[IC] [SR4] What I want to do when I grow up, High School builds character Options

[Twitch_]

Rio blinks owlishly at the gun, twitching her fingers to call up an AR window and confirm that, yes, it's real. "Is, ah. Is that really necessary? Ideally we're going to get hired, not... shot at."

[ShadowDragon8685]

"Look around you, R-Sasha," Zoé says. "Girls like us go missing in parking lots like this every day." She shifts the pizza bag. "You gonna open the car so I can stuff these pies in the back, or did you have a different plan for them?"

[Twitch_]

Another quick twitch of Rio's fingers pops the lock on the Comet. She looks around the parking lot in vague surprise, as though she's only just noticed it. "It's open. I thought you were going to eat that awful bagel thing."

[ShadowDragon8685]

Zoé pushes the pizza bag into the backseat of the comet, opens its flap, and pushes out the pies, the bagel, and the tube of Thunderblast Red. She takes her helmet off, curling the bag up and throwing it into her bike's sidecar, which closes up dutifully.

"I am," she says, sliding into the backseat, beside the pies, and unwraps the bagel. "Either of you want to try some?" She leaves the unwrapped bagel atop the stack of pizza boxes and pops the tab on her fizzy drink, taking a swig, and then lifting the bagel, which was cut in half, offering a half to either or both of Daiyu and Rio.

[Vegas]

Even though it didn't look like it, Daiyu was not one to turn away proffered food and silently gave Rio one more opportunity to snag half the bagel with a nod before she grabbed it for herself.

"Thanks Zoé, I'm starving." She bit into the still-warm bagel and found it to be rather tasty. "What do I owe you guys for my share of this anyway?"

She happily munched away on the bagel, happy to avoid the discussion about the gun that Zoé was carrying as so long as the girl could use it, being in this neighborhood she was almost happier that someone was armed.

"You said something back at school about my commlink? Something you suggested I do to it?" Daiyu shrugged, "Tech stuff isn't exactly my forte I guess, not in the same way it is for the two of you."

[ShadowDragon8685]

Zoé smiles when Daiyu bites into the bagel eagerly, and more when she seems to like it. She knows she can can have weird tastes at time; seaweed and cream cheese bagels being one of those oddities, and is genuinely glad to have brightened Daiyu's day in some small way.

"Didn't get to grab a snack after school, huh? One of the small - very small - perks of working at a pizza shop." She takes a bite of the other half, crunching happily through the toasted bagel's crust, teeth sinking through the warm, bready inside, crunching back out through the middle, sinking again through the cream cheese, and finally crunching one last time through the seaweed, pulling it away and swallowing the bite, then she holds it up in case Rio wants to try it. With her other hand, she reaches across herself, swallowing after a moment and taking a swig of her Thunderblast Red, a sweet, vaugely red-berry flavored drink known primarily for its abundance of caffeine and carbonation (as opposed to the other flavors in the line, Thunderblast Purple, Thunderblast Blue, Thunderblast Black, Thunderblast Orange, Thunderblast Cola, and Thunderblast Sherbert,) then offers the can to either or both of Rio and Daiyu.

"And I was suggesting we pass out encryption keys so we can contact one another securely, if need be. There's probably not much I can do with your 'link. I can have a look if you want me to, though, but Rio's probably better at that than me. As regards the split, let's see... My drink and bagel together are 7 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) and the pies are 17 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) each. Who paid? I'll chip in 25."

[Twitch_]

Rio shakes her head at the proffered bagel and shrugs. "I'm alright with hardware. My comm's not as good as yours, though. I paid." She turns to look at Daiyu, eyes unfocusing slightly as she looks between the elf and an ARO. "Are you good at anything?" she asks, tactful as ever.

[ShadowDragon8685]

"Oh, that's right," Zoé says. "I had a paranoia moment earlier when I wondered if the school might have been using spyware on us, getting it onto our links. I didn't find any on mine, but they probably would've had a hard time getting any onto mine in the first place. That kind of got lost in all the more scary stuff, but it doesn't mean there's nothing to worry about."

She looks up at Daiyu, with a smile. "Want me to scan your 'link with a fine-toothed comb and nuke anything nasty?"

[Vegas]

"Sure, have at it Zoé. Doubt you'll find much on there of interest." She unclipped her commlink from her waist and tossed it over the backseat into Zoé's eager hands, unlocked and open for whatever she wanted to do with it. Daiyu then turned her attention back to Rio and shrugged before she answered, not bothered by the girl's direct approach.

"I'm nothing special remember, just another washout who is apparently tripping alarm bells in the Administrations office these days."

[ShadowDragon8685]

Zoé connects her datajack to Daiyu's commlink by fiber cable, and closes her eyes. It takes some serious trust and perhaps a little bit of negligence to get the idea to go into full VR whilst sitting in the back seat of a car whose door is open, but she feels safe because Daiyu and Rio are out there.

In her reality filter, it's no trouble at all for her to clambor down from the rooftops of her virtual city node to leap onto the roof of a passing elevated train, riding it through the tunnel of fiber-optic cable, into Daiyu's commlink.

She emerges into the constructed city of Daiyu's commlink, much more constrained than her own, and her avatar issues a smile as she brings up her Analyze program. In moments she's running through the 'link, golden scanlines parsing over everything, searching for the bright, angey red matrix symbol-rain that would indicate a virus or form of malware.

[ Spoiler ]

IP 1: 5
IP 2: 3
IP 3: 3
IP 4: 5
IP 5: 3
IP 6: 3
IP 7: 3
IP 8: 1
IP 9: 3
IP 10: 1

Max hits: 5 (IP 1, 4.)

[Koekepan]

Liara finds nothing wrong in the commlink she inspects. The worst is a plethora of nasty little personally identifying bits from various matrix activities - this should be wiped for anonymity's sake, but it's not active software.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Liara rounds those nasty little bits of PII (Personally Identifiable Information) up, the metaphor being gathering them up with the alien avatar's powerful, gravitic-based telekinetic manipulation, and dumps them all in a massive, hovering skip-bin that follows her around the city. She slaps a lid on it and marks it quarantine, the idea being to illustrate to Daiyu exactly what sort of information she probably wants to nuke in the future.

Then she leaps down from the top of the skip-bin, which she rode back to the elevated train tracks leading in from the sky-tunnel, materializing a pair of glow-rods in her hands, dramatically waving them as if "landing" a train car which arrives in the station, pulling what looks like heavy cargo; a stack of hacked programs.

[ Spoiler ]

Daiyu gets: Attack 6, Corrupt 6, Data Bomb 6, Decrypt 6, Defuse 6, Disarm 6, Exploit 6, Medic 6, Nuke 6, Sniffer 6, Spoof 6, Stealth 6, Track 6, ECCM 6, Blackout 6.

She smiles in a pique of mischievousness, setting a search for Daiyu's porn stash ( 4 successes) and sending it back to her own commlink if she finds any, then decides to spread the wealth beyond hacking and questionably potent privacy tools.

She sets up another incoming train, this one carrying less-heavy cargo cars, as well as copies the transmission to Rio.

[ Spoiler ]

Daiyu and Rio recieve:
Empathy Software 6, Facial Recognition Software 6, Gait Analysis 6, Lie Detection Software 6, Noise Analysis 6, Visual Spotter Software 6, Body Shop, Glyphs, Negator, Virtual Pet, Virtual Surround Music, Virtual Weather, and Wall Space.

She leaves a note for Daiyu as well: Your link was clean of viruses, just some PII left over from some matrix browsing you've done. I quarantined it all so you can get into the habit of figuring out what kind of stuff needs to be wiped regularly. I also sent you a nice large suite of very strong tools that others should not see. If others have access to the 'link, put 'em on an optical chip and delete them ASAP.

One of those tools you'll probably get good mileage out of is the corrupter I sent you. It's a specialized program that just overwrites anything you point it at with utter gibberish. Once something's been good and overwritten, that's it; it's gone. Can't be recovered by mortal metahumanity. It doesn't have the same finnese as knowing what you're doing with an edit program, but the upshot is that you don't need to know what you're doing with an edit program to erase the evidence with a corrupter. Someone who knows what they're looking at will know something happened, but won't know what.

Start with this note. No really, you need to hash this note ten ways to Sunday before you delete it. Then you might as well get on to those piles of PII and your data logs. Most people don't know about them, but they keep a record of every action an authorized user makes, which is, well, bad. Here's how to find them...

She then hides a message in Daiyu's data logs.

[ Spoiler ]

If you're reading this, you're inquisitive! FYI, I had a look 'round your link to see if you had any porn, go ahead and check the data logs to see what it looked like when I did that, you can see the tell-tales of a browser program sniffing around.

Zoé takes in a deep breath as she comes out of VR, and hands the link back to Daiyu, disconnecting from it and rolling the fiber cable back up, sticking it in her pocket. "Here you go. I loaded you with some tools way too hot for this 'link, but you might be able to get some use out of them anyway."

[Aria]

Hop trudged through the drizzle through the charming neighbourhood that he'd been invited to. He might be new in town but this place had a twitchy feeling that had him itching to grab at the stun baton holstered in the small of his back. What the frag am I doing here? he thought to himself for the umpteenth time? Not like me to have my head turned by a pretty face, even a weird blue one...but he'd meant what he'd said about finding friends here, even if it did slightly jeopordise the low profile his parents had insisted they keep...

@Liara, Daiyu, Hop [Hex]: The guy we're meeting goes by Papa Gotcha. He's a kind of... he finds work for people who are looking for it. You don't have to get involved if you don't want to, but hear him out first, okay? They think we're nobody at that school. Personally, I plan to prove them wrong. It should be more interesting than classwork, at least.

@Hex [Hop]: Right, I'm here as you asked...where the hell are you? nobody at school? Well that might be just as well, but this was intriguing! Cypher would probably kick his arse for not taking more precautions in getting here, but he was here now...

[Twitch_]

@Hop [Hex]: Over here. Rio puts up an ARO marking their position, batting it absently away from her head in the meat world. @Hop [Hex]: Glad you could make it. We're still waiting for the guy we're meeting. Come sit in the car if you want.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Zoé looks up, noticing the ARO at about the same time her commlink informs her that a recent contact is within close distance.

@Hop [Liara]: We've got pizza! Climb on in.

She looks up at Rio and Daiyu. "Why aren't we all in the car, again? And where is this guy? I can stretch it a lot, but if he's not going to show up until quarter after, I may have some serious dancing to do with my boss."

[Koekepan]

Rio's commlink gets a transmission:

@Rio [Anon53869]: If you're all here, the side door is unlocked. It's the one with the High Voltage sign on it. Don't go through the front.

It's not a recognisable ID, but who else would it be?

[Twitch_]

Rio reaches around to the passenger seat and picks up her duffel bag. "Okay, everyone," she says quietly. "Here we go. Side door." She cancels the ARO marking their position, gets out of the car, and walks to the door, pausing at the High Voltage sign. Hopefully this is not Papa Gotcha's idea of a joke. Gingerly, she opens the door.

[Koekepan]

The door has a big, bright, black and yellow WARNING - HIGH VOLTAGE sign on it along with an iconic image of a stick figure and a lightning bolt. There is also an ARO warning of the dire consequences of unleashed electricity, but other than that the door is unremarkable in a chipped, stained, industrial sort of way.

Rio pulls the door open, and at least the puff of air from inside is warm. There are some conduits inside, but most of the room is empty save for a medium sized table and some battered but comfortable looking chairs. In one of them, facing the door, is Papa Gotcha.

Papa Gotcha probably weighs 140kg, and stands around 180cm tall. He's a big, beefy human with a naturally jovial expression. Currently he's dressed in what might be called urban lumberjack chic - an undershirt of some sort under a basic flannel shirt, boots peeping out from under the table. On his eyes are goggles, with a wire leading to the pocket of his shirt. The icons and everything around it betray it as a pathetically cheap Stuffer Shack special - internal battery guaranteed to die in a week or less, if he didn't pay for the HI-POW upgrade (which he almost certainly didn't).

"Howdy, c'mon in, take a load off!" His language betrays his age - not much younger than the Sixth World, clearly - but he is energetic. With an expansive sweep of his hand he offers a tray table on which foaming tankards sit to one side. One of those tankards is in his left hand.

[ShadowDragon8685]

@Hop [Liara]: Ah, damn. Pizza will have to wait, looks like. She abandons her tube of Thunderblast Red in the cup holder in the back seat of Rio's ride, along with her half-eaten half-bagel atop the pizza boxes. She sets the anti-theft deterrent on her Revolution and sends her boss a text: Gonna be a while, have to use the powder room before I get back. Sorry.

She sets her link to archive and ignore any tags, texts, social media posts, or commcalls - basically, everything and everyone except Daiyu, Rio, Hop, or her aunt, and pauses before she shuts the door, then takes one of the boxes, pulling it out and easing the door shut with her leg.

@Rio [Liara]: I don't know anyone who doesn't like a slice of pizza pie, do you? As Hop approaches, she foists the pizza box onto him; after all, she may need to get to her pistol in a hurry. Looking around at the surroundings again, she frowns, but follows Rio, as she loads up a suite of programs and puts her commlink into invisible mode.

[ Spoiler ]

Analyze 6 (Ergonomic, Mute); Browse 6 (Ergonomic, Mute); Command 6 (Ergonomic, Mute); Edit 6 (Ergonomic, Mute); Scan 6 (Ergonomic, Mute); Reality Filter 6 (Ergonomic); Sniffer 6, Spoof 6, Stealth 6, ECCM 6, Encrypt 6, Nuke 6.
Response unaffected; six Ergonomic programs running, six regular programs running.

@ Hex, Daiyu, Hop [Liara]: Okay folks. Gut check here... Girls, I sent you Stealth and ECCM programs. Turn them on. Especially ECCM - if someone starts up a jammer, it's the trump card. Hop... Coming at you now. In the interest of speed and brevity, she sends him ECCM 6 and Stealth 6 alone.

She follows Rio in through the door, glad that her friend didn't get summarily electrocuted by touching it, though she had been about to say she should go first, as her gloves were electrically insulated.

[Twitch_]

Rio fires up her own programs, persona donning the paper hat of Stealth and a small origami boat of ECCM. Looking around the room, she sits in one of the offered chairs. After a moment, she even remembers to take a tankard, although she sets it on the table instead of drinking. "Papa Gotcha, I'm... Hex. We spoke earlier. These are the other people I mentioned." She doesn't introduce them, deciding to let them choose which names to give. "We brought something we thought might interest you. And also pizza, I think."

[ShadowDragon8685]

Zoé elects not to speak up, nodding for Hop to put the pizza on the table and climbs up onto a stool next to Rio. She waves off the offered tankards; she is both driving today and underaged, after all.

She does, however, snap shots of this fellow - Papa Gotcha - with her eyes, though, waiting quietly to see what's going on and trying not to show nervousness on her face.

[Vegas]

Daiyu moved in the middle of the pack of teens, following Zoé with Hop bringing up the rear. Unsure about the need for all the theatrics and paranoia, she did dutifully follow instructions and fire up the two new programs on her ‘link from their shiny new icons.

Her eyes moved about the room taking in the various details and wondered just what kind of work was going to come from a meeting with the roly poly lumberjack sitting in front of them. Regardless she was here with an open mind, she could use a distraction from the crapstorm that was brewing at school and if there was a way to make some extra nu on the side so she could stop having to take the bus all the time that wouldn’t hurt either.

She politely and silently declines one of the tankards, allowing Hex to be their proverbial spokeswoman for the group as she takes a seat on the other side of the Blinkie. Gone was any trace of jovialness that she had shared with the girls at the car as her best impression of an ice bitch went into play.

[Aria]

Well shit, now I'm the delivery boy..., however, Hop dutifully followed the girls in, more bemused by this encounter than anything else. So, this guy was a fixer...?!?

[Koekepan]

Papa Gotcha's face falls a little when he sees the four arrayed before him. Eyes move from one, to the other, over girlish elven features and Hop's lithe build. For just a moment, he looks tired, then he straightens up a bit, and his tone shifts as the door closes.

"You got something? Awright. But I'm not blind, and I can see that I got another crew of kids in front of me. Fine. Lemme tell you the score."

He pauses to take a pull from his beer, and puts a hand into the pizza box, grabbing a slice while he continues:

"You got something to offer? We can deal on that, if it means anything, but ain't nobody on the street gonna ask you to do drek, even kill a rat, without a rep. The ethical operators won't do it because they don't want you to die in a gutter, the cold ones because they don't want you to fail, and hit their rep. Now I know that you ain't nobody on the street, because of the magic word: reputation. I know you ain't got one, because that's what I do."

He states his case as bald facts - the conviction of a man who knows whereof he speaks because he's seen it all, and done most of it. He pauses merely to take a bite of the pizza and swallow it down with a little beer.

"But I also know there's some ghouls out there who'll use you up, because you're disposable goods. You ain't drek - and if I turn you down, you'll find them, and in two weeks you'll be dead, washed out, or worse. So, I gotta standing offer, 'cause street meat is cheap and keeps finding me: Do a job for me first. A job, personally, for me, personally. Got that? I state the case, I pay the fee, and if it all goes bad, ain't nobody's rep fragged but yours. If you succeed, maybe I got something else, and we can do biz."

He takes another bite, another sip, and looks around at the group before him.

"So, whazzit gonna be? Get stupid and swing the gear to prove your price, or get smart and bug out back to the safe streets and forget this drek?"

[ShadowDragon8685]

Zoé's heart skips a beat when it finally - finally - hits her that Rio has dragged them to a meet with a Fixer - an honest-to-god fucking Fixer.

This could be it - she could prove to her aunt that she didn't quite need to be coddled... Or she could wind up dead or worse, as Papa Gotcha suggested. The smart thing to do, of course, would be to say 'Thank you for the offer, enjoy the pie, we'll be going.'

Instead, mustering what she can from what she knows of her aunt's circumspection and from Shadowrunner trids, she sits up straighter, steepling her fingers, trying to look serious and capable, as she looks up into the large man's face.

"That depends on what the job is. We may be young, but we're not entirely stupid... So why don't we enjoy a somewhat average pizza pie, while you tell us what you want done, and what you're proposing as compensation for it."

She smiles, trying to look serious and maybe even a little streewise, as opposed to adorable. (Etiquette: Shadows 4 Hits.)