[d20 Modern] Gangs of Texas [PG-17] IC

[Nuke261]

Bourbon Street - Alleyway
Fifth Ward
6:45pm

Tommy keeps his hands out at his sides so they are easily within Willy's view. "It's okay Willy, it's just me Tommy. Take your time, get your breathe and strength back, okay?"

Tommy had to admit to himself that he was a little spooked by the other man's behavior. Willy was a good guy and all, but he had been acting a bit odd lately. Tommy just hoped he would be okay.We have barely started dealing with the death of Nguyen's sister, I don't want to see anything happen to Willy, too.

"Here Willy, do you want to take this blanket? Why don't you let me give you a hand. It looks like someone was killed. Someone driving a very nice car in this not-so-nice part of town. You haven't seen anyone driving a shiny, new Mercedes around here, have you?"

 

[KitanaVorr]

Bourbon Street - Alleyway
Fifth Ward
6:45pm

Willy could feel his head, and it wasn't cooperating too much at the moment. But Tommy's words about the car jerks a memory into that haze of paranoia, of a pretty young woman laughing as she whizzes by in a beautiful convertible. Of her buying him a cup of coffee, breakfast, lunch on many occassions, asking him about his nightmares. For every detail of his nightmares. She was the only one who listened. Who seemed to truly believe.

The smell of lavender with a hint of Jasmine, her fragrance hovering in the air of his memory as he recognizes the scent now mixed with blood.

While all this went along in Willy's head, Tommy noticed his sargeant talking to the other officers, gesturing to the car. Then the man glanced Tommy's way, but at a point past him to a blue pickup truck trudging up the lane. Soon it pulls over, and a rather red-faced pudgy man huffsout of it. He swipes a hankerchief over his sweaty forehead before hiking past Tommy toward the crime scene.

Mickey Barton. What was he doing here?

Being a cop, Tommy knows that normally detectives are assigned to precincts, and that Mickey's precinct was downtown along with Jason Nguyen - but lately he had gotten himself assigned to a few different cases around the metropolitan and outlaying areas - like that Fu Kim shooting. How though? A rookie cop like him didn't know.

OOC: TOMMY, DVANG

 

[KitanaVorr]

T-Bull's House - Dining Room
Fifth Ward
8:30 pm

Big Momma's loud booming voice interrupted everyone's conversations. "Now now! We gonna eat now and stuff our faces. I'm sure Jess is just working, late hon," she reassures T-Bull who is looking more and more dour by the second. "You know how forgetful that girl is."

A laugh echoes from Jason. "Yeah, she'd forget her name if it wasn't on her badge."

The evening progresses into dinner, momma's food filling their tummies with good old southern cooking. Aftewards everyone is pretty sure they weren't going to be able to make it up from the table, much less file into the living room.

T-Bull's momma and Malcolm's mother head off with the dishes to put things away, make leftover baggies for guests to take home and get the dessert ready. This leaves T-Bull, Malcolm, Lamar, Amy, Mike, Carlos, and Jason comfortable in the family room. Though Kia hangs out just at the edge to hear the goings on without actually being seen quite yet.

Standing by the front window and not bothering to hide that he is waiting for Jessica, T-Bull glances over the group. "We wanted to git together tonight to do more than eat some of momma's cooking, though momma's cooking works well either way."

The big man sighed. "But we got here to discuss something that's been happening - alot of wrong things that's been happening in our hood - in our home! And somethin' we shouldn't tolerate. Now each of you'se got a story to tell, so tell it - each of you. One at a time, whoever wants to talk, talk. Jason needs to know what's been happening."

OOC: MALCOLM, LAMAR, CARLOS, AMY, KIA, MIKE

 

[Velenne]

T-Bull's House - Dining Room
Fifth Ward
8:30 pm

After a moment of silence, Carlos leans against the couch's armrest and clears his throat,

"I guess I'll start, then. Let me preface this by saying I believe we're all in a little over our heads. Still...you can't help but love this town and I'm willing to do what I can to make sure the little guy doesn't get stepped all over. That said, my part of the story goes like this:

"Last night I got shot. Again. For some reason known only to God Above," he decides to leave out the part where he thinks the bullet was meants for someone else sitting with him, hoping the others figure that out for themselves when he gets to to that part of the story, "Anyway, they gave me some serious medications at the hospital and I'm fine now except for the paranoia, hallucinations and delusions of heroism. Just kidding. I hope.

"Amy took me to the hospital this morning to look at a lab culture pertaining to the West Nile virus. It looked pretty serious to me, but I'm no expert on these things so I'll leave that part to her. I took it upon myself to call up some of the other virology labs in the area. Everyone I talked to gave me the same canned response. 'Nothing like that here. Stop asking.' That kind of thing. Apparently, someone wanted to cover this up pretty badly and wait for the whole thing to blow over.

"When I got back to the virology lab, there were Suits everywhere, taking everything. Maybe it was the meds, but I wanted to do something to stop them. So...I basically made an ass of myself and I doubt I'll have a job tomorrow but hey, at least I tried to do the right thing. The guys said they were CDC but...I'm not buying it. They never showed me any ID, only a letter from hospital brass giving them clearance."

Carlos breaks his oration to sigh. He can't even look at Amy, he's so embarrassed. He keeps his eyes trained on T-Bull or Mike (both of whom have already heard all of this) or Jason.

"I met up with Mike afterwords whose father was also shot last night. We head back to his place on a hunch- why would anyone want to shoot two well-loved, good-looking, All-American guys like me and Mike's dad? As for myself, I couldn't come up with answer. So we searched his dad's room and found some clues. Basically....bugs. You still got that journal Mike?"

He pulls out any of the stuff he may still have from the stash they found in Mr. Mathew's room and lays it on the coffee table.

"Then I'm checking out this pen," he takes it out of his pocket, "Jess's pen, "he pops off the end and pulls out the little tube, "And I find this. Mean anything to you Amy?"

He hands it to her, looking only at her hands, and gives everyone a chance to soak it all in.

 

[Catulle]

T-Bull's House - Dining Room
Fifth Ward
8:30 pm

Though she had started listening to Carlos' analysis with a skeptic's ear, Amy found herself nodding in agreement at the conclusions he was plainly driving at. A telltale furrow formed in her brow as she matched his experiences into the picture which she had, tentatively, sketched out in her mind.

He's trying to avoid eye contact, too. She couldn't help but wonder as to why her colleague was being so unusually evasive even as he expounded; the nonsense he spouted when he was nervous, the sea-change from his demeanour over breakfast. Not that she believed the medication excuse for a moment, firmly affixing the blame on the peculiarities of the Y chromosome. What had changed? Her eyes moved over to the girl in the doorway and her mind cast back to dinner. Kia... of course.

She took the small vessel from the pen when it was proffered, vainly attempting to catch Carlos' eyes with her own as she did so, before turning her attention to the object, holding it to catch more light and turning it over in two narrow fingers, studying the liquid's properties squinting as she tried to categorise it.

"I don't know. Without the equipment the CDC confiscated, anything I say will be pure speculation. You say Michael's father was an Entomologist? Which species did he collect and where did he get them?" She turned to Mike with a polite smile, her voice coming faster and more certain as she found herself on more familiar ground. "And in the case of the West Nile, we know it's a virus in a state of mutation; if Mr Matthews' insects were another link in our unfolding mystery..."

A quaver stole into her voice, and it was T-Bull she fixed her mind on next "...Jess isn't late anymore, she's absent. She hasn't called and I can't get through to her cellphone. The vial was in her pen and she was interested in West Nile..."

When she looked at her brother, Amy's eyes were pleading even if she kept a thin mask of calm across her face. She could barely hear the conversation in the room, so lound was the pulse of blood in her ears.

 

[Keia]

After hearing the story given by Carlos, Malcolm added some of his comments as well.

"If we're talking about bugs and a virus, Jeffrey, my younger brother, had a whole case of bug spray in his bedroom. Almost as if someone had either given it to him or told him to use it," Malcolm finished.

Malcolm looked to Lamar to talk about what happened at scholl and thereafter, but Malcolm knew that he would tell it himself before too much longer.

 

[Fanog]

T-Bull's House - Dining Room
Fifth Ward
8:30 pm

A triumphant smile appears on Kia's face as she hears her brother speak. See? I knew something was up. And it wouldn't be him if he weren't keeping his 'little sister' out of it. Yeah, he's probably just assumed I was helped Momma with the dishes. Hah, serves him right...

Her mood takes on a darker edge as she hears Carlos speak. She hasn't forgotten about his words that had scared her during diner. Her thoughts of triumph vanish as she realizes that whatever is happening might acually endanger those she knows and loves. A worry grows in Kia's mind, urging her to consider if listening in is actually such a good idea. She forcefully pushes those thoughts away. Stop that. If T is in danger, I think I have a right to know. In that case, it concerns Momma and me as well. If Jess isn't here to talk some sense into him - Well, someone has to. Jess...

It may be subconsciously, but Kia takes a slight step closer to the doorframe. No, you don't want to be get caught here, snooping in on their conversation. But you do want to hear what's going on. Try as she might, Kia can't seem to get rid of that nagging feeling in the back of her skull, that voice that keeps telling her that they would probably let her in on everything once someone would spot her.

 

[KitanaVorr]

T-Bull's House - Dining Room
Fifth Ward
8:30 pm

Amy's words about Jess seem to shake T-Bull into a more dark silence. His big hands curl into fists without thinking, his mind miles away to wherever she could possibly be.

Jason coughs, looking worried, but still intent on what everyone was saying. "You think that there's something wrong with this...west nile thing...you'll have to forgive me, sis, but when you talk bugs or whatever the heck it is...I just wanna take a nap." He gives his sister wry grin. "What's so important about it exactly? Why would anyone care about bugs?"

"And how do you figure Jess is involved in this? I mean, sure she's got a knack for always getting in trouble...doesn't know how to stay out of people's business...but then to us cops and lawyers...your business is our business, eh?"

"And so you guys all think that the hit on Fu Kim was meant to take out someone? Any ideas who? And what's your story, Mr. Matthews?"

His keen eye didn't miss Kia in the background and he gave her a friendly smile, waving for her to join the group. "What about you, Kia? Anything you want to add?"



OOC: MALCOLM, LAMAR, CARLOS, AMY, KIA, MIKE

 

[Fanog]

T-Bull's House - Dining Room
Fifth Ward
8:30 pm

Kia gives a startled jump as she hears herself being adresses by Jason. "Ah, er... I was just, er..."
Excuses ain't going to cut it, and you know it. Get it over with; just continue in the conversation and they may forget about it.

"Well," Kia starts as she takes a few paces into the room, "I don't know too much about this whole business, but I did read some articles about it in the paper, yesterday. We're talking about those mosquitos, right?"

As she speaks, she enters further into the room. Noticing the terrible state that T-Bull is in she walks over to him, seating herself on the armrest of his chair.

"As I read it, the problem isn't so much that the virus has changed, but that it's now being carried by a different kind of mosquito. - Or is that just a result of the fact that this virus is mutated?" She turns to Amy at that last question, trying her best to recollect what she read.

"There was another small article on the virus in the paper this morning, as I recall. That's two days in a row, which means that they probably have a reporter who's looking into this. Carlos, if you're drawing blanks with the officials, wouldn't it be worth it to ask this person if he has the same troubles? He might know something - or maybe someone - that we don't..."

 

[Velenne]

T-Bull's House - Dining Room
Fifth Ward
8:30 pm

"And so you guys all think that the hit on Fu Kim was meant to take out someone? Any ideas who?"

Sorry, T...

"Well...I think it's so obvious by now there's no point in denying it. Jess and Mr. Mathews knew each other, both of them working on something related to mosquitos. I was sitting right next to Jess at Fu Kim..." he looks at Malcom, "Now you say your brother's into gangs and he's got a bunch of bug spray? They suspected the shooting might be gang-related. But what's the connection between the gangs, the bugs, and the Suits?"

"...Carlos, if you're drawing blanks with the officials, wouldn't it be worth it to ask this person if he has the same troubles? ..."

Carlos smacks his forehead,

"Duh! Why didn't I of that earlier? Good thinking; I'll get a copy of those papers before I leave."