Welcome to Adventu, your final fantasy rp haven. adventu focuses on both canon and original characters from different worlds and timelines that have all been pulled to the world of zephon: a familiar final fantasy-styled land where all adventurers will fight, explore, and make new personal connections.
at adventu, we believe that colorful story and plots far outweigh the need for a battle system. rp should be about the writing, the fun, and the creativity. you will see that the only system on our site is the encouragement to create amazing adventures with other members. welcome to adventu... how will you arrive?
year 5, quarter 3
Welcome one and all to our beautiful new skin! This marks the visual era of Adventu 4.0, our 4th and by far best design we've had. 3.0 suited our needs for a very long time, but as things are evolving around the site (and all for the better thanks to all of you), it was time for a new, sleek change. The Resource Site celebrity Pharaoh Leep was the amazing mastermind behind this with minor collaborations from your resident moogle. It's one-of-a-kind and suited specifically for Adventu. Click the image for a super easy new skin guide for a visual tour!
Final Fantasy Adventu is a roleplaying forum inspired by the Final Fantasy series. Images on the site are edited by KUPO of FF:A with all source material belonging to their respective artists (i.e. Square Enix, Pixiv Fantasia, etc). The board lyrics are from the Final Fantasy song "Otherworld" composed by Nobuo Uematsu and arranged by The Black Mages II.
The current skin was made by Pharaoh Leap of Pixel Perfect. Outside of that, individual posts and characters belong to their creators, and we claim no ownership to what which is not ours. Thank you for stopping by.
[attr="class","infoNotes"]Let's create a new agency! And start doing more Turk stuff
[attr="class","crashLyrics"]Dog eat Dog [break] Streetlights, street life. Hot blood burning in my veins.
[attr="class","crashBody"]
Reno kept himself busy looking for clues on the whereabouts of her baker. Where had Ignis suddenly gone? He had not taken any money. Nor did he call and check in before not coming in. It had been quite a while now, and the man had simply seemed to have disappeared. She would trust in Reno to find out what happened. With her current baker gone, profits had dripped to selling coffee.
[break][break] So, she decided it was nearly time to close up shop and start looking for a new headquarters for her investigation’s agency. She had an idea of what she wanted, but it was not easy to obtain for outsiders. There were very modern condominiums out there. She wanted one. She didn’t need an entire building, but just a unit would be fine for her agency - and maybe soon home.
[break][break] Her comrades both stated they would show up to assist Cissnei with this endeavor. And boy was Cissnei was happy to have their assistance.
[break][break] The lady Turk had done some hacking and background checks on some of the condominiums’ inhabitants. One of these complexes had some denizens of particular interest. The Gambino family apparently had some sort of shady history. They had an incredible income for people with no job listed. They had eleven bank accounts with cash deposits in large amounts and financial transfers between accounts. Looked like money laundering to her.
[break][break] She gave Emma the locations of where the money was being debited the most, despite all the cash withdrawals. Sloppily, they seemed to be using their funds at restaurants and entertainment near the Scrapyard. It began to draw Cissnei a picture of what was really going down. These were people dealing in a dangerous trade - though Cissnei could not tell for sure if it was drugs or weapons. She sent Emma to perform surveillance operations on them to find out. Images or videos on their operations couldn’t hurt. Neither could backing up said media and placing them on a timer to be mailed to authorities.
[break][break] She would have Freyra scout out the building. Make sure to note all of its entrances, exits, cameras, and if there were any savory (authorities) or unsavory (another gang) inhabitants that milled about. And meanwhile, Cissnei would see if she could have some ownership and housing documentation forged to claim the pace under herself. That would only be used, of course, if she could not convince the Gambinos to transfer it to her instead.
[break][break] And now she waited in her suit, as she sat on one of the tables. One leg crossed over the other, she browsed her phone. Emma and Freyra were due to arrive any moment now. She was excited to hear of their progress and what they found out. A briefing. How long had it been since she attended one of those?
It wouldn't be long before Freyra would return with the results of her scouting mission. She found such work boring, but it was better than nothing. Especially with how stir-crazy she got while recovering from the injuries she sustained during their little team-up with Sephiroth. She was still a little mad about that, but whatever. Not a whole lot she could do about it, especially now after so much time had passed. Either way, her scouting mission was quite the success. She was, if nothing else, quite perceptive, and she was able to get quite a bit of info in a short amount of time.
The first thing, Cissnei would likely notice is that Freyra wasn't wearing the usual suit; rather, she was dressed in clothing one would expect some of the wealthier citizens would probably wear on a casual day.Naturally, she'd start with that. "Turned out to be surprisingly easy to get inside. All I had to do was pretend I was interested in doing some business with them and show some fake credentials, and they gave me a tour of the place. Seems the owner is looking to expand into other locations. But either way, it made moving around shockingly easy" She said with a cheeky grin, before getting down to business.
"So, here's the deal. There are a total of four floors in the actual building, each of which consist of a single long hallway. Each hallway has three condos on either side, meaning there's..." She pauses briefly to do the math in her head. "Twenty-four total. And that's not counting other rooms like supply closets and the security room. And of course, there's a main lobby area right where the main entrance into the building is." She pauses for a moment to mentally go over what all she observed and give Cissnei a chance to ask any questions she might have, then continued with he briefing.
"Anyways, speaking of security, I counted at least six armed guards patrolling the place; only four were ever out patrolling at once, which leads me to assume they work in shifts. All I know is I remember seeing six distinct faces. My guess is the other two sit back in the security room. From what I could see, they're armed with EM Rods not unlike what Alvis and Reno use, as well as some pretty gnarly-looking tasers. The owner probably doesn't want them damaging the property with actual firearms. Also, each hall on each floor has three cameras, one at each end, and one in the middle. None in any of the rooms as far as I could tell."
"As for ways to get inside, each condo has a large window, but the glass is reinforced, so busting through those will probably be more trouble than its worth and draw a lot of attention. Each condo also has a balcony, but people aren't actually allowed on them, so the doors leading out to them are sealed shut. Apparently there was an incident a couple years back where some idiot love-birds thought it'd be super romantic to jump off of their balcony and pancake themselves on the ground below. Building owner got hella-paranoid after that, and sealed 'em off to prevent any other similar incidents."
"Other than that, not many reliable ways into the building itself. There's the main entrance, a back entrance used for deliveries and whatnot, and door leading inside on the roof. There's also an emergency exit on the west side of the building; a long-ass starcase with a door on each floor. They aren't locked, but opening them will apparently set off alarms and put the security on high alert. So...probably shouldn't use those. Overall, the building owner is definitely the paranoid type. I doubt it's anything relevant to what we're planning, but two-hundred Gil says he's got some skeletons in the closet"
"Anyways, wasn't able to find much about our targets or if they're doing anything. Pretty sure they're on one of the third-floor condos, but don't know exactly which one. Owner was pretty big on confidentiality and all that. That said, as far as I could tell, neither he nor any of the security guards seem to be in on whatever shadiness they're up to. Still, we probably shouldn't go storming in...not without a plan to either deal with them or sneak around unnoticed. An EMP should be able to knock out the cameras, but they still make a habit of having a guard on each floor."
She let out a sigh "In short, sneaking in and finding our guys is gonna be easier said than done...but probably not impossible if we play our cards right. I doubt my 'pretending to be a potential business partner' trick will work twice...at least, not if I'm the one doing it. At the end of the day, he sent me off saying something to the effect of 'thanks but no thanks'. Seems my fake sales pitch for my fake business wasn't enough to catch his interest." She ended that last note with a small sigh.
until your hope has died. beat down, until victory is mine
E
arlier...
They called it The Scrapyard. Pretty amusing given half the city could be called that. Having finally arrived in Sonora, Emma could see what Cissnei had talked about back in Torensten. It really was similar to Midgar in many ways. It made it familiar though, comfortable. She preferred it in this city to the strange medieval world outside it's borders. The tech, the lights, even the gangs and mafia were all apart of the proper atmosphere of a place she could call home. And speaking of gangs and mafia, here they came. The mission began.
Entering The Scrapyard where the deals were made wasn't a simple task. At least not quietly. The junk was piled high around the area and there was only one way in without scaling it. While Emma was confidant she could pull that off, the problem was that there was so much loose scrap everywhere that bits and pieces could fall out of place with the simplest of vibrations. She didn't need some rusty screw messing up her cover. Made for a good place to hawk goods though. The authorities probably couldn't be bothered to rummage through this place looking for clues. And after scouting the area, Emma had determined that the likelihood of dislodging random crap was far too high for any kind of efficiency. Instead, she came up with a different idea. It had it's own risks, but odds were better she could pull this off. Plus, the outcome would be better if it worked. If it didn't, well, it wouldn't be any different from if she got caught hiding in the scrap pile.
The customers were arriving. The slums were basically a warzone of criminal control. The authorities either didn't have the resources or didn't care (or both) about enforcing order the further out the city went. As long as the rich stayed safe, the poor could suffer. That was also like Midgar. Now the Gambino family was a higher class of criminal. They didn't operate in the slums themselves, but saw the profit to be had from the trouble. The Behemoth Horns were a slum gang who fancied themselves a grade higher then their turf suggested. They became Emma's surveillance when her reconnaissance bore the fruit of learning about a deal going down between them and the Gambino while scouting the area Cissnei had pointed out. She learned the when and where and it was the perfect moment. While the Behemoth's weren't exactly Turk clean with their style, they did dress in what they must consider their best for meeting with a higher class group. Good impressions and all that. Which made it easier for Emma to enact her plan. She hid behind some junk, out of site from the path and simply waiting in her suit and shades. As the Behemoths walked passed, she crept out from her spot and fell into a synchronized step with the last man in the group so he couldn't hear her following him. They arrived at a door that blocked entrance to the area where the deal would be made. Two armed guards stood vigilant over the entrance. The Behemoth's leader flashed them the pass and they opened the door for him. The group followed and Emma walked in casually without looking at the guards, acting completely as if she was suppose to be there. Once inside, she drifted to the side as the two groups merged and began chatting. Emma made to adjust her tie, activating the mic hidden within, then adjusted her shades, tapping the trigger for the camera in them that sent the pictures to her phone. She snapped pictures of the leaders talking. She doubted Gambino cared for anything but the Behemoth's money, but you didn't retain customers by being rude. He whined about rival gangs encroaching their territory, the cops actually being useful for once and busting one of their drug factories, and some "bartender bimbo" who beat up a bunch of their boys when they made a play for some contested territory.
Some glanced at Emma as she stood in a more neutral position in the group, staying at attention but looking no one in the eye. No gave her much thought. Thanks to her positioning and her indistinct clothes, the Gambino's thought she was a Behemoth and the Behemoth's thought she was a Gambino. No one bothered to question her. Finally the deal started going down and the merchandise was shown off. Several crates of stolen military weapons were presented with the promise they could annihilate any bartender they wanted. The Behemoth's looked over the weapons gleefully, then the haggling started. As the two bosses discussed things, Emma casually walked over by the weapons herself. She snapped more pictures of the hardware up close and got some shots of the discussions. Then she wandered her way closer to the door. She waited just until money exchanged hands between the leads and got a some pictures of it, then she turned and walked through the door alone. The guards glanced down at her.
"At attention!" she demanded with authority. Again, the official looking suit gave the impression of importance over lowlifes, "If anyone gets in here the boss will have your heads." she added. The guards went back to attention and Emma walked away with the right amount of speed to give off the impression she had somewhere to be but she'd get there on her own time. Now to get back and report.
Now...
Emma walked into the briefing room as Freyra started talking about security guards. She gave the woman's civves a dirty look, but said nothing as she gave her report. Emma walked over and took a seat, listening to Freya and taking in the information.
"It might be better if we went in drawing less attention to ourselves anyway. The fewer that can identify us, the better." she offered. Potential business partners would be center of attention. Better to be invisible while sneaking in. Though Emma could pull it off either way, so whatever Cissnei wanted to do she'd follow. Now it was time for her own report. She pulled out a memory chip and passed it to Cissnei.
"That has all the photos and audio logs I took, and also a written report on each individual I saw working for the Gambino's. As a side, it also has reports on members of the slum gang that calls themselves The Behemoth Horns. Not strictly relevant at the moment, but it might come in handy someday." she said.
[attr="class","infoNotes"]Undercover raid. I LOVE IT. LETS BE BOSS
[attr="class","crashLyrics"]Dog Eat Dog[break]STREETLIGHTS, STREET LIFE. HOT BLOOD BURNING IN MY VEINS.
[attr="class","crashBody"]
“That’s not a bad look for you.” The redhead teased Freyra now that she wore clothes far different than her suit. Freyra was welcomed inside with ordered sandwiches and coffee ready for the debrief. After all, a mission was no good on an empty stomach. The fireplace was stoked to keep the place a cozy warmth. The seats near the fire were open for them to sit and carry on a discussion comfortably. Once Emma arrived, Cissnei slid behind her to lock the door and make sure the closed sign was flipped. [break][break] Cissnei was quite pleased at the amount of intel Freyra shared. Cissnei made some mental notes to parse Freyra’s information. It was easy to get inside with fake credentials and some façade of having business being there. The schematics of the building were committed to memory, she was already sitting at a table with some paper to sketch it out. “And where are the security rooms? Could you tell?” She looked up at Freyra from her sketch expecting her to point it out on the paper. “And the condo’s occupants? They look like the kind of crowd you’re currently dressed for?” [break][break] In truth she had not expected six guards for a housing unit. They had to be private security, so the Turk ladies wouldn’t be dealing with the Sonoran military police. Still, harassing them could invite trouble. Cissnei mulled it over as Freyra continued. Off-handedly she just muttered, “Such a waste of a good balcony.” It was like having fake pockets on pants. It was just poor unfunctional fashion design. Too bad they couldn’t fashion one of these romantic ‘jumps’ for the people they were about to evict. [break][break] Cissnei marked the entrances and exits: the main, the back, the emergency exits and its associated staircase, and finally the roof entrance. “Oh yes. I am sure the owner has some shadiness going on.” Why else would he just let known mafia members live in his unit? [break][break]
Didn’t everyone have a secret they didn’t want to share? Maybe they could use it to their advantage. Offer to help him resolve the issue for keeping quiet about the weird exchange between the Turks and their targets. Her eyes scrolled over her sketch of the third floor. So they would have to make an educated guess which of the six rooms had their target. “I agree we draw less attention to ourselves in this scenario.” She crossed an arm across her chest, while the other hand drew up as she pressed her knuckle to her lips. “Then we hide in plain sight.” [break][break] However, before she could mull over more of the idea, Emma passed her the storage chip with all the data the Turk could need to get an edge over the Gambinos' to take one of their assets. “Excellent work, Emma. If they are willing to do business with these Behemoth Horns, then doing business with us should be a breath of fresh air.” From their expelled lungs when they got punched with blackmail. She eyed the chip, before tucking it away carefully in a hidden pocket. “Did you duplicate it? Just in case.” The beauty of technology. One could never fully get rid of the evidence and having multiple copies ensured that they could not completely destroy the Turks' leverage over the mafia. [break][break] Cissnei leaned back in her chair in thought. Minerva, she wished Tseng was here. He was much better at making plans than her. “Well, we have some options. First option: we go in on business of a sort. Maybe even give the owner a real business pitch to help him clean out that skeleton in his closet in exchange for letting us do business in one of his condos and keeping quiet about it. Then, we would have free range within the walls of the building to do what we need to do. Did he seem like the type that would go for that, Freyra?” Cissnei raised a brow. [break][break] “Option Two: we go in undercover. We could be maintenance personnel or a cleaning crew with free range to check inside the rooms on the third floor without raising much suspicion. When we spot our target, we can try to cleanly resolve our matter with the Gambinos within their living quarters. And if things get out of hand, we can take out the cameras and make our exit.” Easier said than done, and Cissnei was already running alternatives in her head. [break][break] “You two have seen things first hand. Which option do you think is more feasible? Or is there a third option you can think of?” Cissnei would rather have all cards out on the table first, then decide on a plan of action.
until your hope has died. beat down, until victory is mine
W
hether the outfit suited Freyra or not was irrelevant to Emma. The woman should have changed before the meeting as far as she was concerned. It was just simply unprofessional. Though it didn't surprise her coming from Freyra of all people. She'd make any excuse to be unprofessional. And thus she could continue to suffer Emma's looks of disapproval throughout the meeting. Though Emma was still quick to respond to Cissnei's question when posed to her.
"Of course." she replied curtly. As if that even needed to be asked, standard operating procedure dictated that all obtained information was to be copied in at least triplicate and stored in different locations for safe keeping in case an area is compromised. Emma didn't shirk standard operating procedures. Unlike some people. She gave Freyra's outfit another dirty look. Clearly she had left Cissnei alone without efficient help for far too long. A higher standard needed to be brought to bear.
Emma waited as Cissnei processed everything she had heard and then listened as she explained her two possible methods of succeeding at their mission. The first was to gain control of the owner and use that to obtain quarters and operate on their own turf. The other was to sneak in to their operation in disguise and take things from there once they were in. Both had possibilities.
"Personally I don't see why we can't feel out both. When I got that data I literally walked into the meet and no one barely batted an eyelash. The more unassuming we make ourselves the more likely we can pull this off. But feeling out the owner would be good first step. Even if he doesn't take the bait we can still hold him under threat and once he sees the tide turning I'm sure he'd throw all other allegiances out the window in a hurry." she offered.
[attr="class","infoNotes"]We can do a time skip whenever. Let me know when you're ready. =)
[attr="class","crashLyrics"]Dog Eat Dog
[attr="class","crashBody"] Cissnei nodded satisfied at the responses from Emma. It seemed the woman had not lost her edge after all these years. Cissnei smiled smugly. It felt good to have a partner again. When with another Turk, she could take on the world. And when mingled with the flavor of Sonora and its technological comforts, she was starting to feel at home again. Even if it was freezing and she needed a home base. At least they could take care of one of those.
[break][break]
"It will be hard to feel out both. Once we make ourselves known to the owner, it will make coming in undercover much more complicated." Especially if they failed to turn the owner. They didn't even know what his closet skeletons were just yet. She hummed thoughtfully, "But it would all go much more smoothly if the owner was on our side."
[break][break]
She reached for the coffee pot at the center of the table and poured herself a mug. She offered it to Emma, should she want it. Then, she let the warmth fill her fingers as she picked up the mug. Though, she seemed lost in contemplation for a second. "If we do talk to the owner first, then we know a few key things. He wants to expand to other locations. He became paranoid after a couple jumped from the balcony. And he doesn't want security using firearms to further protect his property. In sum, he wants as little negative publicity as possible. I think helping with that is our specialty." They were used to airing out Shinra's dirty laundry. They could offer such services here.
[break][break]
"It also sounds like there is more to this balcony jump than he's letting on. I have a feeling there is a third party involved that he's afraid of." She shook her head. Hacking into Sonoran military police records was too much for her. She could maybe see if there were any news articles on the matter. But... "I think it is worth pushing him on the topic and seeing what we can find out."
[break][break]
She took a sip of her coffee as she looked outside. "This needs to be delicately handled. We don't need him going to police. Perhaps, we offer him our investigative services. Tell him we noticed he may have some issues, and we would be more than happy to help in exchange for housing. Maybe even sweeten the deal. We can save him the cost of security while we are housed there." Cissnei was used to not sleeping anyway. And that way, he's happy with saving money and they were happy with having work to do.
[break][break]
"Unless there's anything else, are you ready to go now?"
until your hope has died. beat down, until victory is mine
W
ell, they didn't know if he was in on the shady side of things, but they didn't know he wasn't either. A bit of counter fear could go a long way into keeping him quiet about their presence, either way. Especially if he was as paranoid as Freyra believed. But all of this was just thinking on the negative. Cissnei had ideas on the positive outcome that seemed to have plenty of chance to work out. Making this as beneficial to the owner as possible was likely to be successful, but even if not than Emma was confident they could bring him to their way of thinking easy enough. Paranoia was easy to abuse. Emma would start creating contingency plan possibilities before they were mission go. Once they had a better feel for him she'd know which way to go if things came to it. Cissnei seemed far more cautious about it, which was certainly fair. Since she was leading she needed to consider everything including the possibility of failure. Emma was just focused on making sure the mission succeeded.
"Agreed." Emma replied to Cissnei's plan, "I'm always ready to go. Want me to play bad cop if he's resistant?" she asked, rising back to her feet and straightening the wrinkles her suit had obtained from the rest. Freyra would need to change first, of course. Unless she was going back in character. But if they were talking to him about business now, there was no point in the deception. Meanwhile, Emma was armed with her gun and materia, and was dressed and ready to go. Unless there was anything special they needed to prepare, and Emma didn't have anything in mind, they seemed otherwise mission ready to her. She was ready. For the mission and to get back on the job with her team.
[attr="class","infoNotes"]Fufufu. I left it open for questions
[attr="class","crashLyrics"]Dog Eat Dog
[attr="class","crashBody"]
Cissnei smiled warmly at Emma’s remark, though it seemed to melt into something dark. “We will have to feel him out. But putting a little pressure and threat on him may not be a bad strategy.” She gave a dark chuckle. “Jokes on him. We’re both bad cops.” She slid off the table.
[break][break]
She cleaned up the tables and reset the room. Through the back she hopped on her motorcycle and sidecar. Something she hotwired to get Freyra to the hospital a time back. Unfortunately, she never knew who the owner was, so she swapped its license plate and made do with it. Then off they went to their ‘appointment’.
[break][break]
---
[break][break]
The courtyard of the housing unit was very well maintained. The bushes were flowering and the pavements were kept clean. She could already spot the cameras keeping eyes on the entrance and the blacked out windows of the security rooms. It was clear they were already being watched from the moment they stepped onto the premises. Wonderful. Time to be on their best behavior.
[break][break]
They walked through the front door and the common hall was just as luxurious as the outside. The floors were well waxed in its stark white tiles. The red carpet was laid out and there were cold accents on the furniture and walls. In a way, it reminded her of Shinra. There was an office, duly noted “Condo Assoc.”, as they walked in. How convenient. They at least knew where to go.
[break][break]
Cissnei tilted her head in that direction. “Seems it won’t be hard to find him. As long as he’s in.” She walked to the door and knocked on it. “Mr. Manchester?” She called sweetly. “My name is Cissnei and I have my partner with me.” No need to give all the names. “We are from Angel Eye’s Investigations. You may have heard of us?”
She did not explain why she was here. Let his imagination fill it in and scare him. That was usually scarier than any threat she could give him. She winked at Emma, as she took a step back from the door. There was a silhouette in the fogged glass of the door.
The man came out. He wore a blazer, no buttons fastened, over a nice shirt. He seemed well kept, except his black hair was starting to thin. He brushed his hair back to hide the growing bald spot. He was a little overweight, but not terribly so. And he stood mid-height with a pair of spectacles on his face. Overall, he was a pretty average looking guy.
“I don’t know no more than what I told the press…” He seemed overly sweaty and nervous. His hands wrung together.
Cissnei raised a brow. This could prove easier than she thought.
until your hope has died. beat down, until victory is mine
E
mma smirked at Cissnei's remark. Yeah, they never did see the double bad cop coming, did they? Well, that was his problem. Emma followed along with Cissnei and headed out. She had apparently obtained a motorcycle for a ride, though Emma didn't ask the means by which it was acquired. Emma only focused on important information.
Arriving a the location, Emma quickly donned some black leather gloves and put on her shades. She got out of the cart and straightened her suit out to remove the creases it had picked up on the journey. They headed on to the premises and Emma took in the surroundings, and of course the security. She gave Cissnei a small nod to indicate she had noted everything and followed the redhead into the building. It was definitely a well kept place. Cissnei pointed out the door to the office.
"Very convenient." she replied. If he wasn't there he would be eventually. It was certainly their best bet. As her partner knocked on the door and started baiting the man out, Emma took in the detail of the room in full. Layout, objects, people had priority. All forms of visible security and all possible locations of hidden security. Tactical analysis of the room and the best points to engage in combat in the event of a worst case scenario. All objects that could be used as cover, an impromptu weapon, or could be hiding weapons set-up by security. She looked around as Cissnei gave her a wink. Emma shook her head with a small smile. Cissnei was enjoying this. Emma didn't hate it either. A man came out to respond to her partner's bait and immediately jumped on the defensive. Emma wondered if he realized that the double negative in his statement actually indicated the truth in that he did know more. Well, she found it amusing at least. She studied the man, he was wearing a suit of his own, though not quite as well kept as their own. Emma made a note to keep an eye out as he moved around to see if he was concealing a weapon under the blazer. For the moment, she'd assume he was.
"The press is unreliable for making sure we get all the facts. We'd like to have a word with the source. If we could just step inside your office for a few minutes. Unless you'd prefer to have this conversation in view of the public?" Emma chimed in. She used a stern tone to present authority and to make him want to deal with the sweeter toned Cissnei more. Part one of bad cop.
[attr="class","infoNotes"]Feel free to control him your post.
[attr="class","crashLyrics"]Dog Eat Dog
[attr="class","crashBody"] Emma was always sharp as always. Cissnei admired her from the corner of gaze. Sharp suit and shades suited her rather well. And she was glad to have backup that could focus on the finer details of the mission. A wink made Emma smile. A mission was what they both needed. Staying in stuffy offices and doing menial labor was putting a damper on their moods recently. [break][break] The man looked between the two. It was clear he was under duress already. The guilt was eating at the otherwise honest man. [break][break] Cissnei nodded in confirmation to Emma’s elaboration to push his decision. “The press has to legally repress a lot of the information as well, to protect families and, in some cases, make sure mass panic doesn’t occur. They also glamorize the situation out of proportions. As she said,” She tilted her head. “We need to talk to the source. It will remain confidential.” [break][break] The man swallowed and reached into his breast pocket for his handkerchief. Mopping his brow he opened his door wider. He stood to the side to let them in and once they had entered, he closed the door behind them. Then, walking to his desk, he exasperatedly gestured for them to take a seat in the chairs across from it. Cissnei did so, making sure to sit up at the very end of it. “How did you find them?” She opened up. “Are you sure it was from the balcony?” [break][break] The man stiffened. At this point he had pulled a bourbon from the mini bar and poured it into a glass. After the question, he threw it back. [break][break] “I apologize. I should have eased into the questions.” She removed a pen and paper from her own blazer pocket. “May I confirm your name?” [break][break] “George Manchester.” [break][break] “Your occupation?” [break][break] “Board Director of the Homeowners Association for the Vista Tower.” He moved to his desk, but he wouldn’t sit. [break][break] “And how did you...come across the scene?” She rephrased, looking up at him. [break][break] “I mean they were face down on the lawn.” He patted his head. [break][break] “How did you know to look?” [break][break] “I heard a scream from the lobby. Then it abruptly stopped… When I left through the glass doors, they were in a pool of their blood. I looked up and…and...I saw...the balcony windows on the fourth floor were open.” [break][break] “Is that all you saw…?” [break][break] The man hesitated and looked askance. “Yes…” [break][break] Cissnei narrowed her eyes. He saw something else. But he wasn’t saying. She looked to Emma and gave a shrug, hopefully indicating for her to press into it.
