Kragen Kingsmith
[Dex+Crafts]
Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 5, 5, 5, 7, 7, 9) ( success x 3 )
Molly Toombs
A
phone call, one presumes, is what summoned Molly Toombs out east of
Denver and into the desert. A friend, or she considered him as such.
Some kind of ally at least, she was fairly certain of that. He was
laying low, wanted to see her, to speak to her, something. There was
something he wanted her there for.
At first Molly didn't seem
phased by the request. She was up to the idea of meeting him someplace,
seeing what it was the rouge Ghoul had to say. When he told her the
location, though, she pumped the brakes.
Some way, one way or
another, he talked her into it. Molly informed him that it was some
stroke of certain luck on his part that she had (fucking finally) purchased a car over the weekend, so she could make it out after all.
"I really hope that this isn't the worst decision you've convinced me to make," she informed him before disconnecting the call.
Some
time later, Molly Toombs is pulling into the parking lot of some god
forsaken motel out in the middle of nowhere. The place where people are
forever passing through and no one would stick around for any reason
besides to avoid others. This was one of the places where people went
to fall off the radar. Which is what made it perfect for Kragen.
It
was chilly out, so Molly was wearing a scarf along with her jacket-- an
army green double-breasted number that tied at the waist. Her hair was
down, bangs trimmed, legs sheathed in black jeans and feet bottomed
with black boots to flow. She didn't get out of her car at first, but
rather sat with her hands on the steering wheel, looking at the resting
speedometer, wondering what on earth she was doing there.
Kragen Kingsmith
The
motel is even less then a hole in the world, it was a dying skeleton, a
remanent of an older age when expansionism was the name of the game,
when brave investors imagined the city of Denver and its satellite towns
growing to take over the desert itself, a vision which never came to
be.
The motel is empty, it is desolate, it is utterly abandoned,
most of the rooms have no doors, and the road way down to the depression
in which the building sat was somewhat treacherous, the road having
begun to be reclaimed by nature. The parking spaces are still visible
thankfully and so Molly is able to find that specific spot the man had
chosen for her and parked her newly purchased car.
It is several
minutes before she might spy movement in the early evening sunset a man
strides out of one of the rooms, a man with a short haircut, cleanly
shaven face, and a leather jacket and a T-shirt paired with jeans. His
movements are direct, specific and unwasted like she would be used too,
and for a second she might think its someone else...
But no, its
Kragen, just a different version of the man and he steps up to Molly's
door and if it is unlocked, pulls it open for her. "Welcome dear miss
Molly, try not to faint, but I do thank you for joining me." He said as
he gestured to the door that stood before the hood of her car.
"Shall
we?" He inquires, and if she doesn't resist, he leads her into the room
which had only two old chairs, one for each of them, and a small table
between them. "Please, do make yourself comfortable."
Molly Toombs
The
door wasn't unlocked. Molly's been a single woman in a city much too
long for any of that business. When he tapped on the window the woman
didn't startle, for she was alert even when she was looking with
unfocused eyes at the middle of her steering column. She'd seen the
person walking toward the car, and had assumed it would be Kragen even
if the image of him was different by way of hair and attire both. When
he stepped up to the door, though, Molly did indeed step up and out.
"I'm
afraid I don't quite know how to thank you for the invitation, and it
feels presumptuous to welcome you for it." She smiled, but it was
somewhat apologetic and more of a grimace than a smile really.
When
led into the room Molly kept her hands in her pockets. They'd remained
there since she tucked her keys away. She glanced at the chairs and
the table when offered to make herself comfortable, and moved away from
the doorway but did not sit. She opted to stand, to hover instead.
Again, the apologetic not-quite smile.
"I'm not entirely sure what the 'Shall we' is supposed to lead to yet, Kragen. Do you mind explaining?"
Kragen Kingsmith
Kragen
strides into the room after Molly watching the outside world
momentarily as he slowly closed the door behind them, leaving them
sealed into the curious empty hotel room, making it feel like some movie
set out of a Tarantino movie. Kragen would turn and note that Molly was
not going to sit, at least not yet.
But he does sit, he moves to
the seat facing the door and falls into it, resting his arms on the high
chair arms as he tilts his head and looks at Molly's curiously
skeptical attitude. A tired smirk spreads across his lips as he lets out
a sigh and shrugs.
"We are here because this might well be out
last chance to meet dear Molly, and given that you are perhaps the one
person in this city I've considered anything more then a potential
ally....I thought I owed you as much in person, despite the potential
for betrayal, danger, and death." He said smoothly as he looked her
over.
"I assume you've heard of the car bombing?" He inquires as
he fishes out a cigarette from his pocket, still moving in that same old
way at last, a new zippo brought forth to strike across his jeans. Once
lit he sits there waiting, waiting to see what Molly has to say about
that particular situation.
Molly Toombs
She didn't
sit down or become comfortable. The way that her eyes climbed the
walls and dusted over the corners and shadows showed that. The place
looked like the set of most of the gore porn flicks that were popular in
the 2000's. It made her skin crawl, for she'd been in too many places
with bad memories and fear and evil painted onto the walls-- enough to
leave echoes on this plane and restless nights from bad dreams fueled by
horrors witnessed firsthand. She wasn't willing to write out the
possibility of something terrible peeling itself out of the wallpaper to
whisk her life away.
She wasn't entirely certain what it was
Kragen wanted either. He'd notice that she looked tired, more worn
down. She was a night nurse, sure, and they always had a tendency of
looking some kind of sleep deprived, but Molly typically managed to
avoid that to some degree. Enough so to glow healthy with life. While
she still looked healthy, she looked more reserved somehow. Cautious,
tired, perhaps she'd had some kind of a lesson beaten into her, she
wasn't telling stories right now so it was hard to say.
He
inquired about the car bombing after situating himself in the chair.
Molly stood facing him, hands in pockets and feet evenly set on the
floor. Her eyebrows lifted with the question, and gears whirled for a
few seconds as pieces slid into place.
"Of course," was the
answer. She was a smart woman, and he could see by how she was
regarding him that she already had a pretty good guess of why he'd
brought that up. "I suppose I have that to thank for this particular
choice of rendezvous point?"
Kragen Kingsmith
Molly
was many things, and one of them, perhaps the most important one of
those things was smart. Though she talked to him, perhaps even liked him
Kragen knew that Molly always treated him like a dangerous animal, they
might be beautiful and even friendly...but you always had to respect
them and be prepared for that one foul day where things might turn
bloody.
So he doesn't hold it against her when she remains distant
and slightly wary, though he wonders after that hang dog feeling that
clings to her form and he rubs a hand over his clean shaven features and
seems to frown for it, missing that perpetual stubble he was so used
too.
"It is." He said with a slow nod, still watching her. "Not my
best handy work, at least not in regards to keeping myself out of
public attention." He said with a shrug. "And this is why we may never
meet again." He said levelling those grey eyes upon her. "Because my
dear molly unless something changes drastically I cannot imagine I will
be remaining in Denver for very much longer."
He lets that settle, before speaking once more. "Is everything alright?" He leaves it general, letting her say what she would.
Molly Toombs
"So,
you bade me out here for a goodbye?" She was standing still, yes, but
Molly didn't seem to regret coming here. She held a skin-creeping
discomfort for the location, and she was cautious around Kragen as she
was ever cautious around anyone who was privy to the way the world
really worked under the dusky cloak of shadows and legend. However, she
did not appear to be eager to leave or get away from him. He knew
enough of her to figure that she wouldn't have come all the way out here
in the first place if she didn't on some level want to be there, or at
least want to help him.
She smiled again, the expression sweet and sad and a little darkly humored all at once. "That's sweet of you, Mr. Kingsmith."
He'd
followed up with a question, as to whether everything was all right or
not. She didn't cast her eyes away or shift uncomfortably or look
embarrassed, really. She did rock her weight to the side a little, so
it was rested more on one leg than the other (jutting one hip, popping
the opposite knee out to rest). She rolled one shoulder in a shrug.
"Let's
say I've had an eventful couple of weeks." A pause, and then she
added: "I've pretty much been very strongly warned against seeing you.
Advised it's in my best interest." One corner of her mouth pulled into
a smirk-- more humor here than earlier. "They're probably right, I
figure. But you haven't done me any wrong yet."
Kragen Kingsmith
'Thats
sweet of you Mr. Kingsmith' Molly exposes his kindness to the light of
the room and Kragen can't help but chuckle, waving a hand around
flippantly as he inhales smoke and breaths it out through his nostrils.
"Try to keep that under your hat, I do have a reputation as a crazed
terrorist to uphold." His smirk widens becoming that knife like edge
that she was used too before he was listening again, paying attention to
the words she spoke in regards to her previous weeks.
In the end
he simply laughed. "Mmmm I just bet you were, mind you I don't think
anyone would really advise someone TOO hang out with me, it just
seems...improbable wouldn't you say?" He waggled his brows. "Despite my
wonderful demeanour and oh so charming repertoire it simply is as it
is." He knocked ash onto the floor beside his chair and tilted his head.
"Who
told you to stay away, if you don't mind me asking? I assure you I
won't take it out on them...as I'm sure you know I have far bigger fish
searching for me at the moment."
Molly Toombs
"Friends."
Her answer is simple. There's a lick of apology there, but she doesn't
speak it verbally, and simply carries it in her tone instead. She
trusts that a man with a profession such as his own would understand the
need for discretion, though it's true he doesn't seem to have practiced
much of it with her. He's the reason she knows much of what she does--
she wouldn't be aware of what Ghouls are or how a person becomes one
were it not for his generous information sharing. Her mouth pressed a
bit thinner when she recognized this imbalance of trust.
But all the same, she couldn't deny her own self-preservation.
"People
with their hearts in the right places. Or I hope so, at least." She
licked her lips and rocked her weight again, but this time to right
herself, to stand more upright. She walked nearer to the window, or if
the windows were boarded up she'd peek through the door. Just wanting
to check and see, to be sure of her surroundings. The setting made her
on edge, though it did seem to match a man of destruction like Kragen
well enough. The entropy of the place suited him in a way.
"I'm
afraid I don't really know how I could help you out of this." She's
referring to his needing to lay low, to keep away from Denver in light
of recent events. Speaking as she's scoping out the parking lot, making
sure no monsters or SWAT teams were lurking. "I don't even smoke to
share a last cigarette with you either." She'd glance back over her
shoulder at him, and that dry-humor smirk would twist at the corners of
her mouth once more.
Kragen Kingsmith
She refused
to answer his question, instead giving a generic title to an individual
she would not bring to light and Kragen's smile twitched briefly, that
shaven cheek moving with it as he took in that answer before speaking on
it. "Oh to believe the raving lunatic before you or the person standing
just behind you whispering in your ear." He said as he steepled his
fingers before his features and held that smoke between his teeth.
He
watches as Molly looks for something beyond, though the drapped cloth
that made up the improvised curtain across the rooms solitary window and
she would find nothing beyond, simply the desolation and isolation that
was this locality that the man had brought her too.
She makes a
joke, and Kragen chuckles in offering, still in good humour despite that
obvious imbalance. But then he falls silent, seemingly considering this
moment or perhaps his words for several long moments. "I don't believe
you can, help me out of it that is." He says with a shake of his head,
those fingers still steepled.
"Nor would I want you too." He said
tilting his head. "You have made it obvious you have no desire to join
me, or my compatriots...so it is for the better that you do not. To do
so would tie you closer then you might well desire. However....if you do
happen to hear anything, or learn of anything regarding my situation."
He pauses raising a brow and giving her a knowing, direct look because
he did indeed inform her of what was going on behind the dusky curtain.
Did indeed give her an armoury of information with which to protect
herself...or damn herself.
"I would appreciate a call."
Molly Toombs
His
comment about who to trust was met with a look that was pleading in the
way that a parent looks at their teenager when they don't have the
fortitude at the end of a long day for a philosophical debate about the
pros and cons of curfew. Please, it said, I don't have the strength for deciding who I should or shouldn't trust. I don't know if I ever will.
But
when he presents her with the request, a question to call him with any
updates that she may have that would be relevant for him, she doesn't
answer him immediately. Instead she frowned, looking guilty or
apologetic or sympathetic or something along those lines. It's only
now, finally, that she crosses over to the chair on the other side of
the small table from him.
She twisted the second chair to face him
and sat with her feet planted and frame leaned forward. Elbows on her
knees for now. In the time it took her to cross the room and sit her
soft scowl changed into something more set and determined.
"I
appreciated the offer, Kragen. You think highly enough of me to want to
recruit me, and that's flattering. Reassuring too, in a way. Someone
who's managing himself in a world like this for as long as you have
been? And you think that I've got the stuff to make it?" Here, a
modest grin, but only for a second. "It's reassuring.
"But I can't join because I have too much here. I've got... investments. Things that I need to do, to look into, to learn."
She's zealous there, almost, for a second. Hungry for knowledge, but
he knew that from how brightly her eyes had twinkled and how she'd clung
to his every word when he'd fed her information about Ghouls and about
the upcoming turmoil-- she may have had the earliest warning of Things
To Come before the car bombing had rocked the street and the papers.
Now
she moved a hand, reaching across the space with her fingers stretched
and palm up. Asking for something. Probably his hand in turn, given
her body language.
"I'm sorry that I have to be so closed lipped.
It's a big part of how I'm getting along as far as I have, I think.
And it's a matter of respect, and not stepping on toes that could kill
me with a half-assed kick, you know? But I will keep an ear to the ground for you and let you know if I hear anything. I owe you that much."
She seems like she means it, at least.
Kragen Kingsmith
[Per+Emp no emp +1 diff]
Dice: 3 d10 TN7 (4, 5, 7) ( success x 1 )
Molly Toombs
As
far as Kragen can tell, Molly is being completely genuine. She very
much wants to help him, wants to be there in some way (nurses, they're
such caregivers), and does seem regretful that she can't share
information as much as he has for her.
Kragen Kingsmith
There
is almost a brooding aspect to Kragen as he sits there in that steepled
repose, like some dark king upon his broken throne, considering the
fate that awaited his kingdom and all of his subjects. Those grey eyes
regard her, pin her to her seat as she sits down and she recites her
reasons for not joining him. he moves only so much in the fact that he
breaths in through his lips, and exhales smoke through his nostrils as
he listens to her.
But then she's offering him a hand, and his
brows arch minutely as he regards it, looking over Molly's features as
if looking for a lie, or a trap...he finds none mind you, wether it is
there or not and after a long moment he does reach forward with his own
and places his calloused hand in hers.
"You will not be able to
remain thus for much longer dearest Molly." He says slowly as he meets
he gaze. "Once the curtain is drawn back, you can only remain one foot
in and one foot out for so long...sooner or later, you must either
retreat back to the sunlight, or step into the darkness. There is no
half measure, no middle ground....make sure you chose your time...before
you are dragged in by someone or something you do not wish to be
dragged by."
Molly Toombs
He hesitated to give her
his hand, and she could understand why. Molly was bright, so she knew
that when he looked intently over at his face through a thin miasma of
nicotine smoke in the dim room that they shared she knew that he was
looking for truth. This is why she looked at him as bare as she did,
clear blue eyes on his rather than hiding elsewhere. He'd find no
falsehood there, and this is perhaps why his palm found hers. She
wrapped her fingers about his but did not interlace them. She looked
down at their hands while he gave her his grave advice, and smiled sad
when she answered.
"I've figured that out.... And I'm already figuring out that I don't believe I can
go back to the sunlight, as it stands as a metaphor for a normal mortal
human's life. Not where I stand-- not with how much I already know.
There are too many eyes on me as it is, too many names on my tongue and
phone numbers at my fingertips." She tapped her short thumbnail,
painted lilac, lightly at the top of his and chuckled ironically.
"Besides, like I said, I have things to do and learn."
Molly paused, but continued a little quieter.
"Too
wrapped up already. I'm pretty sure there's no way out, so I'm not
even going to bother trying to turn around at the risk of giving someone
my back."
Kragen Kingsmith
She already knew,
already figured it out. Kragen was right, she WAS smart, she knew the
reality of knowing such truths and that managed to bring some of that
smile back to Kragen's lips even if the man still seems to brood in some
inscrutable way. Their hands remained linked, though not irrevocably so
and he looked to that thumbnail as it gently tapped upon the flesh of
his hand.
"I always knew you were a smart one Molly." He said,
pushing that grin a little wider. "So few realize that until its too
late, and even fewer realize that once the curtain is drawn back, unless
you run immediately...there is no going back." He holds her hand for a
moment longer then, before at last extracting it slowly, almost
painfully until he is back into the chair pulling that cigarette from
his lips to flick the ash down onto the floor once more.
"Do try
to avoid the yoke and the whip." He said as he started to rise, pushing
himself up out of the chair and reaching into his pocket and a wad of
cash from within, he weighs it in his hands briefly before he moves
slowly forward, setting it down on the arm of the chair next to her and
patting it once, the stack had to contain 5000 dollars at least.
"A
parting gift dearest Molly." He said, and if she were to look at it,
upon the paper wrapper that held the money was a tiny pin of a dog's
face, stylized and etched into some form of red stone. "I should leave
you now....I do hope your life is a long one." He said as he let out a
sigh.
"Follow the exact path you took to get into this place, and
do not deviate.." He warns her as he looks down at her, his face devoid
of smile, the man almost looking haunted.
Molly Toombs
[Perception 3 + Empathy 2: Why the haunted face?]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 5, 6, 7) ( success x 2 )
Kragen Kingsmith
Kragen
is worried, the heat has never been this intense in his long career,
and though he seems prepared, that does not change the fact he has
rarely had to go such lengths to remain free. He is also haunted,
because he likes Molly, perhaps more then he should, and more then he
would even acknowledge. But more because he seems certain that this will
be the last she see's of him, or him her, save perhaps in the
obituaries.
Molly Toombs
Assured that she is
smart, and that this is indeed a trait that's going to keep her pulse
thrumming in her veins that much longer, Molly's expression softened
into something more thankful. When his hand slipped from his she didn't
try to keep his grasp any longer than from when he chose to end it.
She let go and drew her hands into her lap, smoothed her palms and
fingers on her black jean thighs, and watched him rise.
When the
wad of cash was pulled from his pocket her eyes went wide and her
ginger-red eyebrows (no longer penciled so dark or severe, her face made
prettier for that mercy really) flew high on her forehead. When he'd
leaned forward to set the cash on the arm of her chair she was leaning
back in the chair reflexively, giving her head a tiny almost tremoring
shake that she isn't even entirely aware of doing herself. She looked
at the money, complexion a little more pale, but despite that surprise
and almost grave pallor she still reached out for it. Turned it to
examine the logo. When she saw and understood it, she smiled (knowing,
dark humored) and unbuttoned her jacket with one hand while keeping the
wad of cash with the other. She stood while she did this, rising to her
feet as well not long after him.
"I'll consider this a deposit
for the information I'll be wiring you." She half means it. She's half
accepting it as the gift he called it. When the jacket was unbuttoned
three fourths of the way (underneath, a snug gray V-neck) the money was
tucked into an interior pocket that was then secured with a zipper. She
buttoned the coat back up straight away and fixed her eyes on his.
Looked at his face, clean shaven and new but she'd adjusted to that in
the time they'd been talking. Blue eyes to gray, and that crease
between his eyes and serious set to his mouth was recognized for what it
was. Her own expression folded to something sad.
She stepped
forward next, arms out, going out on a limb and trying to put her arms
about him to claim a hug. In the event that she's not deflected, she
says someplace near his shoulder: "You've helped me stay alive as well
as I have. Thank you. I'll miss you."
Kragen Kingsmith
Molly
fears the gift he offers her, and he looks at her curiously as she does
so, until at last she moves to pick it up, perhaps understanding
precisely why he was giving it to her. In truth he simply hadn't wanted
to put the pin a jewelry box, it seemed to contrite, to filled with
unnecessary and problematic connotations. So it had been the wad of
money instead.
She calls it a deposit, and Kragen nods to that, a
tight lipped smile pressing against that haunted look that sat upon his
features like some undesirable vermin on an otherwise pleasant table
setting.
But then shes hugging him, she had stepped towards him
and she had HUGGED him. He did not resist it initially, he stood there
and listened to her words, and in the end it was too much. He pulled
himself free before it could become familiar, extracting himself before
anything unforgivable could happen. "Don't come back to this place, you
won't find me here again." He said with finality as he turned to the
door and pulled it open.
He would stride through then standing
beside the open door as he waited for Molly to follow. "Stay clear of
the vampires...they will do nothing but put a collar around your neck,
even as they say they are not." He offers her one final warning, one
last hint of advice before he would look her in the eyes and at last
responds to her words from the hug.
"Goodbye, dearest Miss Molly."
The words usually said with such dark humour tinged by a dose of heady
and harsh reality. "I will miss you as well." At that he waited, waited
for her to get in her car and drive away....it was the only thing left
to do.
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