Hitting Bottom - Third Wave, Adam, Jonathan, Harriet and Caittie Options

[adamu]

Adam
Wednesday 5/14/70 19:20:00

"Y25,000, and she works where I say, and she knows the score. She's gotta know if she steps outta line one time, she is back on her back."

[BlackHat]

Adam
Wednesday 5/14/70 19:20:00

"That sounds fair, but whether or not I can agree to that, depends on where you're going to say she works, and what you mean by 'knowing the score'." Adam couldn't quite tell if he was winning ground, or if Franco was just planning on selling her to different clients - and allowing her to pay him back with whatever measly cut she normally got. In any case, it sounded like his 'employer' might not have to worry about setting her up in some make-believe job, if Franco had something acceptable for her to do, and wanted to handle it himself (presumably, so he gets the profit, and not Adam's employer). Of course, in the few minutes Adam had spent with Franco, he knew enough about him to know that whatever he was planning on having Shwen do - it wasn't going to be good. Then again, whatever it was was probably better than being with the three guys he had lined up for her tonight.

"The intention of my original proposal was to allow my employer to arrange for her to get out of this lifestyle, as she desires, and to set her up with a decent job." Adam put emphasis on the word 'decent'. "He would also be able to insure that her wages adequately covered her living expenses, and provided her with enough leftover earnings to pay off her 'debt' to you. I'm sure you're familiar with the concept of funneling money from one person, to another, through such means."

"However, if you would like to arrange such a job, yourself - so that you can keep a better eye on her - I don't see anything wrong with that. Rather than it being a token position, you would be able to profit from whatever job she is given, in addition to being paid back with the same money that you're paying her with. Of course, it goes without saying that this new job would need to be a great deal more 'respectable' than her last one - and that her wages would necessarily be sufficient to cover the costs of a minimal lifestyle, in addition to meeting her payments. If the job you give her makes it impossible for her to pay you on time, we would have no choice but to believe that you set her up for failure so that you could default on our deal - and proceed with your original, unacceptable, plan."

"I also hope it goes without saying that further mistreatment of her while she is in your employ would be considered a similar 'breech of contract'. I understand your desire to have her realise what is at stake if she messes up this opportunity - so you have our blessing to scare her with the details of what you have planned - but we would like to see you treat her with a little bit more 'respect' this time around."

"That said, what are you proposing to have her do, and what would it leave her with at the end of the month?"

[DireRadiant]

Harriet
Wednesday 7/2/70 04:34:00

"...C12."

Harriet stared at Monica. It seemed an eternity, but barely a few seconds passed.

Numbly she nodded curtly and mentally rebooted her commlink while she pointed at her sisters commlink.

Monica shook her head and pointed at the troll in gray coveralls.

Glassily Harriet watched yet another artifact of her hard earned work and trust pour away in a brightly colored stream of blinking ARO icons. The stream of highly secure encrypted data codes blinked across the room, flashing over the gurney where a pair of orks were working on her brother...nothing left, nothing... except...

"Cerri..." carefully not looking directly at her sister, but at Morris, Harriet, "You never could have asked me for that before, before..."

In hushed tones, barely whispered, "Never. But we need help, and this is the way to repay it."

"They trusted me."

Monica stepped half a step back, letting her hands fall, "And what did the smoothies do?" Her voice sharp, she continues, "Look at you! Trust, Loyalty, guts, FEZZZZ, to the bone they work you. From -nothing- you've become the best."

"AND THEY THREW YOU AWAY!"

Harriet clenched her jaw and stubbornly kept herself half turned away, looking at the work on her brother.

Monica sighed inaudibly yet visibly, and moved to stand by Harriet's shoulder. "I know. I know. Only for Morris."My blood, why I fight this fight, the blood and guilt, because they are worthy and honorable and deserve far far better then this world offers. No one else takes care of us, so I must.

Grimly Harriet nods... for you too my sister, though you would never ask...

Holding hands they watched as their brothers leg is tossed into biological waste container.

[adamu]

Adam
Wednesday 5/14/70 19:22:00

Franco listened politely to Adam's ultimatums and questions, but did not reply. Once Adam stopped talking he yelled to the ork - "Freddie, get her set up in the restaurant. She's suddenly too good for the life, she can find out what it's all of sudden like to stand around in four-inch heels twelve hours a day and smile at crappy tippers - just like all the nice girls she thinks she wants to be. Get her moved into that basement room they got there - she ain't gonna be able to keep those fancy digs of hers on what she'll be taking home from this gig. And let her know the deal - one fucking time she slips up, and she's back to square one, starting by being Bruno's Christmas bonus."

Freddie left.
And Franco turned to Adam, with a look that practically begged him to complain.

[adamu]

Harriet
Saturday 7/5/70 18:00:00

Harriet and Monica had stayed long enough to know that Morris was stable, and then some orks Harriet had never seen took her underground - literally. Monica explained that she had to establish her presence elsewhere, because the police would question her right away.

They'd taken her through one of the Downtown Underground's many secret entrances, and into a tiny mom and pop convenience store in an obsure corner of a fairly isolated pocket of residences. Through the back past the graying storekeepers and into a bustling office. Young orks and trolls, as well as a couple of dwarves and even a human, bustled around speaking into their comms and working on AR charts, shuffling hard copy materials and chatting, all with a determined sense of urgency and self-importance. Some looked as though they belonged in the Underground, but most wore corp garb or university jerseys. A few hippie types. All young, all educated-looking.
Her guides took her into a small apartment, showed her the fridge and the facilities, and told her Monica would be with her as soon as possible. The walls were adorned with three different Greg Jackson posters, and she was not at all surprised to see a few SOS banners on the bathroom door.

That had been three days ago, and she was getting stir crazy. For the first couple days she was happy to just sleep and cry and lick her burned hands. The room was painted to block comm signals, and the girls that restocked the fridge explained that they had to limit who she came in contact with - not about trust, but no one held up against a mind probe spell.

She was just about to say fuck it and just leave, when Monica walked into the room and gave her a hug. She wore a suitably sympathetic expression, but tried to be upbeat.
"Cerri, there's a lot of news you need to hear. It's pretty much all bad. Are you ready?
"The quaalz want you bad. They're coming after you like they only come after someone who flatlined one of their own. They're a tight bunch, and more than that, the examples they make of cop killers are generally better at keeping them alive than a fleet of armored vehicles.
"One got away, honey, and so there's an eyewitness to you killing five officers. Besides that, VB is convinced you stole a couple mil, and they've used that to establish motive in Andy's death. And they say they have hard evidence of that, but I haven't seen it.
"You're gonna need a lot of help, Harriet, and there are a lot of people around here that say you're too hot even for us to handle. Fortunately you gave me a nice little something to bargain with in your favor - it's amazing the kind of favors fifty kilos of C12 plastique can buy from a revolutionary group."

[Konsaki]

Caittie
Saturday 8/16/70 14:26:42

‘Get used to my new life… how do I do that?’, Caittie asked herself as she sat there looking into the sky through waving leaves. The sun was flashing through leaves, causing a strobe like affect, making her squint a little. Turning up the shade on her glasses, they darkened enough to let her open her eyes while still letting her see through them.
She just sat there trying to enjoy the nice Saturday afternoon in the open park. The first time in a couple of days that she could actually relax and though it was nice out here, she had a lot on her mind. “Caittie Dreamer…”she repeated out loud to the wind as she started reading over her new SIN information.


Saturday 8/16/70 16:01:24

Closing the open window in her AR vision, Caittie got up from where she was sitting and walked around the tree to stretch her legs. She read over her “history”, but it still seemed like another person’s life, not hers. ‘I doubt it ever will…’, she though as she finished stretching her legs.
For a while she just wandered the immediate area, not wandering too far away from her backpack. It felt good to get up after sitting for that long. Feeling thirsty, she walked back to her backpack and picked it up as she then looked for a water fountain she saw earlier. Spotting it off in the distance, she headed that way with no real urgency.

Ever since talking with Rebecca, she had been wondering what she should be doing. She didn’t have any money to spare to go to a club, nor was she hungry at the moment. She couldn’t go back to school, and she didn’t have any friends to hang out with. She sorted through all the options that came to her mind and couldn’t find any that worked.
Upon reaching the fountain, she started drinking to relieve the thirst but halfway though an idea came to her. As she finished drinking, she though, ‘I could always practice on forming sprites. They seem useful and Rebecca has a few it seems.’
Deciding on that plan, she looked for a place she could go VR for a little bit to try out her plan. Finding an old oak tree with a bench under it, she sat down and set her things beside her. Trying to get comfortable, she relaxes and then wills herself into the world of data streams.

To an outward observer, Caittie was just resting her eyes while sitting on a shaded bench. To Caittie, she was now in a barren room, cause she had not changed any of the setting on her new commlink yet. Sighing, she put that on her something to do list as she prepared to create a new sprite.
Taking a deep breath, she held a hand up palm up like she did last time. Concentrating on the area around her, she started to warp the data into something she wanted it to be. Motes of light drifted slowly into her hand and gathered into the same sun-like ball of light as before. She let grow until it was the same size as before, but this time she pushed it a little farther. It grew quickly, almost too quickly and before she could clench her hand tight to stop it from growing, it was double the size.
She grabbed her arm to quell the shaking caused by her trying to hold in the energy as she brought it in towards her. She then thrust her fist out and opened it, palm facing away from her... Then time sort of stopped for a split second and Caittie swore she heard an etheral laughter. Then just as time stopped it sped up again, with an explosion of energy concentrated at her hand.
Her form was blown backwards by a great blastwave of energy and light. As her avatar few backwards, she jerked forward and grabbed her head in pain in the real world...

[BlackHat]

Adam
Wednesday 5/14/70 19:22:10

Despite Franco's expression, Adam was not about to argue. He simply smiled, and offered the mobster his gloved hand. "That sounds perfectly acceptable, Mr. Balducci." Inside, he felt like a bomb had gone off in his heart. Sure, it was going to be a crappy job, and she would be living a shitty lifestyle, but at least she wasn't going to be subjected to the torture Franco had planned for her - plus, he knew he would be able to help her out a little, and figured Tyisha might be able to help a little bit too. It wasn't a total victory, but he felt like he was getting most of what he wanted. He could only hope that, after pointing out a number of bad things that might come about because of the original plan, and offering him an alternative that still left him mostly in control, that Franco felt the same way.

"Unless we have anything else to discuss, I will let you get back to your buisness. My employer will be most pleased to hear that we have come to an understanding."

[adamu]

Adam
Wednesday 5/14/70 19:22:30

Franco stood up and leaned across the table to shake Adam's hand, then sat back down. "Actually, yeah, there are two more things. First, you go back and tell your 'employer' that if he ever sends a mouthpiece to me that even mentions my family, I am sending the mook's head back to him with a bomb in it. You'd do best to remember that yourself, 'cuz it ain't no idle threat."
Franco smiled, as if to hit a reset button on the conversation. "Second, I wanna ask you, now that our business is complete - you work for this mystery employer on exclusive contract, or you freelance?"

[BlackHat]

Adam
Wednesday 5/14/70 19:22:40

Adam nodded, "I assure you, I will pass the message along - and should he, in the future, decide to go against this advice - I will make sure to remember not to accept the job." He then paused for a moment before answering the second question.

He was torn. On one hand, he was counting on washing his hands of this thing (and these people) once he was out of this meeting. On the other, if he gave Franco the impression that he was loyal to his 'employer' there was a larger chance he would take actions to track Adam down in an attempt to get more information on this 'employer'. Of course, on a third hand, Adam had gotten quite a rush during this last negotiation - and the careless daredevil part of him was definatly curious about this potential opportunity.

Adam finally answered, "Our contract doesn't extend beyond this meeting - although, should he need my services here in the future, I would expect him to contact me. I'm confident in his pleasure with my service-record. As for my freelance status..." Adam looked across the table at the mobster. "Lets just say, I am not exactly advertising for new contracts - and my impression of your employee-morale could use some improvement - but I would definately be interested in hearing details if there is something you think I could help you with."

Adam started thinking about how he would keep in touch with Franco - he definatly wasn't going to give him his personal number... but maybe he could get himself a spare commlink to use for these sorts of communications - having one certainly would have made his life easier earlier today when he was cleaning up his data signature, and spoofing a new ID.

"As long as we're clear that I'm not really looking for an exclusive contract, either."

[adamu]

Adam
Wednesday 5/14/70 19:24:00

"Fair enough." Franco came around the table and offered his hand. "I won't say it was a pleasure, but you conducted yourself quite well. Stay as long as you like - drinks and dances on the house. On your way out, make sure and let the doorman know how I can reach you."

[BlackHat]

Adam
Wednesday 5/14/70 19:24:20

Adam shook Franco's hand to 'seal the deal' and said, "I won't be staying long."

He meant it too. Besides wanting to put some space between himself and the mob for a while, he wanted to maintain his 'professional' look - and a professional wouldn't sit around drinking booze and looking at boobies while his boss was waiting for his response. Well, they might, but Adam didn't want Franco thinking that that was how he behaves.

How was Franco going to contact him?

Assuming Franco was going to stay at his table, Adam turned to leave. On his way out, he retrieved his tazer from the doorman, and said, "Tell Franco that once I complete this contract, I will arrange a way for him to contact me."

And with that somewhat enigmatic statement, he left. He needed to touch bases with Tyisha, Shwen, and Sally tonight. His queue of jobs seemed to be filling up faster than he would like.

[Konsaki]

Caittie
Saturday 8/16/70 16:05:10

Caittie’s head throbbed with each pulse of her heart. She could feel the blood pumping through the veins in her brain, and each contraction of her heart caused more pain in her head. As she just sat there on the bench and held her aching head, she could feel the lightest pressure on her scalp and it felt like needles pricking her wherever her hands touched.
She just sat there for what seemed like forever with her eyes closed, trying to block out the pain. Slowly opening her eyes to the real world, her natural reflex caused her to flinch as the suns rays burned into her eyes, causing more pain. She wondered why she hurt so much, wanted to think about what went wrong, but thinking hurt too much right then. With that painful realization, she just sat there with her eyes closed for a while longer...


Monday 8/18/70 12:40:25

The clouds in the sky blocked out most of the sun, causing a graying effect to blanket the city of Seattle. As Caittie sat outside a local Stuffer nursing a hot cup of instant ramen, she was thankful she had a longsleeve shirt to use as a jacket, as a cool breeze caused by a incoming cold front swept past. Looking at the dingy grey sky, she thought back on the past two days and as she noted what she accomplished, she smiled at how well she was doing on her own.
Each morning, Caittie had started up a regimen of stretching out, working out her muscles some with some pushups and sit-ups, then running around the surrounding streets. Afterwards, she would look for some online textbooks and continue her studies like she never stopped going to school. Thinking back on it, while she never really disliked the classes, she got bored waiting for some of the other people to finish. Shrugging the last thought off, she opened the cup of ramen and started eating out of it, using the chopsticks provided.
Somewhere in each day, she continued to work on her innate abilities, usually by trying to create a new sprite. She thought about her failed attempt back at the park, and once the pain went away, how she had analyzed what had happened afterwards. She planned out her next try in her head later that day and on her next try, was successful. A woman dressed in black cloths, named Shadow, was the outcome of the event. She had been very irritated at Caittie for pulling her from her ‘there’, but wouldn’t say anything on what ‘there’ was. When Caittie tried to register the sprite, it was a long and painful struggle of power. Shadow did not want to serve her and though Caittie succeeded; her head throbbed with great pain.

*Ping* ‘Thunderstorms are expected to hit the Greater Seattle area around three o’clock PM today. It looks like it will be a heavy one with at least one inch of rain per hour and up to two inches. You might want to get indoors, chummers, cause it doesn’t look to be letting up for a while once it gets here.’
Caittie looked up into the grey sky and watched the clouds move in an eastern direction and sighed. As she heard the weather advisory in her mind finish up. ‘I’m glad I set up my new commlink. I would have been in a lot of trouble if I had been caught outside.’, she told herself as she started to wolf down her cooling ramen. She had just finished setting the commlink up this very morning, and it was already paying off.

Later on this same morning, Caittie had continued to train her ability and succeeded in creating another sprite who, while weaker than Shadow, was more cooperative. Cid, as he called himself, was willing to work for Caittie as it would allow him to examine and inhabit the machines of our world easier. Indeed, he looked like a engineer out for a good day of tinkering with his white smock, magnifying glasses, tool belt, and mischievous grin.
When she asked him about the ‘there’ that Shadow had let slip, he gave Caittie a knowing grin. “I can’t tell you anything other than you will find out on your own when ready.”, is all he would say to her on the matter. This annoyed Caittie a bit as she thought he was treating her like a child, but let the matter drop.
As she drank the last bit of broth in the bottom of the cup, she shook off the thoughts and chill that a fresh breeze blew in. Looking up a traffic guide online, she set a waypoint for the nearest mall and set out towards it after throwing away her trash. ‘It’s going to be the first rainy day since that happened... I need an umbrella or something. If anything, I’ll be out of the rain for a while in the mall.’, she decided as she walked. ‘Hopefully I can get there before the bottom drops out.’


Monday 8/18/70 14:57:16

The sky had turned a nasty black color that lit up in places as lightning flashed in the clouds. Caittie was getting nervous about the rain headed her way even though she could see the mall across the giant parking lot. Pulling up a live radar feed on the weather, she saw a massive red blob covering the west half of the city and slowly crawling it's way eastward.
'Oh shit, nonononono!', was all Caittie thought as she started running towards the mall. It seemed like it took forever and that she would never get inside before the rain caught up to her, but she finally made it under the overhang that protected the doors inside. Just as she reached out to open the door, a lightning bolt flashed and thunder ripped through the air. Looking behind her, she saw a pure wall of water moving across the parking lot as the rain moved towards the east. Thankfull she made it there in time, Caittle headed inside the multi-tier building...

[DireRadiant]

Harriet
Saturday 7/12/70 14:16:34

...bargains...

Harriet didn't want to argue, just went with the flow. It had been a long time since she had let someone else handle anything for her, in fact, it was pretty much never. But Monica was the one in charge now, had the connections and friends to keep her safe while she sorted this out, if she ever could. There was very little to care about anymore. Andy was gone, and what was clear, but not spoken between the two sisters, Harriet wasn't going to get to see Morris anymore. Well, she'd seen him. But looking at a doped out skinny tusker on a recovery bed wasn't the same as seeing her brother smile when she visited. A smile she wasn't going to see again. It was obvious Monica wasn't quite saying she couldn't see him, but enough hints about whether it would be a good idea, and though she hadn't been shy about saying it before, the fact she was avoiding saying how unreliable a chiphead was, Harriet could draw her own conclusions. Someday Morris would be back on the street, out of his mind, wearing someone else's really, and the Star might pick him up. It was safer for everyone, especially Morris if he thought she was dead.

In the meantime there was a surgery scheduled for noon the next day, that being the slow time in the UG, and some work to do in the meantime. She'd gotten out of those rooms, and gotten a set of maintenance tasks that didn't involve running a crew. There was a lot environmental machinery behind maintenance schedules that were really important to the UG. Harriet could really help out with keeping them ship shape and diagnose some of the problems, and all she needed would be one guide to watch over her, simple enough. At first she thought Big Jimmy was just someone that Monica knew, but apparently he was much more then that. He was coming along on tonights little chat.

--------------
Saturday 7/12/70

Big Jimmy had been worried. He'd heard the stories about the tusker woman, but didn't believe it. He'd been watching her the past week, ever since she'd been assigned to his Facilities shift. She certainly knew her stuff, no problem there. Freight 3 had never worked before, but she'd gotten it going, which meant finally they could bring down the heavy duty forklifts in one piece instead of taking them up and down in several parts, which was really tedious. And Sump Station 38 was running again, which should keep the sewage out of the east chamber schoolyard. And Blower 6 wasn't making that noise anymore. He was going to get a lot of credit for all the repairs getting done. Which was kind of worrying, he might need to keep on making repairs.

He wasn't worried about whether she could do the work, and she'd been quiet. Even with the inevitable setbacks, she'd just shrugged and gone on to the next step. She was too cool about stuff that would make Big Jimmy break some of his tools. he wasn't sure she'd have what it would take to do the job.

Turned out he was wrong. That night he and the tusker woman had waited in the passageway for Torrence, the unfaithful snitch. It made Big Jimmy mad just thinking about one of his own being a stoolie, he'd been ready to work him over all by himself, but the cell leadership had told him to watch the tusker woman do it and report. He wasn't sure what she could do that he couldn't with his fists, but he did what he was told. He hadn't said anything when she had pulled out a 5 kilo hammer head and screwed it to the length of pipe she'd carried into the passageway. She'd knocked out the lights, then waited so quietly he hadn't been sure was still there till Torrence has showed up. At his double pat, the agreed upon signal, she stepped right up in front of him, and swung the hammer in a circle so quick he didn't even see it move. One moment it was loose behind her, the next it make a horrible sick crunch and was bouncing off of what was left of Torrence's left foot. Torrence didn't even make a sound as he bent over.

Two smashed knees, a dislocated elbow, five pulverized fingers, and a separated shoulder later Torrence was moaning he would tell them everything before she finally said anything. She stood over him and told him that was the problem, that he was too willing to tell everyone anything, that she already knew everything he could say. Then she turned him over to Big Jimmy.

He didn't do anything except kneel down next to Torrence and tell it to him straight. If Torrence didn't keep his big mouth shut about whatever he might know was happening in the UG, then the tusker woman would be back. He told Torrence, cross his heart and hope to die, that the tusker woman liked to burn people alive, and Big Jimmy was just there to make sure it didn't happen this time. Torrence ought to consider himself lucky.

"Smash and burn... this the smash, next time it's the burn."

Big Jimmy believed the stories now, he was now worried about never making the tusker woman mad.

[DireRadiant]

Harriet
Monday 7/13/70 10:47:16

Transcript 90a72hf97dsdf87bb1234

T: The matter of our latest recruit, do we have a report?
S: She fit in well immediately in the work place.
T: And the mission?
S; Very impressive, her minder is worried for himself.
M: He's always worrying about something.
T: Any objection with proceeding the enhancements.
S: None.
M: I want this on the record.
T: You have an objection?
S; But she's your...
M: I know I know. But I want this understood by all. She is not dedicated to the cause.
T: I understand, this makes her more suitable for some tasks though.
S: But she did the mission?
M: As long as we all understand.
S: But why is she doing this then?
M: Because she has nothing else, and she's going to do her best for herself.
T: And for you.
M: Yes for me.
S: Personal loyalty is not allowed. It can be detrimental to us.
T: That has been factored in.
S; I don't like this then.
M: Neither do I.
M: But it is necessary, and will serve our purposes.
S: And your personal ones!
T: That is incorrect, I am certain both of them would prefer this is not necessary at all.
M: Sacrifices must be made.
S: But your own...!
T: That's not what's being sacrificed.
S; I don't understand.
T: It's a matter of principle.
S; I still don't understand.
M: Let's end this. As long as the situation is on record, and most of us understand that she is not dedicated to the cause and comprehend what that means. What's needed to be done will be done. The enhancement step has my approval. That should close this matter immediately.
S: It doesn't make sense to me.

of course not, you left behind your litter long ago, there's more to life then the cause, without life and love there would be no cause...

[BlackHat]

Adam
Wednesday 5/14/70 19:25:30

Adam stepped outside of the club and resisted the urge to call Tyisha or Shwen right away. He casually walked down the street, about a block ,before signalling a taxi over the matrix. While he waited, he had a lot of time to go over what had just gone down. Am I actually going to come back here and give Franco a contact number? Adam still wasn't convinced one way or the other. Tonight was exciting, and it was something new that he hadn't ever really tried out before - and it struck him that what everyone had been telling him all day might actually be true - that he was "charmed" and the kind of guy who can talk someone out of something crazy.

But Adam had felt this way about a lot of things in the past: his modeling career, his time spent working in retail, various girls he had dated. And, with all of these things, the excitment quickly faded, and Adam lost interest when something else came along. The only thing he had really stuck with for any length of time was college, and that was because it allowed him to experience new things, and meet new people, all the time.

Working for Franco to facilitate a few negotiations might be fun, but Adam wondered how long it would remain fun - and how Franco would react if he started turning down jobs. Another consideration was that this was dangerous work. That's what made it exciting, but what if the next guy Adam meets with doesn't have Franco's cheery outlook on life, and actually does smash Adam's nose into the table - or worse.

Adam didn't need the money that badly, and mostly agreed to keep Franco happy, and to keep him from following Adam home to learn more about this 'employer'.

At about that time, the cab pulled up, and Adam snapped back to the present. Yeah, I better make sure I'm not followed. Once in the cab, he started messing with his commlink again, spoofing a new ID in case Franco had anyone scanning for the last one he used. He entered in directions to the Ram's Head. It was about 7:30 and they should still be open. He just hoped Tyisha was still working.

As the cab pulled away, he tried calling Shwen from this new commcode - hoping it was secure enough that Franco wouldn't catch him doing it. It rang a few times before directing him to her voicemail. I had forgotten how great her voice is. He hung up, without leaving a message. Chances are she was either busy, not taking calls because she was still sulking, or didnt' recognise the number - in any case, Adam figured Franco had access to her comm - and might recognise Adam's voice.

Instead, he sent a text message to Tyisha, since calling her at work might be rude. "Meeting concluded. Good news is on its way. -A" He couldn't help but keep it cryptic and short. He was still a little worried that Franco might be watching his digital actions - plus the idea of Tyisha getting a random text message from an unknown person, with a cloak-and-dagger response was pretty cool.

Adam
Wednesday 5/14/70 19:37:45
As the cab dropped him off outside the Ram's Head and by now, Adam had reconfigured his commlink back to his old ID. He entered the bar, and grabbed a seat at an empty table, and looked around for Tyisha. It didn't take him long to spot her leaning over another table, taking orders. When she turned around, he waved and hoped she hadn't noticed him admiring the way her thong rode up in the back.

She had to look twice to make sure it was him - she wasn't used to seeing Adam in a suit and tie. She glanced around to make sure her manager wasn't watching, and then rushed over to his table and sat down. "What happened? What did he say?"

Adam held up a hand to calm her down, "We talked. I managed to convince him that Shwen had powerful people looking out for her well-being, and hinted that if he put her through all of that, these people could make his life very hard." He took in a deep breath, "You wern't kidding. That is one scarey dude."

"But, in the end, he bought it. He thought I was just a professional negotiator, and I got him to cancel his plans for Shwen, and offer her a way out of that lifestyle. He's going to charge her :nuyen: 25,000 for his trouble, but is giving her a new job - in one of his restaurants - so she can slowly pay it off. It won't be a good lifestyle, but I'm hoping she's happy with that over the alternatives. In a year, if she doesn't fuck up - he said he'd let her go."

"I also couldn't get a hold of her to prepare her for how its going to go down. So, if you talk to her soon, see if she's happy about it or not - but don't let on that you know anything... I'm expecting the mob to tap her commlink. This new life isn't going to be a vacation or anything, but its a hell of a lot better than what was waiting for her at 10 o'clock tonight."

The look in Tyisha's eyes said that she was happy with the news, at least, so Adam's confidence returned a little. "Thank you Adam. I owe you forever! I'm sorry I had to drag you into this...." She reached out and took his hand.

Adam cut her off before she went too much further. "Of course, if she fucks up, and pisses him off again, he's in a position to throw her back at the wolves... so I hardly saved her - I just bought her some more time, and an opportunity to dig her way out of this mess. If you and I help her out, too, I think she'll have no problem making her payments."

Adam's face got the biggest smile he'd had in days. "Acutally, I am kind of proud of it. I managed to convince him to handle getting her a new job, manage the payments, and make her think she was earning it all on her own, without showing my hand - which is good, because there is no way I could have paid what he was originally asking." He felt relief, and was glad to get a chance to sit down before taking off. "Oh yeah, that's the other thing. As far as they know, I don't know Shwen, and she doesn't know about her 'benefactor'... so let's see if we can keep this between us, okay?"

After spending a few minutes chatting with Tyisha and answering her questions about the details (carefull of the other patrons evesdropping), Adam shut his mouth just before her boss rounded the corner and politely asked her to get back to work. He sounded calm, but he looked pretty angry. Adam ordered a drink to help calm his nerves, and then said goodbye to Tyisha a few minutes later. "Give me a call if you hear anything - but be discrete. We don't want those guys changing their minds." He gave her a little wink before paying for his drink and heading out.

One last thing to take care of.... Adam wasn't really looking forward to meeting with Sally. He was excited earlier, but after all he had been through tonight - he kind of just wanted to go home and go to sleep. But this was a favor for Jeff, and Adam had already said he'd do it. Somehow, after playing chicken with a mob-boss, mediating the petty disputes between two frat houses didn't really seem as interesting. Better give her a call and see if she's still waiting for me.

Adam called her up, hoping she wouldn't answer - but she did. "Hey Ads! Take care of your stuff already?"

Adam winced. "Er, yeah. I can be there in like, an hour. I'm gonna change and get my bike." He wanted to get out of his suit, maybe grab another quick shower to get the smell of smoke, booze and sex off of him, and was tired of paying cab fare to get around town.

"Oh just come over. I don't care what you're wearing." She seemed anxious, and seemed to think he was planning on dressing up instead of dressing down.

"I'm warning you. I smell like a bar." Adam couldn't help but laugh. It was good to be among good people again.

She paused for a second as if slowly putting things into place in her head. "Where did you say you had to go earlier?"

"A friend of mine was in some trouble - I had to talk to her boss. His place reeks - besides, I'm like a half-hour walk from campus already." If she was going to be insistant on him coming, he was going to try to get her to offer him a ride.

"I'll come pick you up. We can talk along the way."

"Cool. I ended up back at the Ram's Head." That didn't take much work.

Adam
Wednesday 5/14/70 19:34:12

Adam paced up and down the street, waiting for his ride. He was running a few things through his mind - still trying to make up his mind about this new opportunity. Keeping close to Franco put him in a good position to keep an eye on the way he treated Shwen - but if she saw him before being informed of the plan, she might ruin things by giving away the fact that she knows him. He would have to find a descrete way of contacting her.

He was also going to need some gear. A new commlink at least - one not registered with his SIN, and that he could wipe clean at a moment's notice. And a gun. If he was going to be expected to go face to face with mobsters like Franco - he was going to want to be packing a little more than an off-the-shelf self-defense taser. Not too much more, though. He still wanted nothing to do with the violence and crime part of the mob - but he was interested in handling some of their negotiations. I wonder if I could get Franco to pay for some of this gear. Guess I won't know until I give him a way to contact me. I'm gonna have to do that first thing in the morning.

After about 10 minutes of waiting, a car pulled up alongside him. Adam could tell by the sorority letters in the back window, and the fact that few student could afford a car like this, that it was probably his ride. Luckily, Sally's parents treatet her like a princess.

He walked over and opened up the door. "Nice suit," Sally seemed amused.

"Thanks." Adam replied, as the car pulled away. "Its my job-interview suit.... It hasn't let me down yet."

[DireRadiant]

Sledge
Wednesday 7/22/70 23:30:06

"WELCOME TO THE UNDERGROUND" proclaimed the banner, a real plastic sign, almost impossible to make out was the small text, "AFSCE Local 34578". The large hall was very spacious, filled with a few hundred metas all here as part of the traditional welcoming event offered for new residents. Along one side were a few tables where a 3 of the local political figures were shaking hands and passing out literature. On stage, which was actually a performance pit, lower then the rest of the room, a local cover band continued mangling most of last summer's top twenty Goblin Rock bombs.

On a unfinished rock ledge Harriet sat alone. The surgery had gone well, and the full body cosmetic changes that had been thrown in made her both feel and look entirely different. At least physically, inside she was still pretty numb and was drifting along. Monica had insisted she get out and come to the party. Both to test out her new looks, and to get her started with a new group of metas.

Monica walked up to Harriet and made a show of introducing herself. "Hi, I'm Monica one of the local counselors, welcome to the Underground."
"This isn't funny."
Monica sighed, "At least try."
"Right, well Monica I'm ... Mary Sue."
"Nice to meet you Mary Sue. I'm surprised none of the boys has asked you to dance yet."
"Could be the music. Or more likely, that hulking Big Jimmy standing over there trying to quietly shake his head every time someone comes up."
Monica glances over at the troll standing off to the side, slightly behind where Harriet is seated, then asks, "How can you tell?"
"He's got bells on his horns."
Monica sighs again, "I'll go talk to him. It's because he knows who you are."
"I could go talk to him?"
Monica shakes her head quickly, "No no. Let me handle it."
Harriet nods, then slides off of the ledge, and turns sideways, "Does this make me look fat?"
Monica sighs again, "Not anymore. Let me go get this party started."

Big Jimmy was worried. Normally he did in fact make sure to come to the dance and do a few rounds with all the eligible women. It was a long standing tradition. Most of the other regular guys always let him take the first shot. Especially after he had punched one or two of them into agreeing with him. So Monica was right in pointing out that him standing there not dancing with the tusker woman was a big signal, and if he wasn't going to dance with her, then none of the other guys would either. Problem for Big Jimmy was that he wasn't actually a very good dancer.

Big Jimmy made very very sure he didn't step on the tusker womans toes while they danced.

[Konsaki]

Caittie
Monday 8/18/70 14:59:02

Walking into the giant building, Caittie noticed the sounds changed from that of annoyed people running for cover from the rain to the general hustle and bustle the great multi-floored mall deserved. As she took a few steps forward, she knew immediately that she entered near the food court of the mall due to the almost overpowering smell of different mixtures of food smells. She knew she had just eaten not too long ago, but Caittie couldn’t help but salivate over some of the smells coming out of a few of the shops, mainly from the bakery that was situated near the entrance to the mall she just used. Looking inside the bakery, she just gazed over all the different pastries they had displayed and mentally drooled.
“Daddy, Daddy! I want one of those. Can I? Can I? Please?” Hearing the young voice caused Caittie to look over to the side of the store and she saw a young boy, who couldn’t be much older than three or four, and his father standing in the store. The boy was enthusiastically pointing into one of the display cases while tugging on his father’s pants leg.
Looking from the boy to the case, the man gave a small sigh then chuckled a bit. As he waved over the shop attendant, he looked down at the boy and said with a grin, “Alright, alright. I’ll buy it for you, just don’t tell your mother.”
After purchasing the pastry from the store, he handed it to his son who started gnawing on it almost immediately. As they then walked out of the store, Caittie could only think about how she must have done the same thing with her father and smiled at the thought. Then it hit her that she was thinking about her father like he had died a long time ago instead of just five days ago. Shaking her head, she wondered if that sort of thing was normal, as she continued to walk in towards the center of the ‘Mall of Seattle’.

She didn’t have to go that far into the building before Caittie felt something in the air but didn’t pay it much mind as she knew immediately what it was. What she did pay attention too was the wave of spam that literally covered her AR vision. Gritting her teeth a bit, she grimaced as she mentally minimized all the windows so she could see enough to a nearby bench.
Sitting down, she started going through the painstakingly laborious task of setting her spam filters, again. She had mostly perfected them on her last commlink, but since she lost it and gained this new one, she had to start from the most basic of filters, which really meant from scratch. Caittie sat there for a long while tweaking settings and writing in deny / accept rules just so she could see though her glasses.


Monday 8/18/70 15:17:38

As she lifted her glasses and rubbed her eyes, Caittie sighed a bit. She was able to set up her filters to block a vast majority of the advertisements, all except for the ones she wanted. It still wasn’t perfect, but one or two every now and then was better than the constant torrent that assaulted her a little while ago.
Caittie then stood up and moved her way down the path towards the center of the mall, she called up a interior map to mark any interesting areas she might like to visit. Putting it in the lower right portion of her vision, she continued in while glancing at the shops as she passed. Nothing really grabbed her interest until she came across an outdoor goods store.
Walking inside, she looked around at all the equipment they had on display: sports, camping, climbing, swimming and more. You couldn’t count the amount of things unless you stayed all day looking though them all. Pulling up a AR search window for the store, Caittie set it up to search for rain gear. The search came back with things ranging from ponchos to temporary awnings for outdoor events. Slightly shaking her head, she narrowed the search for personal rain gear.

Looking through the list, she followed the personal ARO that popped up in her vision, directing her to where most of the items her search found were. Walking that way, she looked around for anything useful. Not seeing anything she really needed in the football section she was walking though, she continued on until the ARO directed her to another isle that had a majority of the personal rain gear on it.
Looking through it all, she browsed the products and weighed the quality vs. price since she was on a tight budget. After looking through a lot of the items for sale in the area, she sighed a bit as she then set up the search window to sort by price, starting with the lowest. Something near the top of the list caused Caittie to raise an eyebrow, as she saw the words ‘Clearance’ next to a few of the low priced items. Setting up an ARO to point her there, she headed in the direction indicated.
Walking up on a small cheaply constructed wire bin, she saw a pile of junk that was seriously marked down in price. It was a massive jumble consisting of toy balls for kids, shoeboxes with only one shoe in them, odd colored waist bags that no one in their right mind would wear, and other assorted junk. As Caittie dug through it all, she found an expandable black umbrella that would fit in a side loop of her backpack when she wasn’t using it. Thinking the price was good; she walked up to the front desk and purchased it.
As she left the store the umbrella stuck in her backpack, she continued walking the mall looking for anything else that might catch her eye…

[Cedric Rolfsson]

Jonathan
Tuesday 7/8/70 09:41:23

"I don't understand, how did this happen? When? I was just with them a couple of hours ago."

Jonathan looked to the grief counselor for answers but while he did he sent a quiet command to 3PO to search the news reports for fatality car accidents. This couldn't be right, Guile didn't drive, not ever.

"Can I see the Lone Star accient report? I'd also like a chance to say good bye to my friends. . .I just. . .I can't believe. . ."

Jonathan couldn't believe this, it was beyond real. He half expected Guile to pop out of a closet and yell, "GOTCHA!!!" or something.

[adamu]

Jonathan
Tuesday 7/8/70 09:42:04

"I'm afraid the bodies are really not in a suitable state for viewing, Mr. Frost. There was a fire, you see. The identity of Mr. Bell was confirmed by DNA matching, and his father was informed immediately. I am afraid that while Mr. Bell senior has assumed the driver of the vehicle was his son's fiancee, a woman named Guile, he also concedes that she was a provisional citizen, and we have no records on her of any sort with which to make an identification. All we can say from the remains is that it was a female elf, 170 centimeters in height, and that she'd been wearing dacron polyweave outfit." That fit, Jonathan thought.

"Well what are the police saying?" he demanded, his earlier question about the report having gone unanswered.

"Well, I'm afraid they have not really issued a report. From what I gather, based on some data they retrieved from the woman's commlink, they have ruled the remainder of their investigation confidential. I am afraid no information has been forthcoming. I do know that the investigation is being handled through the Downtown Fifth Precinct. Perhaps someone there can be more helpful to you."

Before Jonathan could answer, he heard a familiar voice behind him. "Jon, I got here as quickly as I could. Is it true? Have we lost Jason?" asked an apparently distraught Alister Connolly.

[DireRadiant]

Sledge
Thursday 7/30/70 17:03:26

The holo projector illuminated the dark underground chamber, three figures sat around absorbing the scene playing out in multi dimensional color. A large crowd of metahumanity bearing large signs with various messages are shown parading in front of the metroplex civic hall. Most of the signs indicate it's a MOM rally in support of one of the councilman. Suddenly a pop and a puff of smoke appears, rapidly growing to cover an area roughly 15 meters in diameter, the cloud settles to approximately waist height, revealing large numbers of coughing, crying and wheezing metahumans. Most of the crowd disperses, and the scene plays out with various emergency services and hazmat teams appearing over the next few minutes of playback. During the last few minutes the reconstructed scene's perspective has shifted out, and several points are highlighted, showing blowup views of various members of the watching crowds.

"How did you pick them out?"
Harriet answers clinically, "They didn't react when the initial bang went off, once I noticed that I had the agent scan for others, these 6 were picked out."
"This is a lot of trideo."
"Matrix Agent, along with some copies of illegal hackware, from which your martix team removed the VB traceware, had no problem hacking the public traffic cameras in the plaza. Plus all the news coverage spliced in. I didn't do much, just helped the agent along as questions came up."
"I see we have a data trail on all of these ... people."

Full bio data starts running in sequence on the holo tank on the various subjects.

Big Jimmy asks, "So I go beat on them?"
"No." Monica answers, "I want whomever was paying or supplying them. Once we trace them, then we deal with them. So both of you are going to go scare them. Find them, set them up, but let them get away. I'll have some others watching them, see where they run to."

Big Jimmy was glad that this time out no one was going to get hurt. Not because they didn't deserve it, he'd gladly break them anytime. Holding off wasn'ta big deal, he was sure he'd get to deal with them eventually. He wasn't even worried about Harr... Sledge doing it either, and in fact she was better then him is the whole making them wet their pants thing anyway.

What worried Big Jimmy most was what happened after the last three "chats" he'd worked with Sledge. Something he wasn't going to tell anyone ever, not even her sister, especially not her sister.

"After we find out who pays them, then we drop the hammer on them."

Big Jimmy sighed quietly, this was what he was afraid of, after this he knew he was going to be spending at least an hour after each assignment uncomfortably and awkwardly holding the tusker woman while she silently and violently sobbed her heart out.

She never said anything about it, and Big Jimmy would be damned if he was going to say anything about it either.

[DireRadiant]

Sledge
Friday 8/8/70 19:20:33

Garamond was impressed. He'd heard some of the gossip, so he had some idea who the new recruit Big Jimmy had brought to class was. Nothing specific, but enough to know she was hot stuff. the kind of hot you didn't even want to think about around the wrong people. Of course, Garamond was used to this, sneaking a couple people onto the Firearms safety course rolls. It wasn't even really sneaking, the people registered were real, it's just the people that registered and paid and got certified weren't actually the people that showed up for the series of in depth safety training courses. Only minor adjustments to the security systems took care of any discrepancies.

When Big Jimmy saw what was up, he'd gone quiet and had dramatically rubbed his stomach while a little loudly complaining, "Me eat, not wanna be slim Jim.". Leaving Mary Sue behind to take care of herself. Garamond hadn't batted an eye, just went ahead with the routine. The tusker woman just blinked once, then shrugged like she didn't care. Maybe she didn't.

It was a standard session, starting out with lecture and discussion, then the technical stuff with the actual weapons, and only at the end did anyone get issued rounds and a little range time. The woman obviously knew how to take things apart, even if she wasn't familiar with the weapons, obvious from her frequent checks of the diagrams. And she knew about keeping things cleaned and greased to keep them working right. On the range she took her time and went through the steps methodically, doing an adequate job of keeping the targets centered. She knew about taking care of and learning to use tools right.

Garamond's classes were popular because his facility was rated for all kinds of mil spec weapons, he even had a permit to do HMG and tracer rounds to go with it. He had a lot of experienced people attending classes for recertification, and the woman responded well to the tips and advice she received.

It wasn't for several months that Garamond realized just who exactly had run through his course with half a shift of Lone Star Detectives. No wonder Big Jimmy had felt sick.

[BlackHat]

Adam
Wednesday 5/14/70 19:35:00

As Sally pulled her car into the sorority-house parking space, Adam laughed. "So, let me get this straight.... The Phee-Gees are pretty decent guys, most of the time, except that they are angry, violent drunks? And the problem is that every time they meet with the Kappa Sigs, the two frats celebrate over a keg, get drunk, and fight it out?"

They got out of the vehicle and Sally nodded, "Pretty much. But, like, fueds arn't anything new. We just don't want it ruining the Spring Blowout!" As they walked up to the Tri-Delt house, she went on. "We're at the point where we've tried everything! Nothing seems to be working. Our last option is to call on the Pan-Hellenic Council to get involved - but before we resorted to that, I got an idea from my Human Resource class."

Adam smiled, "So I've heard. It sounds like a great idea. Happy to be your negotiator."

The pair entered and Sally was greeted by a number of shreeks as some of the other girls noticed thier arrival, and got really excited for some reason. Apparantly, this meeting really was important (or at least more interesting than whatever happened to be on TV tonight). The girls attention went almost directly to Adam who, standing there in a full suit and tie, looked out of place, but very nice. He smiled and waved, greeting a number of the girls he had run into a couple of times before. The background noise of side conversation made it difficult to hear what they were saying, but Adam got enough pieces to make out that the girls who didn't really know him were now quitably impressed.

Sally seemed a little bit annoyed by the interruptions, and pulled Adam along. "Come on, we can talk in my room, where its quiet." She led him through a few rooms, past the rooms of a number of other good-looking young girls (chatting on their commlinks, working on homework, or heading out for the night) and they eventually ended up at Sally's room.

Adam looked around, inspecting the various decorations and knick-knacks that seemed to litter every girl's bedroom. Sally made herself comfortable by sitting on her bed and kicking off her shoes, but Adam prefered to pace around for the time being. "... so it hasn't occured to anyone to try to make a sober night of it?"

Sally's blank stare made Adam second-guess his own question. Then she laughed and said, "Its like, sealing the deal or something. A sign of peace. A tradition."

Adam nodded, " Got it." He understood the Greek system's dedication to tradition. "So, I get why they havn't been able to resolve this themselves - and I think I can help with that - but what I don't get is what they don't see eye-to-eye on in the first place."

He took off his suit-jacket and set it on a chair. He saw Sally's eyes dart briefly to the holster but then look back up at Adam's. "Lots of things - just different kinds of guys, I guess. Guys are always competing and making up rivalries to keep it interesting...."

She seemed to be hesitating to say something, so Adam kept quiet, and took a seat in the chair, waiting to see if she was going to offer it up. Sure enough, after a moment she sighed, "... and there is this rumor going around that, like, one of them saw one of the other guys doing things... with, like, a guy."

Adam raised an eyebrow. While it wasn't really his thing, he was pretty sure people stopped being so concearned with other people's sexual orientation back in the 50s or something. Of course, it didn't surprise him at all. He understood the Greek system was very dedicated to tradition.

"Right, so, one of the frats brings it up, of course the other frat denies it, and everyone has to get fighting to prove how manly they are?"

"That's about it."

Adam and Sally talked for a little while longer about the details. She filled him in on the names and faces of some of the guys from both houses, and he asked a lot of questions. With some prompting, Adam joined her on the bed (so they'd have a better view of the holo-projector). Sally definately seemed to be more excited about this than Adam and insisted on going over the information a couple of times. She also seemed a lot more interested in Adam's ability to help end this fued than in Adam, himself. Dispite her outgoing bubbly personality - Adam wasn't getting the vibe that Sally had much interest in him as anything other than someone capable of helping her achieve what she wants.

Once he understood that, her (un)conscious body language which said otherwise became a bit annoying. Even if she had been all into him, Adam wouldn't have taken advantage of his situation - but he couldn't help but be distracted while she talked.

By about 8:30 pm, they had pretty much exhausted the conversation. The plan was set. Sally was going to arrange for Adam to meet, seperatly, with the guys from both frats tomarrow night. They had scrapped together a little cred to smooth over the negotiations and, theoretically, to pay Adam for his time but Adam was pretty sure that there wouldn't be a lot left afterwards.

Adam
Wednesday 5/14/70 22:26:30

Adam started to make his way out of the Tri-Delta house. Sally had offered to take him back to his dorm, but he told her he would just grab a bus or something. The truth of it was that he still had :nuyen: 250 cash burning a hole in his pocket, and was in serious need of a drink, and some relaxation after his stressful day. He also kind of wanted to celebrate his victory. Although he invited Sally out to go do something, she had to get up early, and declined - and suggested he call it an early night too. Adam wasn't convinced the frat guys would notice if he was tired or not tomarrow.

On his way out, he ran into a gaggle of Tri-Delts that were all dressed up and heading out to go clubbing or bar-hopping or something. After a little small-talk, Adam was invited along, and eagerly agreed. One of the cuter girls even offered to give him a ride home afterwards, since she lived in the dorms too.

Adam
Thursday 5/15/70 7:45:00

Sally got up when her alarm went off, and began her morning routine. She got a shower, got dressed, got her make-up ready - the whole ritual. The anxiety of the topic of discussion last night only lingered on the edge of her perception, and she was confident that Adam would help mediate it this evening. She was in the usual early-morning daze until she passed Angelica's room. The sight of a man's jacket on the floor cought her attention - not because it would be that strange for Angelica to have a guy over - but because she remembered seeing that same jacket in her own room yesterday.

Before heading down for breakfast, she peeked in the doorway, and confirmed her suspicions. A trail of clothes, both male and female lead across the room to a bed where she could see Adam sleeping with a blonde head in his arms. When did Angelica dye her hair blonde? While Sally was loitering outside the room, she was startled by someone suddenly behind her.

Stepping backwards to get out of the way, Angelica (whose hair was its usual brunette color) brushed past her with a glare and shut the door to her room behind her. Stunned, Sally stood there for a moment before snapping out of it and hurrying out to catch her bus. ... Lets hope your charms work that well on the Phee-Gees, Adam....

Adam
Thursday 5/15/70 11:45:00

When Adam finally made it back to his room around noon the next day. Luckily, his finals were last week, and his summer courses hadn't started yet, so he didn't have anywhere to be. John looked up when Adam came in, but was pretty used to not seeing Adam for a day or two, and quickly lost interest.

Adam spent the afternoon cleaning himself up, catching up on some sleep, and watching TV with John. He definatly felt back in his elemenent, and had nearly forgotten about his deal with Franco. Before Sally called him, he inteded to do some shopping, so eventually forced himself up and out.

Today, he took his bike with him. Stopping again at an ATM, he withdrew another couple-hundred nuyen (he blew through his leftover cash last night, buying drinks for the girls), and then headed to the mall. He picked up a cheap MetaLink commlink, paying for it with cash, and spent a few minutes activating a new pre-paid account without any of his real personal information linked to it.

He also needed to pick up another suit. He had given Franco the impression that he was a well-dressed professional negotiator, and it wouldn't do him any good to be seen again, a little while later in the same suit. Reluctantly, he tried on a few new suits and eventually found one that he thought complimented his looks, and bought it.

Adam
Thursday 5/15/70 14:15:00

Adam parked his bike a block away from the Dancing Bare and headed to the front door. He was purposefully arriving a while before 5 (when Franco's schedule said he goes to work every day). The doorman held out his hand and gestured to the AR sign indicating the cover-charge - he obviously didn't recognise Adam from last night. Adam smirked and handed him a datachip. "Make sure Franco gets this, and tell him it is from Mr. Smith - it contains the contact information he wanted me to give you last night."

At the mention of the bosses name, the doorman's face shifted, and he became a lot more attentive. After he took the chip from him, Adam turned and left. The ball is in your court, big guy.

On the ride home, he called Tyisha, and asked if she had spoken to Shwen. Tyisha said that she had stopped by again, but saw Shwen and two huge guys in suits moving her stuff into a car. She tried to get Shwen's attention, but decided not to push her luck. This gave Adam a little reason to worry. If Franco was relocating her, he might have a hard time hearing how he is treating her - and it might be in an attempt to cut her off from those who might report to his 'employer'. He politely asked her to keep trying to get ahold of her on the phone and make sure she's okay.

[Konsaki]

Caittie
Monday 8/18/70 15:49:34

Slowly walking up and down the floors of the mall, Caittie browsed the windows as she passed. Every once in a while, she would see something that caught her interest and call up a store advertisement. This was usually followed by a slight groan at the sight of the cost of the item and her walking away from the store while she looked at the floating money count in her AR vision.
The latest of which was a cloths store that Lisa would drag her into to just try on the cloths. Like now, Caittie couldn’t really afford anything from there, but Lisa liked to have someone with her and every once in a while she would spot an outfit if she thought Caittie looked really good in it. Caittie had to admit that she did have fun when she was trying on the cloths, she was a teenage girl after all.
She had thought about it a bit while walking around, and Caittie decided that she should remember the good times she had with her friends and family. Even though she lost them not a week ago, she knew they weren’t coming back and dwelling on that fact wouldn’t change that. She couldn’t grin about it, but she would bare the burden and go on.

Going on, she continued walking the second floor passing more stores. She passed many more stores, most of them selling cloths, before she came across a store that Alex usually wanted them to stop in. The place usually annoyed Lisa just as much as cloths shopping did to Alex, but Caittie didn’t mind either. As she walked into the store, the store’s information opened up in a floating window, ‘Electronic Stop’.
Looking around, Caittie saw more games than anything else in this place. There were a few SIM-chips on a rack but that only took up a small portion of the place. The shelves were stacked with different types of games: Adventure, Shooting, Role-playing, Flight and Driving. They even had some shelves with old fashion book games. She looked at the stores stock until her gaze settled on a game that Alex always talked about.
‘Miracle Shooter v3.19.002 - Now with more realistic feedback. Feel the weight and recoil of your weapon as you make your way though the ranks of monster hordes. Earn points per kill to buy more ammo and better weapons while you play with your friends in real life. Please remember to play responsibly.’ an ad flashed in her vision as she lingered near the display for too long.

‘Why did he play this game so much? He talked about it every now and then, but Lisa would get irritated and say it had to be a macho guy thing. I never understood the appeal of it, but then I never really looked into it either.’ Caittie thought as she walked over to the shelves that held the boxes. Picking one of them up, another window opened up thanking her for checking out the product and if she would like to try a free demo. ‘Why not, it couldn’t hurt and it is free...’, Caittie decided as she moved her free hand to the yes button of the screen.
A second later a HUD appeared in her vision and a sudden weight caused her outstretched hand to drop a bit before she countered it. As she looked at why it dropped, she saw a shiny chromed pistol in her hands and she instinctively dropped it. As it fell to the floor, it clattered around until it settled into its final resting place. Looking at it, she slowly bent over and picked it up while looking at it again.

While she was examining the firearm, a man in a lab coat stepped up in front of her. The man was pretty old and it seemed out of place for the store, and even more so when he started talking. “What you hold in your hands is the Beam 9, the starter weapon for your mission. It fires 9mm ammunition and has relatively low stopping power, but the recoil is weaker than some of the later firearms too.”, the man says as Caittie looks from him back to the gun.”What you see behind me is a weak specimen that has escaped our gene experimentation laboratory.”, he continues as a three foot tall humanoid thing appears behind him. “We call this type of mutant a Goblin. They are pretty weak by themselves, but in numbers can do great harm. Your mission is to help rid these goblins from the city and help meta-humanity win the great fight!”, he explains as he strikes a heroic pose. “This one right here is for practice purposes, so feel free to try out your basic firearm on it.”, he finishes and steps out of the way.

Looking from the man in the lab coat to the short deformed goblin, she wonders why she should shoot it. Then she remembers it is just part of the game and sighs. Raising her arm, she aims the gun near the diminutive humanoid and pulls the trigger. The following bang was followed by the sound of a bullet embedding itself in the floor. Seeing this, Caittie gasps a bit at seeing the smoking hole in the floor.
“If for some reason you miss your intended target, this program is designed to act realistically with the object that was just hit. Do not be alarmed as they are only visible to you or anyone else who uses this program, and all damage goes away after a set amount of time.”, the scientist explained per his programing.
Feeling a bit relived, Caittie aimed again and fired. She continued until the gun started making a clicking sound instead of firing. She looked at the gun and then looked over to where the goblin was and saw that it was on the ground twitching, with splatters of blood around it. “Enemies will act realistically to where your shots are aimed. You landed one shot in a vital area and two in minor areas out of eight shots total. Though you are at newbie level, with practice you could raise to the top of the leader boards! Thank you for trying out the demo for ‘Miracle Shooter’ and we hope you enjoyed our product.”, the scientist finished out as the goblin, blood, bullet holes, and he all faded into nothingness.

Caittie looked from her now empty hand to around the shop before seeing the shop attendant looking at her. She smiled sheepishly but he just waved nonchalantly showing no real surprise because he had seen the same scene around twenty times a day. Blushing a bit, she walked out of the store and noticed a deduction on her credstick value.
‘What?! Why did it go down, I didn’t buy... Oh no...’, she questioned as she looked down to her hand and saw the game box she picked up before. As she looked back into the store and queried refunds, it came back that since she bought with a certified credstick, refunds were not an option.
Sighing deeply, she swung her backpack around and put the box in it. ‘What’s done is done I guess...’, she consoled herself as she put her backpack around her shoulders again. A little lighter of the purse and chiding herself slightly, she continued her trek of the mall...

[Konsaki]

Caittie
Monday 8/18/70 17:32:49

Sitting down in the food court, the elven woman slowly ate the cheap Asian meal in silence. She had walked practically the whole mall that day and though she did get a couple of things, Caittie was getting bored of it. She had spent the afternoon just in here staying out of the rain and, though at first, she was interested in wandering the place; now, she was getting tired.
As she took another bite of the soy-chicken bulgogi, she pulled up a current weather feed over the area of Seattle. The transparent window opened up on the other side of the table showing the giant mass of rain on the east side of the city and heading farther that way. Even so, there was still a mass of green that covered almost the entire screen, and when she zoomed out, she saw it still covered a good part of the map. Just as she groaned at seeing this, an audio feed opened up automatically.
“...eastern winds are supplying the cold front with all the moisture it needs to keep this up for a while. The good news is that the worst of it seems to have passed by the area and all we have to look forward to is a light rain of between a quarter inch to half inch per hour. With the current winds and expected changes in atmospheric pressure, forecasts are indicating that this might go on into the night, if not longer. For all you people out in the open...” the forecaster went on before Caittie closed the feed and window.

Looking out the windows near the place she sitting, the sight was one to be expected. The grayed out parking lot was light up in places by the light poles lit prematurely by the tricked photo-sensors. Water pooled in lower areas of the parking lot and ran in streams towards any drains it could find. The red lights of vehicles moving around were dimmed farther out on the streets by the lightly falling rain and mist.
Caittie let out a light sigh as she tried to make up her mind on whether she should stay or leave. She continued on with her meal and by the time she finished it, she decided on braving the light rain instead of staying in the mall. Throwing her trash away, she headed towards the doors and pulled out her umbrella. Looking up the nearest coffin motel to her position on the city map, she groaned at the walk she had ahead of her.

[Konsaki]

Caittie
Monday 8/18/70 17:38:10

As soon as Caittie stepped out of the mall, the cool wet weather assaulted her with its full intensity. She could feel it seep through her clothing and she shivered out of reflex. ‘I hope it doesn’t start coming down again like it did a few hours ago…’ she thought as she pulled out the umbrella.
Opening it up, she walked out into the rain, trying to avoid any giant pools of water that the showers had left. As she trekked across the parking lot towards the main road, she set up an ARO system to point her towards the nearest motel and then followed the ghostly indicators.
Everything had a dull grey tinge to it due to the cloud cover and it made everything look very bland. The world seemed more hostile due to the mood set, with even the cars passing by splashing water up and around the sidewalks. People moved through or with the sea of moving bodies, neither interesting nor interested in the going city life around them. While you might have people watchers sitting on a bench on the side of the road on a normal day, not so with this weather, with everyone rushing to get where they wanted and out of the constant rain.


Monday 8/18/70 18:23:46

Caittie let out a huge sigh of relieve as she walked though the lobby doors to the coffin motel. ‘Finally, someplace where I can warm up and relax. I’m beat…’ she thought as she looked though the listings of rooms for the cheapest unoccupied one. After finding one, she set out up the stairs towards the second floor and walked down the hallway. Coming up on the door to the room, Caittie went through the now familiar steps to register the room and walked inside it.
Hearing the big metal door close and lock behind her, she got out of her cloths and spread them out as best she could on the shelf. Thought they weren’t wet, the humidity and wind had made them damp and Caittie wanted them to dry before she next needed them. She really didn’t need them in the coffin room because it was a nice warm temperature controlled environment, set to what she needed and wanted.

Lying down on the mattress, she pulled the ‘Miracle Shooter’ game from her backpack and slipped the chip into her commlink to install. As she watched the install bar scroll across her vision, she wondered why she was even doing this. By the time it was done installing, she figured it was just so it didn’t go to waste. “It’s not like I’m ever going to be in a situation again where this will be useful. I’ll just play it till the month runs out and then drop it”, Caittie told herself.
After the game loaded up, it had her set the initial options and then asked if she wanted to go through the tutorial. Selecting yes, the same scientist she saw in the store appeared, albeit only six inches tall, floating in the air. As he started explaining the rules and options of the game, she started to get tired. By the time the scientist had started talking about purchasing better weapons, she was half asleep and wasn’t paying any attention. Turing off the game, she put her commlink back up on the shelf and turned off the lights. Within minutes of doing such, she was sleeping contently and dreaming sweet dreams.