[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

>>>>>[ Both of you speak truth, but remember what happened with Keiko Shotozumi.  Many were burned by her when she returned to the Yakuza. ]<<<<<
          -- Hawatari (01:04:32/01-09-2074)

[Chrona]

>>>>>[Taking Wyrm and Ice as an example... Truce, Specks? I don't do hotsim.]<<<<<
     -- Chrona (06:05:52/01-09-74)

[All4BigGuns]

>>>>>[All in all, I'd prefer to be cautious, but be ready to trust should a person prove worthy of it. Say what you will, but it's worked for me so far.]<<<<<
     -- Predator (01:07:38/01-09-74)

[Lysanderz]

>>>>>[I guess now I know why my buddy on the block said there were spirits chasing me, that's not exactly playing nice there.]<<<<<
--Specks (01:19:30/01-09-74)

[Chrona]

>>>>>[One Spirit, One, Not even an Elemental.]<<<<<
--Chrona (06:23:38/01-09-74)

[All4BigGuns]

>>>>>[Be careful who you send spirits to follow around. You could get yourself in deep drek that way. Never know what sort of Awakened friends someone might have.]<<<<<
     -- Predator (01:24:30/01-09-74)

[Lysanderz]

>>>>>[One spirit is one too many in my line of work. Eyes to the skies flesh eater. Eyes to the skies.]<<<<<
--Specks (01:25:09/01-09-74)

[Chrona]

>>>>>[It's not like it was following you. I may want to eat your kidneys but I'm not gonna interrupt your running.]<<<<<
--Chrona (06:29:19/01-09-74)

[Mirikon]

>>>>>[First off, welcome Card. Same goes to you as to the others. Buy me a drink sometime, and you'll get a couple stories, and a bit of wisdom handed down, like people did for me when I started running.

MacCallister? Good to see you aren't in several pieces like word on the street was saying. And don't worry, I'm not going to start anything in the bar.

Now Wyrm, just because you don't like living at the top, don't hold it against those of us who do. Sure, I've heard that it was pretty bad for some people in Tir Tairngir before the revolution. But for me? It WAS great. Money, land, decent salary with little to no real work involved, and all the women I could handle. Plus, I got to get backstage passes for Deirdre, Grim Aurora, and Maria Mercurial when they passed through the Tir at various points. What wouldn't I like about it? I was living the life everyone below me yearned for. And it was good.

So yes, I still have ties. Even when someone leaves a corp, or a syndicate, or a military, they still have ties. We call them Contacts on this side of the shadows. Most people tend to agree that they are a Good Thing(tm). So yes, I have ties to the old regime, and not all those ties got swept out of power when the revolution changed things. Yes, if I want to avoid heat in Seattle, I can cross over into Tir Tairngir, and live in luxury for a couple weeks under my real name, before coming back to the shadows to do what I do best. Again, most people in the shadows would call this a Good Thing(tm).

Murphy, you're right that the Neo-A culture still lingers in Seattle. Its a shame, really, since there are so many good things about this sprawl, like the way you can lose yourself in plain sight, if you know how.

Chrona, that's just plain creepy.]<<<<<

--Iceblade (04:56:24/01-09-74)

[Chrona]

>>>>>[Racism makes my creepy start acting up.]<<<<<
--Chrona (10:12:12/01-09-74)

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

>>>>>[ Most people call this thing betrayal of ... many things, I think.  Person like you, it is called something Italian, dil-something.  Want-to-be in English?  No, вуликий -- of two faces, is better.  Very not worthy of trust.  You serve two masters, yes?  Is special place in Hell for people like you.  Fortunate for you, is cold, eh? ]<<<<<
          -- Shivowtnoeh (06:03:52/01-09-2074)

[Mirikon]

>>>>>[I've been to Hell. Its called Lagos.

We all had a life before we came to the shadows. Me, I just happened to have a better life than many of you. And I still have friends in that life. That make me any less trustworthy than the former corp drone who keeps ties with Jim in Accounting, or the former government worker who still is friends with certain senators? Frankly, I'm disappointed in you people. Anyone who throws away a resource that could still be used is a fool. So I'm not burning my bridges, because that means, when drek goes down, and it eventually does, I have options other people don't.

We all serve many masters, unless we've decided to go exclusive with one corp or syndicate or whatever. We all take orders from the Mr. Johnson of the moment, and when the job is done, we might take a job the very next day working to undo what we just did. That is what 'freelance' is all about. There are times when my old friends have work that they can't trust to official channels, and so they ask me to play fixer, and get a team to do the job as they play Mr. Johnson. How is this different from someone who used to work for Horizon taking a job from a Horizon Johnson, or someone who used to work corpsec at Saeder-Krupp taking a job from Mr. Brackhaus?

But hey, we can go back and forth on this all day. You want to know the real measure of how well I can be trusted? Talk to the people I've worked with. Some of them are on this network. They'll tell you that I do my job, and do it well, and until that last run getting the kid into the Tir where he can learn to use his magic as part of the Peace Forces, not one of them had met my Tir connections, or had their names passed to them. So quit yammering on like a bunch of kids who can't stand that someone else got to play with better toys than you did, because you're starting to bore me.]<<<<<

--Iceblade (06:24:02/01-09-74)

[CanRay]

>>>>>[When all your family knows is the bottom, there's only one way to go.  I was only a little tyke when we got the tenement that's the family home now, and compared to where we used to live, it seemed like a palace to me.  Still does in a lot of ways.

For one thing, it's blood money that pays for it.  Uncle proved that on New Years.]<<<<<
-- Murphy (09:45:38/01-09-74)

[Mirikon]

>>>>>[As a favor to a young runner, I've got a business trip to Denver coming up. A bit of influence work for a friend of a friend from the Tir. Soft touch kind of thing. Could always use someone to watch my back, and to work other angles in case my approach doesn't work. What do you say, Murphy? Pays good, a four star hotel room in the Hub for a week, and I've got VIP tickets to get into Perianwyr's club. Want to expand your horizons a bit, maybe see a dragon or two?]<<<<<

--Iceblade (11:26:02/01-09-74)

[All4BigGuns]

>>>>>[Quite so. By nature just about everyone working in the shadows works for multiple employers, and this is expected on both sides of the bargaining table. If you were officially in the corporate world and tried doing that, you would be fired at best--or, depending on the corp, killed or worse at worst. And definitely killed if you were with a crime syndicate and started helping out a rival syndicate.]<<<<<

--Predator (12:30:57/01-09-74)