etrayalogs | MISSION 011 Sidelogs

( Lois sets the paper down, studying his expression for a long moment. Then her eyes drop back to the desk, scanning over what else rests on its well used surface. The music is louder here, apparently playing out of the old radio set on the desk's surface. The three files have names on them, but she ignores those for the moment, along with the instructions for... emblaming?

What the hell?

The book ends up in her hands, Lois flipping through gently to see if it opens to any particular page, the book's spine more worn in one or more sections than others. )

I did, and you have them, from what you're saying. Any that relate to these?

( She shows Accelerator the page she's stopped at, a list of all seventy-two sigils of the named demons per the novel's claim. Small compared to later pages, but still legible on the spread between the two open pages of the book. )

[This can't be right, Qliphah can't be involved in any of this. His eyes jump over to the files as well, reading over the names written on them. They're unfamiliar to him, which is reassuring. It means the likelihood of his demon possessing one of them is dropping.

It's another small relief to not see Qliphah's name anywhere on that list, likely because of her artificial nature. Coronzon would not have been involved in the creation of any books, let alone ones naming out demons. Qliphah had meant to be an ambush against Aleister, so publicizing her existence before using her would have been a dumb move.

However, the book is still giving him a bad feeling.]

... Not unless Beleth is supposed to be the same as Belzébuth. Let me see that.

[Which is to say, he's forcibly grabbing the book away from Lois and putting it down on the desk so he can start at the very beginning.

On the cover of the book. Solomon is a name he remembers coming up during his time in England, Aleister had muttered it when talking about one of the members of his old cabal.

On the title page. Rosicrucian Order. He knows that as founded by Christian Rosenkreutz AKA Johannes Valentinus Andreae, run by pain in the ass Anna Sprengel. Does that mean she's involved in this? Or at least, is the nebula screwing with them by using the knowledge he has of the Anna he knows back home? Accelerator's eye twitches as he considers this unpleasant possibility, and flips more pages.

It's when he reaches the page titled THE INITIATED INTERPRETATION OF CEREMONIAL MAGIC that he says something aloud. That page is dense and he doesn't understand what he's reading at all, it's just that a single name in a small font at the bottom subscript catches his attention. He opens his mouth, then closes it, then decides on an appropriate reaction.]

That bastard is involved in this??

( There goes the book. Lois stays close to study the pages he holds it open to, but there's not the same kind of spark of recognition that he has. If anything, just a more general sense this is a name associated with the obvious occultism, but that's not anywhere she's needed to pour energy in recent years. )

You know this guy?

( Or know of. Lois doesn't want to assume either way. )

Yeah.

[He jabs a finger at the small text, Aleister Crowley. Even just seeing that name makes him grind his teeth.]

That piece of shit founded my city. And if the Rosicrucians were involved in this, then chances are his entire fucking cabal was, too. That can't mean anything good for us, I'm sure of it.

( Cue the eyebrow lift, because again, all that name means to her is... vague and not city-founding. Differences across universes can be wilder than they seem at first blush. More importantly: )

He's responsible for establishing the child exploitation and experimentation rings in your city too?

( It doesn't meant the one is why the other exists, but it doesn't mean it isn't. She reaches for the three files, handing two over to Accelerator after she glances at the names, none of them familiar. Still holding onto the third, she picks up the embalming instructions. From the start, she goes... stiff. There is a whole bunch of tenderness in these instructions toward the dead that Lois doesn't know how well she can handle. Only, okay, so there is... a possessed body, and two that aren't. Flipping through the instructions, she goes a touch pale, looking around for the embalming machine. Oh, Christ. Lois swallows. )

I'm saying it now, but I'm not cut out for a mortician's life. ( Understatement. ) Who are we starting with?

[ The names on the files are:

Wilbur Whateley
Harry D'Amour
Mina Murray

They're professionally labeled medical charts, if old-fashioned and on paper. ]

[Accelerator clicks his tongue, fed up with everything already.]

And a hell of a lot more. [He's growling that out, sorely tempted to kick the desk in frustration. Really, he could spend hours listing out all the crap Aleister has put people through. It wouldn't help them right now, though. Right now he needs to focus on what's in front of them, instead of his anger towards a person who isn't even here.

Reining it in, he instead takes the files, glancing at them before tossing them onto the desk.] Doesn't matter. Let's just get this over with.

[Stepping over to the cabinets, he starts opening them until he finds one with a body in it (a woman, so Mina Murray). If they're supposed to prepare the dead and find the demon, then they need one to start working on. Thanks to his upbringing he's unfazed at the sight of a corpse, grabbing the tray its on and rolling it out of the cabinet.

It... takes a bit of effort on his part. Without his ability to rely on Accelerator is, unfortunately, weaker than a normal high schooler.]

What's the first step?

( Lois picks up the files Accelerator tossed, carrying them and the instructions over to the cabinets. The rolled out person looks like... she flips open one of the two masculine-reading names, Wilbur Whateley. Nope, doesn't match the photo clipped to the rest of the paper charting. Shuffling that file back, she opens the next masculine-reading name, and gets a match for the face... in better circumstances. )

Harry D'Amour. ( Another pause. ) May you rest in peace.

( Lois looks around for any sort of rolling gurney to use to move the body, because as far as she knows, that's how it should work? They need to move it to the embalming table one way or another. )

Get him to the table and start cataloging anything we find. Where is a... ah.

( There is a terribly unsteady looking gurney tucked against the far wall. Lois heads over, setting down the instructions and files for a moment, to bring the gurney back to Accelerator and their first dead body to... prepare. Her stomach is getting increasingly unhappy. )

We'll get him on the table. Head or feet?

( But... )

... Take his feet.

( ... Lois is not a woman lacking strength, so with a male body, and likelihood that the weight balance was toward the shoulders, then she figures it might be best if she handles lifting. Which she does, hating the feeling of cool, not-flesh-enough-like-flesh under her hands. Oh god, where are the gloves? Oh god why isn't she gloved already? Why the hell hadn't she thought about that? Get it together, Lois, you can wash your hands and get gloves on before you start treating his body. )

On three?

[Accelerator will wait quietly by the body while Lois hunts down the gurney, staring down at him. This one is a lot cleaner than what he's used to. He looks downright peaceful, which is a bit unusual. For him, corpses and violence are inextricably intertwined. It's possible with the demonic possession this will change, but for now this is peaceful.

... He has to wonder if that Level 0 looked like this after he had died.

That thought settles in the back of his mind and he glances up, eyeing the gurney.]

Okay, fine.

[He's better off taking the feet, he only has one hand to work with thanks to his crutch. It's rough, he's going to have to loop his arm around the body's legs. Inwardly he curses a bit, wishing he at least had enough of his esper ability to bring his own body up to a normal standard and allow him to stand without the aid of any medical equipment. Unsurprisingly, he's scowling a bit.]

Got it. On three.

[And on three he will be doing his absolute best to help lift, but it's mostly going to be on Lois to get the body onto the gurney.]

( Lois takes the bulk of Harry's weight, unable to shift her brain from thinking of this corpse as a person and not just the remains of a person once all life has fled. Give her a few minutes to numb herself down, and to feel less like her own skin is getting clammy handling a body that feels so wrong. Too cold, too stiff, but not the kind of stiff she might have expected. Dead weight in every meaning of the word.

Luckily, she'd kicked the brake on for the gurney, or else as soon as any part of the body hit the rolling surface, it would have skidded away from both of them. As it is, hefting upward she barely manages to get most of Harry's torso onto the gurney. She has to bodily heft him upward again to get his hips and buttocks onto the gurney, settling his shoulders and head down before she moves around to fully pull his hips into alignment. Likewise, she glances to Accelerator, lifting her eyebrows before reaching out to help pull the body's legs into alignment. This isn't really work either one of them is cut out for. )

Can you get the instructions and his file onto the rolling table with all the instruments on it? I can get him onto the embalming table, it's about the same size as this, so even if I have to... roll the body, it should... ( she pauses, breathes in, breathes out: ) ... work. I also desperately need to wash my hands.

( And change. God, why hadn't she looked for anything like an apron? She sure as hell will now. )

Do you want anything to wear over your clothes for this? If I find something in these cabinets.

( The non-body-holding ones. There are drawers around the room, okay, cabinets too, something has to be here. More than the nails in a window and the darkness and the grass outside and three dead bodies and one possession and for the sake of everything she doesn't believe in when it comes to God, a break. )

[This isn't a great start, is it? First Aleister having a hand in that book, now having to do heavy lifting. He is not cut out for manual labour, and as weird as it is he's glad Lois is here to handle the majority of it. Accelerator does his best, lugging the legs over onto the gurney with an ungainly flop, and once he does that he tries to avoid making the situation any worse by not helping. It seems easier for him to screw things up if he does.

At least he doesn't look the least bit bothered by this. Nodding, he follows Lois's instructions and walks back over to the desk to retrieve the file and instructions.]

It's just a body. I don't really care.

[About the apron, that is. Getting his clothes bloody has never been much of an issue due to his reflection, and even when it was he never cared much. He does glance down at his hands though, because despite being desensitized, hygiene is still very important to him. Dirty clothes are one thing, getting sick from handling a dead body is something else. Who knows what kinds of microbes are infesting a dead body that's been sitting for who-knows-how-long? And sadly, he can't even answer that question himself, since he can't use ability.]

Washing up first is a good idea, though.

[As he answers he moves the instructions and file over onto the rolling table, then starts pushing it over next to the embalming table so everything is within reach for the whole procedure.]

[ Upon inspecting his medical examiner's report, they will find: ]

D'Amour, Harry Male, mid-40s Brooklyn, NY Summary Impressions A ruptured right anterior communicating artery aneurysm was found within the circle of willis, likely the cause of death. Various arteriovenous malformations were found within the vasculature of the brain upon further examination, but it is unlikely that these contributed to his death. [...] Post-mortem X-Rays revealed several lucencies in bilateral tibia, femurs, and forearm. Upon dissection and examination these were found to be pus-filled cavities filled with what appears to be tapeworm larvae upon microscopic examination. [...] While the deceased was reported to be completely without sight, there is no physiological cause found. Bilateral optic nerves and retina are intact. Lenses are clear and symmetrical. Optic humours tested reveal no abnormalities.

[ A post-it note is stuck to the side with handwritten comments: ]

Some kind of metal fan? Tattoos look like a black sabbath album.
How the hell did he manage to eat tapeworm eggs?? Inquire about recent out of country travel.

( Lois considers angles, after she gets Harry's body to the table. Then she breaks away, looking for the sink and washing her hands. The mussed hospital style gown Harry's in doesn't care if he's there for a while longer, and it means most of whatever may be visible on his body is still disguised for now. There's evidence of stitching down to his ankles, but that detail floats unattended in her consciousness as Lois cleans her hands, her exposed arms, and then strips off her outer layer. She folds that sweater and leaves it on the side of the sink, before further investigation finds something apron-gown like to wear, and she pulls that on, and then the gloves, and then she can stare down he-who-once-was-Harry. )

What does his file say?

( A dry swallow, the faint taste of bile. Hold it together, Lois. At least she won't be directly touching dead flesh anymore.

Subsequently, Lois arranges his limbs with a quiet apology, and sets to rolling the body onto the table from the gurney. It's not graceful, but it goes better than she expected, even if her smarter plan would have been to also take off the gown the body's dressed in at the same time. She does not. Instead, the body comes to rest as she straightens out limbs and arranges the head with her stomach dropping lower every deliberate, firm touch (she can't manage otherwise, it has to be deliberate, has to be firm) has the body settled in the table's center, and the gown... twisted.

She looks around for a pair of scissors on the rolling tool tray. There's got to be something that'll for for this, right? )

[Once he has everything on the table arranged and the wheel lock in place, he opens up the file and quickly skims through it. The only shift in his expression is the raising of his eyebrows. Okay, this body isn't some straightforward heart attack situation.

Once Lois has washed her hands at the sink he moves over there to follow suit, scrubbing his hands as he answers her, reciting the data he memorized from the body's file.]

Male, mid-40s from New York City. Cause of death was likely an aneurysm that occurred in the right anterior communicating artery in the circle of willis. [He pauses washing to jab vaguely at his head, not super helpful since the artery is located in the base of the brain.] They also found some arteriovenous malformations in his brain but didn't think it had anything to do with his death.

[He finishes up, drying his hands off, and pausing as he tries to figure out whether the apron and gloves are necessary. Unlike Lois he really doesn't care about handling a dead body, but he can imagine his doctor back home lecturing him about not being hygienic or safety-conscious. If he has even the tiniest cut on his hand bacterial transfer could be an issue.... and how does the handle of his crutch factor into all of this?

He sighs in irritation. If he could use his ability this wouldn't be a problem at all.]

Apparently the guy had fucking tapeworm larvae growing in both his femurs, one of his tibias and forearm. Not sure if they cleaned that shit out already. He was also blind, but they couldn't find a physiological reason for it. "Bilateral optic nerves and retina are intact. Lenses are clear and symmetrical. Optic humours tested reveal no abnormalities." That's what it says. Whoever put the file together was wondering about out-of-country travel causing the tapeworms and compared the tattoos to some band called "Black Sabbath."

[He finally glances over, blinking at the state of the body.]

... Uh. You got this?

Edited 2025-09-23 00:48 (UTC)

( Lois has started cutting down the robe, freeing one shoulder. She works on the next shoulder as Accelerator speaks, summarizing what he's reading. She'll want to read them herself too, just not yet. Not yet.

Both shoulders, free. She swallows, mouth dry, and starts to cut the fabric down the sternum. The visible lines of stitching from the autopsy expose themselves, and the ink that Accelerator comments on from the coroner's report, Lois pausing in her moment of what the fuck over the tapeworms in his bones by: )

'Some band?' You don't remember any out-of-England Metal song that goes like, ( and here she will pseudo-sing, and no one is writing home about this anytime soon but the melody is still there: ) "Generals gathered in their masses, just like witches at black masses?"

( Shifting to continue cutting, and really, singing if she were any good at it would be a great distraction around now. She does, to her vague irritation, keep humming War Pigs. "Evil minds that plot destruction, sorcerer of death's construction. )

Does any of his ink remind you of any of the symbols in the book?

( "In the fields, the bodies burning, as the war machine keeps turning." She doesn't want to have to think about what comes next, as she finishes cutting the gown away, tugging it out from underneath the too cold body and all its ink-filled, stitched-up expanse. )

Edited 2025-09-23 01:59 (UTC)

[He watches Lois for several moments, moving around the cart to eye her expression. Okay, now that he's asked he's legitimately wondering if she's got this. This feels like too bizarre of a situation to be singing some metal song, and she looks kind of uneasy.]

Uh....

[As he wonders about that he grabs a pair of gloves to put on, then takes the book an opens it up to the pages with all the demonic sigils. A couple seconds and he has their shapes memorized, so he steps closer and starts examining the body's tattoos.]

I think Anderson mentioned them before. But he's old as hell.

[He's mumbling that, taking hold of an arm to lift it and leaning in to get a better look at the tattoos. The stitches from the autopsy don't bother him.]

Not seeing anything I recognize.

( She is holding it together, okay. Up to the point where she now has all the clothing and is tossing it into whatever will work as a bin, grimacing and looking back to Accelerator as he examines an arm. )

Old as — when were you born, Sparky? Twenty-twenty?

( Admittedly, a band from the sixties and seventies has her beat as a nineties kid, but that's not the point. Neither is Accelerator's age, or birth year, because it's irrelevant across universes and timelines. Jon's pretty much a great example of exactly that.

She picks up the embalming instructions, flipping to where they need to be. This part reads like washing any normal surface, so sure, whatever. Wipe him down. )

We're supposed to wipe him down. ( Looking for the spray bottle, and whatever washcloths make sense, Lois finally seems to register: ) Wait, he had tapeworms in his bones?

( Just what the hell had he been eating over the years?! Isn't that incredible rare!? And also disgusting? She looks back to Harry's legs with visibly wider eyes, taking in those incisions with a whole other look of muted horror. Oh god. Maybe she needs to start humming again, only this time, something more upbeat. Like Teenage Kicks. )

[Oh God, another nickname. Given he doesn't use his real name he should really just get used to this, but he's stubborn and giving Lois a sharp look. Better to head this off at the pass (or try to) before it sticks.]

It's Accelerator.

[He sets the arm back down and proceeds to help her search for the stuff they need for the next step. Pulling two spray bottles of some detergent mix out of a cabinet, he's going to go set one down next to the body for her and start spraying with the second.]

I think those things usually stick to your intestines? No fucking clue how they can end up in bone.

[That's when he glances up and sees the expression on her face. Which should not be surprising, they're talking about something pretty disgusting! There's a little tug of sympathy at the back of his mind, and he resumes spraying.]

If you want to stick to reading the instructions I can probably do the rest.

[Handling screwed up bodies isn't a big deal for him, after all.]

Uh-huh.

( Distracted, because now they're... cleaning off a body. Lois can manage this better than what steps are coming, because she saw needles and embalming fluid and her stomach stirs unhelpfully at the concept of either. Or the massaging of dead flesh. At least setting the eyes seems the least... horrifically invasive. )

No, I — can handle this part. Demon, if you're possessing Harry, could you have at least cleared up the tapeworms?

( Not that it was the cause of death, but what had happened? The coroner's report was understandably uncertain. Spraying and wiping down where flesh was left intact (if inked), and where it'd been resewn (with care taken to help make lines of ink match up best as they can), she swallows. )

So. Demon possessions. What do you know about them?

( Cleaning bodies. This is like... okay, it's like cleaning a body, but at least it's not objectionable in any particular way. )

[At least cleaning the body, morbid as it is, has a nice methodical process to it. Accelerator works away at it without any hesitation, intent on getting through all of this as quickly as possible. For all they know they're on a damn time limit, and the longer they take the greater the chances of them being stuck here (or worse).

Of course, cleaning a dead body is functionally a simple thing, so he roots around in his brain for every scrap of knowledge on demonic possession, and answers while he works.]

Well, back home most demons don't have their own bodies. They're basically masses of energy existing in different phases. I think the only ones that do are incubi and succubi, so most of the time they need to either possess someone or somehow make their own body in a ritual. I don't know about other religions, but in Christianity the inverse of the Sephiroth, the tree of life, is used in making demons. Even artificial ones. From what I've seen, the temptation of 'dangerous knowledge' found within the Qliphopth is one way to weaken a person's mind and make them susceptible to demonic possession.

[He can't really explain the differences between an artificial demon and one created by God or whatever, and he isn't sure about how it all works in other cultures, so he moves onto the topic of exorcisms.]

You need a lot of power to perform an exorcism. I did it once, but even if I could use my ability I don't know if I could repeat the process here, especially if I don't know where the damn thing is. We might be able to use symbols to represent certain actions, but from what that piece of shit taught me we need to be really careful and really specific about how we do this. There's something called Neuburg's method that might help, but that bastard never explained what that entailed. [For all he knows what he did to Coronzon back in England was Neuburg's method, he doesn't know.

Aleister Crowley, despite having created a city for the purpose of research and consisting of thousands of schools, was a really shitty teacher. He sighs, irritated by this.]

If my demon was here this would be a lot easier. Possession is one of her specialties.

Edited 2025-09-26 15:48 (UTC)

( Do they turn the body over to clean there too? Lois doesn't know. The specifics aren't really... that specific. She decides they're doing their best, and glances back at the expanse of body. Reaches out and drapes a cloth over its genitals and hips as a sign of respect. She doubts either she or Accelerator cares, and the theory is the dead aren't around to care. If a possessing demon is?

Well, if it wants to be a dead nudist, whatever. No skin off her nose. )

Any chance some elements of it are in that ridiculous book we have? Or are we going with the theory of cremation reducing the body to unusable ash does the same for the possessing demon?

( She sighs, heading back to the table for the instructions. So that was more information on demons in a context of what Accelerator knows, and it's slightly surprising just how much he does out of nowhere. She wishes his demon was here too. She'd probably be able to know which body was possessed even without her powers. There needs to be some upside to being a creature of... hell? )

We're supposed to massage the body into a naturalish... pose. Not sure he needs it, but the embalming... why are we embalming them all if we're cremating one of them? Why is there only one crematorium. Is it size limited?

( She's grousing, but seriously, it'd be easier if they could handle and burn all three bodies. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, fuck off demons, possessions are bust. )

Massage, make sure the body's eyes look like they're naturally closed, and figure out where the formaldehyde is and what we're mixing it with. Seriously, we have to run that machine?

( She looks back at the knockoff blender. (It is not a blender.) It does look like science decided to be a little mad in making it however. )

Edited 2025-09-27 05:19 (UTC)

[ There's suddenly a loud echoing knock on the window, but when they turn to look, nothing is there. ]

[Accelerator has the same line of thought as Lois. They're doing a good enough job as it is, and rolling the damn body over seems like a lot of effort for very little payoff. At most he will maneuver an arm to get all of it.]

Maybe. There might be something we have to say, magicians normally need incantations to cast their spells.

[Unless they're experts like Aleister or Anna, and neither of them are, so he's willing to bet they're going to have to say something for this to work.

With the next instructions given he starts massaging the body, leaning against the table in order to have two hands to work with. Massaging seems kind of dumb and he has no idea what he's doing, but better to be cautious about all of this.]

That's probably gonna be the easiest part. It's just mixing some chemicals and letting the machine do its jo —

[Then there's that knock. Accelerator starts, glancing over towards the window and seeing a whole lot of nothing. His eyes narrow.]

Fuck, don't tell me we're on a time limit.

( Lois starts like he does, whirling around to point at the window, which shows nothing. )

Oh don't you dare start going around knocking on shit. I don't have time for the theatrics and a whole new job role!

( She does look visibly annoyed at the interruption. She even slaps down a rag next to Harry's body, but not on him. Politeness, after all, is important. Even if the demon decided to hitch a ride on this poor worm-growing sack. )

We are not because if we were the stupid jackass demon should have started out possessing one of us before we started playing mortician. Let's get the embalming going — the eyes are fine, are we supposed to do makeup? Why couldn't it have been three cremations. Isn't that what most people are doing these days? That or the new thing... is that the whole body broken into soil composting thing?

( No time limits, she's not accepting them, this is dumb. It's not like they signed up to be mortuary demon hunters! Not even once! )

[Accelerator can only stare at Lois, letting out a quiet huffing noise that sounds suspiciously like him suppressing a laugh.]

I wouldn't know. All espers are required to be cremated at a temperature that doesn't leave behind any possible DNA that could be stolen to create a rival Program. Everything about us is patented, so we don't get any other options.

[Alternative methods of dealing with human remains are beyond him, as is something else that is on their list:]

I don't know anything about makeup, either.

[So if she wants to do that, she can go for it. Instead he's going to stop massaging, stepping over to the instructions and quickly reading over the names of the chemicals they need for the embalming. Once he has them memorized he'll start hunting through the cabinetry, pulling out the bottles.]

MISSION 011 Sidelogs

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