Log: Ongoing

[punching-devils.livejournal.com]

When; August 20th, Evening
Rating; PG-13/R for squicky concepts and Gabe's mouth
Characters; punching_devils John Gabriel, daddys_working Tycho Brahe, ariselikefire Vicki Nelson
Summary; Something doesn't add up about these heads and these corpses. A trio of supernatural detectives head to the scene of a crime to see if they can't make heads or tails of it. Mostly tails at this point.

It would probably help if they all knew each other existed.

Log;

Gabe was usually bored when he couldn't punch things, but this case actually had him somewhat interested. Mostly because it was a vampire who was cutting heads off, which means that they were chasing something that he COULD punch. And a little patience now meant more punching later.

"Okay, this is definitely the place. Does it trigger anything in that gigantic head of yours?"

Comments

[daddys-working.livejournal.com]

Tycho looks up from his book and glances around.

"Yeah, the skyline looks about right from the latent image from Mr. Head's eyes... Seems normal enough so far. Let's get down to the serious snooping."

Tycho produces an old fashioned looking camera with a bunch of extraneous gears and do-jiggers on it and starts scanning the area while looking through the view finder on the top.

[ariselikefire.livejournal.com]

Vicki was on the roof of one building, after having examined the other. Stranger things had happened, after all, what was a little death from above? But there was nothing to indicate something of particular interest had been this way or fled this way.

Making her way down the fire escape, she was determined to demand the autopsy report as well as the weapons analysis. Then frowned slightly, if they had that sort of thing here. Pausing, she noted the two figures and her eyes narrowed, unable to make out anything more than that they might be humanoid people, "Hey! You two, don't move!"

[punching-devils.livejournal.com]

"...Why?" Gabe shouted back, looking for the source of the noise. "We like moving! Well, I do!"

[daddys-working.livejournal.com]

"I agree that freedom of movement is good. It's probably in the constitution. By what authority do you attempt to deny us our inalienable rights?"

[ariselikefire.livejournal.com]

She paused at that, were they serious?

"Because you're at a crime scene and I want to know why," Vicki replied, taking the stairs by twos and trying to focus in on their faces, but failing. Though she did avoid walking into a trashcan.

[punching-devils.livejournal.com]

"Professional interest," Gabe responded.

[daddys-working.livejournal.com]

"We could ask the same of you madam. Particularly since we're not skulking around on rooftops."

[ariselikefire.livejournal.com]

"I'm a private investigator," Vicki replied, narrowing her gaze on whatever it was they held. In the dimming light and with her poor vision, it appeared a lumpy blob.

"Who are you?"

[punching-devils.livejournal.com]

"John Gabriel," Gabe replied absentmindedly as he rooted around in his pockets for one of their business cards.

[daddys-working.livejournal.com]

"Doctor Tycho Brahe." Tycho added stepping forward and producing a business card from his waistcoat pocket. "I think we may have a case of market saturation."

The business card had a totally awesome logo (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3038/2612753900_9d76e06c83.jpg?v=0) on it and proclaimed that the two men were the Startling Developments Detective Agency and that they "Tread, without fear, in the whispering darkness."

Or it would, if Vicki could, you know, see it in the dim light.

[ariselikefire.livejournal.com]

She couldn't see any of it and didn't feel like staring at the card from two inches away from her nose, instead, she gave a cursory glance and replied, "Were you hired to investigate the case?" Flat, point blank, going into cop mode.

[punching-devils.livejournal.com]

"No. Like I said, it's more of a professional interest thing," Gabe said, glad that Tycho had found a card.

All he had found was his brass knuckles and a half eaten candy-bar. The candy bar wasn't too bad, though.

[daddys-working.livejournal.com]

"Anytime my associate and I find a severed head we get this strange urge to check it out. It's crazy, I know. But that's just how we do things at Startling Developments. And yourself?"

[ariselikefire.livejournal.com]

"Where did you find a severed head? Has it been identified? Did you notify the police?" Vicki demanded, realizing that must be what they were holding. "I'm Vicki Nelson and you're possibly holding a clue that needs to be turned over to the investigation."

[punching-devils.livejournal.com]

"Over by the beach," Gabe said around a mouthful of candybar. He swallowed. "This was the last place it had seen."

[daddys-working.livejournal.com]

Tycho let go of the camera he was holding and let it dangle by the neck strap.

"It appeared to me as if the ocean spat it out at high tide." He added. "And no, we didn't notify the police because we weren't sure it would be relevant to the whole headless body thing."

[ariselikefire.livejournal.com]

"You found a head and didn't think it would be relative to a headless body investigation?" She quirked a brow. It takes all kinds, Vicki thought. Then inclined her head, "Wizards?" Harry had used the same technique.

[punching-devils.livejournal.com]

"This place, I wouldn't be surprised if heads just popped out of nowhere," Gabe said. "And I just punch devils. He's the one who put together the machine."

[daddys-working.livejournal.com]

"My dear lady there are a great many ways in which a person can be separated from their head not to mention the possibility of copy cats." Tycho countered. "As for being a Wizard. No, I don't think I could comfortably lay claim to that title, though I am a doctor of the arcane, admittedly with a focus on apocalyptic studies. But I didn't use magic in this case. You see, under certain conditions the retina of the eye will have an image burned into it of the last thing the deceased saw in their last moment of life. I merely made a few adjustments that let us see what he saw."

[ariselikefire.livejournal.com]

Vicki arched an eyebrow, but didn't argue the science of decay. This was an interdimensional way station. "And the last thing the head saw was this place? No people?" She demanded, a frown turning down the corners of her mouth.

[punching-devils.livejournal.com]

"No. That would make my job a lot easier. As it is, I don't know who I'm supposed to punch."

[daddys-working.livejournal.com]

"Indeed. The victim was looking up. Roughly in... That direction." Tycho says indicating a certain area of the skyline around them. "That bit of rooftop there seems to match the image."

[ariselikefire.livejournal.com]

Vicki frowned slightly, forehead creased and eyebrows drawn. "So what was the angle of his head to be looking that way, tilted?"

[punching-devils.livejournal.com]

"Yeah... did we bring it with us?" Gabe knelt and started to rummage around in their bag.

[daddys-working.livejournal.com]

"The head or the picture we took of the image it projected? Both are in there." Tycho responded. "It seemed to be at an interesting tilt yes."

[ariselikefire.livejournal.com]

"Picture? All right, let's see it," Vicki replied. She did have intimate experience with being bitten, but she knew Henry wouldn't kill. It wasn't in him to take the life of those he fed from.

[punching-devils.livejournal.com]

"Here's the head," Gabe said, tossing it out for someone to catch. "Why do we even have half this shit? Do we need a sextant? What the hell is a sextant anyway? Wait, here it is!"

He pulled out the photograph and held it out for Vicki.

[daddys-working.livejournal.com]

Tycho catches the head and gives Gabe a look.

"Careful, this thing is hollow now."

[ariselikefire.livejournal.com]

She'd seen worse thing than headless football and looked at the photograph instead, positioning it next to the actual view and attempting to find the right angle.

[punching-devils.livejournal.com]

"What did you do with all the brains?" Gabe asked. "Do I even want to know?"

[daddys-working.livejournal.com]

"Let's just say that really huge jar in the fridge isn't Hummus."