The late afternoon street business is hurried. People rushing to get things done. The only ones not in a hurry are the homeless. They watch sprawled, or huddled, or trying hard to get enough cred for a fix. Long time residents of the sprawl could read the activity and who was, and wasn't, on the streets and knew enough to keep their mouths shut and their business quick.
@ Maquerade You walk slowly in that frozen moment of time in your mind. Examining what everyone's eating. Hmmmm, there doesn't seem to be any common denominators. But, there has to be, you noticed something. What was it? You mentally step back and look at the entire scene again. There it is. It isn't the food, it's their expressions. A sort of "starving predator" look. The Barrens are full of predators, and there are even more of those that wouldn't hesitate to take you out if it represented some advantage to them. So it was harder to spot the difference at first. But this wasn't just the tough, hard , ex-con look so many of them wore. It was a look of malign intent, and it was starving. You also notice something else. There are no Howlers in the crowd. It's been months since you were involved with the Howlers. But, one of the bars frequented by the gang is on this street. No Howlers on the street at all meant a job, and if it was big enough to involve all of them, that meant trouble for everyone else.
@ Khali Nails replies, >>Damn straight.<< The door is a solid metal. It might have been painted once, but know even the graffetti is old and flaked off. You hear a click and the door opens and an older troll sizes you up. He's wearing riding leathers and goggles and it's obvious he's impatient to leave.. "So you're part of the muscle Batty hired for me. sheesh. Obviously the woman is getting senile instead of just old. Oh well your funeral. Job pays in two days. I need muscle for two days and I'm not about to let go of cred and watch my 'muscle' disappear." As he says that his fingers reach up and do air quotes and his nose wrinkles in disgust at you. "The last three of the Ancients will be 'patroling' (more air quotes and outright animosity), inside, together I'm sure. That leaves you and one other guy on the perimeter outside. The shipment is safely bedded down for the night. You wanna get nosy as to the contents and come into the warehouse the Ancients will kill ya. They may be lazy keebs but easy cred for babysitting isn't something their gonna give up by having the shipment stolen.
@ Feathers A loud crash startles you awake, followed by an aborted yelp of pain and then cussing from the wall to your left. Obviously drunk again. Jeez, is that the fifth time in three days? Now that you're awake you can hear the pipes banging from early morning showers with the lukewarm water. At least it wasn't cold, it'd been cold all last week until they'd gotten some girl more used to working on cars than water heaters to machine a part for them. And even then it didn't work well. Still, the boiler was so old it'd gone out of commission over 50 yrs ago and parts were impossible to find. So lukewarm showers for all. From the corner your comm is flashing a message. >>I've got a lead on some research work. Meet me at Tino's Bakery at 08:00.<< It's from Nbungu. Nbungu's shop doesn't open until 10:00. So he's seeing you well before it opens. You knew he had a sweet tooth and Tino's makes an excellent breakfast roll with decent kaf.
@ Arc You see an orc woman take a vicious roundhouse at a human that's got to be well over 6 feet by the way his head clears the top of the car. The human catches her arm lightning fast and has it twisted behind her in a blink and body slams her against her car. And then just as suddenly bends down to kiss her long and hard. When he finally looks up he throws the keys at you and says, "Worth the repair costs to get this woman's attention. I'll pick it up sometime tomorrow." Looks down at her again. "Make that a few days." She laughs at him. and they leave in her car. Good thing to because it was the one blocking your bay door.
@ Arachnid The bike purrs under you, and a car is not an obstacle for a bike.
