2020-08-27 Life Goes On, Even When It Doesn't

Life Goes On, Even When It Doesn't

Participants: Ripley, Preston Parker

Storyteller: Haight

Location: Flower District / Apartment

Date and Time: Aug 27 2020

Summary: A body and a lot of questions.

The Flower District is the country's largest wholesale flower district; a six block area consisting of nearly 200 wholesale flower dealers. In 1910, 54 Issei organized a flower market that was incorporated in 1912. Remarkably, it usually opens around two in the morning with flowers arriving from around the world, remaining a site of hectic activity until the later hours of the morning, usually winding down around 10:00 AM.

In addition to the many Floral Supply, Wholesale Plants and Pots or other such businesses which dominate the area, there is a small, trendy corner near the corner of 8th and Los Angeles Street (formerly known in far less culturally sensitive times as Calle de los Negros) which has fun little places that leans into the Flower District's superficially whimsical reputation.

The bus hisses as it stops and descends a few inches at its bus stop. Ripley is dressed as typical for roaming topside, with a backwards hat. The task today was to hand something off, the typical diplomatic message sent between groups. From the Sept to the Bone Gnawers that basically said, 'hey, there were weird snakes'. A man steps down from the bus, nods to Ripley, then accepts the college-ruled piece of paper all folded up strangely and slams it into his pocket before clambering back onto the bus. A weird sight.

As one task is concluded, another rears it's head. Ripley's phone begins to ring; if he has names and numbers saved, it displays the name of a Gnawer kin who lives just outside Skid Row.

"....I bet they tried to eat newspaper again and they don't feel good." Ripley stares down at his phone before sighing and answering it. "Moshi Moshi? Hello?"

There's a woman's voice on the other end of the line. Keeya Kuboye, married to Jadyn, with twin toddler-age sons Niles and Andres. A Gnawer kin family who have been doing alright for themselves; a tiny apartment outside of Skid Row, paid employment, and always with a full fridge for visiting family. However, she's not calling to gush over something her boys have been doing or offer a couch to sleep on; she's distraught, her voice carrying a blend of shock and despair. "Warder, he's gone. He's gone. They've-... they've killed Jadyn!"

Poor Ripley doesn't get to sleep on many couches outside of Skid Row to begin with. But...send a Road Warden there to get some shuteye? That has been do-able. He'll turn in place a few times to see if more information will be forthcoming and to see if people will be eavesdropping. "Huh? Keeya. Who killed Jadyn?"

Nobody seems to be paying the barest bit of attention to the conversation of the big guy on his phone, the flow of pedestrian traffic giving him a wide berth in a subconcious 'stay away from that guy he's dangerous' kind of behaviour. "I-... I don't, I don't know." She starts to breathe quickly, hyperventilating as she struggles with the wave of emotions she's drowning in. "He's dead, Warder."

"Yeah....I hear ya." Ripley frowns massively at literally nobody because he is just on the phone. "But you gotta give me more than that if I'm gonna be able to help you. How'd you find out? Who done it?"

Taking a few deep gulps of air in an attempt to calm herself enough to talk, Keeya asks, "Can you or a guardian come over, Warder? He's... he's here. I mean, his body is here."

"We can definitely get a few people over. A crescent-moon and a few others. Just hang tight." Ripley is already thinking about who he'll be sending over and if he can bounce just to the outer edge of the bawn to go there himself. "I'll get there first and we'll have others after me. Shouldn't be more than half an hour."

There's a few affirming sounds from Keeya, then she chokes out, "I've got to go. The boys will be home soon and I don't want them to see..." she trails off, and then simply hangs up.

Transition to the apartment

Across a few blocks, walking or in traffic, and one arrives at the grandly-named 'Golden Skies' apartment block. It is your typical build-them-small-and-pack-them-in kind of building, with four apartments per floor attached to a single stairwell. Keeye is there to buzz Ripley up, and after a four storey climb (or hair-raising ride in the rickety elevator), you're on the right floor.

Keeye has her keys in hand, offering them over to the Warder and a large bag by her feet. "I'm going to take the boys and stay with my cousin," she tells him quietly. She's clearly been crying, but has managed to move past her initial shock and grief to do what she needs to do for her kids.

Oh no. Stairs are better. Sometimes technology likes to mess with Ripley and his bad luck might make it worse. So he just plods up the stairs slowly to give him time for some thoughts. "Alright...I'll take care of this. Take care of yourselves." Then the children are out and the apartment is empty. His knuckles rattle the door anyways though, a solid thudthudthud as if there might be someone in there before he lets himself in. "So, young man, whatever happened to you?" After he tracks down where the body has been put.

The apartment is small but homey - a combination kitchen/diner/lounge area is at the front, with two bedrooms and a bathroom leading off from a short hallway. There's no hiding where Jadyn's body is however; he's been positioned sat on the couch facing the TV. From the back, there's no sign that he is hurt, but as one rounds the sofa to the front, his t-shirt is soaked with blood and gaping open to reveal a horrific Y-shaped wound going from shoulders to heart to navel. His expression is one of terror.

There was probably a great deal of terror in the kinfolk's life right near the end. Ripley takes a long while standing in front of the sofa and looking down at the man. Is there a right thing to do at this point? Its not take pictures...but...he takes pictures anyways. Only to toss the phone back onto the coffee table with a clatter. "Fuck man. Who got ahold of you?" The man's pockets get jangle carefully just to see if something new was found. Or a cellphone. A Glasswalker could track where he'd been via phone.

Jadyn has all his belongings on him; wallet, cellphone, house keys, in the various pockets of his jeans. Whatever this was about, it wasn't theft. Though now that you're leaning in closer to do that shakedown, you recognise that the Y-shaped cut wasn't done with a blade or anything so clean; no, the ragged edges are very familiar to you as the work of a claw.

The cellphone is the more important thing here, Ripley takes it and tucks it away into his own pocket and snags his phone again to put it into the same pocket. "Somebody popped you open. Pretty quickly too. Look at that." Theres a sink somewhere, but even if Ripley got his hands dirty its not like he knows whats supposed to be in there and what isn't supposed to be in there. "Alright. We'll at least get you out of here. Uhh...Logan. Or Parker. Parker? Parker."

Parker gets a phonecall from the almost grand boombah himself, Ripley Tenor, Warder Extraordinare and in need of a housecall. "You ain't gotta rush. I'll try to keep him warm. Is that what you do? Either way, I got a body for you to look at." When Parker arrives at the grandly-named 'Golden Skies' apartment block. It is your typical build-them-small-and-pack-them-in kind of building, with four apartments per floor attached to a single stairwell. Then Ripley is there to open the door and point him to Jadyn, the deceased kinfok.

There's no hiding where Jadyn's body is; he's been positioned sat on the couch facing the TV. From the back, there's no sign that he is hurt, but as one rounds the sofa to the front, his t-shirt is soaked with blood and gaping open to reveal a horrific Y-shaped wound going from shoulders to heart to navel. His expression is one of terror. "Something used claws on him, not a knife or a blade or anything."

Parker gets a phonecall from the almost grand boombah himself, Ripley Tenor, Warder Extraordinare and in need of a housecall. "You ain't gotta rush. I'll try to keep him warm. Is that what you do? Either way, I got a body for you to look at." When Parker arrives at the grandly-named 'Golden Skies' apartment block. It is your typical build-them-small-and-pack-them-in kind of building, with four apartments per floor attached to a single stairwell. Then Ripley is there to open the door and point him to Jadyn, the deceased kinfok.

There's no hiding where Jadyn's body is; he's been positioned sat on the couch facing the TV. From the back, there's no sign that he is hurt, but as one rounds the sofa to the front, his t-shirt is soaked with blood and gaping open to reveal a horrific Y-shaped wound going from shoulders to heart to navel. His expression is one of terror. "Something used claws on him, not a knife or a blade or anything."

Oh, have mobile lab will travel. Parker has the keys to and access for the Omniflux labs mobile van complete with all the cool accessories. So when he's told there's a body to deal with...he goes ahead and leaves that at the lab. Why? Because until he knows what they're dealing with he doesn't need to create a big ole stink. And so he shows up in a car that is probably a bit too nice for the neighborhood but hey, at least he didn't bring the Porsche. Amirite?

He hops out with his medical bag, leaving for now the arrows and bow in the back of the hatchback and he makes his way in and finds Riply and then the apartment. Pulling out a mask, he puts it on, just one of those cloth doctor masks and he frowns. "Well you know how to spend a night." He does make his way over to the body to give a glance at it and the scene around. He'll verify with his medical expertise that it was indeed claws and not some other sharpt tool, and then given the curious nature of the wound, as he reaches in an dpulls on some gloves as well, he'll set the bag aside and start to see if it looks like any other body parts were taken.

"Well...YOU'RE an asshole aren't you..." he says as he stands up and he looks to Ripley, taking a step back from the body. "Whoever did this wanted the next person to suffer as well. The body is lined with razor blades on the inside. Someone just reaching in or going to try CPR or such before they knew that this guy's heart was gone would have also been cut. And that's assuming the razor blades aren't laced with something where the cuts could have caused more harm to anyone trying to help this person. This was slow...and it hurt. A lot. He would never have been able to sit still through it without somehow being forced to. And the body is still warm enough that this didn't happen THAT long ago. Within the last quarter day..." he says. Nope...Parker doesn't feel overburdened with the need to play with the body any more yet. Not unless there's something more specific Ripley wants.

No. Ripley does /not/ want to go poking around the body any further. Nor does he want to be the ones seeing if the razorblades have anything on them. No no no. "We'll get Jadyn out of here. Clean him up somewhere offsite. You're staying and you're helping me clean." But a glance back towards the body makes him frown. "How the fuck are we gonna get him outta here, and where are we taking him?"

"Well....there's option A. The old fashioned way where someone calls the police, leaves an anonymous tyip, and they find the body and do the thing. That would be my suggestion. I mean we can clean up and things a bit but really this is a crime scene and while I hate for the attention, not sure how you go about fixing this one. I could of course then try to get the van here where all we hve to do is get him downstairs wrapped in something. From there....i'm sure we can figure something out as far as getting him to one of the entrances. If neither of those work, I'm not sure. I'm the guy who studies the bodies, not usually the guy who gets rid of them. I mean I may be able to have a buddy at the morgue add this to the list if I fake a bit of paperwork and such but that's a risk too."

"I will not." Ripley says near immediately. "We aren't letting things be a crime scene. Cuz that just gets police involved in stuff that they are not going to be able to handle." He'll look back to Jadyn and his face squints tighter and tighter until he heaves an angry sigh. "We'll clean'em up, cleanse him, and then report him missing another day. Once we're sure nothing comes back to us. They can find the body after."

Parker ahhs. Parker doesn't seem distraut at that idea. He just nods his head, "It's going to be that kind of night then," he says quietly and he takes a breath. "I don' tthink you realize -exactly- what 'cleaning the body' is going to entail." He settles down then and gets out his kit, and a pair of glasses that he doesn't need ot wear but they're like jeweler's glasses as he moves one of the little lenses over one of the eyes, so he can see more closely. "I'm going to need some time to get these out of here. When you say clean, THIS is part of cleaning the body." And so he will set to removing the blades that were meant to cause further harm.

"I don't think /you/ realize what cleaning the body is going to entail. But we're each gonna have our own bit of stuff to have to do. We'll call in two more kinfolk and then we'll distract plenty from here to the elevator, elevator down to the first floor and into the van." Ripley seems haggard and tired all of sudden. Perhaps because yes, this night is going to be one of those nights. "I've got to make sure theres no wyrm taint lingering on him before we give him a funeral. What happens after is in the hands of Gaia."

"Don't threaten me with a good time," he says quietly. And while the words themselves could sound sarcasstic, he seems almost amused by them. But while he may be a bit of a smart ass in his personality, with the sarcasm coming through, he -does- work. In fact, no amtter what he's doing, it's like he can't be pulled away from it. His focus is intense, whether it is removing the blades or cleaning or whatever else it takes to get this done so they can get the body out of here. "Just so you know, no matter where he is found, tha tmissing heart bit is going to be a problem. That will draw attention from the cops and, inevitably, the media when they find out about it. It's one thing to kill someone. Another entirely to start collecting body parts. Just so you know. If he was into anything...we may want to tie up those ends before this becomes public."

Ripley digs his phone out of his pocket and texts the most connected Glass Walker he knows...well...the one most likely to be able to get glass walkers involved /and/ avoid police entanglements. "Yes. I'm aware that missing organs will be a concern. *We* can do something about the heart being missing though. For our research purposes. Claws not tusks, so not skullpigs." The call to arms for body removal has been put out.

With a little help from some friends, a blanket from the apartment's bedroom and some distractions for any humans between the Kuboye home and the van - yes, you manage to get the dead kinsman out and transported to the bawn, to be cleansed and whatever else. One of the kin involved in helping move things goes back to the apartment to clean up the blood and such, and get in touch with Keeye to find out what she wants to do next. Life goes on, even when it doesn't.