A Queen's Coffee Court

[Circe]

Circe smiles at him, "As a general in this grand game," she puffs up, "I always want a bigger war chest. Until I reach Doom Slayer levels, then" she deflates with a faux look of horror, "It'll be murder on my back. But yes, that could work for getting things started. I know some folks."


She already had the closest mundy armor she could get to Doom Slayer. As for his choice of shields, "Captain America is cool," she nods in agreement. The attention she'd garnered with that outburst is seeming to wax now that she isn't be so, well, standard Fairest exploit. "Can't figure out how he does the throw and return, superhero bullshit."


She sips her cup and gags on it when he reveals his intent to be a cup. It goes up her nose causing her to, well, the attractiveness of a Fairest doesn't really work all that well with brown snot. The mug is back on the table and the napkins wiping her face, and she coughs. The irony of him being a cup to her being a ex mafia princess and gun runner? That was a surprise. Hell, raiding her Hollow would net him enough to get at least a promotion.


"Ahem," she holds up her free hand as she cleans herself off. "Sorry. Unexpected officer." She clears her throat and then puts the napkin to her face for a strong blow. Better, and less people paying attention now because disgusting. "Yer in good company for the cold burn, tempered rage inta a fine tool instead of going Leeroy Jenkins, Internet if ya don't know that one," she drops from a sales pitch voice to matter of fact briefly. "I've some feelers in the opposite direction in town. Hence finding what ya want. Professionalism however," she nods at this, "Requires this. Warnings fer the club, not for our work either way. The club is the important thing," that was her feelings anyway. Not that she'd turn down the warnings mind you. "I mean, if some trouble leaves the thorny park, the cops will be as effective as they were in Monster Squad. Save warnings fer that."


She puts down the napkin, her face cleaner now. "Though if some competitor of mine happens ta get some bracelets?"


The pretty smile from before Circe had given him? Yeah, the nose bit kind ruined it but still probably nice. "I could give hints."

[Gawain Avellone]

Annnnd she lost him. That metaphor was starting to get out of hand. Was she still talking about cash? Was she only talking about her actual chest? And what was Doom Slayer levels? That wasn't a reference to the guy from Doom... was it? Was he still relevant? Whatever, he got his answer. His cash would suffice for now, or at least would've sufficed for a preliminary ID. Might still be good to build more capital. Unfortunate. He disliked futzing about with the stock market, but his current job of freelancing wasn't exactly great for bettering his buying power.

"Ooh, you like Captain America too? Comics weren't usually my thing, by I did like the guy. He's kinda got a similar thing to Batman. Sure, he's got a super soldier serum boosting him up, but he's ultimately just a human with a shield taking on threats no one else can face. Kinda resonates with me now."

Ah. Judging from that intense reaction, Circe was on the opposite side of the law. Her next words confirmed it. How strange that two people like them who should be diametrically opposed would end up as bedfellows.

"Understood. I suppose at the end of the day, I should stick with the people I'm closest in kin with. Blood is thicker than water and all. We may not be blood, but the club gets me more than the law. I'll make sure to remember who butters my bread."

The words tasted acrid his mouth. Only entertaining the idea of joining law enforcement and already he was all but admitting to be as dirty a cop as they came. Hell, he was making deals with an admitted criminal just as a matter of getting introduced to the city. His morals were broken before they could even truly form. But what choice did he have? He'd learned in the Renton Freehold that not everything they dealt with could be handled via mundane law. The life of Changelings had its own set of laws and requirements.

"Much like the good Captain, I intend to be a shield. For both the club and the public at large. Protection against the greater evils. This seems the way to do it. Although... by the same merit, maybe we don't become that greater evil? I might be able to turn a blind eye to some things, but if one of the club starts becoming a menace to society... maybe it would be better for me to get to them before someone less sympathetic takes them in."

[Circe]

Circe nods in agreement. At least he got the jist of it. "Ya can build it up, get proper foundation now. Make it more," she shrugs, "More later." At least that is what she'd done with her own ID work. "And keep the cop thing on the DL until after ya get the strong credits. Otherwise, the mundies doing the work will try ta get some leverage on ya."


Gawain's choice of words makes her pause in sipping her coffee. She smiles, red pupils sparkle like rubies on oil in her eyes. "Well, ya bread my mind. Watching out fer each other is the yeast we can do." She chimes in cheerfully as Gawain talks of buttered bread, "I can keep going. I'm totes on a roll here." His pragmatism was appreciated. She'd certainly not trust the law with punishing a Freeholder. Execution was better than a jail cell for most Lost. And he seemd to be of like mind.


She nods in agreement, "Broken things understand what it means." And wasn't that solemn. As for becoming greater evils? "I don't think anybody in the club has tried to do it the Scooby Way," she scrunches up her face in thought. Had Rhodes or another Autumn done that whilst she was here? No? Probably No. "So, none have gone inta murderous faked monster mode."

[Gawain Avellone]

"Well luckily I was able to get a decent ID before I moved here, so making it more is all I have left to do. Hopefully it'll be easy to take what's there and build on top of it, but sometimes it isn't that easy. I don't know what entirely goes into fabricating records, but I know some programs don't play nice with each other and walking blindly into someone else's project requires time to untangle what the last person was doing before you can even begin making headway on it. But I appreciate the heads up and will take it to heart."

3 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2023-03-14 02:04:41	Gawain Avellone rolls 4 to smile and nod (Composure 3 + Subterfuge 1) (10 Again)	10, 3, 10, 3, 10, 2, 5	3 successes

Gawain's mind was not assuaged by Circe peppering her response with puns. In his mind, he was making a promise with an intent to break it by half-assing his job when it came to people he was complicit with. That Circe could take things so jovially seemed to speak to how comfortable she was with having people look the other way. He could rationalize it all he wanted, but his mind raced with what might happen due to his complacency. ...But that was a problem for the future. And she didn't need to know how serious he was taking this or that her words rankled him. This was but a minor issue at the moment and he could smile along with her jokes even if he found their taste to be poor.

"Glad to hear it. And let's hope they never shall. As for me, I suppose I'll still need to make money doing something. I'll see what sort of freelance work is around the city. I'd like to keep my skills sharp, but I suppose I'll settle for a nice paycheck at the end of the week."

[Circe]

"That," she tips her cup to Gawain, "Will help. Build off a foundation? That's a concrete way ta thicken the records," she giggles at the construction puns. Circe wasn't trying to put anything it ease with the puns, she just pun-ished the world. As for his subtle lies?

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2023-03-15 22:18:23	Circe rolls 6 to Wits + Subterfuge (10 Again)	7, 10, 7, 5, 6, 4, 8	2 successes

What lies? He was copacetic with not screwing the Freehold out of her Ironside assets and she not out of his police connections. All good and practical, reason over all else. "And I trust yer in the negative upon harming to drive folks off, right? Because I," she places her left hand on her chest, "Am all for wearing a silly mask and going ooga-booga ta scare off stupid kids. Sounds fun. Probably legal if it is yer own property too. Uh, would it be?"

He should know, right? If Gawain was to be a cop, he could tell her if Scooby-ing Funderland was legal if she "worked' there.


As far as work goes, "That depends on yer skill set whether I can help ya or not with that," she tells him regarding his work desires. Circe knew if he was going cop, then he couldn't go for helping with her real job. Side hustles? Yeah, sure. "What skill set ya got outside of yer desired office? I talk too much. But that means I know lots of folks in town."

[Gawain Avellone]

Gawain offers a shrug to her question as to the legality of frightening children.

"Probably? I can't think of any reason why that wouldn't be allowed. Heck, I think even a bit of violence is allowed if you can call it self-defense. I'm not against that kind of harming folks. Outside of that... yeah, harming people probably shouldn't be our go-to solution." He couldn't really help her with the written law side of things. Not yet anyways. He may have an intent to join law enforcement, but it wasn't built on an intricate knowledge of what law he was enforcing. Perhaps something to look into later, though.

"Well, I suppose what I picked up the most during my exodus was how to beat up on things with whatever was closest at hand. Not sure if that's really a marketable skill, though. I'm generally more physically able now than before. On the other hand, before my exodus, I was actually a computer programmer. Me and my buddies had a go at making some video games. It would take some relearning, I'm not sure about working in game development again, and the programs and OS's are totally different these days, but then again, even programming back then required you to know how to be flexible and problem solve for yourself."

[Circe]

Circe pays attention as Gawain gives her legal advice. Positive, she could now ask a cop about this kind of stuff without having to come up with excuses. Or use her props connections. "So," she puts down her coffee and folds her hands in front of her nasal labial trough. Id est, the Gendo Pose, "Scooby and the gang were the criminals when the costumed baddies were haunting their own property? Throw in the guy with the munchies and talking dog," Circe dramatically sighs, "Brother, I'd Venture some bad implications about the mystery hunting, don't ya think?"


Smashy faces was a marketable skill Gawain had. Except him wanted to be on Straight and Narrow instead of its corner. It could work for demolition profession, if he wanted to smash, get paid to smash. Programming? "Ah," she perks up at that. "I've that as a side hustle. Programming," she nods, "Securing systems, apps, gmod base, emulation of oldies, everybody wants something and everybody can pay fer something. But I haven't touched Raid Shadow Legends." She frowns at Gawain before getting thoughtful, "Hell, I've even coded emulators for an non profs. That's weird ain't it?" she shrugs as she doesn't even recall the nonprofit's name. "What game generation? Folks love retro games on their touch screens. I can help ya learn if ya want. My skills are numerous," she waves her arms wide with a proud smirk on her face.

[Gawain Avellone]

"Yes, as it turns out Hannah-Barbara is perhaps not the model to follow when it comes to investigating things that go bump in the night. Go figure."

Gawain leans in as the topic turns to something he was once invested in. Granted, everything beforehand concerned him as well, but this? It was like opening a high school yearbook to look back on yesteryear. "Sounds like a there's a lot of opportunity there. Probably works well with my nocturnal habits as well. I'd be open to exploring the field again, even if it's just a temporary dalliance. I worked with the 8-bit generation. The NES, Sega Master System, some home computer endeavors. We tried casting a wide net. ...Unfortunately, that net was frayed and riddled with holes."

[Circe]

As for his experience, that had potential. "NES, I remember that," she nods with a smile. Old school it was called now, or Nintendo Hard since they couldn't have story. "Well, a lot of that generation is out of copyright so, easy ta emulate. Or just free because nobody cares enough ta buy the dross ta siphon out the gold," Circe tries to explain but it isn't her focus. So Gawain might know better than her on this. Like she said, side hussle.


That and she wasn't going to admit to a future cop that she also did hacking for the Freehold and her business.


"Plenty of folks," she pulls out her phone and starts checking those list servs. Her tone is jovial and she is all smiles at Gawain, "Are looking for coders on commission. Internet! Short term work and pay, but I know the cappelli di ya should avoid." Circe gets a serious look on her face as she points at Gawain, "Do NOT take BitCoin. They're trying ta hustle ya if they do that. Nobody trades 'em fer cash without a big cut, not worth it."


He was planning to join Summer, so she had to make sure he wasn't a rube.

[Gawain Avellone]

Ah, so she had experience with that generation of games.

"Are you then perhaps familiar with either Journey to Camelot or Journey to Avalon? I would consider those probably our best work." He wanted to take pride in what he had made, he really did. Of course, if Circe did recall anything about them, it was that they were somewhat generic high fantasy beat-em-ups with stiff controls and muddy visuals. They had not been well-received at the time and certainly hadn't improved with age.

"Internet, understood. Once I get reacquainted with what people are working with these days, I'll start looking for gigs. If this works out, I'll be happy to have it as another source of income. Sounds like it should fit my schedule too. Might even leave a bit of room left to help out at the club."

He took her warning about BitCoin to heart with a firm nod. He was embarrassed to admit he wasn't as caught up on modern technology as he once had been. He didn't have any investments in that, did he? Crap, he'd definitely need to re-examine his portfolios.