[September 10, 2020. 1100 GMT. The morning after the night at the wretched.] [Tim, upon going out to a place where he fairly regularly eats, gets told by the hostess that someone had left a note for him.] [The return address is in London, for the organization AVotSAB. His name and address is hand written on the front.] [Start] * Tim thanks the hostess and eyes the return addy, "AVot? huh." Guy who brought it said his name was Dick Crake. He knew what you looked like and hoped you come and see him I think. Seemed like a nice enough guy." She says the last bit a little oddly. Oh? I suppose that's good to know, I've met a few not nice enough guys. * Hostess nods. If you don't mind me asking, what did he look like? * Hostess looks slightly embarrassed. "Caucasion, brown hair, six feet or so and." She softens her voice a little. "And he looked like he was burned pretty badly once." * Tim shakes his head, "A few of my parents friends are like that, one small mistake and ... well... Anyway, I'd like a table and." * Tim holds up the envelope, "Something to open this with, if you would be so kind." * Hostess leads Tim to a table and gives him a napkin and silverware set. Knife included. [Not a really sharp knife, but should more than do for a standard envelope.] * Tim orders something moderatly expensive that he's had here a few times, and after that he tries to look around for people who might be watching his table. (and doesn't even bother to hide the fact that he's doing so.) [Awareness check (sight)] [He's pretty sure he isn't being followed.] * Tim uses his new knife to cut the top of the envelope off, "So Mr. Crake, what do you have to say that can't be said?" [There's a letter inside. And no bombs or mysterious powders or the like.] * Tim pulls out the letter, and unfolds it so he can read it. [There's nice letterhead. AVotSAB apparently stands for Association of the Victims of the SAB...] [They say they were given Tim's name from of a source that thought he might be sympathetic to their goals of reform.] [They would like it if he could stop by their office and hear what they have to say.] [The letter as a whole is quite polite, but hopeful.] [It gives direction to the office, which is in London.] [End descrip] * Tim shakes head and puts the letter back in it's envelope and pockets the both of them, "guess there are more Angels and Bens in there than I thought...that or they've just been buisy." [And the meal comes in a bit. It's quite tasty.] [Tim enjoys is fine meal and catches a cab to take him to the place. The directions are good and he arrives without any trouble.] * Tim looks the place over, just to see what they've got. [The AVotSAB rented office is on the tenth floors of a fairly tall modern building. There's a standard mix of other offices listed on the building directory. AVotSAB is among the smaller ones.] (floor) [The building has a doorman, but security isn't that tight. He can walk right to the elevators if he wants.] * Tim walks up to the doorman and tips an imaginary hat to him, " 'noon." [Doorman nods. "Afternoon sir. May I help you with anything?" * Tim tries to look a little lost, "Yes, you certainly may. I was reccomended to the AVotSAB, but I can't seem to find it. Is this the right building?" * Doorman thinks for a moment and then nods. "Tenth floor. Make a right from the elevetor, then a left." Wow, you came up with it pretty quick, guess a lot of people come looking. * Doorman shakes his head. "I like to think it's just that I'm good at my job." * Tim grins, "Looks like it." * Doorman smiles at that. Thank you sir. * Tim digs out his wallet, and then a twenty pound bill, "For your time?" * Doorman's eyes widen slightly, but he tries to act like he's not surprised. "Thank you sir." He does have a rather grateful tone of voice. * Tim hands it over, "Nobody pays enough for good security." * Doorman nods in agreement. An entire building to look over, and here you are all alone. It's just not right. * Doorman nods again. * Doorman also has a slightly quizical look, as if he's not quite sure if you want him to do something. * Tim waves off, "Anyway, I'm off. It was nice talking to you." As with you sir. Hope your business here goes well. * Tim walks to the elevator and pushes the up arrow, "So do I." [Elevator comes after fifteen seconds or so and takes Tim up.] * Tim pushes the button for the tenth floor and listens to the muzak. [Muzak manages not to be activelly annoying. He gets to the tenth floor. Doors open. There's a dentist office across the hallway. The hallway itself extends both directions.] * Tim walks out of the elevator and takes a right, cause he got directions, and then barring further incidents he takes a left. [He arrives at the AvotSAB door without any incident. The door has a sign which says 'Please Come in. We're open.' * Tim opens the door and walks in. * Tim looks around too, 'cause that's what people usualy do after stepping into an unknown. [There's a nice front room with the logo on the wall. A receptionist sits at the front desk and looks up as Tim walks in. "Mr. Shimiru?" I see I'm expected, what can I do for you? One moment please. ::she hits a button:: Mr. Shimiru is here. [The door to the back part of the office opens and a smiling man who about meets the description you got before walks out. He's actually got a pretty bad burn mark that covers about a quarter of his face. Seems like it happened a bit back though.] Mr. Shimiru, so good of you to come. ::walks up and holds out his hand:: My names Dick Crake. * Tim shakes his hand, "and I'm Tim Shimiru, but you allready knew that." [Crake has a fairly firm but mostly warm handshake. He guides you to the back office as he speaks.] Yes and I'm quite glad to meet you in person... If you say so. (you going with him?) * Tim gets lead deeper in. [There were three cubicle desks in the front room, the back room has filing cabinets, a table, and four chairs. Not exactly corporate boardroom, more intern breakroom or startup company meeting room.] [There's two other people there kinda tough looking guy in his late thirities, keeps himself in fairly good shape. And a fairly sad and quiet brown haired woman in her late twenties.] * Dick gestures. "Tom, Harmony, meet Mr. Shimiru." They both stand up and look fairly welcoming, although the woman still doesn't look joyous or anything. * Tim holds out his hand, "Call me Tim." * Tom shakes his hand and says with a fairly deep voice. "Nice to meet you Tim." Definate firm handshake guy. * Harmony shakes his hand next. She sorta mumbles sadly "Thank you so much for coming." before sitting down again. * Grysar is now known as Grysar * Tim counts chairs, "Looks like this is everybody." It is, as you've probably guessed from the name, we're a volunteer organization looking to reform ::Tom snorts at that:: Yes Tom, reform SAB. * Tim nods, "They do need a bit of work, but from what little I've heard everybody else in the business is worse. Sad state of affairs, but what can one person do?" * Tom grumbles something about hating to see the rest. * Harmony just stays quiet for the moment. * Tim shrugs, "It's entirely possible that my source was biased." I think you're likely right, but we think they have room for reform. We live in a free society and when the government hurts people it's our job to get them back on the right track. * Tom nods at that. * Tim nods a couple of times. Suffice to say we're currently trying to keep a low profile until we gather enough information to credibly push for reform. We all know the truth of our individual cases, but talking to the media about the supernatural will get us written off as nuts. * Tim nods, "that does make things difficult." Would you like us to over the specifics of our goals and the reasons we think they're necessarily, or are you already amenable? We should just get them shut down. * Tim takes a chair, "Pretend I wasn't. I want to hear the whole speach." * Harmony says waveringly. "Someone has to do that sort of work. It's.. it's what Pierre did.." She starts crying a little. We know they employ sometimes violent criminals, often given clemency for working for them. ::he frowns for a moment and gestures to the scars:: One Jason Ashton for one. And some cop killing punk kid. Reg's family never even got any justice, they just covered the whole thing up. * Tim blinks, and then shakes his head a teeny bit, "I actually met him once, not somebody I'd like to get in a fight with." * Dick shakes his head. "I didn't really want to either. We've also heard they've taken on a former assassin. But more troublyingwe're trying to get in contact with the family of an Indonesian woman who was apparently killed for experimental reasons." He sounds fairly horrified at the prospect. * Tim closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, and then slowly exhales, "yes, a complete and pointless waste of a life." * Tom goes over to pat Harmony on the back, who'se still crying. "Hold yourself together girl." His tone is fairly gruff, but warm. Then it is true. ::he sighs:: We're hoping to gather official records of these incidents and find out if there were any others. We'll then proceed to investigate them without prejudice and hopefully determine the breadth of the problem. * Harmony gets a hold of herself. * Tim sighs, and looks at Harmony, "I wish there was a way for me to help you directly, but at the moment there is a rather large rock looming over my head, and while SAB as a whole might not not do anything against me. I'm afraid I can't say the same for individuals working for them." * Harmony looks disappointed. "It's just, I know Pierre was under mind control, but he didn't have to die. He was a good man. I don't want anyone else to lose someone they love." * Tim closes his eyes, "I know...I know. But...I will do what I can. It will not be much though." Thank you. We wouldn't need you to testify and we'd keep you totally anonymous, we'd just appreciate anything you could get us. Write ups of what you've seen would be helpful, but to put on pressure without having a real witness we really need official documents. From what I've heard you're a good man, put your neck out when it mattered. But when the organization's corrupt, you can't always be there to fix it. * Tim cracks his knuckles, "That'd be difficult as the people in charge of such things are quite formidable in their own ways." These political types can just be like your average gang leader, they speak a different language, wear suits, and act tough, but they damn well aren't invincible. * Tim nods. Well, I don't know what else there is to say. I think we feel similarly and it isn't fair of me to ask me to put yourself at any risk. But if you can think of a way to help, please do so. Lives do depend on it. Might help you get out from whatever rock those bastards have you under anyways. It might at that. If I do find anything for you...where do you want me to put it? * Dick offers Tim a business card. "You can contact me anytime. You could just take it here, or leave it at a drop off point we could work out, whatever you feel is necessary." * Tim stands up to take the card, "I'll call you as soon as I have something." * Dick nods. "I'll greatly appreciate that." Moves to shake Tim's hand again as he leaves as does Tom. * Harmony doesn't get up just yet. She just says. "Thank you." * Tim shakes Dick's hand, "I'd like to say it was a pleasure to meet you, but the necessity of such a group makes such things impossible." * Dick nods. * Tim shakes Tom's hand and then bows to Harmony, "We will meet again...and out's this way right?" * Tim points back where he came from. * Harmony sorta bows back and smiles slightly. "I hope so, and yes it is. Thank you." * Tim walks that way, and keeps walking until he gets back to the elevators. [Tim gets safely down to the first floor again. The doorman is still there.] * Tim walks up to him, "Hello again." How'd it go? Bit differently than I had expected. How long have they been there anyway, with a name like theirs I was expecting a little more. But I gess everything has to start somewhere. They seem like nice enough people, moved here not that long ago, I think it was a step up from their previous place of business. They really didn't have too much equipment to move in and I they had friends help them with that. * Tim looks thoughtful for a moment, and then nods, "Well that's good to hear, and I'll be coming back again, so I'll wish you a good day and be off." Have a good day sir. See ya. * Tim exits the building. [End]