Shadowhunters [ Advanced RP ] discussion

Leta was standing in the corner of the alley as she blood leaked from a wound on her forehead and one on her side. She had been injured in a fight against a demon, one she had lost incidentally enough. This demon had been killing mundanes and the institute had been tracking it down for weeks but it kept alluding them. This was the first time they had gotten close and she lost it. It would have been easier with Lily here but the institute had sent her off on a different mission. She couldn't do anything about the injury right now as she was had lost her stele in the fight. She would have to get a new one once back at the institute. She had been too late to save the mundane much to her dismay. She hated death. She got herself together and made to leave before the police came but a mundane saw her and screamed attracting attention and someone dialled 911. She sighed, stupid glamour rune. Why did it never work when she needed it?

The mundane who called the police fussed over her, recognising the body as the same type of attack that had been all round the news recently, and decided she had been a victim of the same attack, just she was luckier. She just hoped they didn't change their mind and think she had anything to do with the murder as the last thing she needed was a trip down to the local police station. But she supposed at least it was more writing material if she did have to go downtown with them when they eventually arrived. She had forgotten how long it could take emergency services to get places.

She hoped they would hurry up as she actually wanted to get some writing done today. She had so many ideas in her head and couldn't wait to jot them down. She would do it here but she didn't think the people fussing over her would be very happy if she did. She noticed them speaking to her but just ignored them as she knew they would just think she was dazed or concussed. Then she realised if she didn't reply they would probably insist to on taking her to hospital. Why were the police taking so long? She wanted to go home.

Fact: any and all cases that were bizarre to the point they seemed impossible and practically unsolvable ended up on Sampson’s desk. Fact: there was something that connected all these cases, something just out of his reach, just out of his sight—something so predominate yet so invisible that it eluded him enough to stay in the shadows. Fact: he’d never give up on a single one, no matter how cold it became. Fact: he was frustrated. Fact: he may have just been given his first solid lead of the current string of murders that’d decorated an entire wall of his office with a web of yarn and pins that connected everything he knew but did nothing to help. Fact: the LA Mangler had never left a victim alive…until now.

The call had come no more than fifteen minutes ago, his partner having rung him up despite this being his day off—thank god. Kierra knew him well enough, despite them only having been partners for shy of a year now, to know that he was never really off. His life was his job, and his job was his life. There had been another attack, one that matched the Mangler’s profile to a ‘T’, minus one little detail. The Mangler had left someone alive, a woman. She’d been roughed up a bit, not enough to allow paramedics to take her to the hospital to be checked out, it seemed.

Dipping under yellow tap, Sam made a quick scan for his partner, but didn’t see her just yet. He’d beaten her there, his apartment being closer to the crime scene than the station. She wouldn’t be far behind, though, so no need to wait for the preliminary sweep of the scene. Hands tucked in the pockets of his hoodie—no time to dress the part of detective before rushing to the scene, Sam started to walk down the alley, observing each puddle and spatter of blood that coated the walls and ground. The Mangler was nothing if not concise, keeping each of his murders as gruesome as possible. Things of horror movies, without a doubt, possibly surpassing them. It was weird, as were most of his cases, though, that the Mangler could manage to rip apart his victims so quick that no one got to catch sight of him. Or maybe people did see him…they were just never found to tell their stories.

Bodies were not covered, the pieces spread far and wide, and the gasps and panic words of the onlookers on the other side of the tap were constant even with police attempts to get bystanders to back away and not look. People were far too curious for their own good. “Aren’t you off today, Hopper?” asked a familiar voice. Glancing to Officer Tanner, a rookie with potential, Sam gave a brief nod.

“Yeah, but not every day there’s an eye witness to one of my cases.” He looked from Tanner to another officer several yards further down the alley holding a pen and pad, talking to a girl who’s back was to Sam. “That her?”

Tanner looked over his shoulder then back to Sam, giving him a nod and ‘yeah’.

Even before working at LAPD Kierra knew about the weird cases that came across detectives desks. Having been a journalist at the local newspaper she'd written about plenty of them. Some were here dads cases, she usually got information from him that he was aloud to give, or his partner gave her information when she was unable to wrangle any out of her father. Either way since joining the force, she realized just how many impossible cases they got. And the cases did seem impossible, and yet here they were. People drained of all their blood, people with their skin peeled off with such precision it shouldn't be possible and now people torn apart with no witnesses what so ever.

She'd always known that there was more to the world, that things weren't what they seemed, but seeing the cold cases, being put on the crazy cases with her partner, just showed her how scary that all was. That there were things out there that couldn't be explained, that were committing these crimes in the streets of LA, her home, the place she was raising her little brother. They're had always been apart of Kierra that wondered if what she saw, all the madness and crazy impossible things she saw, where what caused all of these coldcases. And if so, what piece of the puzzle were they missing? Because they were missing a piece, the most important piece. And if they could just find that missing piece, maybe just maybe, they could solve these cases. Or maybe life would just get crazier, maybe things would get more complicated and maybe they're lives would be forever changed by what they discovered. If only Kierra could figure out what it was she had yet to uncover. And why did it seem like she was the only one that saw these things? And should she say something about it, or just keep quiet? Some days she felt guilty about saying nothing, as if just saying something would open the door to discovering what they were missing. Other days she knew she couldn't say anything. Who'd believe her? Who'd believe the crazy, impossible things she saw on a daily basis. Things that both fascinated and terrified her to the core.

All she knew was that this case, the case of the LA Mangler, was definitely one of the impossible cases. Yet it was somehow happening. Bodies ripped apart, torn into pieces, by this thing. Barerly any evidence left behind, and somehow no witnesses, nobody knows anything or has seen a thing, until today.

When the call came in that he'd struck again she'd been horrified at first. What poor soul had been it's latest victim? What family would suffered a devastating loss, like the one she suffered a year ago? And then there had been shock, surprise and finally hope. The victim was alive, and maybe, just maybe, they'd finally be one step closer to finding the bastard, finding him and stopping him from hurting anyone else. Hope that maybe they'd seen something, that could help, maybe even got a good look at the killer, enough for a sketch artist. She'd immediately rang Sam, knowing he'd want the call, because he was a workaholic, and to him work was never done.

Hanging up from Sam, she'd imminently dashed out of the precinct, happy to have a reason to leave. It had been a year, exactly one year since her father's murder, and she needed a distraction other than trying to work the case that had gone cold.

Arriving at the scene she was surprised to find that Sam was there already, After all he lived closer to the scene than the police station was. She also wasn't surprised to find him in a sweatshirt. Clearly he decided he didn't have the time to change and actually look like a detective. Though that wasn't surprising given how obsessive he could be when it came to the job. Not that Kierra blamed him, after all she was the same way. Ducking under the yellow tape, Kierra headed over to her partner who he saw near Tanner. "So he messed up this time, left her alive. Think she got a good look at him?" she asked as soon as she was next to her partner. No hello, how are you, just straight to the job, She knew he preferred it that way.

As he’d started to head towards the witness, Kierra came to his side, saying how the Mangler messed up this time, asking if he thought the witness got a good look or not. “I don’t know what to think,” Sam admitted, continuing to walk with Kie at his side. “If she’d saw something revealing, there would be no room to leave her alive, but yet here she is. Roughed up pretty bad, but alive…maybe she fought back enough to scare the killer off…?” Sam’s voice grew distance as his mind followed after that thought.

What if the girl had fought off the killer? The Mangler feeling threatened for his life enough to risk leaving a witness to expose him? Such a small and pretty little thing, despite her scratches, bruises, and all around dirtiness, amazing to even consider that maybe she’d given a brutal killer a run for their money. Or maybe it was something else altogether. There were too many possibilities to guess the answer; he needed to speak with her if he was to learn anything.

Before his partner could reply, the two had grown near the witness, close enough that Sam felt comfortable taking the reins from the officer. “Officer, Detective Hopper and Mendez,” he told, motioning to the two of them as he spoke their last names. His eyes traveled from the officer for a moment, landing to the brunette. The look on her face seemed almost…bored? In shock, perhaps… Most likely. Had to be. Right? He looked back to the officer as the officer told him he’d just gotten on the scene and hadn’t gotten to ask really any questions to the girl. Giving a nod, Sam returned his attention to the girl.

“Sampson Hopper,” he introduced, debating for a moment if he should offer his hand or not for a handshake. He opted not to. People in shock sometimes wanted to restrict their physical contact with others, wanting to stay within their own bubbles…while others near needed contact from another person to feel ‘safe’. It was a risk either way. “And this is Kierra Mendez, my partner. Can you give us your name?”

Leta sighed as she saw the police arrive. Hopefully this wouldn't take too long, she didn't have all day to wait around. A police officer came over to her and she restrained from rolling her eyes as he started asking a couple of basic questions of her. Did they do this with everyone? No wonder investigations took so long. But she would have to put up with the mundanes before she could leave as she didn't want them to have any suspicions of her for which she should probably act a little more scared and a lot less bored. But hopefully the would just put it down to some ridiculous mundane thing called shock.

She realised with a start that the officer talking to her had been replaced with two different officers, one of which who was rather hot she noticed looking him up and down. She hoped she hadn't missed what he was saying when she had been lost inside her own head and tuned back in. Thankfully she hadn't missed anything they said but if she had she could just pretend it was shock setting in. Sampson huh, it fitted him. She turned her attention to his female partner who looked just as capable if not even more so than Sampson."Leta Bellefleur" she introduced herself, giving her real name as it made no sense to lie. Once she left here they wouldn't be able to find her anyway, well they might find her books but what were they going to do with them? They were fictional stories as far as the mundanes were concerned, not things that happened in real life. She briefly wondered why he hadn't offered her his hand, isn't that what mundanes usually did when introducing themselves? But didn't concern herself with it. The habits of mundanes were the last thing she had to worry about at the moment

The first was namely getting out of here without the police suspecting her of anything and then going to go find that demon that had been invading them for the past couple of months. But first it was a trip back to the institute to find Lily as if anyone could get this demon it would be her. Well her or Christian but Lily was her parabatai and they worked seamlessly together.

She ran her hand through her hair and winced when she brushed the cut on her forehead she had forgotten about. Right maybe reorganise those priorities, first get out of here, then back to the institute, find a new stele, heal her injuries, then grab Lily and put an end to these demon attacks once and for all.

Following Sampson towards the witness, Kierra found herself nodding along to his words. Everything he was saying made perfect sense. Why the killer had left her alive was in fact a mystery. Keeping a witness alive was a dangerous thing for the killer to do. Even if she hadn’t gotten the greatest look at him she could still give them something. It would be more information than they had before anyway. And if she’d fought back, well that also meant something. Maybe the killer wasn’t as tough as he seemed. Maybe the other victims had been ‘easy pickings’ in his eyes. Or maybe she was just a lot more skilled of a fighter than the killer.

Though the witness, a young woman, by the looks of it, maybe a few years younger than Kierra was, seemed like someone who had the skills to fight. So maybe it was her second theory. Oh sure she was small, but so was Kierra, and looks could be deceiving. She just had an air about her that made it seem like she had some practical training in fighting.

As they neared the young woman Kierra let her musing trail to a halt for now. She could theorize later, when they had more information to go on. Though from the expression on the woman’s face she almost seemed bored of what was going on. She’d put it down to shock, except there was something telling her that wasn’t it. Maybe it was the tattoo’s she could now see on her. She’d sworn while growing up she’d seen other with the same markings. And all of them had seemed tough, like trained fighters. Oh she sure hoped they weren’t dealing with someone in a gang, though she had a feeling they weren’t. Instead it felt connected to the other strange things she’d seen all her life that she’d never been able to put together.

Following Sampson’s lead she opted not to shake the girl’s hand. Instead she sent her a warm smile hoping to make her feel better. Because maybe she was wrong, maybe she wasn’t bored and was in shock, like most people would be. Though she did seem kinda distracted, which was understandable given that someone tried to kill her. “As my partner said Miss Bellefluer, my name is Kierra so feel free to call me that. We just have a few questions to ask you and then you can be on your way,” she said kindly trying not to make the situation any worse for her than it was in case she really was in shock. Noticing her wince at the cut on her head she added, “and hopefully soon so you can deal with your injuries as soon as possible.” She figured since the EMTs weren’t pestering her that she was mostly alright, just some minor injuries.