FernStone
TheMushroomLord
BlackRoseSiren
Dyelli Beybi
Eviledd1984
NoriWasHere
Fetzen
Mixtape Ghost N
Tackytaff
IvarRudy Rudeanu, Nelly Hacke
Cowritten by @Tesserach, [@Framining A Moose]
The sounds of people still inside the venue could still be heard. Rudeanu was already at work, a locked wagon container's door was open, and Rudeanu was hunched over inside. Crates, mirrors, boxes were dimly visible inside under the gas lights in the street - there was also a small cot and judging by the way things were set this way or that, it seemed the man might actually have been sleeping about the back of the wagon.
The magician however seemed absorbed in keying open an old lockbox.
"Dog catchin' supplies?"
The voice called out behind the magician, newly familiar. Nelly stood at the base of the gas lamp that stood tall behind Rudeanu's wagon. She'd adopted an awkward stance - her left palm was raised to cover her left eye, while her hand was tucked underneath her jacket. Wearing her flat cap, it was even easier than before to mistake her for a boy in his early teens.
Nelly's approach clearly startled the man. Rudeanu turned over his shoulder abruptly before seeing who it was. "In a manner of speaking." He produced a pistol against the light so Nelly could see it before feeding the magazine charger into the weapon, working the mechanism with a metallic click as it snapped into place. "They recruit you all the way from America Hocke?" He asked, fastening a leather belt around his waist and reaching for a dark capelet to drape over his shoulders.
Nelly lifted her chin as she saw the gun, her one visible eyebrow popping up ever so slightly. Her eyes remained on the weapon even as Rudeanu asked his question. Nelly responded with a shake of her head.
"No," she replied, before going quiet for a beat. It almost seemed as though she was going to leave it at that - such blatant disinterest for the question behind the question asked was not uncommon for the girl - but after a moment she continued. "My Gigi left me a path to Germany when she was taken. Someone dropped d'letter in my hat - didn't see who."
Rudy holstered the weapon, retrieving a few other items from the back of the wagon before closing it up and locking it. He pauses then, regarding Nelly while waiting to see who else joins them for the little excursion. "Taken you say?" He raised an eyebrow at that.
Nelly's head bobbed in a slight nod, her lips not breaking from the stern frown she wore. As she spoke, her voice was grim and flat. "You heard. By those things you're so quick to hash up to bein' smoke and mirrors, grifters and conmen."
Rudy stood still a moment, faintly illuminated in the street, seeming to take his time before answering. "I'm sorry to hear that. My own Bibi used to tell stories too when I was young. Do this, do that, or the spirits will get you. My mother still gets after me to be mindful of where I'm walking." He smiled wistfully in recollection as his breath rose in whispy threads of mist against the gaslight. "One time, before the war an evil spirit, the beng, came for a cousin of mine. That's what everybody said. Said he'd brought the Beng on himself by living a lifestyle of vice and licentiousness. Just disappeared one night. I am sorry to hear about your Gigi."
Nelly watched Rudy as he spoke with her one uncovered eye - it was still piercingly analytical, but as he spoke, sympathy began to trickle in to accompany it. She nodded along with it, letting out a sigh from her nose. She turned her back to Rudy's car as he stepped out from it, giving a nod.
"What do you think happened to him? Your cousin." she asked. "Figure you don't think it was a spirit. Fell into the wrong crowd? Debts came up due?"
"Oh, I know what happened. When you're young you don't question stuff, I wasn't super close to that end of the family so I didn't know details but the Beng story never sat right with me. During the war though, I ran into the girl my cousin had been sweet on. Met her while I was convalescing with Russian shrapnel at a nursing station in the Carpathians. Nurse from the same area. We got talking. Knew some of the same people. Turns she and my cousin had been fixing to run away together. Elope. Night they were supposed to meet up he never shows though. Years later one of her brothers got drunk and confessed what had really happened. They got drinking, killed him, rolled his body into some bog somewhere and just let her think he'd run off without her."
After a good few moments of silence, Nelly turned her eye inquisitively to the magician. "You say you know what happened to him, but that's not quite true, is it?" she prodded, lips puckered in thought. "You were offered two stories. You picked the one you deemed most reasonable. Or maybe the one you wanted to believe? The senseless violence of men is kinder than the thought of malicious hands reaching from Beyond, no?" She was quiet for a beat more, before, "did you ever tell your family?"
"Maybe so." Rudeanu chuckled before he shrugged looking tired and indifferent. "As for telling, what good would it do to dig such things up now? You think the elders didn't know he'd been fooling around with a local girl and put two-and-two together? Of course they did. If locals killed the lad, well, then there'd have to have been a response, and those things have never gone The Travellers' way. There's been enough death in Hungary, people here learned nothing from us. Best let the dead rest and give the Beng his due."
"I'd have done d'same, I think," Nelly replied after a moment. "Though...think I'd want to know, f'it was me. N'case I wanted a little skepticism - catch a break from 'em hands comin' out of graves f'I wanted one."
Rudy nodded, and seemed inclined to say more, but the others chose that moment to begin spilling out of the venue, and soon enough the pair were swept up in the rest of the group coming out into the darkened streets.
Rudy Rudeanu, Nelly Hacke, Nicola Hoffman, Theo Rautenbach, Helmet Kurten, & Masako Yamamoto
Cowritten by @Tesserach, [@Framining A Moose], Dyelli Beybi, @Terrans, @Eviledd1984 & @enmuni
This time of night the cobbled street and slabbed sidewalk of Thalkirchner Straße heading south from central Munich grew less crowded.
The odd carriage rattled down the cobbled street, cast in warm yellow light by the dark cast-iron streetlamps lining the boulevard like sentries. It wasn't unusual for Munichers were still about, coming or going, or loitering in conversation.
Ahead a boisterous group of rough looking young men, veterans by their age, fell silent as a Münchener Polizei carriage clattered past.
Rudeanu had insisted on walking. Dangling from his wrist by a small chain was a currently unlit kerosene lantern. He'd supplemented his earlier ensemble with a pistol - to those with an eye for such things, a military issue Steyr M1912 - he'd retrieved from a parked carriage outside a nearby hotel, along with a dark capelet to protect against the cool night air of Munich in autumn.
The sky above was full of stars, the shadowy outlines of darkened shops and houses visible in the light of a full moon.
Theo for his part had redonned his jacket and a dark hat retrieved from a stand on the way out. The Luger hidden along with the trench knife he had stuffed down the back of his trousers in a display of caution.
He gave a nod as they approached the group of men. Perhaps, they had bled on the same field; but Germany was not a land of brothers these days.
"I don't like it out this late," Nicola whispered timidly, "The nights aren't safe. There's so many NSDAP thugs around these days." She skipped to keen up with Rudy, who seemed to give her a sense of security.
“Least they aren’t the communists.” Theo countered, watching the group, wondering which faction they belonged to. There were too many for disillusioned veterans these days.
“Does it really matter, though?” Masako suggested, “Communist or the other ones—both kinds fight too much, I think.” Masako pulled closer to the core of the group as she spoke, looking suspiciously ahead at the men.
"They've no reason to trouble us." Rudeanu's voice retained some of his showmanship bravado as he cast a glance at Nicola as she caught up to his side, he cast another at Masako looking contemplative a moment before turning his attention on Theo and changing the subject. "You served, didn't you Theo. Which outfit?"
Theo gave a shrug as he flexed the hand missing a few appendages.
“27th brigade in Belgian then 23rd Assault detachment after….” He lifted his wounded hand at that and wiggled the stumps. “…Stormtroopers needed bodies.”
Masako nodded sympathetically when the conversation shifted to warfare. “Did you make it the whole war?” she asked.
“I did.” Theo cast a glance at the woman. He looked apologetic and slightly saddened as he gazed at a rather faded poster still clinging to a wall. “Posters looked fun and the pay was decent.”
Helmut joined the others towards the graveyard. Wearing his soldier's uniform and gas mask, giving him quite an inhuman appearance. Hidden in underneath his coat was his duel Steyr M1912. A relic from his past time in the war. Breathing heavily while staying close towards the others. His eyes shifting side to side in case someone or something tried to ambush them.
The former veterans staring at Helmut wondering why he was wearing his uniform since the war has been over for a long time. Nevertheless they nodded at him and he returned the favor with one of his own. Limping along with the group he didn't seem to be listening to the conversation. He was more focused on his surroundings. His combat memories coming back to him straight away.
Rudeanu actually did a double-take when he saw Helmut trailing behind them, wearing the gas mask. The man looked genuinely startled for a moment. "Bibakht te nashel" He muttered in an eastern dialect some might recognize as neither German nor Hungarian but Romani. "I don't know how you can stand to wear that thing." He shook his head, sounding tired and older at the same time. "I'd die happily never seeing one again."
“I would think discretion would be the better part of this…excursion.” Theo found the other man’s choice of attire rather wrapped in the past.
He looked at both of them, scolding them underneath his mask. "I feel more comfortable in my uniform then in anything else. Judgement for what someone wears isn't relevant to this mission."
“It’s rather the timing of your current outfit. Some would not take kindly to it.” He gestured at a scar on his neck. Something he had gotten after his demobilization.
"Mmm perhaps so." Thinking for a moment of what else he could say. Even though he didn't like being a solider, he had to admit it was apart of his life. And was not something he could get rid of so easily. "However they can see i'm a former soldier, so they could empathize with the strife I and many others had been though. But i do agree it could riffle some feathers so to speak."
“Besides,” Masako added, “I am a nurse. I served the whole war and then in the…
etooo…the thing Japan did in Siberia. If there is trouble, I’ll have you fixed up in short order. There shouldn’t be any gas in the city, anyway. There were no trenches in Munich, were there?”
“No, the front never reached here. Though there was a bit of a problem with secession after the war.” Theo frowned at that thought.
"See now?" Rudeanu, uncomfortable with the turn the conversatiion had taken turned to Nicola, trying to lighten the mood. "We're in capable enough company. If we're lucky, we deal with some unfortunate mutts and be back before the port is gone."
"Port does sound really good right about now." Helmut said with a sheepish chuckle. Not liking where the conversation is going either. "We should focus on the mission at hand." His mindset was back to when he was a soldier.
"And there is an advantage to Mr Kürten looking like one of the Freikorps," Nicola added, "one hopes the NSDAP brownshirts will give us less trouble. I would not like to be out alone at this time... though it must be hard to breathe in that."
"Not really i have become quite use to breathing using this gas mask." He said now staring at the stars. Enjoying the sight of the many stars in the night's sky.
"As to our mission, we should stick to groups. Even dogs can be dangerous in a pack, but I was thinking we could cover more ground if we split up. Helmut, Theo and Masako could investigate the north side of the cemetery, while and Nicola and Nelly and I could check the south end." Rudeanu suggested, gesturing ahead through the darkened streets to where the lights faded on one side, replaced instead by the shadowy silhouette of black trees that marked where houses gave way to the forested cemetery.
"Remind me again why we are in a cemetary at night?" Nicola sounded nervous which wasn't overly surprising.
"Swiss francs. Sell out shows and we've barely enough to cover expenses; my last letter from home told me to stop bothering sending useless money." Rudeanu gave a weary chuckle at that. "And to see what sort of scam The Watch is running here."
Helmut looked over at Theo and then Maskao. He wouldn't mind being in the woman's group, she seemed more reasonable then Theo. Although he kinda hoped he would be paired with Nicola. "Hopefully the swiss francs will be worth it being in this graveyard. Although personally the residents in a graveyard are more pleasant company then the living." He chuckled softly.
"Do we have any electric torches or lanterns for this search?" Theo touched his Luger and spare magazines as if to ensure they were still their. A night among the dead in low lights with death prowling around any corner? Sounded like he was back in Flanders.
"I was hoping someone else came prepared." Rudy offered, holding up his own unlit lantern. Bracing against one of the gas-lights he opened the glass door with and lit a small wick of paper that he used to set the lantern aglow.
“The letter did not specify jaunts at night through a cemetery.” Theo defended himself as shrugged off his coat and hat; folding the garment and stowing it in the shadows of a wall. He wanted to be unimpeded for whatever might occur.
"Well i might have something in my coat." He took a moment to look around inside of his coat. After a moment of searching he pulled out an electrical torch. It was well worn because it was something he used during night raids back in the war. "Should i take point since i have the flashlight?"
“I don’t have one,” Masako acknowledged, “So it will be three of us, and one light, then?”
“Might be for the best. There will only be one light for whoever’s lurking to target.” Theo let out a chuckle as he made sure to keep his eyes turned away from the light. Acclimating to the dark; a habit his time of raiding trenches taught.