Open The Trenches Occult Division Das Verbotene Wissen

[Dusk Rainblade]

@Neame Grosvenor

(First three posts are a scripted prologue, but from there, it gets into the first official thread for Occult Division! Anyone with an interest in the creepy, kooky, spooky, and ooky can happen upon the scene at that point, or come with Nutty to investigate the break-in)

The sound of breathing was harsh and tinny in the mask, the field of vision restricted by the thin slits which barely allowed the beast to see the back door to the apothecary's shop. Heat swelled on their face with every harsh breath, the stench of food rotting on their teeth filling the enclosed space and pushing back the snapping cold of night. The door was bolted from the inside, but that was not a problem for them. A black-gloved paw pulled out a dark, flat stone, placing it on the door near the frame until it stuck. Then, dragging it away from the frame, a small scrape sounded as the bolt followed, leaving only faint scratches on the frame of the door.

The gloved paw pulled the stone further until it lifted away easily from the door, then tucked it away. Carefully it turned the latch, moving slowly to avoid any telltale clicks or creaks, and pushed the door open. The back hallway was dark, only a dim flicker of firelight at the end illuminating the door to the room on the left. The mask and its restrictive field of vision bobbed slowly as the beast crept in, dipping as they surged smoothly toward the door at the end, left half ajar. They paused, gloved paw on the door as they heard a sound from within. A beast, awake. Not the plan. Slowly, trying to make no sound, they edged the door open, only to freeze when it loudly creaked.

 

[Yfanti Walzetung]

The hour was late, and Yfanti was tired. Another long night to follow a longer day, the albino ferret taking stock of the shop's inventory by candlelight. The flickering flame passed over various jars and bottles, illuminating their contents enough that she could mark down their number and condition. A few things were out of place. It happened.

It was a cool night, even inside. Crisp. There was a stillness in the air she couldn't quite place, something different, maybe. Shuttered windows and bolted doors kept the worst of her anxieties out, as they did the worst of the fresh winter chill. But the cold crept in, and other things also.

She set her book down, reaching for what was left of the evening's tea, pouring herself another short cup. The tea was still warm, a blessing that pushed her worries aside as she took her sip. Ginger and chamomile.

It wasn't often these days that her nerves crept up on her. Business might not have been great, but it wasn't terrible, didn't haunt her thoughts such as it had only some months ago now. She floated high above that spiral of worry, of all that had gone wrong before, and all that could or would go wrong in the future.

A sound not far from her tore her from her thoughts. It'd been quiet before - she was sure of that. Sounds in the night were something she noticed, something the ferret picked up on, gave unnecessary weight.

This had been sharp, quiet but pronounced all the same. A creaking of wood - or the squeak of an old hinge. Her red eyes turned to the door, candlelight shimmering across her glasses as she peered fruitlessly into the darkness.

She said nothing.

Whether her mind was playing tricks on her, or it'd been a gust of captive wind - or indeed if the worst fear she could conjure up was soon to pass, it would make no difference what she spoke into the darkness.

Taking one of the candles from the table in its candleholder, and pulling a sharp knife from a drawer, the ferret walked slowly towards where the noise had came.

She'd left the door open. Carelessly, for she was the type to always keep such things closed if she could, even alone - and especially at night. Darkness had to be kept in compartments, kept away from light. Minimized. Her mother's delusions, but also her own nightmares, had left their mark years ago.

Yfanti pushed the door open.

Nothing.

She looked around, past the doorway, into the hall, both ways, so far as her flickering candle could shine.

Nothing... But something felt wrong, little pricks of cold racing down her spine, up through her arms.

It wasn't til she turned back around that she saw it.

 

[Paphnutia "Nutty" Gowdie]

The mask was a hideous abomination of steel, harsh lines hammered into the folds where the creases had been forced together. The cowl thrown over the mask, a dark cloak obscuring the beast's large form, darkened the thin slits for eyeholes, allowing only a hollow reflective gleam to indicate the presence of eyes beneath, and nothing of the color thereof. A gloved paw shot up and caught the apothecary beneath her throat, the door slamming shut behind her as she was lifted and pinned against it.

A desperate swipe of the knife at the beast's side produced a small grunt, but little measurable impact save for the harsh jangle of chainmail beneath, turning what might have been a glancing wound into a bruise. The beast's free paw swiped down at the knife, grabbing Yfanti's wrist and twisting it until the blade clattered on the floor. The hot breath that hissed from the mask was rancid, vapor carried on it turning to steam in the chill air. "Where is it?" the masked beast demanded, his voice a harsh, metallic rasp. His fingers tightened on her throat, restricting her ability to speak, to breathe, inviting the darkness to encroaching upon her vision.

As she went slack, the beast hissed and threw her sideways, her head striking the flat of a cabinet as she fell. The last thing she saw were dark booted feet stalking away, and the darkness overtook her with the sounds of breaking glass and splintering wood.

~~~

Nutty munched on one of the bread rings she'd picked up on her way to the crime scene and surveyed the apothecary shop from the outside. They'd been told that an offering of bread rings, accompanied by a loose, almost watery flax cheese spread upon the bifurcated halves, was a gesture of welcome and solidarity to new comrades in law enforcement. Paphnutia Gowdie wasn't law enforcement per say, since she'd seen enough to know that the laws of the universe were really more polite requests than anything else, and enforcing them upon anything inclined to break them was a laughable idea for any mortal. Still, it was a ritual of the prevailing gestalt, and they knew better than to upset the gestalt at the onset of a new case.

The Fogeys had responded to the shopkeeper in their own bumbling way, of course, showing up to take a statement, clumsily document the damage to the apothecary and her store, and pin a piece of yellow ribbon across the door, a bandage upon an axe wound. The last of them was leaving now, chatting with his partner about what they would have for lunch. Nutty derisively exhaled through her nose, then nearly choked at the sensation of a loose seed migrating through her sinuses. They fell to awkwardly blowing their nose, trying to expel the intruder as they waited for the other agents to arrive.

Pudge, the weasel who rivaled her in the lack-of-height department, was someone Nutty knew by reputation. The Research Department worked closely with Rites and Countermeasures, providing the base historical research that the latter used to figure out how to disarm Weirdness in the field or to dispel it entirely once contained and brought back to the Sunless Chamber. That lot were, Nutty thought as she wiped their nose with a boysenberry-colored pawkerchief, a very strange group all-in-all, and Pudge was reportedly a little stranger than most, hence the lack of time in the field. Well, the Minister had made it clear to Nutty that they were to be responsible for her new team and its members, so she would just have to do her best to deal with any weirdness, capitalized or not.

The other trainee they were waiting on was a personal recruit of the Minister, and a bit of an unknown variable. "You're to hear him out," Dusk had warned Nutty sternly, "and give full weight to his interpretations. He may be quite orthodox, but that is a good thing. After what happened to your last partner, maybe you need a bit of orthodoxy." Nutty had rankled at the mention of Took's fate, but knew better than to snap back at the beast who had the power to banish her and their whole library to the island of Magh. So, she waited for both recruits and, in the meantime, observed the haze of colors drifting through the air as the boysenberry kerchief's side effects crept in through her nose.

 

[Nevali]

To The Gang... I've been informed that our Starmist is going to be once again and Far too soon slow on the replies, as She is aboard a ship and leaving Vulpinsula for some Time. The distance travelled may be too Great for the mission to Proceed via Missertross or Alternate courier, and she has Given us blessings to proceed with another Mission provided, we do not out-pace Her rankings by too great a Degree. Heretofore I propose, a unique Side mission in which--
"Aren't you supposed to be at that thing, the break-in, in the Trenches?"

Nevali glanced up from her desk with surprise, blinking furiously at the speaker - one of those nosy office foxes who always wore a suit without a jacket and carried a mug around to bash poltergeists with. He leaned on the wooden wall separating her desk from her neighbours.

"Um," she said. "What thing, I didn't hear about a thing?" She pushed papers around on her desk. What thing? Someone should have told her in person if...

"Mm, break-in and assault, theft, the lot. Nutty's leading it. You're her new partner on this. If you could see to it you're not late, that'd be grrrreeeat."

Oh. The somebeast they had chosen to tell her in person had to be him.

She grabbed her hat from its hat stand, and the stand popped back upright with a thankful creak. Half a roast pigeon fell out. She stuffed it back in and tucked it on her head.

"Woohoo! I'm off! My first in-person case! Woo--where is it, exactly?"

~ ◄ ۞ ● ◄ ☼ ● ◄ ۞ ▲ ۞ ► ● ☼ ► ● ۞ ► ~

Clutching the hems of her robes, Nevali scarpered, scampered, and skedaddled to and fro through the winding Trenches, eyeing every street sign with the suspicion of one who hasn't memorized a single thing about the city they're in and has absolute certainty that the locals are playing a huge cosmic trick on them.

One street away from her destination, she gave up with a sigh and stopped a moment to catch her breath. Breath caught, she slipped the roast bird from her hat and gave it a quick gnaw for sustenance. A quick gnaw turned into a furious chew, and then a frenzied tearing as she finished it off, crunching a few bones and spitting them out into her paw. These she threw on the street near the gutter - she was not a litterbug! - and blew on them. And then poked one or two, so that the shape of the bones could vaguely be described as an arrow, if you squinted just right.

She followed the way the arrow pointed at the end of the street.

And there was Paphnutia, her new partner, in one of her garish jackets.

"Ooh, you have baggles," she squealed. "Hi, hello, it's me, Wayward, I'm your new partner - you can call me Pudge! Tell me, Pappy - do you mind if I call you Pappy? - what do you call these amazing faҫades you have here in the Trenches?"

She gestured with a wild grin at the building before them.

 

[Paphnutia "Nutty" Gowdie]

Nutty started at the voice, which sounded at a pitch and timbre that made her over-large ears fruitlessly flatten to protect the longevity of their hearing. She stared, somewhat astonished, at the figure that presented itself. Perhaps it was the boysenberry, but the entire ensemble seemed to shimmer and dance, the cosmos swirling in violet and pearl across the robes, red and blue stars conflagrating for her eyes. And the Minister chides me for lack of subtlety.

"Nutty," they responded automatically to the choice of nickname. "Pappy was my grandfather." She blinked, hoping that clearing their eyes would help. It didn't. She offered the bag of baggles (a baggle bag? A bag of gles?) to Pudge, peering up at the facade of the Trenches. In truth, much like everything mundane, they hadn't really paid it much attention. She found it far more interesting how, every time a new map of the Slups and Trenches came out, there were always at least three sigils of various Unknown Ones buried in the road map, and with each new edition of any denomination of gilder coin, if one read the milling along the edge through a mirror and a magnifying glass, one would find the words of a ritual to open a portal to various dimensions of utter madness*. Things like normative architecture, what day of the week it was, and whether forks went on the left or the right side of the plate all eluded their mind, written off as dull dull dull before she could even process the information. "Tall, I think," they answered the question, not entirely wrong in her assessment of the three-story maze of monoliths in which they presently stood. She cleared her throat, considering how to breach the matter of the weasel's dress. There was weird, and then there was Weird, and the line between them could become blurry, especially when observation by the normative folks got involved. Then again, this weasel was from R&C, and they were a fairly small-w weird bunch on the whole, so maybe there was some purpose in the attire that eluded Nutty's more tradition-steeped sensibilities.

"The Fogeys are all out," they advised, "so once our new recruit arrives, I suggest we proceed in. I'm not quite sure why this got sent up to us, but we'll play it by ear." She paused, then their face fell. "Sorry. That's where my old partner would say, 'I'm glad you've got enough ear for both of us'," she explained, her tone matter-of-fact.

*Nutty's multitudinous requests to inspect the Imperial Mint for possible sabotage by agents of a nefarious extraplanar entity had, thus far, gone unanswered.

 

[Nevali]

Nevali continued to smile through Nutty's reply. She placed a paw behind her hat's cone, accepted the bag with the other, and craned her long weasel neck upwards. Tall, yes. But so few noticed the intricate carvings in the wood panelling! Some of them had little ratgoyles, as if the common carpenter had an artistic soul yearning to be free, and in expression, there was history. Dark Forest wasn't the eternal rest some believed it to be; it was, Nevali was certain, just a waiting room, a spa retreat, until one's soul could be crafted a new body. The makers of old wandered even now, unaware of their role in the creation of their new world.

Perhaps that information would benefit the sudden mood shift in the little fox's face, she thought. Some got rankled by it. Better be cautious first.

Her smile flipped upside-down to match, and she moved to lean her rear against the wall and rummage in the baggle bag.

"I'm glad you've got enough ear for both of us," she repeated dutifully. "Truly. Oh my, you've pre-greased the bread?"

She pulled a piece from the bag and peeled it apart, sniffing the spread on it. She gave it a tentative lick, nodded in approval, and turned around to slam the bread ring onto the wall by the doorway, holding it a few seconds. When she pulled her paw away, it stuck there. She gave Nutty a confident grin and a thumbs-up, then handed the bag back and placed her paw comfortingly on the fennec's shoulder.

"If you're missing them, you may reminisce, I would love to know more about you, your old partner - as long as it doesn't upset you?"

 

[Paphnutia "Nutty" Gowdie]

Nutty started as the weasel took one of the greased baggles, tested it, and then seemingly glued it to the facade of the apothecary shop. Apparently the result was satisfactory to whatever standard she'd expected, because Pudge returned the rest of the baggles to the researcher's paws. Is that a countermeasure? Some of those could be truly strange at times, but, when one was dealing with Weirdness, that was to be expected. Took had always sworn that one should never cross a threshold with the right footpaw, only with the left, but that doors should only be opened with the right paw. It was a strange superstition, but Nutty had dutifully kept it up even after his death. She sometimes wondered if, in entering the cave where he'd met his fate, they had misjudged where the threshold lay and crossed with the wrong footpaw.

Nutty gave a small shrug. "There's not much to tell for me," they allowed. "I've been a resident of the Third Manse for, oh, a decade or so. I'm originally from the Fifth Manse, so it was a bit of an adjustment, as you can imagine." She didn't offer any additional context for this statement*. "Minister Rainblade brought me in to help establish the department and run the library, though by course of necessity and lack of personnel I had to do fieldwork as well. My partner, Tookumberry Fones, or Took, was a bit of an unconventional M.A.U.L. agent, though we got along well enough. He perished earlier this year, stopping the emergence of an Unknown One." They sighed, looking to the shop door a touch regretfully. "He was supposed to keep in touch via spirit board, but he's been less than helpful so far. He keeps making tail jokes, which is quintessentially him, but not much help in delving into the mysteries of the great beyond."

The fennec looked back to Pudge with a touch of curiosity. "What about you?" she inquired. "This is your first field assignment, yes?"

*Many of the esotericists in the Research Department would happily expound upon the Manses, the Unknown Ones, and all of the various kingdoms-that-never-were for hours, if given the chance. Those subjected to these explanations frequently walked away understanding even less than they had before, which, according to the esotericists, meant they 'got it'.

 

[Nevali]

"Oh, aye... First time out and excited! So excited, I can barely remember any trainin'! It really seems to be just making it up as you go, which suits me fine. Not that I made anything up. I hate bein' accused of that..." The weasel's face rankled, her mismatched glasses going askew with the snarl of her maw. There was pigeon stuck in her teeth. "I been up in one'a them star-sail ships, all silver an'... well, I don't have much memory of what it was like inside, no idea why they put me back..."

Her shoulders slumped. "But everyone always does, I guess... Always the last to know. Always the first to leave."

She stared moodily at the cobbles in the street for a quiet moment, paws dug into the pockets of her robes, blinking only one crossed eye at a time.

One thing she had to appreciate about the innkeeper stoat who had raised her; he always brought her back in. Out in the woods too long, he'd send Caltrops to fetch her. Out in the caravan stable too long, one of the kitchen staff would pop in, make sure she wasn't fooling around with somebeast, and drag her back. Even a few times he'd come along himself to find her out in the fields and haul her by the tail back home. Mostly just for work, but sometimes just because it was late. For all his grousing about how putting her up was costing him space he could rent to somebeast else, he sure didn't like the idea of losing her. She rather missed it.

Sometimes she wondered if stopping these Unknown Ones from showing up was really the best plan. It felt taboo to bring it up, at least outright. But a little weaseling could open the door to the long, twisting corridor of conversation, and maybe the right choice of words would unlock the next hallway of humouring the idea.

"Y'know... I bet he's doing you a favor. I mean, where would we be, without mysteries? Knowin' stuff all the time. Pretty boring if we knew it all, I bet. So he's just makin' sure you're havin' a good life, questionin', seekin'. An' before ya know it, he'll be back around, squallin' in some li'l babe's body, gettin' ready for another big adventure. World's too big for just one life. Too much to see. An' when ya don't need him anymore on the other side of that board, I reckon he'll come back for another go."

She leaned over and gave Nutty a hefty pat on the back, to make sure the watermelon seeds would stick, and then surreptitiously licked the glue off her fingers.

"Thought I'd be late, actually, who are we waitin' fer?"

 

[Kaii Nashirou]

Very unlike of him, Kaii was late and he knew it was his fault.

When he got a letter with a call to the scene this morning, he had to first see all four clients of his for today and move his work for other days. It is why it took him so long to get there. His fault was his own frugality, as he could simply send the messages through the Missertross gulls. The only reason he decided against it was that he already had an increase to his daily expenses and fall of his daily income as he started seeing Mina and meeting the other Foskateers more. With his goal still being obtaining appropriate wealth to restart at least the smallest part of what once was one of the most impressive weapon forge complexes in the Imperium, he tried to save any gilder he could on anything that didn't involve his close ones.

Hence why he now just finished running two miles in rather impressive time, to be as little late as possible, holding onto his bag with tools of trade and with his glaive, now folded, at his belt. The letter only did mention that a paranormal attack happened at one of the stores in the Trenches. Kaii had to hope only that at the scene itself, he would obtain more details and information. While there was some thrill and kitlike excitement at the promise of delving into the unknown, trying to find order and rules it worked upon, the marble fox had full intent to give this case his best effort. After all, despite the fact he was yet to decide if he should be an enemy of the Duchess or her ally, he promised his service to her. As per usual, Kaii's word meant more than most beasts could fathom.

Finally stopping at the corner right before the correct address, he took a moment to level his breath. Only then he had approached the two agents that wore proper Insignia of Occult Division he was meant to look for based on the letter. Despite being visibly run-down after such a run, Kaii still held himself at his usual, almost regal stoicism, slowly walking up to the pair and giving them a short, proper bow. One that he had to deepen a lot to actually get below the heads of his new co-workers. Aside from ears of one of them, he definitely towered over the two which made him realise he would have to do a bulk of any physical combat should it happen. After a momentary consideration if that was the reason why he got recruited, dismissing it for the fact there were far better fighters among the Hide crew itself, not mentioning the Imperium even, Kaii raised himself and finally spoke.

"Gentlebeast Kaii Nashirou. Pardon me for the wait, as you can see and hear I was doing what I could to get here on time. I do believe you two were the ones Duchess Dusk informed me to meet-up with." He explained in his regular, stoic and flat voice, impressively so considering he was still panting a bit from the run. "Before we start, I would like to ask for your names and for a briefing on the situation. The letter I've got was, simply put, infuriatingly lacking in those."

 

[Paphnutia "Nutty" Gowdie]

Nutty listened to Pudge's explanation, deciding not to clarify that, for field work, there was no training precisely for the reasons she had already identified. When one could encounter anything from the spirit of a past Emperor to a malignant entity with far too many eyes and tentacles to a glowing being from beyond the stars, there was nothing one-size-fits-all about it. Even the parallax net, one of the best tools developed to date in combating Weirdness, was highly circumstantial in its applicability.

As for being taken for a sail amidst the stars... Nutty hadn't directly seen any such thing themself, but she had seen enough to believe it plausible. After all, everything she had learned indicated that there were many, many Weird things that dwelled in dark places, and what was darker than the night sky? Except for all the points with lights, of course.

As for Took... Nutty felt a pang, remembering a night after a particularly strange case in which the pair had sat out on the roof of the Ministry, a bottle of wine split between them as they looked up at the stars and pondered what happened after death. Nutty had thought the conversation rather pointless; after all, the empirical evidence was as yet lacking, and individual belief in the outcome would presumably not affect the result. Took had remarked that he liked to believe there was a field of grain, endless and waving, that one simply walked into. He thought it sounded nicer than any dark forest, and far nicer than the Hells described by various religions. Nutty had thought he was a sentimental idiot, but had kept that to herself. In retrospect, she was correct to do so; that belief could not have affected the outcome of Took's life, after all.

Their reverie was interrupted as a fox, prim and proper save for his haste, approached them at a run. He certainly matched the description given, which seemed enough for Nutty to have confidence in his identity. He could, of course, be one of those beasts who ate off someone's face and stole their form, but that was a risk she'd have to take for the moment. "Apology accepted," she allowed, offering her paw. "Paphnutia Gowdie; you may call me Nutty. You must be Mr. Nashirou. Baggle?" She offered the bag, explaining, "The sharing of ring-shaped grain products appears to be a ritual among law enforcement. I am unaware of the paranatural implications, but imitation of this ritual presumably is beneficial, or at least will lack negative impact." They glanced to Pudge, raising to see if she had any insight into the veracity of the superstition.

 

[Nevali]

Nevali shrugged at Nutty.

The bagel slice on the wall by the door pointedly did not slide down comically at this moment, a fact which later should have stuck in all their minds.

She gave Kaii a somewhat appraising look. He was dapper, which presented a problem. One simply didn't mess with a dapper beast's clothes. She had to be real slick about this.

"Wayward," she said, stepping forward and attempting to tip her hat. Her arm was just long enough for her fingertips to brush the edge of the brim. "Nevali Wayward. My friends call me Pudge. I have no friends, so I get my co-workers to call me it instead. Take these, too, put them in your pocket, or sprinkle them on your shoulders."

She held out a pawful of watermelon seeds.

"They ground you in this reality. Earth and water, the stillness of potential life not yet fully realized. Watermelons grown properly have the dark and light green stripes - field and forest, and the insides are yellow or red, bile and blood. Very tasty, too. If the seeds start sprouting when we're inside, we should probably not be inside anymore."

She gave Kaii a confident smirk and a thumbs up with her other paw. Very slick, indeed.

"I was told it was a home invasion situation, assault and burglary. Least, I imagine that's what the Fogeys think it is. Guess we're here to find out otherwise! I've been eyeing the door a bit, looks like it bolts from the inside. So our creeper must have used magnetic telekinesis to slide it open. I've seen it before, trust me; if they used whole telekinesis, the whole door would've been slid! But the wood stayed, that suggests metal only."

The weasel pushed her glasses up her nose with a supreme air of confidence, tilting her head back to look up at the tall fox to make sure he was properly seeded.

 

[Kaii Nashirou]

Kaii took a bagel from the bag and considered what was just said to him. The name itself was something he would struggle with, as per usual, but Nutty was a good way to refer to this beast it seemed. While the other weasel was busy appraising him, something that he minded not, he looked at the bagel itself and pondered the way this fox mind worked with a slightly frowned brow.

"Pleasure to meet you Nutty. As for the sharing of the bagels or donuts, I typically assume the practicality of it. The shape encourages holding them in a way that would not result in greasing paws and fur too much, hence it is reasonable for the beasts who use their paws a lot and require precision to consume such shaped objects, especially made of grain which makes them solid and reasonably long-lasting, while also energy rich. When there is no time for proper dinner time, it makes sense for such products to be favoured and to also share those, leaving only one officer temporarily unavailable."

As soon as he had finished, the weasel gave their name too, as well as a preferred nickname. Taking the offering of watermelon seeds, he put them after a moment into a left pocket of his waistcoat. Listening to the explanation of what they were meant to do made Kaii realise indeed that Duchess was right. The two seemed to be brilliant minds, but ones too far gone into their own interpretations of reality. Just like him and Darragh, the two were definitely seekers of truth, but ones that sought it not in science nor in feelings, but instead taking interpretations of a mind and turning them into rules... This quick exchange told him enough to understand his role.

And then finally his question was answered, giving him something to work on. Putting his mind to it, he walked over to the doors and looked at the wood. After a moment, he had noticed a few fresh, tiny scratches that could not be claws or accidental usage of a tool. They definitely were coming from scraping of a flat object against the wood especially, as Kaii considered that the scratches were all aligned in one direction. Pulling out one of his stronger magnets and placing it on the other side of the bolt. It stuck and after a bit of manipulation, he was able to use it to manipulate the bolt himself by simply moving the magnet.

Turning to the two he had explained. "Or they had one of those and knowledge of magnetism and its principles. I saw examples of magnetic manipulation that did not use a magnet in my life, but I doubt they would sneak in machinery size of the shed without being spotted..." He paused to consider any other possibilities, but the only one he had came to was regarding usage of pressure which would leave even more marks upon the door. "Unless of course the doors were opened in the first place, but this seems like a most probable solution."

 

[Paphnutia "Nutty" Gowdie]

Paphnutia's ears pressed flat as a potential cause was first proposed by Pudge, and then roundly rejected by Kaii in favor of a 'scientific' explanation. The Duchess had been right; this was going to be very awkward at first. As much as Nutty was inclined to go with Pudge's theory (even more so after Pudge added a remark about the magnetist using the strange metal to amplify his powers), she could admit to seeing that, to Kaii's theory, the evidence at least supported his conclusion. "Well," they allowed, "we can ask the shop owner for confirmation on the status of the lock. Whether by mundane or magical means, this possibility of magnetic entry is certainly troublesome. Those attraction stones aren't commonplace, certainly not ones strong enough to move the lock like that. If this is a magnetomancer, we should be very careful of what metal we carry with us, lest we arm him against us."

She pushed her glasses slightly up the bridge of her nose before approaching the door and, ignoring the police tape, opened it to step inside - left footpaw first, not the right. They weren't sure if the stair up to the door counted as a threshold, so to be safe she stepped up onto it, paused there, then repeated the process through the door.

The apothecary shop, it was clear, had been tossed. Ingredients were scattered about on countertops and floors, jars spilled out and fragments of loose glass where they'd been tossed or fallen to the ground to chip or shatter. Some of the shelves were askew, cabinets ripped open or burst through. Nutty felt a pang of sorrow echo through their heart; such destruction, to whatever end, was ultimately senseless and self-defeating. Surely whatever the intruder had been seeking would have been much easier to locate with a calm and methodical search of the premises. Tearing her gaze away from the destruction, they instead called into the shop, "Excuse me, is the apothecary in? We're with the Ministry; we have just a few questions, if you'd please." She left it unsaid exactly what ministry they were with. They glanced to her fellow two agents, nodding for the pair to enter and take a look around the shop as well.

 

[Yfanti Walzetung]

There’d been a famous actor once, a beast whose career Yfanti hadn’t quite followed but had been aware of in her youth, even idolized somewhat, seeing him herself a few times. Making his name in the Bully Harbor theater, he’d attracted enough fame for an ill-fated run for the mayoral office, back when there’d still been attempts at elections and some fraction of the public still got animated about that sort of thing. A hardy, independent beast with an infectious smile, he’d once said the nine most terrifying words in the Vulpinsulan language were “I’m from the ministry, and I’m here to help.”

Some snubbed the saying, claiming it was a sort of fatalistic approach to policy and reduced government assistance to a punchline, or that the contractions in the phrase obscured the true number of words involved, making its true length closer to ten or eleven. Yfanti thought it had to be somewhere close to the truth, and used to wonder which ministry it was that pulled him off the street, never to be seen again, some two weeks shy of the mayoral election.

The saying bounced around in her head with her new guests’ introduction – her skull already feeling cramped and tender from the vicious blow she’d received.

“I’m here.”

The albino ferret made her way back to the door from further inside, having tried to clean as best as she could in between interruptions by Bully Harbor’s finest and bouts of lightheadedness that told her she hadn’t eaten properly since last evening.

“Not so loud.”

Her own voice came softly. She had another cup of tea in her paw, still warm. Minty. Something to keep her standing, and soothe the pain in her skull. Some of the bright white fur on her head was still stained with some blood – she hadn’t bothered with a bandage.

Through the cracks in her recently damaged glasses, she looked up the trio of government beasts, wincing slightly as she sized each of them up. A tall fox with marbled fur and fine clothing – doubtlessly corrupt to be working whatever menial task this was – a short weasel in strange robes and a ridiculous hat, and a similarly short fox with massive ears and a bright, colorful jacket and bowtie.

Whatever ministry had once seized her kithood hero, she doubted it was the same one to send these beasts.

“What do you want? I already told the Fogeys everything they’d hear.”

The apothecary was a mess. Beyond the first room – where the entrance doorway led into, and from where the newcomers could assume any transactions probably occurred, there was a short hallway, with another doorway leading into a larger store room of sorts, with a table in the middle. Destroyed jars and containers littered the floor throughout the store room, though Yfanti had clearly been in the middle of trying to tidy up and take stock of what remained undamaged.

 

[Nevali]

Nevali tip-pawed her way inside, right foot first up the stoop and through the doorway alike. The moment she saw glass, she became cautious of her step. She was not about to start wearing boots indoors, no matter how many tiny shards could end up between her toes.

"Don't muss the shatters," she said over her shoulder to Kaii, motioning at the things broken around the front room. "We'll need to analyze them... hopefully they've not been mussed already." Some did look a bit mussed, but it was hard to tell if it had been Fogeys poking around, or the owner tidying up. Or the perpetrator covering their tracks. "What Rites taught me is... We make a line from each spot of disturbance, and the pattern becomes a sigil. We write down the sigil, and that opens a pathway to the mind of what done it. Start and end of intent and purpose, thought and action. Got that, Mr. Science?"

She gave him a little squint, barely perceptible beneath her darkened bicolor bifocals, and reached up to rummage around inside her hat.

"Who carries around a magnet, though, honestly," she mumbled under her breath, as she pulled out a skein of purple yarn. Several small balls of cotton rolled out, but she caught these and stuffed them back. She loosened the end of the skein to begin the unravelling, then stopped and tucked it under her arm, patting her robe pockets. Totems... need totems... right? To weigh down the line... Or was it coins for a shop?

Her attention distracted by the smell of mint and the apothecary's weary welcome.

She considered the options. Nutty, with her oversized ears and garish bowtie, would frighten a kit if she rounded a corner too fast. Kaii, he was... well, he had tried to explain baggles. Beasts who tried to explain baggles shouldn't be taking point on a comforting-the-victim scenario.

She stepped forward, bobbing into a curtsy that barely lifted the hem of her robes above her feet.

"Mah apologies, ma'am, Fogeys isn't best fer a mornin' like yers, an' they only hears what they wants ta hear, not what ya need to say. Ya poor thing, yer livelihood, yer health... here..." She dug in her pocket for her own pair of glasses, ones without colored lenses, and all but forced them into Yfanti's free paw, clasping her own paws around the ferret's. "Ya need ta borrow these, try 'em on! Can't imagine th' ache ya must be feelin', an' seein' cracked like that ain't no help. Now, why doncha bring us somewhere ya like ter rest? Ya leave th' cleanin' an' tidyin' to our Nashirou here, he's a fine gennelbeast, fox of science he is! He'll know where everythin' belongs. Jus' one moment and we'll be with ya."

She turned back to Kaii, tossing her skein of yarn at him and tapping the side of her snout with a wink, and then brushed by Nutty's ear, whispering:

"We need her specs, they seen what done it, even if she ain't seen. Sigils, Nutmeg. Those cracks is another sigil. Is Nutmeg alright?"