Leo's a solid liar if that helps his Know (Local) is functional but nothing remarkable.
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Sounds solid to me.
One step higher than yours.
"Is this the man?" A cool voice asks from behind the ersatz soldier. Another Heer uniform, this one worn by someone a bit more frightening. Where Tomasz was all gleaming youth, this newcomer was lean and wolfish with jet black hair slicked back and a dappling of fine scars along the left side of his face. "Is this the bean man?" There was an impressive casual menace to his voice. Here was a soul that new violence well and did not relish being away from it to chase down a clerical mistake. "At ease, boy," the newcomer spat the word with disdain, clearly not thinking much of Tomasz's persona, "I'll take care of him."
Sorry, been a little out of it this week, let me catch up.
I just remembered I dumped a bunch of ranks into Linguistics, so with a bit of work I should be able to forge documents well enough.
Leo stays relatively close to Katherine, in the form of an out-of-work laborer, the exact kind of human detritus that the powerful find so easy to overlook. He wanted first crack at whatever information she could dredge up for the team.
Leo snorted with mild amusement from the driver's seat, "Comme apporter un bœuf à l'orchestre," Leo noted to himself as the others discussed their proficiencies. "I've considerable experience with... well 'infiltration' is a good enough word for what I do. This is especially the case when dealing with Nazis. I am familiar with their procedures and command structures, speak excellent Deutsche and my abilities are less easy for the strong willed to see through." Leo checked the others with a glance, "If we are to do this, I will request a chance to infiltrate the outer layer of security and have a look around to secure a route of ingress and egress before taking a larger party into dangerous territory. Or," and now he grinned his horrible grin, "I could pretend to be Monsieur Boucher himself and stride right in. I do so like a bold entrance."
"A stake-out then. We identify and pick up some of the lower ranking staff for information until we have enough of a picture to send a team inside."
I mean, apart from being a monster straight out of urban legend, Leo is a skilled infiltrator. I can go either way, honestly.
"Monsieur Szymanski, if you would kindly illuminate les enfants as to the particulars of our plan now that a basic level of trust has been established. I will focus on getting us to the rabbi," Leo noted, clambering back into the front of the truck and starting up the engine.
"Oui, but first the matter of trust," Leo says, clambering back into the back of the truck. With each in turn, he began running through the checks to make sure nothing had subverted their geasan. It was not a pleasant experience, he uttered a series of code words and the geas took temporary control of certain functions, responding with mechanical precision as to whether or not the individual had been sublimated to the enemy's will.
Leo parked the truck in an out of the way spot. "Alright, any of you claiming to work for the Laundry are going to have your geasan checked. Once we have taken stock of that, we will decide how much to bring the others in on. If there is any doubt, we will have Kleiner twist your head off. Simple."
Alright, what are the parameters of our mission vis a vis outside help? Leo is paranoid out of what he feels is necessity. Having established protocols is going to help immensely. I want to get everyone on the same page as soon as possible because overt paranoia, while setting and character appropriate, does not make for a fun party experience.
"Ah, that reminds me, I need to speak to the rabbi and give him the news. Though I very much suspect he already knows," Leo noted to himself. "We already have a plan for Heydrich, though we're not going to share details for the moment," Leo offered, taking the truck to the edge of town. He was intending to stash the vehicle with Kleiner inside somewhere out of sight. Driving around in it too much before arrangements could be made was a risk.
Would we have methods of verifying the integrity of relevant geasan? That would do much to allay Leo's suspicions.
"That I can manage," Leo said, his face contorting into a reasonably bland one as he clambered into the truck. "There are things I could say here as a warning or a threat, but I have always found that leaving that up to the imagination is far more effective."
"Oui," Leo said, patting the huge monstrosity affectionately on the lower back, "It will take some time to fabricate a registration with the krauts but it will serve well enough for getting Kleiner out of here and to... where we need him." He then turned to the assembled newcomers, looking at each of them as he spoke, "And which of these shall we trust?" His face twisting to give the each of the operatives an idea of what they might look like had they experienced whatever had unmoored Leo from the continuum of common human identity.
Leo's gun snapped up when yet another interloper revealed herself. Showing a bit of restraint by not shooting her immediately, his face rippled and twisted, scar tissue tugging oddly as he frowned. "Tant d'enfants perdus. Were none of you taught how to make contact with an active operation?" He asked, half rhetorically. Leo sighed to himself, "I suppose your gentil oncle Léo will need to teach you."
Katherine's Mind Reading Results: Looking inside Leo's mind is... uncomfortable. There is no inherent risk but even skimming the surface is shiveringly alien but still familiar. The best way to describe the structure of his mind is rather like one shattered into utter madness but then having those pieces carefully reassembled into something able to rationally function again.
He is patiently waiting for Tomasz's input before springing into sudden, horrific, violence or relaxing. There are idle memories of picking human flesh out of inhuman teeth and the sounds joints make as implacable pressure is applied until cartilage tears and pain, so much pain.
"That sounds ever so much like an oblique accusation," Leo said, turning his head ever so slightly too far to look back at the other two. His grin, so horrid and lopsided, grew a touch wider. Climbing up to the trap door, he hammered upon it. "Monsieur! I have a truck! Interlopers as well, should I be shooting them?"
Leo groaned and stretched a bit, "You lack imagination, garcon." Then started forward without obvious concern. He was not trying to hide his presence at all.
"Sounds reasonable," Leo noted, brushing past the two and inside. Out of the view of the street, he rolled his neck and opened his jaw wide. With a shivering of his flesh, he resumed his own, horrific appearance. Terrible scars, a missing ear, mismatched eyes, a spindly and uneven build, Leo was not pleasant to look at. The grin he fixed the two was even more horrible, though his teeth were immaculate. To be frank, he seemed like a figure that should only be half remembered after waking from a nightmare. "Now, mes petits choux, let us go resolve things."
"Fils de pute, you two are about as subtle as a brick through a window. Inside, now," Leo ordered, no longer bothering to hide the gun in his hand. "Where is le vieux monsieur?"
Well, Richard has unsubtly identified a habitual chameleon despite him operating at peak efficiency, that alone should have Leo putting a bullet in him. Now there is a mysterious woman claiming to have 'handled' a situation in a building where Leo left his last ally. It's not a good situation for someone paranoid enough to operate in the intelligence world to be in. I need to justify why Leo is not just going to write off this operation as compromised and bail out, probably after shooting Richard, whom the practically minded would see as a massive liability. I'm just saying, from the outside this whole thing looks like a counter-operation has swept up Leo's team and everything is now borked.
You guys had really better be glad Leo is not exactly sane in the traditional sense of the word... I need a bit to think through this situation.
Leo quirked an eyebrow at the lady. "You shouldn't be here," he observed, "It would be your best interest to find somewhere else to linger."
"Hmm, interesting" Leo noted to himself. Parking the truck, he gestured for Richard to get out first with his pistol. "Out, out," he ordered. If there was something wrong, he could always boot the nosy summoner into the line of danger first.
"Ah, so you are one of those sorts of fools," Leo noted, slipping into English with a pronounced Czech accent. There was frankly little judgement in his voice. Most people were fools of one sort or another and it appeared Richard was no different. "If you do not have the fortitude, I would suggest another line of work. Have you considered operating a fishery?"
Oh, sorry, I guess I didn't make it clear. Leo is planning to take Richard back to Tomasz. His first instinct, quite frankly, to murder Richard and dump the body somewhere. However, he views Tomasz as his primary link to his commanding officers and thus wants to let the other man in on the situation.
"Hmm, I might still shoot you on principle," Leo said, his tone chilly. He drove away from the fishery carefully, there was no need to draw attention to them and it was also easier to keep the pistol trained on the new passenger.
Leo stops the truck, leans over, and opens the passenger door. Richard gets a look at the large pistol now pointed at him but held out of sight of casual observation. "Get in before I shoot you," Leo said simply, as though it were nothing more than a pleasant greeting.
As he hotwires the truck, Leo pauses for just a moment to check his reflection in the rearview mirror. His chin became longer and more sharply defined, nose aquiline, and his eyes shimmered to blue while his hair grew out a few inches and turned black. With a roll of his shoulders, his entire body became leaner, and his skin took on the weathered appearance of one often in the sun. Then he turned the key in the engine and pulled out of the garage, humming a jaunty tune to himself. The words, if he recalled correctly through his lingering madness, were a rather rude series of verses about what aristocrats got up to with farm animals that scholars had for some reason decided not to record.
As the newcomer distracts the clerk, Leo quietly lets the attention drift off him before slipping out of the room and down the hall. He had snuck through more terrifyingly complex and well guarded structures than this fishery in the past. Escaping through a side corridor and making his way out to the truck would be nothing in comparison. A lack of keys would be an issue but Leo had always had a mind for mechanisms and the Brits had seen fit to further train his proclivities into a proper talent.
Yeah, I need to bring this side mission to an end.
Could I use a combination of Bluff and Stealth to slip out of the room and head for the truck?
Richard? You've got the focus in the scene, I figure it would make the most sense for you to respond first.
"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."
"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.
"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.
"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?"
"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?" ooc: To lay this plan out, Leo is going to get the owner/manager/whoever's name (hoping it isn't the man running the counter) under one guise, leave, and come back under another guise claiming he was asked by said individual to repair the truck for some minor affliction. Once there, he'll invent a reason to 'take it back to the shop'. Boom one truck.
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.
Humming cheerfully to himself, Leo decides to let himself into the fishery.
Occult Spycraft:
Leo beings in his usual circuitous way, nearly never moving in straight lines towards his destination and periodically finding a convenient alleyway or abandoned building to duck into and emerge as someone else. He knew what his skills and weaknesses were, and made a point to address the one with the other. While some petty part of him wanted to steal from the occupation forces in the city, Leo was nothing if not a pragmatic monster and the first opportunity to come his way was that of a fishery. It was a shame but he was not going to leave Tomasz and Kleiner exposed for longer than needed.
Just tell me when to go and I'll try to get a post up promptly
Alright, Leo is planning on disguising himself as a Nazi mook and acquiring a truck to move Kleiner around in. How do you want to do this?
Made the change in my profile. Out of curiosity, why Sanskrit?
"Very well, shall I 'borrow' us a truck?" Leo offered, his features rippling into a facsimile of something more normal.
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