{{{{{{For continuity purposes this post takes place after the delivery of 'gifts' for Mr. Grey in the 'things that go bump' thread in 'The Hovel'}}}}}}

Below the streets...

Things that were availible to the general public...if they only realized.  She sat tucked away from the rest of the world...no, she wasn't a fabulous computer hacker...no cyber genius, but she knew the net well enough to get to the shreknet when it was needed...and better yet, she knew how to navigate the basics of things...the basics.  So simple, such an easy place to start...her fingers buzzed over the keys as her eyes scanned over text, images...it would have been easier to start with the local chapter of things...but she needed a broader understanding of what it was she wanted to do...

Shouldn't ever have been made public...  She shook her head as the thought stumbled through her mind, took a breath she didn't need...and set back to gathering the information she needed to begin...yes there were already a myriad of projects scattering through her mind...her first passion, her form of entertainment was secure, all she had to do was submit the material and the mills would start...but she wanted more than that it would seem...she wanted to know that there would be a way to...avoid seeing what had been seen so soon after arriving...and apparantly the higher ups just hadn't thought that it was something to worry about...idiots...flaming limp wristed, mirror cracking, money grubbing idiots...  No, she didn't spare critisisim in her own internal monologue, especially after recent goings on in her own existance...it didn't hurt to be honest with yourself, not in the privacy of your own walls anyway...up top, well that was different...they played different games up there...didn't they...at least...they tried.

A finger came up and pulled a leach off of her face, and licked it against the wall as she continued to move through the grand realm of the internets on her laptop...she had a word file open, and various bits of information that caught her eye were promptly copied, and pasted to the document so that when she disconnected, she could mull things over a bit more before proceeding.  Time ticked on...her own muse whispering it's songs in the back of her head...a small smile formed on the twisted and gaunt looking features as she started to put together a guide for continueing in her own head...

Start from the top...or start from the bottom?  It was always the question...and while starting from the top was usually the most...preferable means of getting what one wanted...it was more often than not the most diffacult to actually accomplish.  She had the main buildings addresses, she had the names of the most prominant figures and a couple of other names from publically availible information about each entities board of directors, editors...big fish, or little fish?  She'd get a closer look at things after she finished if it weren't too late.

Ahhh the last bit of things to do...Beaumont set up an anyomous email account, and after browsing the employment sections of the various sites, she put together a resume to send in to each one, rather certain that they would indeed be terribly underqualified and overlooked...replied to with a wonderful rejection letter from some tool down in the basement of human resources...

Quote :

Lane Mont P.O. Box 1360 Atlanta, Georgia 30339 lanemont@hotmail.com Objective Position as a staff writer for a major metropolitan news source. Highlights Feature of the Year, 1998, for: Inside our Nations Schools: When Retribution Hinders Our Future. Bob Lamphrey's  Fellowship in Journalism Studies, 1995 Morris K. Udall Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Journalism, 1990 Employment History Harrisburg Patriot News, Harrisburg, PA Feature Writer, 1997 to 2008 Feature reporter, covering political and social issues in the Harrisburg area. Public Opinion, Chambersburg, PA Editor: Local News Section, 1993 to 1997 Reported on a variety of stories citywide. Provided daily coverage of major local events. Louisana Lions Herald, Beauford, LA Staff Writer, 1990 to 1993 Covered local sports at high school and college levels. Averaged feature sports stories each week and numerous shorter game summaries. Covered meetings of the local board of supervisors, courts, and educational governing board. Averaged two stories a week. Education Ohio University, Athens, OH B.A., Journalism, 1990

Beau would look it over once, then twice...any articles, claims to degrees or the like would upon investigation be overlooked as fraudulant claims or plagerisim, the phone numbers went to a prepaid little number courtesy of the local seven eleven with no legitimate name attatched to it...chances were if someone were insane enough to call back, it would go straight to voicemail...Beumont had checked and double checked before she'd included them in the header...what did she hope to accomplish via rejection by email?  A name...plane and simple all she was after was a name...and a title...the rest...well she would take it from there.  Satisfied, she sent it, making sure to BCC it to each of them, as she didn't feel the need to send the resume one at a time...

Turning the laptop off, the Nossie set about her next little list of tasks for the evening...she selected a slightly...different bit of clothing...a long sleeved shirt, a hoodie, ski mask...sweat pants...the digital recorder was tucked into a ziploc bag and then her pocket after she checked the batteries...there wasn't much she could do about the bugs at this point in time...she didn't need to do anything about them just yet...

Topside...

She wouldn't have time to visit more than one location tonight...not with how much time she'd spent researching thus far...stepping out of the alley Thel pulled the hood over the ski mask covered face...under the carefully employed gifts of the blood, she first approached a local newspaper building...for now, she kept her distance...looking for a place to take shelter, and start tapeing...initially to get a feel of the layout...where people parked...the traffic in the late hours of the night...unlike law offices, or small time shops...the cities media never slept...  

--Last edited by Beaumont on 2008-07-26 17:46:42 --

While perusing your new mail a spam opens immediately

Subject : You have received a response to your profile on iDate

Body : I have been looking for you, Sanfield is so far away, I will see you around

When you try any of the links they are dead and an exhaustive search of iDate turns up no profile of you, or of the sender. They apologize for any inconvenience it must be a glitch in the system.

The spam...well it caught her attention enough for her to look into it further...the glitchish explanation was...well a bit to simplistic for her to accept, and when the laptop was shut down...the question of Who is looking now? remained at the back of her mind...

Beaumont would be continueing her distance survaillance of each chosen location, knocking out more the next night than the first because...well she simply had more time to devote to it...too much to do, so little time...

Down Below....

Alone she sat checking over her email...spam...spam...spam...she didn't bother inhaling down here..hell up there she had to remember to breathe when she masked herself because otherwise...well it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that lack of breathing could cause some rather akward social situations....

She shook her head, and sent off a couple of follow up emails reguarding the resume that had been sent in...

Topside...

The masked Nosferatu's observations continued...she still avoided getting too close to the buildings...cameras and such weren't...well weren't always the most condusive means of upholding the masquerade...

So much easier to get this done if introductions were done...  She still had her bet with David to consider though...on the one hand...without that tradition fulfilled most trips topside were precarious...then...she also hated to loose, even if the price were such a little thing...

She still filmed and took pictures...why?  Because she knew herself well enough to know that she couldn't remember every detail about everything...besides...hopefully this way she would be able to notice any patterns in who worked the late hours...afterall...without them, the morning edition wouldn't ever make it's deadline...would it?

She still hadn't heard anything back from the 'resume' she'd sent in...no interviews (ha!), no rejection notices...nothing.  In the early hours of the night, Beaumont resent the resumes, and checked her mail before she headed back topside...there wasn't any whisper of frustration stemming from it...human resources offices were often times busy...it just...well tended to slow things down a bit, didn't it?  Ah well...

While the newspapers often had the...longest lasting form of documentation when it came to things that happened in the city as...well the printed word is quite diffacult to recall, and retractions...do tend to be burried in the back of the paper where few people ever read them; the local news stations were...more immediate in their doings and reportings...rather than confirming stories and having all the details, there were many times...here...as well as in most other major cities...where the press went ahead and offered bits of detail with the promise to follow up later...

Time...to move on with things...wasn't it?  Take that little step in getting closer, feeling things out...taking steps foreward.

2008-07-29 12:32:36 Beaumont rolls 5 dice to Percep+Security 2,10,4,9,2 (2 successes)

Beaumont went topside ((Unseen Presence))...tonight heading into the parkinglot/garage for channel 9...she'd been watching the station's broadcasts intermitently, and now...it was time to get much...much more personal with things...soon hopefully she'd hear back on the resume's...for now though she lay in wait, mindful of cameras and the like that may monitor the lot, waiting for the shift change...and one of those lovely televised faces to make their way out of the building...this sort of thing was better done in their own homes anyway...

A news crew is being dispatched to the scene of an accident, a camera man, a two crew members and a low ranking correspondant.  They cross the mini garage to the otherside twoards a news van.

Patience...patience would be what would pay off tonight...she smiled a bit to herself as she watched the trio approache the news van...how sweet it would have been to take that face still pretty enough to be on camera...and share her own misery.  But no...the time wasn't right yet...and it was easier to play one on one than it was with a trio of wannabe's seeking to make a name for themselves...

Her fingers tapped against one another and she waited for them to depart before seeking out a better vantage point.  They would have to return, and while none of them were on her list of 'needs' one of the three would certainly do...

Eventually, Meaning hours later the van will return. Whatever event or story they were covering made for a long night. As the three pile out they complain, look burned out and sip at half empty cups of coffee. Two of them head back inside, but one calls out.

'I dont need any of my shit guys, ill catch you in the morning.' And heads towards his car.

Gentle?  Tactful?  No, Beaumont couldn't rightly claim to be any of those given the circumstances...still hidden, as the man headed towards his car, Beaumont headed in that direction as well, rifleing through pockets in search of something with just a little bit of weight to it...what she came up with....was a handful of change.

Ah well...it would do...

She would wait until he had the door open...reminding herself that anything worth doing...was worth doing right.  As the car door opened, she would scramble to get in, and slide over to the passenger seat before her newest playmate...

Hmm... Dex and stealth, diff 9 to squeeze past him silently and without obviously rocking the car, jostling the seat, rubbing his butt or having him sit on you.

2008-09-04 11:45:13 Beaumont rolls 6 dice to Dex+Stealth (Diff 9) 4,1,1,6,8, 2 (BOTCH x 2)

Well, this aughta be fun.
------------------------------

Luck is not with Buggy tonight. Just as she moves to try and jump into the car the man hesitates to pull a ringing cellphone from his pocket.

She bumps right into him nearly knocking him down and obviously ruining her obfuscate. To add insult to injury she will suddenly spot a black 'eye of god' security camera she somehow missed under a shadowy overhang that overlooks the parkinglot.

The only good thing going for her is her topside outfit choice. So rather than screaming 'Oh god its one of THEM!' the man yells out: 'Help! Carjacker!'  

Beaumont swore under her breath...she would be mentally blaming god himself for her clumsiness...Already wasn't a fan of parking garages....this just seemed to add to the mental testiment the universe had been trying to get through to her of late that parking garages just were not her cup of tea....

"Woah woah...calm down...I'm not a car jacker..."  Her hands went up in the air a bit to show that she wasn't armed at present and she even took  a couple of steps away from the vehicle...

"Just wanna talk..."  Searching for exit in the event that her luck continues to decline...

The man takes one wide eyed look at her, even with her hands up and stepping back. Shes wearing a fucking skimask, in the middle of the night, in a parking garage.

He changes his tune real quick: 'TERRORIST!'

He bellows, stumbling into his drivers seat but only managing to close the door on his own leg.

"You're shitting me.  Are you really important enough for a terrorist to bother with?"  The creature would have rolled her eyes but...it would have been a pointless gesture.  She put a hand on the car door after he slammed it on his leg, no reason to stop him right?

"I'm not a terrorist...just, someone that wanted to see what she could do for your...career.  IF you're happy taking the middle of the night shift that no one watches...by all means...enjoy your night...I'll find someone else..."  She took her hand off the car door, glancing to the eye in the sky once...thank god for covering up before she went out tonight...no, wait that wasn't god...that was all her.


2008-09-04 17:45:08 Beaumont rolls 4 dice to Cha+expression 8,8,5,4 (2 successes)  

--Last edited by Beaumont on 2008-09-04 19:44:26 --

2008-09-04 17:57:50 Radiation rolls 4 dice to Chillll winnstaaan 8,8,1,7 (2 successes)
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The guy stops panicking. She hit the right chords to make him dance. He opens the door just a little, still suspicious.

'So... your like some... masked Deep Throat here to give me a big scoop?'

"Something like that...maybe I got the wrong guy...I mean...did you actually wet yourself when you thought you were being car jacked or...?"  She trailed off a bit and let that hang in the air as she looked around the parking garage once more..."and you scream amature kiddo, what sort of reporter worth their salt is gunna take the chance of someone else hearing his dirt in open air like this...ehhhh...ehhh..."  She shifted back and forth a bit, like she was weighing whether or not the guy was worth her time...

This could be his big break. Or it could be a trick... The guy chews his lip a second before saying.

'Where can we meet then, im interested.'

His voice doesnt sound convinced, he is fearful and green...

"There's a motel over on 8th and Williams...Cozy Lane?  Get a room in an hour, leave the door unlocked and tie a red silk scarf on the knob."  She noted the skeptisisim, the unease...hell he'd be an idiot if he wasn't uneasy...wouldn't he?  "I'll be there fifteen minutes after you check in...I don't think I need to tell you that you need to be alone."

The guy swallows hard. With all the recent news in the city this could either be fantastic or the last stupid decision he ever makes... He nods agreement, repeating the place and instructions back to her before starting his car.