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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Nov 7, 2016 5:03:58 GMT
"Oh......come on brain! Work for me!"
The mumbled words were repeated again and again as Anna tried to find something, anything, that would tell her what she was missing in regards to the Grey Dawn case. And despite sitting outside at a café with a beautiful day surrounding her and a delicious lunch in front of her, she couldn't enjoy it. Not when she knew what was going on in Bellerouge and was powerless at this point to stop it. Already the new and far stronger Sapien Drug was working its way through the city and causing havoc, which could only be what Grey Dawn wanted.
Anna stared down at her jambalaya but didn't touch it and instead made a sound of annoyance deep in her throat before rubbing at her eyes in frustration. She was tired, but so was everyone at the BPD. What with the vast majority of the Others Unit out of commission because of the drug and the citywide distribution of the same substance, the department was extremely stretched. Even she had been called out of the morgue to help with the overload while still trying to analyze the Sapien and find a way to reverse the effects.
It had gotten to the point where she had to work on making a cure for the drug between helping with cases. It explained why the table she was sitting at was covered in files, chemical analysis reports, test results and the last known movements of Grey Dawn. One thing was sure, even if she got all her extra work done with cases, finally produced an effective cure for Sapien, and finished all her autopsy reports, that would still leave the threat of the hate group.
Several other attacks had been linked to Grey Dawn and it was clear they were ratcheting up to something. The million dollar question was what?
"Come on, Anna! You can figure this puzzle out. Just look at the pieces and start putting them together!"
The young woman hadn't realized that her quiet muttering had grown louder as time when on until anyone walking along the sidewalk outside the café could hear her. She probably wouldn't have cared even if she did know. |
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Nov 7, 2016 5:12:24 GMT
Eighteen. She was eighteen years old. Honestly, Yang still found it hard to believe, mainly because she didn't feel any different. She didn't feel more mature, or more like an adult. She still felt like the same old Yang. Well, maybe she wasn't exactly the same. A lot of stuff had happened in the past couple of months, and a lot of it was still weighing down on her mind. She wondered how much longer she could put on a brave face. Someone was bound to start asking questions eventually. And Yang had no idea what to tell them once they did. She was still thinking about it as she walked down the street, eyes cast downward and her hand shoved into her pockets. However, some angry ranting caught her ears, breaking the chain of thoughts in her head. She looked up, and was surprised to see that it was Anna, seemingly getting frustrated at a stack of files. She wasn't as well acquainted with her as some of the other members of the BPD Others unit, but she remembered their first encounter fondly. Anna was a perky and cheerful sort of person, despite the fact that she mainly worked with dead bodies. However, she didn't seem her usual self. Yang had a good reason as to what it was. She had heard enough from Sunshine and Shadow that this Sapien problem wasn't getting solved. In fact, it looked like it was getting worse. No doubt Anna was getting overwhelmed with work, like the rest of the BPD members. Maybe she needed some cheering up. Yang had managed to perk Sunshine and Shadow a bit, despite the fact that both of them were regular humans now. Maybe she could do the same for Anna. So, she put a smile on her face and walked over. "Hey Anna," she greeted, giving a little wave.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Nov 7, 2016 5:26:00 GMT
"I said no coffee!"
Anna snapped the words out as a voice called out her name, thinking it was the waiter come back to try and get her to purchase a coffee. They had been asking her nonstop since she ordered her food and she was starting to loose her patient.
However, she realized in the next moment that the waiter didn't know her name and the voice had come from the sidewalk. Turning her tired eyes from the files before her, her gaze quickly landed on the fiery yellow hair and purple eyes of a familiar face. It only took her a moment to pull the name from her head.
"Yang?"
She managed to give a wide smile despite her fatigue and returned the wave before motioning for the woman to join her. She grabbed a stack of papers from one of the chairs and moved them to the ground as she spoke.
"Well hey there hi there ho there. Sorry about the coffee thing. Thought you were the waiter coming back to try and load me up with an expresso or an Americano."
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Nov 7, 2016 5:30:20 GMT
Yang blinked, surprised for a second by Anna's response. But luckily, she quickly gave an explanation as to why. "It's okay. No harm done," she said as she sat across from Anna. Now that she was a bit closer, she realized that her friend had more papers than she realized. It was like she had brought a lifetime's worth of files with her. "Jeez. Looks like they're working you hard, huh?" she said, trying to make light of the situation.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Nov 7, 2016 5:36:20 GMT
Anna was still trying to set aside papers so that Yang would have more space and didn't immediately process what she had said. However, after a moment she gave a laugh before finally turning to face the blonde.
"Yes and no. Most of this is from the BPD, but some of it I chose to take on myself. It's just a good thing that I have an energy level high enough to power a small city for a week. At least that's what people generally tell me."
She gave another laugh but had to cut it short when a yawn tried to surface. She forced herself from actually giving into the motion, knowing that once she started she wouldn't be able to stop. However, she wasn't going to burden Yang with her load and instead leaned against the table with her elbows, a smile once more in place.
"So Yang, what's life been like for you lately?"
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Nov 7, 2016 18:22:18 GMT
Anna seemed to pep up a little more as she talked with Yang, but it felt like she was a little more tired than she let on. Her smile soon turned into a yawn. It seemed like however much energy she had was starting to dwindle a bit. "You sure you don't want some coffee?" Yang asked. "Or tea?" Personally, Yang found that coffee gave her more energy, but tea worked better for some people. When Anna asked how she had been doing, she took a moment to respond. "Same old, same old I guess," she replied. "I saw Shadow and Sunshine recently, after the whole...Sapien fiasco." They had seemed pretty down when Yang had first run into them, but after eating some pizza and spending some time at the arcade, they had looked a little happier. Yang hoped that it had stayed that way after she had left.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Nov 8, 2016 2:27:06 GMT
"Nah, I only call upon the power of coffee in an emergency, and this isn't an emergency."
Anna instead turned her focus onto the jambalaya instead and finally started to eat, all the while listening to Yang as she munched away on the food. She gave the young woman a somewhat surprised look, blinking rapidly with her cheeks full of food at the mention of seeing Shadow and Sunshine after the incident.
She swallowed before lightly tapping her spoon against the side of her bowl, trying to find the best way to word her question without coming across more awkward than usual.
"So....I take it you saw their new, um, 'look?'"
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Nov 8, 2016 2:54:39 GMT
Yang gave a little laugh. "If you say so," she said. She wondered what Anna was like when she was hyped on caffeine. She'd probably be even more energetic and hyper than usual, although that was a little hard to imagine. She nodded in answer to her question about Shadow and Sunshine. "Yeah. I didn't even recognize Shadow at first. Although I sort of like that slicked-back hairstyle he's got going on," she joked. Honestly, Shadow didn't look too bad as a human. No doubt he'd make a few girls fawn over him before he became his usual hedgehog self.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Nov 8, 2016 3:49:06 GMT
"I...guess?"
Anna's expression at Yang's words would have made most people laugh. Clearly thinking of Shadow as attractive in any way was super strange for the young medical examiner, and that was saying something from a girl whose whole life was a study in strange.
"I'll be honest, when I first saw Shadow in his human skin, I thought I might have accidentally inhaled some of the chemicals down in the lab. And Sunshine's short hair.... it's kinda weird to see her going around without a trail of blonde hair behind her."
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Nov 8, 2016 3:56:44 GMT
Yang laughed a little at Anna's response. Maybe she didn't see guys the same way she did. Although she did give a nod at what she said about Sunshine. "Yeah. She seemed really down," she said. "Are there any leads on figuring out how long the effects last? Or some kind of cure?" All drugs had to wear off eventually, right? Surely this Sapien thing would do the same. Sunshine and Shadow couldn't stay humans forever.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Nov 8, 2016 4:55:20 GMT
Anna's cheeks puffed out briefly at Yang's question before she looked down at the piles of paperwork and folders that still sat around the table. In one of the piles was a careful analysis on various treatments for the drug, all of which had failed. In the same pile was also a series of observations taken on the drug's effects and duration. It was a start, but it hadn't yet helped Anna or anyone else crack the code enough to make a cure.
"Cure? No. Length of effects? Yes. It looks like the drug is eventually broken down by the body of those injected, but depending on the dose it can take anywhere from one to three weeks. And part of the reason it takes so long to break down is because it bonds to the individual's cells and sends out a chemical signal that fools the red and white blood cells into thinking that the drug is actually part of the cell itself."
Anna let out a sigh of frustration and continued tapping away at the side of her bowl with her spoon as if she were trying to play the drums in a hard metal band.
"It's for the same reason that we're having a hard time finding a cure. We don't want to harm the actual cells but we're finding it difficult to create something that doesn't do just that."
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Nov 8, 2016 4:59:30 GMT
Yang let out a breath. That had to be slightly good news. At least the drug wouldn't last forever. But that was a long time for an Other to stay human. "Jeez, three weeks," she muttered to herself. Who knew what could happen to people that were affected. "How do they even make the dumb thing?" Could something like that be made by technology alone? Or was there magic involved? The latter didn't seem very likely, since the whole point of the Sapien drug was to go against supernatural creatures. But still. It could be a possibility. Magic and technology were intertwined in this city.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Nov 8, 2016 5:20:17 GMT
Despite not saying it, Yang's suspicions were right on the mark. Anna herself had followed a similar train of thought when the drug had first come into her lab and it was yet another reason she was having such difficulty concocting a cure.
"It looks as though the Grey Dawn aren't just bigots, they're hypocrites too. This new batch of Sapien isn't any different from the standard stuff we usually see except that it's been tampered with through spells. I can't say with 100 percent certainty, but I'm 96.9 percent certain sure that they used some kind of hex to quadruple the potency of Sapien.... but I STILL don't know which spell."
Finally, Anna jabbed her spoon into her food once more and crammed several bites into her mouth, but it seemed more a response to her frustration then any genuine hunger.
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Nov 8, 2016 19:03:32 GMT
Yang bit her lip. That was kind of bad. If the Grey Dawn couldn't see the hypocrisy of this whole thing, they were in big trouble. "Are there any witches or wizards around here that might know anything?" she asked. "If spellwork is involved, they may be able to shed some light on this case." That's what Yang would do, at least. She didn't know much about magic. All she could do was shoot fireballs. Something like this involved calling upon the skills of a witch or a wizard. If there weren't any on the force, there were bound to be some out and about on the streets.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Nov 10, 2016 3:54:41 GMT
Anna had finished about half of her food by that point and started playing with what remained, sorting out all the meat and vegetables into small groups. The look on her face might have come from a child that had dropped their ice cream cone on the ground. She couldn't stand seeing the city reduced to such as state in the wake of Grey Dawn's attacks and she couldn't stand bigots no matter what group they targeted, but the thing that had gotten her down the most was how little she could do to make things better. She was trying her hardest, but she seemed to have hit a roadblock that she couldn't get around.
"The BPD has tried approaching several witches we've aided in the past or used as sources, but most of them are too afraid to even talk to us now. They're worried that they'll become the next targets or Grey Dawn. And I know, know KNOW that if we just got someone with magical experience to just look at the drug, we could finally make some headway. Unfortunately, our stock of friendly witches is now officially out."
With that said, Anna let out a sigh but seemed to rouse herself ever so slightly.
"But hey, you don't need to hear all of this! Why don't you tell me what you've been up to lately? We haven't really talked or done anything since we met by the river."
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