thoughtformed | [Action/Video]

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[Action/Video]

Who: Anita Blake and YOU!
Where: Downtown New Moore
When: Today, afternoon.
What: Having a bit of a personal problem, really.

[With the afternoon to herself, Anita has taken to giving herself a more thorough tour of New Moore, with an especial interest in Starbox. She misses her usual coffee place from back home, but when hard-pressed, Anita's never met a cup of coffee she didn't like. With her cup in one hand and the other supporting the strap of her shoulder back, she begins to head in the direction of home at a leisurely pace.

She begins to slow down even further when she approaches the storefront of Hoarders, considering stopping in for a few minutes, but as she does so, there's the faint sound of footsteps slowing to a stop just behind her. Decidedly non-human footsteps, at that. Something much smaller.

Turning around, she raises an eyebrow as she realized that she's made a four-legged friend during her tour of the town. The raccoon before her sits up and tilts his head to the side, clearly pleased with the attention he's sure he's about to receive.

Anita can't exactly blame him. He looks like the last attention he received came in the form of being plowed over by someone's car.

She sighs, facepalming.]

Well, crap.

[The raccoon isn't the only friend she's going to pick up today. As she continues to walk through town and even as she gets closer to home, the roadkill parade behind her seems to grow exponentially. To say the least, she doesn't look exactly pleased. Feel free to run into her anywhere along the way?]

[Video, Evening:]

[Once she's home and locked all of her admirers out, Anita is quick to get on the network, hoping she can get this resolved before Rose gets home and asks her what the hell is going on.]

So, I'm having a bit of a problem today. I need chickens. Does anyone know where I can get chickens? I could also make due with a goat, but I'd rather not. That gets messy.

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[Well, Kate has a choice. She could talk to her partner here about the influx of zombie raccoons on the island. Or she could go home and clean the bathroom which was... her original plan. Suddenly option one seems decidedly more interesting.]

Okay. I'm assuming you didn't bring him back deliberately to ask who mowed him over. So does that... bringing-things-back-from-the-dead-thing you were telling me about happen just whenever? Or is this the island just deciding to mess with you?

[Anita shakes her head, giving the raccoon itself a decidedly disapproving look.

The raccoon recoils slightly, looking mildly offended.]

No, it's normally something that's completely under my control.

[Except for the time where she accidentally animated a vampire. Or several. It wasn't intentional, though, she really was aiming for zombies that last time.]

This isn't the first time this has happened to me, though. The thing is, I was a teenager the last time. I didn't have any training, my powers were just starting to manifest.

Animating is tricky. You have to use your power regularly to keep it under control, or else it just starts seeping out and doing -- well. This. It's been a lot longer since I last had an opportunity to use it than I realized. It's not like people are banging down my door to have me raise the dead.

Okay, I get it. Weirdly enough that... actually made sense to me. Which probably means I've been here too long.

[Kate is really trying not to look at the dead raccoon. While she definitely sees the use of Anita's power, she is still kinda of the camp of the dead should stay dead. Especially roadkill.]

I feel kinda bad for the poor thing. Is it gonna stay alive or does it wear off eventually?

[Anita's with you on that one, Kate. Poor animal never hurt anyone, most likely. He should be able to rest in peace, instead of having to wander around all mangled. At the moment, he doesn't seem to mind too much, though he's getting more and more out of sorts as Anita pays attention to Kate rather than him.]

He's going to stay this way until I can put him to rest. Well... him and anything else that decides to follow me.

[She grimaces.]

I don't have any of my ritual ointment or any other supplies. I'm going to have to scrape those together. Luckily, I should be able to get most of what I need in town. Wonder how many stores would find a woman with a dead raccoon shopping around to be socially acceptable.

Pretty sure the answer to that is "none." Even around here.

[She presses her lips together. All of the sudden, cleaning her bathroom didn't seem like the worst thing in the world.]

What do you need? I was headed back to my place but I can stop and pick up stuff if it'll help.

It wouldn't have gone over too well back home, either, I have to admit.

[Anita looks mildly surprised by the offer, but nods a moment later.]

I'll need graveyard mold. I can find that myself. I could use a hand with the herbs, though. Rosemary, cinnamon, cloves, sage, and thyme. I'll also need some kind of receptacle for the blood, but it doesn't have to be anything special. I have bowls back at my place that will do the job just fine.

[She glances back down at the raccoon, raising her free hand to see if it will respond. It doesn't.

It wasn't that long ago that she discovered her powers were great enough to be put to use during the day. That doesn't seem to be doing her any good at the moment. Maybe something to do with having let it all boil over, so to speak.]

Once it gets to be full dark, I should have more control. I think it's all gone a little haywire on me, at the moment. I can lay any new friends to rest then.

[She pauses.]

I'm going to need chickens. At least one chicken, anyway. I'll take care of that, too.

[Kate is nodding along, making a mental note of what to pick up and glad that she's not being tasked with the graveyard mold. But then she pauses.]

Blood? Please do no tell me that has something to do with you needing the chicken.

[Anita flashes Kate her most winsome smile, though it quickly fades to something far more wry.]

Sorry. It's an unfortunate necessity. I'm as humane with it as possible.

Ew.

[Kate's not exactly excited to be party to anything having to do with chicken sacrifice but then again, there's a zombie raccoon standing next to her. So it doesn't seem like a really great time to have an argument about moral ambiguity.]

Well, I really don't envy you this power of yours, that's for sure.

Yeah. I remember when "ew" was still my gut reaction, too.

[She was pretty sure she just gave her grandmother a minute-long horrified stare the first time she was told things like this required a blood sacrifice.]

It's definitely not something I would have chosen for myself. Kind of sets your whole life's path out before you. I'm pretty sure I can promise that this won't be a regular occurrence, though.

Yeah, well, let's see if we can end it before you have half the corpses on the island tailing you.

[She presses her lips together.]

I'm not helping with the chicken, though.

My thoughts, exactly.

[Anita cracks a wry smile at that, shaking her head.]

Wouldn't expect you to, anyway. There are some animators who use a lot worse than chickens, though, except those that do are generally treading into voodoo territory. I like to avoid that neighborhood as much as possible. It's not a pretty picture.

[Abominable fleshbeasts come to mind. Ugh.]

Edited 2012-12-08 14:51 (UTC)

[The only thing Kate knows about voodoo is confined to one case she worked on a few years back and that ridiculous book Castle wrote. And as much as she tries to be open-minded, she's knows there are crazies out there and it still gives her the creeps a little.]

We talking bigger animals, or people? Either way it's pretty skeezy but if we end up with anyone else from your world on this island hacking up people in the name of voodoo, I'd like to have a heads up.

People.

[Anita looks plenty disapproving as she clarifies.]

If anyone dangerous from my world shows up here, you and Shepard will be the first to know. I can't think of many people I would be glad to see here. Luckily, those practitioners are few and far between. The people I work with are pretty upstanding folks.

[Except her money-grubbing boss.]

There's definitely a handful of people from home I'd like to see again, but not at the expense of being trapped in this place.

[She nods.] Though I appreciate your honesty. And I don't really doubt you bringing up anyone you think we should keep an eye on.

[She turns her hands up.]

I've got nothing to hide. I meant what I said when I first talked to Shep about joining the force. My interest is making sure that people are safe. Protect and serve and all that.

Honestly, there are a couple of people I miss, but mostly? The way my luck is, the people this place would choose to throw at me are people I was glad to get away from. At least for awhile.

And I have to say it's nice having a partner that takes the badge seriously. [She frowns.] Not that I didn't at home; I have a good team back there. [But she's also had enough experience to know not everyone walks that thin blue line with honor.] I've got Castle here which... Isn't so bad. But I can't see the other boys being too thrilled about being cooped up in this place for long. Not that any of us are.

[She nods in agreement.]

I don't have a badge back home, but I work with a bunch of cops who are, thankfully, decent people and do the badge proud. They do their best, even if the rest of the force laughs at them for being on the Spook Squad.

None of us are particularly thrilled, but I know what you mean. Different people are better suited to change. Some could adjust. Some couldn't.

You should meet Castle, if you haven't. He's not a cop either but he's been consulting with my precinct for the last three years.

Spook Squad? [She can't help but smile.] I take it not everyone you know takes the whole vampire-killing, necromancy thing seriously?

I met him briefly over the network. Seems like a nice guy.

[She says that honestly, and even spares the guy a smile.]

Well, the thing is, everyone knows vampires and werewolves are real. Vampires are legal citizens, and werewolves and wereleopards and all of the other furry critters are just people who have been unlucky enough to be infected.

Since vampirism was legalized, though, they had to put together a new task force to handle them, since vampire slayers couldn't just go out and stake them without a warrant anymore. The law applies to them, just like anyone else.

The real name of the squad is the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team, but most of the people on it were put there because they pissed off their superiors. They're all good cops, which implies that the ones who wanted them out of the way? Not so good. It's a joke to some of the others in the department, since they treat it like punishment. Hence "Spook Squad." We've tried to make it our own, take the sting out of the name.

[Kate nods, processing all the information even though it sounds like something out of an urban fantasy novel. Not really her genre. Of course, if the thing about them being fictional was true, well, that could be exactly what all that was.]

Well, it sounds to me like you're all doing your best. Personally, I wouldn't be nuts about it but... I get my fair share of psychos just working a regular homicide. Not sure how well I'd handle it if they were all vampires and were... whatevers.

Shame they look at it that way, though. I mean, I imagine the death rate doesn't matter if your a vampire or a human. And if you guys are out there saving innocent lives, that's supposed to be the thing that counts.

It's pretty intense... but you get used to it. Personally, my career options have always been limited. Dealing with the monsters? Kind of a given for me.

Maybe someday they'll come around. I think our squad might have to pull their asses out of the fire a few more times before they do, though.

You couldn't have done something else? I mean... Yeah the dealing with monsters thing is useful, I'm sure. But it doesn't have to define you.

[Coming from the woman who let her mom's death define her, that's a laugh.]

Well, being an animator wasn't a choice. If you have the power, you need to use it regularly... might as well make money at it. The thing is, being a vampire hunter kind of goes hand-in-hand with that. Animators have partial immunity to vamps. It means we're the best for the job.

[She smiles thinly.]

It's not that I mind it. I'm damn good at what I do, and being the resident monster expert is a perfect fit for me, since I'm out there among them all the time. I don't have to let it define me... but if I'm not out there taking care of the vamps, I don't know who will be. Too many people just want to think of them as fanged humans, and that's not the case. That's how you get yourself killed.

[There are exceptions, but... that's messy.]

Then there are the "monsters" who deserve justice, too. Like the lycanthropes. Some of them are scum, but most of them? Just regular people who got really unlucky. Doesn't matter that their condition isn't their fault. People hate them for it. I want to make sure they get treated fairly, because I know what it's like. People hate me for something I didn't choose, too.

You know, I actually find that pretty admirable.

[Kate can relate to that, at least. Granted, she doesn't have any special powers, but she's a damn good cop. And there's no one she trusts to do the job as much as she trusts herself.]

There's definitely some weird vampire fascination where I come from, too. Personally, I don't get the whole romanticizing of the concept. My world would probably react to them the same way.

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