Herald

Nocturnal Memoirs: An Urban-Fantasy Mafia Epic

@Estylwen

Accidentally posted in the IC when I meant to send it to you via PM. Please let me know if the post needs a rewrite. Not really sure if attacking grey square is handled the way you want it to be.

Nocturnal Memoirs: An Urban-Fantasy Mafia Epic

Leon “Leo” MacAoidh

Grey Square

The neon sign hanging on the front of the bar read 'Golden Bee Pubhouse', with a burnt out series of bulbs that looked a little too close to the bee that was frequently seen on cereal boxes before the Wall went up. Inside, the place was exactly what you might come to expect from a bar in one of the slums of Nocturnia. Patched together rounded bench seats surrounded cracked tables that were permanently stained with booze and likely more than a little bit of blood. The shelves behind the bar were barely stocked, most of them holding bottles that contained liquids that had been colored to look like their original contents. Cigarette smoke created it's own fog bank that thankfully lingered near the top of the bar and the windows were darkened with dirt. The place was all but designed to scare people away, so that no one could tell what really happened behind the doors that led down to the basement level.

Unfortunately for them, Leon was a man who knew how to get answers when he needed them.

Leon booted in the front door hard, leading the way clad in his police gear and pointing an intimidating Beretta A300 at anyone that moved. "On the ground, get on the ground now! Nocturnia PD!," he shouted, not even waiting for compliance as he rushed the bartender and slammed the butt of his shotgun into the man's chest, "touch that goddamn alert button and you'll have killed everyone in here, starting with you." His commands cut through the sudden shouting clearly, and there was a feral edge to his voice that made it seem like he was some kind of vigilante cop gone psycho.

Motion in the corner of his eye caught his attention, and he drew his sidearm from it's chest holster, pointing it directly at a thuggish looking man that had been playing with his phone and was now scrambling to pull out his own gun. "Bringing a .22 to a .40 would be a stupid move boy, drop the weapon!," he called out, his eyes flitting between the two criminals as two more of his officers followed behind him. The sentry apparently thought wiser of continuing to draw his weapon, and both of them were savagely taken to the ground and cuffed before being dragged out to a waiting transport van.

Leon didn't wait, reaching over the bar and flicking a switch that deactivated the electronic lock on the basement door that he had learned about from a drug dealer that had been all too eager to sell out his bosses when threatened with an... off the books interrogation.

Leon kept the shotgun tight to his shoulder as he headed downstairs, the rush of adrenaline and violence stirring the urge to use his gyft. He pushed it down with practice, if he had to use his gyft on such a small operation he was getting out of practice.

Already he could hear the loud base music thumping from down below, the idiots relying entirely on the guards and one little button to alert them of any trouble. Leon moved to the single door, rolling his shoulders a bit to loosen up his body for what he believed was going to be a fight. He could hear his men starting to enter the bar again, his backup would be only seconds behind him if he needed it.

Very calmly, he eased the door open with his shotgun, a very surprised door guard now staring down a 12 gauge barrel close enough he could almost see the slug chambered inside. The man put his hands up, and Leon responded by driving the stock of the weapon into side of his head. The man crumpled like a sack of potatoes, and a shouted warning from further inside let Leon knew the surprise was over.

"Nocturnia PD! Let me see your hands!," he shouted as he kicked the door open but stayed in cover. Two shots rang out, hitting nothing but air. Still, it was enough justification for him. He crouched low and leaned around the corner, knowing they would expect anyone coming in to be standing and aim at center mass.

The shotgun roared twice, and two more criminals dropped. Checking his corners as he entered, he waved his back up inside to check the two bodies and confirm they were out of commission as he went to the far door and pushed it open with all the calm demeanor of a man entering his own home.

An older man in his thirties cowered behind a living wall of women that looked to be barely twenty. A golden revolver, with some kind of fake diamond grip was held in a shaking hand sideways and pointed directly at Leon, who was fairly certain he would be in more danger if the man wasn't aiming at him from the way he held the weapon.

Leon kept his shotgun up, sight drawn directly on the man's face as the music screamed around them. "Nocturnia PD! Norman 'Little Richie' Garcia-Jones! Drop the weapon or I will be forced to- for hell's sake man turn that shit off!," he roared, apparently his voice coming through clear enough to make the nervous man look confused.

"Oh for...," Leon slowly sidestepped over to the speaker and kicked it over, the music finally cutting out.

"God man, how do you hear anything?," Leon said, then gestured with the barrel of his weapon for the self styled criminal boss to lower his weapon, "you get one chance to survive this Norman. Body Bag or cuffs means little to me. You've lost your little corner of paradise."

The two backup officers came in through the door, and with three men all pointing guns at him, Norman folded and put his hands up. Leon moved forward and put the cuffs on him himself, dragging him back up to the transport van.

~~~~~Invading Grey Square~~~~~

Commissioner's Office

”There's quite a few here. I'll be a good sport here and let you both choose your cases first. Though…”

"Oh how we humbly thank you for the opportunity to succeed," Leon grumbled, looking over the files.

"Seriously, this guy calls himself 'the Boss'?," he said, looking over the file, "sounds like my kind of criminal. Twice the pride, three times the fall." An ironic statement, coming from Leon as he took the file on Vincenzo Accardo.

"I'll bring him in with evidence," he said, though he detested the idea that he might need to plant evidence to ensure a conviction. Nocturnia PD had turned to some extralegal actions to enforce the law at times, sure, but in his mind there was a grand difference between beating a criminal into a confession of crimes they did commit as opposed to planting false evidence to get a charge that they may not have committed.

"Ma'am, I'd also like to be kept in mind for the Blackheart file. The aide trucks mean literal life or death to some of the citizens and the idea of someone messing with them and risking our primary lifeline... A message needs to be sent, Ma'am," he said, his eyes flitting towards the case file.

Umbra: The Abyssal Connection

As Le Frey's form glowed, so too did boiling red veins begin to pop up over Val's body. The transformation was still painful, but the pain felt good as his anger fed on it and in turn twisted and merged with Mercy's own violent urges. Only the strange actions of the smaller wild stopped him from leaping to the attack, the call for peace resonating within Val as he took a breath and stopped his posturing with Le Frey.

"What of Mercy and Inu? You bind to human but... Does heart still follow the call of Wild King?”

"Mercy does as he pleases, he looks forward to our deaths so that he can eat our corpses," Val said, shaking his head as it filled with dark laughter from Mercy, "he follows the King simply because the King is a superior monster.... no offense." He added the last part while looking at Mimi. Not every Wild was a monster, after all, despite their appearance. The veins across his body cooled, though he could still feel the burn radiating through him. Mercy howled in frustrated denial, more demands for the deaths of Ghost Corp spiraling through Val's mind and starting to give him a headache.

You are violating our deal human. You will never know peace. All you will know is blood and death and violence and I will FEED!

Val felt like his body temperature was rising again, and this time Mercy's protection wasn't helping him adjust. It almost felt like Mercy was simply going to boil away all of his flesh to be freed once again. To feed on these Ghost Corps minions and howl victory to the stars.

You want to feed? Trust me, I'll be in pain soon enough. Poeple who rule with an iron fist know only one way of answering such disobedience., Val thought, wincing as he brought up a memory of his training. The first time he had held his rifle and failed to his a glass bottle in a window nearly 500 meters away. His 'uncle' had beaten him for nearly a half hour, and then heated the spent cartridge in the fire and burnt him with it, a constant reminder of the price of a missed shot. He let the old pain radiate within him instead of stuffing it away, coaxing Mercy back into a state of calmness with the negative emotions. He only snapped out of it when he heard VV's voice.

”A… A, let's leave. The doctors won't find anything good. It's just Umbra all over again. I'll destroy this door, and we can just… get away…”

Val kept his eyes on Le Frey, fully knowing that any move against Ghost Corps would put them right back where they were before Mimi's interruption.

"Say the word. And we walk or we die," Val said, rolling his neck and looking over at VV with a slight grin. Despite the morbid statement, his confidence was nearly unshakeable when it came to fighting. What did death hold for him that could be worse than the Dust?

”Guardian, report to the inner courtyard for your… ass-kicking.”

Val looked up at the intercom, not really surprised that the General was monitoring the situation. Still, he was lawless, not Ghost Corps.

"Sorry, General, my deal is with the Fallaways," he said, "if they say walk, we walk. If they say stay... then I'll apologize in person for delaying my punishment."

"Unless you want to start things off Greenie?," Val said, raising an eyebrow as he looked at Le Frey.

FORGOTTEN REALMS - Gambit of Scoundrels

No, you usually die to them, Leon thought, glad for the mask covering his face and hiding his irritation. Distrust he was used to, but paltry threats were just an annoyance. Still, he was not about to pick a fight with Elthel in front of everyone and there was no real harm in letting her think she had the upper hand on their relationship. And an ale and a nap sounded wonderful so the sooner they could get to this tavern, the better.

He considered pointing out that anyone who came here would undoubtedly know something was wrong anyways... since they had killed everyone and were in the process of hiding their bodies, but if Elthel or her team screwed up that part of the operation it was of little concern to him for now. Maybe she was already thinking about moving in and disguising some of the Talons to look like the regular thugs until Shagarm or someone powerful were to come asking questions.

"Seems to me we've pretty much thrown our lot in with your side anyways," Leon commented, though he supposed if he did go running to Shagarm, he could probably take Gunalar's place in the organization and see to the eradication of the Talons. However, that wasn't the mission, and he sensed no favor from Mask towards either of the two groups. "As long as both sides benefit, I see no reason not to at least hear out any jobs you've got on offer."

And with that, Leon turned and headed for the door, walking out and over to Ibdur. "Apologies again, Arahur, but as I suspected there was little glory to be found in that place and your presence here served us well," he said, "the house has been cleared of rats, and our friends are seeing to the cleanup now. We've been given a place where we might find some rest and friendly company. Thank you for holding the exit route open for us."

Once Iliskra joined them, Leon would wait until they were a few blocks away before taking off his mask and hanging it on his waist again. A gold coin was lifted from his pouch, dancing between his fingers with the skill of a moderate street magician. "Coin for your thoughts on our friends and that little operation?," he said, looking towards Iliskra. If the note or the fact that they had indeed found the Talons were referenced, he would pull the note out of his armor and hand it to Ibdur for the dwarf to read.

FORGOTTEN REALMS - Gambit of Scoundrels

Leon countered the charge with a shield bash, stepping solidly out and cutting short the man's charge. As the man was suddenly swept off of his feet, the masked cleric followed with a stab downwards, but the man managed to get his blade up to deflect Leon's sword at the last moment. A slash at Leon's legs for him to take a half-step back, but he pressed the attack, not letting the thug get back onto his feet.

Leon's boot crunched into the man's face, breaking the nose and spraying the surrounding floorboards with blood, allowing his next stab to pierce the thug's chest without resistance. There was a shudder and then the man lay still, Leon twisting his blade before pulling it out for good measure, then wiping the blood off on his latest victim.

"If we're done up here," Leon said, briefly patting down the corpse just to see if the man had any treasures of his own, "Elthel and Willory went down to the basement. We should finish clearing the floors and meet back up with them. I can't imagine there are too many more rats left in these walls.

Standing back up, Leon looked over at Iliskra and eyed her new treasures briefly. "Good finds, hopefully they'll serve you well," he said, offering a small grin of support. He had little desire for treasure unless it helped him serve Mask or his comrades better, though coin did have a way of making the world go round. Unfortunately while he could pray to mask for the ability to determine what around him was radiating magic, direct identification was not one of his abilities. Mask kept secrets, he did not reveal them.

"Ready when you are," he muttered, turning back towards the hallway and readying his weapons in case he was wrong about the number of thugs left over from Gunalar's reign.

Umbra: The Abyssal Connection

silently dropping Mimi lore. Maybe Potentially we get to see the other pack members in the future uwu

@SporkoBug

What I'm hearing is there are more mimi's to collect. Gotta catch em all!

...and then teach them to be nice to Mimi.

Umbra: The Abyssal Connection

”It's best you're with them at this point, anyways. It may be their last evening breathing the Dust-filled air…”

Val didn't respond to the barb. There was no need to play games with the General when he had already made it very clear who's side he was on and what he would do if they were threatened. The only thing that stopped him from intervening with their actions against VV and A were that he could clearly see they were both collapsed on the ground, one receiving medical treatment, the other about to be hauled off to a cell undoubtedly. His blue eyes flicked back over to the General, Mercy's howls for violence and death echoing in his mind.

Those flames... the General was also tied to a Wild. How many Wilds did Ghost Corps count among their number?

~~~~~~~

”I've uh, been instructed by the general to feed all of you except the black-haired Umbra girl. And uh… if any of you try to feed her, I've been told you'll ‘incur the wrath of the general’. His words, not mine.”

Val accepted the offered food and water, moving to put A's rations near her for when she was ready for them. He frowned when he saw that the rations were shorted VV's portion, but waited for Mimi to at least take a few bites of the jerky before he acted up.

Val reached out and took the rations meant for himself, uncapping the canteen of water and downing a mouthful before recapping it and tightening the lid down to make sure it didn't spill a drop.

"All due respect to the Ghost Corps," he said, looking LeFrey in his eyes, "last I checked the doc was alive enough to be scribbling, so incarceration is already a heavy punishment for striking a person interfering with a call for medical aid."

"Tell the General I said to go Dust himself. I'll await my ass kicking at his pleasure," Val finished, giving an over the top mocking bow, "and if I see a hint of green from you, Mercy has been screaming at me to come out and play." Unlike when he had been speaking of the General, there was a hint of regret when he leveraged the threat against LeFrey. The man was likely just following orders after all, and Val still owed him for getting them out of the grasps of the Ravagers.

He tossed the canteen between the laser bars, followed quickly by the ration pack. He didn't even think VV might be hungry, it was more about sending the message that he had no intention of following such a ridiculous punishment as starving a prisoner. Especially a prisoner that he was supposed to be protecting.

"Whoops, my hand slipped," Val said, still staring at LeFrey.

FORGOTTEN REALMS - Gambit of Scoundrels

Leon grimaced at the state of the room. Sure, Gunalar had been a brute, and idiot, and undoubtedly a savage, but this was just... awful. And what in the Abyss was up with the women's underwear scattered on the floor? Trophies? Or perhaps Gunalar had a delicate flower side that the rest of his life seemed to be in opposition of. The more he thought about it, the more he regretted thinking about it.

Thankful for the distraction, Leon palmed the note effortlessly into his armor before Firoz could see it. "Nothing terribly deadly lurking it seems... I think I'll leave the possible treasures to the professionals," he said, glancing towards the locked chest. He walked back over to the door, leaning against the door frame to give him partial cover against anyone coming up the hallway and started to keep watch while Firoz and Iliskra did what they wished. Once he was in position, he pulled out the note and kept it low so that Firoz couldn't see it in the open.

His eyes scanned the content as quickly as he could, picking out the keywords and memorizing them for later recall. He then folded the paper back into his chest armor. There would be time later to decide if they would share it with Elthel and Zilaster. It was nice to have suspicions confirmed though, it seemed they were already dealing with Ashaba's Talons. Or at least their remains.

Whomever this 'J' was, they were undoubtedly going to be trouble, but it was trouble for another day. It might be possible to learn more about the writer if they could find a diviner in the city, but it was just as likely that either Zilaster would have some idea of who this was, or could find out.

Leon waited for the two to be ready to leave, his shield and sword held loosely, but ready for trouble to spring up in either the form of someone coming up the stairs, or for some trap to go off from the chest.

Umbra: The Abyssal Connection

He'd... uhh... probably be pretty mad if I tried to pet him in Cerberus mode, right?

FORGOTTEN REALMS - Gambit of Scoundrels

"Nothing worth mentioning. Dust and decayed furniture," Leon admitted quietly, keeping a sigh from escaping his lips. Two more kills. Two potential targets left. He had never been the type to complain about a lack of activity when said activity could end up cutting his throat with a lucky strike, but his pride was still stung from Elthel and he wouldn't have minded the brief workout of aggression. He felt Mask's blessing fade, the divine power his prayers had purchased fading as time pressed on.

The room ahead would be the prize room, he suspected. Gunalar didn't strike him during their brief interaction as the type to keep documents, maps, or secret passphrases laying around, but he did seem the type to store his personal treasure where it could be easily checked on and hidden from greedy eyes. Then again, maybe the fates will smile on all of them and a large book titled 'the secret identity of Shagarm and their critical weakness' will be laying on a desk inside, right next to the secret location of a dead dragon's treasure hoard.

Leon let a smile pass over his face at the ridiculous thought. Stranger things had been known to happen in history though.

Knowing Iliskra was the quieter of the two of them, he simply readied his shield to cover her and let her handle the door. If there was an immediately violent reaction, he would do his best to protect her from it and buy her time to flank or otherwise deal with whatever was on the other side of the door.