[PRP] how's your mind (shun & jeremiah)

[Blade Kuroda]

"Yes... it seems I came into town a year sooner than... well I really had," Shun shook his head.

"The suspicion around Algernon has to do more with being associated with you, yes. Alexis is another notable suspect on the list apparently."

He had recalled that Jeremiah was ready to take out Sunny if it came down to it. He, himself, held a similar stance in that regard. That may have something to do with the suspicion, but things were different here. There were no tales about the witch on the beach.

"I am not certain of the full implications of Ascension's murder... and Sunny being alive at the same time."

Other than they had all literally killed Ascension and let her be reborn as Sunny in some weird way. But that didn't explain how it was an apparent past event prior to them coming to this timeline.

Azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Well, I assume it's more personal case notes than anything else, or I would be in a different predicament. Then again, anyone within the town with notable magic is likely a possible suspect." Jeremiah's hand twitched and gestured towards the living room where there was a far larger book collection than there had been.

"My counterpart, whom I replaced, had a far greater understanding and grasp of magic and it's intricacies than I do. Likely due to having his since he was a teenager." Fingers tapped against the counter, eyes closing to bare slits and just the faintest glow visible before he sighed.

"It could be more symbolic than we realize. That that is the Ascension Shore that is gone and whom is left is not her but that which we have caged. I cannot imagine we're the only ones who are at odds with the changes." Yet did this mean he needed to look through his things, see what he could find, to see if this other self had played a role. Who knew but it wasn't him but that did not likely matter in the grand scheme of things.

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

"They seem to be my own, yes," Shun nodded.

He glanced over at the bookshelves as Jeremiah pointed them out, noting that it seemed to have a considerable greater amount of books than before. He hadn't learned too much about his counterpart, unfortunately, other than having come into town a little sooner. He didn't really keep many records of things. A good chunk of that was probably left in New York.

"I was thinking that. But that does not change that this does pose some potential complications, depending on who might have actually done the deed."

The younger detective paused for a moment, furrowing his brow in thought.

"Do you think we took the right path? Not just talking about remaking the sigil, but everything that lead up to this point."

Azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"A rather large pile of complications." Jeremiah agreed. "If I can be of any assistance, let me know." Beyond the fact that he was Chief of Police and would need to be informed regardless. It was a case of note and there was no letting it slip away. "As it stands, I'm leaving it to you as any involvement on my part would not look good."

His cup was set down, eyes focused on Shun and then letting out a breath. "I think we took the path that was best for us. While it is easy to look back now and see what we should have - I should have or you should have - done instead, it is not a good idea to dwell on it. Take from it what you can and move on, endeavor to not make the same mistakes or fall into the same traps."

Lifting his hand, Jeremiah rubbed it briefly against his chest. Sunny held his heart in her hand not that long ago because of the path they had taken. "The what ifs, the could bes, all of that? It will put you into an early grave sooner than you think."

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun took a sip of his tea, nodding slowly to Jeremiah. With him being one of the suspects, even if that wasn't exactly public knowledge, any assistance from him would have to be behind the scenes. But as it was his case, Shun hoped that he would be able to handle it on his own for the most part anyway.

"Of course," he sighed. It was still an easy pitfall. It wasn't easy to shake the idea that he might have failed in the end. He was going to need to do what he could to make up for it.

"I just hope we can still do something about all of this. I am not yet certain if the state of everything makes it easier or harder to break the cycle in the end."

Azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

It was not easy to shake the fact that failure had occurred in Jeremiah's case but he would endeavor to make sure it did not happen again. "While one could argue that magic being more prevalent would make things easier, it's honestly made things more restrictive. There's a chance for growth, for people to come to understand magic but ...

"Given that there's more scrutiny for those who use magic? I have to be more mindful of what I do and how I do it. The cycles need to end because we are, just like Renard and Liam, caged and caught."

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

"True enough. We need to take extra precautions. It... is not so easy to write off magical sightings now as before. There is also no telling what Renard's part in making the new cage might have done."

He wished he had tried to hold him off more. Before it was too late. Nothing could be done about that now.

"I have no doubts that they will be making their moves all the same while we try to figure out what ones we should make."

Azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Why did he take part? Did he say?" Jeremiah asked, reaching for one of the sandwiches and then stopping because he realized there was more meat in them than he wanted to eat. His hand fell back and he looked to Shun.

"It could be nothing or it could be something that will bite us on the arse at a later date. Yet I'm under the impression that all of this is new to them. That the paths we've gone this cycle are not like the ones that have come before. They just have more knowledge of what is going and the magic involved than we do." Which gave them an advantage that none of them truly had. Perhaps if he had the magic knowledge of his alternate self he would understand more but, no. He was still himself.

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

While Jeremiah stopped himself, Shun did finally take a sandwich to take a bite out of before answering him, "In short, he claimed he was doing it for Sunny. He refused to explain himself any further."

Running a hand through his hair, he slowly nodded.

"Yes... that is where they have and advantage over us. He said he knew how to properly power the sigil. He did not care to explain how we could do better, ourselves so I have no doubt that he had some other motive at hand."

He then recalled something.

"That does remind me... before he showed up, an old Nokia phone appeared in the void. It had three contacts listed in it. Liam and Renard were two of them. The third was someone by the name of Ashley Graham. I suppose it was an option of trying to call for help, though I have not the slightest clue as to who the third name is. We called none of them, anyway."

Azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Sunny is his child." Jeremiah knew that much, though how Renard and Liam had come to have a child, he had no idea. Let alone one that was, or had been, the embodiment of magic. "Unless it serves some sort of purpose, I doubt we see any sort of knowledge sharing. Yet ... I can understand saving his child, considering that all of this may very well be because of trying to save lives."

He remembered Liam's words, the way the other man had looked at him and-

Blinking, he processed what Shun said, the names, and then sighed. "Ashley Graham," he said dryly, "is the name of a video game character from the Resident Evil series." Then a hand is smoothed across his face. "It was also the name that Melany was in the hospital under, not that it matters anymore now but that was certainly interesting choices for that place to give you for a lifeline call."

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun blinked right back in turn. He highly doubted that a video game character would -- ah. Well. It was curious that name showed up in place of Melany's actual name.

"Yes... I still have the phone, but it has since ceased to function properly. Nothing more than a curiosity now, I suppose."

He took another bite of his sandwich.

"In any case... what do you propose our next step be? I have this case to sort out regarding Ascension. I do not know if it will provide us many answers, if any, but it must be done. But beyond that?"

Azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Not entirely unlike the calla lily then," Jeremiah mused. It was still there, though he was not wearing it at the moment (it was on the piano where he often left it), and while it never wilted it served no purpose anymore.

"Beyond that being cleared up, I'm going to be looking into other ashdown to see if there's been any changes there or at court. From what I glimpsed so far it remains the same whereas Ashdown does not." Fingers drummed against the table in thought.

"Until we get further clues, I believe we need to look into the magic behind the cycles and, ultimately, what caused their creation. We are in a world where magic is more common place, information about magical theory and the like should be more available."

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun tilted his head for the moment. While that flower was obviously magical, he didn't know the significance of it.

Looking into Other Ashdown was always good, yes. He had been meaning to, but hadn't had a chance to really do as such yet. The weather seemed to have normalized over there, but he wasn't sure if there was anything particularly notable as far as big changes go.

"Seems as such. I would be wary in asking Liam and Renard on their thoughts on the matter, despite the fact that they should know more than us."

Maybe the Ashdown Library would have some info of note. Or... well. Even wikipedia.

Azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah caught the look and realized that he had not, perhaps, ever explained the flower. "Someone had left calla lillies out for Adoelle Nashua, her older sister in fact, and I found them the first night I met Sunny on the beach." His fingers flicked, a spark of cold fire appearing as if to make a point to say what he did next. "When I saw the other side for the first time."

She had too many teeth then, he remembered, as if she sometimes forgot how many were meant to be in a human mouth.

"It's more of a reminder now than anything else." The deal he had made then, the path it had set him on. "... but I do agree to be wary of looking for too much information from Renard or Liam but I wouldn't discount it as an avenue. Though we should likely have more access to information now than easily than before in regards to magic but we do need to be careful."

A breath escaped, his empty teacup set down. "It was likely easier to do some of this when the public had little to no awareness of magic but now? Now they know and there's more scrutiny."

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

"I see..."

It certainly would act as a reminder in a way. Just as his pendant would.

"And yes, that much is apparent. Though I have noticed a bit of misinformation swimming around as well. So we do need to watch out for that as well," he noted. They were going to need to be certain about their sources of information. While some things were fairly obvious, this wasn't really always the case.

Azuredreams