Kenneth chuckles, "A body learns some things when trying tae sneak out ay a house with 5 sisters ready tae catch him and turn him in... 6, when Molly was home tae visit. Now, I just plot my escape but in reverse."
"If you're doing it in reverse, then the party is already over," Edwyn remarks, his eyes wandering in search of an ideal point of entry. He knew more than just a thing or two about breaking and entering, but calling it burglary made it sound a lot more gauche than it really was. He reaches into his deep pockets, fiddling with the various tools and other miscellaneous crap that they accumulated. "Let me see if I can fiddle with the lock on that door, before we bust it off its hinges."
Edwyn looks to the lock and knows exactly the type of picks and pressure to put to pop open the door, as Sal points out that the alarm system is old and can easily be bypassed with a simple cut of a wire than can be reconnected later leaving no-one any the wiser of your intrusion.
Looking inside the dark office it's an open plan room with 4 desks and various office accoutrements, not the tidiest office you've seen, but certainly much better and more modern than the Boathouse.
To the back area is a kitchenette, bathrooms and single office.
Once there's no evidence of alarm bells, klaxons, or air horns, Sal follows Edwyn into the office area and starts poking arond.
Figuring the single office would be the location for anything sensitive, she waves Edwyn over to check the door. (If it's closed - assuming it is.)
"Is the alarm system completely disabled, or just the entry door sensor?" she whispers, not entirely sure why she's whispering.
Danny looks inside the now-open office, and outside.
"Ummm,... Do you want me to keep watch? or,... what?" The usually self-confident singer asks. Despite earlier adventures where he marched boldly into a wizard's lair under a magical seeming, he seems,... almost confused.
He REALLY needs to get his head in the game. Everything he's found out today seems to have him running in mental circles.
"Uh... I dunno. Do you have 'finding stuff' voodoo, or something to make us better able to be finding stuff?" Sal wonders. "If not, you might want to keep watch and let us know if anyone comes, in case we tripped a silent alarm. If you could watch out the front and back simultaneously, that would be great, m'kay?"
Danny raises an eyebrow at Sal.
His smirk is almost back to 'Danny Normal' levels.
"Right. Sure. NO Problemo. I'll just get 'Me, Myself and I' RIGHT on that! That way we can watch the front, back and the roof at the same time!"
Danny chuckles, and moves to an out-of-the-way spot to 'stand watch'. He hums a tune, and can be heard murmuring, "That VOODOO that YOU DO so well,..."
"If they didn't spend the money to update their security system, I doubt it was that comprehensive to begin with," Edwyn speculates as he gives the office door an experimental rattle, finding that it is locked. Well, locks are just a suggestion anyway.
As he probes the lock with his tools, Edwyn asks, "So what are we looking for again? Incriminating documents? Salacious photos? A paperback copy of the Necronomicon?"
Kenneth says, "Aye, he's a bonny lookout - especially as he can distract anyone who he sees coming, maybe long enow that we can get out."
As long as he can stay focused on what he's watching for... Sal thinks, but doesn't vocalize anything morale-killing.
Aloud, she says, "If we're looking to hook this place to the boathouse, it'd be Twinkie wrappers and spoiled food. But anything about Lindisfarne or the monks would be a giveaway to me. The Magic Men might have other things to look for."
While Edwyn fiddles with his picks, she tries to carefully toss the desks in the main room, turning on spot lighting if necessary to see what's on the surface and in the drawers.
-_-
Kenneth says, "I nae thought I'd ever say it, but a poxy wizard might be handy at the moment. Could use their bloody Sight tae see the traces ay magic and whatnot... and, if 'tis terrible, would only be a White Council mind that's melted."
He then pauses, and says to Edward, "That tae say, I dinnie ken what we're looking for, but from past experience, we'll bloody ken when we find it."
He taps the Celtic cross on his neck and causes it to cast light in a beam before him, and joins in the search of the office.
Sal does a double-take at Kenneth's magical flashlight.
"Showoff," she snorts softly.
Danny winces at Ken's statement. His chuckle is slightly forced.
"So, funny thing." He whispers from his spot outside the door, taking time deliberately glance around for anyone approaching.
"I actually have the Third Eye. What some call the 'Wizard's Sight'. I don't use it too much. Anymore. It was fun at first. But since that time I used it in a museum,... Yeah. I had a migraine for a month. I'm more, selective, now."
Sal scans the plain Jane office. "I don't think there'll be too many haunted ancient artifacts around here. The oldest thing here is probably the buildup in the bottom of this coffee mug." She peers into said mug with disgust. "You might be our best shot at finding anything weird. I'm driving, anyway, so you can lie on the car floor and whine if you get a headache."
"Well, It's a plan I can manage anyway." Danny smirks as he shakes his head.
Danny steps inside, and makes little shooing motions.
"OK, All of you magic-Mojo-misfits give me a little room. I do NOT want to be blinded by the 'Fire of Brigid' or have the image of Skeletor or whoever burned into my brain. Forever."
Danny looks thoughtful.
"On the other hand, IF your really a beautiful guardian angel incognito, you can stand right there." He smirks, pointing to a spot directly in front of him.
Seeing no takers to his offer, he shrugs.
"Meh. It was worth a shot."
Danny closes his eyes, hums a little ditty, and carefully, slowly, opens his eyes, and his SIGHT.
Carefully avoiding his companions at the edge of his vision, he takes in the room as a whole first. Not wanting to focus on any one thing until he figures if its safe or not. When he's gone a few seconds and he doesn't feel his brain melting, he starts examining the room in earnest.
Kenneth winces at Danny's admission, What.. did they teach him tae see beyond the veil, as tae give him grounding for his own gift? I can see how that could be useful, but the risk ay that, without a wizard's training, is terrifying...
He shakes the thought, and instead jokes, "Well, Danny, I dinnae ken what the connection looks like, but if there's an echo ay Brigid on me, I'd just be reminding you that she is literally a redheaded goddess. But aye, have it your way."
"I'm not magic," Sal says, continuing to examine the room.
Kenneth shakes his head, "Ach, Sal, you're just magic ay a different kind."
Edwyn continues to wrestle with the lock, making liberal use of the 'auto-attempt' button. He glances over his shoulder a few times, watching as Danny opens his Sight. "So what does this Third Eye do, exactly? Give you X-ray vision?"
"Why Mistah Finley, you do go on. You're like to turn a girl's head," Sal says in her best Scarlett O'Hara voice, fluttering her eyelashes at the tall bard and hiding behind a ersatz fan of papers from one desk.
As Edwyn struggles with the lock, she butts in to answer before Danny can, "I thought the Third Eye was Blind?"
Danny Rolls his eyes, and relaxes just a little. (He hadn't realized how tense he was when he opened his Sight)
"NO Ed, and No Sal. At least not in THIS world." Danny adds thoughtfully.
"You know how some people can 'see' spirits? Well the ones who aren't fakers have the Sight. Or at least a part of it. The Sight lets me see things as they really are. And some things that can't be seen. Whether they SHOULD or not is another story."
"The problem is that whatever I see, is burned into my mind. Forever. Good, Bad, ugly, whatever. Not too bad if a woman on the street has the heart of an angel. Not too bad if a jerk you work with is just a jackarse. But if a person is truly evil? Let's just see I've seen things that make Skeletor look like the hero of the cartoon. and leave it at that."
Danny winces visibly after he says that, as he reminds himself of something that he doesn't want to see again, but can't help it.
(Try telling yourself, 'DON'T think of Pink Elephants!', What happens, yep. Now you can't think of anything BUT pink elephants!)
Edwyn uses his professional knowledge and skills finding the best spots for files, checking out the edges of diaries and appointment books - checking the filing cabinets.
At the bottom drawer of one cabinet is a fine bottle of Scotch that Kenneth recognises from a small brewery on the Orkneys - the owner of the office has some good taste in whiskey. Kenneth used to finding the truth of Brigid, uses her were-light to illuminate the office and search thoroughly.
Sal is more interested in an old pistol that is found in the bottom of one of the cardboard filing boxes. Am illegal firearm, it's nowhere near the latest model of attachments - however enough to protect yourself or threaten people who harm your business interests.
CH, My boys will be up at Lindisfarne. Barn at Beal. If you could tell our mutual friends ready for midnight assault (tomorrows date).
Brackenthwaite
Sal has a flash of panic when she sees the obvious (to her) US military personnel here in the place she's come to think of as home. Hoping that panic didn't show on her face, she gets her brain firmly in hand.
Brain, she thinks, not everything that happens in the world is about you. Calm the f$&! down.
"So this firm - Churchill Holdings? - is working with Brackenthwaite on behalf of the Fomor. And it looks like they're gonna hit the monks tomorrow night. Or tonight... is midnight today or tomorrow?? Geez, either way, looks like we should get up there, warn them, and help with the defense. If they get the big guys loose... oh man."
She has no idea what is going on with the Princess or the development, but is relieved to see that none of her group are on the watch list. The Lindisfarne assault seems overwhelmingly important. Nothing much else really registers besides that and the military pics, which still nag her brain.
Kenneth says, "Well now, I think we've found a connection tae the Formor. Question is, are these lot affiliated, or just well enow plugged intae things tae be able tae take advantage."
Sal reviews the contents of the folders. "I certainly believe that the Fomor would hire unwitting human agents - if I looked and smelled that bad, I would too - but I think these guys are complicit. Look... "assault" "get the cops to back off." Those aren't innocent instructions. These guys are complicit at best. Not sure what you mean by affiliated. They don't look to have anything terribly threatening."
Well that explains a few things, Edwyn thinks as he finally pops the door open and helps himself to the office's contents.
"I don't think they've been initiated into the fish cult, if that's what you're asking," Edwyn suggests as he checks another drawer for a false bottom, just in case. "Could be that they're just doing odd jobs for briefcases of cash, no questions asked. This one just happens to be unsealing evil in a can."
{ooc] Yep sorry.[/ooc]
There's a mortal, but organised feel, of cogs in a machine where any part is replaceable, with each individual being a fly in the web. A tasty morsel of information able to be doled out to the hungriest or best paying person.
The whole room is impersonal but not part of an international conglomerate despite the information being wide reaching.
Each of the threads seem to tingle and vibrate as the rest of the crew pick up papers and open draws. Small black mites or specks seem to scurry out and hang on the threads almost looking violently at the offender.
The webs seem to have no centralised focus, but there is one strand that is unexpected - it leads to a simple manilla folder with a heavy wax seal. This emanates danger and age.
Danny looks around the room as the others investigate (What Edwyn probably calls 'Messing things up') His gaze oddly unfocused, and intense at the same time.
The singer shifts, slightly uncomfortable, every time one of his companions touch and look at items. Finally his gaze settles on one area of the room that the others, for all of their searching, seem to bypass.
Danny blinks and shakes his head, closing his SIGHT. He slowly walks over to one side of the room and points, almost cautiously, at an almost out of sight item. It is a simple manila folder, sealed with a heavy blob of wax.
"This,..." Danny says quietly, holding his hand over the folder but not, quite, touching it.
",... This seems, feels, very old. And possibly dangerous."
Danny looks at Ken.
"YOU open it."
"Wait, wait... are you sure we should open it?" Sal waves one hand at the weird wax seal and another in a general northerly direction. "I mean... we're trying to stop a big seal from being opened, and here's a little seal that maybe we shouldn't open. It's parallel, y'know?"
Even in the dim were-light, it's apparent that Sal flushes from her neckline to the roots of her hair under her tanned skin. "So I'm taking a Literature course, so what? And we have been going over symbolism and foreshadowing and Chekov's gun and s$#@ and now I see it everywhere, like I was a character in a damned story or something," she hisses.
Unsure where to look, she turns a glare on poor Danny. "Shut. Up."
"Sometimes," Edwyn starts, his eyes locked on the sealed folder, "The curtains are just blue."
Unsure where to look, she turns a glare on poor Danny. "Shut. Up."
Danny holds up his empty hands in a 'I surrender' gesture, as his wide eyes do their best Bugs Bunny 'Who, ME?!?' impersonation.
"All I know, suspect, is,... When I looked at the room, it was like a spiders web. What seems to be a random piles of stuff and knick knacks were deliberate. Everything in this room has a place. At least in the owners' mind. And somehow,... they all tie into this folder."
"SHOULD we open it?,.. Probably not. But if we want to find out what's going on? I don't think we have a choice."
Danny looks at the others, then back to the folder.
Then Danny looks at Ken once more. And, still looking at Ken, takes a step away from the folder.
A large step.
Kenneth laughs, "Aye, that's reassuring. Thing is, Danny, did ye See anything that made this look like a lock, key, or something similar? If nae, I think the lot ay ye are all up for nae reason. We may nae ken what's actually written here, but we ken what it is - or, at least Danny does."
He pauses and says, "A'course, that's all theorycraft. I've nae the Sight and dinnae think I'd e'er want it. I've enow burned intae my mind without adding that."
He shrugs, and takes a brief moment to send a tiny sliver of the Flame of Hearth into his hands, seeking Brigid's protection, before causing his index nail to blaze with it and using the flaming nail to cut the wax seal.
"Showoff again," Sal snorts. Figuring there won't be anything to shoot in the envelope, she backs away from the possible spooky stuff to keep watch out the front window.
The wax of the seal begins to crumble under the holy fire of Kenneth's hands, releasing the soft smell of an old burgundy beside a winters hearth. As you open the paper, it crackles like an old fire accompanied by the sounds of a north wind.
Upon the old paper is a decree, an ancient seal and responsibility & privilege for the owner of the establishment who's signed with a complex symbol or sigil.
The writ is an invitation to "the Grand Summer Hunt" of the land, through Tuatha De Danaan & the Gods and residents herewith.
It gives a place, dusk a few weeks hence & a small stone circle - a Fox Hunt with the Fair Folk of the Isles.
Danny peeks at the letter, and makes an 'hrphm' sound.
"Looks like Someone got an invite to a fancy too-doo." Danny says, mentally making a note of the date and place. And a mental reminder to check his own mailbox.
Danny shrugs.
"Must have been important to him. Thats why everything else seems to link back to it. I guess."
Danny looks at the others. "What? It's MAGIC. It's not like I could find a textbook on this stuff. My invitation to Hogwarts must've gotten misplaced.,..." The singer says wryly.
"Well, it looked impressive," Sal admits. "If we can't find anything else, I vote we tidy up and beat feet. We got some good info. Let's not be greedy and get caught, huh? Can you guys reseal the fancypants invitation?"
Kenneth says, "They dinnae just hand these out like candy. Someone's got connections. Big ones. Might be that we've found the buisiness factor tae one ay the Big Ones out there." In fact, I could almost bring myself tae ask Brigid who's done this...
He looks up at Sal and says, "I dinnae ken. I mean, aye, a wax seal is easily repaired, especially when one ay the aspects ay the Flame ay Kildare is the Forge -- but if we released some magic when we broke the seal, then, nae, we cannae fix it. That said, depending on the magic in the thing, we may have just been magically tagged and can now go tae the event in question.... Then again, I'd imagine that Danny'd have Seen any enchantments ay that nature, so we may be safe. A'course, I dinnae know whether the lad would ken what he Saw if there were such a thing, either."
"Thanks. I think?" Danny murmurs wryly.
"Captain Ripple-Pecks is right though. They don't just give these out like Halloween candy. These kind of 'hunts' are old-school. The attendees don't care about catching the fox. They are there to see, be seen, and do business. Not necessarily in that order."
"If I don't receive an invite, then I should see about getting one. With,... Everything else going on, This is the kind of thing I need to keep tabs on. Otherwise I find out about about deals AFTER the fact. The hard way. And I HATE those kind of surprises. And BY the way!,..."
Danny smacks Kenneth lightly on the arm, and then winces as his hand makes a 'THUNK' sound on the Bard's beefy bicep. He flaps his hand to wave off the pain.
,... I know the difference between a common sealing charm and a powerful enchantment, thenkyewveddymuch. Now if that had been the Fae equivalent to, say, 'Explosive Runes', THAT would be a different story,... Your gonna close that back up right?" Danny asks innocently, backing towards the door,...
Kenneth laughs and says, "Until about five minutes ago, I dinnae ken you had the Sight, and now I'm supposed tae ken whether ay nae you're good enow tae pick out separate enchantments and what they dae? Ach, I'm a quick learner, but give a body at least a minute tae get use tae new ideas."
He shrugs, then says, "But that being the case...", and presses the seal back into the parchement, drawing on a tiny sliver of the Fire of the Forge to repair the seal that he broke.... "...there we be. Good as new."
As Danny and Kenneth deal with the fancy invitation and exchange more supernatural jargon, Edwyn does his best to return the room to how it appeared before they crossed its threshold. Obviously he listens in, unwilling to assume a total lack of connection to their current predicament.
"Well, unless we tripped some magical silent alarm or something, I don't think they're gonna realize we dropped by," he reports as he neatly rearranges the pens that were on the desk.
"So are we visiting the monks next?"
Sal scans the room to make sure everything (besides the fancy invitation) is in place.
"We're going to back out slowly and reconnect the alarm wire. Then, yeah, I think... wait, do pecs ripple? I thought abs rippled. ANYWAY, I would love to go see the monks. We know an attack is coming soon. They'd probably like to know about it so they can prepare." Wincing, she fights the urge to scrub the horribly filthy coffee mug on one desk.
Kenneth asks, "As long as you're good with what you've done. I'm more used tae having a cross word with the electronics in an alarm system so that there's a system fault tae cover my tracks."
Sal grins. "Yeah, I think Edwyn and I can put our heads together and manage to splice a wire, as long as you guys stand back and don't fry the system. It's a lot easier than magic."
"Should we head straight up to Lindisfarne or get some sack time and set out fresh tomorrow?"
Danny snickers good-naturedly at Kenneth,
"Fair enough." He admits as he steps back outside,and out of the way so Sal and Edwyn can do their own brand of 'magic' with the alarm system.
"Well, a nap and a shower are always welcome. And it is late. As long as the next attack isn't daybreak I think we can set out at the 'crack of stupid' AM?"
"Besides, if we're going anywhere NEAR where the fish-sticks might be hanging out, I need to grab 'Frankentaur'. If they don't like my music, I can always smack 'em with it!"
Kenneth shrugs, "I'm more prone tae keep on pushing, but then, I'm literally being powered by a magical flame - and dinnae need tae sleep as much as I used tae. That is tae say, I dinnae need beauty sleep tae look this good."
"Maybe it's Maybelline," Sal chimes in from where she's supervising Edwyn's repair of the alarm system. "Us mere mortals need rest, though. I need to gear up like Danny, just in case we run into trouble. If the attack isn't for a few days, maybe we should hang in the area, take a little vacation. There are probably campgrounds there, or hotels, or B&B's."
Danny grins at Kenneth's 'don't need beauty sleep to look this good' comment.
"See? I KNEW had things in common!" Danny winks at the burly bard.
"But there's a difference between 'looking good' and 'being awake enough to fight off a viking attack'. KnowWhutIMean?"
Danny nods at Sal's suggestions.
"I like it. Heck, I LUV it! Just ONCE I'd like to be AHEAD of the bad guys instead of trying to play catch up. ALL. THE. TIME."