(Untitled)

[captainryan]

Scowling, thoughtful looking man sitting at a table with his back to a wall. On it is a half-empty pint and an open sketchbook. In his left hand is a pencil.

It's a distraction. Only it isn't working as well as it's supposed to, seeing as how there's nothing on the page. Help him out?

Comments

[cutting_edgex23]

Maybe it's the scent -- slightly familiar -- that draws X's attention.

Maybe she has been keeping an eye out for him.

Whatever the reason, X slips across the crowded bar floor and pauses by Ryan's position -- just several feet away.

It is only polite.

"Hello."

[captainryan]

Ryan appreciates the pause. It lets him know for sure he's not being jumped.

There was an incident, once.

"Hello," he answers neutrally, arching one eyebrow slightly. He doesn't recognize X, but the last time they spoke he was nauseous and had a headache so perhaps he can be forgiven.

[cutting_edgex23]

"You are Richard Ryan."

Beat.

"And you are outside a lot."

She's going somewhere with this. Really.

[captainryan]

He bets.

"I am." His voice has dropped into flatter tones though his scent's grown a hair more apprehensive.

He's fairly certain he's innocent, but he's not going to start volunteering personal information just because of that.

[cutting_edgex23]

X tilts her head faintly, nostrils flaring as she scents the air.

She does not come closer.

"You did not sense anybody? The night West was killed. Or after?"

[captainryan]

Dammit. But she already knows he's a werewolf. Her scent was at his den.

"...I don't recall that night," he reports, chin slightly down and mouth held slightly open to show teeth. "Full moon.

"I met several people the night after."

[cutting_edgex23]

She nods, very slightly.

"Okay."

And after another moment of silence.

"You will tell me? Who you saw. It would be useful."

They can get back to what he doesn't remember later. The kill was a series of the wrong kind of messes.

It makes things confusing.

[captainryan]

He closes his mouth, at least a bit more at ease. He keeps his chin down still, though.

"I spoke with Will Scarlett, Teja, and Lara." Pause. "Do you require descriptions?"

He's comfortable with that information changing hands. It's not personal.

[cutting_edgex23]

"I know Will. And Lara. She has very pale hair? And is short."

Teja, though --

"I do not know Teja."

[captainryan]

He nods to Lara's description.

"Teja, son of Tagila. A dark, long-haired man, often with an axe or armour on him. He smells of smoke, coals, and metal from working in the forge."

Yeah, he caught that little nostril flare thing.

[cutting_edgex23]

X relaxes. Fractionally. Scent identification is easier for her than sight. Not a lot, but enough.

"I will remember. Thank you."

There is another, longer pause.

"You remember what you talked about? If you talked."

Sometimes people do not.

[captainryan]

They're edging towards personal information again.

"Nothing relevant," he says, meeting her eyes and blinking only after a long moment.

"Mostly mission personnel, past and future." Which is true to an extent. He isn't much good for conversation just after the moon.

Or when he's giving a statement.

[cutting_edgex23]

X considers that, too.

"Nothing about annoying people? Here?"

[captainryan]

He raises an eyebrow at that.

"Only in the most general of terms.

"Was Rosen annoying, then?"

[cutting_edgex23]

"Yes," X says. Succinctly.

"But I do not think he was annoying enough to be vivisected. Or decapitated."

She pauses for a moment, frowning as she considers it a little more carefully.

"I do not think he would have been important enough. For that. Even for people from his world."

There is another short silence.

"But I am not sure. And people do not want to talk. It does not make sense."

Or rather it does, but the wrong kind.

Probably.

[captainryan]

He wants to be careful about what he says here. Any statement, he knows, could be used against him later.

Questions, too, for that matter.

"Perhaps he did something more than annoying, then."