(Paper Trail) Dark Materials

[Yumyumcrow]

The leer returns to Radzinsky's face, this time mixed with a degree of anxiousness as the deal plays out. He too is concerned what Jerry Game might do next.

"Good doing business you."

It would appear the hunchback does not want to linger

Jerry Game does nothing more offensive than sullenly glare as the book passes beyond his reach. The stench of brimstone grows perceptibly.

"Fine. I didn't need it anyway," Game pouts. And storms prances back to his car, his frustration taken out on the door of his vehicle. The stench followed him.

And now Robert Cross unlimited sink is the owner of a 17th century monster hunting manual...

[Kenneth Gilroy]

Gilroy skittered to the vehicle, looking like a mangy dog trying to escape in fear. Though if you watched close, the keys didn't shake or slip as his wormy fingers wriggled and unlocked the door. He slid into the driver's seat, sparing a glance back as he put on his seat belt. Transaction still not fully complete.

He shut the door and started the engine into a growling idle. They needed to leave. Now would be preferable. He unlocked the passenger doors with the push of a button and the wonders of modern circuitry. Now he just needed the not so modern passengers so they could get moving.

Gilroy decided he was not made out to be a getaway driver.

[Robert Cross]

"Yes. A pleasure," he answers Radzinsky. It's clearly a lie. But that doesn't matter. What matters is the transaction, which Cross handles gracefully. Smoothly exchanging money for tome.

Unlike Cynthia, he does not spare game a second glance as he walks back to the car. The sound of the vehicle's engine running is a comfort. He stops at the trunk to make sure it's secured and then slides into the back seat, placing the book beside him.

"Let's go," Cross says. Blunt. Final.

"And drive around for a while. Want to make sure our friends don't follow."

[Cynthia Weiss]

Cynthia reclined in her seat and buckled herself in, choosing to ride shotgun next to the man that seemed more and more like a mass of worms puppeteering a human body. The window was lowered a fraction, stopping the sickening mixture of chemicals and burned flesh from becoming overwhelming to the vehicle's occupants. "That went well all things considered." The goth said, cracking her knuckles and trying to relax. The tension still lingered but she was enjoying whatever sense of victory she could get.

She glanced to Cross in the back seat, his prize in hand. "So...What are you gonna do with that?" She asked, genuine curiosity in her tone.

[Yumyumcrow]

10 days over the month limit. I won't wrap up just yet, though, in case you guys want to carry on chatting for a bit longer. I'll probably close the scene over the weekend.

[Kenneth Gilroy]

As Kenneth started to pull away he used the driver’s side controls to roll up the window Cynthia had just put down. And turned on the child safety controls so she couldn’t do it again. Then he shut the outside intake for the air conditioning system. A thought had occurred. Though he didn’t express it till they were far enough away from the exchange site that he could be reasonably sure they wouldn’t be overheard by supernatural means. Reasonably. God forbid scrying be a something he had to worry about. Still, it wasn’t till they were out of heightened vampiric sense (the baseline supernatural abilities he knew, that he offered any sort of explanation.

“Sorry, Mr. Game was acting as or on behalf of a supernatural entity. He was producing a sulfur smell. If the entity was in fact separate it could have been gaseous.” The vehicle wasn’t exactly airtight even with the precautions but they could at least delay a noncorporeal being from entering the inside. Unless there was matter phasing going on. Gilroy twitched. Why couldn’t magic at least pretend to hold to scientific constants. It made facing unknown threats difficult to anticipate.

As it was he kept them stuck, suffering in an atmosphere of spilled diesel chemicals that had somehow been set on fire. The Worm wriggled uncomfortably as he kept driving.

“I couldn’t tell from examination whether the tomb is as old as they say. However the information it contains is accurate. If it is a modern forgery we need to find out who wrote it.” It could mean someone was out there trying to disseminate vampire hunting techniques. “If it isn’t, it may contain other accurate entries.” Or more worryingly, it could be a forgery and contain multiple accurate entries. Kenneth Gilroy’s eyes twitched into the rearview mirror. To the blurred figure of Cross, and the crisp image of the tomb.

“I’d like to examine it further.”

[Robert Cross]

"It did," Cross answers Cynthia. "I was ready for a lot worse." And to do a lot worse.

But then Gilroy is speaking and Cross falls silent. Brooding, with a frown on his face. He'd noticed the smell. But had been so focused on the deal, he'd let the implications slide. That fact made the Burned Man both happy he'd brought along the Worm and angry with himself.

Finally, he speaks again. "Well. We may need to keep an eye out for Mr. Game and his associates, then..." A pause. "He did not seem pleased to lose our little bidding war."

And then: "You're welcome to examine it," he replies to Gilroy. "I'll want to know what you discover. Beyond that, the book remains the property of the Family at large. When, and if, the Bleak Annals are re-established, we'll keep it there."

With that, Cross falls definitively silent. Looking out the window, examining the night.

[Yumyumcrow]

Seems a good place to close the scene. Nice work Did not expect it to end the way it did, which was nice for me. Hope you enjoyed it too.

As always, let me know if you want to follow up anything from this scene