[Elektrycerze3]

Thank God, it’s Friday! Even the acid rain can’t spoil the fun.

The sprawl is somewhat calm before the night truly begins. John Q. Public is getting dressed for the night at a corp-approved nightspot while Sally G. Gang and her crew are running last-minute checks on their bikes before they leave to frag with a KE patrol.

And there is only one person who can snag your plans for the Friday night. Mr. Johnson.

@Moto,
>>> Text Message;
>>> From: Valkyrie;
>>> You need to get out more. Good thing you have me as your wingwoman. I’ve set up a date for you this evening. She is a bitch, but it’s worth it. Meet her in Renraku Omnidome on Pier 64. Hope you like comedy;
>>> Attachments: Trideo ticket, “Cree&Dido in London”, 8:20pm.

@Kachina,
You have a message!
The Matrix icon of a featureless man in a brown uniform without insignia pops up in AR and addresses you in Hopi:
Evening! Hope this finds you well. A nice lady is interested in your talents and wants to meet you personally. You’ll find her in Renraky Omnidome this evening (see attached tickets. By the way, text me if you like the flick – I haven’t seen it yet).
She’s also looking for a guy (or gal) who knows his way around guns, so if you have anyone in mind, I’ll send you another ticket.
>>> Attachments: Trideo ticket, “Cree&Dido in London”, 8:20pm.

@Carbonel,
Clan chat
Dunkman: AFC 5m
Fool King: @Dunkman not cool man
Fool King: k, every1, hit Jareth before we raid the Arcology - need 2 panthers
PM from Fool King: not u. i have real stuff for u this time. quest mark on pier 64. check your inbox for ticket. Q?
Unsurprisingly, you find a trideo ticket for tonight in your inbox: >>> Attachments: Trideo ticket, “Cree&Dido in London”, 8:20pm.

[Triskavanski]

Theodor Logan was a good kid, a bit young and thin, but a pretty good kid. At least thats what most people would believe, what they didn't know was his secret. At least not most of them, those who knew, knew what he really did.

On the outside, he was a shut in, someone who never really left the house, never had anyone over, never really did anything. In fact, most of his time was spent playing various matrix massive multiplayers. One in particular was Shadowrun Online, something that his clan used secretly to recruit players into running the shadows.

Loading the Triod message, he'd look for the quest marker placed down by his leader, and how far he'd have to go to get there.

If he could just take a short walk to get there, he'd put on his chameleon suit and walk down the streets in it, avoiding as many people as he possibly could. However if that would prove to be an impossibility due to length of time he'd need to get there, instead he'd put on his coat, slipping the chameleon suit inside his duffle bag and call a taxi to drop him off at a closer location, but still far enough away that he couldn't be too well tied to his quest marker.

[Elektrycerze3]

The message from Valkyrie appeared in the corner of Moto's AR view, and with a thought he dismissed the blueprints currently occupying his attention to read what she'd written.

"Bah, I need to get out more like I need a hole in the head..." he thought, and looked out from underneath the vehicle he was currently working on towards the chassis of the Renraku Manservant-3 drone sitting near his workbench. "Not quite ready yet... Oh well, if it can't be helped."

>> Message to Valkyrie:
>> Understood, Valkyrie-sama; Moto looks forward to go flying with you one day, but will attend meeting in mean time. If this Cree & Dido is anything like traditional Kabuki, Moto will have great time. Arigato gozaimasu.

The dwarf took one final look at the suspension of the BMW 400GT that he'd been working on for the last 3 hours. "Just need to finish calibrating the rocket boosters and she'll be ready. Crazy fraggin' tusker wants to jump his car? Not my problem so long as he pays in advance; told him in no uncertain terms that the frame won't take it..." Moto gathered up his tools and carefully cleaned and stored them in their respective places. The shop looked more like a sterile emergency room than the messy garages full of dirty tools, spare parts, and debris that most people visited, but Motozone was hardly your average repair shop. "Better look up this Omnidome, just in case" he thought as he keyed in some search parameters on his RCC and got on with preparations.

Moto mentally ran through his usual list of gear as he loaded up the large Roadmaster sitting in the back of his shop. "Dragonflies, check. Roto-Drones, check. Jammers, check. Mounted weapons locked and loaded, check and check. Survival kit, check. Medkit, fully stocked, check. Tool kits, check. Various drugs; psyche, long haul, slab, and narcojet, check and check." He then ran the wrapper program through the usual process of disguising his restricted and illegal gear to look like various weather sensors, and turned his attention to the large armored car itself. "All right, Natalie, time to go for a ride. But first, let's take care of your particulars. New license plates and matrix access ID for one, and a darker, olive green today, I think." While he spoke out loud to himself the dwarf manipulated his AR keyboard, nodding with pleasure as the vehicle changed before his eyes, then mounted up and headed out into the night.


Following the directions his search had returned he arrived at Pier 64 early by about half an hour, and decided to hang around for a little while still in the safety of his armored car. He took a look at the area in the matrix, and easily spotted hundreds upon hundreds of icons nearby. "No surprise there," he thought somewhat dejectedly, and hopped out of the large vehicle to make his way towards the venue for the meet.

[obidancer]

The message caught her by surprise but Kachina was excited to finally get a potential job.
"I've been told a 'lady' should never go to the trid movies alone, forward that extra ticket." She replied to the mysterious virtual man.

A thought was enough for the trodes headband to create and send a message to Rolen.
"You lucky guy is going out tonight. Renraku Omnidome on Pier 64. We're going to the Cree & Dido flick. Pick me up at 7:20, corner 57th Ave S and 144th st south. Possible Run for us."
They'd arrive early enough to scout the surrounding area. In such a busy place she wasn't expecting to find much, but

Meeting in a public place was a smart move but not one that she really enjoyed. It would mean not bringing her submachine gun. No need for creating more trouble than needed once there. Lucky fo rher the Thunderbird power waa with her. She just hoped Rolen had the same common sense.

She looked at the clock; she had enough time to make herself presentable. Some make up, face painting, and do her hair. Well it was Friday after all, might as well look good.

[Number 2]

The chime of the commlink caught Rolen by surprise. One could not clean his guns nowadays without being interrupted. His hesitation was quickly put aside as he saw who the sender was. He opened the message and read through it. Rolen smiled. A possible job? A quick trip to the 'Goodies closet' revealed that his explosives were still there. Rolen returned to his Ares Alpha and put it back together. He still had some time. Enough time at least to brush his hair and get some decent clothes on.

Ten minutes later Rolen was out the door. He wasn't armed, his fists alone were good enough.  He arrived at 7:15, which was early enough

[Triskavanski]

Carbonel ended up having to go with the taxi rout, hailing one with a quick matrix message. Packing his chameleon suit in a duffel bag, he'd soon take the taxi out to a location fairly close to meet, but far enough away that there could be plausible deniability.

Once there, he'd look for a place he could switch into his chameleon suit without too much difficulty and stash his other clothing. Preferably some place with lockers, or some other such place. Baring that, he'd find the best hiding place to stuff it, and stick a micro camera across the way to  watch the bag, making it unlikely for someone to take it and get away without him knowing.

And with that, he turns on his suit and begins walking down the way, using his abilities to put his suit under his Technomancy PAN and making sure everything was running silent.

<<Trick, engage hyper form one.>> He called out to the matrix for a sprite, Trick. A little digital cat came running up through virtual space and  up to Carbonel, jumping on his back and pulling down zipper where the cat rushed inside, closing the digital zipper behind him.

Soon little images began coming into The cat King's view, a hyper intuitive interface created by the sprite.

[obidancer]

It wasn't long before a taxicab pulled up at the corner of  57th Ave S and 144th st South. The door opened and inside was Rolen, looking made up, ready for the night.
She jumped in and added: You know tonight is not just for the fun right? Maybe we should have asked the Japanese Dwarf for a ride, just in case.

The ride was going to be under 30 min and Kachina positioned herself comfortably into the cab seat. She closed her eyes and murmured a few words calling on the Great Thunderbird to share his mighty sight with her.

Arriving at the theater, Kachina acted as any citizen would do, a touch of excitement to go out on a Friday night. A smile didn't leave her painted face, but her eye were all too aware of her surrounding, scanning the crowd and what was happening around her, making a mental note of the unusual and suspicious.

She took her seat and once more scanned her surrounding, this time letting her senses shift to the Astral plane. The familiar colors and flow of emotions was a very different world, but one she was attuned to and enjoyed navigating.

Small taking to Rolen, she continued: I've heard the trid is hysterically funny, looking forward to it.

[Elektrycerze3]

The Omnidome smells like butter and overpriced snacks.

There are few visitors tonight, just enough to not feel lonely. The theater itself looks impressive, even imposing: one can easily fill his whole field of vision with just the trideo. The sound check of the surround system makes everything tremble a bit: that thing might actually register on a seismal detector. On the other hand, it's conspicuously run-down: the chairs are patched, some don't recline properly and squeak quite audibly. Intrusive AR flak offers to troll-size your drink for just 1.99¥

All in all, a true trideo experience.

For all practical intents and purposes, security is non-existent here. Sure, there might be some hidden guards and turrets tucked somewhere, but Carbonel had little trouble sneaking inside undetected.

You are all sitting in a somewhat secluded spot. Even if there were people nearby, it would be hard for them to eavesdrop with the blasting of pre-trideo commercials.

The movie is about to begin, when you see someone approaching in the dark of the Omnidome. Must be your Johnson.

[martinchaen]

Moto sat motionless in his seat, hoping this whole meeting thing would all be done with soon. "If only I'd focused on that Manserverant drone" he thought to himself, "I wouldn't be here right now. In the open. Exposed. Vulnerable."

The hairy dwarf shuddered slightly at the thought of all the germs that were probably all over these seats. "Ugh. Will need to disinfect myself, the vehicle and drones, and all other equipment after this is done." He looked around at the people sitting near him, and declined the AR pop-up for the troll-sized drink. "Silly AR ads; you can't determine that I don't even have a drink? Whoever coded you should be ashamed." He began preparing an angry, anonymous message to the theater ownership when he saw approach out of the corner of his eye. "Huh? Who's that, then" he muttered to himself, and squinted his eyes to try to get a better view.

[obidancer]

What, already!? she thought. Somehow Kachina was hoping she could have started watching and enjoying the Trid. She kind of hated when reality hit.
She gently elbowed Rolen in case he had missed their potential Johnson approaching. Let me do the talking. she whispered sarcastically to the quiet young man.

[Triskavanski]

Using the matrix, Carbonel used his living persona to generate something in AR to talk with the Johnson, as he noticed him.

A cat wearing a crown jumps up on a ball, and begins rolling it towards the Johnson throught the matrix, making sure to keep it out of the view of other people's AR until he identified who was around.

[Elektrycerze3]

Kachina easily identifies all the Johnson's bodyguards, as their auras tense up the moment she walks into the theater. Four of them are sitting inside already. Another two follow Johnson into the theater, maintaining a ten seconds gap. All in casual clothes, one elf among those already seated, no visible weapons. No magic-users among them, apparently.

Your Johnson tonight is a homely woman in her thirties. Nothing particularly catching about her, she looks more like those corporate secretaries who are picked for their skills, not their looks: squabby, with thin ash blond hair and careful make-up.

She disregards the AR persona of Carbonel and with a fixed smile she approaches those seated: konbanwa, ladies and gentlemen. She stops for a short bow and then proceeds to her seat without looking at you. She smells like reseda; the fragrance hits you right through all the noise, drowning it completely.

When seated, she proceeds, looking directly at the screen: I hope you are aware that use of any recording devices here is strictly prohibited. Her voice is definitely prettier than herself: it has a panne velvet feel to it. I haven't seen that trideo before, but I've heard there are car chases in it and some heroes take actions with rather questionable morals. Is that OK with you? Maybe you can tell me about your trideo preferences?

She seems to like euphemism quite a lot.

[Triskavanski]

  The Cat playfully rolls over on his ball and flops back into a seat, adjusting his crown. <<"Oh, I'm always up for an exciting thriller, a buddy cop trideo!">> It remarks happily, slightly purring in its synthesized voice. <<"I heard this new one is coming out with an annoying sidekick too.">>

Meanwhile, Carbonel remains motionless

[obidancer]

Kachina could not resist a grin on her face.
let just put it this way, whatever the odds, the heroes always manage to complete their mission in the flicks I watch. I tend to favor the ones more mystical and spiritual, and morals are but human opinions created by a society the greater spirits could care less about.
That said car chases can be quite exciting, I'm looking forward to seeing what this trid has to offer.

[martinchaen]

Moto simply stared at the woman while the others talked. "Did she really ask us here to talk about our trideo preferences?" he thought, trying to think if she might have inferred something else and failing completely. "Respectfully, Ms. Tanaka, Moto did not come to talk about trideo. I was lead to believe there was work to be discussed" he said in the rather straightforward manner befitting someone who'd spent decades in the Japanese Imperial State. His heavy Japanese accent and Koborokuru ancestry was further proof that the dwarf had probably only been in Seattle for a couple of years, give or take.