Nazareth Awakened - Chapter 02: Wives of Solomon

[Rubberneck]

On his way to the front door Law's phone buzzes in his pocket. With a quick check he reads the message and replaces the phone to his pocket. When he gets to the door he'll try and glance in the windows he may pass and then knock on the door.

 

[TillForPie]

Harper
Harper focuses on the kachina and lets the mage sight fall over his eyes. The doll isn't magical. As he turns it over in his hands Crow lands on the bench, gazing up at him curiously.

It's then that the cheap burner in his pocket buzzes. Taking out the prepaid phone he sees it's a text from Faye: The others are meeting back at the shop. So much for busking.

Law
It's hard to see inside the house with the windows curtained but he can tell it's dark and quiet. If anybody's home they're not up and about in the living room, at least. Law gives the door a knock, loud and with purpose.

No response.

Chance and Agnasci
Chance turns her Honda into the Circle K near Tuxedo Springs and pulls alongside one of the six open pumps. Agnasci is texting the others when she climbs out of the car and crosses the empty parking lot.

A few moments later Chance is standing at the register with a drink in hand. Her eyes wander while the teenaged cashier with half a dozen facial piercings rings her up for the drink and the gas. There's a yellow flyer on the wall by the tobacco products for a band called The Castle Bans Once. A man with a guitar and skinny jeans is shown in profile, long hair hanging down over his face.

"$23.40." The cashier's voice is thick with boredom and indifference. She follows Chance's gaze to the flyer. "They play Cheney's every Friday." She's probably the one who put the flyer there.

 

[Rubberneck]

Law waits for a bit and when he is satisfied that no one is going to answer the door he circles around back top try and find a back door he can access. Also he casts Grim Sight.

 

[TillForPie]

Law
Law focuses for a moment and activates the grim sight. Nothing magical and no obvious signs of death in the immediate area.

There's a side path leading between Traci's house and the one next door, divided in two by a chain link fence. Law heads down the path toward the back yard, trying to sneak a look through one of the side windows as he goes. Once in the small back yard, landscaped with desert gravel like the front, he spots a sliding glass door and makes his way to it.

BARK! BARK! BARK!

There's a small dog in the neighbor's back yard on the other side of the fence. It's a short-haired Yorkshire terrier and it's yapping energetically, running up and down the length of the fence with its eyes locked on Law.

 

[Rubberneck]

Law is convinced that it may be better to return in the cover of night. He returns to his squad car and heads for the book store.

 

[GlassEye]

Harper, Thyrsus mage

[section]

Harper shoves the phone back into his pocket and sighs. He'd expected it but still. "Not a total loss," he says to Crow as he picks up the white bear kachina. With kachina in one hand and guitar in the other he turns to retrace his steps to the bookstore. Along the way he stops and roots around in a trash can until he finds a bit of doughnut someone tossed away. He breaks off pieces and feeds them to Crow as he walks.

​

[/section]

 

[Shayuri]

"Huh," Chance replied. The band didn't look interesting to her. It was mostly interesting because of the venue.

Worst. Club name. Ever.

She toyed with the idea of giving the cashier an earful about the club's namesake's war crimes, and political machinations, and... Then Chance caught the gleam of the camera lens focused on the spot just in front of the register. Exactly where she was standing now.

Chance coughed and tugged the hood of her hoodie forward a bit, then grabbed a flyer. For appearances sake.

"Cool," she said in a slightly gruffer voice than her natural one, "I'll check it out." She handed over twenty-five bucks and hurried out the door without waiting for change.

A moment later she was back in the car, slamming the door shut behind her almost simultaneously with starting the engine and putting the seat belt on.

"We're moving," she told Agnasci. "Where's the meet? Here." She handed him the flyer from the store as she pulled out of the filling station and headed anywhere, away.

 

[TillForPie]

Law and Harper
Harper's already sitting on the curb outside Nazareth Secondhand Books when Law pulls behind the row of stores in his cruiser.

Chance and Agnasci
Agnasci looks down at the flyer that Chance has handed to him. The Castle Bans Once - not the greatest band name of all time. As for Cheney's, Agnasci knows it. It's the place right across the street from the bookstore's shopping center.

The car continues down Main Street before pulling to a stop at a red light. Agnasci instinctively shrinks down in his seat after glancing out the passenger window: A group of bikers is idling in the parking lot of a Chevron station. BR is with them, as well as the bald and morbidly obese biker that Chance recalls seeing drown the dog in her vision - Agnasci knows him, too. It's Buddha, or Buddha-man, and his resemblance to his namesake is uncanny. The other two neither of them recognize. One's in his 30s or 40s, tall and slender, and the other is a stocky blond in his early 20s. They're all either sitting on their bikes or leaning against the convenience store's wall as they talk with one another, smoking cigarettes. They haven't spotted Chance and Agnasci.

 

[Mosier]

"Things are about to get really complicated," Agnasci mutters. "Let's get to the bookstore right away. For the first time in my life, I think I need to talk to a cop."

Until the vehicle is out of sight of the DOW gang, Agnasci makes a point to keep his face turned away from them.

 

[Rubberneck]

Law hops out of the car and locks it up, clipping the keys to his belt. He walks over to Harper,

"They here yet? Any idea what's going on?"