(IC) San Francisco by Night: A Requiem in Fog

[Lentrax]

I suppose. I typically hunt alone, but I suppose it would not hurt to try something different tonight.

[Bennosuke]

Spoiler: OOC: Karl

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That was correct about the roll

Karl made his way back down the fire escape, and came around the side of the house, careful not to be seen. As he stepped over the large vase, Karl's attention was drawn to the sound of a car's engine. About a block and a half down, a dark sedan... too far to identify or mark the plates of, pulled out of it's parking space and exited down the street. He had no proof, but Karl's experience led him to believe he had been watched.

************************************************** ***************************************

Miho's response surprisingly came before Victor's had. "We can meet at Tommy's Joynt at 3AM." The response clearly ignored or was meant to override Anna's suggestion of 1AM. Tommy's Joynt was a Divey all night diner that had survived through nearly 70 years unchanged in the city. The outside was garishly painted, ridiculously decorated, and was known for serving cheap slop like food to a garish assortment of riff raff and beat cops. On any given night a fight was just as likely to break out at Tommy's as a spontaneous all in drinking song. The Kindred had claimed a hidden third floor as a smaller more private Elysium, where more private conversation could be had.

While Anna and Estella began leaving Karl's office building, Victor's response came, "Mel's Dinner. The one on Lombard". In contrast Mel's was a staple hunting ground of the Kindred. Similar to Tommy's it served food all night, but was more commonly frequented by drunk teenagers and bums. It would not be hard to get to.

Estella and Anna took their separate cars to the Diner. Mel's was fashioned after old 50's style diners, all checkerboard, and chrome and bright yellow lighting. A large African American Bouncer greeted Estella and Anna, and let them in after checking them quickly for weapons. Victor reclined in one of the near red leather booths a snearing grin on his face. "I wondered when you would get here Anna. I was getting hungry." Turning his attention to Estella, Victor's face softens slightly. Cocking his head and winking, he says, "Hello babe, and who might we be?"

The diner was packed with groups of glassy eyed mortals, stuffing over priced artery cloggers into their slack mouths and giggling over their night's encounters. Victor was dressed in a dark Kashmir turtle neck sweater, and expensive designer jeans. His dark auburn hair was slicked back into an all too modern pompadour, and he reeked of cologne.

[Daishain]

That is it, it already seemed more than a little off for the laptop to be the only surviving piece of electronics left. It is not going back to the office, not yet at least. Karl checks over his car before getting in, looking for signs of tampering or any planted devices.

Most of the evidence items just go in the trunk, the laptop in the passenger seat. Karl drives in a semi random pattern for a time, until sure he does not have a tail, before turning into an alley. He then attempts to boot up the recovered laptop.

[Lentrax]

Estella. Estella says. In an almost, but not quite, bored voice she goes on.

The pleasure, I am sure, is all yours.

As Estella seats herself across from Victor, she scans the crowd for an acceptable source of food.

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

Anna typed out a response to Miho first.
Perfect, thank you.

At Mel's diner, Anna scanned the crowd before sitting with Victor.

Spoiler

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is it normal to get frisked entering a diner?

"Haven't been here in a while," Anna said, "still smells the same. What's on the menu?"

After a minute of chitchat, Anna gets down to business.

"Victor, Estella is with the Invictus, there's something we should talk about," she said, "it shouldn't take long, but if you're hungry we can eat first. Your call."

[Bennosuke]

A quick inspection of Karl's car reveals no bugs, bombs or tampering. He stows the equipment and drives off. After 30 minutes of motoring around the city without any evidence of a tail, even driving down into the foggy hills of The Presidio, Karl eventually finds a narrow alley and shuts off the cars, making sure all lights have been killed. Almost greedily, he pulls the laptop to him and hits the power button... but it's dead. No lights flash, just simply no response, no matter how many times Karl hits the power button. Perhaps it needs to be charged, or perhaps it was fried, just like the cameras inside Mobius' apartment.

************************************************** ************************************************** ****

Estella's cold greeting draws an even cockier grin from Victor, perhaps taking her indifference as a compliment or a challenge. Rather than engaging the Ventrue, Estella begins scanning the room. For the most part, booths are filled with groups of inebriated youth. Some parties are rowdy in their intoxication, others sedated. The counter is mostly the same, though there is an older awkward looking Asian man with spectacles who looks thoroughly miserable and alone by the register.

Estella is interrupted from her search by Victor's chortle, a response to Anna's question. "Jeeze, always business with you Anna," he teases, "Won't even pretend that you wanted to spend time with good old Victor". Victor winks Estella again, "I bet you're hungry, right?". He combs his hand through his long manicured hair and nods his head over at the counter where the Asian man is making a poor attempt at eating a half rotten salad. "I think Chinky over there looks lonely, what do ya say Anna?", Victor says mockingly, his eyes suddenly mean and focused. The message is clear; if you want something from me, you better play along.

Spoiler: OOC

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Both Tommy's and Mel's are real places in San Francisco, though I've turned them up to 11 in WoD fashion. Mel's actually does have a bouncer, though I have never personally been frisked there.

[Daishain]

Karl grimaces in frustration, and barely suppresses an urge to tear the damnable thing apart.

After he calms down, he thinks, wait, that is not entirely a horrible idea. Heading back to the rear of his car, Karl retrieves a few screwdrivers and begins taking the laptop apart. He may not know much about how these things actually work, but he knows that there are kine who specialize in data recovery for damaged computers. Even if the interior is fried, there might be information left on the hard drive, he just needs to retrieve the thing, and have Gabriel go to one of these techs with a sob story about how the hard drive contains things too precious to lose.

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

"Chinky?" She replied, arching an eyebrow, "and you wonder why we don't hang out more."

"But okay, food first then talk," she said.

She stood up and walked over to the counter next to salad man and peeled a laminated menu from the surface to glance it over.

She looked at his food.

"Remind me not to get the salad," she said with a smile.
"Are you waiting for someone?" she asked, after his response.

[Bennosuke]

Karl took the computer frame apart, removing the electronic innards. Sure enough the wiring had been all sorts of fried, there was even dark rusted scorch marks on the shielding, and the guts smelt like chemistry class. It was hard to tell whether the hard drive was damaged, but it was not too hard to separate from the tangle of blown out wires.

************************************************** ******************************************

Victor smirks harder at Anna's response, revealing a row of pearly whites behind his nearly ruby lips. "Aw Anna," he teases, "that's why I love you". He watches her stand up to retrieve the menu, then flashes another TV smile to Estella. There was no denying that if it were not for his attitude, this corpse would be relatively attractive.

The young man looked startled by Anna's question. He looked up at her through thick spectacles and glassy round eyes, taking a long moment to process her question. "Well... no", he responded flatly. The man's hair had been gelled into a spikey frizz that would be more appropriate back in Hong Kong than in America. He wore an orange button down with a dark stain on the chest, and military green cargo pants. He stared up at Anna, as if not sure if she was really there. He looked familiar to Anna.

Back at the booth, Victor put one elbow on the table, and propped his head in his hand to lean across the table closer to Estella. "So then, what is a fancy old Invictus like yourself doing mixed up with a boring old Ordo Member?", he asked in a light sing-songy way.

[Lentrax]

Rather than address the young vampire directly, Estella inspects her fingernails as she replies. Business, but I believe Anna already spoke to that effect before you had her go play with her food.

After another moment devoted to the completely trivial task of preening, Estella stands up. As she does so, more than a few of the nearby kine stop to watch her as she saunters away, heading for the restrooms.

Spoiler

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Activating Awe.

[Bennosuke]

Before Victor can respond, Estella removes herself from the booth. She pushes out with her Majesty, more letting go of some unidentified tension, like cracking one's knuckles, and she can instantly feel all eyes in the room turn on her. As she makes her way to the bathroom, she actually watches a stunned teenager so focused on her miss his mouth with a sandwich. He pushes the greasy slop into his cheek covering it in ketchup.

Though there is a line for the bathroom, those waiting simply let her pass into the next available room. The room reeks of human fluids, reminding her of just how disgusting mortals can be.

Spoiler: OOC

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Anything in particular you are trying to have Anna accomplish by activating Awe?

[Daishain]

Shaking his head, Karl simply discards the computer case and its innards, taking only the hard drive. With luck, there would be something left to recover.

With nothing left doable for the moment, he heads back to the office. Once there, he'll go through Gabriel's list of contacts for likely tech experts to take this thing to. If none can be found there, he'll perform a search online.

[Lentrax]

Estella smiles as she watches the crowd react to her. As she sees the teen completely miss his mouth, her smile widens.

She enters the restroom, and not bothering with a toilet, instead pulls out a lip gloss and touches up her lips. She knows it's only a matter of time before she finds what she is looking for. Someone always tries to score in the restroom, and tonight, they will find a rush like they have never felt before.

Spoiler

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No. No reason for using it, at least not to help Anna. Of course it may help her with everyone else paying attention to Estella.

[Bennosuke]

Karl rummages through Gabriel's contact list but draws up another blank!

Spoiler: OOC

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Sorry, basing this on Gabe's character sheet

Instead he turns to the modern mortal's Bible, the internet. With little difficulty, he is able to find a large list of computer repair companies and ratings. That's right, the century old corpse was on Yelp! Karl is able to make a list of the top companies, one called "Buzz Computer Repairs" which was well rated and open 24/7, though it was known for being somewhat expensive.

Spoiler: OOC

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I know we should keep things moving, and Karl has a few more hours to his night though it is now probably close to 3:30 for him, but I am happy to have the exchange happen during "Down Time", since I don't know how much a scene at the computer repair store can improve the game/story. Up to you though.

************************************************** ********************************

Leaving the door unlocked, Estella proceeds to touch up her makeup. It is not long before a man roughly in his 30s, in a black Armani button down, and tight jeans lets himself into the room. He grins at Estella and lets the door close before saying nonchalantly, "Oops, I didn't realize you were in here". The man makes no move to lock the door, but neither does he try to exit. In fact, still blocking Estella's exit, he takes a step forward assaulting Estella's eyes and nose with a heavy cologne, scented of sandle wood and vomit. Now so close to Estella, he says, "Mind if I join you? Man, you are just sooooo fine", while placing one meaty hand on her upper arm with too much confidence. The mortal in Estella revolts at such aggression, spinning into a tizzy of panic, but The Beast smells dinner.

[Daishain]

Karl, in a slightly better mood at having found something he can visit right away, leaves the office again and seeks out the Buzz.

On arriving, he'll tell the clerk, "Idiot nephew of mine was screwing around and fried his mother's laptop. He's lucky that he didn't fry himself in the bargain. In any case, there are some important and difficult to replace files on here. If there's any chance the contents could be retrieved I'd appreciate it."

Karl pulls out a hundred dollar bill, "I'm a busy man, this will be your personal tip if you get it done within the next hour."

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

Anna paused, trying to connect the face with a name. Her mind was no longer on food, and she felt a slight sense of paranoia start in her gut.

"Sorry, you looked familiar," she said, frowning in concentration.

Spoiler

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feel free to roll whatever it is to see if Anna recognizes/remembers this guy.

[Lentrax]

Estella makes no move to stop him. It is almost too perfect. If he were still capable of doing her serious harm, this scenario would scare the wits out of her.

But she feels a deeper thrill at the thought that he might at least try.

And you have what I need.

Estella reaches up, grabs him by the back of the head, and pulls him into her body. One hand reaches down and teases him, and he feels him grab her in kind.

Despite the taste of his cologne and the vomit, she kisses him.

Suddenly, she stops, reaches past him and locks the door.

Spoiler

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And I think that's where I'll stop writing. Unless he resists, I'll pull 3 Vitae from him.

[Bennosuke]

The Buzz is a relatively modern looking repair shop, perhaps modeling itself after Best Buy or an Apple Store. Bright fluorescent lights shine on an intricately decorated rubber tiled floor, and an open room rimmed with glass covered counter. A pimple faced teenager sits sleepily under a sign that reads, "Meet The Buzz Whizzes". His uniform of a red velvet vest and bow tie would likely be found on an usher in a movie theater, and his bronzed name tag reads "Buzz Whizz: Kevin".

Kevin looks up at Karl groggily, and slowly looks over the hard drive. "Wow sir", he says in a voice that immediately cracks, "your nephew really did a number on this." He retrieves a plastic zip lock bag and places the hard drive into it. "I'm not allowed to take tips sir, but thank you. We charge by the hour, and based on parts to replace. We charge an extra 30% for rush repairs. For a hard drive the rate will be $200 an hour, but if we are able to get anything out of it, it should only take an hour or two. If this is acceptable I will have you sign here." He pulls up a piece of paper titled "The Buzz Contract!", in overly cartoony font, but the small print below is all legalese essentially promising an optimal and speedy repair but requiring the purchaser to pay regardless of results, and claiming no responsibilities for any further damages which may occur.

************************************************** ************************************

The man's eyes narrow for a moment as he focuses on Anna, adjusting his glasses as he does so. "Ya, you kinda look familiar too..." his voice is nasally and more than a little slurred. He adjusts his glasses again and says, "My name is Joseph", and offers Anna a very dry hand to shake. When he says his name, Anna knows exactly where she has seen Joseph; he was one of Daniel's friends and co-workers! Anna had met him in The South Bay with Daniel, the night she found out Daniel was alive and in California.

Joseph still seemed ignorant of this, but before Anna could act, Victor was standing behind her, and grabbed the drunk man's hand for a hearty shake. "Nice to meet you Joseph", Victor said with that wicked grin on his face, "my name is Esteban. Nice to meet you. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but you look like a man who handles his liquor."

Joseph is shakes his head yes, and Anna can feel Victor pushing out with a primal urge, that can only be his beast. He lets go of Joseph's hand, and lifts an eyebrow in challenge. "Well, I don't doubt it", Victor chuckles, "but I doubt you have room for any more tonight. My friend Anna and I were gonna go to a bar near by and have ourselves a few shots. I wouldn't want you doing anything stupid."

The coercion is obvious. Victor is clearly lashing out and stoking the flames of competition within Joseph. The man's eyes focus and his speech sharpens, and Joseph says adamantly, "I'm alright. I'm fine to keep drinking. I could probably have at least... four or five more shots.".

Victor places a firm hand on Anna's shoulder and gives a hard squeeze. "Good man. We have a friend in the bathroom, but why don't we all pay and when she gets back, we can head over to the bar.".

A few minutes later, Estella returns from the bathroom. Her face is aglow with the Vitae, and Anna can smell the sweet metallic scent of blood on her. All eyes follow the magnificent Davea as she saunters over to the counter where Victor and Anna stand over the Asian man. "This is Joseph", Victor says coyly, "he is going to come out with us for a few drinks".

Joseph's eyes go wide when he sees Estella, and he adjusts his glasses quickly before blurting out, "Nice to meet you", and turning a dark shade of crimson.

Spoiler: OOC: Lentrax

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Please note the gained blood points on your character box in your next post.

[Daishain]

Karl regards it all with a sense of growing unease, this may have been a mistake. "Just get it done", letting a taste of his normally hidden predatory aura loose, he continues, "and get it done right"

When convinced this youth has some idea of the consequences of doing this particular job halfway, Karl signs the form with a fake name and his current burner phone number, then he goes and waits outside of the store.

Another update for his counterparts via text in the meantime, "Apartment trashed by someone looking for something. Covered tracks well, but may have some recoverable data. VII left as sign on the walls. Might be them, or might a group wanting us to think it is VII involved."

[Thundercracker]

Anna retreated into herself as Victor took over, ending up in kind of a daze.

Joseph knows Daniel, Joseph is Daniel's friend. If anything happened to Joseph, Danliel would be upset. Joseph is also a grown man who can make his own decisions. Any idiot who goes off and gets blindingly drunk with three people he doesn't know is almost begging for it. Victor likes to torture and kill. I don't want to be part of that at all, but if I forbid it, will he be forthcoming with information?

I don't think I care.

She followed along with the others as they left. When an opportunity arises, likely while Daniel's attention is focused on Estella, Anna will pull Victor aside.

"No permanent damage," she whispered.

[Lentrax]

Estella leaves the restroom, having cleaned herself back up again. Smiling to herself, she ponders the delicious thoughts of seeing this man searching for her for many nights to come. She even wonders whether or not to let him find her... But perhaps not. It is bad for one of her kind to feed from the same source too many times. Gabrielle, on the other hand... Now there was a puzzle worth pondering... But for now, she still has business to attend to.

The pleasure, monsieur, is mine. Estella says as she glides to a halt near them. If we are going, we should go soon.

[Bennosuke]

The teenager nods his head anxiously at Karl's demands, spurred by The Beasts presence. "Yessir", he says as his voice again cracks. The boy takes the laptop into some back room and Karl exits the store.

****************************************

Both Estella and Anna receive Karl's text

"Apartmet trashed by someone looking for something ng. Covered tracks well, but may have some recoverable data. VII left as sign on the walls. Might be them, or might a group wanting us to think it is VII involved."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Playing with time continuity I know, but otherwise things will get a little too confusing.

Estella introduces herself to the intoxicated Joseph and the group soon leaves Mel's Diner. Magnetized by Estella's presence, Joseph follows her heel like a well trained dog, leaving Anna and Victor a moment to talk.

Anna makes her opinion known to Victor, who chuckles in response and pats her on the back. "Now when did you get so soft? Where would be the fun in that". The grin Victor gives Anna is one she is quiete familiar with. It is a mean, self satisfied grin, smugly hiding the once-man's teeth. Anna had seen this grin when she had last seen Victor feed. It was the look of self satisfied triumph, when Victor had cornered and bested his prey.

Before Anna can respond, Victor calls up to Estella and Joseph, "The bar is just over that way. It's down the alley up ahead; one of those Speak Easies that are so popular in New York. Real great atmosphere. You are gonna love it."

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

"Out of all the kine in the city, you happened to pick-," Anna replied quietly, but then she paused.

Whatever you say, it will lead them one step closer to him. He still matters, and out of the two of us he still has a chance for happiness and a normal life. If I press this, more questions will be asked. Better to be vague, let him fill in the blanks.

"Never mind," she said, striking a tone between aloofness and caution, "I've lost my appetite. Do what you will, but my suggestion still stands; I hope you consider it."

It was a gamble, she knew, but she knew if she cared too much victor would only pry further. She couldn't risk Victor or god forbid Estella getting closer to Daniel. Maybe Victor would play it safe and get Joseph stupidly drunk before feeding so he wouldn't remember, maybe he'd pick someone else, maybe he'd still kill Joseph, but at least the trail would stop there. At least, she hoped.

Spoiler

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this is important to Anna so she will spend a point of willpower on a roll if it is called for

[Lentrax]

We will see. Estella responds to Victor, completely ignoring the presence of Joseph right behind her.

[Bennosuke]

By the time Karl is finally contacted about the hard drive, he can feel a familiar irrational anxiety, heightened by a hot prickle brought on by the sun. His watch reads 5:45 AM, meaning it has taken nearly two hours for the repairs to occur, far longer than agreed upon! Like when one's gorge rises before vomiting, Karl can feel the urge to let go and destroy the boy, and his computer shop. The rage is consuming, or threatens to be, and it has always been with Karl, always been hungry.

Spoiler: OOC

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So lets get a roll for resisting Frenzy. You can RP Karl returning to the store if you so choose, though he can start to flee instead if you are worried about him actually frenzying. Frenzy is a Resolve + Composure roll. Modifiers for this roll are as follows: +2 minor insult in being forced to wait so long. This would give Karl a base dice pool of 7. Remember that WP can't be spent on this roll, though it may be spent to hold off the frenzy if Karl fails.

************************************************** ************************************************** ******

Victor gives Anna a look of disdain, but does not respond, instead picking up his pace. Joseph follows Estella into the alley, which is very clearly just a blind alley between two corporate buildings. It is likely a mix of the alcohol, and lack of adequate lighting that allows Joseph to follow Estella so deep into the alley before realizing something is wrong. With little illumination other than the cloud covered crescent moon, Joseph strains to figure out his surroundings, swaying as he tries. He turns to find Victor cutting off his exit, with Anna a few yards behind.

Victor extends his arms out in questioning, and asks, "What's wrong buddy?". Joseph opens his mouth as if to speak, but nothing comes out, and Victor takes a step closer.

Spoiler: OOC

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Okay, so if the player characters don't do something to interrupt, the feeding goes Victor's way, which will be violent and unpleasent, and will absolutely trigger a breaking point even if Anna and Estella don't help (though it will be a lower level breaking point if they help out). As Joseph is linked to Daniel, defending him will be worth defending a Touchstone (WP regaining). You are welcome to discuss OCC before making an IC decision.

[Daishain]

Fingers twitching, stiff backed, Karl stalks back into the store, already imagining what he'll do if that pimple faced punk had screwed up in the one singular function he was supposed to be useful for.

Spoiler: OOC

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(7d10)[3][10][8][2][2][9][9](43) extra rolls(7d10)[10][6][10][1][2][5][6](40)

[Bennosuke]

Stifling his rage, Karl stomps heavily into the store, though he has managed to reign in The Beast. The dull eyed teenager seems not to notice Karl's entrance, too busy on his cellphone. By the time Karl makes it to the desk, it is already too late. The hard drive sits in a plastic bag, on the shelf behind the boy. Without even looking up from his phone, the employee says rather flatly, "Sorry it took so long. There were a few pieces that got sizzled pretty bad. Not sure what your nephew did. Unfortunately we had to use a few extra parts, so it will be an extra hundred dollars."

Spoiler: OOC

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Nice rolling. That would be an exceptional success. Karl gains the Tempted Condition pg 307, and regains a point of WP. Please include your updated character bosx in your next post. Now just waiting on Lentrax and Thunder.

[Daishain]

Fingers twitching again at the arbitrary price hike, Karl carefully utters, "The laptop that came from is ruined, I require an adapter cable, or some other means of transferring what data survived."

Spoiler: Character Box

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Humanity: 5
Willpower: 6
Health:undamaged
Beats/Exp: 1
Vitae: 10
Tilts/Conditions: Tempted: -1 on frenzy checks (to resolve: kill, frenzy, or make touchstone connection)
Aspirations:
1. Obtain leverage on a powerful individual that has been a passive or active threat
1a. Investigate them for past mistakes and current weaknesses
1b. If investigation turns up nothing, stage an incident.
2. Find a fellow vampire that can be closely allied with to Karl's benefit and with minimal risk.
2a. Locate a suitable individual with compatible personality and ambitions
2b. Check into their nature and past to be certain.
2c. approach vampire with proposal.
3. Karl has living descendants he is not aware of. A son currently in a nursing home. Two grandchildren, and multiple great grandchildren. Discover their existence in an unpleasant fashion.

[Bennosuke]

The young employee sighs deeply, takes a few thumb strokes to finish dying in whatever mobile game he was playing and looks up from his phone. He scratches his pimpled cheek and chuckles to himself, "There is a cable in the bag, which can be hooked up to the USB port still attached to the hard drive. You should be able to pull files from it like an external drive." He speaks slowly, pronouncing each word as if talking to an imbecile.

Spoiler: OOC

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yes I did not include that in my last post, but it's just more fun having this kid be a ****.

[Daishain]

Karl opens his mouth again, then shuts it, teeth gritting. He pays the brat with cash, grabs the bag, and stalks out before he does something that will require his own evidence destroying efforts. He'll make his way back to the office to take a look at what was recovered, and meet up with Gabriel.

Spoiler: OOC

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No idea how that kid survives the night shifts around here. Hell, I'd have a hard time keeping my temper with him under the circumstances, and I'm very easy going.