Charm City [IC] Options

[pbangarth]

Bongo is mortified. 'Best drummer in the world??' Not by this performance. He can't even blame the instruments. He knows he pulled up lame. Thankfully, Rose comes up with a good idea.

Bongo transitions from the basic rhythm of the comedy piece, pulling in hints of Buddy Rich and Elvin Jones to work a blend into Rose's lead. He ditches the clumsy sticks and uses his hands, particularly better for emulating brushwork.

[ Spoiler ]

Don't know if this calls for a new roll. If so, here it is:

20 dice: 6 hits

[Koekepan]

Paul starts recording the feed on those drones. This could be key information.

He also takes careful note of the man's provenance and destination, and thinks about opportunities to perhaps engage him in conversation. After all, there's set-up time on his plasticrete, not to mention waiting for deliveries.

See, Enzo? Enzo is obviously beefed-up and capable, but he's also obviously trying to cover up trouble. This guy seems more thoughtful.

In fact, thinking about it for a second, Paul breaks out some real coffee and gets it brewing. Not cheap, but might be worth it as an icebreaker.

[sunnyside]

(OOC: Well, at least she gave an opportunity for another roll. Actually she rolled better as well. )

The beat ceased to be one that fit the song properly. However as she said, she could drop in with a bit of jazz scat singing which she proves quite capable of. It gives her an excuse to show off her range as well. She works in a couple mentions snippets of the original song.

This time the crowd gets into it. Moving along to the motion, forgetting about their food for a while. Until, after a while, the door slams open in the front of the indoor area, opposite the side where the stage is .

They yell, "Hey, what's going here?!?!" and start stomping towards the stage with a couple similar looking friends in tow. Bongo's research pays off a little because he immediately recognizes Ciarán, who appears violently upset, though apparently still knows better than to use profanity in here.

Rose gives a mischevious "Eeep" and jumps off the stage going for the nearby set of side doors on the west side of the building. Some servers look mortified. She seems sympathetic and yells "Remember we already paid!"


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The old man gingerly makes his way towards the opening in the pipe, trying to stay as clean as he can with the muddy floor and dirt wall. He pokes his head inside and looks both ways for a while. "What the hell happened in here. I got a bad feeling this isn't going to end well. " He doesn't sound mad, though there isn't anyone here for him to direct his anger toward. Just worry and exasperation.

[pbangarth]

For a brief moment, Bongo considers whether a confrontation could be fun, but decides sticking with Rose would be more so. He tosses a bucket to Ciarán, (No, not as an impromptu missile for damage, but as accurately as he can to cause the man to pause or dodge.) "Here! Play this!" and leaps after Rose, laughing and dancing a jig in passing.

[ Spoiler ]

Throwing Weapons 4 + AGI 5 = 9 dice: buy 2 hits

[Koekepan]

Paul continues to monitor the situation, and prepare for a tactful way to touch base with this old fellow. Coffee, maybe some higher-quality pastries, and of course breaking out a folding chair while setting up the plasticrete. When the welding below is completed, he gets the welder drone back up on the surface to refit it for assembling scaffolding. With this, Paul sets up a dolly with scaffolding parts packed nice and tight, and the snacks and folding chair on top. This he trundles down to the hole in the wall, flashing his card for temporary security access along the way. A contracted worker with coffee and scaffolding. Normal as a patch of rust on a freighter.

Down below, he comes to a halt outside the hole, and casually starts to unpack so that the old fellow can approach him naturally.

[sunnyside]

Ciarán actually catches the bucket, and seems at something of a loss for words for a moment, and a moment is all he had for a snappy comeback before Rose and Bongo are out the door.

At first Rose heads North towards the broad street market. It's trying to be a bastion of the more open society of the past with open market stores and farmers market produce. However behind the smiles the whole area is on edge, especially towards approaching newcomers. A couple running seems to get the wrong kind of attention, as farmers start reaching for firearms.

Rose seems to not want to deal with any of that and heads left. Giving a smile to a hulking troll bouncer at "The Rockwell" and flipping the ARO about the cover charge to Bongo. It isn't even seven yet, and if they're particular about who they let in, they haven't started yet.

(OOC: Assuming Bongo is good for it the bouncer doesn't cause any trouble, though they start scanning the horizon for any trouble. However Ciarán hasn't left the Choptank. )

Inside the Rockwell is a bar, and not an especially big one. It's thing seems to be having actual wall projections. They seem to have updated with all sorts of AROs popping up to add an AR experience, currently based around the Washington D.C. Cherry Blossoms. It still all seems to feel a little dated, like much of the downtown spaces. And not in the deliberate way Gatsby's is about it. It isn't even seven yet, and the bar is only perhaps a quarter full. Nobody is on the dance floor, and most are having a bar food dinner or just some drinks. Nobody even looks up at them, since Rose shifts to a normal gait once she's past the muscle.

It hasn't been that far and Rose catches her breath quickly. "I wanted to get away in case anybody started taking pictures that could be a problem."

She then seems to realize herself. "Oh no! Darn you, I could be in pictures with my hair in a sloppy pony tail! Well fairs fair. " She says, as she reaches her arms over Bongo's shoulders to muss up his hair.

------------------

The old guy looks around some more. Eventually shifting his focus to the dirt wall. He notes the drones doing their work, but starts picking at the packed earth. At first it might seem absent minded, but he picks with a bit more vigor and steps to the side as a couple cubic feet of earth slide down from the wall down to the floor. He rubs his chin as he looks back and forth along the length of the packed earth wall.

[pbangarth]

Well, this looks like a good time. Bongo lets her muss his hair, and then takes the opportunity while she is close to slip his arms around her waist.

With a big grin he says, "Yup. Fair is fair." He holds the embrace for a moment, waiting to see Rose's response.

[sunnyside]

Rose knows that grin , she gets a wry look and gives Bongo just a lightning quick kiss on the lips, but then backs up. "Alright then. So what now? I guess we're in this bar now, it looks like it's trying to be cool. Actually a nice cool drink would be nice right about now. Maybe something fruity and icy, like a nice strawberry Daiquiri.

I'm guessing once his gig is supposed to start we won't have to worry about Ciarán anymore. If you don't like this scene, I suppose I could play tour guide a little, though even in nice areas you don't want to be out much after dark, and it gets worse as the night goes on because crowds thin, and nobody in the police union wants to work the night shift, and the whole point of the union is to get the workers what they want right? It's usually fine if you're in a place though, and can get a ride right from in front of it. I mean Gatsby's always stays open way late, and I swear like half their drink sales come from people boozing while waiting for their ride. "

[Koekepan]

Paul shows up at the hatch in the wall, and says mildly: ""My drones won't hurt you, just mind the welding on the pipe. I'm about to shore up the structure with props, so that should help the stability. You have any tunnel experience there? If you want to step out I have a thermos of coffee to share.""

[sunnyside]

The man nodes and heads out of the tunnel. Taking his time to slowly get his legs over the hole in the wall, and working his way around the furnace. He almost looks puzzled to see food and drink all laid out in the basement.

He takes a seat and says "Well, this is quite a pleasant surprise. Maybe your union is a little classier than ours. The docks have always been a little rough. "

He takes a sip of his drink and gives something of a surprised look after drinking it, then gives a pleased look and a nod at Paul.

"Speaking of rough...I think Enzo might be getting too rough. He's distracted upstairs, but I got a call about all the ruckus. "

He leans in "Look. Do you know what this is all about? What went on in there? At least what in the world are you up to now?" He takes a pastry while relaxing and giving Paul time to answer. He's been around a while, and is willing to let silence do its work if Paul doesn't answer quickly.

[Koekepan]

Paul is fairly frank with him. A man of his years has earned some respect. ""If it were up to the IBEW, sir, I'd have laid on flash-toasted soykaf. This comes out of my pocket. As for rough, I don't know about that, but Enzo called me in to fix up the holes and get things back on the straight and narrow. Those are my drones patching up the bullet holes and chipped pipe, but what exactly happened to cause them, I don't know. The damage came from inside the pipe, so at a guess somebody was crawling through here and found something, or somebody, that they didn't like. As for the gap itself, I brought down this scaffolding to make some pit props to keep things stabler, and I'm fixing up that pipe and hatch to be a little safer. But now you have the advantage of me, sir. Are you a ... foreman here?""

[sunnyside]

The man smiles and nibbles and pastry. "I suppose these days all I am is old. But I stick around. Make myself useful. Sometimes give perspective. For example, I bet if you do some forensics somehow you'd find that the tunnel was dug and the hatch installed long before all that damage. Maybe you already figured that out. What happened is they brought trouble into the union house. Maybe things haven't always been entirely above board as the Union struggled to survive. But this is something else. If he keeps this up it won't be the last time either, I'd wager.

So maybe you could shore it up, but you can also condemn. I was able to poke off a decent chunk of the wall. Wouldn't take much time to bring it most of the way down, even if it was just me. Maybe the parking lot can support itself. But I wouldn't be surprised to find out a partial cave wall would force it to be a bridge, and I don't think the builders had that in mind.

Anyway it isn't safe in a lot of ways. What if somebody from whatever happened has a grudge and knows where it is? "

He then eyes Paul as he lets the basements silence come in while he enjoys the coffee, careful to savor and not slurp.

[Koekepan]

""Yup, I figured this was some time old, and that the damage came afterwards. The context of the water problems kind of told me that. I guess - I was hired to sort out the problem, but the exact solution could be finagled one way or another. I had been planning to make it open from the outside only, but maybe the right approach is to seal this one up and do a different hatch, elsewhere? That's a bigger job, of course.""

[sunnyside]

The man sighs " I get why Enzo put that here. It isn't like he, or any of us really, have convenient safe places to set something like that up. Though now that you mention it, if you have any especially bright ideas there, maybe that would be useful. It might be much easier to get him to move instead of getting him to give up on his schemes.

But this has the advantage of having folks around all the time, without it being suspicious, and they could come and go, or hang out downstairs if they can shut up.

But nobody else knows what's going on with all that. Enzo is just mumbling stuff about it being important for the union and it being better if we don't know. Or at least the sarcastic messages I'm getting frame it that way. Hard to say if it's entirely wrong. He's got a lot of friends around here. Though I'm increasingly wondering how he got them. "

He leans back and helps himself to more coffee and another pastry, and paying with another appreciative nod.

"I guess I got into some sticky stuff in my day. But not the kind that had bullet and bomb a couple feet from the union house. Whatever happened could have gone really bad. And maybe it still will. Like I think I said, there could be survivors or someone who at least had some coms

Even if it was only nobodies in the pipe. Still, what next time? And besides that, there are a lot of groups looking for an excuse to cause us problems or shut us down. We've got a lot of friends down at the Police Union, and they spend a lot of time looking the other way. But they really hate it if we let the drek hit them for their troubles"

He sighs and leans back. "Ok, maybe I'm rambling a bit. Thanks for listening. Point at the ends it, unless you have some bright ideas otherwise, I'd like it if that tunnel just got sealed off. And it'd probably take a professional opinion from you to make that happen."

[Koekepan]

Paul sits for a moment, swallowing a bit of pastry with a sip of coffee. This is definitely a situation with ramifications all its own.

""All right sir, I'll tell you what. Why don't I just finish this up today, as per original specification. The parking lot will be shored up, the pipe will be repaired, and the hatch will be a lot stronger. I can come back another day to sort things out, and build you something better, and more discreet, elsewhere. It may be old school, but would you care for my card?""

[sunnyside]

The man still doesn't look happy and leans forward "Look. If you patch things up, Enzo's never going to believe there's a need to change. I guess to be clear I'm hoping you could...interpret the risks more seriously. I mean I'm not really one for being around the dirt, but having a hole there has to bring out some risks if enough weight gets up there, or enough stormwater surges through, right? I be the city would consider it inappropriate. "

His eyes widen a bit and he leans back again. "Don't worry about me calling the city though. Nobody is about to do that. Anybody in the building knows better than to get them involved in any of our business even if it was completely above board. So you're fine. And I'm not really in a position to make threats. I'm just asking you to put a stop to it before Enzo's plans somehow wind up with the union hall on the evening news. He'll be pissed. But what is he gonna do?

I guess you could ask what am I gonna do. Well, I guess since nobody wants to make any kind of fuss that could raise suspicious or get on the record, nobody is probably going to do anything. I guess it's your call boss. "

He reaches over to take the card. "But at the least I'll call up to bitch if something bad enough goes down. "

[Koekepan]

""OK, I'll tell you what. I don't want anybody falling anywhere, or anything flooding, but how about this: I'll tell Enzo that there has to be a better way, and this has already been found, obviously, so we should backfill it, and then I can construct him something better? I'll at least fix this up for now, but I'll lay out the truth for him because this here was never a good plan.""

[pbangarth]

"The Rockwell looks as good a place as any to get a drink." Bongo orders, hers and a gin and tonic for himself, and they find a table. Once the drinks arrive, he says, "Yeah, a tour might be nice once we finish our drinks. While we enjoy some time here, I'd like to talk about music together. I've got some commitments that call me away from time to time, but I'd like to get together with you and jam a bit. Do you have a practice space that you use? My gear is cumbersome, but I have a vehicle. In fact, if the tour would work better or be safer with a vehicle, i could fetch it and come for you here."

[sunnyside]

The old guy exhales slowly. "I was really hopping you'd see reason. I must be mellowing with age to put it that way. " He gives a little smirk and taps his greek sailors cap. "Or maybe just a better judge of character. I'll go with that. "

He takes another sip.

"Though Enzo isn't going to like that. He'll probably do some pissing and moaning. We've tried to civilize him, but he's a tough customer, and a lot of us aren't so civilized ourselves when you get down to it. Do you actually have another plan?"

(OOC: I didn't exactly plan for this course of action. So if you want you could pitch some ideas, or sling some dice and tell me to figure it out since your character should know more than you did. The latter is a totally valid choice. Usually one I encourage for very non-charismatic folks trying to give a charismatic character a try, but the concept applies to all sorts of situations.

In principle the stormwater system goes all over the city. But this is pretty close to an outlet to the bay, and the pipes are larger here. )

[Koekepan]

Paul sighs heavily and massages the bridge of his nose. ""Sir, it really depends on what the intended outcome here is. The original order was to patch up some damage and prevent flooding down here. Null persp, I can do that. I can shore up the cavity, strap the pipe, weld the holes and refit the hatch. Now there's a problem with whether or not it should be here in the first place - well, great, I can explain that this was a bad idea from inception and should be backfilled for all the right reasons, but none of that is about engineering a different outcome. If the need is for access through the piping, I can do that, but if the need is for access, piping or not, then there are a million different options at hand. I could get you an entirely different tunnel, given time and facilities. I could fix up what's here, dust off my hands, and call the job done. The reasons are all in the heads of people who haven't told me what they're trying to achieve and show little sign of wanting to do that. If it's all a security concern, that was never part of the original description other than that some of the holes look the part - well, great, that could give us a whole list of other options including monofilament lines, electrified control points or other zone denial systems. But if Enzo doesn't want to tell me what, or why, or how, I can only guess and hope that he's putting two and two together and not coming up with five. If you have a clear feature list that I can plan for, well, that'll be the first that I've heard of such a thing on this job.""

[sunnyside]

(OOC: Ooop. Initially missed pbangarth's post)

Rose scoffs but smiles at Bongo's last comment "I thought your whole thing was that you're supposed to be able to make music with anything. "

She looks like she's expecting some flirty pushback, but then gets that serious business look on her face. " Actually, if that really is something you have a particular talent with, that could be something someone could turn into an act. It pays to bring a little something a tart with skillwires can't do. But if you're a whole lot better with a real drum I'd like to hear that too. We have a little space that we use as a studio. The others are horrible about practicing there if I don't schedule a meeting and remind them, so we'd be able to have it to ourselves if you'd like to go.

I might also try recording you different ways. Not that we have much of a rig going there. "

As she speaks she gets increasingly focused on the task, and less on Bongo exactly, even though she's only talking about him. It isn't that she's avoiding eye contact, she just has a look of preoccupation with logistics and locations, or maybe messing around with her AR interface to pull something up. The latter seems likely as Bongo gets pinged with an address.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/Z1x9HKTRwe94X2wF7



-----------------------------

The old timer seems much more at ease at this point, but he still scraches his head.

"Well, I suppose what he wants is exactly what he has. A way to sneak into the Unions basement from the storm drain system, maybe he's got some kinda connection going on at one of the docks nearby wherever that goes. Which I figure is probably pretty much just straight from here to the river.

Though what we need isn't always what we want. Probably what he wants is not to come down here to find a gun drone waiting for him some day. Actually, could you fix this pipe up like it'd never been damaged, but make it look like the pipe under a nearby building was damaged and fixed up.

Well, so long as it isn't under Judy's grill. Maybe I'd rather they got enzo. "

He smiles at his little joke. But continues "IF you have any other idea for something not so easy to trace back to us that'd be great. Some other access point? Maybe you know some little underground pocket of space near a pipe where they don't have cameras. Maybe with some kinda way to get out to a ride discreetly. "

[Koekepan]

Paul nods firmly. ""All right, now you're talking my language. Let me fix this up for now - it will solve the immediate problems. Afterwards I'll go talk to Enzo, explain to him that this location has been compromised that that he needs a better job done. I can delineate and excavate a better transfer system, that's both easier to transship and easier to defend. The best hatch in the world wouldn't help when it's compromised, and for sure the opposition knows where it is, now.""

[pbangarth]

Bongo notes to himself how close the location she marked is to the team's safehouse. Not much of a safehouse, though, if you tell people about it.

"That sounds good to me. Let me get my vehicle and drum kit. Would you like me to come back to pick you up or just meet you there?"

[sunnyside]

The guy nods. "Well, I'll let you to it. I'll finish up here and head upstairs. Maybe I can help stall him while you get things done, maybe after all the arguing he'd be up for a drink at Judy's now that I'm thinking about the place. It's hard to argue with finished work. "

He waits politely to let Paul get in a last word while he gets in some last bites, but then heads off.

(OOC: I'll leave it to you how you want to manage ideas for whatever Tubesnake is thinking).

----------------------

She smiles and finishes her drink. "Let's stick together."

(OOC: You're free to get the car and head there. You kinda know the spaces, so you can describe the trip ).

[pbangarth]

Bongo has to think fast about how to keep the location of the safehouse secret. Outside, he hails a cab and gives the driver the address Rose gave him. He makes sure he is on the right side of the cab. As they approach the Symphony Orchestra building, he asks the driver to pull over. Rose looks at him quizzically, and he pays enough to cover her ride to the destination. "There are some things I have to keep secret, for myself and my teammates. You go ahead and get the place ready. I'll be there in half an hour or so." A quick peck on her cheek and he ducks out the door before she can complain too much.

Once the cab takes off, he hails another and asks the driver to go along Preston until Greenmount and then asks the driver to pull over. He pays, waits for the driver to go, and then heads down Greenmount till E Chase and home. Loading his Range Rover with his gear, he notices Willie's door closed. Heh. Sleeping another one off. He shakes his head.

Once loaded, he makes his way to Rose's studio. Right by Walgreen's. Handy. He knocks on the door.