[OPEN] You always dreamed that there'd more to life than all the lies

[liesdontfindyou]

Who: CT (liesdontfindyou) & you!
What: Catch-All for CT; work, investigation, and just hanging out
When: July
Where: Various places, in headers
Warnings: Cult discussion, death discussion, etc.



1. A place you'd find where you weren't all alone [around town, O&I]

CT is back to work immediately after her return to life. To sit idle would only invite her to dwell on it and that's not something she wants to do at all. Not that routine patrol shifts do much to occupy her mind, but just the act of working helps her to focus her mind on things besides cults and sacrifices and experiences thereof.

She's relatively easy to find around town whilst out on patrol, whether because you just want a chat or because you're having some kind of issue that she might be able to help with.

Most days, after she's done with work, she stops by the O&I for a drink and a meal that she doesn't have to make herself. That and maybe the bustle of real living people is good for her in controlled doses. She's generally sitting alone, with plenty of space to join her if asked, or may occasionally have to ask if a seat is free herself.

2. But now you look around at what you've learned and face the truth [library, enforcers office, other]

When she's not working on actual assigned duties, CT's still working on her own investigative angles. Following some initial discussions with other attendees of the cult gathering, she has multiple little bits and pieces she plans to follow-up on with or without help. These include: verifying the reported deaths of each cult member via official records at the office; cross referencing missing persons reports to see if it's possible to find out who they replaced in the past; searching through old newspapers and photos and the like among library records to narrow down the year it took place; and so on.

Those who attended the cult gathering may find themselves invited or sought out for further discussion or to help her with what she's doing. Other Enforcers may also find her seeking them out for discussion or to get properly acquainted for the sake of future endeavours.

3. That you may never find a home [northwest hollow residental]

Even in CT's downtime, it's hard to say she's relaxing. Pieces of her old routine adapt well enough to the town and that old routine was built around keeping herself as busy as possible during long days travelling or holed up in bases. So, for example, she can be found going on a daily jog to keep herself fit, weaving through the streets of Northwest Hollow on a route she figured out for herself.

Around her home at 517 Meadowlark Lane, she can also be heard or seen practising knife throwing with a makeshift target attached to a tree in her yard. Her gate is cracked open, because she prefers the easy exit and is very aware of her surroundings—anyone who peeks in will soon find her looking back at them, holding a throwing knife between her fingers. "You can watch. Promise I'm only aiming at the tree."

Sometimes she's even sat on the porch, appreciating once again living under real sunlight whilst she reads through a book checked out from the library—all, invariably, some kind of non-fiction about the town or world as a whole. Research.

4. Wildcard

Hit me or find me in the discord to plot. Happy to write custom starters and the like.

Comments

2

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis pours over her notes. From the information from Linette, to the more recent information from Miles and Crichton. Her lips twist in disgust as she reads over them, and her brow furrows in frustration as she keeps coming back to the same thing. The whisper from the festival, written in ink and circled twice in her notebook.

There are strange things in the Leeds Estate Basement.

[liesdontfindyou]

CT steps up from an angle where she couldn't be accused of reading over her shoulder, even if she really kind of wants to, and clears her throat. "Valdis, right? You were the one that alerted people to where Linette's body was found?"

[redlightgreenlight]

"In a manner of speaking."

She taps her pen against the page and leans back to make eye contact.

"I found her and alerted the rest of the enforcers after talking to her. Now we are just..."

She gestures to the pile of papers.

"Trying to figure out what it all means."

[liesdontfindyou]

"I went to investigate the gathering that a number of us were somehow invited to, shortly after the discovery."

She circles around a few steps, looking at the papers. "I'm still working out where all the pieces fit, too."

[redlightgreenlight]

"The cult meeting?"

Miles and Crichton had told her everything they remembered and she'd written it down, but CT could have information they didn't.

"Perhaps we can work together on it. I have a personal bias against Chaos Gods and people who murder in the name of their religion. It makes all religions looks bad."

And not all of them were.

2

[maltesefalcon]

Cerrit catches CT in the Enforcer's station, and clears his throat when she walks past his office.

"Care to talk a bit?"

She is, of course, welcome to say no.

[liesdontfindyou]

CT stops walking at the sound of his throat clearing, before he even says anything more—ingrained reflex.

"Sure," she says, stepping to join him.

[maltesefalcon]

"I hear you've been through it, lately."

Look, he doesn't know where to start, and sort of just wants to chew her mind to see what she'll say, so that's a nice open-ended comment paired with a gesture at the chair on the other side of his desk.

[liesdontfindyou]

She slips into the chair, already loosely fiddling with the pearl-like beads of a bracelet that she's taken to wearing even in uniform.

"I guess you could say that. I certainly... took some chances, recently."

[maltesefalcon]

"I'm torn between three reactions to those chances: tearing you a new one for going in without contacting anyone to let them know what's up, praising you for doing something bold and daring, and simply pumping you for all the information you've learned."

He taps his talons, those long sharp dangerous talons on the top of his desk.

"Anywhere you'd like me to begin, CT?"

2 - Library

[mindflayed]

The cult ritual was clearly only one half of the puzzle of what's happening, or maybe one-tenth. But it's more than he had before.

The logical thing would be to research the name Nyarlathotep or maybe the other cultists whose names they know. But wouldn't it be easier to just ask one of them? So Imbros is at the library, trying to figure out where books on necromancy would be. Is that something they just keep out on shelves or is he going to have to break into some back room? Hmmm...

"You haven't seen any spellbooks here by chance?"

[liesdontfindyou]

Something about Imbros's appearance settles more strangely with her than the other non-humans she'd seen around town, so far. A little too close to something she might expect to see in newsreels from the front lines—compared to, say, Cerrit's bird-like physiology—even if he doesn't match any specific Covenant species at all.

Not that she lets her face show more than a raised brow when he asks his question. "I wouldn't know if I had, I'm not sure what spellbooks are meant to look like."

[mindflayed]

"It's almost refreshing that not everyone here is a wizard." He's about 50/50 on magic users to non-magic users he's interacted with.

"They give off a magical aura.... which probably means nothing if you're not attuned to such things. I'd guess they look like regular journals then." Huh, he's never thought about it that way. "I need to tell that to a wizard back in my realm - they're very precious about their books."

As if Imbros here hasn't been throwing tantrums about his lost books for the past weeks.

[liesdontfindyou]

"Not a wizard and no magical experience at all before here. My world doesn't have any. We actually rarely even use paper records of any kind anymore."

Which has made doing her own research a rather novel experience, and sometimes frustrating. Finding data could be a challenge even with technology, but at least she had a search function...

"What exactly are you hoping to find?"

[mindflayed]

"Do you record everything? That seems more tedious to search through." But in his opinion it's at least better than places that only have oral history, which by its nature is ever changing.

"I'm hoping to ask more questions of our new acquaintances. And seeing as how they're all likely dead, that will pose some complications." His tone is even like this is a totally normal thing to say.

3

[ss_buttcrack]

"I've heard that kind of promise before," he answers back with a teasing smile.

"Sorry, I was hopin' to chat with you but I can come back later if you're busy."

[liesdontfindyou]

"Don't worry," she says, a second before glancing back towards her target and throwing the knife in her hand in one connected string of motion. The blade embeds in the wood right beside another toward the centre and she looks back at Crichton. "This isn't busy. I can take a break."

[ss_buttcrack]

He lets out a wolf whistle, clapping for her. "Dayum. I want to see you do that with ninja stars."

Frell him if that wasn't hot. He better cool his jets because nothing good lies down that road.

"This might not be much of a break. I was hoping to touch base with you about that cult party we went to. I wanted to see if we had any notes to compare."

[liesdontfindyou]

She allows herself a joking half-bow. "You know, I don't think I've ever actually seen ninja stars in real life? Just movies."

She could probably figure them out if she had them to hand, though. She's a quick learner, especially after so much practice with blades.

She leaves the knives in the target and beckons him over to a bench that's honestly seen better days, but it was here when she moved in and she's felt no need to replace it.

"I can't promise I've learned much more since we first came to, but I've picked up a few extra bits and pieces. Despite getting something of a reprimand when I got back into work. Earned, really."

[ss_buttcrack]

Now he has to stop and think about that too. "You know what? I don't think I have, either. Huh." He feels like he's missing out somehow. He was on a ship with all kinds of people, how did he never run into a ninja?

Crichton takes one look at that bench and decides that maybe flopping down with all of his weight wouldn't be the best idea this time. So, he lowers the dump truck attached to his backside slowly, for once. The bench stays upright.

"Reprimand? From who?" Who does he have to look out for?

2

[not_a_traitor]

In between his own work, Gaeta starts compiling lists of potential resources. He can't dive in too deep while he's on duty, but he makes a point of stopping by CT's table on his breaks to pass along anything that looks helpful. He casts a wide net -- maybe a little too wide: whole volumes of newspaper clippings, starting the year Mayor Larkin died and working backward; encyclopedias of local legends and gods; even a couple magic-related books, before it becomes apparent the open stacks won't have anything about massive, murderous cult rituals to a chaos god. But every time CT finds a new clue that might narrow down the search, he swaps out the books he's given her for ones that (hopefully) might be more useful.

As soon as his shift ends, he drops into the seat next to hers with a tiny groan.

"Any luck?"

[liesdontfindyou]

"More than you'd think in some ways, less than I'd like in others."

She'd arrived with a bag holding a notebook full of notes taken from reports she could get her hands on at the station, as well as a few well-sealed containers of food that have gone predictably ignored as she actually works. Throughout the day the pile of resources has shifted and moved, bit by bit, until it's settled in its current form.

The notebook is laid open on the table and various bits of scrap paper are floating around the rest of the space, makeshift labelling for what information various books and newspapers actually have that's of use. It's all organised according to a system that only exists in her head and she's really, really missing her PC but needs must.

She taps her pen against a page, "So, obviously even before the barrier went up things around here were dangerous. Which means there are countless disappearances and deaths, many of which never made the papers. Now at least we have Larkin's death to use as a point of reference, or finding out even as much as I have would've been much harder. Even then I found multiple groups that disappeared at the same time before 16:44. But, I think I've narrowed it down."

She taps a written-out copy of a police report about the unresolved disappearance of 6 people that she's paired with a newspaper report about one of them, which has a few personal details from their family about the night they didn't come back. "I think this is them. 16:43."

[not_a_traitor]

Propping his cane against the table, Gaeta tugs the reports a few inches closer to get a better look. He sighs out a curse under his breath as he skims the newspaper clipping.

"It doesn't feel great, putting names to anybody who died that brutally," he admits. "But it's a good lead." Better than good, really. He rubs his forehead. "Do you think they were picked at random, or did you find any prior links between them and members of the cult?"

[liesdontfindyou]

"I haven't found anything in public or police records that give much indication either way, unfortunately. They seem like otherwise unremarkable people, at least as far as public perception goes. But given how well the cult seems to have kept their activities secret..." she nods her head to the side, "I doubt it was entirely random. They had to pick people who wouldn't talk in the time between being invited and attending, right?"

[not_a_traitor]

"Makes sense." He gives the police report another once-over. "Especially if their cover story was selecting new inductees to the cult. Find someone with the right temperament, say you have a secret to share, drop enough hints about the nature of Nyarlathotep to keep them interested, then make it clear that if they blab they'll never learn more..."

It'd be almost too easy to lure in the curious. (Case in point: the two people seated at this library table.)

"I just wonder how much of a foundation of trust they built with the inductees before they killed them all. If they were neighbors, friends, whatever."