[Date: October 19. Time: 3:30 pm. Ren goes his seperate ways from the rest of the group. He was going to contact Peter. Probably easiest to do so by phone.] [Start] * Ren dials. Peter. Of Peter's group. Which needs a better name. [And Ren gets a reception but quickly gets through to Peter once he says who he is.] How can I help you Ren? Hey. It's me. Got somethin' I wanna bounce off ya. Go ahead. Short version, SAB's got some heat going on with this bodyswapper. They're having trouble there. The bodyswapper... also's got ties to ... *pauses* Ya'know. The song. I figure that since you've got more research and info on my side of it, and they got some ties there, maybe you should work together on this. Ah, yes, the song. Well, body swappers can be difficult to track, but SAB and our organization have a bit of a methods and goals mismatch. * Ren pauses. "I like yah, Peter, I really do, but it's gonna drive me to the point of distraction if both you and SAB are working the song angle and I have to keep splitting my focus between ya'all." And ah'm not saying get all chummy. Just that... you've both got a similar goal here. We're after the song, they're after tha' bodyswapper. And something tells me that ... * Ren pauses, again. * Peter chuckles. "Well... I could assign a liaison. However, we might mess up any potential court case. What's your end goal here?" Something scary is going on behind the scenes. There's all sorts of weird things happening with the tournament. The bodyswapper is tied to that. And the song is tied to tha' bodyswapper. Again, I'm not saying be all chummy, but I think it'd be a good idea to work this angle together with them, and vice versa. * Peter thinks for a moment. "Mmm... how scary? You're certainly right about the tournament's oddities." I don't know. If I did, I'd tell ya. I don't like it, though. I'll do what ah can, find out what ah can, but I think it'd be a really good idea for you and SAB to seriously touch bases as far as figuring out our mutuah' goals. Alright, let me see what Mak's doing, maybe I can send him over. Mind if I put you on hold for a minute? Sure. * Peter does that and comes back after a minute or two. "He's apparently off on some mission. My evening is free, so I'll come down in an hour or so to get this started. I'll give SAB a quick call to let them know I'm coming." Thanks, Peter. Ah really appreciate it. [And all the arrangements are made without too much trouble. Later that evening Peter, Eckerd, and Ren are gathered in a conference room to work on this. Jonathon is apparently arranging his own transport.] [Peter has brought a range of maps and a few dedicated information pads. Eckerd has some SAB resources at hand.] So Ren. Where's this investigation stand? Peter tells me you think it's gotten quite urgent. * Ren shakes his head. "Urgent... maybe. Extremely worrisome, definitely. I really can't pin down anything exact yet, but I've got ah very strong feelin' that this bodyswapper is involved in a lot of stuff. I know it's involved with my own personal hunt, and that hunt is chasing something worldwide, and this bodyswapper, I bet, is tied to a lot of the incidents with the Tournament." I'm worried. There's more to this going on than I can see. And I know both us and SAB have similar goals, linked to this bodyswapper, and have our own resources and intel. True. There's room for cooperation on this. * Saldin opens the door and immediately heats up the room. Now, the lack of clothes may contribute to this, but far more likely is the fact that she seems to be... glowing a dull red, from her skin. A nice contrast to the tattoos. Jon might even be with her! She looks the room over and bows slightly. "Hello again." I'm not asking for a partnership, or acting all chummy. I just think it... *glances over at Saldin, waves, then turns back to Eckerd* ... that it would be a good idea to work together on this issue. * Peter looks over, looks tense for a moment, but at the sound of Saldin's voice relaxes and then averts his eyes. * Eckerd looks over and raises an eyebrow. "I don't normally make an issue of SAB's dress code Miss Qian, but..." * Saldin shrugs helplessly. "I am afraid I am too hot to touch, as it were." Beat. "My pack rests alone with my unwearable robe." ( along? ) (No, it's lonely. ;_;) * Jonathon dusts off his coat and blows out a breath, taking off his shade. He is smiling, but just a little bit. "It would seem we ran into a little fracas on the way here." Ah, well see Victor about that. After Mr. Ashton's bout with mind control, I believe he started experimenting with fire resistant materials. * Peter seems relieved by the news of clothes. He turns to Jonathon. "Oh?" * Jonathon snaps his fingers at Eckerd. "Funny you should mention 'mind control', dear bird..." * Saldin crosses her arms across her breasts and stands there, not particularly concerned, her amulet hanging down. * Eckerd responds fairly coolly. "Is this the body swapper Ren has been speaking of? Or a more traditional form of mind control?" Well, considering I do not know the body swapper Ren has been talking about, seeing as how I just arrived here, I am at a loss to tell you... [Victor inexplicably needs Ren's help to get a garment ready. Maybe there's some porting in from a warehouse involved. Who knows. Ren gets given a headset so he can listen in to the briefing, but he won't be able to comment since he's off doing that.] Go on then. * Peter rests one elbow on the desk and props up his head with a hand. This makes his averting his eyes fairly easy. Well it is possible. It did not seem to have any particular form that I could judge other than "humanoid." But it was definitely attempting to read my mind. One Derk Johnson confirmed that he felt it as well. But I believe it was searching for the location of the teke family. And it was not working alone. * Saldin looks over at Jonathon for a moment, then asks in a surprisingly cold voice, "Were you referring to the demon haze? Or the woman, Raleigh?" The haze. If I was referring to the woman, I would have referred to it as a her. * Saldin looks back at the others and shakes her head, "The haze was not a likely shapeshifter. It was a telekinetic demon, one of three, and most likely temporarily aligned with Raleigh." She taps her amulet. "It is no more." That is worrisome. Although the main bodyswapper we have on record has an entirely different M.O. So not the exact problem Ren was describing. * Jonathon nods. "So there are more of these in collaboration." * Peter hmms at Jonathon's comment and smiles at Saldin's. "Ah, well done. I take it this was a firey haze?" * Jonathon smiles and snaps his fingers. "Luckily, Mael's a clever girl. Always neutral meeting spots, never any real direct comment." (err, comment should be contact.) * Eckerd smiles and nods approvingly. Actually, I believe that was from the hounds. * Saldin shakes her head, regarding the overly shy preacher. "Dark as darkness can be. She was a lover of the dark of the mind, as was her brother." * Peter frowns. "Unpleasant. It's good that she'll no more trouble our plane. What sort of hounds were they?" * Jonathon smiles. "The fiery kind, as you said." The Hell lord Kristof Erikson is known to employ such creatures. This would appear to be a fairly large alliance. Raleigh was the girl who attended the last tournament fight, correct? I believe she was the, companion, of the robot pilot. * Saldin nods and continues in her cool voice, "Unfortunately so. She has been masking her nature." * Jonathon shakes his head. "It would seem this tournament is bringing out all sorts of bleeding nastiness. Are you certain it was such a wise idea?" * Eckerd and Peter both looked surprised at that question. It was never a good idea. It seems to have grown worse. But our new champion has a rather long bratty streak. One she hopefully is growing out of. * Jonathon raises an eyebrow at that. "Oh?" * Saldin smiles faintly. "Perhaps once the tournament is over, we can send her on her way a wiser woman." I certainly hope so. Alright, so I'm here to help provide information. What do you need to know to make your next move? * Saldin looks to Peter and says pointedly, "That depends if there is something about D.E.M. we need to know." * Ren walks back in quietly, muttering something about locked-out safes. Quietly muttering, of course. He nods to people as he takes a seat. * Jonathon takes a seat as well! He's tired of standing. * Saldin is still standing. And naked. Too bad for Peter. * Peter gets over his inhibitions and looks Saldin in the eye. "What do you mean?" * Victor shows up with a hastily rigged up robe for Saldin. The tailoring is poor, but it will do for now. Although he's standing over at the entrance to the room, so he might not be noticed yet. * Ren notices him, and gives him a slight nod. * Saldin looks back to Peter. "It is related to Ren's song. A person, called D.E.M." She gestures to Ren with one hand. * Peter narrows his eyes. "What's Mak got to do with this?" * Ren nods. "Also known as the Man in Grey. Ran into his initials, his name, investigating the trio." (Swap those two) * Jonathon raises his eyebrow at Peter as well. Thankfully he doesn't go by D.E.M. anymore. I think I convinced him it's a terrible and fairly arrogant pun. * Grysar looks back to Saldin to see where she's going with this. () * Saldin smiles slightly, then goes, "I would not know. It is why I asked. Ren mentioned it earlier, and you did offer." I did ask him about the song. *Peter frowns* He couldn't remember where he'd first heard it. He said he would work on it and get back to me. He hasn't, but it isn't that surprising given his participation in the tournament. * Ren frowns, at nearly the same time Peter does. * Saldin has a completely not-noticing-Victor field going on, and nods. * Victor has been looking over flaming Saldin and steps forward at this points. "I made up a robe Saldin. I estimated the measurements. If you want to come by later I can work on a better fit." Victor's tone is a bit confused. It's as if he can't figure out whether that last line should be licentious. * Saldin glances back to him and shakes her head. "No, it is enough you made it." She gingerly takes it off his hands, not actually touching him. * Peter gets out a cell phone and makes a quick call. After a few seconds he lowers it. "He seems to have his cell off. He does that sometimes does that when on a mission. * Victor nods and heads off. Easier to just go back to the lab and focus on that camera he put in Yvonne's room... err... his work. Yes. * Peter looks over to Ren. "So, what do you think the next step should be?" * Ren hmms. "Never been one for the planning. But you see my point about way too much stuff going on, point chained to point chained to point." I think we should bust the weakest link in the chain. That being? () At this point, I think it's either one of two things. One is the thing me and Jon're working. * Jonathon gestures out with his hand under his chin. "That is assuming it *is* a chain and it will break." The other is this bodyswapper, and it's ties to the song. May not be the weakest link, but I think if we work together, we can put a pretty big hammer to it. * Ren nods at Jonathon. "As I said, I'm no planner. But all this stuff seems too intertwined for there not to be some kinda chain." * Ren looks at Saldin. "I also don't have a very good view of the whole thing." The main bodyswapper we know of was a top lieutenant of Emma Yates. She's a nasty touch telekinetic with a habit of pretending to reform. She's in our prison but the swapper managed to evade us and has kept a low profile since. * Jonathon has quit IRC (Ping timeout ) * Saldin smiles faintly and gestures outward. "I have pieces, but I have shared all I can think of." * Peter nods at that information from Eckerd. * Ren nods. "You seem to have a broader picture, overall. What's your opinion on the link to focus on?" Well, it's hard to say. Our report on the telekinetics found that they seemed to have been built on the template of Melissa Beynon, who was Emma Yate's daughter. So, the chain idea seems plausible. However, we don't have any leads on the swapper as is. It's got something to do with that song. What were you able to find out from the previous host? * Ren looks down at the table for a moment, taking in a long thought. They'd all had dealings with extra-planar crisis areas. Although oddly the tune seemed to come to mind most often when extra-planar hunters were mentioned. However, when I tried getting into specifics the meme seemed to go into hiding. I wasn't able to figure out what I said or did to scare it off. Although it's main goal seemed to be targeted propagation. It doesn't seem to be intelligent enough to drop hints. * Jonathon shakes. "That explains a lot except motive. Power is always an option, certainly, but that cannot be the end all and be all. There are plenty of other easier ways." * Ren glances at Eckerd. "Ring any bells?" Music is not an uncommon form of extraordinary ability. ::She checks a pad:: There was some rumors of a sound related extraplanar in Yates' gang. However, she actively tried to work with an eclectic range of powers. Well, if no one has any ideas, we could focus on the Raleigh angle. She's the new player in all this. * Ren glances at Jonathon. "She had something to do with your side, right?" * Jonathon shrugs slightly and lets out a breath. "This is the first time I have seen her." I haven't had any dealings with her yet. That'll change soon enough. * Saldin says, with a tone of distaste, "She has decided to attach herself to Bookie." So, might she be our weak link? Certainly the most accessible and obvious. That seems to qualify then. Well how were you planning to find her Ren? First stop was gonna be Bookie. * Ren hmms. "Was just planning on talking to her mah'self. Haven't met her yet." Vanguard's spirited him away. We were able to track his location before the last fight. We haven't since then. They seem spooked. I'm thinking it might be a better idea to locate her, then take her in and have a chat. * Rowyn looks interested at that. "Spooked? How?" (Gah.) * Ren hmms. "Wasn't aware of that." * Ren hmms. "In that case, I'll betcha ten to one that someone in Vanguard knows where Bookie is, or they have them with him in protective lockdown of some sort." * Saldin shakes her head sadly. "Poor child, caught in the middle out of a twisted friendship." They've upped security measures, moved him to an unknown location, and cut off Bookie from any visitors. Based on what we know of him, he's probably quite put out. They must believe it's worth it. So do you believe Vanguard knew anything about this ahead of time? Unclear. They didn't take Raleigh with them when they left with Bookie. Possible he was acting on his own. Overactive hormones of an inexperienced youth. What are your impressions of their relationship? Would Bookie know how to get a hold of Raleigh, if we got to him? * Ren then adds, "And be willing to do so?" * Saldin shakes her head. "Yuri would know before I. He does not seem a bad child, but she may well have him seduced." So he's a tricky vector. Any other ideas? (Peter->Eckerd) I will pull the resources I can. I think I have a few favors left... Not too tricky. If I can locate him, there's nothin' me an' Cheshire can't get past to get to him. * Jonathon gestures vaguely. "Where is the money, gentlemen?" Well, you did find in your interview that Mr. Erikson was starting to bankroll Paragene. Paragene's interest in the tekes was as a product line. Beyond that, we don't know. Well, I'll see what my sources can find on her and you can try yours. Meet back in an hour? I'll pull up what we have on recent Vanguard activities. The infiltration option will probably be hard, but you should have the information you might need. * Jonathon nods. "Indeed. But the interests may have changed now." Either way, I will do what I can. [And we'll cut to Jonathon searching. Want this in channel or in private message?] (PM should be fine.) (Well, if I have to interact. Actually, since he'd just relay it, channel would be fine too.) (Let's do it channel then.) (A bit more interesting to the others that way I think.) (If only a bit. ^_~) (So, what's your approach?) [Ren does some searching on his own. He's gets a feel that Bookie's not in London anymore.] [Jonathon is able to get some flight path information on the copter Bookie took out of there. Apparently he ended up in Hong Kong] [His probable locale is the Vanguard HQ there. It's a skyscraper meant to evoke a rocket. Unfortunately, said skyscraper was recently the victim of an infiltration on September 26 and they've been raising security levels for the past few weeks.] [While Vanguard publicly denied the attacks, it was rumored that there was a lone ninja that managed to slip by their security.] [Jonathon's ties are good enough that he finds that Vanguard apparently found and killed the ninja at a later time. There was some worries that it was a bit too easy though, but mostly people seem happy to declare victory.] [Second roll:] [Paragene is leaking like a sieve. Jonathon's able to get telephone contact information for Raleigh. Oddly, she declined to give them her address. Vanguard's tighter. He doesn't figure out what they know. [The ninja found dead was not Kurt. He was a competitor known for being more violent and less subtle.] [Distant associates of said ninja are convinced he lives on. Closer associates believe he's dead and are confused how it happened.] [And no water involved in the death.] (Definitely not Kurt then.) (Although give me one more urban tracking roll. +6 (includes stealth penalty) Session Time: Mon Jul 03 00:00:00 2006 [The ninja apparently took bird form when existing and flew away. He went off in the direction of the sunset. His escape was only somewhat marred by a freak rainstorm that appeared shortly thereafter.] [The later death of the ninja had no water involvement though.] [Saldin spends the hour reconstituting a dying hot spring. Circle of life man.] [Jonathon finds that she and a representative of Erikson both attended a Smee event a few weeks ago. They don't appear to have met since.] (she who? Raleigh?) [However, he's able to find out that she is on Erikson's payroll. Oddly, she's donating that money to a Scandinavian charity. The practical effect is make it harder for the Brits to track her finances.] [Erikson has no known contacts with Bookie directly.] (Yes, she Raleigh) (Check.) [And everyone gathers together again.] * Jonathon whistles and doesn't share the info, exactly, just quietly hands a folder to Eckerd. * Eckerd reads it over and smiles. "That's a definite start." * Jonathon looks affronted, slightly. "A start?" He jams his hands into his pockets. "I worked hard for that I'll have you know." * Saldin poofs around the corner, still glowing! She wouldn't be that lucky. * Eckerd looks up at Jonathon. "I apologize then. So now that you've got her number, how do you want to proceed?" * Jonathon shrugs slightly. "It isn't as if she'll answer calls though. And that'll probably tip our hand sooner than we would like. So our best bet is still with Bookie. If he is in hiding, then he probably knows something is wrong." * Ren nods. "Anything in that folder there an easy way to him?" * Jonathon sighs slightly and puts his hand to his forehead. "It has been a while since I have practiced my Chinese. I hope I am not rusty..." * Jonathon snaps his fingers at Ren. "Hong Kong." * Saldin nods to herself. * Ren raises a single eyebrow, Spock-like. I can fill in the rest as I go along. *smiles* I brought copies for everyone! [The number is registered in her name. Standard searches don't give an address for her.] (Standard telephone directory and such that is) Well, they may be expecting ninja attacks, so using non-ninja tactics may be wise. * Jonathon looks at Eckerd for a second. "Meanwhile, could Ari track the signal to its location?" * Ren shrugs. "Ninja ain't my style. If it's in my way, I skip it or move it." * Eckerd looks down at her pad and checks. "She's managed to narrow it to a neighborhood. There's is a property in the names of a Nancy Raleigh. * Jonathon snickers. "Not very imaginative at that, is it?" (names->name) * Peter also returns. "We checked our database of supernatural involved individuals. A James and Nancy Raleigh died in the Chunnel terrorist attack. Their daughter, Alicia, has dropped off the and stopped going to school. However, the families house was in Edinburgh. Our search didn't find the property in London. By the way, Derk Johnson may need some extra protection after the fiasco the other night. I said I would look into it here... Alright. I'll handle that. (And it was earlier this day.) (Right. Switch that, then.) So definitely a fake name. * Jonathon pauses at that. "Well... fake-ish." * Saldin glances to Jon. "Or just a familial one." Our early searchs actually found 1,062 Raleigh related properties in the greater London area. So without the neighborhood we wouldn't have come up with a useful address. She was referred to as Ms. Raleigh at the tournament. Perhaps it is her last name. Still, would be best to be certain before we come calling. Up to you. If she's actively hunting she may not even be home. What's your next step? We want to talk to her. Which involves tracking her down and talking, or tracking her down, bagging her, and then talking to her under more... persuasive conditions. * Jonathon thinks for a moment. "Well, it is certainly a closer lead than Bookie. Perhaps it would do to try it first before venturing to China." But I would still wish to know if Vanguard was aware of its full involvement. * Saldin bows her head slightly and says, "I will walk as I should. If it leads me to her, so be it." As you like. Obviously we'd have to disavow knowledge of any activities in China. Vanguard has excellent ties to the government and Beijing is not likely to partner with us on this. [Saldin give me a soul-powerusage check.] * Jonathon snickers slightly and gestures in the air. "Call it investigator curiosity. Besides, it has been a while since I've heard from the trio..." [Saldin's walk is feeling strangely unextraordinary at the moment. She doesn't get any feel for why.] * Eckerd gives you the address. "Good luck, keep us posted." If I can be of more help, Ren has my number. * Ren stands ups. "Jonathon, Eckerd, Peter, Saldin. Thank you all for coming." * Jonathon raises an eyebrow and flicks something off his jacket. "I have my own invested interest in this, you realize..." * Saldin looks to Ren and manages to give him a slight smile. [End!]