5554/Sacred Eyes Show You The Pain

Sacred Eyes Show You The Pain
Date of Scene:	09 November 2017
Location:	Ga-Rei Japan <GR>
Synopsis:	Yomi's friends are called to a house where something suspicious is going on. What could possibly go wrong?
Cast of Characters:	Yomi Isayama, 342, Reiji Arisu, Rebecca Chambers, Lexicon, 1106, 707

---

Yomi Isayama has posed:
Not long ago, a broadcast was sent out to public frequencies. Though fairly staticky, Yomi's voice was unmistakeable: "Going to need some help. More Category Cs than I expected! If anyone can help me clear this out, I'd appreciate it!" An address follows.

The address, it turns out, is a fairly large, old house on the outskirts of town. Darkness of night is approaching, the owls are letting out soft hoots as they wake up, the crickets just starting to chirp. And a storm is rolling in, judging by the distant sounds of thunder, though it hasn't started raining yet.

The gates to the house are wide open, and only one window on the second floor has a light in it. Aside from the sounds of the coming storm and of the night, the only thing of note is a man standing near the gates, looking quite surprised to see anyone showing up. Specifically... it seems to be a policeman. "Are you the backup I was told was coming? I didn't expect..." He pauses and just gestures vaguely.

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    By now, Nozomi Houken has come to look at Yomi as a friendly face. There's something reassuring about her. So hearing that Yomi needs help? Of course the TIGER-user is gonna come running. Or rather, she's gonna come riding. Because Taiga can run far faster than she can, of course. The heavy mechatiger's full-tilt run is a constant rumblethud-rumblethud, carrying him over the road at breakneck pace, far faster than an ordinary person OR tiger could run. And Nozomi herself only leans into the charge, expression tense.

    As they scamper to a stop in front of the house, Taiga doesn't even bother to crouch down - Nozomi's not getting off. This is a little too urgent. "I am an autonomous, anti-supernatural unit. I am perfectly suited to hunting the entities currently threatening this city. Please, give directions quickly; Isayama Yomi is potentially in danger." Nozomi herself only nods, quiet but worried.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
Well. This certainly is ominous enough.

Reiji walks up to the policeman at the gate just as a tongue of lightning booms across the distant horizon. "Didn't expect this much firepower?" Reiji helps, pulling his Official Badge out of his pocket and lets it hinge open. Paladins have badges. They're cops. They get badges.

"That's us, yes. Reiji Arisu. This is the location?" He glances at the gate, then back to the cop. "Looks pretty typical. Can you give us a sitrep?"

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
Unlike Nozomi, who's making quite the entrance, Rebecca Chambers is not so keen about making her presence known right now. Instead, she approaches the house with a cautious demeanor, keeping an eye out for anything that might be waiting to get her or any possible traps. Hey, it could happen, you never know.

Once Rebecca arrives, she can only scoff for a moment at the sight of the old house, complete with the creepy atmosphere and impending thunderstorm. At least there's a police officer there who seems to be on their side. Rebecca walks up to him and salutes. "Rebecca Chambers. We're here to assist in any way possible." Her voice is firm yet respectful, almost as if the cautious demeanor has been thrown to the wind for the time being.

Lexicon has posed:
    About a block away, a bus stops. When it starts up again, turning a corner and motoring away, the white-clad Drive Core Controller of Britannica stands underneath the bus stop sign, checking a small pamplet map. When she's certain this was the right stop for the address provided, the paper disappears in a flicker of pixellated light and she crosses the street, trotting along the sidewalk at an almost-jog.

    Spotting Nozomi and Taiga, and Reiji-- All familiar faces-- Lexicon's pace slows and she brings her hand out by her side. A flicker of pixellated light elongates into a distinctive shape, then scatters, and she hefts her hammer up over her shoulder during those last few steps.

    "If you're going to give us information or advice, go ahead," she implores, "But don't try to turn us away."

Tamamo no Mae (1106) has posed:
    Tamamo's sitting on Taiga's back behind Nozomi, holding the little 'mouse' close for protection, "Ah, this is comfortable." she mutters, fortunately for the mechatiger, she's lighter than she seems. That... and Tamamo's feeling lazy enough. "You know I'm going to help whenever you of all people say it's important, Master." she smiles, her tail twitching behind her. "After all, your allies are mine too." she nods with a firm look upon her face. Tamamo's not gonna get left behind with her Husband galavanting off to who knows where in danger...

    Once they arrive, not even Tamamo's getting off her new found ride, "It would be good to let us know /where/, after all, Tamamo has express interest in keeping this place safe, you know!" a small cough, "Tamamo has work here, and my Husband's ally needs help!" She looks around at everyone else gathered... there was at least /two/ familiar faces here. Reiji and Xiaomu... but Rebecca and Lexicon's visual isn't too familiar to her.

    "More allies?"

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"One of these days," remarks Xiaomu, "I'm going to get a copy of the classification table this world uses for apparitions and other noctural bump-goers, and I'm going to copy it onto my phone so I can look it up in a hurry. Or maybe get Professor to rig up an app that'll display the summary when a call comes through like this."

She's standing a little behind Reiji at the moment, basically letting him take care of socialization, but the fact that it's a policeman greeting them - or at least somebody who appears to be one - rather than Yomi herself does not go unnoticed. Particularly given the dark and stormy look of the house, with an actual storm warming up its lungs in the not-great distance.

"... Y'know, I hate to be That Fox, but could we see your badge for a moment before we go inside and set about our business?" Xiaomu adds after a moment. Something about this *already* doesn't feel like it's adding up. Either that, or maybe she hasn't had time enough to relax since Halloween. (Whose idea was it to import a holiday that's all about spooks, specters, and other supernatural nasties to a country that has a rich and vibrant tradition of some of the weirdest and most dangerous phantoms in the known world, anyway?)

Yomi Isayama has posed:
The policeman looks doubtful as more shows up, but he just sighs and shakes his head. "Didn't expect you to be so young." As the light from the street lamp flickers, it seems like the man must be at least in his 40s. "Heh... I know I can't judge that, though. Some of you are about the age of my daughter. She just had a son the other day, you know? Look at me, only grandfather in the precinct. They're all calling me Old Man now..."

The policeman blinks a few times. "Ah, sorry. Went rambling there for a bit. I'm Officer Nakamura. My partner Yamamoto went in to investigate about fifteen minutes ago, but something around here is blocking our radios." He glances at Xiaomu, then Taiga, then Tamamo, then back to Xiaomu, not sure if the foxes and robot cats are stranger than the short girls with huge hammers. Nakamura does produce his badge, showing that he's an officer from a precinct office across town. "We were called in by a neighbor reporting screams coming from inside that place, but I haven't heard anything since getting here. Yamamoto said to come in after him if he didn't check in after fifteen minutes, so..." Almost reluctantly, he begins advancing toward the gates. "I'm sure you're all capable, but stay behind me. I'd feel like I wasn't doing my job letting someone from out of town go into danger while I stay safe..."

He's visibly nervous about this, but he pulls out a flashlight and walks to the front door. The grounds seem normal enough, if a bit spooky due to the lack of light. Trees and bushes cast odd shadows, a few moths flitter by, owls hoot... and the thunder gets louder. "Hello?" Nakamura calls out as he pushes the front door open and steps inside, shining his flashlight around.

Then the flashlight bulb goes out with a soft *pop* and Nakamura drops it in surprise. "What the.."

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    Oh, this isn't a headquarters or the like, it's the actual site. Nozomi looks briefly confused, then a tad embarrassed, but she turns her head to look over her shoulder at Tamamo. "I guess this is it." She carefully slides off the robotiger's back; Taiga won't move until Tamamo's off as well, but once she is, he turns to head in through the doors, looking only briefly towards Reiji and Xiaomu, and not even batting an eye at Rebecca's arrival. "Sensors honed to maximum sensitivity. I-" Pop. Nozomi jumps with a tiny little yelp.

    "...switching to UV/IR visual mode. I will not be hindered by the dark."

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
"Well, I do admit I am a bit young, yes." Rebecca forces a smile. "I am eighteen years old. You would be surprised how many people say that about me." She neutralizes her look again and then sighs. "Creepy old mansion with something funny going on. Story of my life." She then shakes her head and says, "Come on, Rebecca! You're supposed to be a professional! Act like one!"

With that, Rebecca loads a clip into her Beretta and turns on the flashlight, following behind the police officer to offer him cover if need be. She would shush him when he calls out hello, but declines to knowing that it would be even more unprofessional of her to shush a police officer. Besides, she's technically a police officer as well in a sense.

Speaking of senses, Rebecca's sense of vision diminishes a little as her flashlight goes out as well and she gasps a little. "W-what's going on?" She asks, starting to feel her pulse move into high gear.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
"Oh, Nozomi. Good to see you," Reiji calls over as the other figures materialize out of the haze of dusk. "I see you've brought your fox as well. Fine and good. Have you been doing well?"

There's a beat as Xiaomu (wisely) interrogates the policeman about his credentials. It was probably fine, but better safe than sorry with these things. "You don't have to worry about age with us, Officer. I have it on good authority that our average age is somewhere in the hundreds."

Xiaomu alone accounts for almost a thousand years, after all!

"Screams are nothing good. It sounds like you could use some backup." Reiji advances after the officer. The landscaping of the huge house is... 'creepy' is a good way to put it. There's a spooky air to it. The shadows are too thick. The thunder too near. Reiji's lips draw into a tight line. "While I admire your sense of duty, please, don't hesitate to allow us to take the front if things go bad--"

The lights die. Reiji clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth and darts in front of the officer. His crimson sword comes away from its sheath with a sudden /roar/ of flame. A literal torch to replace an electric one. "Stay calm. Don't worry, this isn't too bad."

Yet.

What was a class C again? Maybe they SHOULD invest in one of those charts. "So," he says, trying to keep the man's attention off the fact his flashlight just died /without/ him tripping any more death flags. "Tell us about this partner of yours. What does he look like, exactly? Anything we need to know if we run into him?"

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu doesn't know the arrangement of precincts hereabouts all that well, but the badge looks legit enough to her, so she relaxes a little. At least they have plenty of allies, all familiar faces - even Tamamo no Mae is kind of a welcome sight; Xiaomu has a fair sense of what the Casterfox is capable of and she's glad (if in an understated way) to know that kind of power is on the same side Xiaomu herself is.

There's a piece of her that wants to debate the point when Nakamura takes the lead, but ... well, if he's *that* dubious about what the Multiversal responders can do, arguing the case won't do a whole lot of good and is more likely to come off as grossly unprofessional. She's not reaching for her handguns, though - she just lets Nakamura lead the group, whatever order people are sorting themselves out into.

*pop*

The sage fox's only outward reaction is to prick her ears up as far as they'll angle, letting her eyes adjust to the returning darkness. "Something tells me we know why Officer Yamamoto hasn't gotten back in touch with you yet," she says mildly. "Might I suggest that those of us who can see conveniently in the dark should maybe take the lead?"

Xiaomu pauses briefly. "And by the way, Officer Nakamura, with all due respect? ... Dealing with things which go bump in the night is what some of us do for a living normally. We may be dealing with something here that would eat a full clip of your bullets like they were hors d'ouvres at a dinner party; we've got other offensive options which are likely to be a good bit more effective."

Reiji draws Karin, which is probably a fairly good idea in terms of providing light for the regular humans to see by. Xiaomu is still inclined to have Reiji at her back right now, rather than holding up a BLAZING SWORD OF ANTI-YOUKAI JUSTICE which is going to go right back to fouling up her night vision. (So much for letting her partner take the lead, but. At least she's motivated!)

Lexicon has posed:
    "I appreciate your concern," Lexicon explains, "But in relative terms I'm actually older than you." While the officer further explains the situation, her eyes wander to the house itself. While considering the run down exterior, one eye closes and she lets out an appraising sound. The interaction between his badge and Xiaomu's inquiry is noted but accepted, and she offers, "At the very least we'll have your back."

    Her grip shifts up the hammer's haft to the base of the head, so she can comfortably hold it one-handed, and she follows along behind and to one side of the officer, eyes scanning the grass as well. Gaze wandering back to the house the party is approaching, and she frowns.

    This feels a bit too similar to some of the Tower's floors for her liking.

    POP

    Lexicon jerks, free hand going to the haft of her hammer, though once she realizes it was just the flashlight, she relaxes again. Reiji's already on top of things with light (from a sword, no less) so she simply keeps out of the way, inspecting the front room now that it is bathed in firelight.

    "Nakamura, tell me about this house. Who was the last tenant? How long has it been like this?"

Tamamo no Mae (1106) has posed:
    Tamamo indeed hops off her borrowed technomount, there's a brief nod, listening to the officer there. She doesn't say much, just listening to what he had to say, letting others take the lead here. There's a pause though, a look towards Reiji, "I /have/ a name, you know." her voice sounds slightly irritated, "I see you brought you own Caster too, an inferior one if I say so myself." she comments in return, following behind her Master.

    She pauses a moment, "Master, it may do you best to get into the Regalia, I don't want you injured if something was to interfere with us. You can get out to ... combine... with your robot again, if the need arises, ok?" she holds her hand out towards Nozomi, teleporting her to Ringspace, to get comfortable assuming she doesn't fight back on it or declines it. "Tamamo only wants whats best for you~"

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    Nozomi blinks, but then nods. "...yeah, alright, I... alright." It really is safer; not perfectly safe, but much safer. So she fades into a mote of light, that flies right into the gem on Caster's ring.

Yomi Isayama has posed:
"Yamamoto? He's a good kid. Just his second year on the force. I heard he had a bad breakup a few weeks back, and he's been really throwing himself into his work lately." Better than getting married next week, right?

An odd thing happens as everyone walks inside. Communication doesn't cut off completely, but any attempt to radio out is filled with static, and something about the place just feels Wrong to anyone with supernatural senses. Or common senses, really. This place may be a normal house, but it's creepy. The sound of thunder comes closer, even as various magical swords light the hallway, casting long shadows. It seems like a normal, if very old, house, but there are no lights anywhere. "I appreciate you looking out for me, but this is a criminal investigation as much as anything else. I don't know anything about those bumps in the night you're talking about." Seems Nakamura has about as much spiritual senses as a jar of mayonnaise. He's just a normal human, after all. "...I won't complain about you all sticking close, though."

Nakamura glances back to Lexicon. "There's a sweet old couple who's been living here since before I was born. I think their granddaughter's been living with them since last month. The neighbors were worried someone broke in when they heard that scream..." He pauses and holds an arm out. "Shhh! Do you hear that?"

Sure enough, anyone who listens carefully will hear the sound of very soft sobbing coming from a room on the right, with the door partly open. Nakamura steps forward slowly, reaching for the door... and the light from the weapons glows softly into the room. It casts some disturbing shadows, but most of those are probably just normal things seen in the dim light.

What does become clear is that there's a young woman kneeling on the floor, hands covering her face as she cries. She's facing the door... or rather, she's facing something on the floor between herself and the door. Something that looks like a futon, one that's definitely not empty, but the lights only show shoulders poking out from the top of the sheets. There is no head to be seen, and no sign of blood.

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    With Nozomi now stored in the Servant's ring, Taiga goes clunk-clunking softly along, sweeping his sensors here and there; not just 'looking around', but actively analyzing the atmosphere, trying to get a better read on that unsettling feel about the place. However, when they open the door to find a crying young woman over a headless corpse, he first freezes... then moves forward rather abruptly, possibly even shouldering Nakamura out of the way. "My apologies, but please step back for a moment. This exhibits signs of a potential haunting or grudge; allow me to confirm safety first."

    And that's exactly what the robotiger does; his sensors sweep the girl and the body very carefully, trying to get a very firm read on any supernatural activity - whether it be an active source, or simply residue.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Nakamura's refusal to let anyone else take point should probably not surprise Xiaomu; some people just don't believe in the supernatural, for better or for worse, and sometimes that flat refusal to entertain the possibility can serve as a layer of protection. At the very least, it lets mortals sleep better at night for not knowing (or believing) that their neighbor's cat could be a nekomata, or that the badger whose den is under the hedge down the street is actually a baku prowling the night for the sweetest of dreams to feast upon.

On the other hand, the air within the house is so thick with supernatural energies that Xiaomu's hair is trying desperately to stand on end, and the fur of her tails and ears likely would as well. How any human being can set foot here and NOT think something is Unusual is way beyond Xiaomu ... but hey, if Nakamura doesn't want to admit that it could be ghosts or youkai, then he probably sleeps better for not letting himself think that.

Taiga's analyzing the figures in the room - both the sobbing girl and the headless body - and Xiaomu lets him do it; *she's* considering what kind of youkai might be involved here. A body without head or neck .... yeah, that sounds pretty familiar. Xiaomu leans towards her partner, whispering, "Think it's as simple as a kubi-nashi?" to Reiji.

Lexicon has posed:
    Lexicon's free hand lifts, rubbing her chin in thought. So the home is occupied, not abandoned. Two, by the officer's admission, 'sweet' old people and possibly their grandchild. This all sounds innocent enough. Her eyes wander the room again. So why does it feel so /wrong/ in here? She pauses at the sound, the unmistakable sound of crying, and her face softens, "Oh jeez..."

    Door open. Crying woman. Possible corpse. Lexicon recoils a step. When she realizes she's not immediately under threat, though, she dismisses her hammer in a flicker of digitized light. The DCC is about to approach when Taiga takes the lead, and his words change her mind.

    "--Uh. Yes. Yes, do that," she asserts to the TIGER unit. With a frown, she lifts her hand, projecting a flickering holographic screen, and appears to be sorting her inventory. However, something in the corner catches her attention and the offending app is zoomed in on. Four grayed out bars with a red O-slash across them, "...Huh. I lost connectivity with the Cathoderal." Her screen disappears, and she casts glance towards the officer, "And you lost contact with your comrade... Something must be affecting communications."

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
Rebecca's gotten her courage back and is doing her best to stay with the others. It's a creepy old house, sure, but Rebecca has gotten herself back into professional mode and is no longer complaining to herself about how this should be the story of her life or anything like that. She manages to get her flashlight working, albeit with it going on and off. "Work with what we got I suppose."

Rebecca doesn't have the same supernatural sensing skills that Xiaomu and the others might have, so she's at a bit of a disadvantage here. Nonetheless, she keeps a strong game face as she moves in and enters the bedroom with the others. However, once she gets a glimpse of the headless body, she gasps and steps away briefly to regain her composure. After that, she sticks her head in again and attempts to move closer to the body in order to look at it from a physical standpoint.

"No blood or anything," Rebecca comments. "Definitely something beyond my capabilities." She stands up quickly and shakes her head. "I suppose I should've left that to the others." She looks to Taiga and Xiaomu, frowning a little.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
Look, if a guy can maintain a lack of belief in the supernatural in spite of literally burning torch-swords being lit up in his presence, that guy deserves all the props he can get. Spiritually aware as a jar of mayonnaise as he might be, Nakamura gets shit done no matter how weird shit gets. That's Reiji's assessment of the man, anyway. It's fine though, they have enough in the way of ghostbusters assembled here already to know full well approximately how fucked the situation happens to be.

Very.

It's very fucked.

This place is so haunted that its ghosts probably have ghosts. It's so spooked up that Halloween comes /here/ for Halloween. It's bad. Real bad.

A body without a head or neck. A woman crying over it, and they can't see her face. "Kubi-nashi would be too easy. The woman over there is probably a ghost, too." Reiji narrows his eyes at the woman, his senses honing in through the haze of the raw supernaturality of this place. "I'm betting she's the main threat. Lure people in thinking that someone's lost their head, then pounce. Get ready."

"Hey!" Reiji roars at the weeping woman. "What're you doing in there? Ma'am, are you alright?" And if she's not, and if she IS a ghost, well! He's got a flaming sword, and he's not afraid to shank something with it! "Nakamura, stay back with us. This could get hairy pretty quick. At least 'till we know more."

Yomi Isayama has posed:
Taiga's scan reveals a few things. First and foremost, it is -really- hard to scan in here. There seems to be a lot of interference coming from the walls and floors and ceilings. Second, both of the people in the room scan as human. Though... something is definitely off about them, in the supernatural direction. It's hard to tell just what. Both readings are fairly different but seem to have a similar energy. Third, the crying woman slowly looks up as she hears the sounds of footsteps and mumbling. Tear marks are down her pale face, and her cheeks look thin and gaunt. From the wrinkles on her face, she seems to be up in age, though her hair is still mostly dark, with a few white strands here and there. "O..oh. Guests..."

Nakamura glances at Reiji, then at the crying woman, and shakes his head. "That's the woman who lives here. Ma'am, we came to investigate the sounds of screaming coming from your house." Flaming swords and foxes are one thing, but they're from Somewhere Else. It's different here. Although he knows about the gateways to other worlds, as far as Nakamura knows, this world is pretty normal. "It's okay. I'm with the police, and these others are with.." He pauses for a moment. "They're here to help. We all are. Why don't you come tell us what's wrong?"

The woman smiles thinly. "Oh.. oh, nothing is wrong, dears. I don't recall hearing any screams. Would you like some tea?" She rises to her feet, wiping a tear from her eyes, and carefully steps around the futon. "Or some snacks?" A beat, and she glances down at the floor, embarrassed. "O..oh, that's right. We don't have any food in the house until I can go shopping tomorrow." She can tell everyone is looking nervous, so she gives them another smile, though her hands are shaking a bit. "Come. Sit, sit. I'm sure I can find something."

"Ah, but... is that...?" Nakamura seems a little nervous still, mostly because of hat headless body in the futon. A body that suddenly turns over, hand reaching to pull the sheets up higher. The movement makes Nakamura jump, and he reaches out to grab Xiaomu's arm, the fox being closes to him. "It.. it moved!"

Outside, thunder crashes, and lightning strikes, illuminating the room from the window. The old woman is still smiling nervously, wringing her hands. "It's... it's nothing, really..."

When the light from the lightning flash fades, the room begins to fade back into flickering shadows... which flicker a bit more than the steady lights of magic swords would normally do.

Those with passive supernatural senses, or even Horror Movie Senses, will have about a split second to realize that Something is behind them, before a shrill SHRIEK sounds and a glowing disembodied head, looking like it belongs to a young woman, dives right at Lexicon, mouth open wide with oddly sharp teeth.

Another shriek can be heard right after as Nakamura -freaks out- and latches even more tightly onto Xiaomu's arm. This was not in his job description.

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    "...both the woman and the body read as human, but there is something... else. I am having trouble analyzing. This is strange. This is exactly the sort of interference my sensors were made to tolerate. Do not lower your guard." True to Taiga's word, he himself remains on guard as well. He does not venture further into the room, only replying, "This is far from 'nothing', miss. Please cooperate. There is some form of supernatural disrup-" Here comes a floating head.

    When you lob a fast-moving object across a space while a cat is tense and ready to jump, the result is predictable.

    Several hundred kilos of robotic tiger lunges through the air, attempting to intercept the head before it can reach Lexicon. And bad news for the head - Taiga's claws are designed to be able to harm even spirits.

Tamamo no Mae (1106) has posed:
    Tamamo's just there right now, letting a few more experienced in this thing take the lead. Tamamo might be an evil spirit of Amaterasu, but, at least they aren't hunting her. (yet). "The fur on my tail is bristling. Tamamo doesn't like the look of here." she mutters, and then with that jump from Taiga and the object in the air, the Servant quickly jumps back and lets out a loud "MIKON?!" in surprise, "Tamamo demands to know what just happened!" she might be breathing a bit heavily here too, not used to being surprised like such!

Reiji Arisu has posed:
"I'm picking up on something, too," Reiji says to the ever-reliable giant mecha tiger. "Sort of. I can't tell if it's just the background energy or something else, but this place is..." 'Haunted as all get out' is what he wants to say, but Taiga probably already understands that well enough without it being said. Regardless, Nakamura says he knows the woman, and it seems like he does.

"Ma'am," Reiji says, keeping his burning sword at the ready, if not just for the light it provides. Admittedly, that's a good enough reason as just about any other. "I think we'll be fine. Why don't you just take a moment to relax and maybe help us understand what exactly is going on around--"

Wait.

It moved?

No, that's not all.

Something's wrong.

Reiji turns his head just as /a giant robo tiger/ goes to catch a...

Well.

'Flying head out of nowhere' was Reiji's second bet.

"Damnit," Reiji curses as Nakamura screams in his other ear. "I should've known that was around here somewhere. Taiga, you alright?" He turns his head back, keeping his eye on the woman-- and the body behind her. "Ma'am. Your house appears to be haunted."

Lexicon has posed:
    For the crying going on, the resultant conversation certainly is...unexpectedly ordinary. Which just adds to the wrong-ness of the situation. Lexicon's eyes narrow. Someone who was just sobbing shouldn't be trying to play hostess like that. Even if they're not possessed or haunted or a monster in disguise, that's just not normal. While rolling this over in her head, the shape on the floor moves. Lexicon's eyes immediately move to it. Even when the cop a few paces away loses his composure at it.

    "I don't think this is a good time for snacks and a story," the DCC admits. Lightning cracks, the sound causing a flinch, and a new feeling of wrong-ness as shadows draw longer than they really should. Letting out a breath, Lexicon mutters, "It's behind me, isn't it."

    Taiga confirms this by lunging for her, and by extension, the spirit manifesting behind her. Lexicon drops to the floor to facilitate the TIGER's pounce without getting in the way, "Holy shit--!"

    Lexicon may be a rather tanky young woman, but even she's not interested in tanking a small car in the shape of a large cat.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
If the 'woman' is a ghost or something, she's REALLY good at acting like a living mortal - to the extent that her act is *too* smooth, *too* calm. If she'd been weeping over the headless body in the futon, she wouldn't be able to assert her calmness that readily, would she?

Also, headless bodies typically don't roll over and pull the covers up like that. The sudden clamping of Nakamura's hand (or both) on her arm prompt the sage fox's ears to angle back. "Yes, it did move, and it would be --"

Whatever it would be (and whatever 'it' might have been), Xiaomu doesn't get the chance to finish before her vulpine ears snap straight up, her free hand delving into the back of her vest for one of her handguns, namely the Roc's Icebrand. Arguably she'd be better off with Silver or Platinum, but she'd rather freeze whatever it is -

- which turns out, very shortly, to be an independently mobile and independently luminous disembodied head -

- rather than simply shoot it full of holes, whether with normal bullets or anti-spirit munitions. And then Taiga pounces at it as if it were a giant ball of yarn instead of a youkai, or part of one. On the other hand, Nakamura's latched onto her in such a position and is standing at such an angle that she *can't* get a good bead on the free-roaming noggin. "Don't maul it too badly, Taiga," she requests in a moderately loud voice. "We may need answers out of it and the bodiless head is more likely to talk than the headless body!"

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
OK, something's really wrong here. Even from her vantage spot, Rebecca can see the ghost rolling over and coming out of bed, and that's when she gasps again. Then she looks and sees the head coming as well. She doesn't know it's headed for Lexicon, so she dives out of the way, rolling quickly and drawing her Beretta at the last spot she saw the head coming from, only to find what Taiga is doing and she rolls away again.

"That was a close one," Rebecca mutters to herself. "But seriously, a floating head? That's... ugh..."

Yomi Isayama has posed:
When she sees the floating head, the woman's eyes widen a bit. She doesn't look very panicked, though. At least not until Taiga pounces. "...wait!" The woman seems torn between rushing forward and staying there, hands wringing each other. But when Taiga's claws hit the head, it lets out another loud shriek... and it's the body in the futon that flinches, one arm flying up in surprise as it tries to sit up.

The head bites at Taiga's paws, but teeth designed to gnaw on flesh have a bit of a hard time against metal. From the strength of its bite, it at least seems capable of doing a lot of damage to anything flesh and blood it can bite down on. The claws digging in elicit a slightly more human, but still echoing, scream, as the body in the futon flails and clutches in a panic at where its head might be.

the woman drops to her knees, reaching out to grab for one of the flailing hands. "Don't hurt her! Don't hurt my Keiko!" She's crying again, looking up toward the group with pleading eyes. "We're both... she's just so very hungry..."

This has gone from a six to about a twelve on the weirdness scale, but Nakamura does finally release his deathgrip on Xiaomu's arm. "Ah.. sorry, miss. Disembodied floating heads are not exactly something I've seen a lot of before..."

"Please, please..." murmurs the woman, beginning to crawl toward the group. "My Keiko is just..."

Thunder crashes again, lightning flashes, and the room is briefly tinged with blue light. From upstairs, the sound of a gunshot can be heard, then several more in rapid succession. Nakamura glances up, hand falling to the hilt of his gun. "Is that where Yamamoto got to?" With so much going on in a situation he obviously was not prepared for, the poor policeman is at a loss for what to do.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"... So Keiko's a nukekubi, then?" Xiaomu asks casually, reaching under her vest again to re-holster the Roc's Icebrand, then rubbing her arm where Nakamura was latched onto it. "Yeah, they aren't all that common," she admits to the cop. "And I hope we didn't hurt Keiko too badly there ..."

She looks at the floating head, apparently named Keiko. "Can you talk in this state?" she inquires, her tone a mix of casual and polite. "And who else is in this house -" This time addressing both Keiko and the formerly-weeping woman. "- besides Officer Yamamoto, whom we presume is upstairs?"

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    Despite the very feline attack, Taiga's next responses are very human, or at least intelligent. When he lands with the head, he doesn't dig his claws in further; merely uses the hold he has to keep it in place, and to keep it from attacking anyone else. "Cease your attempts to harm me. If you continue, I will assume you are a threat to others present." Calmly, he lifts his head up, and turns to look at the woman. "Miss, I regret to inform you that /your/ Keiko is most likely long gone. If she is not, then she is almost certainly suffering by being forced to remain in this form. I do not know if my... coworker, Arisu, is capable of removing a curse of this type, but if he is not, please, do not be cruel to her."

Reiji Arisu has posed:
"Nukekubi...?" Reiji's eyes widen as Xiaomu identifies the threat. Ah. "Ahhhh, so that's what this is about. I see." He glances at the old woman and shakes his head, "Ma'am, if I'm not mistaken, this curse is actually hereditary, isn't it?"

"The Nukekubi," he explains, "Is a yokai that is otherwise identical to a normal woman, except for the fact that the head detaches and wanders at night, seeking flesh to devour. The legend says that a nukekubi can be cured of their curse by devouring the liver of a white dog, but that it also passes down from mother to child, even after being cured. As what seems to have happened here."

"It's night," Reiji gestures vaguely upwards, "And Keiko's head has detached. I think we can probably cure this one, but ideally we'll need to keep her contained until we can do the job."

There's a beat. Reiji gives the older woman a deep bow. "My apologies. You must be very confused by our sudden appearance. I am Reiji Arisu, onmyoji and exorcist of the Shinra Organization, here representing the Paladins."

Gunshots. Reiji glances up, then toward Nakamura.

"Keep calm, officer. Xiaomu, let's head up and see about what's going on upstairs. Taiga, do you have Keiko under control, or should I deploy a ward?"

There's a beat.

"Ma'am," Reiji says to the old woman, "If you can tell us anything about what else might be in this house before we get up there, please do. We're here to help."

Lexicon has posed:
    "Hungry?" Lexicon repeats from the floor, "That's your precious daughter or granddaughter, and she's hungry?" Peering up from underneath the edge of her hat while Reiji explains, the DCC frowns, "I hate to break it to you, lady, but I'm not human. Unless your kid eats interlaced code strings, she's gonna be disappointed. I don't have any blood, flesh, or anything of the sort."

    As she picks herself up, Lexicon casts a look towards Taiga and the head pinned beneath his paws, "I mean, traditionally speaking I'm the second least appetizing person in this room." Well, she doesn't seem to be angry. Just a bit tense, there's no signs of her legendary temper. Yet.

    Gunshots.

    By the time Lexicon's on her feet, her hammer has rematerialized, and she glances upstairs at the source of the gunshots. However, she doesn't move. She's going to wait for answers to Reiji's line of questioning before she investigates. And that means she's also sliding the haft of her hammer in Nakamura's way so the cop doesn't rush ahead without backup, "Let's hear what she has to say, first. Though I also have my own question."

    Glancing back towards the old woman, "Wasn't there a woman named Yomi here, too?"

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
Meanwhile, Rebecca has stood up and has aimed in the direction of the gunshots after all has been said and done. "Yeah, we're not exactly edible, you know," She comments briefly, before looking towards the sound of the gunshots again. Then she looks at the woman again. "Any information you can give us would be helpful!" She says with a hint of desperation.

Yomi Isayama has posed:
"I thought nukekubi were just some old story..." Nakamura is completely at a loss here. He just saw a floating head, his own head is swimming from all the strangeness tonight, and the sound of gunfire upstairs has him -very- on edge.

"Hereditary?" the woman blinks slowly. "This has never happened before. None of this has! She's just hungry... there's nothing..." Tilting her head slightly, the woman peers at Lexicon. "Nobody else has been here tonight. Just all of you." There's another gunshot upstairs, and a crash, but the woman doesn't react. "Just... don't hurt my Keiko. My granddaughter would never hurt a fly, we're all just so hungry.."

The body in the futon spasms again, and a loud crunch sounds from beneath Taiga's paw as the head bites into the -floor- and dives beneath the floorboards. There's another crashing sound below, and another scream echoes from beneath. The body spasms, and the woman turns and falls to her knees, grabbing for her granddaughter's hands.

Thunder crashes.

In the flickering shadows of the lightning, the woman's hair appears to move. As she sobs and panics and frets over the flailing body of her granddaughter, her hair grows longer and longer... and the back of her head splits open, revealing a gaping mouth with hideously pointed teeth. Her hair twists into four tendrils and lashes out, each of them grabbing for one of Reiji's limbs in an attempt to pull him in closer.

Nakamura makes a choked sound of surprise, reaching to draw his gun, but his hands are too shaky to manage to point it at anything.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"NO YOU DON'T HE'S MINE."

There is a time for trying to engage youkai in conversation, and there is a time for getting excessively violent. Judging by the tone and volume of Xiaomu's voice as the old lady's hair reaches for her partner, with a very toothy face framed by the tendril-like locks, her switch has just been very decisively and forcefully flipped - she may not exactly be out for blood, but she wastes no time at all in drawing Suiren and trying to slice right through all four tendrils - preferably in a single slash, but if it takes more than one swing to cut Reiji free, she'll swing as many times as it takes. This is, after all, not golf.

And even after Reiji is free from the futakuchi-onna's clutches, the sage fox stands protectively in front of her partner, her sword still held at the ready in her right hand, left hand grasping the empty scabbard-shaft of what is normally her monk's staff. "There are meals youkai can enjoy which don't involve terrorizing or murdering mortals," Xiaomu snaps - very nearly snarling. "Where's Officer Yamamoto, where's our friend Isayama, and are there any OTHER mortals in this house who might desire a team of specialists like ourselves to rescue them from a terrible fate?!"

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
The officer might have too shaky hands to aim, but Rebecca doesn't. She grabs her Beretta and yells, "Stop! Now!" Of course a split second later she realizes that it's no use trying to issue commands, so she fires off a couple of shots in hopes of at least letting the youkai know that Rebecca isn't going to settle for this either.

Of course there's also the issue of Rebecca not entirely realizing what a youkai is, so her gun may be ineffective. If that's the case, it might be time for Rebecca to brush up on her spiritual knowledge!

Lexicon has posed:
    Gunshots upstairs. And now a scream downstairs? Lexicon casts a glance back at Taiga, and spots the head missing through a hole in the floor. With a tense frown, she shifts her hammer to both hands. And now craziness is erupting right here in the living room again, "--Crap! Another monster?"

    Now something like a nukekubi is rather obscure. Lexicon's never heard of that one and has already resolved to research the name that Xiaomu said a moment ago. But this is a much more well known sort of youkai. The mouth on the back of the head is a dead givaway. "Futakuchi onna?" Shifting her stance, she stays in the wings in case needed, while Xiaomu contends with it attacking Reiji, "The design is familiar, but I'm pretty sure the book I read about them was fictional as hell, so..."

    Okay so it was a gag manga about a youkai hunter with a youkai girlfriend but why sweat the details.

    "You guys have this in hand," she reasons out loud, "Whoever is upstairs is armed. Whoever is downstairs only screamed, and that's where that flying dental case ran, so I'm taking the elevator down to investigate..!"

    Why search for stairs? The fleeing nukekubi already has a headstart and already showed here where this will work. She lifts her hammer, waits for Taiga to vacate, and then brings it down on the floor right next to the head-sized hole, "EIN SCHLAG!"

    And then drops down through the resulting Lexicon-sized hole.

Yomi Isayama has posed:
There is a -lot- of noise coming from various parts of the house. Several crashes sound from under the floor, probably happening in the basement. Upstairs, there are several uneven thumps, as if someone or something is limping.

And then there's Xiaomu. The hair is cut fairly easily, but instead of just being cut hair, blood spurts from where it was cut. Or... ichor. Whatever youkai have. It's not pretty, and it splatters. The flying hair tendrils splat against the wall, and one goes flying toward the door. NAkamura ducks, but it still knocks the hat right off his head. Oddly enough, that's not what makes the old woman cry out.

Keiko's body twitches and spasms... and then lies still, unmoving. And the woman grabs her granddaughter's limp hand and lets out a wailing cry, sobbing Keiko's name over and over again. "Keiko! Don't leave me alone, not again... Keiko!" The mouth on the back of her head snaps angrily, and her hair begins to regrow... when several bullets fired from Rebecca's gun slam into it. There's a sound not unlike bullets hitting a wall, rather than flesh, but the woman slumps forward, unmoving.

What Lexicon finds downstairs is... not pretty. There's a flickering lightbulb swinging back and forth, barely illuminating what's below. There's Keiko's head...well, half of it. And there's the other half, on the other side of the room. It's already beginning to decompose, but it looks like it was cut by a blade. There's also another body, that of an old man. Probably the woman's husband. It looks like he's been ripped in half at the waist, with his upper half sprawled on the floor and the legs looking like they were dragged at least as far as the stairs. There doesn't seem to be anything -alive- down here, though.

Th-thump. Th-thump. The sound of someone limping down the stairs. And then the sound of a gunshot from -very- nearby, and a body -falling- down the stairs. Any who look that way will see another police officer, probably Yamamoto, hitting the floor, his uniform torn.

Reiji will notice something else Very Bad. Something right behind him. But before he can even turn around, the gun fires again. Nakamura unloads two bullets right at Xiaomu's back, face twisting into a blank, emotionless smile. As the thunder crashes again outside, what was under his hat becomes vaguely visible. It looks almost like a jellyfish, oozing down to cover his eyes.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
Well.

Things just got from 'fucked' to 'even more so than before.' Somehow.

Reiji really should have expected a hair monster. Honestly, there are so many things here that he really should have expected. He growls as the thing's tendrils suddenly tighten around his arms and legs. His blade swings too slow to intercept them, but...

Xiaomu.

'He's mine?'

"I appreciate it," Reiji says with a slight arch of his eyebrows. "But this... Doesn't make sense. Officer, you said these people lived here for years, right? But this is just..."

Wait.

    'Don't let them touch you! There's no way back if they possess you!'    

Is /that/ what this is all about?

"Xiaomu. I think I understand what's going on here. "Possession. Multiple Category Cs. The one before was a Category B, but I'd wager that Cs are just as--"

Gunshots.

Reiji's eyes widen. He stares, glare burning hot at the creature perched on top of the officer's head.

Everything goes absolutely, terribly, lethally still. Even the sound of a body tumbling down the staircase seems muted as Reiji's fury expands to fill the room. The exorcist sheaths his sword, casting the immediate surroundings into darkness... for just a moment. The world suddenly reverberates with spiritual force. The air ripples as a bright, blue glow surges up from below. In Reiji's hands... Are a pair of guns.

"In the name of the Laws of Heaven and Earth, hear me." The blue light weaves and resolves into a grand mandala-- the creatures here, the evil power at work, would suddenly find itself being seized by an iron will. Sigils, writ in ethereal light, burn with raw, purifying energy. "I am Reiji of the Line of Arisu. I who walk the middle road, command thee wraiths, who dwells in shadow--"

The mystic circle erupts with power. Reiji begins firing-- not at the monsters, but at the walls. He carves a second patern, a mandala of gunsmoke, a cartwheel spoked by ballistic trajectories and capped with burning, levitating, talisman-squares. The light only grows stronger. "Heaven. Earth. Fire. Water. Light. Darkness. By these powers, hear me. Obey me. All you evil spirits, hear my words and obey!" The Exorcist roars, firing one last series of shots, slugs of spirit-killing force that lance at flailing tendrils of hair, a gelatinous mass, the point at which the body would join the neck... and freeze there, focusing that purifying power. "SCATTER! BEGONE!"

"By my will, by the power of the five elements, BY THE AUTHORITY OF TENCHI BANBUTSU - I BANISH YOU!"

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
Rebecca fears that her gunshots are doing no good. She would attempt to tackle the officer, but with that thing atop his head, who knows what it might be capable of. In desperation (and gut instinct acting,) she opens fire on the being atop the officer's head. "You don't belong here! Die!"

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
'Ichor' is probably the right word in this case, although there are plenty of youkai closer to the 'natural' side of the world who would bleed relatively natural blood. This house is not really populated by 'natural'-type youkai, though, and when it's 'hair' that bleeds? Yeah, definitely ichor.

The old futakuchi-onna's grief seems pretty genuine, but Xiaomu is still in high dudgeon and not particularly inclined to let her off the hook because of her daughter's ... death?

Well, it's not like nukekubi are undead, but then, Xiaomu doesn't see what Lexicon saw down in the basement - and the sound of gunshots right behind her, from where Nakamura was standing the last time she checked, has her turning to look.

Ironically enough, that reflexive twisting around with a 'WTF?' look for Nakamura is what saves Xiaomu from those bullets taking a far more damaging path through her body. They may only be mundane handgun slugs, but it doesn't take anti-youkai rounds to injure the sage fox - she's one of those 'natural youkai' herself, even if she's also distinctly supernatural. One bullet drives through her right shoulder at an angle, the other blasts right into the adjacent shoulderblade, and she staggers with a yelp of pain, quickly slamming the butt of her 'staff' against the floor to try and stave off an all-out tumble.

"Oh, you little ..." she snarls quietly while Reiji is setting up a large-scale exorcising mandala. That's where Xiaomu stops grumbling and starts focusing as best she can, managing to lift her right arm enough to sheath Suiren - and then channeling what power she can through her re-assembled staff to support Reiji's casting. She'd rather be drawing power in the other direction - not from Reiji, mind you, but from one of the other hostile monsters - but there'll be time for that in a moment.

... if, y'know, there are any youkai left in a position that draining them is a good idea (for Xiaomu). She's been hurt worse, but she is gonna be in a *mood* until her shoulder heals.

And reaching up to sheath her sword really didn't help. Owwwww.

Lexicon has posed:
    "Ugh," is the immediate response Lexicon makes as soon as she gets an understanding of what she just dropped into. The previous youkai's head is severed in two. There's a bisected body down here, too. And so much blood. Her free hand raises, covering her mouth and nose with her sleeve, "Not what I was expecting..." The lightshow upstairs draws her attention briefly to the hole she'd dropped down through, but she pays it little further attention, stepping gingerly to avoid as much of the gore as she can on her way to the staircase.

    Whoever did this, might still be down here. And, she reasons, there's no way she can ignore the possibility that the scream that drew her down here might have been the bisected nukekubi currently laying on the floor in pieces.

    "Yomi, are you down here?" she calls out, keeping a firm grip on her hammer's haft. Just in case it's needed. Because fuck all knows what to expect in this house, at this point.

Yomi Isayama has posed:
Those poor walls. What did they ever do to you? As the bullets hit them them, they seem to be... mostly walls, really. But the symbols still form without trouble. There must have been something else acting to block and scramble communication. Those other bullets, though...

Well, Keiko is already dead. The woman-turned-futakuchi-onna is not quite there yet, but being shot several times seems to have done some serious damage. The hair tendrils start to stir, pulling the still-sobbing woman upright... at least until those bullets slam into it. The hair falls limp, the bottom of her skull goes slack, and she falls over, sprawled across her granddaughter's body.

Nakamura turns to lift his gun toward Reiji, but his reflexes are just human. The bullet strikes the strange blob on his head, and several more from Rebecca's firearm, and... well, let's leave out the gory details, shall we? The policeman's body crumples to the ground, minus most of a very important part.

There doesn't seem to be anything else moving on the ground floor now.

"Get back here, you!" A rather familiar voice yells from a dark area of the basement. Soon after, something moves -fast- from the shadows, skittering along the ground. At first glance, it appears to be the upper half of a woman's body, dragging itself along at incredibly high speeds, with a small sickle grasped in its teeth. Upon seeing Lexicon, it makes a beeline for the DCC and leaps, reaching to grab the sickle with one hand...

...and really having no idea what's probably about to happen as it tries to pounce Lexicon when she's on alert.

Yomi emerges from the shadows a moment later, her sword raised... and then pauses and blinks in confusion as she sees her friend. She apparently doesn't think the creature poses much threat either. "...Lexicon? What are you doing here?"

Lexicon has posed:
    "TODESTROSS!" Something waist-high, skittering around in the dark, and leaping at her face with a sharp object? Lexicon's reaction is to swing first and then consider asking questions. She swings her hammer in an upward arc, catching the youkai mid-leap and smashing it into the ceiling with enough force that some furniture in the living room jumps.

    WHAM

    She lets go of her hammer, and it stays lodged there in the ceiling while she squints up at ...whatever that is. Or perhaps, was.

    Voice gets her attention, and the DCC glances back down, "Oh, Yomi." Reaching, she grabs on to her hammer's haft and wrenches it free, giving it a swing to dislodge anything that may be stuck to it, "I caught your call asking for help, so I came. A few others upstairs are dealing with the other monsters already."

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
The situation is under control it seems. But at what cost?

Rebecca looks around at the aftermath and can only shake her head. "This... is why I don't like dealing with things like this." She says with a sigh. "It's not always my thing." She looks down at her feet. "Maybe I should brush up on my supernatural knowledge before I check out something like this again."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Whatever additional remarks or rejoinders Xiaomu might have had are forestalled, for a moment, by the *WHUMP* of something hitting the floor underneath her hard enough to bounce the foxgirl off her feet. Somehow she manages to land on her feet from that, but she's looking more wobbly for a moment or so. "Seems like it's back down to us," she comments, "although I think getting out of here sooner rather than later is the best idea."

She needs about a bushel of fried tofu, and/or a visit to Shinra's infirmary wing to help get her injuries healing faster and more smoothly than they might otherwise.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
That.

Is not normally how these things go.

Reiji breathes a long sigh. How long had that officer been possessed? Was he like that since they arrived? It certainly didn't seem that way. He shakes his head and sets his weapons back into their rack, even as the mystic square underneath him continues to pulse and radiate that purifying force. "Xiaomu," Reiji says, moving over to support his partner before she collapses off her staff. "You're... bleeding. Hold on. We need to get these bandaged up."

There's a beat as he looks over towards the officer at the foot of the stairs. "We need to get him to medical, too. What a mess."

Yomi Isayama has posed:
That poor teketeke never knew what hit it. One second it's leaping for what looks like an easy target, next it's splattering against the basement ceiling.

"Huh. I'm kinda glad I don't need to do cleanup. I don't hear any more fighting upstairs, though." Yomi squints and peeks up through the hole Lexicon made to drop down. "Don't sense any more left either, but sometimes they're good at hiding themselves."

Looking back down, Yomi tilts her head slightly. "Not that I mind having you all come by... would have taken me a while to finish them all off, but... what call? I haven't made a call all night." She pats the pocket in her skirt and frowns. "Phone must have fallen out while I was chasing this thing." Letting out a sigh, she leaps up through the hole and lands on the floor above, not far from the others. "...tch. They got police involved? I was too slow, then. He shouldn't have come anywhere near here..."

Shaking her head, she begins to glance around, eyes falling on Yamamoto's fallen body. "...Xiaomu, Reiji. Either of you have a phone? I think he's still alive." Yomi is most definitely -not- a medic, but she'll at least stick around with the others until an ambulance arrives. "Now, where's my phone... oh, right there." And, in fact, there it is, a cell phone lying on the floor in the hallway, with a blue butterfly perched on it. Yomi stares at it for a moment longer than she probably should, then reaches out to snag it from the floor. The butterfly makes a few fluttering flaps before vanishing.

Lexicon has posed:
    "Not my house," Lexicon admits, "Not my problem. With the monsters taken care of, leave the cleanup to the experts."

    Yomi's next comment, however, has the DCC on edge again. She holds out her free hand, projecting her screen and scrawling back through her history. As she does this, she follows the exorcist, using her hammer as a hook to help herself climb back up through her own hole. Once topside, she finds the file she was looking for. The static-filled recording plays: "Going to need some help. More Category Cs than I expected! If anyone can help me clear this out, I'd appreciate it!"

    "It has bad reception," Lexicon comments, "It sure sounded like you, but if you lost your phone, than one of these creeps was really good at imitation."

    Dismissing her hammer and her interface, Lexicon frowns, "I hate being manipulated. Freakin' monsters."