[Crossbow]

Talk about an unremarkable entry in Seattle, Sammy thought, on the other hand, it might be our best option.  Well, first check with the rest of the group before I promise anything.
"Can you give me your commcode," Sammy said when they arrived at the diner, "I'll contact you, or have someone contact you, as soon as I know more."

Matty gives Sammy the code, then he and his sister follow you into the diner.  "I can make calls from here as well as anywhere, and an ork's gotta eat sometime .."  He takes a booth in a corner.

When Rudy sees you he bounces back out of the kitchen again, he has a framed picture of the two of you smiling to a cam a couple of hours ago and a pen. "Do you mind?  I want to put it on the wall.  Liam is very excitied, he is going to be here in a minute or two."

[Crossbow]

Walking around the grounds, Sam gestured to the security systems and said, "John, being greeted at the door with a shotgun by some overly-cautious person I can understand. But is all of this really necessary out here? Does everyone have this sort of setup, or is Mr. Martell just...more cautious than most?" He clearly wanted to say "paranoid", but suspected that his conversation might very well be actively monitored, and didn't want to risk upsetting their host. "We're talking about bringing a sizable crew out here, with a lot of really expensive gear. But if all this is necessary for security...well..."

"No, everyone isn't as crazy as Nick, or as rich, but his spread is one of the largest, and he has no problem seeing it get all shot to hell."  Running Bear explained as he walked away from the compound.  "Look, Sam, I would be lying if I said I am not concerned that you are going to bring all kinds of foolishness to my little town, but if this is gonna work, you are gonna have to be clear, what is the issue you are having."

[farothel]

"No problem," Sammy said as she signed the picture, "say, do you know where the rest of the bunch went?"

[RHat]

"You know Red, you talk as if you're the mastermind of the group and we're the drooling idiots that'll do as you say, regardless of whether or not it's something we can pull off. During these planning stages, we'll let the group know what we can and can't due in given situations. You're the one that keeps going on about teamwork, yet you keep treating us like you're in charge. Its one or the other, Red. Oh, and Zen is very,very hallucinogenic. So, we got problems if all the shit you're seeing seems completely normal to you."

"In case you haven't noticed, we're in the planning stages.  Have you considered that maybe I need to figure out if it's something I can pull off?  I mean, I'm good, but I am far from the best; I need to know what the hell I'm going to have to do.  I mean, seriously, what part of this seems so bloody unreasonable?  Fionn stopped to collect himself, not wanting to go flying off the handle.  "Go hifreann leat."  He mumbled and shook his head.

"And what's normal for me to see tends to shift - sometimes I wake up with a heavily spammed Access ID, so I tend to filter a lot of crap out."

[HydroRaven]

Clementine rolled her eyes. "Red, you need to learn to shut up at times. Just accept the fact that certain things you can't talk us into doing. If you have any specific questions, just ask them; don't expect us to tell you everything about ourselves."

[Crossbow]

"This is an amazing collection Nick. If we end up filming here in town I'd love to bring a few people out here who would really appreciate it. Our firearms tech would lose it just looking at what you have in this room. Tell me though, why all the security way out here?" Johnny waved his arm around illustrating the compound.

"Gotta be ready when the Ruskies come!"  Nick said conspiritorially looking serious, then laughed "Actually, that was the reason my grandad did this in the first place.  Me?  I just like the toys, and this is how I get to play."

[Novocrane]

"Keep that last bit in mind; if you can't think of a question, who knows to think of the answer? Even going through everything that sticks out, doing so without focus will mean details left out. The chameleon effect isn't complete and footprints are an issue, but we're not going into an empty security clean room with a powdered floor, either."

Looking to steer things back toward actual planning, Ikari continued, If we don't know enough to judge exactly how we're going to do this, do we have any thoughts on salvaging a worst case scenario?"

[RHat]

Fionn mumbled something indelicate under his breath in Gaelic; it wasn't exactly a short phrase, either.  "Again, I say we scout the security first before trying to plan.  If we know what we have to work with, and what we have to deal with, we can see our options clear.  Until then..." He drifted out for a second.

"If you wind up getting caught, our options are going to depend a lot on you not looking like you - anything you can do for that?"

[Novocrane]

Ikari held the moment for slightly longer than necessary. "Given where we're looking, that could be difficult without getting back to Seattle, writing up a more difficult shopping list - or both."

[RHat]

"That certainly makes things more difficult.  Sounds like we're going to need to arrange a distraction...  Which means that how long it's going to take us to lift these."  Fionn appeared to be interacting with something that wasn't really there.  "At the very least, our cover allows for a nice and easy scouting run - almost requires it, really.  So how's about we go and take a run at that?"

He turned to regard Clem and O'Connor.  "Speaking of our cover, if we don't figure out your place in it before not knowing becomes a problem.  So I have two questions to that point.  First, if someone were to use astral perception to check you put, how would you show up?  Second, outside of fighting, is there anything else you're good at or can least pretend to be knowledgable about?"

[Thvor]

"No, everyone isn't as crazy as Nick, or as rich, but his spread is one of the largest, and he has no problem seeing it get all shot to hell."  Running Bear explained as he walked away from the compound.  "Look, Sam, I would be lying if I said I am not concerned that you are going to bring all kinds of foolishness to my little town, but if this is gonna work, you are gonna have to be clear, what is the issue you are having."

Sam looked around cautiously, making sure no-one was listening. "Ok, I'll level with you, John. But you've got to promise me--no one hears about this. If the higher-ups find out that I've told you this, well...losing my job would be the least of my worries." He suppressed a shudder, then went on. "Our company isn't doing too well right now. The last three trids we've put out have been...well, flops, really. The best of them barely pulled in enough to cover production expenses. We hit the bottom of the barrel, scraped all the way through it, and are digging through the dirt below that now. We've managed to keep that hushed up so far--the crew and actors don't even know yet--but if our creditors find out..."

"Anyhow, the decision's been made to make one final, big push. This will either save us all, or be the absolute end for a lot of people. Literally, perhaps. It's risky, but none of us can see any better options. We need something big, something that'll rake in the nuyen without running the budget to hell and back. And my boss, well, he thinks he's found the answer."

Sam started talking faster, as if, having decided to trust his secret to the sheriff, he wanted to say it all before he lost his courage. "Back sixty, seventy years ago, there were a fair number of things called "reality shows". They were huge. People watched them constantly. Didn't seem to matter how hokey the premise, how low the production values were...people watched them. My boss thinks we could tap into that. You know, make a reality trid. And his idea...well, it's a survival-of-the-fittest gig, you know? Take a group of city people and put them out in the wilderness with as little as possible. Maybe not even the clothes on their backs, if we can get away with that. Then see if they can make it home, whether they're willing to break the law to do so, will they work together as a group or fall to infighting...and film it all with hidden camera drones. Maybe even broadcast it live, let people vote on who's going to make it, you know?"

"Thing is, my boss wants me to make sure that our...contestants...can actually pull this off. Which is the real reason for this scouting trip. The trid Ms. Delavine thinks we're going to do? Well, it might happen--we've got an early script that we've shown her--but we couldn't afford to do it right now. Not unless this survival show works out the way we need it to. So, I'm looking around, and I'm getting nervous. If normal people out here are this scared of something--" he gestured at the security again, "--well, I need to know what that is, and figure out if it's going to kill our contestants. Or worse the show. I mean, we expect a certain amount of challenge from wild animals, sure, but are people out here so scared and mistrustful of strangers that they wouldn't be able to get help? Or is there a corporation doing something shady out here that our people might run afoul of? We weren't figuring on anyone getting shot at unless they tried to steal what they needed or tried to sneak across the border or something else equally stupid...but if they could get shot just for going to a random house to ask for help, well..." Sam's courage finally left him, and he broke off, not looking at anything in particular.

[Crossbow]

"No problem," Sammy said as she signed the picture, "say, do you know where the rest of the bunch went?"

"Not really, they haven't come back through since you all left, and you two were the last ones, don't you have their comms?"

[Necrogigas]

"If someone Looked at me, they'd see I have Talent. As for our covers, I know more about firearms that just how to use 'em. I know a lot about firearm design, especially automatics, and a lot about firearm history. I also picked up a bit about advanced maintenance and customization work from my gunsmith buddy. So I guess I could pull off being the firearms expert. But it doesn't have to be that complicated, it'd pro'bly be easiest, for me and Clem both, to say we're the bodyguards and leave it at that. Least that way, we get left alone."

[RHat]

"I thought of that.  But then someone might just ask why the bodyguards aren't with the one famous member of our little group rather than the crew's technical whatever and - shit, I don't even have anything to tell people Icarus is.  I think I can sell you being the firearms tech or something a lot more easily, probably as a follower of the Artisan's Way or something.  Plus, if you're the firearms tech and this place has a gun counter, you can always go poking around there - your presence in and of itself might at least draw a few eyes away."

[Novocrane]

"You could try pinning people to sectors outside the movie industry. Perhaps something indirectly related would better explain security, like angel investor representative?"