Nazareth Awakened - Chapter 02: Wives of Solomon

[TillForPie]

Agnasci
Big Rich makes his way to the couch and drops onto it like he owns the place. He gestures to a nearby armchair before tearing open the case of beer and pulling free a can, opening it with a crack and setting it down on the table. It's not an offer, but a demand. He gets a second beer for himself and is about to open it when he freezes at the sound of a woman's voice.

"I told you I don't want you around here anymore, BR." Rachel's standing in the doorway to the bedroom, a bathrobe pulled closed around her.

Crack. Rich opens his beer and takes a sip. "Why don't you go on back in your room, honey? Give us boys some privacy."

Rachel considers Rich anxiously, glancing aside at Agnasci for... anything. She summons her courage and steps out of the bedroom. "No, Rich," her voice raised, "You need to get the hell out of here."

Quick as thunder and with a voice to match, Big Rich is on his feet with a fat finger pointed at her. "GET BACK IN YOUR HOLE." His roar hurts Agnasci's ears and sends Rachel tumbling back into her bedroom, slamming and locking the door behind her.

He settles back onto the couch, taking a few more sips of beer and letting out a long sigh. "You need to get control of that woman, little buddy." Little buddy. His tone is never not patronizing. He smiles, the rage from a moment ago forgotten. "Here for business. But first: You got that stuff?"

 

[Mosier]

"Of course I don't have the stuff," Orlando says. "You think I keep it here?"

Big Rich is a tough person to handle. It takes effort just to avoid violence, let alone get him to do what you want. Orlando would rather have to sweet talk an educated, upper-middle class suburbanite than this unpredictable monster.

Orlando pulls out his phone and flips the sound off. "Tell you what," Orlando says casually. "Give me two hours. It takes a bit of time to make the papers clean, and I'd rather not be on the wrong end of the prison bars again." While he talks, Orlando turns the camera on and snaps a photo of Big Rich, hopefully without the man realizing it. (Subterfuge 3, Dex 2, +2 from willpower, +2 Destiny dice, total = 9 dice).

It's a terrifying thing, doing something that could easily get him smashed to bits, maybe even killed, if discovered. Also kind of thrilling, though. Say your prayers, prick. You're gonna regret barging into my house.

Agnasci pretends to have trouble dialing a number. In reality, he's texting the photo of Big Rich to Chance. Immediately after the text sends, Agnasci calls Chance's number.

"I hope you check your messages," Agnasci says into the phone. "Time frame moved up. Meet me at our office, now."

When he hangs up, Orlando says to Rich, "You don't want to be around here until it's ready. I'll give you a call when it's time." (Manipulation 4, Persuasion 4)

 

[Rubberneck]

After the meeting with Penrose, Law walks himself home. Not to long later he's standing outside looking at the house he'd lived in almost all his life. For as long as he could remember this was home. Probably always would be. After his mom dies the house would go to her only son, Dominic. He walks inside trying to be as quiet as possible, even though he could probably drive his truck through the side of it and park outside her bedroom door without waking her. He's had the same room for as long as he could remember, over time the room changed just as he had. Posters of movie characters, trophies, and action figures once adorned the room, now it stood bare, with only a bed, a dresser, and a small bedside table. He quickly got undressed, placing his badge and gun in the drawer of the table. He laid down and waited for sleep to come to him.

 

[TillForPie]

Chance
It's 7:14 AM. Chance is still asleep. She doesn't have to be at work for a few hours, and when she goes in she'll be Constance again, until tonight.

Her phone buzzes from beneath the bed, still in her pants pocket. She's getting a text. A moment later the ringtone plays and she stirs.

Law
7:00 AM. Law is woken by the blaring of his alarm clock. Time for Dominic to head to work. He rolls over and takes his phone from his bedside table: Two texts are waiting for him from Vera, his Phoenix Police Department contact.

traci mitchell nazareth res 2213 e whisper creek rd

dow r a nevada mc

 

[Shayuri]

Chance, or Constance, sat up bolt upright when her phone chimed and exclaimed, "That's MY pasta!"

She looked around, blinking, trying to clear her head. She was still dressed, in bed. The last thing she remembered was sitting down to do a quick wiki search of a few things, with a can of Dew on the coaster by her computer. Her eyes widened, and she quickly checked her watch against the clock above her dresser. It was synced up via the Internet with an atomic clock in Europe somewhere.

It showed her watch was 2 minutes off. She sagged with relief. Not missing time then. Must have gotten herself to bed while so fatigue-fogged she didn't remember it.

She grabbed her phone off the rickety little end table by her bed and clicked it on.

"It's early," she complained to whoever-the-hell-it-was. Only a handful of people had the number after all.

While she talked, Constance saw the little text flag thing, and brought that up too. Multitasking!

 

[TillForPie]

Chance
"Time frame moved up." It's Agnasci. "Meet me at our office now." The line goes dead.

The text has a photo. It's the large Dog of War she'd seen during her glimpse back in time, reclining on a couch with a beer in hand.

Agnasci
"Screw it. I'll be hitting the hay before long and you've got bigger fish to fry." Big Rich leans to the side so he can pull a lighter and a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and Agnasci catches the glint of a gun. "Dr Weinberg," his use of the name drips with contempt, "Guy works at Sonoran Medical. His kid is into Smiley for a couple large." Smiley, along with BR and Buddha-man, rounds out the three Dogs of War Agnasci's familiar with. Smiley gets his name from the hideous facial scar that he acquired in a bike accident twenty years ago. "So we go to daddy and lay out his options - it's a whole thing. I don't wanna get into it."

He sets his beer down and smacks the pack of cigarettes against the palm of his hand before pulling free a smoke. He perches the cigarette between his lips and continues. "Anyway - drink your damn beer - plan is that Weinberg uses his in to get us some stuff. I'm sure that place is packed with the goods." Rich lights his cigarette and takes a pull. He pushes his sunglasses to his forehead with his thumb, revealing a pair of black eyes. "But Weinberg's growing a conscience all of a sudden and it's last notice time. I've been told you're a..." He puts his cigarette to his lips, smirking. "People person." His shoulders roll in a chuckle as he takes another smoke. He doesn't seem to have faith in Agnasci's abilities. "And you'd know what to be on the lookout for. It all works out. We just might let you wet your beak if you grease the wheels with Weinberg."

 

[Rubberneck]

Law shoots back a reply simply saying thanks. He then hops in the shower and gets ready for work. His first order of business once on the clock is checking the address he got from Vera.

 

[Shayuri]

"Office?" Chance sputtered, flabbergasted. "What?" But too late, Agnasci had hung up. She started to dial him back, but then the picture finished loading and she stopped in mid-keypress. The next word out of her mouth would be tastefully bleeped in the network TV miniseries of her exploits.

Not talking to her...talking to him. Agnasci needed help!

She hurriedly changed into a different shirt (an olive green t-shirt with a 'scowly face' on it, and the slogan 'Have a nice day (somewhere else)' underneath) and grabbed her acidwashed denim jacket that was not at all needed for weather, but which would help her hide her slim .22 automatic pistol quite nicely. A SlimJim and a swallow of orange juice would have to do for breakfast. Her sunglasses rounded the 'ensemble' out.

 

[GlassEye]

Harper, Thyrsus mage

[section]

Harper woke quickly. It was one benefit of having lived on the streets. If you didn't you might lose your stuff or worse. He scrambled to his feet not speaking to Faye. He rubbed his hands through his close-cropped hair and internally grumbled about the chores Faye made him do. If he was at the supermarket toting bags around he wouldn't be making any money. But then again, with all the strangeness of the previous night he'd probably be out trying to find answers instead of busking anyway.

Harper looked up at Crow and summoned the creature down despite Faye's disapproving glare. "He can't stay in here all day," he mutters. "I'll let him out and then we can go."

​

[/section]

 

[Mosier]

"I've been told you're a..." He puts his cigarette to his lips, smirking. "People person." His shoulders roll in a chuckle as he takes another smoke. He doesn't seem to have faith in Agnasci's abilities. "And you'd know what to be on the lookout for. It all works out. We just might let you wet your beak if you grease the wheels with Weinberg."

"Of course I'm a people person," Agnasci says, cracking open the beer. "I keep you happy, don't I?" Agnasci takes a huge swig and sets the can down on the table. It feels good. Loosens him up. Makes the whole dance flow a little more smoothly.

"All right," Agnasci says. "I'll talk to Weinberg for you. Why don't you get some sleep, and I'll have his answer by the time you wake up."

If Big Rich insists on confronting Weinberg now, Agnasci will go with him without protest. He knows better than to directly challenge this knuckle-head.