maskeddarkness | Trial of Trials : Act 2

Trial of Trials : Act 2

There's something uneasy that can be felt in the city, and seemingly no end to the rumors springing up in the wake of the downtown explosion that leveled BOARD's headquarters. Stories of an odd sickness where the afflicted suddenly winds up anemic, their blood levels dangerously low, despite feeling fine that morning have already taken root, others of strange animals seen roaming at night, and horrible screams and gunshots in one of the parking garages....

The space where the ill-fated headquarters lays silent, an empty patch of dirt and gravel that seemed to attract those drawn to stories and rumors. Police have already had to shoo away opportunists with metal detectors, hoping to find something interesting in the impressively quickly cleared wreckage, and others have reported something that just feels... wrong, when they walk by the site. The ghosts of those who hadn't made it out of the collapse? Or something else? Noone can really put a finger on it to explain.

And meanwhile, under the cover of shadows, things unknown to those who still walk in the light continue to move. Whispers of the rogue mage and a treasure trove of information, of upsets in the vampire hierarchy, and sworn revenge on the mages who had used one of their own for their gain.

And deep in a hidden lab, BOARD's remains and allies continue to work, twisting all they can get their hands on to create the perfect weapon; made of the very things they wish to cleanse from the world. The loss of the incapacitated vampire elder was only a small one, with how much they had already extracted and drawn from it. And if the rumors of their knowledge being in the hands of their enemies were true? They would just have to speed up their projected timeline. Or simply slow down that of the world. After all, they were mages. Reality bended to their will, not that of those who opposed them....

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"Just milk?" the man repeats, sounding a touch amused. "Well, if that's your drink of choice..."

He reaches up, signaling a waiter, missing Kotaro's wincing as he orders another round of "the gentleman's prefered drink" before returning his attention to the man in question. With that attention comes a very subtle, gentle compulsion. After all, wasn't this good looking, intelligent and flattering man utterly trustworthy?

He can feel that staring at him again, and instead of being thoroughly creeped out by its intensity, for some reason he feels... excited? It's nice getting attention, for once. Even if it's from a face-clone of the dude that locked him in a room and kind of threatened him.

So he just picks up his laptop and bag, and moves to sit next to the man. And when he sits, he has to pause with one hand on the laptop, idly holding it shut. "Ah, sorry, just let me..." And he sticks his hand in his pocket to nudge the charm into a slightly less painful position.

The man nods. "Keys shifted in your pocket?" he guessed, shifting over to give Kotaro room to set up.

[Meanwhile, back at the shop, another, very intense presence has all his attention on the conversation.]

"Nah, wrong pocket. Just a good luck charm someone gave me." Not that Kotaro notices the rapt attention coming from it, as he takes his hand out again and pulls open his laptop's screen in a decisive motion. "So, where were we?"

"What you've found out about my doppleganger," the man reminded, nodding as the waiter brought over another milk for Kotaro.

He shoots the waitress a warm smile as she puts the milk down, and takes it in one hand as he scrolls with the other, flicking lightning fast through files and folders until he double clicks a page full of dot points. "Honestly, there's not really all that much, if you go by public records." It's all pretty mundane, if invasive; birth place, general known locations in his life, an included image of him graduating university. "It's when he gets hired by BOARD that it starts to get really interesting."

"Interesting how?" the man asks, looking over at the screen with a faint frown.

"Well, he just about disappears from the public eye." He closes the window and opens another folder; this one has Tachibana's personnel file from BOARD's database, but he doesn't open it yet, looking up at the man with a very genuine, puppy-like eagerness. "There's some minor news snippets, like when he gets promoted or made a particularly impressive achievement, you know? Little things like that. But nothing that really stands out. Nothing supernatural, at any rate."

Another raised eyebrow as the man reaches for his coffee. "Supernatural?" he repeats, tone curious.

"Yeah!" He goes back to his laptop and opens the file. This one is full of information; just about every single thing Tachibana has ever done for BOARD is archived here. "BOARD's entire deal is that they go around killing the supernatural, like Changelings and werewolves-- and vampires." There's a faint shudder there that cuts through the Trial's charm, and Kotaro's hand rises to gingerly brush the marks on his neck.

The man blinks. Then blinks again, lowering his shades to stare at the document. "And you're sure this is real? Not... not some prank or diversion?" he asked, concern starting to creep into his voice. "The things you're talking about... are the stuff of legends. Hardly anything you'd expect to find to be real."

"I'm positive. Or at least, BOARD is, otherwise they wouldn't have documented it all so thoroughly, right?"

He scrolls down and highlights a portion of it in yellow. "See? He got so big in the company in the first place because he caught a vampire. A really powerful, important one. And..." His hand twitches, wanting to play with his neck again. "W-well... I almost got killed by one the other night. It's only because I've got-- uh, friends in high places? I guess? That I survived."

The man blinked again. "Friends in high places?" he repeated, sounding even more befuddled. "Government?"

That gets another small laugh. "Definitely not. I don't think the government knows about any of this, really." He scoffs gently. "One of them gets referred to as a king, can you believe it? A jerk like that..."

He leans back in his chair to look up at the sky. "Still, I know he's keeping people safe, so he can't be that bad. Just a jerk to me, I guess."

"A king?" the man repeats again before taking off his sunglasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose before settling them back on again. "And this... king was who came to your aid?"

"Not really. I think if it had been up to him, he would have just dumped me back on my doorstep and let me bleed out," he grumbles bitterly. "No, I got saved by another Changeling. He runs this... weird little shop, it has all sorts of creepy cursed stuff in it. That's where my good luck charm came from!" he adds, reaching into his pocket again to retrieve it.

When Kotaro's fingers touch the trinket, it's deeply ice cold, enough to hurt the tips of his fingers.

The man leaned back in his chair, smile finally starting to return. "A good luck charm from a place like that? So far, that's the most unbelievable part of this all," he remarked, reaching for his coffee.

The sudden cold is a shock to his system, and the plan to show off the charm is aborted as he whips his hand out of his pocket with a sharp gasp of pain. What the hell, what was Bakura doing?

"Yeah-- no, I, uh..." He looks back up at the man for a moment, then back at his laptop, with a clear head once more. What was he doing?? "I-I'm sorry, but--"

He reaches forward and closes his laptop again. "I have to go."

The man blinked. "...Something the matter?"

"No! N-no, I just--" Shit, excuses-- "I-I forgot, I have to pick up my niece from school. I'm gonna be late now...!"

Good enough. He picks up his laptop and slides it into his bag, uncomfortably aware of the cold weight in his pocket now. "Uh- maybe we can pick this up another time." Please say no please say no...

"Of course," the man smiled, reaching into his pocket for a business card. "Good luck with the traffic on your way," he smiled, holding it out.

The card was very plain, simply reading "Kouhei Hayami" with a phone number underneath it.

He takes the card with a short nod, before he hightails it out of the cafe. He's incredibly glad that his car is parked behind the building, out of Hayami's sight, so he can just sit behind the wheel for a minute or two and just stare into space.

What the hell was that?! He's normally pretty tight-lipped about his work (when he's not hounding the people he's writing about, admittedly), so what was with that guy, making Kotaro tell him everything?

The charm is still cool in his pocket, but it doesn't hurt so much to take out now, as he holds it in his palm. "Sorry, Bakura," he says, quietly. "I don't... I'm not sure what happened."

Another sharp spark of cold darkness erupts from the shattered looking die, zapping Kotaro's hand. Someone is pissed....

The die gets flung with surprise and pain, landing on the dashboard with a loud clatter as Kotaro shakes his hand again. "I'm sorry!" He's also panicking a little at being attacked by the charm. "L-look, I got his business card - you're all about information, right? It's not much, but it's something!"

The die lays there, motionless, but still giving off a small, barely noticeable cloud of darkness, much like smoke from dry ice.

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