World Tree MUSH

    The building is an older brick building sitting comfortably near the San Francisco bay shore. It is the site of a new weirdness that has mundane authorities scratching their heads; a resounding silence that envelopes the building, muting noise within it and keeping sound out of it.
    Naturally, this world's mundane authority just calls in outworlders to investigate, lacking the resources and knowledge to deal with such things. The line at which the silence begins has been demarcated by hazard barricades, nothing more than painted sawhorses with flashing lights. The detective is briefing those who answered the call.
    "The silence isn't constant, it usually lasts about twelve hours before it stops." He looks open to questions.

    One of those offworlders who answered the call... Is a catgirl.
    Now, sure, Mau may be a legendary hero back in her homeworld, as dictated by the platinum rank adventurer's guild dogtags that she wears. But here? She's just another adventurer. And she kind of likes that. Being 'just' a catgirl with a lot of swords feels pretty nice. But here she is, reporting for duty after making a quick stop at the local deli and grocery store.
    She has a baggie of chips and energy drinks in one arm.
    "Man I can't remember the last time I had a Brawndo the Thirst Mutilator." She mutters to herself as she lines into place for the briefing.
    Mau raises her free hand slightly.
    "Has anyone actually been hurt, maimed, and or killed?" She asks. "Or is it just like..."
    She pauses.
    "Super mega quiet, and that's it?"

    Illumiel is here. An oddity to those unused to her, or her sister. A young looking blond girl, about mid-teens or so, wearing rather mundane casual clothes... for a medieval peasant, an impressively clean white dress, a traveling cloak about her shoulders... and an array of various objects that can be easily grasped and weilded as a melee weapon strung on a belt around her waist, kinching the dress there. Long travelling boots on her feet, replacing the sandals that a couple others may have expected.

    She settles near to Mau, reaching up to adjust the tiara set in her hair, and brush a stray lock of hair out of her face. "Doest thou know for what this building was once used?" she asks, her tone level, her voice musical, and the pitch that of someone older than her frame may indicate... not to mention the archaic speech pattern.

    Justine isn't exactly a hero for hire. In fact she has no real interest in helping! But seeing the call does catch her interest just because, well... it's something weird, and she's not busy right now. Her arms are obviously artificial, which might draw some attention, but she's opted not to wear her wings today.
    "Is it a regular, predictable period or is it just randomly once in a while it goes quite for twelve hours?" she asks, kind of boredly really. It's not that she isn't interested in the answer, she's just kind of eager to poke around inside. At least the crew here probably doesn't know her, or or at least the peasant and the catgirl don't.

    Dante meanwhile IS in fact a hero for hire. Trademark pending.

    He arrives with a strawberry smoothie, slurping obnoxiously while he makes his way to the building. "So this is what the client mentioned, huh?" He says, giving a wave to the detective. "Name's Dante, I got hired to poke around this mystery house a little bit. Wired cash upfront too, so he must've been scared out of his mind." Mau, Illumiel, and Justine all get waves from the white haired, red-clad anti-hero. "Ladies." He grins cheekily at them before up and approaching the front door into the building.

    With Rebellion on his back, and Ebony & Ivory at his lower back, Dante's not exactly going in unprepared for a fight if necessary. He'd swear he's seen way spookier stuff anyways, this is nothing new.

    "Welp, ladies first." Dante says, kicking the door in and moving to the side in an approximately gentlemanly way.

    The detective checks his notes. "Well, silence is a great environment for people to get hurt. Can't hear a fire alarm, for example. Maybe some dishonest folks mugging perfectly honest ones, that sort of thing."
    "It's... still an apartment building. People have found temporary lodgings if they could, but there's some folk that remain because they've got nowhere else to go."
    "Not really predictable, usually evening through overnight."
    Dante's footsteps fall absolutely silent as he enters the zone, the sound of the city hushed into nothingness. No ambulance sirens. No traffic noises. No harbor sounds. Not even a thrum of vibration felt in the soles of the feet or the sound of one's own heartbeat in the ears. The door swings noiselessly, though its condition suggests it shold have made the squeak of unoiled hinges.

    "Oh hey, Illumiel." Mau greets the angel present. "How's your sister and Itana? Is Itana still all acting grumpy and complaining all like 'this fucking cat!!!' but actually totally secretly loving my antics?"
    Mau has no idea woh Justine is, nor Dante for that matter, so she turns to them next. "Hey, I'm Mau. I'm a catgirl."
    That's her introduction. It's simple and to the point. This is when she siiiiiiidles up to Dante. "Oh huh, neat sword. It's totally magical right? It got a cool name or anything?" She gabbers like a kid with ADD.
    Evening to overnight silence though, that's concerning.
    "I wonder what kind of gribbly causes that, huh." She muses as Dante kicks open the door... With absolute zero noise.
    She looks to Illumiel. "If we go in there and something happens we won't be able to hear jack shit for the usual callouts. I've got an idea." Mau says as she rummages through her backpack...
    She produces a ball of fucking yarn.
    "As long as NO ONE ASKS why I have this, we can use it." Mau says tying a length to her tail before she ties another bit to Illumiel's wrist. She'll tie a bit around Dante and Justine's wrists if they allow her, too.
    "Just tug on the line of the person in front of you if you need to give a shout for any reason. I'll take point."
    That's probably why she tied it to her tail, so she could lead as she starts heading in through the kicked in door.
    Mau makes a face.
    The silence is oppressive.

    Okay, residential, and still occupied. The Angel nods and then blinks at Mau curiously. "We have been well, and as far as I am aware, she does not speak thse words outside of thine presence." she replies, as Mau ties the yarn onto her wrist. "A sound plan." she adds, falling into line with the others.

    She actually winces as she enters the null-sound zone, blue eyes darting around on high alert now that one of her senses is completely nullified.

    Dante grins at Mau before he goes in. "Yeah, it's a hand-me-down from Dear Old Dad." He says, "The name's Rebellion. Do yours have names?" It's just small talk before they get inside, the silence is oppressive enough for Dante to consider Mau's plan.

    It's not too terrible in theory, but fighting might make this complex. "Alright, let's try it." He says, before drawing one of his pistols in his right hand before offering his left wrist to Mau to tie onto. "At least I don't have to worry about deafening one of you guys in there." Dante muses, brandishing Ivory as he cocks the hammer back. The beefed up .45 sweeps the interior as Dante keeps an eye out. With his head on a swivel, Dante's sense of sight is gonna have to work overtime to compensate for his hearing being non-existent now.

    "Huh, at least they can sleep soundly?" Justine points out. She's not really a 'silver lining' kind of thing, but she only glances at Dante. She knows who he is, but if he isnt' raising a fuss, she won't.
    When Mau produces the yarn, Justine sees the chance to make some cat jokes... and passes. "Just call me Justine. And I don't see why we'd wonder, I carry one too, sometimes." Of course Justine is a seamstress in her off time so that may be a bit different huh?
    Justine doesn't appear armed, other than the fact that her arms themselves are obviously mechanical, but she follows in without any hesitation, a slightly amused smile on her lips.

    The apartment building is just five stories tall, small as far as the rest of San Francisco is concerned. The arcology project hadn't reached this far south on this side of the bay area yet. Despite this, it looks well-maintained and well lit. The interior walls are decorated with bright sky blue wallpaper with the earth tones of simple wood paneling on the lower portion. The group can definitely tell which residents have vacated from the lack of doormats. One would expect the hum of the faux fluorescent lights overhead, but their brightness means they were replaced with LED-based ones some time ago.

    Mau smells something akin to damp fur mingled with a strong musk. Doesn't smell like any normal animal but something cryptic and hidden. If it were closer, the others would definitely smell it, but the scent emanates from the direction of the boiler room.
    When Justine enters the zone of silence, there is this distant sense of... relief, peace, contentment.

    Justine isn't exactly able to remark on it, given the zone of silence. If she were really invested, she'd use her quasi-telepathy to talk... but that actually does involve effort, so she keeps that up her sleeve for now.
    Instead she just tilts her head, running metallic fingers along the wall. She looks thoughtful, which is the only clue she's going to give to the others that she senses anything at all. It's not like she bothered to tell them her powers before coming here.

    Mau says... Something. It doesn't carry and she heaves a visibly aggrieved sigh as her ears pin back. 
    Her animal-brain really isn't liking the absolute quiet.
    But she soldiers on as she steps froward and pauses... Head tipping back, she sniff sniffs at the air and looks like she's picked up on something as she looks back to the others and taps her nose.
    She points to the direction of the boiler room. She makes some basic hand gestures. IT's not full on sign language but a truncated version of it used by adventurers to make quick and silent communication when necessary.
    It's mostly 'I smell something that way', but really she mostly points to her scrunched nose and then the boiler room direction.

    Illumiel doesn't really understand the signs... she often works alone, or with the one person she doesn't /need/ to communicate with to work together perfectly. The gestures from Mau, however, are basic enough that the Angel doesn't have to stress her mind to comprehend what's being communicated. Smell. That way.

    Illumiel follows, drawing one of her 'weapons' in her non-tied hand, an iron rod with a pointed half-sphere at one end. It looks like a rod from a metal fence that has been ripped out of the frame... ready to fight if need be.

    Dante meanwhile doesn't need much to know what Mau is saying. He nods and begins to advance that way, trusting Mau's instincts. Animals just KNOW, sometimes. Y'know?

    At the door to the boiler room, everybody else can smell the wet fur and musk. There's also the smell of something in a crockpot cooking, a stew of some kind. The door warns people that only employees should enter beyond and that there's dangerous machinery inside. A festive decoration for Lunar New Year is pasted on the door, which is locked.

    Mau reaches the door and looks to the others. She looks to the sign on the door.
    The smell is strongest here but there's also that cooking smell... Mau rubs her chin.
    She mouths some words. If anyone can read lips she's saying...
    'This sign can't stop me, because I can't hear.'
    She then pulls out one of her many daggers and tries to get it in the door-jamb and jimmy the lock like one would with a credit card. Except she's using a dagger.

    ... 'This Fucking Cat'. Thinks Illumiel, echoing with Itana's voice as Mau just goes to break open the door. She sighs a bit, and focuses on her 'weapon', limming the fence post in pale blue-silver Blessed Flame, ready in case something takes offence to Mau's lockpicking attempts.

    Dante sighs and readies his pistol while he watches Mau jimmy the lock open. At least whatever is behind it won't be nearly as much a chaos being as Mau is, it seems.

    THis fucking cat indeed.

    Justine isn't quite sure what Mau said, but still manages to sigh as well. Rather than pull out a weapon, she rummages in her bag and pulls out... a stuffed animal. A dog, to be specific. No, not a taxidermy-stuffed animal, a sewn up child's toy.
    She tosses it over to the door where Mau is trying to jimmy the lock, and the dog perks up and waddles over to the door, ready to slip inside once it's opened. Of course, being a teenager with SOME sense of humor, Justine chooses to have the stuffed animal scratching silently at the door like a real dog.

    The door jimmies open, being only secure enough to keep out the casuals and honest people out. Inside there's paper lanterns hanging, illuminating the space. They're too bright to be anything but the lampshade and an electric tea light, but they give the place a warm (albeit dimly lit) look. There's a crockpot on low, delicious smelling steam wafting from it. The source of the animal smell is sleeping on a cot in one of the cramped spaces; a shaggy humanish thing to which darkness clings like a cloak, with talons on its hands and feet. Clumsily taped to some places are polaroids and photos of an asian man and his parents.
    There's the content thoughts of a happy home coming from the shaggy beast.

    Mau is no casual.
    She's kind of a tryhard.
    But even she has to look down and blink at the dog-doll scratching at the door as she looks to Justine questioningly.
    Nevertheless the door pops open and she steps in after the doll while it goes to poke inside. Already her eyes are adjusting to the dim light, darkvision kicking in and...
    What the hell is that?
    She looks to the others and shrugs vaguely in an 'I have never seen this kind of thing before and that says something' manner as she taps her sheathed sword questioningly.

    Dante is in the same boat, and he's seen some nasty things before. Unfortunately he only gets a vague look at the thing unlike Mau. Shrugging at Mau, Dante then slowly approaches. He's unsure if it's a good idea to poke him, but ultimately decided to hell with it.

    He reaches out and taps the figure on the shoulder, pistol in his other hand just in case.

    Illumiel is beginning to think she may be a very bad influence here... her aura is one of conflict and righteous bloodshed, Castiel's would be far better suited.

    She spies the sleeping thing in the gloom, and actually takes a step back, indicating she should probably remain outside of the room, lest she cause an incident.

    Well... Justine isn't sure what to do. She's not a NICE person, at all, but neither is she the sort of villain who randomly breaks into a person's house and murders them. She has a reason to be the way she is, and attacking random snoozers isn't one of them.
    How to communicate that there's no hostility though? She opts not to use her mental communications, instead tapping her chest, and then making the little 'sleeping' gesture to try to make it clear the thing is relaxed right now. She isn't going to stop Dante from waking it up though... after all, how it reacts to a stranger is just as important.

    *IF* there wasn't a zone of total silence, the grendel would have woke up screaming in sheer shock. Its expression and panicked manner probably conveys that though. It raises its claws as if to protect its face. When it gets the gist of what Justine is doing, it shakily picks up a little white board and dry erase marker, scribbling. It reads: 'What do you want?' in clumsy writing. It seems likely that the being can't communicate through speech to begin with. More noticeably, the silence hasn't lifted.

    The thing wakes up! ... And doesn't tear Dante's face off. That's all well and good. And then it displays that it's intelligent enough to write and communicate.
    Mau blinks. But then is stricken with an idea.
    She holds her hands up to indicate non-aggression as she flashes a smile.
    She approaches slowly... Slowly... Slowlier... Yes slowlier!
    And then reaches into her baggie from earlier.
    To offer the creature a bag of potato chips and a MONSTER energy drink.
    It's a peace offering!

    She isn't sure what Mau is doing, but when THAT is the result... Justine sighs and facepalms. Shaking her head, she finds a notepad to actually get this done! This is NOT helping her opinion on the competence of heroes!
    Scribbling out a question, she turns it around to offer it to the strange creature. It's just a question asking if it knows why everything is silent.

    OH good, it's not hostile. That's...one less fight Dante supposes. He stows the pistol and waves a hand in greeting before Mau makes a peace offering. Yeah, that'll do.

    The grendel gently takes the energy drink, thinking it best to not move suddenly around several people who are armed, sets it near the crockpot.
    It then wipes the board clean and writes 'Apt 513' on it.

    After a noiseless ride up the elevator, the fifth floor reveals another hall much like the entryway. There's someone doing evil nearby according to Illumiel's preternatural senses, and Justine can sense a sort of serenity centered on apartment 513.

    Illumiel starts to bristle as she approaches the apartment the grendel indicated. It's subtle at first, the others may not notice initially, but the signs are there... a tension in the movements, becoming almost like a predator stalking prey. The harsher set of her features, a subtle tensing of her brows, and narrowing of the eyes, the slight increase of her grip on her makeshift weapon, knuckles becoming slightly whiter as blood is forced out from the strength of it.

    She can't speak her apprehensions, but Mau might be able to tell the Angel is getting ready to kick open the door and declare righteous vengeance on the occupants... or whatever might be inside.

    What a lousy elevator ride. It doesn't even have muzak.
    Mau is already looking pretty tired of the silence by the time the elevator ride is over and the party reaches room 513. She looks to the others and--
    Illumiel is bristling.
    Oh snap that could be bad.
    Mau notices every little aspect of the angel's body shifting to that of a pacing predator.
    And...
    Mau, like a good old lazybones cat, does absolutely nothing about it.

    Wheras Illumiel is bracing herself to kick the door down, Dante doesn't waste time. He just does it, booting the door down with pistols aimed while he begins to sweep the room. No time like the present, breach breach breach!

    Of course, Justine has different standards, and doesn't know there's a 'doing evil' component here anyway. She does follow, but she's frowning, rubbing her chin. On her shoulder, the stuffed dog is also rubbing its chin, mimicking his creator, who is clearly expressing some doubt about this.
    Oh never mind, Dante is just busting the door down.
    Even though she causes a lot of trouble, Justine has to wince at that. Being an empath, she is not looking forward to the 'serenity' being interrupted and how that's going to feel.

    Dante's foot sort of goes *through* the cheap door. The door goes down, breaking the silence with the sound of splintering wood veneer and the door frame cracking.
    Inside, a middle-aged woman who was reading near the window gasps and faints at the sight of the warlike visage of the angel. The place is comfortably furnished, cozy even.
    When the woman falls unconscious, sound abruptly returns. A scream from down the hall around the corner can be heard and somebody telling the scream to be quiet in rude and vulgar terms.

    Dante is surprised his sudden entry like a John Woo anti-hero isn't enough to make the woman faints. But then suddenly he realizes he just heard the door get splintered. And then he hears a scream down the hall.

    "Holy shit, I think we just fixed the sound. But what about the scream?"

    And suddenly there's sound again... "It seemeth this woman is the source of the malady... or perhaps merely a catalyst. Something evil lurks nearby, though the source is indefined." She's not as on edge... though that scream draws her attention.

    The Avenger stalks down the hallway in the direction of the sound, seeking where it came from, her fence-pose bludgeon still burning with that Blessed Flame.

    That sure was noise.
    "Oh cripes, I can finally hear again. My animal-brain was flipping the fuck out." Mau huffs when the door busts in, the woman faints and there is once again noise.
    "Someone check the woman, make sure she like didn't have a heart attack or something. I'll check out the scream and keep Illumiel on a leash." She says turning to follow after the angel and make sure she doesn't do anything too rash. Unless rashness if required, then she'll let Illumiel Smash like Hulk.

    "Well of course, she probably just wanted some peace and quiet," Justine snarks, though she also thinks this was maybe a bit extreme for that. So she isn't going to stop the check on the scream, and instead will slip into the room to examine the woman. Checking pulse, and so on... and seeing if there's a strong emotional imprint(aside from the obvious panic from a shirtless man-child kicking down her door)

    The screaming woman is wrapped in a towel trying to get away from a man with a backpack, bolting out of an open apartment door. The man tries to grasp at the woman to keep her from fleeing, but is enervated by Illumiel's presence and finds himself out of breath.
    The woman is alive, simply... unconscious. There's a sort of blankness to her emotions at the moment, an oblivious sleep. One can hear the noise of the highways and planes flying towards the airport, the banshee scream of sirens ricocheting off of the concrete canyons inside the apartment.

    Illumiel walks right up to the man, grabs him by the collar and shoves him through the wall of the apartment he just exited from. "Stars align, bestow your light. Evil purged by heaven's might. Spirits curbed, Radiant surge, by dictum divine. Heed my words." she says, dropping the man after wrecking the wall with his body, then pointing her fence post at his face. "Only evil creatures are affected by my presence. Confess thy sins, and be cleansed. Deny them, and be purged."

    Oh. Oh carp.
    That dude is trying to kidnap a lady. Mau bolts after Illumiel and...
    Pointedly does not stop Illumiel from going Hulk Smash.
    The catgirl, instead, skids to the towel-wrapped woman to check on her.
    She seems to be okay just unconscious or sleeping.
    Mau pokes her lightly.
    Then... Like a cat... Pokes her again.
    And again.
    "She's fine, I think. Just out cold."

    Dante was just about to put a cap in the man's leg, but Illumiel seems to have it covered. "Oh. Well this was lucky. Or maybe not." He goes to check the lady's pulse with Mau. "Yeah, think she'll live. What about you, L'il Chicky? Gonna purge this guy or what?" He watches Illumiel, curious to see how she'll handle this guy.

    Justine misses all that, but Illumiel being a walking Kool-Aid (Wo)man really makes her flinch. No wonder this lady wanted peace and quiet! Still, that could have been a major disaster, so she's not exactly sorry for her either. After ensuring she's alive and just asleep, she rejoins the others and shakes her head.
    "She's out cold, but I think she'll be fine." She gestures back. "You should do whatever it is they do here to people who abuse their powers so obviously, I guess." Though she also makes sure to take a clipping of hair from the woman. Might want to find her later...

    The guy confesses to robbing the be-toweled woman's place while the sound was out. She was just in the shower and heard him rummaging through her stuff when the sound returned. The backpack has the woman's valuables and cash in it. The other woman, the one in the apartment, is more of a mystery, as she will probably be out for hours yet.