Sink, Hollywood, Sink, an experiment in running SR4 Options

[Cthulhudreams]

Dagda

Dagda does a double take.

"Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about him. Feel like I'm having an out of body experience today. Ah well. Sun's almost over the yardarm."

[Glyph]

Dancer - The Meet

When DD sends her information to Dancer, there is an unobtrusive chirp from her commlink, followed by her slipping on a pair of mirrorshades. So apparently, she doesn't walk around experiencing VR by default. Interesting. Her question draws a blank look from Dancer, but as she is about to reply, probably with a question of her own, Blackie walks in.

She gives a brief nod and scoots over for him as he sits down. She acknowledges his comment about the trid with a slight smirk, apparently either not taking it seriously, or not bothered by it. She has to school her face into impassivity, though, when yet another member of the team turns out to be a nicotine freak. But in the end, it's only another annoyance to be overlooked - she needs to make a good impression on the client and her fellow runners, if her fledgeling career here is to go anywhere.

Dagda follows soon after. The tall Russian is a bit sharply dressed for a sports bar, but he would stand out in any attire at all, so she doesn't blame him for saying the hell with it, and dressing to the nines. At least he seems a bit more relaxed than he did at the party. As Blackie lights up, she half-heartedly finishes nibbling on her chicken wing before pushing the plate away a bit, with three of the wings still untouched. She still has a hard time adjusting to how little she eats, these days.

"Carroway should be here soon - he seemed pretty steady. I want to hit the ground running on this job, but maybe we should give him a bit more time. That way, we won't be going over everything twice."

[Fuchs]

DD - Day 1

DD looks a bit puzzled at the sharply dressed russian. His corp style looks contrast a bit with his words. But he looks exotic enough to add to the visual appeal.

Speaking of visual appeal... DD looks both men over, to get a few good shots in. Her simrig is running, as usual, and so she takes in the smell as well, even the smoke from the dark-haired human. Edgy.

Suppressing a cough, DD finishes her fries, then eyes Dancer. She would have expected the ork, as energetic as she is, to polish off another serving, not leave half her plate untouched.

Is she on a diet? Thank god for dietware. But on with the job.

DD sends out what info she gathered so far to the russian and the smoker, thanks the russian for the orange juice, then orders a dessert with enough calories to satisfy a growing troll. Double-Dip-Super-Size-Super-Bowl-Sundae it's called.

Mhhh.

[Tobias]

Carroway – The Meet

On the morning around town he stops off at a couple of coffee shops for a latte and Danish. Sitting down in a cushioned booth he slides out of his body and zips over towards the target giving it a once over, stopping at any wards and trying to be as stealthy about it as possible.

Sliding back into his body he looks down at the now cold half a latte and looks around spotting the clock he swears under his breath, nearly time for the meet. Leaving a large tip for the waitress on the way out he moves to his car and starts the engine. A few blocks away from the CRUSH bar Carroway gets stuck in traffic. Fragging traffic, going to be late if I don’t hurry up. Leaning back in his chair he hits the autopilot to the CRUSH Bar’s car-park and then slides slowly out of his body. Zipping over to the meet at thought speed he ‘sits’ down in the booth and materialises looking both ways.

“Sorry about the lateness cross town traffic is its usual hell, My body should be arriving fairly soon but… lets get back to business.�

[Fuchs]

DD - Day 1

DD flinches a bit when Carroway suddenly materialises in the booth. At first it looks like another AR ad or call, but then...

Magic. Wonder if my simrig picks him up. But flashy indeed.

DD sends an e-note with the info she got to Carroway as well, then digs in her dessert.

Picture

[Cthulhudreams]

Dagda - At the meet

"I like your rakish style," Dagda grins broadly at Carroway appearing in the booth, and letting his physical mask drop during the distraction. "but we are trying to be unobtrusive, and three awakened huddled in a booth with some shady characters is already highly suspicious." He pauses while the waitress dumps his plate of bacon, eggs and sausage infront of him until she is well away from the table.

"Anyway. Lets get on with this introduction bullshit. I'm Skriatok, and I'm a mage, which I'm sure you all know. My focus is on trickery, misdirection and illusions. I'm not a real combat contender, but when the chips are down I'm competent with a gun, have a trick or two up my sleeve, and can lean on my spiritual allies for assistance.

As for this run, I think it has four phases, and I think it should keep the principles of stage magic firmly front of mind...

One - The pledge - infiltration of the compound, which can either be a 'hot' entry were we get in and out with maximum force and disappear before lone star gets here, we move stealthly to until we get sprung and then we revert to the hot plan, or we use a 'soft skills' entry where we combine out talents and trick the guards into letting us in - showing them something ordinary. To decide whats the best plan we need to know where the stuff is, what physical barriers are between us and it, what the security is like, I'm sure you all know what needs to be done here.

Two - the turn- we need to get the vial, and then swap in our decoy so we can fill the 'company does not notice' part of the contract. My current thinking is that they don't know what they've got in their hands, or it is in long term storage, so we only need to make the dummy stand up to a casual inspection. To do this, I think we need to get one of the vials they use to store blood in, engineer it to be as good a replica as we can make it including adding the correct serial number, and then we disappear a SINless and use his blood to fill it.

Three - The prestige - we pull something else to misdirect attention from the real target. We probably need to brainstorm this a bit, so I'm going to open with we find out about some high profile clients, preferably attractive ones, and then steal their medical records and blood samples. I'm sure someone will buy them just to make clones out of, so we might even get a bonus.

Four - Exfilitration. This is a completely open question and depends very heavily on phases one and three so we probably need to nail that down and build some consensus on the inflitration methods. I was pretty sold on running hot in and out, but the idea of a proper covert job is growing on me, even if we just inflitrate a trojan horse.

What do you guys think of that, and what value can we all add?"

[Glyph]

Dancer - The Meet

Dancer listens intently during Dagda's introduction, frowning slightly a few times. When he finishes and looks at the rest of them, she speaks up.

"I'm Kate, and I'm an adept. My main thing is working people, either luring them, turning them, getting information from them, or simply distracting them. But if it all hits the fan, I'm a very good shot, and I'm damn fast."

She turns her head back towards Dagda.

"As far as your planning goes, I'm glad you're starting to lean towards a sneak job. We're all new here - no secret that the Johnson wanted out-of-towners - and I don't want to get a rep as noisy, and get stuck with the cheap, shoot-em-up jobs.

For infiltration, we might as well be subtle, because we're going to need to get in there at least twice. Once to identify the blood sample, not to mention any related materials, and then again, to make the actual switch. Dummying up a fake shouldn't be a problem, and (she pauses to glare at Dagda slightly) we don't need to murder someone just to get a small sample of blood from them."

She pauses and looks thoughtful.

"As far as the "Prestige" goes, I would only grab some other stuff, or look like we're trying to, if the run itself gets compromised. Otherwise, we're just drawing heat on ourselves that we don't need. But we do need to plan for getting made at some point, and getting out quickly. I've done some recon of the neighborhood, but that can wait until everyone's intro'd, and we know what our group can do."

With that, she waits expectantly for someone else to speak.

[Cthulhudreams]

Dagda


Dagda listens intently as Kate outlines her concerns with the infiltration, nodding occasionally and murmuring his agreement, then grinning back when she glares at him. Her emotional outburst is all the more obvious thanks to her perfect control at all other times.

Bah. Our triggerwoman is squeamish about killing people. No point pushing the issue here, but I'll have to champion the cause later. Dead man don't talk, and more importantly don't have any chance of committing a crime and being issued a criminal sin and then ending up on a public record. Maybe I'll have to do it.

Dagda cannot resist impulsively seizing the oppotunity to speak in response to Kate's points

"Two points, I was hoping that we could gather all the infomational background for the job before going on site. Going twice more than doubles the risk of getting made, and getting made on the first exposure blows all chance of getting the money. I also think it's important we do steal something else to create a distraction, because we may very well get made after we've gone past the point where we can no longer steal a distraction. And if we do get made, I would rather that they did have a very clear focus for their crime scene investigation from the beginning, rather than looking for everything."

[Glyph]

Dancer - The Meet

Dancer nods slowly, obviously considering Dagda's words.

"Yeah, if we can find out enough details to dummy up a fake without having to go in there, that would be great. I see your point about giving them something else to focus on, but I'm worried it might make them check everything. And doing an additional theft could make it likelier for us to get made, period. It might still be a good idea, but I guess it depends on their security, and what kind of talent we've got on the team."

[Fuchs]

DD – Day 1, Meeting in the CRUSH! Bar

As expected... the russian’s cold as ice. Cold as Black ICE even. But he talks less corp than he speaks. Scratch that – this plan is pure corp.

DD frowns internally, but keeps a smile on her face.

And Kate’s a shooter. Odd. I’d have thought adepts go for hitting and kicking. Although there’s gun-fu. Could still bne visually appealing for those bullet-time shots.

“I am DD, I specialise in ‘acking. I ’ave also some experience in acquiring information outside the matrix. I am not completely ‘elpless in a fight, but my talents lie elsewhere.�

Her french accent is back with her in “runner mode�, as she calls the mask she wears. The plan from the russian seems cold, but looks to her like it’ll work better – one can’t be completely subtle and sell the sim/trid clips of the run. On the other hand, going in only once sounds safer too.

Best to combine those plans.

“I ‘ave done some data gathering in the matrix already, but nothing too substantial yet. You should all ‘ave gotten the data.�

DD licks the last remains of her dessert’s cream from her sponge, and studies the rest of the team.

“But, speaking of prestige, another point we need to decide is whether we do simsense or trideo recordings, and where we sell them. I’d advice against a delayed live-feed, that may not work with a sneak run. Selling edited clips after the run brings in less money, but is safer, in my opinion.�

DD details some of the prices run recordings go for, and what she expects.

“And, of course, we need a catchy team name or at least run title. That’s ‘alf the sales. Does anyone ‘ave a suggestion?�

[Glyph]

Dancer - The Meet

Dancer has an adept's control over the social cues and visible displays of emotion that most people aren't even aware they are showing. But sometimes, it can be useful to relax that mask. In this case, she doesn't hide her bafflement as she looks around at the others, hoping that they find what DD just said as insane as she does.

"Great," she thinks to herself. "One member of the team is so ruthless and paranoid that he wants to kill a helpless squatter, just to get a dummy blood sample, while another member of the team is casually chirping about selling fragging trideo recordings of the run!"

[Sir_Psycho]

"Excuse me?" Questions Blackie, rubbing his eyes "You want to turn this job into some sort of pseudojournalistic autobiographical crime-porn?"

Excellent. The last thing I need is my face projected through the media corps. Why should I let this... woman drag me in front of the camera again?. He rubs his hands together, feeling the scarred ridges of his hands through his gloves.

[Fuchs]

DD - Day 1, CRUSH! Bar Meeting

DD blinks, her eyes hidden behind her shades. That wasn't the reaction she has expected.

That'll have to be edited out, it'd make us look unprofessional.

"It's reality entertainment, and every runner in L.A. is doing it. How would you want to succeed in L.A. without it?"

[Tobias]

Carroway – At The Meet

Looking around he frowns slightly at everyone’s response to DD’s questions. He shrugs slightly,

“Didn’t you know that’s how things roll in LA? There are usually multiple paparazzi drones around any social event plus any runs. The only problem is the need to make sure they don’t know we’re going for the blood sample. So we can’t really sell the full run. Otherwise the plan sounds fine. Oh I’m Carroway I’m an illusionist in my primary roll not bad in a punch-up and I’m okay at shooting a pistol.�

[Cthulhudreams]

Dagda

"Yeah, I've heard about this tripe, and I have to say I stagger under the weight of my disbelief. But that aside, there are a couple of key issues. One, if any recording of any discussion or action surfaces that could expose the hidden agenda for this task, then we have difficulties. Two, if any recording of us surfaces, the cops are not stupid.

That said I'm nominally in favour of leveraging extra cash via splashing some pictures around. But at the end of the day we need to make sure that any recording is a tightly controlled affair that is an integrated part of our deception agenda."

[Sir_Psycho]

"Apart from this having no journalistic, informative or entertaining weight, this is an operation where our explicit MO is misdirection and subterfuge, where we're going to likely be performing more than a few felonies, we're going to have the cameras rolling?"

Blackie is starting to get mad. His eyes have gone intense, his features sharp, and as he puts his hands down on the desk as he notices them starting to imperceptably shake. Why are they hurting again? The scars are closed up. He decides he better take this time to explain what he's about, and his role in the operation. I need another cigarette, he thinks, as he lights a new cancer-stick off the ember of an old one. He takes a deep drag, slows down, and begins talking

"This is my first time in LA, I'm a shadow photojournalist, so I can't say I haven't done this stuff before. I've broken into places for no reason other than to record. I've got a full recording sensory suite and I'm wired for hot sim. But I personally do not want to take that risk if it's for some sort of LA popularity test, or to make a quick buck. There would have to be a story in it, something to say, rather than just "Look at me!". If a tree falls in the woods, it's just noise.

Anyway. I'm Blackie. I specialize in stealth, surveillance and unorthodox methods of entry and have the skills and the softs to circumvent security systems. I've also got skillwires, in case we have any skill holes we need fixing, and I'm running over ten languages.

I also hack, and speaking of, I've done some digging this morning, when we come to sharing legwork."

[Glyph]

Dancer - The Meet

Dancer schools her face back into calm as the others voice their opinions, although she still looks more resigned than pleased. Well, it looks like most of the other runners are going to go with the run recording idea. At least she can chime in with the Russian, and try to limit their exposure. She's at least seen some of the P2.0 stuff, too, although she hadn't planned on trying to break into it this soon - she is still more than a bit ambivalent about it.

She addresses DD first.

"I agree with Dagda. I've seen a bit of this stuff, and it's usually prerecorded, with the members of the team being really careful to conceal their identities. If we go with it, then we definitely need to go with the distraction, since we will be billing it as the main run. I also want to know how you plan on protecting our identities. Disguises, or post-production work? Considering that we don't know each other that well, I think we need to make sure everyone's concerns have been addressed before we offer a final version to buyers."

She grimaces distastefully at the last part, then turns to Blackie.

"Honestly, I don't like this idea any more than you do. But I guess it's how the business works here. This isn't a story. This isn't art. This is another one of those disgusting things you have to do sometimes, in the shadows. You're the vid expert, so I'll back your play if you have any security problems with this, but not if your main objection is that it's too fluffy for you."

[Fuchs]

DD - Day 1, CRUSH! Bar meeting

DD listens to Blackie's outburst, noting his specialities.

Nice. Angst and rage against the system, that should bring in the rebel teenage audience! Quite some overlap with my skills too, so we'll be able to contrast that nicely in the field!

Then she smiles at Kate, even though she can't really understand the ork girl's reaction.

Doesn't she want to be famous and rich? She was acting a bit differently last night.

"Oh, I think it would be best if we use both post-production editing as well as some disguise. A flashy disguise would be best, it makes for a better product, and that means more money."

DD points at herself.

"This isn't 'ow I usually look, for example. It's my runner role."

DD pauses for a second.

Bad wording... Darky err... Blackie might not like that... hm...

"You could also call it a cover identity. It actually makes the running safer, since anyone will 'ave to find the runner behind the runner role."

DD hasn't much of a clue if it works that way, but it might help getting Blackie on the boat.

"Oh, and I am running a full simsense rig. Although what I got so far is not really suitable for publishing, since you don't seem to 'ave taken your roles yet. We might 'ave to stage a second "first meeting" later, to get a good opener for the production."

Although that brooding rebel outburst was just perfect, what a waste to let it drop...

[Cthulhudreams]

Dagda

"So to briefly recap this P2.0! Live! Blog! Feed! Bullshit! we are okay with it if it is part of a authorized deception effort by the group, and if any unauthorized recordings appear on the street we are going to work out who the fuck thought that was a good idea and then ruthlessly butcher them.

Have cleared that up, back to the job. With two illusionists and some significant soft skills up front, some sort of 'covert entry' is probably pretty viable if we can work out how to get past the wards that shield the place. So lets have a look at what we know.

I know they have watcher based astral cover, and a thick ward covering. This probably means that have somewhere between two and four mages and staff to keep all the gear ticking over, or have paid for some serious security with the star, or both.

What do you guys know?"

[Fuchs]

DD - Day 1, CRUSH! Bar meeting

"I 'ave already sent you what I 'have gathered so far."

Yes, the russian is a good cast for the cold ruthless type.

"What kind of covert entry are you thinking about? Sneaking in, or infiltrating by posing as an authorised visitor/employe? Or a combination of both?"

[Cthulhudreams]

Dagda

Dagda relaxes and grins now that the unpleasantness is in the background "If they have left one of the employee entrances unwarded, I actually think abducting one of the employees who has clearance to access the rooms and just.. walking in.. would be a relatively neat play, but I'm not sure if it will fly. While I have no doubt that Carroway and I could make, say, the two women in very convicing fakes, the ward protection might kill that.

If we have to do a double entry, we'll have to do both. Can we get Blackie to eye over the floor plan and see what the physical security might look like?

I think the first steps are fairly obvious. You infiltrate the 'trix systems and rip off enough info to give us a floorplan and enough info to develop a picture of the physical and matrix security. Myself or Carroway team up with Blackie and go down to the place itself, looking for their medical waste disposal so we can find a vial or two to modify, develop a complete picture of the astral security, and the physical security. I'm not sure we have enough info to fully cover off on the what the best infiltration plan is."

[Fuchs]

DD - Day 1, CRUSH! Bar Meeting

"Another angle is the personell. We could see if some of their people 'ave or are some weaknesses."

I doubt they'll throw a party in there in the next weeks, but you'll never know. L.A. seems like a town such things could happen.

DD leans back, and goes full VR for a moment, to run a quick matrix search in case there's a picture of the vials on the corporation's PR data and ads.

[ Spoiler ]

Data Search for pictures of the vials
Browse 5 + Data Search 3 + 2 (Running VR)
Data Search for pictures of the vials: Browse 5 + Data Search 3 + 2 (Running VR) (1d6=6, 1d6=6, 1d6=3, 1d6=5, 1d6=4, 1d6=1, 1d6=2, 1d6=2, 1d6=1, 1d6=1) 3 hits

[Fuchs]

DD - Day 1, CRUSH! Bar Meet

Bingo!

DD locates a PR photo of the corp, depicting their "safe, clean laboratory practices". With a little bit of image zooming, She gets a clear picture of the vials. She sends it to the rest of the group.

"Here's a picture of the vials."

[Cthulhudreams]

Dagda

"Nice work. Can you find out who the manufacturer is? Or maybe see if you can find a waste contractor announcing securing them as a contract? We might even be able to rent some 'instant office spare' and actually just con a real vial out of a manufacturer's rep."

[Fuchs]

DD - Day 1, CRUSH! Bar Meeting

A few moments in the matrix show DD that the vials are rather standard products, made by various companies. She relies this to the team.

"Those vials are common products. There are several companies producing them in California alone. The site will probably 'ave empty vials as well."