(no subject)

[skepticstarbuck]

Who: Dana Scully and you!
When: June 3
Where: Around the Far Shore
What: Investigation attempts going all pear-shaped with a sideline of bird rescue
Warnings: None anticipated

A

[The Heavens are raucous with birdsong. Just when the stupid fireworks stopped keeping her up, the magpies and skylarks started.

Scully is heading along a bucolic cobblestone path lined with gorgeously blooming early-summer flowers breaking into the occasional sneeze (she blames the azaleas) with an extra-large cardboard coffee cup in one hand and the expression of a woman who is seriously going to shoot the first person who says something stupid in her earshot.

No kidding.

Right between the eyes.

She's heading towards Amaterasu's temple. Sure, she hasn't been since the morning after, and sure, the whole place had already been trodden over in the kind of way that would make grown crime scene technicians weep in the rescue attempts, but it's worth going over the area again, she thinks. "It just started by the front door"... all right, yes, magic is an actual possibility that she has to accept, but outside of that, there must be --

An outburst of twittering and squawking doesn't distract her until it's joined by two human voices shouting and she takes a sharp left towards all of the noise. It looks like there's a flock of swallows tucked into a beautiful, multicolored paper net that's tangled in all of their wings and at least half of their feet, trying to escape in all directions while the papercrafting shinki who have been working on it shout in horror.]

Calm down, we can get them out! -- Just --

[-- how do you handle something like this anyway --]

-- just start from one side and lift it up!

B

[She's lurking along the side of Amaterasu's temple grounds. The smell of smoke still seems to linger on the air here, even with all the cleanup that's been done, but Scully can't find anything useful here along the shrubbery. The ground is trampled. There's no scent of accelerant, no marks of equipment....

This is almost certainly a futile waste of time, and what's worse, she even knows it.

She's still bent over poking at the dirt in a nice pantsuit and businesslike pumps, very intently.

This looks just a little suspicious.]

Comments

A

[revolutionfalcon]

[While Shun had just as much trouble with the fireworks recently, birds are a lot easier for him to deal with, and he's actually kind of enjoying the sudden upsurge in the bird population. Not that he'd actually admit that to anyone, being how he is, but he has been taking the occasional moment out to feed some of them.

But right now, he's on a small patrol, and as such, the sudden outburst of squawking and shouting draws his attention quickly. When he gets close enough to see what it is that's actually going on, though, he lets out a harsh sigh before stepping forward, his attention mainly on the birds and clearly more interested in helping them than saving the papercraft.]

That's what happens when you make a paper net outside when the Heavens are full of birds. With an oversight that stupid, I'm surprised any of this festival preparation gets done. [The ones sorting out the formal clothing had seemed diligent, at least, but Shun can't imagine any way this particular situation wasn't going to end badly.]

[skepticstarbuck]

You'd think they'd keep it inside in case of rain.

[The two papercrafting shinki start complaining in overlapping outrage about the amount of space they'd had inside, and how they'd just moved it out this morning to stretch it properly, and then the birds roosted when they'd only walked away for a few minutes....

Scully waves them to silence, and steps forward. The swallows panic and the net surges as birds inside try to explode out in several different directions. She stops, and looks a little bewildered.]

Are you good with birds?

[Help.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun turns his attention from Scully to the papercrafting shinki with an equally dry, unimpressed air, though the shinki get most of it given what, to him, is flagrant excuse-making.]

It's not like there aren't enough temples around here that one of them wouldn't have a room large enough to fit this kind of thing into.

[At that point, though, the birds start panicking from Scully's movement, and Shun sighs a little in annoyance again. At her question, Shun takes his own step forward, but his motions are much slower and more calculated, barely making a sound against the grass.]

That won't mean much in this situation, because we can't calm them down. But I know how to handle them, at least.

[skepticstarbuck]

[Scully blows out a breath, watching Shun's much more careful approach, and after a moment replicates it with exaggerated caution. The birds are still fluttering, but they don't spook again, and she tosses him a glance.]

Do we want to pull the net back all at once? Or will that hurt the ones who are tangled in it?

[She can handle dogs! Birds are not her thing.]

B

[kokuyoyo]

It started at the entrance.

[Hey, Scully, did you know that Chikusa was lurking about? Well, you do now.]

[Still... She's by far not the only one who's been investigating this. While Chikusa doesn't have anything against someone trying to do a high ranking figure of the Heavens in, he still wants to be kept in the loop. So... Here he is.]

[skepticstarbuck]

[Scully starts so violently that she smacks her head directly into an overhanging bush, and stumbles back a step, sputtering and pulling a handful of crumpled leaves out of her hair.]

I heard.

[What she didn't hear: Chikusa sneaking up on her.

That's a twig. She removes it from her hair, too.]

But someone has to have started it, which means they had to get here somehow.

[She waves along the edge of the building.] I'm looking for any signs that they came in this way.

[kokuyoyo]

[At least Scully doesn’t have to worry about Chikusa laughing at her. The teenager stays quiet, just blinking slowly as she cleans herself up. She’s not wrong- someone had to start it. He doubts horrific accidents of this level just start up at the most powerful goddess’ home…. Especially when those flyers are taken into consideration.]

If a fire started up out of nowhere… Then it’s possible that the person arrived out of nowhere as well.

[That is to say- teleportation.]

[skepticstarbuck]

That's true.

[She crouches down again, sighting along the line of the shrubbery.]

But if that's the case, then we'd know that the person who set it is a god.

[And if they came in openly, without trying to sneak around in any way, then they might have cooperation from someone in the temple.]

B

[lostinshadows]

You might want to try to be a bit more inconspicuous if you don't want people to find out you're snooping around here.

[Though, the same can be said for Lavi.

He carefully steps around the bushes, glancing at it.]

It might be better if we can manage to look inside.

[skepticstarbuck]

If you're trying to be inconspicuous, you could do this at night. I'm not.

[Come on, she could do a better job if she were trying! At least, she's fairly sure.

She raises her eyebrows at his suggestion, glancing over towards the temple.]

I suppose we could.

[It's only been a few days, and she can still see smoke and soot streaks outside some of the windows. There might be some hints about the perpetrator's identity nearer to the temple. On the other hand, the closer to the actual building they are, the more likely everything is to have been thoroughly trampled.]

[lostinshadows]

It's harder to see things at night.

[Things definitely can be hidden in the moonlit shadows than the ones in the day.

He leans his head backwards though, looking over at the temple and eying it.]

They said the fire started at the entrance, right? Couldn't hurt to check.

[skepticstarbuck]

... Fine. Why not?

[Her expression is initially dubious, but she relaxes into a wry half-smile, shrugging. Why not indeed. It doesn't look like there's anyone at home, or, if they are, they're not out and about at the entrance right now, which as far as Scully is concerned means they probably won't mind.

She straightens up, squaring her shoulders as her heels sink just a little into the damp soil of the yard.]

So, what are you here looking for today?

A!

[leapingchuu]

Viktor liked the birds. They didn't annoy him in any way whatsoever, and he figured he must have really adored animals in life since lots of shinki and their gods had seemed to be a little tired of the mass of them by now.

But he was concerned. While he hadn't been one of the crafters of the net, he'd been enjoying watching them work, and was quick to try to help when he saw the poor birds getting stuck!

"I tried that, I think we might need to remove it from each of them individually!"

Especially the ones with their feet stuck. They seemed to be having the most trouble, after all!

[skepticstarbuck]

"I think you might be right." The panicked birds were getting themselves more and more ensnared in the net, and Scully hastily set her coffee down and headed for the nearest edge. "Can you help me?" What had he said his name was when they spoke at the beach-- "Victor, isn't it?"

She knelt down next to the net, reaching out to pick up the nearest edge. The bird closest to it fluttered for freedom, and wound up hanging upside down, talons snared in the netting and wings flapping with panic.

yikes, i'm so sorry, i thought for sure I'd replied already!

[leapingchuu]

"Viktor indeed! And of course I can!"

He dropped to his knees when Scully lifted the net, using both hands to bring the poor panicked bird's wings in close to its body so it wouldn't hurt itself. Murmuring softly to it, he slowly brought it to rest against his chest, trying to soothe it as much as he could before moving a hand to get the bit of net it was trapped in removed. That done, he kept still for a moment or to so as not to scare the bird any more than it already was, and used one hand for a sort of platform for it to rest on while he removed his other hand, thus leaving the bird free to do what it liked.

Which was to fly away rather abruptly, not that he could blame it in the slightest!

"This might take some time!"

If he seemed happy about it, well, he was. Who didn't like spending time helping trapped birds to find their liberation?

no worries!

[skepticstarbuck]

"Viktor," she said -- that's right, it was a slightly different pronunciation on that hard center consonant -- and flashed him a smile as she lifted a bit more of the net. "All right, see if you can get that one out." This was going to ruin her hair, and she'd probably wind up with mud all over her slacks even if she were very, very lucky and didn't also have at least one panicked bird leave droppings somewhere, but it could be worse.

None of the birds seemed to be hurt, and, besides, it was hard to maintain an undercaffeinated morning grump right next to a guy who was obviously so thrilled to watch them take wing for freedom.

B!

[xladyofhitsuzen]

[ Suspicious is right. But Yuuko knows better than to throw accusations around left and right. Everyone has a reason for being anywhere, after all and she's concluded that this woman is a little too professional looking to be a pyromaniac.

But she did come out to do her own form of investigation: namely figuratively sniffing around for any trace of magic in the area.

Though she'll just silently stand behind Scully a moment before finally uttering a hum of thought. ]

If you're trying to investigate the scene of our most recent pyromaniac attack, I doubt there's anything left to find in the ash.

[skepticstarbuck]

[Arsonists can look professional too, but Scully appreciates the correct assumption... that is, after she's done startling violently back up to her full height and swinging around. She should've come here with someone else, so that she doesn't wind up snuck up on quite so often just because she's paying attention to the scene--]

Do you live here?

[She doesn't recognize the other woman, but she has the same coolly knowing expression that Scully's noticed on quite a few of the older gods. Frankly, it annoys her, but she supposes she can't argue too much when it's true that they do know more than a brand-new shinki.

She sighs.]

... You're probably right, but I didn't want to go without checking.

[xladyofhitsuzen]

[ You'd think a lookout would be a good idea when trying to investigate a crime scene... but Yuuko can't blame her. They were gods and spirits of the dead, after all. There's a sense of invincibility that comes with that.

But she shakes her head at the question. ]

Far from it. I've only come for the same reason you have.

[ But she's not going to go digging around in the ash. In a kimono that detailed? No way. ]

Though I've come for a less... corporeal reason. There are other things that can be left behind when you're dealing with gods, after all. If there's someone out for Amaterasu, it's safe to say they could very likely be less than human.

B

[very_goodman]

[Ever since the fire, Barry's taken it upon himself to patrol the grounds of Amaterasu's temple on a daily basis. Or at least the perimeter, anyway. That's all the farther her shinki will let him go. Still, when he sees someone lurking around looking suspicious, he naturally jumps to the worst possible conclusion.]

Came back to the scene of the crime, huh? One fire not enough for ya?

[skepticstarbuck]

That's right, I'm about to set the mud on fire.

[Okay: she's actually in the shrubbery, which could be ignited if she tried hard enough, but she's hoping that the deeply sarcastic tone will be enough to discourage this guy from running with the assumption. She straightens up, crossing her arms right back at him.]

[very_goodman]

[Barry doesn't really appreciate the sarcasm when he's already on edge, but he does shift his posture a bit to one less immediately confrontational.]

...Awright, so if you're not the arsonist, what're you doin' here?

B

[smilingbullet]

You look like you're up to something, ma'am.

[ D2 curiously peers down at her over the edge of his coffee. But he's also a little suspicious. Seriously, she's really looking like she's 'up to something'. ]

[skepticstarbuck]

Do I need to wear a sign?

["Not up to anything." Yeah, that'll do the trick. She'll be much less suspect that way.

Scully heaves a sigh, and gives the blond man a dubious look. Well, at least he's a civilized morning person. He's got coffee.]

I'm trying to investigate. What are you doing here?

[smilingbullet]

Apparently you do. Should I make you one?

[ Probably not but maybe. ]

Taking a walk, mainly. Investigate? You mean what happened with the fire?