Oct 10 17:15:01 108 PA - Briefly Briefing Someone Not There
From Chronicles
Oct 10 17:15:01 108 PA.
ERICA'S APARTMENT
There will come a rapping like the raven perched on the bust of Pallas above the door.
Erica goes to answer the door. She has her long hair in a ponytail that falls down her back. Dressed in some grey sweatpants and a grey sweatshirt she opens the door with a small smile curling her lips.
"Erica!" Gabriel greets with a smile and some excitement. "Haven't seen you in a while, been out saving the world from bad guys? What, no pink today?" The older fellow winks at that.
Erica 's smile widens a little bit as she sees Gabriel. "Come in." She says while moving to the side to let entrance to her apartment. "Oh I've been doing a few jobs here and there. Been taking me out of town a bit. Surprised anyone noticed." She says with a chuckle before closing the door after Gabriel enters.
"You? Always I notice," Gabriel says, walking into the apartment. "Always looks nice in here. Kind of surprised you aren't wearing those ear buds today." He moves a little to stretch his lower back. "Would you mind if I sat down? I'm a little sore. Big bad events and all."
Erica waves over at the couch. "Yep take a seat." She mentions as she walks over to the kitchen. Grabbing a glass from a cupboard she pours herself a glass of red wine. "I was just about to put some music on, but haven't gotten around to it yet. So what have you been up to?"
"Saving the world, you know. Old business," Gabriel chuckles, looking for and finding a decently comfortable chair to seat himself in. "You want to hear about it? One of those things that you can't talk about outside of these walls."
"Sure if you want to talk about it I have time to do some listening. What happened?" Erica asks as she plops herself down on the couch and tucks her bare feet underneath herself.
"You recall that Coalition outpost I told you about? Out near Whykin's direction, this new guy in charge making the five-mile grab in every direction, but this single base sitting out by a full twenty-five?" Gabriel looks around the room, waiting for an answer. Undoubtedly his conversation partner remembers, but it's always good to make sure.
"Yep I remember. Is this about that job?" Erica asks before taking a small sip of wine from her glass. "Sorry I wasn't able to make it out to help you guys out. So what happened?"
"Sure is," Gabriel says, pursing his lips and waving away the apology. "What happened was a mess. I blame the large balance of it on Rubidia for being a fucking moron. If you don't see Leonard around for a while, it's because the man somehow survived a grenade blast that blew off all of his limbs."
Erica 's mouth drops open in shock. "Well that is pretty shitty. What did Rubidia do? I never saw her as the brightest bulb, but I didn't think she would do something to endanger others. Well tell me more details." She says once she has recovered herself. She then takes another sip of her wine.
Gabriel chuckles - morbidly - at the 'brightest bulb' portion. "Okay. It was damn near midnight, we still had a ten mile hike ahead of us. She got antsy and started to bitch. Anyway, I'd shown her the map to the base, and she decided that she could recon the base, and went zipping off, all blown up like she was giving a concert. I assumed that she'd have the intelligence to get there, then turn off the light a look through binoculars. But no. No, she ran all over the base lit up like fireworks. They all knew that something was coming. They armed up and got ready to fight. Short version of events that followed; only had this one opportunity and took it. Leonard took a load of grenades to the face - like, a dozen - having bet on being a bad-ass mage. Blew his limbs off. All four." He shakes his head a little. "I hear that's bad for a mage. However, you still wouldn't believe what shit I'm having to hear about." He pauses.
"Sounds like you should have taken her out if she was going to endanger you all. But I guess that wasn't an option or something." Erica says with a chuckle and a shake of her head. "You let people set all over you. Too bad about Leonard. I hope he gets some good bio replacements for his limbs. So what kind of shit are you getting?"
"No, little bitch is too stupid. Besides, you imagine what would have happened if I told her to go home?" Gabriel shakes his head in exasperation. "She would have intentionally come along, and made things worse. Plus? She has absolutely no honor. Didn't do a damn thing to help, including taking simple orders, and as soon as she had an 'owie' she ran." Again, the man shakes his head. "The best part though is that she blames Leo's problem on me. Won't bother with her explanation of why it's my fault, but apparently it is." He winks with amusement. "Sometimes, I do think that it would be nice if it was acceptable to end a conversation by putting a bullet through someone's skull."
"Well just make sure that everyone knows not to go on a job with her. Tell people about what she did and that she doesn't do anything to help. At least then people will know not to go on an op with her." Erica says with a shrug of her shoulders before she takes another long drink from her wine glass.
Chuckle. "Yeah. Well, not much I can do about it," Gabriel says, smacking his knee slightly. "The Council was kind enough to endorse us by repaying magazines and fixing up our armor, but with the promise - of harm - that it be kept quiet. They don't want the Coalition finding out that they knew about our little assault, and thus giving them a good reason to open up a third front. Or maybe just a second one, the way Tolkeen's going. So, you know - secrets."
"Well at least you took out the forward base. That will hopefully set the CS back in the local area." Erica says with a slight nod of her head. She finishes off her glass of wine and then leans back on the couch. "So what is your next mission?"
"No next mission right now, which is bad, because I lost a lot of credits on this mission. Shitload of weapons to bring back, but I sold everything off and gave it to Leonard. Sage did, too. Everyone else, they took what they could get." Gabriel quickly holds up a staying finger. "No, Jaxain only took a little more than half. Just to be completely fair to the man. But Ruby and Bart? 'Yeah, thanks for the memories, Leonard.' It's disgusting." It looks like he then catches himself a split second before spitting on the ground to indicate his displeasure.
Erica raises an eyebrow as she almost watches Gabriel spit on her floor. "Well Bart has never been a nice guy or one who thinks about anybody but himself. Sounds like Rubidia is the same way." She shakes her head a look of disgust on her face. "Don't go on ops with them in the future."
"Yeah, no kidding. I don't care about Bart. He does his job, and you don't need to like a man as long as he does his job. But Ruby is just - I believe that these days the term is 'diva.' In my day, the term was 'bitch.' You can choose," Gabriel says lightly. "I also don't think that she could successfully add two, two-digit numbers together even with a calculator's assistance, or follow simple instructions such as, 'bra goes on before the shirt.'" He winks with great amusement. "I'm pretty sure that getting dressed for her was something learned over years of nothing but muscle memory. Anyway.. you have anything good lined up? Sounds like vampires have taken over the Ivory Lady. That's new."
"Well strange that she and Sage are interested in each other. You would think Sage would have better taste." Erica chuckles again to herself. She stands up and walks over to pour herself another glass of wine. "Oh vampires at the strip club? That sounds like it would be a place they would take up residence. Anyone doing anything about it?"
Gabriel laughs. "Yeah, I guess there's no accounting for taste, is there? Maybe there just aren't enough.. um.. never mind. I haven't heard of anyone doing anything about the club yet. I'm planning to grab Jaxain and do some poking. Refuse to do anything by myself when it comes to vampires. Fuck with your mind, if nothing else."
"Well pick up a big water gun and a cross before you go messing with vampires. A few stakes wouldn't hurt either." Erica says after a moment. "Be careful though vampires are very very dangerous."
"I have some stakes. I wear a cross," Gabriel says, toying with the small religious artifact around his neck. "I sometimes wonder if Natasha wouldn't mind - or perhaps even approve - if I were to sometimes take her grave's cross and use it as a weapon against evil. I could actually see her approving of that. Seems nicer to have something personal about it when you're taking out that kind of evil anyway, doesn't it?" Then a short sigh. "Water balloons and water pistols. Fucking insane. You do know that Count Dracula wandered around in the rain just fine, right?"
"Well I don't know Count Dracula is, but vampires don't like running water so I recommend you use that to your advantage if you are going to go mess with them." Erica says with some concern in her voice. "Well I was about to head to bed Gabriel. I'm sorry I am still getting used to a regular sleeping schedule after my last job. Can I catch up some more with you later?"
"Hey, no problem," Gabriel says, quickly getting up and moving to the door. "You take care of yourself, and stay away from Ruby. I don't even like her music." He hesitates only long enough to be seen out, as he wasn't invited to see himself out.
"Not to worry. I didn't like her much in the first place. I will see you later Gabriel." Erica says before shutting and locking the door behind Gabriel.
