4818/Crossroads and Where to Find Them

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Crossroads and Where to Find Them
Date of Scene: 21 January 2021
Location: Koko's Workshop
Synopsis: Blade gains a wealth of information and a plan.
Cast of Characters: Eric Brooks, Kokumo Adebesi




Eric Brooks has posed:
Blade's borrowed motorcycle has treated him well.  BMWs tend to have softer seats than his usual ride, along with wider windshields and cowlings.  It makes for an altogether more comfortable ride, as is evidenced by the fact that his Ducati has been parked for the last few days. 

He's treated the BMW pretty well, all things considered.  There aren't any scratches, nicks, or dings, which in and of itself is a surprise.  Moreso is the fact that he's returning it freshly washed and with a full tank. 

There's etiquette to be maintained.

Blade coasts in, having shifted down into neutral as he first approached Koko's warehouse.  Once he's stopped, he props himself on one foot and revs the engine in the vehicular version of a not-so-subtle doorbell.  

Kokumo Adebesi has posed:
A girl could smell her own.

It was akin to sniffing out a tray of shrimp tacos that were on the way to her table, is how she knew that Blade was on approach. Not to say that Blade was hers, but the bike that he rode was. The smell of clean exhaust and fresh gas does wonders for the serotonin. The rumble/roar of the bike gained him entry; the bay doors to her warehouse opened as slow as they did with the usual clicks, cranks and racket. He knew where to put the bike, she wasn't going to tell him, but as he wheels himself in, he'd see his own vehicle, parked in the same spot, and shined to near perfection.

The thing could release a few sparkles and sing in a tenor bass operatic fashion as it starts up. Everything has been replaced, refreshed, updated. She did not add unnecessary things, only freshened it up and tuned out the bulletholes and added oil where there were squeaks. Engine wasn't polished but damn, you can eat a banana off of it. Tires, new. Not rotated.

Koko herself, actually looks dressed for the night. Even though it's cold, she does manage to keep an all black ensemble; thigh high boots which cover sheer leggings, skirt above said boots, thin black shirt and buckles. So.. many buckles.

She looks like a little gothic raver though her hair is down, straight, slick, makeup black. Her feet pound towards the car as she waits by it, offering up a wave.

"I was just about to head out for the night!" She calls. "Here for your baby? I gave her a detail."

Eric Brooks has posed:
As always, Blade is dressed in black and is wearing sunglasses where there's no particular need for them.  The only real difference is that today he's wearing his sword, which has been conspicuously absent lately. 

He gives the bike's engine one more rev, then pulls it into a likely-looking parking place that's both close to where he found it and adjacent to his Charger.  Once the BMW is shut down and resting comfortably on its kickstand, he approaches his own vehicle and lets out a low, tuneless whistle while he walks a circle around it.  "You really did a number on her.  Thanks.  Here." 

An evening's worth of donations, courtesy of the local vampire populace.  Only the cash; he has yet to figure out an effective way to pay for things using watches and earrings.  It's in a tightly zippered bank bag, which he tosses to Kokumo.  "It's not much, I didn't know you were going to give her the works.  Nice job popping the dents out of the armor, too." 

Gratitude and a compliment in the same sitting.  It tastes funny to Blade, so he spits it out.  "Anyway, take the money."

Kokumo Adebesi has posed:
A pair of earrings would have rocked her outfit right about now.

As the bag was tossed towards her, she catches, flipping it back and forth like a fan before she opens it. She wasn't going to say no to it, so only three twenties were pulled out, the rest carried over to her platform console and tucked into the drawer. "Mechanical plunger would have been pointless since I went ahead and replaced the paneling anyway." She states, then gestures behind her. If he could see it, parts of his doors and panels were trashed, waitiing to be used for recycling.

"Bullet holes and such.." She shrugs as beckons him closer. "Right. So I have some news for you about that missing priest while you're here. Want some crackers and spray cheese? Also, how good is your memory, I've yet to print all this shit out."

Eric Brooks has posed:
"I don't really eat," Blade replies, as if that's a thing that people say.  "But go ahead.  Don't worry about me for now, I'll remember the important parts."

This is exactly what he's been hoping to hear.  After all his footpadding around a Catholic compound, Blade's got a whole lot of clues and no real idea what to do with them.  Hmm...

He blinks and returns his thoughts to the topic at hand.  "Right, the priest.  Father Ted.  What did you learn?"

Kokumo Adebesi has posed:
"Well, that's a shame. We could have gone out and gotten something to eat after all of this." What is the best way to get friends? Feed them.

"Okay.." she says, turning her back towards the console to draw attention away from it, gesturing towards the large screen that slowly comes down from the ceiling. Everything in the warehouse is custom made by her own design, which is why the conglomerate of screens look high-tech-half-assed.

The general profile of the priest starts to play across the screen, some of which Koko swiped through with a gesture of her fingers.

"Here we go. Theodore Faneuil, Archivist.. blah blah.." She gestures again to get the screen to move..

"Basically, it looks like your guy was pretty famous on Ancient studies and the like. So much so that whatever the guy wrote, he was published a few times. People general come to this guy for translations of old documents and what not. I guess too, because of his theological background.."

She swipes again, pretty sure that he's heard all this before. "He doesn't leave much of a digital footprint, so most of everything I tried to find had to do with other people. Cliffnotes, articles, thing's he's stated as a fact, who he helped.. I mean, the guy wasn't any sort of jackass, but he seemed like good people to be a Catholic."

She moves her chair around so that she could settle. "But.. don't tell anyone that I can access this. This is CCTV footage from a bit ago."

The footage that she shows Blade was quick, yet slowed for his viewing. It wasn't much, but couple of seconds of a clip of the Priest barefoot, moving awkwardly. The dark background and the offshadow of it all seems to put it after midnight, but it could be anyones guess. She pauses it at the last second, so that he could see the background. The building that lies in the background was a chained up, beat up building with a for lease sign attached. Definitely some place for a priest not to be.

"I don't know. He looks kind of drunk.. depending on how long he's been missing he's probably on some sort of bender. Drugs maybe?" She shrugs her shoulders. Either way, it didn't feel right.

Eric Brooks has posed:
"I don't eat, but I like bourbon."  Blade raises an eyebrow and shrugs.  Seems like a reasonable compromise. 

Then there's evidence.  Sweet, blessed evidence, not a bunch of dusty relics and documents.  He leans in close to study the screen, checking out both the priest and the location.  "Your secret's safe with me.  I found some of his papers, I only speak about half the languages they're written in.  Maybe that's why someone wanted him." 

There's a pause as the vampire hunter narrows his eyes.  "He's eighty-something years old, though, right?  Seems pretty long in the tooth for a padre to break bad and start getting loaded.  I'm guessing whatever's wrong with him, it wasn't his idea.  Can you tell me where this is?"

Kokumo Adebesi has posed:
"Fair." Was her response to his 'eating'.

"I can probably try to figure out some of the languages if you want. Business is slow, so you're giving me something to do." She turns around, grabbing a plain sheet of paper and pen so that she could write down the address. "If you think so.."

"Listen, I've always said that at the end of my life, I'm going out in a blaze of X and heroin, kind of worth it to be drug free especially when you're nearing the end." As the address was written, she turns and offers the piece of paper. "I personally consider 80 a bit too long to be living on this earth." Especially if someone was like her. She's essentially near immortal.

While she can admit the video didn't sit right, it was hard for her to even tell if he was injured. "Oh, here." Her hand lifts as she gesutres at the screen, showing a picture of the priest and a young man. It was a still picture, nothing movable. "I can print this picture out if need be." She pauses for a little.. "I have something about the girl you're looking for too. It's not much, would require some footwork, but I figure this was more important due to the urgency.."

Eric Brooks has posed:
"Eighty years is a long time," Blade acknowledges.  "Trust me, I'm older than I look." 

He accepts the slip of paper and nods to Koko as he tucks it in a pocket.  "Wait.  First, I was hoping I could talk you into being curious about all this.  Here." 

There's a loud, papery slapping sound as a stack of photocopies land within close reach.  Actual, physical photocopies. As they slide and fan out a bit, it becomes apparent that about half are in Latin, while the rest seem to be a mishmash of newer European languages.  There's also a blurred-but-deciperable copy of what looks like a coin laid directly against the scanner, both front and back.  Probably a Roman denarius.  "My Latin is shit. Some of the rest looks like personal letters, I don't know. I'm looking for a guy, he's kind of a celebrity in my line of work.  Gonna bring him the originals of all this, see what he can figure out. You're welcome to go nuts, I have plenty of copies."

Poor Ted.  Blade spents a few more seconds looking at the screen.  "Go ahead, print the picture. I'll head out later, see about our priest.  So, you found the girl?  I figured she'd been dead for... well, probably for a while.  What do you know?"

Kokumo Adebesi has posed:
"Next time, you're going to -not- throw stuff on my desk." She was kidding, but whats a little sass going to hurt?

She does sift through the papers, then frowns. "You want me to find him too?" Damn, he's just looking for everyone! But, she leaves that alone for now, then turns towards the large screen, her eyes closing as the files all simultaneously disappear, and the new ones appear upon the screen.

"From what I can tell, she's not dead. Marie Saler, middle schooler over in Queens. Hasn't been to school since the 6th. But that's also the day her parents were murdered. Granted, I look through CCTV footage but I wouldn't dare go into the actual police database, that would seem.. odd." Her personal signature is odd, is what she means.

"What is tripping me out about this girl is that every video afterwards she's wearing different things. Her hair is slowly getting shorter.." She shows this by flipping through each footage that she's found. "..The person that she's with is wearing the same thing, probably to throw off the scent of.. whatever. But timestamps and dates are all different." She flicks her wrist, zooming in on the date and time, then zooms back out. Last sightiing is two days ago.."

Funny how this was captured on video. The girl was being dragged along with the figure, somewhere near a familiar place to some. Theater District, a few flashing lights and a few broken ones, and the girl is seen disappearing upon the side of a near-ruined apartment building, which at least was lived in.

"It doesn't look good for her.. probably doesn't look good for the priest. You're going to have to eventually choose who to go after, you know?" She sighs and stands, considering going after the girl herself. She doesn't like traffickers.. if this was the case. Hell, she probably wasn't even going to offer to go, she was just going to do it. j

Eric Brooks has posed:
"Shit."  Blade's tone says more than the word itself.  This vexes him.  He's terribly vexed. 

"That's my backyard," he growls.  A gloved finger points to one corner of the final image.  Most of a sign is visible, a big one that reads 'Weichsel Carcass Hou'--and the rest is cut off by the edge of the screen.  "See that?  That's where I live.  There's a ley line nexus.  It's not dangerous, but vampires usually stay away. Especially once they realize I'm there." 

There's a pause and a visible clenching of the muscles in his jaw.  "It must be a Methuselah.  That's what I call the oldest ones.  The older a vampire gets, the more dangerous they are and the harder it is for me to smell them." 

Blade's nose isn't in danger of touching the screen, but it's getting closer as he inspects the condemned-looking building where the girl disappeared.  "Why is she still alive?  They kill them, they eat them, they turn them.  They don't keep people as pets, though.  Even familiars, the real vampire lapdogs, they're only around because they have something to offer.  Dirty cops, blood bank clerks, stuff like that."

Kokumo Adebesi has posed:
His exclamation is what gave her pause, she was ready to write down the address until he began to explain. Her brows lower just a little, turning all the way around to her console as she begins to type. Even while he speaks, the screen begins to flash in the corner as she pulls up CCTV information from a couple of days before, and a few days before that, they all almost show the same thing.

People being ushered in and not out. Except for body bags. At least, that's what Koko was hoping for. Them not to be. But the proof was right there on the camera, even one stops to look and grin.. though his face blurs right after.

It was all unsettling.

"Listen." She says quietly, turning around so that she could look him square in the eye. "I can keep doing this for you, but I'm going to need a gun or something." She glances towards her drawer where she left the pouch, then frowns. "You being who you are and doing what you do, you got to give me a name of a connect. Someone who can give me some protection for a good price."

She was scared, yes. But she kept a straight face to hide it.

Eric Brooks has posed:
CCTV isn't the clearest way to view something by nature, but it's clear enough for Blade to identify known persons of interest.  "Vampire," he points.  "Familiar, vampire, familiar.  Two more vampires.  These assholes are having a party." 

He glances over at Koko and nods, acknowledging her words.  "You handle yourself well.  I sometimes forget that you aren't a combatant by nature.  I don't say things like that very often, so enjoy it while it lasts.  I don't say this often, either.  Thanks.  For your help.  Here."

Like the knife from their first meeting, Blade prefers to pass on weapons that he trusts.  He opens his coat, revealing the often-visible silvery cutlery strapped to his chest. He also has firearms strapped to his hip and under one arm, among other places.  That stuff has got to be heavy. 

The gun he produces comes from the small of his back.  He reverses it and offers it handle-first.  "Glock 19.  Very effective short-range weapon. Go ahead, take it. I've got tons of these things.  You know how to use one?"

Kokumo Adebesi has posed:
Thankfully he knew what they looked like. Koko just thought they were regular people doing bad things, but the clarification was made. He -is- a vampire hunter after all. And probably a missings persons searcher..

"So yeah, about this latin, am I looking for another person too?" Why not ask.

But as he pulls aside his coat to reveal his gear, Koko raises a brow. She almost wanted to get up and inspect what he had on, but feared decency in the face of inappropriateness.

She reaches out to take the Glock, careful with it, then sets it in her lap. She laid it there almost as if the thing were a baby, gentle and careful. "Yes." She lies. But she was going to figure it out.

Eric Brooks has posed:
"Liar," Blade chuckles.  "It's nine millimeter, semi-automatic.  The safety is right here.  Just point and click.  Keep both hands on it if you can.  Squeeze the trigger, don't jerk it, you'll get better results.  When you run out of rounds, it'll do this..."  He reaches out to take the weapon again, then pulls back the slide and locks it into place.  "Just drop the clip like this, put in a fresh one, release the slide, you're good to go.  We'll get in some practice for you when we're not nose deep in the shit heap." 

There's a pause as he plops the gun back into Koko's lap.  Safety on, of course.  "Wait, someone besides the priest?  If you can figure out who that guy with him is, that'd be great.  I figured I'd go over there and pound pavement until something turned up.  Or if you're talking about my guy for the clues, I've got that under control. John fucking Constantine is never that hard to find. Heh. Here, can't get these on Amazon."

One, two, three extra clips are piled up, making for four in total.  Three are standard, but the fourth is extended and carries thirty rounds rather than seventeen.  Like many things in his life, the words 'IN CASE OF EMERGENCY' are stenciled on it in white paint.  "Silver hollow points filled with garlic," Blade explains.  "Aim for the head or the heart, this is no time to go soft and try shooting somebody in the leg. Oh, one of those does just have regular bullets in it.  This is New York, you never know." 

Kokumo Adebesi has posed:
So she lied. But that doesn't stop her from actually listening and learning what to do with the glock. Point and squeeze. That seemed alright, even though her aim was probably shit. That.. she doesn't disclose.

"Thanks."

Once again, him with the dropping, she waits until everything was set before her before she turns to carefully lay it all out on the console. Even though her warehouse could be turned into a weapon (dropping cars on people), she hadn't considered getting any sort of protection until now.

"I was talking about the guy for the clues but.." She gestures. "John Constantine. Huh. That's a cool name." Annd.. she lets that go.

"Well, Blade. You pretty much have your work cut out for you. Any idea of where you're going to start?"

Eric Brooks has posed:
"I'm going to need copious amounts of explosives," Blade replies, waving his hand toward the nest.  "I feel compelled to make a point with this one."

He takes a deep breath and for just a moment he looks a lot older than his indeterminate late 20s-ish appearance would indicate.  He looks tired.  "I'll bring the goods to Mr. Cool Name first.  Try and work both cases at the same time.  My plan after that?"  He nods at the tenement building.  "Explosives.  And boxes and boxes of bullets.  Try and get as many of those kids out of there as I can, assuming they're still alive."

Kokumo Adebesi has posed:
Eesh..

Koko just shakes her head, then rises from her chair. Her wrists lifts to catch a gander at her watch, and with a tight smile, she gestures towards the car. "Keys are in the ignition."

Despite what he told her, she was young and willing still to risk her life for a bit of a drink, dance, and probably ONS. Though, if she comes back here with a person, at least she would be protected. She does have her bike, after all.

"Don't forget about me once everything is done, I want to hear all that happened. With both cases." She smiles, then steps down from the platform. "And don't worry about locking up, soon as you clear the room with your ride it'll lock itself. You going to be alright here?"

Eric Brooks has posed:
"I'll be fine, I'm following you out."  Blade shakes his head and shrugs his shoulders enough to give them a good, long stretch.  "I'll keep you informed. Hell, I might need some help with surveillance while I figure out how I'm going to pull this off. Anyway, thanks again."

Back to brisk and businesslike, he snaps off a loose salute and jumps into his car.