Up from the Bottom, Wipe Those Tears and Pass the Ammo Options

[BlackHat]

Vashon Heights, Vashon Island, Outremer
Friday 8/22/70 22:10:40
Adam Lear
PAN - Adam Passive (Smith Hidden)

Adam and Deerwalker spent a few minutes cleaning up, and Adam didn't have any trouble steering the conversation in the direction he wanted it to go. In addition to Deerwalker seeming a bit more subdued, Adam was in a bit of a hurry - the unexpected liaison had set him back, according to his vague mental projection of what he needed to accomplish that night.

At some point, they had come upon the topic of the magical gear - which took longer than it should have, because Deerwalker kept referring to "telesma," and Adam had no idea that she meant "magic items". Before taking her up on her offer to introduce him to some friends of hers, once they had bridged the gap of understanding, Adam took the opportunity to explain a bit about why he needed it.

Perhaps it was because Adam went out of his way to keep a lot of the details vague, or perhaps she was just more relaxed (and less attentive) now that she had gotten what she wanted, but, although Deerwalker listened and responded appropriately to Adam's prompts, she didn't seem particularly intrigued by the fact that "Smith" had chanced into a nice cushy "Johnson" gig - and she wasn't jumping out of her chair to sign herself, or her friends up for any "slush funds" he might be able to toss their way - although mention of Sledge seemed to raise an eyebrow, for a moment. Johnson decided to let this one go, for a while. The good news was that she didn't say she was against the idea of teaming up, sometime, and Johnson fully expected that he would have to talk with Cal before any partnership could be made official.

That wasn't a meeting that Johnson was particularly looking forward to, given his potentially upsetting behavior, earlier - but, he was confident that things would work themselves out. They always did.

Having gotten that idea out in the air, and given Deerwalker something to think about, the two of them hopped on Adam's bike, to skip across the city (well, putter across, until they were out of Vashon Heights) to meet a contact of hers who could hook them up with some "telesma" - a woman named "spring" (lower-case, intentional) who was, apparently, named after naturally flowing water, rather than the season of growth. En route, once free of the overwhelming security zone, Johnson risked reconnecting his work-comm in hidden mode, and received a couple of messages from the team that required responses. He hoped that the helmets they were wearing, and the speed of their trip, would muffle his voice from Deerwalker.

<<@Team:: "Meeting ran a little late. Heading to a 'telesma' dealer, right now. I don't mind trying my hand at getting these things for you, Fort, but things might go a lot smoother if you're there to answer specific questions - it is sort of your scene, you know? If you want directions, let me know - otherwise move forward with your plan to start astral recon.">>

<<@Team:: "As far as Cerb goes - no use crying over spilled milk. I don't think he was mission-critical, but this is going to be tougher without him. If this changes anyone's decision about this mission - let me know, and we'll work something out. Otherwise, let's focus on this mission, until it's over, and then I'll handle things with Cerb.">>

<<@Team:: "Glad to hear that everything else is going as planned. Have we IDed a ride, yet? I'd like to ditch this bike after this meeting.">>

[DireRadiant]

Downtown Seattle
Friday 8/22/70 21:43:55
Sledge - Late Night Diner
PAN - Active

Things were getting tight, schedules getting crossed, the tasks were piling up, not all of them could be done by her. The part she hated was passing them off to someone else. Andy always laughed when she complained about assigning parts to the crew that was green. He pointed out is was always better to give them something hard when there wasn't pressure, so that when the time did come to hit a tight schedule they would already know who could do it. Sledge didn't think there was ever going to be a time when a slip up wasn;t going to get someone killed from now on. If you poured the concrete wrong, there was always some room for adjustment, but there weren't going to be those kind of options anymore. She was going to have to trust the crew to not get themselves into trouble.

Dealing with the tusker earlier still bothered her, she got the feeling he learned far more about her then she could about him. She was just going to have to go on Sugar Lips judgement, and the fact the tusker wouldn't have repeat business if he snitched on anyone. The ork would be very useful. But dealing with him had reminded her of dealing with her sister.

And here she was, about to do it again.

[BlackHat]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:25:40
Adam Lear
PAN - Hidden

In the time it took Adam to finish the route, he had gotten a request for pickup from Fortunato. After explaining that he was already bringing his contact, Adam provided the address, instead, and Fortunato agreed that a cab would suffice. Now that he knew one of his colleagues was coming, he turned off his personal commlink - and kept his work ID on 'hidden'. Security here was respectable, but not as overbearing as it had been in Deerwalker's neighborhood.

They arrived before Fortunato did, although the direction he was coming from made for a shorter trip. Deerwalker decided to take the opportunity to introduce Adam to spring. Adam requested that she introduce him as "Smith", particularly when his friend arrived, which caused Deerwalker to look at him curiously before shrugging and heading inside. Adam didn't think she would have a problem with it - especially given that neither Deerwalker nor spring would be using their real names, during this meeting.

spring operated a shop out of the first floor of her house. The outside of the building looked normal enough, except for a few rune-marked trinkets in the windows, and a natural-looking wooden sign that said "seep", which hung by the door. It blended in with the surrounding residential buildings quite nicely. Adam wasn't sure if it was magic, or not, but he didn't even notice the place until Deerwalker asked him to stop - and he had been keeping an eye out for the address.

Deerwalker didn't knock, and let herself in, which, while perfectly normal for a place of commerce, felt somehow strange here - as if this person left her house's front door unlocked, and didn't mind if strangers just let themselves into her home. After a moment's hesitation, Smith followed Deerwalker inside.

The place smelled like... well, Smith wasn't quite sure what the smell was... but it reminded him of the sort of smell one would use to conceal another, more incriminating, smell. He didn't bother to ask Deerwalker about it. For one thing, he knew her answer would go way over his head. For another, he still felt a little bit like he was trespassing, and didn't want to be the first to speak up.

Deerwalker seemed to know what she was doing, though, so Smith simply followed her, past a number of strange looking objects, waiting for this 'spring' character to make an appearance, or for Deerwalker to say something.

[adamu]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:25:55

A couple of cats peered up at the two interlopers from under an old, overstuffed, velvet-upholstered sofa. The ground floor consisted mostly of one very wide room, divided fairly evenly between a quaintly furnished parlor - the decore said parlor, not living room - and a casually arranged group of tables around and on and under which were the sorts of trinkets and gew gaws Adam had expected to see. As cluttered as the tables were, they were set fairly far apart, lending a feeling of space amid the chaos.

Slow, heavy footsteps started down from the second floor. Deerwalker nodded in that direction, "That'll be spring," she said quietly.

Momentarily, a slim girl with fine features and a pixie-cut appeared. She was not too tall, but despite perfect skin, dimples, and a cutely upturned nose did not come across as overly childlike. And she had nice curves for one so slender.

She wore loose hemp trousers and a mismatched wool sweater. "Heya, Deerwalker, introduce me to your friend," she said, but was already smiling at Adam. Deerwalker, having traded in the snakes for her usual buckskins (tunic and leggings), handled the formalities, which seemed to satisfy the cheerful spring.

"So, 'less I miss my guess, this stuff isn't actually for you. Do you know exactly what you'll be needing?" she asked, stepping backwards down the very center of the main aisle between the display tables, arms gesturing expansively.

[adamu]

Westwood, Downtown District, Seattle Metroplex
Friday 8/22/70 22:15:00

The GPR site had looked fairly challenging, so Rocky and Angel were hoping for something a little easier at the next place. But the next item on their shopping list was much more common and much less sophisticated, so they were hopeful.

Sledge had actually given them a list of four locations where they might find the sort of heavy cement cutter they were looking for relatively out in the open. One of the four was quite close to the West Seattle cemetery, just a few minutes south in the Westwood neighborhood, so they headed there first. It was not as upscale an area as West Seattle, so there was less ambient security, so they felt okay circling the place – a public school putting up a new building – a couple of times.

They could see what they were looking for from the street, a big mass of heavy machinery on big, cumbersome wheels. The only thing between it and them was a low chain-link fence strung hastily out from the schoolyard’s wall to encircle the construction. No wire, not juiced. The gates were locked, but Angel said popping them would be a cinch. She also reported that the cement cutter was riddled with RFIDs, but that was the sort of low-cost security measure they had anticipated, as were the dozens of camera sensors Sticky-Tacked® around the site. But Angel said they were all tied to one node, which was onsite and accessed by the lone, groggy dwarf rent-a-cop ambling aimlessly around the site.

The school itself appeared to have a much more advanced electronic security system, but the construction screened the heavy equipment, placing their target in a blind spot. As Sledge had foreseen, the biggest challenge would be just moving the thing – it had its own engine, which Angel figured she could tell what to do, but a five-year-old could walk faster than that thing moved on its own. And it wasn’t exactly a quiet device.

Still, they figured they’d never find another one as lightly guarded as this, and the location was damned convenient. The last question was whether and how to keep eyes on it.

[adamu]

Karnivore Karl's
Friday 8/22/70 22:02:00

After stowing her more lethal weapons in a locker at the U-District bus terminal, Sledge motored downtown, squeezing her hog into a space on 4th Ave and Adams behind a departing delivery scooter. Wires offline and PAN openly displaying her threadbare fake SIN, she moved with the ped traffic the two blocks to Pacific Place.

The sights and sounds of the downtown core – not to mention the fact that she was headed to meet her sister – set her mind ablaze with thoughts and images of her former life.

Cops everywhere, safeguarding the order and stability that allowed commerce to keep most, if not all, of the ‘plex’s citizenry in relative prosperity. She’d had a stake in that, bought into it despite her sister’s contempt for the establishment. Now…

The smell of coffee – the smell of a downtown site in the predawn hours, some wiry teenager sent off for danishes and just happy to have a job. She passed an Italian place Andy had taken her to when they’d first started seeing each other – the sight of him with pasta tangled in his tusks…. On a corner, two humans in Doc Wagon uniforms loaded a fat man onto a collapsible stretcher – and another of Monica’s endlessly recited employment statistics rang in her head – Doc Wagon, 78% sapiens, some decent nobilis and pumillonis numbers, and then robustus and ingentis way last, way underrepresented, and mostly on the HTR teams only. The woman was a like an encyclopedia for that stuff – probably kept it on AR quick-find. She passed a flower shop – fresh flowers, real – she didn’t have enough cred showing on her PAN for the price-AROs to even show up for her.

And then the trendy corp shopping palace that was Pacific Place. She’d stand out just being an ork, were it not for Karnivore Karl’s and a couple of Evo shops. Some people didn’t like the subtle shift in the clientele, but most weren’t bothered by it much anymore, as long as no one over-accessorized with goblin rock trinkets. Always a danger sign, that, and security was trained to spot it.

As she passed through one of the many entrances, an ARO politely reminded her that while Metroplex ordinance SGJ76JKT98.ad/56 allowed taser weapons to be freely carried for personal defense purposes, all devices were to be kept discreetly concealed while in the shopping center. She was even offered a 2% discount on all her purchases if she would leave the personal protection accessory at the security desk.

She passed.

Once inside it was a quick hop down the stairs to B1, where Karnivore Karl’s was located down a spur hallway lined with sound baffling material – those people could sure be noisy.

Approaching the entrance, she was greeted with another warning about her taser, and then she was there. Familiar smells, but not have as spicy as she’d have liked – hell, the place was at least a third smoothies doing the multi-cultural thing with their company’s token tusker, and it just wasn’t good business to subject them to ork-strength capsicum cuisine.

She was two minutes late, so she scanned the large room. She saw lots of people. Despite the human presence, it was still mostly orks, with more trolls than you would see most other places in town. She saw an elderly ork couple – must have been at least 40 – and they looked so happy it hurt her to look at them, surrounded by three generations of litters. There was a banner that said Happy Twentieth.

There was an ork so short she at first thought he was a dwarf, until she heard him growl in Or’zet with an accent no other race could match, even with the right tusk implants. There was a bearded ork nursing a beer alone, lifting the stein with an ORC-tattooed hand. She saw an ork mother with a runt on each teat – the sort of thing that was tolerated here but probably made mall management cringe.

And way off in a corner, she saw Big Jimmy. He was smiling across the room at her, nodding at his table and its three empty chairs.

[BlackHat]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:27:20
Adam Lear
PAN - Hidden

Smith smiled back, "You're not mistaken. This is the first time I have been in the market for these sort of things, but I don't think it will be the last, so I'm glad that we've been properly introduced." He smiled. "I might not have the knack for magic, but I have the knack for meeting people who do."

"I also hope that I've come prepared, but, if I haven't, I would gladly introduce you to their intended... consumer." He looked at Deerwalker and shrugged. "I don't see any reason to be a middleman. I guess it just so happens that I have more friends who are shamans than he does." Adam's grin got both women smiling. "He's in the area, and, assuming you don't mind... " He gestured at spring, "I'm sure he'd like to meet you both."

"He did give me a list, though - so maybe you can tell me if I'm looking in the right sort of place, for any of this stuff." His hands waved about in AR bringing up a couple of old messages from Fortunato, his smile turning apologetic. Perhaps he could earn a few sympathy points, or at least stress that he would prefer to do business with his client present.

"Looks like, we'll be needing... some old snake skin - presumably shed, a live canary - or any other small birds you might have, a hand-carved whistle, a bunch of flavors of incense." He gestured in mid-air, not wanting to go down the whole list. "Maybe a dozen other 'standard supplies'.... Oh, and, if you've got it, a book called 'Principles of mana ripple detection' by Surrel and Gray." He paused for a moment, doing a double-check on his messages, as the book didn't seem nearly as woods-y as the rest of the requests.

"That one does seem a little out-of-place, ne?"

"Anyway, I would be happy to take a look at any of those supplies that you might have in stock, now, if you're in a hurry. Or, if you're not, maybe you'd like to tell me more about yourself, while we give my friend a few minutes to join us?"

"I am certain he can do a better job of explaining the essence of what he's looking for, and maybe the two of you will have more suggestions for him...."

[pragma]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:27:40
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Passive (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Inactive

The cabbie reeked of sweat and electronics. It suggested BTLs, but he was available and hadn't asked for a SIN. Fortunato had sneaking suspicions about the CIA issued identity he'd been given and was going to try to avoid using it for now. Something stunk about Reston's involvement in this -- could he have set this up himself? Greg didn't know, but he didn't have any evidence in either direction -- so the ID was saved for emergencies.

He paid in cash, blustered up the narrow walk to the front door of the house, checked the address again, frowned and walked through the slightly ajar door. Mr. Johnson and two striking women were standing in the room. His entrance was surprising -- Everyone spent a moment sizing up the situation before Fortunato spoke cautiously and slowly.

"Nice to see you J, sorry for the delay getting here."

He paused noticeably. This didn't seem like the kind of place where talking to the wrong person would get you shot, but there was no harm in being careful.

He started perceiving as he waited for a response. No reason not to get the astral lay of the land -- especially when he was considering buying from one or more of these women. caveat emptor and all that.

[BlackHat]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:28:20
Adam Lear
PAN - Hidden

Fortunato arrived before anyone really had a chance to respond to his questions, and Smith decided to roll with it. He winked at spring, "It looks like we'll have to get to know one another better, another time." He took a few steps towards Fortunato, and began semi-formal introductions while the women were still making heads or tails of the unexpected guest. "Fortuanto, this is my friend, Deerwalker, who I have mentioned before, who introduced me to Sledge, and her friend, spring, who I have just met, myself, but who I think can help you with your 'telesma' problem." He wanted to say something more about each of them, but knew that any attempt to speak about their magical talents would just leave him looking foolish in the eyes of all three.

"Ladies, this is Fortunato, the magician I hoped to introduce you to. I hope you don't mind that I asked him to come along, but he's a cool guy, and I thought that things might go a lot more smoothly if we all met, face-to-face, and you guys could 'talk shop' - rather than trying to filter everything through me." He smiled at both spring and Deerwalker, hoping his charm would smooth over any possibility that he was stretching the friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend thing a little too far.

To Fortunato, he shot an amused grin, and said, "Your timing is perfect, Fort, we were just going over your list...." before joining the girls on the other side of the room, signaling for him to follow.

[adamu]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:28:25

Fortunato was greeted warmly and not the least bit of alarm. He got a good look around in the astral, finding no surprises. The hulking but smiling spirit in the corner was standard security for these sorts of places, and it certainly seemed to set the proprietor at ease with the new faces. Of course, the solid introduction from Smith's buckskin-clad friend and the Johnson's own silver tongue had no doubt further greased the wheels of mystically oriented commerce.

The woman called spring was certainly interested in making money - she started right in directing Fort to a number of items he'd requested. It was clear the place was well stocked with everything he wanted, although if he wanted the book on hardcopy they'd have to order it for him. Everyone was polite enough not to ask why he hadn't simply ordered it online himself.

[DireRadiant]

Karnivore Karl's
Friday 8/22/70 22:02:55
Sledge - Late Night Diner
PAN - Active

She knew the routine. The big troll and her had pulled it often enough on others who focused on the threat in front of them. She carefully looked around behind her, and then kept a slight scan going while she made sure nothing could easily come up from behind as she approached the table.

The hurt look on Big Jimmy's face when she sat down at the table almost made her cry.

"vut... sorry."

Her apology made her feel even worse, Big Jimmy just shook his head and pushed over a bucket of soy beer.

[pragma]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:28:50
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Passive (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Perceiving

Johnson was as mildly grating as he always was. He liked talking too much. spring was deceptive. She wore a mask. He would be wary of her, but even the mercurial mood that warding for five hours had bred in him wasn't enough to make him give away her secret. It would be downright cruel to let Johnson know that she wasn't the beauty that she made herself out to be.

There was a snake coiled in the corner smiling ear to ear. The reptilian eyes were inscrutable, but looked almost -- happy?

"I was kind of hoping for a hard copy, I'm a bit old fashioned that way. The book's got some formulae which wind up being rather useful. You might be able to help me out anyway ... I've been looking to try a new approach to this and I wasn't much of a book learner anyway."

"I was hoping to find a way to use the mana ripple detection formula in S&G with some kind of emotional filter to pick out people who were a threat to me. I don't suppose you know of any other approach to that?"

spring had listened attentively, her surprisingly good mask bouncing on its toes while the obese woman behind it stood still. "I may be able to help you out."

He fiddled with with a piece of chalk while spring rummaged around. He continued to speak, rambling a little.

"I was also really hoping I could get some kind of speedup magic to work. There's the bullshit that got published about slowing time down, but I don't think that's worth mention really. I was more hoping for something along the lines of Koerig's work on speeding up thoughts. I didn't really like how he did it though."

He scratched his beard for a moment. Not lost in thought, but in rememberance. He could never understand that shit.

"I'll also need a live canary and some fresh snake skin. It can be molted, but it needs to be rather new, if I could get it set into a picture frame, that'd be ideal. A wicker basket would also be nice."

"We've definitely got all that," the woman replied. "Or stuff that's close enough -- I imagine that you'll need to be somewhat particular about what kind of basket you want. They're over in the corner." She gestured with her head.

The pair bantered and talked shop for a little while longer. Fortunato was startled to find that a small army of snakes spelled out a writhing and shifting word with their bodies in the corner: "secret."

It wouldn't hurt him to be on good terms with spring in the future. He wondered if he could flirt convincingly while knowing the truth about the woman. Especially with Ana on his mind; the local mana boiled while he pushed his late wife from his thoughts. He had a few minutes to figure it out; the right bucket was sitting in the middle of the shelf.

[BlackHat]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:34:50
Smith
PAN - Hidden

After introductions had been handled, and everyone had gotten to know each other a little better, spring had jumped right into business with Fortunato, and, having accomplished what he set out to do, Smith happily took a backseat role - showing Fortunato a more laid-back demeanor than he had at any point during their last mission. He didn't seem to feel the need to dominate the conversation, and didn't seem to have any particular agenda in mind. The effect wasn't dramatic, Fortunato probably found Johnson's restraint refreshing, and it allowed both shopkeeper and client to quickly get down to business.

Smith glanced over when spring mentioned the baskets being over in the corner. Sure enough, there was a selection of baskets awaiting purchase. He wondered if he was the only one in the room who found that the slightest bit odd. It appeared, he was, so he kept his mouth shut.

Fortunato seemed interested, however, and began looking over the merchandise, while chatting with spring about various theories, ripples, and other nonsense. It wasn't quite as hard to follow as Deerwalker had been, earlier, but the two of them were definitely operating on a different level than he was.

For the most part, Smith let the two of them get to know one another, and conduct business without interruption. He didn't have a whole lot to add to the conversation, and it certainly didn't need him to carry it, but that didn't stop him from participating with a couple of comments, questions, and well-timed jokes. He simply picked his moments carefully, so as not to be a nuisance nor to entirely fade into the background.

This was definitely one of those situations where "less is more", and was also probably the least talkative Johnson had been, during a social encounter, since Fortunato had met him - but his presence was felt, nonetheless, and his participation gave the meeting a more informal and friendly atmosphere than it might have otherwise had, had Fortunato been just another customer off of the street.

Fitting in amongst 'cliques', to which he did not belong, was nothing new for Adam, and having Deerwalker there gave him someone convenient to interact with when Fortunato and spring were being productive - or when the topic was just way over his head.

All in all, the meeting seemed to go really well, for everyone.

[adamu]

Karnivore Karl's
Friday 8/22/70 22:05:25

Big Jimmy made a bit of small talk, but he was the kind of guy with an open face, and it was clear he was ill at ease. He was obviously trying hard not to look around a lot. And Sledge noticed that, besides the beer, he was making no move to order any food - not like Jimmy at all.

After a few minutes, he leaned a bit closer and said, "Things a little sticky right now. No one else is coming. But you don't wanna talk to me. I can't remember shit anyway. If you're backtrail is clean, I'll take you to her. Entrance right here, through the back past the kitchen."

[DireRadiant]

Karnivore Karl's
Friday 8/22/70 22:05:30
Sledge - Supplicant
PAN - Hidden

With a mental flicked she switched her commcast off. Then paused as she reviewed the risks.

There was no help for it. Either way she needed to clear some things up with her sister. And this was going to be the only way to test what the damned halfer feeb had claimed about himself. To deal with the dangers you had to find out exactly what they were.

Even then, you still couldn't do anything about some of them. Like Monica.

Sledge stood up and gave a short nod to Big Jimmy to show her the way.

trust...

[JDragon]

Westwood, Downtown District, Seattle Metroplex
Friday 8/22/70 22:19:01
Rocky - physical adept
PAN: Hidden

It had taken a few hours but they at least now had seen where all the equipment they would need was located. Rocky pulled up the autonav software and picked out the closest Stuffer Shack letting the auto-pilot continue to take care of the driving. He needed something to drink and some food. Plus their was no reason to be driving around asking for trouble while they figured out the next step.

As the van pulled in to the Stuffer Shack parking lot Rocky set up his comm to do an update for the team. "You mind grabbing some snacks and drinks while I get this message out to the team? I don't want someone to recognize me and us end up with the Star all over us." Rocky pulled a stack of bills out and held them out for her.

Angle nodded and took the cash, "Any requests?"

"What ever they got, but make sure to get the extra large sized stuff." Rocky smiled and then went to work on his message.

<<@Team:: Update - Have located the equipment and vehicles needed for our project. See the included map with locations tagged. For security the tough one will be the GPR, also we are going to need a way to shut down/block the RFID's on the equipment or it will be a short trip. Also the saw is huge, not sure if it will even fit on the truck we have picked out, trying to check that out and will let you know. Think we may need more than the two of us to handle it all.>>

By the time he had typed the message out with his big stubby fingers Angel was back with a big plastic bag full of soy bars, auto heat soy burgers and a gallon jug of Nerps Cola.

Rocky closed the van back up after Angel was inside and watched as she unpacked everything from the large bag.

"How are things looking back over at the GPR site? Any change?"

[pragma]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:34:50
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Passive (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Perceiving

The right basket was simple. It bowed outwards at two thirds of its height and had a no-nonsense lid. It would do.

spring produced a pair of scrolls coated in intricate calligraphy and Fortunato began inquiring about whistles. While the masked woman bounced perkily around the store Fortunato turned to Johnson and asked "How much do you know about what I'm buying?"

[BlackHat]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:34:50
Smith
PAN - Hidden

"Next to nothing." He smiled and, behind him, Deerwalker nodded in amused agreement. "That's why you're here."

"I'd be interested to learn, though." He looked, with curiosity, at the basket.

[pragma]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:35:00
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Passive (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Perceiving

Fortunato had the faintest sense he was being laughed at. Visions of thumbscrews danced in his mind for a split second. Johnson could swing between useful and aggravating so quickly. Whatever, people seemed to like him and he brought in work. Fortunato replied in layman's terms.

"Alright. I'm doing what I can to learn a few new tricks for myself -- some spells -- and I'm also trying to set up a place to study."

Why he needed a snake skeleton and string made of mouse intestines to study was a little beyond him. He was pretty sure he needed them though.

"I'm also getting materials to bind us a few helpers for our upcoming business. You'll recall that a snake and a tornado were somewhat helpful last time we worked." He was hesitant to mention what they'd done around strangers. He talked slowly and carefully, filtering his speech. "I can arrange for them to be available to us for the next few days."

"Unfortunately, the helpers I summon wouldn't help us past the end of our project, so I'd like them to be placed on the expense account. I'll pay for the rest myself."

[BlackHat]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:35:10
Smith
PAN - Hidden

Smith nodded, "Completely reasonable, as long as we stay in our budget."

He paused for a second. "Any chance you are going to have a time to study those spells, before the job? All that stuff about sensing the enemies emotions sounded pretty handy."

[pragma]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:35:20
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Passive (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Perceiving

"Probably not. This takes a day or two to get ready and I expect I'll be busy with other prep work right up until we get started."

"Speaking of which, should I be helping out our large friends or doing the astral work I discussed earlier. I'd really like to take care of my end of the business, but if they need my help then there's little to be done about it."

[BlackHat]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:35:30
Smith
PAN - Hidden

Smith nodded understandingly when Fortunato explained that the spells wouldn't be ready for the mission. He suspected it would take a while - the analogy that came to his mind was the time it took him to wrap his mind around a new piece of code.

"Astral. Definitely." He nodded, "Sledge and I can probably help out with the other stuff - you take care of the stuff only you can do." He considered his decision a little further, while spring showed Fortunato another knick-knack that he didn't seem to think he needed, just now. "I suppose you'll be out of contact for the duration? Any estimate of how long it might take?"

[pragma]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:35:40
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Passive (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Perceiving

"If it's much more than two hours, then something has gone seriously wrong. I don't expect that to happen. Should be about thirty minutes. I can actually leave you a way to get in touch -- we'll do it when we get done here."

"Can I get introduced to your other friend, in order to get ahold of the other goods I'd asked about?" He tapped his commlink surreptitiously. "I'd like to do that tonight if possible. The only problem is that I'm on something of a timeline regarding the astral stuff. I don't think my work will be relevant if I do it much later than 11PM."

[BlackHat]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:35:40
Smith
PAN - Hidden

"Yeah, we can talk about it more when we get done here - but he is going to be busy, right now, working on our rush-order. I'm supposed to touch bases with him around 4am," Smith sighed, " when he should have our mission-specific stuff done - so that might be a good time to set up a meeting between the two of you."

Smith checked the clock in AR. "You'll certainly have time to do your stuff before he's free. I dunno if you want to meet then, or get a good night's sleep before tomorrow - but we can work something out."

[pragma]

The "Seep", Capitol Hill
Friday 8/22/70 22:35:50
Fortunato - Support Mage
PAN - Passive (Contacts, Earbuds, Smartlink)
Astrally Perceiving

Fortunato winced at Johnson's mention of the next day. He'd been trying not to give away when exactly their work was going to get done in case prying ears passed news along. The fact that the two of them were working together on something together. That it was going down tomorrow could be worth good money to the right people. He'd have to trust the discretion of Johnson's spectacular looking escort. It worried him.

"4 AM sounds good, gives me time to get a couple of things in line."

spring materialized with the last of Fortunato's order and all of the assorted glass jars, wax paper and leather pouches and srolls got stowed in the two foot tall basket he'd selected.

Fortunato and Johnson haggled for a bit -- they seemed to complement each other well and snagged a hefty discount on the magical goods. Fort left :nuyen:3400 of certified cred and Johnson paid the same.