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[ Hello, gang. For those who've yet to meet him, Lloyd is a twentyish guy, wearing a jacket that has "Crossbell State Police Department" logos on it, and today he is looking businesslike.

...really, "businesslike" and "sheepish" are his two default settings, so you're gonna get used to those pretty quick. ]

Okay, so. As I mentioned somewhere in the sea of introductions: I've picked up a few new tricks here. First and foremost, I can detect magic, so naturally, I've been sniffing around here.

Aside from the Heartstone itself, and what we've brought in ourselves, there's very little here. If it had much to it, it left with the people...except there's...well, something down below, and something is about as much as I can make out from here. There's a lot in the way.

[ Pause to scratch the back of his neck for a moment before the sales pitch. ]

I want to try and get far enough down below to get a better idea of what's there and whether we should be paying attention to it. I've found a few places where the basements are busted up enough to have some potential as entry points.

I also don't particularly want to do this without some backup in case something happens.

Anybody up for exploring?

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I didn't hear it from anyone-- you can tell by the way the sun lights up the cavern. The statues are all in spots that get direct sunlight at the same time of day. I think the ceiling cracked open and some of their people didn't make it.

But yeah, the Heartstone definitely has some sort of magical power that got fucked up.

That was my conclusion, too. Whether the Heartstone losing power caused the ceiling to crack, or whether there was a disturbance big enough to open the ceiling and also mess up the Heartstone - that's still up for debate, but the sunlight theory is well founded.

[ Detective Certified™. ]

Maybe whatever we find down there can tell us more.

[Now that she takes a closer look, she realizes this guy's one of the fucking cops. Oh boy, this should be interesting.]

If shit goes sideways, I can tank and DPS.

[Not as well as the Garou, other than maybe Stacia, but certainly better than these squishy humans. Or humanoid, in Saturday's case. Elle doesn't want to assume.]

[Squishy!? You are talking to a twice-initiated adept, lady!]

I'm DPS myself. That's the one where you move fast and beat the shit out of people before they can touch you, right?

Anyway, only way to find out what's down there is by lookin'

A lot of my XP was put into stealth [and charisma] but I'm still tough enough to handle most things.

[Will Saturday get the gaming metaphor? Elle hopes so. It's an easy shorthand to describe her skillset.]

Stealth's a weak point, so if you can take on scouting that'd be a boon.

You one 'a the supernatural crowd, then? Werewolf, vampire, magic user or other? I'm an adept, which is like a mage that casts spells by punching.

[That is so cool, what the fuck.]

Well that's awesome. I'm a werecat, actually. But I come from the same society as the werewolves.

[thank you, Saturday IS cool]

Ah, then I know your world a bit, I think! I was with Kevin the vampire and Stacia the werewolf back on the rig. Piper 90. Not a lot - you guys are kinda kitchen-sink, like where I'm from, right? A little bit of everything, magicwise. Except your present is our past, I think, unless you're from Stacia's future. It's about 2070 where I'm from.

I'm from Stacia's future, but only by a few years. I actually know her. But this Stacia doesn't know me.

[Time travel is confusing.]

But 2070's more than a few decades off from when I'm from.

[time travel across dimension, no less! Saturday could give David Hume a run for his money, these days; it turns out almost everything is a matter of perspective.]

Well, if anyone starts trynna give corporations sovereignty, don't let 'em. Nothin' good happens once that's on the table. This is my advice, from the future where we did.

That's something me and my pack have worked against, funnily enough.

[Boy, Marcus' Elder challenge was an exciting ride. Lots of corporate espionage.]

God love ya for it. [the sentiment is entirely sincere] Fuckin' triple-A bastards. What was the job, if you don't mind my asking?

A bunch of corporate assholes claimed to suffer from sudden changes of heart within a few months of each other. The ones that didn't quit outright changed their companies directions and policies in a way that would become very difficult to roll back after they came to their senses.

They may have also been suffering from sudden bouts of paranoia, but there was no proven cause for that.

[Marcus had done a very good job.]

A couple of them straight up went missing, but I genuinely don't think we were 100% responsible for that.

Huh. Not bad. Best I got so far is, 'fore I got yanked over to the Rig - where I met Stacia - we were gearing up to take down this huge asshole who'd been letting corps do whatever in order to make enough misery to pull off this magical ritual that was gonna make him a god and kill a whole city. As you do.

...really hope my friends won without me.

[Oh, this got really real really quickly.]

Sounds like a shitty situation. Sorry you got pulled out without your friends.

[It's an authentic expression of sympathy, but she says it casually enough that Saturday can move on quickly if she needs to. Elle understands that sometimes, there are things that you can't talk about with just anyone.]

["this got real really quickly" is an apt summary of Saturday's entire life, really]

Yeah, and t'think it all started because I wanted to do my long-lost idiot shithead brother a favor. Family, you know?

[she tosses off a grin so that Elle knows this isn't a pity party]

I'm sure they won it. I'm a damn good fighter, but my friends are legit geniuses and they're magically talented, an' not my kind that only works for fighting. Strategically, I'm replaceable. They're professional enough to get the job done without me.

You part of that other big group of wolves that all showed up and knew Stacia, then?

Yeah, that's how it is! [Elle says casually, but honestly? No, she doesn't really know.]

Uh-- kind of? I mean, there's just Ace as far as I know. And Kenzie, but I'm pretty sure she was on the Rig?

I've never met Ace before, he left before my time. I only know a couple of people that Stacia does, at this point, and they're not all the best points of reference.

[Isaac. She's talking about Isaac, that wonderful bastard. He's great, but easily manipulatable and has no sense of self-preservation. She understands how he might not be a great character reference.]

Huh, I coulda sworn there were more than a few garou hanging around. But then, I only really got see for sure durin' the fight. Not too great at tellin' the warforms apart yet.

If you don't mind my askin', how does a person end up bein' a werecat instead of a werewolf?

[Elle laughs. For her? By asking the right questions to the the right person. For everyone else, the good old fashioned way.]

The same way a wereshark is made, or a werehyena. We're born.

[Okay, that isn't strictly true, because the Corax and the Wukong have rituals that does those things, but the statement is generally accurate.]

Our world's got a variety of shifter breeds, Garou are just some of the most common.

[Because they tried to wipe others out, she doesn't say.]

Jesus, whaddya need that many werecritters for, an army?

[Saturday has no idea.]

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I don't get where this "DPS" bit even comes from?

[ He's too normie for this. ]

But I guess you could say I was, er, a bit of that and mostly...tank, before here. But I also don't have any supernatural advantage, in terms of defense, so there may be better candidates here.

[ He's just a real good hand with a pair of tonfa, and knows how to equip for the mythical 100% evasion stat. ]

It's, uh, it's a game term. Means you focus on dealing a lot of damage really quickly, but can't take more than one or two hits. Best defense is a good offense?

Tank're all about slow an' steady. They just kinda pick away at health, but it doesn't matter because you'll never down them before they down you. Too tough.

About the only game I played much of is Pom, so that does help, thanks.

I guess tank isn't quite on the nose, either. It's less that I take hits like a rock and more that I'm good at not being hit in the first place.

That'd be DPS, like me. Move fast, hit hard, don't get hit. Best role, in my personal opinion.

Well, good thing, then, since it sounds like we've got a lot of it.

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