One day before the full moon: The detective appears again, and Jules gets an ominous message

The two girls had ended up watching a horror movie about paranormal investigators being drawn into a demon summoning and a human sacrifice plot at an isolated farmhouse. Much to Jules' annoyance, she had to hear those mysterious voices in her head commenting. The two main ones - the vicious, violent male voice and the sly, mischievous female voice seemed strangely pleased with the macabre events of the film and the audience's reaction - towards the end they were encouraging Jules to re-enact what she was seeing on the screen with the other audience members.

But in spite of that - being close to someone who showed some care for her without judging her made Jules feel as close to relaxed as she'd been in months. For most of it she was almost enjoying herself. But for some reason, one couple in the front seats, a couple of teenagers by the looks of them, kept drawing her eye. For reasons she couldn't understand, every time she glanced at them she felt the hair on the back of her head stand up, and a shiver down her back. Towards the end of the film, the girl of the couple started kissing and making out with her date. That wasn't too unusual... but then she started nibbling his ear, and kissing his neck, and... Jules suddenly smelled the unmistakable scent of blood. No one else seemed to notice.

It's just my imagination. I'm starting to see fantasy shit in real life. That psychiatrist was right, Jules told herself.

On the way home, she stopped by a pharmacy and got her prescription. "Hey," she whispered to herself after she hugged Brianna goodnight, "you... you assholes who won't shut up. You see these pills, right? These are poison for you. It'll kill you. And you can't stop me from taking them."

The male voice chuckled. If you want to kill me, Nuzsuzul, you will need more than little candies. You will need to do it face to face, and I will not die easy.

...

The following morning, Jules found out that the side effects on those pills were no joke. She'd tossed and turned all night, and felt like she'd had terrible nightmares, yet couldn't remember what they were. She'd slept in until noon, and only awoke when there was a pounding on her door.

When she groaned and shuffled up to the door, she prayed it wasn't Todd. It turned out that whatever god answered her prayers had a sense of humor - it wasn't Todd, alright. Who it was was so much worse. She was so frazzled that she almost opened the door before she remembered she wasn't wearing anything below the waist, and hurriedly pulled on one of her uniform skirts.

Jules flung open the door and stared daggers at Detective Walker standing in her doorway. He looked like he'd had a rough night, as well. His hair was disheveled, and his eyes were bloodshot. He was staring at her intensely. "What the fuck do you want?"

"We need to talk. Now." The detective hissed in a low, confrontational voice.

"It's been one fucking day. You can't wait a few days before you harass me again?" Jules leaned against the doorway.

"Are you going to invite me in, or do we need to go down to the station?" the tall clean-shaven man leaned forward aggressively. Jules rolled her eyes and huffed before turning around and stomping over to a worn leather loveseat the yellowing off-white color of spoiled dairy and slumping down into it.

"Before it was my workplace, but I have to live here, so you'd better not-" Jules started, but before she was even halfway through the sentence, Walker had already produced a cigarette and had it in his mouth. Tiny sparks glimmered in the dimly lit apartment room as he flicked a cheap gas station lighter until it ignited, making Jules groan in annoyance.

Detective Walker took a deep drag off his cigarette. His eyes were fixed on Jules the entire time. "Who ARE you?"

Not getting his point, Jules raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "Excuse me? You going somewhere with this?"

"My first thought was that you're an undiagnosed schizo who had a psychotic break." the detective said. "That or it was just a robbery gone wrong. But this is deeper than that. You're not just any schoolgirl, are you? The question is - do you know?"

Once again, Detective Walker is engaging Jules in social combat. This time is more confrontational- he isn't just gathering information. He wants to make her break and either confess or flee to another location. Jules, of course, just wants him to leave. Jules still has only 1 door, the lower of her resolve or composure. Det. Walker has three. Since Jules has a 'Hostile' impression of him at the moment, he needs to move her impression temporarily up the chart to even attempt a social maneuver.

Naturally he will try to intimidate her since his suspicions have been increased by something. Manipulation 3 + intimidation 3 + striking looks 1 = 7 dice. Jules contests it with her composure + resolve of 4. https://orokos.com/roll/996885 He gets 1 success. https://orokos.com/roll/996886 Jules gets an amazing 4 successes. This interrogation is over before it begins.

"I know you're a pig. I know you deserve a kick in the balls." The short-haired young woman in front of him huffed impatiently. "I didn't kill Nathaniel, you psycho. And I'm not accepting any more 'tips' or 'advice' or 'help' from you either. I realize now you're just playing games to try and frame me for something I didn't do!"

"I did want to try to help you before, Miss Lopez. Did. The only good news for you is that I still don't really care if you go to prison or not. I care a hell of a lot more about whoever it is you told that thinks they can get to me."

Although Walker failed, Jules can try to get information out of him. Despite his cantankerous demeanor, his impression of her is actually 'Average', not 'Hostile', so she can attempt to open his doors, though it isn't too likely with her garbage social skills and no willpower to spend. But what will her strategy be?

0-24: Give some honesty and tell him info he didn't know before ("leverage", which opens one of his doors) using persuasion.

25-50: Run with his apparent belief she has dangerous connections and try to intimidate him into backing off.

51-75: Attempt to rationally convince him that he is on the wrong track with expression+intelligence.

-76100: Engage in sarcastic, hostile flirtation due to considering his ire and obsession kind of attractive. She also uses leverage.

https://orokos.com/roll/996895 It's the fourth (fun!) one. Alas, Jules is actually quite bad at flirtation despite how physically attractive she is. As a sexy girl, it's easy to justify an 'equipment bonus' of +1 from her private school uniform, but even with that gimme, her dice pool is still just 3, while he is resisting with his composure + subterfuge as he tries to stop her from 'getting to' him, giving him a pool of 4. https://orokos.com/roll/996908 https://orokos.com/roll/996910 Because she used leverage this still succeeds in opening a door even though the roll was a tie. And becaues it was a tie, she doesn't suffer a -1 penalty the next time she tries. However, she has to either wait a week, or use some method to improve his impression of her before she can attempt it again.

Even as her heartbeat was picking up in pace, Jules realized that there was something deeply flattering about the way this cop had taken such a personal interest in her. Even though it'd pissed her off the first time, being exposed to his intensity was also... thrilling. It was like she was a beast in the forest being pursued by a stern, determined hunter. Not like her boss at tha cabaret, Jeff, who folded like a wet rag and fell at her feet when she applied a little pressure.

"Eric, was it? Can I call you Eric?" she said, her voice rapidly shifting to being reserved.

"Call me whatever you want if you'll answer my question."

"You really want the truth, huh?" Jules swallowed, looking him in the eye. Eric felt that shiver run down his spine again, and saw that red glint in her eye for a moment.

"The truth... is that I didn't exactly lie to you before. But I might have left a detail out...."

"Oh no. No, no." The detective put a hand up. "Don't start giving me the fucking runaround on your story now. I want to know why I got called in by the police commissioner today, asked a bunch of bullshit softball questions about my personal life, and not-so-subtly nudged that I should kick this case over to 'a more experienced investigator', by which he meant a useless, lazy drunk who'll pull some random druggie out of lockup and cut a deal for him to confess to it."

"Hah." Jules let a smirk grow on her face. "I talked to a shrink yesterday, you know? She prescribed me some pills to help with imagining everyone is out to get me, and that every little thing that doesn't go my way is part of a conspiracy." she swayed her backside as sexily as she could as she went over and grabbed a plastic pill bottle from a paper bag on the countertop. "I'll spot you one. See if it helps." she shook the bag at him teasingly.

Walker didn't like that. At all. He roughly swatted the bag out of her hand and loomed over her threateningly. And then... his angry glare melted into a toothy smile - but not the friendly kind. "You can go ahead and tell your daddy in the cartel, or whoever it is that has their slimy fingers in my department, that they're wasting their time trying to shake me off. Listen to me, you fucked-up little bitch: I don't have a wife or kids who are gonna be let down if I get fired. I don't have some fantastic life that could all be burned down."

Jules felt... a little bit of a tingle between her legs as his slate-grey eyes bored holes in her. "There's lots of good guys with good, wholesome families who think they're out for justice. The man I called a mentor was one like that. And I saw him fold, swallow his pride, and lie through his fucking teeth because he thought it might hurt his career. I was so disgusted that when my bitch of an ex wanted to move down here to Florida, I couldn't say yes fast enough."

Bleary eyes still fixed on her, the tall man raised his cigarette to his lips and took a drag, blowing smoke right in her face. "Well, I'm not a good guy. I'm not going to find out who killed Mr. Grey and why for 'justice', or to keep the streets safe from unstable killer schoolgirls, or for my principles of justice or any shit like that. I'm going to find the truth because it's a fucking thrill. Because this excitement is the only thing I've got in life. Your daddy or boyfriend or whoever pulling strings to protect you just confirmed to me that I'm on the right track."

"Dude, seriously?" Jules smirked and shook her head. "You've been to my grandparents' house, right? Did tito's pickup truck look like something a don's family member would be driving?"

"Or," Walker gestured with his lit cigarette, "maybe it was a paid hit-job. Back in Chi-town, one of the guys in my department picked up a case of a girl younger than you dropping a body for half a G. Five hundred bucks."

"Oh man. You DO need help. You think I'm some kind of action movie femme fatale or something, now? Does that mean your next move is going to be to seduce me for information?"

"Jokes. Heh." Walker's grin tightened and he chuckled mirthlessly. "When they start getting really nervous, they always start in with the jokes."

"Who's joking? I'm a lot more likely to tell more to someone like you than the gross old guy with a porn-stache that they wanted you to hand over the investigation to, right? How about you take me out somewhere nice on Friday, and you can... squeeze some more details out of me?" Jules stuck her tongue out teasingly and put her hands behind her back, making her impressive bosom jut out in a way that not even the hardboiled detective could look away from.

"Just so you didn't waste your trip, I'll give you a little taste." she suddenly pressed her chest up against his and leaned in close to whisper to him, pressing her boobs against his chest: "I'll tell you this: I didn't kill Nate. But you did succeed at one thing. You convinced me that my being there wasn't a coincidence. And I'm starting to think you might be able to help me find out what did happen. Because whoever was responsible for Nate - I want them to pay, too."

Even if it was you? that hissing male voice came in her ear again.

"SHUT UP!" Jules shouted and swatted at the air near her ear - only to nervously smile when she realized the cop investigating her for **** was staring at her.

The glowing cigarette bent and folded in Walker's tightening grip. "Considering what happened to the last guy who took you home, Miss Lopez, I hope you won't take offense when I say I'll be bringing protection. And I mean the lead kind, not the rubber kind. See you on Friday."

And a minute later, the detective was gone, vanished in a puff of tobacco smoke. Jules sighed and sat down on the loveeat. "Jesus! What's wrong with me? That was suspicious as fuck! Why didn't I just tell him to leave?" she asked herself. "And no, you invisible assholes, that was NOT an invitation for you to weigh in!"

The feminine voice piped up immediately:

Oh, don't be like that! You know we love you. In fact, I've got some great news for you. That sexy girl who interrupted your fun yesterday? I've been whispering to her, too. She's a pathetic prey creature, not like you, so she can't really hear me. But she can feel my words. You see, I wasn't happy at having my meal interrupted yesterday. So, go along with what I convinced that dumb street rat to invite you for, and I promise, I'll stay completely quiet until the full moon. Me and Ragged Red Lip both.

Hsssssss.... Very well. My tongue shall also be stilled. I will accept this bargain with Curling Scarlet. The term had the **** of a name when the male voice spoke it. Your tithe to me will come soon enough, Nuzsuzul. Soon enough.

Jules wrinkled her nose cutely and shifted her mouth from side to side. Utterly ignoring the label, she shook out a small handful of pills from the bottle Detective Walker had slapped to the floor and dry-swallowed them. Just as she was 'washing it down' with a handful of raw, uncooked sausage from her refrigerator there was a knock on her door.

Sure enough, Brianna was standing there, in another cute yellow tank top, and smiling. "Hey babe! You're lookin' much better today. That was a good-ass barbeque, huh?"

"Oh. Uh, hi, Brianna. You saw the cop car up there, I guess? Yeah, he was just asking some quick questions. I didn't mention you or anything. Just told him it was none of his business and to go away." Jules said.

Lying is a manipulation+subterfuge roll. Brianna is a minor NPC so she doesn't have a full statblock at the moment, just a few general dice pools, one of which is 'street wisdom' with four dice. https://orokos.com/roll/996921 https://orokos.com/roll/996922 Brianna doesn't believe her.

The black girl pursed her full lips and sighed heavily, rolling her eyes. "Whatever. Just as long as you didn't mention the bat. If you feeling guilty or like you owe me - you remember what I was talking about at dinner yesterday? I just got asked by the studio if I had anyone new, lookin' to break into the business. They're kind of small time and right now most of the college girls who needed to pay for they books have already paid for 'em, but aren't ready to start needing money for spring break yet. You up for dipping your toe in with a little modeling? Pay's good."

She was met with a bizarre look by the tan young woman in front of her. "Hey, don't be looking at me like that! You need money, right? You sure as hell weren't offering to chip in for gas yesterday, and you ain't got nothing to wear but your old uniforms. It's 100 bucks for an hour of photos, and you'll get yourself a profile in case you's interested in doing more. And the director will want to give me more work if he thinks I can keep bringing in fine girls. What's the problem?"

"It's not so much that I object to modeling, if that's all I'll have to do. But did somebody put you up to this? You said your director friend asked you?"

Jules rolls her empathy + wits and fails. https://orokos.com/roll/996923

"Yeah, I mean, I didn't just immediately say I knew a girl, but that dude is persistent. Would have kept me on the phone all morning if I didn't say I had something. So come on, Jules. Please?"

Jules sighed. "Well, my psychiatrist did tell me I need to make some more friends. Going to get topless photos taken together probably wasn't what she had in mind. But, I don't remember what the name of that awesome barbeque place was, and I bet if I don't come with you, you'll suddenly forget what it was called, right?" she added with a small smirk.

Brianna got a fit of the giggles and leaned in to give her a hug - this girl didn't have much of a sense of personal space, Jules observed. "Believe it."