15247/Case 19960233 - Surrey - Victim

Case 19960233 - Surrey - Victim
Date of Scene:	27 June 2023
Location:	Candle, Booke and Belle
Synopsis:	Jinx goes to Nettie to identify who her parents murdered. She gets more than she expected.
Cast of Characters:	Jinx, Nettie Crowe, Tynan Ireton, Marie-Ange Colbert, Mary Bromfield

---

Jinx has posed:
[ https://youtu.be/JnOeIFx3ML8 ]

Jinx opens the door to the Candle, Booke, and Belle. This was where one found a Nettie Crowe after all. She had some good will saved up with this person and now she intended to cash it in. Wearing simple jeans and a hoodie, the trip by Hyperloop to New York was an easy one.

The bell above the door rings and Jinx pulls the hood off of her head revealing her pink hair. "Nettie you here?" Who knows who else might run this store with her. She hopes no one else. Her eyes roam over the trappings of modernised witch craft for sale on the shelves. The good stuff is never on display.

Hands stuffed in to her hoodie pockets she leans forward and sniffs a grape scented candle. "Yrlk... why..." Drawing back from the offensive smell she saunters closer to the counter. "Neeettie. It's Jinx. I need your help with a thing."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Better question is, why is someone coming into the shop to cash in a favor and sniffing grape scented candles and saying 'yrlk!' How is that even pronounced? FRom what tongue is that decended? And really, did chemistry class teach you nothing, you're supposed to *waft*. WAFT.

    The crone's arrival is preceeded by the cawing of Corvax, the crow familiar alighting on a rafter overhead as the witch herself comes out of one of the back rooms, wiping her hands on a dish towel.

    "I hear you, I hear you duckie." Nettie answers. The old witch with the young face gives a wry smile as she regards Jinx.

    "Ah, good --" she looks up at the wall clock "... afternoon Miss Jinx. How can I be of service?"

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    Its been a few days since Ty got her assignment from Shaw. She's been studying blueprints, and making plans for a job until her Dad called her. A young woman has been training, and took a bad job that ended up pissing a lot of people off. Ty had to use a fair amount of the money Shaw gave her to deal with issues by having some of the Russians encourage other parties to leave the girl alone. Then she used another portion to bring the girl to the states. "Mari, you stay up here until until I can talk with Nettie about certain arrangements. You're using some of my space in the Fledgling area, so yeah. Also, DO NOT USE YOUR POWER unless I'm close by! No questions about that.", Ty barks. She is not fighting Mister Giggles a second time. Nor is she ever going to crab legs again. A 17 year old asian teenage girl makes a face, and a gesture that makes Ty feel like she needs to teach more proper manners about later. She shakes her head, reminding herself that the girl is young.

    Ty takes a long moment to come down the steps, and spots Nettie and a Guest. She pauses a long moment. She remembers one of Nettie's rules. Do not interrupt business. For the moment, the young Merc is standing by.

Marie-Ange Colbert has posed:
Sometimes, business can be one of those things where it's feast or famine. Sometimes it can be hours without a customer coming in, and then sometimes? It can be four in a span of minutes.

When Marie pushes through the door, the very French tarot reader is quiet at first... then beams wide in a smile at the sight of the elder reader in the shop. Given that Nettie's with /customers/ at the moment she opts not to call out a greeting, instead reaching an arm up to wave demurely. Of course, she didn't exactly come alone today, either.

Mary Bromfield has posed:
    Following right after Marie is a rather average-appearing brunette, glancing around the shop with a curious expression. Mary looks about quietly, not saying anything since apparently Marie coached her on that much at least. She also, for those sensitive to it, seems to /radiate/ magical power. Or at least, magical potential energy.

    She does also wave towards Nettie, following Marie's lead, and busies herself with looking at the variosu shelves with a decidedly curiosu expression.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx's head turns and her eyes follow to the clock. She looks back to Nettie with an expression of 'really?'. It's not like she doesn't know what that's like. Burning the wick at both ends. It happens. A slightly bemused smile crosses her features as she is called 'duckie'. Certainly a strange touch of home in the middle of New York.

"Well, .. wouldn't you say it's fair that I've been quite helpful on some of your extra curricular activities Nettie?" She takes off her backpack and from it takes out a manilla folder. "Because I figure I've earned up some credits and would like to cash them in."

She places down the manilla folder on the counter top before Netta. 'Unsolved' stamped across it. Scotland Yard. Case #19960233. She opens it up. Surrey, England. February 1996 - double homicide, suicide. There's a photo of a cabin in some woods. There's photos of blood everywhere on the inside and two stone slabs.

"Welcome to my birth. My fuckwit parents kidnapped some unknown woman and murdered her. Tried to murder me too with some weird magical ritual. Given that you're older than me and also from the UK. I thought may be you'd be able to identify her."

She takes out a photo from the coroners office of a middle aged black woman. A mole on her neck and several tattoos. The obvious injury to her chest - a knife wound. Right in to the heart.

"It's extremely important to me that I know who this person was and why my parents would kidnap her in the first place. What's her deal, what power did she possess.. that kinda shit."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Hullo Marie-Ange! And --" Nettie pauses, and she looks to Mary a moment, eyes narrowing, squinting, and then she gives another small smile. "Aye, I've worked with someone who feels a bit like you miss. Curious. Come up to the counter, all, let's get a pot of tea going -- and Tynan-" she points at the merc "we can discuss who's waiting upstairs in private. Really, you can't bring anyone into this building without me knowing. I wish people would stop testing it." she complains in a friendly tone, and putters about as she sets up some teacups.

    Jinx's is purple and black, with reflective stars on the tea saucer.

    Tynan's is hunter green with an orange cat chasing a ball of yarn.

    Marie-Ange's is light grey, and of course as is appropriate has a number of tarot cards in no particular order.

    And Mary's is a lovely soft sage green, decorated with red roses and clover.

    Nettie's own teacup is violet and has skulls on it. She's in a mood.

    "Well. In that era I was living in Ireland, if I recall, but let me see." the witch states, pulling out her half-moon glasses, and introduces herself to Mary:

    "Nettie Crowe, how do you do. I run the shop and some of the extracurriculars 'bout here. Good for advice and troublemaking."

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    Ty coughs a little bit. "She's just using my space. Good kid, stupid mistakes. I'll vouch for her, since I took away her weapons. She doesn't have any connections on this side of the Pond that I don't already have a good standing with.", the woman coughs. She comes down, and looks at the folder a little bit. She makes a face a little bit before sucking in a breath.

    "This...looks along the lines of a MI13 case, doesn't it?", Ty asks. The woman has been studying up on who /NOT/ to piss off if she ever goes to Europe. MI13 is one of the top Paranormal groups over there. "I mean, Scottland Yard don't exactly leave cases unsolved.", she states. The merc takes a step back. "My bad. Sorry. Shutting up.", she says. The Merc looks at her tea cup. She snickers a little bit. Ty offers a small formal European style bow. "Tynan Ireton. A former student of Miss Crowe's. Something of a freelance security consultant.", she tells.

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary smiles warmly back at Nettie, "Mary Bromfield, and pleased to meet you." She nods politely, placing her hands on the teacup, glancing at the decorations on the saucer and cup with a bit of fascination. Then she looks over at Tynan, giving her a friendly wave and nod, "Glad to make your acquaintance, though I'm not much of a consultant. I, ah, do gaming streams." Yes, she's a streamer, but hey at least she's not livestreaming the shop visit.

She does look curiously over at Jinx, sympathy radiating off of her as she can't help but overhear the details, "Wow, suddenly glad I'm adopted. Can't imagine how that would feel."

Marie-Ange Colbert has posed:
Marie's not going to object to such kind hospitality! So, reaching for one of Mary's hands, she heads forward. "Bonjour Madame Crowe! It is lovely to see you again. I hope we did not come at a bad time?"

Waiting to make sure her presence isn'tan issue, she adds, "I wish for you to meet my girlfriend, Mary Bromfield. Mary, meet Madame Nettie Crowe... who may well be more gifted a tarot reader than even I!" She says this proudly. She likes having people to look up to.

Tynan and Jinx get demure waves from the redhead, too. She's seen them around the shop, but doesn't think she's met them first hand until now. "Enchante, mademoiselles!" she offers with a proper curtsey of her own.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx nods to Ty, "Nice to meet you. Security huh. Interesting." Still, former student of Nettie's. That raises interesting questions. She nods to Mary and Marie-Ange. "Parent unidentified. Mystery victim unidentified. Caught a glimpse of the whole messed up show using a bit of time magic."

She looks at the cup and smiles, then at the gathered crowd, "Really don't recommend seeing your own birth folks. Also, definitely don't cross the streams." She doesn't react at all to Mary and her magical aura. Not like she would have a few weeks ago.

"The ritual my parents were doing was some kind of transferrance. So, whoever she is - she's got some kinda game worth killing over." A small smile grows, "You think Scotland Yard has a perfect close record? But yeah I bet MI13 had their hands all over this. There was a book and it's gone missing since. 27 years ago and all.. time eats things."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Time does have a tendency to eat things." Nettie replies quietly, giving a small, distracted wave until she hits on 'girlfriend'. She gives a bright little smile to Marie-Ange, eyebrows rising up.

    "Well then, additionally happy Pride, make sure you throw some bricks at bigots. I won't tell." she states with her warm, Northern British accent, and then she brings her focus back on the folder. She flips through it.

    "No, generally watching one's birth is greatly frowned upon. If not for the temporal instability, then for the fact that it's horrifying to know what a woman's body is capable of extruding." Nettie murmurs, and looks to Tynan. "Be a dear and set up the tea pot, kitten? I've already mixed the components in the tea ball. USe the gray teapot. It's larger."

    She flips through the information that's listed.

    "And they checked against missing persons reports and threw up all the missing posters, aye?"

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    Ty nods her head a little bit, and starts to head to the back. She shakes her head a little bit. "I swear some day gonna to have to find somebody outside of the clubs.", she says. Her irish brouge not matching her asian appearence. "Grey pot. Got it. And while the Yard doesn't have the spotless record, it still has its rep.", she says.

    Unlike everyone else here, Ty's actual magical powers are fairly low class. She's only really started using Magic proper a few months ago. "Hey Nettie, that doesn't look like a heart eater, does it? I don't want to deal with one of those. Given my magical nature...", she says. The woman does do the tea justice. She's been getting lots of practice in with it. Its not long before its read. Interesting how weak she is, given her former teacher.

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary grins impishly at Nettie, "I might just have to do that, it could be something they'd least expect. Though I suppose growing up in Philly it's to be expected of me." She chuckles softly, and nods over at Jinx, "And any thoughts of doing so have been dashed by your experience. Honestly I've found family is who you grow close to along the way. At least that's how my foster parents and sibs have felt. And there's a bunch of us together."

She does tilt her head curiously at Tynan when she talks about her 'magical nature' but doesn't pry further. Since she figures, probably rightly, that in this place you just don't ask since it's probably considered rude. Or grounds for being eaten by a grue.

Either way, prudence is a virtue.

Marie-Ange Colbert has posed:
Marie listens as Jinx explains the ritual in question; cringing a bit at the idea at witnessing her own birth. "I... will most certain to heed this advice, Mademoiselle." Of course, she also can't help but blush as she realizes she forgot to introduce /herself/ properly, suddenly turning rather red. "Oh, and, ah.... I am Marie-Ange Colbert. I am the tarot reader at the Hellfire Club, and consider Madame Crowe a good friend. Even if my rudeness knows no bounds for forgetting to introduce myself. My humblest apologies."

Nettie gets a grin. "Merci, Madame." A pause and she adds, "...if you remember the reading you did for me some time ago? This is the one I asked about. I took your advice." She made the decision to go for it, since ultimately she'd end up okay in the end! To say she's been happy since would be an understatement.

Marie's not exactly strong magical /power/ either. There's definitely potential for her, and she pings as a magical being for those who can sense such things, but it's all untrained. There's a look given first to Tynan, then to the photo, than Tynan again. "...are... the hearts of magical beings delicacies for these... heart eaters, Mademoiselle?" Marie asks, looking with uncertainty.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx certainly appreciates the purple and black cup with stars. She likes it. She looks over at the potential tea and then back to Nettie. A finger stabs at the Unsolved stamp. "Yuh. I'm sure they did their best. High profile case at the time. Even made it on to British Unsolved Mysteries."

She frowns, "You can't imagine how unawesome it was in the orphanage when that episode aired." The idea of 'family' being who you found is something she's only recently started to understand. Certainly it was no one at the orphanage. And given her adoption was a shame, no one there either.

Her expression sours a touch. "Look do ya know who is or don't you?" Because Jinx is here for the tea but desperate for the answers.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Nettie looks up. "Oh goodness. Philly? Where they grease the light posts on account of winning *or* losing championships?" Nettie raises her eyebrows a moment, and she gives a small smile, unnaturally light blue eyes darting to Marie, and she gives a small, approving nod.

    "Well, then we know that we are all here, among friends, and thus can speak freely about ourselves to the extent we feel comfortable. THank you for finishing the tea, Ty. I appreciate it. This isn't going to be a fun time."

    Nettie pauses a moment, and takes a closer look at the photograph. She tenses. She looks to Jinx.

    "Jinx, please allow me to say that your father, absolutely, was a contemptable person. I've crossed him before, rather sore temper. Didn't care much for him. Likely a few years before you were born, duckie."

    And she pulls the picture out.

    "However, her, I know." she takes a deep breath, and gives a swallow. And she stands up from her stool behind the counter, and reaches for the silk pouch of hand-rolled cigarettes in her pocket.

    "Uh... Nettie?" Corvax asks from above, the crow coming down from the rafter to alight on one of the stools. "Nettie I know that face."

    "Sean McConnell was a real piece of work. When we heard he died, me an' some Irish friends, we lifted a toast to the poor devil that had to claim his black-hearted, rotten soul full of arsenic and maggots and drag it to the depths of whichever Hell had the most room. But that... that woman is Kel Fountaine."

    Nettie brings the cigarette to her lips, and she lights the tip with a touch of her finger, and she takes a couple of puffs. "I'll have to make some calls after this."

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    Ty finishes the tea, and brings it out. She coughs a little bit. "You don't have to call me Madam. In fact, lets not go there, since where I'm from, that might be taken a little bit different. I'm from a pirate island, so yeah.", she tells. THe woman stretches out a little bit.

    "Miss Marie, and Miss Mary. I'm more or less a go for for Miss Nettie. Sometimes some travel is involved, and for most cases, sending one person is better then a huge group. Nettie asks me to look into matters that don't need a large group for her.", the merc tells.

    "Heart Eaters are a special sort of wyld witch. Mostly european, and mostly gypsy groups. They...tend to feast on other witches hearts to try to consume the soul, in which they believe a witch's magic comes from. In some cases, the witch that eats the heart gains the magic of the other witch.", Ty tells.

    The young woman stretches. "At least thats what I've studied about them. I never met one, and don't want to meet one. My issue is that I'm a mutant who learned magic from several sources. One of my powers I think let me learn several schools of magic, especially magics not typically learned by humans.", she makes a small face.

    "Either way, I've learned enchanting, illusions, and some charm magics. And before anyone asks, Enchanter, not Enchantess. I can enchant stuff, not people.", she clarifies.

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary grins cheerfully at Nettie's observation about Philly, "Hey, we had Rocky Balboa too, you know." She then grows more serious, listening to Nettie's description of the villain in question, as well as Tynan's explanation about her own abilities. She nods, "Well, I'll definitely need to steer clear of them. Hate to think of what they'd do with what I'm capable of." What, precisely, that is, she doesn't answer, but the magical power underlying her aura is almost like a thrum of an electrical generator.

Or a thunderstorm.

She does, however, nod slightly to Tynan, quirking a slight grin at her, "You sound like my first D&D character." Something to try and lighten things a little bit, as she does look over at the others, "Not sure what I can do to help, but... well." She looks at Marie-Ange for confirmation, making sure there's something that they /can/ do.

Marie-Ange Colbert has posed:
Nettie gets a low nod; if the senior reader in the room says they're among friends? Well...

Marie's never been fond of secrets.

"Very well." Pause. "...I am also a mutant who is able to bring the images on tarot cards to life." she offers freely, with a bit of a wary glance to the others. Only a bit of one, though, because Nettie vouched for them!

Plus, Tynan had already outed herself as not only a mutant but magical, and found a very good way at preventing her from using the honorific! "My apologies again, ah... Tynan?" Is the first name too /familiar?/ There's no rules of etiquette for this particular situation. The explanation of what Heart Eaters are, though, make her look more than a little queasy. Though... "That... is most fascinating, Tynan. A Mademoiselle Kale suggested that I, too, could learn, but..." She had to go. Where, Marie's not sure, but never got her lessons as a result.

"I am quite certain /your/ help, especially, Mary would be very handy no matter the foe faced." Marie adds, grinning fondly at the brunette. It's true! She's /seen/ what Mary can do, afterall.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx stares at Nettie with a touch of morbid horror. She never thought much of her dad before she peered back in time. Now she is pretty sure he's the worst parent in the world. Except that he suicided by cop to avoid going to jail. She really didn't want to know he spread his bullshit on other people too. That's her heritage.. no wonder she ended up a supervillain.

"Yeah so I'm Jinx. Since we're doing the whole revealing person shit thing." Jinx, a known Supervillain world wide. Those who follow the gossip or watch the news would know she'd surrendered herself in to the custody of the Titans. "I'm a..." there's a strange pause as she feels something in her pocket. She takes it out and places it on the table top. It's iconic - it's a T-com. "I'm a Titan." It feels weird saying it. Until that very moment she'd been saying she works with the Titans. But after her last discussion with Donna things were starting to feel different. "Sorceress."

"Kel Fountaine. Never heard of her. What's so special about her?" She wonders aloud and then her eyes widen a touch at Ty's explanation of her magic. "Huh. That's pretty wild. I had to read a lot of books and practice shit. Must be nice - anyway nah."

"This was some Ancie.. er.. Classic Greek magic crap. Spell was meant to sacrifice me in my ma's womb to transfer her powers." She taps the photo of Kel, "Into my mum. So. Yeah. Got some Themysciran librarian type lookin' in to that bit but figured I might as well know why my parents fucked over this rando's life and tried to kill me in the process. You know, usual family things."

"Something messed up the ritual. May be muh da' just bollocksed it up but I don't think so. I'm unlucky so may be it was never going to work on me. It doesn't matter much. What's done is done."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "You're Jinx, a sorceress and Titan." Nettie states. She could *feel the unsaid part. Everyone deserves their chance to change, in her eyes.

    "Kel Fountaine. Essentially.. if you take Wonder Woman, Doctor Strange, Superman, and put them together for championship of the whole of the world beneath our feet, the sacred Gaia, then you would have Kel. Gods, there are few people who could have left me tongue-tied, and she was one of them. The whole of the UK occult scene minus a few here and there had a time trying to find her... and here she was the whole time, under Scotland Yard's nose." Nettie takes a long drag off her cigarette.

    "Aye. Your old man was probably trying to take the power that was in her, imbued by the spirit of the whole of Earth, and put it into a willing labrat, poppet." Nettie states quietly, and she seems to deflate, coming back and sitting down.

    "Kel... we couldn't beleive she was gone. Who'd have the want to put on the hurt on someone sweet as cream?"

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    Ty nods her head a little bit. Ty can't say anything. She's a merc who works for the JDL. "Nettie, I could make a request to a friend to pay a visit to said arse.", she tells. The woman stretches a little more before shaking her head. "Well, I have two mutant powers. I had a second mutation. I subspace, and the other...Well, I don't talk about unless its necessary, cause people get disturbed.", she tells.

    "Should I get the good biscuts, Nettie?", she asks.

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary looks over at Jinx, and gives her a reassuring smile, "Hey, you've been through a lot, and I'm glad you're with us now." She coughs a bit, then grins sheepishly and rifles through her pocket, pulling out something and placing it down next to Jinx's T-Com.

An identical T-Com. Though a bit more used than Jinx's, as it seems slightly older. With that, Mary flashes a grin to Jinx, "Since we're giving out identities, you can also call me Thunderbolt. Formerly Lady Shazam, but I'm not one to follow in someone else's footsteps when I can make my own."

With that, she offers Jinx a fist-bump, "Honestly, I need to make more meetings at the Tower, but things have been a little chaotic lately. Moving to a new place, all that jazz." She smiles warmly at Jinx, actually looking much more comfortable with another Titan here.

Marie-Ange Colbert has posed:
Marie's not going to go quite as far as to say that she probably /wouldn't/ be surprised by Tynan's mutations thanks to having spent years at Xavier's... that's /their/ secret to reveal, not hers.

Jinx doesn't get any particular notice from her name alone -- Marie doesn't keep up with the Who's Who of Superheroes for the most part. If she hasn't met them, they'd have to be on par fame-wise with Superman! So. Clean slate, there. Though, when she mentions being a /Titan?/ Marie gives a look over to Mary, but doesn't say anything. Reasonably sure that the brunette can figure out where her mind is going on that.

"That... sounds like quite the harrowing experience in general, Mademoiselle Jinx. Sacrificng you before you were even born?" Marie has a bad relationship with her own parents, but it isn't quite /that/ bad!

Then Mary's revealing everything too, and Marie can't help but grin. "It is about time that I meet some of /your/ friends too, mon amour." Because the number of Titans Marie has (knowingly) met? That's very small!

Jinx has posed:
Jinx rubs her forehead with the palm of her hand, "Great. So my mum and dad murdered Mary fucking Poppins." A groan. She slumps forward to rest her face on the counter top. "Figures my legacy is taking away someone everybody loved. Well at least the fucker failed."

"Cursed me though, the assholes. Bad luck my whole life. When I went to where I was born the whole town was wrapped up in crazy weird shit because of what he and ma' did. Harley and I fixed it but fuck me, a lot of people died there."

A groan of displeasure and discomfort. "Kel Fountaine." She shuts her eyes and takes in a breath. In that brief moment where she saw her own birth - there was Kel. Tied up on a stone slab. She looked terrified. Jinx couldn't just watch - she interacted. She changed her own timeline and split off an alternate universe. Now she's paying the price for that paradox.

"Yeah anyway," she sits back up and wipes at her cheeks with the sleeve of her hoodie, "Thanks Nettie. Good to know just how fucked up my bio-family was." She lowers her voice, "And if he really was that bad well, she was worse." The impression Jinx's mother had made in those scant few moments of time perving hammered that home good and proper.

She smiles to Ty and laughs, "Oh hell no. Let him rot in that place. I can figure this out without him." Then, fist bump, with hand explosion and sound effect. "Yeah I was wondering. Nice to properly meet you. Here of all places. Kinda random."

She nods to Marie, "Yeah.. well.. -as- i'm being born. Seemed to be part of the ritual formula. I'll know more once Donna gets back to me." She looks down at the photos and the report. Unsolved. Solved just like that. "Best we get in to this tea then I think. And the good bikkies."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Oh no, they couldn't take out Mary Poppins." NEttie interjects as she sips her tea. "You really shouldn't say her name impolitely, either. She takes offense."