Behind the Crown [IC], Behind the crown are shadows Options

[pbangarth]

"""Thanks. """ Blue checks that the keys work. """ My name's Blue. Here's contact info if you need to get a hold of me. Early in the daytime is not a good time. That's when I usually sleep. """ He stays by the door.

[Koekepan]

"""Excellent. Well, I have to get back."""

She leaves Blue in the basement, and wanders off. He's alone with the pounding beat and the faint rumble of traffic.

Well. Maybe Carlos is still alive. And Hopalong. Or not.

[pbangarth]

First order of business is to get rid of the headache. Laying back on the bed, pillows plumped up by his ears, Blue tries to rest enough to counteract the effects of the drain on his system from his use of magic earlier. He hopes the rest helps despite the music, but if the music is too much, then when it cuts out at 06:30, he should be clear of the pain by 07:00.

Then a little bit of work before a much deserved sleep. he wonders, again, what kind of hearth spirit exists in a place like this.

[Koekepan]

The exertions and excitement of the day were ample cause for Blue to relax, and the steady beat eventually lulls him to sleep.

He wakes up again, when a lonely ray of dust-hued sun passes over his face. The window faces west.

It's afternoon. And there's a beat from the club above.

[pbangarth]

"""Damn, """ Blue mutters. """ I fell asleep before calling people. """ Without a spirit for overwatch. Tsk tsk.

He goes to the bathroom and does what is needed, remarking on the need for soap. He remembers he has a piece in his travel kit in the duffel bag. Then he messages both Mary Margaret and Henry, separately.

<<< Hoy. Blue here. What do you know about moving a hearth spirit from a destroyed location where the domain is fading? Can it be done, and if so, how? Thanks! Anything you can tell me will be appreciated.>>>

Then he messages Billy Bob. <<< Thanks for introducing Betty. Something came up and she had to bail. I have a favour to ask, for which of course I will be appreciative. Any way you could track down and transmit to me communications with a business called Petsonal Petsonalities? The last month should do. Specifically looking for communications with a group known as Polidemos, but they may not identify as such in communications. Sooner info means more appreciation. The target is heavy into magic, but I think their Matrix is less protected.>>>

Daytime is not the best time to introduce himself to the spirit of this place, so he holds off on that. He does need more clothing, so he doesn't have to keep using magic to clean himself up. A trip out to a local clothing establishment is next. Good quality over looks as he can do a one shot transformation on a couple of outfits if necessary. Of course, if it's sharp already, all the better.

[Koekepan]

Mary Margeret's response is pretty straightforward:

<<<Can't happen. Not in theory, anyway. I'm sure some sunbaked shaman in the back of beyond knows something I don't, but I don't see how. It's the spirit of the place, isn't it?>>>

Henry's response is also fairly clear:

<<<Conventional animism militates against any such interpretations of spiritual adaptations to dynamic environments, but some particularly significant physical aspect could be transferred and thereby influence the nature of a new locus. Alternatively, if the locus itself could move, as per a nomadic encampment, that would be a different matter.>>>

Billy Bob responds with: <<<I can try. No promises. In return, I have something you could do. Can you check out someone and tell whether they have magical talent?>>>

There are a few options for fresh clothing nearby, ranging from vending machine automatic (freshly tailored!) to haute couture, depending on the budget.

[pbangarth]

Blue responds to Billy Bob. <<< You have a deal. Let me know as soon as you have info, and when you want to check out the talent.>>>

As he considers his finances, Blue recalls the unfortunate situation of having shared the advance with Betty. If he is going to buy some clothing that is armoured, he will need more cash than he has. Ah, life's decisions.

Another message to Billy Bob. <<< By the way, if you know someone who is willing to buy a strong Heal-spell-on-a-stick usable by mundanes, let me know. I could use some cash. I'll part with one for 5000. >>>

Blue remembers some of the clothing workers at Biozu used while outside. An Industrious Line winter coverall or something like it seems like a good buy this time of year. Good for the cold weather as well as helping resist some of the weird drek he might face in the next few days. He checks directories for something he can get to. Even if it takes a day or two to be available, he can live with that.

Underneath all of this surface thought, Blue regrets the news about moving hearth spirits. If the official and clandestine attention to Hopalong's former safehouse dies down, he will see if he can talk to Madel.

[Koekepan]

<<<I have a niece. Her mother's being told by some wizarding private tutor that she has latent talent or something. I don't trust it, but my sister won't let me get it checked out. I think it's a scam. I don't know what to do about it, and figured if you could discretely check it out, I'd know who might need killing. As for healing spells, have you tried a cyberdoc? Sometimes people are in a hurry for surgery stitches to come out.>>>

[pbangarth]

<<<Thanks for the hint. I'll check it out. As for your niece, sure I'll help. I can assense her to see what I can find. Newbies can be hard to detect sometimes, but we'll see. How do you want to do this? Meet for soycaf or something? >>>

Blue checks for street docs anywhere in the neighbourhood. +++ Hmmm. Maybe there can be some ongoing business to develop here. Have to be careful, though. The sudden appearance of a healer on the streets could alert my hunters. +++

[Koekepan]

<<<Can you check her out remotely? Her mother and I have had some arguments about this, so meeting up isn't likely.>>>

Street docs don't exactly advertise. Licensed cyberdocs, on the other hand, do, and there are plenty of them this near the world of Renraku.

[pbangarth]

Yeah, lots of registered cyberdocs. Registered, noted, and observed. Not going there.

<<<Sure, BB, I could go astrally and check her out, but I have to be able to find and identify her to be sure I am assensing the right girl. Can you give me info that would help my astral self be sure I am looking at the right person? Someplace where she would be by herself. Some physical feature like an impairment. Something like that.>>>

[Koekepan]

<<<Easy. Only one kid in the household. Address attached.>>>

Billy's message includes a direct address reference. It includes a link to a street map, and the number of the condo, and a 3D view of the street as per standard mapping tools.

Shouldn't be hard to find.

After that, he sends in a further message: <<<Your pet shop has pretty good gear, but I don't think they update it often enough. I have an archive of stuff. There is some Polidemos reference in there according to a quick search, but I didn't read it so I have no idea how relevant it would be to you. Either way, only about 15MP of data. Have fun.>>>

[pbangarth]

<<<Excellent. Thanks for the data. I'll get on your request this evening. One more thing. How old is your niece?>>>

The prospect of progress on his main task and payment for services rendered take precedence over shopping for clothes. Blue heads back to his new home.

[Koekepan]

<<<She's nine. Pretty typical girl in most ways, can't think of anything that would surprise you. Bright kid, but her mother pushes her around a lot.>>>

[pbangarth]

<<<That's fine. Different enough from her mother in age and size to make it easy to tell the difference. I'll see what I can find out this evening.>>>

Blue settles in at the kitchen table and sees what he can find in the data store in the next hour. After sunset, Owl will be on his side, and he can check out the hearth spirit, seeing if it will be safe to astrally project for Billy Bob's task.

[Koekepan]

Blue figures out that there are two basic contexts at work:

The first is that there is the manager, who communicates with PoliDemos (mostly in guarded terms), and then there are people within the business talking about PoliDemos (mostly in vituperative terms).

One of the things this goes some way to clearing up is what atavophid basilisks are; they are definitely reptiles. They are an awakened form of an atavistically mutated python. The exact breed of python is a point of some debate, but apparently it's capable of parthenogenetic reproduction, it's highly intelligent, it has a soporific power of some sort, and it sings.

Whether there are words in its song or not is not clear.

The staff mostly refer to them as dragonettes, for some reason. This rather confuses things.

The staff is aware that they're secret, and that they're for PoliDemos. Other than that, there's not a lot of commentary about them, except that there's a high rate of awakening in offspring, and that they're trainable.

The direct communications with PoliDemos are actually less revealing, but do make one thing clear: PoliDemos wants (demands) unpaid access to the goods and services of the businesses in what it deems to be its area of control, and is quite happy to extract it with (veiled) menace. They have a line of blackmail, and a line of appeal to an anti-corporatist ideology.

From a nietzschean perspective, they probably see themselves as serving a greater need, beyond good and evil. The people in charge at Petsonal Petsonalities seem to be less convinced of that proposition.

[pbangarth]

Blue considers what he has learned. +++ No matter what happens to me, this should be known. +++ another thought comes to him. +++ There's probably some profit in selling this info to the right people. Whoever that might be. +++

He fires off a quick message to Henry and Mary Margaret. <<< Learned more about the mystery atavophid basilisk. 1) Awakened form of an atavistically mutated python. 2) Parthenogenetic reproduction, high rate of Awakening in offspring. 3) Highly intelligent, trainable. 4) Soporific power, and it sings. Don't know if there are words in the song. 5) Staff in the facility call them 'dragonettes'. Don't know why. 6) All are to go from Petsonal Petsonalities to Polidemos -- no payment -- threat/blackmail.

These things in the wrong hands could be serious trouble.

You find a way to make some money from this knowledge, please cut me in. >>>

Once the sun sets, Blue settles in a chair and summons a (he more and more is beginning to think 'the') Hearth spirit.

[ Spoiler ]

Summon F4 Hearth Spirit, target 4, 5+2 = 7 dice: 4 successes
Resist Drain target 4(M), 4+2 = 6 dice: 3 successes L Drain, 1 box

to heal Drain 12 dice target 2+1 = 3 : 7 successes
Time to heal = 60/7 = 9 minutes.

[Koekepan]

Blue looks up to see the spirit sitting cross-legged on the bed.

It looks like a human party animal burnout. Starvation-thin gangly limbs. Garish tanktop hanging loosely around emaciated torso. Cropped, multicoloured dyed hair, and what looks like a hundred different piercings in every imaginable skinflap available. Track marks on the arms.

It bobs its head to the beat from the club, while watching Blue.

While Blue takes in this scene, and wrestles with the headache and slightly swimming vision that are the price of the magic, his 'link lets him know that he has a message from Mary Margaret. It's all in greek text, but the autotranslation shows a hovering english version. The title is Lord have Mercy.

Maybe she doesn't care for serpents.

[pbangarth]

Blue is intrigued. He would have thought that Mary Margaret would have used Church Latin. Something to explore another time.

The spirit before him, on the other hand, is quite what he had expected. Interestingly, it materialized ... in order to hear the music? """ Thanks for coming to my call. I will be staying here for a while and may need your services on and off during my stay. I would like to call you by name. What name would you prefer I use? """

The connection is strong this summoning, so Blue figures he has a few services. He asks the spirit to stand guard while he rests to recover from the drain of the summoning. It takes only a few minutes for his head to clear.

Once recovered, he asks the spirit to describe to him the layout of the building, including entrances and exits.

Then he asks the spirit to describe to him any summonings it has experienced here in the last year.

[Koekepan]

The spirit is not terribly communicative. Apparently it would answer to Sweez, and this is the first time it has been summoned in a year.

The building is pretty simple. There's the basement studio, and besides the main door there's a painted-over trapdoor that Blue can make out at the other end of the space, in the shower stall, that leads to the parking lot. Upstairs there are a couple of dance spaces; one upstairs and one downstairs, but there's a large gap in the middle of the upstairs floor so that they function as one large, two-tiered dancehall space. There are two staircases between them. There's a service entrance round the back that leads to what was once a commercial kitchen, but has been repurposed to give two small offices, a green room, and a storage space for drinks for the main bar. There's a large unisex toilet with three lockable cubicles (Sweez calls it the free brothel and pharmacy), and someone with a sledgehammer or ram could punch out the painted-over windows to make exits out of the main space.

It's a masonry shell with a sound system, really.

[pbangarth]

Blue considers the architectural info. +++Excellent. Two unobtrusive exits from the building, one right in my bathroom! +++

""" To follow up on your helpful info-tour, Sweez, is there a way up to the roof from the inside? """ Maybe as important, is there a way in from the roof? In the back of his mind, Blue is thinking about how to set up his Lodge in here. That will have to wait till after he pays his debt to Billy Bob.

[Koekepan]

The roof has no direct access whatsoever, as it turns out. Maintenance people need to bring a ladder. The roof is a fairly typical, low angle shingled affair with a few ventilation and similar facilities. The angle is certainly shallow enough for walking, but it's not a typical, industrial flat top.

[pbangarth]

""" Thanks for the info, Sweez. I am staying here for a while, and will call on you from time to time, most often to watch guard while I sleep. If something ever happens here to cause damage to your domain, come down here to find me or meet me when I return. Maybe I will be able to help you. for now, I will be heading out shortly, so go ahead and take your leave. """

After the spirit leaves, Blue commits to memory the directions Billy Bob gave him. He settles into a comfortable nap on top of the bed, and projects into the astral plane. Off to see the wizardlet, the wonderful wizardlet girl.

[Koekepan]

It doesn't take Blue long at all to locate the place in the astral. First he moves to the street at pretty much the speed of thought, and with a glance he can identify the dwelling. It's really not that difficult.

Having done this, it's not hard to zip through the place. There's the mother and ... yup, there's the girl, surrounded by a positive cloud of spiritual activity. Whoa, it's a swarm!

[pbangarth]

Blue is taken aback by this twist. It was supposed to be an easy in-and-out after figuring out if the girl had potential or not. But it looks like something thinks she does!

Blue circles a bit. Didn't he read something, somewhere, about astral parasites, or something like that? Damn. It'll be tough to read her with all that around her, but maybe he can get a sense of what these things are, what they are doing. If they are feeding on her Magic, well, Billy Bob is a buddy, and she is an innocent to boot.

[ Spoiler ]

Assensing to see what Blue can learn about these things, with a complementary assist from Aura Reading.

Aura Reading 3 = 3 dice: 0 hits ... bust. {Oh, it was supposed to target 4, but still a bust.}

Assensing INT5 = 5 dice target 4: 0 hits And a Critical Glitch to boot! Blue is having a good day!

OK, use up that wonderful 1 point of Karma Pool to negate the Glitch. Fuck.

Alright, dammit! Does Blue dredge up anything from his Arcana Skill? {I think better here than Magic Background, even if it is fewer dice.}

I think this is target 5 from the Knowledge Skill Table on p. 96 == 2 dice: 0 hits critical glitch again. Have fun, Koekepan.

Finally, does Blue have any idea whether he can treat a swarm of little things as a single target?

Magic Background 3, target 3: 3 dice: 0 hits

I saved these up just for you, Koekepan. Merry ... Festivus.

Ooooohhhh ..... fuuuuuck.