 |
PG |
 |
|---|
|
| Players |
|
|
NPCs |
Axe, Smash, and Crush Blue Lady Bouncers.
|
Factions |
|
|
Music |
ZZ Top: Sharp Dressed man for Thomas, Legs for Molly, Rough Boy for Harry.
|
Harry Dresden stops by the Blue Moon to meet with Thomas... and finds out who else is staying there.
4:52 PM, Friday, October 14, 2016
The Blue Lady and the apartment above
Harry put his hands into the pockets of his coat again and he stood there awkwardly while waiting for the bouncer to do his phone call. Once completed and directions given, Harry gave a soft smile and a little nod. "Got it. 'Left tunnel, Indy.'" Harry flashed a slightly larger smile and then went for the door. "You're doing a great job by the way." He said back to the bouncer to try to be nice. Once up the stairs, Harry looked left and then started in that direction. He was scanning his eyes about to try to find the source of whom he came here to find.
"Thanks. Tell Mr. Raith that... not everyone'll give a con a job yah know... Gotta keep this one. Got kids ta feed." He actually smiles as he hooks the chain back on. At the top of the stairs, right where Axe said it would be is a door marked Private. Assuming that Harry knocks, the White Court vampire calls out, "Just a moment Mr. Dresden... And then there is the sound of allot of electronics powering down. "Okay I think I'm safe now, come in."
Harry did indeed knock and he turned around then to face the hallway while the man inside (presumably put on pants or something). Harry's eyes scanned the hallway while he waited, idly wondering just how hours of his life have been spent inside of hallways.. That thought was quickly discarded then when he was given the green light to enter and he saw the electronics were shut off. "Smart man." Harry said to Thomas softly, a smile present on his thickly stubbled face. "Hey Thomas, hows things?" Pleasantries, always with the pleasantries, its human nature at its finest. Harry closed the door gently behind him and he put his hands back inside of his still rain-dampened leather coat. "You got a good door guard down there. Keeping riff-raff like me from just waltzin' on in." Give the Bouncer a good review... 'Always be nice to Bouncers.' Its a Wizard's rule, somewhere anyway.
Was she attracted by the sound of voices? Maybe. It's hard to tell. Something draws one Molly Carpenter in from the depths of Thomas' apartment, though, and thus.. the inside door - not the one Harry just used - opens, an in walks... well. She'd be the spitting image of Charity Carpenter were her hair not half bubblegum pink and half sky blue, not to mention if there weren't piercings at eyebrows, nostrils and lip.. and god knows where else.. and if she weren't in artfully torn-up black clothing that shows perhaps more skin than she should be. She has.. er.. grown up since Harry saw her. Up. Out. Just generally grown.
"Thomas, what... oh!" Her voice trails into silence, blue eyes going wide as she spots the tall man. "...Mr. Dresden?" is asked, with a startled squeak.
Thomas Raith smiles a bit, "Good to know. Axe made mistakes when he was younger... but if people don't give others a chance to repent our mistakes then... A smile cracks his lips easily as the apartment door opens as well, "Hello lover allow...oh?" he blinks slightly, his head tilting a bit. "You two know each other then?"
Harry held his polite smile then as he listened to Thomas speak on Axe the Bouncer, a small nod or two was given in agreement and Harry was about to add to that before the apartment door opened and a familiar face entered... (just the face, mind you, everything else seemed quite different). Harry instantly looked perplexed, dumbfounded, confused, befuddled and bewildered! "Mo-Molly?!" Harry asked, perhaps a little overly urgent in confirmation of the stuttered question. He looked the girl over with his eyes, head to toe and back up again and then his eyes shot over to Thomas when the word 'lover' was just, thrown out there! Harry's mouth hung open, hit with a bit of a confusion bomb here and now... and it probably didn't help that he hadn't slept for over a day and had been traversing the rain soaked streets of San Francisco all night on a Missing Persons case.
Molly Carpenter gets this... this -look-. Equal parts immediate self-consciousness with 'so what?' rebellion. She does try very, very hard to look like she really doesn't care just what Harry thinks about her current look, or her current situation, but it's probably crystal clear that the opposite is actually the case. She smiles, a bit weakly, still staring at Harry.. but then she moves towards Thomas. Yes, towards the White Court vampire.
"I.. uh, yeah. I mean, he works with Papa. I've known him since I was pretty little. They named little Harry after him."
Then, she gives Thomas this sudden.. look. Another look, yes, blue eyes going wide. "-Oh-." Fortunately, that's all she says.
Oh indeed. Thomas inhales slowly and exhales just as slowly. But his fingers slip out and wrap around Molly's. He glances at Molly's eyes and, well they have one of those silent conversations only close lovers really can have, but nods. "Her father has already burned a hand print into a $1200 table to express his displeasure about me and Molly, do I need to worry about something similar from you Harry?"
Harry's brows furrowed when Molly said these things, but it was more about the very notion of this scenario that had just unfolded in front of him. He wasn't entirely sure how old Molly was but he was confident he could guess within a year-range-of-accuracy... and no matter the result, she was too young to be in a place like this. At least in his opinion. All sorts of responses flooded the Wizard's mind, but in the end one thing settled quickly in as a barrier to all of those... this was't his kid. "Does your fath--" Thomas cut him off with that statement about the burned table. Harry's eyes went to Thomas' own and he just stared quietly at the man for a second or two. "You're lucky that is all he burned." He told the Vampire. Another look was given then to Molly, and this one was pure disappointment, even a frown appearing inside all that dark stubble on Dresden's face. 'Its not my kid...' He told himself again, and he also told himself he'd need to speak to Michael very soon. Awkward silence.... Harry drew the rumpled photo out of his pocket, it was a young blonde girl only a little older than Molly. "I'm looking for this kid. She was in here this previous weekend. Met a guy in your wonderful club here, and now she's missing." Harry's voice was exhausted sounding, the sleepless wizard just wanted to fall into bed after this past day and this most recent bomb. "Have you seen her, Thomas?" He asked, not looking at Molly anymore.
Molly Carpenter curls her own fingers into Thomas', looking up at him with a downright besotted sort of expression, even meeting his eyes. Which would be more significant if Harry knew that she was a wizard... if she's able to meet the man's gaze then, well, the Soul Gaze ship has sailed.
She leans up against him, even, but her gaze flicks back to Harry, and she -doesn't- meet his eyes. In fact, her head hangs after a moment, spotting that look of disappointment. Awww, geeze. There he stands.. her idol. Her role model in why she thinks it's awesome to have magic.. and he's all disappointed with her. "Papa was just a little bit.. well. You know what he's like, he's just protective, and he was already upset cuz I left home. And... " And there is a picture being shown. Molly stirs, restlessly, and then turns, trying to see the picture for herself. After all, young girls on the streets fit into the kind of crowd she's started running with.
Harry likely couldn't see Thomas wince. But Molly could feel it in his hand. Know that Harry just hurt him without knowing it. Still Thomas takes the photo from Harry and looks at it. "I need to turn on my computer you two. If you wouldn't mind?" he says gesturing to the sofa a distance away that should be safe from passive wizard radiation. He then hands the photo to Molly, "So last I heard you were in an alternate dimension Harry. How did that go?" He asks. His tone business like. Hiding that pain with calm.
Harry's disappointment was probably magnified unjustly through his exhaustion and lack of eating for the past day, he didn't want to make Molly feel bad... but he also didn't want her to be in a place like this, at least not for another five... to fifty years. "I can only imagine." Harry said back to Molly, about her father, glancing at her but not making eye contact with he (or anyone, he was an expert at forehead looks). With the picture turned over and Thomas going to start up his computering machine, Harry turned and sauntered toward the sofa, a strong desire to just fall into it and go straight to sleep... but instead he just turned and lowered his rain-soaked self down onto the arm of it, its best to sit on the arm less be sucked into its soft and loving embrace. "Ah. You know how those go." Harry said to Thomas' question. "Alternate dimensions. Up is down, down is up, water makes you thirsty, food makes you hungry. Trolls peein' in pools and muppets chasing you through mazes." His voice was a bit dismissive, but again, he was trying to focus on this case and not on the seventeen year old girl in the room that he thought of as a semi-daughter. Harry did eye Molly then, having heard Thomas' blanket statement toward them both about setting off electronics. "What exactly has brought you here anyway, kid?" He asked her directly now.
Molly Carpenter gives Thomas a concerned look. Sensitive as she is, she'd have known he was hurt even without the wince, probably. The absurdly tall young woman leans in and up - yay for tall guys - and kisses his cheek, then takes the picture and dutifully moves over, away from the computer and towards the sofa. She's already fried her cellphone, she doesn't need to fry Thomas' stuff.. again.
After a moment of hesitation, she joins Harry on the sofa, though whereas he's sat himself on the arm, she sits on the actual sofa, though on the other end. In fact, she squidges herself up into the corner as much as possible, turning to look at Harry's.. ear. Or what can be seen through shaggy, wet hair. Her eyes widen a bit, at his description, before she gives herself a shake. "My mother," she answers. "We.. well. There was a big fight, I left home. Thomas... took me in." Then, she looks down at the picture. "Ummm. I think I've seen this girl, Mr. Dresden. I mean, I was all, running around on the streets before Thomas. Not sleeping in alleys or anything, but.. she looks kind of familiar."
"Molly, would you mind putting on a strong pot of coffee and asking Yosa to send up some bacon mushroom swiss burgers? I won't have Harry here dying of exhaustion and starvation while he is my guest." His smile to the young woman is affectionate too, even as he starts up the computer. "I think I've seen her in here before.. Maybe a week or so ago, I need to check the security feed." He leans back as he waits for the computer to catch up with his commands. "Do you have a name for her Harry?"
Harry's right hand went up and he rubbed it over his face, specifically over his dark eyebrows. He listened to Molly's response and then swept his brown eyes over toward her where she'd scrunched herself into the sofa. "Ya coulda just come to me, ya know." He said to her in a quiet voice, just barely above a whisper. "You didn't have to--" He cut himself off. He didn't want to insult Thomas, Thomas was a good guy to Harry... but a seventeen (ish?) year old girl? Harry glanced down at his hands that were now on his knees. "That sounds amazing, truly. But I'm not sure I have time to sit here and eat." He told Thomas then, looking across the room at the man on the computator-box. "Her name is Mindy Collins. Her mother contacted me yesterday morning, said she'd never shown back up at her college dorm after last weekend. I've tracked her were-abouts to this club... I was hoping we could find some security footage of her leaving with someone. Might give me my next step."
"Of course, Thomas." Molly turns to hand the picture over to Harry, then seems to think better of it and instead carefully sets it down on the sofa cushion next to the arm where the tall wizard is perched. Then, she gets up, the torn-up, gauzy black skirt rustling. Today's top is also black, and fits quite.. tightly. Probably more tightly than Harry is entirely comfortable.. though likely Thomas approves.
There is a pause, though, and Molly looks down at her boots. Combat boots, one with pink laces, one with blue. "I.. didn't want to bug you, Mr. Dresden," she says. It comes out as almost a whisper. "You'g tot big, important things to do. Like Papa." She shrugs, fidgeting, leaving the other reasons unsaid. "I'll go put the coffee on," she says, then slips from the room. Likely cursing herself for acting like a child in front of the great wizard. Hero worship, much?
Thomas Raith raises his eyes from his computer and gives Harry a look that is almost... well it's almost like an annoyed older brother might give. "Bricks built the Temples Harry. The strong made many, the hungry made few, the dead made none. You will do Mindy Collins considerably more good if you eat something and regain your strength... besides I'm not printing this file off until you do eat something and if you come over here to look at it you'll nuke the machine and it'll be gone forever."
Harry leaned forward on his elbows atop his knees and his hands came up to steeple together in front of his mouth and nose. "It wouldn't have been any bother." He quietly replied to Molly without looking at her again as she left. He didn't want to guilt her anymore than he probably already had, again, she was someone else's kid, and though he was curious about the statement of her backing away from the computers his mind had too much on it to focus on it outright just yet. "Do you have any to-go-bags?" Harry said to Thomas in response, lowering his hands and showing a lopsided smirk. "I know that you're right, but I think this girl is alive and potentially... in a very bad place. I can't sit still until I get her out of it either, its not in me." And he wasn't sitting very still either, having moved his position around on that sofa's arm many times already.
It is a pity that Molly can't actually use a Keurig. It would make the coffee-making process faster. She'd probably break one, even though she isn't tossing around much magic yet. Not on any sort of regular basis. Still, she does set the percolator to, well, percolating. Molly can't cook, but she -does- make great coffee. She drifts back while all the burbling and dripping commences, and winds up standing in the doorway. "I'll put the coffee in a thermos for you, Mr. Dresden," is offered. Followed by an odd clicking sound from her.. she has the nervous habit of rattling her tongue piercing against her teeth, apparently. Harry gets stared at. Or, well. His nose does, anyway. Then, her gaze flicks over to Thomas at his desk, and she watches the two brothers. Even if one of them doesn't know that they are.
Thomas Raith looks at Harry for a moment and then nods to Molly, as if to tell her without words to make the call down to Yosa. He then types two keys and a nearby printer starts to whirl. He pulls off the print off and it is a picture of the girl, dancing with a man, slightly older then her, though the age difference is less then that of Molly and Thomas. "The man's name is George Dupree." He pronounces it Jah-ore-gah with a french accent. "He's a low level runner and for Marcus Tello, Low level scum. If she's with them... You said two days? She probably hasn't had anything done to her that she can't recover from." He doesn't say "Yet," but it's there. "When you find them, give me a call. If he picked her up here then he did it in my territory. I protect what is mine."
Harry sat up straight when Molly approached with the coffee and he accepted it from her with a faint upturn to the corners of her his mouth. "Thanks." He told her, not really enjoying the Mr. Dresden bit from her (or anyone for that matter) but he wasn't going to push that at the moment. A sip of the coffee was taken and he was impressed by just how great it tasted, even going so far as to warm him up some which was a nice comfort in and of itself. To Thomas' provided information, Harry leaned forward to take the print off, not wanting to go too close to that fancy machine of his. "Do you have an address?" Harry asked, thrilled to have the man's name in-fact, it made him get a sudden second wind of energy and he stood up to his full tall height again looking at the print off of the picture. "If he's hurt her, I can't make any promises." He muttered. Harry didn't like to kill, but he was pushed to it... He just stared at the picture, memorizing the man's face and scanning him for any other interesting quirks.
Spotting the nod, Molly smiles back and withdraws again, heading to the phone to put in a call down to the kitchen. Then, coffee is made and poured into one of Thomas' thermoses. She must simply figure he won't mind giving it up for the cause. Perhaps impressively, she does actually make it just the way Harry likes it. Let's be frank, she developed a crush on the man as soon as she was old enough to have them, and even though his brother now has her affections, Harry is still very much the idol to her. She damned well remembers how he takes his coffee.
The thermos is sealed closed, and Molly comes back into the office, and hands it over to Harry, careful not to touch him. Then, she circles around to impulsively kiss Thomas.. computer be damned. Why? Because that could have been her, in the picture. It might have been her. It wasn't, and won't be, thanks in part to Thomas.
Then, she pulls back. "I've got to go, I told Sandra I'd help her out with something. I'll be back later." Harry gets one last little look, then she ducks her head. ".. it was.. good to see you, Mr. Dresden. If you see my Dad, tell him.. well. That I love him." That said, the nearly six foot tall young lady slips out.
Thomas Raith head shakes, "I don't keep that sort of information I'm sorry. From what I can tell he paid everything here in cash. Still you are a detective, I'm sure you have a few resources at the police department that can fill in some holes for you... And if you were to maybe have a short conversation with Axe on the way out... He ran with the Munecos de Sangre in the day. Tello operates in the same area as them. He might know someone who knows someone."
Harry accepted the thermos from Molly and thanked her quietly again. He watched as the girl went to kiss Thomas and it gave him all sorts of uncomfortables... but he just let it slide, there was a powerful need to talk to Michael soon though. Harry started to pace slowly, his old boots still squishy from the rain. "Thanks for all the information, Thomas." Harry muttered as he took another sip of the coffee. "I think you better get your people to watch these kind of guys a little closer in the future." It wasn't meant to be lecture-y statement, but it probably came off as such.
Thomas Raith returns the kiss to Molly, soft and gentle and sweet... then smacks his monitor to get it to turn back on. "This one slipped through the cracks, I promise you. This is a hunting ground Harry, a place for my kind and others like us to find willing prey. I tell anyone that comes in here, if you get take out, be certain that words like "Last known location" cannot be traced back to the Blue Lady. As I said, if you find this man, call me. I want a little piece for myself.
Harry watched as Thomas slapped his monitor and it made him narrow his eyes lightly at the gesture and glance to Molly again before she left once more. Interesting... for later though.
Harry's sleep-filled eyes looked to Thomas once more and he nodded his head once to the Vampire, seducer of young girls, poster boy of ab machines... "I guess there's no honor left in this world." He said with a slight smirk and a nod of his head as he started to fold the print-off up into a nice little square that he could tuck into his coat's pocket.
"Thanks, Thomas." He added in a quiet tone, following it with a heavy exhale.