[Sentinemodo]

Jerry heads straight at the meeting room.

[farothel]

"Perrier, please," Hyena said to the girl.  She wanted to keep a her head clear during the negotiations that would follow, so no alcohol yet.  Maybe afterwards she could indulge, but let's try to show some professionalism first.

As the others came in, she did look at them in the astral, just to get an idea.  The same went for Ms. Johnson.

assensing
intuition 4 + assensing 3 + enhanced perception 2= 9 (9d6.hits(5)=0, 9d6.hits(5)=5, 9d6.hits(5)=1, 9d6.hits(5)=3)
Iceblade: 0 hits (critical glitch)
Lost: 5 hits
Jerry: 1 hit (glitch)
Ms. Johnson: 3 hits

[RelentlessImp]

@Hyena

Your sight beyond sight can pretty easily tell that Lost is awakened. His astral form looks much like the physical, only it is genderless and nude, outlined with a black line that glows almost ominously - as does the finger-sheath, a health sustaining focus, and the ring on his pinky, a power focus, "stained" by his aura to shimmer with the same colors and emotions. He also feels more powerful than you magically (Magic 6), and his holistic health is equal to yours (Essence 6), which ties in nicely with the fact that you don't sense any kind of implants in his body. No astral signatures beyond this mar him, though you can almost swear you see something hovering behind him, a skeletal face obscured by a hooded cloak.

Also, you can tell he is bored, and perhaps slightly annoyed with having to wait around for so long for the rest of you to show up. Also, he is ever so slightly feeling the effects of the alcohol he has imbibed by now - which isn't a whole lot, just enough to be buzzed.

[Thermo]

OOC: Feel free to astrally describe your characters to Hyena, don't bother giving her too much detail since she had one cumulative hit between the two of you. I'll allow it because it gives you a chance to introduce your characters, so don't bother with the Spoiler window, even if there's a bit of metagaming involved. As for the glitches...

@Hyena:

As you look into the room, you see the astral figure of Ms. Johnson. She gives off no magical aura and does not appear to have any cyberware.

Before you have a chance to study her further you are startled by the sound of sirens. You turn and see three small cartoonish police cars racing towards you, each with an out-of-proportionally big siren on the top. They appear to be watcher spirits on patrol, no doubt conjured by the in-house security mages to patrol the hallways. Over tiny bullhorns, all three begin blaring their message in unison:

"Eavesdropping on Club Members is forbidden! Eavesdropping on Club Members is forbidden! Eavesdropping on Club Members is forbidden! Eavesdropping on Club Members is forbidden!"

In between the chaos, you see another spirit astrally glide around the corner. It is a powerful Spirit of Man designed to look like an old-timey police officer, complete with a spectral baton. It glares at you and you feel the telepathic message deep in your head:

"Miss, any more disturbances and you'll need to come with me."

You nod your head enthusiastically, and turn your vision back to the normal mundane world. It appears that your botched assensing made the magical security system think you were eavesdropping on other Club members, maybe even on the whole club! You look around, and fortunately it doesn't appear that any of your companions happened to be watching the astral at that moment and therefore didn't see the spectacle.

[Sentinemodo]

@Hyena: Jerry is a dwarf and his aura is a picture of irritation. His aura is fiery, impulsive, aggressive. He is mundane that's for sure.

[Mirikon]

@Hyena: Iceblade is alive.  What did you expect from a crit glitch?

As the rest of the group assembled, Iceblade nodded at each of them, before returning his attention to the Johnson. Pretty thing, but he'd always found that flirting at an initial meet was bad form.

[Thermo]

The room is set up like an old-fashioned parlor out of a period trid. Two small couches and a variety of comfortable chairs are set up in the room, along with a real wooden dining table, set with a white linen tablecloth and crystal glasses. A real fire in a hearth warms the room, and the flickering firelight sparkles off the crystal on the table. Sitting casually in one chair is a brown-haired human woman with fair skin and blue eyes. She’s wearing a pale-blue tailored suit and some unusual jewelry, including a large dragon-shaped ring. She’s sipping a glass of wine when you enter, but she smiles and stands when the hostess closes the door behind you. When she stands to greet you, you realize she’s much taller than a normal human woman, and her slender figure clues you in; she’s an elf. She’s attractive, but not in the same class as that hot hostess outside—until she smiles at you. Her smile lights up her face, transforming her from simply attractive to suddenly stunning.

“Hello,” she says, greeting you all. “I’m Ms. Johnson. Thanks for meeting on such short notice. Please, sit down.”

She waits for everyone to sit and introduce themselves.

[Mirikon]

Iceblade takes the offered hand, and smiles, before sitting down. "A pleasure, Ms. Johnson. They call me Iceblade. Close quarters combat mage." The last part was for the other's benefit as much as the Johnson's. Might as well get an idea of what each of them could do. He noted the interesting dragon ring, though he didn't say anything. The ring was interesting, but he'd seen a lot of unusual jewelry in his time.

[RelentlessImp]

Lost proceeds to make himself comfortable, dropping into a seat on the opposite side of Ms. Johnson, shifting it around to one side and dropping into the chair where he can clearly look over the rest of the room, stretching his legs out in front of him and settling one arm on the table, the other thrown over the back of the chair. He lifts the hand from behind the chair to sweep a two-fingered salute off his temple towards the Johnson.

"Lost," he offers, settling fully into the position he calls the 'lazy professional', or the 'ainokea look'. Perfectly at ease, perhaps a little irreverent, he glances towards the door, hoping for at least his shot of vodka some time soon. "Whatever this is you've got lined up, it's makin' my contacts lolo. Must be lucrative." And dangerous. Still, if Akani was gonna go for it if I didn't... nah, he'd probably have just put some freelancers on his payroll on it.

As he speaks, he shifts his gaze into the astral. Alright, kingy, let's see what you can tell me about our prospective colleagues here.  The skeletal grasp settles over his shoulders again while another pair of eyes floods into his own, and he turns his gaze on each person's aura, including the Johnson's, hoping he did a bit better so that the insanity that happened earlier didn't come down on his head.

Intuition 3+Assensing 1+Mentor 2 In order: Assensing test against Iceblade, Hyena, Jerry, Ms. Johnson. (6d6.hits(5)=1, 6d6.hits(5)=1, 6d6.hits(5)=2, 6d6.hits(5)=1)
Iceblade; Glitch, spend singular Edge to negate, 1 hit.
Hyena: 1 hit.
Jerry: 2 hits
Ms. Johnson: 1 hit.

After, he mentally takes hold of the King's grasping hands, holding onto them for a moment to keep the presence from vanishing. A morbid thought danced across his mind. Ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight? he queried the spirit, and suppressed a grin. You gonna get me killed one of these days and that's just what you want. Just don't go gettin' me killed tonight. I got a shot at working with that hot number over there, and maybe 'working'. You let me have that chance, haole, I'll go straight to whatever astral guarding duty you got planned for me when I get cacked.

With that, he lets the presence go, falling from the hyper-realistic state and back into the mundane. He wasn't looking at the Johnson anymore. His eyes tracked and found the target he could stare at lasciviously, and he spent some time staring at it before finally turning his gaze back to their prospective employer.

[Sentinemodo]

Dwarf used the last one of the chairs (hopefully it is accommodated for shorter people).
Jeremiah Venson.

Jerry watches carefully both Johnson and the people surrounding the table.

[farothel]

"Hyena," she said, "I'm a hunter, specialised in jungles."
She would hold back a bit for now.  First let Ms. J do the talking.  And she was also still a bit shaken from the club security.  It had been a long time since she had made a mistake like that.

@Lost: Hyena is awakened and healthy, but a bit nervous.

[Mirikon]

@Lost Iceblade is awakened and healthy.

[Thermo]

Ms. Johnson continues:

“I trust that your fixer mentioned that I’m looking for some traveling companions? Yes? Well, I’m actually in the business myself", she flashes you a smile.

“I’ve been hired by a private antiquities collector, who recently lost an item from his collection. His only clue is this man, who has apparently been hired by a rival collector to find the item first. He’s an elf who goes by the name of Samriel Lockwood. One or both of those names are likely to be false."

“We’ve been tracking him, but it now appears he’s gone to Lagos. We need to locate him quickly and trail him to the item. Now, normally, I work alone, but Lagos ... well, it’s not exactly a safe city for a single woman. If you’re amenable, I’d like to hire you to accompany me as security, and you can also help out in my investigation."

“As you can imagine, the trail grows colder with every hour, so I’d like to leave as soon as possible. In the morning, in fact."

“I’m willing to pay 2,000 nuyen per person, per day, plus a per diem of 250 nuyen with a guaranteed minimum of five days paid upfront. I’ll also cover lodging in Lagos, plus the cost of travel to and from Nigeria. If we find the lost item, and you assist me in recovering it, I’ll also split the ‘finder’s fee’ with you—which would be 50,000 nuyen for your team.”

[Mirikon]

Iceblade leaned forward at the mention of the job. Lagos was not known for being a safe place for anyone, let alone women. A foreign elf woman would be especially tempting prey for some of the groups down there. The price, though, seemed good. Potential for at least 22500 nuyen, plus the 250 per day expense account. Not bad, all told. But someone willing to throw that much money around was clearly not trying to find just any collectible.

"This item, I take it there's something special about it? There's a big difference between a clay pot from a museum, and an insect shaman's power focus, for instance. And you're right that Lagos is not a safe place for a single woman. If this Lockwood has friends or contacts in the area, we're going to be well away from our support network. Getting supplies will be problematic, to say the least. Perhaps three thousand a day would be a better price. And you would be covering the cost of whatever immunizations we'd need? We won't be much good to you if we're doubled over the toilet from catching some local bug in the food."

<OOC> Defaulting on negotiation. 4 hits.
9d6.hits(5)=4

[Thermo]

[OOC: Iceblade, roll one more die (social modifier: Desired result advantageous to Ms. Johnson +1)]