Participants:
| Scene Title | Ink, Shadow, and Light |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Richard Cardinal comes to catch up with Devi, but an unexpected visitor disrupts their conversation. |
| Date | October 3, 2009 |
Greasy baggy pants that look more fit for a man, but are synched around her hips with a black leather belt that seen better days, are paired with equally grimy white beater over a visibly rainbow brazier. Devi's tangled locks are pulled up into a wild array of lazy waves in a messy bun on the back of her head. She's bent over a dismantled bike, its itty-bitty pieces scattered in an orderly fashion down to the smallest nuts and bolts on the garage floor. She can see the problem this time, like a tumor inside the bike, her hands itching to fix it.
The graffitied garage doors are rolled up halfway in order to allow a fall, night breeze into the brightly lit chamber. It doesn't help, Devi is still perspiring under her lack of sleep and growing frustrations. She gives the back tire a swift kick before stepping back to the work bench to snatch up her beer and award herself a quick cigarette break.
A shift of shadow spills across the wall, as if a car's headlights had swept it to one side. No headlights gleam off the chrome and greased metal in the garage, however, as if that sliver of darkness was transposed from some other reality or quantum timeline. As fate would have it, however, it's not really a shadow at all.
A shape tears itself free, the stygian fabric spread across the wall peeling away with him like a shroud wrapped about the humanoid form. Darkness bleeds to colour as Richard Cardinal leans back against the wall, arms folded over his chest and one foot lifting up to brace against the wall behind him. "That's showin' the tire, babe," he drawls out, "It'll think twice before crossing you again."
"Well, if it isn't my favorite Boogyman," Devi remarks before lips pucker back about the cigarette and dark eyes sweep beneath even darker lashes to take in the familiar visage. "Been playin' stranger, I see. How's it hanging, sweetness?" She waggles her brows with a mischievous grin before pushing off the work bench. A quick tip of her toe against a red box send the plastic lid of the portable cooler sliding to the floor with a little thud. Without pause she snags a fresh brew and tosses it towards Cardinal. "And, to what do I owe the visit? Tell me you just missed me, handsome." She offers a quick, but stops in favor of massaging the soft spot of her temple where her sleep-deprived headache pounds more eagerly.
"Oh, I hadn't had the time to come check on my favorite garage-dwelling, tattoo-wearing gang leader lately," comes Cardinal's response blithely, his lips curving into a crooked grin of his own as he pushes off from the wall. One hand comes up, catching the beer out of the air. The other hand slids over it, thumb curling beneath the top and popping it open with a crack and hiss of sound and carbonation.
The man's head cants just a little to one side a she draws closer, brows lifting over the edge of his shades. "You look like shit, so maybe I'm a li'l late."
It's late in the day for traffic to be busy on this stretch of Staten Island, with the sun having set and the cool air filtering in from outside, the rumbling noise of a pickup truck pulling up out front of the garage so soon after Cardinal seems unlikely. The engine idles as a door opens and then slams shut quickly after, muffled voices speaking over the noisy exhaust and rattling tailpipe that ticks at the corners of Devi's senses in the way a slow clock might offend a watchmaker subconsciously.
Movement in the glow of the headlights, thin legs and swishing cloth, heavy footfalls that approach the halfway closed garage doors. "S'this place still open?" The truck's lights pull away as the engine picks back up, tires rolling across the pavement as it backs out of the parking spot. From inside the garage, the voice of a teenage girl sounds so out of place that the appearance of that truck becomes less unusual by comparison.
Ducking her head under the half-closed garage door, a young girl in her late teens comes stepping into the garage bay. A chalk white coat slung over her shoulders looks a little ratty, one shoulder patched up with black fabric with obvious stitching. One hand sweeps thorugh short, messy, black hair as green eyes survey the interior. "Oh ah— hey." The backback the carries seems to weigh one shoulder down, just a little excessively.
"I've got a bruise on my 'ead the size of a fucking tennis ball and I haven't slept in a month. I've been better!" she chimes in with false and sarcastic cheerfulness, spreading her arms in a 'what can you do'-fashion. She turns back to the bike, leaning her shoulder into Cardinal, more out of weariness than aught else. Though, the closeness certainly has other perks. "F-in' bike, man. I put this thing together in two days, and in one night it's dismantled. Angel Eyes said I'm doin' it in my sleep. Some weird Evo shit. Mechanical Intuition, she said today. Whatever the hell that means." She sticks her tongue out at the bike, only to halt as her left eye gives a single involuntary twitch at the sound of the truck outside.
"What the -" she holds off her cussing and judgment long enough for the young girl to step inside. "Hey," the biker diva responds in a mimic of the younger female. After a quick scan of the figure she turns to face the new arrival more fully, tapping her pink and ring finger on the half-hollow brown bottle in hand. "Can I help you, doll?" she inquires with a slight edge of impatience, a fact that fails to overcome her more powerful curiosity.
*pinky
Never one to shy away from physical contact with a girl that looks like she does, Cardinal's arm sweeps up behind her, fingers closing on her opposing hip in a loose clasp, thumb hooking beneath that belt of black leather as he supports her there. "Seriously?" A brow lifts as he looks to her, then back to the bike, then to her, "Well, there's worse abilities t'have crop up randomly— trust me, I've seen some of 'em. What happened t'your head?"
Then there's that sudden rumble of a truck, and he brings his head up towards the garage door, brow furrowing as the pale-coated young woman ducks in. "Hey," he greets with mild curiousity in his tone, bringing the bottle in his hand up as a casual salute, "Someone's desperate for car work. Unless this is the least intimidating robber ever."
Grimacing awkwardly at the doll reference, Colette's eyes sweep around the shop, fingers curling around that strap of the old, ratty backpack she bears the burden of, trying ot keep it from biting more into her shoulder. "Yeah ah— I heard this place had a decent repair shop. I'm running an errand for the guy who runs the Lighthouse Orphanage down on the coast?" Her smile edges into anxious, green eyes darting over to Cardinal briefly, then up to Devi with a hesitant smile.
"I dunno, I might make a good phantom thief," the young girl notes with a crooked smile, casting an uncertain look to the corners of the shop before slinging her shoulder around and dropping the backpack to the floor with a heavy clunk. "I've got a two-stroke dirtbike engine that isn't running. Brian's not really too mechanical inclined, and I don't know jack crap about engines… so…" She offers a grimace towards Devi, and only because she's got grease on her pants so that makes the most sense to be a mechanic. "I was hoping you might be able to get it running again?"
Devi gives a scoffing sort of chuckle. "She'd make a fine thief, hey." She gives Cardinal a quick elbow to the ribs before gesturing at the girl with a beer bottle. Always good for corrupting the youth, she is. "Slight. And," she drops her dark gaze to the satchel, trying to resist the urge to tear the thing open and take after the thing like a nerd on a rubix cube. "Not weak, that's for damned sure."
The tattooed femme steps forward, passing off her half-full beer to the kid with a thoughtless motion. She crouches down, dumping out the dirt bike's heart. "Orphange, eh?" she offers almost absently as she cants her head to the side to examine the hunk o' metal. "Non-profit, yeah? Guessin' you'll want a break on the price." She flashes a cheesy grin up at the girl before giving a friendly enough wink. "Easy fix, chica. Will get your bike up 'n runnin'."
The bemused curiousity upon Cardinal's shade-visaged face eases to a more affable sort of expression, a smile, at the mention of the Lighthouse. "You work for Brian, eh? Tell him to drop in to tell Cardinal what the fuck he's been up to sometime, I haven't heard from him in forever, and 'I'm busy' is not a valid goddamn excuse from nnh." The last isn't a word, it's a grunt as he's elbowed. Hey.
A step away to let business be carried out, and he gestures vaguely with the beer in his hand, "Pft. Being a good thief's harder than people think."
"Actually…" Colette's eyes downturn to the bag, dropping into a crouch as she starts to unzipper it, "I haven't seen Brian in like— forever. The bike has been at the Lighthouse for a while, and I've been wanting to learn how to ride for a long time, but, uh— I've never really had the opportunity?" She grimaces, again, nose wrinkling as she reaches down inside and hefts out the small engine, just a smidge over twenty pounds, she she only lifts up just enough tog et out of the bag and lay down with a clink on the concrete underfoot, proceeding to wipe the grease off of her hands afterwards.
"A couple of the Fe— uhhh— guys who work at the uh, Lighthouse— helped repair it?" Her eyes flick from Cardinal to Devi, "they helped take then engine out for me, recommended this place. So— it's not really charity work, it's gonna' be mine, once I… uh, figure out how to ride it. I'm sick of walking and I never learned how to drive a car, so…"
"Listen to this?" Devi juts a thumb towards Colette, looking up to Cardinal with a shameless grin before pushing up her feet. "Girl after my own heart." She wipes her own greasy hands on her baggy jeans, doing little good mind you, before offering her palm out. "Name's Devi. Not only'll I fix your bike, kiddo. But, I'll teacha how ta ride if your up for it. Not enough girls out there willin' to get on a bike, I think. Ain't nothin' to it, besides." She flashes an encouraging grin, only to reach out and snag her beer back. "Who is this Brian fella?" she finally chimes in on the matter, looking between the two in her shop.
The near slip elicits a pained wince from Cardinal, one that he covers up by bringing the bottle of darkened brown glass up to his lips and taking a hearty swallow thereof. The bottle's waved through the air as he explains, "He's an… associate of mine. Runs the orphanage down the island, amongst other things. Zu used to stay there. So what's your name, kiddo?"
"Brian's a good guy, well— a lot of good guys." There's a crooked smile Colette offers as she looks up to Devi, biting down on her lower lip with restraint to a smile. "R— really? Well, hell, that'd be awesome! My dad doesn't have the time to really do much like that, and I don't know anyone who knows how to ride one, far's I know. I figure a dirtbike's good for my size, and it'll help me zip around here on the island while I'm out this way." Moving up to stand from her crouch, Colette glances up to Cardinal at the question, then lets out an awkward laugh, scratching at the back of her neck with one hand.
"Oh ah— right." Her brows crease together, "Name's Colette. I used to live with Brian for a while, I'm out on Manhattan now, but I spent a lot've time out here on the island helping out with uh— stuff." Her lips purse to the side, weight shifting from one foot to the other, her boots scuffing against the concrete as she does. "You… so like— you're really a mechanic?" Colette asks of Devi, as if it's somehow a surprise.
Fe-? 'Fellas', she'd assumed, had been the intended word. So, it was rather Cardinal's expression and notable pause that gave something away.
Devi steps back, smoothly entwining one tattooed arm along with the other across her chest, her beer bottle dangling from her fingers to tap an rhythm against her waist. "Don't bullshit me," she suddenly comments without any true viciousness. "If you're gonna keep your secrets, at least don't dangle 'em under my nose like I'm some freakin' fool, yeah?" She makes a dismissive gesture towards Cardinal and turns back to her work bench, putting down her bottle with a clatter of tools.
"Yeah. I'm a mechanic. And, many other things, doll." Her words are suddenly bored as she snatches up a wrench and makes back towards her pet project - the continually dismantled bike.
"No, seriously, he really does run an orphanage," Cardinal replies without missing a beat, his nostrils flaring in an amused snort of breath as he leans himself back against the wall once more, shoulders flat against it and one foot crossing over the other. "He also occasionally works in the whole terrorist biz, fighting evil and injustice and all that crap. Lotta kids there never got technically 'registered' even if they probably should be. Fuck the Linderman act anyway, Daniel's an asshole."
He gestures with the bottle easily, "She's totally a mechanic. I'm sure she does other stuff, too, but I haven't gotten her in bed to find out yet."
"S'pretty cool. My folks would've pitched a shit-fit if I wanted to do something like that…" Green eyes divert to the engine on the floor, and COlette's hands come to slide inside the pockets of her long jacket. "I dunno how much this's gonna' cost," she finally admits, shoulders rising and falling in a shrug, "but I should have enough money to cover it. Kinda' makes me wish I spent more time working the last few months though, less time doing volunteer work." Pursed lips pucker to the side, and Colette's green eyes wander over to Cardinal and her eyes go wide, first because of what he's telling Devi, and then later because of his lewd comments, which make her turn a bit red in the face.
"Ah— well— she— " Colette'e eys wander back to Devi, then down to the floor as she runs her hands thorugh her hair, brushing messy bangs away from her face. "S— so yeah uh, I— how… well do you know Brian again?" Colette asks of Cardinal, trying to both change the topic and turn herself sideways so it isn't so obvious how red in the face she is. "He— terrorist?" Awkward laughter follows, entirely unconvincing laughter.
(New BB message (6/5) posted to 'OOC - Outtakes' by Manhattan: Seek Help.)
Devi grins down at the instrument panel of her bike - the electronics the only thing untouched by her nightly, sleep-walking adventures. A quick glance at between the girl and man reveal she's getting at least something honest, spiced with something delightful, no less. "Yet? Well, looks like big boy's got an ego on 'im," she teases back, propping her wrench against the bikes tank. She flashes Cardinal a quick wink before turning back to Colette.
"It's on the house, kiddo. You just be sure to come back 'round more often. Maybe I can show ya a few things 'bout the bikes and shit." She pauses and wrinkles her nose. "Not about that shit," she comments with a thumb in Cardinal's direction. "Riding. Tinkering." She shrugs, but offers an agreeable nod with her decision. "When we setcha up with a real bike, you're gonna have to dish out some dough though, yeah?" She grins proudly at the girl and bends down to pluck up the two-stroke, hauling it off to her work bench easily enough.
"Just about anything qualifies as terrorism these days," Cardinal observes, as if it were no great problem or issue in the slightest. Terrorism's just like stealing a pack of gum from the store, right? Another sip of beer's taken, and he murmurs against the mouth of it, "…as if you'd kick me out've bed, babe."
Then he waggles the beer bottle at Colette, "He's a friend've mine. I know him better'n he does." The last laden with some private irony, accompanied by a snort of humor.
"You— really?" Again, Colette's dumbstruck by something as simple as human generosity. "That— damn that's awesome. Yeah, I'll totally come around more, really! I mean— that's so awesome. I was really wondering where I'd learn how to ride." Devi's insinuation of Cardinal's shit though comes with another flush of Colette's face and equally awkward laughter "Ahaha! N— No I'd never— I mean it's not like you're— that— " she just waves her hands around frantically before turning her back on Devi and pacing away a few steps, breathing in a deep, calming breath as her hands once more sweep her hair back from her face, though this time her fingers lace together and she leaves her hands folded atop her head.
When she turns around, the blush hasn't really faded at all, but this time she's just passing off a bit of a glower to Cardinal, as if that was all some how his fault. It fades, only when she exhales the breath she's holding and lets her hands fall limp to her sides. "Did… either of you hear about the church that got burned down in Greenwich Village a few days ago?" The shift of questions is abrupt, a sudden change from the topoc of discussion that was turning her cherry-colored.
"Only one way to find out," Devi shares with Cardinal while the youngin's back is turned.
"Deep breath's, munchkin," the biker offers with an easy smile, tucking a few stray strands of her own hair back behind her pierced ears. "Nah, can't say I did. I've actually been a bit distracted." She makes a vague gesture towards the uncooperative piece of mechanics, but looks between Cardinal and the girl with a curiously arched brow. "What's up?"
A broad, shit-eating grin's flashed back in the direction of the would-be student of the tattoo'd mistress of mechanisms, shameless response to her glowered look. Then it fades, washing away like blood spilt on the sands before the tide, Cardinal's lips curving into a dark scowl as he looks away an across the garage.
"Yeah," he says quietly, the edge of his thumbnail tapping steadily against the thick glass of the bottle in his hand, "Sumter's church, the… Guiding Light. I know all about it. Why?"
"It's— it's nothing." Colette shakes her head, teeth toying with her lower lip as she looks down to the floor. "Friend of mine worked at the church and— " she waves one hand dismissively to the comment, "M'just being— " she hesitates on the dismissiveness, looking up to Cardinal with not an inquisitive, but a suspicious look on her face. "You know Joseph?"
The young teen's posture changes, her shoulders stiffening a little as she takes a few meandering steps with clunking bootfalls towards Cardinal. "All… all about it?" One black brow rises, green eyes darting to Devi and then back to Cardinal. "Do you know who did it?" Spoken like someone with a vested interest in finding the culprit.
Dropping of the to-do project on her workbench, Devi turns around to take in the developing scene with a note of curiosity. She hooks her thumbs into her pockets, inclining her chin as she takes a few steps after Colette. Following the kid towards Cardinal, simply watchful.
[OOC] Devi says, "BRB. RL calls. :("
"Of course I do." Cardinal says it as though the matter should be a foregone conclusion, his gaze slanting sharply back towards the girl's face when she asks those questions, though his eyes are unseen and unseeable beyond the opaque lenses of his glasses. "I know things. It's kind've my schtick, such as it were," he adds, somewhat dryly, though that hint of self-depreciating humour doesn't last for long.
He brings up his free hand, scratching over the curve of his jaw with a rasp of short fingernails against stubble, silent for a few moments as if considering if he should answer. Finally: "Humanis First. Emile Danko's cell, to be more specific. Sumter'll be fine, fortunately."
Nibbling her lower lip in thought, Colette's green eyes wander to the side, head tilting slightly. "Emile Danko…" There's a nod of her head, shoulders hunching forward in that uncomfortable way someone might when they're cold. "Alright, hey— " her eyes uplift to Cardinal, a hesitant smile given, "thanks for that. Nobody I asked knew what the guy's name was, but— that helps a lot." Managing a weak grin, Colette looks over to the engine laid out on the table, and suddenly seems far more impatient than she was a few minutes ago.
"Um…" Her focus shifts to Devi, "how long do you think it's gonna' take to get that engine up and running? Like— so I know when to get a ride back out here?" Her attitude has visibly shifted, something more dour. "You know— for the lessons too, if that's cool with you." She's distracted.
Devi's dark gaze volleys back and forth with the conversation. Maybe she should pay more attention to what's going on in the world. Or, maybe she should just try to get a hang on this Evo crap first, she reminds herself. She snaps out of her own little thoughts at Colette addresses her once more. "I'll fix it up tomorrow. There's a couch up stairs if ya wanna crash and no one is gunna send out a search party to hunt me down." She flashes an easy grin. "But, I'm goin' to try to get some sleep either way. And, I could use a shower." She lifts her hands up and gives a little cha-cha-cha shake of her hips before stepping off towards the spiral staircase. Refrain's calling her name, in truth - maybe she'll get some real sleep, and some sweet dreams.
Cardinal's head shakes, barely an inch to either side, and he tilts the beer bottle in his hand towards the young woman who seems terribly familiar for some reason that he can't name. "Do yourself a favor," he says quietly, "Don't go after those bastards, at least not without hooking up with some people who know what they're fuckin' doing. I've answered too many questions like that and had someone run off to get themselves hurt."
As she proprietor makes her farewells, he turns his head to watch her go— appreciating the sway of her hips with an appreciative twitch of his lips.
Sleep — here? Colette's dark brows go up slowly, and as her mouth opens to posit a question towards Devi, all she gets is a tilt of her head sideways and eyes likely focused on the exact same place Cardinal's are undoubtedly leering when the machinist goes retreating up the stairs. There's a crooked smile, not quite mischevious but at least entertaining the mischief as she looks side-long towards Cardinal and tilts her head forward into a nod.
"Guess I'm crashing here," she notes with a shrug of her shoulders, then turns her eyes up towards Cardinal, brows furrowed. "I can take care of myself, and… I think I know some people who might help out." Rolling her tongue over the inside of her cheek, Colette looks around the garage, lamenting the clear presence of a couch as she breathes in a deep breath and exhales a sigh, reaching into the pocket of one jacket to pull out a cell phone, flipping it open as she starts to one-handed type out a text message while looking back to Cardinal. "Since you know so much…" the young girl asks with a quirk of her head to the side, "you ever hear of a guy who calls himself the King of Swords?"
ORDER: Devi has skipped their turn.
"Nobody ever listens." A long-suffering sign twists itself into a quiet chuckle once Cardinal's attention has returned, once more, to the young woman. The question posed by Colette causes him to hesitate, though, to pause with a hint of surprise. And, perhaps, caution. "We've met. Why?"
"Do you know how to get in touch with him?" The question comes as Colette glances back up at the staircase, noticing Devi's form gone, and lamenting never having even gotten her name. Teeth toy with her lower lip on that thought, before turning to look back at Cardinal. "Some friends of mine work for him, or with him or— something. Gabriel, Eileen…" how the hell does this kid know these people? "I dunno if they know this guy's name or not, but like— Gabriel can do anything" she says with all of the admiration of a fan to a sports hero, "so I know he could find these guys, and— and the swords guy was really nice to me when we drove back from 'Jersey. So— " her nose wrinkles, "I figure I find out where they are, and then let my dad know."
She smirks, slightly, "He's a detective. So…" She's lying, too. There's no way Colette has any intention of telling her father anything.
The names spoken, and the words and questions that go along with them, bleed away that casual playfulness and banter as surely as any leech or lancet. Cardinal's expression shifts to a more serious one, the beer bottle lobbed with a casual under-hand into a trash can across the garage — clattering into the trash with a clamour of glass striking junk — before arm folds to arm across the breadth of his chest.
"You want to bring them into this?" His lips purse themselves together, "An interesting thought. And just who might your father be, young lady?"
"A detective." Colette adds with a raise of her brows, not offering up the name. "Look, Gabriel and his friends can take on anything. They fought this like— monster guy made out of solid steel." She cracks a lopsided smile, head quirking to the side, "If they can fight that, then there's nothing they can't do. Nobody— especially not Joseph— deserves to be treated the way those assholes are acting. I— I nearly got killed by them once. They shot someone right in front of me, I— I'm not going to just sit down and shut up because I'm a kid."
Defensive, now, her brows lower and hands ball up at her sides, and she's already failing with that tell my father where Danko is lie. "I've got an ability, an' I'll totally use it if I have to." Because sparkly lights are Danko's weakness, obviously, "Gabriel showed me what it could do when I taught him how to use it, so— so I know I can defend myself. M'not just— " Colette rubs at her face with the heel of her palm, "m'not just going to do nothing. Not after what they did."
"They tortured my lover for three days and then shot her in the fucking head. I know what they're capable of, kid, trust me there."
The words are quiet, cold, laced with a sort of bated anger leashed and kept locked away until needed. Cardinal lets them lay there in the air, heavy and leaden, for several long heartbeats before he exhales a snort of breath, "They aren't getting away with this. Trust me there." He lifts his chin in a tight jerk to indicate the girl, "I can pass on a message. Not telling you where to find them. You got a number they can reach you at? And— an ability, hm? What is it?"
"I… I'm sorry." Colette says quietly, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "I— I didn't know." Humility comes after hubris, at least on the young girl's part, and the humility of knowing she's lost far less in most ways that Cardinal has is sobering. "I— I gave 'Swords my number. In case they ever needed me for something. They're good people." She's probably the only human being on the face of the earth who can say that with a straight face.
"My uh— " Colette swallows awkwardly, "My ability's lasers." Implied with a narrowing of her eyes, she thinks it better to try and puff herself up than leave herself open and seeming weak, though the feint isn't too far from the truth. Unfortunately for Richard Cardinal, it's a truth he's felt the receiving end of in a very personal level. "You know, welding, cutting…" Yeah, he knows.
A mirthless little chuckle tumbles past Richard's lips, his head shaking in a bare hint of motion. "No, they're not," he murmurs, "No more than I am. But sometimes the world needs people who aren't good." Hubris on his end, perhaps, as he numbers himself amongst those the world needs. Whether it wants him or not. I'll let them know you're looking for them, I needed to go touch base and ask Gabriel about something anyway…"
Lasers. Gabriel. The mathematics aren't difficult, luring his attention down towards his hand, fingers curling defensively in against his palm before stretching out once more. Still less callused, less tanned, than the rest of him. "Photokine…" The word isn't finished, nor the thought, head snapping up once more. Wait. Could she… she doesn't quite match, but… "Colette Nichols?"
Now comes the fear. Green eyes go wide, and Colette takes a half step back, the air around her rippling like the unstill surface of a pond for a brief moment of heart-pounding panic when her name is snapped up out of the ether. "I— " saying no after that reaction would be a pretty terrible and easily seen through lie. "N— No." Well, she needs some work at that.
"You need to work on your lying," points out the shadowman in tones of absent chiding, like one would observe a casual grammar mistake in a grade schooler, "You're not very good at it."
The girl's regarded thoughtfully through his shades, and then a smile quirks to his lips, unreadable in its meaning. "Now there's a coincidence. I'll have to update my files, you're listed as dead." He pushes off the wall, then, moving to walk past her towards the door, "I'll let the Remnant know you're looking for them, and why. When Devi drags herself out of bed tomorrow, let her know I'll be by again soon…"
'Remnant' is mouthed by Colette with a furrow of her brows, head quirking to the side as she watches Cardinal for a moment, green eyes narrowed. Swallowing tensely, she squares her shoulders and runs one hand thorugh her hair, calling after Cardinal with a nod of her head. "Hey— " her brows crease together, footing becoming uneven as she balances weight more on one than the other. "I— I never got your name."
"Cardinal," replies the man, "Richard Cardinal. Get my number from Devi, we should talk, sometime…" He ducks under the half-closed garage door, pausing to glance back with a wry expression, "…I'll just track you down, otherwise, but that always makes me feel like a— creepy stalker, or something."
Then he's the rest of the way under, and he closes the garage door with a bang of metal on concrete.