1294/Vase Case

Vase Case
Date of Scene:	08 January 2015
Location:	Urbania
Synopsis:	Ferham takes the gold egyptian vase she and Clokwerk stole from Shadowrun earth to be appraised by Jimmy Wen.
Cast of Characters:	516, 606

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Ferham (516) has posed:
     Well, Ferham was going to meet a contact discreetly. She didn't often do this, nor did she often ask for help in private affairs, especially those of a... less than credible nature. She had agreed on meeting in a public place, and had even disguised herself, and by that, one means switched out of her armor and worn a long jacket and boots to cover herself. It was a light brown sort of full-length thing, and with her long black hair and sunglasses one would have a hard time believing this was really her. She also carried an attache case with her. Or well, it looked like one--it was actually taller and wider than most would have seen, likely for something oddly shaped.

Jimmy Wen (606) has posed:
     Urbania's a hell of a place for someone who's never been there before. Jimmy's enjoying it, for the most part, although he's very careful to keep off the beaten path. It's not that he's a shady guy, however shady his habits and talents might be. No, it's actually for altruistic reasons--this place has got those new LED traffic lights, and he really, really does not want someone getting hurt because of his mojo. He arrives at the library, but does so by taking back ways. When he arrives, he spots the Reploid rather easily.

     Oh, man, she's wearing sunglasses. Well, she's already got a trenchcoat on AND she's got a huge briefcase, so he's going to have to lose his shades or else they'll look like a couple of crooks trying to set up the world's most obvious drug deal. Jimmy sighs, removes them, and places them into his coat. He gives the librarian a friendly smile, then heads on in. Wen stands near Ferham's table, and offers his best greeting, at a library appropriate volume. "Hi! Are you Ferham?"

Ferham (516) has posed:
     Ferham is seated at a table already, sitting there with a light smile on her face as she notices the man removing his sunglasses as well, revealing her dark-lashed green eyes to him. "Hello, yes, sit down," she intones softly, her voice deep and feminine, like a cat's purr. "I was wondering if you might have a moment to spare to look at this?" she patted a hand against the top of the vertically-tall attache case, acting very calm at least, and likely attracting little attention with her mannerisms.

     "A friend of mine acquired this a while back, but we kept forgetting about it, and wanted to get it appraised," she looked down at it and then at him, then down to the case again, pulling it over to undo the buckles on it. The body language of her eyes meant that she was actually quite unsure of whatever this /thing/ was, and that it might even be dangerous, her words more of a conversational mask for what she was really meaning.

     Inside the case she brings over seems to be some kind of vase, or urn, but it seems to be made out of dark metallic clay... or was that gold? There are also heiroglyphics /all over/ it.

Jimmy Wen (606) has posed:
     Jimmy smiles at Ferham and takes a seat. He listens while she explains her situation--it seems like she's looking to know if it's dangerous or not. "I'd be happy to take a look at that for you," he says. Maybe he can get her to fork over a convenience fee after the fact. He's providing a service, after all... if not, having a Fed owe you a favor could really come in handy. "Let's see..."

     The Sight is going to be his last option. The /first/ thing Jimmy does is take a look at the hieroglyphs. No, he doesn't know how to read ancient Egyptian, but he does know red flags when he sees them. There are some symbols, across a variety of written languages--Mandarin, Futhark, etcetera--that pretty much all wizards know are a bad sign. Symbols associated with things that go bump in the night, the 'wrong crowd' of the supernatural world. He looks for any sort of symbol that might coincide with any such members of said crowds--death cults, bad things from the Nevernever, famously homicidal wizards and/or pharaohs.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     The vase itself does actually seem to be an urn, if Jimmy is able to descipher any of the writing on it--it's definitely detailing something about a pharoah's serving girls, destined to join him in the after life... though under this quick scrutiny it's hard to tell, exactly. Ferham just sort of leaned her chin against the heel of her hand and watched the thief-wizard inspect it, after having lifted it up one handed to set on the table. She seemed a lot stronger than she looked.

     "What's wrong? you look a little disturbed," she has no hint of condescending or malice in her voice, she was likely very unsure of just what the thing /was/ and lacked the sensitivity to recognize any of it's energy, due to her synethetic nature.

Jimmy Wen (606) has posed:
     Jimmy frowns. "I'm more than a little disturbed, honestly." He stands, then reaches into his pocket and produces a white handkerchief, with which he touches the urn to show something to Ferham. "I can't read hieroglyphics, but lore is a strong suit of mine. Do you see the figures here, here, and here?" He points, but is careful not to touch. Three depictions--a green-skinned man with a long beard in the Egyptian style, a man with the head of a jackal, and a woman with a mantle styled after the sun. "Osiris, Anubis, and Isis. God of the dead, protector of the dead, and goddess of marriage, respectively."

     "Now, I can only guess as to why Isis is on this urn. Maybe it held the ashes of some rich guy's wife. Let me be straight with you, though. This thing is super haunted." Huh. On second thought it might be some rich guy's /wives./ "Where'd you get this from, if you don't mind my asking?"

Ferham (516) has posed:
     "Oh?" she tilted her head, lifting it to peer at what Jimmy was trying to show her. "It came from a museum," the words almost felt bad tasting, because she hadn't planned on really telling him anything /that/ specific. "Dead man's wife, huh? interesting..." Ferham knew what that meant course, but it also seemed like it might be a foreign concept to her.

     "Do humans routinely burn their wives and collect what's left in gold vases?" she raised a thin dark brow to Wen, though she intently studied and comitted the ideograms he pointed out to her to memory.

Jimmy Wen (606) has posed:
     "Well, I feel like I should mention the wife or wives were dead before they were burned. But--to answer your question, it depends on a lot of things. Some cultures preferred burials, others preferred funeral pyres, and some preferred cremation. This might have been what was called a canopic jar, or it might have been just a decoration for the husband's tomb. If it was in a museum... I'm guessing it was originally in a tomb or a pyramid."

     "In any case... this was a very significant object to them, if they're still hanging around thousands of years after they died. Ghosts are usually kind of bound to a place, time, event, or item linked to their death, which... kinda makes me think maybe they didn't die of old age if you catch my drift. That means they could be very pissed, which would make this a dangerous thing to pawn off on someone."

Ferham (516) has posed:
     "Strange, why do that..." Ferham didn't get the whole 'follow the master in death' spiel that pharoahs practiced back in ancient times, heck she hardly understood the concept of 'ghosts' or restless spirits as it was. "So what you're saying is, this is going to be supernaturally hard to move on the market..." she might have realized her pun or faux pas there, looking over to him abruptly and nodding. "Err, sorry, poor choice of words," she coughed a little into a fist, then sat back, peering at it.

     "Can't you... remove the spirits, so it could be sold like any other gold bauble?" her eyebrow raised again, looking down at the vase then to him. "And what might you require in return for doing so...?" at least she wasn't utterly naive on how these things worked. Whoever she worked with she had been with for a bit, it seemed.

Jimmy Wen (606) has posed:
     Jimmy smiles. Now it's Business Time. "Of course I can," he says. "All I'd need is a small convenience fee, which would include the cost of ritual materials, manpower, and of course the use of my workspace as a safe spirit disposal facility. Does five hundred dollars sound fair to you?" He's never really... offered his services for money, but even he feels like that's an exorbitant amount. Charge it up to cross-factional fees, or something. Jimmy folds his hands over the table.

Ferham (516) has posed:
     Ferham steeples her fingers and then raps a few against the edge of the library table as she considers it. That fee wasn't too bad she thought, her face betraying nothing of her thoughts, unless Jimmy was good at reading people. "'Safe' spirit disposal facility? Is there an unsafe variety, as well?" she smiled a little, brow still raised. Clearly she'd not been on the receiving end of some kind of spectre or wraith before, though with her origin that might be so.

Jimmy Wen (606) has posed:
     Okay, it looks like she's buying it. So, that's good. Yes, Jimmy is... rather good at reading people. He's a people person! "Oh, yes, yes there is. I could do it /right here,/ but a couple of things make that a bad idea. First, I couldn't exactly make a really strong ward without calling a lot of attention, and that'd mean there'd be a bigger chance they could break it. That'd cause all sorts of complications, seeing as how this is a public library with lots of books, bookshelves and computers, and ghosts often have telekinesis. If they're strong enough, they could even possess a bystander, and that's just... well, icky, for lack of a better word. It's sort of like disposing of chemical waste by dumping it in the river instead of taking it to a facility."

     "Ideally, what I'd do is speak to them and see what I'd need to do in order to get them to stop haunting the vase. If that failed, I'd have to play rough." He looks as if he doesn't want it to come to that, but shrugs and continues. "Bottom line, you're going to want them out. Even though ghosts aren't massively powerful in the grand scheme of things, they have some tricks, and a well-timed push down a flight of stairs will kill you dead just as good as a bullet in the brain. Word gets out you sold someone an urn and they died a week later, that tends to negatively impact your reputation, you know?"

Ferham (516) has posed:
     "So it's... volatile, and dangeorus, alright then," Ferham moved a hand and deftly closed the attache case, closing the buckles of it. "Well then, I suppose I should leave it with you then, since it's dangerous... but I don't think I have to tell you that I don't want it disappearing on me now," she looked over at him, a ghost of a smile on her features (pardon again the pun).

     "Well, they might kill you that way, but it'd take more than some stairs to hurt me," she responded, then added a bit wryly, "It could," as if there was bigger things than that for her to worry about, it seemed. "Just assure me I can trust you to make the deal, and we can proceed."

Jimmy Wen (606) has posed:
     Jimmy raises a hand as if to deflect her concern. "I'm not gonna run off with it. I've got my own reputation to worry about." And he's already got plenty of people, shall we say, looking to collect. He /doesn't/ need to add a Reploid to that list of people, especially not one that looks and sounds like nothing but trouble. And that's not even mentioning the favors he'd owe if he tried to move something as hot as this thing.

Ferham (516) has posed:

     "Alright, then I think we can work with eachother. I'll transfer the necessary funds to your account, and I will check back up on you when it's next convenient for you, alright?" Fer took her sunglasses and slipped them on again, now gently shoving the attache case with the vase over to the man, sitting near her. She seems professional and even subtle, or gentle enough, but there is also something about her that seems to cry that she's not to be messed with, at least not too much...