Kai’s Wednesday morning odd encounter(Kai)

Date: 2025-07-16 09:36

(Kai’s Wednesday morning odd encounter(Kai):Kai)

[Wed Jul 16 2025]

Elysia Station, a side hallway
The study area occupies a generous corner of the ground floor, furnished with
heavy oak tables arranged in neat rows beneath tall windows that admit
filtered daylight through aged glass. Each table accommodates six readers
comfortably, with green-shaded banker’s lamps providing pools of warm light
across the polished wood surfaces. Built-in shelves line the walls from floor
to the vaulted ceiling, their dark wood laden with reference volumes and
leather-bound texts whose spines show centuries of handling. The air carries
the distinctive scent of old paper and binding glue, while the thick
carpeting muffles footsteps and the occasional scrape of chair legs. Near the
eastern wall, a peculiar draft rises from an ornate iron grate set into the
floor, carrying with it the faint rustle of turning pages from somewhere far
below, though no amount of peering through the decorative metalwork reveals
the source. Brass plaques beside each shelf section bear catalog numbers in a
system that seems to shift subtly when observed indirectly, and certain
volumes appear to have migrated between visits, though the librarians insist
nothing has been moved./span>/spanIt is about 65F(18C) degrees. The mist is heaviest At Mayflower and Sidney/span>/span(Your target has been mind controlled by another into acting as their agent in a crime, compelled to perform a robbery or assault for this other agent. It is up to their allies to arrive and stop the crime and try to uncover the criminal.
)

While Damian is living out his morning, it sems to be just another day in the seaside city in between. A fog horn goes off in the distance as another boat pulls into port and cars pass outside, honking now and then to one another. Eventually, though, Damian starts to get a wriggling thought in his mind, one he just can’t seem to push aside.

You need to beat the shit out of Kai Ashford

Damian pauses for just a moment, his coffee mug halting mid-sip as the thought burrows its way deeper into his brain. That… Honestly, isn’t that rare a thought in the man’s brain. It comes and goes, much like the rain or the Mist, without being summoned or manipulated. This time, however, it lingers for longer than is the norm. An interesting fact, but nothing to bring attention to quite yet.

The coffee shop is busy, it’s morning afterall. Wednesday, people are just trying to get through their week, even in a city as extraordinary as New Haven. A tiny goth girl with a shaved head enters the coffee shop, gets herself an order and wanders off to the side of the shop to sit by herself and sets up a laptop to work off of. Now and then she glances Damian’s way, though she doesn’t seem to be trying to get his attention. She’s being subtle about it, as if keeping tabs on her. All the while, like an itch that hasn’t been scratched that nagging thought presses in against Damian’s mind.

You need to beat the shit out of Kai Ashford.

Damian idly drums his fingers against the side of his coffee mug. Truth be told, there were *plenty* of reasons to justify beating the shit out of Kai Ashford. General disposition. Overall summary of previous interactions. That one time he stepped a little too close a little too quick. That whole Hand-sponsored mute and ambush up in Highgate. It really doesn’t take much to nudge the wolf’s mind towards bouncing Ashford’s head off a metal beam.

A tiny goth girl with a shaved head sends a text, smirks and throws a brief look toward Damian. She’s watching the door periodically now, more than the big Howler. One of the baristas readies a little drink container with a couple of to-go cups and sets it off to the side with a label on the counter. The coffee shop bustles as people enter and leave, see friends or regulars that they bump into each day when getting their fix.

You need to beat the shit out of Kai Ashford.

The nagging, intrusive thought latches onto those encounters and amplifies them. After several minutes, Kai walks in through the door, a little grin on his face. He gives a two-fingered salute to Damian and heads for the counter, speaking quietly to the barista. The order – the drink containers – are picked up and he turns. Won’t be long before he gets away.

Damian says, Add rq?, “/span>/span“Graaagh!” Kai chokes out a yelp as he’s yanked backward by Damian. His arms go flying, drinks arcing up into the air before they hit the floor and explode with milky-brown liquid everywhere. People move off to the side and some, seeing the symbols each men wear, simply bolt for the door. A tiny goth girl with a shaved head doesn’t, though. She sits back in her seat, sipping her coffee, her lips quirked up into a smile as Damian slams Kai’s head once, then twice against the counter. The young aeromancer falls on his ass, not knocked out, but certainly stunned and draws a throwing knife from his kangaroo pocket, “What the fuck man?!” he asks in a strained voice, still too off balance to actually launch an attack, the corner of the counter bit into his head and the left side of his face has rivulets of blood running from a wound in his scalp as he tries to get up from his sprawled position on the ground.

You need to beat the shit out of Kai Ashford.

Damian strides over to where Kai is on his ass. And now he’s got a knife. A weapon. A threat. Well, that doesn’t take much convincing at all. Lashing out with a steel-toed boot, the wolf aims to kick the knife from Kai’s hand and, moreover, step on the offending hand, grinding it into the ground. Removing his foot, he reaches down to drag Kai to his feet with a hand in the shorter man’s hair. Kai likely barely has time to gather his wits before the hand slams down, forcing his face to collide with the wolf’s rising knee. Not releasing Kai’s hair, he pivots to again slam his face into the front of the counter. Once. Twice. A third time.

The metal of the knife makes a clattering sound as it’s kicked away from the dazed young man’s hand and he howls as a couple of his fingers pop – either broken or dislocated – from the grinding down on his hand. Kai’s face is contorted in pain and that’s before he’s hauled up by his hair and gets his face kneed. Damian isn’t able to tell if it’s the knee, or one of the slams he does to the man’s face against the counter but eventually it’s obvious the man’s broken his nose, thick rivulets of blood form a bloody goatee around the man’s mouth and after the third slam to the counter the young man goes limp, knocked unconscious.

A soft laugh is the the first thing that can be heard after Kai is knocked out. It comes from A tiny goth girl with a shaved head. She closes her laptop, takes a long, satisfied look at the crumpled form of Kai, packs up and heads for the door, all but beaming in delight.

Finally, with the annoying aeromancer down and on the ground, that intrusive thought fades, leaving only Damian’s natural disinclination toward Kai.

The barista is on the phone, it sounds like she’s talking to a 911 operator. The people in the coffee shop who haven’t fled are either frozen in place, recording the event on their phones or both.

Damian breathes heavily as he just stands there, blood quite literally on his hands, and an unconscious aeromancer on the floor. Shaking his head, as though coming out of a daze, there’s a moment where the wolf takes the time to look around, recognize his predicament, and make a decision.

Well, shit.

Leaning down, he scoops the aeromancer up, tossing him over a shoulder as easy as breathing, before heading out to his bike and riding off into the morning.
/span>/span