Talking Shop @ PRB

Ransom is seated on the couch, a notepad in hand and a brush-pen in the other, busily swiping out vertical line after vertical line of Chinese seal-script. The sigils are not particularly lovely in any season, and the lean man's brusque hand does nothing to improve them.

	Mo comes trundling down the stairs to see who might be about. He'll pause once at the bottom and take a look around.

Ransom's attention rises toward the stairway as he hears the footfalls. "Well, then; I believe I've seen you at one of the meetings here, haven't I?" he inquires in a mild, affable basso. "Mo Gui, was it?"

	Mo's attention goes towards Ransom when the man addresses him. "Mmmm, dunno if it a meeting, but I've been down here a few times, yeah." He makes his way over. "Mo, for short, works well enough. How're you?"

"Ransom Blythe," the man provides by way of memory refreshment. "And I find the evening regrettably thin on business, but it's to be expected. I don't generally have much truck with our circles when it comes to selling things. I don't believe I ever learned your profession, Mo. Might I inquire as to your own line of work?"

	Mo ahs. At the more direct line of inquiry, his brow furrows slightly as he parses a reply. "Odd jobs. Restorations, mostly, I guess."

"And that's the sum of it?" Ransom asks, a note of amiable curiosity in his voice. "Most of the people who have access to this particular place tend to have a more... unusual... portfolio than that. For my own part, I am a trader in ambitions and desires. Euthanatos, so naturally I am very keen on appropriate exchanges."

	Mo blinks owlishly a few times as Ransom refreshes his memory. "Ah. Right. Euthanatos." A happy smile. "I guess that's the sum of it, yeah. People need lost stuff found and recovered. Sometimes from circumstances that are a bit beyond mortal ken. So that's where I come in."

"There's always a need for finding something," Ransom allows. "What sort of things do you recover? It seems that Paris fellow is looking for magical ingredients, and could perhaps use a deft pair of hands to rummage about the world for them."

	"People. Though I guess those're more properly referred to as bounties. But also just plain ol' stuff - mementos, components, that sorta thing."

"Don't 'bounties' rather object to being found?" Ransome inquires. "It sounds as if it could be a rather hazardous business to go looking them up. I presume you let someone else collect them- or is that part of your line of work too?"

	"They usually do, yup. And it certainly involves risk for reward. Speaking of which, payment upon receipt, locating is the easy part and no one gets paid big bucks for that bit. Collection is where the money's at."

Ransom tsks at that. "A troublesome line of work," he notes. "The sort of thing for a young man, I suppose. What would you say was your most interesting collection? I confess that my particular tradition is not overly concerned with the "bring back alive" part of bounties, so the logistics involved are unfamiliar to me."

	"I dunno that there's interesting, or non-interesting. There's just successful or unsuccessful. Generally, payments higher for warm over cold returns, though. There's a diff 'tween restorations and assassinations. Financial for sure, at least."

"It's really quite distressing, how easily people die," Ransom reflects idly. "An ordinary man on the street- why, if someone decides to kill him, there's very little he can do but die. A knife, a pistol, a little patience sitting outside his place of employment... even if he's alert and wary, can he stay that way twenty-four hours a day? His assailant has every advantage of time and place. The only thing that protects him is his attacker's dread of being caught and punished, and if his attacker is not bothered by that then there is so little that can be done to stop him."

Ransom is seated on the couch, a small notebook in hand neglected as his attention is turned to MoGui.
Emrick heads down the stairs, coffee in one hand, pastry in another. His usual messenger bag slung over his shoulder as he bops his head along to whatever beat is playing in his headphones. He takes a second to pause at the bottom of the steps to give a smile to those in the room, and pull the headphones off of his head.

	Mo listens as Ransom details the sometimes banal task of assassination. "Yeah, but I don't muck with mundies, man. There's no real reward in that. Unmundie restorations demand an unmundie restorer."

"But the overwhelming majority of people who need killing are perfectly mundane," Ransom replies to MoGui, the lean man seated on the couch. "Oh, it's true that the supernatural sorts tend to get the most credit in our circles, but when it comes down to it, the majority of the actual cleaning is to be done to and with mundane sorts. Still, if you take such work purely based on the money involved, I suppose you might want to spare your efforts for profitable supernatural targets."
Emrick raises an eyebrow as he hears things about killing people "Uh, hey guys." he says with a bit of trepidation.

	Mo gives Ransom a nod. "Ayup. But like I said, I do restorations, not assassinations. If someone's ends up being brought back cold, it was because the choice was them or me, and I'm overly partial to me." He then turns and gives Em a smile and warm greeting. "Emrick!"

Lin comes down the stairs with a latte in hand looking around to see who's about in the basement. Lin nods to Ransom in recognition with a small smile.

Ransom returns Lin's acknowledgement with a benign nod and wave of his still-held notebook before he looks back to Mo. "Well, if your line of work doesn't involve explicit asssassinations, I suppose it would work out that way. It's not even as if the majority of _my_ business involves killing people, and I'm a death sorcerer. I just can't help but have a professional curiosity about how other sorts manage their messier work."

	Mo nods. "Boomsticks help."

Emrick blinks a bit at the conversation and chooses to sit at the large table nearby. "Uh, Hey Mo. I went to Berlin yesterday and got schematics I needed for that project, so now I'm good to go." he nods and then starts getting out his laptop and Ar glasses.

"The killing isn't the hard part. It's the who and the why that matters. Speaking of how others do it, I met the Vampire's local enforcer." Lin notes softly in her strong chinese accent as she moves over towards the Library section.

"I've never been a fan of them, myself," Ransom replies to Mo. "If you're close enough to shoot them, they're close enough to shoot _you_. If the target has a chance to defend himself, I'd rather pick a different method." His regard turns toward Lin. "You did? That sounds like it must have been an unpleasant experience."

	"Boomstick for up close, sniper rifle for not close," clarifies Mo to Ransom offhandedly. His eyes go to the latest arrival, noting Lin before he makes his way to join Emrick at the table. "That's wonderful news. I'm totes stoked and so grateful you're helping me with this. It has deep personal meaning for me."

Emrick nods at Mo "Ya, no problem, no worries." he boots up the laptop and takes the time to sip his coffee. Meanwhile a cell-phone sized golem in the shape of a dragon crawls out of his messenger bag to lounge on Emricks shoulder.

Lin shakes her head "It was a pleasant conversation. It seems we were both hunting in the same place. To be fair I spend most of my time talking to the restless dead. So the rather cute dead is certainly a change." before taking a sip of her drink. "The rest is more Tradition business."

	Mo looks back over a shoulder at Lin. "Hunting what?"

Ransom's attention flicks toward the golem briefly. "Ah, the ostentation of skill," he murmurs sotto-voce before his regard returns to Lin. "I've never met a vampire in person, myself. Largely because they are vampires and I am full of delicious, delicious blood. But do you do many assassinations yourself? I'm wondering how many of us are actually working the old-fashioned line here in Prospect."

Lin smiles "I was hunting Vampires and truth. I found both. I was able to lay to rest a rumor and find out more about some situations. I had also prepared myself should one decide to take a nibble. My blood was like poppies. It is much easier to deal with someone when they are happy and drooling on themselves. But it was not required." before Lin shakes her head at the question "I work more to return those unable to move on back into the Wheel. Resolving their conflicts and issues that cause them to refuse the call of Reincarnation. This does cause me to encounter quite a few victims which sometimes results in me passing Judgement upon someone. But that is more of a side effect than a main duty."

Emrick taps on his Ar glasses and types a bit on his laptop, eventually he stops typing and then focuses on the shapes in his Ar glasses, reviewing schematics in the Ar field. He looks to Mo "You have a day planned for the outing?" he asks and then takes a bite of pastry.

	Mo looks to Emrick, then shakes his head. "No, not yet. I need to consult the star charts beforehand to try and identify the most auspicious date and time to attempt the recovery."

"Does that actually work?" Ransom asks curiously of Lin when she mentions her altered blood. "I confess that vampires don't seem to follow ordinary rules about most things- being dead but still moving and all- and I wonder if sorceling blood is something they'd notice. I don't know anything more about them than what that helpful video over there provides." A finely-scarred hand gestures toward the Vampire 101 video. "When you need to finish off more tangible clients, how do you prefer to do it? I'm always curious about the preferences of others in this line of work."