[Scawire]

Mantis still feels like he wants to crawl into a bed and not move for a good long time. Getting into his appartment Mantis is glad that the old hell hole in the wall is still as messy as he left it. Spotting the 2 messages, Mantis first gets a nice strong black soy caf then gets his home-node to play his two messages. Oh drek no down time, well maybe it is some nice guy telling me I won the lotto, then I could get some arctic gear for the shadow life. Ya right. Mantis guns a smoke as he waits to hear what horror story is going to blast his way.

[Zweiblumen]

"Send me the available times and we'll get her booked after the weekend.  You have a good one!" he says cheerily to the lass at the counter and quickly heads for the door away from the screaming pram.  Winston stops to sniff it casually before hurying to catch up.  As he's walking down the street he brings up an AR window of next weeks calendar and drops in the time given to him by the GP.  Taylor opens his mother's calendar and adds it there as well, knowing she's never going to check it anyway.

The Walking Stick had the usual suspects in there for a friday night and some new kids from the Academy.  The regulars smiled as the costume walked in, a few raised pints as he's walking past.  The corpers with their smirks seem so out of place to Taylor, doffing his cap with a hint of a mock bow in their direction he takes his usual seat at the bar.
"Hoi John, bloody busy even for a Friday.  Amber out sick today?  You look crushed.  When you get a chance I'll take a pint and a soup."

Looking around, Taylor checks to see if Ralphy is around while Winston curls up at the foot of his stool.

[Csjarrat]

The appointment times come through and 10.20 on Monday morning looks like the best option, it'd give you most of the day to  yourself that way.
John half-smiles as he replies, nah mate, she drew the short straw over Christmas so she's got the weekend off. Charlotte said something about her seeing her sis up in Sheffield. She's back on the rota for Monday afternoon though. take a seat mate, I'll get Charlotte to bring it over.
He serves the last of the suits and pulls you a pint of the seasonal ale as you sit at the only table free. Charlotte pops over and clears the spent glasses and mucky plate for you, giving he table a quick wipe down.y'aright duck? she asked in her Lancashire accent.
The trid screen was flicked over to the sports news channel, a beautiful blonde woman talking through the night's upcoming FA cup games. Arsenal had drawn Chelsea in the third round and it promised to be a good one.
Your work comm vibrated and drew your attention, a meeting invite. Private VR node, mark invite included. Had to be Smith or one of his middlemen. Scanning the details you saw the meeting was in 15 minutes

[Csjarrat]

___Scawire___
You were relieved to see it was nothing dramatic, just one message from your landlord letting you know he'd invoiced you for the first month of your pre-payment and that one more remained.
The second message was a week old, Luke had dropped you a line about some work he needed doing, though thankfully he was vague enough that the message wouldn't be incriminating given how legit his work usually was.

[Lumen]

"Keep your chin up Tim.  Everyone starts out with the shite jobs.  I'll keep you in mind lad."  Finally walking in his door was like waking from a dream.  It was mostly a shit hole but it was his shit hole.  Knives does a quick check to make sure none of his stuff was out of place.  Then he spots the bed... his greatcoat had barely hit the floor before his head hit the pillow and dreams took him.

[Csjarrat]

___Lumen___
The afternoon passed and you awoke with a crick in your neck and pins and needles in your arm from where you'd slept funny.
The noise of the refuse truck emptying the glass bins of the pub opposite roused you from your slumber.
Your AR wallpaper glared 06:04 at you, making you groan as your bladder informed you it was full.
Chucking the duvet back, you grumbled about forgetting to set the heating to come on, it was bloody freezing. Your stomach rumbled with hunger due to missing tea last night as you relieved yourself and a prickly thirst assaulted the back of your throat.
How was it possible to feel this knackered after all that sleep? Still, your shoulder felt a ton better and it was clear that your body wasn't going to let you just get back to sleep without a decent feed and a drink.
Word had obviously gone round that you were home, a series of drunken voice messages had been left on your comm overnight, most asking where you were and if you were coming out for a beer, with a turn to the more drunken "yooo faag, where are ya? pints not gonna drink itself!!" as their night clearly descended into a right royal piss-up

[Zweiblumen]

Cursing quietly to himself Taylor wonders if he can get 15 more minutes to cram some food in his system and get home.  Missing lunch and supper wasn't a good way to get things done in his opinion.
"Ahh shite.  Charlotte, luv, what can you bring me in a hurry?  Looks like I've got to run before decorum would dictate.  Any chance you could bag it for me?"
<<<@Sender [Mams] Outside circumstances require my presence at that time.  Available for consultation at 17.45.  Please confirm.>>>

Mum always comes first and he's gotta get her pills home.  He sends a payment to his tab at the bar to cover his bill with a bit extra for making Charlotte hurry and finishes pint.  While he's waiting for his snack to go he runs a basic check on the private host to see what he's getting himself into.  Winston starts pacing, seeming to sense Taylor's sudden agitation at the situation.  <<<@Winston [Mams] 'Tis okay boy, just doing some leg work first.  This ain't 'zactly your cuppa here.  Might need to get ye a friend to 'elp out 'fore the day is over.>>> As he winks at the sprite.

[Scawire]

Mantis takes a deep long drag of his smoke. Well lets see what work I have penciled in. Luke is a good bud, maybe he can help me with some arctic magical stuff for this work.... That would be sweet.

Mantis takes a seat in his torn up lounge chair and gets his comm link to message Luke.


------ Message -------
To: Luke
From: Marc

Hey bud its been a while, good to hear from me. I hear you got some work. I'm free right now if you want we can meet up over some nice soy cafe and noddles and discuss old times and anything else that pops into our heads.

Later

------ End of message ------



Mantis is glad he has work coming his way, thing is he kind of wishes he could just take a bit of a breather, with all the drek that came his way down in France. Oh well better to have a job then be sleeping in sewers drink what ever that hell drips your way.

[Csjarrat]

___Scawire___
A reply comes through swiftly:
//Hey man, sorry, that last message was about a job I already got done a few days back. got something for you over the weekend though if you're free? Shouldn't take too long, meet for breakfast at O'malleys? Say about 9.30?//
You were relieved in a way, It at least gave you time to get your head down, have a shower and fix yourself a proper meal

[Csjarrat]

___Zweiblumen___
The mailer daemon errored out on your reply:
<<Message undeliverable:: Unknown destination>>
It got stuck in a loop of resend->error so you killed it, the burner comm had been burned already or its return-commcode spoofed. Either way, it left you with no room for negotiation on times.
You could either do the meet here on the shitter and hope no-one kicked the door in while you flopped into VR, or grab your grub and dash for home.
Sure thing, chuck. I'll ladle you some up to-go and pop in a bread barm for you
Charlotte went off towards the kitchen and returned momentarily, paper bag and polystyrene soup container in hand.
Wiping the beer's froth off your top lip you take it from her with a smile, Winston wagging his tail in understanding.

[Lumen]

Knives rubs his eyes sleepily as he goes through his messages.  Since they were for a party long since dead he opts for a shower.  Once he's dressed again and feeling more like himself he sends Johnny a text.  <Sorry I missed the party.  Proper rest and all, you understand.  I got a few things I'd like to exchange for some other things.  Pints later though for sure.>

[Csjarrat]

___Lumen___
It was nice to have a morning off, kicking about in the living room felt a dream.
You switched on the trid and caught up on the past few weeks' worth of footy news and settled in with a brew as Johnny slept off last night's beer.
Around 9.30 you receive a reply;
Awright mate, yeah you missed a good one; lads were on good form and we got young timmy-boy laid, at last! hahaha. Facking scally of an ork as well, bet ee's itching this morning!!
Sounds good mate, I'll be down in Chinatown for lunch. I'll meet you near the big pagoda about 12.15.

[Zweiblumen]

"On second thought Charlotte, can you hold that for me for a few minutes.  Need to talk to a man about a horse." And he heads to the loo.
For a pub bathroom, it's surprisingly clean.  Not that you'd keep your own house this clean, but for a bar, it's not half bad.  He finds a stall with no floaters in it, and locks the door.  Winston curls up floating about 8" off the ground as even the Matrix construct doesn't want to laydown on these floors.  Wishing he had a camera handy, he quickly pulls up an AR catalog and orders one to be delivered to his house.  "Here goes nothing." He mutters under his breath to himself.  Wiping down the seat first, he assumes the usual position, then lets go of the meat to escape to the Matrix.

The stall in the Matrix isn't much better.  Winston sees his persona fully in VR and perks up.  <<<@Winston [Mams] Hoi, time for us to head to work champ.  Lets get you a friend first though.>>>  Taking a moment before leaving the bar, Taylor pulls up some old code he was working on the other week and infuses it with Resonance.  Proving his familiarity with this code, another setter joins Winston eager to help.  <<<@Sprites [Mams] We'll call ye 'Alastair' for now.  That suit ye well 'nough?>>>
Feeling more confident with some allies in tow, Taylor heads to this mysterious Host to meet his unkown contact.

[Csjarrat]

She stops in her tracks just before heading through the swing doors into the kitchen, and nods, a quizzical look on her face.
The smell of the urinal lemon-cakes catches the back of your throat but its actually reasonably clean everywhere; the benefit of drinking in the nicer part of town (thought the beer prices more than made up for it).
Your head lols to your chest but you don't even realise, your consciousness transported into the digital aether.
A deep blue grid expands near limitlessly ahead of you, winston yapping and barking with excitement as if he were the actual dog his digital form imitated.
A cluster of personas lit up your view, moving around the bar-room as you'd expect. You connect to your commlink's data-store and pull the invite off it, accepting the MARK and smiling as the host revealed itself to your keen eye.
Nothing about it seemed obviously dodgy, just a stock host with a little extra security.
Alistair's form sprung into being as you channelled resonance into it, Winston instinctively sniffing it in approval. No matter how many times you pulled that trick off, it always felt good.
Joining the host, you're ported into a stock-white clear room, a cube of perfect dimensions with no windows.
The node sculpting grid had been left toggled to "on", probably to give some depth perception
<<Connection from::Anon>>Accepted.....
Rendering.....
Anon_01 Joined Host//END//
Spinning around, Becky's sleek avatar had joined the room behind you, a slim idealised female form with a shock of purple hair that flowed as if a calm breeze stirred through it. Her eyes were shadowed by a matching purple make-up scheme and you'd just die for a real-life copy as your girlfriend.
<<Anon_01:: Changed username to Bexter_777>>
Bexter:://Good to see you, sorry for the short notice. Smith needs you to scan some data urgently. Encryption on it is totally baffling our guys, say its not something they've seen before.
If you can tell us what it is, where its from and who made it you'll get the usual fee. If you can crack it, fee is doubled. Interested?

[Zweiblumen]

Mams://Been a while.  Sounds intriguing, I'll take a look.  Normal transfer methods I assume.  Once I get my hands on it, I'll let you guys know how long it'll take me.  Standard rates as usual.  Thanks.

Taylor realizes he's been entirely too paranoid today.  It must have been that doosey of a day working with that sprite yesterday making him loopy.  He leaves the host, and makes sure everything is sorted before coming too in the loo.

Standing up and making the appropriet noises/motions, he washes up and heads back out front.  Seeing Charlotte, he thanks her and takes his food to go.  Eating on the way home and getting lost in thought about what kind of things this could have that are giving Mr. Smith such a headache.  As he gets close to his house, he shrugs it off figuring this is what they pay him for.

Entering the house, he hollers out "Hoi Mum, got your pills for ye.  Also sent you the calendar update for your appointment next week.  Lets not miss this one, yeah?  Lemme know when supper is ready."  Then he heads up to his office again to mull over his first dip into the Resonance Well.  Submerging felt so right, the struggle, the challenges, the soul rending data flow.  As painful as it was, he misses it already.
And boy is he hungry.  The pint and the nosh seemed to have disapeared into him without making a dent.