[Closed] Catching up with friends

[applewatcher]

WHO: Lucien Lachance and Alfie Solomons!
WHERE: Maurtia Falls downtown!
WHEN: About now-ish!
WHAT: Murder!
WARNINGS: ...Murder!

The public contracts were always surprisingly dull, for most of the time you worked on them. The level of surveillance that needed to occur prior to the event itself was more extensive, and led to many more hours of quiet boredom once the initial flair of anticipation died down. But he'd had years of experience with this work, and even the complications engendered by a new world's technology and customs had done little to slow him.

He'd followed his target's routine, cased the likeliest locations, looking especially for security cameras at any nearby shops or street corners, watchful citizens, or sentries for local gangs. The same process then had to happen along his possible escape routes. There was no time limit on this contract, and so he could do this right.

Then at last, the day came. He dressed in quiet, unremarkable local clothes for a local man his age, hiding several knives beneath the layers. He paid in cash for a cup of coffee at a local diner, took a seat with a view of the street, and waited.

Comments

[devoutish]

On his way back from closing out Yom Kippur with his rabbi, Alfie drops by the diner on a whim. It's on the late side, so the dinner crowd is starting to filter out, but it's a 24-hour place so it's by no means deserted. He's in the mood for a cup of coffee and maybe some dessert, he thinks, in a place that's less crowded and hectic than the other places that are open this late. Little does he know.

Lucien will most likely notice Alfie before Alfie notices him - Alfie will make it through the door and over to the counter to order before he turns around and sees the familiar-looking guy seated at the counter facing the window. Stepping over, he nods at the empty stool next to him, raising a questioning eyebrow. Mind if he sits, friend?

[applewatcher]

He sees a familiar face out of the corner of his eye, but makes no move to hail him. While he might have been forward before, public contact is another matter. If Alfie does not wish to be associated with him, he will not feel hurt.

But evidently, this is not the case. "Please, go ahead." He inclines his head with a smile, gesturing for Alfie to sit. "How are you this fine evening?"

[devoutish]

"Oh, I can't complain, mate; I can't complain." Leaning his cane against the counter, he eases onto the stool.

"I was walking past and thought, 'Alfie, you're due for a coffee and some cake'."

[applewatcher]

"I thought much the same." He kept half an eye on the street while he talked. "I've grown to quite like this city for places like this." Maurtia Falls felt far more lived-in than the other cities. More familiar.

"And for the river as well. It reminds me very much of home, right down to the occasional flood."

[devoutish]

"Does it really? I live and work by the canals, myself." He squints out at the dark street. "Can't say they flood much, though. It's a blessing."

[applewatcher]

"My favorite city in my homeland was on a river. And occasionally under it." Bravil was a beautiful mess of a town, watched over by their Mother.

"I'm afraid I might not be able to stay long, I have work to see to tonight." It was as much of a warning as he could give. "How have your own endeavors been?" Turmoil was always a boon for the Brotherhood. That whole business with the 'gods' this summer especially. So many people had new grudges on each other after that week, they had more than enough contracts to keep them busy now.

[devoutish]

Alfie makes a noncommittal sound. His business, by contrast, is usually disrupted by outside chaos; illicit sales and even gang wars will often take a back seat when everything turns to shit, especially if it's imPort-related. "It's keeping on," he says, frowning a little. "Yeah, it's going well enough, all things considered. I've had a man or two wonder if they truly want to be doing business with imPorts, with things as they are, but they know me. They'll come around."

hello i'm finally getting over my hecking cold

[applewatcher]

"I've heard quite my share of that suspicion as well." At length. Many became effusively defensive when a man in black robes suddenly appeared in their house at night to negotiate a business deal.

"But I've found enough of them are swayed by the idea of having magic working on their behalf."

i'm glad you're feeling better!

[devoutish]

"It’s the opposite for me," Alfie says - indeed, he makes a point of not making a big deal about his powers (which are, admittedly, less impressive than Lucien's). But that brings him to something that he's wondered about. "The natives that have picked up their own magic - how does that affect things for you? We're no longer the only ones who can do extraordinary things."