Reporting the Nightmare

Navaja walks in just behind John, hoping to see a changeling other then the Summer King. While she's cleaned up the blood that found it's way onto her, she looks disheveled and weary, any probably not like the hotel's normal clientele. She whispers to John, "So, how do we find... well, anyone? Do you have a plan, or are we just peeking in doors until we see someone with horns or blue skin?"

John thought about this carefully. They were pretty much flying blind at this point. "My guess is we take a look around. Judging from what position "he" has, it wouldn't be much of a streach that everyone else has prominate positions here and work late on other things. But I could be wrong."

Navaja looks around the hotel lobby. She nods to the restaurant entrance, "Wanna try there? Looks swanky, if I was a king, I'd hang out there." She starts walking slowly towards it, trying to get a look inside. "I wonder how much they charge for a coke?"

"Its a five star hotel, so I wouldn't be surprised if they charged five bucks or more. If everyone else has as much cash to blow as him, they should be here." He replied as he peered into the resturant.

John looked over the place carefully, anyone could help so long as they wern't so paranoid about outsiders. Like it has been so far.

Spoiler:

Navaja walks up the to the Maitre'd "Excuse me, sir, we're still deciding on dining plans. Could I possibly see a menu?" While she waits, she takes a good look at the dining room.

Spoiler:

Navaja glances at the menu, then hands it back to the maitre'd "Um, thank you."

She turns around and walks back to John, and whispers, "Any other plans? I can't afford a $20 appetizer just in hopes someone shows up sometime."

John thought about this for a moment. There was definitely someone in the kitchens, just wasn't sure on who. "Someones in the kitchens here. Could be one of them. Any ideas how to get in there without causing problems?"

"Sort of. It's going to have a back door, and that's our most direct route. Wandering through the dining room we get a whole see of onlookers, but through the backdoor the most we get is a confused kitchen staff thinking we're begging. The question is, once we knock on the back door, how do we get to see someone whose name and position we don't know?" Navaja considers this for a moment.

After a few seconds, she raises her head, "Come to think of it, I do have a plan. It's not much of a plan, but if you've got nothing, it's worth a shot."

"I'm drawing blanks here at the moment, so anything might be a good plan. So long as it doesn't involve us being chased by angery hotel staff." John said as he got up from his seat.

Navaja pulls out her map and rips off a piece. She scribbles on it "Please help us relay urgent news to the courts."

She heads swiftly out of the hotel, and as she walking, she says quietly to John. "Here's the plan. We work in a bookstore. A two customers, a man and a woman, were in today and one of them dropped this. One said that they worked here, but we can't remember which one. We don't know they're names, but we'll know them if we see them. We're both here because we have a bet. You think the woman worked here and I think it was the man. Sound like a plan?"

John thought about it carefully. There was alot that can go wrong with this plan, but then again it was something he could work with if he didn't screw up. he gave her a nod. "Yeah, it could work. Lets get started."

After quite a while walking around the huge building, Navaja finds what she was looking for, a service door that opens out onto a large ally with dumpsters. "This is my bet for the kitchen door. I'll let you knock. You're stronger, and you probably knock louder."

There's an eye-hole in the door that allows someone to see who's trying to get in to the kitchen. There's a glint of light in that beady little black dot, like someone's looking at the two of you.

Then you hear a laugh, and when the door opens you recognize where you've heard it.

The coyote-headed changeling sticks his head out the door. Kyle looses a devastating smile at the two of them and with a great deal of dignity, says, "Boo."

Looks like we won't be going through with that plan after all. John thought as he looked at the Beast. "We need to see one of the "seasons'. It's urgent." In times like this, bluntness is better.

Kyle 's smile grows improbably wide. "Ah! You're looking for the Head Honcho? The Big Cheese? Mr. or Miss. Big Deal? Our very own Big Enchilada? One of the Big Fish? A Big Gun, Big Shot, or Big Wheel? Someone like that?" Obviously this guy likes the sound of his voice. "Anyone in particular? Because I happen to be quite good friends with them all."

"Any of them will do. Just hurry up. When I say something is urgent, it usually is." John said in a cold tone. He wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. He had been running around all day and was not in the mood for the more eccentric members of the Freehold.

The smile never wavers. "That's why I like you red-hots. You all wear your hearts on your sleeves." Kyle holds the door open and motions for them to follow him in to the kitchen. "I'll take you to our very own Big Enchilada then." Kyle leads the odd little procession, humming a little tune to himself as he goes. When he comes to the obvious head chef, he taps her on the shoulder and exclaims delightedly, "Vivian, darling! I found some red-hots and some candy corns looking for you. What do you want to do with them?"

Kyle waggles his eyebrows. "Oh no! Nothing of the sort. I was leaving, but I got distracted when I ran across these little lost lambs looking scared and confused outside. One's your's and Sparky here is Garrik's." Kyle shoves the two of them up front. "They look like they want to confess something, and you know what they say about chicken soup and the soul."

Kyle slips between the two of them and he drapes his arms over their shoulders. He tilts his head and whispers into Navaja's ear, "It's really good." He tilts his head toward John "Be sure to mind your manners now."

Then he straightens up and nods his head to the queen, "I'm sure they'll be more comfortable without me here. I'll be outside if you need me." He had seen a server heading out for her smoke break while he had been guiding the kids in...


Kyle stuck his head out into the alley, waited until the girl (she couldn't be more than eighteenl, but she had her hair in a ponytail and damn wasn't it sexy) looked around to see who it was, then he thought really hard about how attractive he was and how bad smoking really was for her. He could see the thoughts appearing in her head, God Damn he's pretty. I should see if he's available instead of wasting my smoke break smoking, like he was writing them on a piece of paper. He smiled at the lambchop. "Hello little girl."

Spoiler:

(( Reroll that as -5, not -4, please. ))

John nodded and urged Navaja in. He stood unconfortabley in the kitchen. "I hope this place is safe for our ears."

Navaja hurries in, as much to leave the horndog to his prey as to relay their news to the Queen. Once inside, she fixes her stare on the impressive woman in front of her. "Ma'am, I'm sorry this has to be our first meeting, but there's something very important we have to tell you." She looks around at the kitchen, "Is there someplace quiet we could talk?"

John took a deep breath, there was no way of knowing how she would react to the information. "We went to Ednas today and...Everyone there was dead."

"Whatever did it left just before we got there, but I don't think it was human." She hurriedly adds to John's statement. She looks down at her fingertips, then back at Vivian, and says softly, "Well, not entirely human, at least."

John wrapped his scarf around his neck tightly as they entered the freezer. John nods and begins.
"We were directed to the boardinghouse by the summer sovreign. When we got there the power was out except for some light in the back. We heard a scream and headed to the source. When we got there.... John pauses, the images flashing before his eyes in detail. " It was a bloodbath. Most of the kitchen was caked in blood and the back door was ripped off by something...Inhuman. I went to the backyard and...It wasn't much better. Limbs were all over the place, I could guess they were either ripped off or sliced. I saw something in the distance, but it was too dark and it was out of reach of the floodlights" John pauses again to take a deep breath, trying to stay composed as he continued.
"I went back inside and started looking for any survivors. I went up stares and...Blood was flowing from the stairs. I didn't go any thurther than that. Me and Navaja agreed to come back here to inform the Court." And with that he stopped and looked at his shoes, trying to prevent to full weight of the horror from crashing down on him. "Nava, do you see anything else while I was outside?"

Navaja wraps her arms around herself and rubs her arms. She nods, "Claw marks, all over the place. Whatever did this had some big claws, and they easily slashed through wood, left dents in metal..." she trails off, leaving off what the claws did to flesh. A second's pause and she seems to get herself back together. "We didn't want to call the police if this was something the courts wanted to deal with privately."

Navaja takes a deep breath and lets it out. "Sure. You still with me John?" She keeps her face completely blank, though her mind is racing with sarcastic things to say that would probably get her in trouble with her queen.

She turns to leave, thinks Lets not make that mistake again, and turns to Vivan, "If we do find something, who do we ask for here? I mean, in case you're not in the kitchen, or if we have to call on the phone. The guy out there called you Vivian?"

Navaja leeaves the freezer, and walkes out of the kitchen into the ally. She waits for John, then turns to him and says "How are we going to do this? We don't have a car, are we just gonna sit in some bushes across from a crime scene? Cause that'll look real innocent."

"Well stay in contact." John called after Vivan as they left. He kept rubbing his hands as they reached the ally.
"Actually, thats the only thing we can do right now, though it won't be too much of a problem. Inital protection of crime scenes is where police presence is highest. As evidence is gavered and taken in for anailisis, officers are called off to other crimes in progress. In a few days the place will just resemble a haunted house." John shivered at the word, it wasn't apporpriate for this situation. "We'll stay in a small hotel somewhere, keep an eye on the boardinghouse and scout out a hollow when we get the chance. What do you think?"

Navaja looks at John with a mix of surprise and suspicion. Thoughts tumble through her mind, one after the other. What the hell, he sounds like a cop. Is this a trap? I haven't broken any laws. Not even His. Is He just waiting, then John'll snatch me and... no. John's been cool. He's helped me. There's a better explanation. This is just paranoia. It has to be. We've seen two court leaders, no one's noticed anything funny. She shakes her head to clear the thoughts, and nods at John.

"Sure. I need sleep. I'm getting a little crazy from all this stuff. She looks like she's trying to convince herself of something, and keeps glancing at John. "So, um, how do you know all that stuff?

I can trust him. I can trust him.

John shrugged. This was bound to come up in conversation at some point. He hoped she didn't have a history or things will go south quickly. "Before I was Taken, I was with the Boston PD. Was never able to go back after my fucking Fetch decided it would be a good iead to screw with my life." The last part sound bitter and, well, rather sad at the same time. He shoved his hands into his pockets. "What about you?"

Navaja sighs, almost with relief. She knew there had to be an explanation. At least she hoped like hell there did. "Grew up in San Francisco. I was in the gangs for a while before I went straight, and went to college. I actually was a high school teacher. She still is, as far as I know. That's why I came here. SanFran's a big city, but I figure there's only room for one of me."

She pauses for a moment, closes her eyes, and draws in a breath and says "Look, I trust you. But cops really really freak me out. Maybe later I'll tell you about it, maybe, but... It wasn't a problem I had when I was teaching social studies, if that's a hint. So if I get all weird when you go into cop talk, it's nothing personal, seriously." She opens her eyes and looks apologetic.

"Now let's find a place to crash."

Gangs? At least she went straight when she had the chance. John though for a moment. Now this was shit you would expect in crappy cop sitcoms in the 80's. He shook his head and sighed. "Sure, I'm beat. Can't exactly keep an eye on a boardinghouse if its closed after all."

It takes a moment for kyle to pull himself out of the fog of Glamour he's been harvesting, and he shoots a irritated glance skyward. Couldn't she see he was busy? Kyle is nothing if not gallant though, what did she say her name was again? Ah, Susan. Well, probably Susan.

"Susan, I'd like to continue this somewhere more, ah, comfortable, but duty calls. Call me?" He flashes his guileless, blue puppy-dog eyes and slips her a card with his voicemail number on the back. Maybe she would and maybe she wouldn't, there would always be more fish in the barrel, so to speak.