[GM PRP] Ground work [Shun/Texts]

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun didn't pay Jeremiah much mind when his attention went to his computer, and he continued to work on deciphering what was going on with the texts. It wasn't until the screen was turned that he looked up to see what was going on. After taking the moment to read it over, he furrowed his brow.

"Might as well..."

At least it wasn't the Other Ashdown archives. He was not fond of that place.

"Ascension was murdered in a similar fashion," he noted, in regards to the side note that had been given in the email. He wasn't sure what it meant yet, but unlike his colleague there, he doubt it was without meaning.

The younger detective stood up, rubbing his head. He held onto the text screenshots, wanting to keep mulling it over while they made their way to the archives.

Azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

For the moment, the texts were left alone. Though Jeremiah plucked up the tablet and pushed up from his desk. It was something to think about while they walked because there was a pattern there, it just had to be deciphered.

"Yes, which gives credence to this being related." The door was held open for Shun, after Jeremiah unlocked it, and it was closed after the young detective walked through.

His voice was low when he spoke again. "I do not know if it is related, at some point around that same time period Jeremiah Tailor also existed and, likewise, he disappeared only to reappear two years later dead. Not that anyone knew how." The MO was different.

They were going to take the stairs as Jeremiah had no desire to be caught in the elevator with anyone else at the moment.

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun raised his brow at Jeremiah, "No wounds or anything?"

That, in itself, was odd enough.

He followed the Chief of Police down the stairs towards the archives, then went on to open the door for the older man.

"I do not know too much about what occurred in the 20s. I believe some of the others ended up there during the incident," he murmured quietly. But even then, it was hard to say if what had happened there would carry over into this cycle.

Azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"None, so far as I am aware." Jeremiah glanced towards Shun and then his focus went to the stairs. "He disappeared and reappeared two years later, I believe, dead on the beach. No visible signs of cause of death.

"It may not even be the same 1920s that some visited." He had seen some pictures and, aside from the oddity of seeing some people look different, had not been able to discern much else. "The only reason I know of it is because there was, before the shift, a portrait of him in the Shore Mansion along with Sunday, whom we all saw, and someone else that looked like Sunny but was possibly actually Zac."

The door to the archives is there and Jeremiah stares at it, at the bottom of the stairs, before he pulls the door open. There's an old officer there, Grady, and he has been there for years at this point.

"Chief," he said in greeting, "and Detective. What can I do for you today?"

"We're just here to access some of the older case files. The ones prior to the 1950s that haven't been scanned over." A gesture was made, of course, for them to go ahead. It wasn't as if the old officer was going to stop them.

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

It was hard to say if that Tailor had anything to do with this. The tidbit of seeing the portrait in the Shore manor was interesting to say in the least, though.

As they came up to Grady, Shun nodded to him curtly, then made his way into the actual archive room. He hadn't really needed to come down here prior, as most of the files he needed were digitized. The last time he was down here was technically in Other Ashdown.

At least he wouldn't be finding his own corpse slumped against the cabinets this time around. But that wasn't to say that the things they might find from the old case file wouldn't be much better.

Once inside, he started to look around to see where old files were likely kept. "76669..." he uttered, keeping the number in mind, "You mentioned that the former Sunny had a similar number for her phone. Think it may be worth checking to see if that comes up with anything here too?"

It could potentially be another case ID.

Azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

The setup of the archive was different than the one in other ashdown. Where that one had been filing cabinet after filing cabinet, this one had shelves and boxes that were carefully sealed to help protect the documents within. (Filing cabinets were still around, just not as prevalent as they had been on the other side.)

Jeremiah was bringing something up on his tablet, a guide on the storage of the older case files. He looked up from it and nodded. "78669," he offered, "which would be relatively close. We are going to want the fifth shelf back for 76669 and then the next shelf over for the S-u-n-n-y."

... because spelling it out, somehow, made sense alright. He gestured for Shun to start checking for one of the case files while he went after the other.

shibrogane

detective bros detectiving and looking for case file 76669. also looking to see if there's anything tied to 78669.

Blade Kuroda

 

[shibrogane]

There was case file 76669, right where it ought to have been. Opening it, the detectives found a cache of gruesome crime scene photos and a mishmash of notes in both longhand, shorthand, and antique type. The victim was a female in her early twenties, dark hair and skin of some kind of medium tone. She might have been Asian; she was never identified. Her gender was obvious, because she'd been stripped to the waist. Her throat was cut, her wrists were slashed--down the road, not across the street--and on the flesh of her bare chest was written Rev. 9:1-2. Though there were several suspects, none of them had ever panned out.

Case file 78669 was a report on an assault: a young woman by the name of Ascencion Shore had been attacked and her hair shaven off. The pictures of the injuries were gruesome, not just because of the exposed bone beneath her scalp, but also the dead stare she gave the camera. The color was indeterminate, but her bone structure was more androgynous than the Sunny who had just died.

azuredreams

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Pulling the case files out as they were found, Shun began to flip through what was present. The images were gruesome to say in the least.

"Holy s**t..." he murmured, "How many times has an Ascension been attacked or killed?"

That was if case 76669 was another version of Sunny.

"That looks like a bible verse number... I do not suppose you recognize it?" he asked, pointing at the image that had the numbers written out onto the girl's chest. It wouldn't be hard to look up in the case that Jeremiah didn't know off the top of his head either.

Azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah paused, his face gone expressionless in the face of the brutality of the one attack. This was- Shun's question echoed his thought but then he thought, quite suddenly, of that memory so long ago from the library.

Sunny running and panicked. Another where fear had run in his veins. These were all things he remembered and now, looking at these things, he was somehow not surprised. It was, however, unsettling.

"Revelations chapter nine, verses one and two," he said aloud, looking over the grisly sight. "Unless it's John 3:16, I really can't say I know one off the top of my head but give me a moment ..."

He was looking it up and, in another moment, reading it aloud: "And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

"And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit."

... alright then.

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun looked up from the pictures as Jeremiah began to recite the verse that had been printed on the girl's chest. He furrowed his brow lightly as soon as he finished.

"That... is something. Is the smoke in that supposed to represent Ascension?"

It was a crackshot. It lent itself to the whole ritualistic killing thing that seemed to happen here and as with the more recent murder.

Azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Potentially or someone was ... looking for the key to something." Jeremiah's stomach dropped for a moment, a thought on his mind. "Just as one could ascend, one could also fall."

He shook his head, looking at the report he held in hand and then over to Shun. "Who investigated that case?" he asked, likewise looking down again to read the same for what was in hand.

shibrogane

investigating people names from the reports?

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

"If that is the case, hopefully the key they sought is not the one who happens to be a part of the sigil now."

Shun didn't know who that was, but it was possible they were in a bit of danger as a result.

With a shake of his head, he looked through things a bit more.

Shibrogane

Also checking for exact dates

Azuredreams

 

[shibrogane]

The investigator for case 76669 was a detective by the name of Michael Merrilee. The body was found on the fifth of November in 1922.

The investigator for case 78669 was an officer by the name of Clark Morgan. The attack was reported by the victim's father, William Ozymandias Shore, on the fifth of November 1925, shortly after the victim's release from the State Lunatic Hospital at Danvers.

azuredreams

Blade Kuroda

 

[azuredreams]

"I assume they thought the key was Sunny, if that is what we take from this. I'll look at some of the other translations of this particular verse for any other insight," Jeremiah replied. He took note of the date and the names on the case files.

It was the 78669 one that gave him pause. The look on their face, the androgyny of their appearance- This was Sonny. "Sonny," he started slowly, "was born around 1904 and sent to the asylum at some point as well. 1922 fits with this. I assume that this is them after they were released. Though this was- Well, William Ozymandias Shore is Liam Noor and it was after he returned from the war. That things happened in November both times ..."

Was it a pattern? Would they find more if they searched the file boxes they had opened.

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

"Perhaps whoever did this was trying to break the cage," Shun suggested. It had been mentioned that Sunny was a part of it. A part of the enemy. She had to be dealt with in order to defeat him.

"Same day of November too, for that matter," he noted, "The most recent Ascension murder happened early November as well..."

He eyed the box. It would take some time sifting through that to see if there were others that continued to follow that pattern.

Azuredreams