open | jeaaaaalousy

[cozen]

WHO: Anyone.
WHAT: Ferreting out imposters.
WHEN: Drakonis 9:50
WHERE: The Gallows
NOTES: This is a catch-all for anyone who needs a place to put logs related to the envy demon plot. Use CWs in your subject lines.

art

Some number of Riftwatch's members are, presently, envy demons in disguise. Better find them.


RECAP
Previously, all these things happened on one day actually:

• Julius was poisoned and Flint, Yseult, and Marcus killed the culprit.
  
• Marcus ordered the Gallows on lock-down. No one's allowed to leave, but Riftwatch members outside the Gallows at the time are required to return.
  
• Yseult announced the possible presence of shape-changing imposters.
  
• Byerly encouraged identifying people who might be affected.
  
• Templars had a huddle.

Comments

[hassaran]

[ After all the earlier excitement, Yseult has cleaned the demon goo off her shoes and hiked back up to her office, where she is currently seated in one of the armchairs before the hearth (flickering low against the damp cool of the day). She leans around its edge to nod at Strange. ]

Come in. [ She wears her crystal on a slim silver chain around her neck, and she tucks it now back into the neck of her blouse. ] What is it?

[portalling]

[ Entering the room, Strange takes position by one of the other armchairs; he’ll take a seat if she gestures that it’s alright. Thankfully, he knows Gwenaëlle’s already cleared him for Yseult, otherwise there might be some more awkward preamble here; instead, he just gets to launch right into it. ]

Since I’m not out there patrolling and knocking skulls, I’ve instead spent some time considering when, exactly, our security breach might have occurred, in the hopes it might narrow down suspects or give us some ideas for where our people might be. And I wanted to bounce some thoughts off you.

[ Never one to waste time: ] Unless there were any other redacted missions all of our imposters happened to attend at the same time— Were you at the Crossroads, back in Wintermarch?

[hassaran]

[ Yseult does gesture at the chair opposite, and at the decanter and glasses on a tray on the tea table. ] Help yourself, if you like. I've checked it for poison. [ The decanter's dark liquor glints red in the glass presently resting atop her knee. She lifts it to take a sip and considers his suggestion. ]

Not personally. And all missions in the last few months were recorded in the files.

[portalling]

[ There’s the slightest pause, the paranoid urge to politely decline… but you need to take some things at face value. So Strange nods, pours himself a glass, and takes a bracing sip. ]

Good. Then that narrows the field.

I didn’t see anything out-of-sorts myself then, but just speaking logically: the Crossroads has shifting landscapes where people could go out-of-sight. We weren’t all in the same location at once. And it’s closer to the Fade, rampant with spirits, and eluvians connecting to places where there might be threats.

I’ve been combing through the reports, and everything else seems rote: assassinations, recon, diplomacy. And I heard Averesch confirm it must have been sometime in the past couple months, no earlier.

[hassaran]

Yes, he did. My own work with Orlov suggests the same. [ And merits another drink. It's rum, rich and smooth and not too sweet, more expensive than she typically keeps out, but the day called for it. She taps one fingertip on the glass. ]

I'm not aware of any reports of encountering demons in the Crossroads, only spirits. But it seems more plausible than any other explanation turned up so far. Worth investigating. Did you see any of them there?

[portalling]

Not closely, [ this is where the trail runs a little cold, his mouth tight, but it really does feel promising, ] so you might want to speak with someone else in the organisation who had closer interactions at the time.

But I cross-referenced our records for the eluvian relocation, and all of them were present and accounted for, at least once. I was there on the job for quite a while — my order of sorcerers on Earth maintained something like the eluvians, it’s an area of interest — anyway, point being. It seems there would have been opportunity. For all of them.

[hassaran]

[ Yseult nods, silent for a moment as she turns this over, never one for thinking aloud. Then she fishes her crystal back out and activates it. ]

Lazar. My office, please. At once. [ Message concluded, she adds to Strange: ] He was in the crossroads, and is not otherwise engaged at present. [ She's been listening to the crystal all afternoon and she heard that message about a nap. ]

From the reports, the barrier between the Crossroads and the Fade seems to be weakening as well; perhaps that's allowed demon infiltration. Just as well we've now minimized travel time.

[extortionate]

[ the door is locked. the cats - okay, about three of the cats, which is better than he usually manages - are outside, instead of trying to climb into his open mouth. barrow is occupied doing whatever the fuck a templar does, when they're not snoring loud enough to wake the dead.

it's a good afternoon.

but he does know where his bread is buttered, so when the crystal shoved under his pillow goes off, he starts the reluctant process of stomping upstairs. meanwhile: ]

How'd we get stuck in the jungle?

[ faintly hopeful. if a demon's summoning him instead, it's his duty to go back to bed. ]

[hassaran]

Pursuing Venatori kidnappers in the Crossroads. A stray spell broke the eluvian.

[ Maybe they should be rethinking their use of the crossroads. She takes another sip of rum, and eyes narrow slightly as her focus slips into the middle distance. ]

There was a blonde woman with us in the jungle, involved at the time with your roommate, and unusually fond of talking about sex and murder. What was her name?

[extortionate]

Posey. [ is not it - it's pretty close. even he'd figured that one for a bad idea: ] Surprised she didn't bite it off.

[ lazar yawns as he stoops around the door, scratches at his beard. strange receives a passing glance (gwen's sure of him, uh-huh,) ]

What d'you need?

[portalling]

[ Strange has been sitting quietly throughout the crystal conversation, listening and working on his glass of rum. Once Lazar arrives, he lifts his chin in brief hello. He’ll let Yseult steer the line of questioning, pick through whatever she finds most pertinent to ask about — boss’ prerogative — but to get them started, ]

Did you happen to see Artemaeus, Baynrac, Orlov, or Edgard in the Crossroads? Back in Wintermarch.

[extortionate]

[ he picks them out across his fingers - miscounts - picks them out again: ]

Yep.

[portalling]

[ A weary glance across to the division head. He’s your scout, Yseult. ]

[hassaran]

[ Yseult looks Lazar in the eye and drinks. ]

Sit, [ she says, with a gesture to the chairs in front of her desk, one of which might be picked up and set nearer their pair of wingbacks at the hearth. ]

Did you notice anything unusual from any of them in the Crossroads? Did they ever go off all together, or did any of them travel alone?

[extortionate]

[ put it in the middle of the wingbacks? like right between them, in front of the little table with its nice decanter, so that you have to reach across him to get it?

sure, boss. lazar grunts, vaguely-canine, as he settles: ]

Edgard took off ahead'a me. He was having trouble with the truth-telling bits, but I figure it was still him, then. Smelled the same, anyway, and said some sad shite on Orlais.

[ what is edgard's whole deal? probably yseult knows. he shrugs. ]

Saw him and Artemaeus climbing a rock later - didn't stick around.

[ that kid is depressing ]

But last I saw Gela, she was booking it through this, [ his hands swing wide ] Fuckoff arch with griffon heads. Couldn't catch up to her, place was fulla shades. Honest? Was a bit pissed. But figured, what's she gonna do? Sew them a kerchief?

[ could've helped get the gunk out of his shirt at least. that's three. lazar's voice softens, considering.

quiet now: ]

On the way out, ended up in a cellar, and Vanya was looking in this mirror. Normal kind. Don't think he saw me there at first. Just kept smiling, and smiling. Letting it go, [ a rough gesture to his face ] And smiling again. Wide. Could see all his teeth.

But y'know, Nevarrans.

[ he looks unsubtly at stephen's drink ]

[portalling]

[ That chair makes an overly-loud tortured scrape across the floor as Lazar hauls it closer and then settles right between them, but Strange listens with laser-like attention, all his focus on absorbing the man’s report.

Then, noticing Lazar staring meaningfully at his drink, there’s a kind of absentminded what, this? wave of the hand— before he drains it, wipes off the edge with his sleeve, and then simply hands his own empty glass over, as sacrifice and thanks for the information. They’ve bigger issues to deal with. He points to the decanter, then: ]

That, [ he says, neutrally, ] is some of the creepiest shit I’ve ever heard. And you didn’t think that seemed odd at all?

[extortionate]

Mate,

[ he doesn't move to pour. it's yseult's shit. he knows that much better - gesturing with the glass - ]

Ten bits says that's not oddest this season.