Nina seemed amused enough by his anecdote. Feeling up for a bit more banter, Croaks detached the magazine of his gun for a split second to check if it was still as full as he suspected, snapping it back into place as he started his retort. "You say that as if any day in Night City went like it was planned." It was a fair point he figured, for at least here in the combat zone plans were a nice thing to have so that you knew what was expected to happen on any particular day. Never went just as 'on paper' like the archaic saying put it, but the goals were still something you could aim for.

Him being a paternal figure was met with a roll of his eyes, his will to banter evaporating in an instant. That was the kind of thing he had to handle. He had a gang full of loose cannons, and if nobody organised them or crammed some sense into their boosted up thicker than body armour skulls this little gang game would be over before they knew it. Not something everyone understood. And he'd just gone into full gang chief mode with the info broker working with him now. Given she was his key to finding anything that would allow his gang to stand though, he'd really much prefer for her to stay alive. If only for the matter of convenience. He didn't like people dying on him either, to be fair, but she was still taken in from the outside. She wouldn't be staying around, he figured. He'd need to think more about this. Man, he could really use Ribby's wits right about now. Least he could ask his brother later what he thought.

With the interrogation soon left behind them, any and all information they had actually managed to squeeze out of the gangbanger had been about as useful as a shot glass with a hole in the bottom. If not less so. The suggestion for getting something to drink was actually met with a positive response though, the two already making themselves scarce from the scene of the cold blooded murder that would now be cleaned up by those in the Amphibians that had to be reminded of their place in the gang. The gruesome scene should put the fear back into them.

Nina wanting to head off to some higher class place got the gangster by surprise. "Huh", was all he could say to begin with, taking a second to rub his chin as they headed for the exit for the second time tonight. Perhaps this time they wouldn't be making a running return with a corpse to be on the suicidal daredevil's shoulder. A man could dream. And sometimes dreams came true, the two soon finding themselves out of the alleyway, looking over the dirty river while trying to think of their next step.

"I'm not much of a wine drinker", Croaks finally went into more detail. "You get what you want, I'll take anything as long as its got a spike to it. I'm pretty fucking annoyed by that fuckwit of a booster we tried to make sense of." He reached for a lanky man that had been passing behind them, bumping against him briefly. He dragged the man before him and held a hand out, staring into the pickpocket's eyes with a glare that said it all. The small wallet was returned to the gang chief, and halfway through his apology the small timer was flung over the railing into a refreshing toxin laden bath. "Fuckers", Croaks added, making good progress at wearing out any impact that word and its derivatives had coming from his mouth.

With him not particularly caring about where they'd go, if they wanted to go to an actual establishment instead of just finding the nearest shop paying tribute to the Amphibians (and selling liquor of typical river level combat zone quality), their options were limited to climbing up in the levels. Croaks knew he could get to the second on the principle that nobody kept any watch on the rise between even if they should. Those people had a bit too high turnover rate due to exsanguination or acute increase in solid lead within their bodies. Often both. But for that reason the second level wasn't much better than that. Colonel's Corner sat comfortably on the fifth. He wouldn't be allowed up there even in company, and by that point the sec teams began to actually look formidable. Fifth level was often the place where rich folk came to drink in the violence of the zone, rather than any actual inhabitants living there. Such was life.

"If you've got any plan on going forward…" Croaks dropped an incomplete sentence as a hint for Nina to share. He didn't really expect there to be one. She had already disappointed him with lack of planning twice. In a single day. Under half a day, actually. Why did he take part in this headache again? Oh yeah. Lt. Davison was kind of important to find, or at least his stash of weapons. "Whether you do, it's up to you now. I ain't got no routes past second level in my repertoire."

[@13org]