Next ! (Raul Dominguez)

[Helen Kingsley]

The provided address leads into a pretty nondescript apartment building. Not very big and altogether rather forgettable in a quiet neighborhood where most of the houses look the same. Following the logic of bells and/or postboxes, the way goes through the ground section of a staircase, cluttered with all sorts of things that have been pushed over the faded linoleum floor and against the stained wallpaper, past some cardboard boxes with undefined content and down the stairs.

Following the stairs downwards, the floor gets dustier and the feint smell of heating oil sneaks up on unwitting visitors. Once activated, the lights flicker a while before slowly dying off again. Still, two doors can be made out: A blue metal door at the end of the corridor and a dark brown wooden one in the right hand wall a few feet before the metal door. It has something that looks like a lightswitch next to it as well as another doorbell with the faded name 'Kingsley' on it. The only other things sticking out in the mostly dark corridor is the pair of worn sneakers that stands next to the door and the oddly clean doormat in front of the door.

[Raul]

The Savage arrives at the provided address, parking his car and giving the building a bit of a look over. He hmmphs softly to himself and grabs a dagger from his glove compartment and slips the sheath onto his belt, adjusting his jacket around him to hide it as he walks the distance to the stairs and down into the hallway. The predator's eyes adjust to the darkness after the lights flicker and he makes his way to the metal door. He looks around, wary, cautious, and grabs onto his Beast to keep it under control before he presses the button labelled 'Kingsley' and waits for a response.

Raúl is dressed tonight in a pair of dark jeans and red button-up dress shirt beneath his black leather jacket, the hem of which comes down enough to hide the blade at his hip, for now.

[Helen Kingsley]

The doorbell goes.

Punctual, can't say anything against that. She walks to the door and undoes the locks. Raul can hear at least the locks outside. The door opens and the Reeve becomes visible. She's wearing a bright green t-shirt, jeans and dark grey socks. As she sees her prospective guest, her first instinct is to slam the door right back into his face, but she doesn't. Still, her fingers tighten against the door, as he might notice. Or not. In any case, she is blushed.

"Evening. Come in, leave your shoes at the door. How you'd like to be addressed ?"

She makes a gesture towards the right inside side of the door where a pair of sneakers is standing next to a pair of what looks like Army boots, right beneath three unoccupied hooks for jackets and the like. As Raulö enters, he is welcomed by the feint smell of something like bread and a hefty dose of incense.

The room they are entering is dominated by a table that currently has little on it except for a small box with some balls of wool, and two knitting needles (that, if he has any idea about the stuff, seem to be a bit longer and also pointier than necessary) sticking out from a half-finished sock. One of the chairs is pulled back. Near the sink on the side, a few towels cover what would most likely the hotplate section. The spot next to that is occupied by a water heater, a coffee machine and a microwave. The cupboard at the wall next to a door holds all sorts of bags and boxes with small stuff between. A Seattle Seahawks cap and scarf hang from one of the shelves, right next to some balls of wool, a stack of music tapes, a radio and some CDs.

In the far left side, a small red light is hanging from the ceiling and illuminated a small table in that corner of the room. It holds three books, all of which look rather worn, a scraped and dented metal coffee box that clearly has seen better days, two small glass bottles and something that looks like an ornate pot on a pedestal and that is plugged into the wall socket. Four pictures, the only pictures in the room, are hanging above the table and look straight at the newcomer.

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Helen goes right back to the table, not too far from the small fridge and lets herself fall back into the chair.

"Nice we could arrange it, took a bit, sorry for that. Can I offer you anything ?"

[Raul]

Raúl does indeed notice that tensing in the Haunt before him. It mirrors his own as his Beast snarls at him to tear this creature apart, but he's in control as he gives a nod to the Reeve. He notices the flush in her cheeks and wills some of the blood he took tonight to fill his own flesh with the facsimile of life. A smile grows on his lips as she bids him welcome and he takes a step inside, looking around for a moment.

"Evening," he says, his voice coming out with a slight accent that's hard to place other than it sounds vaguely European. "I'm not terribly picky what I'm called, outside of official functions." He shifts his weight slightly and lifts one foot up to tug his sneaker off before shifting to the other foot to do the same, grunting slightly with each tug of a shoe. He sets them next to the other shoes and gives a small wiggle of his toes in his socks. "Raúl... Mr. Domínguez... Just Domínguez is fine too. Do you have a preference on how you'd like to be addressed?"

He pauses for a moment before shrugging out of his leather jacket and then hanging it on the hook above his shoes. He walks across the room, looking at the pictures hanging on the wall and another smile grows on his features. He glances off to the side at something, at nothing, and then back to Helen, moving to take a seat.

"Oh, that's perfectly fine. We each have busy lives. I'm just glad that we could meet up," he says with a shake of his head. "No, I'm good, thanks. I already ate this evening."

[Helen Kingsley]

"As long as there's no official business, Helen works just fine. No need to blow stuff out of proportion, I mean, this ain't some corporation or the Army."

She sits down, picks up the box and swipes the knitting stuff into it.

"Ssssssoooooo..." she looks at Raul while she draws out the word. "You wrote to me that you'd like to work for me. That makes the fun question: What can yo do for me, what qualifications do you have, what are you good at, what are you bad at ?"

Helen leaves a little dramatic pause.

"Not that this is going to be an interrogation. Just wondering... What do you think I should know about you to make an informed decision about whether to take you on or not ?"

[Raul]

He nods when she gives him her name, smirking slightly at saying this isn't the Army. Interesting boot choice then.

He chuckles slightly and gives a small nod. "Definitely not one to mince words. I like that," he says with a small smirk as he sits up a bit straighter in his seat. "Technically, I said work with you but for you is definitely more accurate." He glances around the room again, making sure there's no one else that he can see and the door is closed and sealed again before beginning. He knows he's with another Vampire, his Beast is glaring at Helen from behind his eyes, but he still doesn't want to risk problems.

"In life, I served as a police officer so I've had training in hand to hand combat. I'm skilled with grappling and subduing individuals in a non-lethal manner. I also was trained in firearms but due to some an incident, I haven't fired one in many years. I'd be willing to change that, if needed, but I tend to be a more up close and personal sort of guy. After I became what I am now, I left the force and put my skills to use as a bounty hunter so I've had some experience with locating people who don't necessarily want to be found." He pauses for a moment. "I am comparatively new to this life than a lot of others. I'm sturdier than your average guy and working on making my punches pack a bit more of a beating."

[Helen Kingsley]

"Eh, time's too short for bullshit." She shrugs. "With me, under me... We both know what's meant." She swiftly wipes the technicality aside with a short gesture. "Police officer, thats nice. What made you want to be one ? You'v been mostly walking the beat or you got into any specialties before you... left ?" She nods as he brings up the firearms. "As you like it. I only have mine because bringing fists to a gunfight seriously sucks and it can be useful to scare off idiots." She gives him a longer look as he talks about locating people who don't want to be found. "That's a plus, looks like you just might be able to lend a hand in a few things..."

She doesn't elaborate, though. For now. "I heard there's going to be a little tournament in the near future. You're planning to take part in anything ?"

[Raul]

He smirks at the mention of time being too short for an immortal but doesn't comment on that. He nods and chuckles slightly before saying. "I almost had to, really. Everyone in my Mom's family was on the force and it was almost expected of me. Mind you, I didn't mind it. The law and the importance of it has always been valued highly in my family. I try to keep on the good side of it but now some compromises have to be made." he says with a small shrug. "Mostly a beat cop, yeah. I was being groomed for detective and was almost there when I had to take a long vacation and then had to put in a request for only night shifts. My inability to compromise with that dashed the detective prospects as a detective needs to be available at all times of the day..." he says. Resentment? Maybe a bit.

"I'm putting my hat into the hand-to-hand combat. I haven't touched a fencing foil since high school. Chess is fun but I'm sure there are better players in town than I am. I forget what the fourth task was..."

[Helen Kingsley]

"Ain't that the truth."

Helen knows how that goes, compromising on stuffs most folks never think they'd have to compromise on some day. Some sad fact of their existence, but there it is. She ponders suggesting her standard option, but then, why ? Too late anyway and why stir up that whole 'I shoulda done x' shit. No need to lament shit you can't change anymore. "It's always a shitshow, especially if you love what you do and can't anymore. Or at least not like you used to. But as you say, compromise keeps the ball rolling." Hell, she still remembers how fun it was for her until she was confident enough to get back into it.

"Nice, I look forward to that." She chuckles. "Way too few people worth beating up in town, most of the good ones left and at least going by appearance, a lot of the others prefer other ways or aren't that good." That's of course risky, even someone way worse can land some good stuff, but still, she doesn't consider most of the folks in the domain on par. She's open to getting schooled, though. As is, she shrugs. "I've never touched a foil, really, best I can do is some rebar and lead pipes." Sure other stuff too, but that's way out of what fencing is like. "Chess... Eh, I've been pushed into it as a kid, it was some sort of people's sport. It's fun and kinda interesting but I was never really that good at it." She ponders a little. "Something with dexterity, I think." Another shrug. "Still, I'm going up in everything, just to see what happens." Because why the fuck not ?

"So, how are your shadowing and people's skills ?"

[Raul]

Raúl nods in agreement, shifting in his seat. "Yeah. Sometimes you've got to give up the things you love in order to keep them safe." he says.

He smirks over to her as he nods. "Yeah? Well, I mean... that's a good thing though, right? If they don't need beating up, I mean.." he says with a chuckle. He nods as he listens to her descriptions of the planned events and nods. "I might do that too.. It's not going to hurt to try them and who knows, I might just win them all." he says with a bit of grin.

"I would call my shadowing skills to be adequate. I'm Gangrel so I don't hide as well as the Shadows or the Haunts do, but then again few do. My Sire did though, so maybe it'll rub off on me too." he says with shrug. "My people skills are okay but some probably would say they could be improved."