Mage the Ascension: Rule of Shade

[LadyTevar]

"That is a thought, Jason," Supiyaw admitted, before looking at Boxer. "Where is James? Has he found anything?"

[Comrade Tortoise]

"That is definitely a possibility, which brings us to several hypotheses we need to test" said Russell

"And yes, everything wrong in the world is our fault"

[frigidmagi]

"James is working in his room. I'll get him in a bit," Boxer said.

[LadyTevar]

Supiyaw laid the picture down, the pentagram clear. "I'm nearly positive this is what the bodies are supposed to 'draw'," she explained again so Boxer and Jason would be caught up. "If James is able to get an overhead view of the Quad, we could find out where the next body will be dumped, and stop them there."

[Charon]

Jason grinned. "Don't bother." The young man walked over to Supiyaw, grinning. "I'm a math whiz, remember? Give me a map, and a few minutes, and I can probably find you the point. But knowing where they dump the body won't do us a lick of good right? Because we still won't know what day it's done on right? So we need the dates of the bodies being found so we can find the pattern. And even then, that isn't the real answer to the problem."

The smile faded from the young man and he got a deadly serious look in his eyes, one Supiyaw wasn't certain she had ever seen. "Whoever these fuckers are, they are killing people, and they are messing with the cycle of life. They need to be stopped before they do it again."

[B4UTRUST]

James showed up at the top of the stairs, holding the print outs.
"Someone say my name? Never fear, I... is here."

He came down the stairs and tossed the printouts onto the table.
"Overhead view of the quad's in there, along with notations and markers to where the bodies were found. Reports from the most recent and the second murders, photos, all the gory details and fun facts, kiddies.

"So, now, what have you got that I've missed?"

[LadyTevar]

"There was a dragon protecting the Quad, and it was not happy to see us," Supiyaw said as she stepped forward and handed James the picture of the pentagram in human entrails. "But first, please tell me I am wrong and the bodies do not make three points of this symbol."

[B4UTRUST]

James took the paper and studied it for a moment.
"You're wrong. The bodies don't make three points of the symbol. I'm also smaller than Ron Jeremy and less attractive than Brad Pitt," he stated completely seriously and deadpan, no hint of mischief or humor in his eyes or on his face.

"Now, to answer your question without blatant lies, lets see here... Um, hmmm..." James worked, mentally changing scales on his quad picture while overlaying Supiyaw's pentagram on top of it, in his mind.
"I'd say they're fairly close. Within a meter or so of being true. But I'd have to run the simulations to be absolutely sure, but my math should be about right. Are we considering something from this?"

[LadyTevar]

"This may be the only time I will not be happy to be proven right," Supiyaw drawled mournfully, looking over to Jason, who knew her longest. "You may want to mark that down on the calendar...."

She then looked to the rest of the men in the room in turn. "As I said before... we know a body has shown up every week. We know now where the killers will be bringing the next one, but not where the killing is done. Do we wait for next week, or is there another option?"

And she frowned slightly. "Did someone call Stark yet?"

[Cynical Cat]

"My call should have reached him if he is in house," said Arkady. "Perhaps he cook his brain with Technocracy gadget."

[Comrade Tortoise]

"If he is willing to try it, Boxer and his Time magics might give us more information. I can only find strong memories, peering into the recent past me help us more. It would be less... fuzy"

[SirNitram]

"Or I was trapped in board of the directors hell." Stark said to Arkady's comments. "Sorry, but talking to yourself in front of a dozen people tends to induce 'Dox." The Technocrat swept back into the chambers, looking between the assembled.

As to the options presented, a slow nod. "Investigation to try and find the place of death is good.. But we should be ready to show up armed for bear on the time they'll deposit the body. We stop them when we can."

[B4UTRUST]

"Use one of the bodies or blood from it and try to find a match for its pattern in the area. A few of us here can manipulate space enough to find it, if it's possible. Just have to get a hold of the body or blood. No way is going to be easy for this one."

James shrugged.
"Any other suggestions or ideas?"

[LadyTevar]

Supiyaw was close enough to give James a hug. "Perfect! Rule of Contagion!"

It was a basic occult principle: like calls to like. A spell cast on someone's belongings will reflect on that person.

[Comrade Tortoise]

"Alright. So what is the easiest way of getting the body or blood. The morgue is too secure, but we might be able to do a bit of grave robbery"

[B4UTRUST]

James returned the hug enthusiastically before leaning in and whispering something in her ear. He grinned before releasing her.

"Alright, options, here we go. They're young college students. Hit their dorms. Find a hairbrush, makeup kit, toothbrush, tampon, lipstick, what the fuck ever. Find something that has their pattern on it. To answer the next question, we check the records I pulled, we check the phone book or we hack into the campus computer network and pull up the housing assignments.

"After that, Jason, Arkady, and I make a trip to the campus. We bypass, manipulate and work our way through security to their rooms, grab the goods and get back here. Anyone still here who can remotely monitor spacial locations can keep track of our progress and the campus as a whole. Once we get back here, we can co-locate the patterns to wherever the killings happened, hopefully.

"Now, to stave off questions about why I say Jason, Arkady and I, it's for purely physical reasons. One, Arkady's accent is going to drive some women wild, easier to manipulate. Two, you've got three young, good looking guys. Plus the accent. Yeah. Lets see how many women we can con into swiping us through security.

"Now, any objections, questions, complaints or thoughts?"

[SirNitram]

"Keep the communications lines open when you're in there." Offered Stark. "Because we really don't know who we're dealing with. You get a wiff of a Sanitation team removing the evidence, you abort, lay low."

[LadyTevar]

Supiyaw was enjoying the return hug when James whispered in her ear and surprised her. She blinked a couple times as he grinned down at her, then returned the grin with a brief, low purr.

As he released her and expounded his idea, she stepped back and listened. It was a good plan, and he picked the right men for the job. As James teased Arkady about the accent, Supiyaw had to smile. Arkady had a very nice body to go with the accent.

Hell, why lie to herself. They ALL had nice bodies, even Stark who had the best Technology could clone, although she wasn't interested in seeing if it was 'fully functional'. As Stark added his warning, Supiyaw's eyes subtly roamed over the men, having to admit to herself that while she had her favorites in mind, she wouldn't mind taking each of them for a test drive....

Even Jason. Hmm... maybe next time I wake him I'll do it in human form...

[Comrade Tortoise]

Russell nodded. The plan seemed good

"The curse of being older. If you guys want, I can keep a window open and Scan people to see if they remember anything about the victims right before the murder, or can scan the rooms for latent memories."

At the mention of latent memories inside college dorms Russell had a somewhat amusing thought. He looked over at Supijaw and decided to try something. Maybe alert her to his thoughts.

He looked over and winked at her.

[B4UTRUST]

"Go for it. And hey, just switch to a pipe, get yourself a bad tweed jacket with some elbow patches and start quoting bad Frost poems and you could pass yourself off as a professor. Maybe even convince a dumb girl or two to sleep with you in exchange for a better grade."

James grinned and pulled out his cell phone and flipped it open.
"We'll keep in contact. I'll tunnel us a secure cross-spatial channel from this to the house line if I suspect unwanted listeners on the mundane channels."

[LadyTevar]

The wink came just as Supiyaw was glancing to Russell, and it made her pause for a moment wondering what the wink was for. Funny, she had thought he was gay from the body language. Her eyes flickered over him, before she wink him a quick wink back before looking and listening again to James. Perhaps Russell was bi, then. That could have interesting possibilities.

[Comrade Tortoise]

"That actually isn't a bad idea and I may have to do so sometime, and you will be surprised how dumb college students, male and female, can be...However, there are already a few people trying to get in, I wouldnt want to put that in more risk. Anything that needs doing I can do from here"

He then proceeded to grin, and do a provocative eyebrow raise at Supiyaw after she winked back. She had caught on! That Minx.

[SirNitram]

"I can get into position to respond quickly, if things go bad. It's just frankly easier to swoop in with the Mirrorshade Denials than try and 'Gate ya out." Stark offered. "Other than that.. Well, don't do anything I would've have when I still had my own body."

[LadyTevar]

"Should we do what you didn't do?" Supiyaw drawled, feigning ignoring Russell for the moment. "From your stories, that might be the shorter list, Stark."

well well... if I'd known all of them would start flirting with me like this, I'd have revealed myself sooner. Arkady, James, and now Russell.. Her eyes drifted to Boxer, who'd been silently listening to everyone. ... and one who blushes whenever I get too close.

[Charon]

Jason was trying very hard to ignore everyone else in the room's blatant inuendos as he thought. "I can get in and out of dorm rooms no problem. I'll need to know which room was the victims and we'll need to make certain that the roommate is gone, but it's really easy to get into a dorm and I can break into a room no sweat."