Organizing Portland (IC Thread)

"Leaf" was a simple man who'd forgotten his actual name a long time ago. He was one of the many in Portland who lived on the outskirts of society and spent most of his time working at night. The gangs had encroached ever further and were on the verge of open gang warfare. The police were outgunned and left unable to truly intervene. As a result men like Leaf roamed the streets, armed and trading their combat abilities to whichever gang felt like paying them at the time. Today however, was a different day. Today everything would be different.

Today he sat quietly in one of the poorer districts of the city on a park bench, his hands turned a ring over in his fingers, a wedding ring. The ring was his wife's for he wore his own. His wife however didn't wear her ring anymore, she didn't wear anything but the shroud of the grave these days. Leaf hadn't much worried about things at home, no one had really questioned what he did so long as the money came in. Yesterday his wife had been killed in gang crossfire. Today he was a father without a wife.

He shifted his gaze up to the city around him, drew a breath and then stood up. He pulled a pistol from a side holster and turned around to go back into his house. Inside was his son...a boy, a life, in name only. Portland had claimed another victim already, long before his wife had been killed. Konite. All that was left of his son was a ruined shell. The door closed. Two gun shots rang out into the night as darkness fell like a fog over Portland. Somewhere maybe the police would show up to investigate.

Maybe.

@satai: @soul_inspectre:

Despite the warmer weather, she was covered head to toe in clothing. Black, Ankle-guarding sneakers, form-fitting jeans, a thin, brown hoodie and cotton gloves covered every portion of the blue-eyed blonde's body other than her unassuming face. She walked alongside a companion in relative silence, the majority of their secrets having already been shared amongst themselves. Although they walked with purpose through the downtrodden neighborhood, they had no destination in mind other than the unknown and unforeseen location of a certain chemical misconduct. As the sound of gunfire filled the area, a glimmer of hope filled her heart, and an equal amount of of dread poisoned her mind.

Kaija did not draw her weapon, and decided instead to simply gesture to her partner in the direction of the sound, then proceeded to the home. She would move to a position a short distance outside of the home and out of view from any of the house's windows. She would wait to speak with her partner before advancing any further.

@kaija: @satai:

Erin wasn't really sure what to make of Uma's new "Return of the Mummy" fashion sense. She hadn't said anything about it, though. For her own part, she was sensibly dressed in blue jeans and a T-shirt advertising Cahokia Mounds, which no one would have ever heard of. Ah, well. Somewhere off in the distance, some idiot was shooting off fireworks. I guess it's not that far from 4th of July. Probably burning off all the free crappy ones they got along with the good ones.

Cold fire, and screaming in her head.

Erin put a hand back against the wall of a nearby building, steadying herself. Oh. Not fireworks. "Damn it, one of 'em's a kid," she said, not really sure who she was talking to. It was always bad, when it was kids. The confusion, the need to grab on to anything nearby, like a drowning swimmer. It was easy to get lost in it, when it was a kid. She made herself focus on her breathing, centering on her sense of self and doing her best to preserve that sense. Push the kid away. She hated it. But kids got scared, and they wouldn't let go. Letting them in only made it worse for everyone. He wasn't too young, though. A teen, maybe. That made it easier. It shouldn't have, but it did.

She didn't know how long it took, but she managed to get a grip on herself again, and more somberly followed Uma quietly towards the deaths, wishing that she were the sort of investigator who was more useful before people started dying.

@kaija: @soul_inspectre

The house wasn't a pretty sight to walk in on. The boy, no older than fifteen, lay dead in the middle of the living room, one shot to the head that had done a pretty great job of scattering his brain parts all over the room. The other corpse was an older man somewhere in his forties. He lay next to the boy, the gun still in his hand and his own mess behind him. The rest of the house was intact but there was very little in the way of possessions, at least in the front room.

There was no suicide note, no last minute plea to be remembered by someone else. Just the cold floor, the cooling bodies and the mess they left behind.

@satai: @soul_inspectre:

"Damn it, one of 'em's a kid,"

"Yeah. You knew what we were getting involved with when we came to Portland. This may not involve us at all, but right now we've got clearance to investigate legally. First thing's first, let's see if we can find some demographic information about these people." Kaija suggested calmly, "Painting a clear picture of the household should help to gain some understanding of what lead to this. It's pretty clear what happened, so let's try to figure out why it happened. I uh... I know that this kinda thing bothers you, so I'll check the bodies for useful information and keep civilians out of here until the police arrive. Feel free to see what's going on in the rest of the house, and let me know if you need me for anything. Definitely let me know if you find any konite."

With that, Kaija knelt down and began to search the clothing of the two corpses for any info that she could find. She'd search for ID, notes, contraband, and any other significant trinkets. She'd also take their phones, if either of the two men had the on their person, and search through their messages if possible. If anyone came to the door, police or not, she'd confront them directly as soon as they arrived.

@kaija:

"...Yeah," Erin answered, a little unsteadily. She took a couple breaths, then returned, more evenly. "Yeah. I'm okay now. It's just the initial shock. I'll start looking around and see if there's anything significant."
She watched Uma start to check over the bodies, thankful that there was someone willing to do that who wasn't her. It just felt too... invasive. It would be different for Kaija, who couldn't hear the dead spirits shrieking in her ear - although they'd quieted now. Once they'd been torn asunder, Erin didn't have to hear them unless she tried, but the tearing... the tearing was rough. "Hey... Uma. The boy died first," she added, softly, "It was probably obvious anyway. But just... to confirm it, I suppose." She drew her eyes away again. "I'll go look around," she added, heading off to start poking through the house and see if there was anything that spoke to her. Or anyone.

@kaija:@soul_inspectre:

A search of their clothing and corpses revealed a driver's license of one Marcus Arcone, the older of the two. In his wallet was a card with the word "Leaf" in the center and a phone number at the bottom. Also inside was six hundred dollars cash, no credit cards, no debit cards and no other forms of identification. On one hand he wore a simple gold wedding band in his other hand he clutched a woman's wedding ring with a diamond that far exceeded the meager household they lived in. The boy had nothing save for tell tale injection markings on his right wrist consistent with the markings left behind by Konite injections.

For the Soul Whisperer there was nothing of terrible interest in the rest of the house, almost all major possessions were packed and all of their clothes existed in side of suitcases, as if they were afraid to use the dressers. More interesting was the presence of a lingering spirit, the spirit of a woman that drifted upstairs between bedrooms.

@satai: @kaija:

That's weird. Most people didn't keep everything in suitcases. When they were on vacation, sure, but living in a house? That was... weird. And packing of all the possessions was strange as well. Getting ready to move? Or something else?

And if they were getting ready to move, why?

It was hard to think of a reason. Then again, it was hard to think all that much anyway, with the echoing dead trailing around the upstairs bedrooms. Most dead people went... wherever it was dead people went, but there was a sense of distance, and they needed a push to call them forward. Some of them hung around though, for one reason or another. Usually, not very nice reasons.

She wasn't screaming directly at Erin, which meant she'd been dead at least a little while. Long enough to know that people couldn't hear her, anyway. How long that was varied widely from person to person, though. Some it was minutes, some it was months. However long it was for this person, the time had passed and she wasn't directing her attention at Erin, since she knew Erin couldn't hear her.

Except that Erin could. Sometimes, here and there, in a sort of subvocal sense, there was a hint of a melody, some long ago song half forgotten. Erin didn't know what it was, but picked it up, humming along softly. It was the sort of gentle suggestion that might help draw the woman in to talking with her, but nothing so direct as to provoke her.

Hopefully.

The wrathful dead were nothing to make light of.

@soul_inspectre: @satai:

"Huh, I guess he didn't want to be identified. No, that's not it. He didn't want to be tracked electronically" Kaija thought aloud to herself, noticing the lack of plastic money, "Yep, and no receipts either. Fantastic."

Kaija paid no attention to the cash in the man's pocket, but noticed the card with the number. Instead of taking it, she simply texted the name and number to herself, believing her phone to serve as a secure enough journal for the moment. She took photos of every little detail that she could, but the ring in the man's hand drew her attention the most. Of all the small details in the room, that one told the biggest story at first glance. Despite the markings on the boy's wrist showing a direct connection to konite... they didn't exactly provide a motive for murder, at least not in Kaija's mind. Why did this ring hold so much meaning to Kaija? Because it wasn't attached to anyone's finger.

"Alright Mr. Arcone, I guess you loved whoever this ring was for a great deal. Otherwise, you wouldn't have spent so much money. So, what? Either your wife leaves you or your girlfriend dumps you as soon as you propose and you can't handle the rejection on top of dealing with drug addicted child. Instead of persevering or finding proper help, you purchase a gun from a shady dealer, likely with cash so that no one would know that you had it, then come home and put yourself and your son our of misery." Kaija rambled on to herself, letting out a small sigh, "Well, that's one theory anyways. I haven't even checked the entire house yet. And I hope I'm wrong because if I'm not then coming here isn't going to help us much. Even worse, the one witness who we could have realistically questioned about the konite isn't going to be talking to anyone anytime soon. Ugh.. well, I brought Erin with me for a reason. We'll have to check this number out later, no point in tipping off this 'Leaf' guy that someone's looking for him without a solid plan once we get him on the line."

Kaija debated calling up to Erin or walking upstairs, but decided to simply remain at the entrance to the small home, keeping her eyes locked on the doorway, and simply sending a text up to Erin asking if there was any way that she could get any info from the deceased.

@soul_inspectre: @kaija

The spirit paused. It turned slowly and focused its concentration on the Paranormal Super Sleuth.

"He was going to stop." She said mournfully. "He was going to stop and we were going to leave this city behind...." She drifted over to a window looking out on the city. "But he had one more job to do and I couldn't talk him into leaving before he did it. I should have questioned him so much sooner...everything could have been avoided."

----------------

On the main floor things remained quiet, it seemed no one else was interested in coming to see what had happened. The phone rang...

@satai:

Erin thought about the weight of those words: it was considerable. It wasn't like she hadn't heard of such stories before - likely there were a hundred similar out there, or a thousand. This one was the one that was here and now, though. "I'm sorry," she said softly. "Will you tell me what happened to you?" Maybe it wasn't the thread that Uma would have chosen to pick up, from all of those words, but it was both an end and a beginning, and that made it important. If it wasn't important to Uma's case, it was at least important to this woman, who lingered where others might have gone on. The way she spoke implied that it had not been long since her own death, and if it hadn't been, it was likely that she was somehow involved as well, even if it was only that she had been caught up as a bystander.

@soul_inspectre:

She was quiet for awhile before at last she replied again. "He did his job. Then the rival gang came looking for revenge, they found some of the other gang members on the street and opened fire. I don't remember what happened after that. It was always his job, always one more payday, one more stop. Our son got caught up in it and it was still just one more."

@soul_inspectre: @satai:

Kaija hesitated for a moment as the phone began to ring. She thought over her options, then cursed to herself and approached the phone. She took a deep breath, then calmed her nerves and assumed a new role.

She picked up the phone and calmly answered, "Arcone residence, how can I help you?"

@satai: @kaija:

Senseless, that's what it was. Lives lost, for no reason. "Can you tell me what happened recently?" she inquired. The boy downstairs in a pool of blood, his father beside him. Maybe it wasn't so hard to figure out what had happened, but maybe the woman knew something about why. Or maybe what had happened wasn't what it appeared, and she knew something about that. Or maybe not. It was never a certain thing, what the dead would know. They tended to remember their own lives well. Anything afterwards... it varied widely.

"I think..." She paused, as if trying to remember something she didn't quite have in her memory, at least not very well. "I think he sent them a message...and he knew when they received he and my son would die very painfully...so he ended it faster...not that...not that my son remembers anything anymore. That awful drug destroyed his mind, he was nothing but a shell with a beating heart."

--------------------------

There was a male voice on the other end of the phone. "Don't start a fire if you aren't willing to burn." The phone hung up with a click.

@satai: @kaija:

"What drug was that?" Erin had a feeling that she knew, but better not to make assumptions. Destroyed his mind? I didn't know it did that. She shuddered. She had a feeling that "...but it will completely destroy your mind" probably wasn't on the advertising list for the drug. Be a superhero... for a price.

Why the boy, though? "How did your son get involved with the drug?"

@soul_inspectre: @kaija:

"A hybrid of Konite. I wish we knew...by the time we knew to ask it was too late." She said with a forlorn tone. "It was probably one of my Husband's business contacts. Always looking for the next paycheck, never looking close enough to home." She faded for a moment in thought, but came back after a moment. "It didn't happen until that woman came around."

@satai: @kaija:

"What woman was that?" Erin inquired. That sounded ominous, somehow. A hybrid? Umas papers didn't say anything about hybrids. I wonder what sort of hybrid they're trying to make, what they're trying to do with it? Yuck, this stuff is awful. All of this is awful.

@soul_inspectre:

"I don't want to talk about it." She said and vanished entirely. She could still feel her presence, but the woman was done talking to her.

@satai: @kaija

Well, that was as conclusive as it was going to get. Erin left the spirit to her restlessness, and went back downstairs to find Uma. "It's konite," she said quietly, on re-entering the room. "I didn't find any. But the boy was using... some sort of konite hybrid. I didn't get any more information than that. Also... Uma, I don't know if he was doing it willingly or not. Or if he was willing, I don't know that it was his idea in the first place. I'm getting a lot of creepy exploitation vibes about all of this."

@satai: @soul_inspectre:

"Don't start a fire if you aren't willing to burn."

Kaija hung up the phone, then turned to catch Erin coming down the stairs.

"It's konite,"she said quietly, on re-entering the room. "I didn't find any. But the boy was using... some sort of konite hybrid. I didn't get any more information than that. Also... Uma, I don't know if he was doing it willingly or not. Or if he was willing, I don't know that it was his idea in the first place. I'm getting a lot of creepy exploitation vibes about all of this."

"Yeah, and the family just got a death threat. I take it that you got all of that information from the dead, right? Well, I've got the man's name and a lead; a contact that we can use later. Unless you think we should stick around any longer, let's take what we've got an go back to the hotel. We can make a plan back home." Kaija asked Erin, her posture hinting at an immediate departure.

She paused for a moment, then turned back towards phone, her eyes narrowing as a though ran through her mind.

"Actually, Erin, we have no idea who "Leaf" is. More importantly, we have no idea what he is, or his profession. In all likelihood, he won't stay on the line if we don't say what he wants to hear. Or, he might have caller ID and never answer the phone if we called him from an unfamiliar number. Marcus Arcone didn't have a cellphone, so it's likely that he's spoken to this "Leaf" fellow from the house phone. It might not work out in our favor, but calling him from the Arcone house phone might be the best way to get him to talk, and we can contact him right now." She paused for a moment then turned back to Erin, "What do you think, Erin?"

@kaija: @satai:

"I think we should stay," Erin answered, "We've both got good escape skills. If it gets bad here, I'll go fox form and maybe if you go tiny you can hold on and we can get out easily enough that way. We're not going to learn anything else in the hotel right now, and we might learn something here. I'm willing to place a call, but I'm not sure what it is we should say. I wonder..." She hesitated thoughtfully. "I wonder if they know anything about us..."

:White Fox, tell me you are not thinking what I think you're thinking.:

"No, it could work." She was talking to herself again.

:It's far too dangerous.:

"Many things are dangerous, Bear. Channeling on a murder site is dangerous, which is why I'm not doing that. But I think it might work..."

:I think it is a mistake.:

"I think so too, but sometimes we have to make mistakes. That's how we learn. And we need to learn something." She looked over at Kaija. "Ah. Sorry. Bear thinks I'm crazy."

:She also thinks you're crazy, White Fox.:

"Shut up, Bear." Back to Kaija. "If they don't know who we are, what if we pretend we came here looking for a hookup? I'm... enough a normal citizen. I'm willing to pretend I'm wanting to be a drugged up metamorph if you want to pretend to be my... what's the term? Handler?"

@soul_inspectre: @satai:

"If they don't know who we are, what if we pretend we came here looking for a hookup? I'm... enough a normal citizen. I'm willing to pretend I'm wanting to be a drugged up metamorph if you want to pretend to be my... what's the term? Handler?"

Kaija rubbed her chin for a moment as she thought over Erin's suggestion, then shrugged. She walked over to the corpse and took the card from the man's wallet, then walked over to the phone.

"I'm not overly confident about this, but I'm willing to stick to that plan until bullets start coming our way. It's not a bad idea after all. Just call me Julie, and you can be whoever you want." Kaija said, dialing in the number, "That said, we don't even know if a metahuman/handler type deals are even happening, no need to make too many assumptions so soon. The less I say, the better."

She waited as the phone began to ring, and whenever someone answered, if they did, she would allow them to speak first before any words came from her own mouth.

@kaija: @soul_inspectre:

As the phone began to ring on the other end another phone began to ring, this noise was coming from a trash bin across the room.

As for the rest, so far they remained undisturbed, no police, no fire department and no crazy people ready to shoot up the place either. Only the empty room, the two dead bodies, a ghost upstairs and a ringing phone in a trash can.

@soul_inspectre: @satai:

"What the hell?," Kaija thought to herself as a faint ringing came from a nearby trashcan.

She slowly hung up the phone, comforted mostly by the fact that she and her partner hadn't been blown up by a bomb hidden at the source of the noise. She turned to look at Erin for a moment, then back towards the bin. Instead of reaching into it, she simply, yet gently, dumped all of its contents onto the floor for the two to scan over.

If she did find a phone, she'd pick it up, open it, and see if there was any information to be found on the device.

@kaija: @soul_inspectre:

Inside of the trashcan was a single disposable phone, neatly...disposed...in the waste...disposal...can. The rest of the trash was your average crap, pieces of paper, banana peels, what have you. On the screen of the phone was a caller ID phone number.

@kaija: @soul_inspectre:

Erin glanced at the number, it matched the house phone. "I guess so much for that. Let's take that phone with us when we go, though, maybe we can find something in the contacts list. Or maybe we can find someone who's technically inclined who can hack into it and see whatever it is people see when they hack phones. I think it's probably time to exercise discretion and leave this place for now. I want to hang out nearby when the police get here, see if we can overhear anything. They might know more than we do."

@soul_inspectre: @satai:

"Yeah, sure." Kaija replied, slipping the phone into her pocket, "Though I won't lie, it would be pretty nice to have the thugs show up here and save us some trouble. I want to hear what you think of all this when we get back home, you're the only one who got to speak directly with someone involved after all."

With that, Kaija left and called the police. She would wait nearby with Erin to see if any police showed up, checking the phone for notable contacts or messages as they waited.

@kaija: @soul_inspectre

The phone was, as a disposable phone, devoid of contacts. It did however record incoming and outgoing calls (not the actual calls, just that they had been placed). Of more than twenty phone calls on the phone, all but one had been incoming. There were two numbers that calls were almost evenly split between the two. There was one outgoing call to one of the numbers placed a few hours ago.

The police never arrived...but a woman did. She approached the house casually until she noted something off and slowed down...When she arrived at the door she placed her hand on it and paused, glancing around as if looking for someone, or something. After a moment she pushed the door open and disappeared inside.

@satai: @soul_inspectre:

"We've already looked through the house, so no need to be sneaky. And if this woman is a victim in this, then there's no need to spook or intimidate her.... at least not until I learn otherwise. Hmm..." Kaija thought to herself as she watched the woman enter the house, "Ok. Direct approach it is."

"I'm gonna see if I can talk to this woman real quick," Kaija explained to Erin, "I could be wrong, but I feel like she'd prefer a friendly face over anything right now. I'll be right back."

Still wearing her normal civilian disguise, Kaija simply walked up to the doorway and quickly peered inside to see if she could catch a glimpse of anything useful. She would then simply knock on the door as hard as she could, making no attempt at stealth or intimidation.

"Uh, hello! Anyone there!? I heard some discomforting noises and I just wanted to make sure that everyone was ok. Everything ok in there?" Kaija shouted, waiting for a response from the woman who had just walked inside.

@kaija: @soul_inspectre

The door opened after a moment to reveal the woman. She looked at her for a moment, her eyes narrowing briefly. "It depends on how you define ok." She said. She slipped out of the house and shut the door behind her, now standing uncomfortably close to Kaija. "It looks like a situation for the cops to deal with. He ran a business out of his house, I was hoping to deal with him but it seems like the time for deals is over...may have pissed off one too many of the wrong people, it's an easy thing to do in Portland lately. So let's just both move along and let someone else deal with it."

@kaija: @satai:

Erin personally thought going up and talking to the crazy lady was a really awful idea, but then again, Erin didn't have much credit to criticize others for really awful ideas when she made so many bad decisions of her own. She decided she might as well tag along with Uma. She'd taken fox form when they'd left the house as she'd planned, and she kept in it as a precaution, trotting up to where Uma was talking with the woman who had gone into the house and sitting peacefully next to Uma's leg with a vague wag of a fluffy tail. There, I'm a nice doggie. Pay me no attention.

:Even a child knows the difference between a dog and a fox.:

Children pay attention. Adults often don't. Besides, I'm obviously domesticated. Maybe she'll just believe Uma has a thing for designer breeds.

:The mere existence of 'designer breeds' is an abhorrence, White Fox. Those animals are unnatural.:

Erin rather agreed, but this wasn't the time or the place for that discussion. She fluffed her tail again and listened in, carefully.

@soul_inspectre: @satai:

Kaija raised an eyebrow and smirked as the fox walked between her legs, then turned her attention back towards the woman.

The door opened after a moment to reveal the woman. She looked at her for a moment, her eyes narrowing briefly. "It depends on how you define ok." She said. She slipped out of the house and shut the door behind her, now standing uncomfortably close to Kaija. "It looks like a situation for the cops to deal with. He ran a business out of his house, I was hoping to deal with him but it seems like the time for deals is over...may have pissed off one too many of the wrong people, it's an easy thing to do in Portland lately. So let's just both move along and let someone else deal with it."

"Well, aren't you awfully composed after witnessing a murder? I suppose I am too, but that's moreso because of work than anything. Either this neighborhood is worse than I imagined or she already knew what she was going to find here." Kaija thought to herself, "Eh well, might as well play along with the calm atmosphere and see what she has to say."

"Huh, shame. Well, I suppose I can still help you out then, can't it? What kinda business was he running anyways? I've been living here for a while, so I might be able to help you find someone else who you can do business with. There are too many people on the Earth nowadays, you got a hundred folks doing the same thing in each city." Kaija asked, an earnest smile on her face, "Oh and uh. Pardon for your loss. I don't know if you were friends with this guy, but I'm amazed by how well you're handling all of this."

@kaija: @soul_inspectre

She was about to dismiss the woman as exactly what she claimed to be...when she seemed to indicate she knew the man inside was dead. Satai had been careful not to say for certain that had been the case, only that it was a matter for the police. You could draw that conclusion I suppose, but it does seem a bit quick. if you heard the sound, where were you when it happened? That looks like it happened at least twenty minutes ago, you just now decided to show up?

"This is the wrong side of the tracks, you get used to it." She said. She kept her face dead pan at the question as to his work. "He was something of a general fix it guy." She said simply. "He was called on a lot by some of the people who lived in the area, especially if they had difficulty with something. I doubt I'd be able to find someone else like him, not right away and certainly not as easily as you suggest. It was only a matter of time before his rivals got to him."

@satai: @kaija:

Erin watched the two women fence with each other, verbal sparring, each trying to get the other to admit to more than she wanted. This is kinda stupid.

:You've engaged in your share of it, White Fox.:

Maybe. Does it look that stupid when I do it?

:Absolutely.:

Bear, you are no help what so ever. Erin felt his amusement like a ripple of laughter, then sighed internally and shook her head, stepping a bit away from Uma and shifting back to human form. In Portland, she'd probably be easily recognizable for her native descent, even if no one in Boracay knew what Native Americans looked like. She got tagged as Hispanic a lot, which wasn't problematic except when people tried, helpfully, to talk to her in Spanish. Erin's knowledge of Spanish was what she'd learned from watching Sesame Street when she was five.

"You seem to know a bit about the situation," she said, without preamble, as if foxes turning in to young Native American women in T-shirts and blue jeans was a perfectly normal everyday occurrence. "I looked around a bit. We'd like to help. Can you tell us a little more about what's going on?"

@soul_inspectre: @kaija

Satai shifted her focus to the one time Fox. That's new. "There are two rival gangs that war for territory in this area of the city." She started. "Both of them sold the same drug and frequently fight with one another, sometimes in the open streets. They don't really care what happens to anyone else in the process. Our guy in there tried to keep the peace by taking care of problems for them, one way or another." I could lead them astray but this could actually be more useful. We can increase the drug inflow and the violence two fold of we can establish one predominant gang. A few people trying to help could wipe out one gang in favor of another, if we're careful.

"With him gone, there's no telling what will happen...violence would be my guess, a lot of it." She said. "I'd advise not staying in this area for long, the word's probably already getting out that the fixer is dead."

@soul_inspectre: @satai:

"So, if we wait then the people that we're looking for will just trickle out of the concrete by themselves. No, that's a terrible idea. Even if we intervene on the violence in the streets, nobody important is going to be out of the shadows fighting. We'll just out ourselves and make whatever chance we have at stopping the actual cause of all of this nearly impossible." Kaija thought to herself, "Well, at least it looks like we have a possible in..."

"Good to know, thanks. Can't say we can leave the area just yet, but we'll keep an eye out." Kaija replied to the woman, gesturing to Erin before they departed.

After traveling well out of earshot from the woman, Kaija began to watch their surroundings until she was sure that they were alone. She would stop Erin and share her thoughts.

"I regret giving that woman the benefit of the doubt and not snooping on her. Whatever. If what she's saying is true, then maybe we have a way to find what we want after all. If the gangs are fighting, their leaders are gonna want more soldiers, right? More pawns to take lives and bullets for them, ya know? I think I'm gonna find one and offer my services." Kaija explained, "You won't have to join with me if you don't want, you could just keep an eye on the city, maybe keep in contact with Tyrus. I think I'm just gonna try and meet one of our guys as their 'loyal employee'. Might lead me to the other. Thoughts?"

Kaija would listen to whatever Erin had to say, but if she had no objections, she'd simply start looking for characters matching the stereotypical "drug dealer" profile to talk to.

@kaija: @satai:

"If you wanted to go that route, why not just go talk to the crazy lady at the house and ask if they need a new 'fixer'?" Erin asked, pragmatically, "Since it seems like they've recently acquired a job opening in the department." Ugh, that is morbid. "Uma, you're, um... you're not going to kill anyone, right? Because... you know. I'd know. And I don't know how I'd feel about that."

People died, she knew. People killed other people. Bear had killed other people. But... Uma was.... well, a friend, Erin supposed. And she didn't know how she felt about her friends killing people. She didn't want to hear the scream of a spirit in agony and know that Uma had caused it.

She sighed softly. "I don't want you to get in trouble, you know. But... yeah. I'll keep an eye out. And you can always call me if you need help, or just want to go over things together. Maybe we'll be able to figure something out about all this and why it's happening. I don't know if it'll be enough to stop it, though. I'm not sure what it would take to stop this. Uma... whatever it is, it seems like a bigger problem than we thought it might be initially. Just... keep yourself safe, all right?"