"Uh.. have a good evening, citizen!"
Jan. 26th, 2015 03:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
renferretGhost stumbles on Collins and Briari chatting at Maxwell Tower. Later, she encounters Briari in a somewhat...different scenario.
Maxwell Tower: Lobby(#2471RAJL)
The ground floor of Maxwell Tower serves as a small shopping center of sorts, with a Starbucks set on one side of the main entrance doors and a Barnes and Noble on the other. At the opposite end of the lobby is a restaurant that specializes in sushi and various noodle dishes, and Claire's Old Fashioned Pizzaria, a local favorite. Also to be found are an Apple store, a used books store, and a small shipping center that works mostly with UPS and FedEx. Many of these businesses have exterior entrances, but security in the lobby itself is tight, keeping out the less savory neighborhood elements via cameras, alarm systems, and two armed, round the clock security personnel with Maxwell employee badges and their own desk near the center of the lobby itself. Wedged between the pizzaria and the sushi restaurant are stairs leading down to the building's underground parking garage, a heavy door marked stairwell access, and two elevators. A third elevator is situated near the used books store, but this one has a key card swiper and is clearly marked 'Private'.
Contents:
Briari
Collins
Obvious exits:
Outside Parking Garage Private Elevator
Collins is overseeing inbound shipments to many of the retail tenants on the first floor, the shipments themselves carted and being pushed around by blue-uniformed custodial staff. He's got his hands full of a binder under one arm, and his smartphone in the other hand - dangling useless by his side, as he looks up from the electric leash towards Briai's hail. His brow furrows, and there's a long pair of moments where he has to put two-and-two together to come to the conclusion that yes, Briari is looking and walking his way as she calls him that. He tilts his head to one side in the third moment, and replies: "Can I help, madam?" He begins taking the steps to close the distance between them, pocketing the phone after clicking it to its dormant state.
"Madam is what the butlers or her boyfriend calls my mom. You can call me Briari." The young woman says with a grin as she taps the pause button on her music as she pulls her headphones down the rest of the way to her neck and shoulders. "So, did you get a touch base from my pops? He told me he sent you a mail that I am on my way."
Three patrons filter in through the main doors; two of them, guys in their early twenties at best, immediately cut across the lobby toward the Apple store. The third is a woman who might also fit into that age bracket, but she's clearly not with the duo. Instead, she stops shortly inside the doors, looking over the lobby with a distinctly scrutinizing gaze and a vague sort of frown. Her clothing can generously be described as 'worn', with a faded t-shirt, an equally faded button up pulled over top (and unbuttoned) and a hooded jacket that one can only get away with at this time of season thanks to Washington's propensity for eternal rain.
A moment's additional hesitation masks Collins' recognition of the circumstances described. "Ah!" He says, finally, offering Briari his newly-emptied hand, "He did yes. I'll admit to being a little confused by it, but I'm still a bit new here, myself. East-coast, west-coast thing, I guess. And, to be honest, butler isn't all that far from my job description, but if Briari's what you prefer..." he gives a shrug of his shoulder and a duck of his head to signal the concession. "I don't know how much use I am to you, directly, I'm afraid. But I can put you in touch with a couple of people who have been helpful to me, anyway."
"And that would make you useful to me." Briari says as she takes his hand, giving it a quick firm squeeze and shake. "I fell out of time and space, literally, last night and ended up in a pond. I just found out where the hell I am actually at last night and so I am a long way from Kansas. So, yeah, looks like since my home is currently burning to the ground, I gotta take root here for now. I just need to get the digits of a big dog in charge of the family and I will be outta yer' hair. Dad said the last contact point here was Roger Cohen but I think he's pushing up daisies."
Ghost's eyes eventually move over the security desk, and then to the two people standing around having a quiet chat rather than making their way to any of the shops. Her scrutiny becomes no less; rather, it seems to intensify, and one hand, hanging loose at her side, curls into a loose fist before relaxing.
Briari stands at a fairly average height of five foot three with shoulder length curly blonde hair. Her eyes are a soft blue color. She has a lean, lanky build about her which appears built more for running than lifting. She tends to dress in boring jeans and shirts purchased at the local Hot Topic. Geekery shirts with logos of Adventure Time, My Little Pony, Futurama, Star Wars, etc. She rarely wears make up or jewelry. She has a bit of a southern tan complexion from living in Georgia.
Julian Collins is a slender man who manages 5'10" when he's got a heel on his shoes - which he usually does. He keeps his dark brown hair brutally short, just a skoche over a buzzcut, and wears a seemingly-perpetual day's worth of stubble that hints a touch darker around the mouth. He has dark eyes that, if he's in an ill mood, could come off as invasively intense but more often add warmth to his visage to go with the hint of a smile that he prefers.
Being anglo-white, he favors high-contrast attire that makes the most of his high-contrast complexion. Today it's a navy blazer, worn open over a white shirt and patterned grey tie, matched with light grey wool slacks. Shoes and belt are black leather, polished to a shine and kept immaculate.
"The name isn't familiar," Collins admits, with a nod. "But if you've got contact information you'd like to leave with me - whatever you'd prefer people to use to get in touch - I'll happily pass it along to the two people I think you should meet first." The smartphone comes back out. Perhaps it's a nervous tick, perhaps it's a deliberate habit, but whenever Collins draws his smart phone out of his pocket, he always looks around the floor. That's when he catches Ghost's gaze. There's a split-second eye contact that betrays his having taken note of it, and then his gaze finishes it's sweep. "Friend of yours?" He asks, Briari quietly, "your four-thirty, forty feet."
"If I had friends here, I wouldn't be looking for you hot stuff." Briari says as she slips her hands out of her back pockets as a pair of gold bracelets dangle about her wrists. "Days like this I wish my google glass didn't fall in a lake. Freaking things are on back order for daaaaays." She drawls out as she leans down to tie her boots, casting a glance over to Ghost as she works on the lace for a quick moment, then pops back up to face Julian. She steps in a bit closer, reaching out to wrap her arms about his neck as she whispers against his ear. With a wink, she lets him go and starts off across the lobby, pulling her headphones back up over her head.
Ghost's eyes jerk away at that contact rather than hold. She doesn't fully look away from him, but her gaze is no longer direct. There's another brief fist curl, and then the fingers of that same hand tap lightly against the side of her frayed jeans. After a moment, she turns her head--still keeping Collins within her peripheral vision, but now seemingly glancing into the window of the pizzaria.
Collins bristles a little bit at the rather suddenly-familiar embrace, though he doesn't do anything so impolite as fend Briari off or anything. He gives her a puzzled look - almost like he suspects she's not quite right in the head - after she's done with her whispering. As she moves, off, however, he puts a hand into his pocket and starts a beeline for Ghost at a relaxed gait. His attention fully leaves Briari, in favor of the newcomer, though he attempts to mask it by glancing about.
As she walks, Briari slips her phone out and gives a few taps, then lets herself get lost in the crowd a bit once she is out of the pair's periphrial vision.
Ghost's eyes flick briefly to Briari, but it only takes a second or two before her full attention centers on Collins. Her shoulders roll back but her head doesn't lift any higher, and there's the slightest shift of weight from forward foot to back as he gets near.
"Can I help you find something Ma'am?" Collins says, on the approach, reading the slight defensive posture and keeping a polite distance. His phone buzzes in his pocket and he pulls it out to give it a glance, and then frowns a moment, looking over his shoulder at where he's from for a split second, before pocketing the phone again. The hail is given in the tone of a retail worker greeting a customer, rather than what singling her out could also scan as: a security challenge.
Something small and undefined relaxes a little about the stranger in response. She shakes her head slightly, and gives the standard customer response to that kind of greeting, "Just looking." That she's standing in the lobby rather than one of the shops doesn't seem to phase the delivery.
The ritual of greeting-and-acknowledgement nearly complete, Collins nods in response. "Well," he says, "if you need anything, my name is Julian, folks call me 'Collins.'" His namebadge makes clear which is his surname, along with the fact that he works here. "I'll be over by the security desk." It's a bit more intense of a greeting, more red carpet, than many of the other patrons are getting, but he leaves it just as that, and gives the subtle cues that he's prepared to leave her be, if she has nothing pressing in the here and now.
"Yeah," Ghost says slowly. And then another, "Yeah. Okay." She doesn't seem willing to offer anything more at present, but she looks a little less likely to bolt out the door than she did a minute ago.
Collins nods, once, and then begins to pull away without further adieu. He starts hammering away on the smartphone - sweeping the floor with his gaze once more as he draws the phone, the pattern exactly as before, only without anyone else for him to register and process the presence of. He meanders, without looking up again, except as furitive glances, firing off what must be multiple messages. His pace is slow, distracted as he is by the cognitive task in front of him.
----
Industrial Sector, Southwest Side
Several blocks encompassing the southern ends of 13th, 14th and 15th Streets extend in an area poor and abandoned, with but a few businesses struggling to survive. Along the northern edge of the district is a junk yard filled with old washers, dryers, tires, and the myriad other elements of human-created unrecycled waste. Smoke pours from a few factories, and the more productive factories to the east combine with it to lay a thin film of dark ash across much of the streets. Other factories, and warehouses between them, lie abandoned or are home to the poor; at night, from some of those with windows, the orange glow of oil drums used for heating and light shine dully through the grime. Small shops serve the few factory workers who remain in the area beyond the end of the working day, or during the lunch hours grudgingly allowed. In the northeastern corner there is slightly more activity in bars offering drinking and even some gambling in dark corners. Along this stretch of street, the alleyways have stairways to second-floor rooms, with the occasional alley entrance occupied evening and night by painted women making blatant offers to the male passersby. Southwards, on the southern side of Grym Broders Avenue, the train station falls into disrepair similar to the rest of the area.
Contents:
Ky
Thane
Val
Briari
Obvious exits:
Treasure Trove The Vault SlaughterHouse Filthy Alley Medina Coffees East North
Briari: So, the three are down the street talking with a pimp started to beat his Ho. He then got yanked into the alley by a costumed individual, and there was a loud BANG noise.
Val blinks as the masked figure appears, head cocked to one side in vague puzzlement. "Huh." It is then that the alarm on her phone goes off. Swearing far more colorfully that someone her age should be able to manage, she looks between the unfolding action and somewhere to the north. Val clearly hesitates, spouts a few more bad words, then starts heading north at a jog.
Thane jerks in a reaction faster than any normal man can move. Even faster than most Garou move. One second he's where he had last been standing and then like a blink he's several ahead, lips pulled back in an outraged snarl. One sleeve and then the other is pushed back to show the scars on his arms before his hands ball at his sides and he marches right for the alley where the bang went off at a pace just below a run. Despite the half moon, Rage leeches off the Ahroun. The departure of the Corax isn't paid any mind.
Ghost is...up. 'Up' in this case means she's on the rooftop of a nearby building, and until that noise goes off, was strolling with bizarre casualness eastward. After the noise, she twists her head sharply, drops into a practiced crouch, and makes her way swiftly as she can--which is considerably so--toward the ledge above the alleyway. She moves quietly, even at speed, and there's a faint gleam from her eyes when she leans over to look down.
You paged Briari with 'Just Cybersenses to see in the dark, though it probably looks a little creepy if anyone were looking. :)'.
When the pair enter the alley, the masked individual is holding the man up against the wall who appears dazed and confused. A robotic voice can be heard from the crusader. "Don't you ever think about putting your hands on a woman ever again. You got it? These are my streets now and I won't put up with your bullshit." The individual slams him back against the wall once more, then lets him go as he slumps down to the ground. Cocking one arm back, there is a loud CLICK-CLACK as a plastic shell pops out of the gold bracers as they shift and glide, locking and loading another in it's place with a loud whirl. "Got it?" The man starts to blubber something out in the form of a sob as the masked figure whips it's head towards the entrance to spy the pair of Lords.
The younger Lord offers no response but a simpering smile. He keeps to his furtive positioning, moving in tandem with the elder Lord.
"These streets are claimed." Thane says with a growl, bristling as he approaches the masked individual and the pimp. "Get. OUT!" His voice reverberates off the walls of the alley with the force of his Rage, his visage terrible and frightening with its intensity. "I will not say it again." He says through his teeth and it's be easy for any Garou to recognize one holding back their anger.
Ghost makes a few furtive motions, trusting in her position above and the general darkness to keep her obscured as she does so. She pulls her hood over her head and down, tugs at the bottom of each fingerless glove, and then slowly eases up into glabro, all the while keeping her attention on the scene below. Her eyes are hooded, but there's still a distinctly unnatural white gleam from her otherwise dark eyes.
Putting itself in a ground to sky stance, the masked individual sizes up the pair for a moment, then slowly reaches towards their utility belt. "Then get your shit in order. Don't make me come back here." Throwing down a pill to the ground, a blast of smoke rushes out from it in a thick purple haze. There is movement behind the cloud as the individual launches for the wall, takes a few quick steps up it, then leaps as their gauntlets explode with a loud bang to give the individual some force and carry them to the edge of the roof. Grabbing it, they are yanked upwards and hauled over, then rises upwards, looking surprised at the sight of Ghost standing near by.
Once again that single brow ticks upward, but only for a second because then both eyes narrow to see through the haze of purple smoke. Ky starts forward, scanning the buildings in search of the stranger. "What are you thinking," he asks quietly, once he's reached his alpha's side.
Ghost is just as surprised, it seems, because she scrambles backwards with a quiet, guttural "/Shit/." Pulling her hood up seems to have been prophetic, because at least her features are somewhat obscured. Briari still gets a glimpse of unnatural white, even so.
Between the words of the stranger and the sudden blast of smoke in his face, it's only by sheer force of will that Thane doesn't lose his almighty shit. Only after several moments and deep breaths sucked through his teeth does the Ahroun's eyes track where the stranger went. "That one /dares/ claim our territory. It cannot stand."
"/Shit/" Comes the robotic voice from the masked individual as their cape billows behind them with the whip of the cold air. "Uh.. have a good evening, citizen!" With a quick salute, they start to stride across the roof.
Ky takes a few backward steps, eyes going to the rooftops when he catches the sounds of voices and movement.
Ghost stares after the costumed figure as it goes. She stays in her beastial crouch, with fingers gripping against the flat roof...and then light seems to bend around her. While she doesn't truly vanish, the effect is much the same, as her coloring, clothes and all, suddenly matches the dirty concrete and the shadow of the building behind her, exactly as it should were she not actually where she was. And when she moves forward to follow, her coloring shifts appropriately. Predator, eat your heart out.
"Come on. Let's make sure they stay out of our territory." Thane says with a growl towards Ky before he turns to begin a nigh march down the street. Ghost seems to have gone missed between haze and distance. No doubt he'll be keeping a very close eye on things for awhile to come and tonight will be a intense scouring of the sector. "...rather a god damn Crawler at this rate." He mutters under his breath.
After leaping across another pair of roof tops, the masked individual finds themself at the original rooftop that they started on. Glancing about and not seeing anyone about, the mask is pulled off to reveal a clump of blonde hair that spills out across her shoulders, with blue eyes to go along with them. Briari strips out of the body armor quickly, then starts to tug on her normal clothes which consists of a slim pair of hi-rise jeans and a simple sweater with Bender's face on it. A pair of glasses is next as she tucks the costume into her duffle bag and zips it up. The gold gauntlets slip down into a compacted mode, turning into a pair of large gold bracelets that fit about her wrists. With another glance, she stuffs the dufflebag into an old air conditioner after working the vent free, then seals it once more.
"Subtle," says a voice not too terribly far away, just as she finishes sealing up the air vent. It's still guttural, recognizable as the same one that cursed a few minutes ago, and the word carries a generous amount of sarcasm. But this time, there's no one visible on the rooftop. Hiding somewhere? It must be somewhere close.
Whipping herself around, the gauntlets once more slide across Briari's hands and wrists, followed by a loud clacking noise. Her eyes squint as she glances left to right on the roof. "Where are you? Come out." Her voice comes out nervous and shaky as she blows a strand of blonde hair away from her face.
"If you hit me with those, it'll be really rude." That sounds like it's coming from a slightly different place, but there's no sign of movement. Perhaps the speaker is throwing her voice? That seems likely, because a hunched figure, easily six foot or so, steps out from behind another vent several feet back the way she came along the roof. Same one, has to be. She's even wearing that hood pulled as low as it can while still being able to see.
Whirling one way, then the other, Briari points one gauntlet at the figure stepping out. Cursing under her breath, she hisses out. "Who are you?" She asks as she swallows tightly with nervous energy bubbling about her. Her eyes glance quickly the vent and she edges towards it slowly in a side-step.
The figure grunts. "Just some asshole. Look, that guy you pissed off back there, the loud angry one? He's not really someone you want to fuck with if you can help it. I just thought I'd tell you."
"I'm not scared. I can make a phone call and have him missing by the end of the night if I wanted." Briari says as the bracers once more transform back down to the gold bracelets. She works the air conditioner free again and pulls out the duffle bag, slinging it over her shoulder. "But, uh, thanks for the head's up. I'll just patrol another neighborhood I guess."
That inspires a sharp laugh, more bark than merriment. "Yeah, uh, not so much, this guy. But if you can do that, what's with the cape?" A beat. "You know the thing about capes, right?" She pitches her voice differently; it's still low, and rough, but possibly recognizable as she quotes, "No capes!"
"I loved The Incredibles! But, still, capes are super trendy in the cosplay competitive world." Briari says with a small smile on her face as she slips the bag over her neck and shoulder. "So, who is that guy?"
The stranger steps back, half leaning against the air vent that was shielding her. "A complete dickbag. Not your kind though, pretty sure. He's got a thing about territory, and he doesn't like people he doesn't know pushing in on it. I tried helping him out a while back. Big mistake. He's got dickbag friends too, a lot of them."
There is an amused grin on Briari's face. "I have a lot of dick bag friends also. The kind that you don't want to fuck with. I'm not scared of him or his mouth. But, thanks for the advice. So, uh, you got a name besides 'Some Asshole'?" She works her finger into her ear for a moment, giving it a wiggle, before her brow raises upwards. "Waaait.." She peeks a bit closer as she steps forward. "You look real familiar. Were you at the Maxwell tower this morning?"
The figure takes a sharp step backward almost at the same moment, but even if she's trying her best to obscure her (currently glabro'd) features, she hasn't changed clothes. Her clothes are exactly the same. "...Might've been."
"No, you totally were, because.." Briari flicks out her phone and taps a few buttons, then holds up the screen. "I so snapped a couple of pictures of you in the lobby earlier. Also ran you through a facial recognition database that I got totes access to through the guys that would make mister mouth down there disappear and for some reason, you don't seem to exist in most government databases. You have me super intrigued."
A soft snort. "What, we've uh, we've all got facial scans now? I don't have a driver's license and I don't have a criminal record." She shrugs. "You do that to everyone you see? You were talking to the uh, the floor manager or someone. Is he in your database?"
"Oh, him? Nah, I met him on Tindr. He told me I'm not his type, but that's cool, I asked him three Star Wars questions and he only knew the answer to two. What a nerfbomber. And yeah, we got facial scanners. Shit, haven't you ever walked down the street with all those street light cameras? They record /everything/, and then compile it into a number of super databases and then they start cataloging and shit. It's how they find terrorists, at least the ones you don't hear about on the news." Briari babbles for a moment before she slows her roll. "So, anyways, the fact that I couldn't find you, means that you don't have a government issued anything. And, that means you got my attention, but right now, I'm thinking that I have a hot chocolate waiting for me and a marathon of Bob's Burgers to watch."
"I think you've mostly got a lot of weird conclusions," the figure says. "Who doesn't have government issued shit these days?" She waves one hand, though for some reason her fingers are curled into her palm rather than relaxed. "Not stopping you. But uh, you're not exactly making me want to introduce myself or anything."
"More hot chocolate for me then!" Briari calls over her shoulder as she continues on towards the rooftop edge with a grin on her face. "I don't work for the government or anything by the way. I just borrow their shit when they aren't looking. Way more fun that way."
"What, that was an invitation?" She doesn't move from her spot. "Uh huh. Maybe, but you're wearing at least a year's rent on your wrists. You're with or working for someone."
"Nope! Not working for anyone but the safety of the citizens of St. Claire. Anyways, friendship is magic and all that jazz. If you want to snag a hot chocolate with me, it's cool. I was gonna hit the local Starbucks up and then Netflix all night." Briari calls over as she continues sauntering along the rooftop edge now, turning about so that her back is to the alley.
The other woman audibly sighs. At what isn't clear. "Starbucks, okay. I'm not having a slumber party with you." She turns, moving behind the air vent with a smooth motion and then reappearing on the other side. It's likely a trick of the light, but she looks a little shorter despite hunching a little less.
"Aw, and here I was going to get us matching jammies and curlers for our hair." Briari says as she flings herself off the building and lands on the fire escape. As it rocks down towards the ground, she leaps off it and lands on the ground easily with a grin on her face.
"Again," calls the other woman. "/Subtle/." For her part, she swings down from the roof edge to the fire escape, and then monkey-like using both fire escape and building bricks to the ground. It doesn't take her much longer, though it is somewhat quieter. There's no white gleam in her eyes when she straightens back up, and her face is easier to see in the light from the street. Definitely the same woman from earlier.
"Hey, if Russian kids can city run all about and leap around like monkeys, then so can I. Why should they have all the fun?" Briari says as she heads out into the steet to take in a deep breath of.. that city air. Blech. "Man, I miss Georgia. This place tastes like battery acid all the time. How is it that you live here?"
Ghost rolls her shoulders back as she follows. Her gait is smooth, more confident than her slumping posture might suggest. "It's the industrial sector," she replies. "People around here are more worried about eating and not getting knifed. Old power plant that way, not too far. You don't have poor neighborhoods in Georgia?"
"Most of Georgia is poor, but at least it's not like this. I'm not from Atlanta. Maybe more near Savannah. It's nice, I guess. Until the spring and summer brings the bugs. So, you got a name, mystery girl?" Briari asks as she yawns into the back of her hand.
"Yeah," Ghost says. "Do you?" She stuffs her hands into her jacket pockets as they walk. "I've been to worse cities. This one's not uh, not so bad in comparison."
"Bombshell." Briari replies with a coy grin on her face. "But yeah, it's not Detroit. So, you know my name, what's yours? I also wanna know how you did the trick you did up there on the roof."
Ghost rolls her eyes, but she does answer, finally. "Ghost, then. What trick? Throwing my voice? It takes practice. Or following you? That takes practice too. I practice a lot."
"Oh yeah? You practice a lot, huh? Wanna be my side kick then?" As they reach the Starbucks, Briari opens it up and strides through to the line. Her eyes scan the menu despite already knowing what she is going to get.
"I'll pass," Ghost says, her voice dry. Her eyes move over those in line and then those at the counter as she gets in line behind Briari. "I like not getting shot in the face."
"I have yet to get shot in the face." Briari says as she moves up another few paces and takes out her phone. She launches a green app and then peeks at it. "I've been shot in the butt once. It was not enjoyable."
"It'll happen," Ghost predicts. "They don't all piss themselves like that." She looks up at the menu.
Once they reach the counter, Briari orders a Butterbean Frap with extra-extra caramel and a mountain of whip cream. She waits for whatever it is that Ghost gets and uses her app to pay for the drinks. "Boom, one more star away from another free drank." She drawls out joyously. "It will be my fifth this week. Woo!"
Ghost gives Briari a faintly boggled look, but she orders a simple hot chocolate with a small dab of whipped cream. It's decidedly lacking for a Starbucks order.
Taking a deep slurp off the straw, Briari grunts at the brain-freeze that she gets, then smacks her lips. "So, Ghost, who's the bad boy with the big mouth we met in the alley that you got a problem with?"
"A dickbag, I told you." Ghost takes her drink and maneuvers away from the counter, and away from the scattering of sitting customers at that. "What's it matter really?"
Maxwell Tower: Lobby(#2471RAJL)
The ground floor of Maxwell Tower serves as a small shopping center of sorts, with a Starbucks set on one side of the main entrance doors and a Barnes and Noble on the other. At the opposite end of the lobby is a restaurant that specializes in sushi and various noodle dishes, and Claire's Old Fashioned Pizzaria, a local favorite. Also to be found are an Apple store, a used books store, and a small shipping center that works mostly with UPS and FedEx. Many of these businesses have exterior entrances, but security in the lobby itself is tight, keeping out the less savory neighborhood elements via cameras, alarm systems, and two armed, round the clock security personnel with Maxwell employee badges and their own desk near the center of the lobby itself. Wedged between the pizzaria and the sushi restaurant are stairs leading down to the building's underground parking garage, a heavy door marked stairwell access, and two elevators. A third elevator is situated near the used books store, but this one has a key card swiper and is clearly marked 'Private'.
Contents:
Briari
Collins
Obvious exits:
Outside Parking Garage Private Elevator
Collins is overseeing inbound shipments to many of the retail tenants on the first floor, the shipments themselves carted and being pushed around by blue-uniformed custodial staff. He's got his hands full of a binder under one arm, and his smartphone in the other hand - dangling useless by his side, as he looks up from the electric leash towards Briai's hail. His brow furrows, and there's a long pair of moments where he has to put two-and-two together to come to the conclusion that yes, Briari is looking and walking his way as she calls him that. He tilts his head to one side in the third moment, and replies: "Can I help, madam?" He begins taking the steps to close the distance between them, pocketing the phone after clicking it to its dormant state.
"Madam is what the butlers or her boyfriend calls my mom. You can call me Briari." The young woman says with a grin as she taps the pause button on her music as she pulls her headphones down the rest of the way to her neck and shoulders. "So, did you get a touch base from my pops? He told me he sent you a mail that I am on my way."
Three patrons filter in through the main doors; two of them, guys in their early twenties at best, immediately cut across the lobby toward the Apple store. The third is a woman who might also fit into that age bracket, but she's clearly not with the duo. Instead, she stops shortly inside the doors, looking over the lobby with a distinctly scrutinizing gaze and a vague sort of frown. Her clothing can generously be described as 'worn', with a faded t-shirt, an equally faded button up pulled over top (and unbuttoned) and a hooded jacket that one can only get away with at this time of season thanks to Washington's propensity for eternal rain.
A moment's additional hesitation masks Collins' recognition of the circumstances described. "Ah!" He says, finally, offering Briari his newly-emptied hand, "He did yes. I'll admit to being a little confused by it, but I'm still a bit new here, myself. East-coast, west-coast thing, I guess. And, to be honest, butler isn't all that far from my job description, but if Briari's what you prefer..." he gives a shrug of his shoulder and a duck of his head to signal the concession. "I don't know how much use I am to you, directly, I'm afraid. But I can put you in touch with a couple of people who have been helpful to me, anyway."
"And that would make you useful to me." Briari says as she takes his hand, giving it a quick firm squeeze and shake. "I fell out of time and space, literally, last night and ended up in a pond. I just found out where the hell I am actually at last night and so I am a long way from Kansas. So, yeah, looks like since my home is currently burning to the ground, I gotta take root here for now. I just need to get the digits of a big dog in charge of the family and I will be outta yer' hair. Dad said the last contact point here was Roger Cohen but I think he's pushing up daisies."
Ghost's eyes eventually move over the security desk, and then to the two people standing around having a quiet chat rather than making their way to any of the shops. Her scrutiny becomes no less; rather, it seems to intensify, and one hand, hanging loose at her side, curls into a loose fist before relaxing.
Briari stands at a fairly average height of five foot three with shoulder length curly blonde hair. Her eyes are a soft blue color. She has a lean, lanky build about her which appears built more for running than lifting. She tends to dress in boring jeans and shirts purchased at the local Hot Topic. Geekery shirts with logos of Adventure Time, My Little Pony, Futurama, Star Wars, etc. She rarely wears make up or jewelry. She has a bit of a southern tan complexion from living in Georgia.
Julian Collins is a slender man who manages 5'10" when he's got a heel on his shoes - which he usually does. He keeps his dark brown hair brutally short, just a skoche over a buzzcut, and wears a seemingly-perpetual day's worth of stubble that hints a touch darker around the mouth. He has dark eyes that, if he's in an ill mood, could come off as invasively intense but more often add warmth to his visage to go with the hint of a smile that he prefers.
Being anglo-white, he favors high-contrast attire that makes the most of his high-contrast complexion. Today it's a navy blazer, worn open over a white shirt and patterned grey tie, matched with light grey wool slacks. Shoes and belt are black leather, polished to a shine and kept immaculate.
"The name isn't familiar," Collins admits, with a nod. "But if you've got contact information you'd like to leave with me - whatever you'd prefer people to use to get in touch - I'll happily pass it along to the two people I think you should meet first." The smartphone comes back out. Perhaps it's a nervous tick, perhaps it's a deliberate habit, but whenever Collins draws his smart phone out of his pocket, he always looks around the floor. That's when he catches Ghost's gaze. There's a split-second eye contact that betrays his having taken note of it, and then his gaze finishes it's sweep. "Friend of yours?" He asks, Briari quietly, "your four-thirty, forty feet."
"If I had friends here, I wouldn't be looking for you hot stuff." Briari says as she slips her hands out of her back pockets as a pair of gold bracelets dangle about her wrists. "Days like this I wish my google glass didn't fall in a lake. Freaking things are on back order for daaaaays." She drawls out as she leans down to tie her boots, casting a glance over to Ghost as she works on the lace for a quick moment, then pops back up to face Julian. She steps in a bit closer, reaching out to wrap her arms about his neck as she whispers against his ear. With a wink, she lets him go and starts off across the lobby, pulling her headphones back up over her head.
Ghost's eyes jerk away at that contact rather than hold. She doesn't fully look away from him, but her gaze is no longer direct. There's another brief fist curl, and then the fingers of that same hand tap lightly against the side of her frayed jeans. After a moment, she turns her head--still keeping Collins within her peripheral vision, but now seemingly glancing into the window of the pizzaria.
Collins bristles a little bit at the rather suddenly-familiar embrace, though he doesn't do anything so impolite as fend Briari off or anything. He gives her a puzzled look - almost like he suspects she's not quite right in the head - after she's done with her whispering. As she moves, off, however, he puts a hand into his pocket and starts a beeline for Ghost at a relaxed gait. His attention fully leaves Briari, in favor of the newcomer, though he attempts to mask it by glancing about.
As she walks, Briari slips her phone out and gives a few taps, then lets herself get lost in the crowd a bit once she is out of the pair's periphrial vision.
Ghost's eyes flick briefly to Briari, but it only takes a second or two before her full attention centers on Collins. Her shoulders roll back but her head doesn't lift any higher, and there's the slightest shift of weight from forward foot to back as he gets near.
"Can I help you find something Ma'am?" Collins says, on the approach, reading the slight defensive posture and keeping a polite distance. His phone buzzes in his pocket and he pulls it out to give it a glance, and then frowns a moment, looking over his shoulder at where he's from for a split second, before pocketing the phone again. The hail is given in the tone of a retail worker greeting a customer, rather than what singling her out could also scan as: a security challenge.
Something small and undefined relaxes a little about the stranger in response. She shakes her head slightly, and gives the standard customer response to that kind of greeting, "Just looking." That she's standing in the lobby rather than one of the shops doesn't seem to phase the delivery.
The ritual of greeting-and-acknowledgement nearly complete, Collins nods in response. "Well," he says, "if you need anything, my name is Julian, folks call me 'Collins.'" His namebadge makes clear which is his surname, along with the fact that he works here. "I'll be over by the security desk." It's a bit more intense of a greeting, more red carpet, than many of the other patrons are getting, but he leaves it just as that, and gives the subtle cues that he's prepared to leave her be, if she has nothing pressing in the here and now.
"Yeah," Ghost says slowly. And then another, "Yeah. Okay." She doesn't seem willing to offer anything more at present, but she looks a little less likely to bolt out the door than she did a minute ago.
Collins nods, once, and then begins to pull away without further adieu. He starts hammering away on the smartphone - sweeping the floor with his gaze once more as he draws the phone, the pattern exactly as before, only without anyone else for him to register and process the presence of. He meanders, without looking up again, except as furitive glances, firing off what must be multiple messages. His pace is slow, distracted as he is by the cognitive task in front of him.
----
Industrial Sector, Southwest Side
Several blocks encompassing the southern ends of 13th, 14th and 15th Streets extend in an area poor and abandoned, with but a few businesses struggling to survive. Along the northern edge of the district is a junk yard filled with old washers, dryers, tires, and the myriad other elements of human-created unrecycled waste. Smoke pours from a few factories, and the more productive factories to the east combine with it to lay a thin film of dark ash across much of the streets. Other factories, and warehouses between them, lie abandoned or are home to the poor; at night, from some of those with windows, the orange glow of oil drums used for heating and light shine dully through the grime. Small shops serve the few factory workers who remain in the area beyond the end of the working day, or during the lunch hours grudgingly allowed. In the northeastern corner there is slightly more activity in bars offering drinking and even some gambling in dark corners. Along this stretch of street, the alleyways have stairways to second-floor rooms, with the occasional alley entrance occupied evening and night by painted women making blatant offers to the male passersby. Southwards, on the southern side of Grym Broders Avenue, the train station falls into disrepair similar to the rest of the area.
Contents:
Ky
Thane
Val
Briari
Obvious exits:
Treasure Trove The Vault SlaughterHouse Filthy Alley Medina Coffees East North
Val blinks as the masked figure appears, head cocked to one side in vague puzzlement. "Huh." It is then that the alarm on her phone goes off. Swearing far more colorfully that someone her age should be able to manage, she looks between the unfolding action and somewhere to the north. Val clearly hesitates, spouts a few more bad words, then starts heading north at a jog.
Thane jerks in a reaction faster than any normal man can move. Even faster than most Garou move. One second he's where he had last been standing and then like a blink he's several ahead, lips pulled back in an outraged snarl. One sleeve and then the other is pushed back to show the scars on his arms before his hands ball at his sides and he marches right for the alley where the bang went off at a pace just below a run. Despite the half moon, Rage leeches off the Ahroun. The departure of the Corax isn't paid any mind.
Ghost is...up. 'Up' in this case means she's on the rooftop of a nearby building, and until that noise goes off, was strolling with bizarre casualness eastward. After the noise, she twists her head sharply, drops into a practiced crouch, and makes her way swiftly as she can--which is considerably so--toward the ledge above the alleyway. She moves quietly, even at speed, and there's a faint gleam from her eyes when she leans over to look down.
You paged Briari with 'Just Cybersenses to see in the dark, though it probably looks a little creepy if anyone were looking. :)'.
When the pair enter the alley, the masked individual is holding the man up against the wall who appears dazed and confused. A robotic voice can be heard from the crusader. "Don't you ever think about putting your hands on a woman ever again. You got it? These are my streets now and I won't put up with your bullshit." The individual slams him back against the wall once more, then lets him go as he slumps down to the ground. Cocking one arm back, there is a loud CLICK-CLACK as a plastic shell pops out of the gold bracers as they shift and glide, locking and loading another in it's place with a loud whirl. "Got it?" The man starts to blubber something out in the form of a sob as the masked figure whips it's head towards the entrance to spy the pair of Lords.
The younger Lord offers no response but a simpering smile. He keeps to his furtive positioning, moving in tandem with the elder Lord.
"These streets are claimed." Thane says with a growl, bristling as he approaches the masked individual and the pimp. "Get. OUT!" His voice reverberates off the walls of the alley with the force of his Rage, his visage terrible and frightening with its intensity. "I will not say it again." He says through his teeth and it's be easy for any Garou to recognize one holding back their anger.
Ghost makes a few furtive motions, trusting in her position above and the general darkness to keep her obscured as she does so. She pulls her hood over her head and down, tugs at the bottom of each fingerless glove, and then slowly eases up into glabro, all the while keeping her attention on the scene below. Her eyes are hooded, but there's still a distinctly unnatural white gleam from her otherwise dark eyes.
Putting itself in a ground to sky stance, the masked individual sizes up the pair for a moment, then slowly reaches towards their utility belt. "Then get your shit in order. Don't make me come back here." Throwing down a pill to the ground, a blast of smoke rushes out from it in a thick purple haze. There is movement behind the cloud as the individual launches for the wall, takes a few quick steps up it, then leaps as their gauntlets explode with a loud bang to give the individual some force and carry them to the edge of the roof. Grabbing it, they are yanked upwards and hauled over, then rises upwards, looking surprised at the sight of Ghost standing near by.
Once again that single brow ticks upward, but only for a second because then both eyes narrow to see through the haze of purple smoke. Ky starts forward, scanning the buildings in search of the stranger. "What are you thinking," he asks quietly, once he's reached his alpha's side.
Ghost is just as surprised, it seems, because she scrambles backwards with a quiet, guttural "/Shit/." Pulling her hood up seems to have been prophetic, because at least her features are somewhat obscured. Briari still gets a glimpse of unnatural white, even so.
Between the words of the stranger and the sudden blast of smoke in his face, it's only by sheer force of will that Thane doesn't lose his almighty shit. Only after several moments and deep breaths sucked through his teeth does the Ahroun's eyes track where the stranger went. "That one /dares/ claim our territory. It cannot stand."
"/Shit/" Comes the robotic voice from the masked individual as their cape billows behind them with the whip of the cold air. "Uh.. have a good evening, citizen!" With a quick salute, they start to stride across the roof.
Ky takes a few backward steps, eyes going to the rooftops when he catches the sounds of voices and movement.
Ghost stares after the costumed figure as it goes. She stays in her beastial crouch, with fingers gripping against the flat roof...and then light seems to bend around her. While she doesn't truly vanish, the effect is much the same, as her coloring, clothes and all, suddenly matches the dirty concrete and the shadow of the building behind her, exactly as it should were she not actually where she was. And when she moves forward to follow, her coloring shifts appropriately. Predator, eat your heart out.
"Come on. Let's make sure they stay out of our territory." Thane says with a growl towards Ky before he turns to begin a nigh march down the street. Ghost seems to have gone missed between haze and distance. No doubt he'll be keeping a very close eye on things for awhile to come and tonight will be a intense scouring of the sector. "...rather a god damn Crawler at this rate." He mutters under his breath.
After leaping across another pair of roof tops, the masked individual finds themself at the original rooftop that they started on. Glancing about and not seeing anyone about, the mask is pulled off to reveal a clump of blonde hair that spills out across her shoulders, with blue eyes to go along with them. Briari strips out of the body armor quickly, then starts to tug on her normal clothes which consists of a slim pair of hi-rise jeans and a simple sweater with Bender's face on it. A pair of glasses is next as she tucks the costume into her duffle bag and zips it up. The gold gauntlets slip down into a compacted mode, turning into a pair of large gold bracelets that fit about her wrists. With another glance, she stuffs the dufflebag into an old air conditioner after working the vent free, then seals it once more.
"Subtle," says a voice not too terribly far away, just as she finishes sealing up the air vent. It's still guttural, recognizable as the same one that cursed a few minutes ago, and the word carries a generous amount of sarcasm. But this time, there's no one visible on the rooftop. Hiding somewhere? It must be somewhere close.
Whipping herself around, the gauntlets once more slide across Briari's hands and wrists, followed by a loud clacking noise. Her eyes squint as she glances left to right on the roof. "Where are you? Come out." Her voice comes out nervous and shaky as she blows a strand of blonde hair away from her face.
"If you hit me with those, it'll be really rude." That sounds like it's coming from a slightly different place, but there's no sign of movement. Perhaps the speaker is throwing her voice? That seems likely, because a hunched figure, easily six foot or so, steps out from behind another vent several feet back the way she came along the roof. Same one, has to be. She's even wearing that hood pulled as low as it can while still being able to see.
Whirling one way, then the other, Briari points one gauntlet at the figure stepping out. Cursing under her breath, she hisses out. "Who are you?" She asks as she swallows tightly with nervous energy bubbling about her. Her eyes glance quickly the vent and she edges towards it slowly in a side-step.
The figure grunts. "Just some asshole. Look, that guy you pissed off back there, the loud angry one? He's not really someone you want to fuck with if you can help it. I just thought I'd tell you."
"I'm not scared. I can make a phone call and have him missing by the end of the night if I wanted." Briari says as the bracers once more transform back down to the gold bracelets. She works the air conditioner free again and pulls out the duffle bag, slinging it over her shoulder. "But, uh, thanks for the head's up. I'll just patrol another neighborhood I guess."
That inspires a sharp laugh, more bark than merriment. "Yeah, uh, not so much, this guy. But if you can do that, what's with the cape?" A beat. "You know the thing about capes, right?" She pitches her voice differently; it's still low, and rough, but possibly recognizable as she quotes, "No capes!"
"I loved The Incredibles! But, still, capes are super trendy in the cosplay competitive world." Briari says with a small smile on her face as she slips the bag over her neck and shoulder. "So, who is that guy?"
The stranger steps back, half leaning against the air vent that was shielding her. "A complete dickbag. Not your kind though, pretty sure. He's got a thing about territory, and he doesn't like people he doesn't know pushing in on it. I tried helping him out a while back. Big mistake. He's got dickbag friends too, a lot of them."
There is an amused grin on Briari's face. "I have a lot of dick bag friends also. The kind that you don't want to fuck with. I'm not scared of him or his mouth. But, thanks for the advice. So, uh, you got a name besides 'Some Asshole'?" She works her finger into her ear for a moment, giving it a wiggle, before her brow raises upwards. "Waaait.." She peeks a bit closer as she steps forward. "You look real familiar. Were you at the Maxwell tower this morning?"
The figure takes a sharp step backward almost at the same moment, but even if she's trying her best to obscure her (currently glabro'd) features, she hasn't changed clothes. Her clothes are exactly the same. "...Might've been."
"No, you totally were, because.." Briari flicks out her phone and taps a few buttons, then holds up the screen. "I so snapped a couple of pictures of you in the lobby earlier. Also ran you through a facial recognition database that I got totes access to through the guys that would make mister mouth down there disappear and for some reason, you don't seem to exist in most government databases. You have me super intrigued."
A soft snort. "What, we've uh, we've all got facial scans now? I don't have a driver's license and I don't have a criminal record." She shrugs. "You do that to everyone you see? You were talking to the uh, the floor manager or someone. Is he in your database?"
"Oh, him? Nah, I met him on Tindr. He told me I'm not his type, but that's cool, I asked him three Star Wars questions and he only knew the answer to two. What a nerfbomber. And yeah, we got facial scanners. Shit, haven't you ever walked down the street with all those street light cameras? They record /everything/, and then compile it into a number of super databases and then they start cataloging and shit. It's how they find terrorists, at least the ones you don't hear about on the news." Briari babbles for a moment before she slows her roll. "So, anyways, the fact that I couldn't find you, means that you don't have a government issued anything. And, that means you got my attention, but right now, I'm thinking that I have a hot chocolate waiting for me and a marathon of Bob's Burgers to watch."
"I think you've mostly got a lot of weird conclusions," the figure says. "Who doesn't have government issued shit these days?" She waves one hand, though for some reason her fingers are curled into her palm rather than relaxed. "Not stopping you. But uh, you're not exactly making me want to introduce myself or anything."
"More hot chocolate for me then!" Briari calls over her shoulder as she continues on towards the rooftop edge with a grin on her face. "I don't work for the government or anything by the way. I just borrow their shit when they aren't looking. Way more fun that way."
"What, that was an invitation?" She doesn't move from her spot. "Uh huh. Maybe, but you're wearing at least a year's rent on your wrists. You're with or working for someone."
"Nope! Not working for anyone but the safety of the citizens of St. Claire. Anyways, friendship is magic and all that jazz. If you want to snag a hot chocolate with me, it's cool. I was gonna hit the local Starbucks up and then Netflix all night." Briari calls over as she continues sauntering along the rooftop edge now, turning about so that her back is to the alley.
The other woman audibly sighs. At what isn't clear. "Starbucks, okay. I'm not having a slumber party with you." She turns, moving behind the air vent with a smooth motion and then reappearing on the other side. It's likely a trick of the light, but she looks a little shorter despite hunching a little less.
"Aw, and here I was going to get us matching jammies and curlers for our hair." Briari says as she flings herself off the building and lands on the fire escape. As it rocks down towards the ground, she leaps off it and lands on the ground easily with a grin on her face.
"Again," calls the other woman. "/Subtle/." For her part, she swings down from the roof edge to the fire escape, and then monkey-like using both fire escape and building bricks to the ground. It doesn't take her much longer, though it is somewhat quieter. There's no white gleam in her eyes when she straightens back up, and her face is easier to see in the light from the street. Definitely the same woman from earlier.
"Hey, if Russian kids can city run all about and leap around like monkeys, then so can I. Why should they have all the fun?" Briari says as she heads out into the steet to take in a deep breath of.. that city air. Blech. "Man, I miss Georgia. This place tastes like battery acid all the time. How is it that you live here?"
Ghost rolls her shoulders back as she follows. Her gait is smooth, more confident than her slumping posture might suggest. "It's the industrial sector," she replies. "People around here are more worried about eating and not getting knifed. Old power plant that way, not too far. You don't have poor neighborhoods in Georgia?"
"Most of Georgia is poor, but at least it's not like this. I'm not from Atlanta. Maybe more near Savannah. It's nice, I guess. Until the spring and summer brings the bugs. So, you got a name, mystery girl?" Briari asks as she yawns into the back of her hand.
"Yeah," Ghost says. "Do you?" She stuffs her hands into her jacket pockets as they walk. "I've been to worse cities. This one's not uh, not so bad in comparison."
"Bombshell." Briari replies with a coy grin on her face. "But yeah, it's not Detroit. So, you know my name, what's yours? I also wanna know how you did the trick you did up there on the roof."
Ghost rolls her eyes, but she does answer, finally. "Ghost, then. What trick? Throwing my voice? It takes practice. Or following you? That takes practice too. I practice a lot."
"Oh yeah? You practice a lot, huh? Wanna be my side kick then?" As they reach the Starbucks, Briari opens it up and strides through to the line. Her eyes scan the menu despite already knowing what she is going to get.
"I'll pass," Ghost says, her voice dry. Her eyes move over those in line and then those at the counter as she gets in line behind Briari. "I like not getting shot in the face."
"I have yet to get shot in the face." Briari says as she moves up another few paces and takes out her phone. She launches a green app and then peeks at it. "I've been shot in the butt once. It was not enjoyable."
"It'll happen," Ghost predicts. "They don't all piss themselves like that." She looks up at the menu.
Once they reach the counter, Briari orders a Butterbean Frap with extra-extra caramel and a mountain of whip cream. She waits for whatever it is that Ghost gets and uses her app to pay for the drinks. "Boom, one more star away from another free drank." She drawls out joyously. "It will be my fifth this week. Woo!"
Ghost gives Briari a faintly boggled look, but she orders a simple hot chocolate with a small dab of whipped cream. It's decidedly lacking for a Starbucks order.
Taking a deep slurp off the straw, Briari grunts at the brain-freeze that she gets, then smacks her lips. "So, Ghost, who's the bad boy with the big mouth we met in the alley that you got a problem with?"
"A dickbag, I told you." Ghost takes her drink and maneuvers away from the counter, and away from the scattering of sitting customers at that. "What's it matter really?"
