Board Thread:Role Plays/@comment-5999656-20160605231716/@comment-5999656-20160626025925

Fen leaned in, pressing harder on the man's shoulder with her foot. It was odd that Kurai hadn't shown up yet, but she figured his "rooftop method" was faulty as she believed, being both too slow and too difficult to follow targets through narrow alleys. Either way, she was going to have to lift the intensity without him, and before the victim got his confidence back.

"Look, I want to know some things. I know you were hired, that you aren't part of the bigger picture, but I need you to tell me where you learned to draw that symbol."

"Which - "

"You know the one. The black, nine-headed dragon. We saw you painting it."

"It was, it was this guy I met through my friend. A big guy," the artist began, and now that she was up close Fen could tell this young man was even younger than she'd thought; he was about her age, almost. His eyes were fixed on the ground in a typical grovelling fashion as he narrated.

"Had these tattoos all up his arms, like the one here," he said, fumbling as he pulled the crumpled paper ball out of his pocket and uncreased it. "But like, longer cuz like, they were on his arms -"

"Said he'd pay me and my buddies some nice Lien if we painted it all over the town instead of our normal tags. He didn't say why, but he was pretty mean lookin', like, so we didn't ask. I need pocket money for my sister to go to college, man," he said, about to look up into Fen's face, but she placed a hand firmly over his hooded head and forced his gaze back down.

"How many of there are you?"

"It's just my hood buddies, so just about a dozen," said the young man. He kept his answer short, he was onto Fen's gist. Answer the question. That's it.

"And did he say where to find him after you'd put up the symbols?"

"He has a hideout in the basement of this place on 12th Street, Palmy Days Pub and Grill. Every night after we're done we go into his basement for the pay."

"Did he hire anyone else?"

"Naw, just us, far as I know."

Fen thought it odd that their main target had a fixed location, but some quick thinking and she figured that the man probably had associates of his own, who weren't directly allied with the Dragons. Fen maintained her position a few seconds longer, pondering this new information. Seemed she had everything she needed. She took her foot off the man's shoulder and tugged out her wallet, throwing down 1000 Lien worth of cash on the ground before the young man.

"That's for your sister's education. You've given me the information I need, so get out of here. Never paint a symbol you don't recognize over the streets again. And tell your friends to call off this stupid operation too. The guy who hired you guys is gonna be out of the picture by the end of tonight. So git."

The artist stared at the wad on the ground, mouth half open as if he was about to say something, but he closed it as he changed his mind, scooped up the money, and took off down the alley with one hand keeping his hood up and the other clutching the Lien in his pocket. Fen watched him go wordlessly, and waited for Kurai to catch up.