View source for 2020.10.28 Not as Weird as You Think

{{Infobox Log
|name      = Not as Weird as You Think
|summary   = A Doomslayer's investigations leads him to the Coroner's Office
|icdate    = Oct 28, 2020
|ictime    = Early Evening
|players   = [[Floyd]] [[Kinsey]]
|location  = County Coroner's Office
|spheres   = Wraith, Mortal+
|themesong = 
}}

[[Category:logs]][[category:Floyd]][[category:Kinsey]][[category:The City Must Survive]]
=Setting=

A long sterile hallway stretches out through the center of the building, branching off into various other hallways, doors and offices. Along the first section are numbered exam rooms with no windows and all have secure key card entries. Branched hallways lead to meeting rooms, private offices and departments. Security cameras are posted at every intersection and corner, keeping a very close eye on everything that goes on in this government facility. 

=Scene=

It's on the quiet side this time of night, most of the offices are closed and dark. There's the night security up front, and in the back walks Dr. Kinsey Jackson. She has several folders in her arms, and the less than corporeal form of a late sixties man of ample proportions. He's going off about something, and doesn't seem to be inclined to stop any time soon. She is doing her best to pretend he isn't there, at least for the majority of the hallway. When they reach one of the exam rooms she opens the door up and gives the old guy a dirty look, stepping inside and holding the door open longer than is necessary; even in her ire she is polite.
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It was easy for Floyd to go around and snoop and get information. Now that he has skin, and a body, of flesh, it is far more difficult. A cold breeze hits the hallway as Floyd, dressed as he is, appears...out of nowhere...Thank you, Argos for still working in the skinlands!...in the hallway. With a Sledgehammer slung over his shoulder looking at Kinsey and the ghostly man.
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The old man starts to walk into the room, Kinsey opening her mouth to say something to him. Scolding. "George, I've told you a dozen times now..." And then suddenly there's another man there in the hallway. She jumps as the breeze washes over and her head turns to look back out of the exam room, wide eyes blinking. "Who are you?" She demands, a bit of starch straighting her petite frame. "You can't be back here."
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Floyd eyes the ghost, and then Kinsey. He lets out a breath. "Sorry ma'am, but this isn't a social call. You have something I need to look at." He says to Kinsey. "Bodies with markings and symbols on them. I need to look at them." He eyes the old man for a few moments, then looks back to Kinsey. "You're haunted."
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Kinsey narrows her eyes at him, "You have no idea." Then just waves a hand at George, "George is just having trouble accepting that it was the THIRD helping of his wife's bread pudding that did him in and not Rat Poison." Her eyes roll over to the old man that's hovering. "Every test George. It was a heart attack. She did not off you for your scratch ticket winnings." The old guy looks offended, but after a look at Floyd seems to decide now is Not The Time and dissappears out of sight. She looks back to him then. "I'm not going to see a badge if I ask you for one, am I." statement and not question.
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Floyd arches a brow. After several seconds of telling the ghost what he didn't want to hear and then vanishing, he looks back to Kinsey. "No." He says flatly. "Do I look like someone who has a badge?" He points to himself. Biker garb. Sledgehammer. Not exactly John Q State Police. "I'm not here for trouble, but I need to see those bodies. To keep something worse from happening. Word among the dead is you have 'em here. If you dont mind. You can watch, if you insist."
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Kinsey sighs, "There was the vain hope that you were undercover or something." her tone dry and tired sounding. She reaches up and runs her fingers over her forehead, rubbing slowly as she considers. It looks like she might have locked up for a minute, but the hand eventually drops and she walks back out of that room to head down the hallway past him. "Yeah, you're not getting alone time." A few doors down and she pulls some keys out of her pocket, unlocking the door to the stairwell. "They're in the basement. Long term storage."
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Floyd watches as you wish, in vain, that this would somehow be a normal call. The act makes him chuckle. "You sound like me. How much I wish the Quick would act like Quick around here and not have an entire city who knows about you. I sympathize." He watches you open up the basement door and nods. "It'll get weird. But by the sounds of it that won't phase you." He puts the sledge into an O ring hanging from a belt at his side as he passes by Kinsey. The cold wind hits again, especially because Floyd is cold to the touch when he passes you. Not minding going down first. "Bodies found on an oil freighter right?" He says.
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Kinsey shakes her head and closes the door behind them, following down the two flights of stairs until they reach a door that says Cold Storage. "This isn't even the wierdest thing that's happened this week." The keys still in hand she moves around to open the door again, nodding. "Yup. Brought them here myself." The room they move into is large, only a few examination tables in here. It is largely used for long term body storage, so the walls are lined with little silver doors three high. "It's been a while, what's the sudden interest?" She heads towards the far wall and starts opening up doors, popping several in the middle row.
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"It's not?" Floyd asks you, letting you open the door and then following you in. "I've been busy dealing with other issues. This one was supposedly being handled...but recent events have made me decide to take a look myelf." He tells you. He waits as you open the doors. "There may be more going on than what is being considered." He waves a hand to you. "I mean..beyond the already weird-level it already has."
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Kinsey steps to the side, leaving him to pull out what bodies he wants after she marks them with opened doors. Her arms fold, "Nope. Opened a guy up Sunday night that had an intact human hand in his stomach. No bite or chew marks other than where it was severed at the wrist. Died of a broken neck. Wierd shit is my business." Motioning with one hand, "So what do you think you'll find that I couldn't?"
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Floyd approaches the opened doors and pulls out a few of the bodies. Some of the fresher ones, then two of the decaying ones. "Figures." He shoves the decaying ones back into cold storage, not even bothering with them. It's the fresh ones that Floyd seems interested in. He doesn't mind putting his hands on the bodies as he looks them over. "....ritual killings." He stands upright and lets out a breath. "Same as the others." He purses his lips. "Undying with ritual killings...Cauled too." He frowns, seeming to glean things from the bodies with nothing more than looking at them. "It is possible that the Tamerlane is part of a bigger play. Wait." He looks back to Kinsey. "Did you just say a guy had an unmauled hand in his stomach??" ...Kinsey gets a gold star.
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Kinsey manages to shock the guy that just appeared out of thin air, it does seem to please her on some sort of level. "Yup. It had to of happened close to time of death, the stomach acid hadn't had time to do any damage. No damage around the mouth or jaw, so it wasn't forced down there either." She walks over and looks down at the man, her head tilting in thought. A small furrow in her brow as she asks. "Did someone kill them specifically so they could Caul them after? Were they harvested?" she looks up at him with an arch to her brow.
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Floyd looks back at you and huhs. "Well no shit." He looks back at the bodies. "I guess I should just leave all this be then. If that's your tuesday I'd hate to see what your night off looks like." He says, sliding a body back into the fridge. "They were definately reaped." He says, not even batting an eyelash when it seems you understand the lingo. "The question is why, and by whom." He says. "Slavers got two of the victims, but they didnt know about anyone else being Cauled." He stands up and looks pensive. "And then there's the Undying." He goes to one of the decayed bodies and pulls it out again. "My intel says the group who killed them were spaniards. Well...more specifically Aztec. If that's the case then these." He points. "Don't jive."
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Kinsey shudders a little as he mentions slavers, "Even after physical death we still manage to be shits to each other." She looks at the bodies then back to him. "It doesn't hurt to have second set of eyes that knows what they're looking at." comes the reluctant concession. "And I hadn't had luck with any of the runes, if they mean anything beyond trapping the Enfants." She does seem to know the lingo, enough to follow along. There is a word that seems to catch her attention. "Undying?"
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Floyd nods. "Another term is Risen. The dead who put back on their meatsuit." He tells you. "Well the symbols are apparently just symbolic. Nothing magical. Some occult medium group whose behind what's going on." He says. "Apparently it was a membership thing." He takes the decaying corpse and plays around with it. Looking for something. He doesn't find what he's looking for. "And no symbol on these either. Which means it wasn't any Aztec spook. Can't put your suit back on if it's nothing but bones, which means these guys weren't part of the cult OR team evil." He frowns. "And that...is what I am worried about."
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Kinsey pauses in thought as she watches him continue to look the body over. "That sounds...messy." She sighs and reaches to cover the bodies he's done with back up, tucking them back into their coolers. "So...they were just packing around dried out husks? Or did they turn them into that." her finger motions at the corpse that has his attention. "I'm figuring you're worried about something specific?"
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Floyd shakes his head. "When they were wearing them?" He looks over at you. "No they looked like me." He looks back to the decaying one he is looking at. "When they leave, this is what happens. Think like...death playing catch up from someone fucking around." He gestures to the corpse. "My guess is, they were active when the cult people died. They were probably the ones that killed them. Let loose something, but I don't know much else beyond that." He frowns. "Things just haven't added up. Spectres don't usually make grand moves this coordinated. Even the Dopplegangers get the bug to backstab and ruin everything. This is way too precise. Too clean." He shakes his head. "There's about 5 entrances to the Labyrinth in Prospect. A ghost ship comes out nowhere with unknown Risen hauling sorcerous mediums and a boogeyman. Hitmen gunning for freewraiths." He shakes his head. "Now reapers." He runs a thumb over his chin. "Someone's playing murder hobo on both sides of the Shroud."
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Kinsey finishes putting the other bodies away as he talks, keeping an eye on him as she absorbs the information. Her hand pauses on one of the doors, a soft sigh slipping out before she clicks it shut. "So you're thinking this isn't over then? That there might be another round?" Her heels click on the vinyl flooring as she walks back and stops at the feet of the last body left out, eyes focusing on him. "And what's your part in all of it? Looking to stop it or looking to get in on it?" There's no judgement in her voice, but she does seem wary still.
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Floyd nods. "Possibly." He continues giving the corpse a pensive look as he rubs the stubble of his chin. When you come over near him he slowly raises his eyes to consider you. "Stop it. Hopefully." He looks back down to the corpse. "Last thing the city needs is everything happening downstairs to start crawling up here and culling folks for the funzies."
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Kinsey nods, her look lingering before slowly turning back to the body. "Well, as long as we only get more fresh ones, the local PD will likely keep thinking this is just some wierd cult thing. I mean it sounds like it is, but they won't get too worried. Serial Killer worried." She motions to the dried out one in front of them. "These on the other hand..." Softly sighing again her shoulders move in a shrug. "They usually stick me on the strange stuff, but if they start stacking up it'll go above my pay grade."
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Floyd nods. "Well. Here is hoping. With these here, that means the restless who rose are still out there. Maybe I can tap some contacts...see if they haven't heard anything on the grapevine." He continues to look pensive, before pushing the body back into the fridge and closing it. "That was all I needed. Thank you for letting me." He says. He pats himself down and pulls out his wallet, pulling out a 50 and passing it to you. "Here you go. For your trouble. Do something normal this saturday. Sounds like you need it."
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Kinsey walks to the table to pick up her folders, waiting for him to follow after. When the money comes out she looks offended, there's no getting around that expression as it stamps itself on her face. "I didn't let you down here for money. I let you down here because I don't want this happening again and I was at a dead end." Both hands firmly folded around the paperwork she doesn't reach for it. "I work hard to try and help those that come through our doors to find a little bit of peace, or the justice that was taken from them when they were murdered. I'm going to pretend you didn't just do that so I don't have to tell you where to shove it. Now. I don't suppose you have a phone number I can call if something else shows up?"
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"You can tell me where to shove it. It makes no difference to me. I have no use for it." Floyd seems unphased by the change of tone. "Everyone needs a break. Even the dead." He just drops the 50 on a nearby table then pockets the wallet. "The living too." He does indeed follow after you grab some paperwork. When you ask for a phone number he gives you one. "Take it from someone who scrawls around Oblivion's backyard for a living cleaning it out."
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Kinsey writes the number down on the outside of the folder, then turns to lead him back up the stairs. The money is left on the table. Lights are turned out and things are locked up as they make the trip back to the main floor. "Name?" Her hand slides into her labcoat pocket and digs around, coming out with a card that she holds out for him to take. "I'd appreciate a heads up if you find anything that may end up on my slab in return for the help."
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Floyd follows you up to the main floor. He takes the card and looks it over. "Sure. I'll let you know." He pockets the card. When you ask for his name he is quiet for a moment then says. "...Floyd." He responds.
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Kinsey writes it down too, then looks down the hallway. "I don't suppose you can leave the same way you got in? There are cameras at the dock entrance and security is up front. I'll get hell for having a visitor that didn't sign in."
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Kinsey doesn't need to ask twice. By the time she is finished making her request, Floyd is already gone.
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 Kinsey receives IC contact information for [[Beckett]]