[Alina Rybalka]

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[attr="class","nikki101"]WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE

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[attr="class","nikki102"]BUT IN THE END, IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY

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[attr="class","nikki109"]The underground sucked. [break][break]

It was absolutely not an area that favored her. It negated any advantage she might have had due to her immense range due to the fact it was so cramped, and furthermore that cramped nature also made it next to impossible for heat to escape quickly. A use of Flash in a place like this would just remove most of the air and create the approximation of the inside of an oven at full blast. One of the major downsides to the semblance was the fact that Knight wasn’t actually any more resistant to heat or flame than anyone else. [break][break]

She took precautions against that, of course, but aside from aura there wasn’t really anything that could make too much of a difference. Flame resistant material in her clothes and jacket helped with normal fires, but would just melt when exposed to the semblance. It was still pretty fucking cold around Mistral this time of year, so the gray haired faunus wore her usual colder weather outfit of a black leather jacket over top of a white hoodie and thick, charcoal gray rock climbing pants. Not that she was a climber or anything, but it provided easy access to her weighted boots and was made of high quality material that had a hard shell that was waterproof and more durable than most other materials. [break][break]

Knight always had an edge of paranoia to her, and this time was no different. Being underground wasn’t her favorite thing in the world, especially around people that she had absolutely zero reason to trust. She had Red keep the car in a hidden alley nearby the warehouse and keep watch outside for anything weird. If the Mistral native got a message that anything was out of whack at any point, she was perfectly comfortable leaving right then and there. Just because she was at a disadvantage in close quarters didn’t mean that she couldn’t use her semblance, either, because the fact of the matter was that her aura was stupid strong and she was confident she could outlast anyone even if she was subject to the same heat. [break][break]

A dark blue ballcap underneath the white hood kept the ears out of sight as the faunus walked into the warehouse and made her way down to the meeting area. There were already people around, cleaning up the area and rearranging what little shit there was left. Stuff was being brought in, of course, and construction materials bought in order to make the upper level actually useful for something other than an abandoned shell of a crumbling building. Knight didn’t usually carry any visible weapons, and this time was no different. She had brass knuckles on the insides of her leather jacket, a pair of white gloves on the inside of her hoodie pockets, and a pair of reinforced and weighted boots for her current loadout. Low profile was her thing, and she felt zero reason to flaunt large or imposing weapons at people and draw attention from both randoms on the street and police. [break][break]

Gray eyes flicked around the upper level of the warehouse to memorize exits, knowing damned well that the hard part would be fighting all the way back to the surface more than anything. Once back on the surface, she would be able to fight her way out of damned near anything if she had even the slightest bit of aura left. This was the first sit down meeting with the other heads of the organization, other than Nyx, and while she didn’t have a reason to distrust Nyx at this point… she also had less than zero reason to actively trust anyone else she had hired. [break][break]

She didn’t remove the hood when she descended underground and walked at a deliberately measured pace to scan for any new traps that may have been added since the last time she had been down there. The faunus had shown at the far end of what one might consider to be on time, and that was also done on purpose. Untrained people tended to get antsy when people were a little late and worried that something was wrong – and she was not late enough to completely discard plausible deniability of traffic issues, but was late enough to possibly trigger a mistake or two if the purpose of this was an ambush. [break][break]

Her right hand was in her leather jacket outer pocket, with thumb pressed together with the index and middle finger. She could react almost instantaneously to anything that popped up for as long as she had one hand more or less free and would keep that right hand right in that pocket for as long as she could get away with it. Pulling out her scroll to visually verify she had no messages and that she had it set to vibrate and not on silent, she paused for a moment to collect herself and adjust her personality for where it needed to be for this to function correctly. [break][break]

Pushing open the door with her right hand, the faunus feigned being lost. ”Oh, this is the room! My bad, had an accident in the road on the way here. Hope I didn’t keep you all waiting too long.” she started, taking a good look around what was a bog standard – if a bit dusty – meeting room and a board already put up with chalk and everything for writing and other important bureaucratic stuff. The meeting room was designed for way more than three people, so it was easy for Knight to find a seat at the end of the table because Gryphen happened to be standing in front of that board. [break][break]

The faunus imagined that he would want to be seated at the end of the table, and a notebook at that edge confirmed the suspicions. Nevertheless, Knight made a beeline for that very seat, plopped down, and immediately leaned back as far as it would go as she swiveled the chair over to face towards the board. ”So what did I miss?” she’d ask, completely ignoring the fact that she had just taken an obviously spoken for seat. She wanted to know how Gryphen in particular reacted, frankly, because she wasn’t able to get a lot of information about him. [break][break]

Whitaker had a lot more public information about him, and a lot more people willing to talk about their opinions. Nothing bad, frankly, because it seemed like he was a person who deeply cared about his underlings and just wanted a way to make a living. They weren’t very far apart, and if given the opportunity they might even grow to be allies. Knight knew what levers she might need to pull when dealing with Whitaker, because she could always turn the lever of financial stability or the security of his people if hardball needed to be played. [break][break]

Gryphen, though? She had no idea what made him tick and no idea what he valued. That was annoying, frankly, and she had no problem trying out a number of different things to ideally irritate him and get him to reveal a bit more. Ego and pride was the first potential weakness targeted, and probably the most common overall. Respect was such a big deal for all of the curmudgeonly manly men who wanted everyone else to know how manly they were. When interacting with anyone, there was no trust unless you knew what they valued and what levers you could pull to make them pay for fucking with you. [break][break]

Until those levers were found, it was just a dangerous dance to find them before an open fight broke out between all parties. Knight had seen the assignment details and knew damned well that her only superior was Nyx. This gave her considerable leeway to do shit like this, and it was leeway that she was more than happy to take full advantage of for as long as it lasted.

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[attr="class","nikki103"]1326 words

[attr="class","nikki103"]ASCHE SYNDICATE

[attr="class","nikki103"]1326 TOTAL WORDS

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NOTES

B Semblance, D Weapons, C Dust Enhancement, C Durability, C Agility, D Stamina, D Exhaustion, D Martial Arts

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[Jay]

WORDS: 1740 | TWC: 1740 | NOTES: damn kids these days...

"Bullshit."

The singular word was half-snarled, half-groaned, into the burner Scroll that looked absurdly small in the large, bulky, man's proportionally large and bulky hand. Gryphen Madder leaned against the heavy wood table, nearly the only furniture in the spacious meeting room. "Fucking bullshit." A woman's voice spoke slowly and calmly into his ear, far too quiet for any observers to overhear, even if he weren't the only being, human or otherwise, in the room at that point in time.

His face twisted with annoyance and frustration. "Yes... Yes, I kn- No, I have not met with them yet. That is what I am waiting for right now... Yes... Hm. Hmph... And you're sure about her? I don't exactly appreciate that there are so many fucking kids working for me, P. Yeah? Really." He pinched the bridge of his nose. He was not having a very pleasant time.

He could tell this girl was going to be nothing but trouble...

But he'd known Nyx for a long time. Years. He trusted her. And in spite of his intuition screaming at him that this was a fucking awful idea, he was willing to deal with it, for her sake.

At least the other guy was someone he could relate to.

For one, he was a grown-ass adult man. Not a brat in need of a goddamn babysitter, like the rest of his recruits. Sure, he'd scouted and selected several of them himself, but that didn't change the fact that they were as green as a goddamn meadow.

For two, he was a hard worker, and a working man. Two different traits, but both extremely valuable to Gryphen. Traits Gryphen shared with Whitaker Pickett. Maybe it wasn't construction work that Gryphen had dipped his toes in, long before he'd joined the Asche Syndicate, but he had definitely come from blue collar roots- as easy to see in his wardrobe, as the color of his pants.

Which were blue, for the record- hardy denim jeans, a sturdy leather belt, and a dull blue button-up, sleeves rolled to reveal strong, muscular, arms. And a red tie, haphazardly worn around his thick neck, in a loose knot- he fucking hated that thing. He hated ties, and situations in which he was expected to wear them, and basically everything about them.

He hated a lot of things, honestly.

Tardiness, for instance.

That was where Whit immediately proved his worth to the blonde. Sharp ears caught the sound of doors opening down the long, echoing hall, and Gryphen paced over, away from the door, as he wrapped up his phone call "You know I'll handle it, P. But if this blows over, don't fucking tell me I didn't warn you. Yeah. I know. He's here, if my guess is correct. Over and out." A small sigh of frustration left him as he put away the Scroll, turning to eye the door as the first of his two guests arrived, along with a strongly-built woman he believed he might have seen before, but wasn't certain of. She headed straight for the coffee machine, as Gryphen approached the bald man before him

At 6'9", he was damn near a foot taller than Whit, but he was pleased to see that the man cut a sharp and imposing figure, even in spite of the height difference. A hulking hand reached out to greet the man, as his eyes, firm and stern, locked with the construction worker's.

He'd met Whitaker Pickett before, of course. It had, after all, been him who Nyx had sent to recruit the man and his employees in the first place. And yet, while he knew the man's background, skills, and usefulness, he couldn't say that he knew the man, himself, at all. No doubt, Whit felt even more in the dark- Gryphen had been careful to divulge as little of his personal information as possible. He intended to keep it that way, frankly; these people were subordinates and coworkers. They had no need to know any more about him than the bare minimum required to conduct business.

With a deep voice that was rough from years of overuse, the taller man greeted the other. "Mr. Pickett. Thank you for coming today. If you would take a seat, we can start as soon as Knight arrives." He appreciated that Pickett was forthcoming enough to give his real name; it was understandable to withhold that information from an employee, but an employer ought to know every detail, especially in this line of work.

Then again, it was exactly the line of work where you didn't want anyone knowing your name.

Gryphen wasn't exactly the most secretive, however. He was an imposing and immediately noticeable person- if he got sloppy and got caught, his name would be the last thing used to identify him, so he used it freely.

The secret? Don't get sloppy.

Just another thing about Knight that already annoyed him; pseudonyms were well and fine, but considering she was apparently not under his authority, he couldn't exactly tell her to fuck off with that secrecy bullshit. It was irritating that Nyx had even hired her. Presumably, she had her reasons. But he couldn't help but feel like she had made a bad call.

Pickett grabbed his attention by mentioning that a subordinate of his had spotted a car parking in an alley not far from the headquarters. Either it was Knight, or someone with no business knowing their location. Either way, the situation would be handled easily enough.

Gryphen nodded in appreciation of the new information, and set about writing out a few notes on the whiteboard, putting his notebook on the table to reference as he went.

In not-terribly-neat handwriting, he managed to scrawl out a pretty basic diagram, with the names of the three executive Syndicate members in circles, under the name, Nyx, in a bigger circle at the top. From Whittaker's name, a series of lines connecting to the names of a few key employees, and a bubble labelled "management," to note that he was overseer for the bulk of Asche's lower-level employees. Under Knight's name, a single bubble labelled "muscle," which was arguably her only purpose within the organization. And from his own name, a few key employees, the word, "administration," and a line connecting his name to Whittaker's, which was just slightly lower than his own, as well as a noteworthy lack of line connecting to Knight at all. Which was, unfortunately, the case; Whit was technically his junior executive, while Knight was separate entirely from the two of them in the hierarchy, except that she was hired by Nyx personally, just as he was.

Her name was also connected by a dotted line to the bubbles listing employee names, including Whit's- she was theoretically their superior as well, but only under certain conditions, which he would hopefully be laying out over the course of the meeting.

In fact, he was about to begin taking notes on that topic, when the door opened behind him. He didn't turn to see, but he was sure that it was the final member of their trio, arriving well after he had expected her.

How very disappointing.

Still facing the whiteboard, he rolled his good eye at her pointless, unneeded, excuse for being late. This wasn't a fucking high school math class, it was a goddamn meeting between people in a very shady line of work. Being late, unless you were dead, was unacceptable, and from the annoying sound of her voice, she was unfortunately still among the living.

Great.

Here was her chance to disprove the biases and prejudices he'd formed about her, without truly having the opportunity to become properly acquainted, but instead of doing that, she trots in, late, with an excuse about car troubles, and to make things worse, just as Gryphen turned to take his notebook, he found the canine faunus in his seat.

A power move, he presumed. It was clear by the notebook placed there, and the fact that he was leading this meeting, that he would be sitting there. It was far too blatant to be a foolish mistake; it was a calculated assault on his authority, and it was almost unbearably irritating.

His expression was about as friendly as a toaster in the bathtub, but that wasn't news, nor really related to her presence. Wordlessly, he reached past her to gruffly retrieve his notebook. He responded to her question simply, and with no tolerance for her lack of punctuality, whether it was intentional or not- and, with the chair schtick, he wasn't unconvinced that it was.

"Nothing. It would have been a waste of time better spent, to start the meeting with those who bothered to arrive on time, and then go through a tedious recap for those who didn't." He finished writing the last of his notes on the board, before turning again to face the pair seated at the table. Without a passing glance to the girl seated at the end of the table, he took his seat diagonal from her, positioned roughly equidistant from the others.

The large man scratched idly at his left eye, disfigured and discolored, surrounded by a large swathe of scar tissue. This was not a meeting he was especially looking forward to, but it was necessary to explain the roles within their organization, he figured.

He turned to Knight, and spoke relatively calmly. Professional tone, even clouded by his gravelly voice. "Fair warning, girl; I'm not stupid. If you have any intentions of continuing to purposefully annoy me, I would strongly advise against doing so. Games are for children; I have no interest in them."

He turned so that both of his fellow Syndicate members were in his line of sight, as Big Momma came by with a steaming hot cup of coffee, which he graciously accepted with a nod of his head. "Now that that's been said, our first order of business- updates on the early stages of our operation. Mr. Pickett, how is the renovation of the upper and lower floors of the headquarters coming along, and how are your employees settling in so far? And Knight; I trust that you have already spoken with Nyx regarding the broad-spectrum terms and conditions of your services? Pay, general job description, and a rough outline of our short-term goals?"

As he finished speaking, he took a long sip of the scalding-hot black coffee, and glanced between the two, to whomever answered him first. The floor was theirs.

"it's the year of the jackal

saddle up on high horse, my torch forced Polaris embarrassed"

credit to nat of adoxography.

[Whitaker Pickett]

"A Dark Horse,
Covering her tracks."

Two reasonably large figures were sitting across from each other in a room, sitting on two plastic folding chairs that were both too cheap and small for either of them. Whitaker had insisted that the first efforts concerning renovation were directed at the communal and more critical areas of the facility. His own bloody office could wait, he had said. The foreman was seriously reconsidering having made that statement, as these chairs were a serious discomfort. Still, going back on it now would most likely do more harm than good with how his colleagues regarded him, and that was already starting to be a problem.

A problem that needed to be addressed soon.

For now, there was a meeting coming up.

At his prime, Pickett had some form of meeting at least thrice a week. Either to discuss the process of a certain project, to handle financial matters that were always tight no matter what, or to address concerns and input coming from whatever side thought that Pickett’s time wasn’t valuable or better spent doing something actually useful. Those were the worst, honestly. The meetings that were just there to have meetings. To show shareholders that they listened to stakeholders, or any of such business-class nonsense.

Whitaker Pickett just wanted to actually construct buildings instead of constructing statements and impressive sentences that he told executives who honestly never worked a day with their hands which they will just forget before their next meeting started.

And now he was here.

In a heart of some shady operation.

About to have a fucking meeting.

If it was some form of joke, he wasn’t laughing.

His resentment for meetings didn’t meant that he knew what to do. Big Momma had collected and organised the files that his other close associate had gathered the information about. It was an olive branch, of sorts. Technically, it was good archiving that he would have done in some form at some point in time. If it was him collecting the contents, certain of these… details… would not have been a priority, but Pickett had delegated the task to someone with more of a background in these sorts of things. It would be fine.

He should have called already, shouldn’t he? Was she running late?

“You should honestly just go already, Whit. You will get the ring from Nemesis no matter where you are, I checked the connection for you. I will give them some piss-poor excuse for coffee and some soggy biscuits, and you wouldn’t even know you were in a room filled with no-good scum. Just act as we discussed, and it will be fine.”

Seeming to have read the minute facial expressions on the otherwise stoic face of the foreman, Big Momma had spoken up. ‘Big Momma’. It was the name she chose to use. Well, at least someone was attempting to keep things honest.

In a dishonest profession.

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Whitaker arrived a few minutes before the meeting was supposed to start. In his hands, the large construction worker had a briefcase filled with the files. Behind him, Big Momma followed with a box of biscuits.

The man knocked on the door twice to announce his arrival, opening the door soon after. A courtesy and a show of respect, followed by action. I am not opening this door unannounced, but I am still coming in. The man was dressed in his worker’s overalls, seeming to not have dressed specially for this meeting. Whitaker gave a solid handshake when he was offered the hand, and despite his stern disposition, he gave a pleasant enough greeting in his own way.

“As you wish, Mr Madder. I will be discussing employee details first. H… Big Momma will provide us with coffee and something to eat.”

Pickett went to set near the end of the table, though he wouldn’t even consider setting at the end that clearly was already taken. Pickett went to sit at the right-hand side of Gryphen’s side. Finding not only a suitable location for his status, but it also gave him a good view of Big Momma as she was busy with the coffee machine. To keep her in view.

And then Pickett’s phone buzzed. It was the standard ringtone that came pre-installed as option #1. The bald man took the device to his ear and talked. The person on the other line spoke softly. Quiet enough to be inaudible to anyone more than a meter away from Whitaker. It sounded like a male voice though, and there was some sound on the background too.
“Hmm.”

He nodded.

“No, don’t do that.”

“…”

“Don’t do that either. Just get away before anyone sees you. It could be nothing.”

The voice on the other end kept talking when Whitaker ended the call, and he placed the scroll away before he notified Gryphen. “An associate just called and said that a car just pulled up next to the building. Could be some lost lovers, or it could be our Knight. He didn’t got a good enough view from where he was.”

While the three of them didn’t needed to wait long, it was enough time for Whitaker to at least do something. Taking out a small notebook from the briefcase, Whitaker let a small pencil flow over the page. Because Mr. Madder made known that business wasn’t being discussed yet, and Whitaker didn’t want to start something important that needed to be interrupted, he was actually taking a moment to doodle something. Though, it weren’t exactly stick figures or flower patterns.

It was the layout for a stately townhouse.

Four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a nice patio, modern kitchen, enough storage.

It would look nice in reality.

Whitaker seemed to be very engaged in filling in rooms and other details in the little house that only existed in his head and with some lines on paper. This notebook was filled with similar designs.

All of them townhouses.

All of them nice if actually built.

All of them only existed in the notebook.

And in his head.

Still, just when someone might expect that the man had lost all sense of his surroundings, he spoke up.

“It is Marfil, not Marvell. M-A-R-F-I-L. Common mistake.”

While seemingly not having paid attention to what Gryphen was writing on the board, Whitaker corrected the largest man in the room about misspelling a name of one of Whitaker’s subordinates. He still kept on drawing the layout on the paper as he had made the comment. It wasn’t said in a condescending tone. Not even in a helpful tone. It was said as a matter of fact. Like how someone could say that the grass is green, or the sky is blue. Gryphen made an error. Errors can be corrected before they become mistakes. Perhaps his data was not correct, or he wrote down the more obvious spelling. Only three people were in the room, and Big Momma was still trying to get coffee out of a machine that wasn’t doing anything that she wanted.

And soon after that door opened.

Whitaker looked up from his drawing notebook to look at the new arrival.

The man gave a nod at her direction to acknowledge that he has heard her, but otherwise didn’t said anything yet. It wasn’t his place to greet someone first, nor to reprimand in this case. He simply tucked away his notebook filled with dream houses back into the briefcase. He folded his hands together on the table as he allowed Gryphen to have his little rant and attempt to establish order. Whitaker remained silent all the way through. His eyes were focused on some imaginary point somewhere in the room, as he seemed to be in thought as the little powerplay went on.

He didn’t seem to judge.

Nor to care much about it at all.

He only stirred when Big Momma came over with some serving plate that was filled with three cups of coffee, a filled coffee pot, and some off-brand biscuits. She first presented a cup to Gryphen, then to Knight, and only finally to Whitaker. The only words that she said, and in a gruff voice that hinted at heavy usages of something alcoholic, were; “We are out of milk and sugar. It will be restocked for the next meeting. Apologies.” And with that she left. Just as surly and to the point as her apparent mentor and foreman.

When the two associates had been given room to speak, Whitaker did so first. He turned towards Knight the moment that Gryphen had said all that he wanted about her behaviour. While it wasn’t a smile, he didn’t look or sounded displeased when he greeted her. “Please contact us if you are delayed In the future for any reason. I have a man who can look at your car, if that was the cause of the hold-up.”

Seeming to have played enough of his hand to Knight as Whitaker wanted to, he turned his attention towards his briefcase, and he took out a collection of individual folders that he placed within reach of both Knight and Gryphen. Whitaker wasn't honestly a 100% sure if Knight had come in that car, but the timing just made too much sense, didn't it? See if she overplays her hand.

Seeming to give no indication who he addressed, as his eyes switched between the two, Whitaker just began as his hand was kept on the folders as he explained their contents.

“While I am certain that my background has been thoroughly checked by everyone in this room, these files include all the details of everyone who ‘I’ brought into this organisation that I will share. It includes standard information concerning names, addresses, competencies, and former employment.”

Seeming to have his first uncomfortable moment of the meeting, Whitaker grimaced and clenched his teeth for a moment. Still, he continued.

“My associate, nicknamed ‘Nemesis’ on the board, has collected additional…data that he has been able to collect in the past few weeks since I have recruited him for his services, and I prepared for this current assignment. It is his…specialty. It includes everything that he labeled as ‘risks to the organisation, either to the authorities or other elements of a more illicit nature. Gangs, and stuff.’”

It was obvious that there was some form of moral uneasiness in the way Whitaker spoke his sentences. This wasn’t his idea; it didn’t sound like it was something that he liked disclosing to the present company. He didn’t stop though.

“Debts of any kind and in some cases to whom, high-risk familial ties and with who, prior offenses and crimes in the kingdom that is publicly recorded, addictions and in a few cases who is supplying it,…”

Whitaker grumbled.

“’Activities that Nemesis described as ‘freaky bedroom stuff that you need to pay someone for to do it in this Kingdom.’. There are more of such details that are more applicable to individual cases. I am sharing this information as I do not want this operation to be compromised, but my experience in deciding who of these men or women is too great a risk is not my expertise. It only takes one weak link.”

Whitaker took his hand of the dinner plate and sat back in his chair.

“Is this a matter of management, or security?”

Seeming to have addressed Knight’s position with more respect than it was given on the whiteboard, it could be her in his mind. Seeming to have let Gryphen bark at knight without even trying to offer any niceties, it could be management who he regarded as the suitable position of authority. Everyone who came into the organization through Whitaker Pickett had a file, even the ones who were honestly clean save for a few minor offenses. Well, everyone but three people who Whitaker hadn’t mentioned if someone looked at every file. Whitaker himself, of course, but also Big Momma didn’t have one of these files, and neither did this Nemesis who would be a completely new associate for at least Knight to hear about.

Why did he do this?

Whitaker honestly just wanted the job done, and he didn’t give a damn who wanted to have their egos stroked. He just sold out the people who he claimed to represent. One of the main reasons most people would suspect him to take on this job in the first place.

Whitaker was addressing the problem of how his fellow associates might look at him.

He made several moves to correct their assumptions.

So, he allowed himself to take a sip of his coffee.

And see how they responded.

2066 Words - Thread Total: 2066 - Micro-powerplay Pickett

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOXOGRPHY 2.0

[Alina Rybalka]

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[attr="class","nikki101"]WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE

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[attr="class","nikki102"]BUT IN THE END, IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY

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[attr="class","nikki109"]Hah. [break][break]

Things were working out better than expected, which wasn’t exactly saying a lot. No ambushes and no attacks yet, and the car hadn’t been blown up either. Knight was about a foot and a half shorter than Gryphen, and half a foot shorter than Pickett. Sitting down, she looked even shorter despite the fact that one of the first things she did once sitting down was raising the chair as high as it could go. [break][break]

The Gryphen guy was immediately recognizable with a big ass facial scar, way bigger than her own. Shit looked like he got into a boxing match with a woodchipper and was honestly kind of disgusting. The guy started off pissed and never let off the gas, which was just as well. She gave a dumb smile in the direction of the man as he told her off and spun in the chair once as he did it to test the aerodynamic properties of the vehicle. When he went out of his way to tell her he wasn’t stupid, she continued to have the grin on her face and spun around a second time. [break][break]

Gray eyes looked around the room after she abruptly stopped the second spin, and the same docile smile stayed across her face as she leaned down and tried to boost the seat up a little higher to no avail as he finished addressing her in an admirably professional tone, given the circumstances. He was really trying to keep his irritation in check at least verbally, but he was barely controlling his facial expressions. [break][break]

Neat. What else was neat was the fact that Gryphen seemed completely and utterly in the dark that she had finalized contract negotiations with Nyx before she even got to Mistral. Why the fuck would she leave a lucrative job in Vacuo if it wasn’t guaranteed? It was very possible that scarface had no idea what the fuck her background was, which suited her just as well. It made the smile a lot easier to maintain, and the lean backwards in the chair much more satisfying. The larger issue, though, was that nothing that Gryphen had pointed out thus far had any value whatsoever. The dumb smile she wore on her face remained unchanged, but she was internally getting irritated and outwardly moved to scratch her head with her left hand. [break][break]

If that was all this meeting was for, that was a giant waste of time and effort. Here she was thinking that this guy was dangerous enough to set competent ambushes and went through all the trouble of having a couple of layers of warning in place for it… and it turns out all he wanted to do was call a meeting to feel big and important. She’d give this another minute, two minutes tops before just up and walking out if that was all. Knight had better things to do than sit here and go over shit she already knew, frankly, especially if she knew more about what was going on than scar face. [break][break]

Well, no she didn’t really have anything better to do. Nothing was scheduled or anything, but that was largely beside the point. Being underground made her on edge more than usual and she didn’t like the feeling, so she wasn’t about to volunteer to be down there any more than was necessary – and if this excursion ended up not being necessary she would just start ignoring messages from this dude in the future because holy shit this was just not good business practice. [break][break]

First of all, the gas money that it took to get all the way down here from the Wind District was far too much. Second of all, the depreciation of the vehicle due to wear and tear along with the added mileage was significant, especially on a car with as little resale value except as individual parts like the one she owned at the moment. That shit added up over time, especially because the way back through that alley would scratch up the tires and maybe even the underside of the car. Third of all, she had to give actual mission pay to Red for this in the interest of fairness which was more than the allotted amount that she had negotiated Nyx to pay her. That meant that Knight had to cover the difference every time a mission happened, and this was an hour because that was the contractual minimum wasted on a meeting to tell her shit she already knew. [break][break]

Fourth of all, she just remembered she forgot to refrigerate the pizza back at home so it was now sitting on the kitchen counter growing stale and becoming unsafe to eat. By the time they got back it would probably be unsafe to eat, which meant that they’d have to order another round of food once they got back in order to feed themselves. That shit added up, too. Fifth of all, there was the additional load of laundry that she’d have to do and another professional cleaning on the jacket that would have to be done as a result of coming to this unfinished home base. There were a lot of costs there to consider, too. Dryer sheets, detergent, cleaning costs, and additionally the water and electricity used to run both the washer and the dryer. [break][break]

Oh, god. Then there were the tips that would have to be done to the cleaner so they didn’t wreck the leather, and the tip that would have to be done to the delivery person, so they didn’t spit in the food. Holy shit, this fucking idiot just added so many miscellaneous expenses to the books that the faunus was probably even forgetting a few things. This Gryphen dude was the literal worst, and the running tally of costs his stupidity was incurring was increasing by the second. [break][break]

Was this cosmic revenge for pirating the newest season of Grimm Hunts set in Vacuo? Like, holy shit man. The fuck do you expect when you sit there and stagger the release by a year in every other kingdom? Of course someone is going to smuggle that shit out of the kingdom and sell it on the black market for money. What she did was morally justified because it was a great season and it should have hit the Mistral market much faster in a legal manner if people didn’t want good citizens smuggling out episodes. Stupidest business model ever, and Knight did not deserve to be subjected to this level of punishment for an action so virtuous and honorable. [break][break]

Pickett’s assistant came in with coffee and biscuits, but Knight made absolutely zero move to engage with either. That would be a great fucking way to get poisoned, frankly, especially when she was the new person there who had just got back into the country with no established connections to anyone or anything. She was the most vulnerable there, objectively, and her main weapon thus far was how little the others seemed to know about her. Weakness that couldn’t be perceived or taken advantage of wasn’t weakness, and she had zero problem projecting in the opposite direction using the very real confidence she had in her ability to kill everything between her and the exit if it came down to it. [break][break]

The comment about the car was noted, and the faunus just nodded in the direction of the ex-construction worker as he offered to tune up the car. ”Thanks, but I’m pretty self-sufficient in that regard.” [break][break]

It wasn’t a lie, really, because Red was a good mechanic. Red being her lieutenant and the only person that she brought with her into the organization, who acted in the organization chart as the buffer between her and the rank and file. Gray eyes regarded the situation with a calm aloofness until Pickett opened the briefcase and pulled out a bunch of folders and then narrated the act of selling out what seemed to be each and every one of his underlings. [break][break]

Knight wasn’t a good enough actress to avoid the furrowing of her brow and the narrowing of her eyes as every internal alarm just started sounding all at once. She opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it because she didn’t trust her voice in that moment. Gray eyes went right to the papers and left hand went to look through the closest ones to her, finding that while she had no way to verify it… this shit may well be factually correct. [break][break]

Fucking hell. This meant that literally everything she had in terms of a personality profile was dead wrong, which meant that she was working with exactly zero fucking information about either of these people. [break][break]

This was a power play, and a far more effective one than the one she had pulled only moments earlier. This was an open threat by displaying either the capabilities of his intelligence gathering system or an inordinate amount of effort in bluffing – and the complete flip of all personality ticks in his background that called into question her own intelligence gathering. He could be bluffing, and all of this could be faked, but assuming that would be a great way to get burned. The personality he’s displaying now could be the fake, or the one he projected in the past could have been a mask to get the loyalty of his people. There was no way to tell at this point, and that meant that she had no useful information at the present because the waters were so muddied. [break][break]

She had underestimated him, and now she needed to completely refit the outside of her vehicle into something else so it couldn’t be tracked. Something could have been stuffed on it, too, which meant that it would have to be pulled to the middle of nowhere to rip it apart and make sure. Fucking hell, she walked in here prepared for a physical threat and got confronted with everything except for the thing she was prepared for. [break][break]

If his goal was to put her on the back foot by suggesting that the verification or even just the sorting of these files was her responsibility rather than Gryphen’s, it had succeeded. Lips were pressed into a thin line as she continued to look through the files, gray eyes either reading very quickly or just glancing over information as she made zero effort to hide her interest in the new information. [break][break]

She’d let Gryphen make the first comment about it as she plotted how to make a recovery without giving anything more away than she already had. She didn’t have the same network available that she had in Vacuo to track people down, and until she had that in place the fact of the matter was that she couldn’t reliably hunt anyone down and thus would only be bluffing when using the threat of a physical reprisal for being fucked with. Once she had that in place, her position would be much stronger because the threat of overwhelming physical force was always on the table if her vital interests were fucked with… but until then, it looked like she had gotten outplayed. [break][break]

Lessons learned for next time. If nothing else, she knew exactly what she needed to at least have a workable position for next time. Pickett clearly had an information advantage, so that would have to be countered by something that either negated it or rendered it unable to be used effectively against her. She misjudged who was the threat walking in and had focused on scarface when she should have been focused on the bald one from the start. [break][break]

The one saving grace was the fact that she had gotten into the country so recently after such a long hiatus that it was next to unfathomable for him to have any information on her or her associate at this time. Anything he would find out would likely come from fuck ups on her part, which made things easier and should allow for enough stalling to set up the defenses she needed to ensure that she didn’t get fucked over.

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[attr="class","nikki103"]2024 words

[attr="class","nikki103"]ASCHE SYNDICATE

[attr="class","nikki103"]3350 TOTAL WORDS

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NOTES

B Semblance, D Weapons, C Dust Enhancement, C Durability, C Agility, D Stamina, D Exhaustion, D Martial Arts

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[Jay]

WORDS: 1397 | TWC: 3137 | NOTES: +50 Bond Points, Whit

There was a distinct difference between the two people (discounting Big Momma) in the room with him at that time.

Whit was mature, with an earthy politeness to him that spoke to his competence and willingness to be cooperative. With damn near every word, he was just reaffirming the good decision Gryphen had made in scouting him in the first place. He wasn't afraid to correct his superiors' mistakes, showed the decency to arrive on time, and the consideration to bring refreshments, even though he hadn't been asked or told to do so. And he was clearly proficient at his job as well- Gryphen's eyes widened just a hair's width at the pleasantly orderly information the foreman presented to him.

Meanwhile, there was Knight. Immature, with too much power and too little wisdom and experience. Like a goddamn chihuahua, humping legs, other dogs, and furniture in some desperate vie for dominance. It was irritating. Partly because she had the demeanor of a cocky toddler, and partly because unlike a toddler, he was well-aware of the fact that she was arguably the only member of the Syndicate, aside from Nyx, who could take him on in a fight, with a chance of winning.

Which meant that, much as he wanted to, he couldn't just kill her and be done with it.

Couldn't do that anyways, he reminded himself. Boss's orders.

She was proving difficult to work with already, frankly, and it was wearing on his perpetually thin nerves. It hadn't slipped past him that she had completely ignored the question he'd asked her, undoubtedly considering it beneath her to even bother to give a reply. But in all honesty, he couldn't give a fuck less what she had to say anyways. He'd given her a simple question, one that he already knew the answer to, as a test of good faith, to see how she would answer, and surprising absolutely nobody, she had failed.

So he didn't waste time repeating himself. Instead, he scanned the personnel files for a particular name- a worker who had originally tipped Gryphen off to Whit's situation, in the first place. Ridley Indigo, a former drug-runner who'd done some work for Gryphen in the past. He found the file quickly enough, and sifted through it as Whit spoke.

Name, age, address, all there and correct... His work history, including the jobs he'd done for Gryphen in the past, years ago... Criminal record, two counts of trafficking and distribution, three counts of vandalism, one battery charge. Yeah, that was him alright. And he was properly listed as a risk to the organization- of course he was, he was pretty damn good at getting caught. There was a reason Gryphen hadn't used him for anything big.

But there was even more information on him than Gryphen himself knew- a fact that brought a rare sliver of a smile to his ordinarily stony face. five-hundred and twelve Lien in the hole with the West Ground Street keno parlor, and four-hundred sixty-three more on private debts between a Vasily Burzanov and Gryphen's own employee, Nova Astros.

He set the file back down, neatly, in the pile, as Knight continued flipping through the files in front of her. He didn't need to see more than the first one, to verify the accuracy of the information before him.

It actually wasn't quite what Gryphen had asked of Whit, but he was still quite satisfied with the answer. And frankly, it was more useful information in the larger scheme of things than the question of whether Whit's men were adjusting well to the headquarters and the small jobs he had had Whit assign some of them to in the interim before their bigger plans could be put to action. Not that the integration of his men into the Syndicate was unimportant, of course, but security was a valuable asset.

Whit had played his hand well.

Gryphen glanced to his notes on the whiteboard as the other man referenced them in his question.

"Both. But my focus is primarily on management for today's meeting- hence your presence. My employer asked me to bring you both here to discuss matters of executive hierarchy and planning for our next set of moves as an organization, and your information here will prove useful for the former. He paused for a moment, thinking, before continuing.

"I would, however, like to take a closer look at these files once our meeting is over, for security assessment purposes. But I will be trusting any administrative decisions regarding your men to you, as a general rule." He reached for his coffee again, taking another sip.

He was thoroughly impressed by not only Nemesis's intelligence-gathering skills, but also Whitaker's keen eye for talent and shrewd management skills, as displayed in one single action. Very briefly, he toyed with the idea of wondering how much information Nemesis had on him, but that was hardly a fitting task for a man of his skill- Gryphen didn't go to great lengths towards personal secrecy, after all, except for what involved the existence of the Asche Syndicate. And the thought of him finding any information at all about Nyx was so ludicrous as to not be a consideration at all- it was doubtful that even the best of spies could identify her, and even if they could, tracking her would be another level of difficulty. It would be unfair to Nemesis to judge his abilities based on being able to gather information on her- like judging a pigeon by its ability to hunt rabbits.

He turned then to Knight, choosing to ignore that she had apparently not considered his initial question to be worth answering.

It seemed that she had been humbled once already, anyways, judging by the stunned expression on her face, and the briefly gaping mouth as two and two had clicked in her head. No doubt, he'd pegged her right from the start as the control freak type, and it was satisfying as hell to watch her fall apart the second she didn't have that control anymore.

He wasn't much interested in keeping this meeting going for any longer than it had to, frankly, so it was in his interest to hurry things along. "Next order of business, then, is hierarchy. If you'll take a look at the board right there, your positions within the organization are drawn out pretty simply. It's straightforward enough, I should hope- the three of us could be considered the executive board for the organization- leadership positions. As the chain of command goes, my employer directly oversees the entire operation, and I serve as her second. Mr. Pickett, you are under my employ, but as I've noted, I will ideally be fairly hands-off with you and your men. Knight, you are, of course, directly under my employer's command, the same as me. But know that in her absence, you answer to me as well. While your role is considered to be a leadership position, to be honest, you will be overseeing very little. Your role is, as my notes say, hired muscle. Expect to be deployed with our elite operatives on high-risk operations, as a coordinator in the field. For the most part, however, you will be getting paid to ensure that nobody makes it into the warehouse but our people. Hopefully that's not too hard for you."

He turned to Whit. "And your role, as of now, is to continue work on renovating the warehouse, and to oversee daily operations and finances. I am also waiting to hear more information on a job that will require your presence." He took another sip of his drink. Damn, that was good coffee. Or at the very least, damn, that was coffee. Gryphen wasn't exactly picky about his caffeine intake.

Tzz. Tzz.

The hulk of a man glanced down at the buzzing Scroll set beside him. Unknown number. He crinkled his nose. In the middle of his meeting? Annoying. He stood, langorously slowly, as he reached for the Scroll. "Sorry. Gotta take this. Won't be long." Hopefully Knight wouldn't get any bright ideas and start to head out the damn door while he took a short phone call.

He strode to the door, answering the phone just as he exited. "P. You got news? Hmph. This better be good..."

"it's the year of the jackal

saddle up on high horse, my torch forced Polaris embarrassed"

credit to nat of adoxography.

[Whitaker Pickett]

"A Dark Horse,
Covering her tracks."

If Pickett picked up on any of the shocked or amusement at his action, the man didn’t show any of it as his face remained stoic throughout the initial inspection of the folders. There was almost no chance that they would be discussing the full stack at this moment. From what he had seen from his peers, they wouldn’t do so for different reasons.

Knight would most likely see this move as a potential threat to her position within the organisation. This was the first meeting. First impressions matter. She arrived late and tried to act like the meeting would only truly begin when she arrives. A potentially smart move if she had any true legs to stand on to pull off such a play. Perhaps she was of such importance once in her life despite her age, perhaps she wanted to be that kind of person. The fact remains that she wasn’t. Not at this moment. Pickett wasn’t yet sure if it was to the advantage of the organisation to ever put her in that place. At least she was competent enough to read through multiple files as best as she could at the moment. She didn’t disregard the action of her ‘opponent’.

Gryphen only looked at one file, though Pickett didn’t saw the name before the dossier was taken. Most likely either to fake interest, or because he only needed the one file to judge the whole stack. Pickett suspected that his direct superior would be direct and blunt enough to forgo faking interest, so he only needed the one file. Either he was going to ask questions about its authenticity, or perhaps he knew some facts about the person described in the file. Gryphen must have a good memory if he can remember facts about Whittaker’s people like that. Some people just see large bulk of muscle and almost automatically assume that there is little intelligence within the head of such a person. As a relatively large man himself, Pickett never understood that logic. Someone who is a bricklayer for thirty years will have other talents than a scholar who has studied for thirty years, but the base conjecture that large equals unintelligent is founded on nothing. Pickett had a better education would enjoy, and his many years of experience with both mental and physical labour ensured that he was suited for many tasks. Any person worthy of being in this room knows that neither Gryphen nor himself are idiots.

The foreman simply gave a firm nod after Gryphen’s explanation on how his men and women remained under Pickett’s careful watch. That was all that Pickett needed to hear for now, and the smallest trace of a smile could be seen on his face after hearing those words. You give a little, you keep the fold. You entrust your superiors with the knowledge that would strengthen their hold on you if they wanted to, but in doing so you ensured that you are given a wider leash. A mad dog is unpredictable. You cannot give them too much leeway. They will bark and bite at the furniture and try to piss all over the rug because it is in their nature. A trained and dependable animal though? You trust them to not mess up your house when you go away. You trust them to walk without a leash. You trust them with your children if need be.

“I think that it is indeed smart that we discuss the files at a later moment when they can be given our full attention and when I can explain some details if need be, Mr. Madder.”

While his eyes were still fully focused on Gryphen, this comment was fully intended towards Knight if she was still reading the files. Pickett would leave Knight if she still wanted to keep looking at the contents of the files, but as he took a sip of his coffee, he had already had his mind on other matters.

As Gryphen was explaining the organisational structure, Pickett was making notes in neat but small handwriting. He nodded at times to indicate that he understood everything that was going on, but he opened his mouth only when he was addressed about his own set of tasks at the end. The man straightened his back and asked in a clear voice. “Very well. As of now, my people and I can manage despite the circumstances. Getting materials into this operation for the renovation are slower because of the efforts to keep them largely concealed from prying eyes. We will manage in time, though if I was told which aspects of the plan you or your boss wants to prioritize, I can ensure that such arrangements are met. Production, defence, the storage?”

If this was a legitimate operation getting this place renovated would have been easy. You get someone who can load your trucks with the materials, you sign the paperwork, you deliver the Lien, you drive to the destination, you unload, you organize the materials, you work according to your plan, you ensure that there is a good schedule that everyone can understand, you make sure that there is room for uncertainty and mishap. It is a very manageable set of actions and events.

Doing this illegally in the way that was needed right now without certain parties being able to notice exactly what you are doing…. it complicated things. It disturbed the normal and established supply chain. It was less effective, slower, also more expensive. It was doable, and it was the only way the job could be done right now, but it was simply not the most efficient way of doing things. And that bothered Pickett more than he let on.

The moment that Gryphen got his call and excused himself, was the moment that Pickett acknowledged that Knight was also in the room by turning his head towards her. While not as large as their boss, Mr Whitaker was a rather sizable fellow. Sitting straight in his chair, with his eyes looking at the other person across the table, the man silently turned his chair and body towards the Faunus. Placing his hands on the table in front of him, Pickett waited patiently till Gryphen closed the door.

And when he did, Mr. Whitaker began.


“Let’s not mince words; Within a professional capacity, I require only that you and your operatives do not needlessly bother or endanger my workers. I do not trust the discretion or capability of rational thought of some of them, but I also do not know if they are truly a liability. Likewise, I do not know you, but by the trust that our employer has placed within you, I suspect that your leadership abilities are capable enough to accomplish my request. If you can be entrusted with this, I will have no reason to intrude on your realm of our operations. Your people are your people, my people are my people.”

Everything was spoken rather matter of fact. It was clear by the language and by the general body language that Pickett was more often than not the man in charge, but his tone was still cordial. He didn’t seem to think of Knight as some petulant child who only got here because she was the niece of the executive despite her almost acting like she was. Pickett fully expected that Knight was here purely on her own merit, and that was something that he could respect. Despite him saying something to the contrary just before, Pickett did give the following introduction about himself to alleviate any doubt about his intentions.

“I care little for games, Mrs. Knight. Any action I take is to guarantee the safety and prosperity of me and my workers. Providing these files are meant to do that. While I am certain that our origins differ, do know that it is not uncommon within my field of work to get one’s hands dirty if need be. I hope that we can avoid such unpleasantries between ourselves. In light of our continued good faith and cooperation, you may ask questions towards my intentions. I don’t know if you would suspect me a liar, but do know that I am honestly not out to get you. I don’t know you enough to suspect that you are a liability to us.”

-

Outside of the room was a rather surprised Big Momma standing almost right outside of the door as she was having a smoke in the middle of the underground hallway. She was most likely just as surprised to see the large figure of Gryphen come outside so quickly, as her eyes turned large for a moment. Noticing quickly enough that he was on his scroll, she didn’t say a word and would quietly give a nod before she would try to walk away with large strides if not stopped.

1483 Words - Thread Total: 3549 - Macro-powerplay Pickett

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOXOGRPHY 2.0

[Alina Rybalka]

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[attr="class","nikki101"]WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE

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[attr="class","nikki102"]BUT IN THE END, IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY

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[attr="class","nikki109"]The wolf faunus would adjust the dark blue ballcap covering her head, still under her white hood as the meeting progressed. The next time she would speak up was when Gryphen for some reason had the impression that he, under any circumstances, could order her around. She spoke a clear voice, projected across the room with little effort that projected all the confidence in the world. She was stating facts that she already knew and was honestly kind of irritated that the self-proclaimed leader did not already know himself for whatever reason. ”I’d double check with your boss, then. I don’t take orders from anyone from Nyx under any circumstances, and the minute I decide a matter deals with security you answer to me. If you’re under the belief you have the ability to get intimidation across to my part of the operation, you also might want to check with your boss before you get yourself killed by accident. I’m here because you’re too weak to deal with Huntsmen. I’m not, and that’s why I was hired.” [break][break]

She didn’t need to brag, but she did need to establish the deficiency that she covered. If Gryphen didn’t believe her, they could step outside and he could add a litany of other scars to that ugly face in the span of about fifteen seconds without much effort. It was tiresome to get aggressed on by someone who wasn’t even in the same league, like an elementary school student picking fights with a high schooler. It showed a complete lack of understanding of their own weaknesses, and a vast underestimation of their enemy. Gray eyes at no point moved from the files in front of her to Gryphen, largely because she didn’t feel the need to keep an eye on him. If he got his feelings hurt so bad he attacked, she would simply kill him and then ask for a replacement who wasn’t as useless. It didn’t matter if he got the first hit off or not, because Knight knew damned well that she made no sense to hire at the pay grade that she was if Nyx had literally any other option available to her. [break][break]

Knight’s demeanor and behavior of leaning forward to continue to look through the files didn’t change when the self-proclaimed leader decided to walk out of the room. The worst that could happen was an ambush, and if they decided to wait in the hallway then they could all just be burned at once. There was very little he could actually do short of explode the entire complex that would pose a physical threat, so the faunus was very relaxed at this point. She was under no immediate threat and had time to strengthen her posture before any other moves were made. [break][break]

When Whitaker started talking, the woman set aside the files and leaned back in her chair to turn her cold, gray gaze toward the older man as he spoke. He was the real threat there, she realized, and it irritated her that she had underestimated him. An older construction worker was assumed to be an unskilled laborer and without skill or tact but was the only one of the two to actually decide to choose to attack in a manner that wasn’t directly physical. He displayed why he was useful and threatened the both of them in one fell swoop, without having to lift a finger by himself. That wasn’t the mark of some dumb brute, but the mark of someone who had the capacity for planning and foresight. That made him a threat, and one that would have to be monitored from here on out. [break][break]

Her facial expression stayed largely neutral, but there was an involuntary facial twitch when the older man mentioned that everything he did was for the ‘safety and prosperity’ of both himself and his workers. It was pointless platitudes after the shit that he had just pulled that conclusively proved otherwise, and the fact he was still verbally going for that angle absolutely disgusted the faunus, and the micro-expression showed it. Cheeks and upper lip were raised, briefly exposing her upper teeth as her nose wrinkled before she returned to that neutral expression a split second later. [break][break]

When Pickett was finished speaking, Knight leaned forward in her chair and made a brief motion to knock off the hood from her head so the ballcap was the only thing covering her ears and head at that point. Fingers interlocked as the woman put her clasped hands on the table, remaining silent for several seconds before replying but never breaking eye contact with the older man. [break][break]

”Speaking candidly, if all of these files were fake then that idiot outside would have turned on you in a second. The fact that at least some of them are true means that you decided to put the lives of the people who offer you their loyalty and service in danger by just assuming that this information wouldn’t fall into hands that would do anything with it. You’ve compromised the lives of a number of people who supposedly trust you to make decisions in their best interest, and then give me that bullshit about caring about their safety.” The last words were spoken with unmasked disgust. She wasn’t done, though, and was happy to continue to lay out exactly how she felt at that moment. [break][break]

”If this is how easily you sell out your subordinates, I think I have a pretty good idea on how you’d treat rivals or enemies. If your goal was to ratchet up the tension, you’ve succeeded. There’s no way to ratchet up tension on you at this point in any form of safety if you have that good of an intelligence gathering capability short of killing you and everyone in your inner circle before you have a chance to properly retaliate. That’s frankly a lot of effort and I have no reason to pursue that option unless you make it a point to be a thorn in my side.” He surely had to be aware of this escalation, but just in case it wasn’t clear to him how much of a corner he had backed her into at this point in terms of correction options… well, it was now laid out there. The only option she really had left after this was to completely eliminate a threat shown to be too clever to let live along with the most likely suspects for any subsequent half-cocked revenge plot. Her tone went from disgust to detachment fairly quickly, again simply laying out the facts as she saw them. When overwhelming physical threats were the only thing you had in your toolbox, well, you tended to use them as the solution to problems. Forcing Knight to open that toolbox before she had any other tools meant that Pickett got the only tool that she had displayed, which may have very well been an unintended consequence of pushing so hard so early on. [break][break]

Gray eyes glanced over to the door and talking would stop if there was even the inkling of that door opening. If it stayed shut, however, the white-haired wolf faunus would lean forward in her chair and continue speaking. ”I have no reason to desire with your operations or your people unless there is ongoing violence in the sector they are working in or they directly fuck with me or my interests. If I have to kill any of your people, it’s because you can’t control them. I have no interest on infringing on your pay or security unless provoked. So long as that doesn’t happen, I am not a threat to you or any of your interests that I am aware of unless specifically ordered to be.” [break][break]

The unspoken part of this, of course, was the acknowledgment that Pickett could very well decide to attack first with this very direct threat. Only someone who thought they could survive long enough to strike back would ever talk this way, though the question then was only whether the arrogance needed to make such statements was actually backed up by anything. Any direct attack would need to kill its target in the first attempt, or Knight would retaliate with the only tool she currently had in her kit and end the conflict right then and there. Or, they could avoid bloodshed and simply stay the fuck out of each other’s way like he claimed to want in the first place. It made no difference for her how this was sorted out, so long as it was sorted out quickly.

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[attr="class","nikki103"]1420 words

[attr="class","nikki103"]ASCHE SYNDICATE

[attr="class","nikki103"]4770 TOTAL WORDS

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NOTES

B Semblance, D Weapons, C Dust Enhancement, C Durability, C Agility, D Stamina, D Exhaustion, D Martial Arts

PHARAOH LEAP CREATES

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[Whitaker Pickett]

"A Dark Horse,
Covering her tracks."

And then there were two figures staring at each other from across the table. While Knight was more mobile in the way she adjusted her seating and in the way she moved, Pickett remained stationary in his chair as he awaited Knight’s response to his offer of peace. Pickett saw his words and actions as a peace offering. A way for the two of them to coexist within this organisation without anyone stepping needlessly on anyone’s toes. While Pickett never broke eye contact with Knight either, it was clear that the gears inside of his heads were turning all the while the Faunus spoke. Despite holding the far better hand of cards at the moment, Pickett was never one to underestimate a thread. It takes only one a couple loose bolt to collapse a structure. It takes only one careless worker to cause an accident. Underestimating the wrong person in a field that he knew too little about could mean the end of everything that he was now trying to build. Whitaker knew a lot of things, but the finer details of being in this criminal organisation he knew not. He could supplement a lot of this lacking knowledge with his vast organisational experience for the most part, but there were some great unknowns: When was it allowed to kill your peers within a criminal organisation without upsetting your boss now seemed to be put on the list that Pickett needed to find out.

Because with the language that Knight was speaking, Whitaker Pickett now seemed to need to deal with the situation that his colleague might try to pull off something similar. When your peer openly discusses taking you out in a board room meeting, you cannot simply take that as an idle threat nor as something that could stand unopposed. Pickett had no illusions that this would ever be a productive relationship between the two, but he needed to guarantee peace for the foreseeable future till the operation was properly set-up. After that, he would deal with Knight in a suitable manner. Still, there was one thing that would make Pickett cautious even if he had reached the point to act:

Of all the things that Pickett knew to expect from Knight with absolute certainty, it was that she was extremely powerful.
It was the only logical possibility as there as no way in the four kingdoms that she would have been placed on this position for any other reason than this. Gryphen had called her hired-muscle, but as there weren’t any other security personnel in this meeting, this was not a good assessment of Knight. Then, why was Knight here and not someone else in her place? It wasn’t because she was intelligent. None of her actions portrayed her possessing anything but average intelligence, though she was most likely experienced in how to survive in this kind of environment. Kill or be killed. It could be a rouse, but never mistake incompetence for anything else unless you are proven wrong. Even so, experience in the criminal underworld was not a unique trait of Knight. Other people must have played this game longer than Knight. She also didn’t bring any major resources to the operation other than herself, for as far as Pickett was aware of. He had brought most of the manpower to the organisation, as well as knowledge that would help out on multiple fronts.

She didn’t portray any feats of extraordinary intelligence.

She wasn’t the most experienced person for the job they could have possibly recruited.

She wasn’t her because she had bought the position.

The only reason that makes sense of why she was placed in this position, was as a weapon against other dangerous individuals of rival gangs, the police, and huntsmen.

Whitaker Pickett is a veteran. Despite being an engineer, he knows bloody well that some people held an incredible power despite their appearance. He saw it in the war, he heard about it from the tales. How the acts of a single person could sway the tide of a battle. About how the acts of a single king could change the outcome of the entire war. Pickett never believed those tales fully. Never believed that a person could have that much power. Still, Knight could very well have enough power to kill Pickett easily. His mind could easily believe that there was that much of a difference in their power. It is the only explanation he could provide that excused Knight’s presence, and why both Gryphen and their mystery employer gave her this position.

A direct physical confrontation would not be advantageous, nor at all possible. He would need to ask Nemesis to work out options, for when they would be needed.

So, the only course of action was to defend his own position through words for now. Pickett had remained relatively motionless as he endured Knight’s verbal barrage. The man had a good poker-face, and he remained stoic. When Knight was done, Pickett countered her words. His tone remained formal, though there was a slight hint of both annoyance and arrogance in his voice. Pickett didn’t like to talk longer than he needed to, but as his words were about his only effective strategy at this point, he used them.

“Let me explain how I look at you, and why your perception is wrong. You are young and arrogant. You think about how you can thrive within this organisation, and this is your right. Was I 20 years younger and in the possession of your talents, I would most likely already have worked out a plan to take out everyone who could be a threat to me in this organisation. Cover my bases. You think from your limited point of view. You lack the ability to consider that not everyone is always out there to look out for themselves. That my actions are only meant to ensure my own safety within this organisation. A great leader ensures that others are able to rise with them to greatness. I intend to keep this status quo for as long as it is needed to set up this organisation and allow it to run successfully. The two of us will co-exist in peace.”

Pickett slowly rose from his seat, the speed of his actions made deliberately as non-threatening as possible. The large figure of a man stood across the table, placing his hands behind his back as he looked at some imaginary point behind Knight.

“When everything is set up and the operation is running we will have a conversation again. If we can cooperate as equals, we will do that. We both profit. If we cannot, we will find a solution. While I prefer cooperation, if that is not possible, I propose a different solution. You are in it for the money, are you not? A pay-check to get you set-up for life? I have made some estimations on how much we can earn if I run this operation according to my plans, and how large my percentage of that sum of Lien would be at that point in time. I have little problem with paying you extra if that means getting you to see my point of view. See it as a substantial bonus on top of your usual pay. With your power and my organisational talent and loyalty of my employees, we can have a very lucrative partnership.”

Pickett was very precise with the selection of his words. If someone interpreted this in one way, Pickett would only pay Knight a sum of money to keep the peace. To buy loyalty and to keep anyone from getting needlessly killed. Still, a different interpretation was that this was the first gesture to something else. If everything went accordingly to plan, and they could set everything up….why would they even keep Gryphen around? The man had talents, but Pickett seemed to be certain that he possessed everything that he would need to cut him out of the picture completely. Would Pickett be so bold that he would even take this interpretation far enough to question if they are one point would even require Nyx to sit above them all like the shadowy overlord that she was?

His defence to shield himself from any of the later interpretations was easily made: If anyone would ask him, he would have strongly implied that Knight had misinterpreted his words in the first place. She is quick with jumping to conclusions, like she sees conspiracies everywhere. She openly discussed taking me out! If anyone speaks treasonous words, it is her! You know that Pickett isn’t a criminal; he had never meant those words to mean that. Had he not shown loyalty and commitment? Had he not given the names and potential dangers of all of his men? Now, nothing of this nonsense, and let’s return to the business at hand.

1450 Words - Thread Total: 4999 - Mega-powerplay Pickett

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOXOGRPHY 2.0

[Alina Rybalka]

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[attr="class","nikki101"]WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE

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[attr="class","nikki102"]BUT IN THE END, IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY

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[attr="class","nikki109"]One of the most important things in any negotiation was a solid idea of what the other side valued and what the other side had in its possession. Another important thing in any negotiation was knowing what you valued and what leverage you had. In this godforsaken place, Knight had one bit of leverage and with that bit of leverage she uncovered information she would have never acquired if she had not been aggressive. It was much the same concept as having the only tool to open a coconut being a jackhammer – it did the job, even if it wasn’t exactly pretty. [break][break]

This man was not impulsive. He had every opportunity to fly into a rage but did not, which meant his emotional control was decent. There were some places in which he couldn’t help himself, though, and those edges said things. Even when confronted with an open death threat, he continued to talk down to her and decide that he was in a position of power. He likely had an outsized confidence in the man outside the room to save him, which was interesting. Or maybe the masses of men outside, which was also interesting. Interesting and exploitable in the future, frankly. [break][break]

Ultimately, it was choices that were the sum of any person. Part of respecting free will is respecting the freedom of every individual to choose. Taking a life was an act of permanence and should ideally only been done as a direct result of a decision made by the victim of their own free will. The tact used in negotiations also told something about the person using that tact. Knight, for example, was blunt and direct because she felt that for the most part that lying was beneath her. She leveraged what she saw as her greatest strength, physical power, at provocations and as a defense. [break][break]

If this man was the same, he felt that his most relevant leverage in this situation was money and organizational ability. The first was a means to an end, and the second was not relevant to her interests at all. There would be some people in this world who would consider intimidating someone into paying protection money to avoid trouble in the short term to be bad taste, but Knight was not one of those people. There would also be some people in this world that would consider the act of accepting protection money from someone who had shown a willingness to betray anyone at the slightest provocation to be a bad move, but Knight was again not one of them. [break][break]

He would get one good attempt; which she was confident she would survive. She would get at least one good payment, which she could use better than he ever could. She nodded; her gray eyes still trained on the older man but stopped herself from speaking at noises emanating from the other end of the door. It looked like Gryphen was coming back from whatever that call was, which meant this discussion had to be paused for the moment. The faunus was more than fine with that, because that got her out of this meeting and above ground faster than she otherwise would have. [break][break]

Knight hadn’t gotten the second intended meaning from Pickett’s proposal, largely because she had no ambition of taking over this operation. She had very little use for a small criminal insurgent operation and had no desire to tie herself to the organization in the long term. She had no problem building up the operation and doing what needed to be done in order to get the paycheck but was under no illusion that she would ever have a permanent role in the Asche Syndicate. There would be some people in this world that would consider the act of joining an organized crime syndicate with the goal of short term fundraising to be stupid, but those people also weren’t supremely confident that they could survive any retaliatory assassination attempts that came once the split was completed. If this guy was really willing to bribe her in order to be free of interference in the short term, she was more than willing to oblige that and let him have his shot.

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[attr="class","nikki103"]703 words

[attr="class","nikki103"]ASCHE SYNDICATE

[attr="class","nikki103"]5473 TOTAL WORDS

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NOTES

B Semblance, D Weapons, C Dust Enhancement, C Durability, C Agility, D Stamina, D Exhaustion, D Martial Arts

PHARAOH LEAP CREATES

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[Wolfe]

XP Distribution:

Knight: 54

684 + 54 = 738

Whit: 50

225 + 50 = 275

Jay: 31

0 + 31 = 31