(Plot) Masks, Props, and More

[InvertedMonkey]

Entrances. Exits. Doors to backrooms. People in the building. These were simple and habitual observations for Ramona to make. Where her regular process fails her is when it comes to cataloguing potential weapons, and their hiding places. There are simply too many of them. Some of them might be hiding in plain sight. Especially when you factor hedgespun masks into the calculation. Anyone who knows this place could have hidden a weapon anywhere, could reach anywhere and, theoretically, produce a deadly weapon. Ramona makes a mental note to watch everyone's hands, as she follows Coco into the building. Kenning had proved useful last time, and revealed the hedgespun to her. Might be worth another shot.

  Kenning: 2 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-04-30 00:36:39		Ramona Bohannon rolls 7 to Kenning (MP&M) (10 Again)		2, 7, 2, 7, 10, 3, 9, 7		2 successes

[Tally Benoit]

Tally looks at the collection of makeup about the counter, moving to the left and forward to do so. She does send Coco a bemused look at the nickname she gave the woman. She listens as she slowly reads the various labels of the various containers sporting the various colors of the rainbow and then some.

[Trickster]

If anything, the young woman's smile widened. "Of course! He's back this way." She waved one hand towards a door in the back corner of the store. There was a window set in the top half, and once the group got closer it was easy to see that it looked into what was obviously a workshop of some kind. Stepping up to the door, the young woman tapped quickly on the glass and opened it, letting out a waft of paint fumes. The rumble of an exhaust fan masked her exact words as she leaned in, but after a moment she leaned out and smiled over at the three women.

"You're in luck! He says that he's just waiting for a couple pieces to dry, so he's go the time to talk. Just make sure you don't touch anything, you might smudge the paint."

Entering through the door revealed a workshop divided by a long table cutting across the first third of the narrow room. It was obviously sometimes used for demonstrations, since a row of chairs lined the back. On the other side of the table was the workshop itself, ruthlessly organized with an absolutely bewildering array of bits and parts. And seated at a workbench against one wall was a dark skinned man, frizzy white hair pulled back in a tail at the base of his neck. A painters mask covered the lower half of his face; he pulled it down as he turned to face them, standing up and wiping his hands on a rag as he did so.

"Hello. I understand you've got some questions about ordering something specific?" His voice rumbled out over the fans.

[Coco]

"Yes, yes we did," Coco agreed, striding over to the man.

"In fact, we were interested in placing an order similar to this," she continued, raising the katana, though keen to keep a firm grip on it despite that.

"Very fine craftsmanship. Incredible, really. It makes one wonder: wherever did you happen to learn to make things like this?" she inquired, grinning as though she'd just revealed their inside joke.

[Tally Benoit]

As the clerk smiles while replying to Coco's request, Tally moves to stand and follows behind as they are lead to the workshop. Giving the man a glance, she takes her time to study the work space without stepping away from her fellow Freehold members.

  1 success on Perception

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-05-03 17:19:52		Tally Benoit rolls 6 to Wits + Com (10 Again)		5, 6, 1, 8, 3, 4		1 success

[InvertedMonkey]

Following the other pair inside, Ramona does her usual checks, then takes the measure of the man opposite of them. She hadn't detected any touch of the wyrd upon anything in this place, beyond Coco and Tally. Which would certainly be strange, for a hedgespinner's shop. But then, you can't hedgespin in the mortal world. Maybe there's a gate nearby, to the Hollow where he really works. If this is truly the hedgespinner anyway, as far as she can tell the wyrd hasn't touched him either. But she's been wrong before.

[Trickster]

The man wiped his hands on a rag again and placed one finger on the blade of the katana, tilting it to look down the blade and nodded.

"Yeah, that's no problem." He went over to a shelf full of bulging binders and pulled one down, flipping it open and running his fingers through the pages. "Yeah. Those retail for about $50. We can offer a wholesale price of $25 each if you want to order more than 20." He started ticking items off on his fingers. "I've got, um. Two or three projects I have to finish up before I can start working on your swords. But it shouldn't take me more than a week to get that batch done. Longer for more, of course."

Turning, he winked cheerfully at Coco. "Can't say that I learned all of that in one place, really. It's something you pick up here and there. I apprenticed for years in the trade, learned by getting my hands dirty. It's really the only way."

[Coco]

"Well, with work this fine, I'm surprised you wouldn't want to be there to show it off. You rather left in a hurry the night of the Masquerade. Didn't even let your poor employee know. In fact, you even dropped a nice, silver pin in the parking lot. What exactly had you in such a rush?" Coco pressed, sure the the man would start sweating. That he would soon cave in before her wit, and, with a few more perfectly placed questions, would reveal his dastardly plot before her, the hero!

"I mean, you weren't afraid of seeing what became of your victims, were you?" she added, arcing a brow above her knowing smile.

[InvertedMonkey]

Ok, going right for the jugular are we? She really should've expected as much from Coco. A trained fighter, a practiced murderer. Not unlike Ramona herself. She watches Mr. Luna's reaction. It might be a mistake to accuse a hedgespinner of misdeed is his own workshop. Really, it's probably a mistake to confront any artisan in their own workshop. The ogress hadn't detected anything magical, but that doesn't mean they're not there. It also doesn't mean that any of the supplies Mr. Luna has in his workshop aren't volatile or toxic, or that he doesn't have a tool he could throw at them or otherwise turn into a deadly weapon. Or a product of his art lying around that he could use to his advantage. If Mr. Luna twitches wrong, Ramona's ready to pull her gun on him.

[Tally Benoit]

Well, so much for subtlety, huh? Tally couldn't help but think at Coco's going straight to the reason why they are there. Out of the corner of her eye, she takes a second to look at Ramona before focusing on Mr Luna.

She does her best to pick up Mr Luna's emotions to Coco's statement.

  3 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-05-13 20:40:22		Tally Benoit rolls 6 to Wits + Empathy (10 Again)		5, 1, 10, 10, 7, 7, 8, 4		3 successes