The Cedardale Underworld Inquirer RP (A Paranormal Conspiracy) - Rated R

[VampirateMace]

(Kiruria: Yes, the garden case is all your guy’s to flesh out.)

Linda Sanders
In Route to Airport > Airport

"Surprisingly no. But hey, there's a first time for everything," replied Diego. Linda agreed, “suppose there is.”

Jason and Harry meet them shortly, Harry passing out drinks, and Jason giving a charming old-fashion greeting that made Linda smile. Then draining his cup, insisted it was time to go, so the group headed off to security. Diego asked Jason if he’d made living arrangements. It hadn’t occurred to Linda that Diego’s previous planning didn’t cover everyone in their group. She sighed, well that’s going to complicate things a little.

But Jason seemed cool with it. He figured he’d stay in a cheaper motel in town; check out the local feelings on the Guidestones, and try to get some other leads. He mentioned being a handsome stranger in a bar, to which Linda had to giggle a bit. He sounded like a player, putting things that way. It was a good idea though, “Yeah, we could use some local perspective. Maybe you should have Harry tag-along some too?”

The massive vehicle was already in place at the gate, and travelers were crowed around it on the waiting benches. The attendant at the desk called up first class and the folks who needed help or had small children. Then the business class, that would be them. So, the four of them strolled up to the line. Linda looked down a her ticket.

Getting on the plane was the usual hassle, crowded and annoying and people trying to get the best overhead luggage storage spots, even though in theory, there was enough room. Linda slipped her bag into the storage spot, then slid into her seat. The usual assortment of in-flight magazines, safety pamphlets, and a sick bag greeted her. Unless she really did get sick, she knew better than to touch any of these, it was one of the most germ filled places she could imagine. She slipped the Stonehenge book back out of her satchel before tucking it under the seat. They were really on their way now.

 

[Mr. Owl]

Beau LeFleur
Old Woman's Home

Beau walked into the office carrying a messenger bag and an iced coffee. He acknowledged his colleagues with a nod as he looked at the current stories splayed across the table. He was warned that there would be some strange one today, but these were by far the more interesting of the stories that they’d covered.

Beau examined the cases, ignoring everything else going on around him. One in particular caught his eye, the garden case. He picked up the letter and gave it a quick glance. Well this is certainly bizarre. Maybe she thinks its a poltergeist or something. Beau snapped a picture of the letter with his phone before placing the letter back onto the desk.

As he reaquainted himself with the world around him, he overheard some chatter from nearby. It was coming from Merlin, J, and...What was her name again? Oh, right, Jen. Beau bit his lip as he contemplated joining in on the conversation since he would be working with them. Instead he grabbed his bag, keys, and coffee and with a shrug, he walked out of the office. Soon enough, the others piled into Merlin’s car and drove off.

“Alright, let’s get moving.” Beau said as he started his car. His car growled to life. It was a beautiful car, and it drove as smoothly as the day his parents bought it. His GPS guided him along the road, it wasn’t a far drive at all. Beau parked his car. He grabbed his belongings at stepped out. He was going to just knock on the door of the humble home, but he leaned against the fence and waited for his co-workers to join him. May as well...

 

[Tundra_Wolfmane]

Jace "J" Gilleys
CUI Conference Room

Oh, great. Merlin’s a flirt.

Still, J couldn’t help but listen in, observing the two people’s interactions while keeping silent himself. He didn’t particularly care that he was put in the back seat; it meant that he wouldn’t have to be made to make conversation. He was more than positive that he and Merlin would end up butting heads with their ideas if a conversation was forced.

So when they arrived at the house, it was a great big relief, even if the ride had only been for a few minutes. J immediately got out of the car to observe the house.

The house, situated at one corner of a crossroads, wasn’t that impressive, although that was to a modern man who didn’t have any particular attachment to history or architecture. It was an old Victorian house, that much J could tell. It had a tall metal fence, about a foot longer than his height if the ex-thief had to guess, that wrapped around the house and kept it separate from the other buildings as well as from onlookers. The only way a person could get inside was through a small opening that lead straight to the house entrance.

“Let’s finish this quick,” he told his two companions as he went to knock loudly on the door.

He could hear the muffled sound of a lady telling them that they were coming, so he went to walk back behind Merlin and Jen. He wasn’t much of a talker, anyway.

During that time, he let himself observe the front yard and garden. It was simply made, with some flower bushes against the fence and the house’s front wall, with one single tree that was about as tall as the house itself in the middle. Of course, according to the documents, the supposed ‘evil’ garden was in the back. It looked like he could just walk around the house to see it, actually.

Before he could think about it, the door opened, and a thin old woman appeared before them. Almost immediately, J started to observe her. She was rather thin and had shoulder-length gray hair that was tied into a neat ponytail. She was also bespectacled, and by lords, if that wasn’t one of the largest pair of eyeglasses J had ever seen. She was only wearing a pink dress with white polka dots, making her look like one of those generic nice grandmothers you always see on TV. She was also carrying a spatula, and faint sounds of sizzling made J realize that she must have been cooking.

Which reminded him that he was hungry, but he needed to work to eat.

“Oh, hello there, youngins,” the lady spoke, more clearly than J expected from an aged woman. “How may I help you?”

J let Merlin and Jen take the lead from there, simply staying quiet and folded his arms. It didn’t take long for him to start looking around, however, and before long, he said, “I’ll take a look in the back garden.”

With a nod at the grandmother, the man walked around the house, momentarily wondering what he might see.

 

[Firebrand]

Jason Valentine
Airport
Stonehenge/Georgia Guidestone

Jason stretched his arms up over his head before he boarded the plane, knowing he wouldn't have the chance to fully extend his limbs for the next few hours. He followed Linda onto the plane, mulling over her earlier words. Yeah, he could probably take Harry along with him if he did some digging in town, and that would have its pros and cons. On the plus side, he could try to draw the little intern out of his shell a bit, or at least get the kid to not be so jittery around him. He could see how Harry functioned in a social environment and help him pinpoint some of his strengths. But conversely, he knew that some people actively dreaded social interaction, and he would hate to put Harry in a position where he would feel anxiety or even panic. Not to mention that Jason had some tools in his repertoire that some people would consider "unorthodox", and a stiff like Linda probably wouldn't approve of him using his sexuality to go after leads, but what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her. Still, for Jason that was somewhat of a standard operating procedure. He had f*cked a fair bit of his stories out of certain unnamed sources, and he usually got some of his juiciest tidbits via pillow talk. He was reasonably certain that on a story as nuanced as the Guidestones, he would need to use his own special brand of investigative journalism, and while he didn't necessarily mind having Harry tag along, there rose the issue bringing the kid along to the bars and other such places that Jason often needed to frequent to follow his, ahem, leads. Not to mention that he had been told that in the right light, he often looked a good bit older than he actually was, and he wasn't sure how he'd deal with things if someone thought Harry was his kid.

Well, he'd cross that bridge when he got to it. If he got to it.

He settled into his seat on the plane and let out a soft, sleepy groan. The flight wouldn't be long enough for him to sleep on, so he dug out the novel he always kept in his travel bag. This time it was a sci fi novel by Dan Simmons, about the Trojan War being fought on future Mars and cyborgs from Jupiter and humans on Earth playing out a perverse cross between H. G. Wells' Time Machine and Shakespeare's The Tempest. It was a literary clusterf*ck, and Jason loved it. he'd already devoured the book twice, but that had been years ago, and he was overdue for a re-read. He always brought a hefty book he was sure to enjoy whenever he traveled after a disastrous family vacation back in high school when he had brought along two books he had discovered he absolutely loathed and subsequently was so bored.

When the stewardess came by with refreshments and those little packs of peanuts, Jason asked for a can of Diet Coke and was only mildly disappointed when he was informed that all they had was Pepsi. "Ah, that's fine I guess," he told the heavily made up woman. "Don't suppose you could mix it up with a little rum?" He gave her a suggestive wink.

"I'll, uh, see what I can do, hon." A few minutes later, she walked passed again and slipped a nip-sized bottle of rum in the space between Jason's armrest and leg. If her fingers passed for a moment along the inside of his leg, Jason didn't comment, let alone complain.

The young man turned a page in his novel and eyed the bag of peanuts. He slid the bag over to Harry. "Here kid, why don't you take these? You need the protein more than I do, and I had a big lunch today." In actuality, Jason had skipped lunch, but he'd had a big breakfast and wasn't terribly hungry. Besides, it didn't hurt to start trying to get Harry to open up to him. He flipped another page and glanced out the window, hoping nothing held up their flight.

 

[Kiruria]

Vincent "Merlin" Estrel
The old lady's house
Garden case

It was quite obvious that this old lady liked gardens, judging by the pleasantness of the front garden. Merlin's mind felt even more at ease just walking up to the house, the enticing aromas from the rose, jasmine, and lavender bushes lining the yard really making the place feel welcome. And then there was the cherry tree in the front yard (though it had no cherries in it, besides a couple of old shriveled ones), with a simple wooden swing hanging from one of the branches. He could just imagine the old lady in question knitting or reading a book while relaxing on this swing, away from the evils in the garden in the back.

And then there was the tall and handsome guy known as Beau standing by the gate. Here was someone who shared Merlin's interest in the paranormal, though maybe not to quite the same extent. Especially given he was more logic-focused, being initially interested in detective work. Merlin remembered having short conversations with him here and there; he could almost consider him a friend, or at least a good acquaintance. Anyway, while the group was walking toward the house, Merlin stopped at the gate to say hello to him.
"Ah, Beau, there you are!" he greeted with amusement. "I see you have decided to stop and smell the roses as well. If I had seen you back at the meeting room, I would have gladly given you a ride here as well. But you didn't miss much, as this investigation is just starting."

When they arrived at the front door, the old lady emerged and asked who they were. Immediately J mentioned having a look at the garden and started heading there. The old lady seemed rather cross about that, giving J an odd look as he just passed right by her. Meanwhile, Merlin took a step towards the old lady and introduced himself.
"We are reporters for the Cedardale Underworld Inquirer. And we're here responding to your letter regarding your garden and your granddaughter's condition. Quite a curious situation, I might add. If it's all right with you, we'd love to take a look in your garden in the back. Additionally, we'd like to ask you a few questions." He took a brief glance at J heading towards the back garden. "Or at least I would, if you don't mind."

"Oh, uh, welcome!" the lady replied. She seemed a little offput for some reason; perhaps it was J's suddenness or Merlin's odd appearance (how likely is it that an old lady takes kindly to a man who wears eyeshadow?). "I've been wondering if you folks were gonna respond to my letter. I follow your articles every so often, you know, it's like reading a bunch of old ghost stories. Please, come in."

She led them into the kitchen, which was just past the entryway at the front of the house. It was a tidy and well-kept kitchen, and quirkily decorated too, with the towel with a garden gnome design hanging over the oven door, the glass-doored cupboard containing a collection of fancy teacups, and a printed recipe for lemon meringue pie on the refrigerator. Merlin soon realised where the sizzling sound was coming from: a frying pan on the stove, with a few breaded eggplant slices sitting in it. The old lady immediately went over to this frying pan, flipping the eggplant slices with the spatula.
"You caught me right in the middle of cooking, as you can see," she mentioned to the inquirers of the underworld. "I'm making eggplant parmesan, my granddaughter's favourite dish."

"How is your granddaughter these days?" Merlin asked. "I understand the progressive advancements of modern medicine have failed to provide a diagnosis. It makes me wonder how this might have arisen in the first place. How long has it been going on anyway?"

"Just a few days. My granddaughter has been visiting me these past few days, along with her father. And it was so unfortunate, because she got sick the second day they were here."

"Ah, and are they still here, or have they left for home already?"

"Oh, my granddaughter is right upstairs. Her father is out visiting his brother nearby, I reckon. She hasn't been feeling well lately, so she's sleeping in for the day. But yes, by all means, have a look around the garden. I'm anxious to get this all figured out and really need all the help I could get with it." The old lady sounded a little worried towards the end. "It's been driving me crazy this past week or so, and I'm starting to wonder if my granddaughter has been affected by what's going on in the garden as well."

"What has been going on in the garden?"

"I keep having this feeling that someone's watching me whenever I tend to the garden out back. And I notice a faint rotten smell around the lemon tree, like some animal nearby died, but have looked all around there and have not found anything that could be causing it. And sometimes I hear things too... sometimes I even see an unusual shadow appearing nearby. It's as if something's been haunting the garden! And I can't for the life of me find out what..."

"Hmm, how peculiar," Merlin mentioned. "Surely we should have a look at that spot. I personally wouldn't be surprised if it was some sort of evil spirit as you hinted at, but who can be sure?" He sounded rather sheepish at the last part, recalling how many times his boss had bitterly accused him of jumping to conclusions about something having a supernatural basis.

 

[VampirateMace]

Linda Sanders
Plane - Flying to Georgia

Finally everyone had found their seats. The captain pressurized the cabin and they begin rolling, then screaming down the runway. This was the most interesting part of flying, decided Linda as she stared out the nearest window.

Up in the air, she reopened her book and stared at the words. She wasn’t absorbing much of the information. Soon the stewardess came around to serve drinks and peanuts. A lot of airlines had stopped serving food beyond tiny bags of peanuts and pretzels, but they still served drinks, sometimes even twice. Of course, drinking sugary water helps keep the mob in the seats calm. Jason asked for cola, with rum, and seemed to be flirting with the stewardess. Linda rolled her eyes.

Jason passed his peanuts to Harry. The stewardess addressed Linda’s row. Linda dropped the book into her lap, air travel didn’t bother her stomach, and she was kind of thirsty, “Can I get some cranberry juice?”

Sure it was mostly acidic sugar water, but so was all the soda, at least this had some vitamins. She accepted the glass and a pack of peanuts. She sipped and ate slowly, to make this tiny snack last. She joked to Diego, “Nice in-flight meal, hun?”

The stewardess came around again for the garbage. Then the captain announce that they’d be landing soon.

(No need to drag this out forever, next poster can land us and get us on the way to our various accommodations. Then I’ll be able to post the Texts from Welsh.)

 

[Tundra_Wolfmane]

Jace "J" Gilleys
Old Lady’s Case
Garden Area

“Woah.”

That was the first word that J uttered the moment he saw the garden. It was the only word that could do justice to the sight that he just observed. He couldn’t bring himself to think of it as a garden; to call it a miniature forest would have been much more accurate in his mind.

The garden spanned the whole length of the house, and it was half as wide. The wall farthest the house was covered in ivy with star-shaped leaves and white flowers. In front of it was a row of bushes, although not all bushes were of the same variety, considering that some had different flowers or leaves or even a berry or two. Meanwhile, the rest of the garden was littered with flora of varying kinds and shapes: large trees, smaller shrubs, a few lone flowers, some flowering plants, some fruits on them, some with nothing but leaves. There were stone tiles that winded and curved around them, connecting and parting to form a confusing pathway.

The old lady should be proud that she was able to take care of a garden as grand as this. Then again, she could have had help from her granddaughter or maybe a gardener. He then tried to remember who else lived in the house that might have contributed to the care of the mini-forest.

He shook his head. In any case, he wasn’t there to gawk in amazement, even if that was what he had been doing the past minute.

“Let’s see what we have here,” he muttered as he started walking along the stone path.

As he did so, he observed his surroundings. He wasn’t quite as skilled at noticing things in a natural setting – he was much more attuned to the modern environment that people surrounded themselves in – but he prided himself in his ability to scrutinize, so he could at least find some small things.

Or at least, he better.

Though the first thing he noticed wasn’t something that he could see, but something he could smell. He scrunched up his nose, the scent of a rotten carcass filling up his nose.

“What in hell?” he muttered to himself as he looked around to find the source of the offending aroma. It was instantly off-putting and curious – a garden this well-cared for would definitely not have anything dying left around, especially not long enough for it to permeate the area.

He noticed some flowers and shrubs nearby. The former didn’t pique his curiosity, and when he looked at the shrubs, he could find nothing, even when he pushed some of the branches away to see inside. That only left the tree; J looked at it.

It wasn’t anything impressive to him, even if it was the largest in the garden. He had climbed buildings and posts taller than it in his young thieving days.

The man looked up at the tree, seeing yellow fruits hanging from its branches. A lemon tree.

He stretched his arms and cracked his neck. If he couldn’t find anything on the floor, then the only place left was up. And if he couldn’t find anything up there, he at least would have a pretty good view from above.

And so he climbed.

 

[Firebrand]

Jason Valentine
Plane, en route to Georgia

As the plan touched down, Jason braced himself for a jolt. However, the shock never came and the plane landed smoothly, gliding down the runway towards the terminal. The young man clapped his book shut and slid it into his carry-on back with a grunt. "I figured it would be a little more climactic. Whatever." The stewardess gave the word for the passengers to disembark, and Jason followed the press of the crowd as they filed out of the airplane. As he walked into the airport proper, the air conditioning hit him like a wall. He exhaled slowly, massaging the goosebumps on his skin. Georgia was reputedly hot, and he figured the moment he stepped outside, he would start to wilt in the heat.

Jason made his way to a row of molded plastic benches and sat down, extending his legs as far as he could to massage the cramps out of them. He motioned to his colleagues to wave them over and looked at Linda. "You're in charge. What's our play? You want to head into Elberton now, or are you guys going to take care of squaring things with Diego's folks?" He had looked up some of the distances on his phone while they had waited to board the plane back in Cedardale. "It's about 90 miles to the Guidestones from here, so best case we get there in an hour and a half, two hours? That should give us some daylight left to check them out. But if you guys want to settle in, that's cool. I'm going to rent a car and head down to Elberton anyway and check the local scene out." He flipped through a guidebook he had picked off a rack on the way over. "Elberton, yeah. Looks like they're a hub for small businesses and industry. But with about 5,000 people, there's bound to be a bar scene for me to tap into, and I can hit the historical society and the site itself tomorrow." He put the guidebook down and turned back to Linda. "So what're you going to do?"

(OOC: I figured we would be flying into Atlanta, so distance and travel time are based off that)

 

[VampirateMace]

@ Fire: Correct, we landed in Atlanta

Here are the texts:
One for Diego (DVB) - 7eaepr2aidIm1Imfra6mtesf4eekep3todep8otctr5ourya9Haryx
And one for Merlin (Kiruria) - 5hetyke1bmott3ertai4conns2owdra
(You can have your char receive them at any point during your post; and they may keep them secret, share them with your team, believe they are just butt dials, tweet them, or whatever your char would do…)

Linda Sanders
Atlanta Georgia

The plane had a fairly smooth landing. Jason made a comment about it being more dramatic, suggesting he’d experienced some pretty rough landings. She put her book away once more noting, that she’d still only managed to read a little of it, maybe the other one would be more interesting? A guy nearby set down Linda’s bag when he went to get his own, it was always nice to run into someone who thought about others. Or maybe her bag was just in the way…

Linda could feel the air-conditioning already as she entered the tunnel from the airport to the plane. The airport was ridiculously cold. That only meant one thing, it was full-blown summer outside.

Jason sat down massaging his legs, then signaled to them, commenting to her, “You're in charge. What's our play? You want to head into Elberton now, or are you guys going to take care of squaring things with Diego's folks? … It's about 90 miles to the Guidestones from here, so best case we get there in an hour and a half, two hours? That should give us some daylight left to check them out. But if you guys want to settle in, that's cool. I'm going to rent a car and head down to Elberton anyway and check the local scene out… Elberton, yeah. Looks like they're a hub for small businesses and industry. But with about 5,000 people, there's bound to be a bar scene for me to tap into, and I can hit the historical society and the site itself tomorrow… So what're you going to do?”

“Yeah, the plans is to head to Diego’s folks, being local, he kind of took the lead on this one,” agreed Linda, “I’d normally assume we should be able to head right out, but things may not be that easy since they haven’t seen him in a while… I’ll call you with an update in a bit.” She turned to Diego, “Did you arrange for a rental car, or is your friend picking us up from the airport?”

Linda turned her phone back on and was not surprised at lack of messages. She switched over to the internet browser and checked out a news site.