Kasey quirked an eyebrow at what he perceived as a challenge. "I could shoot you and<span style="font-style: italic">still</span>take your cash," he pointed out matter-of-factly, followed by mumbling to himself about 'fucking ingrates.' His free hand traveled down, dipping into each of the stranger's pants pockets, making sure to retrieve an unfortunately thin wallet before he darted for the apron. By the time he was finished with his pat-down, Kasey was staring at a meager handful of ones and fives. Cassius laughed at the earnings, covering his mouth with a hand to at least feign politeness. Kasey felt a sneer pull at his lip, though he couldn't pinpoint if it was directed at Cassius or the barista. He held up his handful of tip money for the kid to see. "What the fuck is this, huh? Is this all they're paying you? You should fucking<span style="font-style: italic">thank</span>me for robbing this place, man, that's no way for a business to treat their employees."<br/><br/>In spite of his demeanor, Kasey was, if nothing else, a gracious man. A decent one, even, and he could never leave a person without something to eat on. He'd been about to finesse one or two dollars out of his handful of cash until a shuffling from his right caused him to reflexively jerk and drop the money. His finger twitched over the trigger, and it could only be described as a miracle that he didn't instinctively pull it. Eyes wide, Kasey used his newly-freed hand to tangle in the barista's hair and drag him backwards. Honestly, the kid looked pretty brittle, but he'd at least be a better meatshield than Cass if something were to go wrong. He dug the barrel of his pistol into the side of the employee's neck.<br/><br/>"Cass?" he called out, just loud enough to be heard.<br/><br/>"I know, I see it," Cass said from somewhere behind him, causing him to jump again. With how twitchy he felt, Kasey was morbidly impressed that he hadn't accidentally Pulp Fictioned this barista. Slowly, Cassius moved from behind him and came into view, taking careful and steady footsteps toward the source of the noise. A loud clang and then a rustle over the concrete; whatever it was had knocked something over. As Cassius crept closer, Kasey slowly pointed his gun forward, toward the noise.<br/><br/>Suddenly, Cass stopped, and Kasey barely heard a panicked ‘what the fuck’ before he disappeared into a puff of thick black smoke. And out of the smoke burst a grotesque, eldritch-horror looking… dog? It landed with a disgustingly wet sound in front of them, like its dark grey and twisted skin was wet with a slimy ichor. It looked like it'd been burned, if it was even a dog at all; its face was scrunched up and horrid, like it had been melted off years and years ago. Its snout writhed revoltingly as it worked out the surrounding scents, of which Kasey was sure there were plenty.<br/><br/>Its mouth pulled open from its jawline, peeling open the entirety of its face to reveal several rows of hundreds of teeth. And it shrieked at them. Kasey shot once, and hit it squarely in its open maw - an impressive shot, to be sure, given how horribly the<span style="font-style: italic">thing</span>had caught him off guard. It sputtered angrily, choking on the hot metal of the bullet, before it just inhaled and looked right at him and the barista he held hostage.<br/><br/>“Shit, shit, shit,” Kasey whispered, his voice raising an octave with each swear as his grasp on the barista’s hair tightened. The creature screeched at them again, and there was barely a second’s worth of reaction time before it reeled back on its haunches and leaped at them. With what fight-or-flight adrenaline he had coursing through him, Kasey threw the coffee-shop employee to the side; it wasn’t to necessarily throw him to the sinistrous wolves, so to speak, but it<span style="font-style: italic">did</span>work out in Kasey’s favor to have them separate. Two separate targets were harder to catch than one concise unit.