9926/Coventry Murders: Supernatural Update

Coventry Murders: Supernatural Update
Date of Scene:	05 November 2019
Location:	Markovia Station, Old Gotham
Synopsis:	Zachary stops by with pizza and information on the Coventry demon.
Cast of Characters:	Zachary Zatara, Red Hood
Tinyplot:	Coventry Murders

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Zachary Zatara has posed:
It's about an hour after most high schools let out that Jason would receive a text: <Got information on mama demon. Are you masked and decent?>

Not 'is it okay if I stop by' or even 'are you home' which Zachary is vaguely aware exists inside a subway station. Nope. Just 'is my presence acceptable at this very moment'. Must be a magician thing.

Red Hood has posed:
Jason is frowning up at the news reports about the arrested 'Coventry Bleeder' and the images from various scenes around Gotham of pools of blood and not-so missing people when his phone buzzes in his pocket. He reads the message, grabs his domino mask and puts it on before typing back:

Jason >> No pants, but I've got my mask on. Just kidding come on by.

He kicks his rolling chair over to the mini fridge and pulls out a couple of beers, expecting that his guest was going to be here before either of them got close to warm.

Zachary Zatara has posed:
Zachary does not disappoint a waiting audience. Maybe a minute after Jason's text sends, the Magic Boy himself materializes from a pink misty cloud.

He's wearing pants, sweatpants to be specific, and a loose-fitting white t-shirt. A stark contrast to his nightclub look, but his clothes have a laidback, stylish athleisure way about that show he's versatile but still trying. "I come bearing gifts. Pizza," Two boxes. It's a Titans thing. Or an Italian one? He hands one to Jason, then retracts. "What's your favorite topping?

Red Hood has posed:
Jason smiles at Zach's entrance, as much as magic had been a royal pain in his ass lately, he could get behind teleportation as a thing.

"Slick move," he says then grins when he sees that Zach brought pizza too. "Should invite you over more," he says before the pizza is retracted. Brows arching he says, "Peperoni, hot sausage, and mushroom." His eyes fall to the box curiously.

Zachary Zatara has posed:
"Good man. Inoreppep, toh egasuas, moorhsum," The words fall from Zachary's grinning lips so smoothly that it sounds like native speech but carry a whimsical echo behind them, as reality reshapes to his - or Jason's, rather, whim.

Somewhere in Little Italy, a pizzeria ran out of its three most important ingredients. The box is handed over. "Open, and witness the benevolence of magic."

He takes in Jason's humble abode, with open curiosity, until his eyes land on the news reports. "I'd bet my soul that our murderer is still out there."

Red Hood has posed:
Jason's brows stay raised as he takes the box and opens it. The pizza is indeed peperoni, hot sausage and mushroom, he grins.

"Not bad," he says, before glancing down at the pizza, "What was it before you magicked it? Or would that be telling?" he asks.

Not that he minds, he sets the box down and grabs the second beer he'd pulled from the fridge, "No magic words, but behold the benevolence of being over twenty-one and not caring about liquor laws," he offers in an echo of Zach's words. "Grab a seat," he nods to the spare mismatched chairs around his lair, "And relax."

He grabs a slice from the pizza, taking a bite while he looks up at the screen, "Hmm, this tastes like Vanelli's from Little Italy," he remarks idly before he nods, "Unfortunately, the devil's not taking those wagers right now," he says and setting down the slice he grabs his burner phone and flips it open showing the text he'd just recieved from Lucifer.

Lucifer: >> Chester Maylin isn't a demon or possessed, I checked that out. I'm thinking of going to Gotham PD and fishing for demons. I'll let you know what I find.

"Looks like he's on the same page."

Zachary Zatara has posed:
"Meatlovers. Figured a beefcake like you would want the protein," Zachary smirks lightly, taking the beer and a seat. As for where the pizza came from, he winks. It could be that he isn't sure which poor souls the universe deprived of their zesty pizza toppings, or he's just not telling.

"Wonder why the police apprehended him and what our so-called Devil's doing with the police," His head tilts over, to look at the gruesome scenes. He opens the can and takes a long sip. "I think he was telling the truth about Batman, by the way."

Red Hood has posed:
There's a snort about the beefcake business, and then shakes his head to the rest, chuckling. Magic. Okay maybe it wasn't all bad.

"Not sure why he was apprehended, maybe framed by Mom, but as for Luci, he consults for the NYPD, heck he was even called in on the case originally. Which I suppose explains his interest."

Then it comes...

"Wait, what? Which parts?" he asks turning to Zach.

Zachary Zatara has posed:
"I can't say for certain if he's the Judeo-Christian Satan that we read about in Sunday school, or if it's a name. Like Red Hood," Green eyes cut to Jason, then return to the screen. "but he has power and demons in his service, so I'm not so sure it matters."

"Gaulichu is an obscure demon. She's not gonna suck your soul out while you sleep or whatever you see in the movies. She can't enter our plane without invitation or...opportunity." Zatara leaves it to Jason to work out his meaning, but his tone is measured, his wording careful.

Red Hood has posed:
Jason offers a smirk by reflex at the thing about it just being a name when his own codename is used as an example. "Some people really /own/ those names though, ask Batman the next time you see him," he quips before taking in the rest, "So, you're saying he may not /be/ the devil but he's powerful enough that it may not matter? Greeeeat."

"So Gau-pikachu or whatever he name is doesn't have the juice to get here on her own, so, she'd have to have help, like that door being left open." Or if she was summoned. "You said Lucifer has demons in his service, which we saw with Nora-whatever, his bouncer with the killer sword," and killer bod, but let's not get off track here. "Do you know if Gau is one of them? I've been spending all week having my faith in anything Lucifer has to say rattled by some of the greatest detectives on the planet, so, not ruling anything out here. What do you think? Did she follow Batman to our plane or is Lucifer pulling the strings here?"

Zachary Zatara has posed:
"I don't know," Zachary admits. "It's hard to not take buy into what that guy is selling. I know magic is at play, with his aura, but knowing and resisting are two separate things. This is a very elaborate scheme if he's intended it. I mean, I'm no detective, but what's the point of summoning a demon and then involving yourself in an investigation to stop it?"

"Only way to know for sure: find Gaulichu," He regards Jason's attempts to butcher the entity's name, with a rueful smile. "So long as she remains, she can summon more underlings from hell. If you engaged with one of them previously, you already know they aren't that intelligent. But they *are* very resilient. Have you faced one of them?"

Red Hood has posed:
Jason picks up his beer and cracks it open. "Yeah, that one is a bit of a puzzle, what would he have to gain except, maybe getting in our good books, and if he's that powerful, why would he care, there wouldn't be a lot we could do to stop him anyhow whether we like him or not."

Frowning he looks at his beer trying to consider the possibilties.

"Yay, it always seems to come down to her doesn't it," Jason says of Gaulichu. "Well guess we're going to have to ask her a couple of questions before we take her down," he says before nodding about the lesser demons. "Shot one a bunch of times, interrogated another, yeah, they can take a lot of punishment before going down."

Zachary Zatara has posed:
"Why the lie, though? About...is Batman your padre or what? Robin went public with his relationship and Rojo Robin said so too, but you, I'm less sure of," Waving a hand, Zachary opens his box of pizza. Chicken pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, and mozzarella. How very authentic of him. "You don't dress like either of them." He notes, casually.

He also notes Jason's use of guns, with an arching brow. "Even when they go down...without a proper exorcism, they could just find another host, dead or inanimate."

Red Hood has posed:
"Why lie and say he didn't summon Mom, or the bit about Batman in hell?" Jason asks before he considers the question about his relation to Batman. "Batman likes to think he's my father," he answers after a moment. It was suitably vauge and technically correct. "And since I left the family I've been dressing myself," he explains with a grin about the costumes. Though, he does have that red bat on his chest still, so there has to be some tie to the family in there somewhere right?

As for the guns, he just offers a shrug. They spoke for himself, given Batmans rather famous views about such things.

"So, basically we need to cast them all out for this to be over? Or is it one of those things where if we deal with Mom the rest go too?"

Zachary Zatara has posed:
"The part about Batman," Zachary clarifies, before biting into a slice of pizza. Around the mouthful and some beer (and he didn't even need a fake idea!), he takes in Jason's family situation. "Sounds complicated."

Understatement of the century, but family's bound to be strange when you're dealing with bats or Zataras. So many Daddy issues!

"Banishing all of them is pointless. Gaulichu can summon them back to Earth. The best thing we can do? Locate her," Green eyes roll back to the screen, and with a grimace, he adds, "I may have a way to help with that part." It's slow-going. Picking up a book and flicking through it is relatively easy compared to a hunt, and Zach has never been a predator.

Red Hood has posed:
Jason nods, "Yeah, was worried about that. I mean if Batman's going to hell, what chance do the rest of us have?" he asks putting words to the thoughts that had been festering in his brain since Lucifer first told them about Batman. "I mean I didn't even think Hell was real."

He takes a long pull of his beer and sets it doen to tuck into his pizza. "That's putting it lightly," he offers with a smile. "How is it with you and your family? Zee's your cousin right?"

"Oh? What do you got to find her? Best we've done so far is track her phone, which isn't exactly definitive," he admits.

Zachary Zatara has posed:
"Really?" Zachary snorts, shaking his head. Sometimes, he forgets how mundane folk can avoid spirituality with shields of skepticism. "There's, like, at least fifteen hell dimensions that I can name off the top of my head. Lucifer can't be the lord of ALL of them, so maybe when you die, you'll get, I don't know, Pluto? Hela? You got options."

The smirk in his voice dies down, and he shrugs away some of the tension in his shoulders, "Zanny's my only family, really," It's a touching subject, evidently, even if he plays it off. He focuses on the Magic Maid, though, instead of the obvious questions about his parents, or siblings, blah, blah, blah. "I can't say living under her shadow's fun..."

Might be part of the reason he's involved himself with this.

"Whenever I try to ping her, she jumps bodies which create a ripple that disrupts the scrying. If we were to make a move, it would have to be when we're all prepared." There may not be a second shot, his words imply.

Red Hood has posed:
"Yay, all of those sound super fun," Jason says with Raven levels of lack of enthisasm when it comes to his hellish options. He takes a bite of his pizza, swallowing before he asks, "So, is there any out here, besides, you know, virture and clean living?" Even money on if that or one of those hells would be worse.

The tension is noted and so Jason lets the conversation go where Zach wants it without any pushing. "I bet," he says of living in Zee's shadow. "Actually, that's not so much speculation as personal experience." After all he did or does work with the Bat.

"So, she jumps when you try to find her, interesting, so basically we're going to need to jump on her right after you do it, maybe the phone trace can put us local enough to be able to get her before she switches. How about fighting her, what's our best weapons?"

Zachary Zatara has posed:
"I'm not an expert on the afterlife, only that it exists and some souls find themselves in hells, or in limbos, or remain here on Earth possessing shit," Zachary says, with the disregard of a young man that doesn't think he can die. "Just try to live a good life. Batman...he may be a man, but he's a man that's left a profound mark on the world."

"You're more familiar with him, of course," Zach, owing much of his knowledge of the Bat coming from rumors and some news, continues, "but Superman's death? Two souls like that clash, and nothing holy can come from it. The guilt alone could have dragged him to Lucifer's domain."

"The people love her," He opines about Zatanna. "Don't blame them. She wears fishnets, is a member of the Justice League. It's no big deal, though. I got my own thing going on."

Back to business. "I suspect blessed weapons and holy items would work best, especially on her underlings, but Lucifer -also- might be the best bet to banishing Gaulichu permanently."

Red Hood has posed:
Jason's concern for the afterlife is a little more visceral, having died and come back once already and having witnessed the same for Bruce. Still, Zach's words seem to placate him as he relaxes back into his chair. "Well that's better than Lucifer's version anyhow," he says with a shrug.

It would do for an answer for now.

"Yeah, well there's no denying he's left his mark on the world," Jason agrees readily of the Bat before considering what Zach had to say of the clash with Superman. "Can it do that? Guilt I mean? Drag you to hell?"

"Kate and I love the fishnets," Jason confides as the subject shifts to Zatanna, "But good, glad you don't let that stuff get to you, most of the other Robins haven't figured it out, but it's better to be you rather than trying to be someone you're not."

As for the weapons, "That tracks, I'll see what we can do there," he says of finding some of those. "And hmm, that's what Lucifer said too, guess we'll be bringing him along then, anything you can do to stop him if he turns out not to be on our side?"

Zachary Zatara has posed:
"Any number of things could contribute, but if the Big Bat believed he deserved hell, he could very well end up there," Zachary brushes a tuft of raven hair back, before sipping at the can of beer. "I could lend you a few books if it's something you're super concerned about. Hell, the afterlife, and such. There's probably something I'm missing."

It's not a topic that particularly interests Zach. Death isn't something he considers, ever. No need to doom himself with self-fulfilling prophecies. "Everyone LOVES the fishnets!" He says, with a light laugh. "If I knew they were the way into the hero business, I would've elected to wear them myself." It could be a tease, but he quickly moves onto Lucifer again, before that mental image can really settle.

"I'll be completely honest with you," In a moment of humility, he concedes, "The spells I have in my repertoire would only slow a guy like Luci down."

Red Hood has posed:
"Just concerned whatever dragged the Bat to hell might do the same for me," Jason says before taking a sip of his beer. "I'm not a good person. But if you can lend me some books it'd help. Might get this shit out of my head and let me focus on what's important."

Jason chuckes as they move onto the fishnets, "I dunno man, I don't think you've got the legs for it, best leave the fishnets to Zee."

That last bit of news isn't great but it isn't entirely unexpected either. "Damn," Jason says quietly. "Well, we'll be bringing you along anyhow, so maybe between you and Robin's alien crystals we can take him if he becomes a problem."