<span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Norman Black</strong></span>, Nosferatu<br/>Tagged: Freddie (NPC)<br/><br/>Of all of the lowlife vampires that Norman had come to know and do business with in the city, Freddie was one of the more... dramatic. And that was saying something, with this crowd. This mask, for instance, with its rictus grin. It was a little obvious, was all. Borrowing the glamour of a Hollywood movie and a cult comic book instead of, for example, establishing a presence of one's own. A couple of steps short of wearing a Batman costume around town, but you could get to that Metro stop from here without a transfer, so to speak. Then again, for all Norman knew Freddie's face was even more fucked-up than his own. There was one skulk down in the shadows who had only a single eyeball hanging out his face by a nerve like the world's most grotesque tetherball, and a line of teeth that ran from the corner of his mouth up to the middle of his forehead. It was a wonder that someone hadn't put him out of the world's misery by now.<br/><br/>"Encrypt and decrypt, so you don't just want to crack something you've intercepted?" For all of the man's creepiness, it was nice to talk to a fellow practitioner of the world's least respected and most profitable science. A nice palette cleanser after the meal of political bullshit that was served up at Elysium. Which, Norman noted, Freddie hadn't been present at. "I've been working on something of my own... it uses a 256 bit key permuted by time of day, but it's synced to a private clock server to shake things up a little. That should do for most people. If you want something stronger, well... I could always go snooping around my old haunts and see what's developed in the last ten years. Those fuckers will be able to break anything I could do on my own. Short of No Such Agency, though, I can probably cover you."<br/><br/>Norman dug his hands into his pockets, an unconscious gesture he'd become prone too, hiding his freakish claws. "So is this payment up front, or one of your deals where you try to cut me in for part of the take? Because I have to say, after hearing what I heard earlier this evening, it doesn't seem an opportune time for me to be sticking my neck out for anyone."<br/><br/><br/>