Absit Omen RPG

[Your name/nickname:] Mai
[Your affected characters:] All
[Start date of absence:] A week or two ago
[Approximate date of return:] Hope to start getting caught up next weekend (April 30 / May 1 ish)
[Reason (optional):]  Work has taken a turn for the uber complicated and I'm in the midst of trying to figure out what to do with my life.  Hoping things will settle down enough in the next week to at least have a functioning brain outside of work.  I'll prioritize the group threads when I have brain cells to use. 

26 May 2012
Saturday - just before 1 PM
Gardens above the Waldgraf home
Schönau am Konigsee, Bavaria, Germany

Snow still sat low in the mountains surrounding the lake but the first hint of summer had settled into the valley.  It was even just warm enough that drying off after a quick swim wasn't intolerable, though the swim itself benefited from a quick warming charm.  With one of the fireplaces on the property properly connected to the floo network, it had become wonderfully easy to sneak away from the bustle of London for a quick picnic lunch. 

Forged from something much stronger than Sasha, Baldur was content to splash in the water without magical protections from the cold.  Heaven help him, though, if he waited until he'd come back to the blanket to shake.  Of course, given how close he'd come to losing the pup, Sasha knew such things were empty threats. 

"You'd know best if they were actually dating," Sasha offered, scooping up a small amount of hummus with a carrot stick.  "We're often seem cut off from the drama outside of Level 9 but they sure seemed to be making eyes at each other in the lift." 

Sasha munched on the carrot before shrugging and grinning.  "I suppose, they don't actually have to be dating.  Maybe it's more ... coworkers with benefits?" 

Between two separate floors of the Ministry of Magic and a university filled with carefree youngsters, there was no shortage of gossip or scandalous tales to catch up on.  Being able to gossip openly, without being overheard, was another prime benefit of sneaking away to the mountains for a lunch.  Discretion had another purpose this afternoon, though.  There were other topics to discuss that were best done far from the threat of eavesdroppers. 

"See - if only the Ministry was more open to muggle technology.  I swear, someone could do a show like The Office about the Ministry and it would be the craziest, most hilarious thing ever." 

Unlike his fellow classmates, Sasha hadn't come to the party to celebrate a promotion to full Unspeakable.  Though he'd graduated with them, an initial unwillingness to pursue non-academic commitments meant he hadn't actually sold his soul to Level 9 until around the winter holidays.  In fact, Sasha could fondly remember this time last year when he'd had absolutely no commitments. 

How fleeting that had been.  At least he had a few more months before he had to bear the full responsibility that came with the Unspeakable title.  And, outside of the Ministry, he still got to don the cap of carefree university student on holiday. 

Have you all supped love potion?"

Now there was a dangerous proposition, if he'd ever heard of one.  Luckily, the invitation appeared to be both somewhat in gest and directed to the group at large, rather than to a specific individual so there wasn't an expectation of an answer.  He hoisted his own glass of dry white wine in Virgil's direction as Pepper offered congratulations. 

"Just keep out of the Space Chamber."

"What?  You don't trust a bunch of inebriated wixes with the space orb?  Or, probably, it's the other way around."  The orb remained his favorite project on Level 9 and he jumped at every opportunity to help on it - even if it was still mostly in the role of a grunt.  Not just because he would remain convinced it was a void ship from Doctor Who until he was proven otherwise.

Not that inebriated wixes were a good idea in any part of Level 9.  People had a tendency to disappear there - sober people.  But, he'd made a vow not to play his usual role of party spoil sport and, as such, he was going to follow the basic improv rule of 'just say yes.'   

"I know.  Listen. From what you've just told me, and from what we know at your flat, I don't believe this is connected to your family. It's too..."

Slowly, Sasha peeked through his fingers and and slowly lowered his hands, his brows furrowed in confusion and hesitant curiosity.  He'd barely had time to ascertain if his dog was alive or dead before they'd handcuffed him and dragged him from the apartment, let alone inspect the area for more information or clues.  He was dying for any details that would provide answers.

He resisted the temptation to badger Fauna into providing more details, knowing she was likely limited in her ability to speak freely here.  Her hesitation dragged on as Sasha watched, closely, waiting patiently for any hint of what about the crime scene was "too...". 

He managed to avoid badgering her, but he couldn't avoid letting out a long sigh of disappointment when Fauna seemed to shift the conversation.  Disappointment was replaced with a brief flicker of suspicion as Fauna shifted the topic to full moons.  Was this a test?  Was she trying to decide how trustworthy he was before divulging more information and using his perspective of full moons as a metric?

"There has been the occasional ..." the guard's snort distracted Sasha momentarily.  "... kerfuffle.  Streets seem to be getting less and less safe on full moon's.  Abby and I camped out at Moira's over the last one to try and be safer.  There were suspicious noises but probably just some prowling fox or ... other beast."   He shrugged.  "But, today isn't a full moon, so I don't see how that would be connected to today."

But, again, Fauna knew more about what was seen in his flat than he did.  Maybe she saw something that might suggest they were connected. 

"Unless, you found something that suggests otherwise?" 

Absolutely!  Sounds good!

I potentially could have a few candidates for you.  I have quite a few who like to skirt the muggle / mage cultural line. 

My [https://absitomen.com/index.php?topic=20284.msg181479#msg181479]Schäfers[/url] are a mixed family.  Dad (Lorenz) and original mum (Rosa) are muggles, as are the two oldest kids (Anton and Amanda).  New mum (Hanna) is a reluctant squib and new kid (Micha) is wizard and starts Hogwarts in fall.  Anton is enamored by the new discovery of the magical world and is trying to wiggle in as much as he can get away with. 

Sasha is another potential.  First year out of Hogwarts but, for a variety of reasons,  has always been intrigued by how the magical and mundane worlds interact.  He spent his years at Hogwarts studying muggle curriculum alongside his magical classes (chemistry alongside potions, biology alongside COMC).  He's now a trainee at the Department of Mysteries but also studying at Cambridge University.  He may or may not (wink wink nudge nudge) have a lab kept on the down low where he's trying to do experiments with the natural boundaries between the magical and mundane worlds. 

Lastly, I have Cinaed who is my baddie guy.  He's all about bashing down the walls between the magical and muggle worlds and wizards taking their place of superiority over the muggles.  He thinks muggles would make a fine servitude class allowing wizards to live freely and easily. 

A trio of bellies were filled and no tastebuds had been sacrificed to the pyre of stupid, juvenile entertainment.  Aside from the occasional soft rustle of bushes or cry of a passing fox, the meal had gone pleasantly uneventfully. 

While Moira had taken the lead in cleaning up the dishes, Sasha set himself to making a fresh batch of coffee.  Or, rather, he’d had the intention of making coffee until he was reminded that his familiarity with magical home economics was quite limited.  At least he’d caught himself moments before asking Moira where she kept her espresso and milk frother machines. 

Well.  Tea.  He could handle tea. 

Sasha had started to add water to the kettle on the fire when a sudden crash made him jump.  He turned to see shards of teal ceramic scattered across the floor from the broken plate. 

“Oh no, I’m sorry-“ he offered, setting the kettle down.  Distracted as he was by the shattered dish, he didn’t notice something outside had captured Baldur’s attention.  The Shepherd’s nose was pressed firmly against the crack along the bottom of the door, taking rapid, short sniffs of the outside world.  Still oblivious, Sasha had hurried over with his wand in his hand. 

He started to point it at the fragmented dish but then hesitated.  He didn’t want to injure Moira’s pride by jumping in to fix it for her.  Deftly, he changed tactics and gathered the scattered constellation of ceramic into a pile and moved them back onto the table. 

“I’m happy to stitch them together,” he offered, leaving the option with Moira.

These were quite a delight!  Walks down memory lane are always so much fun.  There was really nothing better than sinking my creative teeth into an ever-developing plot.  I've recently been explaining AO to my new work-family, so there has been a lot of recent reminiscing and this adds to it. 

Thank you for putting this together - it was exquisitely done.  Many kudos to the creative minds behind both the presentation of the owlies and all of the years of writing that are behind them.

Big thank you to Nuri for the lovely collection of fashion styles.  All very fitting! (pun intended)

I’ve missed a few years thanks to school but would love to join this time!

Content Warning - Profanity used

---

There were a few more distracting, stress-relieving chuckles in response to jokes about magically appearing flowers before Sasha glanced towards the guards, curious whether they'd noticed anything peculiar or intriguing about the conversation.  But, as the moment of humor passed, frustration resurfaced and Sasha leaned back in the chair, shaking his head. 

No matter how he looked at the events of the last twelve hours, he couldn't think of anything that would help move them towards an explanation.  There was no shortage of fodder for speculation, of course, but nothing he could directly connect to the deaths in his apartment building.   The abundance of possibilities with no tangible evidence made the situation all the more scary and frustrating. 

"The cops have asked but they're obviously trying to get me to say something that will lead this all back to me.  They don't seem to be looking for other possible explanations - but, I'm afraid I don't have anything more helpful to offer you than them.  There's probably -" he hesitated a moment and glanced, again, towards the guards though he was less concerned about what they would think than what Fauna would think. 

They'd been friends once but a lot had happened since then.  Werewolves.  Kidnappings.  Quasi-adoptive criminal mastermind father-uncles.  Someone seeking a career in law enforcement.  If he said the wrong thing and, unintentionally, did incriminate himself, did he really know that Fauna wouldn't turn around and have him shipped to Azkaban right after he was freed from muggle jail?

"My family was killed - I still don't know who or why.  Does someone have a grudge?"  He'd also quickly obtained a position to benefit from Kronos' wealth, jumping ahead of quite a few of his underlings.  No doubt there's bound to be some grudges there but it was probably best not to share that detail with Fauna.  "I'm sure there's other toes I've stepped on," he opted for a more vague explanation.  "But no warnings that led up to this.  No threats.  I don't remember feeling watched."  Of course, he also hadn't been on the lookout for it.  Between juggling the ministry, classes and his own research, he could admit he hadn't been looking too closely.

"No previously forgotten faces that resurfaced." 

Other than Katsaros.  But, Sasha had summoned him to Kronos' property - Katsaros hadn't gone looking for him.   At least not before that particular encounter. 

Again, not information an auror needed to know. 

Except, maybe she did.  If it would help the investigation, then maybe she really did. 

Still, what would she do with the information?  Would she tell the other aurors?  Azkaban?

But, if it could help, wasn't it selfish not to take the risk?

"Fuck."  Sasha breathed and rubbed his face with a hand.  How did they get here?

"I don't know," he admitted.  Entirely uncertain about what he should do. 

"Not that I can tell, this early on."

Sasha nodded, too exhausted in the moment to decipher what emotional response he should have.  While he was grateful those past chapters of his life weren't being revisited in the magical world, that information didn't necessarily flow freely into the muggle world.  The Ministry of Magic was adept at cleaning up magical incidents by closing muggle criminal investigations in neat tidy packages.  But those neat tidy packages weren't intended to hold up to the future scrutiny that reopened cases often brought with them. 

"Do you think they'd be satisfied if I explained I definitely got the message?" Sasha asked, countering the rueful smile with a nervous chuckle.  "I'll be sure to start decorating my front door for the holidays in the future." 

He leaned forward, resting his weight with crossed arms on the tabletop.  He considered the question for a few moments before shaking his head. 

"No - no anonymous gifts or deliveries.  I mean, Abby sends or leaves things all the time and Giada's always trying to sneak sweets into my lunch."  He hadn't had the heart to tell her he gave all his sweets away to classmates or coworkers - but those sweets had been helping his popularity. 

"I can't say I've verified everyone has come from them, but all have been innocuous."  They had been, right?  Worry flickered across his features.  He cast a quick glance towards the officers at the door before turning back to Fauna.  "The 9th Floor seems prone to odd behavior in people but I don't think anything strange has happened that wasn't ... expected?" 

He would have thought someone would have told him something if Unspeakables were disappearing and their disappearance seemed to be directly linked to Sasha's treats. 

Fauna, it appeared, wasn't a fan of humor used as a coping mechanism.  Or, at least, wasn't a fan of it at in the wee hours of the morning, which Sasha couldn't fault her for.  But, when trapped in a muggle jail cell for entirely unknown reasons and no ability to actually be helpful, it was easiest to focus on the unimportant. 

In contrast, Fauna moved straight to the important information and, after it actually settled in that everyone he knew was alive, Sasha was grateful for the directness.  His shoulders slowly settled and he offered a slight nod. 

"Thank God," he offered, quietly, lifting both hands to rub his face.  "Baldur's in the best hands, for sure, then.  He looked-"  Sasha hesitated and shook his head, again.  "I only caught a glimpse of him.  I'm sure Giada is a fretful mess.   She hates not being able to ... follow everywhere."  Giada had taken to her role in the household with all the dedication of any house elf and had frequently expressed her discontent at not being able to accompany Sasha and his grandmother to doctor's appointments. 

He grinned at the image of Abby pub-hopping, remembering the last text he'd received on the bus ride home before she'd disappeared 'off the grid' into a magical establishment.  By and large, everything seemed to be squared away. 

Except for the handcuffs.  And the crime scene at his apartment. 

After a quick glance in the officer's direction, Sasha looked back towards Fauna.  "They've been asking a lot about what happened with my parents.  And sister.  Like they're trying to uncover how this is connected."  Officer Smiley who had first interviewed Sasha when they'd arrived at the station from the crime scene had been dropping not so subtle hints that he was convinced Sasha was the unidentified connection between the three. 

Of course, the muggle investigation into both were very truncated and sparse on details. 

"Is there any sign they're connected?"

Despite all the ups and downs in their friendship, Sasha couldn't - and wouldn't - deny the profound sense of relief he felt when Fauna walked into the visit room.  They had a knack for getting under each other's skin and, yet, for some inexplicable reason, Fauna always seemed to be there when circumstances were there most unfortunate.  While Sasha had never predicted finding himself inside a muggle jail cell, it seemed unsurprising that it was Fauna taking the seat on the other side of the metal table. 

"Given the way the last few years have gone," Sasha offered with an uneasy grin.  It might not be a surprise that it was Fauna who met him here but that didn't make it any less embarrassing.  "I half wondered if, at some point, I'd end up getting arrested.  I just always pictured I'd have a better idea of what caused it."  Crime boss affiliation.  Experiment gone wrong. 

He glanced down at the handcuffs on his wrists and hesitated a long moment, a question clinging to his tongue but refusing to let go.  He didn't know how to acknowledge the potential of a tomorrow morning without Baldur in it.  Through all the losses and terrifying sleepless nights, he'd been a constant.  As long as Sasha didn't ask, there was the potential of hope.  Schrodinger's German Shepherd. 

So, he resorted to the safer problems.  "I'm so sorry to have dragged you out so late.  I'm - I have no idea what's going on.  Were you able to get in?  Did you see anything - with the others?"

”I’m sorry for the interruption, ladies and gentlemen, but this is as close as I can get to the next stop.”  The bus driver’s voice rattled slightly as it was projected through the intercom.  ”Looks like the road’s blocked off.”

Sasha looked up from his textbook at the announcement and could see the pulsing of colored light reflecting off the bus’ interior.  A few of the handful of other passengers had noses pressed against the window or were half standing, hovering in their seats to look out the front windshield.  Slipping his book into his backpack, Sasha rose and pushed his way through the back bus doors. 

Several blocks ahead, an assortment of police cars and ambulances were haphazardly blocking the road.  Up and down the darkened street, there were scattered clusters of onlookers - curious bodies all watching the commotion from a presumed safe distance.  After a moment’s hesitation, Sasha shifted his bag on his shoulder and started down the street towards home.  The closer he got, the more apparent it became that the emergency vehicles were all clustered out front of his apartment building. 

This was a university town; ambulances outside of student buildings wasn’t an unprecedented sight.  But, over-rambunctious parties or accidental overdoses never warranted more than a single ambulance and, maybe, a police vehicle.  This was an event of an alarmingly larger scale. 

A handful of officers were standing on the walkway in front of the building.  Sasha approached one but the officer spoke first. 

”Are you a resident?” the officer asked. 

“Yes, I am.  What’s happened.”

”It’s an open investigation.  I’m afraid I can’t offer any details.  On which floor do you reside?”

“I’m on the top floor.”

The officer suddenly looked far more interested in the conversation and he gestured for one of the other officers to join them.  ”Do you know what has happened?”

Unease quickened to alarm as Sasha shook his head.  “Why?  What has happened?”  Still, the officers remained reluctant to share any details.  “Is it safe to go up there?  Be up there?  My dog’s inside and I need to let him out.”

”Stand there for one moment.”  The two officers stepped away from Sasha and clustered around one of their radios.  After several moments, the officers returned.  ”I can escort you up to your flat.”

They rode in silence, Sasha fidgeting anxiously.  When the elevator door opened on his floor, the normally empty hallway was filled with people in uniforms and the low, steady din of many voices talking quietly at once.  A cluster of officers could be seen standing in the doorway of the neighbor’s apartment.  Another stood at the open door at the end of the hall.  As his escort ushered him towards his door, Sasha caught a glimpse of a black, zippered body bag just beyond the officer’s legs at the end of the hall. 

”Is this your apartment?”

Alarmed and confused, Sasha paused to try and take in the commotion but the officer continued to corral him to his own door.  “I … yes.  What’s happened?”  Fumbling with his key, Sasha only briefly registered the array of flowers hanging on his door.  Still, the officer remained as reluctant as ever to answer Sasha’s questions. 

”Do you mind if I follow you in and ask a few questions?  It might help us with our investigation.”  Sasha shrugged, nodded and pushed the door open.

Sasha shook his head and crouched, slightly, in an effort to put a hand on Baldur before he came barreling out into the chaos.  “Not well.  In passing, mostly.  We have different schedules.”  When his hands didn’t find the warm, damp of a dog nose, Sasha pushed the door open.  Baldur was a few feet from the door, staggering blindly in a circle, his chest heaving with shallow panting.  Several piles of vomit were scattered across the floor. 

“Scheiß!” Sasha started to move towards Baldur but was stopped when the officer grabbed his arm and pinned him against the wall.  ”You have something to do with all of this? the officer demanded before calling for backup and clapping a pair of handcuffs on Sasha’s wrists.