InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "E=mc2"

Agatha Bole (aurorskickarse) wrote in pandorarpg,
@ 2012-01-10 20:57:00

Entry tags:

!status: complete, ^date: november 11 2003, character: agatha bole, character: cade warrington

Who: Agatha Bole & Cade Warrington
What: Idle hands breed annoying Aurors
Where: DMLE, Auror Department
When: November 11, 1300
Rating: Language, but that's all

Upon reading the Daily Prophet that morning, Agatha had grown increasingly upset. How dare Ron Weasley get all the damned fun?! She'd been waiting for a dark witches to come around for years, since before the brat even became an Auror, and yet here was the most dangerous they'd seen in ages, and who got to challenge her? Weasley. She'd been pouting all morning behind an open file (to hide her face - she had an image to maintain) until finally deciding that it was her duty as an Auror of her caliber to pick herself up by the bootstraps... and find someone in the know to get information from, and live vicariously through them.

She made a stop down at the cafeteria for two coffees - knowing her target, she'd have 'irished' up one of them if she thought she could get away without Gaskin fnding out - and returned to the Auror Department, her target in sight. When she arrived at the desk, she placed the cup before her old House-mate.

"Cade, darling, how's your day been?"

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	aurorskickarse 2012-01-14 06:51 am UTC (link)
	With that answered, her mind began working again. "All right, did the object take something from the victims?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	godofwar 2012-01-14 07:43 am UTC (link)
	Agatha's next question had Cade's mug pausing hallway to his mouth. It wasn't a question most people would think to ask. "Yes, actually. It did." He wondered what path her next questions would lead her down. "Fifteen." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

aurorskickarse
2012-01-14 04:38 pm UTC (link)

Oooh, a hit! Agatha's eyes lit up in excitement. If whatever it was took something from the victims, it was either something physical, or non-corporeal, such as magical ability, memories, soul (such as a Dementor's Kiss), and so on and forth.

So first... "Did the object take something physical from the victims? Like an item, a wallet, a button, a shoe, whatever."

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	godofwar 2012-01-15 03:09 pm UTC (link)
	Cade saw when Agatha realized she was on the right track, could practically feel her excitement grow. He had to admit it was almost infectious. "No, nothing physical," he said in response to her question. He hoped she picked up on the implication so she wouldn't waste a question asking the obvious. "Fourteen." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

aurorskickarse
2012-01-15 03:51 pm UTC (link)

She nodded, having expected the answer, but needing the question answered if only for the sake of deduction. Deduction, in a way, was what made her choose to be an Auror so many years ago. Her mother, having died when she was young, had left very little behind, but one thing her father had kept to give to Aggie in secret had been a hard-cover book containing tales of a Muggle named Sherlock Holmes.

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Unfortunately for her beloved Mister Holmes, far more was possible, and even probably, in the magical community than in the Muggle world.

So what would the object take that would be of some value? It was hard to tell, because magic, especially dark magic, worked in some rather strange ways whereby it required different agents depending upon who cast the spell and their particular bents. Luckily, she had 14 questions left, so there was room for eliminating the improbable and possibly impossible.

"Did it take away some or all of their magical ability?"

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godofwar
2012-01-15 03:57 pm UTC (link)

Cade took his time answering because, in all honesty, he didn't know if the box Weasley had said he'd seen took anything more than what was contained in those dark spots removed from the victims. And, well, the victims weren't around to ask, were they? If Cade had to hazard a guess, though, he's go with no, so that's what he told Agatha. But he felt the need to tack on, "Not that we know of. Thirteen."

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	aurorskickarse 2012-01-15 04:08 pm UTC (link)
	Inconclusive then. Not eliminated, but doubtful. Next on her mental list... "Did it take a memory?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

godofwar
2012-01-15 04:14 pm UTC (link)

"Yes." That Cade could say with some certainty, from what they knew now of the victims and what they'd experienced the days leading up to their deaths. It hadn't been proven yet, but the theory was that these 'nightmares' those marked with dark spots had been having were actually memories, just not their own. Her wondered how Agatha had come to that conclusion to ask. Maybe she'd overheard some of their less careful colleagues talking. "Twelve."

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aurorskickarse
2012-01-15 04:25 pm UTC (link)

Aggie was only just able to contain her excitement over this hit. She'd simply been eliminating possibilities, but that she'd been right...

So a memory. What sort of memories would a dark object want? Obviously a dark memory, something terrible, terrifying. Perhaps all the victims had a shared experience...

Her jaw dropped, the pieces falling into place. "All the victims were having those nightmares, weren't they?"

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	godofwar 2012-01-15 04:28 pm UTC (link)
	Ah, so she hadn't really known about that detail after all. Clever. "Yes, they were." Cade was impressed, and he didn't bother to hide it. "Eleven." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

aurorskickarse
2012-01-15 04:45 pm UTC (link)

She smirked at the tone of his voice. She was an Auror, after all, and had at least one year more experience than he did. And she'd learned from the best.

"So either the object took their memory of having the nightmares... or the nightmares themselves are a memories!"

She was no longer asking questions, simply stating her thoughts aloud. "That would explain so much. And the marks people have been finding, they must be related, which is why they aren't present on the corpses. When the memory enters the body, it manifests as a dark mark in the location where it made contact, and when it exits, the mark is no longer there."

At this point, her eyes were no longer focused on anything, staring sightlessly as her mind worked.

"And all this started with Zurlo being found dead. So if he's the one who released everything, he'd have been subjected to all these memories or whatever, so it's no wonder they overloaded his system and left him dead. I'd be overloaded too with so many dark memories hitting me at once. But if someone is using a dark object to extract these memories, they'd have to know how they were acquired in the first place, and there would have to be some reason for them to be taken back. Also, can they even be taken back without killing the person they're occupying..."

Her eyes focused again on Cade. "The next question would be what do we know about the object, so to make it a proper twenty-questions question, do we know the origins of this object?"

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godofwar
2012-01-17 05:05 am UTC (link)

Cade watched Agatha work through her theories with an almost skeptical awe, his coffee long forgotten. He'd only just found out from Adrian this morning about the nightmares actually being memories, just as he'd finished reading the report about the Clearwater case. Now Cade knew Agatha was good, but no one was that good.

"You're making quite a few assumptions. What makes you think Zurlo was the one to release everything? And if these memories leave the victim's body upon death, then why didn't they return to where they came from when Zurlo expired? If that's what killed him in the first place." It was a reasonable enough assumption given the autopsy, but it was still pure conjecture.

Agatha's next question wasn't unexpected. It was one no one had a concrete answer to, though. "No, we don't," he answered honestly and with no small amount of irritation at the fact. "Ten."

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aurorskickarse
2012-01-17 05:47 am UTC (link)

"Not assumptions - deductions," she chastised. "Nothing occurred until after his death. The object went missing after his death. His death, to our knowledge, was not punctuated by the same 'symptoms' that the other victims underwent. Hell, the night Zurlo died, wasn't that the night everyone had those dreams and visions? The ones that were like our boggarts? What if that was an effect of his having released whatever it was? All of that happening at the same time cannot be simple coincidence." She sighed. "As for the memories returning, I don't know. Perhaps there is a specific spell required to collect them, which would be why they're being collected one by one, and why the victims have to be killed. This is supposition, not assumption, as there is no evidence for any of it yet."

She nodded. "If we don't know the origin, do we at least know how it came to be in the Ministry?"

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godofwar
2012-01-17 05:59 am UTC (link)

Cade snorted. "'Deductions' imply you have the facts to back up your theory. As you're not actually on the case, it's speculation and conjecture at best." It wasn't meant as an insult, but merely a statement of fact. Of course, it was hard to tell the difference when dealing with Cade.

"By your logic, the fact that this object went missing after Zurlo's death could implicate that he wasn't the one who had it in the first place to release whatever was inside. He certainly didn't walk out of here with it, after all. He could have been in the right place at the wrong time. Nor is there any way to know whether or not Zurlo had the same symptoms as the other victims, and we certainly can't ask him." More's the pity. It would certainly simplify things. Of course, there were ways...but none that an Auror should even entertain. "But to answer your question, yes, we know how it got here. Nine."

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aurorskickarse
2012-01-18 12:23 am UTC (link)

She laughed. "All right, you got me - deductions based on speculation and conjecture. You know me, Cade. I hate being on the outside and looking in."

She sighed, wondering if continuing the game would just lead to more frustration. Or at the very least, asking along another track would lead to something more interesting.

"Have you discovered a connection between the two missing objects? The box and the mask?"

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godofwar
2012-01-19 07:26 am UTC (link)

Cade nodded, something like commiseration crossing his face briefly. "I know. But at the rate bodies are turning up, you'll be assigned one soon enough and then you'll be read in." He gave her a wry look. "You won't be offended if I say I hope it never gets to that point." He wanted to crack this case so badly before someone else died, but he knew it was unlikely.

Probably because there were so many things they still didn't know. "No," Cade grit out. He and others had a hunch that the missing items were related somehow, but no kind of connection could be made yet. Nothing had clicked and it was driving him mad. "Eight left."

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aurorskickarse
2012-01-21 01:26 am UTC (link)

She was actually enthusiastic about the idea of being assigned to one of the cases, but tempered it lest she look bloodthirsty. She wasn't, truly she wasn't, she just loved her work.

She was starting to run out of questions about the case. There was still so much unknown, and whatever else there was couldn't easily be asked, or answer, with a yes or no. Which meant that she would leave it for now, keep her ears open, and choose a new line of questioning. Such as his actually getting laid on Friday night.

"So, new direction luv - this lady Friday night, do I know her?"

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godofwar
2012-01-21 03:29 am UTC (link)

Cade raised a brow at Aggie's sudden shift in topic. He knew better than to think she was giving up on finding out more about the Zurlo case. But they were still playing the game, so he'd humor her.

He finished off his coffee - grimacing slightly as it had gone cool - then considered her question. "Oh, yeas, you know her." Even if Angelina hadn't been a pro quidditch player, Aggie probably would remember her from school.

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	aurorskickarse 2012-01-21 03:32 am UTC (link)
	She mentally starting going through the entire DMLE staff to see which woman would be masochistic enough to shag Cade. Not that he was as awful as most people made him out to be - she enjoyed his sick humour from time to time - but he was certainly an acquired taste. "Does she work here?" (Reply to this) (Parent)

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