Plotlogs
The Drowning Archive Sr Seamus 250409
In a begrudging morning rendezvous on a bustling street in Charlestown, Boston, Siofra arrives in a rental, expressing her disdain, and meets with Antoinette and Edith. The trio, dubbed Seamus' Angels for the course of their adventure, are called upon by the mysterious and authoritative Minerva Bouphos to investigate a supernaturally flooded library underneath Harvard. Their mission: to retrieve Dr. Elias Harrow, a researcher who vanished into the library's depths.
Amidst the backdrop of a city intertwining the past with the present, the team enters the library, confronted by the overwhelming scent of the ocean and a tangible sense of being submerged, despite the absence of water. The library is alive with whispers and movement; black-cloaked figures flit in the shadows, evoking an atmosphere of foreboding dread.
As they delve deeper, Edith's acute vampiric senses detect the discrepancy in the steady drip of water, deducing it as a symptom of the library's haunting nature. Her discovery of life biographies, including one belonging to Antoinette that details her ongoing ventures, hints at the archive's desire to consume the identities of those who venture within its walls.
Their expedition leads them to a ghastly realization. The library is not merely a repository of knowledge but a graveyard of scholars turned cadavers, their human features distorted into grotesque caricatures of aquatic life. Among these unfortunate souls is Dr. Harrow, now a dessicated husk but still tethered to the mortal coil, eternally ensnared by the library and reading his own biography of despair.
Antoinette, struggling to breathe as if drowning in air, urges a hasty retreat, while Siofra, fueled by a mix of irritation and curiosity, seeks answers from the late doctor. Edith, ever pragmatic, orchestrates their escape, necromantically puppeteering Dr. Harrow's body out of the library's clutches and back to the safety of Athena Investigations' office.
Once back, the team debriefs with Minerva, handover the remains of Dr. Harrow for proper dispatch to his family, and each secures a copy of their haunting biographies crafted by the library — personalized trophies from a perilous journey into a realm where histories are written in ink and sorrow.
The story concludes with our heroines contemplative, keeping their grim tomes as reminders of an ordeal that skirts the boundaries of the supernatural and the personal. It's a tale of comradery, confrontation with the uncanny, and the irrevocable crossing of thresholds from which there is no unseeing or unknowing. Seamus' Angels have faced the abyss; the echo of their names whispered by the drowned archive ensures they will never forget.
(The Drowning Archive(SRSeamus):SRSeamus)
[Thu Apr 3 2025]
On A Busy Street in Charlestown, Boston
The streets of Charlestown hum with life, a fusion of old-world charm and modern bustle. Red-bricked sidewalks, lined with historic row houses and colonial-era buildings, lead to the heart of the neighborhood. The scent of fresh bread drifts from a nearby bakery, blending with the salty air rolling in from the Boston Harbor.
Neon signs flicker above cozy pubs and coffee shops, where locals argue about the latest Sox game over frothy pints. In the distance, the Bunker Hill Monument looms over the city, its presence a quiet reminder of Charlestowns storied past. A group of tourists snap pictures near a bronze statue, while a street musician strums a folk tune on his guitar, a battered Red Sox cap collecting spare change at his feet.
The air is alive with movement, voices, and history. Its a place where the past and present collide, where every alleyway might hold a secret and every passerby has a story to tell.
It is morning, about 51F(10C) degrees,
will give it another 5 minutes for others to disentangle themselves. We are missing at least two people.
Siofra shows up in a rental, sour, the roar of her unmuffled v12 Beetle censored for these streets that do such things as 'enforce laws.'
"Ugh." A teen complain as she steps out of a new Honda Accord, giving the car a kick of abuse on the sidewalk.
Antoinette lets out a low laugh as Siofra steps out of the car. "That is so very not you." She sympathizes, "At least it's only temporary." She gives a bit of a grin then. Her hands on her her hoodie pockets and she's just sort of been eye over the area around the meeting point.
Siofra shows up in a rental, sour, the roar of her unmuffled v12 Beetle censored for these streets that do such things as 'enforce laws.'
"Ugh." A teen complain as she steps out of a new Honda Accord, giving the car a kick of abuse on the sidewalk.[rrrrrrrepost]
"I've half a mind to run the fecking highway patrol through with it." Siofra conspires sourly, "I know where they park and I can find out where that fecking officer lives. How 'bout I park it in his fecking living room?"
Welcome to Charleston, Boston. The oldest section of Boston, it is near the water front and thus the air is filled with the scents of the sea: brine, fish, motor oil, and the regular smells that linger in the past. Cobblestone and Brick streets still mark the area, retained as quaint cultural features rather than actual functional improvements.
It is here, near an alley, that our intrepid adventurers see Seamus, smoking a cigarette and leaning against the wall near a glass door emblazoned with a shield and owl logo. He looks a little nervous, not the most nervous the twitchy man has ever been, but restless. When he sees Edith, Antoinette, and Siofra he gives the three a wave half greeting, half summoning the trio over to his spot by the door. "Right. Edith you look lovely," he mutters as if a ritual he must complete whenever he sees Edith, but moves on quickly. "Thank you three for coming. If you want, you can talk to the boss for more details, or we can just get right to it."
In comparison to Antoinette and Siofra, Edith quite simply pathed right into Boston. She spends enough time here to know where to meet, and one of the Court of Boston's holdings is close bye. Edith paths there, the dark forest passing in the blink of an eye and of course, Edith makes a point of gathering equipment first hand; Taser, darts, tranqs, a set deadman switch, grenades (just in case) bandages for anyone found and wounded, the athame focus today. It is easier to hide. Sunglasses and a fresh innocent looking outfit, bola, a collar and an assortment of other arcane and scientific tricks secreted about Edith's person. And yet, tooled up and ready for a quite literal war, the vampiress feeds on a thrall, then heads to the offices of Athena investigations to meet Antoinette and Siofra, where they will surely be granted the requisit information that Seamus needs them to have in order to complete this undertaking.
"Briefing first, Soohmmass." Siofra mumbles, wiping the sleep out of her eyes with her forefingers. The morning toll is being taken with the aid of a hangover, and as such Edith is given just the half-bow of a foot crossed behind another.
Antoinette chuckles, "If I'd worn my pink sweater, I'd almost be twinning with Edith. Good to see you, Eidth." She smiles to the woman and then to Siofra she adds, "You look nice too." Shifting her attention to someone when he approaches, she withdraws her hands from her hoodie pocket, "Yeah a bit more information never hurts I suppose. I know we're supposed to investigate this archive? Looking for someone?"
Antoinette chuckles, "If I'd worn my pink sweater, I'd almost be twinning with Edith. Good to see you, Eidth." She smiles to the woman and then to Siofra she adds, "You look nice too." Shifting her attention to Seamus when he approaches, she withdraws her hands from her hoodie pocket, "Yeah a bit more information never hurts I suppose. I know we're supposed to investigate this archive? Looking for someone?"
"Seamus." Edith greets someone as she comes up beside Antoinette and Siofra. "It is lovely to see you." A pause; Edith would obviously like more information. One does not undertake an investigation without all information to hand, though Edith is supremely confident either way. "Siofra, Toni. Do you wish more, or shall we head on."
"Seamus." Edith greets Seamus as she comes up beside Antoinette and Siofra. "It is lovely to see you." A pause; Edith would obviously like more information. One does not undertake an investigation without all information to hand, though Edith is supremely confident either way. "Siofra, Toni. Do you wish more, or shall we head on."
Siofra sucks in a breath through her nose, strangled though option is through the narrow nose under her guise. "I'd like t'talk to the boss. I've no clue what we're on about."
Siofra says "Something about the drowned?"
"What we know." Edith shares with Antoinette and Siofra, though they likely already know, "Is that our location." still ambiguous. Even here Edith is worried about technological or magical bugs and the issue they could cause. Then she's through the door and into the offices. "There is a library in the undercroft. This library is curiously flooded, though now drained, and surprisingly the books are still in good quality. The issue as we know, there are missing people and we aught recover them, or kill what caused said vanishing." The third option is to do both, though with Edith being what she is, that hasn't even crossed Edith's mind.
"Right," Seamus says opening the door for the three women and letting them enter before leading them up the narrow rickety wood steps to the inner office which he opens with a faint knock.
"Enter," a brisk no nonsense, feminine voice orders and Seamus opens the door and leads the other three in.
Seated behind a paper cluttered desk is a beautiful woman roughly 5'7" with an olive complexion and piercing steel-grey eyes that seem to see right through people, she carries herself with an air of quiet authority. Her dark, wavy hair is starting to silver at the temples, giving her an almost timeless presence. "Gallagher," she greets Seamus with a nod. "Are these the three that will be doing the job?" He gives a short nod then motions to them, "Yeah. These are my friends. I'll let them introduce themselves.""
Antoinette nods along as Edith refreshes her memory on the job. "We'll have to assess the situation when we're down there I suppose. I'm curious to peep the books too." She figures, this more of an outloud thought as she filters in with the rest. A polite smiles is offered to the woman behind the desk. "Antoinette Daniels, pleasure to meet you and happy to be of assistance."
"Siofra Smith." Siofra greets. If she's upset by having to ruin her routine, she doesn't show it. She lets a nod be her motion, rather than a handshake or a bow.
You don't bow to those that can't see the performance behind the world, after all.
Gliding in with the grace of the pastel pink phantom she is, Edith follows Seamus into the office, being sure to remain close to Antoinette and Siofra. The expression is blank, though the gaze, hidden behind Edith's sunglasses is keen. It looks over the office, the exits and egresses-- nightmare and mundane, normal, (door) window and the quality of the walls-- Edith is stronger than mortals. Objects are assessed, catalogued and filed away; Edith is professional and ancient enough that this is all second nature. The space of a moment. She then finds herself before the desk. "Doctor Edith Rose, pathology, parasciences and forensics." One of those is valid, the other is likely laughed off, though said anyway. Then she goes quiet, leaving Siofra and Antoinette to introduce themselves.
"I am Minerva Bouphos," she greets before looking to Seamus. "You are dismissed, Gallagher. I'll take it from here. You owe me reports on the two missing persons cases and three adultery cases you were assigned." Seamus gives a brief nod, understanding, and slips out, to assume the role Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Picture.
When the man is gone she looks over the other three, "I am going to presume it wasn't one of you that broke The Understanding. You will not believe the amount of damage control I had to do over that little fuck up. But now he is aware so that is that." She squints her steely eyes, "But, even though he is aware, he lacks the background to deal with paranormal investigations. I am sure you all have enough familiarity with what goes bump in the night to not be afraid of strange voices whispering in the darkness?"
"Quite so." Edith nods to the woman behind her desk. "Very aware, and I have no idea who made him aware. It was rather vexing to hear the agreement was breached."
Siofra looks above Miss Bouphos' head idly, coming back to the tail end of Edith's statement. "I don't know who it was, but his aura were dead fer a bit, there. Ye' get t'ree days in Haven and then the party is either dealt with or brought into the fold."
Siofra says "Impossible with all o'them shites in the forest."
"Yes, very aware and very familiar." Antoinette agrees, a flick of a glance to Seamus as he leaves before her attention falls back on Minerva. "I'm also not quite sure how that happened either but, yeah basically." She figures to Siofra's words.
Edith says, considering that, "I only found out a day after. It was too late-- In any case, the job."
"Right. Your.... rural lifestyle," Minirva retorts dryly to Siofra, not having a very high opinion of Haven apparently but doesn't dwell on it. She is an important person with important things to do, after all.
She lifts up a folder from the desk and holds it out to whomever wants it as she explains, "One week ago workers in a Harvard Library on the supernatural working on structural renovations found a doorway that was not on any plans. This is not unusual, certianly not in that place, but when crews descended they gave reports of feeling wet even though they were dry. A researcher went down to save the books and see what was written down there and went missing. Mundane authorities sealed the tunnel for now but the researcher's family would like their father back." She pauses briefly, "There is something in there, Ladies. Something the police don't want to deal with and dare willing to Nutty Putty the poor guy down there. Your job, find him, bring him out, and if you learn more about the library, bully for you. But I dont really care."
Siofra's brow knits and suffers from internal subjects, or perhaps from Minirva's statement, but it lingers until Siofra beings to pay attention to the conversation again. "Found themselves wet without water? Sounds like something's creeping about in the Nightmare, bringing change through its psyche."
Siofra says "Just feeling wet, or wet?"
arches her perfectly sculpted black eyebrows, "Miss Smith I am wearing $900 heels. Do you honestly think _I_ have been down there?"
There's a long moment as Edith processes that; She's not usually the save someone type. Still, a breach is a breach, and the vampire court doesn't need the bad press either. That, and the library is interesting enough a reason to do it. "Corpse recovery or retrieval of the package it is."
"Glad I wore my hoodie." Antoinette mumurs aside, straightening up a little. "We'll figure out what's going on down there and," There's a glance toward Edith before looking back to the woman. "Hopefully it's not a corpse we find."
"There's lovely cailin by the name of Vic what I don't think knows how to take her heels off." Siofra mentions with a few bobs of her head, then rises on her toes to try to see the woman's feet behind the desk to little avail. "Sometimes she's a dog. She might be a dog in heels."
Siofra says "If it's just felt, anyhow. More than like it's a haunting. I'm set grand with the briefing, sound fer yer time."
Minerva blinks a few times at Siofra but then addresses Antoinette, "I am sure you will do quite well, Miss Daniels. If you need back up I am assuming one of you has Gallagher's phone number. For payment you can see me or him and we will make sure you are settled up with." She motions towards the door, "The address is in the folder."
Antoinette will now be tagging along in the background because lunch but back within the hour, hopefully a bit less!
Nodding, Edith shares Siofra's sentiment. Antoinette gets a nod; Perhapse it wont be a corpse, but Edith cant be certain of anything, really-- And isn't going out of Edith's way either way. Edith takes the folder and nods to Siofra and Antoinette. "Well then, girls. I do suppose we are to head in. I do have a phantasm ready should it be needed to fight what ever thing is in there."
Travel montage to the library
Through the walk, or drive, or pathing, Siofra hands over a little Seran wrapped shot glass.
Siofra says "Best in yer hands. My eyesight's shite and ye're liable to see more, Doctor Rose."
Edith nods to Siofra. "I shall take it." Before arriving Edith already drank mandrake to see into the nightmare. It has a good long while left on it, though neither Antoinette or Siofra might know that. Still, the shot is accepted and the three make their way in a montage to the library. It's likely during the advertisement to save on budget for sets and CGI, eventually arriving when the scene phades in.
When the team arrives they find, just what they find, a plywood door that was lightly blocking the entrance to the door. It is locked with a chain and a combination padlock, the combo written on a slip of paper in the folder. Minerva is really a far superior investigator to Seamus. The outside of the door has many interesting bas relief carvings representing the sea, the ocean, and creatures that live within. As they get close to the door, the scent of rot, mildew, and brine becomes almost overpowering.
wrinkles her nose. Once side and then the other.
"Smells like Mister Salte." Siofra mutters idly, a thumb hooked in her trousers for quick escape lest the Mer-blood sporadically change her from the unconscionable wet.
Siofra massages her temples from an ethereal exhaustion that clings to her soul, or its wounds. The easy motions of forward circles and then reverse doesn't seem to alleviate it more than take its tole of energy.
Antoinette just follows along closely to Siofra as they contemplate the plywood door. Antoinette is on autopilot for a little bit, incase that was missed.
On the first of January, 1977, a new show hit the airways. It was named Charley's angels, and it would go on to become a cult classic for many. This is not that. This only has the slightest iota of resemblance to that, and yet, our narrative finds Edith, Antoinette and Siofra sent into a mysterious location to sulve the mystery in much the same way. Edith's nostrels flare; The scent is bad enough, though Edith has an acute sense of smell, and be it that or something else, there is an air around Edith that suggests more than disgust at this situation. It shouldn't have Edith lose her cool, and though the code already exists to remove the padlock, it finds Edith sniffing most contemptuously-- Every inch the victorian noble confronted by a distasteful situation-- And in these shoes, too. They are splendent, after all. Moving to the stair well, through that hole in the wall, Edith rips the padlock and chain from its grounding, the boards coming with it and Edith moves to peer into the hole of the stair well. "Let us deal with this before I lose my lunch." the vampire all but spits, a violent hate emmonating from her like an aura of anguished terror-- The distilled fury of a monster.
A steady drip- drip- drip- echoes from below, though there are no leaks in the walls. The sound is wrong - too slow, too deliberate, as if something unseen is mimicking the rhythm of falling water.
A steady drip- drip- drip- echoes from below, though there are no leaks in the walls. The sound is wrong - too slow, too deliberate, as if something unseen is mimicking the rhythm of falling water.
The flickering bulbs overhead sputter, casting jagged shadows that ripple like distorted reflections on the surface of a black sea.
Then, for just a second, the light dies completely, plunging the stairwell into darkness.
steps in after. Perhaps it's sleeping with a demigod. Perhaps it's being raised in The Circus. But she keeps a normal social distance with a creature just within the edges of her ken, close enough to be suicidal should some cute little *oppsie* of force strike through her insides.
"Wet." Siofra comments nasally, itching uncomfortably at her hip. "I wonder if it'll trick me blood into shifting? A merrow arrives when submerged."
"Yet." Edith contemptuously agrees with a nod, taking the lead-- At least for now, letting Siofra and Antoinette follow. This will likely change soon, though for now, Edith is the one with the perfect night vision and the enhanced senses. A hand is held up as Edith stops suddenly, perhapse not realising that Siofra and Antoinette may not be able to see it. The words that follow however are low, and Edith remains unmovable, as still as a statue, as cold as a corpse, as inevitable as the violence abound from any horror movie. Yet, so to is Edith and the others the heroes in this piece; They are the ones aware of the supernatural and they take on the task of the characters within Supernatural. It's a certain irony, though so too is it closer to Charmed or Buffy. That exactly is still to be identified. Edith's palm raises, the tingle of dark sorcery ready to be launched, innate power beyond arcana should anything attack unexpectedly. "The drip is too steady." Edith shares with Antoinette and Siofra, vocalizing the obvious in a low tone. "There is something down here." -Said every first girl in every victim scene of every horror movie ever. Edith's taser is readied, though not drawn; Edith is fast enough to use it from still, a solid electricution not bothering Edith should the area prove to be damp enough for backlash, though it makes things clear that Edith simply -expects- Siofra and Antoinette to be okay with it as well.
When the lights flares back to life, the walls glisten- not with moisture, but with something else. Something that looks like ink. The pathway down is easily seen into the archive itself, where the voices are coming from, and where the hint of the bookshelves can be found.
The blood of depths surfaces in a muted function of night sight. "I'll say," Siofra comments. "Rayner's not been home in a near week and I can nearly be drank from the tap." The token immigrant jokes, but that humor and lack of serious precaution marks her as the first to die.
But how will she drown?
Siofra rubs a finger across the ink. A single convenience of being wrapped in skin is that one is always wearing gloves.
Edith doesn't move to stop Siofra from touching that ink. It's as good a litmus as there is, and it saves Edith a job of producing a scanning tool to do so. Siofra therefore gets to be the canary with Antoinette there to deal with it. Edith could, but if it's needed, that's the loss of a bolt of roiling dark energy or a taser, both of which may be issential. So with Siofra doing that, Edith sniffs the air-- Edith grimaces. If there are tracks to be found, she will find them. If not, she will listen to identify if these voices are clairaudient or physical, acute hearing and smell, vision and night vision, adept perception all employed along with the arcanely keen ones of a seasoned arcanist.
Siofra tries to find a place to scribble, to deface- but there are as of yet a sad lack of inky surfaces. Her finger tips are thus held up and to her side in waiting sass until the time arises.
A pause.
Canting Edith's head to one side, almost like a dog, Edith narrows Edith's eyes. "The whispers are calling my name. Are they calling to you, just on the edge of hearing?" she asks Siofra, who is, as is habitual now, expected to have the same senses and abilities, such is the way of monsters in this unforgiving world. The same is posed to Antoinette, too, though no answer is expected.
There are tracks, going down the stairs, as if foot prints in the mud by the beach. As they get to the last step of the stairs they disappear, however, as if washed away by the tide. The scents of the ocean are probably overwhelming to those that don't accute scent but to those who do, you can smell the usual rot, mildew, fish parts, brine, leather, paper, ink, and a hundred other scents that are library and ocean adjacent. Sight wise, there is movement, deeper in the archive, but it appears to be black cloaks swirling in the shadows.
"Dominnooooooo.." Siofra whispers dramatically, then, screwing her expression tries one with a bit softer- trying to key in to the chorus of her own name. "That's the name me godfather gave me. Elder, I suppose."
When the party is ready to move on the can join the drowning archive.
If Edith could, she would be vomiting at the scents here. It is displeasing, and so Siofra and Antoinette have to suffer Edith's discontent. It worms seductively, clawing at the senses like a twisted lover's caress, not physical or metaphysical, but psionic in nature. A disgusted cruel thing of insidious nature and ancient caustic wrath. "Figures in black cloaks." Edith hisses to Siofra and Antoinette.
Antoinette is back and more or less caught up on reading!
has her nose half buried in her hoodie, trying to block out the terrible stench as best she can. Being but a human, Antoinette might have trouble discerning the different layers of shadows versus cloaks and the like, but she trusts Edith's word as they move further in, peeping what she can of the books as well and their strange water-logged state.
Siofra pauses, expression suddenly flat. It's a performer's grace to be hideously furious and be only cool. An expression that will not redden aids in this facade but her footsteps start to punch into the floorboards.
"Tsssss.. Tssss. Tssss." The circus act tuts like cymbals on a drum set.
As you descend into the archive, welcome back to Antoinette, your feet start to move more slowly as if wading through water, though there is no water. It feels like there should be knee high water but there isn't.
from here at the beginning of the archive, there are rows and rows of books on shelves. As many books as the book dragons want to review. Occasionally one of the black cloaks wanders by and looks up, before swiftly scurrying away.
Head still cocked, Edith purses Edith's lips. Outwardly there is no sensation of the aura Edith gives off, though the tention could be cut with a knife. It's not directed at Siofra or Antoinette, though it still floods out in waves. Edith hates it here, though obligation makes her press on. It may, for any who know Edith, be the first and only time she's genuinely lost her cool. Which would suggest that the other times it was entirely staged. That might be chilling in and of itself, though Edith is a creature that thrives off of performance and artifice. And still, Edith pauses to read the spines of the books. There's no care if they whisper; Edith has read many haunted books as a necromancer and dark sorcerous adept. This is more interesting, the man as the objective forgotten at the cornucopia of knowledge held in these grimoires.
Straight ahead near the heart of the library turns into a dark place filled with shadows. To the right is another dark place, long forgotten in a place that wasn't meant to be seen.
Pausing, Edith's eye tracks over the shelves, apparently looking for something. "I hate the ocean." Edith shares to no one in particular.
Siofra begins to puff as the baser instincts of anger take. A glance to Edith is enough to cool and outburst of words...
Or, it was.
"I hate that fecking Salte. What? He's got to set sail without word? Can't give a call? Fecking men- they're all just a- just a- SEMEN what spill out fer their applause and then LEAVE you with it."
Obsessively engrossed in reviewing the books, Edith's gaze flicks over to Siofra at her outburst. A moment is taken to appreciate the creativity of that and Siofra is afforded a nod of appreciation. Then, deciding books can be stolen (saved, of course. Edith sould never steal) she moves on, pointing out the darker locations to Siofra and Antoinette, assuming they miss them.
Siofra says "Feck the ocean, feck that mermaid, and fuck-"
Siofra's accent turns American as she kicks a book more ink than pages like a proper illiterate. "Feck- Where's this bloody ghost?"
Siofra wiping a hand down her face- painting her fake cheek black, she whips on the deeper darkness. Her steps look a bit funky as she wades through nothing, trying to stomp over the precipice of the spooky water.
Edith cant help it. These are here for the stealing and though she can take as many books as she likes from other libraries, these biographies, whispering as they are, are likely the pages trapped with souls. Edith can use souls. No real attempt is made to hide what Edith is doing from Siofra and Antoinette, though they are tucked away into Edith's handbag-- Small rewards make the day go far better. One must treat themself, after all. Another pause, the file is opened, and Edith looks to the name of the missing man. It's only a huntch, and so it's a passing curiosity, though Edith reviews the biographies for the missing man's name-- The mind of a one hundred and thirty plus vampire with occult and scientific training is an abstract, alien thing.
Siofra itches at her legs, dragging on the air with a breath and making a brief pit stop in the darkness to be the Blair Witch in the basement before remarking, "This is poxy, all of it. Can't get out of water dry, can't- can't get into the air wet.. Can't- can't..." She hisses a final exasperation, turning about face to look at Edith's feet, "Have ye' not seen a sprinkle of the ghost itself? I've not a clue if this area is cursed or-or." She throws her hands up.
Voice lowered as Edith relinquishes these poor trapped books from their prison of deleterious decay, Edith addresses Siofra a and Antoinette as they pass closer to the beshadowed areas. It's far too casual, ignoring the fury within-- Edith really really hates the ocean, apparently, to an inhuman, incandescent degree. "What, pray do you both wish to do. I just recalled that we have to rescue this man..." Of course she has. Edith was prompted by the sparking dendritic flash of electricity in her undead brain. "I am all ears." And another biography vanishes, until Edith's bag cant fit any more.
Antoinette is quietly contemplative, moving with the pair carefully, watching her steps. Struggling with that invisible, nonexistent?, water. She recoils at something, body tensing. "Better show itself soon." She decides with an uncharacteric grumble. Book lover that she is, academic and scientist that she is, as much as she probably would be stealing some of these books herself right now. Instead her attention is on the surroundings. Like even though she has no super senses, she's hyper aware--and an expression of irritation is etched on her features. "Wet, cold. How much are we even getting paid for this? Probably not enough."
Antoinette looks to Edith, "What's this dude's name again?"
The case file had the name of Dr. Elias Harrow. A reasonably attractive middle aged man with a dad bod and receeding hairline. The picture shows him wearing a tweed suit and hornrimmed glasses.
"Well, firstly-" Siofra comments, slapping down on her knees in the fake water and then dipping her head down- she attempts to breathe.
"Oh..." Edith takes a book, opens it, flips through it and hands it to Antoinette. "These archives wish to consume you, my dear." It's a scientific interest, though Edith then looks for Edith's own and that of Siofra. "I wonder if we all have one." she muses, waiting on Antoinette and Siofra's ideas to be spoken. "My running theory is that the darkness here is an eldritch being hidden within the shadows." Edith's eyes move over the stacks, still searching, voice still low. "I suspect these books, occult as they are record lives of those who enter arcanely. Toni's is largely empty as her entire form has not been subsumed yet. Once the thing within the darkness captures us, we become part of the drowned library as stories, of a sort." Then she shares the name. "Doctor Elias Harrow." Edith hands the file to Antoinette, expecting her to pass it to Siofra with the picture.
"I've already got a resident eldritch being, thanks." Antoinette states flatly to the archives as a whole as she takes the book from Edith, probably with a bit more force than intended. There's a peek of curiosity behind the irritation. Is it a book with her name on it? She accepts the file next - this time a bit gentler, letting Siofra see it as well. "Did you find a book about him?" She asks Edith...and then promptly lifts her voice some to call out, "Doctor Harrow!"
Further up ahead dark libraries flip around the stacks. One makes eyecontact with Seamus' Angels before moving off towards the forgotten wing. Was it a sign? Was it just scared? From this distance no real features could be determined but they certianly don't say anything.
Siofra lifts her head from the invisible water, project of 'can i breathe' yet unfulfilled as she takes the file with some angst from Antoinette "Whassthis? I'm up to ninety seein' if I can drown."
Dark Librarians.
"I suspect we might." Edith nods to Antoinette, collected for someone with such enraged termoil within. God dam vampires and their ability to compartmentalize and lack of autonomic responces. All she needs is a pageboy cut, an orange turtleneck and glasses and the mystery may be solved, but Siofra isn't a skinny stoner, his pet dog or a blond guy in an ascot, and the only redhead here is tony. This truly is an interesting situation. "Quite." Edith responds, waiting to see if Antoinette's shout is answered at all as she looks on for books with Edith's name or Siofra's and the good doctor Harrow's, even if the doctor's name is rather harrowing and a good hint at where this is all going.
That librarian... it should be followed. What could possibly go wrong. If Edith doesn't spot Edith's name or Siofra's she'll move on, following to the forgotten archives.
"Well-" Siofra gags, a series of respiratory interuptions like choking and coughing as she lifts her head out of the invisible sea, "We won't drown the standard way."
"Cadavers." Edith whispers to Antoinette and Siofra, likely seeing them first. The books get a curious look, and they are inspected with an arcanist's eye. "Are any of them either necromantically active or the good Doctor Harrow though..." It's spake aloud, though it's an externalized thought more than anything else. Under Edith's breath however there may be an abbreviated "Jinkies."
It is more macabre here. The Archivests and Libraries, horrors that they are float around as if fish in the sea. When the women get close enough to see what they look like they see creatures that appear to have once been human, but no longer resemble them. Eyes look like those of fishes, attached to the side of their heads, noses are more elongated and lips sewn shut with seaweed. Given that they have all seen Dr. Harrow's photo it doesn't take long to find him among the cadavers, mumbling to himself and reading his own book.
Antoinette absently starts to follow along, catching movement from Edith and Siofra and just acting on that. She's stills looking in that book, for better or worse. She flicks a glance up and away from the book to look at the cadavers, peering at them and then catching sight of the Doctor himself. "Well. He's not dead." She murmurs distractedly, drifting her gaze back down to the book in her hands.
"Eruh oh.." Is taken from Siofra more than it is given. It isn't perhaps the teal colored woe, more a product of recovery from her ordeal in attempting to inhale flowing ghost fumes, but it is perhaps poignant to the predicament nonetheless.
Keeping the Peace, she grabs one of the hunched by the shoulder and attempts to interrupts its eternal, dead reading to check its visage.
Being the kind and gentle person she is, Edith doesn't even bother conversing with Antoinette and Siofra. One moment she's stood beside them, the next a shimmer in the air-- A short range path, and Edith bodily yanks Doctor Harrow from his seat, shouldering him and pathing back. There's an obvious want to seal more books, though Edith still manifests beside Siofra and Antoinette, mentioning, "Objective obtained. We may now leave."
When you find Dr. Harrow among the bodies, he is not the man he once was.
His frame is gaunt, his once-professional attire now damp and clinging to his skin like seaweed. His coat is torn, the edges fraying as if gnawed upon, and his fingers tremble as they clutch a book bound in something that still seems to move.
His skin is pale, almost translucent, veins dark beneath the surface like ink spreading through water. His once sharp, inquisitive eyes are milky and unfocused, yet when they land on you, it feels as though he sees far too much.
When he notices Siofra, Edith, and Antoinette he tries to get to his feeet and clamber towards them. His voice gurgles, thick with something just behind his throat, as if he has forgotten how to breathe properly. "You shouldnt have come." His words are wet, followed by a deep, shuddering inhale as though his lungs are filling with water that isnt there.
As he steps forward, his bare feet leave behind small puddles but the floor remains dry.
It's the gurgling that distracts Antoinette again from reading and there's a furrow of her brow like she's trying to figure something out in her mind. Blue eyes linger on the man and there's a small frown. "What did this to you?" She asks him, slamming the book in her hands shut like there's other matters to attend to. She looks to his book and then down to her own to see if the material might be the same.
"So close to the doctor, Edith informs Siofra and Antoinette, "There is no point. He is dead. Simply a puppet. A marionette that I can guide from here if that is what we wish, or we can remove in our leaving. I have mines and grenades if that latter is the case." The sanctity of retrieving him be dammed."
Siofra takes the normal path to Eidth's position to give the body a slap and half. It's hard, but human-hard. "If we want words about whether we should have come we'll fecking ask, fine?"
The book that Dr. Harrow is reading is, in fact his own. Though he is reading his consciousness into the library itself, he can still talk and answer basic questions, but yes. The corpse is dead jim, though if Velma, Daphne, and Scooby want to rip his face off just to be sure there isn't a secret villain under a mask, no one will stop them.
"I can puppet him out, carry him or we can photograph him and leave." Edith offers, not caring either way. Edith is at home with death and undeath, even though she hates the situation as is.
"Well bring him AND his book in case he needs to cross reference." Siofra helps decide, trying to fiddle with the man's garment to be more suitable under her glare.
Siofra says "I'm fond of puppeting him out. Might need to chew on something."
"Very well." Edith doesn't act yet, though she looks to Antoinette for her take.
"Do we blow it up?" Edith goes on to ask Antoinette and Siofra.
Siofra looks like she'd wish nothing more. That a boom might be the birst bit of fun to be drawn. But this, scratching at her cuticles, reticence."I don't want t'explain to Sam why there's an explosion is Boston if it turns out that way."
Siofra moves to scoop of a few dozen books.
Siofra finds one that is just a 1 by 2 domino piece on the cover. No real name, but it feels like it should belong to her.
Antoinette is a bit too busy answer, holding her book to her chest and looking like she's having some difficultly finding her breath. She's looking like she's concentrating very hard on not panicking as her air flow seems to be restricted some. "L-l..leave." She manages to get out hoarsely, sliding one step back. Seeming to approve of the puppetting option and not the explosion option.
Siofra nabs her biography for safe keeping, producing it in front of her face with a drowned smile.
Siofra also drops the rest of what she's collected like old dirt.
And so our intrepid heroines necro puppet Dr. Harrow out of the stacks, getting back towards the stairs and up and out of this place as quickly as possible, or are they going to do more exploring and looking around?
Siofra moves to help Antoinette by getting under her shoulder. "Can't have me guildmistress drowning in still air. The commmute's too far."
Antoinette gives Siofra an appreciative looks
doesn't even notice Antoinette, so leaves it to Siofra to do. Controling the undead that is Doctor Harrow, Edith leads it first and foremost back up the stairs and out of the archives. Fortunately, Edith has coms, and so there is a Shadow Hand deposit of a bodybag in the library by the time Seamus Angels get back up there-- The body is deposited and phoned in to the authorities, who will transport it to the loved ones. Edith has a very strange idea of how these things should go. She returns to the offices of Athena, calls Seamus and explains what happened, gives him everything issential for a report, then hands it off. If Antoinette and Siofra join Edith in that time, all the better. If not, Edith will be waiting.
Siofra says "Can the late Doctor answer- well, ths newer later.. Can Doctor Harrow answer, like.. Questions about his childhood?"
"The late later Doctor." Siofra decides.
Siofra says "Favorite food, movie? Does he jerk lonely most nights in the library? Does he not feel the need?"
Antoinette finds herself better able to speak and less-drowning as they get closer to the entrance, "Maybe his book would say." She speculates.
As Edith and the body go, Minerva and Seamus are waiting at the office. Seamus is filing his reports to the flint of a boss and blinks in unbeath a couple of times. Minerva, a member of the Hand herself, dismisses the detective so that they can talk and agrees that the enterence will be dealt with so Edith doesn't have to deal with it any longer.
Siofra and someone go with Edith Once he gets outside of the library Harrow dries out fairly quickly and is little mroe than a dry husk when he is in the body bag. All three women get a copy of their book, which the Gods will bestow as an actual item given 15 to 20 minutes should they desire.
As Edith and the body go, Minerva and Seamus are waiting at the office. Seamus is filing his reports to the flint of a boss and blinks in unbeath a couple of times. Minerva, a member of the Hand herself, dismisses the detective so that they can talk and agrees that the enterence will be dealt with so Edith doesn't have to deal with it any longer.
Siofra and Antoinette go with Edith Once he gets outside of the library Harrow dries out fairly quickly and is little mroe than a dry husk when he is in the body bag. All three women get a copy of their book, which the Gods will bestow as an actual item given 15 to 20 minutes should they desire.
Antoinette is definitely keeping her book and putting it in her personal library.
Edith is likewise keeping her book.
Siofra hugs the book defensively. But as with most things in the power dynamic of this world, it's not really her choice.
Siofra her own book, anyhow.
Amidst the backdrop of a city intertwining the past with the present, the team enters the library, confronted by the overwhelming scent of the ocean and a tangible sense of being submerged, despite the absence of water. The library is alive with whispers and movement; black-cloaked figures flit in the shadows, evoking an atmosphere of foreboding dread.
As they delve deeper, Edith's acute vampiric senses detect the discrepancy in the steady drip of water, deducing it as a symptom of the library's haunting nature. Her discovery of life biographies, including one belonging to Antoinette that details her ongoing ventures, hints at the archive's desire to consume the identities of those who venture within its walls.
Their expedition leads them to a ghastly realization. The library is not merely a repository of knowledge but a graveyard of scholars turned cadavers, their human features distorted into grotesque caricatures of aquatic life. Among these unfortunate souls is Dr. Harrow, now a dessicated husk but still tethered to the mortal coil, eternally ensnared by the library and reading his own biography of despair.
Antoinette, struggling to breathe as if drowning in air, urges a hasty retreat, while Siofra, fueled by a mix of irritation and curiosity, seeks answers from the late doctor. Edith, ever pragmatic, orchestrates their escape, necromantically puppeteering Dr. Harrow's body out of the library's clutches and back to the safety of Athena Investigations' office.
Once back, the team debriefs with Minerva, handover the remains of Dr. Harrow for proper dispatch to his family, and each secures a copy of their haunting biographies crafted by the library — personalized trophies from a perilous journey into a realm where histories are written in ink and sorrow.
The story concludes with our heroines contemplative, keeping their grim tomes as reminders of an ordeal that skirts the boundaries of the supernatural and the personal. It's a tale of comradery, confrontation with the uncanny, and the irrevocable crossing of thresholds from which there is no unseeing or unknowing. Seamus' Angels have faced the abyss; the echo of their names whispered by the drowned archive ensures they will never forget.
(The Drowning Archive(SRSeamus):SRSeamus)
[Thu Apr 3 2025]
On A Busy Street in Charlestown, Boston
The streets of Charlestown hum with life, a fusion of old-world charm and modern bustle. Red-bricked sidewalks, lined with historic row houses and colonial-era buildings, lead to the heart of the neighborhood. The scent of fresh bread drifts from a nearby bakery, blending with the salty air rolling in from the Boston Harbor.
Neon signs flicker above cozy pubs and coffee shops, where locals argue about the latest Sox game over frothy pints. In the distance, the Bunker Hill Monument looms over the city, its presence a quiet reminder of Charlestowns storied past. A group of tourists snap pictures near a bronze statue, while a street musician strums a folk tune on his guitar, a battered Red Sox cap collecting spare change at his feet.
The air is alive with movement, voices, and history. Its a place where the past and present collide, where every alleyway might hold a secret and every passerby has a story to tell.
It is morning, about 51F(10C) degrees,
will give it another 5 minutes for others to disentangle themselves. We are missing at least two people.
Siofra shows up in a rental, sour, the roar of her unmuffled v12 Beetle censored for these streets that do such things as 'enforce laws.'
"Ugh." A teen complain as she steps out of a new Honda Accord, giving the car a kick of abuse on the sidewalk.
Antoinette lets out a low laugh as Siofra steps out of the car. "That is so very not you." She sympathizes, "At least it's only temporary." She gives a bit of a grin then. Her hands on her her hoodie pockets and she's just sort of been eye over the area around the meeting point.
Siofra shows up in a rental, sour, the roar of her unmuffled v12 Beetle censored for these streets that do such things as 'enforce laws.'
"Ugh." A teen complain as she steps out of a new Honda Accord, giving the car a kick of abuse on the sidewalk.[rrrrrrrepost]
"I've half a mind to run the fecking highway patrol through with it." Siofra conspires sourly, "I know where they park and I can find out where that fecking officer lives. How 'bout I park it in his fecking living room?"
Welcome to Charleston, Boston. The oldest section of Boston, it is near the water front and thus the air is filled with the scents of the sea: brine, fish, motor oil, and the regular smells that linger in the past. Cobblestone and Brick streets still mark the area, retained as quaint cultural features rather than actual functional improvements.
It is here, near an alley, that our intrepid adventurers see Seamus, smoking a cigarette and leaning against the wall near a glass door emblazoned with a shield and owl logo. He looks a little nervous, not the most nervous the twitchy man has ever been, but restless. When he sees Edith, Antoinette, and Siofra he gives the three a wave half greeting, half summoning the trio over to his spot by the door. "Right. Edith you look lovely," he mutters as if a ritual he must complete whenever he sees Edith, but moves on quickly. "Thank you three for coming. If you want, you can talk to the boss for more details, or we can just get right to it."
In comparison to Antoinette and Siofra, Edith quite simply pathed right into Boston. She spends enough time here to know where to meet, and one of the Court of Boston's holdings is close bye. Edith paths there, the dark forest passing in the blink of an eye and of course, Edith makes a point of gathering equipment first hand; Taser, darts, tranqs, a set deadman switch, grenades (just in case) bandages for anyone found and wounded, the athame focus today. It is easier to hide. Sunglasses and a fresh innocent looking outfit, bola, a collar and an assortment of other arcane and scientific tricks secreted about Edith's person. And yet, tooled up and ready for a quite literal war, the vampiress feeds on a thrall, then heads to the offices of Athena investigations to meet Antoinette and Siofra, where they will surely be granted the requisit information that Seamus needs them to have in order to complete this undertaking.
"Briefing first, Soohmmass." Siofra mumbles, wiping the sleep out of her eyes with her forefingers. The morning toll is being taken with the aid of a hangover, and as such Edith is given just the half-bow of a foot crossed behind another.
Antoinette chuckles, "If I'd worn my pink sweater, I'd almost be twinning with Edith. Good to see you, Eidth." She smiles to the woman and then to Siofra she adds, "You look nice too." Shifting her attention to someone when he approaches, she withdraws her hands from her hoodie pocket, "Yeah a bit more information never hurts I suppose. I know we're supposed to investigate this archive? Looking for someone?"
Antoinette chuckles, "If I'd worn my pink sweater, I'd almost be twinning with Edith. Good to see you, Eidth." She smiles to the woman and then to Siofra she adds, "You look nice too." Shifting her attention to Seamus when he approaches, she withdraws her hands from her hoodie pocket, "Yeah a bit more information never hurts I suppose. I know we're supposed to investigate this archive? Looking for someone?"
"Seamus." Edith greets someone as she comes up beside Antoinette and Siofra. "It is lovely to see you." A pause; Edith would obviously like more information. One does not undertake an investigation without all information to hand, though Edith is supremely confident either way. "Siofra, Toni. Do you wish more, or shall we head on."
"Seamus." Edith greets Seamus as she comes up beside Antoinette and Siofra. "It is lovely to see you." A pause; Edith would obviously like more information. One does not undertake an investigation without all information to hand, though Edith is supremely confident either way. "Siofra, Toni. Do you wish more, or shall we head on."
Siofra sucks in a breath through her nose, strangled though option is through the narrow nose under her guise. "I'd like t'talk to the boss. I've no clue what we're on about."
Siofra says "Something about the drowned?"
"What we know." Edith shares with Antoinette and Siofra, though they likely already know, "Is that our location." still ambiguous. Even here Edith is worried about technological or magical bugs and the issue they could cause. Then she's through the door and into the offices. "There is a library in the undercroft. This library is curiously flooded, though now drained, and surprisingly the books are still in good quality. The issue as we know, there are missing people and we aught recover them, or kill what caused said vanishing." The third option is to do both, though with Edith being what she is, that hasn't even crossed Edith's mind.
"Right," Seamus says opening the door for the three women and letting them enter before leading them up the narrow rickety wood steps to the inner office which he opens with a faint knock.
"Enter," a brisk no nonsense, feminine voice orders and Seamus opens the door and leads the other three in.
Seated behind a paper cluttered desk is a beautiful woman roughly 5'7" with an olive complexion and piercing steel-grey eyes that seem to see right through people, she carries herself with an air of quiet authority. Her dark, wavy hair is starting to silver at the temples, giving her an almost timeless presence. "Gallagher," she greets Seamus with a nod. "Are these the three that will be doing the job?" He gives a short nod then motions to them, "Yeah. These are my friends. I'll let them introduce themselves.""
Antoinette nods along as Edith refreshes her memory on the job. "We'll have to assess the situation when we're down there I suppose. I'm curious to peep the books too." She figures, this more of an outloud thought as she filters in with the rest. A polite smiles is offered to the woman behind the desk. "Antoinette Daniels, pleasure to meet you and happy to be of assistance."
"Siofra Smith." Siofra greets. If she's upset by having to ruin her routine, she doesn't show it. She lets a nod be her motion, rather than a handshake or a bow.
You don't bow to those that can't see the performance behind the world, after all.
Gliding in with the grace of the pastel pink phantom she is, Edith follows Seamus into the office, being sure to remain close to Antoinette and Siofra. The expression is blank, though the gaze, hidden behind Edith's sunglasses is keen. It looks over the office, the exits and egresses-- nightmare and mundane, normal, (door) window and the quality of the walls-- Edith is stronger than mortals. Objects are assessed, catalogued and filed away; Edith is professional and ancient enough that this is all second nature. The space of a moment. She then finds herself before the desk. "Doctor Edith Rose, pathology, parasciences and forensics." One of those is valid, the other is likely laughed off, though said anyway. Then she goes quiet, leaving Siofra and Antoinette to introduce themselves.
"I am Minerva Bouphos," she greets before looking to Seamus. "You are dismissed, Gallagher. I'll take it from here. You owe me reports on the two missing persons cases and three adultery cases you were assigned." Seamus gives a brief nod, understanding, and slips out, to assume the role Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Picture.
When the man is gone she looks over the other three, "I am going to presume it wasn't one of you that broke The Understanding. You will not believe the amount of damage control I had to do over that little fuck up. But now he is aware so that is that." She squints her steely eyes, "But, even though he is aware, he lacks the background to deal with paranormal investigations. I am sure you all have enough familiarity with what goes bump in the night to not be afraid of strange voices whispering in the darkness?"
"Quite so." Edith nods to the woman behind her desk. "Very aware, and I have no idea who made him aware. It was rather vexing to hear the agreement was breached."
Siofra looks above Miss Bouphos' head idly, coming back to the tail end of Edith's statement. "I don't know who it was, but his aura were dead fer a bit, there. Ye' get t'ree days in Haven and then the party is either dealt with or brought into the fold."
Siofra says "Impossible with all o'them shites in the forest."
"Yes, very aware and very familiar." Antoinette agrees, a flick of a glance to Seamus as he leaves before her attention falls back on Minerva. "I'm also not quite sure how that happened either but, yeah basically." She figures to Siofra's words.
Edith says, considering that, "I only found out a day after. It was too late-- In any case, the job."
"Right. Your.... rural lifestyle," Minirva retorts dryly to Siofra, not having a very high opinion of Haven apparently but doesn't dwell on it. She is an important person with important things to do, after all.
She lifts up a folder from the desk and holds it out to whomever wants it as she explains, "One week ago workers in a Harvard Library on the supernatural working on structural renovations found a doorway that was not on any plans. This is not unusual, certianly not in that place, but when crews descended they gave reports of feeling wet even though they were dry. A researcher went down to save the books and see what was written down there and went missing. Mundane authorities sealed the tunnel for now but the researcher's family would like their father back." She pauses briefly, "There is something in there, Ladies. Something the police don't want to deal with and dare willing to Nutty Putty the poor guy down there. Your job, find him, bring him out, and if you learn more about the library, bully for you. But I dont really care."
Siofra's brow knits and suffers from internal subjects, or perhaps from Minirva's statement, but it lingers until Siofra beings to pay attention to the conversation again. "Found themselves wet without water? Sounds like something's creeping about in the Nightmare, bringing change through its psyche."
Siofra says "Just feeling wet, or wet?"
arches her perfectly sculpted black eyebrows, "Miss Smith I am wearing $900 heels. Do you honestly think _I_ have been down there?"
There's a long moment as Edith processes that; She's not usually the save someone type. Still, a breach is a breach, and the vampire court doesn't need the bad press either. That, and the library is interesting enough a reason to do it. "Corpse recovery or retrieval of the package it is."
"Glad I wore my hoodie." Antoinette mumurs aside, straightening up a little. "We'll figure out what's going on down there and," There's a glance toward Edith before looking back to the woman. "Hopefully it's not a corpse we find."
"There's lovely cailin by the name of Vic what I don't think knows how to take her heels off." Siofra mentions with a few bobs of her head, then rises on her toes to try to see the woman's feet behind the desk to little avail. "Sometimes she's a dog. She might be a dog in heels."
Siofra says "If it's just felt, anyhow. More than like it's a haunting. I'm set grand with the briefing, sound fer yer time."
Minerva blinks a few times at Siofra but then addresses Antoinette, "I am sure you will do quite well, Miss Daniels. If you need back up I am assuming one of you has Gallagher's phone number. For payment you can see me or him and we will make sure you are settled up with." She motions towards the door, "The address is in the folder."
Antoinette will now be tagging along in the background because lunch but back within the hour, hopefully a bit less!
Nodding, Edith shares Siofra's sentiment. Antoinette gets a nod; Perhapse it wont be a corpse, but Edith cant be certain of anything, really-- And isn't going out of Edith's way either way. Edith takes the folder and nods to Siofra and Antoinette. "Well then, girls. I do suppose we are to head in. I do have a phantasm ready should it be needed to fight what ever thing is in there."
Travel montage to the library
Through the walk, or drive, or pathing, Siofra hands over a little Seran wrapped shot glass.
Siofra says "Best in yer hands. My eyesight's shite and ye're liable to see more, Doctor Rose."
Edith nods to Siofra. "I shall take it." Before arriving Edith already drank mandrake to see into the nightmare. It has a good long while left on it, though neither Antoinette or Siofra might know that. Still, the shot is accepted and the three make their way in a montage to the library. It's likely during the advertisement to save on budget for sets and CGI, eventually arriving when the scene phades in.
When the team arrives they find, just what they find, a plywood door that was lightly blocking the entrance to the door. It is locked with a chain and a combination padlock, the combo written on a slip of paper in the folder. Minerva is really a far superior investigator to Seamus. The outside of the door has many interesting bas relief carvings representing the sea, the ocean, and creatures that live within. As they get close to the door, the scent of rot, mildew, and brine becomes almost overpowering.
wrinkles her nose. Once side and then the other.
"Smells like Mister Salte." Siofra mutters idly, a thumb hooked in her trousers for quick escape lest the Mer-blood sporadically change her from the unconscionable wet.
Siofra massages her temples from an ethereal exhaustion that clings to her soul, or its wounds. The easy motions of forward circles and then reverse doesn't seem to alleviate it more than take its tole of energy.
Antoinette just follows along closely to Siofra as they contemplate the plywood door. Antoinette is on autopilot for a little bit, incase that was missed.
On the first of January, 1977, a new show hit the airways. It was named Charley's angels, and it would go on to become a cult classic for many. This is not that. This only has the slightest iota of resemblance to that, and yet, our narrative finds Edith, Antoinette and Siofra sent into a mysterious location to sulve the mystery in much the same way. Edith's nostrels flare; The scent is bad enough, though Edith has an acute sense of smell, and be it that or something else, there is an air around Edith that suggests more than disgust at this situation. It shouldn't have Edith lose her cool, and though the code already exists to remove the padlock, it finds Edith sniffing most contemptuously-- Every inch the victorian noble confronted by a distasteful situation-- And in these shoes, too. They are splendent, after all. Moving to the stair well, through that hole in the wall, Edith rips the padlock and chain from its grounding, the boards coming with it and Edith moves to peer into the hole of the stair well. "Let us deal with this before I lose my lunch." the vampire all but spits, a violent hate emmonating from her like an aura of anguished terror-- The distilled fury of a monster.
A steady drip- drip- drip- echoes from below, though there are no leaks in the walls. The sound is wrong - too slow, too deliberate, as if something unseen is mimicking the rhythm of falling water.
A steady drip- drip- drip- echoes from below, though there are no leaks in the walls. The sound is wrong - too slow, too deliberate, as if something unseen is mimicking the rhythm of falling water.
The flickering bulbs overhead sputter, casting jagged shadows that ripple like distorted reflections on the surface of a black sea.
Then, for just a second, the light dies completely, plunging the stairwell into darkness.
steps in after. Perhaps it's sleeping with a demigod. Perhaps it's being raised in The Circus. But she keeps a normal social distance with a creature just within the edges of her ken, close enough to be suicidal should some cute little *oppsie* of force strike through her insides.
"Wet." Siofra comments nasally, itching uncomfortably at her hip. "I wonder if it'll trick me blood into shifting? A merrow arrives when submerged."
"Yet." Edith contemptuously agrees with a nod, taking the lead-- At least for now, letting Siofra and Antoinette follow. This will likely change soon, though for now, Edith is the one with the perfect night vision and the enhanced senses. A hand is held up as Edith stops suddenly, perhapse not realising that Siofra and Antoinette may not be able to see it. The words that follow however are low, and Edith remains unmovable, as still as a statue, as cold as a corpse, as inevitable as the violence abound from any horror movie. Yet, so to is Edith and the others the heroes in this piece; They are the ones aware of the supernatural and they take on the task of the characters within Supernatural. It's a certain irony, though so too is it closer to Charmed or Buffy. That exactly is still to be identified. Edith's palm raises, the tingle of dark sorcery ready to be launched, innate power beyond arcana should anything attack unexpectedly. "The drip is too steady." Edith shares with Antoinette and Siofra, vocalizing the obvious in a low tone. "There is something down here." -Said every first girl in every victim scene of every horror movie ever. Edith's taser is readied, though not drawn; Edith is fast enough to use it from still, a solid electricution not bothering Edith should the area prove to be damp enough for backlash, though it makes things clear that Edith simply -expects- Siofra and Antoinette to be okay with it as well.
When the lights flares back to life, the walls glisten- not with moisture, but with something else. Something that looks like ink. The pathway down is easily seen into the archive itself, where the voices are coming from, and where the hint of the bookshelves can be found.
The blood of depths surfaces in a muted function of night sight. "I'll say," Siofra comments. "Rayner's not been home in a near week and I can nearly be drank from the tap." The token immigrant jokes, but that humor and lack of serious precaution marks her as the first to die.
But how will she drown?
Siofra rubs a finger across the ink. A single convenience of being wrapped in skin is that one is always wearing gloves.
Edith doesn't move to stop Siofra from touching that ink. It's as good a litmus as there is, and it saves Edith a job of producing a scanning tool to do so. Siofra therefore gets to be the canary with Antoinette there to deal with it. Edith could, but if it's needed, that's the loss of a bolt of roiling dark energy or a taser, both of which may be issential. So with Siofra doing that, Edith sniffs the air-- Edith grimaces. If there are tracks to be found, she will find them. If not, she will listen to identify if these voices are clairaudient or physical, acute hearing and smell, vision and night vision, adept perception all employed along with the arcanely keen ones of a seasoned arcanist.
Siofra tries to find a place to scribble, to deface- but there are as of yet a sad lack of inky surfaces. Her finger tips are thus held up and to her side in waiting sass until the time arises.
A pause.
Canting Edith's head to one side, almost like a dog, Edith narrows Edith's eyes. "The whispers are calling my name. Are they calling to you, just on the edge of hearing?" she asks Siofra, who is, as is habitual now, expected to have the same senses and abilities, such is the way of monsters in this unforgiving world. The same is posed to Antoinette, too, though no answer is expected.
There are tracks, going down the stairs, as if foot prints in the mud by the beach. As they get to the last step of the stairs they disappear, however, as if washed away by the tide. The scents of the ocean are probably overwhelming to those that don't accute scent but to those who do, you can smell the usual rot, mildew, fish parts, brine, leather, paper, ink, and a hundred other scents that are library and ocean adjacent. Sight wise, there is movement, deeper in the archive, but it appears to be black cloaks swirling in the shadows.
"Dominnooooooo.." Siofra whispers dramatically, then, screwing her expression tries one with a bit softer- trying to key in to the chorus of her own name. "That's the name me godfather gave me. Elder, I suppose."
When the party is ready to move on the can join the drowning archive.
If Edith could, she would be vomiting at the scents here. It is displeasing, and so Siofra and Antoinette have to suffer Edith's discontent. It worms seductively, clawing at the senses like a twisted lover's caress, not physical or metaphysical, but psionic in nature. A disgusted cruel thing of insidious nature and ancient caustic wrath. "Figures in black cloaks." Edith hisses to Siofra and Antoinette.
Antoinette is back and more or less caught up on reading!
has her nose half buried in her hoodie, trying to block out the terrible stench as best she can. Being but a human, Antoinette might have trouble discerning the different layers of shadows versus cloaks and the like, but she trusts Edith's word as they move further in, peeping what she can of the books as well and their strange water-logged state.
Siofra pauses, expression suddenly flat. It's a performer's grace to be hideously furious and be only cool. An expression that will not redden aids in this facade but her footsteps start to punch into the floorboards.
"Tsssss.. Tssss. Tssss." The circus act tuts like cymbals on a drum set.
As you descend into the archive, welcome back to Antoinette, your feet start to move more slowly as if wading through water, though there is no water. It feels like there should be knee high water but there isn't.
from here at the beginning of the archive, there are rows and rows of books on shelves. As many books as the book dragons want to review. Occasionally one of the black cloaks wanders by and looks up, before swiftly scurrying away.
Head still cocked, Edith purses Edith's lips. Outwardly there is no sensation of the aura Edith gives off, though the tention could be cut with a knife. It's not directed at Siofra or Antoinette, though it still floods out in waves. Edith hates it here, though obligation makes her press on. It may, for any who know Edith, be the first and only time she's genuinely lost her cool. Which would suggest that the other times it was entirely staged. That might be chilling in and of itself, though Edith is a creature that thrives off of performance and artifice. And still, Edith pauses to read the spines of the books. There's no care if they whisper; Edith has read many haunted books as a necromancer and dark sorcerous adept. This is more interesting, the man as the objective forgotten at the cornucopia of knowledge held in these grimoires.
Straight ahead near the heart of the library turns into a dark place filled with shadows. To the right is another dark place, long forgotten in a place that wasn't meant to be seen.
Pausing, Edith's eye tracks over the shelves, apparently looking for something. "I hate the ocean." Edith shares to no one in particular.
Siofra begins to puff as the baser instincts of anger take. A glance to Edith is enough to cool and outburst of words...
Or, it was.
"I hate that fecking Salte. What? He's got to set sail without word? Can't give a call? Fecking men- they're all just a- just a- SEMEN what spill out fer their applause and then LEAVE you with it."
Obsessively engrossed in reviewing the books, Edith's gaze flicks over to Siofra at her outburst. A moment is taken to appreciate the creativity of that and Siofra is afforded a nod of appreciation. Then, deciding books can be stolen (saved, of course. Edith sould never steal) she moves on, pointing out the darker locations to Siofra and Antoinette, assuming they miss them.
Siofra says "Feck the ocean, feck that mermaid, and fuck-"
Siofra's accent turns American as she kicks a book more ink than pages like a proper illiterate. "Feck- Where's this bloody ghost?"
Siofra wiping a hand down her face- painting her fake cheek black, she whips on the deeper darkness. Her steps look a bit funky as she wades through nothing, trying to stomp over the precipice of the spooky water.
Edith cant help it. These are here for the stealing and though she can take as many books as she likes from other libraries, these biographies, whispering as they are, are likely the pages trapped with souls. Edith can use souls. No real attempt is made to hide what Edith is doing from Siofra and Antoinette, though they are tucked away into Edith's handbag-- Small rewards make the day go far better. One must treat themself, after all. Another pause, the file is opened, and Edith looks to the name of the missing man. It's only a huntch, and so it's a passing curiosity, though Edith reviews the biographies for the missing man's name-- The mind of a one hundred and thirty plus vampire with occult and scientific training is an abstract, alien thing.
Siofra itches at her legs, dragging on the air with a breath and making a brief pit stop in the darkness to be the Blair Witch in the basement before remarking, "This is poxy, all of it. Can't get out of water dry, can't- can't get into the air wet.. Can't- can't..." She hisses a final exasperation, turning about face to look at Edith's feet, "Have ye' not seen a sprinkle of the ghost itself? I've not a clue if this area is cursed or-or." She throws her hands up.
Voice lowered as Edith relinquishes these poor trapped books from their prison of deleterious decay, Edith addresses Siofra a and Antoinette as they pass closer to the beshadowed areas. It's far too casual, ignoring the fury within-- Edith really really hates the ocean, apparently, to an inhuman, incandescent degree. "What, pray do you both wish to do. I just recalled that we have to rescue this man..." Of course she has. Edith was prompted by the sparking dendritic flash of electricity in her undead brain. "I am all ears." And another biography vanishes, until Edith's bag cant fit any more.
Antoinette is quietly contemplative, moving with the pair carefully, watching her steps. Struggling with that invisible, nonexistent?, water. She recoils at something, body tensing. "Better show itself soon." She decides with an uncharacteric grumble. Book lover that she is, academic and scientist that she is, as much as she probably would be stealing some of these books herself right now. Instead her attention is on the surroundings. Like even though she has no super senses, she's hyper aware--and an expression of irritation is etched on her features. "Wet, cold. How much are we even getting paid for this? Probably not enough."
Antoinette looks to Edith, "What's this dude's name again?"
The case file had the name of Dr. Elias Harrow. A reasonably attractive middle aged man with a dad bod and receeding hairline. The picture shows him wearing a tweed suit and hornrimmed glasses.
"Well, firstly-" Siofra comments, slapping down on her knees in the fake water and then dipping her head down- she attempts to breathe.
"Oh..." Edith takes a book, opens it, flips through it and hands it to Antoinette. "These archives wish to consume you, my dear." It's a scientific interest, though Edith then looks for Edith's own and that of Siofra. "I wonder if we all have one." she muses, waiting on Antoinette and Siofra's ideas to be spoken. "My running theory is that the darkness here is an eldritch being hidden within the shadows." Edith's eyes move over the stacks, still searching, voice still low. "I suspect these books, occult as they are record lives of those who enter arcanely. Toni's is largely empty as her entire form has not been subsumed yet. Once the thing within the darkness captures us, we become part of the drowned library as stories, of a sort." Then she shares the name. "Doctor Elias Harrow." Edith hands the file to Antoinette, expecting her to pass it to Siofra with the picture.
"I've already got a resident eldritch being, thanks." Antoinette states flatly to the archives as a whole as she takes the book from Edith, probably with a bit more force than intended. There's a peek of curiosity behind the irritation. Is it a book with her name on it? She accepts the file next - this time a bit gentler, letting Siofra see it as well. "Did you find a book about him?" She asks Edith...and then promptly lifts her voice some to call out, "Doctor Harrow!"
Further up ahead dark libraries flip around the stacks. One makes eyecontact with Seamus' Angels before moving off towards the forgotten wing. Was it a sign? Was it just scared? From this distance no real features could be determined but they certianly don't say anything.
Siofra lifts her head from the invisible water, project of 'can i breathe' yet unfulfilled as she takes the file with some angst from Antoinette "Whassthis? I'm up to ninety seein' if I can drown."
Dark Librarians.
"I suspect we might." Edith nods to Antoinette, collected for someone with such enraged termoil within. God dam vampires and their ability to compartmentalize and lack of autonomic responces. All she needs is a pageboy cut, an orange turtleneck and glasses and the mystery may be solved, but Siofra isn't a skinny stoner, his pet dog or a blond guy in an ascot, and the only redhead here is tony. This truly is an interesting situation. "Quite." Edith responds, waiting to see if Antoinette's shout is answered at all as she looks on for books with Edith's name or Siofra's and the good doctor Harrow's, even if the doctor's name is rather harrowing and a good hint at where this is all going.
That librarian... it should be followed. What could possibly go wrong. If Edith doesn't spot Edith's name or Siofra's she'll move on, following to the forgotten archives.
"Well-" Siofra gags, a series of respiratory interuptions like choking and coughing as she lifts her head out of the invisible sea, "We won't drown the standard way."
"Cadavers." Edith whispers to Antoinette and Siofra, likely seeing them first. The books get a curious look, and they are inspected with an arcanist's eye. "Are any of them either necromantically active or the good Doctor Harrow though..." It's spake aloud, though it's an externalized thought more than anything else. Under Edith's breath however there may be an abbreviated "Jinkies."
It is more macabre here. The Archivests and Libraries, horrors that they are float around as if fish in the sea. When the women get close enough to see what they look like they see creatures that appear to have once been human, but no longer resemble them. Eyes look like those of fishes, attached to the side of their heads, noses are more elongated and lips sewn shut with seaweed. Given that they have all seen Dr. Harrow's photo it doesn't take long to find him among the cadavers, mumbling to himself and reading his own book.
Antoinette absently starts to follow along, catching movement from Edith and Siofra and just acting on that. She's stills looking in that book, for better or worse. She flicks a glance up and away from the book to look at the cadavers, peering at them and then catching sight of the Doctor himself. "Well. He's not dead." She murmurs distractedly, drifting her gaze back down to the book in her hands.
"Eruh oh.." Is taken from Siofra more than it is given. It isn't perhaps the teal colored woe, more a product of recovery from her ordeal in attempting to inhale flowing ghost fumes, but it is perhaps poignant to the predicament nonetheless.
Keeping the Peace, she grabs one of the hunched by the shoulder and attempts to interrupts its eternal, dead reading to check its visage.
Being the kind and gentle person she is, Edith doesn't even bother conversing with Antoinette and Siofra. One moment she's stood beside them, the next a shimmer in the air-- A short range path, and Edith bodily yanks Doctor Harrow from his seat, shouldering him and pathing back. There's an obvious want to seal more books, though Edith still manifests beside Siofra and Antoinette, mentioning, "Objective obtained. We may now leave."
When you find Dr. Harrow among the bodies, he is not the man he once was.
His frame is gaunt, his once-professional attire now damp and clinging to his skin like seaweed. His coat is torn, the edges fraying as if gnawed upon, and his fingers tremble as they clutch a book bound in something that still seems to move.
His skin is pale, almost translucent, veins dark beneath the surface like ink spreading through water. His once sharp, inquisitive eyes are milky and unfocused, yet when they land on you, it feels as though he sees far too much.
When he notices Siofra, Edith, and Antoinette he tries to get to his feeet and clamber towards them. His voice gurgles, thick with something just behind his throat, as if he has forgotten how to breathe properly. "You shouldnt have come." His words are wet, followed by a deep, shuddering inhale as though his lungs are filling with water that isnt there.
As he steps forward, his bare feet leave behind small puddles but the floor remains dry.
It's the gurgling that distracts Antoinette again from reading and there's a furrow of her brow like she's trying to figure something out in her mind. Blue eyes linger on the man and there's a small frown. "What did this to you?" She asks him, slamming the book in her hands shut like there's other matters to attend to. She looks to his book and then down to her own to see if the material might be the same.
"So close to the doctor, Edith informs Siofra and Antoinette, "There is no point. He is dead. Simply a puppet. A marionette that I can guide from here if that is what we wish, or we can remove in our leaving. I have mines and grenades if that latter is the case." The sanctity of retrieving him be dammed."
Siofra takes the normal path to Eidth's position to give the body a slap and half. It's hard, but human-hard. "If we want words about whether we should have come we'll fecking ask, fine?"
The book that Dr. Harrow is reading is, in fact his own. Though he is reading his consciousness into the library itself, he can still talk and answer basic questions, but yes. The corpse is dead jim, though if Velma, Daphne, and Scooby want to rip his face off just to be sure there isn't a secret villain under a mask, no one will stop them.
"I can puppet him out, carry him or we can photograph him and leave." Edith offers, not caring either way. Edith is at home with death and undeath, even though she hates the situation as is.
"Well bring him AND his book in case he needs to cross reference." Siofra helps decide, trying to fiddle with the man's garment to be more suitable under her glare.
Siofra says "I'm fond of puppeting him out. Might need to chew on something."
"Very well." Edith doesn't act yet, though she looks to Antoinette for her take.
"Do we blow it up?" Edith goes on to ask Antoinette and Siofra.
Siofra looks like she'd wish nothing more. That a boom might be the birst bit of fun to be drawn. But this, scratching at her cuticles, reticence."I don't want t'explain to Sam why there's an explosion is Boston if it turns out that way."
Siofra moves to scoop of a few dozen books.
Siofra finds one that is just a 1 by 2 domino piece on the cover. No real name, but it feels like it should belong to her.
Antoinette is a bit too busy answer, holding her book to her chest and looking like she's having some difficultly finding her breath. She's looking like she's concentrating very hard on not panicking as her air flow seems to be restricted some. "L-l..leave." She manages to get out hoarsely, sliding one step back. Seeming to approve of the puppetting option and not the explosion option.
Siofra nabs her biography for safe keeping, producing it in front of her face with a drowned smile.
Siofra also drops the rest of what she's collected like old dirt.
And so our intrepid heroines necro puppet Dr. Harrow out of the stacks, getting back towards the stairs and up and out of this place as quickly as possible, or are they going to do more exploring and looking around?
Siofra moves to help Antoinette by getting under her shoulder. "Can't have me guildmistress drowning in still air. The commmute's too far."
Antoinette gives Siofra an appreciative looks
doesn't even notice Antoinette, so leaves it to Siofra to do. Controling the undead that is Doctor Harrow, Edith leads it first and foremost back up the stairs and out of the archives. Fortunately, Edith has coms, and so there is a Shadow Hand deposit of a bodybag in the library by the time Seamus Angels get back up there-- The body is deposited and phoned in to the authorities, who will transport it to the loved ones. Edith has a very strange idea of how these things should go. She returns to the offices of Athena, calls Seamus and explains what happened, gives him everything issential for a report, then hands it off. If Antoinette and Siofra join Edith in that time, all the better. If not, Edith will be waiting.
Siofra says "Can the late Doctor answer- well, ths newer later.. Can Doctor Harrow answer, like.. Questions about his childhood?"
"The late later Doctor." Siofra decides.
Siofra says "Favorite food, movie? Does he jerk lonely most nights in the library? Does he not feel the need?"
Antoinette finds herself better able to speak and less-drowning as they get closer to the entrance, "Maybe his book would say." She speculates.
As Edith and the body go, Minerva and Seamus are waiting at the office. Seamus is filing his reports to the flint of a boss and blinks in unbeath a couple of times. Minerva, a member of the Hand herself, dismisses the detective so that they can talk and agrees that the enterence will be dealt with so Edith doesn't have to deal with it any longer.
Siofra and someone go with Edith Once he gets outside of the library Harrow dries out fairly quickly and is little mroe than a dry husk when he is in the body bag. All three women get a copy of their book, which the Gods will bestow as an actual item given 15 to 20 minutes should they desire.
As Edith and the body go, Minerva and Seamus are waiting at the office. Seamus is filing his reports to the flint of a boss and blinks in unbeath a couple of times. Minerva, a member of the Hand herself, dismisses the detective so that they can talk and agrees that the enterence will be dealt with so Edith doesn't have to deal with it any longer.
Siofra and Antoinette go with Edith Once he gets outside of the library Harrow dries out fairly quickly and is little mroe than a dry husk when he is in the body bag. All three women get a copy of their book, which the Gods will bestow as an actual item given 15 to 20 minutes should they desire.
Antoinette is definitely keeping her book and putting it in her personal library.
Edith is likewise keeping her book.
Siofra hugs the book defensively. But as with most things in the power dynamic of this world, it's not really her choice.
Siofra her own book, anyhow.