9503/Onsen and Ofuro: The Exhibit

Onsen and Ofuro: The Exhibit
Date of Scene:	07 January 2022
Location:	The British Museum, London
Synopsis:	The League responds to a bizarre missing person's case at the British Museum, which leads them to ...take a bath? Straight into another world!
Cast of Characters:	Hope Svelgate, Megan Gwynn, Eric Brooks, Jonathan Sims, Meggan Puceanu

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Hope Svelgate has posed:
The British Museum, an indomitable bastion housing countless cultural artifacts and still more visiting collections, one of the last vestiges of a once great world spanning empire. With so many treasures of the strange and exotic contained within, the museum is hardly a stranger to odd occurrences and so it is in the office of the director there exists an old antique phone, unchanged since it was installed in the mid-1800's, that provides a direct hotline to a certain group of mystically inclined adventurers who have done no small number of favors for the Crown in the past.

Tonight that phone has rung again. If things are not brought to an acceptable conclusion it will be a scandal of epic proportions even for this storied edifice. The incident in question has been all over the news. After a new visiting collection from Japan 'Onsen and Ofuro' on the history of Japanese bath culture arrived, there was an exclusive viewing for well to do families and the politically connected, as there often is. Only the young granddaughter of an influential member of the House of Lords, the 9th Duke of Wellington, vanished without a trace during the event. The police and even Scotland Yard are completely baffled, on the security camera footage it is like she was there one moment and gone the next. Needless to say the Duke is furious and the media is aghast at how could this happen and the tabloids are eating it all up with wild speculation of all kinds.

So it is that the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen have been called in to investigate. Upon arrival they are quickly shown inside the mostly darkened building and through the halls to where the 'Onsen and Ofuro' exhibit has been cordoned off. Inside is a remarkable recreation of Japanese bath life. There are mock ups or early mountain onsen and even depictions of super modern recreations like the Oedo Onsen Monogatari in Tokyo's Odaiba. There are also depictions of basic Ofuro bathing through the ages from simple wooden buckets and well water to ultra modern waterproof rooms with tubs capable or reheating the water when needed so they don't need to be continually refilled. Plaques on the walls outline the details of a cultural practice that hinged on the local religion's emphasis on a purity and pollution, bathing being a form of cleansing, and how it was important to wash oneself before ever setting foot in the bath.

The centerpiece of the exhibit however is a recreation of an old traditional Sento or bathhouse completely from historical antiques and artifacts dating as far back as the Heian period.

It is in that latter part of the exibit that the young Lady Charlotte Welleslay vanished in the vicinity of a very large old, yet somehow remarkably well preserved, wooden bathing basin. In the surveillance footage they are shown before being lead into the exhibit, she had been climbing upon it, trying to see up over the edge and then was just gone.

Which brings us to the present...

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn has some connections with the League, although she's more a reserve member than anything. But it seemed they could use an extra hand or two, specifically of the mystical variety, and so she stepped out to join the others. She had opted for her non X-men attire, specifically the black mini dress with the gold belt, boots and gauntlets from her X-costume. It's more low key but still marks her as a superhero of sorts. Just in case the bright pink hair and wings didn't do it.

At any rate, as they are led into the museum and particularly the Japanese exhibit, her eyes widen in awe and wonder as she peers around this way and that. "Woow, this all looks so..So real." but enough talk, it's time to see what exactly is the nature of this mysterious disappearance. Is it something in this exhibit? Someone perhaps? She closes her eyes and opens her magic senses to see what she can sense that might be out of the ordinary.

Eric Brooks has posed:
Blade isn't a huge fan of museums like this. For one, they were mostly colonial holdovers, a lot of stolen items swiped from colored folks around the world and put up for a bunch of tourists to gawk at. Look at the exotic things people who aren't like us own. Look at how strange they are. He was sure someone would want to lecture him on the importance of history and legacy and all that if he said anything, though, so he just keeps his peace about it and gives an occasional sneer.

He wears a sweeping longcoat over an array of weapons that would be hard to believe, all of them expertly compacted or hidden enough to make him look like an ordinary person. That is, except for the hild of the katana jutting up just behind the nape of his neck. "Sure she didn't just go down the drain?" he says with a snort on hearing of the missing girl.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jonathan Sims' connection to the League is hereditary, but he takes it seriously. Whether or not the world might be ending this week, he has a duty to perform. He wears a blazer and slacks and black turtleneck over body armor, carries his ICER and collapsed staff openly. He looks more 'government agent' than 'superhero' but that's part of the point, really.

    "It... probably /is/ real," he notes to Megan. "These are cultural artifacts, after all." He frowns. "At least they /borrowed/ these instead of just claiming them as spoils of war," he mutters. Look, he's part-Egyptian and part-Indian, there are... issues. And the League probably had to talk to security because he's on a ban list from some student protests, back in the day.

    He sweeps the area with his own Sight, frowning thoughtfully.

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
The Crown-direct hotline has no business working however it does on Meggan's phone. That the signal even reaches her through unconventional means suggests something is afoot, and the sleepy Tuath de Danaan slaps at the glowing screen in an exhausted fugue. Only blind, dumb luck prevents her from shattering the reinforced glass. A market for superhero-resistant smartphones is sorely overlooked as a viable niche!

Meggan plunges through one of the byroads connecting vast distances in the span of a story and arises in Bedford Square Gardens to the terror of a roosting jackdaw. The bird wails a harbinger's tale for its interrupted nap long after she settles in with the rest of the League to sift through footage or take in the Japanese architecture reconstructed so authentically.

"Does the young lady have any talent for disappearing into thin air?" she asks without much preamble of the police or the duke. Being she founded Excalibur, this question probably shouldn't curl lips so badly. "Have there been any unusual incidents with staff? Might be something no one thought was connected, but hearing noises or getting a spell of dizziness are all of interest to us." One doesn't hang around a scruffy magician without learning a few things.

Hope Svelgate has posed:
One of the attendant police officers frowns at Blade. "We are quite sure she did not." He seems almost indignant and then after a moment turns to his partner, "Did you check the drain?"

"Are you daft?!" The other police officer just throws up his hands and walks away ...perhaps to check the drains.

"No history of disappearing. Quite content with her life, no signs of depression, no suspicious boyfriends," The Scotland Yard detective overseeing the mundane investigation runs through a list of possible reasons people with noble titles are want to disappear and the reasons that they have each been discounted. "She's just gone. Never seen the like, unless it was one of those KGB superspies, hmmm perhaps we should call MI5." He muses making a note. It says something about the British Museum and its history that Magic Curses are suspected before elite foreign agents.

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn arches a brow at the police officers, then smirks at Blade, "Wait, what, you're suggesting she just..Just got sucked down the drain? I mean what a crazy, ludicrous....!? Helllow...What is this? Ooh, this is lush.." she grins as if a lightbulb just went off in her head, and she pauses by the large wooden bathing basin, peering down the drain, searching for any traces of something or someone there, like human hairs or articles of clothing.

"Okaay strange, I'm sensing traces of magic all over, but this basin in particular, it's as if there was magic here earlier, but it's rapidly fading. What's that mean, a recent spell was cast?!"

Eric Brooks has posed:
Blade shrugs, "I've seen crazier shit," he says. He walks over and leans back against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest as the others peer around and try to examine the energies in the area or whatever other hocus pocus dooh dah bullshit they could do.

He yawns a little, showing a hint of fang, "I ain't no Sherlock. Wake me up when there's something to kill." he says.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon turns in a slow circle, looking around the area. "There's a lot of magic here," he muses. His eyes briefly glow citrine yellow-orange. "Tsukumogami. Very old items become minor kami as their spirits awaken. Similar to other Japanese folkloric beliefs, such as a cat that grows to a century having its tail split before it becomes a bakeneko yokai." A beat. "Not relevant nor useful, that, but I rather like the idea of a century-old cat."

    He blinks, his eyes returning to normal. "Several items here apepar to be that old, then, their... spirits awakening. Including the bath?" He looks to Pixie, and nods. "That... might make sense, if the magic's fading."

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
"A century-old cat would have some interesting opinions. Imagine the stories! Also the unnerving insistence on a schedule to eat brekkie and supper on time," Meggan chimes in. She drifts around the wide bath in a loop, drinking everything, and probably plenty that someone cannot see in the meantime. Spirits are kin to her, in a sense, and she extends a wordless greeting by simple impulse of welcoming, respectful emotion through air, water, and wood both. Her hands come together, palm pressed to palm. "Kami may be disturbed by us, though I hope not to muck about too much. The less disruption the better."

It's bound to be a tad unnerving to watch her float up a bit and peer into the bath, following up on Pixie and Jon's recommendations to stare down into there. "This the signal to go /looking/ down the drain? I'd rather leave that til the other options are exhausted, if we might."

Hope Svelgate has posed:
Looking over the edge of the bath basin, the drain doesn't promise much save some newly fastened piping linking it to the museum's plumbing. No sign of any noble heiress within. There is one curious element within that the inspectors have decided not to move just yet, a plastic bottled water bottle with the top missing.

The reason for that being, they know where it came from because it was Charlotte's, seemingly dropped over the edge when she was climbing the exhibit. Further, a bottle of water is unlikely to cause a /mundane/ disappearance, so the crime scene professionals though it best to leave the scene as is in that regard for the 'consultants'. At a glance some water still remains within, but not enough to flow out on its own anymore from the resting position.

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn peers at the bottle and frowns, scanning that too with her magic sense. But really the basin is pretty big and she's gonna have to get nearer to figure this out. Jon is given a curious look as he goes into Japanese folklore, arching a brow "Kami? What's that..Are you saying even objects possess a spirit or something?" but much like Blade, she's impatient and she hops into the tub to get a closer look at the drain in particular, "Sooo, does this pipe work or.." even as she speaks, Megan peers curiously up at the pipe that feeds water into the tub.

Eric Brooks has posed:
Blade sees the bottle and cocks his head, "I swear, if this is some sort of Alice in Wonderland 'drink me' thing, then this whole damn situation can eat me," he says. "Gotta say, ain't real chuffed about the idea of bath spirits. Dead or alive, I ain't lookin' for no peepers when I'm washin' up."

He leans over a bit to stair down in the drain, "Yo, little girl! You down there?! Somebody shrink you up or somethin'?"

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "Yes, ahh, that's the idea," Jon says. "Kami are... I don't know much about them, truth be told, that's an area of religious knowledge I'm sorely lacking. Ought to work on that. But from what I'm given to understand... they're not /quite/ gods the way I understand them, though some are? They're... spirits, yes, they can reside in an object or the landscape, they can also be the spirits of the dead..." He shrugs, and looks over to Meggan, seeing that she seems to get it on some personal level.

    He blinks at Pixie and Blade both as they go to peer into the tub. "Wonderland's in Metropolis right now, I hear," he says absently, and then goes to pick up the water bottle--which, fortunately, no water spills from--and considers it, frowning thoughtfully. "Nothing... obviously... I don't think she was in /danger/...?"

    He stops and leans down a little to take a closer look at the wood near where the bottle was. "Some of this spilled earlier," he says. "Almost completely evaporated... it wouldn't even still be noticable if the wood weren't so old." His frown deepens. "Did she slip...? Or... was there a portal? Was the water a portal...?" He looks around at Meggan again, the other empath. Does she have a clearer impression?

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
Meggan flits along no particular path, clearing the ground by a few inches when it suits her to move unrestricted between the large Japanese bath and the decorative walls or objects arranged for the greater enlightenment of the British public. Nodding to the Scotland Yard investigator in a distracted way, she isn't visibly paying much attention to the League members in her immediate vicinity. Blade leaning to shout into the bath does not initiate a collision. "She was not expecting what happened. No signs of any fear though, she was feeling a mite more inquisitive. The time she popped out, no, she must not have felt threatened so much," she asides to Jon without fully turning to him.

A smile breaks on her lips while they await a response from the depths of the drain. "Oh! I almost forgot. Does anyone speak Japanese?"

She unfolds her hands and lands back to the ground, approaching one of the artistically rendered shoji screens. There, the faerie scion dips into a proper bow. Not extraordinarily deep but not shallow either. The sum of a lifetime combing the Internet or TV gives a few phrases worth using. "<Konban wa.>" The bow over, she gazes over the screen, her eyes an opalescent luster rimmed in black. In the spirit world, she is aglow with sparkles. "Hello, honoured one. I am Meggan born of Danu, lady of the otherworld realms of the dream. I offer my respects to you. Would you have seen a human girl disappear and slip into the water or air here?"

If anyone does speak Japanese, she mirrors that to speak to the screen. And, after that, a handsome old broom in a corner. Proof she's utterly deranged.

Hope Svelgate has posed:
The drain does indeed seem to work. "The drain is quite functional, there was a plan to fill the tub properly for special viewings several times over the course of the exihibit." An on hand assistant curator attached to the exhibit informs Megan from a safe distance.

Blades voice echoes down the drain a bit, but no reply is forthcoming from the depths of the pipes.

The water bottle for its part seems like a normal water bottle in Jon's hand, it makes crinkly plastic noises in protest to his grip exactly as it should, with about one third of its contents still swishing around in the bottom.

When Meggan begins addressing the ornately decorate shoji screen depicting a beautiful moonlit scene of Mt. Fuji across Lake Motosu, one might be forgiving for thinking she is utterly insane. But not long after there is a whispering on the wind, quiet enough you might pass it off as imagination, a sound like a breeze rustling against the paper screen.

<<Konban ha, Ojou-sama.>>

The words play at the very edge of perception as Meggan approaches the antique weathered looking long handled wooden push scrub brush in the corner.

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn peers at Blade thoughtfully, "You know, you might have a point there, I wonder if she shrank down..Or something? "she peers at Jon and Meggan, "Do ya think some of these spirits could be mischievous?" And then Meggan starts to talking to the screen and she freezes, "Huh..It talked back? What did they say? Heey, I wonder, can we turn that water on, see what effect that has..?"

Eric Brooks has posed:
Blade reaches back and lays a hand on the hilt of his sword as he hears the sussuration of a voice, lips curling back from his teeth sharply. "Mischievous. That's one way o' puttin' it. Up to no damn good's more like it. Never trust the dead. Or the livin', for that matter, but at least the livin' you can shoot."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "I mean, the Archive provides help with languages sometimes but..." Jon turns away from the bath and blinks at the screen. Not at Meggan talking to objects--he actually figures she knows something he doesn't--but at the object /talking back/. Audibly. He turns to regard the screen and steps toward it. He bows to it, not terribly properly, because he doesn't have the sort of knowledge Meggan does and he's going with 'be polite and follow Meggan's lead.'

    "Ah. Hello. I'm Jonathan Sims, the Archivist... we're with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." He frowns for a moment. The Archive is not providing translation; annoying. He needs to work on that, he knows his ancestors could do this. "And we're looking into this... disappearance, yes, of this young lady." He takes a moment, concentrates, then conjures a portrait of Charlotte in the air before the screen.

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
Soft-spoken breezes widen Meggan's smile. Her loose hair sways around her shoulders, mussed enough to not exactly fall back into place. "They understand. The kami might not see things the way you expect." She steps aside for Pixie, mindful of her wings. "Sometimes have to think a bit diagonal and sideways." After giving another bow to the broom, without even a trace of irony, she gives that same polite hello. The whole elegant fix of it is brought to a brief moment blushing when Jon adds /who/ they are as a collective group. 'I should have thought of that' is practically written in glitter gel pen over her face. Oops!

For a moment she goes still, and then the malleable contours of her features shift. London's just about as diverse as New York. The spirit world reflects Japanese mores, and Meggan changes to match. She bows again. All that's said in Japanese will be repeated in English, and she very carefully avoids an outright bargain in the process. "<My companions and I would be grateful for the assistance to find the girl. Her father cannot see her. He worries, as a father would for the small seed. Please allow me to give proper hospitality, the pure water and clean winds of this land that is our home.>

Hope Svelgate has posed:
The assistant curator makes a face at Megan like he has just been stabbed when she asks if the tub can be filled. But then jobs are on the line, his included, and with no mundane answer in sight and desperation setting in he ultimately deflates. "I will see what I can do." And he dashes off to try and make it happen.

Where most of the English words seem lost or so much air to the screen, Jon's illusion of Charlotte does get some response from the screen. <<Kono ko, ofuro ni hairimashita.>> (That girl entered the bath.)

Meggan's conversation with the old wooden push scrub brush is more fruitful once she switches the Japanese. <<Bippin da ne jou-chan! (Well aren't you a pretty one!) The brush's voice is a bit more audible that the shoji screen and is reminiscent of an old man, one with a lecherous streak. <<I might be able to help ya out. What's in it for me? My wood could use a good polish! Hohohoho!>>

As the encounters with the tsukumogami play out, there is a burbling sound of flowing water from the wooden chute above that feets the water from the pipes. Water comes splashing down from above in a torrent and when it touches Megan? Suddenly Megan is gone. At the same time to any mystic senses the bath basin has lit up like a beacon, revealing it as no mere tsukumogami and quite clearly not even of mortal make, how it wound up on Earth is anyone's guess, but it doesn't take much to guess that when its intended purpose is fulfilled, it is acting as a link to wherever it came from.

Megan finds herself ...in feudal Japan? At least that's what the scenery looks like. A cliffside resort town with all manner of stalls hawking food and other festival goods, only the hawkers are not human. Some look it a little, save for stray animal features, others are more akin to a walking humanoid Japanese radish, or even Oni demons. In the distance a massive bath house with a chimney belching smoke looms across a red ornate wooden bridge.

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn peers at the screen and the brush, arching a brow, still uncertain of what they are saying. But as the water turns on, she suddenly feels the world spinning enough that she closes her eyes tightly. When she looks again, suddenly everything is different. "Woaah, where am I? Where is everyone else?" Okaay, seriously, this isn't wonderland but close enough?

Eric Brooks has posed:
Blade frowns, "What in the Mickey fucking Mouse is goin' on with this Disney shit? Is this a talkin' bath? Is there gonna be a chubby lady teakettle comin' around whackin' folks with a spoon? I'm just saying, whatever goes on here, I ain't singin' no damn songs," he says.

Then Meggan starts to disappear as the water rises and he swears under his breath, "Ah, god dammit," he mutters, and then he shoves his head into the water and finds himself joining Meggan wherever she is. Can't let the weird little elf girl get ghost-drowned on his watch.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon doesn't understand a /word/ of what any of the tsukumogami are saying, his brows furrowing--he /really/ needs to get on that 'Archive translation' ability--when the water starts to flow and there's a flash of magic. He turns to find Blade and Pixie gone--and five seconds too late the puzzle clicks into place in his head.

    "Oh, /bloody/ hell. Meggan, I'm calling for backup, and then I'm going in there."

    He pulls out his phone, firing off a text to be certain other League members can follow them if need be... and then walks right over to plunge his hand into the bath water.

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
Does a goddess of the fae polish scrub brushes? "I'll need some Tableau wood soap, please." Meggan sounds nothing like her typical self, the erasure of her usual accent supplanted by a much softer, twee London cant. Switching back to Japanese follows just in time for Pixie to disappear, the other Megan washed away in a splash. "<Winter night, that answers that.>" Surprise sharpens her tone with surprise, not the other way.

But the puzzle snaps for Jon about the point it does for her, which is too late for them tumbling in. "<I offered power, energy that will strengthen you. Speak, honoured ones, or we are called to find the girl.>" She asides for the scrub brush, "<The other I cannot give, sworn as I am to the trickster commanding scathefire. Try charming the other two already gone in.>"

In for a penny, in for a pound.

Hope Svelgate has posed:
Not long after Pixie, the others appear one after another in that faerie-esque otherworld through a Japanese lens. Blade appears, and then Jon, and then Meggan joins them as well until the entire party is present.

All around them the festival atmosphere is just starting to get into swing as the hawkers begin barking about their wares. In the distance all manner of shadows can be seen approaching as the sun of this world touches the horizon filling the sky with orange and purple hues as it begins to melt out of sight. Before long night will.

In the distance with the fading of the sun, the great looming bathhouse too begins to come alive, windows lighting up, chimney belching great clouds of thick black smoke, as what can only be described as a relaxation resort for the gods themselves prepares to open for the evening's business.

Whatever has become of young Charlotte, the answers are surely here ...somewhere.