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

[Koekepan]

Papa Gotcha's smile twists a little as Zoé demands to know a precise price. "C'mon. School records? You're askin' me to take that as a risk, not knowing if I can sell it at all? Hell ..." his voice trails off and he rises to grab one of the other mugs before sitting down again. The chair squeaks on the floor as he shifts it.

"Awright. Two thousand, UCAS, as a favour. Call it seed money, to help you get on your feet. If I manage to broker it, I'll tell you how much you coulda made but I'll keep the profits. That's how that works, li'l chummer."

[ShadowDragon8685]

@Hex, Daiyu, Hop [Liara]: Hrm. Coming down an order of magnitude from his sky's the limit offer is pretty insulting. Might be a good enough excuse to turn him down altogether; he's asking us to gamble on a big payday with no reasonable guarantee, after all; making grandoise suggestions without giving any real promises, and then offering an insultingly low amount when we ask for a guaranteed payday for the data instead of being willing to gamble - and giving him the data whether or not he can sell it... On the other hand...

Zoé fires up her lie detection and empathy software; together with the powerful sensors in her eyes, she could read things such as the flow of blood and the pulsing of Papa Gotcha's veins. To her it meant little, but with the empathy software to judge his state and offer psychological advice as regards Gotcha's mood and intentions, it could be the key negotiation factor... And it could likely tell her whether or not he was trying to play them.

She raises her eyebrow, looking just so damn adorable as she tries to look serious, her eyes bright and shiny... And concealing sensors, in use by her commlink, scanning his face in more visual ranges than he was made capable of at birth, and with more resolution than a hawk.

CHA + INT (Judge Intentions): 4 hits
Empathy Software (Judge Intentions): 1 hit
Lie Detection + Thermographic Sensors (Detect Truth/Falsehood): 3 hits

@Hex, Daiyu, Hop [Liara]: I'm also guessing that he doesn't know with any confidence whether he can sell it at all or not because he doesn't handle paydata as a general rule. Spitballing this here: what if we offer to trade him this information outright for a contact with someone who's more in touch with satisfying the needs of matrix-based transactions?

[Koekepan]

Zoé's examination of Papa Gotcha doesn't show very much which she did not already know - except that software shows perhaps less duplicity than she might have expected. He doesn't show any signs of ulterior motives, in fact.

From what the software can pick out there's mostly doubt evident - what's in the data might be in doubt, or whether he's pouring his money down a rathole, or whether these kids can even make it in the relatively nicer areas of what was once called Puyallup.

One thing is certain: there's no clear evidence of predatory intent.

[ShadowDragon8685]

@Hex, Daiyu, Hop [Liara]: Hrm. My software doesn't look like he's trying to swindle us, though. So... 500 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) is chump change. Do we gamble, take the pocket money, or offer to trade for a connection?

[Twitch_]

@Liara, Daiyu, Hop [Hex]: I'd take the contact. I can get spare parts, but for anything more important I don't even know where to start. And I think I need a gun for my drone. Rio's seen enough trids to think that getting hired by a fixer means that sooner or later -- probably sooner -- someone is going to need shooting. She's rather looking forward to it.

[Aria]

Hop shrugged mentally to himself, happy to let the girls run the negotiation

@Liara, Daiyu, Hex [Hop]: A name is probably worth more than ¥! Personally, I’ve never shot a gun in anger in my life and I want to keep it that way if at all possible. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not some fragging pacifist and I’ve been in a few fights but sooner or later a gun is gonna kill someone and I’m not comfortable with that. Anyway, all that aside I’ve begun compiling a mental list of what we might need, we can compare notes in a bit – hardware rather than software is my thing anyway! I’m assuming we need to establish the Public Grid out there, with access points to the others, should be straight forward enough, some wireless repeaters and perhaps a sat link. As Papa said power is likely to be our issue for a long term installation. For something juryrigged like this I’m not sure we want to be messing with fuel cells but some high capacity batteries that we can swap in and out and charge elsewhere might be good. A portable generator would be better but the noise might attract the wrong sort of attention. The trick will be setting it up unseen (and then moving backwards and forwards so that the predators don’t come sniffing around. Assuming the structure(s) we’ll be in are sound (and there’s no guarantee of that), I guess we ought to take some camping gear even if we’re inside, some surveillance points…I’ll keep working up that list!

[ShadowDragon8685]

@Hop, Hex, Daiyu [Liara]: Actually, I had a thought about that. My aunt and I were up all night Saturday watching whatever the trid flicked over to (okay, we weren't paying it much attention, we were mainly talking about sex, but attention coprocessor FTW) and we wound up seeing a documentary (more of a docudrama,) about disaster zones - warzones, natural disasters, manmade disasters, etcetera - and the different ways they'd get Matrix connectivity back into places. One of those ways was by setting up this really fragging expensive Evo Mobile Terminus drone, a wheeled/tracked drone with a Nexus with a powerful transmitter... And the infinitely cheaper option which assumes the people you want to connect with already have their own freaking commlinks; Mesh Tags. They've only got a signal range of 100m, but they're dirt cheap and meant to be dispersed en masse to reestablish the wireless mesh.

@Hop, Hex, Daiyu [Liara]: They have long life batteries, too; they don't need to do anything except transmit and retransmit. So I'm thinking, we scatter those all over the area - and it's only about 200mx200m - to reestablish area connectivity, then we can get a couple of high-rating microwave directional transmitters, set them up on top of buildings and aim them at the nearest areas which have connectivity. The main problem I see is, as he said, power supply... A generator would make sound, which would attract unwanted attention, and while mesh tags themselves probably aren't worth stealing, the microwave antennae and generators would be. So I'm thinking solar, maybe, or else we sniff around to see if there's any active power lines or whatever in the area - I can tell... But, um... I'm not an electrician. We might have to pay someone if we go that route... Solar panels might be our best bet, I'm thinking.

@Hop, Hex, Daiyu [Liara]: Or we just scatter enough fucking mesh tags to create a wireless mesh from the target zone back to the nearest "civilized" area with actual connectivity; we might need to look into that. Alternatively, we can lay fiber cable from connectivity area to the mesh zone he wants us to establish.

[Koekepan]

Papa Gotcha shifts in his seat, quietly watching the inaudible conversations going before him, before he clears his throat, wipes away a little beer foam, and says: "Well, what'll it be?"

RL DEADLINE: 4 November 2013

[Ziathra]

Graciana sits in her Toyota gopher in the parking lot of Loggers, about ready to swear.

I love training dogs, I really do, but it's almost 5. What to do? No, just waltzing in would be rude. Treat it as a job interview, Ixchel.

She blinks back tears for a moment, thinking of home. Then she gets to work with her commlink.

@Rio: Buenos dias! My name is Graciana Acosta and I wish we'd been able to meet earlier. I got your invitation, but I have a job after school helping to train attack dogs, so I couldn't be here at 4. I have a Talent that you might find useful, depending on what you're up to. I hope it's not too late to meet with you today. If it is, just let me know and I'll find you at lunch tomorrow. Yes, I go to our wonderful high school. I just transferred in last week. Best of luck to you!

Graciana settles in to wait for a reply. I think I've got an hour before I'm in real trouble.

[ShadowDragon8685]

"We seem to be at an impasse, Papa," Zoé says, in blissful ignorance of the fact that there's a new friend just waiting to met outside. "We do not prefer to hand over something we've acquired the hard way on speculation; we don't prefer to gamble. You, on the other hand, likewise prefer not to gamble; you'd not like to hand over a sum of money on data that may or may not pay out, and the sum you did offer was... Not sufficiently interesting to us."

She waits a beat for that to sink in. "We can understand that. So, instead of offering money upfront, I have a proposal."

Zoé smiles, sweet-as-melted-sugar.

"We have a strong leaning towards the matrix - Matrix technologies, Matrix activities, and even Matrix connectivity, as you've so amply pointed out. I think that such activities and technologies lay outside your personal wheelhouse, you seem more comfortable in environs like truck stops and gas stations than in the Matrix. So we'll trade; a connection with someone who has a pipeline to the, say, technologies; hard- and software that we have need of; in exchange for the data. You can speculate on it, and if it goes bust, you haven't spent any bucks buying it, just given us a name. If it speculates well, then... Well, you get to reap the financial reward, and we still remain satisfied, as we've gotten what we care to receive in exchange."

As she finishes her proposal, Zoe takes another bite of her pizza, swallows, and returns to angelic smiling.

[Koekepan]

Papa Gotcha smiles a bit as Zoé speaks, and then breaks into a soft chuckle. Finally he raises a hand.

"Awright, I surrender. Uncle. But you hafta understand, names are worth more than money. I'm not giving you anybody's name in the biz until you prove yer chops. I don't reckon you really need that name anyway, because you have some pretty nice gear there. 'sides, if you need better gear, tell me, and you may be surprised what falls off the backs of those trucks at the truck stops and gas stations."

He takes another sip, and continues: "So keep yer data. Hope it's still fresh and valuable in a week or so, once you've proven what you can do. Oh, and in case you're not feeling too good about it? I could hire some proven professionals for twenty grand, tops, to tapdance into the school systems and get me everything there is. Tonight, even. For them, that'd be beer and hookers money for the weekend. I'm not gonna do that, out of respect for what you did, but the other reason I don't is that I don't think there'd be much profit in it. Prove me wrong if you can. Show me a radioactive piece, let me see what I'm buying, why it's valuable, and the price rises. But sight unseen? Forget it."

He takes another slice, and bites off the tip, chewing a bit. and says: "So, if you ain't got nothin' else, I reckon this meeting is over. Get back in touch if you have a bill of materials needed for the Puyallup Matrix job. I've a nice stockpile with no serial numbers if you need it. Found it at a truck stop."

Up goes the glass, down goes some beer.

[ShadowDragon8685]

@Rio, Daiyu, Hop [Liara]: Ahhh crap. Blew it there, looks like he took insult in the 'truck stops and gas stations' bit. And scarily enough, he makes good points about truck stops and gas stations. I guess they're not exactly the kind of places girls like us - no offense, Hop - can really frequent all that well.

Zoé folds her hands together, and closes her eyes. "We understand. It's a shame we couldn't come to a mutually agreeable arrangement, but such is life. Perhaps we'll find something satisfactorily radioactive." She grins. "We'll need to survey the area you want connected, but I feel safe in saying to start off with that we're going to need mesh tags, a lot of them. Fortunately, they're cheap. If that's all, then... We'll get to it." And I will get back to work before my boss starts screaming up a storm... Fuck.

Zoé stands up, sliding her chair in, and smiles, oh-so-sweetly. "Enjoy the pie. It's on us."

Zoé turns, and slips out the back, walking towards her bike, her eyes' zoom flashing to the bike and Rio's car to check on them. @Rio, Daiyu, Hop [Liara]: I have to get back before my boss goes radioactive. It's a good thing my bike doesn't have GridGuide. I'm just gonna tell him I got sick and have been in a rather nasty truck stop restroom. Rio, you gonna take Daiyu and/or Hop and check the area he wants us to check, or shall we wait until I can go? My aunt put a bitchin' sensor suite on my bike, it might be useful. If not, Daiyu, you want to ride with me and waste my boss's time sipping soycaf at his shop while I finish my runs, go with Rio or Hop, or what? Oh, and we can hang/plan at my place. I don't have any parents to ask why we're planning tactical strategy, and if my aunt walks in... Well, she won't be angry. I don't think she's ever been mad at me.

[Ziathra]

While waiting in her car for a reply to her Matrix-mail, Graciana sees a blue elven girl enter the parking lot and head towards a bike.

What the? She looks young enough to be Rio. I'd better go grab her!

Which means that a 5'8”, 110 pound human Latina dressed in gray top, gray cargo pants, black running shoes and a darker gray jacket emerges from a parked Toyota gopher and runs across the parking lot towards the blue elf, yelling, “Wait! Wait! Are you Rio?”

[Koekepan]

Papa Gotcha raises his beer in salute to Zoé as she leaves, and takes another sip.

"Best o' luck, kids. Let me know how it goes. You know how to get hold of me. I'm gonna get some mesh tags set up, but lemme know what else you want. Whatever you need, Papa Gotcha."

He drags the pizza box nearer, and flips it open, settling back in his chair and taking full advantage of the cover and heat, out of the Tacoma weather.

[Aria]

Well it could have gone better but all in all we seem to have scammed a job here Hop mused to himself.

@Liara (Rio, Daiyu) [Hop]: No parents bugging you heh? I don't know if that sucks or is fresh but I kinda like having them breathe down my neck every once in a while! Anyway, we should certainly plan this out before we go rushing down there mob handed! Let's see what we can dredge up on pics/vids of the area, find out who the local gang bangers are if we can, anything so we aren't going in cold. Your bike might be a bit wiz for heading down there, likely to draw attention, no? We might need to liberate some wheels or see if Papa will set us up with a clean set...I don't fancy taking the bus down there (if it even goes there!)...

Exiting Papa's behind Liara, Hop is more than a little suspicious when another kid comes barrelling across the parking lot. It was hard not to feel protective for his new (diminutive) companion, even though he didn't really know her, or the others, yet...

"Who the hell are you!"

[ShadowDragon8685]

And I told Rio to put a sock in it, Zoé thinks to herself, as she starts into the lot... Then her reverie is interrupted as another girl comes barreling towards her.

She doesn't seem intimidated by her, turning her head as the other girl asks if she's Rio, and holds her hands up, but Hop yells at the girl before she can respond.

@Hop [Liara]: Easy, easy!

"Hi. Uh... No, I'm not Rio. I'm Zoé. She should be along shortly, though." She smiles up at the Latina girl. "What's your name?"

[Ziathra]

Up close, one can see long black hair pulled back severely, brown eyes that look kind and sad and a blah figure. The clothes don't help the figure: silver-gray top, charcoal gray cargo pants, a nearly black jacket and black running shoes. Oh, and dog hair here and there on the top and pants, but not the jacket.

The Latina elects to momentarily ignore Hop. She smiles at Zoë instead.

“Hi, I'm Graciana, Zoë. I got Rio's invitation, but I had to help train attack dogs after school. I got here maybe five minutes ago. Is whatever she was inviting people to over?”

[Aria]

Hop held his hands out placatingly

"Rio's on her way..."

Attack dogs?!?

[Ziathra]

For the kind gesture and words, Hop gets a smile.

“Thanks. Are we starting late, then?”

[ShadowDragon8685]

"Um... Not exactly," Zoé says, not bothering to correct Graciana on the mispronunciation of her name. "What Rio wanted us here for - it's already a done deal. She ought to be out in a few secs."

Probably finishing that beer. I don't think I'd have drank it, even if I didn't like alcohol. Hope she's okay to drive - ah, she'll probably make the car drive for her.

Zoé steps aside, waiting for Rio and Daiyu to reappear.

[Vegas]

Daiyu nearly filled the doorway as she stepped out, at least in height. The sinewy Elf stepped out into the persistent drizzle and pulled her coat tighter around her, grateful for the warmth. She paused however in mid-step as she looked up and spotted a familiar face across the parking lot.

What's Graciana doing here? I don't remember her name on the list.

Daiyu's features flash a puzzled glance for an instance before she moved across the short distance to join Zoé, Hop and her fellow Washout.

"Hey Zoé, I might take you up on your offer to sip soykaf for a few hours and kill some time. If I go home right now I'll end up having to work in the shop."

She nodded slightly in recognition to Graciana before she blew warm air over her long fingers with their long dark silver nails. "Hey.

[Ziathra]

Graciana nods to Daiyu. “Hey. Cold out here.”

She then turns back to Zoé, smile fading. “I hope she'll still want to talk about it, or would you? Her invitation didn't say much, but I may be able to help with whatever it is. If it's something she or you would want help for.”

[ShadowDragon8685]

Zoé smiles at Daiyu, and nods. @Daiyu [Liara]: Alrighty... And... You know this girl?

To Graciana, she shrugs, and looks around, then curls her arms up under what swell of breasts the small elf has. "Well, we discovered that the school is evidently trying to label us psychos so they can preemptively ship us off to juvvie. Rio... I dunno, she called a guy and got us a meeting and now we've got a job."

Zoé shrugs.

[Ziathra]

Graciana stares at Zoé for several seconds. Then she explodes, “They're WHAT? That bastard!”

Graciana continues in Spanish for about thirty seconds, her speech fast and furious, like her current expression. (If your character speaks Spanish, she's cursing some guy, Tacoma Educational Authority, Tacoma, the UCAS and just barely stops short of cursing God Himself.)

When she calms down, she continues, “I'd ask you for proof, but I don't think Mom's going to believe me, no matter what you've got. Jobs are good things to have, if you're going to have to leave school. I'm not sure how I can help myself, let alone you.”

Graciana now looks as miserable as the average Washout.

Spider! Spider, help me! Help me think of something to do other than set that miserable place on fire!

[Koekepan]

The spider's way is to find an advantage, be patient, and strike when the time is ripe.