April, XX 1920

The 4 years at college passed by and Thomas and Lucia had just graduated from college at the top of their class and the University had wanted them to stay to complete their master's degrees. Something that Lucia was sorely tempted to do. However, the two of them were done with college and school in general and they were ready to start their own private detective business that they had been dreaming of for the past several years was about to come to fruition soon with only some paperwork red tape needed until their dream came to fruition.

Though the dreams that each of them has are slightly or dramatically different when compared to each other, with Thomas wanting to investigate more conventional crimes, while Lucia wanting to go after far more bizarre crimes in hopes of it being related to the supernatural or cults. Something that Thomas has failed to grasp the true meaning of, as he is still trying to figure out what Lucia actually means from it. Though that might be the smaller problem compared to an even greater dilemma that might await them. Since Lucia has an issue with her perception of what is considered normal and what is considered abnormal, due to her past life and career. Something that is certainly not normal for most people, which may cause them to be more susceptible to developing mental illness such as Ptsd or other forms of mental trauma from the encounters. As they find themselves unable to grasp what they had just encountered.

Things like cults sacrificing people to their strange god and trying to summon them, gain their favor, or whatever crazy goals they had was sadly normal to her due to her job. As well as the fact that the cults sometimes had success sometimes, when they on occasion summoned some hideous monsters that would either be used as a pawn by the cult and used to murder its enemies or with them go out of control and kill the entire cult and then proceeding to terrorize the area until the Agency was able to kill or capture it. The commonality of this happening was uncommon but not rare, with around 50 of these events happening in Lucia’s career. Though that is just taking one sort of event into consideration, all of which caused Lucia to forget how most people have never seen a monster and believe that the supernatural doesn’t exist. Though it could be said to her credit that she tried to guess and predict how Thomas would be able to react to traumatic and frightening scenes. To which he has shown to be able to recover from traumatic screens and be able to handle seeing supernatural beings. To which, from the basic testing that Lucia had done, that he would be able to match her in handling traumatic and freighting scenes. Though Thomas being able to meet Lucia’s expectations has prevented her from realizing that she has a warped view on normal and that being able to stare Cthulhu in the eyes without pissing yourself, takes time and doesn’t happen overnight. Though Thomas did not know what she was doing, and he just chalked it up to Lucia being Lucia. Which means that she is an odd duckling when it comes to common sense. At least for the 1920s.

Though Thomas has taken it upon himself to help teach Lucia common sense or at least try to mitigate faux paus that Lucia commits. Which thankfully for Thomas has become uncommon.

All of this will be less of a problem now and more when more agents are hired, and Lucia learns just how much less the average person can go through compared to Lucia before breaking.

May 15, 1920

Two weeks had passed since Lucia’s college graduation and now she and Thomas were looking for an office for their private detective business. They had been looking to stay near the Boston area, where their families had political sway which would help them out when it came to getting jobs and assistance in completing them. So they had spent the past several days looking through various offices locations to find the perfect one and while they didn’t lack in possibilities, there were a surprising lack of large or even medium office buildings in the area that they wanted to put it, since it was mainly residential and most of the office buildings where in Downtown Boston and even if they could, they wouldn’t want to locate themselves in Boston proper as politics would factor in to what they did due their families. Which would make it harder for them to do so work for two different reasons. Thomas because it would most likely be seen as too modest for someone of Thomas’s social level. While it would be seen as unlady like for Lucia. Who for the record has totally ignored many social norms in her new life, to a point where people who know her have stopped trying to correct her. Though the stuck up rich never have. Which has led to numerous headaches to both Lucia and her family.

Though going back to potential locations for their office they had discussed staying in New Bristel. As they have grown fond of the somewhat large city, during their four years in college living in the city.

As they were discussing the possibilities of staying in the New Bristel, the telephone that was on the table next to the couch the two of them were sitting at rang.

“I’ll get that” Lucia says as she leans over to pick up the landline.

“Hello, who is this?” Lucia says, putting the phone next to her ear.

“This is Mayor Johnson of New Bristel speaking. I have heard that you and Mr. Bradson are going to open up a private detective business soon. Is that correct Ms. Lucia” Lucia Slightly paused when she heard that. As she took a moment to think over the call and the potential purpose.

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Oh, I wonder why the mayor is bringing that up since he had been trying to come into contact with me for a while, most likely to try again in my favor to help his pitiful political career. In which he has stayed the mayor of this town for 5 years already and beside him being elected as mayor which in my opinion is a minor miracle, he has lost every election for Both his run as State Senator and State Representative. Though I guess that he will make for a useful tool to help us start our business and as a useful connection to make our investigations easier. With someone to ensure the local authorities help us or stay out of our way. It also helps that he is like a dog that is willing to listen to his owner. So I guess I should see why he is calling and then decide afterwards.

“Yes that is true Mayor, is there anything that I can help you with? Lucia said, trying to probe into the mayor’s intentions in reaching out to Lucia and Thomas.

“Yes there is, you could say that I have an offer for your first case. As well as a potential property that I could give to you as payment.” The mayor paused to gauge Lucia’s interest in the offer.

“That is quite an interesting proposal, Mayor Johnson. Do the property and the case connect?” Lucia said inquisitively.

“Yes, they do in fact” the mayor responded. Leaving Lucia to ponder about the offer.

How interesting that if we accept, we could get two birds with one stone to stay the least. Though the office being able to be in New Bristol is more important than it being given for free, Since I could probably afford any of the office buildings I have been looking at. The reason that it would be nice is that we would have an office in a city whose mayor is my pawn and will be more than willing to help if I play my cards correctly. So, I should definitely look into the details in the case.

Thomas in the meanwhile looked at Lucia with a confused expression on his face, hoping to be filled in on what was going on since could hear Lucia’s end of the conversion which left him somewhat confused at the details of the conversation.

“I am quite interested, can you tell me the details now,” Lucia said while holding up a finger to Thomas, telling him to hold on until she was finished to fill him in on the case.

“Do you want me to tell you over the phone or if you want to discuss the case in person I can always come over to your home and fill you in there if you would like.” The mayor said unable to hide his excitement. Lucia silently rolled her eyes before replying. “Can you tell me the details on the phone please.”

“Sure thing, what I want you to do is to investigate an office building that has been reported as having strange sounds coming from it the past few weeks. Starting after a break in happened several days ago.” The mayor said but before he could be politely interrupted by Lucia. “Excuse me but this sounds like something the police should handle, but it seems that you have a reason for us doing it instead of the police.”

The mayor who was not offended at all assured Lucia that it was ok before continuing, though with a gradual shift in tone and volume. “You're right, if it were any other building I would have gone to the police and in fact I actually have tried to, but the police have continually delayed investigating due to an incident that occurred three years ago. You know the one involving the cult and the shootout that happened with the police. Yeah, they somehow think that some monster was summoned by the cult and kept locked inside the building for the last 3 years. But besides the fact that I hate that these bastards who are lying in wait for me to fuck up, so they fulfill their moral crusade against me. While in the mean while refusing to address a simple noise complaint because there might be some spooky fucking ghost there.” The mayor took a second to calm down, continuing “Sorry about the outburst, those bastards are the only people capable of making my blood boil this easily. So, find out whatever is causing the noise. Though personally I think that whoever broke in recently had dumped some poor animal in the building and that is what is causing the noise.”

Lucia took a minute to see if the mayor was going to add anything else to his passionate rant against the local police before starting to speak. “Just to make sure, the building that you are offering as a reward is the one you want us to investigate?” Lucia clarified.

“Yes, it is”, the mayor responded.

“Ok, I think that we will accept the case, though I could recommend a place that we could get some firearms from,” Lucia said, hiding her excitement and forgetting that she owns a major firearms manufacturer. Though she will eventually remember and order some weapons from there for future operations.

“That is good to hear, as for the guns, I can give you an address to a fine gun shop that I know in town. Oh, for the keys to the place they are at city hall so I will go and have it as well as any papers we have on it ready for you to pick up.” The mayor then gave the address and Lucia wrote it down on a nearby piece of paper.

“Ok thanks, we will get the key tomorrow. Bye Mayor Johnson and have a good day”. Lucia said, followed by the mayor replying, “You too.” Lucia then hung up the phone.

How interesting, I couldn’t have asked for a better first case than this. Since we won’t just get a nice building, we will also get our first fight hopefully against a supernatural monster, but I still have no idea what it could be, though I must agree somewhat with the mayor's theory that the recent break in must be the cause of it. Though before we even think of stepping foot inside, we have a lot of preparation and research of the property to do. But before all of that I should tell Thomas first, though I hope that he will be able to handle it, though I don’t think it will be too bad.

“What was the call about?” Thomas inquired.

That was the mayor. We have our first case and the location of where our office will be.” Lucia responds.

“Really?” Thomas asks somewhat surprised.

“Yes, the mayor wants us to investigate an abandoned office building. Which has gotten several complaints recently about noises coming from it The police also seem to want nothing to do with it. Due to an incident that happened several years ago.” Lucia responds.

“Is the Mayor talking about that shooting that happened several years ago?” Thomas asked and Lucia nodded.

“Most likely” Lucia said.

They then went over the details of the case and the plan of action. Though Thomas remains somewhat unsure as to what it will exactly entail. As Lucia has chosen to omit her thoughts on their opponent being a supernatural monster.