16:30 - HARRIET GRAY - IN THE CAR

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

Dr. Jar

Night was swiftly falling, but Rodriguez had left the overhead light on, the car lit up in dim yellow. The gold on the puzzle pieces was clearly visible even in the poor light. He'd be a few minutes, surely you could take another look at them.

The pieces were half joined up in the bag. Weird, like they were just gluing themselves together. Something about them called to you, like if you could just put it all together, some realization would dawn on you. The call to touch the pieces was irresistible. They were all muddied with the rain anyway, washing away any fingerprints. Besides, they already had the girl who dropped them.

You can't resist the urge to touch the pieces. Do you just run your fingers over them inside the bag, or do you impulsively dump them onto your lap and fit the final pieces together? The pieces are warm to the touch, more pleasant than you'd expect, given the rough looking paint. What do you think about as you touch them?

[Dr. Jar]

I feel like there is a puzzle to be solved here, in my hands, I'm just not sure exactly what.

I put them on the drying paper on my lap in the car to try to arrange them in a way that makes sense to me. This could be the key. A symbol with meaning. These children, they all knew, we just needed to question them.

But there was a link.

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

The puzzle feels so warm as you assemble it, the gold paint almost like fire.

But it's so easy to put together, everything snapped into place in such a

satisfying way. The symbol gleams, so much more beautiful than the crude

rendering in the file you'd seen this morning.

?-
" ̬͙͙͌͝҉לעולם לא תהיה҉͙ לבד҉̸͙̼͌͝҉"

It sounds like your mother's voice in your head. Gibberish, but not. Maybe if

you just concentrate you could understand...

Mom-
"Do ͡y̧òu͟ ҉wan͢t̢ to ͏k̸now ̴t̀he ̴s͢ecret, ҉bab͜y? ҉
̡J͏ųst͘ lis̨te͘ņ t̶o͢ ͟me ̷when t͏ḩe̷ ̢t҉im̷e҉ c͞o̸mes."

The puzzle still seems to crackle with energy, but you sense that the power in it

has gone dormant, waiting...

((Do you accept the offer in your heart? If you resist, roll 2d10+Willpower and

then 2d10+reason to make sense of the whole thing... How do you feel about

all this?))

[Dr. Jar]

Harriet-

I knew there was no way this was my mother. Maybe I was just imagining things. The puzzle had nothing to do with anything. It was all complete nonsense.

I pushed the thought out of my head. This puzzle was driving me up the wall.

Will Save:

YaQx5TGZ+2 ·

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

Ugh-- weird. Yeah, you must be dehydrated or something. The puzzle

wasn't warm at all now, cooled by sitting out in the cold car, or maybe

it had never been warm at all. You heard someone approach the car.

Might be time to put it away...

Rodriguez-
"Hey, sorry. Let me just shake out my umbrella."

[Dr. Jar]

Harriet-

I ponder some bottled water and realize it's out of reach. I won't be able to sate my thirst for a while. I rub my cheek with my hand and put the puzzle away in my pocket, still pondering the answers in the back of my mind.

"That's ok, I was just thinking."

So there would be no answers today.

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

Rodriguez got in the car, there were only a few remaining officers

holding down the blockades.

Detective Rodriguez-
"Need a coffee or anything? It's not a long trip."

He pulled out onto the residential street, neighbors were standing on

their porches and peering out of their windows.

"What a day, huh? Got any interesting theories
going?"

The sky was swiftly darkening, and you drove out of the low-low-middle class

area to ramshackle land, where every other house was a pile of rubble. Even

houses that looked like they'd be better off under a bulldozer were still occupied,

lit up inside like jack-o-lanterns. Did you go out here much?

[Dr. Jar]

Harriet-

"I don't know. It wasn't really illuminating for me. I think they are all tied together though. Him and those young kids."

She pondered it again, and then squashed her thoughts about considering the puzzle again. She needed something. Definitely water.

"Water, that would be nice."

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

Detective Rodriguez-
"We got kids lurking around here before, messing around at that STH
tower back there. Never could catch them though, it was so strange.
Couldn't be a coincidence but I don't know what the hell it means.
Some kind of weird satanic thing, I guess. Can you imagine? Guess kids
will do stuff like that."

He pulled into a Shell station a couple blocks away. It was pretty wrecked up; orange cones blocking off the busted parking lot, weird people lurking in the dark by the dumpster. Probably just smoking weed or shooting up, it was barely even dinner time. Rodriguez didn't pay them any mind and pulled into a spot out front.

"I'll just grab you a Dasani so we can hit the road, the coffee here's not
bad though, surprisingly."

He hurried into the store, which gleamed like a fluorescent beacon, leaving you in the dark, quiet car. The weirdos behind the dumpster were peeking around at you. You couldn't see their faces, only the silhouette of their heads.

[Dr. Jar]

Harriet-

"Thanks."

I thanked the Detective and settled back into the seat. It was nice of him to get me water. We could have just waited until we got back to the station, but I was feeling a little off after my moment hearing the not-voice of my mother.

Seeing the kids watch me made my hackles rise a little, and I sat up in my seat to stare back at them intently. If they were going to cause trouble, I wouldn't let it go unnoticed.

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

The slush gathered on the windshield until the lights of the convenience store

turned into wavy psychedelia, blotting out the image of the dumpster weirdos.

It was only just a couple minutes until Rodriguez returned, but the cold had

sucked away nearly all the heat in the car, the wet weather trying to seep its

way in at you.

Rodriguez jumped in the car almost alarmingly fast, his hair already soaking

from the four foot distance from the cover overhead and the car door. He handed

you an all too-cold bottle of water, in his other hand, a styrofoam cup of coffee

that even smelled cheap. He pulled out, the wipers finally swiping away all that

built up ice. The weirdos were gone.

Detective Rodriguez-
"Well, this'll be a trip alright. Haven't been on the island since
I was on beat. You were probably in grade school."

He didn't look *that* much older than you.

You drove beneath an overpass, marked with graffiti of praying angels.

They repeated down a road of ruins, there had to be dozens of them.

You'd seen the design in the other part of town, seemingly wherever the

most run-down buildings were.

Detective Rodriguez-
"What do you think'll be the next move? I don't wanna jinx it, but
I can't imagine we're gonna solve the big mystery this easy."

[Dr. Jar]

Harriet-

"After a performance like in the house, I don't think we are going to get anything very easily."

I took the water. It was cold like my bones when I drank it, and I felt a little less dizzy. It was really all the dehydration. I'd have to have more when I got to the station.

I fought the urge to correct him about my age and instead took a sip of water.

"I don't think I've ever set foot on the island, honestly."

I could not remember a time. And why would I?

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

Detective Rodriguez-
"Funny how people are, once you can't go somewhere, everyone
 has to speculate on what they're missing out on. It's just a big gross
pile of pollution, but with all those signs saying 'keep out?' It's like
ambrosia to teenagers."

You were onto the winding industrial roads, past chugging cylinders bigger than

city blocks. Other cities stuck their water treatment plantsfar  from the city. In

Detroit, there were houses butted right up against it. Hope the rent was cheap.

The entry leading to the island's bridge was so small you probably would've missed

it if you were the one driving-- the only clue being the red and blue flashing lights

at the blockade. Big signs all around warning about 'no photography' and 'homeland

security.' The bridge was narrow, and you didn't see any cars in front of you, leaving

only a few dropped road flares to lead the way. Red fires burned atop the strange

towers, lighting up the sky in hazy pink, slush still splattering against the windshield.

It was like driving onto the surface of some hell planet, big fields of charcoal black,

full-sized lakes of oily fluid. Train tracks crisscrossed in seemingly random patterns,

sending the car juttering as you bumped over them. You passed under a train trestle

and were plunged into complete darkness for a moment.

Detective Rodriguez-
"Just pretend it's a roller coaster, right?"

For just a moment, in the darkness, a phrase popped into your head.

ͣ̀א̶ͥͯͪ̾̎ͧת̛̾̽͂͋̾͑̇ה̍̿̉̐̈ͩ ̓́̄̐ͪ̎ͪכ͂̂͜ל̴̿͊͛͑ͬ͒וͤ͌ם̨̒ͭ͐.̆ͥͮ͞

But was it in your head? Rodriguez's radio cracked at the same time.

[Dr. Jar]

Harriet-

"What was that?"

I wondered what the word was. Was I imagining the crackling of the radio? Maybe I needed to drink a lot more water.

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

Detective Rodriguez-
"They're probably just radioing to see where my slow ass is. Almost there..."

You crossed over the last set of train tracks, and came upon the scene...

((I'm going to repost this description from the dock thread, so we can get you
straight to where the action is.))


The ship rests at the dock, rusty and moldering. It's been half torn apart in the previous
searches, leaving the gangway listing to the side and wobbly. Crime scene 2 lies deep
within this corpse of a ship. In order to reach the engine room, one needs to cross the
gangway, walk to the stern and climb down an enclosed stairwell.

Out on the dock, several cop cars wait, flashing red and blue lights that strobe and
dazzle any onlookers. Small crowds stand here and there, huddling under their
umbrellas as the sleet pounds down.

Looks like the action is already starting, and people are getting waved onto the boat.

Harriet, do you have any last things to say to Rodriguez before you go? He seems like
he's going to be hanging back. Gather your thoughts and then join the others on
the stern...