Charm City [IC] Options

[Koekepan]

""Drop sheets and tarps are on the driver's side, under the lowest shelf, folded up in a pull-out fibreboard drawer. Or you can sling my hammock from the rings above; it's hanging folded behind the passenger's side near the front. Tuck them in there, dump the blankets over them, and they'll ride safe and out of the way.""

[Thanee]

<< We are about to deliver Sophie to her parents. Have some decency and not just wrap her up in a tarp. Let's find her some clothes. I can make them fit, whatever they are, just need something to work with. >>

[pbangarth]

Bongo bristles, and then relaxes. Of course she is right. However, << I was just thinking until we get them to real clothes. But if you can do that magic that redoes clothing, we could put them in anything that we can lay our hands on. So, how about we cover them decently here and get to some vending machine on the way to dropping them off? >>

[Koekepan]

""Tick tock, hear the clock. Get them out of those boxes and inside, we can argue about sartorial elegance at a greater range and dress them inside the van but we have to move them first unless you planned on dressing naked girls in full view of security service drones?""

[Thanee]

<< Yeah, obviously, we have to get them out first, and do with what we have here. Just something to plan for along the way. Anyways, let's get going. Tubesnake is right, we should hurry up a bit. >>

[sunnyside]

Angel listens in and figures this is something she can help with! She's still a little uncomfortable with how cities work, but this is just data!

However while the matrix searching part is easy, it's a bit trickier than she thought. The 24-Seven Grocery Store doesn't open until 8? How does that make sense? Do pharmacies have clothes?

Eventually she seems to find something.

<<Hey. So a whole lot doesn't seem to be open now. But I did find "U'niquà's Discounts N Savings." Uhhhhh, I think it might be run out of the back of a liquor store? But I'm pretty sure it's open now. I'm seeing some clothes and beauty products in the pictures of the place. It's close, though kind back the way we came. >>

For Tubesnake's part, he knows there's plenty of folks downtown that will sell stuff at any hour if you kick their door loud enough. Though that can sometimes bring its own problems.

He also knows that some of the churches have automated used clothes dispensers. All of the charitable giving, none of the dealing with smelly people.

Back in the ally, Bongo can hear Nari's box starting to tear, and looks over to see her poke a finger through the side.

[Thanee]

<< That should work. Thank you! >>

When they start looking at the boxes, Selina says: "Alright, let's get her out. It must have been pretty uncomfortable in there. Still better than the alternative, though."

She will help Bongo with the package.

[Koekepan]

Tubesnake waits in the driver's seat, ready to move as and when appropriate.

""Don't sweat the fashion too much. I know an arcade with vending machines that will dump out fast fashion for minicred. A wrap skirt and a blouse, a couple of street sandals and they're good to go.""

[pbangarth]

Bongo helps Nari out of her box, covering her with whatever he has at hand in the van. Some of his clothes if necessary. "We're out of sight of Frank's place. You should be safe till we get you to some clothes vending machine, and we'll see if we can get you someplace you feel safe."

Next he checks on Sophie, seeing if he can rouse her. He will do what he can to maintain her modesty. As soon as she is aware, maybe on the way, he will tell her they are taking her to a safe place where people who care about her are waiting.

Once the women are in the van, being tended to if necessary, they can proceed.

[sunnyside]

Nari had been trying to make a hole to peek out of. However once she recognized Bongo she tears out of the box, gasping for cool night air. Her "tail" is out and clanks onto the ground in the ally. She quickly grabs the tarp and eagerly gets out of public sight.

She goes to the back of the van. Lightly crying and saying "I don't understand what happened. It all doesn't make sense. I don't understand what happened."

Sophia is still unconscious and blood had pooled from her nosebleed in the cardboard box. Though not to the extent where you'd worry about her bleeding out in short order, but she doesn't look very good. Still breathing though. She isn't all that heavy, so she wouldn't be hard to carry over to the drone worktable to set her down, or somewhere else.

Looking around the inside of the van, Selina realizes that while the tools are made for drones and cars, she might be able to fashion some basic clothes out of the tarp, if she wanted.

[Thanee]

Selina looks at Nari, realizing that she is still invisible. When she gets back into the van, she drops the spell.

"Nari, it is completely natural for you to be confused right now. The most important thing is... you are safe! Frank is a predator. And he is a mage. He uses his abilities and his money to prey on the innocent, like you. He uses his magic to influence your mind, to feel like it is all great, when it is him taking you prisoner, or even worse, as a slave. He's a criminal of the worst kind. You really need to stay away from those people."

She also asks Bongo to check on Sophie with his first aid kit.

[Koekepan]

Tubesnake sighs. ""Somebody dump the debris and that tool on the ground before we leave here. As soon as the zone is clear and everybody's on board I'm moving again. Don't want to leave a trail too easy to follow.""

[pbangarth]

Bongo puts a hand on Nari's shoulder. "You wouldn't be the first asking such questions. You're safe now. We'll get you to someplace you feel like curling up and thinking. For now, I need to help one of Frank's other victims."

He picks up Sophie, thanking years of drumming for his strong arms, and puts her on the bench. He gets the medkit out of his backpack and sets to work fixing the damage done by Selina's spells. He looks at Selina and says, "Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. "

[ Spoiler ]

First Aid test: First Aid 1 + LOG 3 + medkit 6 = 10 dice: 6 hits Whoa!! Thank you, medkit!

[sunnyside]

As Bongo starts diagnosing Sophie he detects the alcohol on her breath. She must have already been a little out of it before the stunbolts hit, which he diagnoses as why her vitals are so bad.

Her breathing is also a little off, so he blasts some Narcan into her nostrils in addition to instructing the medkit to put together what he hopes is an effective cocktail to deal with what's going on inside her. At least treating a nosebleed and keeping airways open are straightforward enough. Things seem to be going well.

Nari focuses on Selina as Bongo looks quite occupied. "They thought my outfit was so cool. It was the first time I'd been happy in a long time. And then.... So that's what happened... they..."

She seems to drift away a moment but then snaps back to reality and looks around "Now I don't even have my outfit!" her face contorts in grief and she just starts crying and gasping. She pulls the tarp entirely around her body small body and her over her head, trying to curl up and hide entirely. This isn't the easiest in the crowded van and her still painted feet stick out underneath the tarp.

-----------

Some OOC matters:

Sometimes you just have to do it yourself. While the others are distracted with the girls, Tubesnake could use his drones for cleanup. They're probably better at detail work like cleaning up small amounts of blood anyway. There is a bin in the ally that he had to back past.

Selina (or Fiona I guess) could roll for Heal

For first aid you can select physical or stun damage to heal (I've assumed you can mix them). It's normally assumed people start with physical. But I wanted to mention that if Bongo wants her to wake up without waiting an hour. (or more if her rolls stink).

[Thanee]

"I'm sorry, we could not save your outfit. There wasn't a whole lot of time to get you out of there. We can make you a new outfit, though."

Once Bongo has worked his "magic" with the first aid kit, Selina uses her spell to hopefully remove the rest of the physical stress she has caused to Sophie.

[ Spoiler ]

Heal F6 4 hits (Drain Resistance 3 hits)

[Koekepan]

Tubesnake sighs, locks the van in place for the time being, grabs the respirator from his door and puts it on his face. Then he hops out of the front seat, hustles around the van to the back, and grabs an industrial sanitation spray (bleach, surfactant and detergent in one potent blend) and work gloves.

The work gloves he dons with the speed of long practice, and then he sprays down the remnants of the boxes before dumping them into the bin. Then he thoroughly sprays the tail, and slings it into the back of the van, then does another quick check around for scraps of clothing or other debris before moving on. Anything that he finds gets a spray and either dumped, or brought along. This done, he shoves his tools back into the van, closes it up, and gets back to drive again.

[pbangarth]

Bongo did his best to fix some of the physical damage Sophie endured. The rest she can sleep off.

[sunnyside]

Nari nearly jumps out of her tarp when Tubesnake opens the door behind her. But on seeing nobody else being worried about it manages to get out a "Thanks" to whoever is listening and then goes back to curling up and crying eventually saying "What am I gonna do? I could have eventually gotten a place. We're all there waiting for either Saint Ambrose or the Brentwood public housing to give us a place to go. I can't go back now. He'd just be there staring at me as if it wasn't horrible enough! I don't even have my link I can't. I...

Does anybody have a link? Just something I could borrow? Some trodes? " She looks around from under the tarp at the busy crew.

Tubesnake is pretty efficient with his tools and is pretty soon pulling away. From the looks of things on the readout from the first aid kits AR feed of the sensors on Sophie's body, she'd doing a whole lot better. Vitals are looking normal, and like she's still a fairly healthy girl for her lifestyle to boot. A pinprick of blood in the micro array confirms some of Bongo's suspicions about her having been already weakened by other substances before getting hit, but he's pretty sure she should wake up and only have to deal with with just feeling like drek.

After a couple blocks Angel sends the team an emoji of exhaling and relief <<I'm pretty sure I was able to loop the feeds on the cameras and nobody noticed! I was worried the whole time a spider or wandering IC would find me! That hotel system was scary. I mean I handled it all. Professionally. But still. Glad we're rolling!>>

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[Koekepan]

""Awright, I'm swinging back by a little arcade I know. Nice and quiet, not too downmarket. It's open twenty-four, seven and they have fast fashion stuff in there. I'll recommend that our lady expert duck out to get the right-size stuff, and then let's ride on. Not my style of stuff, but I think there are even cosmetics for sale so you can straighten it up nicely. Any special requests?""

[pbangarth]

Bongo sighs, internally. Yet another lost puppy. "Look, we can't lend you anything of ours, because we don't want to be connected to you in case Frank manages to follow up. We'll do a little reporting anonymously to get authorities to check him out, but you know how things don't stick to the rich.

"Where we're going probably has some inexpensive equipment. We'll see if we can afford anything like that for you. After that and some clothing, Nari, I'm afraid you will have to find your own way. Maybe this is one of those times going back home is a good idea."

Bongo knows full well that 'home' can sometimes be more dangerous that the street.

[sunnyside]

(OOC: There's nothing on your tail right this moment, so Koekepan can describe the arcade and interacting with it)

Nari replies. "They don't want me. They're fascists anyway, and both with their new families and new kids. Neither wants me messing up all their nice new relationships."

Nari pauses a while thinking about all that Bongo says "Wait. Frank following up on me? He.... He has my stuff! He knows who I am! Is he going to come for me?!?!" The worry at least interrupts the ugly crying.

On the teams feed Angel adds. <<You had me look into her background remember? She unfriended her family, but didn't delete everything. I can probably find her parents >>

[Koekepan]

While the philosophical debate about family politics carries on in the back of the van, Paul turns to driving by autopilot, which is to say that he uses the autopilot to do the driving so that it looks entirely unintrusive while he plots a course.

The course is a quick duck up the main drag to the north for a little bit, then a dip to the west. It's not quite in the butterfly, not quite in the L, but in reach of both a developer had built a little planned shopping district and mixed residential area; something like an overgrown strip mall with small apartment spaces in between. At this time of morning it's mostly deserted, but there is a niche about the size of a large garage in which there are vending machines for people who just want to grab and scoot. Drinks, snacks, clothes, shoes and minor electronic doodads. He parks the van more-or-less in front of the niche so that it's convenient to hop out and get stuff, while also reducing general exposure for people who hop out.

[sunnyside]

(Ooc: I think Koekepan stopped there to let others say something. But if you want to post again, Koekepan, to interact with arcade you could).

[pbangarth]

"This looks good, Tubesnake. Well done." Bongo hops out of the van. "You wanna come with me, Selina? You will pick something that works better than I. Tubesnake can keep the girls safe."

[Koekepan]

While they hop out, Tubesnake flips open the AR view of all the van's sensors to get as clear a view of the surroundings (and the van's interior) as possible. He trusts Bongo's first aid work, unless there are any signs of immediate distress, and spends more of his attention on external threats.