Re: Bobbypins [P, Auntie]

[auntslappy282]

"Fine! We'll go see Aldis! At least he has some skeletons around in the Apothecary, or I can bet that he does," She hissed. She hated being forced to do things. She had a job, and even if she was dying she sure as hell would be solving crimes. "I'm not in the mood to bust some worthless human of his crimes. His day will come, and he'll be busted." Neo was obviously in a bad mood. "I also don't want to deal with any other Elder Spirits that are bound to be annoying as hell," She added bitterly. Neo turned towards the High Street, and began to limp towards the Apothecary.

Once they got to the small shop on the High Street, Neo took a deep breath. "I haven't seen Aldis in a while," She sighed. She wasn't 100% sure how he would react to another injured Neo. She wasn't really looking forward to his reaction anyways, but she'd rather go to him then any of the others. Neo looked at Grey, an apologetic look on her face. She knew how much of a jerk she really could be. "Shall we then?" She asked hesitantly before pushing the door open. The dim candle light left time for Neo's eyes to adjust. There was the large book cases and the dead plants everywhere. And the Spirit who sat behind the desk.

The Olive colored spirit looked over the top of his half moon glasses and set down his book. He rolled his eyes at the sight of the beaten up Spirit and the Elder Spirit. "Well looks like we meet again Neo. Unable to keep yourself together again? What happened this time? Did you fall? And you even brought in poor Greystone. I apologies for her stupidity Greystone," Aldis said, setting down his book and making his way around the counter and towards the injured Neo. "Oh shut up Aldis. Just figure out whats wrong and fix me up to please Grey." Aldis slightly tisked the Spirit and then walked towards the back.

Aldis returned with a bag of rock candy sticks and his first aid kit. He opened a rock candy and shoved it in the other spirits mouth. He handed the bag to Greystone. "If she's ever not listening, shove one of those in her mouth. Thats all she eats on a case anyways, so she'll need some for the road if you don't want her to pass out." Aldis sat Neo down on the ground and began to patch Neo up as the spirit ate the rock candy with a smile on her face, resembling a child.

[Mousen Heath]

Greystone sighed. "You'd better not. In case you hadn't heard, Finbar is one of the few humans that doesn't want to kill us all." He huffed irritably, following after the spirit of justice. "Besides, you're justice not law enforcement. There's a difference, Neo." He wasn't really in the mood for arguing with her, what with the bar fight and everything else his nerves were a little rattled. The rest of Neo's tantrum was almost cute, like a puppy trying to be vicious. Grey thought that it would be wiser if he didn't say anything about that, he was quite fond of his face the way it was.

The elder spirit's ears pricked foreword, he hadn't been aware of the fact that Neo and Aldis knew each other. He was about to say something to this effect when the spirit of justice's expression softened slightly and she pushed the door open. He followed.

"Actually, Aldis, with all due respect this is mostly my fault. She was helping me break up a bar fight and things turned difficult, Neo's the hero of the hour for stopping those idiots from trying to kill each other." He replied. It seems that they must know each other better than he'd first thought, they spoke about each other like they'd been really close at some point. You can hardly apologize for the actions of a complete stranger, can you?

"See? I told you that you couldn't look after yourself! You're not even eating properly, won't you even try fish or something? We have canine teeth for a reason, you know." He said, as the Spirit of Literature returned with a first aid kit and a bag of rock. Somehow he knew already that he was fighting a loosing battle. "Say, umh, Aldis? There's nothing seriously wrong with her, is there? I know she wouldn't tell me, even if there was." At that, he cast an impish grin towards Neo. He may have been talking as if she wasn't there, but clearly she wasn't being left out of the conversation.

[auntslappy282]

The look on the Spirits face was one of caring and annoyance of being disturbed. He looked up at Grey and rolled his eyes. "I'm sure it wasn't your fault. This silly Jackalope tends to go head first into things, and I'd suggest if you want to keep her safe, to keep her on a leash." Aldis's face formed a slight smirk that got him a paw in the face which only caused the Spirit to grin wider. Aldis finished bandaging up the Spirit of Justice, and she hopped of of the chair she was sitting in. "Are you injured Grey? I'm sure Aldis wouldn't have any problem fixing you up. I'm sure he's better at that then he is at keeping plants alive."

Aldis looked hurt at that statement, and the look looked rather odd on the Spirits face. "You try keeping plants alive in a haunted building and YOU see how hard it is," Aldis said. Neo sighed slightly. "Now you're just playing on my bad side." Noe finished off the rock. Aldis walked up to Neo and looked at her right eye. "You still are blind in that eye?" His voice forming something of concern that showed in his frown as he looked deeply into the eye as if it was bleeding.

Neo sighed. She had lost most of her vision on her right eye after the first fight. She didn't enjoy talking about that, nor did she really want Grey to know. It would make him dote on her even more, and that wasn't something Neo really wanted. "Vision tends not to heal Aldis. I'm sure one of your books has told you that," She said with a deeper frown, but she turned to Grey and smiled. "How about we head off? We need to find the other dead body before the sun goes down. Am I healed enough for you?" Her tone was lighter, and a bit happier now then it was before. Aldis just smiled. "She's all yours. But if you two get into more trouble, let me know and I'll try to come help." Aldis smiled and headed back to his counter and his book.

[Mousen Heath]

Clearly, the two spirits must have known each other for awhile. They seemed to be quite close in a strange sort of way, though there wasn't much about Neo that one could classify as 'not strange'. He smiled at Aldis's comment, he knew what he meant the Spirit of Justice seemed to be a magnet for trouble. "I'm fine, don't worry about me. Unlike some people, I didn't fling myself at a bookshelf."

Neo had a point, Greystone had never seen so many dead plants before. It was almost like the time that Svanhildr tried to grow trees, except after the seedlings withered they turned into fish. These plants were most definitely staying dead. "You have bad vision in one eye?" He asked before he could stop himself. It was only afterwards he wondered if it was a touchy subject for her.

"Uhm, thanks Aldis." With that he turned to Neo and with a nod he replied. "Sounds like a plan. Let's go."

It didn't take them long to find the alleyway in which the tragedy had occurred. There were a few curious people and jackalope looking into the street where a couple of nervous police officers stood around looking for evidence and marking where the body was in chalk. This one was very much different to the previous murder, there was knife in the middle of the man's chest. It was a small dagger, probably made in the town of Svanhildr, definitely made for jackalope. Grey pushed his way through the crowd, he spoke to the police officers for a moment or so and they dispersed the crowd before heading around the corner.

"Right," He said after a moment. "I managed to convince them that we could help, we've got ten minutes or so." The man hadn't been dead very long, he was young, in his late twenties or early thirties and rather short with a mop of plain brown hair. "Ah. I think I know this guy. He works for Finbar, smuggling. Well, he used to before he ended up like this." The man's hand lay open and in it were a few bobbypins. Neo would have probably already noticed these. Grey made yet another mental note to ask her what the hell those actually meant.

"The, uhm, police officers I just spoke to. They're suspicious of jackalope in general, it's obvious what species the murderer was. Well, they think so anyway. What do you think the motive of all this is?"

[auntslappy282]

Aldis shot Neo a worried glance before the two of them began to head out into the streets to find the body. He knew one day he'd be standing over the body of a spirit, and it would be her's. Aldis sighed and returned back to his work.

At the question of her sight, Neo sighed. She never really liked talking about it, but he deserved to know. "I got in a.... Fight and ended up with a scar and part of my vision was lost. That was actually the first time I met Aldis. Walked up to his doorstep, bleeding to death," She said with a chuckle. When the found the body, Neo's brain kicked into action. The first thing she noticed wasn't the knife, but the bobby pins. Neo sat back on her haunches and frowned. Why was she doing this? Was the game really this important? Neo sighed slightly and looked over to Greystone. At the notion of smuggling, Neo smiled. "Remind me to arrest him when I get the chance eh?" She said, a slight sarcastic spark in her eye. She observed the body, looking for anything that might lead the Spirit to believe it wasn't her, but there was nothing and the evidence was obvious.

Neo turned to Grey his question making a frown form on her face. "To tell you the truth, I know exactly who did this and why. It's a simple little rivalry I guess you could say. Her names Kazimiera, or the Spirit of Deceit. She's.... Well, she's a bad spirit to put it simply. And her motive is fairly simple." Neo paused and bit her lip. She didn't want to open up to Grey and possibly put him in the line of fire, but he deserved to know. "She was the one behind the killing of the jackalope we saw earlier, and before you ask how I know, it's simple. Her sign is the bobby pins, and she's making it rather clear that it's her and she's come back to play the game." Neo was sure the look on her face was one of disgust, and one that matched the way she was feeling inside.

[Mousen Heath]

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Greystone asked dryly. It was just the sort of thing he expected from Neo.

There was absolutely no way he was going to let Neo get anywhere near Maggie, Finbar and Pembrook, but he didn't say as much. They were some of his very few contacts into the world that the humans lived in, a world were the Spirit of Greystone wasn't always paid that much attention to. Neo wasn't being entirely serious, but he was still rather glad when her attention was no longer focussed on smugglers.

"Woah, what? You didn't tell me this earlier?" He sighed, stopping himself from going on. It was quite simple why she hadn't told him earlier, it wasn't like he had a right to know, Grey had only known her, for what? A few hours at most. "So, there's a bad Spirit out to... what? Are you guys rivals or something?" He said, almost apologetically. "Her motive for these two murders was just to grab your attention...?" Grey was aware of the fact that he was asking too many questions, but the fact that they were dealing with a serial killer in his town wasn't exactly something he wanted to accept. He could only imagine the reactions the rest of the pantheon would give him when they found out.

There was a vague sound, almost like singing. A high pitched, laugh perhaps. Grey just shrugged it off as some drunk or something, though it was only extremely faint. It was probably just his imagination, still, something about it put his teeth on edge. "Say, I'm just going to see if anyone saw anything. Y'know, just in case that can help. I'll be back in a minute. ... Don't run into a brick wall or anything." With that he disappeared, going (as he later learnt) in the opposite direction to where the noise was coming from.

Hmmmm... These streets were new. They were good streets, though, they hid many things. High walls and barriers, it was a maze, another element of interest. Humans were her type of creature, they were vicious and catty, lies dripped from their tongues and yet they believed so much. The boy had been fun, yes, he rather had been. Oh, then there was Neo. She was even better. And yet... there was still the lingering feeling of guilt, he had been a little young, perhaps. It wasn't like he had any family to speak of, really she'd been doing the world a favour. Yes, that worked. Finally, Kazimiera, The Spirit of Deceit rounded the corner and she felt no surprise when she saw the red and teal spirit stood before her, golden aura making her glow like a Christmas tree. She grinned, it was the grin that dead men saw before they died. The grin a mouse sees before it is swallowed whole. This was the grin she wore was manic.

"Long time, no thee. Have you mithed me, love? I've mithed you." She paused to let the full extent of her return hit Neo. She looked older, a little thinner too. There was something distinctly harder about the teal and red spirit's expression, oh this was going to be fun. Kazia herself had changed, she was a little taller and her days hiding where ever she'd been had made her dull coat cling desperately to her bones. "Thay, what do you think?" She gestured to the dead body beside her. "It'th a little crude, not my betht work... You have yet to tbee that. Up for a game, Neo Verum?"

[auntslappy282]

Was that guilt? Guilt that she hadn't warned Grey of earlier? Probably. "I didn't tell you earlier because I figured their wasn't really a point to it. I have only really known you for a few hours," Neo said, turning back to the body. She didn't like where this was going. She really didn't. What happened to Aldis when she first met him wasn't necessarily life threatening, but now Kaz had a taste for blood, Neo wasn't sure what she would do. "Yes. I would say we're rivals, or more arch enemies," She practically muttered the last part. "I would say that's why she's doing this, yes."

The noise sent shivers down Neo's back, and she knew exactly what it was coming from. Kaz was coming, and Neo knew exactly what that meant. Neo opened her mouth to protest Grey leaving, but maybe it was a better idea to let him go off and away from Kaz. Maybe this was a good idea! Yes, a good idea indeed. Thats exactly what it was. Neo took a deep breath and nodded slightly stiffly. She knew what was coming, and it was best for Grey to be away. She shot Grey a smile and then waited, examining the body.

A shiver was sent down Neo's spine as she turned around, her face concrete. She frowned at Kaz, obviously she wasn't welcome. "Hello Kazi. Long time to see," She said, her voice cold. "Yes, you made it rather obvious that it was you, but I guess that was always part of the game. Depends on how many lives are going to be lost this time around. Five? Seven? And you know me. I'm always up for a good old fashioned mystery." A slight smile formed across Neo's cold face. Something about this whole game brought back memories, weather they were good or not wasn't really distinguished.

[Mousen Heath]

"Don't be thuch a thtick in the mud, Neo. I mean theriouthly... What'th a few liveth in thith little war?" She paused, talking a very deliberate step towards her. "I don't mean uth." Her voice dropped considerably, there was a coy note to her voice that sounded particularly odd against her lisp. "Look around... Can't you thee it? I know you can, even if the retht of them can't... There'th trouble on the horithon. There'th so much tension here, the air is practically crackling with it." Perhaps Kazimiera was right, the fight at the bar had clearly been her doing. She was purposely stirring up the tension, just because she could. Naturally there was going to be some issues when several very different species tried to co-exist. Sure, the aures and the jackalope got on well enough, but they had evolved together and it was rare that any aelurs caused any trouble.

Kazia smiled, trying her very best to look innocent. It wasn't working. "Bethideth, you didn't theem to care all that much about liveth when you attacked me that day. I thtill carry the thcarth. It wathn't like I got the eathy deal, you know I mean, look at me! I've been hiding with the ratth and the mithe, living of crumbth. I thuppoth you'd thay I deserved that...." Her attempt at looking innocent vanished in a moment, she'd never been very good at keeping that game up. "Thay, how'th that eye of your'th?"

"I needed to get your attention, I had to be brathy. Gaudy even. I wanted you to know, and know completely who was the murderer. Time might have made the memorieth a little faint. My old trickth were much thubtler than thith." She tipped several bobby pins onto the floor beside Neo, before taking several steps back until she was hovering at the edge of the alley way. "I thuppothe it'th a bit cliche, but you haven't theen anything yet."

[auntslappy282]

Their was an obvious slight flinch in Neo's facial expression. She stood her ground when the other spirit approached her by a step though. She would stand her ground like she did for so many years. "Yes I see it. Their may be a lot of tension around here, but that doesn't mean you have to provoke more fights and other things through your doings. Things were already bad enough here before you decided it was a good idea to stick your paw in places it doesn't belong." Neo could be called a hypocrite for this. She did have a tendency to stick her paw in places it REALLY didn't belong, but that's what detectives do right?

"I didn't care about lives that day because you're not a life that is worth saving. Stick with the rats and the mice dear, they suit you SO much better than this whole mess." She gestured with her paw at the dead man that lye in front of the two of them. It wasn't very different from that day, except the fact that this was a man and the other one was a Jackalope. The other one was an accident at least. A flash of hurt and somewhat of pity flashed across Neo's face, but it was gone as soon as it appeared. Their was, however, a growl that creased up from the other Spirits throat. She tried to keep it cool, but she was a bit rash. "The eye's fine, thanks for asking."

A smirk spread across Neo's face. The game was on. "I'll be looking forward to it dearie. Have a nice night, and I'll be seeing you soon!" Neo called after Kazia. She didn't want to keep the conversation up, and when Kazia left, Neo took a deep breath and let her paws shake. They were shaking a rather large amount, but she would get back into the shift of things and back into the game that came with the reckless Spirit of Deceit.

[Mousen Heath]

Once Kazimiera was out of sight she ran, now not bothering to keep appearances. She ran as though she were being chased by dogs, her scrambling, frantic feet keeping up stones as she hurried. Hardly looking where she was going, it seemed as though her time spent plotting hadn't been wasted. She certainly knew the town very well, possibly better than the humans that had built it, this much was obvious from the way she seemed to almost automatically dodge the worst of the potholes and the streets where the humans kept the more vicious dogs.

Greystone was vaguely aware of a blue and red shape brushing past him. As he fought to keep his balance, after being pushed aside by it, he caught sight of an unusual set of antlers. He watched the shape pelt down the nearest alley before returning to where Neo was. He couldn't help but notice the fact that she looked rather shaken, this in itself was enough to make him stop for a second. Oh. Of course.

"I think I just met a friend of yours. Well, she almost ran into me, certainly eager to get away from here. ... Doesn't take much to scare her off at any rate? Did she say anything to you?" Grey tried to take stock of the current situation, but instead of thinking everything over he found himself asking. "Are you okay?"

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