oceancove

Who: Shinji Kawada, Henry Doyle
When: Night.
Where: Shinji Kawada’s apartment
Rating: Pg
Status: Open and ongoing.

It hadn’t taken much digging to find information on Graeme Ecclesfeld. Almost everyone had a digital trail these days unless they actively and regularly erased it. Graeme, obviously, had either not bothered to attempt erasure or had been uniquely inept at doing so. The trail that Graeme had left, however, was worrying and it took Henry only the most basic of searches to trace the missing vampire’s trail to Seattle and what precisely it was that had called him there. All roads led to where Henry had feared they might; going further would be dangerous and would certainly require outside assistance with access to more formal channels of inquiry.

Evening found Henry outside of Shinji Kawada’s apartment. It was a relatively safe neighborhood a short distance from the city centre, the sort of neighborhood where a non-resident vampire could spend quite a bit of time waiting outside a private residence without raising too many eyebrows. The only person who had even inquired as to why Henry was sitting so long and so patiently on the retaining wall outside the complex was an elderly woman, a human, who had cautioned Henry with a wag of her wrinkled finger to not cause any trouble for “that nice young man; such a handsome boy.”


Henry had promised faithfully to not harm Shinji in any way possible, then had sat and listened to the woman explain the intricacies of her family history and circle for over an hour and a half before she had retreated inside with a cluster of her friends for a game of mahjong. She had returned once to deliver a small paper plate of freshly baked sugar cookies, which Henry now ate in between sips of blood from the thermos he had brought with him.

Who: Shinji Kawada, Henry Doyle
When: Night.
Where: Henry Doyle's council office.
What: Shinji has a couple of questions, and hopes that Henry can answer them.
Rating: Pg
Status: Closed and Complete.

Shinji had relished his day off. His lieutenant had given Shinji and Dee a full 24 hours of what he liked to call 'silent time'. The only time they would be contacted would be if there was an all call emergency. He had spent most of the day lazing around, cleaning, doing laundry and thinking about a particular elemental that he hadn't gotten out of his system.

The urge to possess someone so fully concerned him. He had fed regularly off of a few people, and even had a few on speed dial. He hadn't had any want to call them, instead his attention focused on Toshi. Convinced that he was going batty, he headed out after sunset.

People moved past him, the sidewalks crowded, most moving in packs of three or four. Shinji knew that wouldn't help much, but he wasn't one to create fear, and with the groups they had a slight chance of getting away rather than the individual. He stopped outside the council office building, pressed the buzzer to be let in.

"What do you want Kawada?" He recognized the disembodied voice, another dhampir who had failed the police exam, but had entered security instead.

"I'm here to see Doyle." Five minutes passed before the gate swung open, allowing Shinji into the building. It felt weird to walk the halls in civilian clothes, and at one point he debated turning back. By that time he was at Henry Doyle's office.

He knocked, two sharp taps, waited for permission to enter.

Who:Henry Doyle & Shinji Kawada
When: Near Midnight
Where: Crosswell Square
Rating: PG
Status: Complete

Henry was in the air within an hour of Amelia’s attack on a “borrowed” commuter flight departing London’s Heathrow Airport. A well-placed virus had incorrectly flagged the entire passenger manifest save one as double booked, producing a list of passengers to reroute 33-pages long and causing the entire check-in counter to collectively consume the maximum dose of paracetamol. The plane was over Greenland before the airhostesses, their memories muddled, thought to wonder why their total on-board passenger population consisted of one while back at the airport 409 very angry people were stomping around the international terminal with £5.50 vouchers that permitted them to purchase approximately half a cheese toasty, compliments of Virgin Atlantic Airways.

By the time Henry’s surprisingly spacious transport touched down in Seattle he had already gathered a great deal of information about the attack even despite the continued technical difficulties at the Cove’s small news station. A pile of police files stamped ‘CONFIDENTAL – POLICE EYES ONLY’ waited for him in the car that collected him; he spent the entire commute back flipping through witness statements, maps, and grisly crime scene and post-mortem photos.

Rather than return home immediately, Henry directed the driver to drop him off at the scene of the attack. In the hours that had passed between the incident and now the street had been cleared, although the bright yellow police line tape still remained, shuddering faintly in the light night breezes. Henry glanced from side to side, checking the moonlit street for any overly interested witnesses, before ducking under the tape and entering the irregular rectangle that denoted where the attack and subsequent killing had taken place.

Orienting himself wasn’t difficult; blood stains still marked the pavement where Lida had died and Amelia had been assaulted. Wordlessly Henry paced the area, double checking measurements and trying to imagine the scene as described by various witnesses. He took notes in the margins of the statements and carefully laid the large 8x10 glossy forensic photos on the ground where they corresponded with the blood splatters, human gristle, and corpse remains that had previously marred the usually peaceful shopping center.

Who: Shinji Kawada, Toshi Fumio
When: Friday May 6, 2011
Where: The Cove Junior High School.
What: Career day, an unsuspecting cop, a flustered teacher and hormonal 14 year old girls.
Rating: R.
Status: Open and ongoing.

Shinji watched with morbid curiosity the chaos of the lunch room. There was a quickly controlled food fight, a fight that had broken out over someone's spilled soda, and three girls conducting an impromptu cheer leading performance in the middle of the cafeteria. The overwhelming wall of sound that came from the lunch room was deafening. Not to mention the presence of two uniformed police officers sitting at a table of girls had caused enough of a stir, that when he and Dee had sat down with Dee's daughter and her friends, an eerie silence had come over the space.

He was also convinced that the lunch lady had tried to put something in his soda.

While listening to the girls' excited chatter about their days, Shinji checked the schedule, just one more classroom and he was off for the weekend. Their brass had taken 'volunteers' with a bribe of having a weekend completely off. Even with that incentive, Shinji and Dee had gotten roped into career day. It wasn't that he minded spending the day with the kids, it was the fact that they all had the attention span of a goldfish.

Dee patted his shoulder, pointing toward the restroom as a hint to where she was going, Shinji nodded, replacing the schedule in his pocket.

"Uncle Shin-chan?" Kim, Dee's daughter prodded his side. "Whose class do you have next? Mom won't tell me if she's coming to my class, and Lucy said you were in her class earlier, and all the girls were fawning over you."

Shinji drank the rest of his soda, stretched behind him to drop it into the trash can. "Call me Uncle Shin-chan again, in public or when I'm visiting your parents, and I will tell your mother about your boyfriend."

If teenage girls could kill with looks alone, Shinji would be splattered around the cafeteria. "You promised you wouldn't tell." The pathetic tone paired with the ridiculous pout almost made Shinji take it back. Almost.

Shinji sighed, rose from his chair and ruffled her hair. "I won't. Just remember we're in public." He didn't mind the nickname, but he liked to at least pretend he had some form of authority in situations. The warning bell sounded, and the first few kids started moving toward their classes.

By the time the second bell sounded, even the stragglers had left the cafeteria and Shinji was on his way to the last classroom. His boots squeaked on the freshly waxed cream tile of the hallway, pausing to look a piece of student art displayed on the wall. The nameplate outside the classroom door read Fumio, and the name caught in Shinji's mind. Unable to place it, he knocked once, before he opened the door and walked in.

Shinji stopped in his tracks when he saw the teacher, the name falling into place. Standing at the board was the elemental (clothed this time) addressing his class. Shinji cleared his throat, and waited so he didn't interrupt.

"Shinji!" Dee's daughter called out, waving frantically when he looked her direction.

Who: Shinji Kawada, Toshi Fumio
When: Saturday, early morning.
Where: Beach
What: Shinji answers one last call before heading in for the night.
Rating: PG-13 ~ innuendo, language.
Status: In progress.

With the discovery of the new bodies, the vision of relaxing in a back booth had disappeared in the proverbial cloud of smoke. Ninety percent of the force was out patrolling, collecting evidence and making general problems for the media. Their CO still wasn't convinced there was anything worth telling them, yet. He and Dee had managed to snag dinner, Dee huddled in the corner, speaking rapidly and in undertone to her daughter, saying that she'd be home as soon as she could, and "Don't you dare go out tonight."

Shinji checked the clock, seeing that they only had half an hour more before they could go home for a few hours. In reality their CO said to be home long enough to do the complete three S's. Shower, shave and well... most could fill in the rest. "Dee." Reaching out to her, knowing that while she's on edge, it's easier for him to sneak up on her. "I'll drop you at the precinct. Go home. I'll finish this off and pick you up in the morning."

He dropped his partner off at the precinct, taking the cruiser on one last loop of their route. Halfway through, his radio went off, dispatch alerting him to a disturbance on the beach. He doubled back, parked in the dunes, and walked out onto the beach.

Shinji came up short, hand dropping from his belt to his side, as he stared at the person that was apparently the source of the disturbance. He cleared his throat once he got a hold of himself, not wanting to startle the nude man.