Tomasz let out a small huff of annoyance as his mechanism missed the woman - judging by her voice - but he made no move to follow. Climbing down a ladder with a definitely magic and probably armed woman waiting at the bottom did not sound like a good way to survive the night. Instead, he began to look for other ways out of the room.
Leo checks his face in a reflective surface, seeing a slightly aristocratic nose and haughty features looking back at him. The horrible marks he usually sported were nowhere to be seen. His clothes were not the best for this next part but they would have to do. Composing himself, he rang the bell impatiently.
Katherine snuck off, quickly slipping her shoes off and into her hands and moving in stockinged feet. She really hoped she didn't step on anything that was still moving.
The air is noticeably damper as you reach the river, and you walk upstream. You're not quite sure what it is you're looking for, but the absurd shifting of a chaotic universe may as well bring you where you need.
Alternatively, two small windows open to the side, and the ledger underneath them looks just large enough to stand on.
Well, this was going to be awkward. Moving to one side of the stage with a little cover and an easy escape (or at least the best of both) and hoping, Katherine called out the imposing woman on stage, "You'll forgive me if I don't show myself right now. This place is very odd. You said you needed to talk to someone. I don't suppose that was me? I'm not much of a washerwoman, but I can handle a little...Laundry...as it that's what you need. The place is terribly messy, after all."
As she said 'Laundry' she ran a scan on the big woman's mind. Just a passive one, to get a sense of what she was feeling. While taking a peek around to see if anyone else had responded to the call.
With no particular way to find Leo, Richard continues to wander upstream, letting the eddies of his mind take him...somewhere.
Hannah takes the rations and thanks you, somewhat bitterly. "We used to have more of them. Friends."
The air on the riverside is damp, but a dryer wind comes from the south as you follow the directions of the old man. The theatre appears to be closed at the moment, the main doors locked, but on the side you find the door to the artists' entrance, apparently unlocked.
Slowing down to limit the noise, Titus pushed open the door to the building and looked around.
As a detective, he was fairly good at spotting small details and tracking people down. For now, however, best to do it as quietly as possible and try to avoid notice. He could always be obvious later if he really wanted to be.
A thought comes to Richard's mind as he gazes at the sky. He tries to find an out of the way spot, an alley or something of the sort and pulls out the Stone from his pocket. He begins to mutter in the odd language he does not quite understand, contemplating its eldritch secrets. He then says in Sumerian, "Powers above and deep below, show me what I do not know. The man that does elude my gaze, turns a straight line to a hopeless maze. I seek you thus, o mighty powers, to rouse you from your ancient bowers."
The big woman relaxed a little, peering around but apparently not spotting Katherine.
”Just glad you turned up at all. I knew there were ‘washerwomen’ in the city, but finding any of you has been a pain.” ”I am not a washerwoman, but I am in the cleaning industry. An Affiliate, rather than a competitor, rest assured. I have a big job, too big for me, and I need a group if I am going to get it done. Pays well, and I’m prepared to be positively royal in my remuneration. A mutual client recommended you highly, and I understand you may have a job in the same area as mine.”
”I assume you and your cleaning crew are here to clean the ‘House, given that rather unpleasant smell? I’m happy to lend a hand as a show of good faith. I’m good at getting rid of Nasty stains.”
”You sound stressed. Are you worried the job is taking too long, or is there someone here stopping you working?”
"Yes," Leo said archly with a perfect German accent, "I have come to register a complaint over the quality of some of your product. Might I speak with whoever is in charge?"
Then Tomasz will move over to the windows and try to peer through them, since a long drop does not sound good for his health.
"More that the job was unanticipated. I've been sent to more usual clean ups recently. When my employers asked me to head here I was under the impression I would simply be helping to clean the city, but clearly there are worse things at work. And they leave such stains." Stepping out of cover while letting her spells drop the assassin smiled and pointed a shoe towards the location where the burning undead had been, "Such as the ones in this place."
Katherine considered for a moment. "Remuneration is always pleasant, and so I'm inclined to help...especially given the state of the theatre. What kind of team are you seeking to assemble? I feel I may have briefly met one of them. He spoke German and used some kind of clockwork device." She considered. "A little trigger happy, perhaps."
The fearsome looking woman freezes for a second, then continues smoothly. "Perhaps. That's the trouble with word of mouth." "I've no real idea who is who..." she gestures to herself "Or I'd be here in person. I did hear this job was larger than most - I’m not sure who is Affiliated, who is Independent and who is one of your Competitors."
She hesitates, and continues. "Don’t you washerwomen have a way of recognising each other? Otherwise I’m happy to lead the way - except that I’m stuck within about ten feet of here. If you want me to go further I’m going to have to either throw on something a little less pretty, or turn up underdressed. In fact…" the fearsome woman grins disturbingly "I think I need to know who we’re planning to dance with so I know what to wear."
The first thing you notice is the smell. The whole backstage area is ripe with the stench of burned flesh. That's hardly ever a good sign. Immediately afterwards you make out the sound of two women talking. They appear to be in a different area of the backstage, somewhere across the stage, and while they are too far away to understand what they are saying, you catch the word "washerwoman" a few times.
Your eyes lose focus as you release the spell, and you feel something near, but not quite there. In a dimension that's close to ours, only separated from in by a thin layer of abstraction, the Feeders in the Night have heard you. They aren't the smartest and most cunning of the creatures who prowl the dark between worlds, but they are already lethal to the unwary.
Through the link you have created, you feel primal concepts, projected onto your mind as a means of communication. Hunger. Need. Emptiness. Hunger. Call. Bargain. Request. Reward. Hunger.
The man leaves his cup of coffee surrogate on the desk and limps around, motioning you to follow as he heads towards the offices' corridor, knocking on the last floor to the left. "Mr. Kubíček, sir, we have a customer who desires to speak with you."
Kubíček himself is a shortish man with an unhealty, reddish complexion. He opens the door and looks at the two of you, taking into your features. "You may leave, Stjepan. Pavel Kubíček, at your service. Please come inside, can I offer you a glass of Becherovka? And how may I help?"
Richard smiles widely as he feels the presence of the unknowable other. He produces his knife from his belt and slides it across his palm, leaving a thin gash. He allows the blood to drip onto the Stone as he says, "Blood, to satisfy your hunger. This should satisfy our bargain, as my request is simple. I must find the man named Leo along the banks of the Vlatva. Any help you can give within the bounds of the bargain is acceptable."
Katherine glanced over at the other woman to make sure they had heard the noise as well, and then she vanished again. Of course, her spell wasn't especially good - illusion was not her forte - but she still used it, because she wasn't especially stealthy.
Which was an odd issue for a spy, but she usually didn't bother sneaking. There were far easier ways to get things done. But this wasn't her usual situation, so she adapated.
Hmm... the perpetrators? Burning flesh was usually a bad thing, but he knew better than to jump to conclusions based on limited evidence. That was terribly offensive to a detective's sensibilities. No, what he needed was to do his job... and gather more information. He vanished a moment later, darting out of sight to search for a better vantage point. Fortunately, heights weren't a problem when you knew the equation to step from one place to another... and he didn't like being too predictable.
The fearsome looking woman starts 'Cancelled projection? Quantum teleportation? Phase shifting? I'm going to have to hope good old photon displacement.' "Wait!" she hisses into the empty air.
Across the street a somewhat harried young woman pushes - apologetically - past a young couple and heads down towards the exit. For some reason she almost hugs the wall at times.
So now I knew there was at least one person who at least claimed to be Laundry, and now she was running off. I couldn't follow because I'd misjudged the distance. Nothing to do now but try to close - and give my projection some manoeuvre room - and hope there weren't snipers waiting to take potshots. I'd have to hope there was something there to give me a reason to hang around the outside.
You feel the creatures being confused, or as close to confused as a psychic parasite can be: their idea of a name is vastly different than ours, tied to some metaphysical quality or power more than identity. Nevertheless, you feel them slithering away across the border between reality and nightmares.
Katherine stopped, then realizing she was not at her most visible, whispered back, "Are you expecting someone who might be a problem?" she asked the fearsome-looking woman.
"Herr Kubíček, I have no time to for drinks as my employer is a very busy man and thus I man as well," Leo continued in his impeccable German accent, breezing past introductions and seeking to force the man to catch up with him. He wanted to be a storm of aimless insinuation and information that could only be cowered in front of and eventually rid of. He was, in a verbal way, seeking to use the very same blitzkrieg tactics the Germans had employed against his own country
"My employer is a man of taste, a man of distinction, and a man of means. Ultimately, he is a man without the time to deal with inferior fish, much less the embarrassment such a product can produce. Can you imagine, Herr Kubíček, how much time and effort such a man would need to put forth if, say, such a product were served to guests?"
"No, neither of these are quite acceptable." Tomasz mutters to himself. Either he could escape through, but Kleiner would almost certainly be seen silhouetted against the skyline or the windows. Perhaps they would have to break through the wall. Tomasz, though, is inclined to be patient - Leo would be back soon, and they had a good position here.
Richard sits against the wall of the alley, waiting for what the Feeders in the Night will bring to him.
"Expect nothing, prepare for everything." the fearsome looking woman sneers quietly into the darkness. "Let me take the lead, and the lead. Bullets don't worry me."
"Prosím, promluvme si." she calls more loudly as she walks slowly towards the door, hands out and empty by her sides.
"Please, let's talk."
Titus knew several tongues, but whatever that was wasn't one of them. He did, however, quietly shuffle around to keep the light pointing at anyone who might want to look his way. A giant, glaring spotlight was one of the best ways to avoid getting noticed so easily... though he did take a moment to peer at the burning bodies. Random corpses was one thing, but a formal pyre? In a place like this? Bizarre. What of those who'd made it, then, the ladies who seemed entirely at ease with it... ally or enemy? He didn't plan to reveal himself so easily until he had a firmer grasp on the situation.
"I don't suppose you can point the light somewhere else?" Katherine asked, shielding her eyes. "It's very bright."
The German accent seems to have caught on, and you can almost feel that he's terrified at the thought of embarrassing a Wehrmacht officer.
"Just- please tell me what I can do to make this right!"
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"A letter of apology would be a sound start, Herr Kubíček," Leo continued, ruthless in his game with the poor man, ”Start with that and we shall see about making further amends when I return. I shouldn’t need to tell you to make it a good one.”
Grim orders given, Leo turned smartly as one might expect from a soldier and not a servant, and started for the door.
You hear the poor fishmonger fumble for words, trying to realize who you were and which client you were representing, too cowed to string together a sentence by the time you've come to the door.
At that moment, you feel a whisper, somewhere close and yet incredibly far away, wordlessly saying your name. Whatever presence you are feeling lives in some parallel space, a layer of abstraction precluding it from coming into your world. It feels similar to when Tomasz animated Kleiner.
It's obvious that poor Kubíček was not the one calling it forth, but somebody whispered your name to the emptiness, and the emptiness reached for you. The presence fades immediately, and an unprotected mind would likely forget it immediately, like a dream in the morning. Only your presence of mind allows you to grasp it and remember it.
The feeders return, ever hungry, feasting on the blood you freely offered them. Their voracity weakens you, but your control on them is tight. They aren't satiated, they never will be, but they stop consuming you from within, for the moment. In exchange, a sense of direction forms into your mind. It points north, along the river.
Richard grits his teeth as he feels the Feeders consume his strength. Nonetheless, he continues walking, his determination to find the unknowable truths giving him strength to carry on. He follows the instinctual pull towards Leo, the deep urge in his mind guiding him.
"Hmm," was the only immediate response provoked from Leo as he felt the tugging at the edge of his mind. Still, he continued with his plan, marching out of the offices.
"If I were you, I'd see to it your employer is not disturbed while he finishes that apology letter, Stjepan," Leo off-handedly said to the man at the front desk on his way out.
He left the fishery and slipped into an out of the way corner. His face rippled and changed, taking on the blunter appearance one might associate with a laborer, his body becoming more compact, his hair shorter and messier. He took off his shirt and tossed it aside then reversed his jacket so that the interior lining was now facing out and it became a different garment thanks to some decent tailoring. The last touch was a bit of dirt on his hands, cheekbones, and the exposed undershirt.
He returned to the fishery a different man. "Afternoon, a Mr. Kubíček asked me to pick up a truck here for some work," Leo said to Stjepan in a regionally appropriate Czech accent.
The fearsome looking woman stops, and pivots to look directly into the light - though she brings back one of her hands to shade her eyes. She looks to the door, and then back to the light.
"Shoot me, or let's talk." she tells the light, rapidly moving through Czech, English, German, French and finally stumbling Latin.
<"For starters, why don't you explain the bodies down there?"> Titus called down to the two women in German, continuing to use the light to make it much harder for his exact position to be seen. ...Assuming they didn't have a way around that, of course. This one time, there'd been an enormous jellyfish, an- no, no, stay focused!
Katherine winced at the light, and was sorely tempted to blow it up.
Subtle, subtle was the key, however. "Ich fürchte, ich bin erst vor wenigen Augenblicken hierher gekommen. Ich wurde von meinen Arbeitgebern zu etwas Wäsche geschickt."
The fearsome looking woman continued to walk very slowly from the backstage onto the stage proper. She'd only just passed the curtain, and at the words from above squints past the light to see the pyre.
"Das erklärt den Geruch. Ich bin auch vor kurzem angekommen und kam von dort zurück." she gestures with a thumb back to the backstage wall. "Ich habe gehört, dass es hier einen Konflikt gegeben hat." she says with a shrug, and a scowl.
<"So you... just happened to decide to stand around and talk next to a bunch of burning bodies."> Titus said slowly, not entirely sure he was willing to believe that. Most people preferred to be a bit further away from dead things and fire. More to the point, it didn't seem too relevant to his own reasons for being here. Yet. <"How about we put that fire out before it burns the building down around us?">
Katherine gestured around with one hand, showing a complete lack of obvious water sources to put out the fire. "Wie?" She was, after all, just a simple woman. Right?
Stjepan looks slightly puzzled as you exit, and moves towards the corridor, as if to confirm your suggestion.
While you are changing your appearance, luck seems to assist you: Kubíček exits from the front door and climbs on a bicycle, heading downriver towards the residential district, following whatever idea your wild words put into his mind.
As you re-enter, Stjepan is poring over a large ledger, comparing names and writing German names on a sheet of yellowing paper. He blinks and dives through the paper, consulting an agenda.
"Yes, well, good morning, I guess. You said you wanted to check the truck? I don't have anything written down for today, what's your name and company?"
Your feeling leads to a fishery by the name of Kubíček's Fresh Catches - Fish and Caviar, made of a currently empty dock, an uninviting cement main building for offices and treatment of the fish, and a garage.
I suppose, that shall be where I go.
Richard walks into the fishery, looking for Leo. While he has no idea what the man looks like, he trusts the strange, deep urge to show him the man he has been searching for.
"It's, uh, not on the books friend. If you catch my meaning," Leo said, glancing around nervously as if looking for overly curious ears. He leaned in and tapped the sheet of paper listing the German names.
"Certain folks might not appreciate me doing the work right now, especially with how the rationing is going."
The woman shrugs "Du machtest".
"Ich habe nichts bei mir, um ein Feuer zu löschen. Wenn Sie irgendwelche Ideen haben, dann sprechen Sie. Meist wollte ich reden und hier raus - bevor die Behörden auftauchten, um peinliche Fragen zu stellen."
"sprichst du Englisch?"
You did.
I don't have anything on me to put out a fire. If you have any ideas, then speak up. Mostly I wanted to talk and get out of here - before the authorities showed up to ask awkward questions.
Do you speak English?
"Ah, I suppose that makes sense, the gasoline being what it is. I can't just give you the keys, though, I'll need your credentials and- ah, wait a moment."
Stjepan turns to the side as the door opens and a tall man with dark brown hair, pale skin and blue eyes enters.
"Welcome at Kubíček's Fresh Catches, sir, how can I help you?" asks the clerk to the new arrival.
The smell of fish is permeating the building, overpowering the perfumes that have been sprayed in the foyer. You find yourself in a plain room with a metal desk on the left side. On the right side, a corridor opens with several wood-and-glass office doors, and in front of you is a metal double door, marked EMPLOYEES ONLY.
At the desk, a middle aged man is sitting in front of a pile of documents, and another one, stout and dressed like a laborer, is standing in front of it. The one sitting turns to you and addresses you. "Welcome at Kubíček's Fresh Catches, sir, how can I help you?"
One of these men is definitely the one you're looking for.
In the backstage you can indeed find some buckets and sacks filled with sand. It's a bit caked but should work well enough to extinguish the pyre.
Katherine looked at the sand - the heavy, cumbersome sand - and back to the German speaker. "Müssen wir Damen die ganze Arbeit machen?" She could probably help, but men had certain expectations, and she liked to meet the one of the helpless woman when she could. It made killing them easier if it came to it.