Alex frowns as he watches Sonny interact with the waitress. "Do you have hidden depths, or is it all there on the surface for us to enjoy?"
Alex watches Madison bolt for the bathroom with a perplexed look on his face, a little like a dog trying to do calculus.
"She do that often?"
Alex does not attempt to eat the food he ordered.
"Remind me to get a box before we leave?" he asks Val.
"She do that often?"
"A surprising amount," Frannie confirms.
dead start
"Hidden depths are for Divas and queers," Sonny opines, leaning back in the booth.
Alex blinks at this, and doesn't say anything for almost a minute. "Good talk," he finally says, shaking his head.
Alex slouches as he waits, humming.
"You see my uncle recently passed here and my mother," Echo shakes her head in amazement, "well, my mother swears up one side and down another that she felt angels watching over him." She gives the guards a wide-eyed smile, "And there is little she wants more than knowing her brother passed on in the embrace of the divine."
She looks around the little room, taking another micro step in, "And I was told this is where you store the images and that you could make a copy for me."
She gives the guard a sweet smiles, "I, of course, know there is a processing fee, just like a library."
She starts to turn away, but then looks back, at the guard with bright eyes, "So you just watch the halls and the lobby, so that if someone bad comes in you can call police to keep everyone safe."
She shakes her head, "That so much more responsibility than I could handle." Her head tilts back in a long hard thought, "But if the recordings aren't kept," she looks at the guard for a nod, "and the police need evidence of someone hurting David or Flora" her eyes widen, "you must have to make a copy of what happened lickety-split."
She looks agog at the machines in the room, "That must be super difficult..."
He places a hand on Echo's arm and gestures back the way she came.
Since he hasn't gotten violent yet, Rook waits to see if Echo convinces the guard somehow to give her the info she wants, or if she leaves peacefully. If the guard goes out with her so that the door closes and he ends up walking down the hall, and Rook sees no cameras monitoring the inside of the room, she might slip down if she thinks she can get back up afterwards, and take pictures, and see which camera is focused on the ICU.
If Echo wants to draw him away, Manipulation + Subterfuge.
Val thanks the waitress, watches the inevitable play out with Madison, and shakes her head with a rueful smile.
And she takes an almost-sip of the hot chocolate. Just enough to smell it, maybe get a little whipped cream on her nose.
"I will absolutely remind you to get a box," she says to Alex.
She settles in for the wait as well, as happy to make small talk with the folks at the table as she is to sit in silence and contemplate the hot chocolate and pancakes before her. She does make a show of maybe making it look like she attempted to eat the pancakes, so they aren't perfect and neat on the plate.
Half to Val, and half to the table at large, Alex attempts some small talk, Alex-style.
"So do you think that it's okay to be angry at things as they are, in general -- or better to be angry at something in specific? For a song, I mean. I go back and forth on it. I think being specific is more memorable, but if you miss the mark there, you really miss the mark. Whereas if you're angry in general, even if you miss the mark, you're still angry. And everyone gets angry."
Alex pokes at his pancakes with a fork, and rearranges them, flipping the top one over and putting it on the bottom of the stack.
She also keeps an eye out on the screen showing Echo and the guard.
If she has time, she'll watch the screens for a few moments after she's done taking pictures, to see if anyone is walking around unseen and ignored by the staff.
If the guard starts heading back alone (not with Echo), she will stop, move the ceiling tile back to where it was, and then carefully and silently take her leave.
"That's a good question. 'Cause when I first started writing, it was just general teenage angst, you know. Oh, life is so hard, ah, no one will ever understand this misery." She also pokes her pancakes a little. "There's something about a vague emotion that everyone can identify with, but I think something you write about a personal feeling, anger, sadness, whatever... it resonates a lot better, even if it's with fewer people. So, I dunno. I'd go with specific anger, even if it reaches a smaller audience."
Echo and Rook arrive at the Nite Owl separately, Echo first and then Rook.
The Nite Owl is located on a windy road that has claimed more midnight cruisers over the years than its fair share. It opened sometime in the '50s, and the decor still reflects that, the outside looking like something between an art deco submarine and an Airstream trailer. The sign depicts the diner's namesake, the local cryptid known for haunting sleeping neighborhoods with her Lynchian presence. The depicts the shadowy but unmistakably feminine silhouette with an owl's head, a cartoon that is probably silly and fun in the daytime, but in the velvet blue-blacks of a Santa Cruz night and underlit with a single powerful bulb, undeniably sinister.
The parking lot is gravel; and this late, there are only a couple other cars still there. Half of them that are still there have banana slug stickers on the bumpers. Inside, a tired waitstaff serves the few tables of college kids lingering on deep into the night.
The bell rings as Echo and Rook. The register is set over a glass case where the Nite Owl sells their branded merch. T-shirts, postcards, stickers, all with their version of the local cryptid.
"Anywhere you like," says a young woman in the diner's trademark old-school waitress outfits. Wherever she moves, Sonny's piggish eyes follow.
On the subject of Sonny, he sits with the rest of his coterie and Los Vigilantes at a corner booth that offers a commanding view of both the diner and the road outside. The table is filled with food that mostly hasn't been touched.
When Rook and Echo enter the diner, Val looks relieved for just a second before the smile returns and she's waving them over.
"Can you at least wait until our business is done here?" She asks Sonny, voice low, when she catches him stalking the waitress with his eyes again. "Would love to come back here at some point without our pictures being slapped up on a 'do not serve' list. Or an 'immediately call the cops' list."
"Aw, I'm only looking. Wouldn't dream of hunting on your land. Got my solemn oath," Sonny says with a smirk.
"Poaching is what brought us together today anyway," Alex says. "I don't think any of us is that stupid or that desperate."
Alex rotates his pancakes on his plate, as punctuation. Stab on the stupid, plate turn on the desperate.
"I would sure hope not." She says sweetly, returning Sonny's smirk.
Echo nods in Val's direction, before drifting over the cashier quietly ordering a "rare burger, no veg". A glance at the group and Echo adds, "Probably to go." And she pays for it before making her way to a chair near the mixed group, Cailleach a dark shadow by her side.
"Brad's been good?" Echo says with tight lips, her shoulders drawn. Her comment primarily to Val but giving Ernesto a polite nod of the head.
"Great, all here," Ernesto says, waiting for Echo and Rook to sit down. "Well, on my end, I've got the basic info on the two victims. We have Elias Clark and Juan Carlos Rojas. They don't seem to have a thing in common. Rojas was hispanic, Clark was white. Rojas was seventy-six, Clark was eight. Rojas was married...you get the idea. Both had cancer, though, but different kinds." Ernesto shrugs. "We can probably rule out some kind of score to settle."
"Doing that to a kid?" Sonny says, shaking his head. "That's low. Real low."
"Yes, well," Ernesto says. "That appears to be the sum total of what we have. What did you turn up?"
Rook asks for tea, face scrunching when the options presented are Lipton black tea - hot or iced. "Hot," she sighs.
She looks at Echo, when Ernesto asks what their side turned up.
Echo gives a slight shrug, "James Conti, Gertrude Brubaker." She shakes her head, "Nothing in common for the two. They're careful, as far as anyone can remember James was only by himself for a few minutes before he passed."
A pause, "Of stage 4 cancer. With a peaceful smile at the end."
"Cancer-eater," Frannie murmurs, staring at the Formica table.
"Could be..." Madison touches her chest, the meaning clear. Ventrue.
"Sounds like a pussy to me," Sonny says. "Only excuse for this kind of thing."
"Whatever the truth," Ernesto says, "We have a pattern. Stage 4 cancer. That's enough to catch this poacher."
"So what are we thinking?" Alex looks toward Echo and Ernesto. "Is there something to do actively? Or is this going to be watching and waiting? A stakeout?"
He holds up a hand, fingers crossed. "I'm hoping for something proactive."
To Echo, Val nods. "Brad's been good, hanging out down south."
She listens to Ernesto and Echo give their reports, and frowns. "Might be prudent to keep an eye on other cancer patients in both hospitals. Look up new hospital staff? I know it can be pretty hard to catch someone who works in the health industry if they're up to no good." She pauses a beat, then looks slightly embarrassed. "Or maybe I watch too much true crime shit."
Rook pulls up the pictures on her phone that she took of the security room, and slides it over to Val.
"Graveyard shift is normal for new hires since most hu people don't want to work it." A pause, Echo's forehead furrows, "Medical staff have to do..." she waves a hand, making it clear she doesn't know any details, "paperwork, education, things..."
"Most people don't pay attention to the cleaning crew." She shrugs.
"Too many variables, too many guesses. Stick to what we know for certain," Ernesto advises. "A determined..." he supplies the noun with a nod. "...can get into a hospital in any number of ways. Hell, for all we know, this person is on the boards or they could just be asking nicely. The victims. They're the direct link."
Madison holds up her phone. "Ten hospitals in Monterey County," she says, sticking her tongue out.
"If the pattern holds, our friend will strike twice before moving on. So look for one anemia death in the terminal care ward and lay a trap."
Frannie looks out at the ocean. "Have to wait. Sunrise is coming."
Ernesto curses, snapping his fingers at the server. "Can we get the check please?"
She comes over, shying away from Sonny. "Eyes are bigger than your stomachs, huh?" she says, putting the bill down on the table.
"I'm watching my figure," Madison says sweetly, putting down more money than she owes.
The waitress leaves the table alone to figure out the bill. "Okay. We find anything, we'll contact you through usual channels," Ernesto says, nodding at Frannie and Val. "Trust you'll do the same?"
Val looks over the pictures on Rook's phone, her eyebrows going up. "Your night was more interesting than mine," she says with a wry smile. "Nice shot," she says of one in particular.
And when Echo speaks, she nods. "Cleaning crew, yeah, absolutely right."
To the waitress, she says: "The plight of a long night, you think you're starving, and then you get a couple bites in and..." she leaves the rest to the woman's imagination.
She also tips high, leaving a little smiley face on the receipt.
"We'll absolutely do the same. Good to see you all again. Even you." She teases Sonny with the last comment.
"We'll absolutely do the same. Good to see you all again. Even you." She teases Sonny with the last comment.
That gets a chuckle out of the big Nosferatu on his way out the door. He climbs into a five year old Mustang and ostentatiously burns his way out of the parking lot. Ernesto and Frannie pile into an older Jetta, while Madison hops into a swanky late-model Mercedes convertible.
Alex will use his Herd to slake 2 Hunger rather than hunting, especially since (as discussed offline), he is making that Composure + Herd roll. Any of his Herd work in hospitals? Can he ... er ... pump them for information?
After the other coterie leaves the diner, Rook asks Echo "What time are we meeting tomorrow, and where?"
He ends up slaking his thirst upon a groupie who is several years past her prime, but her blood is sweet enough, and spiked with the sharp bit of tobacco from her pack a day habit. She, of course, assumed he's the hot mistake she keeps making, and makes it again. By the end, she's passed out from blood loss, but she will be fine. All told, he spends two hours with her, not just feeding, but maintaining the thin veneer of a relationship.
Rook finds and pursues a bad person for an early dinner, in the sketchy area of Capitola, per the crime statistics (provided that's an allowed hunting area).
Echo considers as she feeds Cailleach the barely cooked burger. "Get your hooks in the water, make sure you are taken care of, then head out to compound with a few hours of dark left for planning."
A pause, a shake of her head, "Unless we find out one of the dying has been taken tonight, in which case we will be acting with due haste."
After she will hold a small prayer ritual.
"What does - a few hours mean, exactly?" Rook asks.
It takes hours to locate someone -- it's that awful sensation of ugliness everywhere around her -- but find someone she does. As she concentrated her attention on the working girls congregating on the edges of the worst of the decay, servicing the workers either coming in from the ocean or out from the farms. She spots one of the women handing over her earnings from a tryst and getting a slap for it. That will do.
Pursuit is all about exhausting the prey. It starts with frightening them, then tormenting, sapping every ounce of strength. When the time comes to feed, it is a foregone conclusion. Rook has a meeting to get to; she doesn't have time to torment this individual. It will mean a fight at the culmination of the hunt. Question is, does she continue?
The cult joins in the prayer, and Echo makes her selection, escorting one person into privacy. She bids them shut their eyes and she takes just a bit, enough to make the knees weak and complexion milky. Then she licks the wound shut and returns the ecstatic worshiper to the others. As Echo leaves them, she can hear her victim enthusing about having felt the godhead through Echo's touch.