thenearshore | [closed] things that can't possibly backfire #42

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[closed] things that can't possibly backfire #42

Who: Shun and Ginia
When: March 4th or 5th, probably.
Where: Various cultists' houses and eventually Sensei's. It's basically Cribs but with cultists.
What: Custom mission, in which an attempt is made at tracking down Sensei.

[It's been a few months since the scouring of the surveillance footage from around Votelli's forest, and finally, they've got something out of it. A few of the names are ones Shun recognises - Saburo and Shinnosuke he remembers from the department store incident, so that's a decent sign they're on the right track here - but he doubts they're going to end up at the same place he'd previously investigated in connection to that. These, finally, are some actual details they can work from, instead of just temporary addresses and hastily-fled hideouts.

He knows Ginia is one of the people who's been investigating the cultists fairly extensively, and they've done this sort of thing before - he wants someone he knows is experienced with this sort of thing here, and he also wants as few people as possible actually investigating. Lacking backup isn't really an option when Sensei poses the kind of threat he does, but at the same time, more than two people is bound to draw far too much attention.

As it is now, they're perched on a rooftop just near one of the addresses, Shun eying the street below them.] I'm hoping Sensei keeping them all at arm's length is going to work to our advantage here. Last time I scoured a place these cultists were using, there wasn't any sign of them contacting Sensei, only that someone was contacting them.

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[Mitsui Ryou is a name Ginia knows well from her stint stalking cultists, so being able to cross-reference his name against others on the list confirms they're on the right track. With Shun recognizing two of the other names, that leaves one unknown besides Sensei himself: Shimoda Tsuki.

And with going after Sensei first without an idea of what they're fully getting into, it makes sense to start with the small fry. Ginia nods at Shun's words, picking out the escape routes around the area. Teleportation is an easy exit, but there's always the possibility that won't be an option.]

That's what I found too. The few times there were cultists meeting up to do an exchange or drop off, it was never Sensei. But some of the cultists were real hard to track too. [Her hands pause as she tries to find the way to describe it.] They were slippery, easy to lose track of. I imagine it's like a human trying to follow us.

[Magic? Some other ability? Actually a shinki or rogue god? Who knows. She picks up the binoculars at her side and checks the apartment they know to be Tsuki's. They saw him leave earlier and there hasn't been any movement since then.]

Ready to go in?

[It's a good comparison, Shun feels, and probably the result of some kind of magic. If it's a natural ability of those from the Far Shore, then there's probably a way to replicate it.] The two of them who did the department store job had slipped out of where they'd been working from by the time I got to investigate, but the only sign of contact I saw there was an unmarked postcard from the one who'd been instructing them.

[So, probably Sensei. Nonetheless, they've been here long enough that they can probably comfortably assume Tsuki is gone for the moment, and have had ample chance to scope out the area, so he inclines his head, hopping down to the next balcony down on the building they're on.]

Might as well. The longer we wait, the more likely it is we'll leave it too long and he comes back.

[Ginia tucks the binoculars into her backpack and follows. They make it over to the balcony of Tsuki's apartment, pausing to listen for the sound of a pet or anything else that might give trouble. There are curtains over the sliding glass door, but they're pulled aside enough for a glimpse inside the space.

The apartment looks normal enough. Can't all be doom and gloom, Ginia reminds herself as she pulls some cotton shoe covers and gloves out of her bag and hands a pair to Shun. Why risk leaving footprints or handprints inside the space? Once they're suited up, she lightly takes his arm so they can teleport inside.]

Shimoda appears to be an enthusiastic amateur horticulturist. He's filled his small apartment with plants: succulents, wide-leaved vines, and tropical flowers almost hide the walls and furniture. His personal effects are sparse. A slightly dusty suit hangs in the closet, alongside a larger collection of plain denim or leather jackets and casual collared shirts, and a recently cleaned black, hooded robe. He has a calendar hanging on the wall -- the plain variety with a single picture and tear-off months -- with his work schedule scribbled in on it. Last year's calendar is still in the desk trash, which is about half full and doesn't seem to have been emptied in several months; going through the trash will reveal monthly schedules going back to last October, along with vacations written in and the occasional mysterious note.

[Shun takes the offered covers - he's not sure how leaving those kinds of marks works for gods and shinki, but it's probably best not to risk it in this situation. There's certainly enough of a view in to teleport inside without having to ruin the door, though, so as soon as Ginia takes his arm, he does so without hesitation.

As he walks further in, his eyes flick over the plants briefly.] Wonder if he had anything to do with Votelli. Or if the cultists at this level even know that much about the new gods they're empowering.

Her power is specifically on trees and she mentioned seeing very few people outside of Sensei, but I wouldn't discount the possibility either.

[Maybe there are a few people with an interest in plants as a way of supporting a forest goddess. Maybe it's coincidence. Is it any more likely there's a water god around with Mitsui's interest in saltwater fish?

Ginia pulls a camera out of her backpack and begins documenting the overall layout. Begin broad, then narrow down. Working to the desk, she takes a picture of the current calendar before working through the trash. The dates on the discarded calendar pages for October and November line up well enough with the blighted city and the forest; she documents each page in turn. Even the discarded receipts for convenience stores and home garden supply stores are documented.

He's someone that spends a lot of money and care for his plants, that's for sure. Plant food, special soils, it's impressive work. Ginia looks at the wide spread of plants and whistles to get Shun's attention.]

Do you recognize any of the plants? I wondering if any of them are used in spells or other rituals.

[Since Ginia is documenting things with a camera, Shun starts going through the finer details, opening drawers and combing through contents. He does pause and look over when she pulls that calendar out of the trash, though - that's fairly solid proof this guy was connected to those incidents - and the neatly laundered black hooded robe that greets them when Shun gets around to opening the closet doesn't help his case either.

At the question on the plants, Shun glances over them briefly.] I'm not that familiar with plants outside the ones in the garden at my temple, but none of them look like it. It's usually more "traditional" stuff that comes up in those, as far as I know.

[Weird blobby flowers and tropical plants don't really fall into that category, though he does eye off the vines a bit. He's not entirely sure about those, but he's also pretty sure vines don't usually get used in spells either.]

[It's her loose understanding of plants and spells too, but all information is valuable right now. Ginia turns to taking pictures of each of the plants. It's tempting to take some clippings, but there's the possibility he'd notice and panic. Pictures will do.

Once the plants are documented, she flips through the trash one more time. The receipts she can map out later the locations later to figure out where he goes. It doesn't look like there's much else, but there's one other thing to check. Tapping into the nanites in her eyes, Ginia begins looking for any hidden electronics.]

((ooc: Ginia's electronics tracking nanites work by showing the outline of electronics. So wiring in the walls, plugged in appliances, she'd see the outlines of. She's specifically looking for anything like a hidden laptop/burner phone/camera or anything usual that'd show up.))

Ginia will get the impression that nothing prevents her tracking nanites from working; they get a very good sweep of the apartment. Unfortunately, they do not find anything along the lines of what Ginia is looking for.

[TV, electronic kettle, air conditioner, Ginia pans the room but doesn't find anything unusual or hidden. Shaking her head, she turns off her nanites and blinks the aura away.]

Nothing hidden electronics wise. If he has a laptop or similar, it must be on him.

[Shun picks through the closet to see if he can find anything else that's being stored with the robe, but it seems to be clean. Once he sees Ginia shaking her head in his peripherals, though, he turns his head so he can see what she's come up with.

It's not too surprising that there wouldn't be anything hidden here, so he nods slightly.] I'm not finding anything here either. It'd be useful if we could set a tracker on this or something-- [He taps at the black robe.] --but I don't know that anyone in the Heavens is that experienced in electronic tracking. They're probably expecting magic, even if there seem to be more people around for that.

I could maybe do it with the right equipment, though anything small enough to hide on clothes is police or military grade. Off-the-shelf tracking devices would work better on a car or the apartment.

[And she's not opposed against raiding a police station or military base for equipment, or finding some other means of acquisition, but that's a side trip and time they don't have in the moment. Even buying off-the-shelf items is a bit more time than they have to spare today. But with some research on products and how they work, it's a viable thing to come back to.]

We still have three others plus Sensei to look into. Finish here and go to our next target?

Edited 2018-12-14 18:32 (UTC)

Some of the places they've been doing rituals are pretty out of the way, so I figured the cloak would be a more reliable location pointer than a car sometimes, but it's a question for later, anyway.

[They definitely don't have time to go through all that business today, and it seems like they've pretty much canvassed anything in this apartment that's likely to be useful, with Shun picking through a few more drawers and nooks and crannies as he speaks.]

Might as well. It doesn't look like there's much else to this place, and we'll definitely need time to scope out Sensei's house.

[Ginia pulls up a map on her phone, checking the locations of the other three cultists. Saburo's apartment is the closest one to hit, with Shinnosuke and Ryou equally far apart after.]

Oota Saburo is the closest, though Aymeric says he has a family, two young kids. Could be a problem if they're home. Should we try one of the others instead? I know Ryou is single.

((ooc: Canceling the immediate clue request based on IC knowledge about Saburo Aymeric would have passed onto Ginia in a prior month.))

Edited 2018-12-17 03:28 (UTC)

We'll have to do it at some point anyway. At the very least, we can check and then if they're home, double back later.

[Saburo is one of the ones Shun would like to look into in particular, being one of the names he's familiar with, but if there's a chance they're going to be encountering kids, he figures they might as well give themselves ample chance to check and duck in when they might not be around.]

[A plan as good as any. Ginia gives the apartment a look over again, snapping off a few more pictures to ensure she has good footage, rifles through the trash can again to make sure she got every piece in there. Once Shun is ready to go, they slip back out, cotton shoe covers going back into Ginia's bag until they reach the next place.

With a mix of athleticism and teleportation, it doesn't take long to reach Saburo's apartment. Perching on a building across the street, Ginia pulls out her binoculars again and pinpoints the building. There's laundry hanging out to dry and futons clipped to the balcony. There's a scattering of toys in the living room, but it doesn't seem like there's any movement. Afternoon naptime or maybe the kids are out? It is Saturday, after all.]

What do you think? Should we go for it?

[Shun eyes the windows himself, not picking up any signs of obvious movement, and he nods slightly at the question.] If we wait too long, we might miss our chance. Let's be careful about it so we don't end up storming in with the wrong idea, but sooner rather than later seems best.

[If they're out right now, then they can go through quickly before they return. If they're asleep or something similar, then they should be able to work quietly enough not to wake them up.]

[Worst case, they can always teleport back out. Or she can hide with Umbra and he can teleport out, they'll see what happens. They make their way to the balcony of the apartment, careful not to disturb the laundry hanging out. Ginia passes out the gloves and boot covers again before taking his arm so he can teleport them in Saburo's apartment.]

[ If they listen at the door, there are no sounds of the family being present inside.

Additionally, a small correction - there are actually no toys visible in the living room splayed on the ground. The toys have been cleared away into their boxes and drawers, replaced - out of sight presently - behind curtains and in plastic containers. They might be able to catch a glimpse of a family photo or one toy peeking out from a drawer, or Ginia may well have wondered if she was in the right place. The hanging laundry does in fact have children-sized clothing interspersed there.

As it stands, things look so pristine that the pair could safely enter the apartment without fear of landing on furniture or kid-caused tripping hazards. ]

[Once they get closer to the apartment, Shun looks through the window, frowning slightly at the space inside. He's not one to deride sparse living himself, but he doesn't usually see it in places with kids.] Surprised it's that clean with kids living there.

[It does make things easier in that they're probably not going to bump into anything, but on the other, they'll have to be more careful about putting things back where they belong. Nonetheless, he teleports them in as soon as they're prepared again, into the middle of the spartan living space.]

[Good thing they have the boot covers. With as clean as the place is, prints would be all the more apparent. Once they're inside, Ginia takes out her camera, but doesn't begin taking pictures right away.]

It's very orderly. Think that's a reflection of the parents or something else?

[Still listening for sounds of any inhabitants, Ginia slowly moves to get a sense of the layout. A wall separates the kitchen from the living area, and beyond that the entrance. Another hallway leads to presumably the bedrooms and bathrooms. Ginia moves toward the kitchen. It's the most reasonably high-traffic area in a family of four, there's probably calendars or schedules or something there if not by the entrance.]

((ooc: Info on the kitchen and any other rooms, though I don't imagine either will intrude much on the kids' bedrooms.))

[ Once inside, the pair will immediately notice the smell of cleaning solution and a distinct lack of dust, even in places that normally see so little use - near picture frames as they sit on floating shelves, inside of the kitchen pantry, and at the baseboards of the kitchen. This place has seen a thorough cleansing and recently.

That will bring the bag of dry-cleaned clothing in the apartment entryway to their attention. It's a very unstylish black hooded robe hanging amongst other clothes in there.

The children's room sees a bit more use and less cleaning smells, but nothing that would hint the children are aware of what their parent has been up to. ]

[Shun's listening out as well, but he can't hear anything as yet. It's not just orderly, though - he can smell the cleaner on the air, and notice the lack of settled dust.]

Something else. This isn't just orderly, they've deep cleaned it not that long ago. I can't see dust on anything. Though that makes me wonder what they wanted to obliterate traces of.

[Or one of them, at least. He doubts the children are in on it, and the partner might have just gone along with the cleaning if there was another excuse for it.]

[Ginia idly runs a finger over the kitchen counter and looks at it. Clean is one thing, this is practically sterile. That seems a little excessive in a way Ginia can't pinpoint. She takes a few pictures of the kitchen - pictures on the fridge, a calendar with a few notes penned in here and there - before moving toward the doorway.

As she opens the bag of dry cleaning, Ginia whistles to get Shun's attention, holding up the hooded robe.]

How much do you think it costs to get these dry-cleaned?

[Ginia takes a picture of the clothes inside before zipping it back up.]

This is really weird. It's too meticulous.

[Shun's sticking his head into the kids' bedroom when Ginia finds the dry cleaning bag, and he glances over, eyes narrowing at the sight of the cloak.]

I'm probably not the best person to ask about that, but if it's something big and heavy, I doubt it's cheap. [He withdraws his head from the room, nodding slightly towards it.] It looks less sterile in there, but I don't see signs of anything suspicious either. It's definitely weird that it's stayed this sterile. If they didn't have washing outside, I'd wonder if they were even still living here.

[The only thing they've dealt with that he could possibly imagine needing that much care is the bad luck charms - if the effects of them don't discriminate on targets, it's possible the cleansing of this place has been ritual as well as literal. But he'd still consider that a bit of a stretch.]

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