[IC] City of Mist - Gangland Gods
<h1 id="title">Elliquiy Role Playing Forums</h1>
		<h2 id="linktree">Play-By-Post: Light =&gt; Light: Human Small Groups =&gt; Topic started by: Korosa on 26-03-2022, 21:17:37</h2>
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				Title: <strong>[IC] City of Mist - Gangland Gods</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Korosa</strong> on <strong>26-03-2022, 21:17:37</strong>
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				Some days just suck.<br><br>Even if you woke up feeling bright and sunny, the day is against you–it’s wet and dark and gray outside, the clouds obscuring the sun, the rain more of a muddy drizzle than a pleasant shower. It’s one of those days that makes you want to crawl back into bed, but instead, you’ve got to get up and deal with whatever the world is going to throw at you. <br><br><strong>Cassie</strong><br>Two hours ago, you woke up next to a dead body. <br><br>Now you’re at the club and it’s almost like a normal day, if you could forget what happened earlier. Your friend, the front of house manager Belinda, doesn’t seem convinced that you didn’t take Steve home, but she’s not hassling you about coming in late and you’re just starting to relax into the idea that you can pretend it never happened at all. <br><br>And then you turn around and there he is. Steve, still handsome, dressed like he was when you first met, except his eyes are empty and his jaw is open and slack, almost dislocated and his skin is a color of gray that living humans don’t have. He stares at you mournfully as Belinda rushes up to you. “VIP customer at table six, can you handle him?”<br><br>“Run,” Steve says. “They’re coming.” His voice is too much like himself, not a ghostly whisper, but the voice of a live, pleading man coming out of a dead face. “The exile…you’ve got to find the exile.” <br><br>“Cassie, table six,” Belinda, motioning to a table where a man with a crewcut and impressive muscles is looking at a menu. <br><br>What do you do? <br><br><strong>Xiaofu</strong><br><br>Your phone rings, no caller ID. When you pick it up, it’s one of Edgar’s crew, a woman named Sasha. She tends to dress in all designer clothes that are tailored to show off her assets. No one has ever bothered to tell you what her actual role in the organization is, but she seems close to Irons, close enough to assign you jobs for him.&nbsp; <br><br>“Hey, the boss wants you to go to this address.” She reads it out to you. “It’s an office called Exile Private Investigations. Toss his stuff, grab all of his files that mention the Scarlet Phantom’s or the name Steven Lane, then set the place on fire.” She sounds harried, for someone who you’d normally describe as bored and a little sultry. “And if I were you, I wouldn’t mess it up. The boss is in a damn poor mood today. You can do that, right?” <br><br>What do you do?<br><br><strong>Ellie</strong><br>“A private investigator?! Shit, capo, you want me to take care of him?” It’s your bodyguard talking, tucked up against a wall where he probably thinks you can’t hear him. The new one, Giancono or Giovanni or something with a G, anyway. Angela tries to rotate them out to, as she puts it, ‘keep them from getting too familiar’. It doesn’t really help, though–you can tell this one would already die for you. There’s a tone you’ve learned to listen to, from both men and women, when they’re around you for too long. Once you hear that tone, you know you can ask them for anything and you’d get it. <br><br>Your bodyguard, speaking to your sister or one of her lieutenants, continues on with, “Yeah, Exile? No, never heard of it. Well, at least let me go over there and make it clear he doesn’t have any business tracking a member of the Gentili family.” It sounds like someone has hired a private investigator to look into you, maybe one of your stalkers–or more worrisomely, someone with a grudge against the family. “Right,” Your bodyguard sounds a bit crestfallen. “Of course I won’t leave her alone. Right.” It doesn’t sound like he’s going to get the chance to defend your honor, at least not without you there with him. <br><br>What do you do? <br><br><strong>Bryn</strong><br>You’re in your office doing paperwork, waiting for cases, when someone strolls into your office without knocking. He’s a tall, skinny guy with a strangely long neck and a lopsided smile that doesn’t sit right on his face. Your instincts are pretty much right off telling you this guy is bad news. “This Exile Investigations? You’re, um, Bryn Toledo?” he asks, tilting his head the other way, too far, like a puppet with no strings. <br><br>He doesn’t really wait for an answer, either way, just shrugs, shoulders up to his ears. “Sorry, the King says you’ve got to die.” And then he’s lunging toward you, one hand on the desk and just leaping over it towards you, that same big, lopsided smile affixed firmly to his face. <br><br>What do you do? <br>
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				Title: <strong>Re: [IC] City of Mist - Gangland Gods</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>MadPanda</strong> on <strong>26-03-2022, 22:08:52</strong>
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				<em>Ancestors, grant your wayward daughter strength!</em> <br><br>Can I do this, the stupid barbie doll asks. The downside of working for a <em>gwailo tong</em>, aside from the way so many of the soldiers have no fucking respect or class, is constantly having one's worthiness questioned by those who can't do half of what one's humble years of bitter work have granted. When, that is, they aren't checking out my ass and thinking about all those stupid porno fantasies about Asian chicks and kinky weirdness.<br><br>Lucky for her, I'm a professional, and I've seen the Heavy Hitter when he's in a mood. Fucking scary bastard. So she's probably too freaked out to keep it together.<br><br><strong>"I'm on it,"</strong> I say, my tone cold and firm, and hang up on her before this turns into some stupid game of twenty dumbass questions. Not like I have anything better (or better paying) to do right at the moment. Although being sent like some errand girl to toss a private dick's office and torch it might otherwise be insulting...<br><br>What's the point? Arson is soldier work. I'm a thief. So yeah, this smells like a bad idea from a mile away. Possibly a set up. Or a double cross. Or...maybe the Heavy Hitter really is that dumb.<br><br>I shrug into my jacket and grab the working bag, then let myself out onto the fire escape and head up to the roof. Time to get in a little exercise!
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				Title: <strong>Re: [IC] City of Mist - Gangland Gods</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>BlueOrange</strong> on <strong>27-03-2022, 02:41:10</strong>
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				“Yeah, table six, got it.” Cassie glanced over at table six. “I’ll keep an eye on him, but calm down a little, will you? He’s reading the menu. Let me see if I can deal with the prankster on eight for you.”<br><br>And with that, she darted over to table eight to whisper to Steve. “OK, that is not funny. I mean, OK, maybe it’s a little funny, but you scared that absolute shit out of me! And the least you could do, if you’re going to come to the club, <em><strong>where I work</strong></em> is to look normal, and to drop the act. It’s one thing to fake your own death and freak out the girl who was falling in love with you before you started being all creepy and weird. It is another thing entirely to threaten her job, which she was late for, because she was cleaning your fake blood out of her hair.”<br><br>Oh but she couldn’t stay angry with him. Even if he was doing this… whatever this is. “So, OK, mister, this is your second chance. You’re going to sit up straight, be your usual charming self, and I’m going to put you down for a caviar omelette with truffles on the side. Does that work for you?<br><br>This was an effort to <em>convince</em> Steve not to be an incredible fucking weirdo who threatens Cassie’s job. She is <em>charming</em>, but there’s a real risk that he will <em>just ignore her</em>.
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				Title: <strong>Re: [IC] City of Mist - Gangland Gods</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Avalon29</strong> on <strong>29-03-2022, 09:40:59</strong>
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				Bryn as usual was getting irritated with the paperwork. License renewal, bills, the whole 9 yards. It wasn’t best part of the job and he’d much prefer going out to actually work but owning his own agency had its downsides. But it was nothing he couldn’t deal with. Tossing the latest signed bit of paper work into a pile and leans back in his chair. He lowers the light gray hat over his eyes, matching the suit he wore. However his soon to be taken break was interrupted by the arrival of what he had hoped to be a client. It turned out to be wrong.<br><br>His gut was telling him something was wrong the moment he opened the door. He looked at the man as he entered the room. He reached under his desk to wrap his hands around the disguised artifact he had under his desk. A sword it had been when he first got it but for now it was an old revolver, inscribed on one side of the barrel the declaration of the name and year of its creation in medieval Castilian. IO SOI TISONA FUE FECHA EN LA ERA DE MIL E QUARENTA. The other side of the barrel had a Latin inscription AVE MARIA ~ GRATIA PLENA ~ DOMINUS TECUM, markings revealing what it really was.<br><br>As the man suddenly charged him after declaring his intent there was a very audible click as he pressed it forward into the man’s gut. “Yes. I’m Bryn Toledo and this is my office. Now then, I’m going to ask who you are and who you’re working for. Be grateful I’m not aerating you out but I just finished paying my bills and I would hate to have to pay someone to fix the dry wall.” Bryn declared trying to <em><strong>convince</strong></em> him to stop and tell him what was going on. He was not the most intimidating of men if going by appearance alone, slim, petite, androgynous looks with chestnut brown hair and emerald green eyes. But now as he narrowed his eyes on the man in front of him with his piercing green eyes, a steely tone undercutting his normally soft voice, there was something dangerous about him. The gun in his hand was even more terrifying, the click of the hammer seeming to be amplified and echoing in the enclosed space.<br><br><div class="spoiler_container"><div onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button" class="spoiler_header"> convince roll</div><div class="spoiler_body">Results of the convince roll!<br><br>Roll Result: Avalon29 rolled: 2d6, adding 4 to the total<br>Comment: Convince roll tags Exile P.I Gut Instinct Shapeshifting weapon Terrify the unworthy<br>Result: 5, 2,<br>Total: 11<br></div></div>
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				Title: <strong>Re: [IC] City of Mist - Gangland Gods</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>virtualblue</strong> on <strong>03-04-2022, 23:18:04</strong>
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				<div class="floatright">(https://i.imgur.com/BFEN7UV.jpg)<div align="center"><strong>Helena ''Ellie'' Gentili</strong></div></div>Ellie was lounging on a méridienne by the window, reading Willy Vlauntin’s latest novel, <em>The Night Always Comes</em>, when she heard the ring of the bodyguard’s cellphone and the resulting furtive conversation. She loved her big sister but the way she tried to protect her from the realities of <em>la Famiglia</em> could be so annoying. She was an adult now and could be expected to act like one, but Ellie felt trapped as Angie’s <em>sorellina</em>. Sure, there were positives to that—but it also meant she wasn’t always taken seriously. At least, that’s what it felt like.<br><br>Standing, Ellie put the novel on the windowsill and crossed over to where the bodyguard stood trying, unsuccessfully, to look like he hadn’t just been on his cell talking about her. “Who was that?” Ellie said and put a hand on the bodyguard’s broad chest and smoothed his tie. Her hand was pale against his black tie and she could feel the rapid beat of the bodyguard’s heart at her touch. She almost laughed. Men were so easy—women too, but, for all her flirting, she didn’t really like men. Not in the way they thought. She just found them to be enjoyable playthings. With women, though, she sometimes felt something else. Not love. At least she didn’t think it was love. Anyway, it was something different, leave it at that.<br><br>“Who is this private investigator looking into our family?” Ellie said her hand still on the bodyguard’s chest as she looked up at him, her cat-green eyes playing hide-and-seek behind her dark bangs. “And what is it that they are asking?”<br><br>Whatever it was it was a dangerous line of questioning. Sure, the family was constantly being investigated, but that was the government and part of the game. For some citizen or even another family to be asking around about her sister—or maybe even her—was something altogether different. It was the sort of thing that could find the questioner buried beneath a freshly poured cement slab or in a shallow grave outside the city. Or it could even be an opportunity for an ambitious girl to prove herself to her big sister.<br>
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				Title: <strong>Re: [IC] City of Mist - Gangland Gods</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Korosa</strong> on <strong>04-04-2022, 04:19:19</strong>
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				<strong>Cassie</strong><br>Convince Roll of 9 (https://elliquiy.com/forums/dicebot.php?r=158811) <br><br>Steve blinks, then nods slowly, seeming to understand. He manages a charming smile, sits up a little straighter and his skin becomes just a little brighter, a little less gray. The way he looks at you is the same he was looking at you last night, soft and sweet and a little romantic. <br><br>Then Belinda puts her hand on your shoulder and she’s looking at you like you’ve never seen her look before, really scared and concerned and more than a little freaked out. “...Hey, Cass, whatever you’re doing, stop it, okay?” She motions to the booth where Steve is sitting, doing his absolute best impression of a real person. “It’s not funny. There’s no one there.” She’s meeting your eyes, waiting for you to laugh, waiting for you to tell her it’s a joke and you weren’t just the girl talking to an empty booth.<br><br>Behind both of you, two more heavily muscled guys with crewcuts have sauntered in. Steve’s eyes flick past both of you, toward the men. “Cassie. You’ve got to go,” he repeats, more insistent, almost pleading. Belinda doesn’t look his way at all.<br><br>What do you do? <br><br><strong>Bryn</strong><br><br>The psychopath you’ve got at gunpoint looks down in surprise, like he has no idea how that got there, his eyes lingering on it before flicking back to meet yours. “...You’re fast,” he says. “I should have known you’d be fast, but you’re even faster than I thought you’d be.” He keeps his hands raised, backs up a little until he bumps the desk behind him. “Wow, cramped quarters, you should get a bigger office,” he says without a glance behind him, like he hadn’t just leaped the desk to try to murder you seconds ago. <br><br>“The King In Rags. You know, right? You have to know. He wanted you dead. You. That Chinese guy. That pretty girl. That nice old granny–that was fucked up, right? And a bunch of others. Oh and Irons. He wants Irons real dead. But I’m not doing that one. Get my head caved in like the last guy, haha. ” <br><br>He doesn’t seem to expect you to answer any of this or honestly to know what he’s talking about. Though that first thing he said rings some distant memory. When the police came to arrest the Scarlet Phantoms, one of them was ranting about a king–a king in rags. Your friend, Sergeant Bishop, passed you the police report on the official arrest and you distinctly remember that being a note in there. At the time, the guy was ranting something crazy and they’d just assumed he was going for the insanity defense.<br><br>Speaking of the insanity defense, the guy in front of you, a man who may have just confessed to several murders, is smiling at you. You’d swear a moment ago he had a normal smile, a little too big, maybe, but now he’s got a smile from ear to ear, showing gums and too-sharp teeth and the bloody insides of cheeks.<br><br>“By the way,” he asks you, “Do you think I’m pretty?” <br><br>Before you can answer or really even before you can process, he’s reaching for–the gun, probably, but no, past it, to wrap his hands around yours, forcing enough pressure to make you pull the trigger.<br><br>What do you? <br><br><strong>Xiaofu</strong><br><br>It doesn’t take you long to reach the place, at least, a little detective office in a bigger building with a lock you could probably open with your eyes shut and one hand tied behind your back. Maybe for an amateur thief, this place would prove a problem, but unless there’s some secret security system, this really is an insulting job for you. <br><br>Worse yet, when you get close to the door, someone is talking loudly, so the place you’re supposed to be stealing from and setting on fire isn’t even empty. Before you can decide what to do, you catch what seems to be the middle of conversation.<br><br>“...wanted you dead. You. That Chinese guy. That pretty girl. That nice old granny–that was fucked up, right? And a bunch of others. Oh and Irons. He wants Irons real dead. But I’m not doing that one. Get my head caved in like the last guy, haha. ” <br><br>Before you can react to any of that, there’s the unmistakable, unfortunately familiar sound of a gun being fired. <br><br>What do you do? <br><br><strong>Ellie</strong><br><br>The bodyguard–Giancarlo, you’re almost certain that’s his name–is looking at you like he might pass out, his heart hammering up a storm beneath your touch. He’s aware that your sister would have his balls and then his head–in that order–for making any physical contact with you. But he’s not moving away at all, his face flushed a mild red. <br><br>“Ah, Signorina Gentili. That was the capo, some <em>bastardo</em> private investigator, Exile something, has been hired to follow you around, take pictures of you, record where you go and what you do. The family is looking into who hired him, but in the meanwhile, ah–the capo asks you kindly to stay inside, just until she’s sure that it’s not going to be a problem. ” He gives you a sheepish grin–he hasn’t been with you long enough to know how you’re going to take this. <br><br>“She thinks maybe it’s someone you’ve spent time with, looking for you?” It wouldn’t be the first time someone tried to stalk you, certainly, though none of them have gone so far as to hire a private investigator. Then again, maybe this is a smart move on the stalker’s part, since most of the people who have tried to stalk you generally end up in a morgue. Either way, you’ve just been told you’re grounded.&nbsp; <br><br>What do you do? <br>
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				Title: <strong>Re: [IC] City of Mist - Gangland Gods</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>MadPanda</strong> on <strong>07-04-2022, 04:42:23</strong>
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				If I wasn't already thinking of cruel things to do to the barbie doll before I got to the target, I sure was now! Simply walking past the place and scoping it out is easy enough. Not that I'm going to do anything if someone's there.&nbsp; That's just begging for trouble, and if the boss doesn't like it he can send a few toughs to do this next time. I'm a professional. I'd rather act like one.<br><br>And then it gets even noisier. That's bad. Noise attracts attention. And, uhm, makes it a bit harder to nonchalantly slip on by.<br><br><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">“...wanted you dead. You. That Chinese guy. That pretty girl. That nice old granny–that was fucked up, right? And a bunch of others. Oh and Irons. He wants Irons real dead. But I’m not doing that one. Get my head caved in like the last guy, haha.”</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br>I hadn't really been paying attention to the conversation in there, to be honest. Not really my business, and secondary to the immediate problem with was how to rob and torch an office that was currently occupied without getting caught doing something really fucking stupid like, oh, say, loitering with intent. But those words...something in me just reacts.<br><br>He'd forgive me, I'm sure. Elder Brother was like that. He saw a problem, he just went to help. So this is very much what he would have done. And crazier still, these fools are making enough noise that I should be able to just slip right in, ears and eyes open, and maybe get more than a little bit of an edge if this really goes south.<br><br>And when in doubt? I can always pretend I don't understand English and got lost or something. That usually works.<br><br><div class="spoiler_container"><div onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button" class="spoiler_header">Sneak Around</div><div class="spoiler_body">Weak Hit</div></div>
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				Title: <strong>Re: [IC] City of Mist - Gangland Gods</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>BlueOrange</strong> on <strong>09-04-2022, 00:19:30</strong>
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				“That’s much better, thank you, and not at all disconcerting, by the way,” Cassie told Steve while Belinda was approaching. Then she gave her full attention to her boss while she was being told off yet again.<br><br>“You can’t see him?” She asked. “Oh well, of course you can’t see him! He’s not here yet! Do you remember that jerk who was here a month ago, and he kept hitting on me? I saw him in a club last night, and we actually had a good time, but he was saying some wild and crazy stuff about coming here and taking me away with him. And that’s just crazy talk because I have a good job here, and no crazy ghost from my past is gonna come here and tell me I have to leave. No sir. But he was kind of intense about the whole thing, so I figured I should practice. Too much?”<br><br>What with the pressure of working out what to say to two very persistent people (one of whom was getting really unnerving), Cassie’s full attention was given to the things happening in front of her. You could walk up behind her with a brass band and she’d ignore it. 
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				Title: <strong>Re: [IC] City of Mist - Gangland Gods</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Avalon29</strong> on <strong>10-04-2022, 10:53:29</strong>
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				<br>Bryn was caught off guard by the sudden confession. Something wasn’t right here. Several murders, confessing it just off the bat and telling him exactly who he was working for. No, this wasn’t good. He’d need to do some digging n this. What had he done to King of Rags to begin with? He hadn’t been into his territory recently. Or at least not that he could remember off the top of his head.&nbsp; Then again one of the reasons he’d been able to get his office for cheap was the fact that it bordered the territory of the big three and there was a risk of skirmishes breaking out.<br><br>The comment on his office did make his eye twitch however. His office was just fine for size. Sure it was a bit on the small side but for a P.I it was just fine. Wasn’t like he was planning to hold a convention. “Now hold on there pal. There’s no need to be bringing my office into this. As for the King of Rags, I haven’t done nothing to him. Now if he’d like to hire me for a case he can come over and have a chat like a civilized person.” He replied, not that it did much good when all of a sudden those hands moved past his to his gun to try to make him shoot.<br><br>“Let me tell you a secret. Irons ain’t the only one good at bashing heads and Tizana, really doesn’t like it when anybody touches her but me.” He replied as he let the man do as he pleased. Or at least, let him think he was. The gun flashed brightly, sending a wave of awe and terror right to the core of the man. Bryn altered his grip, planning to make the gun shift into a baseball bat and give the big man a sudden thrust to the gut. Didn’t want to kill him after all.&nbsp; Although he didn’t seem to have time&nbsp; for the swing to the gut but was able to shift the weapon in time to prevent the bullet from going off and win control of his weapon.<br><br><br><div class="spoiler_container"><div onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button" class="spoiler_header">toe to toe roll</div><div class="spoiler_body">Roll Result: Avalon29 rolled: 2d6, adding 4 to the total<br>Comment: Toe to toe roll Dogged determination, old fashioned tools, shapeshifting weapon, terrify the unworthy<br>Result: 1, 4,<br>Total: 9<br><br>Goal is to shapeshift the weapon and prevent the man from firing. Give a good smack as well if he can<br><br>Taking the complete goal option of toe to toe. Shifting the weapon to a baseball bat. <br></div></div>
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				Title: <strong>Re: [IC] City of Mist - Gangland Gods</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>virtualblue</strong> on <strong>11-04-2022, 19:54:17</strong>
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				<div align="center">mood music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX7LLua5NCM)</div><br><div class="floatright">(https://i.imgur.com/BFEN7UV.jpg)<div align="center"><strong>Helena ''Ellie'' Gentili</strong></div></div>“Stay in? You mean here in the compound? Why?” Ellie said and tugged on the bodyguard's tie, urging him to his knees. “After all, I have you, and you wouldn’t let anything happen to me, would you?”<br><br>With the end of his tie in her hand, Ellie cocked her head to the side and smiled at the bodyguard. She took a step back from him and then another, pulling him along with his tie. “I think, <em>cagnolino</em>, if my sister wanted me to stay here, she’d have told me so herself. That only makes sense, right?”<br><br>His face upturned towards hers, Ellie stared down into the bodyguard’s dark eyes. He was pretty, she supposed, with eyelashes so thick and black any girl would kill for them. She let go of his tie and stroked the side of his face, feeling the rough burr of an incoming five-o’clock shadow. The roughness slightly repulsed her, but Ellie didn’t let it show.<br><br>“Now, go fetch me my leather coat, <em>cagnolino</em>, and then you can take me to meet this investigator. And if I’m happy with our meeting, I might even keep you as my bodyguard for another week. But I will only do that if I know that I can trust you to do exactly what <em>I</em> tell you to do.”<br>
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				Title: <strong>Re: [IC] City of Mist - Gangland Gods</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Korosa</strong> on <strong>14-04-2022, 01:19:21</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				<strong>Cassie</strong><br>“Oh!” Belinda chuckles nervously, glancing between you and the empty booth. “Cassie, you’re so /funny/ sometimes, have I told you that? You really should be a standup comedian,” she clicks her tongue, some combination of perturbed and amused by your story. “Oh, you know, I do remember that jerk, I think–” Someone calls for her and she turns away, bustling over to assist a guest. <br><br>Steve, if anything, looks a touch more crestfallen, like you’d hurt his feelings somehow. But then your field of view is taken up by one of the crew cut guys who’d sauntered in moments earlier. He’s a big guy, all muscles and the possibility of steroid abuse, wearing a button-down shirt that is stretching across the shoulders. “Scuse me, Miss,” he says, in a surprisingly tenor voice. “Don’t suppose you happen to know a Steven Lane?” He pulls out a picture and yes, that is Steve, looking handsome and flashy in a picture set at night, under a street lamps. Weirdly, it looks like it was shot from kind of far away, maybe with a long-range lens of some kind. “Some people said they saw you leaving with him from here last night?” <br><br>“You don’t,” Steve murmurs. “You don’t know me.” <br><br>What do you do? <br><br><br><strong>Bryn</strong><br>There is a satisfying moment where the gun shifts into your hand into a weapon more akin to a form it might have taken in a past life–then you’re shoving the man–creature?--back with a baseball bat to the gut. He falls back against the desk, and at least he’s no longer touching Tizana. But he’s too fast for you to get a good swing on him and he’s lunging at you with a long, medical pair of scissors that he seems to have pulled from thin air, his strange, slit mouth falling open in a giggle. “Knew it,” he singsongs. “I knew you were one of them. Going to slit your face open like all of the others. Make you as pretty as me.” <br><br>What do you do? <br><br><strong>Xiaofu</strong><br><br>You’re as silent as always and in the chaos, you slip into the office without either of the two men noticing you. As far as you know, no one has noticed you at all. What you’ve walked into, though, seems to be a fight of some kind, one man with a baseball bat and the other with a pair of scissors. <br><br>What do you do? <br><br><br><strong>Ellie</strong><br><br>For a moment, you actually think fear of your sister might overwhelm Giancarlo, that he might hesitate or try to deny you–but then your hand is against the skin of his face, which heats up under your touch and you know he’s yours. “Of course, principessa—that does make sense. Just–you stay close to me, all right? I would die if something happened to you.” He clearly means this in a romantic or poetic sense, but it’s also literally true–your sister would have him killed in an instant, with just enough time to slip in a light round of torture. <br><br>A few minutes later you’re dressed in your coat and out the door, your bodyguard driving–putting on whatever music you want—and before you know it you’re at the office of the detective. It’s a quiet little building and Giancarlo paces next to you, protective. “We’re going to show this bastardo no one messes with the family,” he murmurs–but as you turn the corner, he freezes. You both see a young Asian woman push open the door to the detective’s office. “Triads,” Giancarlo says with certainty, as though there was no other possibility. He’s already got his cell phone out. “If they’re behind this, we should call for backup,” he explains to you, his tone taking on a touch of condescension, the way people seem to sometimes think that just because you’re pretty, you can’t also understand the way the world works. “Catch both of them at it.” What ‘it’ is or why he’s so sure that an individual you both saw for only a few seconds is a Triad, he doesn’t bother to clarify. <br><br>What do you do? <br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: [IC] City of Mist - Gangland Gods</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>BlueOrange</strong> on <strong>16-04-2022, 15:56:35</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				“Nope,” Cassie said in a decisive tone. “I do not know him. Not really, anyway. I’m pretty sure yesterday was the first time he’d ever come here, certainly he didn’t know the way to the carpark. Since he left around the end of my shift, I figured I’d walk him to his car.”<br><br>She paused for a moment, and could possibly have stopped there, but she realized that she was answering as if she was being investigated for something, and she should probably try to pretend that she thought he was still alive. Which it was starting to look like he wasn’t. “Who are you, anyway? The guy he sends to ask a girl out when he realizes he’s missed out on something awesome? Because I have to admit, he’s kind of attractive, although you should probably have brought a better photo.”<br><br>How was that. Was that good? Either way, it was time to get moving. “Anyway, I should probably get back to work.” She gestured to where Steve’s ghost was sitting. “If you look right there, you can see…” oh crap, the guy wasn’t suddenly going ‘oh he’s right there, sorry to bother you.’ She gulped. “Where he… was sitting, when he came in yesterday.”
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: [IC] City of Mist - Gangland Gods</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>MadPanda</strong> on <strong>17-04-2022, 23:08:26</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				There are a number of things I expected to see in here. This...is maybe sort of kind of halfway like one of them, but it involved a gun instead of a pair of scissors and a baseball bat. I slide through, past the duo locked in their goodbye look and tuck myself into the far corner, shove my hands in my pockets to make myself look that much more nonchalant, and interrupts.<br><br>Which, yeah, is crazy-stupid, but so is trying to toss a private eye's office and then torch it because ol' Hammer-hands has it in his thick skull that I'm one of his errand kids. Which I'm not. I'm just using him to get answers before I leave a bag-full of incriminating evidence in the hands of someone bigger and meaner. Like maybe Tio Taz. Like I'd leave something that explosive where John Law could get it! They'd screw it up.<br><br>On the other hand...<br><br>It does not look like Runs-With-Scissors is going to play nice, and that overly wide grin is gruesome. I'm going to regret this, I'm sure, especially when Casey Jones realizes that I'm here, what with my orders to toss his office and burn it to the ground, but sometimes a gal has to do things she doesn't want to. So, borrowing a move I saw Jackie Chan pull off once, I scoop up a waste-paper basket, flip it over, and slam it down around Mister Happy's head good and hard.<br><br>Harder to hit some, buddy, when you can't see what you're doing!<br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: [IC] City of Mist - Gangland Gods</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Avalon29</strong> on <strong>20-04-2022, 10:00:37</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Bryn found himself staring down the scissor man with the creepy smile. He didn’t like this one bit. He’d hoped to have just scared him senseless and gotten a confession but that seemed too much to hope for. The mention of him being one of them was surprising. He now had even more questions. Before he could really reply though an unknown person, man, woman? It was hard to tell in the chaos suddenly appeared to try to slam a small trash bin on the head on the scissor man. He was quick to try to take advantage of this and held his bat up high. Taking a rather traditional batters stance he swung the bat hard at his head to take advantage of the sudden chaos.&nbsp; “Don’t worry about me. Let me help you instead. After this your looks will be out of the park!”
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: [IC] City of Mist - Gangland Gods</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>virtualblue</strong> on <strong>25-04-2022, 06:43:12</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				<div class="floatright">(https://i.imgur.com/BFEN7UV.jpg)</div>Ellie rolled her eyes. “<em>Sei fuori!</em> Put that away, <em>Cucciolo</em>,” she said. “We’re not the <em>polizia</em>. We don’t need to catch anyone at anything.”<br><br>The bodyguard trailing behind her, Ellie followed the Asian girl to the doorway she’d slipped into. The sound of a struggle came from inside the room, and Ellie hesitated at the door for a moment. She couldn’t let the bodyguard think her a coward, though. Let the boys think that, and she’d never be respected. Obeyed? Yes. Adored even. But not respected.<br><br>The scene in the room was utterly bizarre. The Asian girl had slammed a wastepaper basket over a man’s head, while another man looked like he was about to strike him with a baseball bat. The man the two were attacking was holding a pair of scissors. These were professional killers? It looked more like something out of The Sopranos.<br><br>“Your gun,” Ellie said to the bodyguard, not sure who, if anyone, she should help and which of them was the detective—though it stood to reason that the detective would be the one with the scissors. After all, wouldn’t some assailant, like a bookie’s muscle, show up with a bat, not office supplies?<br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: [IC] City of Mist - Gangland Gods</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Korosa</strong> on <strong>26-04-2022, 02:04:47</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				<strong>Cassie</strong><br><br>The wall of muscle looking at Cassie looked confused by this, at least, glancing at the booth, then back to her, then back at the booth, somehow missing the ghost that was sitting there, doing everything he could to look innocent short of whistling. Really, he looked rather miserable, murmuring a quiet ‘Sorry’ that no one else seemed to hear. <br><br>The guy stares you down for a moment, then shrugs his massive shoulders. “Hmm. Sorry to bother you, miss,” he says and sits in the booth, sliding through Steve, which is vaguely nauseating to look at and pulling out his phone. “Just going to make a quick call, if you don’t mind.” Belinda is still across the club, dealing with some customer who, from the movements of his hands, is quite irate about something. You can hear him make the call, “Excuse me, Mr. Irons? Uh, no, sir, but we've got people all over the club, should only be a matter of time. Spoke to a woman who looked right, but she says she wasn’t the one he left with.” It seems like being a thug doesn’t call for any particular amount of brains or discretion. <br><br>What do you do?&nbsp; <br><br><strong>Xiaofu</strong><br><br>Man, it would have been such a cool move–but it seems like Mr. Jackie Chan got some training you missed out on, because there’s suddenly air where the man–creature?--was and one of his long hands is around your arm, hauling you toward him, and those scissors are coming down toward your face, too fast, inhumanely fast and it’s weird how your entire field of vision is now this one giant smile. <br><br>What do you do? <br><br><strong>Bryn</strong><br><br>Whatever this thing is, it’s fast–you’re teeing up to swing and it’s already twisted around in a way a human spine generally doesn’t, avoided the trashcan and grabbed the girl who tried to help you. You’ve got a split second to decide–you could take the swing for the head, you’ve got a nice clean shot, but those scissors are coming down awfully fast–or you could redirect, bring the bat down on this freak’s hand and knock the scissors away. <br><br>What do you do? <br><br><strong>Ellie</strong><br><br>Your bodyguard, unfortunately, has surveyed the situation and seen only the possible danger to you, though it doesn’t seem like anyone else in the room has noticed you exist. He’s got one arm and most of his body in front of you like he’s barring you from going any farther and he’s pulled his gun with the other, but he’s trying to back you out of the room. “Principessa, we should get out of here,” his voice is a desperate whisper, watching the bizarre melee in front of you play out. “You can’t be involved in this.” Because, his tone clearly communicates, if you so much as get hit with a flying wastebasket, your sister will have his head. <br><br>What do you do? <br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: [IC] City of Mist - Gangland Gods</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>MadPanda</strong> on <strong>26-04-2022, 05:25:47</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Confucius says “fuck my life; fuck it right in the ear with a cactus”. I am seriously regretting that Silent Hill marathon I got sucked into that one time ‘cause younger me thought Heather Morris had a cute ass. (Yeah, yeah, I know, the Scissor Man is, like, Clock Tower. Cute chick, creepy weirdos with massive weapons, survival horror puzzle-fests.)<br><br>I haul back just enough to make him commit to the pull, then I do something that nobody sane would even think of trying—I relax into it, using the momentum to throw his strike off target, then sliding around his ugly gw<em></em>ailo ass and then under the desk on my way down.<br><br>And wouldn’t it be just a crying shame if he forgot to let go of me? Head, meet desk. Heh
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: [IC] City of Mist - Gangland Gods</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>BlueOrange</strong> on <strong>27-04-2022, 15:27:43</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Cassie immediately realized that whoever Mr Irons was, he was looking for her. And that meant that she needed to look for him. Or look out for him. Or… something. The point was that he knew something but he didn’t know everything, and before he found out everything, Cassie needed to know something. Because if she knew something, then that would be more than nothing, which is what she had, and it was scary. Just a big scary void full of emptiness, jail time, and a woman called Bubba, who did not seem very nice at all.<br><br>So anyway, she gave the goon a few moments to finish his phone call, then came back with a menu. “Let me check you in and claim your free beer for you,” she said, and neatly took his phone out of his hand, swapping it for the menu as if this sort of thing happened all the time. She headed over behind the bar with it and quickly brought up ‘recent calls’, then ‘contact details’, then took a photo of his phone with her phone with the skill of a semi-professional Infragram poster. All neatly hidden behind the counter. “Where is the camera on this thing? Ah!”<br><br>This time, she used the camera on his phone to scan a QR code, and quickly jabbed at his screen. Then she brought him back his phone, together with a bottle of imported German beer. “Here you go,” she said, opening the bottle for him. On the screen of his phone, you could see that he had just pressed ‘Like’ on the club in Fatebook. <br><br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: [IC] City of Mist - Gangland Gods</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Avalon29</strong> on <strong>01-05-2022, 09:24:28</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Bryn wasn’t quite sure what was going on. First some woman he didn’t know was trying to bash scissor hands and now he was twisting around&nbsp; like he didn’t have a spine. This was not at all the quiet night signing bills that he had envisioned. Just for one night he’d either like a case that didn’t involve getting tied up in some kind of nut job conspiracy or at least be able to pay the bills without something crazy going on.&nbsp; Well that didn’t matter right now anyway did it? It was time to go big or go home. Hopefully he wasn’t going to hit the girl but he was going to take advantage of the distraction she’d given him.&nbsp; Probably be better for the both of them if he put scissor hands here out for a bit. Time for one more swing for the fences.&nbsp; He ignored the scissors going for his gut as he focused.&nbsp; For just a moment it looked like he was clad in a set of armor before it faded. He was trusting in his relic to keep him safe as he went for the swing. “Sorry but I’m going to ask you to leave. You’re going to scare away my clients if they have to look at your ugly mug.” 
			</dd>
		</dl>
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