[Jack_Spade]

"Eh, those guys took more than they paid for. Only fair that they'd lose them for the abuse. But if you feel better, we can just remove one essential piece from the weapons each and leave them with non-functional gear."
With practiced ease, Mike took apart the grenade thrower and removed a chip.
"That should be enough to stop immediate retaliation.
Alright, let's head back and set this up."

[SquirrelDude]

"Souns fair enough to me."

"So is setting up a submarine more like legos or playmobil?"

[gilga]

Yael walks to the car and take a seat. She says softly, "I'll go check on them - be back shortly". She tighten her seat belt and closes her eyes, allowing her mind to scout the surrounding, and attempt to discover whom of the buyers is there and the general mood of the buyers.


(I assume there are at least the husband and wife)
Assensing (aura): 2#13d6t5 4 5

[Jack_Spade]

In the barrens:
"Ha, probably more like Knex, combined with spring cleaning. Starting with the cleaning, followed by some more cleaning, followed by an overpressure test to find any potential leaks, followed by calibrating the steering and finally a real underwater test.
After all, no-one wants to breath air in a stinking or sinking coffin."

With the submarine securely loaded and hitched, the two orks made their way back to base without further incident.

On the island:
Yael found the pair alright as well as a third man. Husband and wife looked healthy without any cyberware beyond a datajack and a sleep regulator. At the moment both were relatively calm, although there was a certain impatience visible upon their aura.

In the matrix was nothing out of the ordinary: All three had visible commlinks to which the usual consumer electronics were slaved that every person usually carries with them.

[gilga]

Yael got back to her body, she was only gone for a short while - the mind travels at its own speed. Or any other metaphor one wants to call astral travel. She opened her eyes and said: "We should get right there, they are already growing impatient, perhaps it is anticipation. There is a third person there, possibly another buyer. I wonder who he is."
Then she reached to her beg and took out a small canteen and sipped it quickly - astral travel always made her a bit thirsty.

[Volker]

"Surprise. It's Ching Chung Choong. Everything is how it's supposed to be. Now get your beautiful butts in there before I grow impatient."
She says it with a light tone, half-smiling, more a friendly urge than an accusation. Before they can get off, she switches to telecommunication.
"I'll back you from here. I won't intervene unless either absolutely necessary or told to. You're the boss, Mr. Thyme. Or do you want me to join you? I'm not entirely sure of what help I can be inside. Most things I can do, I can do easier while I'm here."

[gilga]

"I imagine that your butt is not that bad as well... if you ever stood up that is." Yael replied to bnc with a wink.  She gently pointed at an imaginary hand watch, signalling her boss that their time was running out.

[Crossbow]

"Just do your best to mess with our Chinese friend whenever you can.  Flicker lights when he is alone in a room, send drafts up his leg or down his back, screw with him, but only when he is alone or with one of us, we want to freak him out and piss him off."  He escorted his assistant into the house saying "Hey, remember, I am ALWAYS Justin Thyme!"  with a grin.

[Jack_Spade]

Entering the boat house, the little formation was greeted with an icy stare from a Chinese man in a tailored Armanté suit and the somewhat fake smile of Mr. Mrs. Masterson
"Ah, you managed to get here, good. It seems this is it then. Our other interested parties had to cancel or were unavoidably detained today."

The Chinese man who could be no one else than Lee Wong interjected smoothly: "Certainly, but now that we are all here I'd love to move onward with this venture. You are asking a steep price that I am willing to pay. The lake view is as fine as you promised and the whole place has a very wholesome atmosphere. I am willing to take all six at the given conditions."

"We are certainly considering your offer, but the ladies and gentlemen from Meteor Enterprises haven't had a chance yet to look around and give their offer."
Mr. Masterson answered. He turned around and indicated at the interior of the building:
"As you see the boathouse is a sturdy wooden construction made with an ultra low carbon footprint and yet of top quality that includes heat and sound insulation. There is room for a 20 m vessel and around 25m² of floor space each. The doors are matrix operated but can be made extra secure with only manual access. The outside pier is screened from the other properties as well as the drive ways, guaranteeing privacy.

As you heard Mr. Wong is interested in leasing all six houses and I'm fairly inclined to grant him his wish - unless of course you have a better solution?"
The last part was said with a bit of a sharkish grin that reminded the team that they were dealing with a lawyer who knew exactly what his property was worth.

[Volker]

"Drafts? When he is alone during a negotiation? Uhm, I guess...
Ah, right. A wizard is never late. Nor is he early.

All right, last check. I got all your important stuff slaved to my Fairlight. I got MARKs on your commlinks. Visual feed is on. Voice group is active, both external and subvocal on your side. Smile is active, on Anna's side. Ready."
If Anna's Improve Charisma spell is not yet active, bnc will remind her.
When there's no further response, bnc lies down in the backseat, closes her eyes and dives into full VR.S

[gilga]

Prior to leaving the car, Yael activated her improve charisma spell on herself. To be honest, she preferred to share it, but she was unskilled in negotiations and did not want to screw things up. It only took a minute and she could feel the addictive feeling of elevated self confidence, sinking in.

drain: 10d6t5 4
improve charisma: 15d6t5 4
F5 - no drain.


When bnc reminds her about the spell, she just blow's a kiss back and smile. She watches bnc's less than hostile reaction and conclude "Yes... spell is working alright".

Once inside, she follows mr. Masterson closely, and listens carefully to what he has to say, writing it down in her link. When the tour is over she said "You have such a lovely property mr. Masterson, I almost sad that you are leasing it up."

When he is done Yael said confidently "Indeed, this is a wonderful location and the city view is marvelous. It is worth every penny, such locations are indeed priceless. The only drawback is that darn council and their ancestral preservation act. Don't they understand that their own population is often too poor to purchase such an asset? That being open to global buissness is good for them? I honestly find it difficult to relate to these things I encountered recently when dealing with this property.

You see,  SSC are reluctant to allow foreigners to own property in a place with such a high visibility. There are all sort of legal processes that can prevent such a deal from ever getting off the ground. Perhaps this is the reason that so few buyers appeared in here. I am sure that mr. Lee is well aware of these limitations, and I know better than to question a businessman, but let me convince you mr. Masterson that we are serious buyers.

My employer, Mr. Thyme is a foreigner and while he may be a stranger to this land, his genetic heritage directly links him to the SSC. In fact, we are currently working on making Mr. Thyme a legal SSC citizen.
What I am trying to say, mr. Masterson is that we can own property in the island. We came prepared and did extensive work to be able to meet your price. We took care of all legal complications and are fully capable of making the deal.
 If you deal with us, the legal side of this deal is going to be short and painless. "

[Jack_Spade]

Tom Masterson grimaced at the mention of the legal problems but nodded his head: "I see you did your homework. Yes, my wife's uncle has made noise about that, but to be honest he is pretty alone with this sentiment in the council. Yet, you do have a point."

Wong made an impatient gesture: "I'm prepared to go to court for this. We can't have xenophobic old man dictate our lives."


Just a little negotiation test and you are home dry. (You can again use Teamwork)

Masterson Negotiation: 12d6t5 1

Wong Negotiation: 14d6t5 3

[gilga]

Yael preserve her smile and and says to Masterson "Taking this to court is going to reduce your property value. Mr. Masterson.  It will deter future buyers from dealing with you and force you to compromise on the price. I do not need to tell you that courts last for long time, and Xenophobic people can be hurtful and distasteful. This is going to be an ugly, expensive and embarrassing trail.

Why go into all that trouble when  we have already cleared the political mine field for you? You can have a clean and fast transaction that maximizes the value of your property and protects your assets.  I feel that it is only logical that we start negotiating the fine details of our arrangement."


I am not sure if any of us knows how to negotiate, but Yael has augmented 9 charisma so I think that she is the one doing the job.  She will post edge her negotiation roll as she is unskilled in negotiation (but perhaps should learn the art). (no cooperation there - because she is unskilled in negotiations.) --- Do we have a better option then her for it?

She has 9 charisma, so 8 dice.

Negotiation: 8d6t5 3
Negotiation(edge reroll): 5d6t5 3

6 successes overall, looks like we pretty much nailed it... perhaps we even get a discount? (Schmidt will be happy...)

[Jack_Spade]

Masterson nodded: "Well, seeing as you only want to rent one of the boat houses and you have cleared the bureaucratic hurdles beforehand I think we can finalize your contract directly.
Mr. Lee, I hope five boat houses will be enough for you.  I value your resolve, but I can't ignore the fact that the council could delay your taking possession of the property and therefore delaying revenue for us. If anything it will make the process smoother for everyone concerned."

And with that the team had their new base of operations on the island. What followed was a bit of grumbling from Lee that was pointedly ignored by the Mastersons , signing the lease, a finance check and finally the transfer of the transponder keys for the property.

When the team returned, they found Mike and Slobbertooth letting the sub to water for the first time.

"About time you got back. Schmitt will be back at noon and brings lunch to explain the next steps in the operation. First step is done, congratulations.



The first part of the game is done now, everyone receives 10 Karma that you can spend as you see fit with no concern for training times

But before we continue, I'd like to make a roll call to see who actually is still active in this game.

I'll post the next part on Monday. Feel free to do some IP until then.

[Qwikfix]

Krestov kept up his job as security, his focus drawn towards the safety of his team.  His presence was meant to be noticeable but in the back, an affirmation that the company they were posing as was not about to fall victim to any forceful interchanges...

..even if such a forceful interchange never were to happen, thanks to the teams' careful negotiations.  While feeling a bit superfluous, Krestov couldn't help but silently smile on the way home, knowing that his action was normally only a response to a more...lethal situation.

As they got back, he nodded at Mike and Slobbertooth, undoing his tie and hanging his coat by the door.  "First step done, thanks to prepared team.  No danger in exchange, am happy.  Everyone did good job."  Moving to the kitchen, he grabbed a glass of water for himself, eyes glancing over his team, still phasing out of his protective mode.

Here.  Transition back to school done.  Plus, anytime I could have influenced the sitch the opportunity was gone ^^; sorry.

Thanks for karma