The Found Arcana - Chapter 7 [IC] Options

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby took the opportunity for a walk around, noting any security risks - mainly based on his experience with entering places he wasn't supposed to.
The restrained oppulence registered as well with him - but unlike AM he saw it more as clutter. Things that weighed someone down, kept them from moving freely. Still, it was a nice place and he wouldn't have minded staying here and testing the jacuzzi. A hot shower later on would have to do the trick.

[Beta]

Bobby's assessment was that overall the house was not built for security: too many windows, too many blind spots, it even had sliding glass doors for the back patio. That said it did have a high fence and plenty of external cameras, so it wasn't open to casual intruders, but it would be hard to keep out professionals.

Soon enough Brent reappears with a stuffed tote bag, and indicates he is ready to go. On the drive back to SIS headquarters he asks "would you know anyone who might buy jewellery at a fair price? I sold off a few antiques and don't think I got ripped off too much. I'm trying to build up a war chest to hire lawyers soon."

Once at SIS he's happy to sleep in Jawsey's bed, quickly passing out into a deep sleep.

[Tecumseh]

"Nothing will stop professionals," Mato says out loud, even though he knows Bobby and AM know it. "Except maybe other professionals. But if shadowrunners can extract big wigs out of zero-zone corporate arcologies, then there's no way to make a residential home in a residential neighborhood ironclad and watertight."

He pats the walls, using his radar sensors to get a sense of the spaces in between.

"Ultimately, your strategy doesn't look that different from what we used at Lord Pike's house: hunker down and wait for the cavalry to arrive. This is Bellevue, after all; Knight-Errant takes things seriously here. A panic room might be your best bet if you plan to stay here. You could probably string one together on 10,000 or 12,000 nuyen. Of course you can spend 50,000 or 60,000 if you want, get things like pressure filtration systems and astral warding."

Mato again considers the number of rooms.

"But ultimately you'll have to decide whether you want to stay here or downsize. Not to underestimate the sentimental value, but flipping a place like this could last you a nice little nest egg. You could coast for a long time on something like that."

Mato doesn't have any good advice about a good jeweler or fence, so he leaves that to Bobby and AM. He's still going strong thanks to his sleep regulator so he stands at his favorite spot near the front windows and watches the street below while the others sleep.

[Gilga]

AM comments "Security is more about politics than fences." When Bernt comments about Jewelers she comments "That depends on what kind of jewelry, and if you have some legal proof of ownership, or you are going to fence them like stolen goods. she comments, You might also think about a talismonger as some quality jewels are good for enchanting. I'll let you know if you show me.

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby chimed in on the jewelry: "Don't bother with selling it if you don't have to. Jewelry - especially diamonds - are way overprised by the sellers with no real demand. The money is in the gold, silver and platinum. Unless you have some really spectacular artistic pieces you are better off keeping it in reserve if you need collateral - or insure it for the buying price and then get "robbed" while you use it as barter materials for things you want to buy off the books.
You've got your talent to tide you over. Get good at creating sprites and rent those out. I know a bunch of people who would be interested in a bit of non-standard matrix support."

"Instead of selling the house, I'd recommend renting it out, while you rent somewhere cheap. Cashflow is more important than lump sums.
We'll give you a good deal if you want a background check on potential renters."


When the team reached their base, Bobby made sure that Jawsey's stuff was squared away, so neither the boy nor his friend would have to deal with any private items.

<<Let's take turns on keeping watch - after my nap I'm good for another few hours. I think keeping Brent on our good side will be a good investment in the long run. I'm told that his talents are a rare commodity. Also I feel a bit bad for turning him into a snake against his will.>>

[Tecumseh]

Mato is privately impressed with Bobby's suggestion to rent out sprites. "Non-standard Matrix support" was a pleasant euphemism, one that Mato enjoyed. He would have expected that from Jawsey, not Bobby. Perhaps the coded language is unnecessary if Brent's a member of the unofficial hacker club of Bellevue Village Green Private High School, but Mato can still appreciate the default discretion.

The suggestion about renting out the house is not a bad one. It's more involved as it likely involves a property manager - presuming Brent doesn't wish to be a landlord himself - but who knows what's in the young man's future. College? The shadows? Is Bobby corrupting him? Or saving him? It depended on your views of corporate life. Mato tended to think of it as a gilded cage. For some, that would be heaven; for others, it would be prison. Brent will have to make up his own mind. Mato wonders if Peshtigo will get a vote in the matter. He can ponder the matter while standing watch.

<<My sleep regulator lets me go 48 hours so I'm fine for first watch. Catch some zzzs and I'll crash when you're up. I only need three hours or so.>>

[Gilga]

AM says >> Trouble does not sleep, so I'll have him keep watch with you all. He'll appreciate the company; I'll take the last shift if possible" Truth is, she tends to be a bit of a bitch if she does not sleep enough. She grins at the suggestion of matrix support. Bobby is indeed a manifestation of the Trickster, and she can feel the trap in these words. Indeed it would bring money - but being illegal is also a trap. The words of the Trickster from the shapeshifter mage. "thanks for bringing him to me." she says quietly to the great spirit, and she touches her spiderweb earring.


When they return, AM would dibs on the shower and wash quickly in the warmest water. She'll dress in her PJs, which are nothing spectacular, take a frowning look at Bernt - it is not his fault that the only free room is her room. She enters her bed and places her back to Bernt, trying to ignore him. Sleeping with a man in the same room is difficult enough, but it is even harder when the man is a stranger. Yet, she closes her eyes and smiles. Debt is almost over - and perhaps they can rent Bernt's place, and she'll have her private room again? She could at least fantasize and fall asleep happy.

[Beta]

Brent explains his predicament "I can't rent out the house easily because it is in my parents name. I can't rent a place for myself, because I'm under 18. There is an account for household expenses that still has a fair bit in it, so as long as I don't mess things up taxes and electricity and autocabs and even grocery deliveries are covered, but I don't have much free cash. I mean, I have a couple work around to pull cash out of the expenses account, but that just brings financial doomsday closer. I need to pay you, and then pay lawyers, once I turn 18, to get my parents declared dead., and I can't do all of that and stay in the house long enough for things through the courts, without raising more cash. And I guess build a panic room, although those guys got me with a fake autocab."

He sighs, then adds "Not your problem, other than me paying you. I've put things in motion and the money should clear on Monday to make good on what the club said they'd pay you immediately. For the rest, yah, once I inherit, or at least get the life insurance paid to me, I'm good for it, I just need to hang on that long."

"Doesn't sound like Mom's jewelry is worth much, but maybe I could sell the cars? Maybe some of the art is worth something? I think it was mom's new art obsession that got them killed, but I don't know that anything she bought is worth much. Anyway, for me to figure out I guess."

[Jack_Spade]

"Hey, you don't have to figure it out all at once or all alone."
Bobby continued the discussion during breakfast the next morning.
"Selling any kind of asset quickly will always cause significant losses.
What kind of car are we talking about here and do you have the necessary licenses to even sell it? For our fee we worked out a payment plan with your friends.
Renting can be facilitated of the books. We can help you finding a place that doesn't ask too many questions as well as finding renters not too keen on drawing notice.
For example, if we have clients that need to lay low while we solve their problems, we could stash them here, have them pay you for the privilege.
We have to discuss this internally of course, but I'm sure we can find a solution for our mutual benefits.

What I can tell you is: Don't do anything stupid like borrowing from a loanshark.
And if there is more trouble don't hesitate to call us. If necessary we can impersonate your parents to get things going."

[Gilga]

If you have good art, I know how you can get good prices for it. I share your mother's interest in art. Show me what you got, and I'll see what I can do.

[ Spoiler ]

If he shows her some of the art pieces she'll say something about them, and appraise a bit the ballpark of their value to be better prepared for the meeting with Janet.
art: 9d6t5 4

[Tecumseh]

Mato nods along with what the others are saying.

"The Rights of the Living Dead," he says. "Absent Persons in Civil Law is a complicated topic.

"UCAS Law usually requires 4 to 7 years of absence to be declared dead, depending on the locality." Mato holds up his hand, lest Brent panic at this. "Did your parents have Corporate SINs? If so, the corporations are usually much more expedient in declaring a an absent employee to be missing. I've heard of some cases as fast as three days before the employee is terminated for job abandonment. The ex-employees loses their citizenship and security rights and becomes SINless and then..." He opens his hands. "Problem solved, at least from your end.

"Could save you a lot of money, as far a lawyers are concerned."

[Beta]

Brent shrugs "I don't know if it is good or not. Some of it is old, I think. She likes -- liked -- some kind of weird stuff." he stops, blinks several times, then changes course a bit "She had a lock-up for some of them. Stuff in the house doesn't have all the devils torturing people and stuff like that. I haven't tried to get into the lock-up yet, but maybe I could figure out how ... you could look at what is in the house I guess."

[Gilga]

AM spends some time looking at the art before they leave, but do not mention it again aside from taking a few mental notes.
"How did they die?" she asks but would back off if Bernt does not want to say.

[Tecumseh]

"Well we don't know, do we?" Mato interjects, trying to spare Brent from an uncomfortable topic. "Seraphina said they had disappeared."

But then a look to Brent to confirm if this is really the case.

"If we have something more concrete than that - a plane crash, for example - then the 'presumption of death' kicks in and it really accelerates the process of declaring them missing and, then, legally dead."

Mato's not going to mention it out loud for fear of being insensitive, but there's the thought <<Maybe could use some investigators to speed the process along...>> Mato wonders if there's a trip to Morocco available somewhere in there...

[Tecumseh]

"Look," Mato says in hushed tones to AM and Bobby, "I'm just laying out options.

"Brent has some marketable assets at his disposal, and it actually serves his purposes to do business under-the-table. We can provide security to our investment, since it only pays out over time if it remains unharmed." This is a bit cold, referring to Brent as an 'it', as an 'investment'. But biz is biz...

"If we need to exit Redmond, a Bellevue address is respectable and gets us out from under the thumb of Andrew and Urubia and Big Stank and Nightmare and ..."

He holds his hand up and nods over Bobby's objections of barely knowing Brent and AM's objections of his house being a "toxic environment". Mato suspects that this is hyperbole but, not being a magician, he doesn't know for sure. He muses that AM can eventually be won over by the prospect of a bedroom to herself, but he'll save that argument for later.

"Let's table the discussion for now but not eliminate any possibilities for the future. It could be a win-win scenario over time."

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby shrugged: "Fine by me - we don't have to decide anything right now. Having options is great. Keeping an eye on Brent is the right thing to do anyway.
Right, looks like it's time to give our other clients an update on this situation. Less than 24 hours from hiring to delivering. Damn shame we can't put their recommendation on our matrix site.
I think, a conference call is in order. Let's get this over with, so we can focus again on more solvent clients."

[Beta]

The next day they eventually get an appointment with the hacker's club. seraphina had to wake up some of the club, and book a space.

Finally in the early afternoon Brent and the team returned to back room where they'd met before. A couple of the club members were missing, and Seraphina tersely explained "other obligations, we are authorized to speak for them."

There is some general welcoming back of Brent, asking of how he is doing, and the like. AM gets the feeling that they are all kind of avoiding the part where they have to talk to SIS.

[Gilga]

AM is considerably less dolled up on the second day. Because she only has one good dress, instead she arrives with the characterizing oversized, clothes hiding most of her body. Underdressed for most events in Bellevue but a fashion spell makes her presentable. What she lacks in style, she'll make up for by feeling good about herself and her image, and Iktomi and Trouble help a bit too.

She lets the kids exchange some pleasantries, and then she says "It is a good day, we got your friend back safe, and we found who did it and why. It is people that Bernt's parents kept on a retainer but never paid them since they went missing. They were getting desperate, and did a desperate move but are unlikely to try again since they now know that there is nobody to pay them. This does not mean that they won't try to collect in the future, but kidnapping would not serve their goals. We also need to provide you with two hours of street training on keeping safe. When is your call, we can start now or perhaps later this week.

As for your side of the deal, you paid us 10k in advance, and now would be the time for another 10k payment.
The rest of the pay is up to you, but you agreed on eight 10k monthly payments. I expect that you have our second payment at hand?"

[ Spoiler ]

Improve charisma + Troublehelp: 15d6t5 3 +3 charisma.
drain: 13d6t5 1 1 stun damage taken.

[Tecumseh]

Damn, AM, straight to business, twist the screws, Mato thinks to himself, not with disfavor. He can tell that she's sticking it to the rich kids.

Mato isn't wearing his suit. Part of him thinks that he should, because it's Bellevue, but the other part of him refuses to wear it two days in a row. AM's magic had cleaned it and made it seem like Mato wasn't knee-deep in river water a few hours ago, but now it's the weekend.

The Ares HQ isn't that far from the ice cream shop, so Mato thinks that he should probably be dressing in something from the Ares Victory line. Everyone at the Ares Executive gym will be wearing Rapid Transit, mostly the Platinum and Diamond collections. Mato isn't price sensitive, but even he has to balk at the idea of spending ¥1,500 - ¥3,000 on workout gear. But if it helps you blend in... (And if you can write it off as a business expense... he muses.)

His attention returns to the present, where he goes back to watching AM rake the kids over the coals.

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby had forgone the nice suit from Mato as well. Now that no clients had to be impressed and instead only encouraged to pay, he had put on a pair of his better jeans as well as a real leather jacket. Not too crazy, but certainly not business chic.
For the purpose of getting the kids to pay, he simply kept starring at them, while AM did her thing. 80.000 Nuyen. It was mind boggling to him, that a group of teenagers would be able raise that amount of money between them in less than 20 years, never to speak of just 10 months. He didn't particularly relish what would happen if the group fractured over the expenses, individuals trying to absolve themselves of their share and sattling the others with it. Until Brent was left alone with it - and without friends. That made him sad.
On the other hand, he and his friends had been shot at in pursuit of Brent. Valuing your life was also fair.

"AM maybe we should give them some more details for their money. Just to make it clear that this was not an easy job despite us being able to perform it quickly.
You see, those contractors were comprised of a mage, a rigger and a street sam. The mage had three high powered, bound spirits at his service and the rigger commanded some realy nasty drones. They rigged Brent's prison on a small island on a fast flowing river with explosives and set automatic weapons plattfoms.
We had to turn the mage into a stone jelly fish and dump the sam in the river just to get to Brent. Then we had to walk a km in the freezing river bed, while avoiding military drones, to get Brent safely away from the all of this. We are all very lucky to be alive and mostly unharmed. That and we had to bring Brent back across the boarder without waiting for a visa to clear.
All of that took considerable skill, determination and also luck.
There were also Mammoths, Moose and Mice involved, but that would lead to far. Let's just say it was a super complicated operation with basically zero preparation time or reconnaissance.
Whatever else you think, you've gotten your money's worth with this little endeavour."

[Beta]

The kids looked stressed at AM's reminders, but Seraphina slid over the appropriate cred stick. She did give Brent a significant glance, and he said "They told me about the whole deal. I'll figure something out.". Everyone seemed to relax a bit after that.

Some of them seemed sceptical about Bobby's summary, but the Brent made a face and said " I don't remember much of it, but I do remember how mammoths smell. Going to take a while to get that smell out of my nose."

For training they agreed to the following Friday evening. They often met then so it would not draw much attention. The best location for it seemed to be Brent's house.

[Tecumseh]

Mato scoops up the credstick and then does his best to be subtle when he taps it to his commlink to verify the amount.

"Friday then. Brent's house." He raps the credstick on the table to signal an agreement.

Mato wonders if after school at the end of a long week is going to produce the best, most-engaged students, but ultimately it doesn't matter if they learn anything: Mato just needs to check the box and then move on to his own improvement and his own training. These jobs, after all, were simply a means to an end, not the end themselves.

[Gilga]

AM lets out a hint of a smile when Bobby starts explaining. She is a bit worried about oversharing - but she hopes Bobby having some military background would understand what every SINless kid knows. Sometimes you do illegal stuff, sometimes you want something which is not yours, sometimes you just do not have a choice and need to solve a problem, pay rent or survive for another week. You do what you have to do - but you never mention it to anyone. You do not brag about it even to your friends, and you do not even think about it when in public. The police can sometimes even read surface thoughts when they look for someone or something. You bury it deep down under the surface, and carry on with your life as if nothing happened.

Her tension drops a notch when she gets the second credstick. It feels real in her hands, and as she verifies the contents and then pockets it. She feels satisfied with an opportunity well exploited. She allows Bobby to tell his story and does not intervene much but she praises the Trickster quietly when he does not explicitly mention her name in that story. Of course, petrifying the mage is something she could do, but she kept invisible the whole time perhaps even Bernt does not even know she was there.

She tries to place herself in the place of the kids, and concludes that rationality bias would likely prevent them from taking the story at face value. Perhaps the biggest sacrifice she made to become a shaman is to give up on the illusion that science had the world figured out. Before magic, there were rules that governed reality, from thermodynamics to the preservation of mass. Yet, these rules were true in the past - but the world felt like someone just revised the rules - without science having time to catch up.

[Beta]

On Sunday a young man of Korean descent, sporting an impressive black eye, shows up at the SIS door, to drop off an envelope. He looks nervous, and happy to get out of the neighborhood as quickly as possible once he's dropped it off.

The envelope contains a pretty generic 'Thank You' card (Happy Memories brand, a pervasive and minimum effort maker of cards and the like). Inside is a note reading "Thank you for taking 'Seraphina' seriously enough to screw her savings out of her nicely. Hopefully she learned something."

It is signed "Bau Chou".

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby scratches his head. He never was good with names.
"Who is Bau Chou? Sounds familiar, but I can't place the name."