Encounterlogs
Yasmins Odd Encounter Sr Tomas 240319
In the serene ambiance of The Fragrant Tree, Yasmin's routine evening is abruptly interrupted by an unexpected call, marking the beginning of an unusual and perilous assignment. The call, coming from Simeon Simeon, a self-described Shadow Curator for a Boston museum, reveals that a mystical artifact of great power and significance has been stolen under violent circumstances, leading to the death of a security guard. Tasked by her secretive employers, and with her true role as a Shadow of the Hand revealed, Yasmin is entrusted with the mission to retrieve the artifact before it falls into nefarious hands or, worse, its dormant powers are unlocked. Detailing the artifact as an ancient wooden amulet adorned with colored beads and various teeth, Simeon pleads with Yasmin to utilize her network and expertise to prevent a calamity.
Yasmin takes immediate action, reaching out to her contacts, Vesper and Harvey, in hopes of garnering leads or information about the artifact's whereabouts or the identity of its captors. As Simeon clumsily continues, he hints at the artifact's requirement of a specific lineage to unlock its powers, tied to the descendants of a figure of Sami mythology. While Simeon's explanations are marred by his nervous demeanor and occasional bumbling, Yasmin's determination to succeed in her mission is clear. She pressures Simeon for more details, suggesting that knowing the historical figure connected to the amulet could significantly narrow down their search for the thieves. Despite the initial lack of concrete leads and Simeon's hesitance to reveal too much, Yasmin's dedication to uncovering the truth and safeguarding the artifact mirrors her commitment to her hidden role beyond the confines of The Fragrant Tree. The story closes on a note of anticipation, as Yasmin prepares to delve further into the mystery, underscoring her resolve to fulfill her duty amidst the unfolding danger.
(Yasmin's odd encounter(SRTomas):SRTomas)
[Mon Mar 18 2024]
In the pleasantly incensed shop of The Fragrant Tree
The walls are painted a comforting and clean ecru, with dark mahogany drawers and shelves lining them. Upon each shelf is an assortment of glass bottles, each glistening colorfully.
The northern wall is dedicated to women's perfumes while the southern wall displays men's colognes. The western wall is lined with unisex scents, candles and hand sanitizers.
Small glass vials line the lower shelves, each hand-labelled with a scent name. Glass sticks are contained within them for sampling.
Soft, adult contemporary music plays in the background as customers browse the selections.
It is night, about 36F(2C) degrees, and the sky is covered by dark grey stormclouds. It's snowing outside. Ankle high mist flows through the area. There is a waxing gibbous moon.
(A mystical artifact of great power has been stolen from a local museum. The characters are tasked with retrieving it before it falls into the wrong hands, or worse, its true powers are awakened.)
BRRRRRING! BRRRRRRING!
Yasmin's phone goes off at max volume in her pocket, interrupting the young woman's closing-up-shop routine. It's not her normal ringtone, either, nor one she'd assigned to anyone - and she knew what that meant. It was time for her real job. Still - the phone won't pick itself up, most likely. At least there aren't any customers around to listen in on whatever there is to be said between employer and employee.
It's a sleepy, sleepy night, with the moon high up and snowflakes drifting lazily to the ground. A tranquil night, even, until all of that tranquility is entirely shattered by the sound of her phone - which was definitely on silent, by the way. Yasmin yelps in alarm, drops the broom she was using to sweep the floor, has the wooden handle of it knock against a shelf of glass vials, and is /barely/ saved from adding a few extra hours of cleanup when it, thankfully, doesn't send anything breakable falling to the ground.
A curse, but she's reaching for her pocket then, trying to get the too-loud ringtone to stop as soon as possible. "Hello?"
"Hello," replies a scratchy voice; one of an older gentleman, possibly of the doddering variety.
"You are, ahh, Yasmin Ahmed, yes? Of course, of course, your bosses wouldn't give me the wrong number, I'm not doubting them, no." There's a nervous clearing of the throat, a little hemming and hawing, then: "My name is Simeon Simeon, and I'm a Shadow Curator for one of Boston's museums. That means - oh, well, ah..."
Evidently, this man is a tutor at heart, and it takes a good deal of restraint to keep to the pertinent details, rather than bore Yasmin with the minutiae of his job. "Listen, we've had a break-in, and something of considerable worth - and power - has been, ahh, stolen. Our overnight security guard was killed. It's very bad, very bad... And you are a Shadow of the local chapter of the Hand, yes?" Of course headquarters had linked Yasmin's name to her actual job. This guy must be well-trusted to get details like these.
"I - we - need you to recover this artifact wherever it's being put up for sale, or hoarded away. We were hoping we could use your, ah, resources and connections, ahh... And call me back at this number when you have it recovered. It is assuredly most dangerous to leave the artifact in the wrong hands! It is a wooden amulet carved with ancient Samic script, strung with coloured beads and a number of different teeth..."
"Right, yes... wooden amulet with colored beads..." This does, indeed, sound like her area of expertise, and Yasmin's switches the call to speakerphone so she can text during it - there's nobody trying to buy perfume at three in the morning anyway. "When was this? Did the security cameras see anyone?" And then, after a brief pause of contemplation, "Is it a cursed artifact?" Meanwhile, she's sending a text to both Vesper and Harvey, her obvious first lines of information to see if they've heard of such a thing. Hopefully one or both of them is going to be awake and not going to hate her for the time of the day.
"Ah, no, not cursed, no, but certainly an artifact, yes. And a lot more powerful than the usual kind, too, only that it doesn't work for anyone who doesn't have the right, ahhh, pedigree, yes." There's another nervous laugh, then a faint clattering as Simeon Simeon, Shadow Curator of Boston, drops something onto the floor. "Dear me, dear me," he mutters, audibly wheezing as he bends over to deal with whatever mess he's just made.
Yasmin gets a text back from Vesper, though it's only to confirm she's starting to look into it. Given how recently the robbery had taken place, the news was probably not public yet... And Vesper's poking around may well drum up some interest from other parties, and stir some less than friendly competition for the angelborn.
"Very sorry, very sorry, I dropped my monocle," mutters Simeon once more. "Now, ahh, as you can imagine, mundane security footage did not capture very much, but our nightmare ward was found to be disabled, which must have taken a good, ahh, walloping, so perhaps they are a powerful arcanist, or had a crackpot team of thief-magicians ready to stage their, ahh, heist, ho ho. Like a movie, almost, you know?" The older man clears his throat nervously, then asks, "You will retrieve it for us, yes?"
"I will /try/," Yasmin confirms, frowning down at the texts she's received back, half-distracted by texting Vesper to act with utmost discretion while she talks. "If it is a powerful arcanist, like you said, it will need more than just me. I will see what I can do to /find/ it, at least. Please text me a picture of the artifact, if you have it, and the address of the museum, and the location it was placed in. What kind of people would be after it? What pedigree do you mean?"
"We do /not/ take pictures of the Shadow Archives," replies Simeon Simeon with the utmost sincerity and lack of awareness of how silly these title sounds. "For security purposes! And, ah, you can see why we take it so seriously... There's been a /murder/, Miss Ahmed... But I can text you the address. As for pedigree, well, you have to be descended from a certain historical figure for it to work, but I'm reluctant to release information which could leak and lead to the artifact's activation while it is out in the public, you see..."
Vesper responds with an emoji of a woman shrugging, and that one with the melting face. Not much she can do to look into things without showing her hand at least a little - it's a simple operating cost. Still nothing from Harvey. He might need a call to stir him from bed.
"Will that be all, Miss Ahmed? Is there anything else you, ah, need?"
Yasmin stares down at her phone for a long moment, /this/ close to heaving out a great big sigh that'll definitely be picked up by the phone at the non-answers she's received to her questions. "No, that is fine for now. I will let you know what I find. And, ah, you will let me know if anything else comes up, yes? I am sorry about your security guard. I will pray for him." She's reaching for that broom she'd dropped earlier, one-handedly finishing up the last bit of sweeping with only a little bit of half-assedness so she can leave and get started upon this newer mess. Before the esteemed curator Simeon Simeon can hang up, she adds, "... it will be more useful if you tell me what historical figure it is, though. If they only took that artifact, the thieves probably know already, yes?"
There's a thin sigh from over the phone, but good old Simeon Squared can't refute the logic in Yasmin's words. "Well," he mutters, "The Sami were an animistic people, worshiping rocks and animals and such things, you see, and this amulet supposedly worked to confer the powers of a great bear spirit - whether he was really a god or simply a very old werewolf, we don't know - upon any of his descendants who bore the amulet..." He clears his throat again, then says, "So you'd be looking for someone distantly Scandinavian, I suppose, in a buyer..? But I can't make assumptions. Perhaps they only know of its power, and not of its purpose..."
[OOC: Sorry, we're going to have to FTB on this one, I have some stuff coming up shortly. Still, I look forward to seeing however Yasmin plays off the rest of this encounter that Definitely Happened (tm)]
Yasmin takes immediate action, reaching out to her contacts, Vesper and Harvey, in hopes of garnering leads or information about the artifact's whereabouts or the identity of its captors. As Simeon clumsily continues, he hints at the artifact's requirement of a specific lineage to unlock its powers, tied to the descendants of a figure of Sami mythology. While Simeon's explanations are marred by his nervous demeanor and occasional bumbling, Yasmin's determination to succeed in her mission is clear. She pressures Simeon for more details, suggesting that knowing the historical figure connected to the amulet could significantly narrow down their search for the thieves. Despite the initial lack of concrete leads and Simeon's hesitance to reveal too much, Yasmin's dedication to uncovering the truth and safeguarding the artifact mirrors her commitment to her hidden role beyond the confines of The Fragrant Tree. The story closes on a note of anticipation, as Yasmin prepares to delve further into the mystery, underscoring her resolve to fulfill her duty amidst the unfolding danger.
(Yasmin's odd encounter(SRTomas):SRTomas)
[Mon Mar 18 2024]
In the pleasantly incensed shop of The Fragrant Tree
The walls are painted a comforting and clean ecru, with dark mahogany drawers and shelves lining them. Upon each shelf is an assortment of glass bottles, each glistening colorfully.
The northern wall is dedicated to women's perfumes while the southern wall displays men's colognes. The western wall is lined with unisex scents, candles and hand sanitizers.
Small glass vials line the lower shelves, each hand-labelled with a scent name. Glass sticks are contained within them for sampling.
Soft, adult contemporary music plays in the background as customers browse the selections.
It is night, about 36F(2C) degrees, and the sky is covered by dark grey stormclouds. It's snowing outside. Ankle high mist flows through the area. There is a waxing gibbous moon.
(A mystical artifact of great power has been stolen from a local museum. The characters are tasked with retrieving it before it falls into the wrong hands, or worse, its true powers are awakened.)
BRRRRRING! BRRRRRRING!
Yasmin's phone goes off at max volume in her pocket, interrupting the young woman's closing-up-shop routine. It's not her normal ringtone, either, nor one she'd assigned to anyone - and she knew what that meant. It was time for her real job. Still - the phone won't pick itself up, most likely. At least there aren't any customers around to listen in on whatever there is to be said between employer and employee.
It's a sleepy, sleepy night, with the moon high up and snowflakes drifting lazily to the ground. A tranquil night, even, until all of that tranquility is entirely shattered by the sound of her phone - which was definitely on silent, by the way. Yasmin yelps in alarm, drops the broom she was using to sweep the floor, has the wooden handle of it knock against a shelf of glass vials, and is /barely/ saved from adding a few extra hours of cleanup when it, thankfully, doesn't send anything breakable falling to the ground.
A curse, but she's reaching for her pocket then, trying to get the too-loud ringtone to stop as soon as possible. "Hello?"
"Hello," replies a scratchy voice; one of an older gentleman, possibly of the doddering variety.
"You are, ahh, Yasmin Ahmed, yes? Of course, of course, your bosses wouldn't give me the wrong number, I'm not doubting them, no." There's a nervous clearing of the throat, a little hemming and hawing, then: "My name is Simeon Simeon, and I'm a Shadow Curator for one of Boston's museums. That means - oh, well, ah..."
Evidently, this man is a tutor at heart, and it takes a good deal of restraint to keep to the pertinent details, rather than bore Yasmin with the minutiae of his job. "Listen, we've had a break-in, and something of considerable worth - and power - has been, ahh, stolen. Our overnight security guard was killed. It's very bad, very bad... And you are a Shadow of the local chapter of the Hand, yes?" Of course headquarters had linked Yasmin's name to her actual job. This guy must be well-trusted to get details like these.
"I - we - need you to recover this artifact wherever it's being put up for sale, or hoarded away. We were hoping we could use your, ah, resources and connections, ahh... And call me back at this number when you have it recovered. It is assuredly most dangerous to leave the artifact in the wrong hands! It is a wooden amulet carved with ancient Samic script, strung with coloured beads and a number of different teeth..."
"Right, yes... wooden amulet with colored beads..." This does, indeed, sound like her area of expertise, and Yasmin's switches the call to speakerphone so she can text during it - there's nobody trying to buy perfume at three in the morning anyway. "When was this? Did the security cameras see anyone?" And then, after a brief pause of contemplation, "Is it a cursed artifact?" Meanwhile, she's sending a text to both Vesper and Harvey, her obvious first lines of information to see if they've heard of such a thing. Hopefully one or both of them is going to be awake and not going to hate her for the time of the day.
"Ah, no, not cursed, no, but certainly an artifact, yes. And a lot more powerful than the usual kind, too, only that it doesn't work for anyone who doesn't have the right, ahhh, pedigree, yes." There's another nervous laugh, then a faint clattering as Simeon Simeon, Shadow Curator of Boston, drops something onto the floor. "Dear me, dear me," he mutters, audibly wheezing as he bends over to deal with whatever mess he's just made.
Yasmin gets a text back from Vesper, though it's only to confirm she's starting to look into it. Given how recently the robbery had taken place, the news was probably not public yet... And Vesper's poking around may well drum up some interest from other parties, and stir some less than friendly competition for the angelborn.
"Very sorry, very sorry, I dropped my monocle," mutters Simeon once more. "Now, ahh, as you can imagine, mundane security footage did not capture very much, but our nightmare ward was found to be disabled, which must have taken a good, ahh, walloping, so perhaps they are a powerful arcanist, or had a crackpot team of thief-magicians ready to stage their, ahh, heist, ho ho. Like a movie, almost, you know?" The older man clears his throat nervously, then asks, "You will retrieve it for us, yes?"
"I will /try/," Yasmin confirms, frowning down at the texts she's received back, half-distracted by texting Vesper to act with utmost discretion while she talks. "If it is a powerful arcanist, like you said, it will need more than just me. I will see what I can do to /find/ it, at least. Please text me a picture of the artifact, if you have it, and the address of the museum, and the location it was placed in. What kind of people would be after it? What pedigree do you mean?"
"We do /not/ take pictures of the Shadow Archives," replies Simeon Simeon with the utmost sincerity and lack of awareness of how silly these title sounds. "For security purposes! And, ah, you can see why we take it so seriously... There's been a /murder/, Miss Ahmed... But I can text you the address. As for pedigree, well, you have to be descended from a certain historical figure for it to work, but I'm reluctant to release information which could leak and lead to the artifact's activation while it is out in the public, you see..."
Vesper responds with an emoji of a woman shrugging, and that one with the melting face. Not much she can do to look into things without showing her hand at least a little - it's a simple operating cost. Still nothing from Harvey. He might need a call to stir him from bed.
"Will that be all, Miss Ahmed? Is there anything else you, ah, need?"
Yasmin stares down at her phone for a long moment, /this/ close to heaving out a great big sigh that'll definitely be picked up by the phone at the non-answers she's received to her questions. "No, that is fine for now. I will let you know what I find. And, ah, you will let me know if anything else comes up, yes? I am sorry about your security guard. I will pray for him." She's reaching for that broom she'd dropped earlier, one-handedly finishing up the last bit of sweeping with only a little bit of half-assedness so she can leave and get started upon this newer mess. Before the esteemed curator Simeon Simeon can hang up, she adds, "... it will be more useful if you tell me what historical figure it is, though. If they only took that artifact, the thieves probably know already, yes?"
There's a thin sigh from over the phone, but good old Simeon Squared can't refute the logic in Yasmin's words. "Well," he mutters, "The Sami were an animistic people, worshiping rocks and animals and such things, you see, and this amulet supposedly worked to confer the powers of a great bear spirit - whether he was really a god or simply a very old werewolf, we don't know - upon any of his descendants who bore the amulet..." He clears his throat again, then says, "So you'd be looking for someone distantly Scandinavian, I suppose, in a buyer..? But I can't make assumptions. Perhaps they only know of its power, and not of its purpose..."
[OOC: Sorry, we're going to have to FTB on this one, I have some stuff coming up shortly. Still, I look forward to seeing however Yasmin plays off the rest of this encounter that Definitely Happened (tm)]