Let's Take A Ride

Fifth session, and what a session it has been.

People of Interest:
Dom Poe, a strong and cruel brute.
Aria Noir, a tiny thief who wants to take over the world.
Alice Lepidoptera, a runaway princess of some faroff jungle monarchy.
Sariell, an extremely fashionable recluse.

People Met:
Brady Katz, a friendly ginger bartender.
Father Felux, a blind priest with terrible laryngitis.
Sister Miche, an absolutely huge French muscle nun.
Jackson De La Sangue, smug and loud leader of Cobra House.
Zitia Chrime, tall, long haired woman who knows something.

Gains:
One wooden lockbox, containing:
A picture of Jenny Bones and the mysterious assailant, dated five years ago.
A latex nose.
Pearl earrings and a pearl necklace
Two notes saying "I'm sorry", "It's okay."
One cleaver and one boning knife.
Files on Zitia Chrime and Fernando Du Sade.
Really cool fashion!

Losses:
Any sense of safety.

After Sariell received a text about where to meet Zitia, she actually calls the hostel and tells them the when, which is nine at night since she works late.

This gives the party quite a lot of time to go about their business for the next eight or so hours. Alice decides to make proper arrows for her bow with the sharp pile of bones they have while Dom and Aria prepare to go to their respective job interviews; even so, there's a consensus that Sariell should remain at the hostel to make sure Alice doesn't get into trouble, since she wants to also investigate where that corpse disappeared to later.

First, Dom goes down to the Yellow Sign bar and sees Brady Katz again, who is happy to see him. Yan Selken, who in the light looks like a neater version of Danny Devito, is also pretty happy to have a new bouncer on the premises. It all goes over very quickly and easily, with Yan talking a lot.
Afterwards, Dom reluctantly returns his borrowed apron to Brady and wanders around the side streets and back-alleys of the Serpent's Nest neighborhood. He comes across a wellspring-fountain that people seem to collect water from.

Second, Aria ventures up to Cobra House, early to the event but very sure of herself. Behind its liquor store facade she is sent up to a fourth-floor office complex, which has a lot more windows than Viper House and is in much better shape. A man with a long braided beard and thick eyelashes greets her in a pleasant, deep voice; he introduces himself as Jackson De La Sangue, owner and leader of the collections house, and asks if she is Aria Noir.
They head into his office while he prepares coffee and asks her about herself, why she wants to get into the collections business, if she knows anyone in the city. Aria reveals she's very confident in her abilities as a thief, blatantly, and after some cajoling admits she did interview at Viper House but that interview went very poorly. Jackson gets excited at this, and disappears for about fifteen minutes. During this time Aria goes through his papers—commissions and jobs—and sees that something called the 'Slow Asp' has been stolen and popping up all along the seaboard, and might show up in Croixsing. It's worth ten thousand dollars as a job, and Aria keeps that information.

Jackson comes back with a large mug saying 'best boss', a smug expression, and the company of one Jenny Bones. She very unhappily expresses that Aria seems to show up only when her life goes to shit.

While this is happening, Sariell leaves Alice to her own devices and wanders up and down the Ward of The Sleeping Fish's streets. He's looking for weapons to round out what the rest of the party is carrying.
So too, Dom finds that aside from being a free source of clean water, nothing much up is going on with the fountain, so he goes back to the hostel.

Back in Cobra House, Jenny gets laughed at by Jackson as the extent of how badly Aria fucked up her day. Jenny lets slip that her secretary is gone from the middle of her lunch, food still on her plate, and that she suspects Aria for taking her over to Cobra House. Jackson says he knows nothing and wouldn't want to intrude on the 'little thing' Jenny and her secretary have going on. Aria doesn't know either but suggests the secretary left because Jenny is a horrible person.
Overall the whole thing sucks for Jenny, but both she and Jackson agree it would be good for the competition between the two houses to have a possible "spy" visibly work for one. It turns out that the collection house conflict is mostly for business and mostly artificial. Then Aria gets the job.

The party reconvenes at their hostel and talks a bit of the jobs they got and what they need to do next.   Aria reveals that the secretary is missing, Alice thinks it has something to do with her kidnapping and the larger mystery of the rooftop watchers, Sariell has only a vague idea of what's going on, and Dom doesn't care.
With a little time before they have to meet Zitia, they all decide to get new phones and minutes to consolidate their communication network. Sariell also buys a collapsible bo staff. However, when they all try to purchase the phones, none of their stolen credit cards work. It appears that the original owners have all cancelled their plans, leaving the party with little money. They flee, get drinks at the Yellow Sign bar to pursue more information about the corpse that washed up, but find nothing. Brady Katz is nice, though.

Then, as a whole they realize that none of them have eaten anything all day, but remember they do know about one place to eat—the Soft White Underbelly. They go there and eat and wait for Zitia to show up.
There is a quiet few hours and the characters begin to actually talk to each other, sharing a little history. It turns out Sariell, before he lived in the church, was at an orphanage most of his life. Aria admits to a hard life in a shitty town called Greyhall. Alice conceals that she is a runaway princess. Night falls on Croixsing quietly and slowly, and Aria leaves the party—to pursue information about the Slow Asp.

In the night, she follows someone very deeply involved in a phone call, mentioning that something called the "Slothful Snake" was being shown at a tiny church on the water, and that Deep would indeed vouch for him. It's mentioned that the phone call is using a voice modulator.

At the Soft White Underbelly, a sedan pulls up as Sariell receives a text telling him to look outside. They pile inside, Sariell in the backseat lined with folded clothes and bedding, Alice and Dom in the shotgun seat with a cooler at their feet. Their driver is a tall woman with longer hair than anyone has ever seen; one Zitia Chrime.

Aria, certain of her suspicions, trips the man into an alley and threatens him with her knife to tell her about the Slothful Snake. He tearfully tells her it's an exclusive film with a group of friends, who want to know he's legit. She guts him, and takes his phone while he lays dying in a pile of blood.

Alice asks if Zitia lives in the car, or if she wants to take a drive. Zitia pulls a gun on Alice, and affirms that she does in fact want to 'take a ride'.