Exiles Hope, Sometimes, the only way out, is through! Options

[Grey]

Jessie steps out of the Americar, taking a moment to open her umbrella, before making her way through the parking lot, towards the door. Getting inside, her cool eyes scan the place quickly, a smile coming over her red painted lips at seeing Zoe.

Deciding to give Zoe a moment with whomever she is with at the moment, Jessie heads for the bar and almost forgets where she is by starting to order wine, but recovers quickly enough to go with a beer. Taking a seat at the bar, she sits sipping her drink, letting her enhanced eyes and ears fill her in on everything going on around her.

[Shadow]

@ Sedryk and Danny

Zoe stands up and shakes the offered hands, her grip is firm, but gentle. The trid does not do her justice, her stunning blue eyes are bright and deep, lending a very angelic look to her face. She is a beautiful women.

"I can appreciate that you both have questions, let me assure you that they will be answered, I don't want to have to say everything twice though, so please, have a seat and order something, it's on me. The rest of the group should be here shortly." While she speaks she glances over to the dark haired women at the bar, she then looks back to Danny,

"I put the word out I was looking for a healer, a guy named, Roadrunner running the t-bird slot from CAS to Azzie territory told me you were very reliable." While she speaks she gives you an appraising look, "can't say as he was at all wrong. So have a seat and as soon as everyone here will get to the nity grity."

Nodding to Danny, Zoe walks over to the bar and orders some juice from the bartender, "pitcher of OJ, Tigger, ok?"

The big troll nods, and goes to work filling the 5 gallon drum he calls a pitcher. Zoe turns her head to the side, blonde hair curling about her shoulders, "hoi Jesse," she says to the amerind at the bar, "care to join us at the back table?" She doesn't wait for a response, she grabs the now full pitcher and heads back to the table.

c'mon Gren, don't leave me hangin.

[TinkerGnome]

A few slow passes by the bar helped Warpath flesh out the contour map in his head. The headware memory came alive as it soaked up distances and shapes, giving him a good representation of where he was going to be and how to get out of it in the event of the worst. Finally, he pulled into the parking lot. The indigo display in the virtual dashboard still showed he had plenty of time.

He checked the clips in his weapons with a simple palm touch and looked at the sheeting rain outside. Rummaging in the back seat, he retrieved his battered fedora, a relic of one too many missions. It'd always come back, and him with it, though, so there might be some luck in it.

Pulling the battered thing down around his ears, he unhooked the piloting cable from the SUV and plugged in his pocket secretary. After a bit more fussing around, he finally opened the door and climbed out into the tempest. "They say you get the same amount of wet if you walk or run," he grumbled to himself as he made his methodical way across the soaking parking lot. A few more steps and he was inside.

He paused, and in the space of time where normal people let their eyes adjust to the change in light, he marked the location of everyone and everything in the room on his topographical map. Doors sprang into a soft cyan as they were recognized by the orientaiton system and carefully labeled on the map, and the people surged with various levels of heat and visible color.

Pulling the hat from his head and letting the water drizzle off, he surveyed the room, noting the early morning crowd seemed a bit different from the likey usual. He slid into the room slowly, waiting to be seen.

[Shadow]

Zoe eyes slide over, followed by her head to the front door. She scans the hulking figure who walked through it for half a heart beat before signalling him over. "Warpath, glad you make it omae," she says while offering her hand. "Have a seat and order something, the others should be here shortly," she says with a smile of very white teeth.

[Fortune]

Upon hearing Zoe name Roadrunner as a reference, Danny visibly relaxed. The hot-shot T-Bird Jammer from Gibson's Gypsies still owed him one after the day he'd helped pull 'Runner out of that Azzie camp half-dead. Too bad about the rest of his crew though.

His biggest dilemma solved, Danny sits back and quietly sips at his giant-sized soycaf, observing the arrival of the various others that seem to have been found worthy to be part of this impromptu group.

[Leowulf]

Blackjack parks her car as close to the front door as she can and quickly exits the vehicle, locking it up as she does. She opens up her umbrella for the short walk due to the heavy rainfall. Once inside the doorway, Blackjack closes her umbrella and shakes it outside a bit to get rid of some of the water drops that have collected on it.

Her shapely figure is evident to anyone watching, as her coat comes open due to the shaking. She closes her coat after shaking her umbrella and letting the door close behind her. Blackjack looks around the room with her blue eyes and pulls her now wet blonde curls back into a pony tail to dry, using an elastic band that she fishes for briefly in the chest pocket of her coat. She ignores the stares from any patrons that happen to notice that her coat has four sleeves.

Blackjack takes an extra towel-sized napkin from the bar and uses it to pat the rain from her beautiful pale face. Then, putting on a nice smile, Blackjack walks over to the table where Zoe and an ork are seated, cooing "Heeey!" and taking her seat next to the ork. Blackjack has to use her arms to help herself up onto the booth seat.

Pretending she knows them, Blackjack starts a conversation, "Oh, my god! It's raining so hard. I almost wasn't sure my car was going to make it here. Did you guys have trouble driving in that?" She points to the door behind her with her thumb.

[TinkerGnome]

Warpath walks slowly over to Zoe's table, his eyes seeming to drink in every detail of the area as he dropped his wet fedora onto a hook and slid into the seat, his wet long coat still on. "'ey, Zoe." He let his eyes rove around even more and nodded when given a chance to order.

"Got any of that fermented camas back there?" he asks, naming a traditional Sailsh drink. "I'll have a doub... better make that a single," he says, noticing the size of Danny's caf. Only a troll sized liver could take that kind of punishment. "Or a beer, if you ain't got it."

About then, Blackjack draws herself into the booth as well, and begins chattering. Mage or decker, he silently decides. Few others could get away with that chipper attitude at six in the am.

[Grey]

Jessie winks at Zoe and follows her back to the table, nodding to those present. She decides to remain silent for now and just relaxes, drinking her beer and taking things in.

[grendel]

Grendel carats the last vehicle arriving as a friendly surface unit in the BattleTac interface, completing the last of his pre-meet checks as quickly as possible. Time ticked down relentlessly, and he abhorred being late for any appointment. Especially one as important as this. Gravel crunched underneath the Bison's tires as he pulled into the lot of the bar. Odd that Zoe would decide to have a face to face. Odder still that she would chose this place. Nothing he'd seen so far, though, indicated that the situation was anything other than what she'd described. With a thought, Grendel shifted his network operations to the remote he carried, checking all systems and interlocks green across the board. Hunching his shoulders against the rain, he moved quickly across the parking lot and into the bar. Pausing just inside the doorway, he scans the massive interior, practiced eyes picking out cover and escape routes, cameras and security features. With a quick shrug to settle his long coat about his shoulders, he threads his way across the floor to the table in back.

"Good morning, Zoe."

[Shadow]

Zoe smiles up at the big elf.

"Good to see you omae. Have a seat, eat something if you like, were waiting for one more person to arrive, then we can get this show on the road."

[Grey]

Jessie looks up at Grendel as he takes a seat and smiles.

"Hey there Grendel, its been a while. Good to see a familiar face mixed into the crowd."

[Shadow]

After a few minutes of small talk, Zoe stops and her eyes dart up. She has the look of someone reading info off of a display link. She stops and stands up and turns to the bar nodding her head. The big troll reach under the bar, you hear an audible *click*. The lights dim for a moment and then spring back to life. Zoe turns to the table and speaks.

"Ok it looks like the last guy is running a little late, that's ok. He's worth the wait. I know a few of you are wondering why I am showing up to a meet when I usually just arrange them. The Johnson hired me, and me only to procure things. Anything you need for this run has to come through me. A special condition of accepting this job is a communications blackout. No calling friends, or relatives, no talking to other contacts.” She takes a deep breath, “I understand that this is highly unusual and if anyone wants to back out now, understood no questions asked, and no judgment passed. But trust me when I say, this job will be worth it. Now I don't expect any of you to accept a run on that little information. So here is what I can tell you. This is a rescue mission, the target is on an island and your going to have to fly to get there. More than likely the only adversary you will have is the clock, but don't count on it," she says with a grin.

"Trust me when I say though, this job will be worth it." She pauses for a moment to let her words sink in, she nervously glances at the door, hoping that Delacroix shows.

"Anyone want to leave?”

This post has been edited by Shadow: Nov 5 2003, 02:32 AM

[Leowulf]

Blackjack's attempt at conversation hadn't gone anywhere. Everyone just ignored her.

Feeling unwelcome, Blackjack had settled down into her seat to just wait for everyone to arrive so that the meet could start.

When Grendel comes in, Blackjack perks up. When there is a break in the initial greetings, she offers a hand for shaking to Grendel and says with a big smile, "Hey! I'm Blackjack. Nice to meet you."

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Blackjack listens intently to Zoe, and then asks a question, "The blackout won't be permanent will it? Because I have some good friends that I know. This Johnson isn't expecting us to sever all ties and come to work for him is he?"

This post has been edited by Leowulf: Nov 5 2003, 02:46 AM

[Shadow]

Zoe shoots a grin in Blackjacks direction, "no BJ," she says with a smile in her voice, "just for the duration of the run, which shouldn't go more than a week."

[Jr. Woodchuck]

"Trust me when I say though, this job will be worth it." She pauses for a moment to let her words sink in, she nervously glances at the door, hoping that Delacroix shows.

As if on que, the front door opens and Delacroix enters. The elf looks soaked from head to toe, and not to happy about it. Releasing an audible sigh, the elf takes a step and walks out of the wet duster leaving it hanging in mid air. Now revealed are the fine dry clothes that make the elf presentable and easily out placed in the environment. Colorful shades of silk and fine cloth combine to both appease to the eye, and to bring out the Elf's best features.

The elf scans the room looking for Zoe, recognizeing her he walks toward the table not forgeting to pluck his duster out of the air.

"I appologize for the delay. Rideing in the rain is not what I would call fun by any means." With that Delacroix lays his duster on a chair and sits down at the booth.

Delacroix with a meer thought creates a mindlink with Grendel. "Grendel its good to see you again. How are things? Have you ever worked with any of the others here?"

OOC: I believe Grendel is the only one Delacroix has ran with before, if he's ran with others he would cast the mindlink to them as well and convey a similar message. Feel free to respond if you know we've worked in the past together(Its been so long I forgot and can't get to the old forums they seem to be down.)

[Shadow]

Zoe grins at Delacroix as the enchanting elf takes his seat. "Exellent, Arden assured me you would be good to go, glad to see it is so."

Zoe quickly fills him in on what she has covered so far.

"Any questions before I continue?"

[Chance359]

Sedryk slides the fishbowl sized mug to the left before addressing Zoe. "You've mentioned time being a major factor in this job, how long do we have before we would begin?"

Damn, sounds shady, but with things being tight right now, I can't really afford the luxury of being picky. Now I've just got to figure out what to do with Mellow for a week.

[Shadow]

"A fair question Sedryk, the job begins the moment I tell my client to walk through," she turns and points at the back door, "that door. And I will do that when you all have either agreed to do the job, or walk away. Again I apologize for the uniqueness of the job, all I can say is I felt each and everyone of you had a talent for this opportunity that is vital to it's success, and I guarantee, it will be worth it to go on."

[Fortune]

Danny casts his gaze around the table, taking in the motley crew and their various reactions to both each other and the offered job. He has worked with some odd personalities in the past, but the main quirk he'd had to contend with to date has been the over-inflated egos of some of those Panzer jocks down in the Parking Lot. For some reason he gets the feeling that things might be a bit different this time.

Sipping at his now-tepid soycaf while listening to the others' questions, he's surprised that nobody has asked what seems to be the most obvious one. "Not to sound merc'nary, but what's the pay fer this lil' caper? Ah mean, y'all can't be expectin' us to sign on th' dotted lahn for somethin' like this without knowin' at least that much."

[Shadow]

A big grin splits her gorgeous face and her deep blue eyes light up, "another fair question, I was hoping to hold this until I was sure everyone was in, but this will probably guarantee it," she pauses, looking at each and everyone of you.

"30k each, 210K total."

[Fortune]

Hiding the hint of a smile behind the humongous mug in his hands, Danny nods thoughtfully. That much cred would go a long way towards paying off the debts that don't seem to ever get paid.

He looks Zoe straight in the eye for a long moment, searching for any hint of duplicity. Finally he nods decisively.

"Ah'm in!"

[grendel]

Grendel nods to Jessie.

"Likewise. Glad to see you're well."

It takes a moment for him to decide exactly how to react to BlackJack, but in the end discretion is the better part of valor.

"Grendel."

He turns his attention to Zoe, shivering for a moment beneath the unfamiliar caress of Delacroix's magic. It was the same as if he were talking to anyone via his headware radio or telephone, but there was something about it he could never get used to.

"It's good to see you as well, D. I've worked with Jessie before, but the rest of them are new faces. Zoe's on the level, though, I'll stand behind whatever she says."

Text windows open in his vision in response to Zoe's offer, tactical and technical data scrolling down. He nods to Zoe, the flat black of his cybereyes betraying no emotion.

"You know you've got me for this. If we're going to be flying, though, I'll need all the information you can get me on the type of aircraft, as well as what, if any, support will be available. I'll have supplemental requests based upon that information."

[Shadow]

"Excellent Grendel, that info will come, but I will let our employer fill you in, then you can ask all the questions you want of him."

[Jr. Woodchuck]

"Very well, If you trust them so do I." With that the connection between Grendal and Delacroix fizzles away.

Delacroix directs his attention to Zoe, "I am in"

[TinkerGnome]

Warpath gives a low whistle as the figure is named. "That's a lot of nuyen... but that kind of price tag doesn't come for nothin'." He nods to Zoe, "I think I'll reserve my commitment till after I hear a bit more about the job. Thirty's a lot for some stuff, but it's damn cheap for other stuff."