[Mithlas]

-Peoria, Arcadia District. Evening Sun's Club-
Richard shrugs and continues sipping at his ale even after Baron's rounds arrive. "They didn't used to. True, I'm just a garage mechanic, but maybe it's the new people I hear are coming through. After what's-his-face resigned three weeks ago, they've been throwing people every which way. Even started some huge rennovation or reconstruction project on their headquarters in Laughterbach. We all thought it was good fun up until Monday. I guess they finally started getting their act together, because suddenly they're annoying everybody. I hear that even some of the old snitches were brought in."

[Aryeonos]

"Hrmmm..." pondering the rather alien transit network Aaliyah pulled up his browser and began searching for a simple pedestrian route to the waterfront. Without knowing of any underground method of travel or segway networks through shoping arcades and plazas travel would prove challanging. While setting off on the rather shaky route to the waterfront it was a good opportunity to do some research on the area, and start memorizing some landmarks.

[mtfeeney = Baron]

Baron distributes the drinks among the 3, and then he says, "New people?  What's-his-face?  I'm afraid I don't scan you.  Could you catch me up?  Sounds like something I ought to know, seeing as I intend to stay for a while."  He takes a measured swallow of beer, keeping the pace slow to avoid inebriation and its toxic effect on memory.  Maybe these really are his friends.

[Mithlas]

-Peoria, Arcadia District. Evening Sun's Club-
Richard scratches the back of his neck. "Well, I don't quite remember who the police chief was before - one of the big-shots who retired when the matrix leaks hoopla started. I gather he left to avoid an investigation, and now this new guy - Erickson - is in, and kicking hornets' nests all over the city." He finishes his ale and picks up the one ordered for him by Baron, giving a brief nod of thanks as his dwarf friend stares at his glass, now quietly moaning about broken knees. Richard shrugs at him and looks back at Baron. "Anyway, Erickson's the new police captain and he's brought in a ton of his friends from out of town. Every time he makes a public speech he talks about how he's going to clean up the 'gang problem' in the city, but I don't believe it. Maybe I'm just suspicious, but when a politician only says one thing about what he's doing, he's doing something else."

Richard pauses and looks at Jose, polishing off another glass of beer. The human mechanic looks back up at Baron. "Of course, they have been going after anybody suspected of involvement with gangs, which I suspect is the real reason they tore apart Jose's garage."

-Peoria, Sommer District-
A map of the city springs to life in Aaliyah's AR display, with bus and subway routes highlighted in the various colors of their circuits. The coast of Lake Peoria lies miles to the east, and while a walk option is included in the map directions function, most of the recommended paths are tagged to automotive or subway routes. An AR advertisement for Jefferson district appears, with a small note warning that most regions of that district require a broadcasted SIN.

[mtfeeney = Baron]

"Oh yeah?  Jose has connections?", Baron says with a small look of wonder.

[Mithlas]

-Peoria, Arcadia District. Evening Sun's Club-
Jose turns up his nose, though being shorter than both others at the table reduces the effect. He does manage to successfully puff out his chest a little. "You don't get a business like O'Malley's Repair and Rebuild without getting to know a few people. Ask a lot of the folks here who aren't gulled by the news trid, Pottsonians aren't bad folk. The Red Glen may not know enough to keep on their turf and in their businesses, but if there's a gang in the city to worry about, it's Fondulak. Those people are so crazy they got into a fight with both the Ancients and the Sons of Sauron last year."

Richard nods and takes a sip of his beer. "They'd better be glad the Ancients don't think this place is important enough for a permanent presence, or there'd have been major retaliation. Hurt us all in the long run, because news trids have been saying how bad we all are because of the violence back then."

[RHat]

Joss began by crafting a widget to aid her perceptions and improve her analysis of the nodes in the area, then moved on the a cursory analysis of the nodes themselves, her icon flashing brightly as the Fading struck her hard - but she kept on through it.




Widget Crafting: Benchmarking, Rating 3 (15d6.hits(5)=6, 15d6.hits(5)=4, 15d6.hits(5)=5)

Widget crafted in 1 hour.

Fading Resistance DV6S (11d6.hits(5)=6)

AWESOME.

Threading Test: Analyze (15d6.hits(5)=9)

Only using 4 hits

Fading Resistance test, DV4S (11d6.hits(5)=1)

LESS AWESOME.

12d6.hits(5)=4, 12d6.hits(5)=5

Matrix Perception - 4 hits for the sensor (let's go with rating of the sensor, encryption status, and...  Not sure what else right now), and 5 for the lamp (type of node, access to other nodes, Signal, System, and encryption status)

[Mithlas]

-Peoria, Arcadia District. Safe House-
Although the ultrasonic sensor camouflaged above the entry door as well as the lamp have better firewalls than Nitro was expecting, they have little more in terms of security. The two devices are slaved into one circuit, the lamp set to activate when the sensor detects motion, but no analysis or recording software is running on either node. The only unusual thing that Nitro spots about the node is a small software tag disabling its wireless controls, the tag indicating it is set to a manual switch built onto the lamp itself. It looks like a passive security setup.

Rating 3 Camera with ultrasonic replacing the normal visual detection. Both camera and lamp are device rating 2, but running an optimized Firewall 3.

The lamp looks like a stripped-down sensor node hub (device rating 2) with optimized firewall (rating 3), System and Signal rating 2. No encryption detected, just an unusual frequency slaving the two together into their own closed circuit and the sensor running a basic 'transmit when change in motion detected'.

[Aryeonos]

"looks like there is no getting around traffic, I will have to call a taxi."

searching auto cab directories and picking a water front tourist destination to have it take him to aaliyah, patiently awaited the cab.

[Mithlas]

-Peoria, Sommer District-
It takes almost five minutes of waiting, but a taxi cab with stickers indicating authorization to cross megacorp boundaries pulls up to Aaliyah. After requesting tourist destinations, a scrolling list of AR advertisements for corp and resorts for the wealthy in Jefferson district appear, as well as scenic visitor spots touted as "the city's greenest spaces" for Glen Oak Park in Jefferson and Peoria Heights in Patton. A number of shopping and rental service tabs line the window advertising Peoria Heights.

[Aryeonos]

Aaliyah thought to himself whether or not they had any waterfront attractions, San Francisco certainly used to, and japan was littered with them. Greenest spaces sounded promising, but any choice was just another way of going in blind. I suppose some harmless sight seeing on day one wouldnt be a total loss, hopefully I can get a lay of the land.

Selecting "the greenest place" Aaliyah slid into the cab.

[Mithlas]

-Peoria, Sommer District-
At the point in the day the city hasn't lit up yet for the coming night, and at this point in the year it has taken on the deep shadows and winter gloom, giving the look of a city rising out of the shadow, as if clawing its way out of The Twilight itself. The first leg of the trip through Ares' industrial and petrochemical synthesis sector only adds to the effect of a city in shadow. The cab ride to the waterfront takes a little longer than expected, but like many maps it helped put a sense of scale on the dozen plus kilometers of city between the city limits and Lake Peoria.

The districts between Sommer and Patton look a mix between light industry and the commercial/residential of many working cities, but the look of the cityscape changes shortly after pulling into Patton District. The economies of scale in industry and efficiency of construction in residential begin to fade as a sector of the city clearly crafted to advertise and impress rises up. The buildings around Peoria Heights aren't quite tall enough to call skyscrapers, but most have a glass with shaped concrete faced in faux-ivory. The cab turns and rises as it advances up the slope of the city's highest point of elevation at Peoria Heights itself, then pulls to a stop in front of a hotel/casino with a park just north across the street, evergreen trees and other greenery. Before even exiting the taxi, a crowd of AR advertisements for products and services that promise to Make Your Life Better, By Your Trustworthy Neighborhood Megacorp. Looking to the east, the top of a ferris wheel is visible next to the waterline.

[Aryeonos]

Aaliyah quckly dismissed the advertisments that involved sales of this and that with a few short mental actions, then authorized the cab fare. Looking over the remaining few adds as he slithered through the park for various water front attractions, maybe a nice resturaunt with a sweeping view.

[Mithlas]

-Peoria, Patton District-
The footpath into the park lane winding up and eastwards across Peoria Height's southern slope is easily wide enough to accommodate even wide vehicles, but retractable concrete barriers restrict entry to pedestrians and bicyclists. Smaller, intentionally quaint stands offer American, Hopi, Spanish, and Japanese confections and snacks. A shielded outdoor trideo display shows a map of Peoria Heights, marking the nature preserve at the top as well as paths branching up and into the park area, marking Aaliyah's current location as technically commercial park area, and a path continuing to lakeside recreation and leisure businesses. The roadside vendors, mostly humans and a couple orks, peddle their snacks and trinkets, and the path briefly opens up into a roundabout with a grassy knoll in the middle. Several people in nicer than everyday-blue-collar clothing lounge around the small cultivated hill, watching the rentacops haul away a coughing woman. About a hundred meters further down the path it opens back up onto the regular street, a gift shop on the left and a sit-down restaurant on the right.

[RHat]

<<Safehouse seems to be good.  Looking at Matrix stuff nearby to see if anyone's attempting to monitor traffic, but nothing on that yet.  Come on down whenever ya'll like.>>