2020-06-30 GWTW: Mush(rooms) to Discuss
GWTW: Mush(Rooms) to Discuss
Participants: Jason, Flynn, Liam, Lowel, Mariana, Ashlynn, Zheng, Addison
Storyteller: Nate
Location: Fremont Hotel
Date and Time: June 30??, 2020
Summary: Jason briefs Liam and others on the glowing blue mushroom problem.
It's later in the evening and Jason is currently in the Hotel, settled at a table in front of a sleek black laptop with a glowing green keyboard. The Shadow Lord is hunched over it, tapping away at it with quick flicks of his fingers while bobbing his head to whatever is in his AirPods. He sent out a text to the Alpha a few hours ago asking for a touchbase, and thus, he is just killing time as he waits. At times he will glance to the entry ways, watching as a shadow or a figure passes by.
In the evenings hours, it's quite normal to see the silver-pelted Ritemaster traveling the bawn as he goes about his rounds. There's been more sightings of him apparently starting to set up some sort of abode in the tunnel leading to the caern, though it'd be a hard guess what that has to do with the sight of him trekking out of the hotel's kitchen and dining area carting a canvas shopping bag stuffed to the gills with bottles. Glass, aluminum, and plastic; as many as the wolf can carry in the bag closed in his jaws. There's a muffled whuff of noise to greet those he passes as he rounds his way into the lobby.
Liam is game to hear news. Freshly showered with his surfer do slicked back for now, the Sept Leader wanders into the Hotel in flipflops and board shorts as usual. There's a joint tucked behind his ear and he's smiling easily as he finds Jason and his tech things waiting. "Whassup, my dude?" he asks the Kinfolk with a lil fingergun motion as he moves to catch his rump onto a stool and swing around like he's 12 for a moment, just kinda spinning in place everything's normal here.
Lowel has been itching to get closer to the group, or maybe just itchy in general? New shampoo? any way... He makes his way to the hotel only getting turned around once as he has not previously been here.
Mariana was just passing through, really. But the sight glowing keyboard catches her eye and the reporter can't help but wander over with a grin. "Always amazes me to see computers working down here..." But when she spots Liam finger-gunning away she pauses. "Not interrupting anything, am I?"
Ashlynn found the new toy in the training room. Arriving sweaty and flush from beating off-road tired wired to a log, she's polishing the blood off her already healed hands with the corner of a wet towel and looking in fine spirits. Finally something she can hit without having to fix it later or worry about breaking it. Even in glabro. Finding a spot to lean, she folds the cloth so the stained corner is rolled up into the middle, then starts mopping up the sweat so she doesn't get stinky between now and the next shower she can grab.
Zheng comes in to the hotel, the Walker Kin not currently in uniform. "This should be interesting," he says, and then, seeing people he recognizes, he nods to Jason, a much deeper nod to Liam, and then wals over towards Mariana. "Something big's going down, I'd guess..."
At the sight of the Garou funneling in, right on time, Jason gives his heavy attention to the pair of Sept officers that make their presence known first. He glances slightly over towards Flynn, followed by a 'sup' tilt motion of his chin, then turns his gaze upon the Alpha as he settles down in front of him. As always, he keeps his eyes lowered. "Good evening, Alpha. I have obtained information relevant to the killer fungus, as well as two potential leads."
As his fingers brush along the keyboard a few more times, he slowly turns it towards the Child of Gaia. "I have been able to obtain internal police documents and coroner reports on the two bodies that was found in Elysian Heights. I was also able to track down two more victims, and a third person of interest who is currently known to be alive. I was able to obtain CCTV throughout the city and I was able to backtrack the victims last moments."
Ah, things are afoot. Curiosity getting the better of him, Flynn - aka Circuit Tracer - sets aside his noisy stash out of the way and the meanders his way over towards the gathering. His first greeting is directed to Liam, his posture deferential with his muzzle pulled back into an appeasing grin and tail low and lightly wagging. Then he's dropping himself down to his rump and tilting his head upwards towards Jason, his ears pricked forward and blue eyes bright with his features relaxed and easy. The steady milling of others does draw some of his attention with an ear or nose turning to catch scents and sounds, but he doesn't approach anyone.
Lowel seems to perk up at the mention of fungus and death, what did he walk into exactly. Looking around he sees a few familiar faces but for the most part his attention stays to the front, curious what his role could be.
Mariana gives a nod of greeting to Zheng as he arrives, but doesn't say a word as Jason apparently has major news to spill and she's all ears. Her eyes widen a good bit at mention of killed fungus and multiple bodies. "Surprised there hasn't been any public health notices if there's already at least two bodies? At least something like they do for appearance of blue-green algae in the lakes. Don't swim here... that sort of thing?"
Zheng listens and frowns. "Ok, I should have picked up on this...expcet it's ont being told to us on the street." He shakes his head.
Liam blinks a bit at the choo choo train of people behind him but he shrugs a bit and focuses on Jason. "Alright, what'cha got about the funal invasion thing?" he asks pointedly, figuring he can get to the other stuff after getting the main jist out of the Kinfolk.
Ashlynn listens, finishing toweling off and flipping the damp towel up over her shoulder. She doesn't seem to have anything to add.
"The original two victims that we heard.' Jason begins as he launches a video of the first. "Harold Fredette. Homeless. As you can see, he's wearing a heavy coat even though this is in the heat of California. He's moving in a shambling like manner into the park and coming from the west. He seems fine, until he veers off the course and into the bushes. He doesn't make another appearance until he is found covered in glowing fungus by Lenore of the Corax." He launches the police report. "No documentation of killer fungus on the body once recovered by the police. I am sure that is not the type of information one wishes to alert the public, or the media. The autopsy report shows that he died of malnutrition."
"The second body that Clint found in the alley and was badly burned. Here is the video of his last moments. He is also dressed like he is about to go snow boarding. Huge parka, arctic jacket. Again, two for two on the heavy coat weird factor, yes? Only pictures attached to the report shows the burns. He died of being set on fire." He says, then launches the autopsy report and the police report. He clears his throat.
"Let me know if you're ready for the rest."
Liam's eyebrows furrow some at the laundry list of things going on with the victims. "The parka thing is weird, might give us a heads up on if someone is infected though, but that doesn't get us closer to figuring out what the fuck the spore is and why it's killing people. What else you got?" he prompts the Kinfolk to just keep going.
Addison was there. He was sitting on his favorite bench. How long had he been there? Good question. He didn't know.
Circuit Tracer pays close mind to the reports and the video, though seems to decide human eyes are better for digital viewing as he takes to said form. After scrubbing hair out of his face and taking a squinted closer look at the parka man, the Theurge says, "Clint told me of the second. He had a piece of him and the fungus. I passed it to a City Farmer to look at the mushroom. I can send you to them to see what they found."
Lowel listens and seems to find the whole thing more then a little odd. Heavy coats... might be a clue. No doy, now there was mention of someone alive so Lowel waits to hear more.
Mariana can just nod in agreement of this not being something the Man wants out, especially when Zheng adds in that not even beat cops are on the lookout. She crosses her arms and leans in to watch the video as well.
"Victim number three that I found. Michelle Lansing. Mid-thirties. Found dead in the south end of Elysian Heights. Pictures show multiple layers of clothing covering her body, but her face and hands have fungal traces along it." Jason clicks on a picture to increase the resolution, as well as the police report. "On her person, she was found to have a large number of magic mushroom narcotics." He lets that hang a bit in the air, brows lifting. "Lead number one." He says softly, then clicks another button on is presentation.
"Victim number four. Eric Davidson. Him /and/ his dog were found covered in what appears to be ritualistic blue fungus. The pictures from the autopsy report clearly shows this and it was documented. The dog is a pug named 'Bruiser' and you can see that this fungus killed it as well, covered in bright blue fungus. He was also found in the south side of the Heights, not that much farther from Michelle."
He pauses for a moment. "Now, I have a second lead. Potentially a fifth victim." He taps the button on his laptop to show another video. CCTV. No audio. "Unknown person of interest. Homeless crazy type who is a preacher and enjoys screaming his sermons on this corner." He pinch and zooms in on the video. "As you can see, he is glowing a bright blue color under his sleeves and the collar of his shirt. It took me hours to find him, but he is currently known to be alive and affected, as you can tell by the time stamp. I was able to track him to a hipster cafe called Bananas a few blocks away. I have gave some money to one of our Bone Gnawer kinfolk, Lavender, to grease the streets a bit to find this man and put eyes on him. No contact. Also, to see about finding some of these magic mushrooms that Miss Lansing had upon her person. If we can find this preacher guy alive, it may give us more information, and if we can get ahold of these mushrooms, they may be the cause. Someone eating tainted mushrooms could cause this. It's a hunch."
There isn't further commentary from Flynn as he listens to the list of victims and details about their deaths thus far. The mention of ritualistic blue mushrooms seems to pique his interested, and he casts a look across the way to Addison on his bench with a silently questioning tilt of his head before looking back to Jason. His arms cross over his chest as his eyes drift off to an indistinct location past the Shadow Lord kin's shoulder, looking to be momentarily lost in thought.
Liam listens quietly at the run downs, and he hums a bit at the mention of Lavender, "Long as we're makin sure we look after her safety as well," he admonishes gently but then considers the leads before nodding. "So it sounds like the blue glowy bits and the too-warm clothes are at least indicators, and our best lead is this Preacher guy who's got it but isn't dead yet?" he clarifies before looking around. "I know Nova was also lookin into stuff, unless this is part of her report, she had some finding she needed to get to a Theurge, Flynn, if you can't look into it with her, maybe Clint can," he suggests. "We might be able to further ID where this stuff is comin from and then get to a source. So right now guys, we got this Preacher lead, trackin him down and we have a lead on the fungus itself, just need some Theurge voodoo to check into it, maybe make sure it's not spirit inhabited or what have you. Anyone got anything else to add about the Mushroom people?"
Over on his bench, Addison visibly winces as Jason's description of the POI. He listens without comment. The Uktena holds up a finger and then pulls out a small box out of his bag. It smaller than a first aid kit, around the size of a sewing kit. "Do we still have samples. I'd like to take a look myself if that's at all possible. I'm interested if the contamination in the Product is material or spiritual in nature. Perhaps some mix of both?" The Garou clears his throat. "When I've run tests for people up on skid row, they haven't brought me any psilocybe in a few weeks."
"Of course. I gave her a camera to document him from afar. She won't have to engage with him." Jason says as he taps along the keyboard a few times. "Officer Zheng, I have sent you my package of information and reports. This should help cut down on research on your end in case you wanted to dive into your internal systems." He says, then closes the lid and slips the laptop down into his backpack.
Zheng hmmms. "I'll BOLO, and if I see the guy, put a call in to people here. Unless I can get ahold of him without getting spored and fungused myself," the officer offers.
Mariana shivers as Jason continues with the grisly details, but by the 4th victim, she leans in closer, staring intently at what's left of the fungus and the man. "Guys... there's fomori that deal with mushrooms.... although they're normally a lot more generic mushrooms than this. Like the
There's a soft noise of realization that comes from Flynn as his eyes refocus and he looks down towards Liam. "Grey Men." He says in clarification to what Mariana says. "That's what they are called. Fomori. The Banes in them are called Grey Mass. Some think they may be spore of The Dark Fungus. Blue is not normal. Influenced by chemicals?"
Lowel sits back and listens, glowing people should be easier at night? But this is Holleywood so glow can be common. The large man is at a loss as to what he can contribute at the moment but will keep listening as others start to speak up.
Addison looks to Mariana as she mentions the button mushroom fomori. "Mycology is pretty weird," he notes before continuing, "there could be a cross contamination of a spore culture of contaminated buttons. It could have been done in a lab somewhere or it could be something weirder. Either way, it's particular blasphemous. The hallucinogenic species of the Psilocybe genus have a history of use among the native peoples of Mesoamerica for religious communion, divination, and healing, from pre-Columbian times to the present day. But it would be just like the Wyrm to pervert ths sacred into something cursed."
As he taps along his phone a few times, Jason says softly. "They're both fungus, but I don't think these two strains and cross breed." He says softly, then slips the phone into his pocket. "But, that is all that I have to report. Thank you all for your time."
Mariana nods in agreement with Flynn. "Grey Men. But they're no longer grey. Guess we better stock up on some fungicide while the City Farmers research and we try to find this blue-preacher?"
Killing Fungus... that was something Addison did know about. He nods to Mariana and provides a Ragabash's solution. "Go pick up some Copper Based Fungicide like Bonide 811 from the Flower District and load that up into a couple of super soakers."
Flynn lapses back into thought at the others talk, his eyes passing around the location. The false night cast in the hotel windows and the blue glow of the picture of the moon seems to have the wheels turning in the wolfborn's mind. "...blue. Blue mushrooms. Blue moon. Blue warpaint. Blue... mush-rooms..." His head swings back towards the others. "Blue mushrooms! The caern. The Umbra. The mushrooms here glow too. The same color. Maybe. Blue is blue to me."
Lowel actually like the super soaker idea and shrugs. "If the fungus is too interwoven wont that hurt the host? The supersoaker kill juice I mean." Still likes the Idea but unsure how well it will transfer to reality.
"If these things are actually Fomori," Addison mentions to Lowel, "then there's little you can do to save the host." There's a sad uncomfortable look that comes over the Uktena's face. "There are a few ways known but... even those are a fifty fifty chance of killing the victim. Better or worse odds, give or take."
"For all we know, these four dead guys and that Preacher were all fomori and they died of natural wyrmy causes." Jason says as he throws his bag over his shoulders, then trudges out. "Either way, attach a stick on those super soakers and set it on fire. May as well go full Contra with it. Have a good night."
