Gotham: Year One

[industrious]

((Check the OOC thread. It exists for a reason.))

The Slammer

Hacking and coughing, the assassin is still alive. His fingers twitch towards the larger man's throat, but he's too weak to mount any sort of attack, and besides which, he lacks leverage.

He stares at his captor with hate, though. And Bolton realizes that his suicide wasn't cowardice. It was something else entirely.

Selina Kyle

Take a walk down the streets. Get the City back under my feet again.

At this late hour, the streets of Gotham are nearly empty. Those who still walk the sidewalks are those seeking dark deeds and darker pleasures. Women on street corners and dealers in alleys. Selina can tell from experience the fate of some of the people out at this hour. A man had forgotten to take off his designer watch; he'd be dead before morning. Another displayed his gun openly; a women who worked under him was going to get shot.

And as Selina walks, lost in thought, in a sort of Zen state. She is aware simultaneously of the world around her and the world within, of the facts and random insights swirling and melding together. She does not clear her mind, nor does she attempt any sort of inner peace. That would defeat the purpose; it is not to walk away from the world, or to embrace it, but to be part of it. To be in that time between then and will be. She closes her eyes, just for a moment, then opens them.

She had precious few leads, and the one she had had evaporated with the masked man. And amongst some of the equipment that Fox had bought was eerily similar to that which he had used. Time to pay the former vice-president of Wayne Enterprises a visit.

[Eurus]

Selina Kyle

Could Fox really be connected to the man who'd abducted Chill? It seemed ludicrous, but it was sounding more and more reasonable as she turned it over in her head. He was definitely up to something.

So it is that she finds herself looking up Fox's phone number and address, heading for the latter while calling the former. From her location outside the building, she looked up at the windows while the phone rang.

"Hello, Mr. Fox?"

[doliest]

Walker
"Wanted some information. Complaint registered against a friend. Wanted to see if it led back to Falcone or Cobblepot. Then Commissioner set me up-almost certain it does now." He shakes his head after a moment, "They're my flock. If they see you with me, uninjured, they'll trust you. They have to."

[Sophistemon]

Lyle Bolton

Lock-Up feels the man's weak fingers grasping towards his throat and drops him, suddenly, to the floor. When the assailant glares up at him with furious hatred, Lyle realizes that he's made yet another mistake. The man wasn't afraid of him, he wasn't a coward... he was a warrior, like Lyle, a zealot to a wholly different cause. The mountainous Lock-Up glares down at him through his pseudo-Kevlar baklava and folds his arms across his chest. "Who are you?" he says, his voice shifting into that now familiar rasping growl.

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Could I get a physical description of the man, please?

Lucius Fox

There's a brief, unhappy groan as the former corporate executive wakes up enough to speak clearly. His voice, thick with sleep, is nevertheless warm, kind and respectful. With that voice, it's no wonder he made it as far as he did before falling back down. With that voice, it couldn't be long before he made his way back up.

"Yes?" he says, making no mention of the time. "Who is this?"

[industrious]

The Slammer

The man's gaze is level; he acknowledges, however grudgingly, his captor's competence.

He isn't nearly as tall as Bolton, standing perhaps a full head below the man. While his shirt has been slashed to ribbons, his white undershirt is thin enough that Bolton can see the wiry muscles underneath. His arms from the shoulder down are covered in blue-green tattoo ink; dragons and Maori designs, mainly, with the occasional (backwards) Chinese character. His dark hair is close-cropped, almost a crew cut.

"Someone who has failed in his task."

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Make 2 Notice checks.

[Eurus]

Selina Kyle

The voice that Selina affects is soft but clear, professional but slightly apologetic. "I'm sorry to wake you. This is Selina Kyle, I'm a private investigator. I was hoping to ask you a few questions. I apologize for the timing, but some of them are rather urgent."

[Sophistemon]

Lyle Bolton

He nods. "You tried to kill me," he says, his voice rough but measured. "I want to know your name, and I want to know how you knew that I would be there." His eyes narrow into dark slits. "I advise you to be honest."

He works to memorize the man's features for later, studying everything that he can see for a good long while, but knows that the cameras will have caught enough of the face for him to create a composite picture if needed. He'll send it to Lucius in the morning. If that man doesn't talk, he'll have Lucius discover his true identity.

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Because neither of us are going anywhere, I'll take 20 on my Notice checks, for a result of 30 on both.
If that's not okay, please let me know.

Lucius Fox

She can hear him move to a sitting position, a brief creak that indicates that he's leaning back against his headboard. She can also hear a slight clatter as he reaches for his classes and puts them on his face. "Of course," he says, his voice calm and accommodating. "That's quite all right. How can I help you, Ms. Kyle?"

[DeafnotDumb]

Katherine's smile becomes tighter, and her grip on her stick much firmer as her gaze turns into a glare. "You don't have much idea about due process, do you?"

"Look, I got four other things to do today, all of them important. I haven't got goddamn time to babysit some idiot who doesn't understand how the world works. Just tell me this complaint and I'll see what I can do."

[doliest]

Walker
"Church in the narrows. Safety violation. What time is it?"

[Eurus]

Selina Kyle

"I'm currently looking into Wayne Enterprises as part of an ongoing investigation, and I understand you were recently let go from the company. That's rather surprising, considering your former position."

It's technically not a question, but it hangs in the air like one.

[DeafnotDumb]

"That's it? That's what you shot up a bloody police station for? What the **** do you think we can do? Your church's gonna get closed down, live with it. Bullock!"

Katherine keeps her eyes on the homeless man as she shouts back into the policeman. Her hands grasp her stick. "I'm gonna need help escorting this crazy into the cells. I've seen him in action and he sure can take a metric ton of shots. I want backup behind me."

[industrious]

Bullock

"You ain't the boss of me."

Of course, his next actions contradict his statement. Bullock is just being sour-tempered and contrary. One could call it part of his charm, but he doesn't really have any.

"Come on, Mr. Hobo. Back to the cells."

[doliest]

Walker
"What. Time. Is. It?" He doesn't move in one direction or another, simply standing there as he asks his question.

[DeafnotDumb]

"Ain't got a watch." Katherine draws the sword out of her stick, just a little, enough to show the steel inside. "Why do you wanna know? Got a date you're eager to miss?"

[industrious]

Hallway

Bullock clenches his fists.

"It's one in the ****ing morning, that's what time it is! Some of us want to call it a day. Now get back in your cell, and let park myself in bed!"

Holding Cells

Renee heads back down the cells, laughs at her colleague, and unlocks the door to Luigi's cell.

"Come on, Francis. Time to get out of here."

((I need you to post your sheet in the OOC thread.))

The Slammer

"You will get nothing from me save my corpse. I will not enter Heaven if I am a traitor."

((Taking 20 is fine, but you won't be able to learn the results until after the conversation is over. Sound good?))

[Sophistemon]

Lyle Bolton

He snorts. "You ambushed me in a parking lot and tried to carve my eyes out with a knife," he says. "I doubt you're getting into Heaven either way." He takes a step forward and towers over the man. "The terms of your sentence depend on your willingness to cooperate with me. If you don't tell me what I want to know, I'll chain you to the cot, keeping you alive with an I.V. drip and use sodium thiopental to get the information that I want out of you anyway. So you could betray your cause and live comfortably, or you could betray your cause and live a life of immobile indignity. I leave the choice up to you."

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I'm going to take 10 on an Intimidate check, using the 'Interrogation' aspect. I'm going to assume that being taller than the man, not to mention having beaten him unconscious earlier and foiling his suicide, qualifies this for the +2 bonus. That comes out to a 20, or an 18 if prior events don't qualify the check for the bonus.

Lucius Fox

He sighs, and a note of sadness creeps into his voice. "Yes," he says. "A new CEO was brought in, a Mr. Ra's al Ghul, and it was decided that my services were no longer required." It should be noted that he pronounces the name perfectly. "It isn't too surprising, Ms. Kyle. When conquering a new territory, it is customary to eliminate the remnants of the former power structure." There is a brief pause before he continues. "May I inquire as to the focus of your investigation?" he asks.

[doliest]

Walker
"Something like that." He looks behind him for a moment, "I'm not going back into the cell. Falcone still walks these streets; he's hurt my people, and I can't rest until His judgement is meeted out."

[Eurus]

Selina Kyle

"I see. Well I'm glad you asked, Mr. Fox, because the reason that I'm here is because I did some poking around Wayne Enterprises' finances recently in light of the takeover and your dismissal. I found some unusual purchases, Mr. Fox, many of them credited to you. I thought nothing of it, initially, but recent events have forced me to take another look. Are you aware of what I'm referring to?"

Even as she questions Fox, Selina remains polite and soft-spoken, not aggressive at all. She didn't flatter herself by crediting it to a naturally magnanimous personality; no, she was just being practical. Easier to switch from good cop to bad cop than vice-versa.

[Terron]

"Yes officer, it'll be a nice change." replies Luigi and moves out, keeping his hands in his pockets, unless required otherwise.

[DeafnotDumb]

"Yeah, boo hoo. Think you're the only one with a grudge?" The policewoman glares at the homeless man, a little snarl forming on her lips. "Now do something about it or get back in the cell. If you ain't helping us, we're legally justified to use force. Hear that? Legally. Means we can shred your ass and nobody won't care."

[industrious]

Bullock

The pistol is out, and aimed at Walker's head again.

"See? Persistent little ****, isn't he? Come on, genius. A night in the nice warm cells, then we let you go in the morning."

((Everybody else is in a good position for Issue #4. So I'm holding off on those updates at the moment.))

[doliest]

Walker
Walker sighs, "He will care, for He protects me. But I will comply." He turns his back to the two, clearly not afraid of the guns. As he walks back to his cell, he murmurs, "These holes are not misses. Never forget that as long as He decrys it, His vengeance shall stalk this Earth, and man can do nothing about it."

[industrious]

The Slammer

"Then I will resist to the last. You will not endanger my soul."

Defiance. Initial defiance, at least.

Spoiler

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Sense Motive check would come in handy. Ditto an Intelligence check/Wisdom check. None of which are required.

Renee Montoya

"Good."

As they leave, the officer still in the cells scratches at his one o'clock shadow.

"Hm. Interesting..."

Detective Walker

It's nearly two in the morning when Katherine gets back to her apartment. She doesn't even bother to pull the covers over herself, and spends the night in a dreamless oblivion.

((End Issue #3. Art by Alan Davis. Written by industrious, DeafNotDumb, doliest, Eurus, Sophistemon, and Terron.))

[industrious]

The Slammer

After his first, initial interrogation, Bolton spent the next several hours brainstorming ideas. As he does so, he notices several odd inconsistencies with the man's appearance and mannerisms. There is a faint accent in his words, and while Lyle can't place it himself, he knows people who can. His tattoos, furthermore, are new, despite appearing to be old.

It's a disguise. A very clever, thorough disguise, but still a disguise. He's not from around here.

Luigi

Montoya's apartment is a typical lower middle-class mess. The kitchen has several old take-out containers by the sink, and clothes are strewn about the floor of the main room. The ex-Mob man hasn't seen the bedroom, though. Montoya has locked that door as she slept, and handcuffed the man to the crossbar of the coffee table. Thankfully, the couch was comfortable.

Around eight, the door finally opens, and Montoya emerges.

"Morning."

Walker

Breakfast was oatmeal and a plastic bottle of orange juice. The officer doesn't look happy to give it to you; it's the same one as before.

Katherine Walker

The alarm blares far too soon for the detective's tastes. Her clothes are rumpled, her head feels as if someone stuffed it with mothballs, and her leg is starting to twinge.

Looks like another typical day being an honest cop in Gotham.

[Sophistemon]

Lyle Bolton

As a man of action, Lyle has a special hatred for fruitless endeavors. He had failed to capture Chill, at least partially. The man had been shot in the head by an unseen sniper and thus escaped man's justice. If there are various kinds of afterlife, Lyle hopes that Chill went to one of the warmer ones. And then there was the zealot, the assassin that had ambushed him in the parking lot. The problem with zealots, as Lyle could attest, is that they're stubborn, even when it doesn't suit them to be, and too damned loyal to their causes. True to his word, he'd chained the man's wrists and ankles to corresponding loops of metal set into the posts of the cot. The man probably didn't need to eat, yet, so he hadn't yet been hooked up to an intravenous drip. Lyle debates letting him starve a bit, for no longer than a week at most, before pumping food into his veins, but decides against it. There was incarceration, and then there was torture. Men incarcerated, it was part of their justice. Torture was... no. He wouldn't sink to the level of criminals.

His sits back at his command center a floor above the holding cells and stares at the monitors that present his spread-eagle guest from four different angles. Certain things, like the unplaced accent, bothered him a great deal, as did his new-but-purposely-faded tattoos. Who was this man? Who'd hired him? Who'd sent him to kill a nascent vigilante? He wracks his brain, trying to shake some answers out of his head. It had to make sense, somehow, for crying out loud. He looks at his phone, thinking that he should call Lucius and ask for advice, but it's so early in the morning that the poor man must still be asleep. He sighs and continues to think.

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Sense Motive: (1d20+10)[13]
Intelligence: (1d20+2)[21]
Wisdom: (1d20+2)[6]

Lucius Fox

There is a brief, almost imperceptible pause. "You're referring, I imagine, to the experimental body armor and defensive utilities that I helped design? The rights to produce and market those items were granted to me as part of my severance package. I had to pay out of pocket to have some prototypes produced, of course, but it wasn't that expensive. I'd planned to present them to the city authority at the earliest opportunity, to help get my legs back under me. I'm thinking of going into business myself, you see."

[Eurus]

Selina Kyle

"A good answer. But not a true one, Mr. Fox, is it? See, those recent events I mentioned that made me take a closer look? I saw those purchases you made on the street. I doubt the news has gotten out yet, but a Wayne Enterprises warehouse was broken into by a man decked out in your prototypes. I'm interested in hearing your explanation for that one."

[Terron]

"Good morning to you detective, sleeping on your couch was much better than in the cells. Thank you for that. And for not letting that cop get nasty with me. Think I owe you one, don't I? Anyway, what's next?" Luigi says, all too quickly, and without faked enthusiasm. Finally at least something moderately good happened to him since he started playing Good Guy.

[industrious]

The Slammer

A fanatic is like a crystal. Strike it at the right angle, and it will crack. Figuring out his god and religion should give him an in. Maybe.

Renee Montoya

"For now, breakfast, then a trip to the station."

Montoya unlocks Luigi's cuffs, and proceeds to take out cereal, and a pot of cold coffee.

"Thank God for mircowaves."

[doliest]

Walker
Walker gives a small smile at the man who hands him his breakfast, "Will I be interrogated soon? Or perhaps be given my phone call?" He's rather focused on that phone call; or talking to someone in the force. Really, he seems to want to do anything except sit in his cell quietly.

[Terron]

"Great!" says Luigi, rubbing his hands after the lock us released.
At Montoya's state about the microwaves, Luigi replies "Oh but there's nothing like a good nona's hot coffee. The stove is the stove, there's no replace for it I think"