Hannibal looks at Mercedes, her super-natural charm falling over his tense mind like a gossamer blanket and easing his breathing:
"Well, well, it seems like the lot of you are on a bit of shaadowrun.....Visteon send you?....or more likely the old Mr. Robinson himself. Well I have a little proposition for you. Now we all know on this side of the shadows no one really likes to have people poking around asking too many questions....so the faster you find those two blokes, the less likely I'll be gettin' another visit from individuals such as y'selves, or even worse....some KE investigators. I'll help you in what I can to find the boys as long as you keep my name outa this whole mess....and then maybe you also throw in a little toss in the sack with Morena over here", grinning at Mercedes. "...No worries, just jokin' about that last paart....unless y'don't want me to be joking shiela"
He looks down at B.B.:
"Crike, who's this little ankle biter?" Looking quickly back up to the team for a moment. "Well in any case, to answer our little friend's first question, no, it wasn't their scene at all, if you could call the Chalice a scene......more like a waterin' hole for confused wage-slave types. The two little blokes never even been to the place.....they was just lookin' for something they thought just might be there. Don't know if they ever found it.
Looking back at Mercedes:
When those boys first came to me a year ago they were already hooked on some mildly psychotropic BTL MMO-games.....they got referred to me cuz I got the good stuff and I work inside of their Visteon allowed zones. They liked my warez and kept coming back for more. A lot of the popular BTL games these days consist of a series of chips....heavy plot always activates the dopamine receptors a lot wider. Apparently I sold them quite a doozie of a game called '9 Lives' that once you beat doesn't end, but instead keeps going and has you runnin' all around meat-world Seattle. I never slotted the game, but since part of the perks of buying from me is I provide customer support, If one of my customers ever gets stuck in a game I sold'em, I'll figure out how to get them past a tough boss or a tough quest......I sell more BTL's that way....." Hannibal chuckles a little to himself and continues. The game is basically a bunch of fluff and then the players get to start on 9 quests, or clues...and each one points to the next clue....they most likely also get a little dopamine reinforcement simflash as well, that's how those things usually work. They managed to finish the first 7, but were totally stuck on the 8th clue."
He taps on his data-jack and as it glows blue, an AR screen flies up in front of his face..."Here it is, here's the 8th clue that they brought me...I figured it out in a jiffy."
The ARO is just a simple text screen with a three lines of text in quotation marks.
To taste but a drop
Of life so sweet
Go seek in the cup where cowardly fools meet
Hannibal waits until you read it. "You see, it's gotta be the Chalice....c'mon, it's obvious, but they would'a never known...The whole of Redmond is out of their permitted zones, they ain't eva been here. So all I did was help them get over here....hoping they'd finish the bloody game soon and cough up some more cred for another. I have no idea if they found the clue or not......last time I'm sellin' that bloody game, it's just not financially worthit...takes to long to bloody finish the damn thing."
Hannibal falls quiet and just looks at the group trying to gauge your reactions.
