Unknown Armies - IC

[Blythe]

Miyo

Miyo is not outgoing by any means, but she's ready to use some deductive skill to figure things out in this house, maybe even help Raven Moodshadow. She trails behind Norm, exploring at her own pace. When Miyo sees the Latin note on it, she tries to piece together what it has to say, muttering clumsily, "Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in proelio...." under her breath, but the syllables are meaningless to her. She swears and painstakingly slowly, types out the Latin bit by bit using her phone, saving it in pieces as drafts in the inbox for her texts in case it might be important later. She types down the nonsense scrawled on the toilet lid as well using her phone, that "CLAUDANDUS" nonsense.

Should she text Tannen? She's not sure; she feels a sudden pang of distrust. Maybe after finding Raven...

She makes her way to the converted bedroom, and she takes stock of the photographs, a girl with a dude, that same girl with some other chicks, same girl with what looks to be a different girl, same girl in a hockey uniform...is this Raven Moonshadow? She picks up the picture of the girl in the hockey uniform, fairly sure this might be a picture of the person and ingrains the face in her mind. She notes as she looks through the house the smashed sink, plugged drains...nothing affiliated with pipes or water seems to be working here. She meets up with Norm in the lounge and says, "So much effort with drains and things. And all the notes in Latin; I can't be sure, but perhaps notes to help her keep track of things...or maybe warnings?" She holds up the picture of the girl in the hockey uniform and says, "Helen McClean, a.k.a Raven Moonshadow. I couldn't recall a good description of her, but this is the only girl in every photo here. The southwest door has that note on it here in the lounge; it's the only door I haven't gone through that still leads to somewhere within the house. Find anything useful, Norm?"

[Kythia]

Tuesday 13th August 10:55

The Quayside

Jessica

Two pints, two double whiskeys for under a tenner.  Gotta love Wetherspoons.  He steers you towards and empty table and knocks the whiskey back in one, gives a little whiskey grimace then nods.

"Yeah, I don't come out of any of this great.  I know.  Lets just move on from that though?  Shit, I've totally forgotten what you asked now.  Let's see.  Right.  The link, she calls it a proxy, needs updating every so often and more often for Honer's than for me.  So I've figured that that's because its a building and can't give consent.  Honestly, I don't know for sure though."  He sips at his beer and then swirls it round a couple of times thoughtfully.

"You know what's weird?  Alcohol. Stick with me.  Like, everyone likes different food and has a different style of clothes and gets up to different crazy shit in the bedroom.  But alcohol, it feels like it's not personalised.  You with me?  Like, its the same...I dunno.  I don't know what I'm talking about.  Ignore me.  Demon girl.  Helen.  I was toying with tracking her down actually.  She's how I met Jean.  I met her through a, a thing.  Online.  We used to hang around, have a smoke.  At the time she was in to all that Wicca shit.  You know, mother goddesses and living in harmony with the seasons and that.  Then she went on holiday with her family and when she came back she was obsessed with the idea of summoning demons.  I kinda got the impression she'd seen a demonstration or something.

"Anyway, I went round to meet her and she was weird.  Jittery.  Switching between English and some other language."  He's staring in to his pint as he talks.  "I wanted to fuck off, I'll be honest, but I stuck around.  Eventually she kinda collapsed and lay their shivering.  I put my coat round her and stuff and tried to talk to her.  Made her some sweet tea, if I remember right.  Anyway, eventually her house mate gets home, she's a student, and starts shouting at me.  I explain, housemate starts shouting at her.  What the fuck have you done, how fucking stupid are you, why would you do that with noone around, so on.  At this point I figured it was a bad trip or something and made myself scarce.  Don't need that kind of shit in my life.

"Well, a couple of days later Jean rings me, never did find out why.  She thanks me for calming everything down and staying with Helen until Michelle got back, so on and so forth.  Am I OK?  Yeah, I'm fine.  We met up, she sounds younger on the phone.  Anyway, that's when all that shit started.  There was a show on at the time called Desperate Housewives and Eva was in that.  That's how all that went."  He shrugs and looks back at you then delves in his pocket to slide his phone across the table.

"PIN is 9472.  Check the photos if you don't believe me.  Just, yeah, be warned.  Little John..." he snorts laughter "...average John rather, he's in some of them.  Most."



Tuesday 13th August 10:50

31 Ebor Street, Heaton

Norm, Miyo

You regroup to compare notes but, almost as soon as you do, Bran's phone is ringing again.  He excuses himself and steps outside to take it.

As Norm squats to examine the metal detritus he notices some words carved in to one of the cogs.  Shifting to get the light on it reveals:

JH.  13/8/2014 Co. disapp.  #14-8530535

Now that he's looking, they all have writing on:

JH.  13/8/2014 Co. disapp.  #14-8683534
JH.  13/8/2014 Co. disapp.  #14-8543754
JH.  13/8/2014 Co. disapp.  #14-8426747

and so on.  The first part the same every time, only the seven digits after the hyphen changing.  Working at a plumber's merchant not to mention his own Ham Radio experience means its easy to tell what he's  looking at here - a part reference, a unique identifier for each cog.  Presumably the #14 refers to this particular snake while the remainder identifies the exact cog.

The writing, he also notices, is consistent.  Stamped into place by a machine rather than engraved by hand.

[darras]

Jessica takes a gulp of whisky as she listens, not quite at the quaffing phase of mental trauma. She follows it up with a healthy drink of fosters and then leaves both drinks alone on the table before her. She is about to pick up the phone when John gives his warning. She draws back her hand as if the phone burnt her and pulls a grimace.

"Maybe you can find me pictures where average John is not making an appearance and then I can look at your evidence without having to view anything.. extra."

Pausing a moment she adds a question, "It's this Demon Summoning Helen that is the other girl to remember you? Why am I even remembering you? Or Honer's?"

[Remiel]

Norm

The cogs aren't, by themselves, actually very interesting, but nevertheless Norm can't help feeling like the engraving on them is some sort of Clue.  After inspecting one for awhile, he picks it up and drops it into his pocket.

"Nothing too interesting," he responds to Miyo, after reconvening in the lounge.  "And yeah, I figured as much from the photos.  Not a bad-looking bint.  I kind of expected some kind of crazy witch with hair like an exploding yarn." 

He shrugs, and crosses to the southwestern door.  He realizes he should probably wait for Bran, but what's the worst that can happen?  Aside from finding out that the cellar has been converted into a grisly ritual sacrifice chamber and wandering into an demon orgy, that is.   "Ready?" he asks Miyo, his hand on the string, ready to rip it down.

[Kythia]

Tuesday 13th August 11:00

The Quayside

Jessica

He's swiping his thumb across the touchscreen as he talks, attention on it and an occasional smile as average John makes a particularly memorable appearance.  "Nah, the other girl was some lass I met this morning before you.  She wandered off and I didn't think to follow.  Hence..." he glances up at you briefly  "...following you around.  No idea if Helen can see me or not.  Or why..." he shrugs and slides the phone over to you.  "That one and the next two.  You probably don't want to go further.  Anyway.  I really have no idea.  I've been trying to figure it out but I'm pretty fucked up.  Like, it could be that this thing was aimed at any of us three.  And it only hit two of us because of the confusion thing.  That kind of makes sense, in a kind of fucked up way.

"But as for why you remember, that I'm stumped on.  My first thought was that you were in on it, maybe even did it.  But now I don't.  You seem genuine in your questions.  So I guess that means that either you were left out of it for some reason, purpose or accident, or you're resistant somehow?  Just at a little bit of a loss to know what my next step is."



Tuesday 13th August 11:00

31 Ebor Street, Heaton

Norm, Miyo

Bran is frantically scribbling something down on a book from his school-bag, dictated by the voice on the phone, and waves at you to continue without him.

The thread holding the door shut is removed easily with no effects other than the predictable - the thread drops to the ground, no eldritch screams are released; door opens, no foreboding voice instructs you to abandon hope.

Behind the door a staircase leads up, bending abruptly after a couple of stairs and forcing you to ascend slightly to see where it leads.  Apparently to a tiny landing with two doors leading off and then a staircase presumably leading up to an attic conversion - it's up there that the whale song, or whatever it is, is coming from.

[Remiel]

Norm

Norm ascends the stairs.  For some reason he feels compelled to draw the Walther P22, although the safety's still on.  "Raven?" he says, leading the way up into the attic.  "Raven Moonshadow?"

[darras]

Jessica

"Well shit.." Jessica slumps slightly in her chair, "Because I sure as hell don't know what the next step should be either. Particularly not if there's no way to track down this other remembering girl." She rubs a hand across her eyes before heaving a small sigh and leaning forward to pick up his phone. With no small amount of apprehension she looks at the indicated photographs.

[Blythe]

Miyo

Miyo follows Norm, letting him take the lead, but she keeps a sharp eye out for anything, hoping to Notice something. Her eyes scan the room, looking for anything dangerous, of import, maybe even Raven.

[Kythia]

Tuesday 13th August 11:00

The Quayside

Jessica

The photos are shots of him and a girl taken by himself - arms length and badly framed - in a restaurant somewhere.  Quite a posh one, from what little you can see.  The girl is either Christina Hendricks or someone who looks so like her as to be frankly terrifying.  She's also cuddled up to him, his arm round her, and is kissing his cheek in one of them.  Sure, she's an actress but she certainly looks like half of a couple.

"She's the lass from Mad Men.  Can't remember her name, Joan Harris in the show.  I asked for her for fucking ages.  But yeah.  There was a guy I was talking to as well, he emailed me.  Put an advert up on Craigslist.  Never told me his name.  I was meant to be meeting him later but I think that's the best lead I got if you are fresh out of ideas.

"That's assuming..." he looks faintly pathetic for a moment, probably not intentionally "...you'll let me stick with you?  I can email him?  Find out where he is?  We could meet him?  I don't know."




Tuesday 13th August 11:00

31 Ebor Street, Heaton

Norm, Miyo

The two rooms off the landing are both bedrooms.  The one on the right is an absolute tip - it's not clear whether the drawers have been emptied on to the floor recently or if the inhabitant lives in squalor.  There is a small pathway through the crap all over the floor leading to the bed though, and then from the bed to a desk, so you're tempted by the latter.  A bookshelf over the bed contains a number of books on Chemical Engineering and the clothing littering the floor is exclusively male.  The room also reeks of cigarette smoke and there's a piled high ashtray next to the computer.

The left is far tidier, and also has a double bed.  A desk in the corner with a laptop on it, surrounded by books on German language and grammar.  A laundry hamper in the other corner - female clothing indicates that the owner is also female, though you suppose its no guarantee.  If she is though then judging by the size of a bra laying on top of the dirty clothes she is in pretty desperate need of a chiropractor and likely has no problem getting drinks bought for her.

The music from upstairs stops suddenly when Norm speaks and there's a muffled conversation.  He can't pick up the words, but Miyo catches them:

Miyo

FEMALE VOICE 1:  Is that them?
MALE VOICE 1: It was definitely something.
FEMALE VOICE 2: I thought they flew?  Surely they fly?
FEMALE VOICE 3 (exasperated and commanding): Nikki, shut up. James, take this and see who it is.  Jess, just keep still - we're nearly done.

A moment later the door at the top of the stairs opens revealing a male, maybe aged around twenty.  He's in pretty poor physical shape with a pot belly hanging way over the belt of his trousers and pulling at the arms of his black t-shirt.  He is, however, holding a handgun and pointing it down the stairs at you.  His hand's shaking, you can't help but notice, and he looks terrified.  Or maybe he just sweats all the time, that's possible as well.

"Who..." he looks anxiously back into the room - because of the angle you can only see the ceiling at the moment.  "Are you..who are you?"

[darras]

Jessica

Jess raises a surprised eyebrow at the sight of a woman who is most probably Christina Hendricks in the photograph with John. Putting the phone back on the table she is unable to hide her revulsion. "So Joan just compels these women to .. you know? That's just.. Aren't you able to get pretty women on the strengths of your personality?" The words tumble from her mouth before she can quite stop herself and she flushes with embarrassment.

"Sorry.. I just.. This all makes me very uncomfortable. No more of the weird compelling women thing, right? Just focus on sorting this tangled pile of shit out. Get Honer's back, get you back, go back to our normal lives. Sound good?" She eyes her whiskey solemnly for a moment before tipping the glass and downing the entire drink in one go.

[Remiel]

Norm

The two rooms on the second story are cursorily inspected, but they don't seem to anything interesting.  Norm continues to lead the way, pushing further down the hallway and to the stairs which, he assumes, lead up toward the attic.  He hears music--presumably the whalesong he heard earlier--and voices.

"...definitely something."
"I thought they flew? Surely they fly?"
"Nikki, shut up. James, take this and see who it is.  Jess, just keep still - we're nearly done."

And then the door opens, revealing a man who looks like he collects Star Wars action figurines and invests heavily in comic books.   That doesn't alarm Norm so much as the fact that he's holding a gun.  Norm raises his own roofward, lifting his hands in a gesture of peace.

"Easy there, son.  We're not here to make trouble.  We just got a report that someone named Raven Moonshadow was in trouble and we came here to investigate."  He realizes he doesn't look much like a bobbie, but with any luck the young man might believe he is.  Nothing that Norm said was a lie, anyway.  He stands where he is, waiting for the other man to respond.

[Kythia]

Tuesday 13th August 11:00

The Quayside

Jessica

He looks genuinely horrified for a moment and shakes his head quickly.  "No.  Oh...oh gods no.  No, its not like that at all.  Jeez, is that seriously what you think of me?  Man, why on earth am I not wearing my drink right now.  No, honestly its not like that.  Compelling them's just...you know.  Volunteers make better lovers and all that.  No honestly, I promise you.  Nothing like that.  It's...no.  Ugh.

"Shiiiit.  Was that really how I was coming across?  I need to sober up."  He stares thoughtfully at his pint and then knocks half of it back with a shrug.  "Later.  I need to sober up later.  Now, I need to do what you said.  That getting me and Honer's back.  Can you drive Coffee Girl?  I probably can't.  We've gone through all the information we have, haven't we.  Need new input, rather than just chewing over the same.  We can go see Jean who doesn't remember me.  But you might be able to get something from her.  Or we can see Helen - demon girl.  Or... I dunno.  The kid isn't getting back to me and I'm not sure where he is so outside of those two I'm fresh out of ideas."  He digs a 2p out of his pocket and flips it but leaves it covered.

"Unless you got a preference?  Care to call?"



[/b]Tuesday 13th August 11:05

31 Ebor Street, Heaton

Norm, Miyo

He seems a little unsure, though the gun does drop to face the ground, and turns to look at someone out of sight in the room.  A female voice floats through, exasperation literally dripping out of it.  Frustration that everyone else in the world is so stupid and slow. 

"For fuck's sake, James.  Obviously it's not them.  Find out what is going on.  Deal.  With.  The.  Fucking.  Situation.  OK, Jess.  Get ready.  Nikki, get them lit.  Start on that one then clockwise."

James casts a last longing look back in to the room then turns his attention back to you.  He's still nervous but also now embarrassed.  Or something similar to embarrassed.  Desperate to prove his competence to the irritated voice out of sight.

"There are a few problems, but we've got them under control.  What..." he licks his lips slightly while he thinks.  "You got a report?"

[Remiel]

Norm

"Yeah.  Er..."  Norm wishes Bran was here.  For some reason, the way he explained it seem to make a lot more sense than anything Norm could possibly say.  He keeps his hands up, his gun pointed toward the roof.

"I'm not an officer.  I'm here on behalf of..."  he blinks.  Who was it he was here on behalf of, exactly?   Goddamnit, Bran.  Where the hell are you? For some reason, he doesn't think this James person will respond well to saying, "some random well-wisher who fancies himself King of Newcastle." 

He inserts the only name he can think of. "Michael Tannen.  You know him?  He said Raven Moonshadow called him, something about mechanical toilet snakes threatening to eat her baby.  Or something." 

He takes a step forward.  "Look, kid.  To be honest with you, I have no idea what the hell is going on.  It's been a crazy morning.  All I know is that we're--" he gestures behind him to Miyo--"supposed to escort Miss Moonshadow safely to the King's Head pub."

[darras]

Jessica

"There was a kid?" Jessica frowns, "Did I forget you mentioning that earlier or is this kid new? Who is the kid?" She shakes her head as if trying to shake an uncomfortable thought out. "I'm probably better able to drive than you.. I call heads, let's just get on with it. The sooner this day is in my past the better!" She looks down at her pint for a moment before pushing it away.

[Kythia]

Tuesday 13th August 11:00

The Quayside

Jessica

"There was a kid.  He might be new, I'm not sure.  I keep losing track of myself a little bit, to be honest.  I think I drank that a little fast."  He grins and uncovers the Queen's Head laying on the back of his hand.

"Heads it is.  Which means...fuck, I'm useless at this.  I didn't actually decide.  It means the girl, why not."  He drains the last of his pint and stands up. 

"The kid.  He emailed me.  I put an advert up about if anyone knew where Honer's was and he got back to me saying he'd missed it as well.  Not replying to me now, though, and his phone's engaged.  I don't know anyone who can trace it, do you?"  He starts to offer you his arm but then apparently thinks better of it and so ends up flapping his elbow awkwardly like someone doing a chicken impression.  Instead heads towards the door and, eventually, his car.



Tuesday 13th August 11:05

31 Ebor Street, Heaton

Norm, Miyo

He starts to say something but is interrupted by a shout from inside the room.  "I heard all of that.  Take them down into Jess' room.  She'll be ready in a bit and we'll get her to check them."

James nods, grateful that someone is taking charge, apparently, even if that someone does seem to think he's an idiot who should have known to do that by himself.  From back in the room a low chanting starts up in a female duet - you can't really make out words and the odd snippet you do catch sounds like Latin.  James gestures with his free hand, the gun still pointed at the floor.

"I don't know where that is.  But why don't you two sit in there" he points at the female's room off the landing "for just two minutes.  There's....there's robot snakes, yeah, but we're not letting you upstairs until we know who you are.

[darras]

Jessica

Jessica stares at his chicken impression arm with a slight smile before shaking her head as she follows him in a bewildered fog of automatic responses. "No, I don't know anyone who can do stuff like that. What was his name? Maybe he shows up on google, did you try that?"

She picks at her coffee stained shirt with a slight frown of distaste as they reach the car and then holds her hand out for the keys. "We need to drop by my place first, I need some fresh clothes...again."

[Remiel]

Norm

Norm shrugs.  He glances back at Miyo, with a "what the hell do we do now?" expression.  Dammit, Bran, where did you go? 

"All right," he consents to the James kid, unless Miyo has a better idea.  He doesn't like the sound of the chanting going on upstairs, but he's not going to do anything rash while James has a gun.

[Blythe]

Miyo

All Miyo can think is: Well, that escalated quickly. She wonders now, considering that James, Jess, and Nikki are here to deal with the snakes, if those critters really do fly. She's not about to disagree with the dude holding a gun, so she sits her rump down. She tries to sneakily pull out her phone without those people noticing to text Micheal Tannen, texting a simple message as fast as she possibly can: Problem. At a "Raven Moonshadow's" house. Know who a Jess, Nikki, or James might be? Maybe he'll know more about these people...and will get back to her in time to figure out what''s going on here. And if that chanting is Bad News.

[Kythia]

Tuesday 13th August 11:00

En route to Chez Jessica

Jessica

"Never got his name."  He hands you the keys.  It's a nice car, a damn nice one, and you vaguely feel you should be wearing patent leather driving gloves.  You don't have any, though, and if he does they're not in the door pocket.  Just a selection of CDs.  Two Aerosmith albums, a copy of Appetite For Destruction and the three CD box set "World's Greatest Rock Ballads".

He rummages in the glove compartment as he sits in the passenger seat and pulls out a book as you put the car into gear and head off.  It's the distinctive black and yellow of the something or other for dummies series, but you didn't catch the title. He pulls a pen from a breast pocket and begins annotating and doesn't look up as he says.

"I guess I'll stay in the car while you change?  Probably, you know, probably the best thing.  Then we'll head over to Helen's"



Tuesday 13th August 11:05

31 Ebor Street, Heaton

Norm, Miyo

Miyo gets the text off and noone shouts "Hey, stop sending texts" so she's pretty certain that it went unnoticed.  It'll likely take a moment or two before he replies, though, and in that moment the chanting from above reaches a crescendo:

ecce faciem et figuram ejus per quem omnia facta et cui omnes obediunt creaturae

and then there's a smash - a dropped glass or something.  James looks, you wouldn't have believed it possible, even more nervous and shuffles his feet as silence breaks out above you. 

Only for a moment though, as then there's a...a "flopping" sound.  Something being dragged downstairs you quickly place.  Scrape, thud.  Scrape, thud.  Scraping across the stair, thudding down to the next one.  James looks out of the room and swallows nervously a couple of times, scratches his side awkwardly and moves out of the doorway.

A moment later he's replaced by a female.  Naked and relatively large breasted, designs in marker pen covering her body.  At first you think she's tall, but then you realise that's not quite the case.  Her feet are dangling, the toes brushing the floor as if she's suspended and when she moves into the room she glides easily, dragging her the tips of them across the floor without moving her legs.

Norm, Miyo

Can I get a Rank 6 Unnatural check from you both please.  Shout in the OOC if that makes no sense.  Pass or fail, feel free to write your reaction after you've made the roll (or had me clarify what I mean)

[Blythe]

Miyo

Miyo watches the thing, which hasn't attacked, exactly, but she can't help but view the female creature as sinister. She edges toward Norm and hisses out of the corner of her mouth, shifty-eyed and wary, "Nooooormmm....you still got that gun?" James, the dude with the gun who had intimidated them, is not in the doorway or too close, and Miyo wonders if Norm would be able to get off a good shot.

[Remiel]

Norm

Although his inclination is initially to shout "What the fuck?" in a very loud volume, he's seen enough today to question everything he thought he knew.  The way Bran had explained it, the woman--Helen McClean or Raven Moonshadow or whatever she deigned to call herself--was adept at summoning demons, so it should really come as no surprise whatsoever that she had, apparently, summoned a demon.  Typically, this was Bad News.  As Terry Pratchett had once put it, trying to summon demons to fight your enemies for you is like trying to beat them to death with a rattlesnake--there was a very good chance that it would come back to bite you.

Still, he didn't hear any screaming, or any telltale wet, splashy sounds of anyone getting ripped to shreds.  Who knows, perhaps this could be a good demon?

Yeah, right.

Still, he keeps the gun lowered for now, even though he does back up a few steps. 

"Miss Moonshadow, I presume?"  he addresses the thing floating in mid-air.   Or whatever is currently possessing her, although it's probably safe to assume that it is her body, at the very least.

[Blythe]

Miyo

Miyo wonders if that really is Raven Moonsahdow, and scrutinizes the freaky floating thing closely to try to be sure. At least it didn't attack them outright, so that was a point in it's favor, but she was getting a bad feeling about that creature. It was floating, didn't seem to be on their side, and had appeared after a likely evil eldritch ritual. That just didn't bode well for anything in the current situation.

[Kythia]

Tuesday 13th August 11:05

31 Ebor Street, Heaton

Norm, Miyo

At Norm's question the floating girl turns - rotates, really, she simply turns on the spot without any movement from limbs - and gives a single nod.  Miyo's scrutiny reveals little.  Naked female, probably early twenties.  Covered in scrawls (they look vaguely Celtic, but she's no expert).  Eyes rolled back in her head so only the white's are visible.

She glides into the room further, James scurries to get out of her way, and is followed in by two more similarly aged females.  One you recognise from the photos of the hockey player in the ground floor bathroom, although now she is wearing an elaborate black dress, it looks like a wedding dress that has been died black in all honesty.  The girl next to her is wearing the same form of dress, although the details vary.  She has more beading on the bodice, hockey girl more lace on the overskirt, but the feel is the same.  The two of them walk in to the room and past the floating girl to stare at you.

The one you don't recognise speaks, her voice is the pissy and irritated one you heard earlier.

"No.  She is currently the earthly form of an angel."  Behind her, noticed only by you two, the floating gives a single shake of her head.  Everyone else is facing the wrong direction though.  "I'm Raven Moonshadow" the speaker continues, again to a shake of the head behind her.

She turns slightly so she can see both you and the floating girl - "You said I rang Michael Tannen about mechanical toilet snakes?"  There is a nod from the 'angel' and Raven frowns for a moment.

"Of course.  Let me rephrase.  Did Michael Tannen say I had called him about mechanical toilet snakes?"  The naked girl shakes her head once and Raven continues.  "I would like you to explain what you're doing here, and what is going on."

Another nod.

[darras]

Jessica

Jessica nods as she opens the car door, "You've likely got enough women in your phone without adding the likes of me." She smiles to defuse the jibe before climbing out of the car. She's back in a surprisingly short amount of time having changed into yet another set of jeans, t-shirt and soft hoodie. Opening the driver door she slides in, trying to get a look at his book. "Is that the Dummy's Guide to Weird Shit?" She doesn't really wait for an answer before turning the key to start the engine. "Where are we going to find this Helen girl then?"

[Kythia]

Tuesday 13th August 11:00

En route to Chez Jessica

Jessica

He lifts the book so you can see the title - "Astrology for Dummies" - and laughs.  "Not that weird.  Or maybe it is.  Hey, when's your birthday?"  He folds his page down and flips to an earlier section.  "And what time?  And where?  Anyway..."

He fiddles with the CD player and you get a burst of keyboard - GMaj, 2nd inv Cmaj, FMaj, Gmaj.  You know it, everyone in the world knows it.  "I get up, and nothing gets me down.  You gotta talk.  I seen the toughest around"  But before David Lee Roth can cut in he apparently remembers he's not driving and turns it off again.

"Sorry.  Habit.  Errrm, she lives with some housemates.  Or did at least, but I figure they'll have a forwarding address if she's moved out.