Wyrmbus: Lucille Baxter
2/14/2007
02:36 PM
Logfile from GarouMUSH.
Currently the moon is in the waning New Moon phase (18% full).
It is currently 14:17 Pacific Time on Wed Feb 14 2007.
Currently in Saint Claire, it is foggy. The temperature is 34 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degrees Celsius). The wind is calm today. The barometric pressure reading is 30.31 and falling, and the relative humidity is 100 percent. The dewpoint is 34 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degrees Celsius.)
Nivek's Nightmare Nexus (Open All Nite)(#2492RFJ)
A place where the unknown past and the emergent future meet in a vibrating soundless hum.
Contents:
Aja
Tu
Mathias
Nivek
Obvious exits:
GM Nexus
Mathias is at the safehouse, being a silver bum. Crashed on the couch, and watching the TV for important things, like cartoons and commercials. Still, he seems decently clean, and it's only the 2nd day for most of his clothes!
When the group is all gathered, Tu's will bring them to his office in the Safehouse. Bottles of water, and a few Danishes have been laid out for the meeting. Tu starts to draw the shades as he speaks. "The purpose of the meeting is to deal with this Bus situation. I take it everyone is aware of it?"
The trio, Aja, Khem and Yi arrived not long ago together. Having gathered from various areas ranging from farmhouse to city to caern, they've come to help deal with this oddity that is the Wyrm Bus. Herself, Yi chooses to stand. But she does have a danish and water bottle. Free food and drink? She's there. "It has been around for some time now. Have we found its source? Maybe the one who suggested the logo."
Khem is quick to steal a Danish and some water, yes it is being given freely but from the manner in which he snatches it quickly and with darting eyes, one might think he feels illicit in the action. Then the grin comes and the brown skined Strider with the Irish accent offers perhaps crypticly, and with a mouth chewing on food, "I know what I hear. Not much. Willing to be a trooper for the cause though."
Mathias has some water, but nods about the bus. He keeps quiet about things in general, more towards keeping towards the back, and keeping himself from being noticed.
Slouched on the armchair like a pro, with a leg thrown over the armrest, Aja has a danish stuffed in her mouth and one in each hand, with a few more stuffed into the secret pockets of her skirt. Still, she chews hungrily as she listens, her mouth too full to say anything, simply nodding and ready for action - the action of eating at least until they are ready.
Windows drawn, Tu clicks a remote, and an LCD projector projects an image of a woman on the wall. "This is Lucille Baxter. She works for the bus company. As far as I can tell, the new logo idea was being pushed by her." He pauses to grab one of the bottles of water that have been laid out. "I don't know if she's the originator, or just another link." He clicks again, and the image changes to a Yahoo map. "This is where she lives. My suggestion is that we wait for her to go to work, and search the apartment for information."
Yi narrows her eyes at the face projected on the screen. After a sip out of the water bottle, she asks, "Has someone been watching her already?"
Mathias gives a nod, then raises a hand, waiting to be called on. He sorta goes by what he knows, looking about a moment, then back to Tu. He dosn't seem all that special today, most of his special features have been removed, no hair color, simple groomed hair, a flat grey tee shirt and a pair of jeans.
Khem considers that which is shown and takes a swig of water. "Ok," he offers after swallowing. "We check the place out, but you can't just ...check... a place. You need a goal. Something rather specific you're looking for or you'll overlook it when you find it. So, yeah, anyone been watching her already? Clues as to what we should be poking around for?"
Tu nods. "I have been, for the past couple of days, but haven't seen anything out of the ordinary. I know when she goes to work, and when she gets back, that's about it." His gaze flicks to Khem. "We're looking for a piece of paper that says 'I did it!'. Short of that, I'll take anything to suggest she's the final link, or where she got the idea from. Also, check for any clues to suggest she might not be what she seems."
Tu waves his hand at Mathias. "This isn't school, just shout out what's on your mind.
Mathias waits until called on, before he asks, "I know it's not my place to question why, it is but to do or die. But, on the assumption that we find taint of the wyrm there...what's the plan? No problems if nothing is found, but would we burn it down? Wait for the woman to arrive? Also, what is the plan to deal with the innocents? She is in an apartment complex, there will be innocents."
Aja simply continues to munch hungrily at her danish, nodding her head emphatically with Yi's question as if the other woman has read her mind. So much so that Aja glances up and beams at the other woman. She falls silent once more, simply listening in on the conversation.
"The Wyrm with three heads never works alone," Yi intones in a sort of proverb-like saying. "She may not be the only one. She may not even be one. If we are to look for something gone wrong, then it may be best to check her home for things that are not ordinary. Her inspiration for the picture must have stemmed from somewhere." She pauses. "Have any other employees been watched? Or the boss of the company?"
"Well, it's a fluid situation. We might be able to intercept her before she gets home, but the apartment is a good place for an ambush, and it's private.", The walker responds. Then he gives a little shrug. "As for the 'innocents', certainly I'd like to minimize any collateral damage, as long as the Litany isn't violated by doing so." His tone suggest that he's not a bug believer in 'innocents'. "Otherwise, well, we do what needs to be done."
Yi's question gets a nod. "We've done some checking at the Bush company. That led to the Ad agency, who did the new Logo. I checked out the guy responsible for the ad, and he led me to her."
Mathias gives a nod, "Umbra? Are we covering that aspect? Or only in the physical?" he pauses a moment, "And, is there a point that we'd pull back? If she has guards? Or is this a don't come home until the job is done sort of op?"
Yi takes a small bite out of the danish in her hand. "If things in her home have gotten bad enough to reflect in the Realm, then we will know what has happened with the Umbra. The moon is new. It would not be wise to check the Shadow now." The Gnawer doesn't address the guards issue, looking to Tu with brows arching. "One to watch. The others, search."
Khem gives a shrug as he finishes off his danish. "I will search. I have some history of finding the things which the Wyrm would rather remain hidden."
Sitting up in her seat, Aja stuffs the remainder of the danish into her mouth and swallows it after only a few bites. Fixing her eyes on the screen for a long moment, Aja finally blinks up and glances towards Yi and Tu; the former's last words gains another nod from the quiet Child of Gaia.
"I didn't see any guards with her, but who knows what she might be able to do is she's in league with the Wyrm." Tu moves his gaze from person to person. "This isn't a revel, where we know the foe and just need to bring it down. So, we have to be prepared to alter our approach as we learn more. She may simply be a patsy, in which case we're in and out with no traces." He nods with Yi. "That's fine, though let's send two in to the shadow for a peek. Even in the new moon, city shadow can be treacherous. So, Mathias and Aja, shadow side. The rest of us toss the place. I'll take any computer. Khem will be the watch."
Khem raises a brow at Tu's orders, but does not comment further.
Once plans are planned, the motley mixture of garou leave the safehouse and take a short trip across city to a well-kept brownstone some four blocks from the bus station. Buses sporting the Spirals' glyph chug past as they travel, each one seeming to spit out exhaust fumes that smell even viler than the normal variety... or maybe it's just the diesel they run on. Soon the five are gathered in a clump on the sidewalk at the corner, creating a road-block which all the other pedestrians seem to prefer to pass on the other side of the street.
Tu glances around briefly, looking for any signs of trouble, then heads towards the door. He looks over the bells, then rings on in the middle. Moving on, until he gets an answer.
On the second buzz, there's a click as the door lock is released.
Khem gives a nod and grin at the method of gaining entry with an offer of, "Ah, security." He follows the others as they move, always one willing to play whatever part he has allowed himself to be cast in.
Mathias just stands by the corner for the moment, glancing about to see where the others go, paying more attention to where aja goes. He's sorta lagging and keeping behind the others, though he dosn't let them get out of sight.
Keeping her eyes on the crowd and scanning for any signs of someone getting a bit too curious, Aja shuffles a bit to to block Tu's actions from sight. Once the door is released, the girl pulls back to move along with the others. As she moves, she stuffs another danish in her mouth, quickly chewing and swallowing that too. Girl has an appetite of an elephant. Her eyes dart about though, looking for any place that might be suitable for a peek into the other side.
Once the lobby is gained, the garou see an elevator's double doors with a small placard alongside them giving a list of residents' names, five in all. And fixed to the wall near the entrance is a full-length mirror, obviously placed to allow people to check their appearance before venturing onto the street.
Yi left her food back at the safehouse, swapping that for a pair of driving gloves. In this weather, she'd probably look normal wearing those. Once they're at the place, she looks unperturbed about the people passing by, but as one of the busses passes to pour out exhaust, she wrinkles her nose at the smell. No verbal comment is made. Once they've gone inside, she heads up with Tu and examines the halls they walk through to get a sense of the class they're in. She too, pauses to read the names and to check herself in the mirror before looking to the others. No crumbs would be good. She nods to Tu afterwards, waiting for the others to pass.
Mathias just follows the group for the moment, and when he sees the mirror, he gives a shrug, indictating it to Aja, like he was asking "Here?" Still, he dosn't seem to bothered yet, glancing about.
Khem gives a glance to the mirror and then Tu, hands casually in jeans pockets, "Where you want me, boss?"
A quick glance is given to the others as they make their way upwards before she turns back to Mathias and nods. "Might as well start here before we venture too close to the room. Fuck knows what can be seen..." She trails off and her eyes slide across the ceiling and walls, looking for any security cameras that might catch sight of their attempt before she slowly nods and makes her way towards the mirror. "Alright, lets see what we've got here..." rubbing her hands eagerly, Aja grins broadly as she gets to work to slip in.
Tu hands Khem a cell phone which he produces from his pocket. "My cell is the last one called, so just hit send and it'll call me. Pick a place where you can see who is coming in." He thinks a moment, then adds, "If you get a call from me, then come up."
Mathias pauses a moment, glancing about before following Aja, giving her about ten seconds head start on him before he too goes to follow her into the umbra. It's a moment of weakness, when all he focuses on is the large mirror, getting into the mind set to move between worlds.
As the two Garou head for the umbra, Tu says "Remember, just see if there's anything worth nothing, then come back. This isn't the woods."
The forms of Aja and Mathias slowly blur into nothingness from the viewpoint of the other three; of course, to the eyes of the umbrally bound, it's the other way about.
When the garou slip shadow side, Tu will lead the others up to the apartment.
Khem nods, accepting the phone and slipping it into his sleeve, where it pushes out the fabric yet stays held in place right where he puts it, despite moving his arms. "I'll keep my eyes peeled."
Yi gathers her thoughts as she watches the pair slip shadowside. "Gaia keep them safe," she breathes softly, eyes narrowing slightly in tension. Then she nods to Tu, going with him to the apartment. The first thing she does there is keep her eyes and ears peeled for noise through any other doors as they pass by, listening for neighbors.
Tu and Yi make their way up to the apartment without incident, and Khem in the lobby sees nobody else enter or leave the building.
Yi maintains relative silence while she's with Tu. She checks for cameras in the corridors as well.
Tu pauses by the apartment door, glancing at it for a moment, before he leans in, closing his eyes. He stays like that for a second or two, then leans back. His eyes snap open, and he stares at the lock. With a click, it opens, and Tu slips inside.
Excellent. Yi smiles at the sound of unlocking gifts working, stepping inside with Tu. Door should be closed again and relocked. She has a quick look around, and says to the Walker, "I will check the bedroom. You can take the office?"
Tu nods at the Gnawer. "That sounds like a plan." He heads for the kitchen, though, checking the fridge and cabinets.
Khem, downstairs still, remains on watch duty. The lobby is still deserted. Upstairs, Tu finds a kitchen full of kitchen furnishings; the fridge has a goodly amount of vegetables and low-calorie meals, suggesting that the resident espouses fitness and dieting, and the sink and work surfaces are spotlessly clean. In the office Yi finds an equally clean desk, a filing cabinet, a computer and some bookshelves.
Yi nods curtly, starting for the bedroom. But as she sees Tu heading into the kitchen instead of the office, she detours and looks into the office instead. Might as well. Her eyes go to the computer, but only linger for a second before it switches to the filing cabinets and the desk. The Gnawer opens all the drawers she can, flipping through folders, looking for things about the company. Heck, personal information too.
Tu heads towards the office, after checking the kitchen. He lets Yi check the draws, turning his attention to the computer. He switches it on, and waits for it to power up. As he waits, his slips a small flash drive from his pocket.
The drawers are neatly labelled, too, as are the hanging files within them. Makes a burglar's life so much easier. "Bills", "Documents", "Work", "Car," "Landlord", "Misc." The computer boots up with a familiar Windows screen, and dumps Tu into a desktop without so much as a hint of a password request.
Tu heads for his favorite two spots. Recent documents, and the search utility. After perusing the recent stuff, he'll search for documents with the name of the bus company.
"She is very organized," Yi remarks as she pulls out all the folders, "but not overly so. I believe that Silver Fang, Justin, would have had these alphabetized if this were him." Spreading those out beside Tu on the desk, she picks out Work first to rifle through, followed by Documents and Miscellany. Thinner folders are looked through quicker, simply by the lack of paper volume.
The recent documents contain a few personal letters to relatives, one which seems to be to a college friend in Wisconsin, and, perhaps surprisingly, several attempts to write a sword and sorcery story that are regrettably badly penned. None of them relate to work or to buses. Only one seems to contain pay-dirt and that's a tidily formal letter to Jake Stukeley, whom Tu will no doubt remember following, thanking him for "an entertaining evening" and hoping that it will cement professional relationships. In fact, very few documents which Tu can find do so. Yi, in the cabinet, finds that the 'Misc' folder is nearly empty, but contains some old birthday cards, a couple of letters, a very teenage poem which looks pretty old, and a pressed-flat red foil candy wrapper. 'Work' contains a good many payslips (all neatly in order in a folder), a contract of employment, and a few copy letters, all of them humdrum and relating to matters other than logos or Stone Stukeley Horrocks.
Khem whistles to himself, ever bored, but every watchful.
Tu whacks his hand against the keyboard, a sign of frustration. "Nothing here." He glances towards Yi, a hopeful look on his face. "Anything?"
As Khem waits, Aja comes blurring back through the mirror, followed shortly by Mathias.
Mathias arrives, and looks a bit spooked. Still, it's only a moment and then it's gone, a harsh calm appearing on his face as he glances back to make sure Aja is safe.
Khem turns quickly as the two arrive. "Well, thank Gaia no one else happened to be around." He regards Mathias for a moment then adds, "What? What did you see?"
Stepping out of the mirror after Mathias, Aja takes a moment to shake it off, grinning in Khem's direction although it looks forced. She then pauses before she lets Mathias talk to Khem as she ventures up the stairs, taking two at a time easily thanks to her long legs. The girl glances behind her towards Mathias to make sure he made it as well.
Yi hms softly as she goes through the folders, stopping at the candy wrapper a moment and taking it out, along with the teenage poem. "I think Stomps would have known better what this might all tell of our target," she says softly. Poem and wrapper are tucked away. "Or there might be something you can find. Did you download everything from her harddrive? I will check the bedroom in a moment."
Mathias steps over to look to Khem, "There's a huge ass spider sitting on the 2nd floor. Basicly, if we'd stuck around, we wouldnt have come back. Anyways, it claims that the weaver isn't stoping it's advances here."
"Nothing really worth keeping", Tu says. "Maybe her email has something." He pulls up her email program, and starts to glance through the contents. "What does it say?", he asks the other ragabash.
Khem narrows his eyes at the words and then nods. "Remember those words. Share them. It will inspire the rage and will to do what must be done." As apparently it has in Khem who's fists are balled up tightly. "Get upstairs, share your information, and help out however Tu needs you to. I'll maintain watch as I was ordered. This building is a strong hold, but I don't know if it is for the force we believed."
Moving into the apartment, Aja pokes her head in before she blurts out her report to the two present. "Back, saw this huge smug spider on the second floor. Gist of it is the Wyrm won't hinder the spider's webs and the Weaver reigns supreme or something or another. Said something about Mathias having the mark of the Weaver and to beware the man in between. Take that how you will. How about you guys?"
Mathias gives a simple nod to Khem, glancing once about before he heads upstairs to where the others are.
Yi takes out the poem paper to read aloud, flips open a couple of birthday cards to read to Tu as well, and then pushes over to him the contract of employment with payslips. Perhaps she has a printer that can make copies of these. And she'll do so, leaving the office after emptying the change jar, to search through the bedroom. The Gnawer ragabash isn't leaving here without at least a look around for something valuable.
The Outlook program doesn't seem to be used much, and the mail received archive is about half spam -- evidently Lucille hasn't quite fathomed that unwanted mail can be deleted instead of saved. She's a member of a local line-dancing mailing list and a Freecycle community, and buys a lot of books and CDs from Amazon and a few from eBay. In the bedroom, Yi finds that behind its closed door is where Lucille evidently lets her tidiness slip -- there's a heap of clothes on the floor and several books and magazines scattered all over. A small jewelry box catches her attention on top of the dressing table.
Tu downloads what he can to his flash drive, then starts to shut the machine down. "Nothing", he says in reply to Aja. "We found nothing, really. I don't think she's the source."
Yi makes quick work of her search through the bedroom, opening dresser drawers and the closet, rifling through pockets and even under the mattress and bed for a look. Books and magazine titles are skimmed before being passed over. The jewelry box is opened.
Lucille reads Vogue, Cosmopolitan, the local newspaper, and the Sunday edition of the New York Times at the very least. Her taste in books runs to stout-chick lit novels... I'm sorry, I'll read that again: stout chick-lit novels. The jewel box contains several pairs of earrings and a couple of brooches and rings, at least one of which has a small stone set in which looks like a diamond.
"Fuck," Aja murmurs as she steps inside and looks around herself as well. "Maybe she got the inspiration from someone else...Or maybe she's just that good." She continues to look around as well, not caring that she is going over places others might have. "Checked for hidden places or storage? Storage keys and such?"
Yi ponders over some of those book titles at first, and the valuables in the box. Uttering her own small comments to herself in her native tongue, she closes up the box and takes the entire deal, wrapping it up in one of the larger sweaters out of the closet. Maybe the woman won't miss it, if Mouse has anything to say about it. Coming back to the office, she frowns at Aja and Tu and checks for a clock for time. "We should not stay here much longer."
Tu nods at Yi. "Let's head out. We'll meet back at the Safe House, and see if we got /anything/ at all. The Spider seems the best clue, right now, but it may not even be related."
Khem starts typing in a text message into the cell phone he was handed. It's all ready to send, just in case. Just says "She is home." He hasn't sent it yet. His finger hovers near, but not on, the button.
Mathias comes up to the bedroom, before giving it a quick sense wyrm ping. But, he dosn't seem to want to stay put for long.
With that, Aja nods, giving up her search as she looks about herself for one final time. With that, the girl moves towards the door, holding it open for the others to slip through. "I'm guessing no one talked to the woman yet?"
The elevator arrives in the lobby and an elderly, well-dressed man steps out. Heading for the door, he gives Khem a curious glance in passing, and seems almost about to speak to him before thinking better of it and leaving the building.
Mathias nods, and just makes his way as best he can, to leave the building and go outside. He'll eventually head towards the walker house.
Khem gives a kindly nod to the man, lifting the open phone to his ear as if he just received a call, "I'm waiting down in the lobby. Hurry up, I'm hungry."
Here's hoping. Yi sets the box down long enough to return the hanging folders back to their original places, leaving things as they were. Sans a few items of course. Surely she won't miss the poorly written poem. Copies of employment, identification, and valuables all taken up again after, Yi accompanies the others out. However, she lingers a touch before adding, "I'll take the high road away from here. You two go ahead. Meet you at the safehouse." And with that, she breaks off from the group.
The apartment is left untouched... well, apart from those items which Yi froze onto so subtly. Once all the garou are out and the door is re-locked, the elevator takes them back to the lobby without further incident, and they're able to leave the building and scatter in whatever directions they see fit.
Khem cancels the text message as the others arrive, listens to the stories of what they found or did not, and heads off when the time comes to do so.
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