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Post by skyeknight on Jan 9, 2018 18:47:18 GMT
Aqua headed down to forensics to drop off some evidence for her and Riku's last case. Some shattered glass that had some sort of residue on it. A thief had been breaking into electronic stores and stealing everything in the window displays. The glass, all had some residue on it that neither she nor Riku could identify but that's why they had a top notch forensics team. Each item had been carefully bagged, labeled and separated for the ease of the examination. She had worked on cases where contaminated evidence allowed a guilty party to walk away from their crimes scotch free. She wasn't about to let that happen.
Riku had gone home for the night. She could handle taking things down on her own. She hadn't been down to the lab often. She slowly opened the door. It didn't seem that Anna was in. She frowned. The young woman was still on the road to recovery, needing time off to tend to her healing. Aqua hadn't had the chance to check in on her, to see how she was doing. Though the demon who had fought so hard to make sure she was okay seemed to be in better spirits. Aqua had seen him at the bar. He hadn't been worried about her like he had when she first got sick. That had to be a good sign.
"Hello?" she called. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2018 18:56:43 GMT
Dorian popped his head out of his office when he heard the 'hello' and waved Aqua over to where he was, his blind eye gleaming a dull white in the light. "I suppose you have evidence that needs looking over? Don't just stand there like a ninny, come here and I'll run tests. Honestly, you cops" he gave an impatient huff and withdrew back into his office and stroked his machines. Whatever the blue haired seelie needed he'd do, of course. But not without grousing. One must keep appearances after all, and he had gotten a reputation for being a brilliant curmudgeon.
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Post by skyeknight on Jan 9, 2018 19:12:21 GMT
"There's a residue on some of the glass." she explained.
Aqua walked over and set down her evidence bags. Dorian. The faery who had made the deal with Constantine. She was afraid to ask if he had actually followed through with what he promised. He likely had. The thought of Constantine with Anna's completed and perfected serum was frightening. But Dorian was able to do what Aqua herself had been afraid to. He made the deal to save Anna's life. No hesitation. She had frozen up. Gotten scared. The last time she made a deal, she found herself indebted to the Seelie Queen, who was no monitoring Aqua's every step and if Aqua so much as sneezed, the Queen knew. She ducked her head in shame. Here she thought she had moved past all that.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2018 19:32:55 GMT
"Hmm, residue. The voodoo dope hasn't been able to identify it? and it doesn't look like most powders....Okay, I'll do some tests" he carefully took the bags with gloved hands and took it to his desk so he could better work on it. "Oh for the raven prince's sake girl, stop cringing like a kicked dog" he told her sharply. "Whatever you're thinking of is taking you away from the case. Focus, or go home. I can do this just fine alone"
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Post by skyeknight on Jan 9, 2018 20:45:54 GMT
"We weren't even sure it was organic." Aqua defended of her partner. "Not like they give us those tools in the field."
Dorian could say what he wanted of her, but her partner was off limits. Riku didn't deserve Dorian's bad mouthing. Aqua knew she, on the other hand, did. She cringed and winced over every past mistake. He was right, she had a case at hand. She couldn't think of the Anna case. It was done and settled, even if it was not exactly 'by the book'. Letting go was hard for her. She certainly was trying to move past her errors. She just folded her arms across her chest and stood firm. She was going to drop things off, but because Dorian was being a jerk, she wasn't about to give him that satisfaction of chasing her off with a few harsh words.
"Get off it. I'm staying until we can figure out what it is." she replied.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2018 21:17:18 GMT
"That doesn't mean it isn't voodoo. There are synthetic powders in their medicine cabinets. But if the white haired boy can't identify it, then it surely isn't voodoo. Those priests can identify hundreds of powders on sight, and given your partner's apparent record and power, he should have recognized this if it were something he'd be using in his medicines and concoctions. Unless he's just stupid. There's that" He chuckled meanly and took out a piece of glass and held it to the light with his gloved hands. He carefully turned it every which way and then used a small spoon to scrape some of the residue off. "You fool, it's sand. What type of sand I'll tell you. You might be dealing with a sand creature" he said passive aggressively. "Whatever the case, not being able to tell sand when you see it really means you need to get out of the city more"
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Post by skyeknight on Jan 9, 2018 22:00:27 GMT
"Sand?" Aqua questioned. "But it had been tacky when we first got it."
Had enough time passed since collecting the evidence that whatever magic was used to make the sand sticky had faded. Or was it more to it than that? If it was a sand creature what did it want with electronics? Some of the things stolen weren't even nice electronics. Things from pawn shops or cheap rent-to-own stores had gone missing too. The windows were all shattered the same way. It would sound some security alarm, police were sent running to the site but no one would be there when they got there.
"Yeah, well, it's not easy when the job ties you to the desk."
She had never taken a vacation. Personal leave, yes, but she never left the city aside from going to the Faery Court and that went swimmingly for her. Besides, vacation alone always seemed so lonely. She and Terra had been saving up time to go on a vacation together before his death. After he vanished, Aqua hadn't the heart to go anywhere. She reassigned the tickets to his parents and listened politely to their retelling of the trip. Then after that, she threw herself into her work to numb the pain and hurt.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2018 0:08:49 GMT
"Well, that does make it interesting doesn't it? Sand can get tacky when met with certain types of liquid and super cooled. Perhaps Elsa has a cousin going into thievery" Dorian drawled, bored. He tapped the sand on the spoon into a small vial and added a little clear liquid and put it in a machine. "We shall see what we see" he said and turned to Aqua. "But for now we wait" he raised the eyebrow above his bad eye. "Your first partner died. Bam, dead. You didn't take a little time off to mourn? Heartless"
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Post by skyeknight on Jan 10, 2018 3:14:40 GMT
Aqua frowned. She didn't exactly have a lot of contact with earth type beings. She supposed it went against her nature to seek them out what with her being fey. The whole flying thing associated her with the sky. Her name even hinted at water. But this did explain why neither she or Riku recognized the compound when they first found it. Neither of them had any elemental skills.
"So we wait." she agreed.
When Dorian turned his conversation towards her ex-partner about how she 'heartlessly' went back to work when he died, she had to take a deep breath. Her fists curled into her sides. She wouldn't look up at him. Terra was her softest spot. Dorian must have heard the gossip about her. She didn't know how she was supposed to let these things go when people tried to paint her like some slut who treated Terra like a dalliance. She didn't even know Terra was dead until she found his body. Though she had feared as the months became years, with no ransom, no credit card trail, no appearances, no threats from kidnappers... Nothing.
"Except I didn't know he was dead until recently." she replied coolly. "He and I ended things on a disagreement so for a while, I was angry but life goes on. It wasn't until he had been gone for a few weeks I realized something was wrong. But don't you dare say I didn't mourn."
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2018 4:35:03 GMT
"Mourning is one thing, taking time to process what happened is quite another" He snapped, annoyed by her lack of insight. "After the funeral there is a custom for the girlfriend to take some weeks off, to process and mourn in private. I've noticed it in other people but not you. If Rachel lost the silver haired voodoo idiot she'd also most likely take some weeks off to process and mourn in private. It's acceptable and healthy. You had not so much as a by your leave. And you wonder why some people consider you more cold and aloof than Elsa" he spun on his chair back to the machine and stared at it with his one good eye. "When your troll friend lost the mother of his first child, he went and became a hermit for three years. It's acceptable for every species,but you seem to think playing it cool is the way to go. It's why you're weak"
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Post by skyeknight on Jan 10, 2018 15:53:04 GMT
"People mourn differently," she said softly. "Just because I didn't leave to drown my sorrows it doesn't mean it didn't hurt. Even if I did leave, where would I go? I have no family. I had no friends. I couldn't burden his family with my hurt when they were hurting too..."
Terra had been her only connection to anything. The orphanage booted her on her ass the moment she aged out. The kids there had been that. Kids. They were adopted out quickly, with such a turnover she had never truly connected to anyone. So she strove to be the best cop she could, to make people safe and happy, even if she hadn't been. Then Terra strolled along, gave her meaning and new purpose. She was finally feeling loved for the first time in her life. Before Vanitas ruined everything. He had taken what she and Terra had and twisted it. Manipulated it until it was grotesque and impure. Work was all she had after Terra's death. Things were different now. But she had been one of the few Others in the office before the Others Unit was formed. It was so hard working with humans who hated her and despised her for being different. But she had been used to that. Since humans hadn't wanted to adopted the blue haired winged child.
"I lost everyone I ever cared about in my life," she said. "My mom, my father, Terra..."
She couldn't justify taking time off so she could stay at home and just cry. It's all she would have accomplished if she let herself stop. By the times things had registered for her, the hurt became determination to figure out what exactly had happened to her partner and love. But she was moving forward again. A new partner came in all determination and positivity, convincing her once again to give humans a chance. Then Sunshine weaseled her way into her heart. And Yang. Namine had stolen a soft spot as well. Now she was opening her heart up to Omar, trying to learn to love again after all she had been through.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2018 19:39:48 GMT
"Drowning your sorrows and learning to understand and accept what happened are different, very different" Dorian said sharply. "Take a vacation for Bloody sake! Go somewhere you both wanted to go together. It's cathartic, believe me. But I suppose someone as dense as you wouldn't figure out what's healthy behavior and what isn't. Drowning your sorrows is how you think you process misfortune? You need therapy" Dorian turned to her and sneered. "Oh, you lost everyone? you're not the only orphan and you're not the only love starved little twit here. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and even if you deny it it's true. Everything you have told me you did is that of someone screaming "Notice me! I'm special and I'm sad and it's my right to have attention!" pathetic child" the machine beeped and Dorian took out the sand and looked at it. "Sand mixed with a strange sort of chemical. I'm guessing it cracks or melts through glass. Give me a little while and I can replicate it"
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Post by skyeknight on Jan 10, 2018 20:42:42 GMT
"Why do you even care?" she retorted, "You don't even know me and yet you've obviously spent a lot of time listening in on all the gossip about me."
She was working on improving herself. Riku was helping. Omar was helping. Her friends were there for her now. She wasn't alone anymore. But as a child, growing up alone didn't exactly give a kid a lot of role models for how to cope with grief. The people running the orphanage didn't have time to console crying children. Not with as many kids as they had during the Black War. It had become a little factory of sorts. For every kid adopted out, another five were placed in the system. But here she was, striving to improve herself and Dorian was trying to rub sand in her wounds, metaphorically. Pointing out her every flaw as if she didn't know them. He wasn't any better than her, even if he acted all high and mighty.
"It's not like I have a martyr complex like you! What about the little girl at the hospital? She's yours right?" she reasoned. "What if Constantine asked for something worse? Like your life? What would have happened to her?"
Seeing that little girl alone would kill the faery. She knew what it was like to be alone. The only other faery she knew in this city and she was letting him goad her into an argument. She hadn't come down to the labs to fight him. She was being honest, calling it practice for when she saw Riku and Omar next. Open, even though it hurt to talk about these things, and she was used to keeping them bottled up and contained. Because she had been raise to believe no one wanted crying children. Her childhood did play a part in how she acted now. She was yelled at if she was an inconvenience at the orphanage. So she tried to be anything but. Instead, she had become one. Ironic how that happened.
"Yeah." she said, tone clipped, "You do that."
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2018 23:41:18 GMT
"Oh, the unseelie queen has an interest in you. The little faery girl that thought she could out trick the seelie queen herself? Everyone wanted to know more about the pretentious idealistic little girl who presented herself before the courts. You caught everyone's attention, you were the talk of both courts" he sneered at her. "But you're just as stupid as a human" He laughed at her. "Yes, she's mine. A hybrid. Not that you'd care. BUT" he raised a finger. "I knew Constantine wouldn't ask for my life because the wish is paid equal to the weight of the wish. Anna wasn't dead and I asked that he take the serum out of her system, thus the only logical thing he'd ask for was a perfected serum. An idiot might not figure it out, but it was simple to work out the answer before Constantine asked, thus I knew my daughter was safe" he gave a superior little smile to her and went back to scratching down a rough sketch of his idea for a formula that might act like the sand had on the glass.
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Post by skyeknight on Jan 11, 2018 3:16:08 GMT
Aqua flinched when he mentioned that Unseelie faeries were interested in her. It just struck her with fear. She had never been around her own kind. She knew humans better. It's how her parents wanted it. Besides, when growing up, if faeries wanted her, they would have found her. Instead, they decide to muck up her life once she got involved with them. It had been a mistake. She was still paying for it. Perhaps if she had never gone to the court, the faeries never would have picked up on who and what she was and Omar never would have gotten hurt. But she couldn't change that. Not now.
"Are all court faeries like you?" she asked softly.
She was genuinely curious. Dorian was rude and he clearly looked down on her. She was doing the best she could with what she had. It made her wonder how he even got the job when he clearly did not get along with others. Being at least moderately agreeable as a person helped. Plus the commissioner had to have liked him to hire him. Though, Dorian didn't strike her as the charismatic type. But she was done listening to him belittle her and berate her for her mistakes. She had come down here to do her job, not attend a lecture from a man who was degrading her.
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