Edge Town-City of Light

Alexander

Alexander's eyebrows raised ever so slightly at the casual admittance the man knew Tim and Leon were wizards. The man's voice definitely sounded closer. What was he doing? Some sort of invisibility charm? Or a voice-throwing technique?

"You mean, who I'm stealing them from other than you and Samson? Hmm. It's a thought, for sure. My "wizard friends" might have more to say, but I'm certainly inclined to agree." Alexander mused, sounding much more reasonable than the felt. The man's cockiness was grating on him. He was here to bloody Samson's nose. Not to compromise. And there was still the issue of the wizard's murder and mind-mage unaccounted for.

Edited by DrTentacles on Dec 5th 2018 at 5:03:17 AM

"As amusing as it is to listen to this banter, 'the wizards' primary objective is unrelated to your smuggling operation, beyond the fact that you have a neuromancer involved with it in some way shape or form. A neuromancer that I may add murdered a dock worker who had been poking around this place. Which is the only reason I was even aware of this. You want us out of your hair, you'd best give them up."

Leon's speech was a bit intermittent as he inhaled sharply every now and then from the pain in his ribs.

A small grimace pulled at the corners of Annette's mouth. Alexander was getting more involved in this than just annoying Samson now. Not that helping somebody uncover a murder wasn't all well and good, but they were here to cause trouble, not get into even more trouble than they already were in. Stepping closer to Alexander she pulled gently on his shoulder, trying to get him to lean in and listen to her without the invisible person or the Wizards hearing. Yeah, it looked suspicious as hell, but she didn't care.

What was subtlety worth in this sort of situation?

"W-We should take the offer, Mr. Thorne. If a fight breaks out, I'm out of potions, and, um, w-we're moving out of the port pretty fast...I know I c-can't swim in water this cold..." she gulped, "...we'd n-need to take the lifeboat. This. This m-might be the only chance we have to do that without another f-fight."

Boat Enthusiasts

"That one? Oh, fuck him. He is the reason we have to make this risky smuggling run in the first place. The dockworker caught the first trade and, well, you saw the results. He said that clearly we'd failed to meet proper security measures, and we'd have to arrange another meeting. We were on our way out to meet some of his...associates just now."

Tim looked at Leon. Normally he would consider it an option to...see these associates but he was already running on fumes and even off the water he wasn't sure he was ready for a slug match against a Warlock and his entourage.

Then he sighed. "Say, as part of this...parlay. We would require an, extensive, report on both said Neuromancer and his 'associates'."

Edited by 3of4 on Dec 10th 2018 at 9:45:12 PM

Tim may have beaten him for asking for more details, but Leon wanted to make the 'request' crystal clear.

"Name, aliases, address, accomplices, description, magical capabilities whatever you got on the neuromancer, I want."

Alexander

Alexander jolted in surprise at Ms Wagner's touch—he'd been too focused on looking for the gang boss to hear her approach. It was too late to cover it or pretend it was something else, but he tried anyway, rolling his shoulders and tilting his head to look down at her.

Wow, she really was quite short.

His face stayed impassive as he listened to her whisper, though inside, he was still battling his own frustration. This wasn't the victory he wanted.

But it was bold of her to approach him like that.

And she was right.

It would have to do.

He nodded, trying to look reassuring, then looked to the wizards, letting them ask their questions.

"I'm not sure whether accidentally solving the problem makes you a good scout or a bad one," Terry mused. "On the one hand, it's not a very stealthy way of taking a look. On the other hand, you did get a lot of info, and 'the problem's over' is an important one there."

Did—Did she make him jump? Had he just been too focused, or was she just small enough to sneak up on him? Either way, Annette needed to take a second to hold her breath and keep from laughing at him.

At the very least, he agreed with her plan, even if he wasn't saying anything quite yet.

Freeloaded, meanwhile, still in Annette's arms, was staring at the empty space in the eerily focused ways cats did. Anne would have written it off...if there wasn't an invisible person in the room.

...could cats see through magic?

Boat Enthusiasts

"To answer all of your questions with as much detail as I can, because I'm a gun-runner and not a businessperson: I don't know, I only know him by 'Krell.' Tall, bone-white, short dark hair, really creepy baggy eyes, looked like he was wearing a dress uniform. Sounded vaguely German. All I saw of his magic was him killing the dockworker. He had a ghoul with him."

"Samson did all the actual business transactions. I just move guns from one place to another. Well, officially anyway. Unofficially, I was snooping around their operation and noticed some human-sized crates that, just between us, smelled a little ripe, if you know what I'm saying. I think this guy was a multiple offender."

Almost as if to answer Anne's question, albeit concerning the wrong apex predator, Tjalfe's head was subtly moving around, like it was fixed on a person who wasn't in the room. Sure, the wolf couldn't actually see who was there, but he could probably smell them...or could he just see them? Hard to tell.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jarl

"Yes. Now all I need is to pawn off the church full of angry, working class-hating murderghosts on somebody else. Preferably Leon."

Edited by math792d on Dec 14th 2018 at 11:22:01 AM

"That or it was the Ghoul's food supply." Tim mused quietly, memorizing what he was told as good as possible. "And that name sounds almost painfully fake." He added, looking thoughtfully. "Like a reference only they find amusing and just makes everyone else roll their eyes."

Edited by 3of4 on Dec 14th 2018 at 11:38:54 AM

"Hmmm. I would have liked more, still thank you for the information."

Leon frowned, mentally going over that mention about 'ripe' containers. Krell clearly wasn't reluctant to make use of his magic, which said he'd probably been at this for a while. Which wasn't great.

"I think we're done here then?"

He glanced at Tim to see if he had anything else to add besides snark, and then Alex, really hoping he wouldn't try to press his luck. Leon's ribs had taken enough of a beating tonight.

Edited by Kosjurake on Dec 16th 2018 at 2:59:50 PM

Alexander

Alexander’s eyebrows rose as he listened to the smuggler describe Tim and Leon’s target, his mouth curled in distaste at the descriptions of the ghoul and body.

“Didn’t you say you were looking for a mind-mage?” He muttered to the wizards. “I’m hearing Necromancer. Which incidentally lines up with an encounter I had a few days ago.”

He paused, then, after a second, added to his question.

“...And what does “Krell” mean to you?”

Alex sighed, shaking his hand, waving his hand to the door, as though to say “after you” to their invisible guest. If they were even still in the room. Or had been in the room to begin with. He would have liked to file the wizard’s quarry in the “not his problem” box in his brain, but unfortunately, he knew better. He’d already fought zombies. Even if he hadn’t, it was a matter of time before he got dragged into the White Council’s mess somehow. All he could do now is be prepared, and try to think of a way to benefit from the trouble.

“Well, in any case, I’ll be taking my leave, after I have my box of weapons. I think shotguns just became a very wise idea.” He said dryly, stepping to head back topdeck, and do just that. One crate for him, a smaller crate for Ms Wagner, enough to arm him and all his siblings with more than enough illegal options, and sell some on the side. He’d need to find a place to drop it before he returned to the hotel, though—the captive enforcer was already pushing it. He didn’t need housekeeping finding an Uzi under the bar.

Thank God, it looked like everything was wrapping up on this boat. Annette stayed at Alexander's side, her head ducked just so that her hair obscured her face from the Wizards in hopes that they didn't see the relief on her face. Why? Well...a normal person would probably look more concerned about the thought of a warlock—that was the right word, right?—running around. Especially if they were raising the dead. But she wanted to keep herself as far away from that mess as possible.

She moved Freeloader so that he was perched against her shoulder while still in her arms, like one would hold a baby. "I'm n-not going to use one just because you have a s-spare, Mr. Thorne," she said quietly, but curtly. No guns for her. With her current track record of slicing open her hand and spraying Tim with acid she'd kill herself with it.

Oh. Right. Annette paused and looked back at Tim and Leon, and at Jacqueline behind them. She gestured for the latter to follow her before speaking again. Her eyes never met their faces. "Um. Tut mir leid, das mit den Tränken. Viel Glück."

She was here to protect her son, by helping Alexander ruin Samson. Not to get involved in matters of the White Council.

Edited by KeiranGold on Dec 20th 2018 at 10:16:50 AM

Thank God We're Finally Off The Boat

Jacqueline nodded and tagged along, giving both of the wizards an acknowledging nod before pulling her ski mask closer around her head until the only visible thing was her eyes. The changeling looked...pretty shaky, all things considered, but she was at least holding up.

The police arrived just as they started to clear the boat, but with enough time for the smugglers to get away, in all likelihood. At least they had something for their trouble - a name, an understanding of the curse that plagued the marina so they could finish their arrangement with Fontaine, and in Alex' case, enough firearms to overthrow a small banana republic. And all that by putting a thumb in the eye of a notorious milieu gangster.

Which was probably a great consolation as they parted ways in separate lifeboats, slowly creeping down the dark Seine river ahead of the police sirens and panicky civilians wondering just what the hell was going on on that yacht.

And somewhere in all that mayhem, Freeloader had found a piece of string to play with. Cats, man.

Tim sat on the lifeboat, drawing his coat closer as he tried to stay awake. And as he looked after the slowly passing yacht he felt a deep sense of unease. The Neuromancer had, by all signs, shown himself to be a deeper threat than he had expected and now Alexander was involved.

It just...got more and more. He had come to Paris to - well not a simple, but at least clear defined - problem. Now he had Neuromancers, Necromancers and the usual half-mile wide zone of mayhem Las Vegas' most smarmy Casino Owner habitually left in his wake.

And he...he wanted to just go, finish the job he had been given and go home, hug Kat and just...deal with all the feelings and thoughts he still kept tightly compartmentalized in the back of his head, unwilling to open that bag until he had the time to properly deal with it.

But things just kept pilling up and that moment seemed to get ever farther away.

And then...it began. First it was a single light. Like the first shot on New Years Eve it rose above the departing yacht and - soundlessly - expanded into a bloom of colors. And then came another, and another and within seconds the yacht was in the center of a fireworks display illuminating it for kilometers in the dark Parisian night.

Tim supposed it might have been bad form to prime the magic energy in the small circle he had spent their entire parlay charging with the fireworks spell he had written years ago as a homework project for a magic community festival back in Freiburg. Even with the flowing water, it would easily go for the better part of a minute. More than enough for Paris's Finest to get a bead on the yacht and make sure it couldn't get away....Rivers having a certain linear nature to them, after all.

Kat would have called it a 'Dick move'. On the other hand, Tim supposed, they were gun running criminals.

And so he just smiled softly as the lifeboat rocked to the harbor's edge.

Leon tilted his head as he looked at the magical fireworks. It felt against the spirit of the truce that had been reached with the smugglers, but at the same time, his ribs hurt like a bitch and they were working with a neuromancer.

"...I guess we didn't actually say anything about not sending the cops after them did we? Just a cease on direct hostilities."

He prodded the bruises across his chest wincing as he did so. That potion the small german woman who was apparently working with Alex had given him, had helped, but after the number of bullets he had soaked, those bruises weren't going away anytime soon.

"I'd love to just get back to Rollo's and sleep, but we should probably talk with Officer Gage before we leave, if he's available. And its probably too late to meet Jarl at the club anyways. Hopefully, things didn't go horribly wrong there."

"Noli turbare circulos meos, Leon." Tim simply pointed out with his soft smile hiding the somewhat undignified feeling of Schadenfreude. "Noli turbare circulos meos..."

"Uh huh, so, small German alchemist in Alex's employ. That's weird right? You're native German, I'm German descended and now Alex has a German in his employ. Should we be reading something into this?"

Tim just gave Leon a eye-brow raised look.

"What? It can't be a coincidence that he hired her, after dealing with us. I don't know if he thinks Germanic descent equals better at magic, or if this is something weirder."

"Leon, we are in Europe. There are 80 Million Germans in the greater continental Region. I assume it is coincidence." He paused. "Not that I would consider Germanophilia to be a suprising fetish if Alexander displayed it."

"And? Just because statistically if he was picking at random there are decent odds he'd have found a German practitioner, doesn't mean he wasn't intentionally seeking one out."

Leon shrugs. "But I suppose it doesn't really matter why he hired her. At least she's an upgrade from him hiring a necromancer."

"Let us hope she stays that way." He sighed.

Annette sneezed twice in a row, seated in the little lifeboat with Freeloader at her feet playing happily with a string. Urgh, the cold air and water around them did nothing in favor of her not getting sick. At least she hadn't needed to swim in it like Alexander. She still pulled her jacket a bit tighter around her body and hoped the sneezes hadn't been a warning sign.

The magical fireworks were certainly something, though. She watched them as they drifted away and closer to the shore once more. A pair of Wizards, both of whom knew and didn't seem to like Alexander. Had he mentioned working with Wizards before? He had said he knew other practitioners, but Wizards...Wizards were the real deal. Not some little small-talent like herself.

Her mother might have been one, once, but not in her lifetime.

"...um, Mr. Thorne," she pipped up over the sound of the water, "You d-don't have any other, uh, u-unexpected friends that we might run into while we're here, do you?...because I think a word of w-warning might keep me from hitting them with acid n-next time."