Bingelly
Eviledd1984
Dyelli Beybi
wintersoldier
Noctis
Estylwen
FernStone
TheMushroomLord
BlackRoseSiren
NoriWasHereQuinn O'Hearn, Rudy Rudeanu, Theo Rauterbach and Nelly Hacke
Cowritten by @Tesserach, @Demencia, @Framing A Moose and @Terrans
The short man on the room's edge tightened his grip on his cane. "You're saying you don't know who we are or why we were asked to come here." Quinn asked, leaning back in the chair. "Tell me, is there anything you do know besides the habits of stray dogs?"
Rudeanu seemed about to respond to Nicola while preparing to leave when his attention was diverted by the slight man with the cane. "Oh what do I know?" His eyes narrowed and he approached the young, pausing just short, looking the man up and down for dramatic effect before reaching tentatively in the man's direction. "What I know is how to... see the future, read minds, and of course... do magic!" With a sudden flick of his wrist the man produced a coin from the young Quinn's ear, holding it up for everyone to see even as he continued. This was clearly a familiar, rehearsed routine to him. "I know how to do that little trick with the door for instance. And I know you're American, but you spent time recently in France. I know you served in the war. A sapper maybe or... perhaps a tanker? You tell me, am I getting close?" He asked turning away, waiting for a response.
"You'll have to speak up, my hearing's not been the same ever since I did my civic duty." Quinn countered to the man that seemed to have some (very limited) knowledge of their purpose here. "To the United States. Not Germany, or whatever they're calling themselves these days." She took a cigarette case from one of the pockets of her suit, replacing it once she drew a cigarette from within. "And I wasn't talking to you." she said, lighting the cigarette with a small brass lighter, a trisected triangle engraved into the front. "But my special talent is being able to tell that you're a pain in the ass." She took a long drag of the cigarette and didn't make an effort to avoid the smoke from going near Rudeanu's face.
Rudeanu had already turned his back to Quinn, so the smoke had little effect, though he did turn turned back around at the end of Quinn's respose. For a moment he seemed to consider whether to say something or not but the last remark seemed to have cinched it. "There was a girl in France, wasn't there? A beau I think. Let me guess..." He proceeds list off a strikingly accurate description of a certain nurse of Quinn's acquaintance. "See? Not just a pain in the ass: I know magic."
He turned toward the door and made to walk away but then seemed to think better of it and stopped. "It's all less mysterious once you know the trick though." With that he tossed Quinn back the locket he'd swiped during the coin-trick misdirection.
Right then the slight wisp of a door marked the arrival, albeit a late one, of a tall man. His features carried the scars of the last war and his perfectly accented greeting told which side he had been on.
“Hallo, the Night Watch I presume?” His smile was awkward but genuine. Helped by the ill-fitting nature of his suit and the growing crew cut that gave him a disheveled appearance.
The arrival of the tall man drew the magician's attention away from the American. "Night Watch indeed." Rudeanu greeted the man, offering his hand. "Name's Rudeanu. We're off shortly to face entities from beyond the pale. Or man-eating feral dogs."
The new arrival seemed to take stock of that; his brow furrowing as he mulled over Rudeanu’s words.
“I see…. So are you by chance asylum escapees?”
"Interestingly, one time I did an exhibition performance in which I escaped from a straight jacket, suspended upside down from the roof of an abandoned asylum. But no. In this case, we have a string of 'unexplained' murders to solve. But probably just dogs."
“….Well… The man who gave me this invitation was trusted by me. My suit is borrowed and my ticket here the last of my funds…..” The new arrival gave a way sigh even as he formed a reluctant smile. “So I guess I’ll help with this so called murder.”
He shrugged his ill fitting coat off, revealing the white undershirt and suspenders underneath; as well as the Luger holstered under his left armpit.
“Call me Theo.”
"Nice to meet you Theo. Most people just call me Rudy. And if you're short cash, Temple, over there, is the man to see. Good man there: he pays in swiss francs."
Behind this the American, Quinn's, jaw clenched slightly. "People have been shot for less." She cautioned, her grip on her cane tightening. "I didn't see many women when I was in France, come to think of it I didn't see many French people either. Whole place seemed to be crawling with Germans." She knew she wasn't physically intimidating to anyone, so she had to rely on other factors instead.
Rudeanu turned back on the man, but then his expression softened a little as he looked at Quinn and seemed to think on what he'd done. "Apologies." He said after a moment, his previous stage voice sounding momentarily chastened. "I overstep. Hecklers can ruin a show. It's an occasionally ungraceful instinct of mine at this point. And I'm Hungarian."
Theo watched the rather unimpressive standoff with a confused frown on his face.
“Are you sure you’re not asylum escapees?”
"I'm afraid we're all in the asylum now. Best make peace with it." He called out to the rest of the bar. present. "Anyone care for an evening excursion? See if we can find any signs of these 'so-called' spectral hounds?"
From a distance another American, Nell, was for the most part quiet as the others prattled on. She lifted her chin almost imperceptibly, though, as Rudeanu teetered on the edge of crossing a line with Quinn. Nell never once considered herself to be particularly patriotic...but the young man's accent reminded her of home. That was something.
"D'y'know what we call magicians in New Orleans?" Nell asked - her first real engagement with the group that was more than two words. Her accent was thick, distinctly Southern American, but with hints of French, German, and Cajun sewn in.
"Failed pickpockets," her lips pulled into a smirk at her own joke. Her lips then straightened. "And d'y'know what I think? I think you tell yourself your skepticism comes from knowin' all the secrets of d'smoke and d'mirrors, but I do not believe this is true."
Rudeanu straightened and rounded again to face the next interlocutor. "Aha, Fraulen Hacke was it?" His expression thoughtful for a moment, though he smiled like a man who enjoyed a little challenge and being at the center of things as it were. "I like to imagine I've a healthy respect for what I do not know. But I've looked into people invoking all manner of supernatural explanations for things; offering to expel ghosts, contact the dead, exorcize demons..." He gestures around the bar. "...or hunt monsters. Every time though, it's come down to either some either grossly ignorant soul, or malicious persons separating elderly pensioners or desperate, grieving, fearful people from their money in exchange for - as you say - smoke and mirrors. Tell me - not that I can turn them down - but have you wondered where all these swiss francs we've been promised are coming from?"
Nell let her thought hang in the air, looking intently at the magician as he dove headfirst into another showy soliloquy, guiding the conversation away from the nature of his own skepticism. Nell's eyes, in their resting state, bulged from her head in an unsettling way that made her look half-deranged, but there was a keenness in them to match the magician's own. And they narrowed as Rudeanu broached the subject of con artists, but she remained quiet.
"Of course I've wondered - but not wondered hard. I do my best wonderin' with a full belly and full pockets," she replied. "I'd thought your government, maybe...Don't think that's right, though - doubt I'd be here if it was. Plus...well, look at this place," Her eyes flitted about the room, before going back to Rudeanu - and slipping down to his hand, eyeing the stumps of his two missing fingers. "You served. What'd'ya think? Feel like a governmental organization?"
"This ensemble of foreigners?" Rudeanu's tone implied skepticism though the man at least looked thoughtful, eventually shaking his head. "I have my doubts. The killings though? They seem real enough to me Fraulen Hacke. And there's a simple test for my hypothesis: Go to this cemetry, set some bait, and see if the feral mutts come calling. Anyone here's welcome to join me on a little walk!"
And with that Rudeanu slid his hat onto his head and made for the door.