IC New Beginnings DAWN Options

[farothel]

"We can offer them something that they can't get anywhere else," Sammy said, "or with great difficulty. From what I've heard, it's very difficult to get clean water here. Now I know there's a spell that purifies water. I'll ask my talismonger if he can get me the formula for that spell - I have some money so that shouldn't be an issue - learn it and then we can offer them fresh water in exchange for letting us alone. If they try to kill us, they lose that resource."
I
IIt might not be much of a plan, but it was better than trying to go to war with them. At least, she thought so.

[Crossbow]

Jane returns from making her calls.

"Not that I don't appriciate your moxie at wanting to try and shift around the power structure in this hellhole, but that is not the job we came here to do. I have confirmed the intel about an antiquities auction and found out the location of the items up for bid. They are in the palace of the Yoruba king in Ife, so that's where we are going."

The fixer moves to her travel bag and digs through it for a few seconds, coming up with a light linen piece of clothing that she tosses to Con. "We are going to go the low-conflict, no bloodshed route for dealing with this Area Boys problem. Disguises to get us to the market to get some stylish clothes for the palace and then to the airport to get gone to Ife, paying off whoever we need to to get this done. Any questions?"


The clothing is a long, loose hoodie, a bit of a feminine cut, but it would completely hide Con's distinctive features without smothering him.

[Thvor]

Sam was a little disappointed at Jane’s declaration—he’d already started planning how best to install Con as the head of the Area Boys—but kept his reaction to himself.

”Ok. What’s our cover going to be?” He knew he could make any story work, but they’d had issues with improvising recently.

[Crossbow]

"Well, our resources are limited and security is tight, so if you have an idea, I am open to suggestions. What did you guys tell this Engelbrecht guy? Seems a good bet we will run into him again." Jane tells him as she grabs a brush and other stuff and moves to a mirror to start changing up her style.

[Necrogigas]

O'Connor nodded to Jane, "You're the boss. If we're leaving town, should we bring our equipment, or leave most of it here to stay low-profile?" He motioned towards Lil' Homie, "He stays with us. You and I got him into this mess with the Area Boys. We're getting him out."

[Crossbow]

"We will need to travel light, and security will probably take any weapons and they will keep anything illegal. Use your judgement, this hotel has a rep for good security, and we will be coming back, so it should be fine."

She looks at the boy critically, "Didn't figure you for the parental type, dude. Regardless, he won't be allowed into the palace, he won't know how to act and besides which he is Igbo, he wouldn't be welcome. We can leave him with a friend though, so to speak, we are flying with the same guy that should have brought us here, Innocent Dobiri." She starts putting together an overnight bag for herself, "His expenses are on you though and I got no idea what the guy's sitter rate is."

[farothel]

"For disguises, I have both the makeover and physical mask spell," Sammy offered, "I can use makeover on us to create some form of simple disguise and use physical mask to cover O'Conner until we're out of town."

She looked at the others.
"I'm not sure about a cover for getting into the palace, but for moving through the city we can Always say we're investigating locations to film a movie about the Area boys and adding the idea that the director wants it on location as much as possible. The idea of movie money would apply to their greed and if they want confirmation, we can Always say the study killed it."
"As to getting into the palace, just saying we work for a private collector who wants to remain annonymous should work," she added, "I guess we're not going to be the only ones with that story there."

[Necrogigas]

O'Connor scoffed at Jane, "How ya gonna call me inhuman for being pragmatic about that clinic, but then turn around and mock me for not wanting to cut the kid lose to be tortured to death by gangbangers? Maybe you haven't done such a great job at holding onto your humanity as you claim."

[Crossbow]

"I was teasing you, not mocking, because of your reaction at the clinic. I wasn't suggesting cutting him loose, I was going to say leave him in the rooms to watch our stuff, but the only significant risk he is running from the Area Boys is staying with us. No one was paying attention to him at that shootout, the only people anyone is looking for are you, me and Snow." a surprised Jane waves at the Russian, oblivious to the attention as she works the limited cyberspace of this sprawl.

"If I was as heartless as you were about that clinic I would have double-tapped the kid when we got back to the hotel so that he couldn't bring the Area Boys down on us when we got back. I am doing my damnedest to make nice with you guys because you seem like a decent crew that I wouldn't mind working with again down the road, but if you want me to be the hardass Johnson, I can go that route too."

Looking at Starlet, she nods, "Yeah what ever you can do to drastically change our appearance, at least until we get to the airport, would be great, can you sustain that many spells at once though?"

[Necrogigas]

O'Connor gave a derisive snort, "Oh yeah, I'm the heartless one here. I'm the one that would deny people in this city their only source of healthcare because the provider offends my sense of moral superiority. I'm the one that's too sanctimonious to recognise that the options here only range from bad to worse. I'm the one foolish enough to gamble a kid's life on any detail escaping the notice of the apex predators of this city. I'm the one dumb enough to trust his safety to the reliability of a security staff that operates per bribe.

Maybe you can lie to yourself about your drek not stinking, but I see the real you. Don't think I didn't notice you only offered to let the kid stay here after I challenged you on the issue. Don't think I didn't noticed you deflect all blame for his predicament. Yeah, drek's bad because I killed those guys. I had kill them to protect you though, because you started that fight.

No one gets into the shadow biz because we're good people. None of us have any claim to the moral high ground. You wanna switch to being Ms. Hardass Johnson? Do it. At least then you'll be approaching something close to honest with us and yourself."

He had a lot more to say, but cut himself short. He took a breath and turned to Lil' Homie, "It's your choice Lil' Homie, Jai. Option One: You stay here and trust you safety to a staff and security that have only shown you contempt and can be bought on a whim.

Option Two: You stick with the drekheads that got you into this mess. Of which, the only one that seems to care if you live or die is the unstable, trigger happy psycho.

Option Three: I give you my gunsmith tools, the AKs, and enough cash to hide for a few months, and then buy an apprenticeship. Unlike everyone else in this room, maybe you can make something worthwhile of your life."

[farothel]

"Whoa, let's not fight amongs ourselves, shall we," Sammy said, trying to get the tension down, "there's more than enough to fight outside."

She looked at all of them.
"As to the spells, the Makeover spell doesn't have to be sustained," she said, "it basically does what you can do at a beauty salon and nothing more. I can change your hairstyle, as well as adding some cosmetics, but that's about it. Physical Mask is the one I have to sustain, but it does more. I have a focus for that one though, so I should be able to sustain two without problems. I also have invisibility, but I think a disguise is better as it's challenged less in my opinion."

[Crossbow]

"As to the spells, the Makeover spell doesn't have to be sustained," she said, "it basically does what you can do at a beauty salon and nothing more. I can change your hairstyle, as well as adding some cosmetics, but that's about it. Physical Mask is the one I have to sustain, but it does more. I have a focus for that one though, so I should be able to sustain two without problems. I also have invisibility, but I think a disguise is better as it's challenged less in my opinion."

"We might all need a spa day, but that is for after we get back,..." Jane replied, trying to mend fences, "...no we will need some serious cover, you need to make Con a Latino or an Oriental or something, and Snow and I need to be changed as well. Not trying to toot my own horn, but hot white chicks tend to stand out on any continent. We need the masks, three of them, but only until we get to the airport, the Area Boys have no presence in that district.

"It's your choice Lil' Homie, Jai. Option One: You stay here and trust you safety to a staff and security that have only shown you contempt and can be bought on a whim.

Option Two: You stick with the drekheads that got you into this mess. Of which, the only one that seems to care if you live or die is the unstable, trigger happy psycho.

Option Three: I give you my gunsmith tools, the AKs, and enough cash to hide for a few months, and then buy an apprenticeship. Unlike everyone else in this room, maybe you can make something worthwhile of your life."[/color]

The boy looks amazed that he is the focus of so much attention, or that O'Conner is giving him a say in things. His eyes widen a bit when the shadowrunner offers such a lucrative windfall to him, and for a second his eye gleam with avarice, but he tries to give it serious thought. A few seconds later, "I want the 'drekheads' and the 'psycho', you need people to survive here, not stuff." he delivers the slang oddly, clearly unfamiliar with the terms he is using.

[farothel]

"I can sustain two of them, and one in my sustaining focus," Sammy said, "so that shouldn't be a big problem. But that will mean either dropping them or I'll be almost useless if we get in a fight. I'll first do the makeovers on me, Clem and Sam and then I'll do yours, starting with Con. When do we leave?"

[Crossbow]

"As soon as possible, we don't need the Area Boys waiting for us at the hotel entrance."

[Crossbow]

Snow returns from the Matrix, such as it is here, and informs the face of her results

“So, I found this first bit in an online library reference, apparently the map is some pre-Fifth World miracle or legend because it shows places people shouldn’t have known about and places that didn’t exist, like Antarctica.”

The Piri Reis map is a world map compiled in 1513 by the Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis (pronounced [piːˈɾiː ɾeis]). Approximately one third of the map survives; it shows the western coasts of Europe and North Africa and the coast of Brazil with reasonable accuracy. Various Atlantic islands, including the Azores and Canary Islands, are depicted, as is the mythical island of Antillia and possibly Japan.

“As for why the Foundation might want it, I would guess they think it would be some key to finding their ‘homeland’ maybe, their online presence is all about ‘retoring the world that once was’ kinda stuff. These Mystic Crusaders are some real deal black ops characters though. All magical, all elves and all badasses. They do the dirty work for the AF.,

“This auction is mostly rumor, no real details, but there is a lot of unusual players flying into Victoria Island that seems to give weight to it.” When she hears what Jane had told them she replies, “That is more than I found, but it jives with what little I heard. Definitely worth the trip.”

[farothel]

"Well, let's get the casting started," Sammy said, "I'll do myself and Sam first, as the others require sustaining. What hair colour do you want, Sam?"
She started casting, first changing Sam, mostly his hair colour in what he wanted and general cleaning up. This was a spell she had used often, as it was easier to quickly change an actor's hair colour this way than waiting for him/her to go to a salon and have it done there. When she had done him, she quickly did the same for herself, taking bright green as hair colour. When disguising you could either be as inconspicious as possible or take the other way. Everyone would remember and look at her, and hopefully don't look twice at the others. And she could Always change the colour back later if she had to be invisible again.

"Okay, now the next batch," she said to the others, "I'll try to give you all a latin cast and black hair and I'll try to make it look as if you're all family. You can work out the details on what kind of family yourself, but do let us know, just in case."
First she started with Jane, touching the woman while casting the spell. She saw the woman change, or at least give the impression of change. Next she did the same with O'Connor and then with Snow.
"There you are, three latin family members here for some business," she said when she was done, "now, let's go quickly, as I'm not sure how long I can keep this up. Also, don't count too much on me when we encounter something along the way unless I drop the disguises."

[Crossbow]

Once the casting was done, and everyone had an overnight bag, Jane circled them up and got ready to walk out.

"You wanted a cover story Sam, I just came up with one. O'Conner, forget about hiding, we are going out bold as hell. You need to stand up straight and make yourself seen, don't worry about talking to anyone, that's Sam's job. You just need to be the center of attention. We are family, you, me and Snow, running a Cartel drug ring out of LA."


"We are here for the auction, but wouldn't mind picking up some serious firepower to make our claim back home. Clem, you do your usual bodyguard bit and Sam, we don't speak the local tongue, so you are talking for us. Starlet, you are the drugged up sidepiece, so just stay close, you could even keep a grip on somebody, and keep the image up. That sound good?" Jane looked to Torley for his approval.

[SleepIncarnate]

As the spell is cast upon her, Snow looks carefully over the others. "What kind of family shall we be for this?" Upon hearing that her accent, subtle though it is at the moment, still slips through, she frowns slightly. Shaking her head, she brings up a mental comm window within AR and sends a text to the others.

<@Team [Snow] | I guess I will be having to communicate this way while we are pretending to be family then. Shall I be the mute sister or cousin or whatever?> Part of her suspected that Clem would appreciate her inability to speak aloud for once. In the meantime, she sets her two external links to passive mode, and her internal one to hidden. <@Team [Snow] | I'm going passive for my more overt links, hidden for my main one. I suggest the rest of you do the same. Unless you have a SIN that can pass as Latino or Latina, that is. Mine certainly won't do the trick.>

[Necrogigas]

"Yeah, I don't speak spanish. My cover is going to last as long as I can keep silent. Which I sure everyone has noticed, I like to run my mouth."

[farothel]

"I doubt anybody here speaks Spanish as well," Sammy said, "so that you don't speak it doesn't really matter. I can speak it if needed and I'm quite sure Sam can as well. You're the boss, you have people to do the talking for you. And don't worry, I've seen enough people on drugs to fake being on them myself."

[SleepIncarnate]

With another mental command, Snow begins her encryption program to protect the team's comm channel before making use of her subvocal mic to at least speak somewhat with the team. <I suspect that you may be the only one of us who speaks the language. I've just encrypted our channel here so we can at least use subvocal mics to communicate within our own group. This should be easier than text based communication for some of our... less technically minded members. Quicker too. If one of us has a suggestion of something for you to say, it can be passed on in more real time than texting.>

[Necrogigas]

O'Connor shrugged, "Fine. What's our relationship then? If I'm head of the family, then what are the rest of you to me? Wouldn't be great if I say Jane's my cousin and a finance guru, and others say she's my sister and a magic expert."

[SleepIncarnate]

<Who is to say she couldn't be both a magic and finance guru? I perhaps should be your mute sister who communicates only through text, and thus have become something of a tech wiz. Not letting on how much of one I actually am, but as an explanation for why I am not speaking and have so many commlinks.>

[Crossbow]

Jane seems to be trying to get into the act. while waiting for Torley's approval. (who seems deep in the tank thinking through the possibilities)

"Well, my thought was just us being your sisters. No offense to Starlet, but the Hispanic family structure, and the local Muslim culture, are very male oriented, we would have real trouble trying to push one of us as head of family over O'Conner...uh, I mean....Raphael?" she suggested as the name for his identity. "I could be Maria, we need a last name."

[Necrogigas]

"It was just an example Snow. As for names, don't spanish names have something like two first names, three to five middle names, and two last names?"