Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Play-by-Post => Topic started by: Ren on <10-03-13/0547:52>
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Downtime I
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>>Welcome to ShadowSea JackPoint
>>I suppose recent events warrant this to be a whole new topic within these forums. As you all know, yesterday, some very disturbing events unfolded in the Rider, or as in our line of work they started to call it, Under the Waves. Just to limit myself to cold facts, a reason yet unknown caused 10,472 people to die in there, some pretty important ones included. This is a place created to pool our knowledge, facts, and ideas, for as I’m sure you are all certain, there will be repercussions that will affect all our lives adversely.
>>FastJack
>>To complete the cold facts FastJack provided, here’s some food for thought: there are several billion nujen’s worth of assets in that place, currently inaccessible to those investors and companies that previously thought this would be a booming business opportunity. Now I’m sure that kind of money is peanuts for the Big Ten but I wouldn’t bet against a few smaller businesses will change ownership as a direct consequence of the events.
>>So far, all bigger stock exchange rates fell around 2-3 points, and stocks of the Rider fell from a whooping 151.3 a share to 23.6, in the first ten hours. Main shareholders were the Brandon & Stokes Consortium (some Aztechnology and Evo interests there) and two smaller companies, subsidiaries of Horizon Group and MCT, through several companies with controlling interests in the next level.
>>Mr. Bonds
>>So this is the time to buy if you want to own a huge building in the center of Bellevue, ain’t it?
>>Aufheben
>>That is, if you want yourself being scrutinized by every possible kind of authority. Don't think that they won't suspect an insurance fraud or some buy-out scam. And if you don’t want to use that property for the next year or so.
>>Mr. Bonds
>>Cold facts aside, the sheer scale of this gives me the creeps. You know that I’m not against a fair bit of disorder, but this will create ripples that won’t die down for the next few years. I expect this to create the same kind of impact that 9/11 created at its time.
>>Aufheben
>>9/11?
>>Turbo Bunny
>>Yeah, that’s ancient history, with some very serious security issues and planes crashing in the World Trade Center in Manhattan and the Pentagon. It was one of the greatest debacles of that age, and there was considerable tightening of travel security after that. For a detailed report, look at this [link].
>>Sunshine
>>Anyway, I can’t really decide if jumping on the horse and trying to ride the publicity this one will prove to be a smart or an idiotic move by MoM and Alamos. I have the feeling they just tried to get the wind in their sails but they didn’t realize it’s a hurricane.
>>Aufheben
>>It probably was a well-calculated publicity stunt, however disgusting. Mark my words, not a week will pass and another statement will be provided that the previous ones were given in poor taste, by splinter sections of those organizations, unsanctioned by the main body, and any responsible parties were punished. Fragging rads.
>>Dr. Spin
>>As for ideas on reasons, I could provide several scenarios, each wilder than the previous one. What is more important, the ‘Trix in that place is teeming with GOD agents and law enforcement spiders. I tried to get in there, any morsel of info from that place will be a goldmine in the coming days, but it’s simply not worth it. I should have been there 15 minutes before I actually was, then I might have had a sliver of chance to get in.
>>Hannibelle
>>Don’t be sorry you didn’t arrive sooner, Belle. I was there almost the moment Horizon started its broadcast, but I say that some very powerful jamming must have been in effect. Someone closed down the system pretty well, I tried to use every frequency that I could think of but all signals going in were jammed. One of “us” must have been inside at that moment, and must have provided a dynamic jamming. And he must have been there right until GOD came and closed down the system for its own good.
>>Glitch
>>And if any of you thought of looking at astral space there: don't i checked it from three blocks away, and the sheer strength of what emanated from there gave me the creeps.
>>Ethernaut
>>I don't even want to imagine what kind of dark and evil fenomena are happening in there at this time. Oh my. I just imagined.
>>Frosty
>>OK, people, so far, not too much useful information, just what you should expect at a case like this. Anyway, i'd seriously appreciate anything on this, with some of the usual bonuses. Until then, i leave this topic open.
>>Fastjack
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[Signal playing, the silhouettes of the Space Needle and the Horizon logo can be seen in the background. Somber, but still attractive female voice greets the viewers.]
Welcome to Seattle Now, the show which provides our faithful Viewers with fresh news from all around the Sprawl. I’m Janice LeCrouse and I welcome you all in the name of the whole crew.
Today is an overwhelmingly sad day for the United Canado-American States, especially those of us in the Emerald City. The events of yesterday cast heavy shadows over all our lives, threatening to break the heart and spirit of the inhabitants of our great nation. The tragedy unfolding in the WaveRider Shopping and Entertainment Center – of which we provided a full live coverage – affected both old and young, men and women, humanity as a whole suffered. Today, we provide commentaries and reports on what happened, and our experts will analyze the effectiveness of the actions of Knight Errant, and the two statements we received from Mothers of Metahumans and Alamos 20K. Before we continue, let me quote the words of President Colloton: “The times ahead will prove to be trying for the UCAS, putting our integrity as a nation and as a people to the test. But as history has proven several times, so do I trust now, that we will stand up to this challenge, putting aside our differences, and facing these trials to emerge even stronger than before. Because we have the freedom and the means to work, as a collective, on putting this tragedy behind us, and healing these grievous wounds, by standing together against any who threaten the legacy of our parents, to protect what we want to leave for our children.”
[ Ads for several aid services]
Moved by the President’s words, I’m happy to report that our HelpMeter currently stands at 53,201 nujen. We’d like to thank all who contributed up to now and encourage all who yet didn’t. The money offered through this channel will go to a fund for helping out families that lost their breadwinners to the tragedy, as well as for funeral and memorial services.
And now, on to our first topic of the day. It is an ungracious task but it is often better to know than to be uncertain. We updated the list of the deceased that were already identified. For the complete list, follow this [Link]. Authorities also provided and update on the number of dead, 10,472 people lost their lives in this tragedy by the latest count. We regret to inform you that among them are our own Kate Lockwell, who was our on-site reporter for the day’s events, as well as CEO James Kendrick and the Mayor of Bellevue, Rupert Avery himself. Further updates will be posted on above link.
And now, to our next topic: do Mothers of Metahumans and Alamos 20K truly try to take responsibility for the event?
[A full-day coverage of reports, interviews, analyses follows, overriding almost all of the usual program.]
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9th of July, Saturday, early in the morning
Despite going to bed early, all of you sleep through the night, more or less in one go. The events of the previous day made you emotionally exhausted, and a single night's sleep didn't alleviate the effects fully. At first, you thought it might have been the worst nightmare of your life, then you realized that the ceiling above and the bed under you didn't match what you were used to. You were still in the coffin hotel, getting your bearings, and deciding how to go on was still in front of you. But a new day should bring new hopes, and with that thought you get up.
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Jade had taken a full night's sleep, although with her sleep regulator she normally didn't need more than three hours. But nevertheless she was awake quite early. Any decisions on how to proceed could wait after breakfast. After the take away yesterday evening she hadn't eaten much, so she decided to check out the free meal restaurant and see if the voucher was valid for breakfast as well.
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Matt awoke gently. the sound of cleaning drones and activity from neighbouring rooms reminding him that this wasn't home, and unfortunately, all that shit yesterday wasn't a nasty dream.
He got up wearily, knees creaking and back aching from the hard mattress as he stood up, heading to the bathroom.
He slapped some water and soap over his body as best he could and relieved his bladder, scrubbing his teeth as best he could with the crappy toothbrush from the hygiene kit.
Staring into the mirror, Matt contemplated the next steps.
1-breakfast. his stomach reminded him he was starving, skipping dinner last night had finally caught up with him
2-call tweety
3-call danny boy
4-get the hell out of dodge.
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Joel felt like he had barely slept. A lot of the drain had done admittedly, but he could still feel the efforts of yesterday. The pain was there, although dulled. Maybe Leroy would have something for it. Otherwise he could try to heal some of it... But for now he got out of bed. He cringed as he realised he hadn't taken t he chance to clean the clothes of yesterday's efforts and decided to do his best this morning, scrubbing them as best he could in the sink, before laying them out to dry a bit and taking a shower.
After the shower he did his best to dry the clothes with a towel before putting them back on. Damp, but at least they and he were somewhat clean. His face twisted in a grimace as his stomach reminded him that he hasn't eaten in some time. Maybe there would be a way to get breakfast. He didn't want to have to beg or root around for food. Didn't Matt mention something about a free meal...?
No, no. I'd never need a way to magically disguise myself. That would never be relevant...
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--Joel--
It was something of a nasty shock when the water just ran out in the middle of the shower. Then you remembered. Water rations. It probably wasn't enough for the evening shower, the clothes, and the morning shower. You cleaned yourself as well as you could by the remaining water, still trickling from the tap at the sink.
--All--
Thankfully, the free meal tickets were valid for the time of your stay in the hotel, and rooms were to be left before noon, so you still had a couple of hours. Lonny's Diner was a small place around the corner. Half a dozen barstools at the counter, and four tables with four seats each. The menu wavered above the bar in AR, it provided several kinds of hamburgers and hot dogs, fries, soups, all made of soy by the smells that permeated the place. The place was not full, three other guests were eating, two at the bar and one at a table.
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//Establishing call:: Tweety//<<Tweety, its Hunter. I'm deep in the shit man, We didn't do it. Danny boy said to give you a call first up this morning, so here I am. We need to er.. lie low, for a while. can you help?>>
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"Couldn't say i didn't wait for this call. Danny mentioned that you might just contact me." Tweety's high-pitched, shrill voice was the same as usual: to the point and business-like. "But this ain't no talk for the comm. Where do i send a car for you? Oh, and to be sure, for six?"
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<<You're a lifesaver tweety, thankyou. We're in touristville {Mapsoft co-ordinates attached} There's four of us, we're travelling light. How long will it be?>>
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"70-80 minutes. Driver will call you on this number and drop my name. Look for a GMC Hermes, probably grey and quite worn. Have to run, will talk in person." With that, Tweety disconnected the call.
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Matt Jogged down to the other rooms, passing on the info.
As hungry as he was, Matt daren't show his face to the morning commuters.
He set an alarm on his helmet's image link and hoped tweety could provide something to eat. Matt headed back up to his room and tried to kill some time by tidying it up and running some basic maintenance on his fly-spy drone
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Joel was preparing to head over for breakfast when a thought struck him. He was a fugitive. His face had been on TV. Perhaps going out to eat in public would be unwise... He grimaced again. Maybe there would be a chance later, even if he had to filch something. Or maybe he was paranoid. The pounding in his head was preventing him from thinking straight and the hunger wasn't helping. Perhaps he could go ask Leroy for something to help the headache.
He headed over to Leroy's room, politely knocking on the door as he arrived.
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After breakfast Miko came back to the hotel, where she learned that there would be a car picking them up a bit later. She didn't really trust the contact of a guy she only met the day before, but what choice did she have. And besides, Matt was in the same position, but still. Due to her 'upbringing' she always had some trust issues, and yesterday hadn't made them any better. Luckily she still had her weapons and armour, except for her bow of course, which she hadn't been able to take to the mall with her. Well, she could fight with her bare hands if necessary. Now she just had to wait for that stupid car.
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Leroy awoke fully refreshed mentally, albeit a few annoying physical aches had refused to catch the same flight and decided to rather stick around.
He swung his legs around and set his feet on the ground just in time to hear a knock on the door from one of his new comrades. He acknowledged the message that someone was on their way to meet them and hopefully give them a hand as he stood up and headed to the bathroom to freshen up for the day.
As he was drying his face, another knock on his door, this time Joel.
"Jesus H. Christ, dawg, yo fuckin' head still throbbin'?" The last word out of his mouth was cut in half by a yawn. He squinted his eyes and opened them exaggeratedly after his yawn.
"To be perfectly honest, not much that aspirin can do for you at this point. If yo head is hurtin' still it's probably your body telling you it needs food. Some coffee wouldn't hurt either. Caffeine will chase it away while you wait for breakfast."
Leroy looked around the glorified closet he was standing in to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything or leaving anything behind... both for reasons of convenience as well as evidence. He grabbed his medkit and headed over to Matt to get the low down on who he had reached out to.
Questions for Matt
- Who are we waiting on?
- What resources do they have for us?
- I have a sample I took off a body, any idea how we could get this analyzed? I have the know how but I would need a chemistry set.
This will probably suffice: (http://myfivebest.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/gift_meth.jpg)
- Can you ask them to get us food for us so we don't have to show our faces? We're not exactly forced to use these free meal tickets.
- What's your thinkin', here?
[/spoiler]
Note to GM: If we end up NOT using the meal tickets, I'd like to try to convince the group to give them to the hobos from last night to avoid them squealin' on us if anyone traces us this far.
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The guy is a fixer named tweety, kid's got a high-voice. He's got a bit of a rep for thinking in the long term and is tight with a good friends of mine.
He's on our side and between him and Danny, they can get us somehwere to lay low or get us across the border somewhere quieter.
as for the chem kit, I Dunno, I guess so. We'll ask when we meet up.
Car won't be long now so be ready yeah?
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--Matt--
Drone maintenance successfully distracted you from your hunger and from any further thoughts while waiting for the car. It wasn’t long before Leroy came over, seemingly with all his gear, and started to ask questions about Tweety. Satisfying his curiosity to the best of your ability, you spent the time until the awaited call came in. ”Yo, mon, Bob here, Tweety told me to pick you up. I’m opposite to this drekhole you said was a hotel. Come out and hop in, I don’t have all day.”
--Miko--
Going alone proved to be a good idea. No one cared about another troll strolling around, going after her biz. The food in the diner wasn’t good but at least they gave a troll’s portion when you handed over your ticket.
It wasn’t long after you got back that Matt told you the car arrived.
--Leroy--
Speaking to Joel, you noticed that his headache must be just a symptom of some other injury. His eyes were a little bloodshot, and at one moment he had to steady himself against your doorframe. You were sure he could use a checkup and some care, but as several hours went by since he got the injury, you couldn’t help him here and now. He’d need some long-term care, to accelerate Mother Nature’s own processes.
After taking your stuff to Matt’s room, you talked about Tweety, and it wasn’t long before he got the awaited call.
--Joel--
Unfortunately, it seemed you had to let your body heal itself. Hopefully Leroy, or someone else could help you with that, but that would be a longer process. Of course, you could always use Wolf’s teachings, to heal at least the damage you suffered from the incident in the Rider, even if you could not ease the pain from your failed summoning attempt.
[spoiler=healing]If I remember well, you have 5 physical damage altogether, 2 from the events at the beginning, and 3 from drain. If you try to cast Heal on yourself, you can heal maximum 2 boxes, as the others come from drain, and those can’t be healed by magic. Still, when calculating drain, you have to take into account all your damage, so the spell will have a DV of 3 (5 damage – 2).[/spoiler]
Having taken care of things, it wasn’t long after Matt told you the car arrived.
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//Got it mate, be out in a minute
Car is here mate, lets go
Matt grabs his neatly packed gear, patting down his pockets to make sure he's got everything on him he could forseeably need.
Dumping the RFID key back at reception, knocking on the other's doors on the way down, he heads out across the street, tucking his face into his collar and hiding behind the image link of his helmet as best he could.
Matt jumps in the front of the car;
Bob, good to see a friendly face at last. The guys are just getting their kit, we'll be ready in no time.
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Miko lumbered out of the hotel.
"Ah, a van," she said with a smile, "very good. At least we don't have to squeeze in a jackrabbit."
Her tone let their be no discussion about what she thought about those cars.
"Hey, I'm Jade," she said to the guy behind the wheel, "I'll take one of the backseats, okay?"
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Joel had returned to his room briefly to gather what little equipment he had left.He spent a bit of time focusing healing energy into his body. He felt some of the more severe damage slowly being fixed, internal wounds knitting together. And then he felt about the same amount of pain as a new ache, not as dangerous, but no less painful. Nevertheless, he needed to get going. One gathering of equipment later and he was joining the group at the van, jogging slightly so he won't be left behind. He untied his ponytail, letting his hair obscure some of his face as he joined the group. The dishevelled look was a far cry from the professional wage mage appearance he usually had.
"Sorry for the delay Matt." He apologised, waiting for Miko to get in before taking one of the seats in the back.
Healing the 2P from the start: Heal (Force 2): Spellcasting (4) + Magic (5) - Wounds (1) (8d6.hits(5)=2) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4261293/)
2P Healed
Drain DV: 3S
Drain Resist: Willpower (5) + Intuition (5) (10d6.hits(5)=1) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4261294/)
Drain MDV: 2S
So I just converted 2P to 2S. Yay I guess.
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Leroy lifted himself up into the van, sitting one row back between the driver and front passenger seat.
"Yo, dawg, could we stop by somewhere for grub? Didn't want too many of us showing our faces in a restaurant, ya know? Any ol' drive through will work."
Leroy's stomach growled in agreement.
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The van was everything that Tweety promised. Grey, worn, and more importantly, unremarkable. The driver was a Caribbean human, small frame, worn clothes, hair in age-old dreadlocks. ”Boss din’t say nuff ‘bout food, jus’ta pick you up an’ bring to him. But hey, mon, I know this place on the way. Can do grabs if you got jing. You got jing?” He started to drive even while he spoke, getting into the ever-increasing traffic, as you went towards south. Bob kept to the smaller roads, not going anywhere near the interstates.
On the way, he stopped at a drive-through of a Stuffer Shack, collected nujen, then ordered the food anyone asked. It seemed a luxury after missing two meals in a row.
[spoiler=prices]Meals are 6 nujen apiece, 10 in troll size. Anyone buying just say so in OOC.[/spoiler]
After a slow crawl of more than an hour, avoiding the whole Bellevue and Downtown area, you arrived to a part of Tacoma where some old industrial and office buildings were still in use. The car went into one of the small office buildings through an open gate, which was immediately closed by a curtain door after you entered. ”Here you are, mon, now out you go. I see Sam's waiting for you. Take care.” Bob inclined his head towards a hulking troll next to a door leading further inside, in an open jacket and fatigues and a sturdy boot, all camo style. His jacket was obviously armored, and the handles of a huge handgun and a humongous knife could be seen under that.
After you got out of the car, he looked at you thoroughly, at Miko twice, although the second time was definitely with a different set of mind. As a greeting, he said ”Weapons and drones in the locker next to the door, then on you go.” He stayed between the door and you until each of you complied, then opened it.
[spoiler=notes]If anyone wants to smuggle a weapon or drone inside, please say so in OOC, then we can roll to see if he succeeds.[/spoiler]
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The dirty burger hit all the right spots. It felt like an absolute age since Matt had had a "decent" hot feed. The buzz-cola slaked his thirst better than the brownish drek-water out of the hotel tap too.
Looking out of the window, he took time to think about what to do next. did he want to flee the country, or find the fucker responsible and make him pay? Sleeping on it hadn't given him much more clarity, in the cold light of day both options seemed terrible.
Hopping out of the van and seeing the man-mountain of a guard, Matt made no bones about surrendering his taser and drone before heading through.
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Leroy ordered a troll sized meal at the Stuffer Shack. The dwarf scarfed down the chow with a voracious appetite of not having eaten in about a day. He might feel a bit bloated afterwards from having overeaten, but he had calories to catch up on and he didn't know when his next meal would be.
He followed instructions without hesitation, especially since he didn't have anything to hide. His medpack dutifully by his side, he opened it so the guard could see there weren't any weapons inside.
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Jade looked at the guard, and then reached out and ran a finger over his cheek as she took out her warhawk and taser.
"Heya, big boy," she said, her voice getting an odd purring quality that the others hadn't heard from her, "what time do you get off?"
let's go with seduction then:
charisma 3 + con 2 + seduction 2 + mod 1 =8 (8d6.hits(5)=3) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4263770/)
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Joel shook his head ruefully at the diner. With still no form of money other than scrips and his credit account, that wasn't going to work. Eventually they arrived at the destination, and were met with a mountain of a man. Thankfully Joel didn't even have anything to surrender; he revealed the lack of weapons and drones on his person to the guard.
Hopefully this Sam person would be able to help them.
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[spoiler=vs. seduction]CHA(3) + Negotiation, Sense Motive(4) (7d6.hits(5)=2) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4266182/)[/spoiler]
In confident knowledge of his own manliness, the troll smiled at Miko. ”Three hours tops, beautiful. Now I have to escort you to the Boss, but I know a nice little bar nearby, care for a drink or two afterwards? On me of course.” He still checked if the others put everything in the box but he didn’t take note of the whip under your jacket. Not the whip, anyways.
After you emptied your holsters and the drone case, he opened the door and let you in. You entered the middle of a corridor running across the building, closed doors on each side. ”To the left, up the stairs at the end of the corridor. My bro will have the door open for you on the second floor. Following his instructions, you went through and up the stairs, with Sam closing the ranks, filing in at the end. You didn’t have too much time to scrutinize the details, but the interior seemed a bit ran down, although with sturdy doors. The stairs were creaking loudly under your weight, but they seemed to hold. On the second floor, another troll held the door open which would otherwise block your path. He was an older version of the one downstairs, with almost the same characteristics. The main difference between them was the menacing-looking right cyberarm of the one upstairs, which was accentuated by the vest he wore, that left his arms bare. The arm was obviously a customized model, although you couldn’t say what mods it contained.
The second floor was a bit different from the first. Here, someone made obvious effort to make it look more accommodating. Paint on the walls wasn’t peeling, the floor was clean, lights on and not even flickering. The room the second troll led you in was the culmination of the effort. It was furnished to be a conference room, with a big table in the middle, several comfy chairs on your side, and only one on the other. That was on a slightly raised dais, and occupied by the thinnest dwarf you possibly ever saw. He was completely bald, and wore an expensive designer suit of some kind, two rings on his right hand fingers and a watch on his left wrist, carefully rested on the table in front of him. When you filed in, the troll in front of you walked to the other side of the table, on the right of the dwarf. After closing the door behind you, Sam did the same on his left.
The dwarf gestured for you to sit down opposite to him. ”Welcome, my friends, welcome! My name is Tweety. Take a seat. I hear you are in a very tight spot and I’m ready to discuss the details how I can help you out of this bind, and my profit in doing so.” His high-pitched, shrill voice was something of a surprise to all but Matt.
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Of all the things Leroy had gone through in the last 24 hours, this situation had the least affect on his comfort level. Had he been walking into a shady meet like this a week ago he'd probably be more nervous.
As they were making their way through the halls, Leroy reminded Matt about "that thing" he needed help analyzing.
He focused almost all of his attention between Matt and Tweety, paying close attention to Matt's body language. So long as Matt was clam, Leroy would be calm.
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"If I can, I will," Jade said before going in. Upstairs she winked at the other troll before going in. She took a seat, first checking to see if the chair would hold her weight, although with trolls in the crew, it probably could.
'That explains his nickname,' she thought when she heard him speak. She kept silent for now, as it was Matt's friend or aquantance.
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Noting the hulking guards, Matt realised Tweety was in a lot deeper than Matt had realised. He knew he was a wheeler-dealer and always had the right contacts, but this was a sign of a pretty big outfit. The guards had chrome, and a lot of it. that wasn't cheap, which meant their services weren't cheap. And you didn't pay a lot of money in protection if you didn't have anything worth protecting.
Matt nodded his recognition to Leroy, mouthing the words "trump card" with a wink. Tweety knows how much the information that chemical sample will be worth. That'll definitely get his attention....
Sitting at the well appointed conference table
Tweety, am I glad to see you! Thank you so much for your help so far. As for the details, I'm sure Danny Boy gave you the lowdown after I spoke to him last night. I've been weighing up our options and it seems they're pretty limited right now. We either flee the borders, or fight to clear our names. As I see it, both options are terrible. UCAS will never stop chasing us if we flee, but if we try and clear our names we'll be banged up by an a vertiable army of lawyers as mass murdering terrorists.
Danny said you'd be better able to fill me in on how feasible the first option actually is; given our current "fame", so that might really only leave us with the one option. As for profit, nothing comes for free, I get it. We're appreciative of any help you send our way and we'll do our best to repay in kind, within our means of course.
As an opening gambit, we could do with a place to lie low for a while. Somewhere nice and obscure.
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"You're right, chummer, Danny Boy filled me in with the basics. And you're right about your choices as well.
"I will be honest with you, because you deserve no less, and Danny Boy asked me to. Either way will be expensible for you. Running might be more simple from most points of view. But the initial fee to do so will be more than the other way, and i will have to cover those costs in a short period of time, as i most probably will lose control of your fate shortly after you leave the city. You have to understand that i mostly have contacts inside the Emerald City, so i will have to collect some favors, and basically sell your services for a predetermined amount of time to a third party enterpreneur. Someone big. Someone organized. That will cover my costs and my profit, but will land you in debt with someone you don't know yet, for long years to come, and who could still see more profit in selling you out after some time than to hide you from the prying eyes of law.
"There's another option, however. It might be way harder, but it might come with unexpected perks. What you truly did yesterday - i don't mean what the news went on about - escaping that place, under lockdown by the Errants, shows resourcefulness, shows great potential. And i'm constantly on lookout for that kind of talent. So, i could give you a good start, with new identities, a place to stay, and more importantly, the opportunity and the time you'd need to repay my investment. With interest. And if you chose the second option, i'd be inclined to help you with your long-term problem of getting information about what really screwed up your life.
"Don't get false ideas. If you choose the second option, you won't be doing some comfortable, legal job. The kind of money i'm talking about, the amounts it would take to have some professional help you look into the depth of this drek, isn't earned by wageslaving for corps. It is only earned in the shadows, doing things that might range from seemingly white through several shades of grey to utterly black. But the same might happen even if you choose the first, only with less control of your own fate, and even less opportunity to refuse to do what your conscience can't cope with.
"So, to sum my pretty little speech, what is it you all want to do? Run with your tails between your legs, and rely on others to protect you from whatever might happen, or take your own fate in your hands and claw out an existence, with sweat and blood, that you can call your own, and retain the chance of striking back at the ones that had hell chew you and spit you out?"
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The Frank and businesslike dressing down of his future hit like a stone.
Getting a place of his own, running that repair business, a wife, maybe a kid too. Gone.
Fuck. Digging about in the shadows was no way to live, and just how "black" did tweety mean? Not like Matt had a choice in reality. He had no intention of being sold into slavery in some shithole corner of Africa or south america
can't say that running sounds that attractive spelled out in those terms. I can't speak for the others but I think I'd rather have my fate in my own hands.
Matt sat back in the chair defeated.
This was now pure damage limitation, Tweety had offered the only glimmer of hope he was going to get, he had to take it and hope Tweety didn't twist his leverage too hard.
Matt had enough regrets in this life without adding more.
If he could keep some semblance of freedom long enough, he might, just might, be able to clear his name.
-
Joel slumped back in the chair. The words of Tweety had hit him like a blow to the stomach. He figured that sure he'd have to maybe hide for a while, but this analysis revealed it would be much more permanent than that. He doubted he'd be able to see his parents again. He knew of Shadowrunners, but never thought he'd end up becoming one. He was going well as an Azzie wageslave. But now, well... Now he was seen as a criminal. And it seemed he had two options; he could flee or he could sell his proverbial soul and attempt to at least get revenge. Revenge wasn't really a Wolf thing, but there was certainly no option in running away. He wouldn't choose it, and Wolf would be most unhappy if he did.
"I'll take fate in my own hands. Wolf wouldn't allow me to run anyway." He hung his head, defeated. Wondering what he'd do about his parents.
-
"I've already been a slave in all but name for a couple of years," Jade said, "on the other hand, getting even with whoever did this sounds good as well. As long as there are assurances, I'm in."
-
"Assurances?" The word seemed to set Tweety off. Even though he held up the jovial facade, it could be felt in his voice, which became somewhat strained. "You won't get better than my word, which i pride myself in keeping every time. And you better get used to it, because that's the best one usually gets in my line of biz. Which you should really know if you've been what you said you've been." He then turned to Leroy. "It seems that we only wait for your decision before we go on discussing details. What do you want? Get out of here or stay and fight?"
-
Leroy looked around the room. He furled his brow. This wasn't a decision to take lightly.
"Utter black? Am I going to have to kill innocents?
He sat back in his chair and let out a slow sigh.
Am I ok with that?
It didn't take long for Leroy to realize what he was becoming. He had instantly justified in his mind that killing "one or two innocent bystanders" would be simply collateral damage in his quest to avenge the thousands who died yesterday.
If he was okay with killing one or two innocents, what difference did it make if he killed a hundred? It's not something that he reveled in. No, he wasn't sadistic by any means. However, in his brain, he couldn't help but have the puzzle pieces fit. He hated to admit it, but it would be a necessary evil which he felt justified in carrying out in order to avenge... no, not his own revenge... he was avenging the thousands of corpses that were left in The Rider.
Yeah, it's not just for me, it's for them. So long as people exist out there who are willing to massacre innocents in the thousands for whatever reason, what difference would it make if I have to kill a few more to wipe them off this planet?
Leroy caught himself day dreaming as the rest of the room stared at him, Tweety growing impatient. No one had actually said that he had to carry out wetwork on innocents, rather, that was simply the worst case scenario that Leroy could imagine being asked of him and he had to make sure he was okay with it.
Well, almost the worst case...
"So long as I don't have to earn my way on my knees, count me in."
-
"Sorry about that," Jade said to Tweety, "It's been a very nervous 24 hours we've just had."
-
Tweety glared at Leroy for a moment, then burst out laughing. "You have an interesting way of phrasing things, chummer. And can i say i'm glad you all tend to choose this way, this verifies my theory about your determination." As an aside, he turned to Miko, before continuing. "And no hard feelings there, i'd probably be out of my right mind if i went through that kind of ordeal."
He seemed to think for a few moments, than spoke up again. "So. Now that you agree on the main goal, let's see how i can help you. As a first step, you obviously need a place where you can lay low for a while, and i have a few spots that will provide just what you need, whether you decide to go together or try to keep more privacy and lay low at separate places. I suggest you take your time, a few weeks of not getting out might help the uproar die down a bit. During this time, i can go on about arranging for new identities and the much-needed permits that will let you operate in public. Apropos, public appearances. I'd seriously suggest each of you undergoing some facial surgery, i know just the place where you can do some cosmetic changes that will fool most recognition systems, that will not weigh on your constitution, and they provide an affordable service of retaining the original facial features if the client wanted to get them back at a later point.
"Second step, i can get you equipment, and some pocket money to kickstart you. There might be things you need to work your trades effectively, things not currently on your person. I trust that i don't have to say, anything you left at your homes, you can't reach anymore. Extra secure evidence lockers for the moment, i should say, and probably much cheaper to get another piece. This reminds me, i know not all of your trades, except Matt here. We should remedy that, so i can look for fitting work.
"Which is the third step. I think it would be best that you work as a team, there will be less risk of someone else discovering your true identities. And i don't think its a stretch to say you've got both brains and brawn, so that won't be lacking. I don't know about mojo and cybercowboys, you'll have to enlighten me, but it won't be too much of a problem if you don't have any of those." Taking break to breath deeply, he let you digest the above steps for a few seconds.
"Now, back to step zero. You all know i'm not a charity, and identities, a place to lay low, and equipment cost nujen. Which i expect you to pay back with interest. Not immediately, mind, that would be downright stupid. I have to give you work, and in order for you to do those jobs, you need a constantly improving equipment. Which improvement i also expect you to do. So, until the time you will be able to fully pay me back, you work for me. I give you jobs, or sometimes job offers, and when you get paid, you give me 20% of that payment as a redemption, working off your initial debt. The remaining 80% you can spend however you like, but here's something to consider: after the initial loan, as long as you work for me, i'll tend to lend you money for accomodations, or to cover costs of your investigation for some extent, but nothing more.
Two more things. First. Your reputation will probably grow, and others might look for you and offer you jobs. I won't object if you accept, but i'll keep 10% of your payment in those cases as a fixer's fee, before the 20% redemption. In case you get a job from me, i've already taken care of the fixer's fee. And second. The interest on any loan i give you is 10%. Monthly."
After letting all the information sink in, he spread his hands in a questioning way. "Do you find these conditions acceptable?"
-
I'm not going to lie Tweety, signing up to a system where one man controls both my earnings and my debt levels gets me twitchy. I appreciate your help, and I understand you've got bills to pay, but god help me, I'll not see out the rest of my dying days a slave. Your word has been good so far Tweety, don't take the piss and make me regret saying yes to this.
What levels of debt we talking here? How long you think it'll be before we pay it off?
-
Matt has a point. If maybe we could limit our interest rates based on how often we come across work. If I were Tweety, I'd let the interest pile up without giving us work for a couple of months, then lay on the overtime, then cut off work completely to let the interest spiral in his favor again... add infinity...
Leroy resisted the urge to shift in his sit and convey the discomfort he was feeling with this offer.
-
”I understand your concern, chummer,” Tweety replied, ”so I will break this down more detailed than usual. So that you can see my motivations better.
“What I do here, is an investment, and one invests money with the plans of return. And when you invest in people, you have to keep them happy, at least to a certain extent. I won’t get my profit if you suddenly decide to get the hell out of town with all the stuff my money bought you. You see, this is a game of two sides, and it only works if both sides are winning. But you have to be able to think long-term.
“Just so that you know, if I didn’t think you will be able to earn serious jing, I wouldn’t do this. I don’t usually give out loans with no set deadlines, and such a low interest rate. I know that the start will be slow, you have to build a certain reputation in order to get more lucrative jobs. So it may take a while before you will be able to fully work the debt off, depending on your success it may take months, a year – I will be able to make a better estimation after your first few jobs. But you will, and all the while you will get richer in the process.
“And about the debt level, it depends on the stuff you need. Weapons and ammo, tools, magic materials, a place to stay: more or less expensive. Your new IDs and permits: definitely expensive, assuming you don’t want to get caught at the first street check. Getting into finding the players behind your misery: sky’s the limit. We’re talking about tens of thousands of nujen.
“But I won’t be controlling all aspects of your financial life. As I said, I’m not against you taking jobs others offer you. If I want my money back in a reasonable amount of time – which I do – I will have to give you work so that you can earn your living, as well as the opportunity to redeem your debt.”
Taking a short break, his voice suddenly changed. Up to now, it was almost lacking emotion, enumerating facts and arguments, conveying just that he believed this could work. Now it became heated, not exactly a screech, but taking the strained note on that was present when Miko mentioned assurances. ”And now to the less important, emotional side. I don’t do biz with slaves. I do biz with satisfied employees. One doesn’t offer a business proposition to a slave. And if you knew me even slightly better than you actually do, I might have taken serious offense at the notion.” Taking a deep breath then exhaling sharply, he composed his face and voice again. ”All-in-all, I don’t think you will get a better offer, even if you tried a dozen different fixers. But you don’t have to take my word for it. You’re welcome to look around what the market has to offer you. I can even give you a name or two who I think might give a stray thought or two to other options besides selling your services to third party entrepreneurs out of town. But I tell you now that you will be wasting your time, and with each passing day you will raise the chances of getting caught.”
-
Tossing up the options, Matt realised he wasn't in much of a position to go round knocking on doors begging for work as well as anonymity.
Fresh ID's, a stream of income, a place to sleep and protection from what was clearly a big outfit that Tweety ran, was about the best he could hope for in his situation.
Granted the finances made him pretty twitchy. no, not twitchy, vulnerable.
Matt was now entirely dependent on Tweety, but his assurances of investment sounded logical. Once we had ID, a set of wheels and our firearms, we had a much better chance of doing a runner if the arrangement was too one-sided.
Matt took a deep breath, put both hands on the table and spoke.
Alright. Lets do this.
-
Leroy lightly slammed his open hand on the table top in agreement and nodded to Matt, conveying acquiescence.
-
"Very well," Jade said, "Let's do this."
She had been on the shadow side of things enough to know it was all in all not all that bad a proposition. Besides, like he said, where else would they go.
-
Joel nodded his agreement. It didn't take much intelligence to realise how bleak their options were, and at least this offered the chance of a new life. Or a life at all. He'd have to ask Steele to keep an eye on his parents, maybe she can help take care of them if nothing else.
-
”Good! Now that we all agree its time for the finer points…” For the next hours, and during the course of the following days, Tweety discussed quite a few things with you. You were surprised how much work there was in simply forming and learning a new identity, and that was only a tip of the iceberg.
Newscasts and blogs discussed the events of the Rider in the innumerable. Alamos 20K and MoM gave statements about their earlier ones, renouncing those rouge agents who made those statements. Law enforcement didn’t provide any information on the investigation, saying that it would harm their chances of catching the culprits. Media coverage slowly waned as the Rider became old news, but it took much longer than in lesser cases: time and again, the topic was dusted off and discussed with politicians, experts, and every kind of official.
One other thing became quite clear to you during this period. Tweety was an inquisitive man, and he asked for Matt’s ID to try something. And he experienced, with all your IDs in order, that someone took the painstaking task of erasing your data from most official databases. Your SINs didn’t exist anymore. You were erased.
-
--Matt--
In a week’s time, a mechanic working for Danny Boy called you. ”Good news, chummer, got your ride. Gimme the coordinates where I should drop it. Don’t worry, it’s in perfect working condition, as well as everything in the trunk.” True to his word, the guy left your car at the designated point. After bringing it home, you were able to confirm, that all you left in there was in perfect condition indeed.
-
--Leroy--
When Tweety got your shiny new chemkit delivered, it distracted you from the miseries of your new lifestyle for quite a few hours. The gear, although not top of the line, was reasonably well-stocked with all the materials you needed to support any checks. And that brought you back at the sample you took from the dead guard in the Rider.
You immediately saw that using the medkit was not the most adequate tool for the job. The sample, even though still usable, already started to deteriorate. You made a mental note to always keep some test tubes from the chemkit on you, then went on with what you had.
[spoiler=test please]Roll a LOG + Chemistry and a LOG + Medicine test. Also roll a LOG + Checmistry knowledge skill test.[/spoiler]
-
Leroy pushed aside all feelings of defeat at seeing the discoloration of the sample he took.
... can't be worse than what we already know, which is nothin'.
He began to open and prep the packets of chems that would tell him what it was that was in the sample. Not too much unlike the methods that police had used for over a century now, pouring a sample of a substance into a packet of indicator liquid and seeing what color it turned was the fastest and most effective way of knowing what to charge an individual with, or in Leroy's case, getting an idea what the patient OD'ed on in order to administer the correct treatment.
Sure, you needed some knowledge of chemistry in order to interpret a wider variety of substances and the colors that reactions that samples would have. Some of the newer shit out on the streets would make the test baggy glow in the dark or change all sorts of colors in quick succession before turning completely clear again.
... and sometimes, you see an image of the Virgin Mary in the baggy.
Leroy tried his best to ration out as much of the sample as he could in order to carry out multiple tests should he need to.
"Here goes nothin'..."
LOG + Chemistry
LOG 5 + Chemistry 5 = 10 (10d6.hits(5)=2) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4279059/)
Gah, fuck, 2 hits on a 10 dice pool :(
LOG + Medicine
LOG 5 + Medicine 2 = 7 (7d6.hits(5)=0) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4279062/)
Rolled four 1's on a pool of 7 and no hits... CRITICAL GLITCH
LOG + Chemistry Knowledge
LOG 5 + Chemistry Knowledge 4 (9d6.hits(5)=4) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4279068/)
4 hits
oh shit...
-
Miko had taken one of the rooms and installed some gym equipment. A couple of machines to keep fit, not a bad idea since going outside was not really possible as long as the IDs weren't there yet. She also put in a tatami and some dummies to train her martial arts and while it wasn't as good as a real life sparring partner, it was still better than nothing. The first week they also had the surgery and a lot of details to arrange, so she didn't have much time, but the second week she spent most of her time there, training for what would come.
She had also gone on a drink with Sam the troll and while it had been fun, she didn't go for a repeat. In her current situation starting a relationship was counter-indicated and while it had been fun, there wasn't that click that was needed for a long-term relationship.
-
--Leroy--
The sample proved to be elusive at first. It would be much better if you had more of the material at hand, this didn’t provide too much room for failure or retesting. But the kit really was up to the task. No wonder, it was an Aztechnology product, and they were biggest in this line of industry.
Initial tests showed that the sample contained both inorganic materials and organic tissue. Separating these to phase one (inorganic) and two (organic), you went on with phase one. You identified several chemicals that were usually present when something heavier than air had to be made into an aerosol. The composition of these chemicals was somewhat baffling. You were pretty sure you haven’t ever seen some of them, and you knew pretty much every variety that was used in official procedures of firefighters and law enforcement. You didn’t have the tools and nearly enough samples to research the compounds present, but some of them must have been experimental. You also discovered free connections in the molecules, it must have been where those were connected to other compounds they transported.
[spoiler=tests please]Roll a LOG + Cybertechnology test please. Also, you can reroll, without any negative modifiers, your active LOG + Chemistry test, because your knowledge test was good.[/spoiler]
Phase two provided even more disturbing results. You could clearly identify miniscule pieces of tissue from the lung, which clearly showed drastic changes. And when you looked for the details… No, it couldn’t be! You had to recheck your findings.
[spoiler=question]Will you spend Edge to downgrade the critical glitch to a simple glitch? I will continue accordingly.[/spoiler]
-
--Miko--
Sam took things in stride. You met him a few times during the next two weeks, because he helped with some of the deliveries. He didn’t seem to take it personally, when you didn’t repeat your first date, he just accepted that one time as something good that happened. You got the nagging feeling though, that he wasn’t bound to give up on you soon, just that he wasn’t the type that forced his company on others.
-
If Sam wanted to play a bit, Miko invited him over to spar with her while she trained. It was always better to train with another person than on her own. And that way she could see how much stamina he had, always interesting to know.
-
Matt's face was pretty sore for a while after the surgery. thankfully, the meds kept the swelling down after the first few days and he felt well enough to head out for a beer with Danny boy under his new alias.
It turned out to be a pretty heavy session, with most of the beers on Matt as thanks for Danny's trust and assistance. He'd been in touch regularly, sourcing parts and tweaking his vehicles to keep himself busy.
Now committed to the shadows, Matt began reading up on advanced driving techniques and the arts of remaining undetected and subterfuge. It was slow going, but Matt felt he had made plenty of progress, especially on the advanced driving techniques.
Matt felt happy with the garage, he'd got the tool shops set up and had a good space to work in. The manservant had been more than useful with installation of the new equipment into his car and drones, and even tended to his dressings after surgery. Matt was as happy as he could be in the current situation, and was almost looking forward to his first assignment under Tweety.
-
--Miko--
Sam gladly accepted the challenge. It quickly became clear that you were at rougnly the same level in unarmed combat, although he lacked the signs of any systemized training. His strength counteracted your somewhat bigger reach and body weight well. He showed you some dirty tricks he picked up on the street, which were good to know. And he certainly didn't lack stamina.
-
LOG + Cybertechnology
LOG 5 + Cybertechnology 2 = 7 (7d6.hits(5)=2) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4282313/)
2 hits!
LOG + Chemisty
LOG 5 + Chemistry 5 = 10 (10d6.hits(5)=2) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4282316/)
2 hits!
-
Joel's new face and identity felt odd. His name was hilariously appropriate: Phelan Wolfgang. He was appropriately licensed for a new foci that Tweety's magical contacts had set up with. as well as for combat magic and spirits. There were still some similarities but he was different. His runner name had become the nickname that Steele had given him. 'Stray'. It was appropriate in a way.
He sat in the magical lodge set up in one of the garages. Small stone menhirs were arranged in a circle, providing a font of power than he could use to help learn spells and bind spirits as well as protecting him from magical interferences while he rested in it. He thought back to the last call with Steele; he had requested she keep an eye on his parents. He hoped she would be able to, he worried about them.
The young mage had been hard at work. While he was skilled at magic, he wasn't very well-versed in the theory of it. Now that he was a shadowrunner, that had changed as he pored over texts, studying exactly how Unified Magical Theory worked, and generally improving his knowledge of the arcane forces he wielded. Te rest of the time he had spent setting up this lodge, and bonding his new foci to himself. Hopefully it should take a bit of strain off him from maintaining a spell.
-
--Leroy--
Rechecking the lung tissue proved to be a very good idea. Those clearly contained signs of some viral infection. You didn’t know what kind of coincidences caused the first check to indicate VITAS strains in it but as you thought about it, the symptoms were not there, neither on you nor on the one you took the sample off. Second, third, and fourth checks indicated that it was simple flu, the first checking must have been contaminated.
As for the chemicals present, you suspected that some of them were simply there for transporting and locking down nanites until a certain condition was met, at which the connections would be severed and the nanites could do their programmed jobs. The whole thing was extremely advanced, cross-science material, producing something like that needed serious backing up. As for the purpose of it all, you had no inkling whatsoever. Unfortunately, you could only trace the transport materials in the sample, of the agent responsible for the death of thousands, you saw no sign.
-
Leroy was ecstatic!
Nanites! OF COURSE!
His findings fell perfectly in line with logic. There really was no sign of anything biological taking place in all of the victims. It was as if they just dropped dead with no sign of poisoning or contamination. He couldn't tell much about the nanites that were used to kill the victims of The Rider, but he did know that they must have been delivered through what he found in his tests. The victims all must have had the payload inside of them for sometime before they were all switched...
... every single pore on Leroy's entire body began to gape open and release pheromones as his body began to pump adrenaline through his whole system. His stomach sank and his hair felt as it would fall off. He jumped up from his seat and took his shirt off quickly, looking down at himself.
Are we contaminated? Is there something inside of us right now just waiting for someone to throw the switch so we could end up like the rest of the folks at The Rider?
Too many thoughts crossed Leroy's mind at once. He frowned and took a swing at his nightstand in a futile display of desperate rage.
"I'M GETTING REALLY TIRED OF BEING FUCKED WITH!"
He took a deep breath and let it out.
Maybe they'd be doing me a favor by flippin' that switch...
Another breath.
What do I know? I know I'm being used as a scapegoat...
He walked determinedly out of his quarters and began to look for Joel. He called out to the rest of his companions, gathering them up and letting them know there was news on their situation. When he had gathered them all together, he shared all of his findings with them, along with his speculation that there might be something still inside of them.
"I doubt that they... whoever they are... planned on us getting out of The Rider. They needed us alive to use as scapegoats for the attack. Maybe they were testing the weapon or something, I dunno. The thing is, I find it highly unlikely that they wouldn't have put the same nanites in us as a back up plan in case they lost control of us. Maybe, if we're contaminated, our death bots will respond to a different signal from everyone else at The Rider..."
He let out a big sigh and frowned, as if being chastised. It didn't help that everyone else was bigger than him too.
"... cause I'm really doubtin' that whatever method that was used to deliver these things discriminated against everyone else except us... and it can't be a coincidence since all the survivors are the ones this thing is being pinned on..."
He turned to Joel, "Can you use your mojo to... I dunno, scan us for something? Look into our astral signatures or somethin' like they do in the vids? I know it's mostly crap so I'm askin'..."
Leroy's exposed nipples were fully erect and solid from standing around with no shirt on for so long.
lol, I couldn't resist...
-
"Nanites," Jade said, "just our luck. From what little I know what my cyberdoctor has told me, they will break down after a while unless you protect them, right? So if we manage to stay in cover until that break-down period is over, we should be okay. Maybe try to stay in dead zones as much as possible, so no signals can be given to activate them. If that's how they work?"
-
Leroy tried to think back at what he knew about nanite half lives. It wasn't his field, but as a fireman, he tried to maintain a broad if albeit shallow understanding of all sciences.
LOG 5 + Science (general) 2 = 7 (7d6.hits(5)=1) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4293870/)
No glitches
-
"I could try to look I guess... Not sure if I'll find anything though." Joel murmured doubtfully. He could detect implants, sure. But nanites? Nevertheless perhaps the dwarf's idea was valid. "And put a bloody shirt on. He rubbed his eyes as he allowed his perception to slip into the Astral, looking over each of their auras in turn
Assensing self: Assensing (4) + Intuition (5) + Perceptive (1) (10d6.hits(5)=5) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4293883/)
Assensing Leroy: Assensing (4) + Intuition (5) + Perceptive (1) (10d6.hits(5)=3) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4293884/)
Assensing Matt: Assensing (4) + Intuition (5) + Perceptive (1) (10d6.hits(5)=3) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4293885/)
Assensing Jade: Assensing (4) + Intuition (5) + Perceptive (1) (10d6.hits(5)=3) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4293886/)
Welp if there are nanites and they count as nanotech, I can see it in myself.
-
--Joel--
The other’s auras showed lots of signs that something important happened to them in the recent past. Subtle scars of a great shock were visible, as well as undertones of a great emotional burden. But no signs of nanotechnology could be discerned.
About your own aura, you weren’t that sure. You sensed the same changes as in the others. In addition, you sensed something, some residual sign that reminded you of nanotechnology. This was a fading sign, one that might have indicated that nanites worked in your body at an earlier time but it was obscure. It was fading quickly, which suggested a recent event. What was truly interesting, as well as reassuring, that whatever it was it didn’t make any significant changes in your aura. No signs such as cybernetics usually left, no changes in your general health.
--Leroy--
You recalled mostly the basics about nanites. The little buggers worked in clusters and clouds, permeating the living organization to work their effects and unless a supporting structure prevented is, they died out in weeks at most, but possibly in days. Of course, these machines could be programmed as well as any complex systems, to do different jobs from supporting healing processes, help people learning, or amplifying other natural functions of the human body, to the reverse effect of acting like poison, gas, or other harmful material.
The main supporting system of these machines was a nanohive, which had the ability to repair damaged nanites or replenish their constantly dwindling ranks. But these implants were taxing the recipients’ body heavily, categorized as invasive surgery, and leaving their marks for a long time. Barring the presence of a nanohive, nanites could be replenished by medical means, but that needed regular checkups and injections of additional nanites.
-
Nanites, as in a nanoweapon? Jesus, that's not something you cook up at home out of hardware store components. If they're still active, I might be able to pick up their communications.
Matt ran back to his room to grab his helmet and switched on the radio signal scanner, hooking it up to his commlink and initiating a thorough scan for hidden wireless traffic.
threshold 15 for full hidden wireless traffic iirc (9d6.hits(5)=5, 9d6.hits(5)=3, 9d6.hits(5)=2, 9d6.hits(5)=2, 9d6.hits(5)=2) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4294764/)
threshold 15 for full hidden wireless traffic iirc (9d6.hits(5)=2) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4294765/) get the threshold eventually!!
-
Joel frowned thoughtfully as he noted the oddities in his own aura. "Huh... There are some residual signs of possible nanites in my aura. Nothing in anyone else's, but it was really hard to detect in mine. Whatever it was doesn't seem to have had an effect on my aura, but it was fairly recent. For what it's worth there aren't any major changes to anyone's auras. I don't know much about cybernetics or any sort of implant, but I'm fairly sure anything truly severe and permanent would have left a stain our auras."
-
"Can it be implanted into something else," Jade asked. She started to get worried, as she had some other implants. What if someone had added something to them. She took out a small container with tylenols and took one.
-
[spoiler=test please]Whoever has cybertechnology, can roll a LOG + Cybertechnology test. (I don't remember if it is just Gustovness, thus the wording.)[/spoiler]
--Matt--
You didn't find any wireless signal, other than the ones you already knew.
-
Damn, can't find any broadcasts. Not sure whether that's a good or bad thing really..
-
Just a heads up, I already rolled a LOG + Cybertechnology test back on my November 1 post. I'm not sure if you're asking for another test for something else so I included my new roll below.
LOG 5 + Cybertechnology 2 = 7 (7d6.hits(5)=2) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4298758/)
-
--Leroy--
Miko’s worry about nanites getting into other implants was actually not far-fetched. Although the systems that were capable to do so were usually designed to repair implants inside the body, in places that were not easily accessible without a major process in a hospital, you immediately leaped to the conclusion that these systems could also easily be set to damage those implants.
-
"Alright, so there are two things we gotta keep in mind with this nanite shit..."
Leroy plopped himself down on the couch.
"First off, what we're gonna do in the short term and how it's gonna affect us:
Do these things pose a danger to us?
How do we get rid of 'em if they're still in us?
and second, this serves as evidence as to who might have done this to us... whoever set us up obviously has some power to pull off something like this, but they also have access to this type of nanite tech... something that not everyone necessarily has."
He laid back and rubbed his bald head as he let out a sigh, feet not touching the floor due to how short and stubby they were.
-
"We could wait out the time that they need to get broken down by the body," Jade replied, "preferably in a dead zone, so they can't be remotely activated, if such is possible? We'll have to tell Tweety though, as we won't be available for work during that time, at least not in civilization. And I'm wondering how these things got into our bodies and why weren't they activated with the rest?"
-
"They needed scapegoats for the attack, Joel. That's why they left us breathin'."
-
<<Tweety>>//Hey Tweety, how's it going? Any chance you and the guys can swing by today? There's been an important development we need to talk about//
-
Tweety answered in a matter of minutes.
@Matt: >>A little busy right now but if you get down to Tacoma, to my office, I can fit you in. Or I can send Sam over, he has a secure line to me and we can talk. Well, as secure as anything can be these days. Which will it be?<<
-
//I could do with the fresh air, I'll hop in the car and be over in a bit. Want me to grab some soycaf on my way in?//
Matt locks up the garage and heads over the courtyard and up the stairs to the apartment.
"Yo, Leroy, grab one of those samples and get ready. We're heading off to see Tweety in Tacoma."
-
"You want a bodyguard," Jade asked. She could do with a trip. All that sitting here was starting to get on her nerves, even if she could work away the agression with training.
-
Yeah, fuck it. lets all head out, sitting in here is gonna drive us crazy otherwise. I'll get the car ready, meet you round the front.
Matt puts on his long jacket and slips his pistol into the concealed holster in the inside lining before grabbing his link and heading downstairs.
He pulls up to the front and waits for the guys to jump in.
I was gonna swing by that coffee place on the way, you guys fancy one?
-
"Sounds good, I'll have a grande latte double espresso Italian blend, light on the froth, heavy on the cinnamon with a shot of raspberry," Jade said, giving her favourite as she got into the car. She had put on her armour and brought her whip and gun, leaving the bow at home for now.
-
@Matt: >>Nah, i don't drink one of those. Ping me 2 mins before you arrive, i'll let the guys down on the first floor know.<<
-
The tweaks to the car had worked wonders, It felt like brand new again.
The shimmering AR console responded deftly to Matt's commands as he eased up the throttle and ventured out into traffic.
Pulling into the drive-thru at Cafe-24, Matt placed the orders and headed on towards Tacoma, following GridGuide's route
<<Tweety>>//Be with you shortly//
-
Leroy threw on a new t-shirt with a Fresh Leef logo on it before equipping his shoulder holster and pistol. He grabbed his new shotgun and took a minute to admire himself in the mirror.
Yeah, I look fuckin' GANGSTA...
He was horribly over equipped, but he didn't know any better. He remembered to bring his spare clips but not any extra ammo for his shotgun.
He grabbed the samples and threw them in the medkit before heading out to their ride.
-
You arrived at the same, worn building as the first time. The garage door slid up silently as you drew near, and closed behind you automatically. This time, Jim was the one that did the weapons check, and he missed the whip as his brother did before, but made you leave all other weapons. Up on the second floor, he led you in a different room than the last time. ”Boss is busy right now, I will come back when he’s ready.” With that, he left you in a room furnished with comfortable chairs and a sofa, but otherwise bare.
After five minutes, he came back to lead you to the meeting room you already knew. Tweety and Sam were already there. When you took your places, the dwarf greeted you and asked what all this was about.
-
As Tweety and Sam took their seats, Matt piped up
Afternoon guys, thanks for seeing us at short notice.
Look I know you're busy so I'll cut to the chase.
When we were in the rider, Leroy managed to get some samples off of the corpses.
He's been busy with that chemistry kit you fitted us up with ever since we got it. I'm sure you'll find the information as horrifying as it is valuable.
Matt looks at Leroy, gesturing for him to elaborate...
-
Leroy left the shotgun in the car, but otherwise turned in his pistol at the security checkpoint.
After Matt's introduction, he began:
"I had taken a sample from a corpse at The Rider. I ran some chemical testing on it and found a carrier agent for nanites..."
He continued on, pretty much repeating the conversation that had been had with the others in their living room only shortly before. He spoke about not only who could have done this to them but how it could possibly affect them should they get within signal range to activate the nanites that are quite possibly still inside them. He lastly shared his hypothesis on why they weren't affected in the same way because they had been meant to be scapegoats for whoever attacked The Rider.
-
As Leroy went on with the summary, Tweety furrowed his brow more by the minute. You had the feeling at one point that his attention was partly elsewhere, but he didn’t cut in, letting you to finish uninterrupted. He was silent for a few more seconds after Leroy finished, then smiled reassuringly. ”Well, I can say that preliminary scans that I had run right now showed no signs of any nano-system currently active within the room. However, as reassuring it sounds, I’d still suggest a full medical examination for each of you, starting from a GP’s office, ECGs, EEGs, and whatever Doc Roe and the Butcher can think of. You know, just to be sure everything is all right. By the way, both are excellent street docs who don’t ask questions, I just want to avoid any complications by sending you to two different places.
Actually, this is a thing I’ve been thinking about doing from the start, it’s just that so much else is going on, I never got to telling you. Hope it’s no problem, and if any of you want to get some implants in the future, it is a good start to have a familiar face do it.
"Now, as Matt here mentioned, this information really holds some value. How much, I can hardly determine, as it is also extremely dangerous, more dangerous actually than any other info I usually broker. So, instead of trying to negotiate the finer points of risk costs and benefits, I’ll offer you a trade. You will probably need further info on the incident of the Rider, and I intend to run a serious investigation on that. Just so that we see eye-to-eye, not solely for your benefit. Still, I’d usually charge you for any piece of intel I’d throw your way, to reduce my costs. I’m offering you a fair and free trade of information in this: anything I get, it’s yours, anything you get, you share with me. Is this acceptable for you?”
-
It'll be acceptable until it ain't...
Leroy sat back down, conveying through body language that he would have rather much more preferred something more tangible than a promise, but recognizing that there wasn't anything he could really do to try to force or persuade Tweety. He had already given up the information and everything had gone the way it had to have gone. They couldn't have gone in trying to negotiate.
They brought the info to Tweety as a gesture of goodwill and he promised he would reciprocate at another time in the future.
-
Matt caught the look of frustration in Leroy's eyes and reciprocated it.
He was hoping for something a bit more solid than a gentlemens agreement that neither side could police.
Still, good information was pricey. If vital information was needed further down the line, Matt was grateful that it wasn't going to add to his growing debt pile.
Matt nodded his assent.
-
Jade also nodded. At least he had been good to his word up to now and she knew enough about criminal enterprises to know that they wanted stability. With tensions running as high as they were now, there were a lot more KE patrols and that would hamper everybody doing business. The faster things went back to normal the better it would be for him, so he would give the information they needed to solve this. At least, she hoped. Well, they had not many other options anyways.
-
Joel matched the assenting nods of the rest of the team. There was little they could really do in this position; they were fairly reliant on Tweety's goodwill. Hopefully Tweety would reciprocate his part of the deal if the opportunity arose.
-
Tweety looked at you thoughtfully then spoke up in a patient tone. ”Look, guys, I can clearly see that you are not fully satisfied with what I offered. Let me explain you something this one time. My offers are just that, offers. If you have different thoughts, if you have a counteroffer, or something you want to discuss about the deal, speak your fragging mind, otherwise I won’t know what your problem is and we can’t rectify it. These deals still have two sides, even if you are not in the best of positions.
“I want to establish a business relation with you which is based on mutual trust. But if you don’t trust me enough to negotiate, how can you trust me when I give you information?” He sighed. ”I know you’re new to this all. But believe me, basic rules of business are the same here in the shadows as on the sunny side.”
-
"I don't know about the others, but for me it's the vagueness of it," Jade said, "Like you said, we're new at this, but it seems a quite vague deal to me. I know that you can't know up front when and if and what information you will find, but what if in time the situation has changed and, again, for whatever reason, you don't or can't share with us. It's our lives on the line in this if they catch us. Like I said, we're new to this, so it's all a bit scary and strange right now."
She hoped that she hadn't made him angry. She was sure she would be able to get out of here, but that would put her back at exactly at square one.
-
Leroy leaned forward unto the table,
"This information is going to save you a liability of us falling dead in the middle of whatever job you got lined up for us. Since we can't work until we're medically cleared for nanites, and this will save you nuyen in us not dying in the field due to the little bastards, how about nullifying any interest that we've accumulated thus far?"
Leroy leaned back into his chair.
"Say... whatever financial agreement we've had thus far with our repaying our debt to you, which we're very grateful to have the opportunity for, no bullshit you've really saved our skins here... but how about we start calculating interest from the day of our first job onward? That'll be sure to save us money in the long run and you don't have runners racking up debt through interest because they can't work to begin with."
Leroy raised his stubby arms in the air in a "oh, what the heck" fashion.
"As far as the free flow of information, that sounds great to all of us. We can keep that in place."
Leroy didn't look to the others for agreement of his proposed deal. If someone had a problem with it they'd speak up and right now he had to look firm and confident. A unified front is what they needed.
-
Matt thoughtfully considered Leroy's proposition. He liked it, and nodded along.
-
Tweety gave thought to Leroy’s proposition. ”What you say is understandable. Since I really want you to see this as a mutually beneficial deal, I’m willing to change it the way you suggested. No interest until your first job. Furthermore, I will cover the expenses of the full medical. Now. Another thing you should know about. I customarily don’t pay for the first job of a runner. These jobs tend to be simple, more to measure the runner’s capabilities and his attitude towards the whole business setup. Yet, I feel that you’d feel cheated if it came to this. So I’m willing to let you off the hook for next month’s rent in exchange for your services in that simple assignment. And, as it will be no paying assignment, I am willing to charge interest from the second job on. And of course, the free flow of info stays part of the agreement.
“So, can we now get those appointments with the doctors? The sooner we get on with it, the sooner I can set you up with jobs.”
-
"I'd be happy to get an appointment as soon as possible unless any of my teammates have any further concerns." Joel responded for himself. He could barely detect the nanites at all; having something like that inside of him really worried him.
-
Yeah, I'm game, lets go see the doc
-
"I have some cyber they can hide in," Jade said, "if there are any, they have to go. I'm in."
-
Leroy didn't attempt at all to hide his smile. The terms were more than gracious and he wanted Tweety to know he appreciated it.
"We'll knock out the appointments today."
-
With the newly amended agreement, the team went on to examinations. It took a few days to sort everything out, and it was an uncomfortable few days: with the exception of Leroy, you couldn’t even imagine that so many kinds of examination existed. It took some patience to bear with it but at the end you were very happy, as all results confirmed the complete absence of nanites in your bodies.
The only results that were outside normal results were some kind of increased brain activity in all of you, but the doctors both said that it needed more evaluation to see if it was something temporary, and that you needed to check back for EEG bi-weakly to be sure.
-
Downtime II
-
>>Accessing site: address unknown
>>Checking authentication…
>>Checking…
>>Authentication accepted
>>Welcome to ShadowSea JackPoint
>>Hey, Ma’Fan, long time no see. How was last night? Did you have a nice chase with those Spikes boys in the docks?
>>Turbo Bunny
>>Hey, Bunny, you should know me better than that. That was some new crew from what I heard. They did that warehouse heist the news covered. You know me, where I was, they don’t know that something’s missing yet.
>>Ma’Fan
>>Wow, a new crew, how refreshing. Hope they don’t just pop up and then out in a short time. So, what did they take?
>>Turbo Bunny
>>From what I heard, nothing serious. No corporate interests have been circulated yet, at least.
>>DangerSensei
>>Nice, KE seem to be right for a change, then.
>>Kay St. Irregular
>>Yes, although it’s not a first. Anyway, did you hear the latest about Lofwyr? He…
>>DangerSensei
-
Excerpt from SCMS newscast.
Unknown individuals broke into a warehouse owned by Kelpin Offices Ltd. on SW 108th street, Tacoma, yesterday around 23:00 hours. Knight Errant patrol arrived after a call was made from said warehouse at around 0:30. According to the statements of the guards stationed at the building, a group of armed individuals, unknown in number, have entered the building without authorization, took out both guards swiftly and efficiently, and left with two crates that Breznik Forwarding Ltd. stored at the premises.
Detective Danny Williams, the appointed investigator of the case told us this seems to be the work of professionals: they knew what they wanted to take and left all other ware on the shelves. Also, the security footage for said timeframe is completely missing, which indicates they either had access to the security room or the services of a hacker. Neither Detective Williams nor the representatives of Breznik revealed what was taken, as it might be crucial to the completion of the investigation, although an inside source confirmed that total value of the ware doesn’t exceed 20.000 nujen, which left him completely baffled as to why the thieves spent so much effort on taking just those crates.
It is also an interesting coincidence that Knight Errant had to attend a series of PanicButton reports in the same area last night. Citizens reported gunshots and several vehicles participating in a chase. Knight Errant arrested two people, apparently the members of the go-gang Spikes, but they were not able to interrogate them yet, as both sustained heavy injuries and were transported to the Tacoma Veteran’s Hospital for treatment.
A reckoning between bands is a possible explanation but our criminalistics expert says it was probably a random act of violence, as the area is not the turf of any gang that could compete with the suspected resources of the Spikes. We will know more after the gangers are in a condition for interrogation.
-
25th of July, sometime around midday
You all woke late after last night's celebration. The real beers - although painfully expensive - were a welcome reprieve after the last few weeks of mainly soy-based foods and beverages, and you noticed that despite what big brands stated, the real stuff hit differently as those synthetic beers.
-
Jade slowly opened her eyes and looked at the clock.
"Ow," she groaned, while her hand started patting her nightstand until she found the bottle with tylenols. She swallowed two and only then did she get up. While the tylenols started working she took a shower and things started looking up. At least the pounding in her head started to diminish. Getting out into the comunal area she noticed not only the beer bottles, but also that she was the first one up. Probably the Troll touchness, she thought as she got the coffee machine going.
"You can say what you want about Tir na Nog," she said when she heard foot steps behind her, "but they do know how to make beer. That Guiness stuff was very good, but you do feel it, don't you."
-
Matt awoke hungry and hungover.
The room swam as he stumbled to the bathroom to relieve his full bladder of the previous night's excesses.
Looking at himself in the dull light of the mirror's energy efficient bulbs, he slapped some water over his face and brushed the taste of stale beer out of his mouth. He looked at the grey in his beard, once a mere accent shade, it was now the defining colour. You're getting too old for this shit Hunter..
A quick run through of the three S's brought him back to feeling somewhere near human and he slipped on some disposable clothes and headed downstairs.
He could hear Miko banging about in the communal area as he descended.
Tell me about it! Hanging out my arse today. Fancy some breakfast?
-
"If you get the soy dispenser to work, I'll have the coffee ready in about five minutes, Jade said with a smile.
-
I'm on it! The others surfaced yet?
Matt heads through to the kitchen, clicking the soy dispensor into gear and rummaging around in the fridge for something good to eat.
We heard anything from Tweety or Sam yet?
-
"I'll probably hear from Sam tonight, but I haven't seen or heard from anybody but you."
-
Everyone's probably hanging out their arses today. I feel pretty rough.
Gonna have a mess around in the garage this afternoon though, see if I can get any more juice out of the car. You're pretty handy on two wheels by the way, where'd you learn to ride that hard?
He punched in a request for a couple of bagels, re-filling the flavouring cannisters to appease flashing red LED.
Matt grabs his comm while the soyprocessor chugs and churns away;
<<Danny Boy:://Morning bud, hows it going? Finished our first job for Tweety yesterday and got a couple ideas for tweaks on the car. You have anything I can rig up as an oil sprayer? I want to be able to give people 'the slip' hehe//
-
"I've always liked driving a motorbike," she said, "it's easier to get through traffic. Although it's the first time I've driven like that. Mostly I try not to attract too much attention. Say, I have a question for you. Just a moment."
She dissapeared back into her room and came out with an outfit, a nice black leather jacket with matching leather pants which, should she wear it, would sit quite tight.
"Do you think this will work for my date with Sam tonight?"
-
—Matt—
The reply from Danny came quickly. >>Back to real biz, I can see. :) I have a few canisters that can hold, for example oil, and some tubing. I can send someone with the parts later today, tell me where you want to take it over, and hand my boy 220 when you checked the ware.<<
—all—
You heard a door open and someone yawn loudly, and in a few seconds, Leroy entered the kitchen. With a murmured ”Mornin” he shuffled to the coffee machine and pushed a few buttons, and immediately took a few sips from the steaming hot liquid it produced into the cup. Looking around, he noticed what Miko was holding in her hands, and his eyes went wide, accompanied by a small whistle. ”Wow, that size ain’t my cup of tea but that looks real hot!”
-
Yeah, looks good. It'll definitely grab his attention Matt said with a smile just as the door swung open.
Morning man, how you feelin?
//Heh, yeah! It went pretty well I think, no doubt tweety's got a few more in store for us now.
Cheers, that sounds good. I think I'll need a small electric pump too, maybe a screen washer pump or something similar and a wireless receiver. Don't worry about sending one of the lads over mate, I'll pick it up and save you the bother. What time's best?//
-
"Getting his attention is the general idea of the exercise," Jade said, "I hope I don't have to have 'the talk' with you."
She grinned before dissapearing back in her room to put the clothes away. A minute later, she was back to get some more coffee, taking another couple of tylenols with the cup. That would clear out the remains of the headache quickly.
-
--Matt--
>>Appreciate the offer, chummer, but remember, it still isn't the best of ideas to show your mug around here. Just gimme the coordinates and we'll make the drop.<<
-
Shit, yeah. better not. I keep forgetting. this new face, this new life. it suddenly all feels so normal. Here's the drop off co-ords: >>Co-ordinates attached<<. Ping me when they're on the way and I'll let em in the gates. You up for a beer round here this weekend?
Matt grinned back at Miko
Ha, no, I think i'm fine with the awkward talk my mum gave me as a kid. Jesus, that was traumatising enough haha. I'm gonna head down to the garage in a bit, got some parts coming in later so don't be alarmed if you see some unknowns roaming around out back. They're Danny boy's lads, should be safe enough.
-
"I'll stay here and do some workout," Sammy said, "to clear my head a bit."
She went to the gym gear she had installed and started her usual exercise regimen.
-
—Matt—
>>Kay, lad will ping you. The beer sounds good as well, just let me know it’s you under that new face you mentioned.<<
—all—
The day went on just perfectly. The parts arrived in an hour and a half, and the rest of the day was more than enough to finish the installing. In the next few days, everything settled back into an easier rhythm, with exercise, work in the garage, and meditation within the stone circle.
Until Friday.
—Miko—
It was Friday, early afternoon when your commlink chirped with a new message. It was from Sam. >>Hey, girl, how’s your day? Hope you are ready for some serious party. Will be there at 9 to pick you up. Can’t wait. :)<<
-
Jade sent Sam an okay and about two hours before the pick-up, she started the preparations. Her life before she started in the shadows had given her ample experience on how to prepare for a date and she was ready with five minutes to spare. She was dressed in tight black leather pants, a dark red shirt and matching leather jacket (this had also some red accents). Not too much make-up, just a touch left and right to enhance her natural beauty (for a troll, that is).
"I'm off," she said to the others when the doorbell went, "don't wait up for me."
Outside she saw Sam.
"Ready to party?"
-
—Miko—
Leroy looked up with a wide grin spreading on his dark face. “Don’t be too late!” he said with a wink.
Outside, Sam already waited, leaning on his huge chopper. When you stepped out, his eyes went wider and he stood up, greeting her with a smile. “Ready for anything. Let’s go!” He sat on the bike, and when you were behind him, started with a roaring engine.
You had a slight suspicion that he didn’t take you to the party on the shortest possible route. Sam took a short detour for the interstate to show off his bike’s capabilities, leaving Friday evening traffic behind and sometimes, angry honks in his wake. When you arrived to the warehouse, it was in a neighborhood similar to your own, loud music already pulsing from inside, although you could hear mostly the base.
Two choppers and a huge SUV were parked outside, and a young, big orc, as big as a smaller troll, was smoking next to those. He greeted you with a nod and a quick up-and-down, and Sam with a grin. ”Hey man, your bruises healed yet?”
“Mine are well but I see you still miss that tusk of yours,” Sam answered laughing. ”I see the Big Man is in?”
“Yeah, this will be a big one. Don’t tell anybody you heard it from me, but rumor has it he brought some real whiskey tonight.”
“Now that’s something! Meet you in there later, but I gotta introduce my guest first.”
“Go on in, then.”
While heading in, Sam gave you a quick run-down. ”That was Paul, he’s a good guy and an even better brawler. I regularly train him, and I think he will be ready for the cage soon. We’ll talk with him later.” Inside, the warehouse was surprisingly well-furnished, for a party place used by a gang. Cozy sofas were grouped around a small table to your left, with some mobile walls partially separating them from the main area, where two trolls and an orc were sharing a hookah. They looked up when you entered but showed little interest. A few younger boys were playfully jostling each other on your right, beer bottles in hand, trading some friendly insults. When you passed them, they began whistling, and one of them started to say something, but another just used the opportunity to push him somewhat harder, and all three laughed like hell when he fell. Behind them, two orcs argued over some engine part, how better to install it in one of their bikes. They were too immersed in their talk to notice you. A few other orks and trolls were scattered around the place, men and women, boys and girls alike.
Behind them all, a hulking man of a troll was presiding over the whole scene. He must have been 3 meters tall and at least 400 kilograms. Muscles bulging, he sat in his leather clothes as though he owned the place, with pride of his family showing in his expression. It was towards this one Sam steered you.
When you finally stood before him, you felt strength emanate from the man’s every pore. Even sitting, he felt like a dangerous predator, ready to be unleashed any minute. They locked eyes for a few seconds, and Sam was the first to talk. The air seemed to be a little bit tense. ”It’s good to see you again, Great Bear.”
“So, little Sammy comes back again. Heard you are doing well these days.”
“I don’t complain. I also don’t forget family, it’s good to be back among you all.”
“Welcome then!” The troll finally smiled, the tension broke. ”Grab a beer and a chair, and have fun!”
“First, I want to introduce someone to you. Great Bear, this is Jade, a very good friend of mine.”
The big troll looked at you apprehensively, taking in every detail.
-
Jade was used to this sort of scrutiny, having had lived through it multiple times before. It was fun though to have Sam being called 'little Sammy' even though he was bigger than she was. Of course, to the man aptly called Great Bear everybody must look little.
"Nice place you have here, sir," she said with a polite bow, something she still knew from her childhood in a Japanese family. It couldn't hurt to be polite, especially since she was one of the smallest trolls around here and while she could defend herself, that wasn't the goal tonight.
-
—Miko—
The Great Bear’s eyes narrowed as he seemed to be taken a bit by surprise by your approach, then he let out a booming laugh. ”Ahahaha… ‘Sir’… I like this one. Haha…” When he finished laughing, he told Sam to grab a chair for you as well. ”Never have been called sir in my life before. Ever. So, sit down and talk, girl. I’d like to know more about you.” He chortled some, then in a booming voice, shouted for someone out of sight. ”Grace, get one of the bottles and join us. There’s an interesting one here.”
Sam arrived with the chairs and two beers and you saw him grinning, apparently pleased by the big troll’s reaction. Some of the others in the building looked your way, but they went on with whatever they were doing before as if nothing happened.
-
"I always found it a wise decision to be polite to people who can either break me in two, or order a whole bunch of people to do so," Jade said, "while I can defend myself, there are limits and a wise person knows his limits and adapts to them."
-
—Miko—
”That I find wise, too. But obviously ‘polite’ means different where you and me grew up.” The Great Bear took a swing, almost draining his beer bottle at once. ”And I constantly tell my boys and girls about those limits, but they rarely listen. Anyway, if you don’t try to cross them, you’ll never get better at anything. I say it’s worth to burn yourself once or twice to push the limits wider.”
Right at this moment, a good-looking troll woman came around a mobile wall, bringing a bottle in one hand and four glasses in the other. She was taller and more muscular than you, dressed in biker leathers and boots. She was still definitely feminine despite her attire: she wore a ring and a pair of delicate earrings, and a discreet whiff of perfume reached you as she arrived to the table. She wore her hair short, but somehow this just revealed her shapely skull and ears. Even her walking radiated a distinctively feminine charm.
When she put the bottle and the glasses down, the Great Bear introduced her. ”This is the Lady Grace, my right hand woman. I just get the feeling you two will get on well, she also uses those fancy polite words like you, sometimes.” He was still grinning when the woman boxed his shoulder, more or less playfully. ”Him and his big mouth” she said, also smiling, ”it will kill him sometime in the future. Just call me Grace, and we truly might get on well.”
-
"I'm Jade," she said, "I'm here with Sam. I must say it's a strange location. It's the first time I'm in a place like this."
She looked around another time. Normally she went to clubs and things like that, but never to warehouses. At least not for pleasure.
-
”It’s not the place I usually choose for recreation” Grace said, ”but Great Bear is right, this is a perfect scene if you want to accommodate all the family, and the friends, and some guests. And it cuts the costs, I say, as one of our… ‘benefactors’ was so very kind to provide us with the place for free.” You could feel the sarcasm in her voice in the last sentence. She opened the bottle while talking, and poured four generous glasses of the golden liquid inside. The smell of good whiskey reached you.
”So, let’s drink to our new friend, Jade” the Great Bear toasted. ”May cops never catch you!” Sam and Grace raised their glasses in unison with the big troll.
-
Jade raised her glass as well and tasted a little.
"Ooh, this is good stuff," she said, "I'll have to be careful with this, as I'm used to drinking beer. Or sake."
-
”I was lucky to get my hands on a few bottles of this. Some say they still know how to make whiskey in the south.” From here on, talk went on about drinks for a few minutes, with Sam and the Great Bear going to lengths trying to convince the other if Ye Olde Southerner or Johnny Walker was the better brew. After that, Grace noticed someone, and told the Great Bear they had another guest they’d better talk to, and you were let go, to do as you wish, with promises of talking later.
-
Jade walked around a bit and got a beer, something she was much more familiar with. She walked around and stopped at the sofas where a group of women was talking. She was quite at ease in a group of women, having lived in group for a couple of years. Quickly she was talking to them as if she knew them all her life. Another thing she had from her past was the ability to talk to anybody like she knew him or her all her life. Tips depended on that ability.
-
—Miko—
This was your ground. The women – most of them were more like girls – talked about clothes, movies, music, trivia: the usual topics. However, besides these, some unusual ones popped up: rival gangs, night bike-races, and of course, cursing cops. The last was done with a creativity and vehemence that spoke volumes about the relation these people had to the enforcers of the law: unfriendly, sometimes even hostile.
You also learned that the Crackerz’ area was practically neighboring that of the Orange Lightning, the local go-gang of your own neighborhood. The two were keeping an uneasy truce at the moment, trying to lessen the number of their active problems. It seemed the two gangs even let the occasional presence of other gang’s members on their turf slide, so each gang could enjoy the entertainment facilities the other one’s turf offered. And even though the other gang’s boss, Shrewd was an elf, even the orks and trolls spoke of him with a grudging respect.
Of course, groups were continuously mingling and changing, so you found yourself the center of attention of the young boys at one time. Their jokes and clumsy attempts at piquing your interest were something you had to deal with, and you felt that others were watching how you handled the situation.
-
It was to be expected and it wasn't the first time she had seen this. In fact, they were probably not much younger than she was, but she had had a very different life which had given her a lot of experience. Much more than these boys. She was aware that some others were looking, and she thought it best to nip their aspirations in the bud before it got out of hand.
"Well boys," she said, "the attention is flattering, but I like my men a bit more experienced. come back in five to ten years and we'll see again."
-
--Miko--
“- Hey, you know trolls grow up faster than usual,” one of the bolder boys, an ever-grinning troll, countered. “Make it five to ten days, and we have a deal.”
“- Fifty years wouldn’t be enough for you to grow up, Marl,” one of the women shot back, and laughter rolled around the group.
“- You’re just jealous I’m not talking to you, Jenna. So, Jade, when do you have a free evening next week? C’mon, you’ll have a great time!”
-
"Physically you might be right," Jade said, "but talking about mentally, Jenna here is right, although in my experience it's not just you, but all boys. And I want people I go out to challange me on an intellectual level as well."
-
Marl was at a loss for words for a moment there, but he recovered quickly. “- If you want intellectual challenges, why chose Sam then? He isn’t…” A big shadow appeared at his shoulder. Sam was behind him, grinning wildly and interjecting.
“- Go on, Marl, I’m really curious about how that goes.” You could see the playful glint in his eyes, he didn’t really think of this seriously, he was just messing around with the kid. But Marl didn’t notice that and he gulped before going on.
“- I was just saying that… the Great Bear is obviously smarter than us all. Don’t you agree?”
“- Nice save, kid.” Sam gave him a pat on the back, with a booming laugh. Even Marl joined the others, although his laugh had a somewhat nervous edge to it.
The rest of the evening went on without any incidents. The Crackerz seemed to accept you, not only as someone who came with Sam, but as yourself. You knew that you would be welcome back any time.
-
After the evening, she went with Sam either to her or his place and showed him all corners of the room.