[FS]Taking Care of Business (Open)

[snow557]

Lucas stood at the bar, making a couple drinks for a couple of young women. He was young himself, being only of the age of twenty-seven. And for that young, he made a good living. After all, he was the owner of this fine bar and club. The owner of the Impresio Nightclub. The most famous night club in the whole town and even in the smaller towns around this town.

He wore a black button up shirt, but left the couple top buttons undone, showing a little bit of his toned, bronze chest. His silk, button up top was tucked into a pair of jeans. A black belt was holding the jeans upon the hips. He wore shiny black shoes that were both casual, yet stylish. His black hair was slicked black and his black facial hair was trimmed right before that night.

He was enjoying himself that night. He was relaxed listening to the loud music. He placed the drinks down on the bar and headed out of the bar area. He wiped down some of the tables in the corner, trying to clean up a little bit for the next group of people to sit there. He wondered how this night would end. He hoped it wouldn't be bad.

[rhys]

Rhys walked into the nightclub, his hands in his jacket pockets. He winced at the loudness of the music, but he went in anyway, clearly in a hurry to escape something outside. The journalist had spent the entire day at his new editor’s mercy, and the insufferable woman had finally sent him home at a stupid hour of the night. But, on his way down the street to visit a pub, Rhys had seen her across the street eating at a café, so he had quickly entered the first building he had seen. She was already angry with him after having discovered he was investigating the government; there was no point putting himself back on her radar if he could help it, especially since he had disobeyed her and had not dropped the story.

The werewolf made his way through the crowd and headed for the bar. Nightclubs were not his scene, but it was as good a place as any to have a drink, even if the dance music was not at all to his taste. He ordered a beer and looked around for a clean table. Rhys sniffed at his drink. American beer was so tasteless sometimes, but this particular brew seemed to have some merit. He found a table, newly wiped over by the looks of it, and sat there thinking about all the reasons why he shouldn’t pack up and go back to England right this very second. He was desperately homesick, but he had a story to write, and he never, ever dropped a story.

He noticed another man nearby, probably an employee by the looks of his dress. But it wasn’t the man’s clothing that made Rhys look. It was his scent, and Rhys immediately tensed.
Werewolf, another werewolf, he thought sourly. Rhys despised werewolves. He had been born and raised in a werewolf pack, the son of the alpha male and female. But the others had torn his parents apart in a bid to take the leadership. That was not usually how it was done, but the pack had grown in size as upstart newcomers had joined from London and as far as Scotland and Ireland. Other werewolves made Rhys nervous. He considered leaving the nightclub, but he stayed where he was, forcing himself to be reasonable. Not all werewolves were bastards. And he couldn’t well avoid all of them, and a few might become valuable sources.

Rhys’s efforts to remain indifferent to the other werewolf failed. He turned his head away, but he accidentally knocked the pint glass off the table. It shattered on the floor, and Rhys swore under his breath. He cast the bartender an apologetic look, then crouched down to pick up the broken glass.

(OOC: Hi, hope you don’t mind that I jumped in.)

[snow557]

Lucas nodded to a man as he sat down. He breathed in and sharply stopped. He knew that smell. Another werewolf. He ignored it and just hoped this man didn't cause any trouble. He continued to clean, but stopped when he heard a crash. He looked back and noticed the glass on the floor. He walked over. "Don't worry about this. I'll clean it up," he said as he began to pick up the larger pieces of glass. He made sure not to cut himself.

He could definitely smell the other werewolf now. He glanced at him carefully, but didn't know what to say. He could see the alpha in this other werewolf, which made him a bit unnerved. He had an alpha presence about him too. He blinked and threw away the glass. He then took out a tiny, hand held vacuum. It couldn't be heard over the music, but he was just cleaning up the tiny pieces now. "Are you an alpha?" he asked suddenly. The aura was bothering him immensely now.

((Its fine. I think two alpha auras would be interesting to plot together))

[rhys]

Rhys’s eyes followed the other wolf’s movements, but he stood and allowed him to clean up the glass himself. He put the pieces he had already picked up onto the table, but he did not feel relaxed enough to sit down again. “Yeah, sorry,” Rhys muttered. He put his hands in his pockets and looked around. It had grown much more crowded and all he had to do was leave. There was nothing to keep him standing here. But just as he was about to leave, the other man, now wielding a dust duster for the rest of the glass, said something that made Rhys’s hackles rise again.

“An alpha?” Rhys tilted his head slightly. He didn’t quite know what the man meant by ‘alpha’. Maybe it was an American term, though the bartender didn't sound American at all. In England, an alpha meant the leader of a pack. Rhys had no pack and he couldn’t figure out whether that was what the bartender meant. His blue eyes grew, if possible, colder, and his voice held a slight growl to it. “I don’t know what you mean. I don’t have a pack, I don’t want a bloody pack, so one can deduce that I don’t lead any damned pack.”

Rhys knew he was being abrasive, but that was nothing unusual. But his interest was suddenly perked and his tone became curious. “Are there packs here? In New Orleans?” As a journalist, he couldn’t pass up the question, because it could lead anywhere. As a werewolf, it was a defence thing. He was a foreigner, and he knew how other wolf packs reacted to stray werewolves in their territories.

((Yes sounds good, feel free to share ideas. Rhys doesn’t know about the alpha aura or anything. His view and experience of werewolves is rather jaded and limited. He's hardly been in the States long, so Lucas is the first werewolf he's run into.))

[snow557]

The German looked at him. He got defensive quickly, but he didn't know why. "I'm not saying you have a pack. But there is an aura about you that says you're above all the rest," he stated, putting everything away. He grabbed his cleaning cloth and wiped his hands on it, more out of habit than anything. He noticed the raised hackles and his began to rise in defense. Than the other wolf's tone changed.

"Packs? Here in New Orleans? Perhaps, but I haven't ran into any. Typically the government doesn't want packs in the city so packs reside in the nearby country side. So little to no humans are involved," he said, his thick German accent making it hard to understand unless you really concentrated. He relaxed a bit as he realized he wasn't going to be attacked.... yet. Even so, he did notice something odd about this wolf. He snorted.

"Now don't be going and causing trouble. The wolf packs around here a relatively peaceful, even during the full moon. We haven't caused any of the humans grief for a good four years," he said, hackles rising now. He did remember those four years ago. When a new wolf had been released into the city and couldn't control himself. The wolves had been given hell from P.I.D.A for a good year. And even now, when something bad happens, the wolves are one of the first who are looked into.

((I'm trying to figure out if they'd be friends or rivals, since they are alphas. Maybe acquaintances? What do you think?))

[rhys]

Above all the rest? Rhys had never heard of such a thing. He folded his arms and listened to what the bartender had to say, because it was his habit to listen. And it was a bit of a tough job – Rhys was sure he was German, and though his English sounded fluent, his accent was very thick. Rhys had done a lot of work in the Middle East and England itself was a very multicultural place, so once he had settled into the conversation, he quickly found it easier to get around the accent.

“Cause trouble? Me?” Rhys grinned. “I’m a journalist; it’s my job to ruffle a few feathers.” He glanced around to see whether the bartender was going to be pulled away at any point. He didn’t realise that the other werewolf was the owner and therefore unlikely to get into trouble for talking on the job. “My name is Rhys Winters, I’m a reporter for the New Orleans Herald.” He extended a hand to shake, having decided this guy didn’t come across as an arsehole or aggressive.

Rhys lowered his voice despite the loud music. He assumed the German would be able to discern it quite easily, with heightened hearing. “Look, something you say catches my attention. You said the government prefers other packs to remain out in the countryside. I’ve not been in the country long, so forgive me if I don’t know how it works around here. I always assumed the government knew about us uh…supernatural folk. But I mean, what exactly is their involvement?” So far, he hadn’t gotten any non-humans to open up much about the government, except a bunch of conspiracy nuts. “Are we supposed to know the rules, or are they sort of unspoken rules? Do they have some sort of warning system or disciplinary system for, say, a non-human who murders someone? Clean-up crews? I feel in the dark here.” Rhys gave him a friendly smile and adopted a slightly sheepish look. “Don’t wanna get into trouble and all in my first week.”

((I doubt Rhys would see him as a rival, since he doesn’t have anything Rhys wants at this moment. If he was another journalist, then there would be some serious rivalry I don’t know where it could go. I guess we can see where it goes, maybe figure out a plot, add another factor. It sounds as though Lucas doesn’t much like P.I.D.A? Currently Rhys sees him as a potential source of info, as he sees almost anybody who says anything of worth!))

[snow557]

((Not too much, no. The P.I.D.A have totally mad him mad.))

Lucas shook the man's hand. "My name is Lucas Hershberger, I'm the owner of this club," he stated, smiling slightly. He listened to the other werewolf, he shook his head and sat down at the table. He leaned back in one of the chairs. "Well, the government who is in charge of us.... supernaturals, as you call them, is named P.I.D.A. There are rules. We aren't allowed to show ourselves to humans, but sometimes humans do find out. Very few believe in us, though, so it doesn't matter," he said at first. He looked around carefully. He hoped there were no P.I.D.A agents in here. He didn't think he would get in trouble for telling the other wolf.

"But then there are some of us who don't like humans. They attack humans. Sometimes, they even kill them. Those are quickly taken care of. They're captured and killed, or so the werewolves believe. We haven't seen of those supernaturals again," he stated. He sighed. "There are human agents and even some supernatural agents. I don't know much more than that, but they keep an eye out of every single one of us," he stated, scratching his beard.

[rhys]

It had been a long time since Rhys had shaken another werewolf’s hand. He thought about that for a second. Never, he realised. He had never been on good terms with any wolf other than his family. When he had been part of a pack, he had been a child, and young werewolves didn’t greet their elders by shaking hands. They kept their eyes lowered and they obeyed their elders’ orders, even if their parents were the alphas.
“Ah, the owner,” Rhys said, understanding Lucas’ relaxed manner. This was Lucas’ territory, then, but the other werewolf hadn’t had him thrown out. “Glad not to have been tossed out on my arse by your security, then,” Rhys chuckled. “I got thrown out of a club in London last year because the owner was a werewolf, and he didn’t like any others near his turf.” He didn’t seem too bothered. He had only gone in to do a review on the place.

He sat down across from Lucas and listened intently to what the other wolf had to say. His memory filed every bit of information down. “Mind if I write some notes?” he asked. “I’m doing a bit of investigative journalism on the government. I have to be up front with you about that.” Rhys hoped Lucas wouldn’t flip. Two days ago, a supernatural had threatened to break his spine if he published anything about the government, and Rhys had wisely fled. “I should ask you first if I can quote you on the record-”

He didn’t get any further. A squeal and some foul language alerted Rhys to a commotion nearby. Clubs, he thought, rolling his eyes. Drug-fuelled crazies.
“Geez, rude much?!” a woman snapped.
“Hey, buddy, that’s my girlfriend you’re touching!”
“Out of my way,” a male voice snarled. Rhys looked up. Maybe he would have something to write about for the paper tomorrow, even if it was a tiny article. It’d make his boss happy.

A brawny human with short blonde hair stormed forward. People soon turned away, losing interest. Rhys stood up, realising the man was headed straight for them. He glanced at Rhys, but he looked at Lucas, his eyes full of hate.
“Lucas Hershberger. I know what you are, buddy.” His hand, which was under his coat, moved slightly. Rhys saw the edge of a gun.
Shit, just what I need, he thought.
The man continued, “We’ll go along quietly, you and I.” He shot Rhys another look. “Don’t try anything, buddy. This beast and I have some business.”
“Business?” Rhys lifted his hands. “No need for that, mate.” He looked down at the gun. “No need at all.”
The man ignored Rhys and turned to Lucas. “Come quietly or I’ll start shooting people.”

((Ok so this guy is locating people he suspects to be werewolves. Feel free to expand and play the guy’s actions to your heart’s content – maybe werewolves killed his family and drove him mad. No idea how he found out – just thought I should add some conflict! Up to you whether the gun is loaded with silver or normal bullets. Hope this is OK. He could even be a disgruntled ex-P.I.D.A agent or something with access to registered werewolves.))

[snow557]

((Oh, this has just turned very VERY interesting. Thank you for adding some conflict! =D))

"Well, write to your hearts content about the government. I'm not afraid of them," Lucas said. He then heard the man, but he was interrupted when a loud squeal was heard. He got to his feet. He listened and then saw a man pushing his way to the crowd. He looked at him carefully. He could see the hatred. Lucas was larger than him. He could easily kill him now to stop all of this trouble, but they were in public. He scratched his beard as he heard the man. "Know what I am, do you? Well then, I might as well confess," he began, shrugging a bit. He didn't care if this human knew. He would easily be gone in a few hours anyways.

He looked at the gun. "Hey, don't be rude. My new friend here was talking to you, don't ignore him," he growled lightly. He saw the man glaring at him and shrugged. "You'll shoot people? Now, why would you do that? They didn't do anything to you. As you said, we have business. No need to bring anybody in the middle of it," he said. He looked at Rhys, his eyes filled with calm. He was fully relaxed, clearly not afraid of this man in front of them.

He looked back at the man and suddenly the gun was pointed at his face. He was a bit shocked, but didn't look at all slightly scared. He saw the man's hand tense and he moved his head out of the way just as a shot was fired. His ears were ringing from the loud noise, but he noticed that people were finally taking this other man seriously now. They were all running around, trying to get to the nearest exits. Their mouths were open and he could barely hear their screaming over his ringing ears. Of course, his employees weren't running. Nope. One went to the back and the other reached under the bar and pulled out a shot gun, aiming it at the large man.

Lucas reached up and grabbed the man's hand with the gun in it. He quickly twisted it and a sickening crunch was heard. The gun fell on the ground and went off once more. Thank fully, the bullet his the wall. He stood back up straight. "Hey, whats the big deal trying to kill me in my own nightclub. At least do it fairly," he snarled.

((I RPed him indirectly a bit. You can RP him a little now. Lol.))

[rhys]

((No worries – I really don’t mind if you play the guy either, I don’t have a story in mind, completely improvising here!))

Lucas’s handling of the situation was calm and rational, Rhys was relieved to see. Rhys had spent a lot of time around guns in the Middle East. He had dealt with a lot of violence and he had been threatened numerous times with guns and knives and explosives. So though he was tense, he also remained fairly calm. It wasn’t every day a journalist became part of the news themselves, but Rhys was an exception.

People quickly began to panic. Rhys watched as some of the employees attempted to funnel the screaming horde through the exits in a timely and logical manner. A pity they were all too frightened to obey orders or behave rationally.
The journalist turned back to the man with the gun, whom Lucas had disarmed. Rhys hoped the other werewolf wouldn’t kill the human. Not only did Rhys want to avoid being implicated in a murder, he didn’t want the government chasing his tail.

“Lucas, mate, the cop’ll be here any minute,” Rhys warned him. His ears were also ringing, and he shook his head slightly, feeling a little dizzy.
“I’ll…I’ll tell the world,” the human spat, his face white. He had fallen onto his knees, and he stayed there, conscious of the shot gun’s aim at his head.
Rhys took out his notepad. “Care to give me a quote?” he asked the human.
“Fuck off.”
“I’ll leave the werewolf stuff out,” Rhys told Lucas in a low voice. He took some notes in his unique shorthand, then asked, “Why come here waving a gun around?”
“You must be one of them, too,” the man said, cradling his injured wrist. “Werewolves. Monsters. I’ve killed three of you already. In revenge for the death of my wife.”
“So Lucas would’ve been number four?” Rhys whistled. “Do you really believe in that rubbish? Werewolves?” He feigned a laugh. “When the police get here, I’ll let them know you’re a little, uh, delusional, and maybe they’ll put you in an asylum instead of jail. How’s that sound?” He looked over the man’s head at Lucas. Sirens were blaring nearby.

Rhys thought of another question. “Does Lucas Hershberger have anything to do with the murder of your wife?”
“No, but once the world is rid of his kind, it will be a safer place,” the man insisted.
“Really?” Rhys’s eyebrows rose. “Because there are evil people, no matter what they are. Not that I’m buying into the whole werewolf bollocks, because I’m not.” He knew he was being a hypocrite. Werewolves made him nervous, but he didn’t go around blasting their brains out. Still, Rhys was prejudiced against his own kind. He sort of understood the man’s reasoning, but for all that Rhys was cynical and bad-tempered, he was no killer. Rhys simply avoided the company of other werewolves, and he was happy that way. The sirens grew closer, and Rhys looked at Lucas. He hoped this mess would end here tonight, but he had a terrible feeling things were about to get nasty.

((We could say an agent finds out and picks Lucas and Rhys up for questioning over the human’s attack? A little interrogation. I’m still new to this site so I don’t know how to go about playing random P.I.D.A agents and stuff. What do you think?))

[snow557]

((I think that's a good idea. And maybe it doesn't have to be random? Maybe we can PM someone and see if they wanted to RP the agent out.))

Lucas nodded at what Rhys said. He crossed his arms and leaned back against the table, which was bolted to the floor. He listened carefully. He knew what Rhys was doing and didn't try to stop him. He snorted. "Not all werewolves are like that. Too bad you wont change your mind, though," he said, glancing at the door. He could see the lights now. Red. Blue. Red. Blue. The pattern continued for a few more moments. And then tires screeched on the ground.

Two officers walked in, guns in hand, aiming it at everyone, which was only Rhys, Lucas, and two more employees, until they found the actual culprit. They put their guns back in the holsters and walked over to him.

"Glad you boys came. His gun is under the table. Now a have to fix these two bullet holes in my wall. Heh," he growled. He looked at Rhys again. "Well, this should make an interesting story for tomorrows paper," he whispered to him as the police pulled out their handcuffs.

((I wasn't sure what to put. Lol.))

[rhys]

((Sounds good. I put a query up in the plotting thread to see who would bite. Told them to just jump in whenever.))

Rhys sighed loudly. So much for keeping the werewolf thing a secret. Then again, the journalist reflected, it was possible the man knew exactly what a werewolf was, if he had killed three already. Shooting a human with a silver bullet in the right place would kill them as effectively as it would a werewolf. Rhys wondered if the man had actually seen the wolves shifting shapes, otherwise how did he know the people whom he’d shot were shapeshifters?

One of the cops raised an eyebrow at Lucas’s comments about the bullet holes. “I’m gonna have to ask you four to come in to give a statement,” he said to Lucas, Rhys and the two employees. “Seems all the other witnesses ran.” He didn’t wait for a response, and he went to help arrest the gunman.

Rhys glanced at Lucas. “Yeah, though if it goes to court, someone else will have to cover it. I suspect we’ll be there as witnesses. I hope this shit doesn’t get messy. If he pleads guilty then that’s no issue. I suspect he will anyway, for this attack, but what about the other three guys he killed?” Rhys had covered so many crime stories and court proceedings that he could usually guess what was going to happen. But there were more unknowns here than Rhys liked. “Thing is, what is he going to tell the police? What are we going to tell them? Do you know if they work with P.I.D.A? It seems kind of ridiculous to have a police force which knows nothing about us. They must see a lot of grisly murders and strange happenings. Makes me wonder if the government would actually send guys in blind with guns to fight things they can’t always win against. If the cops know about this stuff then I guess we go for honesty. Besides, the gun was probably loaded with silver bullets.”

He looked a little annoyed, realising he might have to avoid reporting on this story because it was too close to his werewolf secret. His editor would question him. He would have to think about where to go from here very carefully. What made it worse was that this was a very newsworthy event, particularly if this turned into a wider crime investigation involving the other three murders which clearly hadn’t been solved if this guy was still free. Rhys would have to let another journalist cover it.

“Alright,” said the officer as the others led the handcuffed man out. “Want a ride to the station or will you come by yourselves?”
A forensics team was already at work in the nightclub. Rhys could bet Lucas was pissed off. After all, he had probably lost a few hours’ good business to the psycho gunman.

((Feel free to say Rhys followed Lucas to the car or you can say they decided to go later. Do the police know about this stuff, though?))

[snow557]

((I don't think that the police know.))

Lucas looked at the police officer and nodded. "That's fine. I don't mind coming in for questioning," he stated. He then looked at Rhys as he began to speak. "The other three guys? Well, we'll tell the police he told us about them. After all, if the other three had the same bullets he's been using then they may be able to connect him to the others. We'll tell the exactly what happened, but state that we had no idea what he's talking about when it comes to the werewolf subject," he replied.

He scratched his beard. He's been doing that a lot all night. Perhaps habit? Maybe. "No.... the cops don't know," he stated. He snorted and then brightened up a bit as the police officer came back. "No, no. We'll met you all up there," he said, waving his hand. He had a smile on his face and watched as the police officer left. His smile disappeared. "That man is very lucky the police showed up. I would have beat the h*ll out of him," he growled. He then headed out. He waved for Rhys to follow. "Need a ride?" he asked.

[rhys]

((Care to see what is in the PIDA request thread? r-e-a-l-i-t-y-shift.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=plot&action=display&thread=9235&page=1 I'll wait for your reply there and then I'll edit this post with an RPG reply.))

[Agent 00 Biscuit]

((I would like to start off by saying I am sorry for the wait here, I wasn't sure if someone else was going to go first or if the two of you wanted any agent to jump in after your charries made it to the police station. Anyways...yeah....sorry about that <.<))

John Blaine sat in the driver's seat of his car as he stared at his friend's front door waiting for the man to show his face. It was an odd time to be picking up Jesse Cox but this wasn't a social call, the men had work to do. John leaned back in his seat and let out a tired sigh. This was not what he had signed up. Right now he was suppose to be lying in bed with his wife, getting a good night's rest before sneaking off to the PIDA office to do god knows what. Johnathan wasn't cut out for this line of work. It wasn't like the work itself was extremely difficult or too dangerous (though it would definitely be at some point). What made the job hard was keeping it all a secret. It wasn't like he could tell Genna what he was up to, he loved his wife and rarely hesitated to tell her his innermost secrets, but this wasn't any normal secret. Honestly if he could tell her at all he didn't know where to begin, and how to say it without sounding like he was fucking crazy. But it was going to be hard to keep this secret if he had to keep sneaking off late at night for work. Eventually he would have to tell her the truth, before she assumed the worst.

At least he wouldn't be alone on this. John wasn't the only one leading a secret double life. One of his closest friends was in the same boat as he was, hell, it was because of that man that he became an agent. Speaking of which what the hell was Jesse doing anyway? John had called the man almost twenty minutes ago for him to get ready for this late night job. Though the agency had called John to carry this out specifically he had no intention of carrying this task out by himself. John was still new at all of this, so he knew it would be a bad idea to go do this alone. He needed someone with more experience than him, someone to help watch his back in case anything went wrong...and since he didn't know anyone like that he had no other choice but to call Jesse.

John looked back to the door and much to his relief he saw his friend stepping outside and coming towards him. "Good morning agent Cox." the man teased once Jesse got into the car. "I hope you got a good two hour nap, because we have work to do."

"You have some nice timing buddy." Jesse yawned. "What the hell are you doing going to work so late?"

"Don't blame me, blame the agency." John started up the car and drove off. What was the agency thinking anyway he had to wonder. Though it wasn't like he wouldn't have to do this kind of thing often the man couldn't help but feel like the PIDA were pushing newer agents a little too hard. He hadn't been working for them for very long but he had already had to deal with cleaning up a massacre. God he hoped that this wasn't going to be just as bad as the last time he worked late. He just didn't have the stomach for that.

"So...what are we doing? You didn't tell me much on the phone." his friend's question pulled the man out of his thoughts for a moment. Right, when John had gotten the call from the office he had been in a bit of a rush to get out of the house, so when he called Jesse he was already out on the road and didn't have the time to inform his partner on just what they were going to be doing.

"There was an incident that happened a few hours ago at some nightclub in town. Some guy tried to shoot up the place, claiming that the place had werewolves in it." he replied. "Turns out that he was right. The owner of the club that he tried to shoot is a werewolf. The PIDA wants someone to go in there and question the attacker and the victim to find out what happened. We are to report back if the agency needs to come in and apprehend the suspect. that's all I know."

"Well...that sounds nice." Jesse said, "Well...this shouldn't be too hard at least. So long as our werewolf friend doesn't turn and try to rip everyone's throats out over this right?"