Owner	Pose
Clark Kent	Zatanna Zatara made a lot of headway in her research into the strange shadows with their odd sounds, as well as into the area of what might have caused it to appear. Some questions have circled around an auction of some unique 'mystical' items that were located in Metropolis around the time of late March. It included a sacrificial dagger, and some 'cursed' totems: a few statues of odd shapes. Oddly, no pictures on the website. Later checks showed there used to be more items, but they aren't shown anymore. Odd. Unfortunately, overall the auctionhouse seems to have been an enormously odd dead-end, just that no calls have been returned. None of the auctionhouse's people are responsive, and all auctions have been delayed or cancelled; the main curator is out of the country. It's just impossible to get in there using 'normal' channels. But there are, of course, other ways into places like that: both mystical or more ordinary... Entering the main floor, there's a terrible reek, of rotting things. Death. The storage areas are locked, but magic and knowhow can make short work of that. The warehouses are unnaturally, oddly dark, as if the very location itself were sucked so dry that light didn't even find a place to settle. There's a large number of containers and objects, all tagged, but the darkest area is towards the left from the door, where the floor seems to sag under the weight of the air.
Zatanna Zatara	For the evening's specatular, Zatanna is in her 'working' clothes... which means something not unlike what she'd wear on stage, even if the top hat is not really stage wear. It's got its own properties. She steps out of a portal into the warehouse and into... darkness. Ah. "Thgil," she says, holding a palm out and upward for the intended ball of light to appear above and hopefully act as a sort of lantern. Will it bubble outward or be eaten away? Hopefully it'll be enough to not trip over her own feet as she starts traipsing towards the containers, checking their tags: all heading towards that dark spot. The stench, however, does cause her to pull the kerchief out of her breast pocket and hold it to her nose. Eugh. Not a good sign. Not at all.
Lois Lane	The duo of Lois and Clark are no strangers to snooping around places they aren't particularly supposed to be. Usually Lois finds herself hunting down something a little less otherworldly menacing, however, so this is a change of pace. When they make it inside, the smell is certainly more than enough to make her gag a bit. She covers her nose, looking around. It's not so easy, with no light, so when Zatanna lights it up, it's a little more convenient. "So is this the part where we find a body drained of blood and a creepy summoning circle?" It's a joke, but Lois is partially serious in this instance. She /doesn't/ know what they're looking for or what they'll find now.
Clark Kent	"This darkness seems... darker than... than normal darkness is dark," Clark observes, helpfully, uncertainly, a worried quiver in his voice. The poor mild-mannered reporter usually runs away well before darkness becomes darker than NORMAL darkness. So this perhaps is outside his area of bravery. He sticks close to Lois, though, a hand on her sleeve a little clasping, perhaps for support as he peeks around. It won't /feel/ as worried, though, his hand itself is steady. It's more so that she knows if he ends up in hypnosis, that he'd let go of her. ...And his hand slips off, and he slows to then just stop, staring into the darkened room in a vacant, distant way. There's some odd sounds above, but they are very distant. Like distant scratches of nails of chalkboard, or strange screaming firecrackers... But those sounds are distant. Ahead of them, there /are/ some feet jutting out near a box. The shoes are a little dusty. That /would/ be a body, just like Lois wanted. And the source of the smell.
Zatanna Zatara	"I would prefer no summoning circles. Demons are not my area of expertise." That'd be Constantine. Sure, Zatanna -can- deal with that sort of thing. The question is does she want to? Still, from what she's read up on with this thing... she's not too thrilled. At all. And the death... it doesn't surprise her, but it doesn't make her happy, either. The fear of it spreading is greater than anything else. "I feel like summoning circles would have been mentioned in what I read up on," she says finally to Lois, as unhelpful as that is. Maybe it's to bolster herself. She encourages the light a little more, trying to push back at supernatural darkness with her own power to give them a little more range because a cluster of squishy people is never a good thing. She veers towards one of the tags: near the box. Maybe she hasn't noticed the feet yet. Maybe she's scoping out to make sure there aren't -other- bodies nearby. Or something lurking over or around the body. This isn't a meal or bait, right?
Lois Lane	The dead feet are creepy, but that's not what Lois is worrying about. What she's worried about is the fact that Clark let go of her and stopped. It's a silent sign that they're not hearing what he's hearing--but they very well could be in short order, and that's dangerous. She stops so as not to leave Clark in the dust, placing a hand on his arm while she looks back over to the magic user. "Zatanna, is there a way to make some sort of sound-proof bubble around us right now? And fast?"
Clark Kent	The corpse doesn't do anything, and nothing lunges out of the dark room. It's just them, and a corpse, reeking, in the storage area. The magical light holds fast against the darkness as Zatanna commands: she is able to create as much light as she wishes. Whatever sucked life out of this place has left, and isn't fighting her. Clark doesn't do anything, he just stands there, in a trance.
Zatanna Zatara	"Of course," Zatanna tells Lois, looking away from the boxes and body. "Enoc fo ecnelis!" Hey, those D&D nerds can be useful sometimes. They have some pretty good spell ideas. And execution. A 'cone' of silence oriented on the trio? Sure, why not. When you have to make sure you can say everything backwards and on command, having such things to practice and pull from is -handy-. Zee just might not admit, readily, to some of her source material. Tabletop gaming, ha. Still holding the handkerchief to her face to ward against the smell, she starts her way closer toward the corpse. "Dusty shoes," she notes, voice a bit muffled now. Eugh, death smell. "Someone snooping around like us, maybe?"
Lois Lane	"Someone snooping around who didn't have a sound proof bubble," Lois suggests. Her hand stays on Clark, not because she's worried (obviously she's never worried even when there is danger), but because she's making sure that he's actually waking up and that they've stopped the potential danger from turning them all into some kind of pillar of catatonia. She gives a quick glance towards Zee, though she doesn't progress any farther until she's certain Clark's back to normal.
Clark Kent	The corpse, when drawn close to, has a very obvious cause of death. His face and chest and upper body is covered with deep pieces of glass-like metallic shards, of all sizes, imbedded in his body. And he's laying in more shards. The source of the shards is nearby, a weirdly tall mirror that is laying on it's face, shattered pieces all over the floor, as if it had fallen over. There's blood, as well, from the corpse's injuries, as well as the sense of the floor caving in, /weaker/, in that same area. "What?" Clark asks, abruptly back, and catching Lois's gaze as if nothing had happened. He looks a little puzzled by it, but nods. He's quick; he must have zoned out. He stays quiet, trying to catch up on what's going on, staring around... (inside the crates like a cheater).
Zatanna Zatara	"Keep your eyes open," Zatanna says, though it's not necessarily needed. She's just clearly on edge. Cutting off their hearing is necessary, but it's just something she clearly dislikes in general. How easy it'd be for something to sneak up on them now and even as she crouches near the body, she keeps looking up, around. For a woman so keen on being aware of her surroundings, this being in a bubble of light and sound is making Zatanna especially jumpy. "Something's... weird here," she says finally, frowning. "It's... you know how in sci fi movies you see the effects of grater gravity? How things begin to buckle in? That's what this reminds me of. I mean, this is a concrete floor. Nothing should make it bow like a bookshelf with too many books on it and yet..." She straightens, stepping back... as much to let Lois get a good look as to try to get some air that isn't full of the sicky sweet stench of death.
Lois Lane	Lois' eyes are certainly open. She doesn't have to explain to Clark what happened. He knows. She grabs his arm to tug him along. As she listens to what Zatanna's saying, she moves to try and get a better look at what's going on. Her eyes widen, glancing around. "You know, usually I'd have some kind of funny quip and silly explanation that might sound vaguely applicable, but... I've got nothing. I can certainly say I don't exactly like the idea of ending up like that guy, though."
Clark Kent	Clark starts looking in crates in a more physical way. He has to actually look in them before he can report that they are empty. "These are empty," he reports after pulling off the loose lids on three. "The tags are just barcodes," he reports, but pulls his phone to take some pictures of them quickly, while keeping an eye on the area around them. He's worried, jumpy, too, by all looks of it. The two reporters are in over their heads, with shadow demon things! "Can you use magic to.... to find out what happened?" Clark asks, while he gets his pictures.
Zatanna Zatara	"I don't think any of us relish becoming like him," Zatanna tells Lois. She watches Clark go through the boxes, making mental note to ask for the photos later. Maybe she can cross-check the auction listings with them later. When he asks if she can use magic to find out what happens, she presses her lips together and looks back at the scene. "Yes," she says, but there's hesitation in her voice. "But I'd be using magic to look at magic. It's risky. It can be like... oil and water sometimes." She tucks the handkerchief away, clears her throat, and steps back. "Get behind me. Just in case." She gestures to the little orb of light, sending it to hover somewhere over them like their own little light sprite. Taking a deep breath, she gestures in front of her, making an 'L' out of index finger and thumb on each hand like a director might when framing a scene... and then draws her hands apart to make it bigger. She's trying to contain the 'picture' before she sets off the spell. "ekaT em kcab!" The words are simple, but the magic she's pouring into the spell isn't: trying to push time (or at least their view of it) backward, to before the man died so they can see what happened.
Lois Lane	Lois doesn't question the suggestion to get back. She does so, one eye kept on Clark to make sure nothing happened to him. The dutiful partner. The rest of her attention is firmly on Zatanna's spell, especially because if it works it'll potentially solve a big piece of the puzzle. "Who knew this'd end up being such a big mess," she mutters, mostly to herself.
Clark Kent	Clark glances at Lois, having heard her mutter of course, and draws an arm around her shoulders gently, subtly. He's not going to leap in front of her unless he senses danger, but support, quietly? Yes, as they both move to where Zatanna asked them to, to look on. It /is/ oil and water. It's a horror of crashing, clashing visuals, as if the whole sequence were marred by vibrating blasts. Even so, through the visual shrapnel, they can see the real shrapnel, of a man bashing a long, brilliant gold statue-like thing into the mirror... Time goes backwards, showing a massive shadow thick and pulsing in the mirror.. Time leaps forward, shows the mirror shards digging into the throat of the man.. Time leaps again, cold and dark. Again, huge shadowy limbs crushing the floor... and fading.
Zatanna Zatara	There is strain in Zatanna's features as she holds the image and likely tries to clarify it. She's antenna and viewer all in one and it's hard to channel while trying to make sense of things. Harder still when you're fighting against the tide. If this were, say, a hit and run to grab a license plate... well, that'd be nothing, but they also have CCTV for that sort of thing nowadays. Of course it's easy. When it fades, her arms drop and she sags, hands on knees as she takes a few deep breaths. "Remember-" and then she has to gasp for air a few more times before she can get it out again. "Remember when we were kids that whole... Bloody Mary thing? Look in a mirror, say Bloody Mary three times? You'd dare each other to do it in the dark? This reminds me of that except real. And about a million times worse." She straightens, hand on chest. "Whoever this man was, maybe he was on to something. For one. For two... this thing is strong. Frighteningly so."
Lois Lane	"Yeah, this sure does remind me of that. Not looking forward to staring into any mirrors anytime soon," Lois mutters. Her mind seems to be trying to puzzle piece the situation fully together. "So... I'm thinking maybe this guy was trying to stop it from leaving the mirror but it got out anyway. Does that mean in order to stop it we need a mirror? And if so, can it be any mirror or does it have to be something special?" Her gaze moves quickly between Zatanna and Clark.
Clark Kent	"What about what he hit it with? I don't see that here anywhere," Clark asks. And then slowly steps forward, one hand offered uncertainly towards Zatanna. "Are you okay?" he questions her quietly, unable to /not/ offer to help steady her if he can. He shoots a concerned blue eyed look to Lois from behind his glasses. And then looks down at the pieces. "I hope it doesn't have to be /this/ mirror. This is... at least fifty pieces now." He squats by the man, the husk that is left, without revulsion, just a sad uncertainty, checking him over, and pulling a wallet from a pocket. "Francis Duvoll." Clark looks at the rest of it, pictures of him with a wife, and child. Sigh.
Zatanna Zatara	"I didn't think of the-" Zatanna waves off the hand, shaking her head slightly. "Magic, at times, can be exhausting. Like anything that takes effort. I'll be fine." She lifts a hand to adjust her hat as much as make sure it's still there. Of course it is. Just a tic. "I didn't think of what he was hitting it with. Some sort of statue. An icon, perhaps? I just assumed it's what he had on hand." Her lips purse and she puts her hands on her hips, staring at the ground as she works it over in her head. "No, I don't think it has to be that mirror. Gut feeling, could be wrong. But maybe a mirror is how it gets trapped... or destroyed, yes. Mirrored surfaces- I've heard of things like that- like Bloody Mary, yes." She does look forward as Clark gets his name. "Think you two can look into him? See what he was researching? Maybe we can find out what that statue he had was."
Lois Lane	"Right, so that's another mystery. We know what happened to him at the moment of his death, but the kicker is... where /did/ that statue go? Either the shadow thing took it, which I doubt, or someone else came in here and took it but didn't feel the need to disturb the body or inform anyone." Lois frowns. "Not sure I like that it's not here. Means there's an extra layer of something we aren't seeing here." Her mind's racing. "Okay, so maybe it's just a reflective surface but you have to break it with that object? So maybe you trick the creature into going into the surface, then bash it to lock it in? If it's just reflective, you could use a body of water like a pond." The spitballing of ideas is what she has to offer. She nods in Zatanna's direction. "Sure, there might be a clue from that. He clearly knew /something/ about what was going on... either that or he was just a severely unlucky man."
Clark Kent	"He might not be as innocent. Maybe he caused this ... on purpose or accidentally. We need to learn more about him, and the object. Maybe the mirror just... reflected what the statue really was." He looks up. "More information on that, and... the mirror." Clark nods to Zatanna, and then Lois. He's absolutely on the job, as well. "We can't leave him here," Clark says, uncomfortably. He really doesn't like that. Even if the guy was a bad guy? No, Clark wants things done right.
Zatanna Zatara	"I'll hit the books again. See if I can connect anything to mirrors or anything relating to that statue." Zatanna looks down at the body, frowning. Already thinking back to the research she did. Already trying to plot out what she'll look into next. "No, we can't," she agrees with Clark, but looks up to the other two. "I'm uncertain about bringing the police in here, though. This place isn't safe. Should we... deliver it to them? I know they hate when a crime scene and a body is disturbed, but better that than... adding more bodies, right?"
Lois Lane	"Maybe it was in the object and the mirror was what let it out?" Lois isn't sure, but she's still throwing ideas around. She glances over at the body, still a little comfortable just being around it even while they're having the conversation. Her gaze flashes to Zatanna, then back to Clark. "We can inform SHIELD. I'm pretty sure they were alerted a bit about what's going on so they could do their own research. Shouldn't be hard to let them handle this side of things, that's what they're good at."
Clark Kent	"I have a SHIELD contact. I think that's best," Clark agrees, with a glance to check in with the superhero, Zatanna, before actually doing anything further. He works on the message, while brows are still furrowed, trying to think through what the next steps are.
Zatanna Zatara	"If SHIELD is already aware of all this, that's the best bet," Zatanna agrees. She does step forward, sweeping her top hat off so she can reach out with one hand and gesture towards one of the pieces of mirror to use telekinesis to sweep it inside. Into that special space that's neither here nor there to trap it within until she can study it more in depth later. "Let them see that his next of kin is made aware. Maybe make arrangements for them, if possible." She looks back to the other two. "Let's get out of here before whatever that-" a point to the floor, the shattered mirror, the whole of what they saw. "decides to come back."
Lois Lane	"Yeah, it's certainly close enough to be a danger, I'd say, so getting out before it returns to the scene of the crime is probably wise. Clark and I will handle getting SHIELD on this and we'll look into what information we can get based around this man," Lois glances at the body before looking between Clark and Zatanna. "At least we've got some possibilities for stopping it, now... or at least something to work with."