Mar 15 03:30:35 108 PA - Solid Recruiting and Tactics
From Chronicles
Mar 15 03:30:35 108 PA.
YAKOV'S DELI
Once more, Mother Nature is spanking Kingsdale, and she's being an absolute bitch about it. Fifteen below freezing in mid-March? Even Gabriel, who has spent most of the winter happily warm in barely any snow gear seems pissed off about the situation. Nevertheless, as yesterday was fifteen degrees *above* freezing, it looks like he's giving Mother Nature a giant middle finger. He's wearing the same style of clothing that he arrived in Kingsdale with last September, his snow gear possibly having been stowed yesterday, further weather be damned. At the moment, Gabriel is deep inside one of his favorite hangouts, the happy but quiet Yakov's Deli. Good food, good smells, good atmosphere, and languages that tickle his ears with good memories. His chosen table is a free-standing round affair, with three comfortable wood-and-wicker chairs surrounding it. There are two large bowls and a plate before him, a bottle of something, and large clear mug of something that looks like honey, nearly glowing - without actually doing so. Lunchtime at Yakov's is a good hour as far as customer traffic, but it isn't overly crowded today, possibly due to people staying home where it's warm, rather than braving the elements to be served.
Terrance pushes the door open from outside, then fights with the wind to get it shut again. He leans against the door, feigning weariness for a long moment, til his gaze lands on Gabriel and he smiles. He pushes off the door, and approaches you, still grinning. "I could hear you slurping that stuff down from outside, through the wind. Must be good." He teases.
Gabriel smiles and waves Terrance over. Good, the man got his communiqué. As Terrance approaches, he rests his spoon against one of the bowls and explains, "Russia isn't Europe. In Europe, you're quiet. No slurping, no burping, lots of napkins. In Russia?" He shrugs with a grin. "If you aren't making slurping noises, and burping when you want to, and apparently feel the need to use napkins, it's an insult against the cook, implying that the food isn't worth eating and enjoying. God's honest truth." He holds up a swearing hand, and uses the spoon to wave Terrance to a chair. "C'mon, take a load off. I know that you won't, or can't, but I'll let you know, if you could eat, I'd buy you something. Rasputin has trained his chefs well. Bitch of winter, isn't it?"
Terrance chuckles and takes a seat next to you. "I can smell it well enough from here thanks, and if I still had a stomach, it'd be growling, I can tell you that much." He says, shaking off the bit of snow that had accumulated on his shoulders. "I got your message, you wanted to see me?" He asks, his low dropping in volume.
"Yeah," Gabriel says after sluuuurping another spoonful down. "You remember that mission up in Iowa? Looks like the client is finally moving with it again. I've learned what I consider to be some disturbing things about the man, but fuck, no one else seems to see a problem with it. Frankly, I think they're being blind. In any case, because of these magical knight guys, I'm recruiting weapons like you who can hit hard, physically. If you're interested, I'd be happy to have to come along. Sure we all would. However, they're paying only 1,500 per day, which probably won't even cover my own ammunition expenditures. But perhaps the client will give us more information soon. Still," the older man says with a pause, "I don't like how blasé the others are being about the changes. They say I'm being too suspicious. I say that in combat, suspicion keeps you alive." He hoists the honey-looking mug. "Right?"
Terrance listens intently, probably more intently than needed, hearing the variations in Gabriel's voice. "Well pay aside, if you need me I'm in. If only as a favor to you. Did we ever work out a method for dealing with the magic types? And are we bringing any heavy artillery? Computer tracking turrets maybe? I know probably not, but it never hurts to ask." He says grinning, pulling one of the bowl from Gabriel and inhaling deeply before pushing it back. "Sorry, smells good."
Gabriel and Terrance are sitting distant from the door at a free-standing table with one remaining open seat. The older man seems to be enjoying what might be two bowls of soup, a plate of something, a bottle of something, and a large clear mug of what looks like nearly-glowing honey - of course, it isn't glowing, it's just honey. The weather outside is fifteen below freezing, and as such, not many people have braved the elements to make it to any restaurants. "No," Gabriel laughs. "Nothing heavy. I don't understand why, but there's a one-hundred pound weight limit on what each of us can carry through. Makes no sense to me seeing as how we all weigh different... but that's the rule given by the client. Nothing heavy."
Erica walks into the store coming out of the rain and snow. She has a big coat that keeps her warm and dry. As she walks in she shakes off the rain before walking up to the counter. She orders herself a chicken sandwich and some iced tea. The order quickly comes up and she takes the food and drink on a tray. Looking around the store she spots Gabriel and walks over to where he is sitting. "Hey Gabriel.." She says with a smile before giving Terrance a quick nod in greeting.
Terrance looks up at Erica as she approaches, giving her a nod of greeting. But his attentions are back on Gabriel a moment later. "Ok, nothing heavy. Good thing my explosives aren't heavy. I'll pack light. My sword and pistol, full armor, and two of my fusion blocks ought to do the job.. What you think?" He asks the man, his voice lowering as Erica nears, unsure of her.
Gabriel slurps again loudly from his spoon - that's rather ironically the polite thing to do. He waves over to his good friend. "Erica! C'mon over, take a load off. I'm doing my best to put other people in harm's way." There's a grin, but also some truth to it. To Terrance, "Well, 'ought to do the job' is probably a bit much, but it certainly couldn't hurt."
Erica sets down her tray and takes a sip from her iced tea as she sits down. "Talking about an OP? Is this that stupid operation you want me to come along on? If so those fusion blocks won't do crap against mystic knights." She shakes her head and then shrugs her shoulders slightly.
Terrance frowns at Erica as she sits down with Gabriel's invitation. "They'll do plenty if I make them eat it first. Remote detonation. Nothing walking away from that, mystic or no." He tells the air, vaguely irritated at nay-saying. Turning his gaze back to Gabriel he shrugs, "I'm not worried about being in harms way, just about squishies being in my way." He says softly.
"No, no, depending on what exactly this whole thing about physical impact means, anything short of literally making them eat them might not do you any good." Gabriel shrugs. "I'm not familiar with fusion blocks. If they throw off a physical blast wave, that should hurt them. If it's just something like one of my plasma grenades? Pretty useless for reasons that I'll never understand." He turns to Erica for sage advice. "How do these blocks go off?"
"They make a rather large explosion that gives off a lot of heat and radiation. I am not 100% sure, but I bet they will be immune to a lot of the energy given off from those blocks. I would try frag grenades instead. Either way I don't want to go on this mission." Erica says with a wry grin as she shakes her head slightly. "Isn't going to be fun."
Terrance shakes his head. "I'm know my demolitions, it's what I used to do in the military. Fusion blocks go boom and anything in the blast radius isn't there anymore. just about guaranteed. Specially if I use more than one. But if it's physical force you want, I can do that too. As you know." He says giving a meaningful look at Gabriel.
Gabriel smiles shallowly and quirks an eyebrow at Erica. "The people who find combat fun are the very people who I would go to great lengths to kill. Not because I would enjoy it, but because it's would be a necessary evil - and yes, I know that the lesser of two evils is still an evil." A nod to Terrance would seem to indicate that he gets demolitions, too, just not the intimate particulars of current technology, at this current time in his own education. To the other man, "Obviously I'm not the one planning the whole mission, everyone needs to get together. But personally? I'd tell you get in their faces, literally, and go for their optics. Also, a certain personnel issue that I'll give you a little warning about, but I'll give my friend from the more northern forces a chance to say so before I keep babbling." He nods his head and winks at Erica.
Erica nods her head slightly as she chuckles a bit. "Well I'll just be glad to get this one finished so I don't have to deal with it any more." She picks up her sandwich and takes a couple quick bites from it. "Alright I have to get going guys. I have a large chunk of time booked at the firing range. Hopefully we can sit down and have a planning session at some point."
Terrance watches Erica go, and just shakes his head. "Ok then.. do I get to meet the others planning the mission or am I just the muscle? Not that I have any complaints about being the muscle.. I'd just like to put my two cents in and use my abilities to their fullest. You know some of them, not all but some."
"We'll be meeting, but there's no date or time set. Like I said, the client worries me. Don't trust him or his creepy boyfriend. As it stands, you have Erica, me, Sebastien - cyber-knight - Bartholemew whom I've never even met, and Miss Valeriya, in addition to the client, Bennet, and James, the creepy guy," Gabriel gives as a rundown of the players as he knows them. "Bartholemew, I've never met him. Seb's a good guy, as is Erica, obviously. Both very dependable. Bernard's a mage, and I just get a vibe from him that he'd be more than happy to leave you dead or wounded on the battlefield for any reason ranging from his own hide being in danger to just because he fucking feels like it. But that's just a feeling. Miss Valeriya, however." Gabriel shakes his head out, clearly not happy. "She's strong, she's a weapon to be unleashed who no offense, but I'm certain could give you a good fight. But she's a bitch only out for herself, a mage bitch. I figure this is how it'll go down with her. Bad guys come out, she makes a big show of being tough, turns invisible, hacks a few times, gets found, disappears and leaves the rest of us to fight. When we win, she comes back to collect money and take salvage." The older man is clearly not happy. "The personnel on this mission are what I would very politely call, 'less than ideal.'"
Terrance laughs and shrugs. "Can't have a PC army every time. But if it makes you feel any better, you can't at least relate to what I do.. I just have mechanical augmentations to back it up and make me.. well better. I'm not worried about the other players, I know my role. To hit the enemy and hit them hard. Don't give them a chance to stand back up and fling spells at us. And that my friend.. I can do. Rather well if I don't say so myself."
"Of course. But do me a favor and go for the optics first. Even mages need to be able to see what it is that they're trying to hit," Gabriel states with purpose. "Make sure that the first one is completely blinded, and either not seeing again, or not seeing again soon, then move to the next one and do the same. Then you can tear them apart until your heart's content. I'd suggest going after their helmets to rip off, but even though they aren't EBA, I don't know how well fixed they are, so just hitting the optics first saves what could be a potential waste of time. As fast as you are, and I'm assuming that a proper ambush will be next to impossible, it will probably be you and Sebastian up hacking at them first, and I have a long-range cannon of a rifle for support - and long range firearms is something that I do rather well, if I do say so myself." He offers a self-amused wink. Then, out of nowhere, "When I got here, the trip rather knocked some knowledge out of my head, and field tracking was one of those things. Could you track a man through the forests outside of the city, Terrance?"
Terrance shakes his head. "Nope, I was never taught how to track. My enemies were already in the clear when I got to them I can navigate the land.. find my way across it if I have to. But my skills are in the city, or dealing with weaponry itself pretty much. Unless you suddenly have a helicopter, I can pilot them. So when are we supposed to do this?" He asks gently.
Gabriel disseminates the information for the third time, politely. "I don't know when we're going, the meeting hasn't even been set yet to figure out what to do before we go. All that I know is that the client has finally contacted us again, so I would assume that the preparation meeting will be in the next week or two. Remember, if you want to come, pack light. One-hundred pounds, apparently doesn't matter how much each of us might weigh individually." He then sluuuuuurps another bit of soup, and suggests, "Maybe you should head up to the Library, poke around, ask the people who work there, to see if fusion blocks explode with a blast wave or energy. So you know better what to pack." He takes a long pull of the honey-colored drink.
Terrance chuckles, "Sorry, guess I didn't hear you. I'll be around, you have my contact frequency. I need to go though, check on my storage space, make sure my blocks are still there for one.. security is kinda lax up there. I'll catch you later Gabe."
As his two friends depart rather rapidly Gabriel can't do anything but... go back to his food, slipping the small 3x3 photograph out from beneath his sleeve where he'd been hiding it, looking at the family that had been taken from him.
