5032/Redcap

Redcap
Date of Scene:	27 July 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	A Police investigation gets complicated
Cast of Characters:	Lelantos, Doctor Strange, Kid, Black Queen

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Lelantos has posed:
Detective Ron Griffin tends to be assigned to the strange and unusual cases, being the low detective on the totem pole. In this case though, he is only there as an adjunct...Homocide has the case but they are having trouble with it. The lead detective says, "We have here three murders, no one was seen goin in to the crime scene, but the person was found dismembered, apparently torn apart by a being of unusual strength. We have not found much in common, only that all of them were involved at an event in a local park last week. We thik we have a new meta serial killer, but can not figure out his MO."

Ron frowns, he is certain something more is going on that that, but does not know what. He Looks at the list of others who were at the event in the park...it is incomplete because it was a free event people could easily wander in and out of, but still includes dozens of people. He comments, we need to find what the connection is, killers tend to have a motive."

Even as the police discuss the crimes, there is a disturbance in the magic around the city, something wicked has perfrmed an act that involves magic. Those who can trace such things, can tell it came from an apartment nopt far from the Oscorp food plant.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "Never a dull moment." The master of mysticism says to no one in particular. Stephen Strange steps through reality with a quickness to his step indicating that he's in a bit of a hurry. "So... what's going on here?" He asks himself as he smacks his hands together, palm against the back of his other hand, with that palm aimed towards the building in front of him.

    A simple spell that lets him retreat to this exact location as long as the sister spell is used within five minutes, a sort of 'get out of hell' in a pinch spell. You can never know. Strange then looks up to the apartment complex and he starts to march towards the entrance to the club house as if he was going to sign up for a lease.

Kid has posed:
speaking of suspects abound, one large man happened to be in an area. On the surface, Kid is projecting a psychic illusion of a large bearded man in a suit, strolling down the sidewalk in a wheel chair. But it is his thoughts that might prove of a bigger interest due to their predatory and aggressive naute

His mind echoed thoughts of where to potentially go for his next target for another meal. Even remember a few good ones from an event he had visted. Old abandon building always a good spot for hunting. These thoughts circulate rather regularly within him

Of course when he sees the cops, he is simply...annoyed. <"Great"> he thinks <"Now there's a bunch of damn cops in the area. Just GRAND"> he didn't really like cops for one reason or another. Still, he stopped to watch and listen curiously.

Black Queen has posed:
Instead of being dressed like the Black Queen. She's dressed in a red leather jacket, worth more than most people's cars, and a skirt. The pleated skirt might not look like much, but if anyone knows Dolche and Cabana this seems like them, but the pattern is one of a kind. Literally. Selene made head designers make it for her and so it's valuation, probably worth more than another car. Let alone the boots and limited jewelry she has on. Magical disturbances have been rippling around this apartment complex and now a new one is forming.

The alley across the way from the apartment has a misty shadow that first appears, before Selene solidifies. Teleportation is great! And, reaching up with those well manicured nails, Selene just pats the top of her head to make sure each hair is still in order. Never can tell with shadow magic. "What's this?" Her smile grows as she sees the left overs of the spell... stopping for a moment she shakes her head, "No, that would just be tiring..." And her outreached hand pulls back as she follows in the foot steps of the Doctor, approaching the building itself.

Lelantos has posed:
The police are on their way to the apartment complex, someone reported a "disturbance" on the fourth floor. Selene and Strange can tell there was some kind of magic performed up there. The Apartment manager looks up at Dr. Strange and says, sounding harried and nervous, "May I help you?"

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "Not at all." Stephen says, his hands completeing a single gesture and his whole attire changes once again. "I'm here to work on the bedbug problem some of your tennants have been reporting for weeks." Stephen says, his cloak fading away and being replaced with a more mundane Orikin look. He tips his hard hat and keeps walking.

    "I'm going to have a walk around and do a eye examination, I'll be back with my preliminary estimate." Stephen says, his spell usually being enough to cause people's minds to ignore the change in clothes as most minds can't handle such a drastic change in reality.

    Once around the corner, Stephen's cloak and gi are visible once again. "Now... where are you?" He asks, looking around and lifting his nose to sniff the air a little.

Kid has posed:
Welp, this was boring. Police standing around and jabbering, heading who knows where. However a telepathic....'scream' catches his attention. He looks towards the apartment building curiously and begins heading in that direction. Though he does his best to be subtle as this unfortantly has him following the very police group heading towards the complex.

Black Queen has posed:
Walking into the apartment complex, it's easy enough to grab from the front desk person's mind any disturbance they know of, but also to just ignore her as she's walking past. Like, well, she lives here. And she presses the button on the elevator door, waiting for it to open up. While she does so she lifts up her hand and curls her fingers over, checking out her nails. A small grimace comes to her face, as she looks at those nails she recently got done, "Already, a chip? I am going to murder that woman. 3 days guaranteed..." A huff filled with venom.

*Ding* The elevator doors swing open and Selene walks inside. Pressing some buttons impatiently, all of them in fact, with a cruel internal laugh at ther person who gets on this on the 2nd floor rand needs to get anywhere but every other floor. And then as the doors begin to shut, she just moves her fingers in a small intricate pattern before she fades into misty shadow again and zips up through the cracks of the elevator, and quickly zips upwards toward the fourth floor. When she seeps in through the elevator doors again, forming solid once again. Still eyeing the design that has chipped on one of her nails, "I will, literally murder her... tomorrow probably." Then she looks up and starts walking in the direction of whatever 'disturbance' she had sensed before.

Lelantos has posed:
The manager grumbles something to Strange about hoping the estimate comes in more reasonable than the last one. Dr. Strange sets out to track the disturbance, and feels another disturbance coming from an area near the first. Some other user of magic is here, but not the first one, he can tell from the "feel" of the magic.

Ron arrives with the other police, someone who was listed as in the park the day in question lives here, that raised flags causing there to be more police dispatched than norml for something as indefinate as a "disturbance" call. He pauses...there is a lot of psychic noise here, most of it beyond his normal range but loud enough he is getting the fringe of it.

Kid sees one of the shortest officers pause and look around with a frown, as if hearing or smelling something disturbing.

Selene quickly locates room 407 as the cource. When she enters, she sees a man lying dead, fresh blood in many places near the parts of his body (which apparently have been ripped limb from limb) and an area near the body where the blood is swirled around, as if something was rubbed into it. She can sense magic traces strongly in the swirled area.

Doctor Strange has posed:
Stephen rolls his eyes as he catches a wiff of two different mystical energies. "Fie fai foe fum..." Stephen says to himself as he turns to get into the elevator and is stuck tapping his foot waiting for the doors to open. "Okay... screw this." He says before he relies on his cloak after walking out into the courtyard of the place and he sails up to where he feels the strongest magic signatures. He lowers onto the sad little balcony and tries to open the door.

Kid has posed:
Kid certainly notices the unease of the shortest officer. Uneasy folks are sometimes easy pickings for meals...or waaay more trouble than they are worth. That being said, the psychic noise was trouble some even to him. With so much he had to wonder what was going on. Well there was one way to find out...

Kid illusions turns into that of a police officer or detective. Leaving him physically looking like an officer of the law. With the illusion up he weaves into the dispatch of officers easily enough without arousing suspicion from most of them, and eventually stops by short officer. On a 'notepad' he writes with a 'pencil' - You can feel it too eh? - as if to keep his own abilties on the downlow as he stares up at the structure.

Black Queen has posed:
"Ooooh, I -do- like your style. Come out... come out, where ever you are?" Selene smiles as she starts to look around the apartment room, following the trail of magic. She swirls her hands, and between a small ball of misty shadow appears. "Dear, go find me this creature... keep it safe." She releases the imp except to grab a small piece of it and she puts that piece on her hip. It unravels shadow like a ball of yarn, giving her something to tether her teleport to the imp when it finds the target. Soon after it shows up, to normal vision it quickly fades from view and Selene is just standing then in the middle of this horrible mess of parts and pieces, kind of admiring it, reaching down and touching the blood for a moment, and closing her eyes... trying to re-live the murder of this person... maybe get an idea of who killed it.

Lelantos has posed:
Dr. Strange arrives at the balcony, those who are sensitive to such things will feel the resence of his cloak (a relatively minor magic) and of the much more major item he wears as an amulet. He senses a spell cast inside, some kind of summoning magic, then the start of a divination spell.

Ron glances at the officer, something seems odd about him but Ron can not pin it down yet. He responds, "I feel pretty sure we will need to call the morgue on this one, if that is what you mean."

Selene may possibly be making a mistake, in using her magic to see from the perspective of the victim. The fact is, she sees him going about his daily routine, she sees him enter the room and go to the closet, hang up his coat and go look in the refrigerator...then something unseen lifts him into the air and there is great pain as his arms, then his legs, are physically pulled from his body while he is still alive...if briefly.

Doctor Strange has posed:
Stephen lands on the balcony and covers his mouth and nose. Even through the glass doors the scent of death is heavy. Fresh. The doctor however is not one to shy away from his duties and his work. He casts a simple telekinesis spell to unlock the door and he pushes it open. "Hello?" He asks, raising his voice. "Doctor Stephen Strange, I beseech any entities within this room to reveal themselves!" Strange says, lifting one hand before his face and out stretched, before a small white light appears in the grasp of just his finger tips.

Kid has posed:
Kid writes down for Ron - No. But guess there is only one way to find out, and all this waiting is just a bit to slow for me. - before tucking the notepad into a pocket. Without further waiting he enters the building.
    Now kid didn't exacly know how to actually /be/ a cop, he was just rolling. When he noticed the elevator was going up...and definintly wasn't comming down any time soon...he opts for the stairs, ignoreing the front mangers demands for what he was doing here. Doing his best to follow the psychic like disturbance he felt..if he could still feel it.

Black Queen has posed:
For one as old as Selene, for one with as many lives in her as Selene. For Selene to have inside of her very memories people she herself has tortured and killed. This was child's play. To an extent, it even brings a smile to her lips as she feels her arms and legs ripped off in the memory. "Oh, tricky tricky, coming in from behind..." Then she stops, her eyes open and she glances toward the balcony. To those sensitive to such things Selene carries with her the torments the size of small modern civilizations. 1 more to the list... no biggie.

Strange of course, may not be able to see in the dark, which seems... strange, for all of his other abilities. But Selene is a creature of death, shadow and an overwhelming, in a lot of ways, spirit more than form. Standing up she burns off the blood from her hand, got to stay prim and proper, "Hello? Seriously. You just... speak up and announce yourself?" Squinting a little, a bemused look on her face. Oh, she knows the Sorceror Supreme, she actually killed on a long while ago, give or take 10 or 12 thousand years, but this one... there's all sorts of rumors.

"I mean, if I were... say... some horrible monster... you'd just of... given yourself away. Though, the light is rather bright." Squinting a bit she holds up a hand, "Could you... just, turn it down a bit? Do you have like a dimmer switch on all that, pretentiousness you wear?" Conversation, the tactic of the delayer. The longer she keeps people here, the longer her imp has to find her prize...

Lelantos has posed:
The killer being long gone and the imp more recently gone, neither is visible to strange. He does see Selene, not being strictly human any longer it reveals her as an entity, though it might take a moment or two to tell what kind. He sees what Selene saw before, the signs of violent dismemberment and the area on the floor were the blood is disturbed.

The Kid rushes to the stairs...which causes Ron to run after him...the person is not acting properly like a cop...at the least it is someone impersonating an officer. Fortunately the two are both in good shape, four flights of steep stairs get them to the right level, where both of them can detect two powerful psychic presences.

Selene's Imp is following something, though it seems strangely reluctant to actually catch it...it should have caught up by now if what it is chasing is moving at human speeds...but then again, whatever it is following might not be limited to such.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Stephen lifts his hand higher, the light getting brighter as he does so, "This spell, no, there is no dimming the light it lets off. A simple revelation spell." The man says, as he hangs it from the cord to adjust the fan speed and he walks around the room, taking a chance to glance at the body and closing his eyes for a brief moment in solemn remorse.

    His hands stay down, hidden by the large red cloak and he asks, "Did you do this?" Eyeing Selene as if she could be the one to have caused this disaster, but he also senses something quite off about her, but he's not sure what. Not yet.

Kid has posed:
Kid stops just at the top of the stairs. As Ron comes up after him, he puts up a hand as if telling him to stop a moment. He closes his eyes and let out an almost...hungry grow as he senses two powerful presences. One thought comming to head 'Now there some tasty minds'. He shakes himself off as if to reconcentrate.
    Kid though doesn't stay paused for long, as if he couldn't stop moving. Like a dog drawn to meat, he follows the psychic trail too a door. He checks to see if it was open, jiggling the knob. When it becomes evident it is locked...he does the next logical thing. He busts that door down, straight off it hinges as if it was cardboard. Being a secret gorilla is nice sometimes.
    None the less the so far silent 'officer' walks into the room and looks around with curiosity.

Black Queen has posed:
The truest sign of a villain, playing dumb in a sarcastic way. Selene asks in a faux shocked voice, "Did -I- do this?" She laughs a little bit, and shakes her head. "I am terribly sorry to disappoint, though I enjoyed playing the blame game." There's a turn of her head at the psychic reverberations of Kid's quick approach... and as the door shatters open, she's melding through the floor, just a bit of her hair left as it disappaers through the floor in the last moment of Kid showing up.

Strange may not care if others notice him or see him. Selene isn't here to be harassed by crazy psychic meat eating weirdos. Unless someone is stopping her, she's going to drop into the floor below, naturally if there are people in that room they'll have no memory she was present. If she had more time, they'd likely be piles of dust...

Lelantos has posed:
Strange is fairly certain that Selene is telling the truth, her magic is overlaying the other, it came more recently. Her passing through the floor disturbs the magic traces even further, though Strange has other things to worry about. His revelation spell reveals, as it is intended to, showing the one who knocked down the door is physically a Gorilla. The one chasing the Gorilla is apparently human physically, though there are faint traces of something more about him.

The door bursts open and Kid and Ron are momentarily blinded by the light before their eyes adjust. Not that being blind bothers Ron, he is used to that. In fact, it lets him concentrate on his other senses, and pick out what is out of place. He exclaims, "Toadstools!"

Selene phasses through the floor into the room below, where several people are looking out the windows at the police cars below and wondering what happened. The Imp reports that it can not follow the trail any further.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "That's my cue." Strange says as he watches Selene vanish below the floor and a literal gorilla brusts into the doorway and a detective behind him. Stephen's left foot slides backwards and his hands meet above his forehead with a heavy clap and his light and his self is gone from the room. Stephen makes a hasty retreat using his 'way back' spell to go back to where he was when he cast the spell the first time and with that he says to himself. "Mushrooms and gorilla's oh my." Before he turns to walk back towards his Sanctum. There's much research to be done.

Kid has posed:
As far as Gorillas go...Kid wasn't exactly standard. He had sage green skin instead of grey, as well as gold and silver hair growing on his back instead of just silver...let alone his massive size.
    Kid cover his eyes before blinking. He frowns as a man suddenly dissappears. Well dang it. One powerful psychic presence gone, and another...below. He sighs....but than looks to Ron as he mentions toadstools, quirking a brow as if expecting further explanation...unaware the revelation spill undid his illusion.

Black Queen has posed:
People. Looking out a window. So... tempting... Selene is reaching out with her mind for a moment, about to vanquish an entire family worth of life... but then her imp stops. Shadow imps are nigh undetectable, and they obey, that's why she summons them. But this one... stopped. She growls, an animalistic sound coming right behind the family but before any of them can look, there's nothing behind them. Whisking herself off through time and space, she zips to the end of her shadow trail. Where ever the imp stopped, she's going to suddenly appear and see if she can sense the presence or not still around.

Lelantos has posed:
Strange returns to his sanctum for some research, butter not to face a foe without preparation.

Ron looks at Kid and does a double take, "Pardon, did you just turn into a Gorilla?"

Selene finds herself at a nearby park where the imp is stopped outside of a ring of toadstools growing around an area where the grass is less thick and a bit yellow. She can sense that this is no mere growth of fungi, but an actual Faerie Ring, a portal to the lands of the Fae...probably dark fae.

When the strongest minds wink out, moving beyond range, and Kid senses that he is in the presence of a superior mind. Nothing like the others, but if those two were search lights and most humans are night lights, he would be a hundred watt bulb.

Kid has posed:
Kid blinks and stares at Ron. He looks down at himself and than back at Ron. Kid sloooowly nods. No use in denying it now, if folks want to make up an excuse that fine by him. But considering there were OTHER cops just outside, Kid reforms the psychic illusion, though he doesn't include Ron in the peole he shields from. No point at this time.

However, something more prominate catches Kid's attention. Another psychic. He let out a rumbling growl of anticipation and hunger. His eyes turn to Ron as he quite litterly looks at him like he was a steak on a Silver Platter.

He snorts. He was hungry, he wasn't stupid. He knuckle-walks in to check out the apartment. He passes by the body, glancing at it, registering it mabey even contemplating it. But continues on, searching for the 'toadstools' Ron had shouted out.

Black Queen has posed:
At the park, then. A dark faerie ring? Cute. The Sidhe and her go way back. And like all evil mischevious miscreants, those horribly dark fae, or whomever this particular branch might be, were really going to make her upset. "Cute." She looks at the toadstools and the portal, and then hrms... never one to lead the charge she starts to draw something in the air, a fiery symbol with a circle, and then she flicks her hand and it grows... rather large, and lands on the ground, burning some of the grass beneath. She's summoning a full on devil, straight from... well, the underworld, but some people call it 'hell'. "Find me the one who murdered that person. I have a proposal to make." Whether or not that will be soon, or not, even just the idea of dark fae being burned with hellfire, makes her smile. She'll leave this task to a minion.

Lelantos has posed:
Ron gets the uneasy sense that he is being sized up for dinner by this odd simian, but that is silly, Gorillas are vegetarians. He explains, "I have spent a lot of time practicing using my senses, other than sight, more than most humans. Here, I smell all the things one would expect of a scene of violent death...and all the things one would smell in a bachelor's apartment....and one thing more. I smell Toadstools. There should be none here."

Selene knows demons and high fae are beings of similar power, indeed, some stories have them as mortal enemies from before the dawn of humanity. The Demon can probably enter the Fae world, but will have to tread carefully. Given that time flows differently in that place, ir may take some days before it can return.

Kid has posed:
Sure, wild gorillas are primarily herbivores. But Kid wasn't any ordinary gorilla. He let out a beastial chuckle when he senses Ron unease. But he doesn't elaborate. But he doesn ponder the given information. He gives pause and finally begins making gestures - sign language, his watch speaking in place of himself "Arn't toadstools poisoness?" he asks "If there are some here....I would think the person would have been poisoned. But.." he looks to the dismembered body "This looks far more personal. Poisoning would have been useless...save for weakening someone" signs. He knows nothing of magic...but knows a thing or two about eating bad mushrooms.

Do not eat bad mushrooms.

Black Queen has posed:
Oh, yes. Immortal enemies. Part of the reason why Selene summoned a demon, that and she can't exactly summon fae. Not who do her bidding anyhow, they are always interpreting commands in the worst possible ways. Just like Djinn, never ever summon them... Bad mushrooms have nothing on Djinn. With her deed done, she will watch as the demon obeys, and climbs into one of the places demons do not like to go. And once inside of the portal, Selene turns into shadowy mist that stretches out for a moment and then fades. Off to her home. Ah, the powerhouses who showed up, neither one actually doing any real investigation of the scene. Instead, they are the ones quick to depart while the less powerful actually are trying to piece together clues.

Lelantos has posed:
Ron takes out a camera and starts recording the scene, commenting, "I need to at least try to record what is here, though I fear much of the evidence here will be tainted. Once the other real police get here, I will be busy for a while. Later, I need to go look at the park where all the people killed were..the cause has to be there, it is the only thing that makes sense."

Kid has posed:
Kid sees the camera and practicaly leaps behind Ron. Illusions and tricking minds were one thing - tricking technology another. He can hide from people, not from tech. It is one reason he hunts in high crime areas...cause their security sucks!
    Kid signs "Well if you need an 'off the radar' partner....mabey I can give a hand" that being said he was cautiously paying attention to the night-lights of human minds, prepared to dissappear should cops come near.

Lelantos has posed:
Ron notes that the Gorilla hastened to get out of camera range. He glances down, wondering if the creature is leaving recognizably simian prints...if so this will be difficult to cover up. The other oplice are drawing nearer, likely the elevator finally got back down to the lobby.

Kid has posed:
When Ron glances down...so does Kid and he let out a beastial groan. He had stepped in pools of blood. Needless to say he left some bloody tracks. he face palms several times. He looks to Ron to guidance, cause he had no clue what to do.

Lelantos has posed:
Ron sighs, "You probably better go out via the balcony, I will need to explain I came in here chasing an ape I saw running up the stairs...it would be better if all the signs are you fled and I could not follow." It is the best he can do with the forensics team right behind him. Not great, but better than nothing. He will add, "Meet you at Osborn Park when I can? It may be a few hours though."

Kid has posed:
Kid nods....and signs "Also...sorry about this" what exactly was 'this'? Well that comes in the form an attempted gut punch to Ron poor poor gut. Kid doesn't even stick around to see if he had made contact or how badly. he simply performed the action and fwoosh, out the balcony he went. Psychicaly cloaked, he decined the side of the Balcony like a trained proffesional before running off.

Lelantos has posed:
Ron could possibly dodge...but elets to roll with the blow instead. Better to have some evidence of being overpowered. The Print of a bloody fist against his belly works, and Ron will be able to pleed injury...but not too much so or he will be in the hospital for at least as long as his business here will take. Sometimes, having a cover as a police officer can be a pain when it comes to heroics.