Yet she waits for anyone else to speak up, because: manners.
Unless asked for his opinion, Jacob stays silent, wanting to figure out how the group will work before chiming in
>Head on in there and take a seat.
>Say nothing. Look vaguely menacing.
Explain my experience, smuggling, smooth talking, and my deadliness with all Asia related objects and concepts.
No-one speaks up for a while once you're all seated with drinks, and for a long moment the only sound is that of Elixas shuffling through what appears to be a wad of palmcards. Eventually the awkward silence is broken when Jeremiah Nix gets to his feet, looking sheepish.
"I... You know, Mister Ambrose, on second thoughts, I don't know I'm rightly cut-out for a life of crime. I... Might get going, if that's alright." "Pianola" Ambrose simply nods his head magnaminously.
"No hard feelings." He raises his glass towards the man and says,
"Here's to a man with more sense than some, eh?" He shares a lazy grin with the room as Nix says goodbye to Aerie(apparently they know each other?) before shuffling out.
Aerie feels a bit embarassed as her mysterious, big-bearded uncle hugs her goodbye and tells her to be careful, and even more so as she feels a few tears threatening to fill her eyes as the door closes behind him, but thankfully at that moment Elixas,
[4]apparently sufficiently prepared, stands up. He leans one shoulder casually against a wall as he pauses for effect before launching into a long-winded, self-centred spiel on his many talents, ranging from running contraband, to talking his way in and out of sticky situations, to killing people with anything from sharp metal objects to 5/7/5 syllable poems. He pauses briefly, either for effect or, more likely, to take a breath, and continues on and on about his various no-doubt-exaggerated exploits, travels about the world, his amorous relationships with beautiful women of half-a-dozen nationalities, his globe-spanning criminal empire, his--
To the relief of his
bored enthralled listeners, Ambrose cuts him off with a raised hand, chuckling softly.
"Whoah there, 'storytime'! Mind telling us for a third time about that one fella you killed with a paper crane?" Elixas opens his mouth to do so, then stops as Ambrose facepalms.
"I was joking. Please, do shut up." Mildly chastened(only mildly, of course; this
is Elixas we're talking about), Elixas resumes his seat.
Ambrose looks about the room at each of you thoughtfully. He seems to be considering just what to say to this mis-matched bunch of aspiring bandits who have fallen into his lap when there is a knock at the door. He nods to Lou, who opens it, and the bartender pokes his head inside.
"Sorry to interrupt, Mister Ambrose, but there's a young feller here to see you? Apparently it was O'Dolan's idea?" Ambrose thinks for a moment, then nods in comprehension.
"Oh right, yes, he did mention something about that. Well, send him in," He flashes his grin again, gesturing to the folks seated about the room,
"The more the merrier, right?" The boy nods and a moment later a tall, rangy man is ushered in, stepping awkwardly through the door and tipping a nod to those assembled, a wide-brimmed fedora pulled down low on his head. Ambrose returns the nod, but before he can offer the newcomer a seat he
[4] lets loose with a rapid-fire, Irish accented chatter, speaking quickly (well, more quickly than average even for an Irish) out of apparent nervousness.
"Name is McBurney," the fellow began, with a slightly forced smile,
"I've got a hand with fire an' distractions. You take me on and I'll make sure that nobody is lookin' to you when your work goes down." Ambrose, looking bemused, nods slowly and starts to speak, but the new man isn't finished yet.
"Shite and onions, you give me the tools and the opportunity and I'll make sure nobody even knows what it was they were seein'.""Right right, have a seat, McBurney," Ambrose finally manages to get a word in, waving yet another eager aspiring crook to a seat before leaning on his desk for a moment, massaging his temples.
[d100=46] Clayton hears him say something under his breath about "a freakin' job fair," followed by something to do with "goddamn daycare centre I'm running here," and then he regains his comppsure, getting to his feet and gesturing to his room-full of job applicants.
"Well, you all seem fairly promising, you've got, ah, potential," It's rather hard to tell whether he's serious or just being patronizing as he heads over to another small door, not the one to the common room but a different one,
"But since I'm running a rather elite outfit here, we're going to need to see just what you lot are capable of, hey?" He opens the door and slips through, leaving you guys in Lou's care for a moment. Through the door you can catch a brief glimpse of green-felt tables, stacks of coloured plastic chips and folks staring at each other above the backs of playing cards, and then Ambrose is back, accompanied by a short, grizzled-looking hispanic fellow wearing aviator sunglasses. He does not look at all pleased to be here.
"Now folks, this here is Manuel. Don't be put off by his attitude, he's one of the best deadeye shots either side of the border and luckily for you, he has kindly agreed to show you a thing or two about firearms." 'Manuel' nods and Ambrose leaves him standing stiffly by the door and heads back over to his desk, fidgeting with the bottle of scotch for a brief moment before instead picking up his glass of water and downing it. He raises his eyebrows.
"Questions?" He allows about half-a-second for any questions before ushering you all back out into the common room, along with the recalcitrant Manuel, who leads the way out front. A rather annoyed-looking doorman approaches Elixas as they pass the latter's P.O.S car on the street, but Manuel simply shoots the man a look and he rather quickly backs off.
Apparently the old greaser's a known hardcase.
He leads your little band around into the parking lot, to where a silver Oldsmobile sedan is parked. Not bothering to explain where the hell you're going, he unlocks the doors and sits motionless in the passenger seat, silently waiting for you to get in and drive.
You hope Ambrose's faith in this guy is justified.
Who's driving...? I hope none of you mugs get carsick.
A warm welcome to Draignean/McBurney!Alias gained! Elixas "Storytime" Roxine! Effect: +1 to bullshitting.>Figure out how the group will work
[5] Hmm, well. That Elixas guy seems like he could talk under wet cement, if you run out of bullets and need someone talked to death, he'd be your man. The big fellow, Clayton, well, you're not sure if he's good at anything, but there's no doubting he's made of muscle. He'll probably end up carrying the haul, if nothing else. Aerie? Well... She seems like a bit of a ditz, but she's not too bad looking so you can forgive her. The new guy you're not too sure about. He acts like some kinda pro, but you get the feeling he's talking himself up a bit. Still, you're sure he'll be good for something.
As for yourself, well, you think of yourself as quite the smooth-talker. You've never used a gun, but you're usually good at keeping your cool.
Well, that could've gone better... But then again, it could've gone far worse.
Jeremy O'Dolan, one of the O'Dolan boys and an family friend who you hadn't seen in years, was the one who made this whole appointment. You're a bit surprised at seeing "Pianola" Ambrose in the Flesh. Guy's a legend; you (along with most everyone else) thought he was long dead. You weren't sure if Jeremy was even serious about this, but apparently he was, and here you are. Whoah.
Also, some big guy with a beard stormed out a little while before you went in. Not sure what that was about.
Here it is, folks, the update that has taken me so damn long to complete.
Blame the Olympics being on the other side of the world; I've been up most nights watching the live broadcast til either it ends at 6AM or I fall asleep.
Also, I deleted and re-did the update twice before I was satisfied I wasn't rambling too much.
Hopefully I wasn't too railroad-y, I just want to get you out of the dang introduction and get things moving.
I'll update the OP just as soon as I get around to it.
Author
Topic: The Ballad of "Pianola" Ambrose (Read 17301 times)