Riverside 21: Older than Arkh

[Gullara]

[Crisis at Moth Park]

"Okay good." A young girl like her really shouldn't be out in the middle of the night anyway. Who knows what could happen. "Tell me what's around you, so I can find you when I get there." She suggests. At the very least it's hopefully something to distract her from whatever has her so distressed.

[Arkhosia]

Crisis at Moth Park

Now now, Anastasia's an adolescent! That's perfectly old enough to be out at night, definitely. "I'm uh, y-you know, like, the wood bridge that goes over that stream in the south of the park? Uh, I'm under that." There's a second as she looks around, turning her phone off of speaker. "There's- there's a bench to my left up top, a-a-and - and a large bush to my right." The second location seems to give her a noticeable bit of distress.

[Gullara]

[Crisis at Moth Park]

"Okay, just stay there. I won't be much longer." Kitsuki does her best to be reassuring for the rest of the duration, but the best thing she can do is arrive quickly. Thankfully once she's off the train she's very fleet of foot, and she's able to find the bridge Ana described in not too long. "Ana?" She calls out gently.

[Arkhosia]

Crisis at Moth Park

"I-I'm here." Anastasia peeks nervously from the corner of the bridge's base. She's dressed in just a pair of matching pajama pants and bottoms, and her orange hair is a bit of a mess. Her eyes are frightened and furtive - but what Kitsuki might notice the most with alarm are the wet stains of blood and minor tears spattered across the plaid patterns of her clothes. The area beneath the front of her collar in particular has a rather noticeable soak that she's tried to keep off her skin by unbuttoning that upper section, but it's still possible to see the faint stain of red upon the exposed skin of her chest and her jaw.

"I don't- I don't know how any of this happened," she stutters, reluctant to step out.

[Gullara]

[Crisis at Moth Park]

It's hard to mask the look of alarm Kitty gives her when she comes into view. Oh this is... She's not sure what this is, but it's bad. "Just stay there." She hurries toward the other kitsune, joining her under the bridge. She looks around furtively. Thankfully no one's encountered them yet.

[Arkhosia]

Crisis at Moth Park

"I just- I woke up here and there was blood on my hands and-" Anastasia catches herself as she starts to hyperventilate, raising a hand to her brow as she tries to moderate her breathing. It's far less obvious and she's clearly put an effort into washing them clean, but there's the distinctive tinge of red beneath the teen's fingernails. Her tails swish worriedly behind her- wait a minute, since when did she have two tails?

If Kitty's eyes are keen, she might notice that the grass of the area behind Ana seems to show some signs of struggle. A fair bit of it is trampled and a few of the blades are speckled with blood, especially near the bushes to the side.

[Gullara]

[Crisis at Moth Park]

Kitsuki's eyes are affixed to Ana's tail as soon as she spies it. Of, there's certainly something going on. Something far different than her own experience it seems. Her eyes flit to the bush. She can feel it as much as she sees the signs. "Ana, sit down. Just look out at the park, okay? Deep breaths." She urges, while trying to guide the other fox to sit.

If Ana compiles and look out in the other direction, Kitsuki steps past her. "Just stay there." She approaches the bush.

[Arkhosia]

Crisis at Moth Park

The kitsune responds with a shaky nod as she follows Kitty's instructions, curling her knees up against her as she turns away and stares off at waters upstream, making a very pointed effort to focus her gaze there as she breathes in and out at a steady rhythm.

The ghost hunter's instincts are as correct as her intuitions - beneath the bushes she'll fine the body of a rather unfortunate woman wearing a leather jacket and matching boots and gloves. There's a noticeable reek of whiskey and alcohol, although it's not as easy to notice under the unmistakable odor of fresh blood oozing from a grisly wound to the jugular, and a very deep wound in the side of the stomach. It's almost as if something tore in to root something out.

[Gullara]

[Crisis at Moth Park]

Kitsuki grimaces. Alright... She crouches down and takes a close look at the body, inspecting the wounds at first. She visually searches out pockets, first of all, and if she identifies some she tries to root out any contents.

[Arkhosia]

Crisis at Moth Park

The wounds seem made entirely with teeth and claws rather than with any tools, in spite of the dagger sheathed on the woman's hip. There seem to be two different sources in terms of the former - some of the bitemarks resemble something made by a starving canid, while others look distressingly human. Closer inspection of the wound indicates that something was absolutely dug out of the body after death - however, it seems like they were rather picky, as more readily visible organs like the intestines are definitely still in there.

There isn't much to be found in the woman's pockets - a few loose coins, some thieves' tools, a rare bottlecap or two - but she does have a wallet, with some manner of ID from a far-off kingdom that looks to be an "adventurer's license". It lists her name as "Regina Lithgow".

[Gullara]

[Crisis at Moth Park]

Kitsuki palms the ID and puts the rest back where she found it. She stands again and looks around her. Then she turns to look at Ana. A lot to figure out... but there's a larger problem that needs solving first.

She comes back over and sits down next to Ana. "Okay Ana, I need you to listen to me. Do you know Ashentree Lane? It's not far from here. There that big construction site, right?" If she gets a positive response she continues. "We're going there. I want you to walk a ways out ahead of me and give me a sign if you run into someone. Can you whistle?"

[Arkhosia]

Crisis at Moth Park

Anastasia thinks for a second before suppressing the very idea of trying to figure out what Kitsuki's doing. Best not to think about it for her mental state. "Y-yeah, I know it. Right down the road." She nods, getting to her feet and very pointedly maintaining the direction of her gaze. "A-and yeah, I can whistle. I'm uh, like- I'm pretty good at it." Anastasia backs her statement by whistling a couple notes. It's a remarkably accurate rendition of hot cross buns.

[5a Violista]

[Feast for the Eyes]

Seraphina rolls her eyes after seeing the message on her holo-screen.
She doesn't really know how to respond through that text screen, so she just doesn't bother.
If she would be in that situation, that's exactly what she would be worried about! Weird people trying to steal people's names is a serious problem irl! It's not her fault she didn't know that it never happens in this book's setting or this character's relation to it! Expecting someone who has never read this book to know random setting minutia is pretty unreasonable, she thinks, and she would appreciate it if Karasu recognized that Seraphina doesn't know what sorts of perfectly-normal-things this character is spooked by.


'ow', Seraphina mouths, after getting elbowed. That sort of stuff can hurt. She looks back at the side-mohawk-lady. "I'm pretty sure it's just pure coincidence," she tells her. "Honestly, I think everyone is reading too much into the resemblance, because I don't see it," says the woman who hasn't looked into a mirror in several months. "Maybe we could be sisters, but if I had a long-lost twin-" Seraphina quickly glances at Karasu, just in case 'long-lost sister' is also somehow a trigger. Jeez, so many normal things seem to set off the people here, so is she just supposed to assume everything does? That sounds needlessly convoluted. "-then I would know it, because I definitely wasn't adopted. Seriously, just coincidence."

Anyway,
"But, yeah." She gestures at Harriet with her head. "She said she ran into a vampire who was someone she knew. I know, it sounds really unbelievable but I believe her."

[Gullara]

[Crisis at Moth Park]

"Good, do that if you run into anyone. I'll be listening. Cut through the park for as far as you can. Don't look back, just focus on where you're going. When you get there, walk past the building and wait on the corner. Okay?" Thankfully Kitsuki grabbed a coat on her way out. She takes that off and hands it to Ana. "Put this on, zip it up all the way too."

[Arkhosia]

Crisis at Moth Park

The jacket is thrown on and zipped up with a nod and Anastasia sets forward at a brisk pace, looking about fairly often but never behind. The streets here are thankfully pretty deserted, although she does have to pause, whistle and act natural as a car drives by once or twice.

[Gullara]

[Crisis at Moth Park]

As Ana moves ahead, Kitsuki lets out a sigh. Alright. She goes back to the body, and with a gesture it begins to float. She moves it aside and take a look at where the worst of the blood is pooled. With another gesture, flames shoot from her hand and incinerate that spot. A burn mark is less conspicuous than blood, probably. With that she follows after Ana, keeping the body low.

Remarkably they can make it to their destination without major incident. They're moving away from the busier area in the vicinity, but still it took some careful going. A few close calls with cars was the worst of the trouble. Ana walks back the construction site, but Kitsuki turns toward it. It's very little trouble for someone with the ability to float at will to bypass the security. She's in there for a good while before she comes out again. The faint scent of smoke follows her. Construction sites burn down all the time, right? All those power tools and debris, and no systems in place to stop a blaze once it gets going.

"Come on, you'll stay with me tonight, okay? We'll worry about the rest in the morning." She puts her arm on Ana's shoulder and tries to guide her into walking further down the street and away from the construction site.

[Arkhosia]

Crisis at Moth Park

"Okay," Anastasia answers with a nod and a sniffle, doing her best to push the scent and any conjecture out of her mind as she walks along with Kitsuki. There's a fairly pregnant pause before she speaks up again. "Thank you."

[Gullara]

[Crisis at Moth Park]

Kitsuki nods. "Don't worry, we'll get this all figured out. Just try not to worry about anything tonight, okay?" Not that mere words can stop that, but Kitsuki has to be the assured one here.

[Arkhosia]

Crisis at Moth Park

"Do you- do you have... any ideas? About, um- all this?" Ana looks over at Kitsuki as they enter the train station.

[Gullara]

[Crisis at Moth Park]

"...Try not to worry about that right now." Kitsuki does have some suspicions, but it's best not to give voice to them without some time for consideration, she thinks. "We're going to go to my place, get you cleaned up, and you can get some sleep. Everything else can come tomorrow, okay?"

[Shadowcaller]

[MERC Office]

Korrina nods and stands up. "After you, then."

[Suncrest Manor]

Nadia picks up her phone and looks at it, she pauses for a moment, and then holds it out for Irena to take a look. "Who do you think that is?" She looks at the screen again, listening to what Irena's reply is, but either way there's only one way forward. She presses the button and opens up communication with the front gate. "Hello? This is the Rizzo residence. Can we help you with something?"

[MERC Office]

Dena gets up and walks up to the door to open it for Korrina. "I believe you have to lead the way once we get out of the office though. But I doubt it will be much of a problem."

Indeed, as Zhareen has decided to attempt to hide behind a street light which just doesn't do her lower body justice in terms of coverage she is not especially difficult to find her once they've walked down the right alley.

Dena brought along three other members due to their 'protocol'. The gorgon loudly clear her voice and Zhareen peeks out from behind the street light. "Hello? Oh! Korrina, you did it!" She slithers up to her and the MERC members. "I am Zhareen, one of Korrina's teachers." She takes Dena's hand in hers and shakes it enthusiastically.

[Suncrest Manor]

The face camera is situated too high for them to be able to see the strangers face but they can still hear her(?) voice. A voice which doesn't belong to a child despite the visitors clear lack in tallness. "Oh... hello." They start, pausing to take an audible deep breath. "I am warden Ithzi and I believe you have a child that belongs to my people?" Another, more brief, pause. "May I come in?"

On the camera overseeing the front gate they can see her trying to stand on her toes to get up to the speaker but can't quite manage it.

Irena just gives Nadia a confused look, this was a decision she was going to leave to her wife.

[Gullara]

[MERC Office]

"Yes." She glances at the Merc members out of the corner of her eye. "They're supposed to help you get in unnoticed." She looks at Dena now, her eyes asking how that's going to happen.

[Suncrest Manor]

Nadia looks at Irena for a moment, but then responds. "Um, yes. Just come up to the door." Nadia hits the button that unlocks and swings the gate open. She goes to the front door and waits.

[Shadowcaller]

[MERC Office MERCing Alleyway]

That's... quite an enthusiastic handshake and also the last thing Dena expected to get from a member of the fourth tower at this point. She had never imagined Vax's wife to be this different from her better half.

But hey, she had some kind of relationship with Tina and that gal was a walking disaster so perhaps she shouldn't judge. "Er, I'm Dena Xifhara. Your wife and I are familiar."

Zhareen grins and finally let's go of the gorgons hand. "Yes, she mentioned you, Dena." The merfolk chuckles. "Just look at you and your pretty snakies, we even got matching scales." She gestures down at herself. "White is such a striking color."

"Erm, yeah. Which is somewhat of a problem for you right now." And that reminds her of Korrina's presence, giving her an ever demanding look as usual. If she was going to guess, this was more of Vax's student than Zhareen's.

Dena points a thumb behind her. "I've arranged for a truck to come and pick you up which should be here any minute. You'll just jump inside and it'll take you right to our office. Same way we get all our food and other supplies delivered."

[Suncrest Manor]

"Thank you!" Ithzi half-shouts as she seems to think she wouldn't be heard otherwise considering how far away she was from the speaker.

Moments later they can see Ithzi get on her toes outside the door to ring the doorbell. Irena shrugs half-heartedly and goes to open the front door.
Once inside Nadia will finally able to see at least part of their new guests face. Her eyes are big and yellow and seem to reflect the light of the manor, just like the baby's but the rest is difficult to make out underneath that hood. "Ah... first I'd like to thank you for-"

But Irena interrupts her as she puts her hands on her hips. "So were you following us all the way to the manor?" She accuses as if suddenly realizing something.

"Eh?" Ithzi blinks and shuffles her feet. "Well... in a way... as luck had it I was on my way to Stardrop when I heard all that... commotion. I went to investigate but I only caught the end of what must have been your fight against that horrid fey. That's also when I saw the child and knew that I had to intervene somehow. But there were so many strange characters mixed up in there that I decided to wait and see. I had underestimated how fast you can travel with those long leg of yours however so in the end I had to track her through with a little trick of mine."

"'Trick'?" Irena asks skeptically.

"Erm... I think you call it 'magic'." Ithzi looks around. "But could you two be dears and get me a seat before I go on? Preferably something my size?" She indicates her own size with her hand. "Been walking for a very long time now and my back isn't what it used to be..."

[Purple Eagle]

[Feast for the Eyes]

Seraphina rolls her eyes after seeing the message on her holo-screen.
She doesn't really know how to respond through that text screen, so she just doesn't bother.
If she would be in that situation, that's exactly what she would be worried about! Weird people trying to steal people's names is a serious problem irl! It's not her fault she didn't know that it never happens in this book's setting or this character's relation to it! Expecting someone who has never read this book to know random setting minutia is pretty unreasonable, she thinks, and she would appreciate it if Karasu recognized that Seraphina doesn't know what sorts of perfectly-normal-things this character is spooked by.


'ow', Seraphina mouths, after getting elbowed. That sort of stuff can hurt. She looks back at the side-mohawk-lady. "I'm pretty sure it's just pure coincidence," she tells her. "Honestly, I think everyone is reading too much into the resemblance, because I don't see it," says the woman who hasn't looked into a mirror in several months. "Maybe we could be sisters, but if I had a long-lost twin-" Seraphina quickly glances at Karasu, just in case 'long-lost sister' is also somehow a trigger. Jeez, so many normal things seem to set off the people here, so is she just supposed to assume everything does? That sounds needlessly convoluted. "-then I would know it, because I definitely wasn't adopted. Seriously, just coincidence."

Anyway,
"But, yeah." She gestures at Harriet with her head. "She said she ran into a vampire who was someone she knew. I know, it sounds really unbelievable but I believe her."

[Feast for the Eyes]

The side-mohawk lady stares back, incredulous at Seraphina's insistence. "Are you joking?" She turns to Karasu. "She's joking! She has to be!" Karasu is looking at Seraphina with a weird look. "And they call me weird... look into any mirrors, lately? Cos the resemblance between you and Harriet is uncanny. You could be twins!"

Then she continues on about long-lost twins, which is impossible to Karasu anyway. "Chalk it up to mere coincidence. These things happen. Seldomly, but they happen." She says to the other lady. "Karasu, she's Seraphina." She offers a handshake, which is accepted by the side-mohawk lady. "Carla. Short for Carlabelle, but stick with Carla, please."

Of course, Karasu already knows that fact. She also knows of things that'll happen in the future, and that Carla isn't long for this world. At least, she dies heroically...

"V-V-V-Vampire? A real one?" Carla suddenly looks both excited and worried. "I knew that night wasn't a dream!" Clara paces around the room while talking to herself for a bit, then her eyes turn to Seraphina's once again. "Tell me everything she said, and why you believe her. Did you perhaps... see?"

[Gullara]

[MERCing Alleyway]

"And they'll be along soon?" Korrina interjects. "I'll add that we've come into the city this far without any cover, so it might be best to get moving quickly."

[Suncrest Manor]

"Uh, yeah. Irena, maybe grab the ottoman from the living room?" She suggests. Assuming Irena is going to grab that, she goes on. "So you have some relationship to this child?" She asks.

[Shadowcaller]

[Suncrest Manor]

"...'kay." Irena concedes before disappearing into the living room, but not before giving Itizi one lingering glare.
The little woman doesn't seem to even notice though as her big eyes are now focusing on Nadia.

"Relationship? Oh no, no, no. Well, not more than you would have with any, ah... elf child." She doesn't wait to be corrected on that however and continues. "I am a warden, meaning that I protect my people from all sort of outside threats. This means that I sometimes have to come up to sky-side, as in where you live, for various reasons. One of those reasons is to collect persons who have gotten lost up here. Like this child. As the parents are... gone, I'd leave it to someone else to track down any remanining relatives once I get back to Norwick. Assuming there are any of course, usually families are all packed up in a single village as it's pretty dangerous to travel below."

[MERCing Alleyway]

"Really now?" So they entered the city without even a plan to reach the organization which was technically supposed to arrest on them on the spot? "Well, I'm glad you've put so much trust in us then. The truck should be here at any moment so don't worry. Once our business is concluded we'll have it drive you out of the city too."

Now Zhareen turns to Korrina. "See, Korrina? I told you they could be trusted."

Then a few minutes late the van arrives and gives them a quick ride up to the headquarters.

---

The two will then be escorted up to Dena's office once again. Doesn't seem like she want either of them without supervision for even a few seconds considering there was a MERC member with them inside the back of the van too.

The gorgon is now once again seated behind her desk and smiles as they enter. "Now then, what exactly can I do for you two?"

"Well..." Zhareen looks to Korrina to see if she wanted to take this.

[Ashen Lilies]

[Underhill Draconic Branch Museum - Security Room]

Eudyne narrows her eyes for a moment, before snorting. "Sure. You won't find anything we haven't found already," She says confidently.

She turns slightly, twisting awkwardly at the torso as she taps at the keyboard. The larger monitor switches over to replay old footage and it takes a moment to load the day in question. When it does, it shows two cameras, each on the opposite side of the storage room from the other. One of them has a clear view of Life's Limit in the case, though it's not centered. The centauress hits play, her back hooves clopping on the floor as she shifts impatiently. A whole lot of nothing happens until about three am, according to the time stamp.

Then it just goes black with the words 'no footage recorded'. Nothing in the room suggests movement or the cameras being cut, but both went down simultaneously without even a trace of static or damage. Whatever happened wasn't so crude as cutting the wires or spray painting the lens. "It stays like this for about fifteen minutes." Fayyaad can make sure, but some fast forwarding later, the cameras do come up about fifteen minutes later. At that time, the case has a fresh, circular cut in its glass and the sword is missing.

[Underhill Draconic Branch Museum - Security Room]

That's an entirely fair question on Eudyne's part. Of course, it's not the kind of question MERC is in the business of asking or answering.

"We were hired, so we'll do the job," Fayyaad says laconically. "That's all I need to know on my part. Now, can you show me the security footage immediately preceding the missing part? Just how much of it is missing?" Maybe examining the existing footage can provide some clue as to how it was removed. It's not something he can pass up, anyway.

[Underhill Draconic Branch Museum - Security Room]

Noc acts the passive observer, hanging behind Fayyaad's shoulder. Not looming over it - there's not exactly a lot of looming a 5'3" man can do, but off to the side slightly, nodding thoughtfully as he watches the footage.
"And the cameras had no sign of tampering or damage after?"

[Morty]

[Underhill Draconic Branch Museum - Security Room]

Hmm. This is curious. Fayyaad's first instinct is to assume the person responsible must have had access to the systems somehow. Cut the cameras or remove the footage from the inside. But is it really what happened? He waits for Eudyne to answer Noc, since that answer can shed some light on it... but he expects it to be "no".

[5a Violista]

[Feast for the Eyes]

Seraphina sighs.
Seriously, she doesn't get why everyone cares so much about this. In a normal-popupation world, there's like three other peoplr that look like you. Besides, Seraphina didn't originally look like this but that seems like something else that everyone will care too much about.

"Well, nice to meet you."

Oh, yeah, Seraphina thinks. This world doesn't have vampires or weird deerpeople or robosaurs or ghosts or cultists or stepford wives as a normal thing. More similar to where she comes from, probably, except with everything weird which makes everybody overreact about pointless things and ignore things that should matter. Which means, she has to put herself back in that mindset.

"Yeah, so, the reason I believe her is because I saw something that didn't make sense at all, no matter how much I thought about it." She doesn't know how the vampires here work, so she doesn't want to say something that would later be probably false. "Like, couldn't figure out what was going on, but after running into her and being told what happened to her, it all just clicked into place. Like, it all made sense if what she was saying was true."

Seraphina then repeats most of what she remembers being told by Harriet.



[skies above Riverside]
another open scene,

Suddenly! A liongirl falls out of the sky, from really far up. She falls out of a swirling purple-green portal, face-first.
She has a thick, white tail. Her lion ears are also white, with pink tufts at the end, and gold circular earrings in them. Similarly, her wild hair is also pure white, with pink highlights and pink tips. Also, she's wearing a lowcut white tank top, a leather jacket, and short shorts.
Plus, her eyes.
Solid pink with a dull ominous glow behind them.

She taps her wrist like Spiderman would, to pull up a hologram computer screen.so she can shut down the portal. Unfortunately, due to interference, she can't shut it down.

She turns around midair to look at it.

A large robot(?) reaches out through the portal behind her, and starts charging up energy.

The falling liongirl taps a few more things and pulls a wand out of thin air, and waves it at the robot. The portal flashes with energy and closes, cutting the robot in half. The half on this side starts falling and proves that simply cutting it in half isn't enough to destroy it. It morphs itself into a smaller robot – still pretty large – and continues its energy charge.

The falling woman, however, turns around again to focus on landing. While a robot may be fine landing however, she needs to actually pay attention to how she lands.

[Reinholdt]

[Underhill Draconic Branch Museum - Security Room]

"That's correct," Eudyne replies, sounding irritated. Which isn't very different from how she's sounded this whole time. "The hardware itself doesn't appear to have been touched. But it's not like we brushed for fingerprints."

[Ground Level With Riverside]

There are many things Leah didn't expect when walking through the streets of Riverside. A sense of decorum. Clean air. But a magical liongirl falling through a time portal to only partially escape a killer robot is high on the list of things she didn't expect that she didn't expect.

The blue haired catgirl has pink eyes of her own, but they're far less solid or ominous. Being almost the opposite really, of too clear, too pure. Right now they're just too concerned as they're drawn upwards at the two falling problems.

It's a little difficult to move in her sundress, the garment barely showing off any forearm and definitely not revealing even the ankles, but Leah is practiced enough to brace her knees and stomp the ground. Two steep ramps appear, jutting upwards into the air from the ground, each angled to 'catch' a falling object or person and ostensibly separate them. Leah's not sure why the robot is chasing the dreadfully underdressed liongirl, and isn't willing to go so far as to destroy it to help her. Yet. She might be an escaped inter-planar convict!