IC: Threat and Favor, A Team Effort Game Options

[Raiko]

Mirage shakes Jessie's hand, "The pleasure is mutual, I have also heard of you by reputation Jessie."

She smiles, "It is good that Zoe has gathered such a professional team, but I worry that she has got us here so early for the meet. She must fear problems with the meeting, perhaps we should prepare."

[Grey]

"Its always a good idea to get to know eachother a bit before the J gets here. That way we already have a feel for eachother and don't have to worry about figuring that out while at the same time getting a feel for the J. Either way, I agree that a few things may be setup before hand..."

With that, Jessie removes a White Noise Generator from her backpack, places it on the hood of her car and turns it on.

[Fortune]

Danny fumbles for the chirping pocket secretary, his eyes registering the time on the battered Timex sitting on the nightstand. His mind slowly comes awake as he listens to Zoe give instructions for the meet early this coming morning. After assuring the fixer of his acceptance, he disconnects and leans back against the bed's molded headboard.

Lighting a cigarette, he thinks back on the reading he had done the day before, turning the cards' possible meanings over in his mind. No matter which way he looked at it though, the meaning is the same; Trouble.

Seeing no point in returning to sleep, he shakes off any misgivings and heads towards the door, flipping the switch on the cheap soycaf brewer and grabbing the bag of toiletries before leaving the hotel room and heading down the hall to the communal bathroom.

Upon his return after a refreshing, but cold shower, he pours a cup from the cracked coffee pot and settles himself on the bed with his flute. Several hours of playing and meditation helps to clear head of the remnants of both sleep and worry.

After slipping into a clean pair of jeans and pulling on a gray Concrete Dreams Live: Viva Las Vegas t-shirt, he retrieves his bags from under the bed. Gathering up what little he had unpacked over the past couple of days, he repacks the duffel bag, taking the time to check that everything is in it's place in his smaller shoulder bag as well.

Satisfied, he slips the shoulder holster containing his Manhunter over his head, settling it in place before drawing his worn leather bomber jacket on. Danny takes one last look around the small room, then jams his Stetson on his head as he closes the door behind him.

Once outside, it takes him a little less than half an hour to find a taxi at this time of night. According to the cabby, he is lucky it didn't take longer. It definitely would have if he wasn't right in Touristville. Having given the driver directions, Danny sits back to watch the city pass by as the taxi winds it's way towards the meet. Traffic is light at this time of the morning, and he arrives at the scheduled location slightly after 0615.

[MrSandman666]

(In response to Ardens remarks about staying alive:) "In our line of business, you never know when we meet our forefathers. There's no plan or plot needed for... dying"

Ohanzee listens to each of the introductions - and the whole conversation, for that matter - very intentively and tries to memorize as much about each of his fellow runners as possible, storing a short blurb together with a foto for each of them in his headmem for later reference. He gives a short nod to each of the new arrivers as they introduce themselves.
During the arrvial of the others he always stays one step outside of the circle of chatters with one of the big neon lights in his back, so that his hair is throwing sharp shadows into his face, making it almost impossible for someone without the appropriate vision enhancers to make out the expression on his face or what he's looking at.
He asks himself why he does so, since these people seem to be rather professional and trustworthy but following this habbit of keeping himself as concealed as possible makes him feel more comfortable, in a way, even though he doesn't know why. Even though he's been running for quite some time now, he still felt anxious and a little nervous when a new job began. Professional caution would be a nice name for this underlying fear. As the other keep arriving and start casually chatting and exchanging polite remarks he can't help to think about the irony of being so good at something that is so against his nature and about the friendly demeanor of what essentially are professional killers and criminals.
During the rest of the conversation Ohanzee keeps in the background and remains silent for the most part until everybody has arrived (until about 0700 or nobody has arrived for 15 Minutes, whichever happens first).

[Leowulf]

0558

Ghost Dragon is one of the last to arrive at the warehouse. He parks his bike in one of the open parking spaces and begins walking toward the door to go inside. As he does so, he casts a spell with just a thought, turning himself invisible. The spell is an easy one, so he doesn't even strain under its casting.

Ghost Dragon checks the outside of the warehouse for astral security with a quick glance into the astral plane. Seeing none, he walks as quietly as possible into the warehouse and observes what he sees there.

[Smed]

Sink hung up the phone and allowed himself a smile. He had been wondering how he was going to pay the rent this month, and was feeling more than a little relieved not that he had an opportunity for work.

Later, after a shower and some food, he gathered a few things and got ready for the meet. He packed the tools of his trade in a large transit case, stuffing guns, ammo, grenades and other goodies so that he would be ready to go if the job came through.

He left the case in his apartment, not wanting to carry all that heavy weaponry around. Nothing worse than having some Lone Star Slag find heavy weapons in a traffic stop. He stuffed a small sawed off shotgun in a shoulder holster though. He didn't want to go to the meet totally naked.

He dressed casually, jeans, t-shirt long coat and hiking boots, all clean but worn, the jeans more than a little threadbare. Dermal deposits played hell with clothes.

He left the apartment and drove over to the warehouse, backing his Americar into a spot with easy access to the road. He glanced at his watch and saw that he was 5 minutes early, then walked casually into the warehouse, nodded in a mildly friendly way to those presnt and stood back to wait to see what developed.

[grimshear]

[ Arden ]

Arden's ears practically swivel with the opening word from Mirage. *"Vous ne trouvez pas beaucoup de Français autour ici! It's good to hear that somebody else speaks something other the 'gutter' that has a hint of passion in it. Welcome aboard, I'm Arden.

*"You don't find many frenchmen around here!"

[TinkerGnome]

Warpath listens to everyone stoicly. "I'm called Warpath, an' I do the sammie thing." He shrugs a bit at so simple a description. "Ain't much more you can say about that, I guess." He goes back to listening and waiting for the Johnson to show up.

[MrSandman666]

After some time without any new arrivals Ohanzee waits for a pause in the ongoing conversations and says in a calm and quiet voice:
"Now that everybody has seemed to arrive I assume it would be best if we all introduce ourselves again. We should use the time until our employer arrives productively."
He then goes on to repeat his little introduction that he already used when greeting Jessie, using almost exactly the same words.
During all this he hardly moves from his position. He doesn't use his hands to accompany the words. In fact, he doesn't use any body language at all.

[Grey]

At Danny's arrival, she gives him a warm smile, and has to stop herself from going over to hug him. "Hey there Danny, good to know you're on board."

After Ohanzee's speach, Jessie re-introduces herself, smiles all around.

[Leowulf]

Ghost Dragon continues to observe the conversations without making his presence known, just to be sure who he is working with.

Can I drop my spell without surprising them into shooting at me? I am more than fast enough to keep pace with them if they do, but... no, not yet. I will not take the risk of revealing myself yet.

After an hour and a half has passed, Ghost Dragon decides to reveal himself.

It would seem that I will be working with them. They do not appear to be against me. What does my life matter?

Ghost Dragon says, "Hello," from 5 meters away as he begins walking toward the group of runners standing around talking to one another. Once everyone's jumping and grabbing of weapons ends, he drops his spell and becomes visible to everyone.

As he fades into visibility, Ghost Dragon begins speaking, "My name is Ghost Dragon. I will be working with all of you. I was watching you for quite some time, so I already know all of your names and specializations. My specialization is magic. I also possess other talents, such as stealthiness, pistols, and hand-to-hand skills."

They are... undisciplined. A sign of weakness. Typical.

[Grey]

Jessie gives Ghost Dragon a simple nod, obviously not happy with the way he handled his introduction.

What kind of professional does things that way? He's obviously over-paranoid, which could end up getting in the way.

[MrSandman666]

At hearing the hello, Ohanzee calmly turns around to look the approaching guest. He figures that no one with the intention to attack them immediately would bother to intoduce them first.

He gives the new arrival a thorough once-over.
"And you expect us to even remotely trust you now? I could have imagined many much better ways to introduce yourself to your new team.", he says completely calmly and almost bored but most of all without any agression or or other emotion.

What a show-off...

[Shadow]

0800

The cold morning is felt to the bone inside the old building, wooden walls do little to insulate the place. Outside a light fog has taken residence a few feat of the ground. The weather has been unusual the last few weeks, starting with an insane rainstorm that just ended a few days ago. Not it seems to have turned cold. The grey clouds that seem permanently etched in the sky have turned dark and forboding.

The crunch of tires on pavement echoes outside as a vehicle pulls up. A door is opened, then another, a smartly dressed elf enters the building, black suit, red tie. He has short cut black hair and fair skin. He walks with an ease and attitude that makes it obvious he is used to dealing with people. Through the opened door you can make out the headlights of a Nightsky.

"Freunde des gutenmorgens, danke für das Kommen," he says in lightly accented german. When no one replies immediately he looks some what disappointed and continues.

"Good morning, danke for coming. I am Mr. Johnson. Zoë has assured me that you all are looking for work, ja? Good then I have some," he says in with a light accent.

"An asset of a company called "Optronics" would like to be relocated, he is purchasing his transfer with an extremely advanced surgical laser. All the work is done, all that is left is that we actually get the asset. He was simply to get on a plane this weekend, but that has changed. The parent company, Novatech, wertlose Villers Marionetten, has decided he is worth protecting," as he speaks he looks at the group, at each member. His eyes flicker over most the group with a dismissive gesture. When they rest on Mirage, they go slightly wide. His look doesn't change, but the hair on the back of her neck stands on end, and the emotion in his eyes makes her skin crawl.

"Now we have learned that he has a bodyguard, and has been moved to a secure housing facility in Everett," he says, now mostly looking near Mirage, never quite taking his eyes of the dark haired beauty.

"That is the job, I have forty thousand nuyen for the team that can complete it, do you want the job?" The last he says while trying to look at everyone, but again, his eyes end on Mirage.

[Grey]

Jessie steps up.

"I'm in, but forty isn't enough. There are eight of us here, thats only five grand each. You go to Zoe to get the best, well, you've got them, but five grand isn't going to cut it. Make it sixty and we'll continue our conversation, and even at sixty I feel like I'm giving more than I should."

[Shadow]

He has an almost disgusted look on his face when Jessie starts talking. He listens, and nods, "I don't care if there were ten of you, that's not my problem. However I understand you are good, so let's say 45k."

[MrSandman666]

Ohanzee states, in his usuall and by know well-known matter-of-fact motionless way of speaking: "I have the same thoughts. I can't speak for the others here but I'm not doing this for fun. 5000 is rather meager for an assignment that will most likely be everything but straightforward and may put many a life on the line, not counting even ours. Professional work comes with a pricetag attached. 60.000 is the bare minimum and even that would be very generous of us, considering the gain you get from this man and the risk that comes with this assignment. And it is very much your problem how many we are. If you can't afford eight professionals then don't ask for then. You always get what you pay for." During all this time he holds direct eye contact with the Johnson and doesn't blink even once - an ability that he found was granted to him by his cybereyes.

[Grey]

Jessie does her best to keep her face clear of emotion, she simply looks around to see if everyone else is go for it.

[Shadow]

The johnson stares back at Ohanzee, more of a glare actually. A twitch develops on his cheek, he looks away and his face flushes slightly crimson.

"Fine he barks, 60k it is." Anger flutters over his face before he gets it under control, "so, will you take the job."

Feine Freunde, gerade Geldstrafe, lassen mich Sie bitten, niedrig halfbred shadowrunning Abschaum, um dies für mich zu tun, he thinks to himself.

[Grey]

Good, cause otherwise I was going to walk

"Alright. I'm in."

[Raiko]

Mirage grins when she hears Arden speaking in her own language, "il est bon de pouvoir parler en ma langue maternelle, puits rencontré."*

After Warpath has reintroduced himself she says, "I'm also a Street Samurai, so I'm mostly good at shooting people, I'm also quite stealthy and I pretty good at dealing with people as I'm a bit less imposing than most samurai."

She chooses to ignore Ghost Dragon's arogant entrance, when will mages realise that it takes more than invisibility to hide from us cybered mundanes

She does her best to hide her "creeped out" emotions as she meets the Johnsons stare with the cold, unblinking gaze of the killer that she is.

*It is good to be able to speak in my native language, well met.

[Smed]

At first, Sink seems to be doing his impression of the strong silent type. He looks and acts relaxed and listens to the others introduce themselves, waiting till everyone has had their chance at talking and then finally adds "Pleased ta meet ya all. Da name's Sink."

His accent is pure Seattle Street, he's either a local or can pass for one. "Dey must think dis job could get rough, der's alot of us muscle types here" he comments. "I can handle myself in a scrap, and patch ya up after one. I'm not a street doc, but can help keep ya alive till you can get ta one. Hopefully I won't need ta use either of dose kinda skills, I like my runs quiet, but if tings get bad, I'll be dere."

He follows the other runner's gazes and notices Ghost appear. He watches to see how the others react, but says nothing of the man's arrival technique.

Later, when the meet begins, he stands back, listening to the description of the job. He ignores the money talk, but says "So you're saying dis guy is willing, but dey just upped da security on dis slag outta da blue? Dey know he plannin on jumpin ship then......"

"How much dey know and how dey find out?"

[Shadow]

The Johnsons acknowledges Jessie, "Do you speak for the group, fräulein," halfbreed he says in his head.

"I have a feeling that the upgrade to his security is coincidental, Novatech is just responding to the fact that his project is near completion," he says to the big troll. When Mirage starts getting "the look" he starts to shy away and deliberately avoids looking at her, which seems to fuel more emotion behind his eyes.

[Grey]

"No. Hence my saying that I'm in. They can speak for themselves."

Jessie does her best to read the Johnson's reactions to Mirage.

[Raiko]

Mirage says, "Ok, I'm in."

She continues to stare coldly at the Johnson.