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13th District, January 1st, 6:00 PM... Home Sweet Home Generally speaking, the last thing somebody probably wanted after a long day of nearly dying, watching someone actually die - the mayor of Megalopolis at that - and still having to deal with paperwork after the fact, was for it to be raining when they got home. But if she was asked, Sei would admit that at this point, crossing the threshold into that one corner of town where it constantly rained was somewhat refreshing. If nothing else, it meant there would be somebody to welcome her back home. Sei had even made a point to send a text on the way back, to let Alice know for certain that she was fine, despite the roughed-up appearance she'd would be met with. Once everything had settled down, she unceremoniously made her way home, stepped inside, hung her raincoat up by the door and left her boots beside it... And couldn't help but notice the lights were all out. Which was odd. With Alice being a Fount, it wasn't like Sei had trouble tracking her down when she was nearby, and she was definitely in this building, just on the other side of a small wall that separated the house's entrance from the rest of the living room/kitchen. As Sei turned the corner to find out what the deal with the creepily-dark interior was, she did spot two little sources of light. Candles! Two candles forming the number 29 had been carefully placed in the center of what seemed to be a strawberry cake, which itself was set on a plate sitting atop a pair of brightly-wrapped boxes. "I heard someone around here's getting old," Alice teased. "Go clean yourself up; I got you a couple presents and this cake won't be good forever. Happy birthday, Sei." As Sei passed by, she couldn't help but notice the state of the kitchen out the corner of her eye. It was an absolute disaster, but one that was clearly in the middle of being cleaned before stopping abruptly. And, after a couple of minutes to wash herself off, it was time to sit down, and have a nice evening. Cake was had, jokes were exchanged, and eventually it was time to see what was in the two boxes Alice had left sitting in the middle of the table. The first was just some clothes Sei had commented on needing. A new pair of boots, some shirts, and one skirt she distinctly recalled seeing on one of Alice's rare ventures outside of the 13th District, when the two had gone to the mall together on a day that already happened to be raining a few weeks ago. The other was... "What the!! Alice isn't this thing like crazy expensive!? How did you even know I was looking at these lately!?" "I've got my resources. You aren't the only one who's got kami experience, you know." 1st District, January 2nd, 9:50 AM... Sei always liked arriving to meetings and such early. Punctuality was a good habit to form, and her relative proximity to the 1st District only made showing up early all the easier for her. And since today was as good a day as any, she opted to try on that skirt she'd gotten just the day before. Pink wasn't usually something Sei went for, but "expand my horizons" had been a resolution she set for herself for the year of 2100. So, here she was, pink skirt, white shirt, ready to investigate. Alas, she imagined the MPD was busy enough at present, and she wasn't going to make their job even harder by bothering them with questions about an incident they probably knew even less about than she did. So, her attention was less on the site and more on the people around it. Above all else, she was keeping a watchful eye out for suspicious-looking people. And possibly whoever could have been behind that piece of street art over there. 1st District, 10:00 AM... Aside from the general mood in Megalopolis following yesterday's tragedy, it was quite a lovely day today, and Kiyoko woke up feeling confident. Just yesterday she had helped save the city, made significant contributions to the cleanup at Samsara Tower's final resting place, and even made a tentative friend in her fellow literature-wielding Fount! And best of all? The girl in question wanted to read the Necronomicon! Normally Kiyoko had to convince others to do it herself, to no real success either, but this was practically a free convert if all went well! Alas, the timing of the request could have been better. Kiyoko had been putting the holy book to significant use yesterday, and having only delved into the early chapters that could be read with her limiting, purely-human form, she wasn't too certain about the finer details of its inner workings. She wanted to make absolutely certain that Kaede reading the book would let her see the things Kiyoko saw that fateful day, and hear the things she heard, so Kiyoko had said that while she'd be delighted to have an exchange of information, yesterday wasn't really the best time for it. The reason she cited was she wanted to confirm her own "family" was overall unharmed - which was thankfully the case, aside from the shock of the news - but the reality was she wanted to give the Necronomicon some time to "recharge", just in case. But that brought her recollection back round to today! Today was a very important day, after all! Not only was she planning to go home tonight having successfully converted someone to the one true faith, but it was also the day her investigations began in earnest. Before her lied a big pile of nothing, right in the middle of the city, where Samsara Tower used to be before Stratford went berserk. There were a lot of questions Kiyoko had about the scene before her, though it was more about the culprits behind Stratford's rampage than the conspicuously missing Samsara Tower. Most importantly, there was no way to use this as a springboard to spread the old word until the whole mess was resolved and the culprits were brought to justice thanks to the personal involvement of Kiyoko and by extension the Old Gods, so just who and where were they? As if staring at the empty lot and its police tape barrier would yield answers, Kiyoko had been doing just that. Until a person walked straight into her, anyway. Then her full attention was directed at them instead. "Oh, pardon me!" she said. She could detect the presence of another Fount in this girl who had bumped into her. With any luck, it was a stray thread that would lead her into the tangle of evil lurking somewhere in the city. "I must have been taking up more of the path than I thought. You're also here to see the lot, I take it? It seems to be all the news is talking about, after all." It was immediately clear from the girl's directionless stare and dark glasses, as well as the cane in her hand, that she was blind. "Whoops! Gotta watch where I'm going!" she snickered like she had just told the most incredible joke as she stood back up and dusted herself off. "I'm not really one to see much, I'm just here with a coworker," she waved a hand in front of her face with a grin, "do you know what went on here? Been hearing lots of different stuff from lots of different people." Without giving Kiyoko a chance to respond to her question, the girl extended a hand out to the rest of the group, seemingly expecting a handshake in introduction. "Usagi's the name, btdubs. What's such a colorful group doing together here?" "Kiyoko. It's a pleasure to meet you." Kiyoko took this girl's hand, giving it a shake. The name Usagi seemed awfully appropriate; her high energy made Kiyoko think of a rabbit. Gesturing to the empty lot, she explained "The short version is that for reasons and by methods I don't fully understand, somebody incited a berserk rampage from our late mayor - may the Old Gods watch over his soul - and he used the Samsara Tower as something like a skyscraper-sized suit of power armor. The way I hear it, it caused quite a mess in a bunch of districts, but he was stopped in the Sixth District. The group I've come with were planning to look into the matter to try and learn more about the whole incident." "And what about you?" Kiyoko then asked. "Something similar, I'd imagine, if you're here with a co-worker. What sort of work brings you to such a scene? Not journalism I hope, or else I'm afraid you're quite late to the headline." Usagi frowned slightly as her hand was taken by Kiyoko, but the expression faded in an instant. Removing her glasses, she wiped them off with the corner of her shirt, her clouded and blank eyes unabashedly within full view. "Y'know, mostly just clerical stuff. My boss gets real disorganized so I keep him on track." She put her sunglasses back on, smiling warmly, "It looks like his and your bunch's plans are along the same lines, make sure to keep all your eyes open!" Despite not really answering Kiyoko's question, Usagi turned on her heel and made her way away from the group, weabing between people in the crowd as her folded cane clacked back and forth, hanging from the belt loop of her jeans. "...will do." What a strange person. With that out of the way, Kiyoko brought her attention back to the other Founts. Kaede was here, and that was far more important than someone's seemingly-blind assistant. The book. She'd have to get her to read it. And while she was at it, she'd get to take a look at that fascinating rainbow scroll her fellow wielder of literature had. Manuevering her way through the gaggle of other Founts that had assembled here, Kiyoko flagged Kaede down with a waving hand until the two were within speaking range of each other. "Good morning," Kiyoko smiled. "Sorry about postponing our little exchange of info until today, but like I said, more important matters and all." Eagerly extending her holy book in Kaede's direction, she continued "I'm not sure if you'll be able to read it, but by all means, I encourage you to try your hardest. Give it a nice, thorough look. You might be surprised by what you find out!" Kaede excitedly took the book, turning it over in her hands as she ran her fingers over the spine. She looked tired, and was tired; she had barely slept the night before, her entire body wired after the events of the day and the near miss for both her and her mother. Her parents almost hadn't let her leave the house that morning, but she'd wormed her way out of it. "It has to be very old," she said, marveling at the ancient cover. "You've taken great care of it to have it still be in a condition where people can handle it with their bare hands." "Thank you. It wouldn't reflect well on me if I simply let this book fall apart, so I take great care to ensure it is well maintained." Kaede placed her fingers around the edges of the cover. She pulled the book open to its first page, her eyes wide. She held that pose for several moments, expression unchanging. Then her forehead creased slightly in a frown. She turned the page, scanning the next entry more quickly. After repeating this three more times she finally looked up. "I can't make heads or tails of it," she said, sounding a little bit offended that the book had the audacity to be incomprehensible. "It's coptic, that's for certain, but... Oh, it's like someone who knew Sumerian wrote it all and it doesn't make any sense." "Coptic, you say?" There was only a small amount of disappointment on Kiyoko's face, though it didn't fully reflect the feelings behind it. Was this some divine prank? That Kiyoko was so blessed with otherworldly visions upon first reading the book, but not Kaede? There were a couple of other explanations she could think of too, that didn't involve divine pranks. Perhaps Kaede's status as a Fount was creating some sort of interference? Alternatively, Kiyoko was more chosen than she initially suspected. Had she underestimated the confidence that had been placed in her by those beyond? Oh dear. She'd have to work a lot harder to gather new followers if that was the case. "I'm not really a linguistics expert, but that doesn't seem right." Flipping through a few of the pages, Kiyoko stopped at one point in particular, pointing it out with her finger. "See here for example, where it says ♥☼☺♀♣‼♥♣? From what little specks of knowledge I've got on the matter, that doesn't quite sound like any Egyptian dialect. There's no denying these are hieroglyphics, but perhaps they're not meant to be used in ways you're familiar with? Very interesting all the same, and having a rough idea of a time period to pin to the book is oddly comforting! Though, I'll admit, I always imagined it being a bit older than that."