22 Moons- Hunt For The Stolen Child (6th Night)

--- Jon ---

Knowing that he was going to be putting himself in danger, he decided the best way to prepare would be to apply a few defensive enchantments to his gear.

The first being an enchantment that he was already fairly familiar with, since it was one of the ones Miss Edna had used to teach him about using one’s affinities in their magic, as well as the difference between a primary and secondary affinity.

In this case, his affinity for ‘Defender’ which as an enchantment applied to clothing would increase the protection offered by said clothing, hence why this enchantment was simply referred to as Protection.

Admittedly since he was applying this enchantment to his helmet that protection would only come into play if he was to take damage to his head, but he figured in that case he could do with all of the protection he could get.

(Honestly, don’t care to find out if Pix can bring me back from that.)

Scene Consequences

-Helmet gained Enchantment: Protection (D-Rank)- Increases Defense provided by armor by 3.

--Helmet Enchant Capacity: (3/9)

--Spent 3 MP on this Enchantment.

---

His next enchantment was going to be harder than his first for two distinctive reasons.

First, since he was using the concept of ‘Fortify’ for this enchantment, it would be his first time applying this form of magic to an object, meaning there was a higher chance of him screwing it up and getting the wrong enchantment or effect.

Though since the concept of ‘Fortify’ was a derivative of an affinity he was actually fairly familiar with, he at least had a good idea of what the enchantment would do when applied. Namely so long as he timed his movements right, this enchantment would nearly double what defense his jacket provided, both mystical and mundane.

(As long as I apply it right anyway.) There was a decent chance to screw up and just fortify the jacket against the weather given its core purpose.

Luckily even if that part went wrong it was significantly less dangerous than the second reason this particular enchantment was going to be harder.

Since he’d applied as many enchantments as he could to his Jacket, this next one was going to be pushing the limits of how much magic he could actually fit into said jacket at his current skill level. Meaning he was going to have to use a fair amount of willpower to hold back how much magic he put into the enchantment if he wanted to avoid any magical backlash.

Which unfortunately he didn’t usually bother with, given how under normal circumstances the more powerful an enchantment was the better.

(Then again I don’t think these are normal circumstances for most people…)

He couldn’t help but sigh as he began pushing his magic into the spell circuit, dangerous lightning already beginning to dance and cackle within the dark room.

Scene Consequences

-Jacket gained Enchantment: Fortified Defense (E-Rank)- Block modifier for this item increased by 2 for successful blocks.

--Jacket Enchanting Capacity: (9/9)

--Spent 2 MP on this Enchantment.

---

“You doing alright ma?” He asked, noting all of the paperwork on his mother’s desk.

His ma blinked looking up from her work. “Oh, Jon, what are you doing here?”

“Haven’t seen you in a couple of days, just wanted to make sure you were eating.” He told her, pointedly putting the lunch he’d packed on the table. “I know how you get when you’re working.”

“Appreciate it kid, but you don’t have to worry about me.” His ma told him, rubbing at her eyes. “Only problem is I’m not making a whole lot of progress in finding Kenneth.”

He couldn’t help but frown at that. “You know you’re not going to be much use to anyone if you run yourself into the ground.”

For some reason Pix felt the need to punch him through the lining of his backpack.

“Like I said, I’m fine.” His ma assured him, waving away his concerns.

“Have you had lunch yet?” He pressed, not feeling the slightest bit of assurance at his mother’s casual disregard for her own health.

His ma gave him a dry look before eventually sighing. “No, I haven’t.”

“Good, because I brought enough for both of us.” He told her, knowing she’d pick up the underlying meaning about him not leaving until she’d eaten.

His ma rolled her eyes but didn’t protest any further as she led him to the station’s cafeteria.

“What exactly ‘s got you stumped on Kenneth’s disappearance?” He asked, as they moved through the station. (After all I found Ramirez in just a week and Ma’s been doing this detective thing for nearly a decade.) Admittedly his methods were mildly illegal, but he had no doubt his ma could pull it off far more efficiently if she went all out.

“It’s two fold.” His ma frowned. “Since it’s been more than forty-eight hours the station is being stubborn about giving me much assistance with investigating everything, especially since child kidnapping falls outside my usual cases. Then it gets worse because of this mess with the Dealers.”

“The Dealers?” He repeated. “Isn’t that the gang Ms. Valentine’s ex was a part of?”

“Yeah, but we got a drop off with a bunch of evidence on one of their warehouses.”

“Isn’t… isn’t that a good thing?” He asked, just a touch confused.

“To an extent.” His ma admitted. “But it also means the higher ups are going to push for a raid on the Dealers for an easy win, meaning less resources are given to the rest of the station until this mess is dealt with. Which is even worse once you realize whatever mask did this probably already crippled that Dealer base, meaning it won’t do anything beyond making the force look good.”

“Oh, that’s…” He trailed off, frowning as the implications hit him. (I may have messed up a bit…)

“Yeah,” His ma chuckled bitterly. “I hate it when the higher ups choose to look good instead of actually doing good too.”

---

Having finished lunch with his ma -who he was convinced was once more subsisting off of coffee and spite given how ravenously she’d eaten her food- he started making his way out of the station. And as he replayed part of his conversation with his ma, he couldn’t help but contemplate if it’d be a good idea or not to leave the police a tip about what was going on with the Dealer’s warehouse.

(I mean, on the one hand getting the police to investigate tonight will keep the Dealers busy while I find Kenneth, but on the other I’d have to hide from them even more than the Dealers since I can’t just pick a fight with the cops…)

He had the contact information of half the force thanks to his ma, so leaving a tip wouldn’t be too hard, and given the station’s semi-alert status it wouldn’t be too hard to get the police involved. The only problem was whether getting them involved would help him or hurt him in the long run.

(I guess I could just set it up so that they investigate the Dealers in a few days instead, that should take some of the heat off of me after all the trouble I’m going to be stirring up tonight… Though it’s also possible after riling them up, it’ll cause an outright war in the streets between the cops and the Dealers.)

Then again since the police were already keeping an eye on the Dealers after all the evidence he’d sent them from the first warehouse, he really shouldn’t be adding any fuel to that fire if he wanted to avoid blood on the streets.

(Especially since it ended up slowing ma’s side of the investigation…) He grimaced, before shaking his head.

(Whatever I’m doing I need to figure it out quick if I want to get back to the warehouse before nightfall.)

Scene Choice and Consequences

-Scene Choice

[]-Leave urgent tip for the police, prompting them to engage the Dealers later tonight.

[X]-Leave general tip for the police, prompting them to investigate the Dealers warehouse after our mission.

[]-Leave no tip for the police.

-Consequences

--Gained (2D6 = 8) Intel

---

Having finished his business at the police station and still managing to arrive a couple hours before nightfall, he decided to try getting in one last bout of scouting at the warehouse.

While he wasn’t likely to find much of use, at the very least it would give him a better idea of just what he was walking into, as well as a chance to try and plot out how he was going to handle this.

(Alright, let’s see what I’m working with.)

Scene Consequences

-Gained (D6 = 3) Intel.

--Currently 129.