overjoyed_logs | another pre-game catchall!

[OOC: let me know if you'd like me to change/add anything ;u;b]

[Keep an eye on him, and report back with his movements. It's a relatively simple detective job, on paper. The client who had requested the work - a balding man with wide eyes and a monotonous tone - hadn't been the talkative type. Hushed words and little explanation was provided, beyond a list of possible locations, a description, and a name:

Tani Umenosuke.

Any basic searches would turn up the entertainer's esoteric sense of aesthetic and grim subject matter. Some say he retains a sense of delicate beauty about his work, while others dismiss him as unworthy of attention.

Others say, in whispers and anonymous comments, that the name is but a moniker taken by Takasugi Shinsuke - a man carrying a bounty on his head with almost as many zeroes as crimes on his docket.

Tonight that man is not the center of attention, but lingering among a crowded bar. The air is thick with smoke and the stench of alcohol, something more than tobacco smoldering between many a customer's fingers. The seats and tables are low to the ground, deep reds and stained browns coloring the dimly lit establishment with an atmosphere of lushness that clashes with the chipped door frame and warped windows.

Music, a haunting solo played on the strings of a foreign instrument, intertwines with the low chatter of those within, Takasugi himself sitting, spread comfortably, simply listening to the men at his table. A nervous, wiry fellow repeats himself for the fifth time as two bulky men constantly interrupt - all of them scarred or modified in some way.]

[Kate gets the job and thinks it will be easy money. Tailing someone is practically detective 101, although once she does some digging, she very quickly realizes this might be a bigger job than she anticipated.

Still, she does what she's asked, following Takasugi to a bar and parking herself in a corner where she can watch, out of the way. For once she isn't wearing so much purple. It stands out too much, so she's in darker, more subdued colors, her collapsible bow in her bag at her side. At the moment, she's keeping her distance, although she is taking pictures with her communicator, trying to be as sneaky as possible.]

[For the moment, Takasugi is enraptured enough - or at least presenting himself as such - in the conversation around him to not search the room for other persons of interest. Anyone caught staring could fall into several categories: those who wish to join, those who harbor hatred, and those who were too high to know better.

All of whom are no real danger.

It's the ones who take care to be surreptitious that require more attention.

Takasugi keeps his face tilted away, hair and bandages obscuring one side and a hand resting against his cheek obscuring the other. The only clear photo of him Kate may get is when he leans back, a languid stretch that reveals as much of his chest in his unbuttoned shirt as it reveals his face.

It appears he's leaving, his drink unfinished on the table and no payment for the services to be seen. Seems it was on his company.

Walking out to the street, Takasugi stopped several paces from the door, tapping his pipe and refilling it with simple tobacco. He's under the awning of the establishment still, with clear view down an alleyway lit only by a single flickering bulb.]

[Kate is starting to get impatient. She's not sure why she's tailing Takasugi, and at this point, he hasn't done anything suspicious or even particularly interesting. She follows him dutifully regardless, trying to figure out what the hell she's going to tell her client. Well, he hung out at a bar most of the night and didn't even pay for his own drink. Here's a picture, I hope you like it.

Unluckily for Kate, Takasugi stops right outside the bar, and there's nowhere for her to really go. He'll see her in the alley, and the street is empty enough that she'll be visible anywhere she can keep an eye on him, so she's forced to hover awkwardly, pretending to check a message on her comm.]

[The woman had caught his eye inside the establishment no more than anyone else - most patrons blurring into a drab backdrop to the lush but dated decor. Had she simply walked from the bar when he had and staggered down the street, she would have faded almost immediately from his memory.

But she doesn't, so the man gives her a lingering sidelong glance before lighting his pipe. She's checking her phone, not irregular, except her poise implies more sobriety than one would expect.

Then again, so does his.

To dull the time he'll pass here, embers smoldering and releasing a thin trail of smoke, Takasugi would indulge in idle conversation. She can't be worse than the men he'd been surrounded by moments before.] The price here isn't worth the substance - it's no surprise people leave sober.

[Well, this isn't... ideal. Kate is pretty sure you're not supposed to actually speak to the person you're tailing, but at this point, it would be far more suspicious to ignore him than to respond. So, she glances up, sighing as she tries to play it cool.]

Yeah, they're totally scalping people. I don't know how they get away with it.

[Overpriced drinks were hardly the most severe crime the bar committed regularly, but to Takasugi, they were equally offensive. Quality in alcohol so clearly reflected the quality of the evening, the company.]

There's a place down the road, between the flickering sign and dead-end alley - you might miss it, a door that looks locked with no windows illuminating it's business. [He gestured the direction with pipe in hand.] They have much better supply there.

[Casual chatter and no more - the establishment he recommended was no less illicit than the one they'd just exited.

But they did have better drinks. He wasn't headed there now himself, though perhaps he'd end his night there.]

Hmm. Sounds kind of sketchy.

[Now she's not entirely sure how to keep tailing him without being incredibly obvious, so...]

Do you think you could show me?

[Takasugi replaces the pipe between his lips, teeth brushing metal audibly. The bar he'd recommended was less likely send someone down it's steps bleeding or dying than the establishment they'd just exited, but it was far less lawful.

A gathering place for members of the resistance, most would assume that anyone inside had some role to play in the fight against the Company.

He gives the woman a lingering glance - though not to appraise her trustworthiness. If their was a traitor in their midst, the patrons of that bar would know.]

Sure. [He gives a tilt of his head to signal their leave, and ambles his way through the dim light of the street to their destination. When they arrive, he presses his knuckles into the damp wood of the door, turning the knob for the woman at his side.] Go on in.

[She recognizes the bar, of course, but she feigns hesitance when he tells her to go in, anyway. Kate doesn't want to lose him, but it doesn't seem like he's going to follow her in. So, she cocks her head, smiling softly and reaching out to brush her fingers against his arm. This is definitely not how she usually does things, but she's being forced to improvise.]

You can come with me if you want.

[Her caution is believable, the door opening to reveal a nearly empty room, two or three tables populated - and only by more than a single occupant. It doesn't look like a fun time, but he never advertised it's social charms.

Takasugi watches the woman's hand extend, impassively observing the contact until her hand falls away.] I have business to attend to... [He glances over her shoulder, nodding to someone at the bar.]

But if you find yourself lingering, I'm sure we'll meet again.

[Well, that didn't work at all. Kate can't really do much here. There's no way for her to follow him now without being incredibly obvious, so all she can do is nod and shoot him a big smile.]

Right, sure. Thanks for the help.

[And then she'll head into the bar, a little reluctantly, and park herself at one of the tables, hoping he'll show up again so she doesn't have to start from scratch tomorrow.]

[A subdued smile is Takasugi's reply to the woman's appreciation, his hand falling away from the door slowly, feeling it's texture as it drops.

He doesn't linger to watch her take a seat, returning to the street to see to his business. A contact met, then a smoke shop visited, the man would return to the bar a few hours later.

Typically people would come and go in that time, but no one had taken their leave, and only two more had trickled in.. No one spoke to the unknown visitor, all either taciturn or quietly conversing in hushed voices between one another.

When Takasugi arrives he first approaches the bar, a drink already waiting for him on it's rough, but not sticky, surface. No Joy exchanged, he crosses the small venue to join at the woman's table.] What do you think? [Of the drinks, mostly, but he welcomes any commentary.]

[Kate watches the exchange again, trying not to look too perplexed by it. This guy clearly has connections in a lot of places. She had to pay for her own drink, of course, but by the time he joins her, it's only half gone.]

Not bad. They're not trying to empty my wallet for one drink, so that's a plus.

[No compliments to the hokk itself he sees - in her glass as much as in her reply. Takasugi sips from his own with less restraint, time taken to savor the taste even as he lowers the level of his drink to match hers.

It burns in his throat and in his nose, a sharp but velure quality to the liquor's bite.]

Their profits are made elsewhere... [He lets that statement stand alone, resting a beat before he continues.] Many receive their drinks as a complementary offering. [Another leading fact given to inspire curiosity to outweigh caution.]

another pre-game catchall!

✿ hard boiled detective work

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