He took several deep breaths in an attempt stop himself from lashing out at the woman, "I need to know where I am, where my gear is, and what happened to the rest of my crew."
Sammy
She returns home after departing from the airport, her ‘big sister sense’ telling her to make her return a surprise. She is the one surprised to find Marcus asleep on a school day entwined in sheets on her couch with a human female.
Torley and Clementine both return to a normal home life and can begin to decompress, re-equip and plan as normal.
Sammy sighed when she saw the scene. She could have known, but she didn't need this right now. She just wanted to visit a doctor and have a rest, but clearly that had to wait. She opened the door again and slammed it shut, waking both teenagers.
"You," she said, pointing at the girl, "get dressed and then get out of my appartment."
She stressed the 'my' a bit.
"And we," she added, adressing Marcus, "are going to have a long talk about this."
The nurse looked sympathetic as she halted her spiel about the Matrix accessibility. "I am sorry about Dr Wilcox, he really is a brilliant physician, but your presence here has struck a bit of a nerve, you and your friend are not our usual clientele. You are at the Blue Sky Clinic on Lake Washington, but I really don't know the answers to your other questions beyond your pale friend, who is recovering in another part of the clinic but is not awake yet."
Having visited the man once or twice since his hospitalization had started, Clem was both surprised and somewhat relieved to receive a call from O'Connor. She let it ring a bit before picking up, as she didn't want the human to think she didn't have anything better to do than to wait for his call. <What happened is we finished the contract and got kicked out of Hollywood> said the ork, thinking back on what she had done in the past two weeks since her return.
Sammy didn't move.
"I'll walk her out," she said, still pissed on her brother, "You can get start by cleaning up this mess. And it better be done by the time I'm back."
Marcus shrinks at the rebuke, "I'll hit you up later Cassie..." then turns and starts cleaning.
The girl is on her way without a glance at Sammy. There is a refurbished Rapier waiting for her downstairs. Sammy is not up to speed on local gangs yet, but while this Cassie is definitely lower class, she doesn't appear to be affiliated.
"Nice bike," Sammy remarked when she saw the rapier, "so, where do you know Marcus from?"
She took in the bikes colours, making a mental note to look them up later to see if it was anything she had to be worried about.
"Around." the girls says as she kicks the bike to life and drives off.
"So, you can start by explaining what you are doing here while you should be in school," Sammy said, "I don't put my life on the line so you can have a big party. And who is that girl?"
"She was the girl who was here, unlike my sister. Who are you to tell me how to live? You drag me to a new city, then you keep disappearing! I mean thanks for putting me up and all, but you aren't Mama, i gotta figure things out on my own."
Marcus grabs his pillow off the couch and goes to his bedroom, slamming the door for emphasis.
It didn't take Sam long to recover from the trip to LA, physically at least. It had been a strange job and somewhat frustrating; he didn't like it when he wasn't able to get what he wanted. Once he was feeling better, he sent a message to Lyra, letting the strange kinesic from the Group know that he was back and offered to take her out for drinks to talk about some of the things he'd seen--and especially about how it seemed that she'd been right about his vocal influence. The chance that she might accept--and let him see her without the mask--was surprisingly exciting to him.[/spoiler]
After that, he sent a message to Lt. Harris to see if he could get some lessons on how to use his cane more effectively. There had just been too many times where he'd felt pinned down and useless; annoying as it was, he had to acknowledge that he needed to get better.
Finally, he took a glance at Jo's social schedule to figure out which party he was going to be at that evening, and got dressed for a night out, where he'd find out from his friend what had been happening in Seattle while he'd been away.
On the walk back, however, she did meet a duo of people that vaguely matched O'Connor's description of who to look out for. They weren't specifically looking at a particular place, but walking around the neighbourhood, probably in a show of force or defiance.
<Your place is still standing and nobody's casing it, but you have a few chummers walking around your neighbourhood though> sent the ork, before getting on her bike and driving back home.
After a while, Sam sent a message to his teammate. Hey, Con--they told us that they were going to take care of you. You back on your feet yet? Once you're feeling better, think you could give me some dancing lessons? I've never seen anyone move like you!
| Item | Availability | Cost |
| Stick-n-Shock (Light Pistol) x30 | 5R | 240¥ |
| APDS (Assault Rifle) x160 | 16F | 1,120¥ |
| Item | Availability | Cost |
| Form Fitting Half Body Suit | 7 | 900¥ |
| Spar Clip (Colt M23) | 2 | 5¥ |
| Item | Availability | Cost |
| Zen x10 | 4R | 50¥ |
| Jazz x2 | 2R | 150¥ |
| Novacoke x8 | 2R | 80¥ |
"...You are a very smart man, Andrew, and would eventually find out if I was telling lies to you and I do not want that. So it is now up to you. My vote is to give US a chance, but what is yours?"
Sammy sighed. This was clearly going to be a lot harder than she thought and on top her ribs were still hurting from the car crash they had. But she had to get this done now, before it got out of hand. She walked to his room and knocked before opening the door.
"Look Marcus," she said, "I don't like this either, but if I want to keep paying for your school, I have to take those jobs. I'd rather stay here and look for Debby, but that doesn't pay the bills either. But I'll stay home for some time now, as it will take quite some time for some of the team to get back on their feet. They were hurt a lot more than I was."
O'Connor gave the the two a sour look, "Darko can kiss my hoop. He's a second rate tattoo artist, even by prison standards. Plus, it ain't like we kept in touch since either of us got out. Anyhow I didn't asked to be barbecued by a spree killer mage."
He readied his assault rifle and set it to full auto, "Alright I'm gonna toss a brick in, see what it stirs up." He grabbed a broken brick nearby, wedged the door open slightly, "You guys ready?" He chucked the brick through and waited for any type of reaction from within.
Snow smiles. "And here I thought it was me getting lucky with you. I guess we are both lucky. I will try hard to keep you feeling lucky, but part of that will mean that we communicate with each other. I would rather avoid waking up one morning to a note on the pillow next to me saying that you have found someone who understands you better. Or gives better head or something. I am afraid that my body is a bit...............constrained just now, but not for long, and then be ready."
She takes another sip of water. "So, do you have any plans on where to live? I know it is early days yet, but what do you think of living with me? I currently share a nice apartment with another girl. She is an escort, too, and we have agreed to not bring work home, but I do not know if this counts. Or are you and Tommy going in together, and what would he think of me moving in?" She blushes a bit but does not look away. "I do not apologize for moving fast. Life is short and people get hurt and die and I do not want to miss spending what time I can with you. If you need more time before shacking up with me, I will respect that, but I will say that you could be missing some great sack time while you try to figure it all out."
"Oh, so your telling me the only time I can expect to see you is when your gutter-trash runner buddies got their asses shot up? Gee, don't do me any favors, sis." The big ork kid was laying in his bed when she came in, but when she came in he gets up as he speaks, grabbing a pair of boots and a jacket along with his school pack.
Darrel pulled out a shotgun as he entered behind O'Connor. He didn't point it at the squatters, but held it lazily. He seemed rather bored by it all, like this had played out dozens off times before. It had, O'Connor wasn't a subtle person when it came to...anything really. Ulrich entered as well, though he didn't draw a weapon. He did keep his hand on the pistol at his hip however, just in case. He kept a closer eye on O'Connor and Darrel than he did the squatters. He was still testing the waters as it were with the two.[/spoiler]
O'Connor chucked his empty beer at Torley to make an opening for a sucker punch, "Dodge!" After the first punch, O'Connor settled into a pseudo-boxing stance and followed up with a flurry of punches. Anyone with training could see that O'Connor had learned to fight from the school of hard knocks, but made up for a lack of sophistication with speed. He pulled his punches enough that they wouldn't do any real damage to Torley, but only just.[/spoiler]
Dinner time comes and goes, comm checks go unanswered, and after about 3 hours of trying to decide whether to say to hell with her ribs and hit the streets, Marcus comes strolling in. His look is different, rougher, even though the clothes are brand new. The piercing definitely is. He stared at her for a second then heads for his room without a word, the challenge palpable.
Sammy sighed. She was so not prepared for this kind of stuff. But not doing anything now would only delay the inevitable. So she went to his room and after knocking entered.
"We need to talk" she said, "but first, you want some dinner."
I specially prepared for you, she didn't add.
"No, YOU need to talk. Problem is I am done listening. Look, I appreciate everything you are doing, but I gotta make my own way. I will stay in school and do that stuff, but I am going to need you to give me some space to do my own thing too, that's all there is. I'm done and I already ate." He rolls over and puts his back to her. "Kill the light on your way out."
She sat on the bed next to him. She would talk, even if it was to his back.
"Look, I think I've given you quite some freedom the last year," she said, "the only thing I have asked is that you do well at school and that you don't hold parties in the appartment when I'm gone for work. If you wanted to go to a party or a club, you could, at least in the week-ends. I could have bound some spirit and have it report on everything you do, but I didn't because I trusted you. Then I come home and I found you here instead of at school with some woman. So how do you think that looks?"
She kept her voice reasonable, without shouting or anything.
Sarah Barefoot is an Amerind shaman that Sam met during a Run. She's fairly young and attractive, and the two of them have remained in touch. Although Sam has taken her to dinner once or twice, neither is actually interested in dating the other.
O'Connor got Sam's message with a comm code for a Sarah Barefoot, *Torley did say she was amerind. Maybe whatever answers she comes up with will involve peyote or shrooms.*. He called the woman, <[Comm-call | Recipient: Sarah Barefoot] "Hey, the name's O'Connor. Torley gave me your number, said you could help me with this thing going on with my adept abilities."
Sammy is able to do her training at the Club, but has to wait until MONDAY night before she sees her brother again. Marcus and Cassie roll into the apartment, they seem surprised to see her, and immediately Marcus gets tense, but Cassie is pure cool, coming in and making herself comfortable.
“That is a really nice school you got Big Markie into Sis, hope you don’t mind I gave him a ride home, I was kinda hoping he would return the favor later.” her pale skin shows no hint of color changeas she smiles at the innuendo, though Marcus blushes furiously.
"As long as you keep the noise level down," Sammy replied, "there are things I really don't want to know. And that Marcus makes his homework. Now, where have you been the whole week-end?"
The last question was asked more concerned than angry, but she felt the need to know. While talking she also opened her second sight and assessed Cassie.
"Like you said Sis, some things you really don't want to know, but your brother is a charmer, I'll give you that." Sammy's astral scanning picked up nothing unusual about the girl.
Marcus still seemed cautious, waiting for the other shoe to drop, but following Cassie's lead. "We went to a house party up in Everett, on the Sound. Some point, folks decided it would be fun to start walking, see how far we could get, hitting spots on the way. Finally gave up the ghost on Sunday and crashed in a park in Tacoma somewhere, but I made it school on time, don't worry."
He made a stop at Darrell's shop, making his entrance by obnoxiously kicking the door open, "Yo Short Stack, how's it be omae? Came to check up on that hunting rifle."
"What do you do at school," she asked Cassie.
Darrell pointed over his shoulder to the weapon in question, unfazed by the entrance as he worked on another weapon under a desk lamp.
"Right where it was the last time you asked, still waiting for the stuff I need and the time to finish it. On the bright side, Sargent Dipshit says that he can make the big gun disappear after the maneuvers are done in the back 40 at Lewis next week."
"Waitin' outside for Big Mark to finish so we can go have some fun." She heads for Marcus's room, dropping her leather on the way. "You coming?" she says to the boy from the doorway. He follows closing the door behind.
Eventually O'Connor headed deeper into the heart of the Redmond Barrens, towards Azure Fist territory. He went looking for either that hobo Angus, or Azure Fists to hunt, whichever he found first. O'Connor was picky about it.
Cassie didn't seem to be interested in heading home, unless her home was in the club district of Downtown. Sammy was able to to track her until she disappeared into a warded club, she backtracked to where the girl had parked the bike, but she didn't return to it before the ache of being out of body too long began to take its toll.