The Sentinel -- November 7th: Strange flashmob sighted in Dannah Heights
"I've seen some wacky things in this city, but I couldn't make heads or tails of this one," says Muriel Pratchett, speaking about a strange sight she, among more than a few other passersby, report sighting close to the bridge connecting the district to Sobra Shores on the opposite side of the river. A crowd of some twenty to thirty young people, possibly Redpill subculture members, were seen gathered there, clad in headless costumes. The locality is said, according to Father Jonas of First United Church in Sobra Shores, to have once been haunted by the ghost of a steelworker who was said to have been accidently decapitated during construction of the bridge. The haunting has reportedly stopped, but it seems the young folks may have been taking part in a bizarre late Hallloween prank.
© 2007 The Sentinel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The Sentinel -- January 12th: Killer cop brought to justice
BALDWIN HEIGHTS -- The body of Jesse Norment, a former Capitol City police officer discharged from service and who served a five year sentence for "grossly inappropriate use of lethal force", was found in a back office of the security company he now managed. Ten years ago, he was charged with fatally shooting a mentally challenged young woman while attempting to arrest her on false charges. Since his release from prison, Mr. Norment started his own security company, of somewhat questionable repute, given his background. A small woman dressed entirely in black was spotted in the area following the report by another tenant in the building that she had heard machine gunfire on the floor above.
Bizarre Ritual or Odd Roleplay Game gone wierd
SHINJUKU -- The owner of a small bookstore reports that he spotted two males and two females gathered on the roof of his establishment. Both females were clad in white, while one of the males was dressed entirely in black with what looked like red tattoos on his face, neck, and arms, and the other, a slight man with mussy brown hair. The shorter of the females seemed to be chanting something at the tattooed man, who then fell over as if dead. The store owner called the police to send the intruders away, but by the time officers arrived on the scene, the group had vanished. The only sign of the intruders was a cloth bag containing several red and white multi-sided dice. The police believe the incident was probably nothing more than a group of college students engaged in a roleplay gaming session.
© 2008 The Sentinel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The Sentinel -- January 29th: Missing Ballet Student Spotted
TABOR PARK -- A ballet student who was reported absent from her classes was spotted near a Blue Line subway entrance, in the company of a small woman dressed in black, known by the authorities to be in the employ of a French expatriate businessman of questionable repute. The woman in black appeared to be hurrying her companion along and kept scanning the area as if she expected they were being followed. The two apparently disembarked at the Sai Kung stop; a maintenance worker at an apartment building in Sai Kung Canton reports seeing a pair who matched the same description enter the back door of a local restaurant.
Note from Sieges: I've been doing a little poking around in the extensive microfilm archives that Hypatia keeps, and I've been finding some interesting items from my early days as a Redpill. I've decided to throw them in, amongst the more recent pieces I regularly post, so if you see an odd date here and there, it's one of my finds
The Sentinel November 6th -- College Sophomore, Philosophy Student disappearsMARIBEAU -- "She would have called us by now if she could," says Merton Hannaford, Sr, a Medieval studies professor at Stratford Campus's Barron University and author of "The Bull of Heaven: The Mythos of the Merovingian Dynasty" , speaking of his daughter Mercedes Genevieve Hannaford, age 22. The bright young student is reported missing after leaving her job in a bookstore in the Historic District this afternoon. Her older brother Merrill Hannaford, a graphic design artist at Twiller and Jeeter Promotionals, an advertising firm in Chelsea, reports having talked with the literature major around three this afternoon, when she was on a coffee break. "She spoke with much animation of a philosophical discussion group she had but recently joined at the university," the second oldest of Professor Hannaford's five children went on to say, apparantly speaking of the Ontologists' Society, a group recently formed by Dr. Kent Emmanuelis, a professor of philosophy at Barron University. He went on to add, "This looked so like a good prospect for her, since she is painfully shy by nature." After the meeting scheduled for this evening, said to be in an undisclosed location in Baldwin Heights, Mercedes was supposed to return to the apartment she shares with her brother Merrill and his fiancee Casillda Roberts, where she was supposed to help with a fitting for her sister-in-law's wedding dress, but she never called or returned.The young woman has no history of drug use or trouble with law enforcement. "She's scared (silly) of her own shadow," says her younger sister, seventeen year old Marina, a student at Hammerville High School. Mercedes is five feet two inches tall, and weighs about ninety-five pounds, with below-the-shoulder length dark brown hair usually worn held back with Japanese-style hair sticks, amber eyes and a peaches-and-cream complexion. She often wears eyeglasses except when reading. She was last seen wearing a white blouse, off-white cargo pants, a short, belted grey jacket and black high-top shoes. She was under treatment for manic-depressive tendencies and may make contact with a clinic in Chelsea or with her regular counsellor, Dr. Tranque Bourdeaux.© 2005 The Sentinel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The Sentinel: February 26th -- Injured man sighted in local park
APPOLLYN -- A man in his early to mid twenties, with spiky scarlet hair and wearing a purple suit was seen running through the park, holding his side as if he were injured. A group of young women, two dressed in red, one an Asian girl with red braids, the other with short purple hair, a third clad in black with shoulder-length black hair who seemed the most distraught at the young man's condition. The three were seen half-carrying him in the direction of a bookstore frequented by a number of young people believed to be in the employ of an ex-patriate French businessman of questionable repute. It is not known who the young people in this group were, or how the young man in purple was injured, but given the activity of the 5 Points gang, he may have fallen victim to their violent activities.
The Sentinel: Marh 22nd -- Bizarre battle in local courtyard
MARA -- Residents of the Debir Court housing project report seeing a small dark-haired girl in a white hat and a black coat machine-gunning several men described as "Federal agents of some sort". This is but one of many reports throughout the city of members of the Redpill subculture fighting similar groups of strangely-dressed men. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has not been forthcoming on information about these occurances, but source have hinted it may be the work of rogue agents bent on taking the problem of the Redpill subculture into their own hands.
The Sentinel: March 25th -- Rogue Agents detected near ballfield
KAEDE -- Several people returning home from last night's game between the Kaede Kings and the Pillsen Pirates report seeing a young man with mussed brown hair, clad in a brown leather jacket running down an alleyway behind an apartment building, pursued by a group of men in dark suits. A woman in a black tee shirt and a white fedora was seen pursuing the group, with what looked like a throwing knife in her hahd. This appears to be another instance of rogue FBI agents attempting to take the problem of the Red Pill subculture into their own hands. Newly relocated resident Jane Steptoe, who lives in the apartment building behind which the incident took place, comments, "I moved here to find a quiet place to raise my son Connor. Now I'm starting to question that decision."
Residents near Eschean Park report drop in violence
ESCHEAN PROJECTS -- Residents of the apartments close by the park have reported fewer instance of the mysterious maulings that have occurred among members of the street gang which calls itself "the Death Merchants". Until fairly recently, local residents report finding bodies of the gang-members horribly torn apart, "like a giant cat had got at them", as the landlord of one block of apartments described it, or stabbed dozens of time. Often the bodies were found drained of their blood and with the internal organs removed, though no signs of surgical incisions were to be found. Some locals report, shortly before another grim discovery was made, seeing a small, pale-skinned woman in a black gown, with dense black hair, accompanied by either or both a young man with scarlet hair, clad in a long purple leather coat or a tall man with facial piercings. Local law enforcement is unable to determine if these personages are in any way related to the crimes.
The Sentinel: April 1st -- Shootout near storefront grocery
GUINNESS LAKE -- At least half a dozen members of the Kings' Men, a street-gang on the payroll of the eldest son of Mr. Horatio Black, an enterprenuer living in Creston Heights, were spotted firing and throwing strange explosive that generated small clouds of reddish smoke at the street door leading to the apartments above a small grocery store in the eastern part of the district. A man with mussed brown hair and clad in a black leather jacket, wearing what appeared to be night-vision goggles was seen emerging from the doorway, throwing similar explosives at the mob, while another person opened fire on the gang members. Later, a small woman in black with long, unkempt black hair and pale skin was seen placing a call at a nearby phonebooth. It is not known if the woman was in anyway connected with the incident, but authorities are seeking the woman for questioning.
(( I am woefully behind on these and I'll try to catch up as best as I can. I may wind up making multiple edits on this post for the sake of the sequence.))
The Sentinel: April 28th -- Sermon disrupted by possible pheremone leak
CAMON HEIGHTS -- An evening sermon on the duties of marriage and "the sanctity of the union of man and wife" was to be presented by contraversial local pastor and marriage counsellor Augustine Jansen at the Camon Heights Congregational Church, when a group of several young people, possibly of the Redpill subculture were seen approaching a woman dressed in a revealing red evening gown. The group, which included a young man in black with white-blond hair, a woman with aquamarine clothing and hair dyed to match, and a young man in a green leather trenchcoat was heard talking with the woman who seemed annoyed by their presence. The woman in red then proceeded to walk up the main aisle of the church and left out the back entrance, with the young man in green following her, calling out to her, apparently in some sort of distress. At some point, it appears she released a small pheromone bomb, of a sort the military has allegedely been testing as a form of "harmless" biological warfare, which affected the congregation. Paramedics were called in to assist the affected, many of whom had to be pulled off from other persons who were mutally affected and had succumbed to its effects. Dr. Kinsey Johnson, a physiologist at Stratford Campus's University of Medicine, remarks, "The substance used appears to enhance regions of the brain associated with emotions, particularly the amorous impulses, and affects the free will centers, lowering a person's inhibitions. It's a substance that needs to be carefully controlled."
May 6th: Disturbance on Lucero Point Street
Two men in military garb, the older in an officer's field uniform, the younger in fatigues, were spotted approaching a car with heavily tinted windows parked close by Lucero Courtyard. They spoke for a moment with the passengers in the vehicle before shots were fired by members of the Sparks gang and both men ran from the site. The incident appears to be gang-related, possibly a minor clash between rival factions.
May 15th: Shenanigans at Club Duality Annoy Club Owner
KEDEMOTH -- "I didn't mind hosting a party for those Redpills and those spook-wannabes," says Fabian "Argon" Argones, speaking of a party hosted at his club, Duality, located on top of an office tower in the heart of the district, "I mean, some of them are on my payroll, but they can be a rowdy lot if you don't keep an eye on them." He reports that one of them, a small woman in black with "witchy-looking black hair", by his description, is responsible for causing a small commotion among the passersby when she kept repeatedly jumping over a bonfire he had had lit to attract guests. Later the same woman damaged a chair, leaving long scratches in the upholstry. Mr. Argones is looking for any infomation leading to the identity of the woman. "She showed an ID at the door, but I doubt that was really who she was," the club owner remarks.
The Sentinel: May 25th -- Unusual break-in startles couple
KEDEMOTH -- "I asked my husband 'Who is this person? What's going on?'" says local resident Hazel Yeager; the thirty-two year old repair tech at Metro City Telephone asked the question innocently referring to an unexpected new character in last night's season finale of "Eternal Knight", the popular series featuring time-warped paladins in modern-day city. What she didn't expect was her husband to explain the presence of the young woman who had just entered the room. Says Gene Marin, a head stock clerk at a local grocery store, "I heard a knock at the door and went to investigate." The couple wasn't expecting visitors, but Mr. Marin reports he answered the door and found a small woman in her mid twenties clad entirely in black with a black fedora, who asked permission to use their phone, saying that "those darn Furies shot out my tires for fun and [she needed] to call [her] brother and get a ride home." Mr. Marin adds, "Those gangs can be quite nasty, and she looked pretty small and defenseless, so Hazel and I offered her something to eat and asked her to stay for the night, so she wouldn't get caught again." The girl, however, calmly turned down their offer, and went back out as suddenly as she had come.
Later, the couple reports finding five 1000-dollar bills tucked under the phone the girl had used. "Times are tough right now, but we feel funny accepting this, even if she meant it as an exchange for using the phone," Ms. Yeager says. The couple is looking for any information leading to the identity of the mysterious woman.
(( Slightly out of order...))
The Sentinel -- May 20th: Domestic dispute, shooting leaves mob wife dead
CRESTON HEIGHTS -- Tenents of a high-rise apartment were startled this morning by an altercation which occurred in the paved park in front of the building. One of the tenants, Jennifer Lope-Pegorino, was emerging to do some shopping, when her husband, Jimmy Pegorino, formerly an associate of Sammy "Lilac" Wien, a businessman with ties to organized crime in Lamar, accosted her. Mr. Pegorino has been recently incarcerated following a bust made on a money laundering exchange he had been running, but had been released on bail. Bystanders overheard him accusing her of cheating on him with a younger man, whose identity is unknown, though according to neighbors, Ms. Lope-Pegorino had been known to entertain some unfamiliar young male visitors during her husband's imprisonment. Ms. Lope-Pegorino insisted on her innocence, but in the heat of the dispute, Mr. Pegorino drew a gun from inside his vest and shot his wife through the chest before leaving the scene. Several members of the Neighborhood Watch, who have been looking out for Ms. Pegorino, tried to chase her attacker, but he disappeared before they could catch him.
May 21st: Gang war erupts near local night club
LAMAR -- Several members of the Neighborhood Watchers, a paramilitary group based in Creston Heights were seen storming into the courtyard in back of the Vault, an establishment owned and operated by Sammy Wien, known as "Liliac Sammy" to his business associates. The gang members opened fire on a group of Mr. Wien's personal guards, shouting "This is for Jenny!" and "Don't you *expletive* with our neighborhood, you dirty dogs!", and succeeding in killing several. The incident is believed to be related to a domestic dispute between Jimmy Pegorino, an associate of Mr. Wien, and his wife Jennifer Lope-Pegorino, which resulted in the shooting death of Ms. Lope-Pegorino.
Local real estate agents have reported that already several prospective clients have backed out of pending sales, discouraged by this spate of violence.© 2008 The Sentinel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
