Charm City [IC] Options

[pbangarth]

Bongo sees the social dynamics immediately and waits to see who among the HomeBoyz jumps to help out the pretty lady. In the meantime he commits to memory faces/appearance with the associated names.

Willie, inside, helps Angel select a room. "Your Steed can climb stairs, right? Bedrooms are on the top two floors. Bongo and I have rooms on the third floor. There's one more room there, and three more on the second floor. So, six of us can be accommodated here, with a seventh if they use an extra back room."

[Seth]

Angel 316 nodded at Willie "Thank you. Yes. Well call me when it's time to get up. I have some work to do as well as sleep." She headed up the stairs rather slowly. It looked like stairs were still 'new and awkward for her', her Steed behind her in case she fell.

Fortunately she didn't fall, although she had to stop half way to catch her balance. She found the third bedroom on the floor with Bongo and Willie before getting in her Steed and closing her eyes. Obviously she could have had the Steed carry her upstairs but she seemed quite determined to do it all herself.

[sunnyside]

Angelo says. "Since homeboyz are often having fun on their rides, and we don't like chip heads getting in our way, your stuff is probably safer in the garage. Still, you go leaving valuables sitting around and see what happens sooner or later. You can figure out where to park by going out the backdoor of your crib. Just park there. "

As Angelo finishes Slim quickly adds " Or I could just show you. I'll swing around and lead the way. Actually they should be coming by with the nutri packs soon. I can show you how to save some nuyen."

Without waiting for an answer slim takes off towards the garage as his fellows put their hands into their large jackets and roll their eyes. Starting to walk back towards where they had been standing earlier, and where it looks like a customer might have pulled over to the side of the road.

[Koekepan]

Tubesnake directs his shankworm into the van through an exhaust vent by the inner workstation. A squeeze through the grille, a wriggle past the fan blades, and then once inside the van he directs it to where the daddy sniperlegs sit. A couple of quiet moves, a couple of thrown switches, and they activate. Tubesnake links to them in the AR view in his goggles, and then directs the shankworm to come back to him.

While the shankworm does the little pilgrimage back, the daddy sniperlegs flip off the van's killswitch, and Tubesnake adds it to the AR as well - not for much, merely sliding open the top maintenance access hatch about six inches, and the daddy sniperlegs both quietly crawl out of the van and take up positions on top. They just sit there, looking for all the world like a couple of slightly weird antennae strapped to the ladders on top of the van.

Tubesnake says to Willie: "Y'know, I'm thinking. You have a line on subsonics? I oughta have a quiet capability too."

[pbangarth]

Willie, having placed Angel, is back with Tubesnake at the door. He scratches his chin for a minute. "I don't know if I have a line on that or not. What is that? Can you fill me in?"

[Thanee]

"Great! I will get my bike right away. Fiona? I might need that seat..."

The cat hops off the bike and strolls around the corner where Slim is headed, while Selina jumps into the seat, starts the ignition, and slowly drives up to them.

"Thank you, Slim! That's mighty sweet of you."

[Koekepan]

"Bullets. Or, really, cartridges. Heavy bullets and controlled charges so that the bullet doesn't break the sound barrier out of the gun's muzzle. Because it's so slow, the only noise is the thump of the initial charge, without any supersonic crack of the bullet's passage through the air. Add a suppression system to the gun, and it's as loud as someone kicking a ball. It's not good for long range shots, but about a hundred out, it's fine. Heavy bullets mean good penetration even though velocity is lower."

Yeah, apparently Tubesnake knows about more than just electricity and carpentry.

[pbangarth]

"That sounds interesting," Willie opines. "No, I didn't know about that, and anyway I don't have any connections here yet except Brewster. He might be able to line some of those up."

Bongo comes back and joins the two at the door. "The HomeBoyz are flexing their muscles and showing us who's boss in this neighbourhood. Typical ganger stuff."

[sunnyside]

Outside the house nobody seems to have noticed the rifles setting up on the top of the van, but they'd be able to notice people starting to file out of the Speakeasy and passing in front of 711. Looking a little annoyed but they walk around Tubesnake's saw and pile of algeawood dust. As they head east down the sidewalk they reach the chipheads and give a couple friendly nudges, getting them up and moving. Soon it looks like lots of people are emptying out of both buildings. All of them doing in the same direction Slim and Selina went.

At least the music has stopped for a while, some punk band seemed to have been experimenting with smooth Jazz.

Slim smiles as Selina follows him. We'll that at saves me having to come around with my ride. Though I'd like show you my ride anyway. It's right here near the entrance, so I can get to it fast if there's any trouble. He points at a dirtbike, though a shiney one, made form parts probably from quite a few models. Notably it has a front windscreen that's narrow, but high enough that he could stand up and still be covered.

He continues past it. Going to the North wall of the garage and walks past a couple doors, finally stopping and pointing at one. "Well, that's your rear door. And these two parking spots are basically yours. I don't know if that's a law or anything. But consider them yours. At least you're close to them if anybody frags with it. Some chipheads pissed us off, so we welded their door shut. I'd say you can use those two too, ya! Sometimes folks will actually fill up the parking around here for some drinks 'n tunes, but usually they head out the front too. We can be a little scary in here. " He gives Selina a toothy grin.

About then a large truck swings into the building, with a Baltimore Police Union car pulling in behind it. The cop car parks nearer to the entrance. The truck trundles along to about the middle of this half of the parking garage. A crowd starts following it in from the outside.

Slim waves a hand at the truck. "Authentic B-more nutri packs. They're kinda like big drink pouches full of 2000 calories of paste and vitamins. I bet our city has the healthiest chip heads in the world. Crazy. Now I'm dressed a little nice for somebody who should be getting 'sistance but I got stuff I can spend nuyen on ya know? The truck guys aren't going to cause trouble, if they gave a shit in the first place."

He gives Selina a smile and gives her a looking over while he can. Though his smile seems to fade a little as he considers her outfit and his course of action, but he tries to keep his posture good and casually scatches his chest, pulling up his T shirt a little to show his six pack.

[pbangarth]

Bongo perks up at the sight of the parade. "A truck, a cop car and a bunch of whatever was in those two buildings is heading off to the garage. Following Selena. Let's go see what's up. Willie you with me out the back of our place? Tubesnake, can you follow in behind them with your van of tricks? This could be interesting."

Bongo heads for the back door. Willie mutters "Who the fuck put you in charge?" But he follows Bongo.

[Koekepan]

Paul thinks for a second, then simply grabs his tub of soft drones and carts it into the back of the van. While he's there, he dumps in his toolbelt, folds up the jobsite saw and dumps it in as well. Then he slams the van doors shut, activates the van and slumps down in the seat to set it toodling down the street at a modest pace - just the autopilot in funeral procession following mode.

He also instructs one of the daddy sniperlegs drones to reach over a claw and turn off the jobsite radio on top, and once that is done gets a Fly-Spy to buzz up, out of the top hatch, in case he wants to be able to look around some more.

[Thanee]

Selina mentally rolls her eyes (she does not want to offend the ganger).

"Alright, here looks good then." She finds a spot for the bike and leaves it there.

When the nutri pack delivery with their police escort arrives, Selina watches the little spectacle. "At least the city does seem to care. Can't say that about every place."

The cat casually stalks around the place, looking at everything, and it also seems like she is keeping an eye on the bike every now and then.

[sunnyside]

Slim thinks for a brief moment and says "Well, at least the politicians have to pretend they care. But maybe that at least means enough SINners want to pretend to care? Maybe a lot of things here are better than where you came from huh babe?" Slim gives her his most confident half smile.

With the nutri packs being handed out everyone seems to be ignoring the van. One of the cops gives it a brief glance, but the well worn body of the work van doesn't catch his interest.

However as Willie steps out Rat Fink gives out an excited shout and meanders over the to big truck. The men in the truck are trying to get people to leave a thumbprint and to only take on bag, but Rat Fink is tall enough to reach over the divider and into the truck to get a few packs, which his large hand manages to grip at once. The humans in the truck have a look somewhere between anger and disgust, but otherwise they act like they didn't notice and get back to the alcoholic rockers and the chip heads.

Rat Fink strides over towards Willie and hurls one of the packs at him. "You oughta try some 'thentic cooz'n yeah? "

[pbangarth]

Willie deftly snatches the flying meal pack out of the air. He looks at it. He looks at Rat Fink. He looks at the van people. He remembers what it was like to be hungry.

"Yeah, you bet. Been a few hours since I ate. I think I'll get another one."

He walks over to the van, pulls out his credstick, and quietly says to the nearest city employee, "If you have another pack available, I'd like to pay a hundred nuyen for it." Even more quietly, he says, "I been hungry before. Some of these folks can't fight for their food the way I did. Maybe this cash'll help."

[sunnyside]

The worker takes the offered credstick automatically, without thinking, and before a chip head can grab it themselves. But then Willie can see the gears turning as the guy wonders what to actually do. He says "Ok" , slots it for a hundred, and then hands it back along with another pack to Willie.

Somebody in what probably was a mohawk cut a month ago, but now has a half inch of fuzz all over and not enough product to get it to really stand up yells " C'mon he said not to make everybody fight" A number of folks in ratty synthleather jackets take up the cry with similar sentiments. As the cops start to look over the worker quickly slips the credstick into his pocket and nods. He mumbles something to his coworker about splitting and presses a few buttons on the old style touchscreen he's using and they start handing out packs without the hassle, and more than one a person. With the shouting dying down the cops go back to their soycaf. Despite handing out quite a few more packs the process actually goes much quicker without trying to log people, and soon they're moving to lower the sliding door on the truck. Of course even with an extra pack people are cajoling them for more, but this seems par for the course even if folks hadn't gotten a pack.

Willie gets some thanks from the crowd, but he gets more offers of sexual favors for nuyen, requests for more aid to help a guy out, and confused glances from the gangers.

[Thanee]

"Looks like you got some fans over there," Selina remarks when Willie is back, pretty much ignoring Slim now.

"Anyways, I guess that is all there is to see here. Still need to unpack my stuff. Thanks guys, see you around!"

The elf then goes back to the front entrance and heads inside. Having nothing better to do at the moment, Fiona just stays with the bike.

[Koekepan]

Paul just settles back in the seat until the van is properly parked, then sets about shutting it down properly. In an area where there are chipheads, it's a cinch that there are deckers of substantial skill, so in this case shutting down means more than hitting a softswitch; it means a physical switch like an old school killswitch except that instead of being a big, red switch in an obvious place, it's an anonymous knob hidden under an insert in a cupholder. No current? No computing. Next, he locks a big, chunky length of cable around a utility post.

It won't stop determined vandals, or anyone with a tow truck and a utility saw, but as far as casual thievery is concerned, there are easier targets. Much easier.

This all done, he unfolds a utility dolly and opens the back of the van, to load all his drones and other key devices on it. Even the daddy sniperlegs scramble down from the top of the van, and then he turns them off and folds them up to tuck them away for a ride back into the safehouse.

[sunnyside]

At this point everyone's comlink goes off as Brewster calls.

[OOC: Assuming everyone answers after waking up or excusing themselves]

Brewster shows up in the conference call in your AR as a bust of himself, apparently using a trid camera. He's an elf, making his age somewhat hard to tell. He's wearing a dark blazer and white T shirt, but what mostly sticks out is his datajack and sculpted features giving him a strong chin and pronounced cheekbones, but they are obviously due to dermal plating for anyone familiar with the cyberware.

"Hello, and apologies for calling. I know my instructions were to settle in and wait for everyone to arrive before calling me, but Flatline had something come up. Actually, they're heading to Willie's boat as we speak. Hopefully Willie can help him out with an emergent opportunity while the rest of the group starts on a separate matter.

I did advertise that this city has plenty of work didn't I?

Also I often prefer to meet in person, or in a more secure virtual environment. But have yet to establish all that, and this information would seem to demand less security than typical.

Yes a bit of do-goodery to get to know one another.

Though I'm afraid there isn't much to go on, it seems this also shouldn't be too dangerous."

He holds up a hand and an ARO of a trid image of four people sitting at table appears in it. The image zooms out, showing a club with people dancing. There's a variety of fashions, but most seem to be in odd suits and dresses. (OOC: With their fashion skill Selina at least could recognize them as based off the "roaring 20s" style. Not those 20s, the ones before that).

He zooms back in and an arrow points at a human woman. Shes looks like she might be slightly out of it, but is smiling pleasantly enough. The human male with his arm over her shoulders appears to be at least twice her age and is talking with the other couple at the table while he pours them a drink with his other hand.

After a moment Brewster continues

"The woman is one Sophie Brooks. She was in New York, but left home at 17 and quickly went off the grid entirely and has been missing for over a year. She seemed to have packed up her things, but she has not contacted her parents or old friends since.

The parents are understandably very upset and wish her back home safely. I have ascertained that they are upset to a specific level of 24,000.

This picture was taken by a certain "SpinOX" who is trying to be a simsense star. They were partying at the Gatsby club here in Baltimore five days ago, and selected this image, with their face superimposed of course, as the ARO for their download site.

(OOC: https://goo.gl/maps/6crR19za8v783CYH9 )


"The parents indicated they didn't think it seems like SpinOX knew them. It seems to simply be the first hit they've had after having agents scouring the matrix for images or any trace of their daughter, since she vanished and remains the only clue.

They are heading down this way. You may call me back to facilitate the family reunion.

I don't recognize anyone involved, which perhaps makes finding her more difficult, but I assure you that's good news.

I have a little time if you have questions appropriate to this connection about anything.

[Thanee]

"'this also shouldn't be too dangerous' - isn't that what they all say..." Selina remarks in a hushed tone.

"That club looks fancy. I like it. Definitely going to check that one out. Is Angel awake? I think, we might need her talents here to get started..."

Selina instructs her own agent to procure the public information about that Gatsby club. They already got the address, but more detail about the neighborhood's security level, do you need SIN registration to enter, opening hours, dress code, drinks menu, prices, and such.

[ Spoiler ]

Agent is Rating 3 with Browse 6 (Optimization 3, so it can run on Selina's Rating 3 commlink)
This would be an extended test, right? So 9 dice, then 8 dice, then 7 dice, and so on?

After a moment, she comments to noone in particular, while watching some kind of video on her AR feed: "Charleston... huh."

[sunnyside]

[OOC: I'm taking it that the call is still on, but like most folks of the time Selina is filling her peripheral vision with searches and other information. Some of which is available with the 2 auto hits within this timeframe

April 25th 2070 is a Friday. But the club won't open until 9. It's in the downtown "Shadow City" area underneath the Ares Arms "Arch-ology"

It does not seem to have an official dress code or SIN requirement but has a bouncer, at least sometimes a line, and a 20 nuyen cover charge.

Mostly she gets flooded with images and video from people in and around the club and old or up coming promotions.

I'm assuming angel is awake and on the call, I figured they'd work that into their post, similarly to how Bongo and Willie would need to get some privacy (or multitask and subvocalize) ]

[Koekepan]

Paul takes the call without comment. He grabs a carpenter's pencil and a small chunk of algaeply scrap to take notes: the address, and the names Sophie Brooks and SpinOX. He taps his lips with the end of the pencil, then thinks to himself.

"OK, we have a club under Ares. Doesn't necessarily mean much, but I should check how connected the structures are. Also should map the ins and the outs of that building, signal-wise as well as internal management nodes to check for records. If Sophie was recognised, she probably didn't have facial cosmetic surgery which means either nobody's really trying to hide her, or they're stupid cheap. She's probably not in the club any more. If she is, it's easy, but the real paydata is in how and when and with whom and from where she came and left. A job for Angel, but I can do the legwork to get her in there more easily. Can do."

[Thanee]

"It's been five days, since that picture was taken. Unless they are throwing the party of the millennium there, they surely won't be at the club, anymore," Selina agrees.

"But someone must have paid their admission fee and drinks, and we have the other people in the image. Most importantly, the guy she is with. If we can find out who that is, we are half-way there. And, as you say, they must have come and gone in some way, and maybe someone drove them."

Back to the call, Selina asks bluntly: "So, is that number up for negotiations?"


While waiting for a reply, the witch informs Fiona via their telepathic connection: "I might need your aid for a moment to cast a spell." The cat then jumps off the bike and moves into some corner, where she can vanish, only to reappear hidden behind some piece of furniture in the house and walk up to the assembled group.

[ Spoiler ]

Increase Charisma F6 with Aid Sorcery from Fiona
Spellcasting 4 hits
Drain Resistance (DV 1S) 3 hits

[pbangarth]

Willie goes through a practised set of checks of equipment and armour as he comments, "Looks like the guy who pays the bills needs my special talents elsewhere. Meet you back here when, (Flatline is it?), and I are done."

He hops on his bike and heads for his boat. To Brewster he replies, "On my way to the boat."

[pbangarth]

Bongo commits to memory the faces and any other identifying features of the four at the table.

He checks the image carefully for any thing on the four that might help track them: rings on fingers, jewellery, tattoos, etc.

[ Spoiler ]

Perception 7 + INT 5 = 12 dice: 1 success Pthbthbthb!

Well, get it out of the way early.

"Hmm. the image is a little tough to read. I was hoping to see a ring or something on the guy's hand."

"Brewster, you know where in town someone could get clothes like that, if they wanted to fit in to the crowd?"

"Oh! Selina! you're a fashionista with mojo. Any chance you can make our clothes look like that?"

[Seth]

Angel 316 was listening and not really understanding what they were being asked to do. Finding one person who didn't want to be found, and had spent a year learning how to do that, didn't really sound a very likely thing to her. Especially when she just had a picture.

"if any of you can help me with first aid" she asked "I am a little tired and I think it would be good to be fresh when I hack the club"

"The simplest and safest way to get in is to probe the system slowly. It will probably take three or four hours, but there would be very little if any risk. I can go in all guns blazing and maybe they will see me...maybe not. Are we in a hurry?"


OOC: Threading exploit to +3. Fortunately no extra stun

[ Spoiler ]

Die rolls https://r.rpol.net/usermodules/diceroller.c...date=1692819068
21:27, Today: Angel 316 rolled 3 successes using 11d6 with the Shadowrun 4th ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 6,3,2,2,2,1,1,6,3,5,1. resist fading from threading .
21:26, Today: Angel 316 rolled 3 successes using 9d6 with the Shadowrun 4th ed system with a target of 5 with rolls of 6,6,6,3,3,4,3,4,3. threading force 2 exploit. (I misread the rules and thought you declared the effect first. )

That means hacking 4, exploit 7 so 11 die. Not rolling those yet