But Don't Let Go

[Isaac Erasmus]

Taking careful note of the location and overall appearance of Huico's companion, Isaac adresses Huico.

Blushing like a field of blooming roses Unimpressed with Huico's Schoolyard Bully antics, Isaac returns Huico's facade with a genuine smile filled with warmth. After all, the best way to win over an Ice Queen is by melting their heart.

Showing no sign of pain from Huico's embrace, determined not to give him any amount of satisfaction, Isaac happily complies. "Certainly mi amigo. Soy bien, y tu? Tener miedo que no tenga suerte con las chicas recientamente, es posible que no mas tengo la toca. que te quieres ver primero?"

[[Certainly my friend. I've been well, and yourself? I'm afraid I haven't had much luck with the girls recently, it's possible I no longer have the touch. What do you want to see first?]]

[Crewer]

Huico returns the hand wave, giving a friendly greeting to him, hiding his scowl with an averagely charming smile. As they meet, he then wraps one arm around his shoulder, embracing him as an old friend might. Except this grip is markedly tighter than any ordinary man's.

Huico whispers sweet nothings the following into his ear:

"Don't say a word, do as I say and then maybe you might not wind up like your friend with the trench coat."

Huico then backs off and places both hands on the poor man's shoulders, giving him a quick scan for weapons and a look clearly showing that he won't hesitate to make good on his promise, and then returns his arm around in a friendly gesture, leading him back towards the way Isaac came.

"Friend! It's been too long, really. Why don't you show me around campus, huh? Tell me how you've been coming along, I'd like to know everything I've missed."

[Vincent Faustino]

After seeing Huico abruptly dash across the street, I turn to Conroy.
"I'm guessing that's the guy he was talking about earlier. Think we should stop him, or just see how this pans out?"

[Isaac Erasmus]

On his way to the college, Isaac is somewhat comforted by the old run down buildings and rough areas surrounding it. It reminds him much of his childhood, where he spent just as much time talking his way out of hairy situations as he did engaging in street brawls with the neighborhood kids.

Isaac, finally reaching the campus after much nostalgia, begins looking around at the scenery, trying to find his starting point.

It then becomes very apparent that a large man is rushing towards him, much to his chagrine. "Oh look, it's our old pal." he mutters to Bob.

Isaac faces the man and raises his hand in a friendly greeting, as one would to say hello to a friend. He calmly starts walking towards Huico, as he doesn't believe there's much chance of outright avoiding him at this point. Hopefully they can settle this peacefully. One can dream, after all.

[Crewer]

As he travels, Huico takes in the scenery. Rough place; my kind of town. This kind of society, where the strong control the weak and the fast run down the slow, is what Huico knows best. And it knows me best. Anyone with connections to down south might have cronies this far up, so he had to try to remain under the radar, or as best as he could.

Another telling smirk shows his reticence to avoid a glorious fight.

Then the gates come up, and New York reveals another quirk as the street changes again. Huico never really had anything against colleges; he understood that knowledge is power and that many of these academies held their own surprises. Still, his role was not that of a scholar.

And then, against all odds, at the end of the street, comes the one man Huico really shouldn't have been surprised to see.

In a fluid snap of motion Huico dashes towards the figure.

[Storyteller]

Aedan:

You manage to grab a good deal on your meat from the butcher in the back end of a grocer off of 67th street. You make it back to your hotel and stuff your modest little fridge in your room with your goods.

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Isaac, Conroy, Huico, and Vincent:

After making a sharp turn on Broadway, you follow the street until you reach Columbia University. Few people understand that the city makes such abrupt changes in its complexion, and add you make your way to the university you find yourself strolling through areas that harken back to certain third world countries. Eventually you reach the main campus, the area jarringly changing back to a much more well kept and respectable environment. As the small group from the coffee shop approaches the main gate, Isaac appears on the opposite side of the street seeking the admissions department. [[What do you do?]]

[Aedan]

Opting for cost over convenience, Aedan heads to the grocer. However, due to the increased distance, only going to pick up two days of provisions, and make the trip again once that runs out

[Crewer]

{I mean, I don't have anything to do until I get there.}

[Storyteller]

As far as you are able to ascertain, no one appears to be tailing you and your companion through the streets as you follow Huico.

[Storyteller]

The member 'Conroy' has done the following action : Dice Roller

'D10' : 10, 5, 7, 1, 6

[Conroy]

The track star followed him out. Did nothing he said come through? Whatever. To make an issue of it now would only draw attention and be a huge waste of time. Conroy lets himself fall back pretty far behind the Hispanic guy. He's more interested in if he's being tailed at the moment.

Conroy never turns around. Rather, he looks into the shop windows and the rear-view mirrors of parked cars to scan behind him for creeps.

(Wits+Aware+1epic)

[Storyteller]

Aedan:

After a brief walk, you find many servicable delis that would gladly sell you large amounts of meat, but it will likely come at a higher cost, due to the fact that they do not do in house butchery. The closest grocer is approximately another fifteen blocks away, but you could likely acquire the "stew" cut meats that are the leftover scraps from butchery for Arjac at a much lower cost. What do you want to do?
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Huico / Conroy / Vincent:

Huico begins walking down the sidewalk, taking a sharp right out of The House to head towards Broadway, conveniently situated between 8th and 9th avenue. As he walks, I am assuming that Conroy is following him, with Vincent at his side. Are any of you attempting to hide the fact that you are following the other or attempting to lose your tails?
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Isaac:

You are able to locate directions to head towards Columbia from the hotel concierge at the ground floor. You are currently equidistant to the university as those who are leaving directly from The House. What do you want to do?

[Conroy]

Conroy downs his coffee and gets up from the table. He'll play along, sure, but he won't learn anything by sitting out.

"Keep in touch."

Conroy leaves the House making to follow the Hispanic. He's been to New York a few times, so he knows his way to the University (Unerring Orientation doesn't hurt either). If the guy he's following is readily apparent, he'll stalk him. Otherwise, he'll just head straight there.

[Vincent Faustino]

"Jeez, I go through the trouble of getting us all together, and he runs off. I get the feeling it's gonna be hard to get him to work with the rest of us,"

[Crewer]

"You can find me in the hotel," Huico says as he grabs a napkin and writes his phone number down, passing it to the others at the table, "or you can call me here. It'll run your international minutes."

After that, Huico stands. "Hanson may be the target, but this business at the school is more time-sensitive. Spirits are fickle and the more time one waits the more they fade away. Buenos dias, gentlemen." Huico leaves, returning the book he borrowed from the counter, and begins to walk to the university.

[Vincent Faustino]

"I'm in room two. I suppose we should meet in one of our rooms. I doubt Jabba the Hutt would exert the effort to rat us out if we did so in the lobby though."

[Conroy]

Conroy takes a look at the article. There it is: a mysterious man named Hanson. The tail spooked him though. He hadn't picked up on that; didn't even consider it, really. If they group was being tracked, it was likely a bad idea to talk so publicly. Conroy was under orders to play along, but that didn't mean he had to play stupid.

"If our stalker is a friendly, then he's the wiser. It's all the better for us in the long run. That was well played with the sketch-pad, by the way." Conroy doesn't even wait for a response before plowing on. "Under the assumption that we are under surveillance, however, I suggest we keep public meetings like this to the minimum. Further, I suggest that we keep most of our interactions within the hotel. It's not too secure, but it'll be harder for snoops to track us that way. I'm staying in room 12; what about you two?"

[Isaac Erasmus]

Isaac decides it's time to pay our Mr. Hanson a visit. See what information we can get from him about this crime. "Time to enroll in a linguistics course." Isaac mutters. Maybe I can find someone who knows something. Hopefully someone dead.

Isaac finishes getting ready, checks out of his hotel, and hops in a cab to head to Colombia. We'll start by visiting an office to try and find the teacher's classroom.

[Crewer]

"Hmph. His mistake."

[Vincent Faustino]

"I wasn't there for the conversation, but maybe he didn't know that you were on his side."

[Crewer]

Huico squints. "If he's looking for the same thing we are then he's lied to me. I don't appreciate that. Why would he be evasive unless he's got something to hide from us? Why might he lie if he's on our side?"

[Vincent Faustino]

I flip back to the page I was drawing on and continue to sketch as I talk.
"I agree we should be cautious, but we shouldn't rule him out as an ally either. Cassy did say there would be five of us. So we have one or two more people we need to find."

[Crewer]

"I won't stop you."

Huico removes the paper from his pocket and lays it on the table, pointing to the relevant article. "It may be nothing, but it's more than we have now. This Hanson could be our man. We also need to check the university. Death is present."

After the other two have examined the newspaper he folds it back where he took it from. "Another thing. I saw a man checking out the hotel. A local, by the looks of him. He's followed by a spectre in old clothes. We may need to kill him. Be aware."

[Conroy]

(You've never seen Conroy with an eye patch. He usually has it off, as he does now.)

Conroy walks into the House. He surveys the place long enough to notice the two guys from the hotel. Cassy's visions included four others, all of which she believed to be scions. She also prescribed the hotel where he was staying, so he could assume....or could he? Fuck, he needed his coffee.

It was a quarter of the way through the line that he noticed the tap tap tapping. Suspicious, he snuck a glance over his sholder to find the disclosed duo eyeing him right back.

Scions, no doubt. Either that or overly-friendly. They probably expected him to come chat over tea. Conroy sighed and returned his attention to the line.

He orders some kind of breakfast pastry (Looks kinda like a banana-nut croissant? He just pointed in the windowed counter and said, "that.") along with a cup of coffee which he promptly smothered in sugar and creamer until it was yellow. He takes a deep swallow before approaching the debatable decedents. As he draws closer to the table, he notices "HANSON" sprawled on a pad of paper among mildly impressive, though indiscernible sketches.

Scions.

"Good morning, gentlemen," Conroy rumbles as he rests his cup of moist sugar on the table, "I don't suppose you mind if I have a seat?"

[Vincent Faustino]

I recognize Huico from O'Kennedy's; he's one of the scions I'm supposed to be working with. I thought there was something strange about the other man upon seeing him the first time in the hotel, and now I'm seeing him again here. I get an idea that will certainly get Huico's attention, and should hopefully allow me to learn more about the other man based on his reaction.
I flip to the next blank page in my sketchpad, and write the name "Hanson" in the largest letters that will fit on the page, then set the pad back down on the table with that page facing up. I tap my pencil on the table a few times and hope for the best.
[[EDIT: fixed the eye patch thing]]

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