AS ABOVE (game thread)

Barely acknowledging Salem's intrusion, Bonham focused on the interview, noting down Dr. Thakkar and a general description of the "baby".

"You've given us some useful information already. Don't beat yourself up." Of course, there was a certain level of distance between Mr. Graves and the patients. The kind of distance Bonham often saw from people who'd never been shot at or lost an extremity in their life looking down on them, their buddies from [REDACTED] company, and even discharged vets. But that was a different story.

"But you did mention a...'her' and her child. Care to elaborate?"

"You guys are working with the cops, right? Did they not tell you about the missing woman? One of the patients, she disappeared recently. She, uh, lost a child, apparently. She committed herself. I don't really know much, I never worked with her. There've been police asking around, investigating, but I don't think she's turned up."

Graves lets out a quiet sigh through his nose. This hospital has apparently been through a lot.

"It appears they did not see fit to share the details with us, must've deemed it irrelevant to the incident you were caught up in." Bonham spun the pen between their rough fingers, creating a sense of urgency where there was little. "Does she have a name? Identifying details you could tell us about?"

In addition, they would follow the other thread. "And Dr. Thakkar, how are they doing? Any way we can get a hold of them?"

"You’d have to ask some other staff. I didn’t know her. And… Thakkar’s dead."

"I'm sorry." They really are, but not enough to get particularly down here. A lot worse has happened at their hands. "I think that puts together a picture of what we need to know." With a snap, they close the notebook. "If you'll excuse me, Mr. Graves. Should you receive any further calls, they'll likely not be from us."

Like that, Bonham excuses themself, regrouping with Erasmus, Salem, and Lycaon to share their findings and decide on a course of action.

Back with the others, it was clear what Erasmus wanted to do. "Only a Sin or an Exorcist can hurt other Sins. Something tried to hurt Orion and almost succeeded. Twice. Orion bit back. Twice." For a moment, Erasmus and Orion curled back their lips in identical barings of teeth, before he continued.

"We are here to execute. And the prey has been hurt. I say we execute. If it is what we came here for, good. If not, we got rid of a sin we would have to kill later anyways."

"I agree," Lycaon says in response to Erasmus. His eyes constantly scanning the area and making sure no one else wanders too close. "I mean, yeah, based on what th' pair o' scrubs saw I think th' broad is part o' whatever's happenin' here. She lost a baby, he saw a giant deformed baby-thing. Two plus two, right? But if it's hurt? Let's cut th' middleman bullshit an' go fer th' throat while it's wounded."

"Tuh." Bonham's real voice emerges again, and they make a contemptuous sound like spitting. Now that the matter of execution has come up, they choose to be discreet, lowering their tone. "It's like yer FNGs who didn't even listen in basic. It's protocol. We hafta get a positive ID on the host, find out what's got 'em fucked up, and use that against the Sin to get 'em tenderized good and proper. We go in without intel and we're just askin' to get mauled."

"Besides, in case y'all didn't notice, we're down one. Unless one of ya got some kinda brain thing going on with her without my knowledge, Miss is still MIA." Indeed, it'd been a bit since anyone else had seen Chloe. With all that in mind, Bonham sizes up the situation. If either Erasmus or Lycaon got belligerent, Bonham was very confident in their ability to bring them in line hands-on. But that was before their blasphemies came into play. Not to mention the fact that Bonham couldn't pull rank on them as a psychological advantage like they could on new recruits back in the Company, as well as the fact that this was a profoundly terrible place for a fistfight.

And Chloe was still MIA. At the very least, intercepting a material (somewhat) threat would cut the chances of her coming to harm, wherever she was.

"'m goin' with ya." They muttered, signalling their reluctant compliance. "Let the record note that I am doing this with the primary intent of ensuring the survival of my squad." They remarked to no one in particular, but they had the feeling someone back at HQ would hear it.

"Can the puppy find our missing person?"

It was a simple question, but if they could gather up their wayward member en route to beating the ogre-piss out of the target, so much the better. As for the rest of it... the only people who needed their meat tenderized were the people with weak jaws. Kyle's jaw was just fine.

"His name is Orion, but since he is not a puppy, no." Erasmus said with a faint twitch of his lips. Pausing, he tilted his head at the others. "We will hunt. But I won't waste any power on her. If we don't find her, she is either hiding from us, or dead." So saying, he would turn with a glance to the others, before clicking his fingers. Another strange, garbled word left his lips as Orion began to sniff the air in anticipation. "a̷͉̯͔̣̬͆̂i̴̝̘͚̰͇̺̱̮̜̊͜m̸̠͔͈̔͗̉̿͘s̶͙̜̬͎͓̈̎̐ḭ̸̛̛̰̣̼̖͇̲͙̉̿̅̈́̐͐̍̇̚͠͝g̷̢̱̺̻̥̞͎̈́̂̏͘̚͜ͅh̸̡̛͙̪̔͗͌̒͆̇̈́̓͊͑̀̚͝͝"

When Orion paused briefly, Erasmus added, "The one whose bones look succulent and tender." With a faint whine of hunger, Orion began to track, his master following, only pausing every so often to make sure the others kept up.

He's totally a puppy.

Regardless, Lycaon will follow Erasmus and his puppy.

After nosing around the reception, Orion turned up to Erasmus, whining in a soft tone, which Erasmus inclined his head to, before glancing at the others. "Like I said. Hiding or dead. If she isn't, she'll turn up. Shall we begin our proper hunt now?"

Salem pauses, his mouth a thin line, thinking over Erasmus' suggestion. "While I normally would want to snoop around a bit longer before making contact, I think we might benefit from at least seeing the morgue for ourselves." The corners of his mouth drop as he begins to brace himself for trouble. "While there is risk, there are also benefits. We could find Chloe, or at least take some heat off her if necessary. We could determine the location of its palace, even if we don't begin the execution. At the very least we will learn something." He raises a hand, waving away his thoughts.

"I wouldn't usually suggest this, but I actually think this might be worth trying."

"You got it." Bonham mutters. Having already voiced their objections, they are fully locked into the current course of action. The worst thing one can do in this kind of situation is be indecisive. Comply or not, what matters is to commit.

As for Chloe, if she was still alive...disciplinary action would be up to CAIN, they figured.

"Let's move." Promptly, they take off walking briskly to the morgue.

👁 Research indicates that most hospital morgues remain locked, and access to the basement is not available through the elevator or stairwell without the proper key. Hypothesis: This is the case with this hospital. Conclusion: Upon reaching their preferred method of downward transit, the exorcists prove the hypothesis true.