Chapter 2: My Brother's Keeper

"I feel like a piece of meat," Checkmate mutters to himself, suppressing a shudder. He approaches the friendliest-looking patron. "Excuse me, I'm looking for Roy," he says.

Lu tries to focus in this place but the emotions are overwhelming. The background count is filled with pain and hunger. The bruising and headache from the drain doesn't help things.

Wyvern, always flicking to AR and back, sees that there is a decent AR overlay. A floating blue overlay over the bar shows the prices of the "drinks".

Checkmate sees a lone woman dressed in a long fur coat rocking back and forth to the synth music. She seems to ignore him for a moment but then her nostrils flare. She looks up at Checkmate with red eyes. "You lookin' for who? Roy? She pauses for a moment. "Yeah, I know Roy, buy me a drink and we can talk." She motions you to the bar.

"Arlight," Checkmate says, and makes his way over to the bar. He feels way too old to be buying strangers drinks in nightclubs. "Give me something that'll help a person open up," he shouts at the bartender over the booming bass. "And something else strong." Alcohol was supposed to kill germs, right? The temptation to freak out was building by the second.

The bartender, a large woman with hair falling out, pale black skin and pink eyes hands a drink from the deer drippings. She then goes to the back and takes a bit of time before bringing out a bottle of synthVodka. "We had this in the back. Won't guarantee it won't make you go blind. But seeing as you three are here and still alive you must be bad asses." She says wryly.

The woman in the fur coat is sitting at a small table near the bar. She looks at Checkmate and says above the music. "Roy killed himself two days ago."

Meanwhile a tall thin man in a suit comes over to Lu and Wyvern and smiles a toothless smile. His left eye has maggots crawling around the eye cheese that was an eye. "I haven't seen you all here before. Are you looking to sell?"

Checkmate takes a seat. "I'm sorry," he says, and raises his glass. "To departed friends," he toasts, and downs the contents. The drink didn't help, but he wasn't surprised. It was shaping up to be that kind of night. "Do you mind telling me about it? I don't mean to pry, but a friend of mine is missing and it might be important."

"Sorry buddy, I don't know what I'd be supposed to sell but if you want to answer a few questions, I might be willing to negotiate a suitable reward. Depending on what it was, I might even be willing to give you what you wanted to buy...interested?" Lu studies his reaction, trying to see if "Cheese Eye" will try to cheat him or not...

Checkmate winces at 'humane food sources' and can't help but glance at his empty glass after 'get the animals drunk'. "The kid wanted to be special, until he realised it's a package deal. Roy felt so bad about it that he..." Checkmate trails off with an inflection of 'go on..'

Cheese Eye blinks and downs his drink. He gets very serious all of a sudden. "Ask your questions and I tell you if I want or can ask them." The lady finishes her drink and holds it up for Checkmate to get her another. "I feel so parched..." The bartender brings her a fresh one. "I'll put it on your tab." The bartender says dryly, she looks as if she has seen this type of conversation go down more than a few times.

The fur coat lady continues. "Roy hated the fact that he introduced this mundane kid to the doctor. Ummm what the frag was his name? Can't remember... Anyways, we all said that the doctor was up to no good. But Roy, he didn't listen. The doctor has a reputation in this place. He came around here a year ago talking about a cure. Well, all we know is our friends go missing." She downs the drink again. Blood rolls down her chin. Her long black tongue licks it up. "You are looking for the kid aren't you?" She seems to just realize. "If you are I suggest you look around the port of Tacoma. Ghouls, we don't go around there, cause that is the black hole for everyone that went to find the good doctor for a cure."

Checkmate signals for more drinks, one for the lady and one for himself. He felt the need of one coming on. "Someone else was looking for the kid, too," he says. "What do you know about that?"

Chevkmate is feeling tipsy.

Looking at cheese eye, "We are looking for Ray Watts, a part time P.I. that went missing recently. He was looking for a young man named Gerald Mosshammer, who was last seen here. You know anything about any of them ?"

Checkmate's face appears slightly flushed, and his voice betrays more emotion than he hopes as he asks the question.

Lu
The man looks at Lu and furrows his brows. "You a cop or somethin' Chummer?!" Then he breaks into a big smile. "Naw, you can't be that stupid." He laughs big then loses it just as quickly. "I don't know drek about a guy named Ray Watts." He grabs his drink and stands up. Checkmate
The lady orders one more drink. But this time she points to the BTL zombie human with the drip. "I want the good stuff." She keeps her eyes on the human. "He's looking pale, don't have much left in him. They'll have to take him out back and stick an IV in him. Can't let him die... But you know what? She looks back at Checkmate. "I don't give a frag if he dies. I want to stick my teeth in him and eat his human flesh." She looks right into Checkmate's eyes. "But it's better if they are alive and screaming. Like lamb with red wine. If we are comparing." She looks down and sighs as her drink comes. "You better settle this bill up. Cause we are done here."