Participants:
| Scene Title | TroubleShooter |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Devi does her part in her arragement with Cardinal - she tells him all she knows about the earthquake, Shard, and White. |
| Date | August 13, 2009 |
Anarchy Customs: Apartment
Black on blue on violet, the room seems done up in the dark motif of bruise-like colors. The loft apartment gives bares an open aura tainted only by the scent of stale smoke and beer. Navy carpeting spreads out like a dark sea everywhere but for the tiled portions designated as the kitchenette and bathroom that is shielded only by a Japanese folding screen.
The queen size bed is set beside the large windows that face out the front of the building, allowing a good view of the garage's store front and the rowdy streets of Staten Island beyond. There's a laptop upon the nightstand. A corner of the loft is designated as a little sitting area, a glass coffee table set between two white, leather sofas.
Finally, a hatch door is set with a simple, but sturdy, sliding bolt lock but reveals a spiraling, black-iron staircase that leads down into the lower floors of the building when opened.
"I swear, I know that guy," Cardinal observes as the pair of Shard and Agnes head out, scratching under his chin briefly with a bemused expression upon his face. Then he heads after Devi towards the stairs, his head shaking just a little, "It'll come to me. Drive me fuckin' nuts until it does, though, I hate when that happens…" A grin's flashed over, "No offense meant, babe, about th'tats. I just happen to know a lot of tattooists…"
"Yeah, sure sure." Devi teases back over her shoulder as she thrusts open the hatch and disappears into the room upstairs.
The room is done up to make available space for another occupant, presumably little Kitty and her belongings. "Mi casa." Notably, she doesn't add the 'su casa'-bit. She sips at her brew as she steps off towards the window, fingers waltzing to brush a few bangs from her dark gaze. "No harm, no foul. I don't do it for work. Anyway, something I can do for ya, toots? Or, is this that personal call you were teasin' on about?"
The hatch is pushed closed once Cardinal's hauled himself up into the loft; looking around the apartment with casual appreciation, noting, "Nice place you've got here…" A look back to her, lips curving in a rogue's smile beneath the shadow of the sunglasses he's wearing, "…wish I could say it was, wish I could say it was. How's business goin' with you settling in and all?"
A grin, a shrug, and she turns back around to face the man. "Too bad." She winks and looks back over the place. "Pretty damn well, actually. Found some girly who was willing to hook me up with some hot shit. Sure the info-Guru that you are, you've heard of it. Refrain." She sips her beer again. "Also had some fella come out lookin' to hire The Ravens for some work in the future. Called himself Adam." A give and take sort of business, Devi's dark gaze search Cardinal's visage for some reaction to any of her news.
"The memory drug, yeah, I know of it," admits Cardinal, leaning himself against the wall and folding both arms over his chest— the second statement, however, brings both brows upwards over the edge of his shades. "Tall guy— blonde? Impeccably polite? Monroe…" He scratches at his cheek, lips pursing, "Interesting. I wonder what his game is…"
Devi nods slowly. "Yeah, that one," she says a bit absently. The mere mention of the drug made her skin crawl, as if the syringes in the cabinet downstairs were brought to life by the mention and had begun to call out sweet nothings at her.
The biker snaps from her wandering thoughts and peers down into her beer bottle for a moment before emptying. "That's the guy. Mentioned wanting some 'ruffians' to help him out in the future." She looks back to Cardinal and then reaches out, snapping her fingers. "Linderman. He mentioned Linerdman," she notes, the little tidbit almost having slipped her mind.
"Oh, that's it…" Cardinal's fingers drop down from the side of his face, thumb curling into a belt-loop of his pants as he admits, "Monroe's… got a lot of old enemies. Linderman's one of them. He's probably making his own move to wipe 'em out. I'd work with him on a per-job basis if you feel like it, it can be pretty profitable, but… keep him at arm's length. Sooner or later, he'll get in too deep, and you want to be able to pull out when it happens."
He lifts his head, then, asking seemingly casually, "You feel that quake that happened last night?"
Devi gives a little nod and lifts her bottle in acknowledgement before setting it aside. The mention of the quake draws a devious expression to her lips. "Well, aren't I all sort of useful…" she begins, stealing a few steps forward and canting her head gently to the side, the coal-hued bird upon her throat fluttering its wings with the soft motion of her flesh. "Keep this in mind when I come to you lookin' for something, alright?" She turns away then, reclaiming distance and dropping herself on the foot of the bed. "I was there. Boyo you just met? - Shard. He was the fighter during the rumble." She turns one hand to the other, pulling each finger to crack them in turn as she continues. "Shard didn't want to fight, but man could he. Super strength or some such when everything started - now you seem 'im, sparking like a fucking high powered wire."
"Anyway, some fucker in a bathrobe came out of the stands. Starts yellin' at someone that was standing with Adam - 'Ash', by the sounds of what he was shoutin. Rumble started when bathrobe boy aimed to break Shard out of the cage. Broke a main that caught the electro-boy Shard was 'fightin'. Killed 'im. Then the earth just came up and consumed bathrobe-boy and his girl, dragged 'em out of sight. Power went out. Place went nutz." She's just full of useful info and hands it willing to Cardinal. They'd struck a deal, after all. Besides, he's cute.
"The Pancratium? Motherfucker, are they abducting unwilling Evolved again? Fuckin' Muldoon, we had a deal…" Cardinal's jaw tenses at the news about the fight, his head shaking tightly, "…I'm going to talk to Linderman about this. I swear to fucking God, he will/ hold up to his side of the…"
Then the rest of it strikes him, and he pushes off from the wall sharply, "The earth… wait, wait…" He reaches into his jacket, pulling out his phone and flipping through a series of pictures urgently with his thumb. He turns it, showing a picture to her, brows beetling, "Did it look like //this guy?"
Devi lofts a brow as Cardinal jumps to attention. She leans forward, wiggling her shoulders. "Well, at least I got something to get a rouse out of you," she notes before allowing her dark gaze to wander towards the cellular phone. "You're lucky I like you." Usually she'd aim to get a buck or more out of something that interests someone so greatly. Instead she cocks her head to the side, giving the picture a good once over. "Yup. That's 'im," she states simply.
She leans back then, propping herself up with her elbows tucked back onto the mattress. "What's goin' on?"
"Fuck." Cardinal covers his mouth with one hand, rubbing at his chin and lips as if to hide the grimace as he stares back down at the picture, then snaps it shut; pulling his shades off, strain-reddened eyes look back to her seriously, "This is Norman White. If he's not stopped, he's going to sink the entire god-damn island with that power of his."
"Well, according to what I heard about Kitty's chat with Shard, you and him agree on somethin'…" She leans forward, but even still the casual air about her demeanor does not wane under the 'impending doom' of the god-damn island. "Maybe we better hear out what he's got to say when he gets back, yeah?" Devi flashes a smile and nudges her chin towards the phone. "What's his deal, anywho?"
The phone's tucked away, deft fingers making it vanish into an inner pocket of the jacket. "He's a fucking lunatic," explains Cardinal with a subtle shake of his head, turning a wry look over to her even as the shades are tucked with an arm into the front of his shirt, "Escaped from a psychiatric hospital a few years back, got caught and tossed into Evo Guantanamo - aka Moab Penitentiary - and escaped when some activists cracked it open like a fuckin' eggshell. Convinced he's been 'chosen by God' or some bullshit like that."
The information broker glances over to the door, nostrils flaring in a snort, "He wants help going after White, I'll throw him any support he needs."
"Well, let's hear what he's got to say…" Devi replies. She shuffles into get a bit more comfortable, waiting for the chiming sounds of the stairs that would announce the return of Shard and her favorite little Raven.
"Let's hear him out, then…" That trails off, and Cardinal slants a look back to her where she's leaning, a smile tugging up slightly at one corner of his lips, "…this is what I do. I'm a troubleshooter. This guy? Definately trouble."