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  1. #1
    R
    Robert Longstreet

    The address he's provided in the note left for Cadence is a warehouse - a small but sturdy structure tucked between its larger cousins. Relatively far from downtown, the surroundings are devoid of life - no street people scavenging for scraps, no middle class representatives rushing home from work... even animal predators have moved elsewhere to seek for prey.

    An ideal place for some suspicious activity. Like firing a gun you don't have papers for by a guy who doesn't legally exist.

    And that's what Longstreet is doing: he doesn't wait for the newly arrived Daeva to start the excercise, it's just too tempting to put a few holes in the werewolves, ghosts, vampires and other monsters cut out from cardboard as a warm-up. Besides, it's far from certain she'll even come - she;s probably busy setting up Haven, getting the rules explained by the local Big Names, sightseeing... lots of things. But it'd be nice to have someone to talk to.

    In the meantime, however, Longstreet aims his gun at a fake zombie and lets the bullet fly straight through its fake head.

    Robert Longstreet 1 : 0 Cardboard Monsters.

  2. #2
    C
    Cadence Behr

    Cadence was standing outside of a warehouse, in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of a pep talk.

    "Dude's probably cool, right? Seemed cool at the tournament, if not a little arrogant. But what man isn't, right? So he's nice enough. And he wants to make a connection. I need those, right? I need connections. And honestly, I need practice. Right? So just go inside."

    The Haunt had come under the amusingly inaccurate assumption that Cadence could handle a gun. In truth, she had probably gotten lucky. The Anarchist had some passing firearms experience, sure, but she was certain she wasn't as ... competent as this Robert believed. And so she was nervous. She spent far too long standing in the eerie silence of this deserted area, when the sound of a gunshot startled her.

    I guess he's already starting. She thought, this time not out loud. She took a deep breath (another habit she's yet to break) and steps inside.

    She came inside to find a menagerie of monstrous cardboard, some of which had already been dispatched by her host. She felt a surge of anger rush to her core, the Beast coiling to pounce on its weaker prey. But she hastily choked it down, hopefully before he noticed. She wasn't terribly fond of anyone seeing her battle with her inner demon.

    "Evenin', Mr. Longstreet. Any titles I should know about?" She smiles, doing her best to mask the double discomfort of her Beast's roars and the menace of the Haunt. "I'm not overly fond of formality, but it has its place. And I'd hate to be disrespectful to my host."

    She winks at him and smiles. "Thanks for the invitation, by the way."

  3. #3
    R
    Robert Longstreet

    He feels her before he sees her. Like a shadow, creeping from behind. It takes some effort to turn towards Cadence and yet more to look her in the eye. To be fair, it's made that much easier by her decidedly non-monstrous looks.

    "No problem. Always a pleasure to have someone to talk to. These guys" he nods towards the cardboard figures "are not exactly the best conversationalists" He smiles, encouragingly. His gun is moved to the left hand, freeing the other one to offer a handshake "Robert. I'm the head of the local faithful, so I suppose you can call me 'Bishop Longstreet' if you absolutely have to... like at Court. But other than that, it's just Robert. And you're... Cadence, right? Any titles I should know about?" There's a grin. He was some distance away when she presented herself, so he may have misheard. But he's fairly certain.

    "Anyway" Longstreet continues after a moment "You didn't answer when I asked about your gun experience. You have a good eye, but your technique could use some improvement. Meaning you're either a hunter with little practice or the last time you held a gun was during a domestic dispute"

    Frankly, there are other options, some more obvious than others. But there's no need to open the floodgates and the Haunt is eager to see how Cadence will reply.

  4. #4
    C
    Cadence Behr

    Cadence takes the hand offered and shakes vigorously. "Yes, it's Cadence. No titles to speak of, I'm afraid." She gestures towards the cardboard cut outs and laughs, "Don't think I'd be so keen on conversation either if you were using me for target practice."

    She frowns slightly when the Bishop mentions her rudely ignoring his question at the tournament. "Yes, I'm sorry about that. I was more than a little sullen after my sound defeat, though I imagine the stress of so many new faces might have played a part." She sighs, an apologetic look on her face. "I wandered off to cool my heels after the shooting contest. I'm actually not sure I spotted who won. But to answer your question, I'm a hunter with no practice. I learned how to shoot but never shot a living thing. Or an unliving thing, for that matter. You seem to know your shit, though."

    The Carthian grins and points sheepishly to his gun. "I, uh, hope you brought enough for the whole class. I'm afraid I don't have one. My hunting rifle got left behind during my ... trip here." She hopes he doesn't detect her slight hesitation. Jeez, Cadence. You gotta stop mentioning Fresno.

  5. #5
    R
    Robert Longstreet

    "No titles? Not part of any... social circle?" The vigor of her handshake comes as a mild but welcome surprise. He laughs when Cadence does and it's a sharp, less than pleasant sound "I suppose you're right"

    "Don't worry about it" Longstreet's quick to say when it seems the Daeva will keep apologizing and explaining herself unless stopped. He didn't really mean to trigger that kind of reaction. Which spoke volumes about his ability to make casual conversation "When I first came here I got nearly kicked out on the spot for stirring shit up at Elysium. Out of the four new arrivals from that night I'm the only one who's left, and all the other three disappeared when we needed them most. That's how I know you gotta show some love to the new people. Makes them stay around longer"

    He doesn't comment on the answer to his original question. What'd he say, anyway? That you aren't much of a 'hunter' when you never hunted anything in your life? "You could say I know what I'm doing. When you spend your whole life on the wrong side of the law, you pick up a lot of skills. But when I say you're not bad yourself, I mean it. I mean, you scored higher than brother Cross - the bald guy with the burns - and he's a trained cop" Truth be told, he still found Cross' failure bewildering.

    "A not exactly planned escape? Someone's probably told you, but whatever trouble you skipped - it's not much better here" As far as Longstreet is concerned, it's the only logical conclusion that she must've fled. Probably because of debts she owed or people thought she owed "And if you can't get a gun on your own, Reeve Antinori - the tattoed one - can probably fix you one if you ask nicely. She's a big deal among the local unsavory elements, apparently. You can use mine tonight if it's all the same to you"

    That's right, the official reason they're here is practice. And nobody says they can't both talk and shoot things at the same time.

    "So, the first thing is: mind your legs and arms. If you don't adjust for recoil, best case scenario: you don't hit anything, worst case: you hit yourself or your friend. So, feet shoulder width apart with dominant side foot slightly behind lead foot. Arms extended but relaxed, don't cover your ears with them. Gun in both hands. Fingers off the trigger until you're ready to shoot" Each point is immediately presented in practice as Longstreet adjusts his position. Finally, the trigger is pulled and another cardboard baddie is done for.

      6 successes
    Date Action Roll Result
    2017-10-02 16:05:30 Robert Longstreet rolls 10 to Shoot the prop (Firearms 4 + Dex 3 + Specialty + Gun 2) (10 Again) 9, 10, 4, 1, 3, 4, 9, 9, 10, 10, 3, 1, 2 6 successes


    "Your turn"
    He says, handing Cadence the heavy revolver. He doesn't sound prideful in the slightest, more like curious; he's never taught anyone about anything so it's as much a first time for him as it is for her.

  6. #6
    C
    Cadence Behr

    "Well, I'm a Carthian ... Nominally, at least. No title to speak of. Not much of a point claiming Prefect with no one to represent." Cadence listened intently to the bit about Elysium, realizing it was silly of her to be anxious about her performance at the tournament. Apparently, it could have gone a lot worse. Nearly getting kicked out of Sacramento on the first night would have been overwhelming, to say the least.

    The Anarchist smiles probably a little too wildly at the compliment. She always was a sucker for praise, even if she felt as though it was unwarranted. She ignores the comment about Sacramento being just as much trouble as she fled. That seems very unlikely. The stuff about the Reeve helping her get guns was interesting. She made a mental note of that.

    Listening very intently, Cadence absorbs as much as she can from the Bishop's lesson. She was more a visual learner than anything, and she stared intently at his posture and form as he fired off a round. She accepts the revolver graciously, "Thanks, I appreciate it. I'll have to see about getting myself one as soon as possible. Now let's see what I learned, huh?"

    Taking her time, she places her feet as close as she can to what Robert showed her, relaxes her shoulders, gripping the revolver with both hands and ...

      2 successes
    Date Action Roll Result
    2017-10-04 21:59:21 Cadence rolls 5 to Murdering cardboard (Firearms 1 + Dex 2 + Gun 2) (10 Again) 9, 1, 4, 3, 10, 4 2 successes

    ... she takes out a nasty-looking cardboard ghoul, albeit not as spectacularly as the Haunt did.

    "Well, that wasn't so bad."
    She tries not to look too happy with herself.

  7. #7
    R
    Robert Longstreet

    "A Carthian?" Did they even still make those? "Can't say I've had much contact with your kind back in San Diego. They looked excited, though. Like they believed in something. I just couldn't figure out what. So" He prolongs the vowel "What's the Carthian's deal?"

    Cadence's smile widens at Longstreet's compliment. Daevas: always suckers for praise. Oh well, at least this time it was well-earned. He watches her replicate his stance, take aim, shoot and hit the cardboard ghoul right in the forehead. Impressive - for an apparent beginner.

    "Pretty good. You learn fast. But here's the bad news: in real combat, you need cover. And from that cover you need to be able to assume that stance in less than a second, because if you look around like a tourist you'll end up with a bullet to your brain. But don't worry. You'll get the hang of it in about ten thousand repetitions" A grin blooms on his face. He has more lessons to dish out this evening, but let's see how she'll react to that one first.

    "I didn't catch where you're from" He states matter-of-factly. It'd be another puzzle to this "nominally Carthian" Damned

  8. #8
    C
    Cadence Behr

    "Our deal? I suppose there are as many deals as there are Carthians. Don't see the point in getting so deep in the weeds about ideology," she paused and gave him a sly grin, "Unless you'd like to, Bishop"

    The scrutiny of the Haunt was unnerving, although Cadence did her best to ignore that discomfort. She was grateful for the help. It'd be rude to chafe at his evaluation.

    "Thanks, I appreciate that. You're a good teacher. I take it you've made it through your ten thousand repetitions already? Although I suppose our condition affords us slightly more opportunity for mistakes ... Still, you don't seem like the type for mistakes. Here's hoping I survive mine, huh?" Her tone is not as lighthearted as her words. She is taking this seriously, even if her default mode of expression is snarky remarks. The Brood fight is weighing heavily on her mind.

    The last remark makes her tense up slightly. "I'm from Fresno," she says, flatly. She doesn't elaborate.

  9. #9
    Yumyumcrow's Avatar
    Campanella
    Campanella

    Campanella
    Ingrid

    2
    PRE

    Bullets.

    Bullets ring out into the night. Lost in the urban tangle, no one hears or cares.

    Just the way Kindred like it.

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