After discovering the corpse of Luke's father and being separated from the young boy by social services the duo decide to investigate the town, Nerissa had already left as her parents were likely looking for her. From what they'd heard from the Officer this murder hasn't been the only one lately, as the sun was quickly setting the duo found their way into the only pub around here.
On the way they'd also discovered that the small town was called Brimsby, Reima directs Ciri to a table in the middle of the pub and walks up to the bar.
A gruff black haired man wearing a white shirt and black pants stands there wiping a glass clean, noticing Reima he asks, "Whattya havin?"
Reima puts down a 10 pound note and asks for two pints of lager, nodding to the man he he plops into his seat opposite Ciri, dropping the drinks onto the table as he does.
Ciri's hackles had been up every since they discovered the fathers corpse and so she sends him a questioning look, "We're not here to drink."
Reima shrugs, "Think of it as blending in, plus you need to calm down... We'll get to the bottom of whatever's happening in this town but it's not going to take one night, so drink."
She seems to be ignoring his words but sips her drink anyway while attentively listening to the various conversations around the bar.
"The misses has been keeping from drinking lately, real downer I'll tell ya, I don't tell her where to shop and cook so she shouldn't tell me what to drink!"
The man sitting beside him clinks his glass, "Hear! Hear!"
Reima does the same and listening to the surroundings while sipping his own drink, he personally prefers harder drinks but this'll do in a pinch. Most conversations going round seem to be either about general things or the recent murder, although something odd to note is that these people refer to it as the first one? That's not what he'd heard from the officer, or indeed how the crowd reacted.
He continues listening for an hour or two until something finally causes him to perk his ears up.
"You heard? There's been another one..."
"I couldn't not hear, old Markus murdered leaving his wife a widow and son traumatised..."
"I tell you there's something going on this in town, I asked my wife what she thought the other day and she had no clue what I was on about... Almost as if she'd completely forgotten about it."
"You know what? I think I know what it is..." His friends leans forward while glancing around suspiciously, that is until he hears what he has to say. "Aliens."
He slams his fist on the table causing the many glasses now piled on it to jump and the surrounding people to glance at them, "You fucking idiot! People are being murdered and you think it's fucking aliens? Are you dim!?!"
"Mate! What else could it be? People disappear only to turn up skinned alive and days later everyone forgets about it! What other explanation could it be apart from Aliens or feckin magic!"
"You know what I think! I think it's the damn government! Conducting experiments on us, like those yanks are probably doing over the pond!"
Reima stops listening as they ranting gets more louder, more disorganised and random. From the information they'd so helpfully given him Reima still had no idea what could be the cause... He isn't familiar with the monsters living in this world but he was absolutely sure vampires couldn't take peoples memories. He slips the transcript of the conversation over to Ciri for her to read while he ponders their next moves. He had a feeling Ciri would refuse to leave Brimsby until they'd solved this, he personally didn't really need to sleep and was fine with around 2 hours of meditation but Ciri would likely burn herself out on this.
After a while Reima is brought out of his thoughts as he hears a glass hit the table, looking up he sees that Ciri had finished her drink and stood up. "Is something wrong?" he asks, not sure what she's trying to do.
"I've heard enough, clearly there is something wrong but we can't stop it unless we're proactive. I'll start searching the streets, you can stay here or do the same... I'll require my blade though."
Reima follows her outside into the darkness of night and they dip into an ally way, he retrieves her steel sword from his Folded Space and decides to enchant it before handing it over. He runs his hand over the blade causing it to shimmer and suddenly vanish.
Ciri "I hope you're joking or you might feel my fist." she asks blankly as she watches her blade disappear.
He shakes his head at her tense attitude and grasps the now invisible blade, "Here, this is the handle" he says directing her hand to it. She seems surprised that she can feel it but nods as he explains that he'd turned it invisible to avoid drawing attention from the locals... After all, a young woman running around with a sword would even be noted in the local paper.
Ciri "I'll go check the part of town closest to the forest, you check the other half."
Reima doesn't really know where or not to follow her instructions but nods anyway, she can probably protect herself from most things around here... Hopefully? "How should we call for one another if yo-We, are in-danger?" he mentally grimaces at his verbal slip.
Ciri "Just whistle, at sunrise we meet at the tavern." it seems she didn't notice..
He nods to her and they both leave in opposite directions.
Yeah it's a horror trope, they both split up and "Look for clues", but they have something that most horror protagonists don't have... Swords and magic, yeah, trump that.
As always, if I missed anything please let me know.