"I have a difficult time imagining a day in which I would be your omae, Nekekami. Nevertheless, I am ready." With deference to their close physical contact, Gryce carefully sat on the back of the bike and took hold of the handpegs. "Just, please, do me a favor and try not to do someth...

He stared at the phone. Well, at least the girl on the other end knew what he meant. "Leave this message, then. My name is Gryce. Mr. Gray will either have heard of me, or will be able to find those who have. I am available for corruption." He disconnected the call and turned away, placing...

He'd had enough. If they were going to sit and plan and make conversation and try to prepare a battle plan for an enemy they couldn't begin to predict the behavior of, he wasn't going to sit through it all. Let them plan, and when everything went wrong, and nothing they knew mattered, he would still...

"Mmm-hmm. Blah, blah, blah. I'll tell you what, how about you fellows get to resolving all your insecurities about this incredibly dangerous blah blah blah, and get to resolving them sometime this decade, and give me a call when you're done. Firewatch is overestimated; they die much like other ...

They'd all been silent, reacting to the girl's words, for quite some time. It was annoying. He hated being annoyed. Which was, of course, one of the reasons he wasn't a terribly happy sort of guy. "I'd like to be honest with all of you, but since that's vanishingly unlikely, I'll just say this,...

Gryce was annoyed. This state of affairs, on the other hand, was nothing new to him; he was pretty much always annoyed when he was working nowadays. No professionals in this field, no one who knew what they were doing, always working by the seat of their pants, one second to the next. In retribution...

"Wow," Gryce said, to the suddenly empty room. "This is incredibly retarded." His voice was low, almost bored-sounding, even moreso than usual. "We've abandoned all hope at tactical advantage, cover, and the advantages of a defensive position, all because one member of the t...

Slowly, almost casually, Gryce moved behind the bar and sat down on the countertop below the bar itself, leaning up against a rack of glasses, with only his eyes and the top of his head showing above the level of the bar. He looked like he was about to go asleep; his half-hooded eyes and bored postu...

Gryce turned to Smoke, knowing the shaman wouldn't care what he had to say, and would thus be annoyed. He spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear. "You know, 20 years ago, I used to yell at children for not speaking in complete sentences. Nowadays, you can't even get kids to speak in complete ...

Gryce's face doesn't even move in reaction to the news as he steps through the door; it stays fixed on what appears to be its default setting: dour boredom. "Oh, good," he says, deadpan. "New people. All this driving around's been making me hungry."

Gryce looked edgy through the end of Nekekami's initial speech, and continued to look discomfited throughout. Finally, he replied, "I do not summon. I am not useful in any way once spirits are involved. I do not use weapons, and if I tried, your best option would be to be my target and not my a...

"Well, I usually am able to cast spells." Gryce's annoying voice was no less bothersome in the silence of the diner. "I mean, other than that, what are you asking?"

Gryce steps out of the cab and looks back at Smoke with contempt radiating from his form. As he walks past him, into the coffee shop, he says, "You know that's considered rude in some places, right? Come on. Let's get this stupid meeting over with." Gryce walks into the coffee shop, finds ...

Line 1 - Gryce "There's a coffee shop on 24th and Mackie. Not far from a bar called the New Amsterdam. Stay in the coffee shop in plain sight from outside. I'll meet you there and take you to the meeting spot, once I have the proper security in place." Nekekami awaits confirmation from th...

There's a long pause on the other end of the line. "Ahoy ahoy," Gryce finally says, his grating voice no less irritating in telepresence. "Where to, my good man?"

There was a phone in the cab, thank god. Gryce had stopped carrying one years ago, and had no use for one now. He spoke the numbers aloud as he'd heard them into the theoretically soundproof chamber of the back seat. He didn't care much if someone was bouncing a laser off the windows or listening on...

Gryce looked at his impeccable watch with a small sneer. It was nearly time.

That was well; he had eaten, and felt ready for some action, some activity. He was ready to make this work. Or not; he didn't much care. Money was money, either way.

He stepped into the downtown street and waved at a cab.