[ When Beau and Hua Cheng arrive at Coin-op, they find that the windows are all dark, although that's nothing too strange for the building that sits nestled in amongst all the others in the shopping district. Inside the antechamber, the cup on the string hangs down in front of their facesβ the password is one that Kano entrusted to Beau before shooing her out of the shop to find Hua Cheng: hum the tune of Toryanse.
Whether they enter the left door or the right one, either open up into the store proper, where they're greeted by the usual sight of the cramped shop, patches of light from the lanterns throwing most of it into shadow than doing any good job of illuminating the place. There is a man at the front desk, slumped over and wearing a large sun hat that completely hides his face- just sleeping, presumably, unrousable but breathing. The rest of the store is devoid of people. When they walk, tracing the pattern of hollow spots on carpet, there are times when it feels as if something taps back from the underside.
Someone?
Someone starts to hum Toryanse from the cup sitting on the counter. ]
[ beau is chill enough when she comes to get hua cheng; she asks to talk to him privately, and then tells him she really needs his help with something, and to please keep a secret. if he presses, she reluctantly admits to him that it's criminal stuff, but she refuses to explain properly until they get to kano's shop.
honestly, like - she shouldn't be surprised, because it's kano. but she is surprised, and she loses her mind internally at the unconscious guy just at the front desk, because excuse her you can't just leave evidence out like that!
she'll hum Toryanse to get into the shop, sure, but there's only so much she's willing to play along when there's bodies afoot. which is why she whacks the desk when she reaches it and hisses: ]
Kano! Fucking - now is so not the time! [ screeeeee ]
[ For as often as he makes it seem like he'll only do things as a favor, or to have someone owe him something, or only with a payment... well, Beau comes running, and the matron at the front desk gets her employer almost immediately. And, just as quickly, Hua Cheng is coming to help. The explanation is minimal, but enough to give him an idea that they're really in for it - not surprising, with Kano, but more new with Beau - and he doesn't bother asking more questions on the street.
Too many ears, too many eyes.
Hua Cheng walks into the all familiar shop, regarding the "front desk clerk." His eyebrow slowly raises. He stares. And as he hears the humming coming from the cup, he slowly walks forward - ears twitching when he hears the movement under his feet - to pick the cup up between thumb and middle finger.
He hums Toryanse back, but only for a moment. Then: ]
Kano, if you'd please.
[ Get your ass amongst them or let them in, so help him dianxia. ]
[ Look, there was a thought process with keeping the unconscious man on lookout, but nobody asks and so Kano won't ever explain, answering both their requests with silence from the other end of the cup. Not pure silence, though; there's the sound of the receiver being set down, and the soft pitter patter of footsteps that's obviously meant to be heard, given how silent Kano can be when he feels like it. Just enough of an indication that he's coming out, so Beau doesn't yell up a storm about him ignoring them and Hua Cheng isn't kept waiting for an answer through the cup.
Instead, the answer comes from one of the walls- it's the one with the jars of weird liquids that nobody touches, and Kano's head comes poking through it, then his arm in a wave, and then half his torso. Quite literally he pokes through it, as if he or it were a ghost with the way he just sort of phases through the shelf, and while both Beau and Hua Cheng have been in the store often enough and have handled the jars or have touched the shelf to know them to be solid and real, apparently sometimes it's neither solid nor real. ]
Well, come on! Down here, watch your step~
[ Silently, Kano waves them through the illusion wall, where they'll be able to step straight through and find a set of stairs two paces in, leading down to a basement area with a low ceiling around seven feet tall, lit by the handful of ghost fires Kano conjures around him that offers light but no heat. ]
[ that shelf is the bane of beau's existence. anyway, she glances back at hua cheng. ]
I mean, we should probably take the fucking unconscious guy, too, Kano -- he's already gone. [ sigh. she rubs at her face. okay. down they go. when kano speaks up, beau scrubs at her face, and then gestures at kano to hua cheng. ]
I told him I needed help with something shady. Uh - surprise. [ help with a dead body shady, specifically, because there sure is a dead guy down here who is super beat up and also looks like he got strangled to death. hm. ]
[ Seeing Kano poking out of the the shelves, Hua Cheng isn't really surprised. He sets the cup down, a little amused, but that's the default react he has to a lot of Kano's antics - he's sure that he shares this with few other people, most being either bemused or irritated. (See: Beau, as Kano disappears again.) ] It's fine.
[ He moves over to the unconscious "clerk," grabbing a wrist and then hauling the human up over his shoulders like he weighs nothing. Better to put him away, he thinks, if only to keep the two of them out of trouble. He couldn't care less about some random human, especially when he's not quite sure what shady business the two of them have gotten into. ]
You probably could have told me what happened while we were still in Wu Ming, but it was a better idea to not... [ And that's when he comes down the stairs, moving to drop the dead weight off his shoulders - at least enough that it shouldn't hurt his cargo - only to see the actual
dead weight, his dry commentary trailing off. The streets between Wu Ming and Coin-Op don't matter, now.
His ears twitch up, and he stares as if calculating what he's looking at. ]
[ Surprise!! This is the epitome of shady, and yet Kano just sort of stands there in the dusty cellar looking between the two men and Beau and decidedly not Hua Cheng. ]
So, like, uh... [ what even happened ] This guy just, like. Choked and died. No idea how it happened. It's a mystery.
[ Both men are bruised and battered, with blackened eyes and broken noses, and a couple of missing teeth between them. The dead man's throat has been crushed. The unconscious man has several large bumps on the back of his head and one temple. Beau is covered with more blood than Kano, where it only shows on his shoes and the tips of his fingers, but this is the usual as he always makes a point to never be directly involved in a fight. His sphere of influence is in illusions, after all, and he can't exactly fake strength. ]
beau rubs at her face a little. ] We were trying to get information from these dudes about the fake tears and blood they were selling. One of them passed out and the other just choked and died.
[ she thinks she might know the reason, but she ain't telling unless asked. ]
I figured you'd know what to do with a dead body? And one that. Won't wake up.
Hua Cheng brings his hand up to massage at his forehead above his eyepatch, regarding the situation and the two men that are veritably useless to them for talking, now. But they can still tell them a few things. ]
I've seen my fare share of dead bodies, so, yes. I do. [ He steps towards said dead body, moving to tip the chin up with a fingertip so that he can get a look at the crushed throat, the bruising. It's all evidence, in the grand scheme. But if he just choked and died of suffocation without someone actually wrapping their hands around his throat... ] And we can figure out what to do with one that won't wake up, depending on if you want him to wake back up.
[ He flicks his ears back towards the both of them without looking. ]
Did you actually learn anything from them, before all of this wound up happening?
Eh... Some demon set 'em up with fake wares as a "get rick quick" scheme. Unsurprisingly, they couldn't resist the greed. Humans, y'know?
[ And then things Happened and don't ask them what the fuck, Kano also wants to know what the fuck. He busies himself crouching in front of the unconscious man and tying together his shoelaces, just in case he wakes up someday. Also so he doesn't have to look at anybody. ]
But, um, hm. Should we wake this one up? We never really got anything out of him in the end, did we, Beau?
[ It was not the man's fault, though. He was a victim more than anything- jumped on the side of the road without warning, knocked unconscious, woke up and immediately knocked unconscious again, set on fake fire, and then he just never woke up. Guy's been though a lot. Kano says none of this. ]
Let's just dump him on Jiang Cheng's doorstep and let him deal with him. I don't think he even got a good look on our faces? We were awesome like that.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
5/8 super late edging into 5/9
Whether they enter the left door or the right one, either open up into the store proper, where they're greeted by the usual sight of the cramped shop, patches of light from the lanterns throwing most of it into shadow than doing any good job of illuminating the place. There is a man at the front desk, slumped over and wearing a large sun hat that completely hides his face- just sleeping, presumably, unrousable but breathing. The rest of the store is devoid of people. When they walk, tracing the pattern of hollow spots on carpet, there are times when it feels as if something taps back from the underside.
Someone?
Someone starts to hum Toryanse from the cup sitting on the counter. ]
no subject
honestly, like - she shouldn't be surprised, because it's kano. but she is surprised, and she loses her mind internally at the unconscious guy just at the front desk, because excuse her you can't just leave evidence out like that!
she'll hum Toryanse to get into the shop, sure, but there's only so much she's willing to play along when there's bodies afoot. which is why she whacks the desk when she reaches it and hisses: ]
Kano! Fucking - now is so not the time! [ screeeeee ]
no subject
Too many ears, too many eyes.
Hua Cheng walks into the all familiar shop, regarding the "front desk clerk." His eyebrow slowly raises. He stares. And as he hears the humming coming from the cup, he slowly walks forward - ears twitching when he hears the movement under his feet - to pick the cup up between thumb and middle finger.
He hums Toryanse back, but only for a moment. Then: ]
Kano, if you'd please.
[ Get your ass amongst them or let them in, so help him dianxia. ]
no subject
Instead, the answer comes from one of the walls- it's the one with the jars of weird liquids that nobody touches, and Kano's head comes poking through it, then his arm in a wave, and then half his torso. Quite literally he pokes through it, as if he or it were a ghost with the way he just sort of phases through the shelf, and while both Beau and Hua Cheng have been in the store often enough and have handled the jars or have touched the shelf to know them to be solid and real, apparently sometimes it's neither solid nor real. ]
Well, come on! Down here, watch your step~
[ Silently, Kano waves them through the illusion wall, where they'll be able to step straight through and find a set of stairs two paces in, leading down to a basement area with a low ceiling around seven feet tall, lit by the handful of ghost fires Kano conjures around him that offers light but no heat. ]
He's over here. How much've you told him, Beau?
no subject
I mean, we should probably take the fucking unconscious guy, too, Kano -- he's already gone. [ sigh. she rubs at her face. okay. down they go. when kano speaks up, beau scrubs at her face, and then gestures at kano to hua cheng. ]
I told him I needed help with something shady. Uh - surprise. [ help with a dead body shady, specifically, because there sure is a dead guy down here who is super beat up and also looks like he got strangled to death. hm. ]
no subject
[ He moves over to the unconscious "clerk," grabbing a wrist and then hauling the human up over his shoulders like he weighs nothing. Better to put him away, he thinks, if only to keep the two of them out of trouble. He couldn't care less about some random human, especially when he's not quite sure what shady business the two of them have gotten into. ]
You probably could have told me what happened while we were still in Wu Ming, but it was a better idea to not... [ And that's when he comes down the stairs, moving to drop the dead weight off his shoulders - at least enough that it shouldn't hurt his cargo - only to see the actual
dead weight, his dry commentary trailing off. The streets between Wu Ming and Coin-Op don't matter, now.
His ears twitch up, and he stares as if calculating what he's looking at. ]
What happened. [ He is not asking. ]
no subject
So, like, uh... [ what even happened ] This guy just, like. Choked and died. No idea how it happened. It's a mystery.
[ Both men are bruised and battered, with blackened eyes and broken noses, and a couple of missing teeth between them. The dead man's throat has been crushed. The unconscious man has several large bumps on the back of his head and one temple. Beau is covered with more blood than Kano, where it only shows on his shoes and the tips of his fingers, but this is the usual as he always makes a point to never be directly involved in a fight. His sphere of influence is in illusions, after all, and he can't exactly fake strength. ]
no subject
beau rubs at her face a little. ] We were trying to get information from these dudes about the fake tears and blood they were selling. One of them passed out and the other just choked and died.
[ she thinks she might know the reason, but she ain't telling unless asked. ]
I figured you'd know what to do with a dead body? And one that. Won't wake up.
no subject
Hua Cheng brings his hand up to massage at his forehead above his eyepatch, regarding the situation and the two men that are veritably useless to them for talking, now. But they can still tell them a few things. ]
I've seen my fare share of dead bodies, so, yes. I do. [ He steps towards said dead body, moving to tip the chin up with a fingertip so that he can get a look at the crushed throat, the bruising. It's all evidence, in the grand scheme. But if he just choked and died of suffocation without someone actually wrapping their hands around his throat... ] And we can figure out what to do with one that won't wake up, depending on if you want him to wake back up.
[ He flicks his ears back towards the both of them without looking. ]
Did you actually learn anything from them, before all of this wound up happening?
no subject
[ And then things Happened and don't ask them what the fuck, Kano also wants to know what the fuck. He busies himself crouching in front of the unconscious man and tying together his shoelaces, just in case he wakes up someday. Also so he doesn't have to look at anybody. ]
But, um, hm. Should we wake this one up? We never really got anything out of him in the end, did we, Beau?
[ It was not the man's fault, though. He was a victim more than anything- jumped on the side of the road without warning, knocked unconscious, woke up and immediately knocked unconscious again, set on fake fire, and then he just never woke up. Guy's been though a lot. Kano says none of this. ]
Let's just dump him on Jiang Cheng's doorstep and let him deal with him. I don't think he even got a good look on our faces? We were awesome like that.