12120/Hide the Bodies

Hide the Bodies
Date of Scene:	23 July 2022
Location:	The shore of the Hudson, Hoboken NJ.
Synopsis:	Lydia has difficulty disposing of a body. Luckly, Blink and Domino are here to help!
Cast of Characters:	Lydia Dietrich, Clarice Ferguson, Neena Thurman

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Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    It's about three in the morning. A good time to be hunting. All the clubs and bars have closed, and the few people who are out are either too drunk to notice anything shady going on, or are the perpetrators of doing something shady.

    Lydia is in the second category. She's standing at the end of Pier C in Hoboken, frowning at the body of a man, drained of all blood, who just /refuses/ to be sank in the Hudson. "They make it look so easy in the movies," she grumbles.

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    To say Clarice is 'many miles away' as she drinks in the Asteroid bar in geosynchronis orbit over Genosha is rather an understatement, but that's the situation as she sips her cognac, while talking to Neena. "The thing is - I really have no idea what the hell is going on and- you know what, damnit, I might as well just call her. It's not like she's asleep." She's a //vampire.//
    She picks up her phone to place the call, tapping a bright magenta finger on the bar as she waits for- "Lydia! Hey. Neena an I were just talking about you! Are you busy? We were thinking of looking for a little fun- I mean, 'the City that Never Sleeps,' you know?" And not Clarice checking in on her 'sister' at all. Hmmhmm.

Neena Thurman has posed:
    Neena's been spending a bunch of her time trying to figure out exactly what to do with her brother, so talking with Clarice about Lydia in the asteroid bar is a welcome relief. Not that she's been up on the asteroid /that/ much lately, but, you know, it has a great view.

    She eyes Clarice for a moment at her tone and rolls her eyes. Huh-uh. Sure. "Okay but seriously are there actual vampire bars, because that sounds like a /trip/ and I want to be on it."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia scowls when her phone vibrates, annoyed that somebody is interrupting her attempt at body disposal, but seeing that it's only Clarice her annoyance abates. "Hey, sis!" she says, answering the phone. "I'm a little bit busy but-" she stops, looking at the floating body when an idea comes to her. "Yeah. Maybe you could help out with this. Lock onto my signal and come on down, okay?"

    Her vampire hearing picks up on Neena's question. "Tell her that I know of one vampire bar and I've been dying to go to it. We'll need to change to something more appropriate though."

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "Sure, glad to help!" Clarice replies brightly. "We'll just be a second."
    "Apparently there is //one,//" she explains to Neena. "Shall we go see what it's all about?" She grins at the other woman. With her teleportation skills, Neena's luck, and Lydia along with them - what could go wrong?
    She finishes off her cognax, checking Lydia's location before summoning a portal to step through - which she holds open for Neena. The docks was a bit of a surprise for Lydia, and it's not hard for Clarice to spot the body bobbing nearby in the water. "You found a floater?" she asks with some puzzlement.
    After all - Lydia has never been as blood thirsty as she is - or most of the rest of the Brotherhood.

Neena Thurman has posed:
    "Just the one? Hmm. It'd better be /great/ then," Neena grouses, good-naturedly.

    She follows Clarice through the portal and peers around, then focuses in on the body. "Hasn't been dead for long," she comments idly. "Otherwise he'd be all bloaty and weird-looking." Look, you know these things when you kill people for a living.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Well, no." Lydia says with a huff of frustration. "Ever since I left..." She shakes her head. Can't quite say it. "I've had to go hunting on my own. I've been trying to figure out what to do with the bodies. The first one I kind of just... left, but this time around I realized that if I kept leaving bodies laying about all drained of blood, then people will start getting ideas."

    "So I thought I could just..." she flails a hand at the body, "sink this one to the bottom of the Hudson. By the time anybody recovers it they'll have no idea how he died. But they float! I didn't bring any weights with me, so now I have no idea what I'm going to do with a soggy corpse!"

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    Lydia is killing now? Clarice looks at the body for a moment, then to her friend who- well. //Seems// to be okay with the fact that she's ended multiple human lives. "Will he be missed?" she asks - and then immediately adds in concern, "You were careful about the CCTVs, right?" It is New York City after all. It's hard to find public places that //aren't// being recorded from at least some angle. Thankfully the video quality can be awful.
    "Even if you sink a body - it's going to bloat, and eventually rise back up to the surface - unless you put it in a very cold body of water. I mean, I could get rid of this thing easily but- you'd have to call every time."
    She gives Neena a questioning look for her, hopefully more practical advice.

Neena Thurman has posed:
    "Okay, one, why don't you call some mutant who regenerates or something? I mean, no dead body, no problem. I can get Wade on the phone right now." Neena raises her eyebrows. "Or is this some kind of like... vampiric /need/...? You know, the hunt, the kill, feeding the inner beast or whatever." If Lydia killing people bothers her, she's hiding it. At least for the moment.

    "For two, and the situation at hand--well, the easiest thing is for Clarice to portal him into the depths of space or the ocean or something. But in the future..." She cluckes her tongue. "Look, hiding bodies isn't... /easy/. I usually don't even bother. I wear gloves, my DNA isn't in any databases, and I'm damn lucky as it is. But if you /have/ to, and you can't portal them, then a vat of drain cleaner's probably the best way to go. Takes a while and stinks to high heaven but it'll do the job." A beat. "That or a boat out on the actual Atlantic."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Will he be missed? "Not by anybody important. I mean. His ex will probably miss him when he stops paying alimony." She puffs out a breath, blowing a stray lock of hair out from her face. "Guy was a racist asshole. Friends of Humanity member. Went and got himself a prostitute but when he found out she was a mutant he beat her within an inch of her life." She looks up at the other two woman, a look of disgust on her face. "He got off on the mutant panic defense."

    "I don't /think/ any CCTVs caught me." she says hesitantly. "But I can't be sure. I was running black to stay stealthy. Why does this have to be so /complicated/?"

    She looks at Neena. "I mean, yes. I could. But I'd have to do that every day and... I'm /tired/ of always having to rely on others. I need to know how to do this on my own because I won't always have people around who can constantly regenerate."

    She looks at the problematic corpse with her hands on her hips and huffs. "Maybe I can just..." she holds out two fingers and makes snipping motions, while forming a gigantic pair of black scissors out of her ectoplasm that mimic her fingers. "Cut the body up into pieces, put them in a garbage bag and fly a couple of miles out into the Atlantic." She looks up at the pair of women, "I mean. Don't get me wrong. A vat of drain cleaner might be good every once in a while but nightly?" She shakes her head.

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "Oh, he's a piece of shit! Great," Clarice says brightly. I mean, if you're going to kill people... kill the racist assholes. "Well. I can get rid of this one for you, unless you really feel the need to test out your body disposal methods," Clarice says in a wry tone.
    "And- well, that could work. But a bag'll float without weights, and eventually bags'll start washing up on the shore, and it's a single consistent MO, you know? It'll turn into a big case," she points out logically. "So if you do that... you're going to have to weight the bags."
    She has a thoughtful frown on her lips as she adds, "Do you have to kill someone every night? I mean - you were getting by with lighter feeds. Draining someone doesn't at least... last you a little longer?"

Neena Thurman has posed:
    Neena's entire countenance changes at 'Friends of Humanity.' "Ohhh. Now /that's/ just doing the world a favor. Maybe sometimes you could come out and feed on some of the assholes I kill?" She holds up a hand. "And before you say 'self-sufficient'--if you're helping us kill them, that's like... payment, for the help. Although I s'pose I could pay you too. I'm just saying, you don't have to be /alone/ to be self-sufficient."

    She chews on her lip, thoughtfully. "You could do different stuff, if you can fly, though. Haul 'em into the Atlantic, toss one into the woods for bears to eat--oh! Dropping them into an active volcano would be a /great/ method, but I guess that's a ways to fly."

    A pause. "...Can you learn how to make portals? Because then you could just pop over to Mauna Loa and toss 'em in."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia looks thoughtful. "I could try. See how long I can go after I drain somebody. I was just... I just /assumed/ I had to do it daily because that's what I've been doing." She shakes her head and gestures at the corpse, "And I wasn't going to let a racist shit like that live, and I /also/ wasn't going to let all that blood go to waste."

    Lydia considers Neena's offer. "I think I could do that. I never thought myself a mercenary, but I definitely have the skills for it." She nods. "Yeah, hook me up."

    She lets out a sigh, "Portals are tricky. I don't have the power or the skill to spontaneously port like Clarice or half the members of the JLD. I know how to connect two doors together, but it helps if I know the location of both doors. I /could/ probably create a circle that ports me somewhere, but the difficulty with /that/ would be getting back." She glances at Clarice and says, "Maybe I can create a port that just opens up into space somewhere. Just bring the corpse back to it and just let it /suck/ it out into space."

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "It's just - even in a city like New York, people disappear that often? It's going to start to be noticed. And the police could pick up on the 'mutant hating pieces of shit' angle and- who knows what happens after that. Daily is a lot of people, and a lot of bodies to hide. If you can last comfortably until every other day - literally half the bodies. Better yet if it's every three days," Clarice points out simply.
    She beams at Lydia as the woman suggests creating a portal to outerspace. "That'll solve all your problems. The re-entry would burn them up completely - with no evidence left. Then you just have to figure out how to get the bodies back to your circle... And how to avoid the CCTVs."
    She's silent a moment before adding, "You know, Lydia, if you needed some blood sometimes... I mean, you're my sister. You can call me. I mean, if you can't find a suitable target, or you're busy working on something else, or- you know. Whatever. Doesn't mean you can't take care of yourself, just means- well. It's okay to help each other, yeah?"

Neena Thurman has posed:
    "I'm not offering my blood," Neena says bluntly, "But I /know/ Wade would be willing to help. Y'know, if you just don't feel like finding some mutant-hating asshole to eat that night. Think of it like putting in a microwave dinner instead of getting takeout." She grins. "A chimichanga, in Wade's case, /obviously/."

    Then she nods. "But Clarice is right--a portal to space is really the best option. Alternately, eating people who'd just die by horrible violence anyway. Either way, some asshole dies, you eat, all is well."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Yeah," Lydia says, her gaze wandering back over to the corpse. "I have to come up with a better solution, but..." she shrugs helplessly. "I don't know what. This'll do me /for now/, but you're right. Too many people go missing and people are going to start noticing. Maybe..." she grunts frustratedly. "Maybe I can convince Hatshepsut to teach me how to do the Vampire Mind Whammy and just... take a bit out of people walking alone at night and make them forget everything." Her tone of voice indicates that she doesn't think this is very likely.

    She lets out a sigh and gives Clarice a small smile. "I know. And I appreciate it. But... you're family. It just feels... weird taking from you. I don't know why."

    Neena gets a chuckle, "I wasn't going to ask. I let my friends offer freely." Though, now, it doesn't seem to be as big a deal to her for some reason. "I'll keep Wade in mind but, no offense, he smells funny."

    She nods, coming to a decision. "So it's settled. Create a portal into space and dump the bodies there. That should only take me a couple of days to figure out, since I don't really need exact coordinates." She gestures to the body, "We should probably do that with this asshole here. Clarice?"

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "Because you're family is the only reason I would. I want you to be okay." Clarice steps closer to Lydia, putting a hand on her arm. "I'll always be there for you. Yeah? Nothing's changed that," she says firmly. Regardless of whatever happened between Raven and Lydia.
    At the invitation to get rid of the body, a silver javelin appears in her hand - and with a toss, and a brief flash of purple energy, the body vanishes. With it gone, her attention shifts back to Lydia before she asks, "You're okay, yeah? With this. I mean - you were hesitant to kill before - even the assholes."

Neena Thurman has posed:
    "You should prooobably find a way to make sure the portal to space doesn't suck in a bunch of other stuff, too," Neena points out. "Just saying."

    She watches Clarice casually dispose of the body, then says, "It /does/ get easier. But did something happen?" She quirks a brow. "Or is it one of those 'better if you don't know' things?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia blinks somewhat disbelievingly at Clarice. "I mean. Yes. If they're people like this. I've got an entire list." She frowns, though. "But you're right. If I keep killing FoH members, somebody's going to get an idea and some innocent mutant is going to get hurt." Another sigh and she bemoans, "How do real vampires even /do/ this?"

    "I had an epiphany," is the only explanation she's willing to give. "It's complicated."

    Eager to change the subject she claps her hands together and rubs them. "So. Now that this is done, we can go to the vampire club. It's called 'Fangtasia.' Isn't that delightful? We'll need to dress up for it, though. Clarice? Let's grab the boys. Tell them we're going shopping because we need to get you clothes so you can dress all Goth. Neena? You good on that front?"