2020-09-15 - A Seriously Serial Discussion

What do the recent murders and one particular video game have in common? This is something Byron hopes to learn more about.

Due to the nature of this meeting, Byron has his laptop set up on the kitchen island counter with an iced macchiatto placed right beside it. The main page of the Rue Nord website is pulled up on the monitor's screen. The AC is running high for the summer and all of the curtains are dawn open to allow natural light into the place.

Having skipped heading into the casino for the day, Byron's dressed casually, in a plain fitted T-shirt and black jeans. Most of his guests are already here, so rather than sitting in front of his computer and being anti-social, he's up and about playing host. "So I contacted the investment manager at Rue Nord. Interesting conversation, but not sure if I have anything potentially helpful. That is, unless you're interested in investing."

When she arrived a few minutes ago, she isn't alone. Alexander is with her; Isabella is dressed in her typical casual wear for the summer - a pair of jeans shorts, sandals, a tank-top and her favorite Oxford University hoodie. She's here largely to assist with any translation needs and mythological and cultural contexts of her investigator-lover's current murder case, though the grisly business is one that she's only tangentially involved with. Crimes are something she doesn't have much expertise in.

The archaeologist is busy fixing herself another cup of coffee. "What did you guys talk about?" she asks, easing into one of the other couches with her refreshed cup.

Alexander's found some place to sit that lets him stick his cast out without getting into everyone's way. He doesn't have a laptop, but has his phone where his notes are. "Not particularly interested in investing," he admits, with a faint smile. "Although it's a fun game. You should try it. I even enjoy the murder quests - I just wish they weren't affiliated with actual murders." He shakes his head. "As for what we've learned...I was hoping to hear from you two," he glances from Byron to Abitha. "Do you think it's a dev? The murderer, I mean? The quests are too well aligned with the murders to be coincidence."

Lilith is curled up with the cat on the couch, which is... kind of odd for as much shit as they generally give each other, but today they're bros, so that's nice. As soon as the woman helped settle people with drinks and did the 'hellos' all around, that's where she posts up to listen to the discussion and give input as desired or required. But Byron is the one with all the info he's been poking at, so mostly, she's just resting against the arm of the couch listening with a beer on the table in front of her. Smaug is upright by her stomach in the nook, following the people conversing with his judgmental feline gaze and general stankface, allowing Lilith to absently play with the thick fur on his head and absently bend one of his ears up and down.

"It definitely takes fantasy immersion via game to whole new levels... I'm not sure a developer would... immerse the same way as a player, since some of the fantasy for them is gone. But that's just my opinion."

Abitha had also arrived plus one, mostly because it was jarring enough when the richest dude in town shows up to your house, when he invites you to his penthouse to talk about murder, you bring your best friend. Also, she made Maggi drive. Still sporting her business casual look from having just recently been at the precinct, Abitha also has her courier bag in tow. Seeing the other laptop, she finds herself a seat at the countertop and breaks out her own green-LED lit custom job. Alexander's comment was spot-on with her assumptions, so she lets the actual investigator type fill in those assumptions. "It's at least an alpha tester, if not a dev. At least, that's what we gathered after I bought that account."

Sure Byron probably has a decent memory, but he whips out his phone anyway, where he had kept some notes of the conversation. "I actually did download the game and tried it out a bit. It's interesting enough and," He shrugs, "The company is made up of former Ubi Soft developers. Not too shabby to start." From his phone, his gaze lifts over to Abitha, "Right. They call it Operation: Dress Rehearsal where this core group, who I've been told, have been with the project since it's roots, create quests for the game." Shooting a glance over at Abitha again, he adds, "They're all contractors to save the company money."

Meandering towards the couch, he musses Lilith's hair. "So those of you who were involved in this from the beginning. There's no links at all between the deceased?"

She'll wait for the rest who are more involved in the case to answer that. Isabella glances over at Alexander as she takes a quiet sip of her coffee, though she does move so she sits closer to him.

"Is there any way to get the alpha testers real names and locations?" Alexander asks, looking from Byron to Abitha. He smiles and slips an arm around Isabella when she settles in close. "The killer seems to be choosing targets of convenience - the only link is that they all stood out. They have abilities. That appears to be part of his mythology. But Treadway was a homeless man, and I suspect the park ranger was chosen because he found the symbols carved in the wood. I haven't seen an ID on the third body, yet, but we have some missing persons - I bet it's one of those. Probably a tourist or college student or something." He grimaces. "The mythology is important, but it's personal. What he's doing isn't really about the victims. He's not killing proxies of some hated or feared figure in his life. He's a mission-based killer. He thinks that if he doesn't appease these bloodthirsty gods, then the world will end. That sense of righteousness gives him the delusion of being the hero. This game, I think, has been incorporated into his mythology, but I think there's a deeper, more personal one underneath. Notice his forum handle - that's not a Babylonian god, I think. But it also means that I don't know that we can predict where his next murder is gonna be, or who it's going to be. By the game, we can get an idea of which god it's going to be to...but we really need to ID this asshole. We've got a description. But we need a name and location."

Maggi is absently watching Mac putz with her rig, after all it glows. Being in a place this nice had her at a standing level of discomfort in her high waisted pinup button shorts and a tank stating ‘too weird too rare to die’. She looks skeptically around the place. How much did it cost to run the AC this high in a pent house? Heat rising that many floors...

Her attention snaps to some guy in a tee that she was pretty sure was Byron, but he wasn’t in a suit so it might be his brother Bryan. “I don’t know a ton about the other bodies, but beach squads had runes and a squidward head, so does the game have deep ones? Like we all know it’s cuneiform. What about the other deceased individuals?”

She hadn’t introduced herself, Maggi only knew most of these people in passing. There was no way she was passing up some occult ancient civilization murder spree investigation though.

"Is there any narrowing down of where he might have been using a literal buzzsaw on these bodies to dismember them? It's hard in this area with lumber mills and hobby garages and so on..." Lilith listens at length while she tips her dark head up into the ruffle from Byron. When he's near and reaching, she in turn reaches to catch his arm to try and tug him against her and cat on the couch so he'll stop standing and pacing around while talking. She might just want to cuddle, though, company be damned. Especially while talking to him about a buzzsaw, considering what he's seen through mental ability and residue reading.

"Game bits aside, finding his tools to carry out the deed would certainly help narrow things down, I think. But I don't really know how to do that. It'd be hard to lug a body around to do that and plant it without other people seeing, which is really what gets me if he's done this multiple times. It's not like these bodies are in back alleys or anything."

"I didn't get the bit about the contracting, but it makes sense." Abitha comments to Byron. She was busy bringing up her note taking and the game at the same time, just in case something had to be answered by looking at it specifically. "But it makes sense. Every tech company from Google to Redhat are doing that. Wonderful American Capitalism." She pauses typing for a second, her eyes briefly flicking to Byron, then back to her computer because she TOTALLY can't play off she just talked shit about the moneyed class when she was in an apartment like this. Change the subject, Mac, shit.

"I was already skating on thin ice with that account, if I log back in and am just asking for info on people, I might get reported." She directs at Alexander. "I can try brute forcing the server via that account, but I'm not that confident I can get anything, and some people are big on privacy and don't share their contact info with game companies past encrypted business through credit cards, and that's a whole level of felony..." she finally trails off, realizing the depth of run-on she'd been, "And isn't it Erra we think is next?" she wonders, hunkering down a little at her keyboard in embarrassment.

"I don't think the murders were done in any school's shop class. The equipment is the same, but on a slightly smaller scale. Then again, it's been a while since I'd been to shop and maybe they've got budget cuts. That said, I didn't get a good view of the room, just had a sense that it was a workshop." Lilith gets Byron to stop pacing and he even settles in beside her and the cat, but he does look restless. "I was hoping that whoever was sent to the library may have found that information there. Library card anything. Failing that, we don't even know where he's from, right? I mean, Gray Harbor is a small town and I can't say I recognize him as a local." But who the hell knows! Continuing on the vein, he adds, "And if he's not a local. Why here?"

To this talks of myths, however, his chin lifts as he idly rubs against the bristles there, "So, did you get a look at what Bennie found at the beach before it was washed away?" This question is to Isabella. "I believe she sent you something the night we found the body on the pyre."

Byron must've let Security know she was coming, because Bennie arrives up in the elevator to the penthouse, striding in like she was here all along and just went to the washroom. Where she apparently rolled around on the beach, got a little wet and sandy, and now has Cuneiform scratched into her skin up the length of one forearm. "I believe we were promised booze?"

There's a press of her lips against Alexander's cheek when he slips an arm around her, settling against him while she cradles her cup of coffee in her hands. When Byron turns his eyes towards her, Isabella nods. "More cuneiform," she tells him. "An offering to Gibil, the Burning Purifier. He's no expert in the mythology, a lot of the things he transcribes are things he uses Google - nobody from the time of Mesopotamia will actually arrange the cuneiform the way he has. Honestly, I have to wonder why he decided to attach himself to this particular mythology - there are more popular ones out there, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Norse..."

After another sip of her coffee, she continues. "Gibil's roots are older," she tells the group. "His origins are Sumerian, not Babylonian and his later function as the god of fire and light was originally split between two gods due to political upheavals around that time in the Fertile Crescent. Anyway, he's one of the fifty aspects of Marduk - basically the Babylonian Zeus in the sense that he was widely considered the king of the Babylonian gods. Gibil himself is also mentioned in Erra and Isum, which is considered a central text for the culture - it was just as important in Ancient Mesopotamia as the Epic of Gilgamesh."

She glances over at Alexander, brow furrowing. "If Erra is the next god to be given an offering, he's an interesting one. He's a plague god, considered by many historians and archaeologist to be a destructive force, but nothing like..." She pauses, furrowing her brows as she attempts to remember. "He's not meant to represent destructive evil, but rather as a means to re-set humanity and society by giving the world a clean slate. He slaughtered righteous and unrighteous alike. In the poem I mentioned, he temporarily gained control of the world and ravaged Babylon with a plague to purge it. It was meant to illustrate how violence leads to disruption of order, even divine order willed by the gods, and the potential to destroy civilization. So if Alexander's right, the suspect probably believes if he does this, he can save the world from a plague."

When Bennie arrives, she smiles, and is about to greet her when eyes widen at the cuneiform in her arm. "Bennie, what happened?!"

"Mission-based killers crave some level of recognition and...acceptance of their crimes. They want to believe that they're doing righteous work. It seems that this particular killer killed before, outside of Gray Harbor, and wrote an invocation to a made-up god. Those are probably still the ones he feels he serves, but he might have come across the game at a formative time in his mythology, and found that couching his acts in game terms, with game gods, allowed him to receive some part of the acceptance he craves. If he is an alpha tester, or a dev, then he has the power, using this," a gesture at Isabella's elaboration, "to drag everyone else into his world. He can't do that with gods that exist only in his head. I don't think he has the charisma for a cult." He makes a nose at the end. "Erra isn't the last of the gods. Not the end game. Not for him."

There's a smile naturally rising to his lips when he sees Bennie - but then he blinks at the cuneiform. Isabella's already asked the REALLY IMPORTANT question, so he just frowns at her in concern to back it up.

Lilith changes her seated couch angle once Byron is seated against her and smiles some at Bennie's arrival after listening at thoughtful length to the discussion all around. In fact, the more she listens, her brows slightly knit in pensive fashion. Grazing her bottom lip with her teeth, she tugs a throw blanket down over lace-up shorts and tank-topped self while under the AC vent when it kicks on. It makes the cat shake its head out of the blanket edge to continue to see people with that face while the talk is going around, switching from in against Lilith to the actual arm of the couch to have a better watching and 'listening' perch.

"I might have missed this angle already being approached, but does any of this information take on a new light or inlet road if we consider the idea he's not working alone and has one or more accomplices? Other than powers, it's probably the only way he's moving dismemebered whole bodies while being relatively 'unseen' and dumping them in public places to be found in various states of alteration."

Suddenly, though, she notices Bennie's arm and blurts out, "What the fuck?"

That's the other REALLY important way to phrase the question, it seems.

Maggi nods along to Isabella's information, taking in the portions of it that are new to her. She was pretty good, Maggi remembered from a few classes together that she was quick. Eyeing Bennie's arm she doesn't say anything, poor thing was already being hounded for what could be a bizzaro and inappropriate use of scarification.

"In Henry's case the head was also cauterized on which would add another unique quirk of the workshop, human flesh burning would have a particular and difficult to ventilate smell. A lot of people use similar handles for stuff right? If he's into video games and ancient civ's there is a chance he goes on some whack-a-doo forums too right? Could an IP be tracked if he was active on another site? Could he want to share his beliefs and have them externally validated? It feels like we are looking at a kind of venn diagram to crack this. Physical dismemberment evidence, mythological and fantasy disassociation, and a psychologically fixated real world relationship. He also had a conversation with at least Henry."

She too had been pacing as she spoke, and was not looking to cuddle anyone. Some of the tech speak was beyond her but history and mental disturbances were up her alley. Thin fingers twirl in her mane of messy golden hair out of habit, knotting it further.

Bennie waves off looks and comments of concern with a little flap of her hand as she flops onto the floor near the others, propping her back against a wall weightily. But maybe one of those kind souls will be kind enough to bring her alcohol? "The hot serial killer and I stepped through the Looking Glass, I'm fine, I did this to myself to make sure I could remember, but Isabella, can you do your computer voodoo on this? I don't know if it's the same message from down on the beach." She holds out her arm so it can be read and possibly copied or have photos taken, whatever is needed. "Hi everyone. Please, please. Continue. I'll throw in any new stuff I can remember as it's relevant but the Caterpillar and I got REALLY stoned after I fixed his guts. Don't slow your roll on my account."

Record-scratch.

"Wait." Alexander sits up, eyes wide. "You went into a DREAM with the serial killer? What happened? Did you get a name? Did he try to hurt you?"

Bennie's name was given to the security downstairs prior to her arrival as she was invited to this little meeting, so it's no surprise when she shows up. Now, the state in which she appears is the most surprising thing. This whole discussion was of a serious nature, yet Byron affords a faint smile at the blonde bar owner's entrance. "Of course, there's drinks. Name your poison." Leaning in towards Lilith, he kisses her on the edge of her lips just before he rises to pour some booze into a glass. Though the more that sees of Bennie, the more that he has a feeling she might want the whole bottle rather than just a glad. "Jesus, what happen--" And before he can even finish his question, Bennie tells them exactly what happened.

"So you met the serial killer?" He asks, still not heading to the bar just yet in case the new arrival was about to collapse on the floor or something. "Are you hurt?" Whatever they were saying earlier was now put on temporary hold, but seeing how... calm? Bennie was, he decides to go fetch her that drink.

Abitha was happy to sit back and let the actual ancient civilization buff talk all the things while she sheepishly writes a note to try researching the handle for other sites. She hadn't thought to do that. Back on the subject, she knew some myths, and had thought Erra was a plague god, but offers one clarification, "The thing that's weird is the game's gods versus the real... I mean..." She pauses, realizes how this sounds, furrows her brows, quirks her lips, then continues, "You know what I mean, the myths from the real world? So like, the reason I even thought to look for Erra beforehand was because you've got the four traditional elements." She points to Maggi, "Body on the beach, water," She points to Alexander, "The one that burned was obviously for fire, and there was another one we thought was for a fertility god?" Her eyes sweep to get confirmation on that bit, not remember where she heard it, "Which a lot of people would associate with earth. Air seemed the next logical conclusion, and Erra is considered that in the game. The game's mythology doesn't match up, so I'm not sure we can take the connotations of the plague as what we're looking for, probably just the method from the quest."

There's a side-eye at the comment about computers, mostly because Abitha felt she was polled for a lot of things that were related to technology skills, and was eager to find out who else had some.

She tilts her head back. "The fastest way to spread a contagion is to render it airborne," Isabella points out to Abitha. "So the choice might not be too far off the mark if the next element is air and if he's meant to represent it. Not saying that he'll do something to this town that'll get the CDC called down on us though - if Alexander's profile is true, he means to stop one by sacrificing someone else." She stands up then, easing away from Alexander, so she can go assist Bennie. There's concern on her features, but the first thing she does is help her friend first, and gets her a drink - it's water, though. Booze will come later, she's not about to risk making an injury worse if she's bleeding anywhere.

When asked to look at the scratches on her arm, she leans over to peer at it with a frown. "Nin-ridu will save us all. The Quencher. Chaldean in origin." She quirks a brow. "Back to water, then, if we're going with the elements theory?"

Lilith nudges her face into Byron's kiss with an unwitting 'mm' of noise despite her distraction of keeping an assessing eye on Bennie's arm and listening to this new development. She figures it's either going to confuse or add some lynchpin into the mystery and conversation, so she doesn't opinion for now and lets those with a grasp on the myths and facts speak without any interruption. Blinking a few slow times, she seems to actually be physically distracted by the runed markings carved on Bennie, like she's sitting on the urge to take them right off and away now that they've been noted and translated.

For now, though, she pets on the cat's back while it stares at Bennie too, looking it's own form of judging and disturbed. But mostly, it just looks like that.

Bennie pinches one eye shut sheepishly. "Sorry, hitting the hookah was the only way out of the Dream. Uh...no, we skipped right past introductions and went right to the trying to kill each other part. He ran off after I threatened to find a really big spray bottle. Oh! He was the Cheshire Cat. I think I left that part out." Yes, yes you did, Bennie. "I busted his pretty teeth though! Um. Yes, the Quencher. He says he's killing some for the Quencher to save all of us that shine. They will come from Kadigara..Kadi..." She takes the water gratefully, but she's seriously eyeing Byron and mouthing TEQUILA as subtly as possible, which isn't to say much at all. But aside from the self-mutilation, she seems okay otherwise, if a little shaken and not stirred. "Kada-something to slake their thirst on those that shine."

All of this myth talk was Isabella's expertise and possibly Abitha's for all Byron knows. He will inquire about things that catch his attention once he's at the bar, setting out a glass to fill with tequila, he supposes. He just had a feeling (a very obvious feeling) that this is what she's craving. "The killer transformed into a Cheshire Cat and you both tried to kill one another? More importantly, does he know who you are? I mean, before this chance meeting in a Dream?" The businessman is curious on whether this guy knows who is investigating his murders.

With the glass in hand, Byron hands the tequila over to Bennie. At this close a distance, he has a very good look at the marks on her body and unlike Isabella, he can't read a damn word of it. "That's the vibe that I got from him too. He had this conviction that he was doing the right thing." Pause, "To save those with the light though? Having lived here all my life, I don't know if it's good to discount the crazed thoughts of a madman and let's hope that he's not in the right here. Or we have bigger fish to fry."

"Ka-dingirra?" Isabella furrows her brows. "It's literally 'Gate of God' but it's the root name for Babylon - as in the actual city." She's here as translator, largely, so she translates for the rest.

"What Byron said," Alexander puts in, his gaze worried and his posture tense. "Did the man just attack you, or did he realize that you knew he was responsible for the murders? And...we'll need to put some protection on you. I can ask Javier if he can spare a cop? Or we can work something out for ourselves..." Considering that he doesn't know how much of the force is reliable at the moment.

"You're sooo pretty." That must be Bennie's way of thanking Byron for the tequila which she's immediately lifting to her mouth to sip from. As Isabella supplies the right name for the word she couldn't remember and Bennie actually giggles into her glass and almost snorts burning alcohol out her nose. "Yes...that. Only he said it WAY more creepy. But don't try to do his voice, please and thank you." Her head thunks back against the wall heavily, "Well, he didn't call me by name but he seems to know why I was chasing after him. Pfft protection. Pffft. Now get back to the brain trust....thing."

Maggi waits for Alice to regale them with more stories of looking glass exploration. It didn't seem too much more was going to be answered until the most solid lead, which was ironically the most intangible, was hammered out. The given made little sense, but so did most of this. She stifles a 'What the fuck?'. She does a quick search on her phone and frowns. "Does this guy essentially think that the things that plague those who use their abilities too much require blood tribute? That would mean that he glows right? If Mac is worried about being burned I can just stand in whatever town square and do that /shout thing talking about weird stuff till I'm approached. Abilities would make sense as to why he's messed up mentally, and how the body got under Itz's sculpture. I trolled conspiracy forums all the time trying to get leads on parapsychology, I think he would want to talk to someone instead of just playing out a narrative. Hero complex is want for attention."

She looks at Mac hopefully, trying to see if she has at least a vague grasp. "This just feels a tad like a paper that needs to be shifted back toward a thesis, too many directions..."

After listening to the water bit, Abitha throws up a hand in defeat, "Well, nukes my theory, then. I dunno, was going by quasi-nerd logic. Everyone liked Airbender... Just not the movie..." Ok, so no computer use. Just in case, Abitha breaks out her phone, because if anyone was going to have one of the more advanced smart devices with a killer camera, it was going to be the streamer. She opens up the picture taking interface and... Well, she holds it out for someone to get what's on Bennie's arm, so maybe they could just go ahead and heal the woman, cause Abitha wasn't wanting to stare at it for too long... To Maggi, "I can get you an account if we want to try it that way. Something that has time played, so it doesn't seem to suspcious. I didn't think to check if any of the victims actually played the game?" Again, this question is made as Abitha glances around the room, seeing if anyone else had checked.

Lilith looks bothered, suddenly, extremely, extremely, extremely bothered. After looking away from Bennie's arm toward the cat for a moment, it looks at her like it seriously knows what she's thinking too, but it probably doesn't. She takes to absently tugging at her bottom lip while staring at her beer on the coffee table and then leans forward to pick it up and drain it, though it was still halfway full. Then she takes back to absently plucking and pulling at her bottom lip, commenting to Abitha a bit distracted and passively.

"That's a good idea, did anyone check?" She doesn't seem to be in a hurry to mention what's bothering her all of a sudden now that Bennie has explained her angle of what just happened and how it happened.

When he's called pretty, despite the fact that they are discussing a murderer, Byron gives Bennie one of his professional shit-eating grins. "Right back atcha." He returns to his laptop to pick up his coffee now that he's back to wandering the apartment space. "You don't think that the Cheshire Cat is creepy? Maybe not the Disney version, but I've seen other incarnations of the beast." He shoots a glance over at Smog who is still nestled against Lilith, "Puts my cat to shame." Because Smog looks anything but friendly.

After a sip of cool iced coffee, Byron considers all of this, "I said that I wasn't going to get involved. Let the police handle this." That's when he quirks a brow at Abitha, "I suppose you are part of the GHPD right now... Machinae so this would be fitting. I offered my assistance where I thought I could help best and that was on the business front." This means that as he has no idea who any of these victims really were, he doesn't know if any of them played the game.

"You mentioned that one was homeless. At first, before you said that, I had thoughts that maybe the deceased were other Alphas. That's clearly not the case."

If anyone would have been checking, it would've been Alexander. Isabella shakes her head in response to Lilith; but with her smartphone suddenly going off at the back pocket of her jeans shorts, she checks the caller ID. "I don't know much about the case itself, unfortunately. Much of my usefulness has been limited to translating and giving mythological contexts to the symbology he's been us--" She furrows her brows at the screen, before she sighs. "Sorry, guys, I have to take this," she says, before she moves for the double doors leading out into the balcony

Seeing the discomfort from Mac, Maggi snatches the phone and takes a few pictures of Bennie's arm getting paparazzi close and working around the drink. "Do you want someone to try to heal that or are the scarraffied marks of the old country your new thing?" She wasn't like the best at that but they didn't look too deep, just a little satanic.

"I think they just had an interest Byron. Henry took information from the killer and they discussed topics related in the barbershop. Even in Bennie's case he wanted to talk about it. I say we hook him with attention. Seriously seems more starved for it than a woman in a sexless marriage." She hands the phone back to Mac and gives Bennie space till there is an answer one way or the other.

"So ah. To me? It sounds like he actually snared Bennie into a Dream and controlled what happened in it. Which... I could be wrong. But only... there's only one kind of person I've ever noticed that can potentially do that." Lilith looks at Byron, then the others, like she doesn't really want to say it, "... all this work to 'sacrifice' to myth, it could be his interpretation of paying homage to the Dark Ones, not 'Gods' so to speak. He might not just be a serial killer, which... is highly problematic, possibly. He might be a Dark Agent with the ability to do their will."

Lilith pushes her tongue hard against a canine tooth and suddenly looks much less chill and lazily relaxed while taking in conversation around and making small comments here and there. Flipping back the throw blanket, she gets up to pick up her empty bottle and pads barefoot through the open concept to the kitchen and fridge to replace it with another. She's so distracted and bothered, though, she reverts to old habits she's tried to break-- she uses her power to dent the cap and foregoes the bottle opener, which is probably one of the most extraneous uses you can go flashing your beacon for, save for lighting a smoke (which she also used to do rampantly and still catches herself doing).

Bennie doesn't seem perturbed by Maggi taking photos, in fact she does a whole Vanna White display for the woman like she just flipped over the final answer of the bonus round and everyone's a winner!

"Oh yeah, I totally don't want to keep them once you guys are done with them. Cuneiforms are so last season. So if anyone wants to juju them the fuc-OOP." She almost swore in her blitzed out state, and her hand flies over her mouth to conceal another damnable giggle that sobers suddenly at the thought that the killer snared her into the dream. "He killed the white bunny man."

"I mean... I had proposed the idea of making a meetup, since the game's guilds are based regionally," Abitha begins, her comment made in Maggi's direction in response to the need for attention, but looks a little disappointed, "Then Alexander reminded me that putting a serial killer in a room with a bunch of potential targets if things went south was probably a bad idea." The phone was accepted, the photos compressed into a single folder, and sent away to Maggi and Alexander's emails. Not her idea of fashion either. Also, she was then distracted by the horrifying thing Lilith was suggesting, then the power usage. Abitha's expression was a big ol' unfiltered show of 'The fuck did I just watch?'

Whether the cuneiform on Bennie's flesh hurt or not, to Byron they looked uncomfortably painful, so though he's not riddled with the stuff on his skin, he probably would be more than happy to see it absent from Bennie's skin. Or from anywhere really. Lifting his cup to his lips for a sip, there's some confusion on his features when he asks, "The killer spoke to Henry about what? He had interest in the man? I wonder what sorts of conversations he had with all of his victims." Remembering what Maggi had said earlier, he recaps, "So someone who has a workshop filled with things like band saws and... blow torches possibly? Since one of the bodies was partially cauterized? That really could be anywhere in town."

Seeing Lilith rise to get a new bottle of water, he wanders her way to offer some of his iced macchiatto just as she magically pops the cap off of it. "Someone's really thirsty." He murmurs before still offering up his cup. "Has anyone checked in on that hardware store? The one run by the Sisters." If he recalls correctly. "But right, any of these houses could have a basement with a workshop."

The mention of the Dark Men, however, is something that had come to mind. "Either he's an Agent or he's being played by an Agent. But seeing that he pulled Bennie into the Dream..." A curious pause, "The white bunny man?" Looking to the others, he cautious asks, "Is that his latest victim? Was the bunny... man beheaded?"

The healing and repairing bit was something Maggi was not quite as 'duck to water' with originally, but she was getting better. She preferred fire hands down. Maggi crouches down enough to get a good look at the arm. She snickers at Bennie's joke, Cuneiform was in fact many seasons ago. Her blue eyes glint with a blue fire to them and the marks on Bennie's arm begin to heal. Maggi defiantly looks a bit more on the 'could use a nap' side though.

Her desire for knowledge gets the better of her and she turns to look at Lillith. "What are those like human incarnations? How does that work?" She is still near the other blonde but almost frozen, snapped out of focus by Byron's questions. "Babylonians and ancient history were what the two discussed. One of the barbers said the man we now know is the killer was on drugs or something and hadn't slept in awhile. Sweaty." She moves to sit near Mac and watches in fascination. "Do you think he kills them in dreams?"

And for Maggi's troubles, Bennie leans in to try and give her a big ole smackeroo kiss on the cheek, declaring, "You're a peach!" But then her bright gaze goes to Byron in confusion. "You know the white..bunny guy in the suit with the watch and the..." Insert Monty Pythonesque miming of rabbit's teeth. "The White Rabbit! That's it. He's going to be very, very late forever more." She actually looks like she might tear up, her bottom lip getting a slight quiver. "But I don't think ...I mean, I don't know but it just seemed like part of the Dream like all other little shrieking forest creatures. But the dude reeeeally liked being a Death Kitty. He looked like he wanted to eat my face off. Ooh! Do you have snacks?" Because someone just got hit with a crazy case of the munchies. Energy suddenly renewed, she's up off the floor like a lightening bolt just zapped her hiney and looks like she's about to raid the fridge.

"Okay. But a meetup in a room of formidable empowered people that can probably collectively kick his ass no matter what he wants to pull? Who says they have to all be real gamers, showing, right?" Lilith suggests to Abitha, entirely planning an asskicking sting operation now that Bennie's been potentially targeted in a way that practically nags her into thinking the worst given the details. Before, when she thought it was just some crazy dude, it was more like listening to people discuss a hobby of investigation, because honestly, she can take some dude and so can Byron if he starts giving them shit over poking around.

However, a potential Dark Agent changes things. Looking up and aside at Byron after a swig from her bottle, she says, "I mean, it sounds like he controlled the Dream, doesn't it? That's happened to us a rare few times and every time, it was..." Lilith shakes her dark head and leans in against Byron's side while lingering near the fridge in the kitchen to look at the others. She also seems relieved when Maggi accelerates the healing on Bennie's arm, like it was legit some kind of spiritualist nag or eyesore she couldn't stop looking at. Then she explains hesitantly to Maggi's curiosity.

"I'm not entirely sure how it works. But I think basically... you get approached or you seek out the Dark Ones to... do their will as opposed to your own with your powers. There's been recruiters approaching some of us in the past, so to speak. And from what I gather some of these Agents are very old and gradually assume more power to shift reality in a way that feeds Them. Essentially, they uh. I don't know. Borrow the ability to work on their behalf, or they're granted it for allegiance? Again, I don't know but any one of you investigating this could be targetted in the same way as Bennie, given that knowledge."

There's a pause then, considering, "Him killing people in Dreams or moving them that way is maybe entirely possible. It'd account for... well, the difficulty in putting these things in public places."

"I mean, nothing, really... I take a selfie with the three of you," Her eyes go from Bennie, to Lilith, to Maggi... Look, it's alphabetical, we're not talking about order of attractiveness, shit. "And be like, 'hashtag BfB Washington Bay Area meetup, see you there', and we can probably guarantee a turnout." Because Abitha wasn't above manipulating lonely neckbeards, obviously, "But yeah, collateral damage is a thing, and..." There's another glance around, that then lands on Lilith, "Can one of these Dark Agents pull in more than one person? 'Cause I feel like anything we'd try then turns into, 'Haha, get fukt by the Veil', and then it doesn't matter how many of us there are."

Meanwhile, she was logging out of her own account and going trolling on some questionable sites, looking for an account sale to set up for Maggi, buying it outright for pretty cheap, actually, as she was only really looking for creation date, not time spent leveled, and walking Maggi through character editing and class and skill allocation.

Narrowly Maggi avoids a smooch. Poor Bennie, the loss of the rabbit seemed to be doing a number on her. Though Maggi could not quite sympathize, the distress was clear. Then the snackstraction occurs, she assumes the woman will survive this after all.

The way Lilith describes the agents makes Maggi think of how sith lords rise up, she doesn’t voice this. It was a well done explanation on Lilith’s part. “I’m going to have an account just in case, this is wild though.”

She leans over Mac’s screen and continues listening.

"Sure, I can make you a plate of snacks." Making a plate of snacks? That means there's no Doritos or Cheetos or anything like that lying around... Even though he used his suspicious and less than pleased tone with Lilith due to the using her Talents to open up a bottle of beer, his features soften, offering her a smile. Opening up the fridge, he takes out a mix of fruits, meats and cheese. Olives too. All of which he sorts neatly on a plate to be served along with some crackers. "So the White Rabbit wasn't another person pulled into the Dream with you? I mean, I hope that's the case and it was just some figment of the Dreaming. Otherwise, how many Gods do we have left to go before whatever he wants to happen.. happen? Though if he's trying to prevent the plague, while I don't condone his actions, I'm grateful that he's trying to protect us. But I'm sure that this is just some twisted fucked up shit that's not going to end badly if we allow him to continue on with this."

With the tray of goodies in hand, Byron opens up one of the cabinets and finds a stash of oatmeal cream pies. He knows that it's not his, but he grabs it anyway. "The Meetup might be a good idea. Risky and with a possible threat of death, but it's something. Also, I'd mentioned that someone should check the library database for any information on this guy. There might be a name there somewhere and possibly his ID scanned?" He shrugs as he delivers the fruits, cheese, meat and crackers snacks as well as the oatmeal cream pie to Bennie. "I doubt I'll be able to learn more by just talking to the sales and investment department of the game company, so I won't bother. And with how things may go down, I have no interest in investing." He makes that point clear.

Speaking of the Dark Agents, Byron nods, "Once, they pulled a theater audience into a Dream. Then again, there were a few of them. The Acting Troupe that paid Gray Harbor a visit last year. So yes, they can pull multiple people into a Dream."

"That would explain why there wasn't any drag marks or anything leading up to the Pyre. The other theory is that he can Mind Move stuff, but he didn't try any Shiny stuff on me in the Dream, oddly enough. Besides maybe twink dodging my amazeballs fireball." This all said as Bennie positively looms behind Byron trying to steal a snick of cheese from around his side. Ooh. And an olive. And maybe a grape. This all gets shoved in her cheek like a starved chipmunk as she patters after Byron to see what he has behind door number two.

"OATMEAL PIES ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! You've been holding out, Thorne." So he doesn't need to deliver them so much as put them down in a place where Bennie can pounce on them. Plastic wrap crinkling as she opens one of the sweets, she must've heard 'Selfie' because she pops up behind Abitha and gives a peace sign as if expecting the picture to be taking right then, because she's off again, "I'm gonna use your guest room shower, kay?"

"Play in your panties on Twitch, girl. Wear cat ears." Lilith tells Abitha with a sudden brainstorm when she goes mentioning selfies for neckbeards. It might just be a suggestion to see Abitha's reaction, though, because even Lilith isn't doing that for a bunch of neckbeards to bait. She nods to the more serious question after a vaguely reassuring smile at Maggi after infodropping the darklord info. When Byron answers it for her, though, she points his way with the bottle and grabs his ass with her free hand because surely is now the time to do that. Mostly, it just seems like an easy impulse aim and moment, though, before she props herself up into sit on the bar counter separating the kitchen.

"Seriously, though, I'll do the selfie thing as a lure, it probably would help draw a crowd, which... if he's not looking for tits, exactly, he might want... a pool to draw victims from and this could be easy pickings. We'd... maybe have to prepare for the worst, yes, but at least the gathering wouldn't be caught offguard, right? And if nothing happens and he doesn't show, well, it was a good shot."

She can't help but grin a little when Byron breaks into their junk food stash for her own sleepless night pot-sessions in front of the television he sometimes finds her engaging in when she needs the edge off in a more productive way than alcohol generally allows her. Watching Bennie a moment, she nods easily at the shower bit, "You know where it is now, miss lady. I'll grab you a sundress or something so you don't have to put those back on."

Lilith can see her suggestion's effects immediately. Abitha goes into an almost seizure-like full body cringe at the idea, her face a mix of disgust and eyes-rolling-into-her-head horror. She makes a sound like she wants to puke, "UGghhg, Heeeelll no." Lilith is fixed with a narrow-eyed stare over the rim of the laptop, "My stream isn't some Amouranth shit. I have standards..." Beat. Guilty swipe left of her eyes, "The cat ears are for drunk-streams." Another involuntary shiver, then a shake of her head. She eyes that board, looks around briefly. Everyone else was doing it, apparently... Her hand stretches out faux-lazily, but just to try to play off the bits of cheeses and meats that flit off the board and into her hand. She feigns yawning, but is really just putting food in her mouth. So subtle.

"Anyhow," her mouth was still full, "I'll see if there's interest in throwing a meet together, we take a selfie, and I deploy when it's most convenient... Yeah?"

Distractedly, she goes to check on an ebay listing. Maybe she should just make a few edits...

"I think it definitely sounds like a decent plan if what I suspect is going on is his actual motivation, no matter how he's confusing his 'service'. And if I am wrong, that's actually a good thing we can probably handle better, so we... prepare for the worst, hope for the best."

Other detail planning and mulling over all that's been discussed happens in the Penthouse, Byron and Lilith don't just kick everyone out after the meat of the conversation is finished, so to speak. They feed snacks and more drinks while little things are potentially decided on or research attempted while people have laptops out.

All in all, it was a productive meeting of minds, at least, to move onto whatever comes next.