[Church Blackburn]

[attr="class","alpha"]

[attr="class","beta"]

[googlefont=Josefin Sans]
A white-haired young man sat alone at the bar in the Hibernacula, spinning a shot-glass on the counter idly as he gazed about the crowd. He was sitting sideways on the bar-stool and leaning one elbow on the bar as he surveyed the people around him. Not only were his cheeks flush from the consumption of booze, but if one looked closer they would see his pupils so dilated that his eyes looked almost black in dimly lit room. He wore a tight white T-shirt that hid nothing and stylish distressed back jeans that hung low on his hips, paired with a thin black cord around his neck and black fingerless gloves. Had he had wings, perhaps people might have thought he was cosplaying a slutty fallen angel.

Despite the fact that he was obviously indulging himself, he was here for a reason beyond overhearing juicy gossip. As it stood, he had insufficient means to protect himself should the need arise. It was an issue in the past, but he had heard great things about the engineers in this city and hoped to remedy the situation. Although thinking up a concept for what he wanted had been easy, he lacked the necessary skills and tools to actually build it. Thus, he had put out some feelers for a good gear manufacturer. The most promising lead had led him here to a hidden nightclub. Now he ordered another shot and smirked as he scanned the crowd, awaiting the woman with an eye-patch and long purple hair. With such an Interesting description, he couldn't wait to meet her.
[/googlefont]

[newclass=.alpha]background-color:#ffffff;padding:20px;width:450px;[/newclass]
[newclass=.beta]background-color:#444444;color:#ffffff;padding:20px;line-height:15px;text-align:justify;letter-spacing:2px;word-spacing:1px;[/newclass]



Bakiri Retsu

[Bakiri Retsu]

Burn it all down

As far as first meetings between villains went the Hibernacula was a pretty safe bet to ensure nothing went wrong. Well, violently anyway. The club didn't exactly stop clients from scamming each other. That just came with the territory. Retsu didn't need anyone to do that for her though. Her reputation preceded her. Sure, she'd been scammed before but it wasn't like anyone that wanted to try could ask them how they did it. Not unless their quirk involved Necromancy.

"Yo," Retsu greeted the person she was there to meet as she sat down sideways on the bar stool next to him, one arm leaning on the counter as she got settled. Gesturing a waiter over she ordered a sazerac and gestured for Church's next drink to be put on her tab as well.

"So. Ah heard ya were lookin' ta make a trade?" 

She leisurely looked around the place as she talked, not bothering to look him in the face just yet. He'd yet to prove any of this wasn't just a waste of time. That wasn't to say she wasn't taking him seriously however. Despite the safety provided by the club her other hand was resting on her thigh in a way that wouldn't arouse suspicion but put it very, very close to the concealed hilt of Temper. She wouldn't strike first, not in Elias's den, but she'd strike last if Church did. Of that she'd make sure.

tagged: Church Blackburn || word count: 250 || notes: x

xxx

[Church Blackburn]

[attr="class","alpha"]

[attr="class","beta"]


Church flicked his gaze over the woman as she approached before flashing a smile in greeting. She looked about as spicy as he had imagined from the description, and for a moment his gaze dropped to her hips as if half-expecting to see twin pistols strapped there.
"Correct." Church leaned back on the bar counter seemingly without a care in the world as he took up her offer and ordered another drink. Although it came off as natural it this point, he kept his defenses down and his body relaxed, unworried about leaving himself exposed in order to seem as nonthreatening as possible.

"I'm looking for someone that could make me a certain gauntlet, and I was told great things about you." Church explained, keeping it fairly vague as he sipped his drink. "I have the concept design, but I lack the skills for the rest, obviously. We all have our specialties." He added with a giggle and dismissive wave of his hand. "I could pay in cash, or other ways... depends on what you fancy~"

[newclass=.alpha]background-color:#ffffff;padding:20px;width:450px;[/newclass]
[newclass=.beta]background-color:#444444;color:#ffffff;padding:20px;line-height:15px;text-align:justify;letter-spacing:2px;word-spacing:1px;[/newclass]

Bakiri Retsu ,

[Bakiri Retsu]

Burn it all down

The less he seemed to care the more it put Retsu on edge. The mix of casual confidence and the admission that he knew a fair amount about her put her on guard. Was it confidence in his own skills or the Hibernacula's security? Had they been elsewhere and had he not been a client she might have been tempted to find out. 

"A gauntlet? Naht somethin' ah've gotten commissioned fer before. Ah'm assumin' ya ain't lookin' fer a regular one then?" The closest she'd gotten to working on a gauntlet before was attempting to miniaturize pistons on a prototype exoskeleton and affixing it to the required plates. Even so she didn't doubt for a second that she could make whatever it was that he was looking for. Retsu could count on one hand the amount of people she considered her equal much less her better when it came to her craft .  

"That we do," Retsu agreed with a slight squint. Something about his posture made her feel like he'd just subtly insulted her in a  way she couldn't quite figure out.  Just what was he implying? Speaking of, his next words carried some implications too.

"Well, y've got me at a loss," Retsu lied. "Ya seem ta know so much 'bout me but ah 'ardly know anythin' 'bout you." She lied again. While she didn't quite have any form of in depth knowledge she'd be a fool to show up to a meeting without having put out some feelers in advance. They'd given her frustratingly little info but she'd been able to piece together a picture nevertheless. How accurate it was, well, that remained to be seen. "What else 're ya offerin'?"

tagged: Church Blackburn || word count: 293 || notes: x

xxx

[Church Blackburn]

[attr="class","alpha"]

[attr="class","beta"]

Church sipped his drink and unsuccessfully tried to hide a smirk at the woman's expression. Occasionally he ran into people like this one, the sharper ones that didn't fall for base-line tricks. Not that he bothered changing his body language, frankly he was more relaxed this way and it freed up his mind to think past the booze.
"No, it's a bit irregular..." Church gently lifted his hand and wiggled his fingers in the air as he spoke, ".. I need it to be able to shoot the user's blood from each finger. Doesn't have to be too far, and comfort doesn't really matter as much as being discreate." He finished, casually taking another sip of his drink and watching her face to gauge her reaction. Would it be disgust? Challenge? Who knew? That was the best part of dealing with humans.

"I'm a jack of all trades," He answered, lowering his voice slightly as he continued. "Stopping a heart, sniffing out intel, locating the lost... honestly the list of what I wouldn't do is shorter." He shot back the rest of his drink and absently balanced the glass on his knuckle with an amused grin as he returned his gaze to her. "There's got to be something you need."

[newclass=.alpha]background-color:#ffffff;padding:20px;width:450px;[/newclass]
[newclass=.beta]background-color:#444444;color:#ffffff;padding:20px;line-height:15px;text-align:justify;letter-spacing:2px;word-spacing:1px;[/newclass]

Bakiri Retsu ,

[Bakiri Retsu]

Burn it all down

That sounded like quirk shenanigans, Retsu thought as she took another sip of her drink. No further thought was put into the why however. Her mind was already ruminating the how. A pneumatic system? Hollow needles funneling blood into 'rounds' to be fired by combustion? If comfort wasn't a problem then perhaps the needles didn't need to be retractable, just set into the gauntlets so they'd pierce the moment they're put on and simply have caps to regulate whether blood went out or not. Retsu cut her train of thought short after a second or two, she could only swirl her drink for so long before it became awkward instead of a fitting excuse. Still, she was looking forward to seeing the design.

"Sounds easy 'nough," she shrugged before listening to what he had to offer. "Somethin' ah need, ey?" That was awfully presumptuous of him. Like whatever skillset he had could just solve all her problems in one go. Her eye narrowed. Again it was there, the kind of arrogance that would normally have her put people on a one way trip straight to hell. 

"Bilrost." The word had slipped out before she could stop it. "Nah, ignore that. Ah'm in the market fer info. Anythin' ya have on the Elementalist excludin' the fiasco with 'is trial." She'd experienced that one firsthand and information on the other parts of it was readily available. While it was possible that he knew some fragment or the other that hadn't made its way to her ears she doubted it'd be relevant. "Koi too, if ya've ever 'eard a' 'em." Those were far more elusive, she herself only encountered them once, entirely by happenstance. Well, perhaps it was twice. She put that thought aside. If she hadn't coincidentally met up with Rui at the specific time they'd contacted the little evil she'd never have found out about their existence. "Outside a' those? Locations a' people caught doin' fooky quirk research or labs related ta the same, whether active or abandoned."

She didn't realize the desperation she'd shown by listing so many options. Were she on the other side of the conversation she'd have caught on immediately but as it was her current speech pattern was a blind spot to her usual paranoia. Latching onto one part of the offer and elaborating this much was a clear show of weakness, the very thing she despised. She'd likely justify it too in hindsight. With as much power as she'd acquired getting nonsense out of the way and cutting the small talk and mind games out would be faster with barely any risk, right? Any scheme that came out of it was one that she could just bat aside with strength and experience, wasn't it? 

It wouldn't matter how hollow it rang, she'd yet to be proven wrong.

"Ya got any a' that worth at least as much as what y'r askin'?"

tagged: Church Blackburn || word count: 496 || notes: x

xxx

[Church Blackburn]

[attr="class","alpha"]

[attr="class","beta"]

Church paused and made a mental note as she seemed to blurt out a word. Bilrost. Something told him keeping an eye out for that would lead to amusing possibilities, and maybe something worth more to the woman in the future. Elementalist. Koi. Research regarding quirks... he noted it away and smiled, that was within his abilities.

"I know of a few places that have been aquiring people illegaly, especially those with interesting quirks, some might fit what you're looking for." He sat up in his seat and sat the glass on the counter as he spoke. "I can send you those locations and the data I have on them, and I'm also willing to keep an ear out and send any info I find on the Elementalist and Koi to you as well, in the hopes of becoming a returning customer should I need it." He fished a thin silver chain out from the pocket of his jeans, a USB flash-drive dangling from it as he held it out to Retsu. "This has as much info as I have on what I need for the gauntlet, anything not covered would be completely up to your expertise."

[newclass=.alpha]background-color:#ffffff;padding:20px;width:450px;[/newclass]
[newclass=.beta]background-color:#444444;color:#ffffff;padding:20px;line-height:15px;text-align:justify;letter-spacing:2px;word-spacing:1px;[/newclass]
Bakiri Retsu ,

[Bakiri Retsu]

Burn it all down

Sometimes the winning move was to not play at all. Retsu almost recoiled physically when she saw what she could swear was a twinkle in his eye. She'd fooked up big time and she was rapidly beginning to realize it. Hang a carrot in front of a horse and they'd walk into the slaughterhouse by themselves and wouldn't you know it, Retsu had just given away what could get her to step over the cliff's edge without looking. That was dangerous. She didn't think she'd be unable to deal with the consequences but it was never a great idea to stack the deck against yourself.

"That so, huh?" Retsu replied with a feigned air of nonchalance before downing her drink entirely in one go. With one smooth move she slammed the drink down and snatched the USB drive from his hands. She'd need to get a hold of a new laptop without any external connections, there was no way in hell she was letting that thing touch anything she'd used before nor anything that could be used to give away her location.

"We'll see. Ah'll 'ave the gauntlets ready in a week. If ya get a 'old a' somethin' worth it they'll be all yours."

She didn't bother to say more before standing up and walking away.

"Same tahm next week, if ya don't show the deal is off."

It was a petty way of attempting to regain control of the whole situation but Retsu didn't care. That rudeness might come back to bite her, sure, but that wasn't what she was thinking of right now. 

The tightrope she was treading had just been jostled. She had to get away before she lost control and went off the deep end. That wasn't something she could afford to do. Not right now. Not yet.

tagged: Church Blackburn  || word count: 313 || notes: x

xxx

[Fanthes]

[nospaces]

[attr="class","rc2plotr"]

[attr="class","rc2plotrname"]
✨MISSION SUCCESS!✨

[attr="class","rc2plotrmid"]

[attr="class","rc2plotrmid5"]

[attr="class","rc2plotrmid6"]



✓ The villains are colluding! Someone contact the heroes!! [break][break]
Church - 500 // 5.500[break]
Retsu - 2.750 // 7.750

+ 5.000 EXP!

---

Tag: Church Blackburn, Bakiri Retsu

[googlefont=Montserrat]
[newclass=.rc2plotr]width:450px;padding:9px;border:solid 1px #e61919;background-color:#eeeeee;color:#555555;text-align:center;[/newclass]
[newclass=.rc2plotrname]font:bold 25px Montserrat;color:#ffffff;line-height:25px;text-transform:uppercase;padding:37px 0px;background-color:#e61919;letter-spacing:-1px;[/newclass]
[newclass=.rc2plotrmid]padding:20px;background-color:#f5f5f5;border-bottom:solid 10px #e61919;[/newclass]
[newclass=.rc2plotrimg]width:90px;padding:4px;border:solid 1px #e61919;background-color:#f9f9f9;[/newclass]
[newclass=.rc2plotrmid2]width:90px;padding:4px;border:solid 1px #e61919;background-color:#f9f9f9;margin-top:10px;[/newclass]
[newclass=.rc2plotrmid3]background-color:#e61919;width:90px;font:bold 10px Calibri;color:#ffffff;white-space:nowrap;[/newclass]
[newclass=.rc2plotrmid4]font:15px Oswald;line-height:20px;[/newclass]
[newclass=.rc2plotrmid5]padding:14px;background-color:#f9f9f9;border:solid 1px #e61919;[/newclass]
[newclass=.rc2plotrmid6]padding-right:10px;font:10px Verdana;text-align:justify;[/newclass]
[newclass=.rc2plotrmid6::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb:vertical]background-color: #e61919;[/newclass]
[newclass=.rc2plotrmid6::-webkit-scrollbar]width: 5px;background: transparent;border:solid 1px #e61919;[/newclass]