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

[Vegas]

"Aztec-Mex is fine by me, as long as it's spicy with lots of queso fresco and sour cream on the side."

Daiyu stepped out of Zoé's room and joined her on the couch, tucking her bare feet up underneath her as her boots had been left by the front door when they arrived.

"Anyone heard from Rio yet? I mean we can start talking through ideas on how to make this work to be able to cut school and the like? It's not going to do us any good to work out the technical details if we can't plausibly skip classes and I know I'll need a cover story for my parents. I mean are we going to do this thing in shifts?"

[ShadowDragon8685]

"Well... Aunt Cynthia probably won't care if I play hookie, but I don't want to... Zoé frowns. "Papa Gotcha never answered me as regards whether disruptions are okay as long as they're resolved promptly, or if any glitch at all in connectivity costs us the job."

Zoé licks her lips, thinking about it. "Well... What are our options. Can we leave like, drones or something to watch the place while we're in school? I don't suppose any of us are magicians, are we?"

[Audacity]

Tristan wipes his hands on his shop coverall as he walks away from the once-again-whole Americar, leaving long, fresh smudges across the chest. He pushes through the door labelled Employees Only at the far end of the bay, heading toward the break room where civilization is waiting for him in his locker. His father had barely lifted his hand to wave goodbye as he left, either still upset about the earlier argument or too buried in the Bulldog motor to care. Probably both. Typical.

The young ork glanced at the clock hovering constantly at the edge of his vision, projected directly onto his retina by the AR contacts on his eyes. Plenty of time to make the lecture. He takes his time washing the grime that the short shift at the shop has left on him, really working the harsh-grained soap into the creases in his hands, under the nails and around the heavy callouses of a life spent on wrong side of the tracks - or just over them. A life he hopes to leave behind.

That won't happen working here, he thinks to himself, giving his reflection in the dirty mirror a wry glance. The face in the mirror returned a look of tired resignation. Maybe it's time to get out? he mused for the hundredth time this week. Dad will never understand. Neither will mom. But that was wrong. They HAD understood; from the day he Awoke, they had understood. He would never live their life. Could never. That's why they had enrolled him at the dojo. They knew what they were doing. They might not LIKE it, but they knew. And now it's time to get off the sidelines and into the game.

Tristan dried his now fastidiously clean hands and face while bringing up the contact information for a fixer David had introduced him to a few weeks back and brought up a draft he'd composed that same night, but hadn't had the courage to send - until today. The thing at school, the rumors flying around, the fight with his dad, the looks he'd been getting at the shop ...It was time.

Hey, Gotcha - It's Treyo. We met earlier. David introduced us. You said when I was ready, you might be able to find some work for me. Real work.

I'm ready.

He paused a moment, staring at his smudged reflection in the mirror. It looked awfully young. But his jaw was set, and there was a hard glint in his eye.

He turned from the mirror, tossed the towel into the bin with finality, and sent the message.

...

About 10 minutes later, Treyo (as Tristan was known outside the clean life he lived under his father's roof) emerges from the back door of the shop, heading toward the sleek Mirage parked in the employee lot. The transformation is stark. This young ork walks with his head high and his back straight, dressed in a pair of decent slacks and a shirt unbuttoned at the collar. His sleeves are rolled up to the elbow to display the intricate tattoos that run the the length from wrist up well past the cuffs to an unknown extent; dragons, tigers and flames rampant across his muscular forearms and beyond. Steel toed boots make distinct clacks as he walks purposefully toward the bike, and as he gets closer, he throws on the armored riding jacket he'd been carrying under his arm, zipping up and belting down the straps with casual ease. A pair of AR gloves and a helmet taken from its secure compartment on the bike complete the ensemble.

Starting up the crotch rocket's engine, Treyo sends off another quick message to the dojo administrator, On my way, and smoothly guides the bike into the evening commuter traffic.

[Ziathra]

Graciana makes a neat heap of her shoes and jacket near, but not blocking, the bottom of the stairs. She then takes a seat on the couch at the end farthest from the windows. Stretching her hands towards the candlesticks as a joke, she perks up when she feels the heat.

“Warmth! This is about your job? How much are you getting paid? I wouldn't be so rude as to ask, but I'm about to need a bunch of money.”

She also makes a mental note of the name Papa Gotcha.

[ShadowDragon8685]

"Yeah - they're nifty. Came with the place." Zoé seems pleased that Daiyu and Graciana chose to sit on the sofa with her. She turns on it, leaning back into Graciana's side and sliding her legs around Daiyu's waist; she gestures for Hop to join them, though he'll of course have to use the chair, and then gestures towards the far wall, with the flatvid display. It bursts into life, and a tri-d display fills the entire room. It starts off showing some kind of bedroom scene, with an extraordinarily tall, lean blonde elf in a white jacket with an emerald green, ornate cross on the back, highlighted in bright red, walking away from the camera, but it blinks out almost immediately.

"Uh... Heh. Sorry, that was just what I was watching last night," Zoé explains, with a blush. The scene from before is replaced with an image of the planet Earth, surrounded by a starfield. The image zooms in, on North America, then on the pacific northwest, then onto what's unmistakably Seattle, then down, towards the Tacoma-Puyallup Border.

"This used to be the town called Puyallup, which lent its name to the barrens which is technically located south of it," Zoé explains, then she pauses. "Er... Wait, you're from here, aren't you, Daiyu? You probably know this already... Sorry." A bit chagrined, Zoe shakes her head, as the image zooms in and in, until it fixes on a two-block by two-block area. "From what I can tell, this used to be a nice place, like, well, most of North America. We've got two large buildings with huge lots on the north side of 6th Avenue, and two former residential suburban blocks south of it. I think the northwest block used to be a school, but the data's pretty fuzzy on it."

Zoe smiles. "Our mission, which we chose to accept - except you, Graciana, so you can wash your hands of this mess any time if you like - is to connect these four blocks of abandoned real estate to the Matrix for a period of one week. Papa Gotcha was not specific as to when exactly connectivity had to go up, nor did he answer my question as regards the permissibility of promptly-resolved glitches."

She shrugs, lowering her legs, one into Daiyu's lap, the other behind her, resting her foot across the Asian elf's. "I've got an idea about that. We can shower the whole area with mesh tags. Each of them has a signal range of about a hundred meters, and this whole place is only two hundred meters by two hundred meters. Theoretically, four tags would be enough to mesh the whole damn area... So I figure on using about fifty. Just to be sure - just scatter the damn things by drone or something. The trick is, how do we get connectivity from here back to the 'Trix proper?"

Zoé pouts. "That's gonna be the trick. I'm thinking microwave links - they're like laser links, but weather doesn't do a damn thing to them, and they can be had at ratings even higher than lasers. We put like, three on top of these two taller buildings, aim them towards parts of Seattle that have good connectivity - Ft. Lewis, the better parts of Tacoma, Downtown. We'd need to do a bit of surveying to see where we could go that would have line of sight... But, thinking about it, the Hylonome building is really tall, and there's not much tall south of here. I bet if I told the Super it was for a school project, she'd led me put a microwave transceiver on the roof for a week or so. I'll have to think about that... But anyway, the other idea I had was just to double down - get tons and tons of mesh tags and just shower them in ropes from the target area back to parts of Tacoma that have normal Matrix connectivity, reestablish the wireless mesh."

Shrugging again, Zoé bites her lip for a moment. "As for power... I dunno, I'm stumped. The best thing I can come up with is batteries and solar panels. Anyway... That's what I've got so far."

[Ziathra]

Graciana listens very carefully to Zoé, frowning a little.

“All I can help you with,” she finally admits after some heavy silence, “is probably good advice. I know just enough about fixing things to keep my truck from breaking down. Fixing things... Have you considered going to a home improvement store and asking for advice? If Puyallup is supposed to get gentrified with incentives, there has to be a way to improve connections down there.

“Yes, I'm a magician and yes, I can get the place watched, but I can't get it watched all the time. Watchers just won't stick around long enough.

“As far as power goes, I'd take wind over solar. There's a lot more wind than sun around here.”

[Koekepan]

Tristan doesn't have very long to wait before he receives a reply from Papa Gotcha.

"Treyo. Good to hear from you.

Things are jumping right now. I have a few things going on. Normally I'd have you run some tests, but I know who you've been learning from, and if you say you're ready, I'll take your word for it. I got two jobs which might fit your bill. One, you could maybe do alone or with one buddy. Another would need a little more sophisticated backup. The small one's for me, the other is for another buyer, but that buyer's a straight shooter. All your choice, but I have to hear something soon."

There it is - a business contact from a business man. Matter-of-fact, cheerful, and somehow all the more thrilling for it all.

The dojo is quiet in its way tonight. Would Treyo ruffle feathers by begging off to meet a fixer? Should he wait just a little while until afterwards? One way to find out, but it probably wouldn't burn any bridges.

[Audacity]

Walking into the dojo, Tristan shoots off a quick reply.

Gotcha - I appreciate your vote of confidence. I'm at your service. Can we meet in two hours? You name the spot.

Message sent, he closes the link and finds his seat for the after-hours lecture that has just started. Paracritters In Corp Security Settings. Tristan opens up his notetaking app and attempts to settle in, but the thrill of his first run - so close! - is palpable. Filled with anxiety and nervous energy, he fidgets for the entire length of the hour long talk.

[Koekepan]

The lecture has its own interest, reflecting the possibilities of cockatrices, basilisks and more, but at least half of it consists of advice on simply avoiding them when and where possible. Lone Star, Knight Errant and Assets, Inc. might be angered to hear of these studies, but their representatives who might lodge any form of protest are notable solely by their absence.

Papa Gotcha, on the other hand, is not asleep at the switch.

"7PM, the parking lot of Brrrutal Brrrgrrr. I have some business to conduct there, but I'll be happy to make time for you. Don't come unprepared."

Brrrutal Brrrgrrr is not necessarily dirt cheap, but it isn't upmarket either. It mostly caters to troll-sized customers, with troll-sized appetites. Funnily enough there is no known security team there. Apparently it's not a hotspot for theft or vandalism, despite the number of orks and trolls drifting around.

[Vegas]

"Sorry, all the techie stuff is your forte, not mine. I mean c'mon Zoé, you saw my commlink. If someone gets hurt though, I can take care of it most likely."

Daiyu nestled into the couch a little further and wondered what else she could bring to the table since she wasn't a techie, didn't have a whole lot of things to offer outside of healing and access to her parent's shop if necessary.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Nodding, Zoé bites her lip for a moment. "You can fix people up if they get hurt? That's... Nice to know," she says, rolling her shoulders into Graciana's side, smiling up at Daiyu. She flexes her toes, curling them against the side of Daiyu's foot and the couch's arm, lost in thought for a moment. Then she sighs. "Okay, I'm a bit stumped, so... I'm gonna order dinner."

She pulls up the restaraunt's menu in AR, projecting it to everyone's AR glasses/goggles/contacts/whatever, and picks out food for herself, while letting the others order what they like and add it to the order before she finalizes it. "Don't worry about the price," she says. "My aunt set this place up with a decent food budget. I think she leaned on the manager a bit to get a good deal... Of course, that could also be why I'm in the apartment that keeps getting burly he-man-love lumberjack porn and solicitations for prostitution."

She shrugs, smiling. "But what can you do, right? So... I'm thinking microwave links and a topographical survey... I wish Rio were here. She mentioned drones, it would be nice to know if she has a drone that can fly. Anyway, that's my plan, at present; microwave links, solar panels, batteries, and mesh tags, or else just a truck-load of mesh tags from the target area back to civilization."

When everyone's put their orders in, she picks out something extra for Rio, in case she shows, and then picks out an additional entree, just in case Cynthia drops by or some other unknown guest turns up, possibly with Rio, or for other contingencies. The order goes out, and she sighs.

"So... Well, anyone wanna watch a movie or something?" Zoé smiles, cutely, bringing up a list of the entertainment her CHN has access to, both flashing onto the screen and onto everybody's AR. In addition to a nice range of commercial entertainment, there seems to be a large selection of CalHot simflicks, mostly explicit in nature judging by the ratings and the sometimes cheesy names, and a number of what appear to be tridcam files, homemade movies of some sort? She flicks her list (and the list on the screen) up towards the commercial entertainment, seemingly heading straight for the all-animated flicks, but she's given Hop, Daiyu and Graciana full access to her entertainment files.

[Ziathra]

Graciana orders some nachos with everything on them, explaining, “I've had dinner.” Beverage is horchata if the restaurant has that on the menu and from Zoé's kitchen if it doesn't.

“I can't do topographical surveys, but I can make someone invisible for a bit.”

As for the movie, Graciana's in the mood for big explosions. As a courtesy to the others, she goes for English instead of Spanish. Japanese rubber monster movies would work.

[Audacity]

I'll be there.

Tristan sends the confirmation to Papa Gotcha as he collects his belongings at the end of the lecture. He stays long enough to shake a hand or two, exchanging wirelessly contact information with fellow students and leaving an introductory note for the keynote: Thank you for coming to speak to us, my name is Treyo, your life is an inspiration, etc, etc. It's the best he can do - time is short.

Papa Gotcha said come prepared, and that means he has to make a stop by home first. He overrides the safeties on the Grid on the way home, pushing the Mirage as fast as he dares to make better time. Fortunately, it's a route he knows well, and he stays to the back roads in order to avoid potential traffic as much as possible.

Once home, Tristan collects the essentials from his closet - the tools of the trade. His trade. His NEW trade. He tosses his commlink on his bed and digs out the cheapo burner he scammed off the FullMatrix rep who came by the school all that time ago, uploading his fake SIN and licenses and connecting it with the rest of the objects skinlinked to his PAN. While those are booting up and exchanging I/O protocols, he belts on the combat rig, double checking the ammunition loads and blade readiness. The whole operation takes about 5 minutes.

Treyo is back out and speeding down the Grid toward the Brrrutal Brrrgrrr in record time. He checks the timer ticking down to the appointed meeting time and brings up a routing overlay for a side trip to an old friend's crash pad in the Barrens. I wonder if I have time to pick up the dakka?

[Aria]

Hop quietly paced near the windows ignoring the offer of the chair. It wasn't that he was a prude but the all female love fest happening on the sofa made him sort of uncomfortable. Some female bonding thing...despite having a long term girl friend and a sister he was very close to he was never going to make the mistake of thinking he would ever understand the fairer sex!

"The mesh will work and the microwave link if we can find a receiver but I'd rather have a sat link as redundancy, especially if Papa is paying! Power will be a toss up, we can recharge batteries here or somewhere nearby and swap them out, but that means travel. Wind would be too obvious I think, can't see the locals ignoring that. A gen will make noise although I guess we could mask that..."

He paced some more "as to the school thing, the teachers are unlikely to notice we are gone if the computer tells them we shouldn't be there. They are glorified caretakers...I wouldn't even dignify them with the title babysitter, that implies some care! Couldn't we manufacturer a field trip for a week or something similar? We're taking the matrix with us so we can always be there in VR if there's anything we really don't want to miss..."

[Ziathra]

Graciana pauses the movie selection to reply to Hop.

“I think they'll notice if we're not there. Somehow they always find out when there's trouble. I can't see them swallowing a field trip that lasts for a week, I'm sorry. We might be better off filing notes that we're out sick for the week. I'd suggest getting suspended for a week, but we're already in big trouble.

“I suppose I could bind an air elemental to watch the power source, but that's expensive and difficult. We'd have to do the binding because otherwise the elemental won't stay nearly long enough. Daiyu, would you help with that if we decide to do it?

“Which reminds me, we should probably go look at this area. Maybe tomorrow after school? I'm already going to look for somewhere to live probably not too far from there.”

[ShadowDragon8685]

Zoé leans forward as Hop paces, frowning - first at his reluctance to join them for the pow-wow over the coffee table, then more seriously as he starts talking tech.

"The microwave transmitter-reciever units can handle the reception. We'd need to set up at least two, and preferably six, for redundancy. Throwing in another sat link wouldn't hurt too much, I suppose. Papa didn't say it had to be stealthy or anything... Though...

Zoé leans forward, into Daiyu's side, smiling up past her at Hop. "I wonder if there's any old fiber-cable in the target area that has intact trunks heading back to civilization? Fiber-optic cable itself hasn't changed at all over the years since it was invented. You shine a laser in one end, and another one shines back. The only thing that's changed is the speed of the machine flashing the laser, which is like three orders of magnitude faster these days... That might be worth looking into, but I wouldn't know where to start looking for diagram maps of sixty-year-old infrastructure."

She looks back to Graciana, though, worriedly. "Why... Are you looking into real estate in what is basically the barrens lite?"

[Koekepan]

Treyo is back out and speeding down the Grid toward the Brrrutal Brrrgrrr in record time. He checks the timer ticking down to the appointed meeting time and brings up a routing overlay for a side trip to an old friend's crash pad in the Barrens. I wonder if I have time to pick up the dakka?

Alas, there is no time to pick up the dakka - at least not while being sure of a timely arrival.

Brrrutal Brrrgrrr is not quite as one-sided in its clientele as its reputation or its marketing would suggest. A dozen trogs can be seen through the windows, but also many tuskers, and no few pinkies. Still, the one thing they all have in common at the dinner hour is the same rough look. This is not a fancy restaurant for sararimen who have to worry, not only about which locals might trail them on the way out, but what their bosses would say when the location services reveal where they've been.

Papa Gotcha, on the other hand, fits right in. Treyo is just waiting for traffic so that he can turn into the parking lot, but he can see Papa Gotcha's silhouette against the backdrop of the well lit restaurant, laughing and slapping the back of an ork who is loading what looks like a set of shopping bags into the trunk of a car. Business must be good.

[Koekepan]

As Zoé thinks it over, she can work out that batteries aren't entirely out of the question. Mesh tags don't take much power, really, and while microwave and satellite links are thirsty, sending light pulses down fibre optic is pretty light in power terms.

On the other hand, a pickup truck load of automative batteries should power even a satellite transceiver for days, if not weeks.

[Vegas]

"I'm just afraid if a bunch of us that are on the list to meet with Ms. Xavier next week suddenly all call out sick to school or something similar it's gonna raise a lot of red flags with The Administration and will likely lead to more digging and probing and potentially putting our plans to expose this whole mess in jeopardy. I'm wondering if it can be done in shifts during the day, you know, a couple of us at a time for a couple of days might be more acceptable or believable than all of us out at once?"

Daiyu sat forward slightly as her eyes moved about the group gathered in Zoé's livingroom. Her arm snaked subtly behind Zoé, her long fingers resting on the girl's hip.

"I just don't want to see us shoot ourselves in the proverbial foot before we even get a chance to expose them. And I think we should have a plan just in case this "meeting" with Ms. Xavier next week results in something more than just a discussion in an office somewhere."

Daiyu shuddered softly at the thought of The Administration outright removing them from school following their appointments and sticking them god only knew where, and separating the small group that was forming in revolt.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Zoé shudders slightly in contemplation of the possibilities Daiyu raised, biting her lip. "That would be... Bad, very bad."

She leans into Daiyu, both encouraged and comforted by the Asian teen's fingers on her hip. "And yeah... That's why I was thinking we not go to the place during school hours, just like, have a drone or spirit or both watching things... I'm just... the power supply is what in worried about. Maybe a lot of automotive batteries would work. Rio's car could take some, but... mmh, where IS she?

The bright, blue elf sighs dolefully, closing her eyes. She's practically hugging Daiyu already, so she just does so, wrapping her arms around the exceptionally tall youth and sighing. She slides the balls of her foot, soft as silk, up to Daiyu's heel, curling her toes around it. I don't want to drop out... But I'm not gonna get locked up, either... I bet Cynthia could get me into a new school in a Downtown district, but...

She squeezes Daiyu's heel, fretfully. "That wouldn't help you, or Rio, or Graciana or Hop... We HAVE to stop this somehow."

Sighing heavily, she squeezes Daiyu in a much of a bearhug as she can, then relaxes, leaning back and reaching behind herself, feeling for Graciana's shoulder, trying to tug her close to Daiyu and herself.

[Ziathra]

Graciana doesn't object to a group hug. She looks like she needs one.

“I don't know where Rio is. I haven't heard a thing back from her. I don't know how to stop the school, either. The two things that come to mind are blackmail and a crusading reporter.

“I need real estate to summon things and enchant things and make things and live once Mama throws me out on my ear. Even if she doesn't, I need a place to work. I want to guard it with trained stray dogs, so I need even more room. I'm thinking maybe a small supermarket. It has to be the edge of the Barrens because I don't know where the money will come from.”

[ShadowDragon8685]

Zoé fairly well contorts herself, reaching back around Graciana's waist with her left arm, stretching somewhat when pressed between the two taller teens. She certainly needs the hug. "Your mom would throw you out? B-Because they're trying to paint us with drek?" She sounds horrified and devastated to hear that.

[Ziathra]

“If it comes down to believing me or the school, I don't know who Mama will believe. I don't know what Mama will or won't do anymore,” Graciana admits. “Mama's been strange lately. The one thing I can count on is that she won't let me talk to Papa.”

[ShadowDragon8685]

Zoé frowns, half-turning, leaning back against the back of the sofa, looking into Graciana's eyes.

"That sounds... Bad," she concludes, frowning sadly and pressing her head into Graciana's chest, rubbing the side of her cheek on Graciana's collarbone. "I'm... I'm sorry."

[Ziathra]

Graciana's cocoa eyes hold sorrow, fear and the beginning of the endurance of earth. She hugs Zoé back.

“Thank you,” she says in a near-whisper. “It is bad, but it could be far worse.” Back at normal volume she concludes, “I do need to be prepared to move, though.”