Outdoor Setting of a CafΓ© in Central Paris | April 14, 2012 (08:17 AM)
`'Physician-scientist'...? That makes sense...` Lawrence thought to himself as Olivia introduced herself to him.
Admittedly, he was not used to the idea of a doctor wearing their coat unless they were working, and - considering this young woman had just made it clear that she was a tourist - he did wonder why she basically looked 'on the job' when she was clearly here on some sort of vacation -- unless she was on work overseas or something. It was always possible that her outfit just
looked like a scientist coat, but now that she had actually confessed to being a doctor it made that seem a bit less logical. He had a few ideas in his head, but in the end it was hardly important. It was always possible this Olivia woman was just a workaholic or something anyway.
The expression on Olivia's face upon seeing the photograph immediately told Lawrence that she knew who this person was, but then that was not exactly an amazing lead or anything and subsequently never really caused him to even give a reaction beyond making note of it mentally. Her reactions that followed also made it clear that she - like all the others who Lawrence had shown this picture to, in all honesty - agreed that locating them as soon as possible was important. This meant that Olivia would most likely help him, and her following words did indeed confirm that. She seemed like an earnest young woman, from what Lawrence could make of her. He was going to scratch the back of his head again and comment about her referring to Paris as 'messy' with a smile on his face, but she kept talking so he just listened to her.
With a friendly smile, Lawrence waved his hand at the doctor to say farewell, "You too, and thanks a lot -- I appreciate it."
Turning around, Lawrence walked over to Colleen and sat down at the table where she was eating, pulling out his own burger and taking a bite of it after closing his briefcase. They had managed to make fairly decent progress with networking around Paris thus far, but had not directly made contact with the person they were looking for. It was only a matter of time though, since their target would be unable to stay off the radar forever.
"This is
boring..." Colleen said after a minute or so.
"I know it is, but you can put up with it." Lawrence replied sternly, though he still sounded calm, "Based on our Intel, they are definitely still in Paris, so if we keep this up it won't be long before someone sees them... Also, if we continue to show the photograph at hotels and ask the usual questions, eventually we'll hit the jackpot unless they're not sleeping at one." he continued, taking another bite from his burger.
"Yeah, okay..." Colleen replied, shrugging apathetically, as if it really did not bother her one way or another if they kept this up or did something else. One might even have argued that she was mostly just complaining about the boredom for the sake of conversation or something.
NPCs
British Themed CafΓ© | April 14, 2012 (08:43 AM)
Paula, or rather Paulette Holly Ashworth, was about to make another point that her old boss was a jerk when she noticed a short young woman - who could only really be described as being like a mouse, immediately resulting in Paula thinking she was cute and wanting to strike up a conversation with her - who looked more or less like a teenager to her.
Apparently she had almost bumped into this girl as she stormed into the entrance of the cafΓ©, making me also want to come right out and offer an apology -- feeling super guilty about making such a scene in front of someone seemingly so timid. It probably would have translated to something like a sheepish smile and a bow as she said she was sorry for making such a ruckus, possibly offering to treat her to something as a way to make it up to her, but before she had a chance to even open her mouth the girl was taking her leave after quickly saying farewell to a man that she could only assume was her acquaintance. Paula did not recognize the girl or the man she was addressing, so they might have been tourists -- on the other hand, Paris
was a large city. It was the girl's accent that made Paula think she was a tourist.
`Bummer... I thought I could make a new friend...` Paula thought to herself, her eyes seemingly pouting slightly as she tilted her head a little bit for a moment.
Not only was that girl adorable, but she was British too from what Paula could tell -- she had
so many questions she wanted to ask about her father's homeland. She would have tried to stop her and insisted on at least saying hello to the girl, but she left so abruptly and seemingly adamantly that Paula was sort of stopped dead.
Pretty quickly, her perky attitude popped back up again, having brought her attention back to the man who the girl had said farewell too. She immediately noticed how handsome the guy was, even if he seemed a bit underweight for someone so tall. Even so, his looks sort of had her bouncing around in daydream mode for a moment, and she wondered if he might be British as well. She could vaguely make out the way he said farewell in French sounding like his accent was British, and since the girl had said good bye to him in English he presumably understood it.
Paula did not exactly fancy herself as a master of deduction or anything, but two and two sort of just fit together in her head with what little information she had. Either that, or it was just what she
wanted to think, but her mind was telling her he was British too. They got a lot of British tourists in this place; some of whom appreciated the cafΓ© and some who were offended by 'Boss' and the others for having such terrible British accents -- Paula usually joked at them for that when she was still working in the place, overemphasizing the 'Guv' as if mimicking the others and then winking at the English tourists because she was sure they would get the sarcasm.
Ready to strike up a conversation as she saw the man standing up and putting a bill on the table, Paula was about to open her mouth again when she suddenly got stopped dead again; however, it was for an entirely different reason this time. Something about the look on the man's face as he was leaving the place - seemingly in a rush - was sort of terrifying. Perhaps his pale complexion could have been explained by the fact that he seemed a bit underweight and therefore arguably frail - making Paula want to treat him to something too and help out with that - but the look in his eyes said otherwise. That look was
frightening for some reason, as though the man had just seen a dead body or something had put him in a state of shock. It sort of completely took the wind from her sails until it was far too late for her to say anything. Snapping out of the surprise, she turned to call out and ask him if he was alright, but the man was already long gone. It made no sense to assume he was following a girl he had just said farewell too, unless he realized he forgot to say something. She had no context, but something
really seemed to be bothering that guy, whereas the girl who left prior simply seemed shy given all the stuttering.
"You alright there, Paula...?" the man called 'Boss' said.
Coming out of the sort of haunted feeling she picked up for just a moment, Paula turned her attention back to the middle-aged man, "... Uh, yeah -- I'm fine!" she said with a smile, trying to shake off that feeling.
Part of her wanted to follow that guy and find out what was wrong, but he looked like he wanted to be alone and Paula knew she had a habit of invading people's personal space by being a little bit too open and friendly sometimes. Really, she just wanted to make everyone feel welcome and be as approachable as possible, but sometimes her behaviour had the opposite effect. It was something she never really understood.
"Usual, right?" the owner of the cafΓ© said, already knowing the answer and starting to get some 'builder's tea' prepared for her.
"Yup!" Paula said, smiling and walking over to the counter like a happy kid waiting for breakfast.
It was at this point that Paula noticed the short albino boy who was about as cute as the British girl who had run off previously. Paula sort of went into excited mode again at the prospect of making another friend, even if this particular person did not seem outright British to her. His appearance made it difficult to tell how old he was, but she would have guessed a young teenager if she had to, probably only slightly younger than the stuttering girl from earlier. His ethnicity was also difficult to work out due to him being albino, but she was getting 'Eurasian' from him -- people of that blood were known to have a very distinct appearance to them that really made them stand out. It was only a hunch, but when you spent as much time around tourists as Paula did you got a knack for these things.
Not wanting to scare off another potential friend, since this boy looked a bit timid as well, Paula tried to work out if he could understand English, even if there was really no information she could use as the basis for that guesswork. He had a bewildered look on his face that made him look confused, but that could easily have just been due to her energy taking him off guard when she arrived.
"Um... hello there?" she said in her usual friendly tone, "Bonjour...?" she continued after a moment if he did not seem receptive to English.
Somewhere in Central Paris | April 14, 2012 (09:18 AM)
From the moment Conrad had walked into an isolated street,
someone had been watching him...
Perhaps it was because the short-lived author had been too occupied with the torment going on in his mind, or it was entirely possible that it had been deliberate, but he had disappeared out of the more bustling tourist area and stumbled into a place where he was - at least to his initial knowledge - alone. Nevertheless, another figure's eyes had been watching him from the moment he appeared, noticing the discomfort on his haunted face until he finally stopped due to what could only be presumed to be running out of breath. The thirty year old man was clearly trying to escape something, literal or metaphorical, and the stranger who had been watching had not failed to take notice of this.
"That
look in your eyes just now, boy..." a gravelly and somewhat deep male voice spoke, "I know those eyes
all too well..." he continued. Despite the sound in his voice being somewhat hoarse, there was a hint of sophistication in it. His accent itself sounded distinctly German, though he was definitely speaking in English.
Coming out of the shadows of an alleyway immediately next to the building Conrad was standing against, an old man appeared before him as he stepped out. The man was elderly, but likely no older than in his seventies -- he might have appeared roughly in his late sixties if not for the fact that his face seemed ravaged by the effects of lifelong stress and fatigue - or perhaps it was lamentation - causing age to take its course but not to the point where he looked older than he was; in fact, he looked a bit younger than his actual age. Indeed, something about the look in this man's brown eyes almost seemed like there was some sort of demon haunting him -- not that he appeared otherworldly or anything, but to a careful observer he would almost have looked as though he had stared into the darkest abyss and seen it stare back at him. He appeared as though he likely did not sleep very often, if the weary look on him was anything to go by, yet despite that his gaze was extremely intense.
His short hair was significantly greyed, but his natural hair colour in his youth would likely have been brown given the way it looked, and it was kept slicked back, spiking to a small extent, with a slightly receding hairline being noticeable as it went out to the sides of his forehead. His sideburns directly connected to his rather volumed facial hair -- a large beard and moustache that easily resulted in most of his face below his nose being hidden apart from his mouth, as well as him having fairly thick and seemingly unkempt eyebrows. His light skin tone was European, but difficult to place completely (he sort of looked Jewish overall, but not entirely), and he was likely around five foot and seven inches tall -- a somewhat stocky figure. The clothing he wore was simple, consisting mostly of a thick black double breasted coat, black pants, and black shoes. A white scarf could be seen around his neck from underneath the coat, but beyond that not much of what he was wearing was noticeable due to the coat going down almost to his feet, though the cuffs of a white shirt were visible. A short black cloak covered the top half of his coat as well. Lastly, he was carrying a black cane that had a couple of pale gold adornments, and it was clearly being used as a walking stick given the way he held it in his right hand.
"The eyes of a man who has felt something...
otherworldly..." the old figure spoke. The look in his brown eyes were difficult to discern -- they might have looked crazed or obsessed, or they might have been confident. To some extent, he looked like the sort of person you would expect to see on the streets raving about how the end of the world was approaching. He almost spoke as if he believed Conrad to be a lost soul.
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