the latter, tied with rope and slowly spinning. The former contain a variety of more exotic scenes, everything from a woman with her hands stitched to her chest, through a man with perhaps a hundred needles in his back, a woman being electrocuted with some sort of static electricity device, all the way to a bleeding man being sprayed with flaming alcohol. The air smells strongly of blood and rubbing alcohol, and she can feel the magic pulsing in the air, life and blood and power all throbbing in time to a single heartbeat.

Looking around, she can see small groups of people standing around, whispering quietly to each other. It's impossible to hear them over the sound of a woman tied to a St. Andrews Cross begging for mercy, screaming for help and saying that she didn't consent to this. No one responds, not even the handful of people wandering around in red vests that the others are deferring to.

After a few moments, she picks out a likely match for her description. A tall, lanky man with long and slightly greasy black hair, he's wearing a form-fitting hoodie that looks like it costs as much as many suits.

[Halae]

As she enters, Bethany closes her eyes, breathing out. For all the frankly frightening scenes (to her, anyways) present, she can center herself on something else - the magic in the air. There's power and blood here, and while it's dark, it's not negative. Magic is life, magic is the essence of who you are, and while the magic here is constructed on a basis of pain, it's not the kind of pain that comes laced with terror and death.

She immerses herself in it, and feels the tingling of the magic running down her back, along the spine. This isn't a bad place - there's no death here, and the pain is laced thoroughly with enjoyment. Dark, not evil. Many enjoyable things can happen in the dark. The knowledge, the feeling of the place, is what allows Bethany to regain her composure, and a slow smile to spread across her face. While she hates the idea of letting herself be cut, the machine with static electricity looks like it'd be fun, and it's not like she doesn't have a membership here now anyways.

Still, that's not what she's here for. Now much calmer, more focused, she'll move up to the tall man, coming up behind him to tap him on the shoulder, "Excuse me? Do you have a few minutes to talk?"

[ylvathrall]

The man looks around and then nods. After a quick murmur to the man he's standing with, he gestures for you to follow him out to the previous room. "What can I help you with?" he asks once there. You can't help but note the bags under his eyes; he hasn't been sleeping well.

[Halae]

Bethany grimaces, "I heard about your sister. I'm... well, I'm here to try and help you. Jack Tar said you might have something that belongs to her, and if I can get that, I can start tracking her down with some thaumaturgy. You can trust me; I'm a wizard, and I've been through what your sister is going through; I don't want to leave anybody in a position like that for any length of time."

[ylvathrall]

The man starts. "How do you..." he begins, and then shrugs. "If Jack says you're okay, that's good enough for me. I don't have any hair or anything, but there is this." He reaches into a pocket and pulls out a plain silver ring. "Our mother left Nadine this; she wore it all the time. Except it was sitting on the nightstand the morning she disappeared. It should be a good enough focus for a tracking spell. But I already tried that, every kind of tracking spell I know, and none of them got anything." His tone is bleak. Bethany gets the strong impression that he's pretty sure his sister is dead.

[Halae]

"I obviously can't promise anything," Bethany says, taking the ring, "but I figure it's worth it to try. Do you have a number where I can reach you if I find anything out?"

Bethany's real worry isn't that Nadine is dead, but that she's suffered such a disconnect from who she was previously that sentimental objects are no longer applicable.