[gilga]

@Athos Mr. Ando tells you "this area you are interested is within the domain of Strawberry. What happens in this area affects her health.  Therefore, no lethal weapons. Tasers are bust and if you must carry guns feel them with gel rounds or stick and shots. She does not tolerate excessive violence - this means no killing and if you had plan for massive violence forget it.
Any form of drug abuse or any other abuse is off the table. 
If you want to open a brothel and keep your drugged slaves in here - forget it.
If you plan to use violence you are walking on thin ice. "
Ando looks you in the eyes, lean toward you and whisper.
"If you want my advice don't allow anyone in your family to talk to her... She is not as innocent as she looks"
You clearly see that Strawberry is distressed when he say that, she struggles to keep silent.

@Minnie “I am lonely because none of the Yaks is allowed to talk to me, Ando executes them if they do. He fears that talking to me will change their loyalties. The Yakuza had a brutal war with me. He sent his best men and I turned them against him.  We reached peace eventually but since then, Ando completely forbids any of his men from talking to me or even forming a direct eye contact with me. Foreigners seldom arrive here, and when they do they usually cannot contain me.

To be completely honest, I only agreed that he let the Mafia into my domain because I am so lonely and I want to meet new people. I cannot see the world like you, I have roots to this place.” 
She pauses and then adds “Please tell me a story, I bet you know many interesting stories. I already admire you for not forgetting why you came here despite talking to me.  Please, just a short one.”


@Artie - Roxxy refuses the gig tonight. She is busy doing other things. She does accept the drone from you along with 500 nuyen and agrees to call you tomorrow afternoon to update you on her findings. You quickly reach the warehouse undisturbed sneaking past several Yakuza guards but discover that it is now locked.

[Shaman_Yuri]

Minnie struggles to follow the parallel real-world and astral conversations.  This is quite literally the first time in her young life that she's carried on a conversation in astral space and she'd much rather have been able to focus more on it.  The fact Strawberry was becoming more and more intriguing didn't help.

Just what is she? Minnie repeated in her inner thoughts for the upteenth time.

Minnie's uncertainty about responding finally broke when she saw how crestfallen the woman became as Ando explained to Athos about not talking with Strawberry.  Her heart went out to the girl.

"I'll talk with you," she offers in astral space.  "I can't promise I won't agree with the advice not to let others do so because I think Ando is right about some of it, but as long as the Family is allowed here I'll talk to you and tell you stories when I can.  I..."  Minnie stammers a bit as she debates how vulnerable to admit to being around the strange redhead.  "I, um, haven't ever spoken to anyone like this before.  I've never even stayed in magic space this long ever.  Until a month ago I was taught it was a bad thing to do."  Despite Minnie's best efforts her ears drooped as she spoke and her tail, while not exactly wrapped around her, was hovering very close to her body.

[gilga]

Minnie, “I would like it very much, speaking like you do now allows you to communicate in a method were very few people can eavesdrop and almost nobody can record. If your life are as exciting as I suspect,  you will find this method useful. It is true that seeing the astral exposes you to potential attacks but I feel that your family are just a little paranoid. They are afraid of what they can’t understand“

Strawberry seems to be excited that you plan to visit her again. You can feel that her aura grows brighter and her allure grows stronger with it.  In fact, you feel that you are excited as well.

She happily say.
“You should come during the day. My domain is a beautiful oasis. There are many trees and plants. My people are healthy and I try to keep them safe. You will like it very much,  it usually is the safest place in the barrens... not tonight, this night was very difficult for me - many foreigners with no respect brought their violence to my domain. This is why I gave you my passion dream to protect you.”

[Mercy Merchant]

Athos listens to the elder Yak with respect in his body language.  He is a bit surprised at what the man says about the Keeb.  "Ando-san, how much of this neighborhood is within the domain of Strawberry?  The warehouse we are buying from you and this bar and what else?"

[gilga]

@Athos Mr. Ando sighs and tell you. "Her domain is a circle with 600 meters radius centered on that large tree in the parking lot of this place. This is actually why I wanted Valentina in here. Some of the area she wants to expend into is also included in that domain"

He then tells you.
"She is not so that bad tough. She is not after the same things that the Yakuza or the Mafia are and her reputation alone prevents a lot of trouble makers from getting here. These seem to have an unexplained bad luck.

Just earlier today one of the meanest orcs you'd ever meet, a real trouble maker too. He gave her absolutely no respect at all.  He mysteriously met his match by someone very professional... skilled enough to wipe up ten or maybe twenty of us on his own. This kind of stuff just happens when you do not follow her rules.  You can never be sure if it is her doing, or just bad luck."

[Mercy Merchant]

Athos nods and manages to keep most of the surprise at the size of this "domain" off his face and out of his voice.  "Ando-san, she controls a large space.  It will indeed encompass a bit of what the Family wants to claim.  I will not mar this discussion with doubt and so will accept what you say."  He looks at the woman sitting next to Ando again.  "And does good luck follow those that obey the rules?"

[gilga]

Ando say "Again, you can never prove it but I believe so and so does my underlings."

[Mercy Merchant]

Athos considers this for a moment then says, "Thank you for telling me these things, Ando-san.  Now, I was led to believe that I was to examine the warehouse and then make the decision to close the deal.  May I ask for a tour of the building?"

[Shaman_Yuri]

Minnie has been tracking both conversations despite the challenge.  When Athos addresses Strawberry, she worries for her friend.  Fortunately, Strawberry remains silent and Ando continues to flap his yap.  She continues to monitor the business side of things and watch Athos' back, but her interests are very much more on the astral plane.

Passion dream?  There is so much she doesn't know and wants to understand.  Maybe Mouse will come to her and explain things tonight.  Maybe not.  Mouse was skittish and highly mercurial.  Mouse also expects Minnie to figure things out on her own where possible.  If Mouse didn't see a threat in Strawberry, Mouse would as likely as not let things develop as they were developing.

"Thank you for not influencing my friend," Minnie says to the strange woman, gesturing to Athos.

[gilga]

@Minnie Strawberry looks you directly in the eyes and say "You are welcome... Be safe tonight."

@Athos Mr. Ando tells you: "You are paying a lot of money, I thought you'd want to examine the place. If you do not feel the need to we can close the deal right now, my price remains half a million, like I agreed with donna Valentina, I am a man of my word.

I also must warn you that there were some troubles earlier. We had some shadow-runners crushing into our party. One of them seemed to come for Venom, that disrespectful orc I told you about. The others stole one of our vehicles, I am still trying to figure out what they stole from us.

The runners also killed several of my men and made Strawberry very upset. I am giving you an heads up because these events happened not long ago. I am not sure if we've seen the end of it. The increased security is because of the runners not because I do not trust you to behave"

[Mercy Merchant]

Athos shakes his head.  "These are troubling words, Ando-san.  If violence is prohibited, then those that work in this area are at a disadvantage against thugs with real bullets.  I would offer any assistance that you feel is appropriate should these thugs return."  He nods to the older Yak.  "But I would like very much to look at the building.  Was there any structural damage?"

[gilga]

@Athos Minnie, Artie(?) Mr. Ando says “Do not worry, I have thirty men here and another five guarding the warehouse. Strawberry promised me that she has magical security, tough I personally know very little about these things. I did my best to guarantee yours and my own safety. I suspect that you guys are more capable than the average family member, otherwise you wouldn’t be here in the first place.”

He takes you to the warehouse and click a code combination to open it. “Here have a look, we even cleaned the place so it feels new.”  He said. If you follow him to the warehouse you can see an empty warehouse with white walls. 

[Jayde Moon]

The Yakuza don't mess around, Artie thought to herself.  There were a lot of them here, if they wanted to get the jump on Athos, there was nothing for it.

Still, it looked like everything was on the up, and Artie focused her attention on anything that might be a third party.  She still hovered far from the edges, no doubt there were Wachers set up and she didn't want to tip them off any more than the goons on the ground.  She took some film of what she was seeing, for Athos later, he could keep it or delete it if he wanted, but what she saw might be helpful to him.

[Shaman_Yuri]

Minnie follows Athos as the troll enters the warehouse, maintaining her place exactly two human steps behind and one to the left of her primary.  As much as she dearly would love to speak more with Strawberry right now, business comes first.  With 30 Yakuza goons and just two of them, she couldn't afford to let her guard down. 

If Strawberry asks her, she'll say as much...along with another promise of ample time in the very near future just for their dialog.

The mouse adept continues to monitor in all three sights as she follows after Athos.  (feel free to roll for me if needed- I can't at work)

[gilga]

@All you find yourself very agitated going to a warehouse with a small gangster army accompanying you. Apparently this business transaction is very important to the Yakuza. Mr. Ando enters the warehouse with you leaving his goons outside.  You look around and see an empty warehouse, there is one thing that took you a little while to notice. It is smaller on the inside. “That’s odd” Say Mr. Ando and clicks on the wall, “these are drywalls.”

At the same time in the car Nagisa spots something very subtle in the matrix. The lock on the door, it is brand new, but the warehouse is over 50 years old... why would the Yaks install a new lock and expensive lock just before selling the place. While making the new system appear old and worn out to the naked eyes. Nagisa does not yet understand what it is all about but due to her gut instinct she fire a message. . >> Get the fuck out of there! She texts.

She is however, too slow, you rush to the door just to discover that the warehouse locks itself down on you. Not just the lock is new it is an entire security system blocking all exits with reinforced steel.  You are trapped inside.  Back in the matrix Nagisa start seeing more and more disturbing signals that make their way to the warehouse. She knows these too well, these are signals sent to standard, off the shelf explosive triggers - she spoofed them countless times. Finnigan family loves its explosives. Still it all happens so quickly and Nagisa’s logical mind is not comprehending what happens - she kicks her deck into action and starts intercepting these signals one after another.

Several milliseconds later she understands, somebody is trying to blow up that place. The new lock, it was a trap, Mr. Ando must have triggered it while entering the passcode.
>>They try to blow up the warehouse!!! I cannot jam their signal for much longer. They will get through eventually. GET OUT NOW!

Quickly dismantling one of the drywalls you discover the horrifying truth. Small packs of standard explosives all connected to each other decorate the entire outside wall. Mr. Ando... seems concerned, he say  “these explosives are aimed to direct the blast inwards, we have been betrayed friends.”  He switch to Japanese and say to himself “This is a new low, even for you Valentina.”

Time is running out and if you want to live you have to think quickly.


@Minnie  -  You spot the ruse with enough time to respond before being blown to pieces. Thanks to Nagisa jamming the signals, you should have an indefinite amount of time.  In the astral you can sense that the warehouse is warded by a F3 ward. Dream of Passion tells you “Strawberry created this ward - this is why we can pass easily. “ After you find yourself trapped, You can hear Dream of Passion in your mind, she is saying - “My task is to protect you... but I have no idea what to do... I will do what you ask me.”

@Artie - I wasn't sure if Artie is in or out - so I will let you pick where she would be.