Owner	Pose
Satana Hellstrom	It's been one of those nights. Specifically, that means one of those nights which have seen a call because of a lot of dead people. And because of the "unusual" nature of the dead people. The place itself is simple. It's a furniture store. Nothing that would seem to be a high-priority target to rob, or anything like that. But instead, the police got their call because there's a corpse in every single piece of the furniture that could be "relaxed" in. Beds have dead people in sleeping positions. Bigger chairs have them slumped back and over as if reclining. The beat cops have the place cordoned off, but it's up to the detectives to figure it out.
Wu	What other place in the world looks like it should have a soundtrack by the dark strains of Barry Adamson on a bender while being populated by grotesques that come straight from the warped mind of Tom Waits? It certainly isn't Gotham; Gotham is nothing that tame. Still, in the absence of a better match, this pairing will have to do.     Alice gets the call as she opens the door to her apartment. It would be so easy to just ignore it. Everybody knows that "backwards" HKP placeholder has trouble with phones; they'd believe her that she didn't hear the call.     But something smells off. Something her colleagues aren't ready to deal with. It's time to go to work again.     After picking up a few items here and there from her cramped, weirdly-furnished apartment. Amulets and charms are sorted through, some pocketed, some left hanging where they are. Handgun magazines in racks, labelled in garish vermillion, are sorted through and a half-dozen are removed and secreted on her person. A quick flip through her rice paper pad in her pocket to double-check its contents. Then it's off to the races, stopping only to pick up a large tea, black as midnight, thick like oil.     "What have we got here?" she asks one of the shakey new cops, pale against his dark uniform.
Satana Hellstrom	"Weird as hell, Detective." One of the beat cops there offers. And honestly, when it's Gotham and the cops are calling it weird...it's probably pretty weird. "Buncha stiffs. All of 'em all burnt up. Just no signs of anything else burnin'." he offers in his Jersey accent to her.
Wu	"Burnt?" This engenders a mild eyebrow raise. "That's mildly unusual." Keep up that image of the weirdness of Hong Kong, Alice. It's what keeps people from screwing with you. "Keep anybody not a cop out. Tase if you have to. Tell them who the investigating officer is if they want added incentive to keep away." That footage of walking into a hail of gunfire while calmly killing gangsters makes for great PR if you want to be scary. They don't have to know about the cheating.     Alice steps in, her hand slipping around the jade amulet of Guanyin suspended from her neck by red silk. Her eyes dart all around the place, passing over the corpses for now as she searches for magical residue or presence. The dead can wait. They're not going anywhere. Hopefully.
Satana Hellstrom	The place is /soaking/ in magic. Concentrated around each of the corpses, like a left-over fingerprint, but the whole place is swimming in it. It all seems to be the same magic, or at least the same "fingerprint"...except there's a very different signature coming from the office in the back.
Wu	"CSU remains. Everybody else out. Sergeant?" She addresses the flatfoot in charge of the patrol officers. "Get your men out and around this building. I want every exit of this building covered by two cops in two minutes. No window, door, or even manhole cover is to have fewer than two pairs of eyes on it."     She lets her reputation do the work as she turns and faces the office, loosening the vest to free up the guns under each arm, not QUITE drawing them yet. Three minutes she gives, then she approaches the office, crumpling up a piece of paper from the sheaf of rice papers she sorted through while waiting. She gently opens the door a crack and flicks the paper inside, standing aside and closing her eyes as she peers inside the room from the paper's perspective.
Satana Hellstrom	The sergeant nods, complying, as they start to spread out and gets people surrounding the building. The paper picks up an office, in a bit of a state of disarray, and the presence of a woman in what may as well be a fetish outfit, with crazy long dark hair. She looks over to the paper, tilting her head. "Well, isn't THAT interesting." she says.
Wu	"Shit." Recited to herself without vehemence. Almost mantra-like. As if being spotted in the course of "cheating" her police-work were just the second Thursday of the month. One of the guns--lovingly inscribed with its name: Shooty--is slipped from its holster. The nearby CSU wonk looks up alarmed, looking even more discomfited as Alice puts her finger to her lips and then shoos him away. She fumbles with her papers and crumples another, one she swallows with some difficulty.     "Please put your hands over your head," she says as she brazenly walks into the office. "Even if it's pointless, it makes me feel better."
Satana Hellstrom	The brunette makes no move to put her hands over her head. Neither does she make any threatening moves. "Mmm. You have manners enough to say please. That counts for something. And you have some techniques that are...shall we say...not quite regulation. Interesting." She turns to face Alice. "And who might you be?"
Wu	Alice closes the office door quietly without taking her eyes off the woman, raking the near-black irises over the woman's form appraisingly.     "Detective Alice Gulliver, Hong Kong Police, attached to Gotham City Police Department," she says in a bored, well-rehearsed routine. "The other bits don't really matter for now," she adds obliquely.     She pauses momentarily, furrowing her brow, knitting her black eyebrows, in contrast to her shockingly red hair, together into a monobrow, almost. "You're not a sorceress. I'm going to guess you're not even human, though I can't yet place you. Not from my part of the world. Are you the cause of that?"     Her free thumb gestures out the door to the showroom.
Satana Hellstrom	"Of course not. Do I look like Chujiang to you?" The woman replies, sounding a little scornful. "Though, I admit, choosing a furniture store, that was, if nothing else, a little creative. I'm not your killer though, Detective Gulliver." She considers Alice. "You still have some magic about you. What is that?"
Wu	"It's a little thing that I picked up," Alice answers evasively. "I find it helpful in investigations."     She relaxes a little at the disclaimer; apparently she believes the woman's claim. "It's also good when the need arises to terminate the targets of investigations," she adds, her face a perfect mask of neutrality, her voice deadpan, her eyes concealing a bit of a threat. "That aspect doesn't appear to be needed now, however," she adds. "Your ... arts ... smell different than what made that. The question was a formality."     The gun is still out. And it, too, reeks of well-disguised, well-imbued magic. And the barrels leak magic that is less well-disguised. The aim point shifts, however, to be away from the woman. A small courtesy.
Satana Hellstrom	The brunette smiles even wider. "Politeness again. So much moreso than most of the police in this city. Really, in most cities. And yes; I'm a demon, not a Yama King. Queen." She looks at the gun. "Do you expect that to actually hurt me?" She'll take one step closer. It's almost a test; a challenge more than a threat.
Wu	"If you're a demon, yes, this will hurt you. It isn't anything I feel necessary to do at the moment." The face remains deadpan. Alice would kill at poker if she plays. "Both the guns and the bullets are prepared in ways that would hurt dragons if necessary. Please, however, do not approach closer." A smile flickers across her face. It's almost a friendly one and would be if it reached her eyes. "I have no desire to injure or dispel just because you have excessive curiosity. I have less desire, however, to fall sway to the tricks of your kind's trade."     The smile returns, this time apologetic.     "Self-preservation is more important to me. I'm not a very good Buddhist."
Satana Hellstrom	Satana watches, and almost seems pleased with Alice's response to her challenging step. "Well, then far be it from me to fall victim to your preparations, Detective. But for the moment, I think we have a mutual goal. You probably want to stop these killings. I want to stop these killings. So we find ourselves on the same side."
Wu	"Please forgive my cynicism," Alice replies after careful thought. "You are not my first from the underworld, you understand, and while I have many spiritual beings that are of no bother to me, and indeed a handful I number among friends, I have enough experience to know that I can't take them all at face value without ... corroboration."     The mask is pleasantly bland again, but something in the eyes hints at turmoil.     "Why do you, a demon, care about dead humans? Is this not what you want? Souls crying in pain before being torn from their bodies?"
Satana Hellstrom	"Of COURSE I do." Satana admits. "But for /my/ benefit. Not someone else's. You have a sorcerer in town. Someone invoking the power of the Yama Kings, to try a summoning ritual that will empower them. And honestly, the Yama Kings getting involved here in Gotham is...well...competition."     She smirks, and puts a hand on her hip. "I'm not claiming to be on your side, detective. I just don't need the competition. And as they say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, no?"
Wu	"The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy," Alice says with a short snort-like chuckle. "Friendship requires more than shared hatred. I'd prefer the ancient formulation: use barbarians to fight barbarians."     Beat.     "I'm not saying you're a barbarian," she clarifies, for the first time actual emotion crossing her face openly: surprised worry. It appears courtesy is important to her when dealing with the underworld. "Just the notion of using your enemies to fight your enemies."     Another pause.     "Presuming, naturally, we're enemies," she adds with an almost plaintive sigh, as if tired of a burden she shoulders.
Satana Hellstrom	Satana smiles. "Do your research; check up on the Diyu. You can make some educated guesses as to your prey's next stop, detective." Her expression slides a little to a smirk. "I'll be doing my own work. If you decide you want my help...well, we'll be seeing each other again." With a burst of brimstone and hellfire, the demoness is gone, leaving Alice in a pungent office.
Wu	Alice Gulliver flees for the evening. "I'll be back on to blather in about two hours or so."
Wu	Alice Gulliver says, "Be a ghost doing bad things. That always aggravates me."
Wu	Alice Gulliver says, "I can help ease you over to the spiritual realm..."
Wu	Alice Gulliver says, "If you don't want cheap shots, make the setups more expensive."
Satana Hellstrom	Satana is totally going to have to troll Hermione at some point. :)
Satana Hellstrom	Satana says, "Actually, the better trolling for Hermione isn't to put her in a bikini. It's to make her sound /exactly/ like Emma Watson as Hermione. :)"
Satana Hellstrom	Satana says, "My demonic motivation basically boils down to "for the lulz"."
Satana Hellstrom	Satana says, "All you people, with such a bad opinion of me. Tsk tsk."
Satana Hellstrom	Satana says, "Ugh. To try and get back to sleep, or just give up and stay up."
Satana Hellstrom	Satana is not sure booze would put me down this morning. Though I might care less.
Satana Hellstrom	Satana says, "If I could forget my body today, that would be specfriggingtacular."
Satana Hellstrom	Satana says, "Yes. You're either going to get <british accent>"Jeremy Irons, the act-or"<british accent> or you're going to get "Jeremy IIIIIRRRRROOOOOONNNNNSSSS!" the ham king."
Satana Hellstrom	Satana brings them back to Miss Moreau. "Hey, these just showed up, I think they belong to you."
Satana Hellstrom	Satana needs to like contract out these services. "How much does freedom from eternal damnation buy me?"
Satana Hellstrom	Satana says, "Vegan bacon is HORRIBLE. Some vegan things can be good and well done. Bacon is not one."
Satana Hellstrom	Satana has no idea why you people are ruining perfectly good sunbathing and swimming with clothes.
Satana Hellstrom	Satana is being eaten alive by work. Back when I can be.
Satana Hellstrom	Satana is a Princess of Hell. She's skilled in the black arts, all sorts of torture, wickedness and depravity. She is, one might say, an expert on evil.     But sometimes? Sometimes it's the petty trolling that gets her to laugh.     This is one of those days. She's walked right into the building. No one's made any serious challenge...any of the officers who have tried have gotten the dreamy eyes, the smile, the blown kiss...and just wrapped around her little finger. Not that she's worried about them; she's fairly certain that aside from the sorceress, she could obliterate everyone in the building without breathing hard.     Which is why it makes it so much fun. Because you get to be annoying without people having any say in the matter. So, stiletto high heels tick out a beat on the floor as she approaches Alice's desk. She's dressed...well, rather stripperifically. Six inch heels, a miniskirt that's so short it could qualify for indecent exposure, and a top that exposes a valley of cleavage. All in black, of course.     She walks right up to the desk, and sits herself on one of the corners, looking at Alice with amusement. "If it answers back, you've been working too long.
Satana Hellstrom	She feels the ward, of course. No need to test it. She's not here for a fight. She smirks a little. "And here I thought there'd be no shortage of women dressed as prostitutes in a Gotham Police Station." her voice has a dry tone. "Enjoying flailing ineptly at the computer?"
Satana Hellstrom	"I don't think either the nun or I would enjoy that much. One might say I'd have "nun" of it." Yes, she will even descend to puns when trolling. "Besides, you can't expect me to not be curious. I can't imagine the GCPD has many practicing witches on staff." She knows full well that's not Alice's magical tradition.
Satana Hellstrom	Satana looks surprised at the open discussion...and then notices the coincidental absences of Alice's colleagues. "Oh, that is very, very good work. Very subtle. My congratulations." She looks impressed. "So...any progress on our little want-to-be Yama King?"
Satana Hellstrom	Satana smiles. "I knew I liked you. Clever. It befits both your professions. And this sorcerer isn't one of the Kings. Just trying to perform a ritual to steal a measure of their power." She looks amused at Alice's inspection. "Satana Hellstrom." She figures her name is well enough known to an occultist this well trained as to not need further explanation; being Satan's daughter makes one a bit of a celebrity.
Satana Hellstrom	"You struck me as a woman more interested in business than pleasure. But if you insist..." And then, just to see where they stand, she'll exert her magic, as she looks at Alice. Mind control is one of her specialties, and her power lashes out with almost violent swiftness as it attempts to seize the sorceress' will.
Satana Hellstrom	Satana says, "Tsk tsk. Daddy may be busy, but you people manage plenty of evil all on your own."