Log:The Cheese Shop Incident, Scene 1

The Cheese Shop Incident 2020/11/27 	 Arthur Linda Magda 1

On the local news, an item begins with a reenactment of part of the cheese shop sketch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz1JWzyvv8A - after which the reporter turns as cornily serious as the sketch was cornily performed. "All very amusing, but what if this happened in real life? Sadly this happened to the owner of Salford's Specialist Cheeses, who found his entire stock had been stolen in the night ..."

The report, having wasted so much time on the joke, actually gives little useful information. One gets the impression that in Colonial Bay the police are generally busy with more 'serious' crimes.

As she is unofficially 'benched' by SGG pending a review of her injury, Linda decides a light casual hero job is just the ticket for her to 'get back on the horse' again. Lowtown is near her home in Old Town, so it's not even far to travel.

Linda heads to the cheese shop in normal identity. Probably not even a hero job. And she's not crtime expert. But if she can help she will.

The life of an adjunct professor has proving very taxing for Arthur. What started as a wild scheme to keep Talia from being expelled by inserting himself in the past as part of the faculty has turned into a time-consuming endeavor. Luckily, Dr. Arthur Aevus has all the time in the world. And that includes time to go to a cheese shop to pick up the delightful cheese and charcuterie platter he ordered for a gathering at the Chancellor's house later today. Alas, as he heads to the cheese shop, he is about to find out all the cheese--including the cheese for his order--has been stolen.

Magda is actually one of the few rubberneckers of sorts; in apology to her French cook for inflicting upon him a massivechange in Thanksgiving plans, she was going to buy him something special (actually, she has written instructions from him on what she's to buy and where to get it), but the very place she was headed -- has been looted!!

Linda enters the shop if it's open, else knocks on the door.

Indeed, the shop seems to be practically bare but for the owner, who has just had what (to judge by his expression) was a not very pleasant conversation with someone from his insurance company. This suited gentleman passes Linda as he leaves.

Linda steps aside for the suited gentleman and then approaches the owner. "Good morning. I heard about the robbery and came to see if there is any way I can help?"

The shop owner, recognisable as such from the TV, doesn't even look up at the tinkle of the bell, taking it for the other man leaving. "I'm ruined ..." he mutters to himself.

The man looks up with, but is disappointed to see it's just a young girl, till her recognises her. He gets to his feet. "Oh, good morning! Thank you! If there's anything you can do, I'd be so grateful! I'm at my wits' end!"

Arthur steps in and opens his mouth to great the shop-keep, then pauses as he takes in the empty shop. "That must've been quite the holiday rush..."

Linda says, "Can you tell me what happened? When you discovered your loss?"

Linda looks around, "Professor?" She remembers Arthur from THAT DAY at school.

Arthur blinks owlishly at the empty store before hearing Linda's voice and looking her way. Of course he remembers her. "Ah, young Ms. Petersen. Good day!" he says cheerfuly as he walks over to the counter. He waves to the shopkeep. "Hello, I was just here to pick up my platter." It's an identical order to what he ordered a week ago.

Magda follows Arthur in, having recognized Linda from the Overman situation not too long ago. "Professor Aevus. I think your order is ... AWOL."

"There's nothing to tell really," he says, throwing up his hands in exasperation. "I just came in yesterday morning and unlocked as usual" - he waves vaguely to the security shutters, to indicate that, while this might not be Fort Knox, it at least has reasonable protection again thieves - "and found myself cleaned out!" He frowns. "It's not the first time things have been stolen. I've found cheeses missing from time to time recently, but I took that to be an individual shoplifter. But this is an a totally different scale!"

Arthur gasps in horror at the owner's tale. No cheese!? That's a crime alone, but stolen, too! Arthur may not need to eat in this fused form, but he loves to anyway. Also, cheese! "That's absolutely tragic..."

Linda's eyes glow as she looks all aroumd the store, including ceiling and floor.

"I'm devasted, Professor Aevus. I've been robbed - everything's gone!" he adds to his customer.

Magda's eyebrows lift as she glances around. "That seems ... unusual at least." Her own senses are active, informing her of unusual energies.

Arthur nods gravely at the owner's dilemma and pats his back consolingly. Arthur seems unconsolable as well. "Who on earth would do such a thing? I'd hate to stereotype those sentient rats, but..."

"Well, obviously someone who loves cheese ..." Magda says without a trace of self-consciousness.

Linda nods, "I see the way they entered your store. May I move some of your displays and furniture to reveak it, sir?

The shopkeeper asks, "sentient rats?!?!"

He nods to Linda. "Of course."

Arthur could also be a suspect based on his love of cheese. In fact, he's already making a note to place an order for pickup a week back so he can grab his platter then and come back to the now for the Chancellor's gathering. Little does he know that's why he's considered a repeat customer. "Yes, didn't you see it in the news? Their leader was bent on dominating the city. Perhaps the world. And then met a tragic end."

Linda moves stuff to expose the hole, "I haven't seen any of those responsible, just their entry point. So I cannot say who at this time, sir."

He shakes this head. "This city. No, I never follow the local news. It's impossible to guess which of it is real and which made up!"

Magda looks sideways at Arthur. "I understand how you feel," she says to the cheese shop owner, her tone dry.

Linda tries to follow the path of the mouse/rat/whatever tunnel with her vision.

"And just when I'd invested in so many new products as well..." the man goes on, returning to his woes. "I'd just got my first shipment of extradimensional cheeses from 7Dwarves..."

"Dwarven cheese?" Arthur asks with additional interest and lament.

"Yes. And fae and goblin too! We pride ourselves on carrying the rarest of cheeses; how could we ignore such new suppliers?"

Magda nods. "That's why I'm here," she asides to Arthur. "Leon wanted a wheel to experiment with."

Linda says as an aside to Magda as she's trying to floow all the mazy tunnels, "I've a stack of old wheels out at the barn. You're welcome to a few of them."

Linda soon finds that the web of rat tunnels beneath the city is impressive. Even more impressive, perhaps, is tthat it's clear that the tunnel system has been expanded with the use of energy weapons - there are several new straight, round glazed-edged tunnels. At the intersection of two of these latter stand a couple of armed rats, suggesting at least a first direction of investigation.

Linda exclaims, "Rats! Carrying energy weapons. Then... It's real. I thought those stories were made up."

A couple of rats are also lying in the tunnels nearby, next to a wheel of blue cheese. They look unwell.

"Of cheese?" Magda asks, interested -- but then energy-armed rats!! "You're kidding. How big??"

"A whole wheel?" Arthur asks Magda incredulously. The losses grow. Such potential! He looks to Linda at her explanation. "Of course it was real. They raided Starguard for their initial weapons. It's in the reports. How are they still armed, though? I thought they were stopped."

Linda answers abstractedly, not really paying much attention to the conversation, "Most came off Ford Dodgers. So 32x125. Extened hubs."

"Oh, you mean the rats. Big but like big rat size. Not giant rats."

Linda has been continuing her xray examination of the tunnels, "Ah. There's a wheel of cheese. Blue colored. Couple of ill looking rats near it.

The shopkeeper looks up excitedly. "You've found one of the cheeses?"

"They probably overate," Arthur opines. "They have a car??" he asks incredulously.

"Oh. No, we're talking wheels of cheese." She opens her arms to indicate something roughly two feet across. "Ooooh. Wow. I -- huh. I wonder ... that's fascinating. Unwell they ate too much unwell? And about where??"

Linda says, "They do? I wonder what the power to weight ratio is and whether it can be scaled up?"

Linda points down at an angle towards where the cheese and rates are in the tunnels.

Arthur looks confused for a moment as he says to Lina, "I thought Ford Dodgers was a car make...?"

Linda notices something else about these rats: they're all wearing a red forelegband.

Linda rubs the back of her neck, "This is silly. You said you had been missing some cheese now and then for a couple of weeks. Why empty the store if they could have kept stealing a small amount on a regular basis? They would have gotten more over the long term that way."

Linda says, "It is. I mean, why else did they have wheels. I only wanted the engines, so the rest of the car including the wheels are just taking up room in the barn."

Arthur rubs his chin thoughtfully. "Perhaps instinct to prepare for winter?"

Linda says, "Well, Professor, Magda, that's where the cheeses went. But what now? I'm not going to get down in those tunnels. I'm far too big."

Magda swipes her hand across the base of her throat, triggering her reflexive conversion of her alloy from ordinary clothing to supersuit, then lets her cloak ripple into concavities so she can try to spot what Linda is looking at.

"Hmmm. I haven't the foggiest idea on how we'd effectively get into those tunnels without digging them up," Arthur replies.

The shop-owner shakes his head. "So you've found the thieves but can't get to them? Now I wish that story about a shrinking ray was true....."

Linda says, "Shrinking ray? I guess if the sentient rats exist the shrinking ray might as well. I read those files but, well, I though it was just a joke for the newbie SGG girl. Lioke sending me to get a bucket of striped paint."

Arthur taps his chin thoughtfully at talk of a shrinking ray. Kat mentally goes through all the heroes she's mimicked before that may have such an ability. If only one of them had a shrinking spell!

Linda says, "It was.. uh... give me a moment... Dr Fogg. Yes, that was the guy who invented it."

The shopkeeper shrugs. "I suppose it could be true. I read that some crazy professor that used to work at the university made one - that's him, yes!"

Linda smiles, "I guess there was a point to making me read through all those old files."

"Hmm. If the shrink ray is in Starguard lockup, perhaps we could requisition it," Arthur suggests.

Linda says, "Professor, the file said there was a shrinking ray at the Unioversity but nobody could figure out how to use it."

Arthur frowns a bit. "Hmmm, strange. I doubt there's time to investigate it while dealing with the rats.

"Well, if it's functional," Magda muses, "that might work."

THe shopkeeper looks on, hoping the heroes decide they can help, shrink ray or not!

Magda pauses, then laughs. "What the hell. Let's do it."

Linda asks a little worriedly, "It IS reversible, isn't it?"

The shopkeeper shrugs. "I don't think it said in the story I read. Perhaps they can tell you at CBSU. If the thing is real, that is."

Linda mutters, "My role model is Supergirl from the Washington Patriots. Not Antman."

"Everyone has a Fantastic Journey adventure at some point," Magda assures Linda. "Just be glad we aren't being injected into someone's body."

Arthur adjusts his tie. "Well, I suppose I have to make a trip back to the university, anyhow."