Welcome to Gaia! ::

Not long afterwards, Jordan arrived at the portal room, dressed, caffeinated, and generally prepared. As he walked into the room, he grinned at Robert. "Your spelling has improved. What miracle do I have to thank for that? Where are we off to?"

"It's fine," Jordan answered, more seriously. "We do what we need to do." He looked up at Robert, catching the big man's eye. "You know you can call on me anytime."

To the question, he nodded. "Got everything. You?"

He hadn't received a text from Candace, and she showed up several minutes later, looking as sassy and obnoxious as ever. He rubbed his hand down with his face, and stood up, an uncharacteristically serious look on his face. "Here's the report." He reached behind his back and pulled out a couple of crumpled pieces of paper, explaining the mission. In short, all local animals, including pet dogs, birds, cats, rodents, have all gone missing in a town in New York. Woodside, specifically. Details on the town itself were sparse, but it was clear they were being sent out to investigate the disappearances.

He gave them enough time to read it, but after that period was over, he stood up straight and scuffed his boots. "Look." He murmured quietly. "I know s**t ain't real cut and dry with all of us lately. But a job's a job. So let's just.. get to work."

His eyes lifted, and looked from one, to the other. "We cool with that?"

She reached out a hand and took the crumbled paper as it was handed to her, not even making an obnoxious show of flattening it out on the wall or something. Candace simply read it as she received it, unfolding it as she needed to. All the animals? She blinked. It sounded like an elaborate petnapping scheme. She'd done a report on a case like this in college, even. Huh...weird. She was just finishing it when Robert spoke up, and she was actually rather surprised...again. Candace chuckled and neatly folded the paper to put it in a small bag she had hanging from her shoulder. "Robert, I am nothing if not professional. It's never been my style. I would never jeopardize a mission of any kind with petty feelings of dislike for this, that or the other."

Candace glanced Jordan's way as he agreed to it and she cleared her throat, quickly looking away from him to give Robert her attention again. "Alright then. So! New York, huh? Been awhile since I went there. This should be fun!" She lifted a hand to wiggle her fingers, showing off one of Atropos' rings while patting her bag with her other hand. "I'm good to go. Lead the way, Robert."

"Off to the well to find little Timmy, probably," Jordan said, and stepped through the portal.

It seemed quiet enough on the other side; as usual, the portal had opened into an unpopulated area. Jordan moved aside to get out of the way, and glanced around. Nothing seemed immediately unusual; nothing dead in sight, not yet. It took a few moments before he consciously noticed the faint, high whining - like a mosquito, he thought, or metal scraping, but at a much higher pitch, and continuous. He turned his head, trying to pinpoint the direction the sound was coming from, but couldn't detect a change in volume.

When Robert and Candace had come through, he looked to them. "Do you hear that?"

Jordan's question made Robert pause for a moment, his hand slipping into his pocket out of reflex. He tilted his head up, listening for the sound, but it was difficult to pinpoint anything with the noise of everyday urban life humming quietly around them. Snatches of conversation, cars rolling past, and most importantly, the rickety elevated train that noisily passed over their heads every few minutes. He decided to follow the path under the train, gesturing to his companions in the direction he planned on, and started walking down the sidewalk.

Store after store passed by in a blur. The only thing Robert noticed was the startling number of bars; there were three on the block he'd just walked down. "What I wouldn't give for a drink, right now.." He muttered grumpily as he passed a fancy looking one named Donovan's. Lots of irish names went past, but the further he walked, the dirtier things got.

Suddenly, he noticed a real difference in his surroundings. All of the stores had spanish names on them, and their state of decay was significantly further along than the few blocks before them. He didn't know exactly where he'd passed some silent, cultural barrier, but it was clear he was in a less affluent part of the town, now.

And the stench that started to rise from the sewers spoke volumes about it.

"Christ.." Robert finally stopped fiddling with Jezebel and crouched down, taking a look into the barred sewer grate that punctured the side of the crosswalk. The smell was assaulting his senses, and he plucked his shirt out to hide his face as he looked down into it.

The deterioration of the neighborhood wasn't the cause of the smell. Dozens; no hundreds of dead pigeons and rats floating through the dark, muddy water down below. Robert felt his breakfast threaten to make a second appearance. No pets, but it was clear that something was killing animals in droves, around here.

"Don't look down there unless you wanna lose your lunch - but I think I found the animals. Now we just gotta figure out why."

"That's strange. The only whining I heard was from that kid on the corner with his mother." Candace sounded honest enough. She seriously didn't hear whatever it was Jordan had been talking about; the only whining she heard was a child not getting his way.

She followed alongside Robert, frowning at the look of the neighborhood they were in. How...familiar. Except for the Irish bars and pubs it was almost homesick-inducing for the woman. She didn't want to call that place home, she really didn't, but it was hard to deny it completely.

When they reached the smell of sewer Candace gagged and pulled the collar of her coat up and over to cover her nose, knowing the silk scarf wouldn't be enough to cover up the smell at all. Even the coat wasn't enough. It smelled like..death. Jesus! What the hell was that smell?! At Robert's warning Candace nodded. "Noted..ugh...oh man is that a cat?" No, Candace. It's actually just a rat. A large rat.

A large dead rat.

Enjoy tasting your breakfast again.

"I don't hear it the sound, Jordan. I'm really sorry." She was being honest. "You said it's a whining sound?" Candace fell quiet, genuinely trying to find the noise. Was it the train on the tracks, perhaps?